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Relationship between Parenting Styles and Adolescent Social Competence

Article  in  IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science · January 2013

DOI: 10.9790/0837-1733436

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IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS)
Volume 17, Issue 3 (Nov. - Dec. 2013), PP 34-36
e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845.
www.Iosrjournals.Org

Relationship between Parenting Styles and Adolescent Social

Competence
Vijila.Y, Jose Thomas, Ponnusamy.A

Abstract The descriptive study aims at finding out the relationship between different parenting styles such as
authoritative, authoritarian, permissive parenting style and the social competence of the adolescents. . The data
have been collected from a reputed institution in Coimbatore using two questionnaires that are for parents and
children. The simple random sampling , 43 samples had been taken for the study using sample size calculator.
T-test, ANOVA, correlation, regression tests are used to analyse the relationships between the data. The study
could find that the authoritative parenting style has a positive influence towards the social competence of the
adolescents..

I. Introduction
The study attempts to study the relationship between parenting style and adolescents‟ social
competence. The relationship had been studied in between three parenting styles such as authoritarian,
authoritative and permissive styles and social competence of the adolescents. The researcher has also attempted
to assess the level of social competence such as pro social behaviour and emotion regulation among adolescents
and also could find out parents‟ preference towards the above mentioned parenting styles. The social
competence of the adolescents was done by the teachers and the preferred parenting style was assessed by the
parents themselves. The researcher used statistical techniques like „t‟ test, ANOVA, correlation and regression
analysis to bring out specific results for the study. The statistical results shows that children who have brought
up with a authoritative parenting style as first preference with certain patterns of permissive parenting style
show higher level of social competence skills. Parenting style plays a crucial and formative role in the
development of their children especially their social, emotional such as affect regulation, cognitive such as fund
of information, skills for processing or acquisition, perspective taking and behavioural such as conversation
skills as well as pro social behaviour skills needed for successful social adaptation. In this study the researcher
studies the social skills such as pro social behaviour and emotion regulation in relation with different parenting
styles.
A parenting style is a psychological construct representing standard strategies that parents use in their
child rearing. In this study the influence of three important is parenting styles such as authoritative authoritarian
and permissive parenting styles on the social skills of the children. In the authoritative parent is demanding and
responsive. When this style is developed properly, it will be fit to the descriptions propagative parenting and
concerted cultivationwhereas in authoritarian style the parent is demanding but not responsive. In permissive
parenting style the parent is responsive but not demanding.
Research has found that the best adjusted children, especially in terms of social competence, have
parents with an authoritative parenting style. These parents are able to balance high demands with emotional
responsiveness and respect for their children‟s autonomy. Authoritative parents have high expectations of their
children and use control, but the strict parent expects the child to unquestioningly accept parental judgments and
allows the child little freedom of expression. Children of strict parents are apt to be reliant on the voice of
authority and to be lacking in spontaneity. The authoritative parents permit the child enough freedom of
expression so that he or she can develop a sense of independence. Permissive parent makes few demands and
their children have been found to have difficulty controlling their impulses, and can be immature and reluctant
to accept responsibility. Each of these parenting style have an influence on the social skills of the children. The
study thus focus on finding the relationship between the mentioned parenting styles and the social competence
of the adolescents.

Objectives
The present study aims to accomplish the following objectives:
1. To study the parenting styles that the parents practices in bringing up the children.
2. To study the level of social competence of adolescents.
3. To study the relationship between parenting style and social competence of adolescents.

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 Relationship Between Parenting Styles And Adolescent Social Competence

II. Method and Procedure

Descriptive research design is used as it helps to describe the personal profile of the respondents and to
describe the characteristics of different parenting style, characteristics of social competence among adolescents
and to find the relationship among both the factors mentioned above. Owing to the time and research constraints
the researcher has taken 43 respondents for the study. The researcher adopted Lottery without replacement
method in Simple Random Sampling Technique for the study. The researcher has adopted two scales, they are
parenting scale and social competence scale. Parenting Scale scores range from “Never” to “Always” on a 6-
point scale. Social Competence Scale contains 19 items and is used to measure teachers‟ perceptions of a child‟s
social competence of the urban elementary school children, It includes two subscales: pro social behaviour and
emotion regulation.
Result and Discussion
Following are the responses got through the data collection. Most of the parents prefer authoritative parenting
style in child raring, and most of the respondents have moderately well social competence. Similar studies found
that parents prefer authoritative parenting style for higher level of social competence. The current study also
reveals that there is a relationship between parenting style and adolescent social competence.
Based on the data collected through the data collected from the respondents, their responses are
tabulated, analysed and interpreted as follows:
The study reveals that among three parenting styles the authoritative parenting style has no significant
difference with regard to their children‟s social competence as its significant value (0.645) which is greater than
0.05, likewise the authoritarian parenting style has no significant difference with regard to their children‟s social
competence as its value (0.127) which is greater than 0.05 and the permissive parenting style also has no
significant difference with regard to their children‟s social competence as its significant value (0.205) which is
greater than 0.05. Among three parenting style the permissive parenting style score has a positive effect (0.335)
on adolescent social competence scores. The permissive parenting score is comparatively higher for those
adolescents with higher level of social competence but the permissive parenting style score should always lay
under the remaining parenting style. The authoritarian parenting style has a negative effect (-0.350) on the
social competence of the children. It can be observed that a combination of authoritative and permissive
parenting style displays a higher score in the social competence of the adolescents.

Suggestions
Following are the suggestions recommended based on the findings:
 It is essential for the parents to get informed regarding different types of parenting styles and its effect
on children‟s social competence.
 The parents should asses their child‟s behaviour and social competence with help of experts and should
take appropriate actions in the initial phases of child‟s development.
 The parent‟s should take the child to a psychiatrist who can help them out if there child displays any
problems in their emotion regulation or pro social behaviour.
 The parents shouldn‟t give more preference to authoritarian or permissive parenting style rather giving
more preference to authoritative parenting style and having a balance in-between other parenting styles.

III. Conclusion
The researcher has found that the authoritative parenting style has a positive influence on the social
competence of the adolescents. These parents are able to balance high demands with emotional responsiveness
and respect for their child's autonomy. Both authoritarian and authoritative parents have high expectations of
their children and use control, but the strict parents expect the child to unquestioningly accept parental
judgments and allow the child little freedom of expression. Children of strict parents are apt to be reliant on the
voice of authority and to be lacking in spontaneity. The authoritative parent permits the child enough freedom of
expression so that he or she can develop a sense of independence whereas the permissive parenting style is more
responsive and demand very few thus the children face much difficulty in controlling there impulses and not
ready to accept responsibilities as they are not enough matured.

Regression analysis on Parenting style and adolescent Social competence

Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients
Model Coefficients t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 3.991 1.354 2.948 .005
Authoritative Parenting -.091 .259 -.053 -.350 .729
Authoritarian Parenting -.194 .089 -.350 -2.181 .035
Permissive Parenting .221 .105 .335 2.101 .042

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 Relationship Between Parenting Styles And Adolescent Social Competence

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