Get started
Work

Perceived Parenting Styles and Development of Resilience in Higher Secondary School Students

Year: 2018
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Parent-child relationship is one of most important protective factors in the development of resilience in children. The present study tries to understand if there is any difference in resilience of adolescents based on parenting styles. Participants include 300 higher secondary school students of the age group 15-17 from different schools in Kerala. Instruments used for the study are Scale of Parenting Style (Gafoor & Kurukkan, 2014) and Connor-Davidson’s resilience scale. Perceived parenting style was identified on the basis of parental responsiveness and parental control scores and ANOVA was used to understand if the resilience level of children differed based on these styles. A significant difference was observed and the results of the post hoc test reveal that adolescents with authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles show more resilience when compared to those with negligent parenting style. The emergence of positive psychology in recent years laid a paradigm shift in the approach, direction and focus of psychology from psychopathology and treatment to prevention and promoting competence. Resilience is one important focus of this new area of psychology. Resilience is not about passive adaptation to adversities or trauma but it involves growing through difficulties and bouncing back from it through active and constructive means. Resilience is one of the most important contributing factors of well-being in students (Suresh, Jayachander, & Joshi, 2013). In the light of research on children over the past three decades, resilience generally refers to ‘a class of phenomena characterized by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity or risk’ (Masten& Reed, 2002). Resilience is also defined as ‘the process of effectively negotiating, adapting to, or managing significant sources of stress or trauma’. Assets and resources within the individual, their life and environment facilitate this capacity for adaptation and ‘bouncing back’ in the face of adversity (Windle, 2010). Resilience as a social ecological construct has presented a more ecological understanding of resilience. Resilience is determined by both internal as well as external factors and an outcome of interactions between these two determinants. Internal determinants include psychological and biological factors whereas external determinants include quality and nature of environment as well as relationships within and outside family (Masten & Reed, 2002; Ungar, et al., 2007; Zakeri, Jowkar, & Razmjoee, 2010; Ungar, 2016). Parenting style is one of the most important external determinants of resilience within the family (Masten & Reed, 2002) and it is seen that though assets and resources that help youth in overcoming adversities may differ, parental factors are critical and consistent resources for young individuals (Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005). The present study tries to focus on the role of parenting style as a predictor of resilience. Parenting comprises all the activities of the parents aimed at their children’s wellbeing. One of the most important approaches in understanding parental impact on human development is concept of parenting style. Baumrind in 1967 (As cited in Gafoor & Kurukkan, 2014)) introduced four types of parenting styles namely authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, permissive parenting and negligent parenting. Based on this Maccoby and Martin (1983) put forward a conceptual model and they explained parenting style as combinations of varying levels of parental demandingness and responsiveness. Parental responsiveness is about supportiveness, warmth or acceptance whereas parental demandingness is about control, strict rules or disciplinary efforts. Based on whether a parent is high or low on responsiveness or control results in four styles of parenting: authoritarian, authoritative, indulgent and uninvolved (Maccoby& Martin, 1983). Positive family climate with low discord between parents, organized home environment, authoritative parenting and close relationships with caregiving adults are resources within a family better mental health of children. Supporting, understanding, warm and child-centred parenting style is found to be associated with the development of resilience and hence it can be regarded as an asset or protective factor that can enhance the ability to overcome stressful life events. These parents show more unanimity and understanding relative to their children’s needs; therefore parents foster children to be strong in stressful life conditions by establishing a positive and close relationship with them and thus increasing resilience in children (Masten& Reed, 2002; Hill, Stafford, Seaman, Ross, & Daniel, 2007; Zakeri, Jowkar, & Razmjoee, 2010).The authoritative parenting style, which involves warmth and responsiveness, has been related consistently to positive developmental outcomes, including fewer behavioural problems and psychological symptoms. The authoritarian parenting style, in contrast, involves a low degree of responsiveness and high level of demandingness. Authoritarian parents are often cold, unsupportive, insensitive to their children’s needs, and demanding in their control (Badgujar & Mundada, 2014). This parenting style is related to less resilience and more depression and anxiety in comparison with other parenting styles (Mohammadi, Samavi, & Abdollah, 2013; Zhong, et al., 2016). There are many other factors linked to positive parenting style that directly or indirectly contribute to resilience in children. Parental acceptance is related to good emotional intelligence (Gunjan, 2012) and adolescent’s positive mental health (Sharma, 2013). Adolescents with high parenting style and whose parents monitor their activities adjust better in society than those with low parenting styles. Adolescents perceiving parental acceptance or those with authoritative parenting style have better self-esteem (ZakeriM Sharma & Pandey, 2015; Deshpande & Chabbriya, 2013), better self-concept (Badgujar & Mundada, 2014) and more self-confidence (Jassar, 2014). Study of resilience has always focused on protective factors whether it is individual or environmental factors. This is important to understand why some people function better than others in times of adversities. The present study tries to explore the role of perceived parenting on resilience in higher secondary school students.
Language: English
Field: Psychology
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3167209315
Cites:
Cited by: 5
Related to: 10