Investigating the associations of parenting styles with parent-child gaslighting

The present preregistered study aims to investigate the relationship between three common parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive) and parent-child gaslighting. A large sample of parents (N = 494) was recruited from CloudResearch Connect-an on-demand data collection platform. They first completed the 10-item Parent-Child Gaslighting Questionnaire, which assesses a parent's acceptance of gaslighting directed toward children. They next completed the 32-item short-form of the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, which assesses a parent's use of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting. After all of the data was collected, three correlational analyses were run, testing the association of each parenting style with parent-child gaslighting. The results suggest that parents who have an authoritative parenting style are much less likely to find parent-child gaslighting acceptable. In contrast, parents who have an authoritarian parenting style are much more likely to find parent-child gaslighting acceptable. Finally, parents who have a permissive parenting style are moderately more likely to find parent-child gaslighting acceptable. These findings further our understanding of the behaviors authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parents engage in, and indicate that one potential determinant of parent-child gaslighting is one's parenting style.