Spanish Teens Report More Parental Warmth and Control Than Moroccan Peers

Adolescents in Spain perceive higher levels of both warmth and control from their mothers and fathers than adolescents in Morocco, according to a cross-cultural study published in Current Psychology. The research, led by Paola Bully with J. Jaureguizar and E. Bernaras, also reports that newly adapted Moroccan versions of two widely used parenting questionnaires show adequate psychometric properties, filling a gap in a country where parenting research has been scarce.

The study focused on the two dimensions that parenting research most commonly uses to organize parental beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors: warmth, sometimes described as affection, and control. The family is treated in the paper as a crucial socializing agent, primarily responsible for children’s care, education, and integration, with parenting practices understood as constructions interpreted within each historical and cultural context rather than as universal constants.

To make measurement possible in Morocco, the team adapted and assessed the psychometric properties of the Warmth/Affection Scale and the Parental Control Scale for the Moroccan context. Adequate psychometric properties were found for both the Spanish and Moroccan questionnaire versions. The analyses also demonstrated strict gender and age invariance within each country and between countries, a technical requirement meaning the scales measure the constructs in a comparable way across boys and girls, across age groups, and across the two national samples, so that group differences can be interpreted as differences in perceived parenting rather than as artifacts of the instrument.

The participant sample consisted of 1,998 students aged between 11 and 18 years, of whom 1,299 lived in Spain and 699 in Morocco. Because the scales were strictly invariant, the researchers could directly compare warmth and control scores between the two countries and across subgroups defined by the gender and age of both parents and children.

The intra-country comparisons revealed an asymmetric pattern. In Spain, scores on both the warmth and control dimensions differed according to children’s age and parents’ gender. In Morocco, by contrast, differences were found only in maternal and paternal evaluation, that is, between how mothers and fathers were rated, without the age-related variation observed in the Spanish sample. The abstract does not report the direction of the Spanish age and gender differences, only that they were present.

The between-country comparison was more uniform. Spanish students perceived higher levels of warmth and higher levels of control from both their mothers and their fathers than Moroccan students did. Because strict invariance held between the countries, the authors present this contrast as a genuine cross-cultural difference in perceived parenting rather than a measurement discrepancy, while noting that the scores reflect adolescent perceptions of parental behavior.

The study was published on 24 October 2026 as Volume 45, article number 1656 of Current Psychology. The authors state that the findings can provide a solid foundation for promoting intercultural understanding, improving parenting skills, and adapting interventions and support services to families in a culturally sensitive manner, as well as fostering inclusion and diversity in society.

For intervention design, the reported psychometric results matter as much as the group differences. The Moroccan adaptations extend the available toolkit for research and family support in a context the authors describe as under-researched, and culturally grounded measurement is a precondition for the culturally sensitive family services the paper envisages.

The authors also caution, in line with the study’s framing, that parenting beliefs and behaviors are constructed and interpreted within historical-cultural contexts. The observed Spain-Morocco contrasts in perceived warmth and control, and the differing subgroup patterns within each country, should accordingly be read as culturally situated perceptions reported by adolescents aged 11 to 18, based on the two adapted scales, rather than as judgments about parenting quality in either country.

Subject of Research: Cross-cultural differences between Spain and Morocco in parental warmth and control

Article Title: Cross-cultural differences between Spain and Morocco in parental warmth and control

Article References: Bully, P., Jaureguizar, J., & Bernaras, E. (2026). Cross-cultural differences between Spain and Morocco in parental warmth and control. Current Psychology, 45(21), Article 1656. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-026-10208-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s12144-026-10208-3

Keywords: Cross-cultural, differences, between, Spain, Morocco, parental, warmth, control, scientific research