TY  - EJOU
AU  - Luo, Lan 
AU  - Shen, Yun 
AU  - Gu, Zuntao 
AU  - Wang, Linbing 
AU  - Sun, Shijian 

TI  - How parenting styles shape marital attitudes: The mediating role of para-social relationships
T2  - Journal of Psychology in Africa

PY  - 2025
VL  - 35
IS  - 5
SN  - 1815-5626

AB  - This cross-sectional study examined how parenting styles influence college students’ romantic attitudes through para-social relationships. A total of 571 college students (females = 71.2%) completed the Short-form Parenting Style Scale, the Para-social Relationship Scale, and the Questionnaire on College Students’ View of Marriage and Love. Mediation was examined with bootstrap-corrected structural equation modelling (5000 resamples). Results indicated that maternal rejection (indirect effect β = −0.019, 95% CI = −0.055–−0.001, <i>p</i> < 0.05) and overprotection (indirect effect <i>β</i> = −0.02, 95% CI = −0.055–−0.001, <i>p</i> < 0.05) indirectly undermined college students’ marriage views by intensifying para-social relationships, whereas paternal warmth directly fostered a positive marriage view (<i>β</i> = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.062–0.369, <i>p</i> < 0.01). Therefore, to foster healthy romantic and marital attitudes among youth, families should provide emotional support, while society should promote balanced and realistic social interactions.
KW  - para-social relationships; parenting styles; views on marriage; college students; mediating effect analysis

DO  - 10.32604/jpa.2025.066529