Factors of Resistance against Gratitude to Parents in Adolescents

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify factors of resistance against gratitude to parents in adolescents. Participants were junior-high school, high-school, and university students (N=191) who answered about their frequency of resistance against gratitude to their parents and described the factors of such resistance. Around half of the participants felt resistance against gratitude to their parents. High-school students tended to feel more gratitude to mothers than did junior-high school and university students, and female students tended to feel more gratitude to their father than did male students. Secondly, eleven factors of resistance against gratitude to parents were identified: shyness of gratitude to parents, self-immaturity, excessive intervention by parents, low concern about oneself from parents, coerciveness into parents' sense of values, criticism of parents' personality, aversion to parents, blaming parents as roots of oneself, doubt that parents love oneself, doubt about equality of parents' love between siblings, and doubt that parents' loving is not egoism. Finally, three categories were obtained from these eleven factors: insufficient maturation, dissatisfaction with parents, and doubt of parents' loving oneself.