“At first, I asked for things – outings, clothes – that were mostly met with disagreement. When I got older, I learned that if I wanted to do things, I couldn’t ask for them [from parents]. So I lied about basically everything,” says Salma Aamer, 22, an psychology alumna from the American University in Cairo (AUC). Children of strict households often find themselves becoming crafty adults, some going as far as creating entirely different personalities that are only present around their parents or other authority figures in their families. Strict parents, often referred to as ‘helicopter parents,’ are known to pay close attention to their children’s behavior, typically taking on responsibility for their successes and failures. Among the restrictions of helicopter parents are romantic relationships. Egyptian culture leans towards collectivism, meaning that the needs of the group are emphasized over the needs of the individual, leaving less room for individuality and difference in opinion. According to a study titled ‘Parenting Style, Individuation, and Mental Health of Egyptian Adolescents’ published by the Journal of Adolescence in 2006, the main parenting style used in Egypt is the authoritarian style. The authoritarian style…
The Relationship Risk: The Dating Experience with Strict Parenting
March 2, 2022
