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The Influence Of Parenting Styles On Social Adjustment Among Secondary School Students
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Stone’s (2003) widely used typology
describes parenting styles as varying along two completely independent
dimensions of demandingness and responsiveness that, when crossed, yield
four parenting styles. Authoritative parents are both responsive and
demanding. They set clear, reasonable standards for responsible
behaviour that are consistent with children’s developing abilities, are
firm in their enforcement, and provide explanations for their positions.
They are also kind, warm, and responsive to children’s needs and will
negotiate their expectations. Authoritarian parents are demanding but
not responsive. These parents place high values on obedience to rules,
discourage give-and take between parents and children, and do not take
their child’s needs into consideration. Permissive or indulgent parents
are responsive but not demanding. These parents are warm and accepting
and tolerant of the child’s impulses. They also make few demands on the
child for mature behaviour, do not use much punishment and avoid
exerting their authority. More recently, permissive parents have been
distinguished from rejecting-neglecting parents, who also do not make
many demands on their children, primarily because they are disengaged
and thus are neither demanding nor responsive (Spoch, 1999).
Spoch’s
(1999) research indicates that authoritative parenting is most effective
in leading to healthy adjustment for children. Authoritative parenting
consistently has been associated with a wide range of positive
adolescent outcomes, including better academic performance, increased
competence, autonomy, and self-esteem, more advanced moral development,
less deviance, anxiety and depression and a more well-rounded
orientation to peers (Macobby and Martin 1993), Steinberg (2001). Spoch
has proposed that authoritative parenting is most effective because of
parents’ high expectations and support for mature behaviour. Much of the
research on parenting styles in relation to child and adolescent
adjustment has been conducted on white middle-class families, but since
the start of the 1990s, researchers have become increasingly interested
in ethnic and cultural variations.
1.2.2Theories of Social Adjustment
One
of the normal tendencies of an adolescent is to attach greater
importance to the attitude and opinion of others, especially those of
his own age, than he does at any other time in the developmental
sequence. Adolescence is a time of expanding and urgent interest in
persons of the opposite sex, both as person and as biological organisms.
It is a time of seeking an appropriate social role and satisfying
social relationships which will be in accord with concepts of self. It
is, above all else, a time when personal adjustment, both present and
future, is closely related to social success and to ability to play the
social role in which the individual would like to see himself (Runner,
2000).
A youth is an individual without experience, still in fact, a
child, who finds himself in what is to him a rapidly expanding adult’s
world. He finds himself with new physical urges, new physical growth,
new interests and values, and new concepts of self. He finds,
unwittingly, that he has turned his back on much that used to be
important to him. The process of growing up is both difficult and
strange, particularly in its relations with others, either
contemporaries or adults. From his social explorations he must finally
emerge with mature and adequate social attitudes, standards and skills
if he is to find any degree of social adjustment as an adult.
In his
early years a child passes through various phases in his relations with
others. A young child is essentially tremendous egocentric. He sees
himself as the center of the universe. He is a person to be served and
waited upon, a person with little patience for anything which blocks his
desire or sense of security. He is, above all, a person who has small
regard and less appreciation of the rights or feelings of others so long
as he himself is served and has his way. Some individuals seem never to
lose their egocentric attitude entirely, perhaps because of faulty
upbringing or because of unusual environmental circumstances (Rice,
2001).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of parenting styles on social adjustment among secondary school students in Lagos Metropolis. To achieve this goal, the researcher formulated four hypotheses to guide the study.There is a significant influence of authoritative parenting style on student’s social adjustment.There is a significant influence of religious background on the parenting style of couples.There is a significant influence of ethnicity on parenting style among ... Continue reading---
