Influence of Parenting Style on Child Rearing Attitude of Adolescents

Abstract

The study aimed at assessing the child rearing attitude of the
adolescents and to determine the influence of parenting style on the child
rearing attitude of the adolescents. The study was descriptive and crosssectional in nature. The sample selected for the study was adolescents of
Chennai city. Using random sampling technique, a group of 200
adolescents comprised of 100 male and 100 female aged between 15-17
years was selected for the study. Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory
(AAPI) designed by Bavolek (1990) was used to assess the parenting and
child-rearing attitudes of adult and adolescent. Findings revealed that
the adolescent males (20.30) had negative attitude towards parental
empathy compared to that of the female adolescents (22.00) (p<0.01).
But for the construct, strong parental belief in the use of corporal
punishment, the mean values showed that male adolescents had better
attitude than the female adolescents (34.30). About 40 percent of the
adolescent families had autocratic style, while 32 percent democratic
method and the remaining 27 percent experienced laissez-faire practices
in their families. Analysis of variance revealed significant difference in all
the four child rearing attitude constructs, namely inappropriate
expectations of children (F= 46.30), parental lack of empathy towards the
needs of children (F=370.85), strong parental belief in the use of corporal
punishment (F=135.67) and reversing the parent child family roles
(F=654.61) when comparing with their parenting style. The Duncan’s
multiple range tests explains that the children under democratic child
rearing practice had negative attitude towards all the child rearing
attitude constructs. The children undergoing autocratic and laissez-faire
child rearing practice had better attitude towards their rearing.