This study investigated perceived parenting styles and its influence on adolescents' vocational indecision, anxiety, and depression. Participants were 467 male and female high school students, aged 15 to 20 years old in Porto Alegre. Instruments were a demographic questionnaire, Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories and scales to measure vocational indecision and perceived parenting styles. Positive correlation was found between indecision, anxiety, and depression. Adolescents from authoritarian and neglectful families scored significantly higher than others in depression and anxiety. Parenting styles had no direct influence on vocational indecision, but on adolescents' well being, suggesting that family interaction patterns are important to understand how indecision is been experienced. This study concludes that professional guidance processes must include family interaction aspects and must focus on adolescents' mental health.
Parenting styles; Career indecision; Psychological well being
