Parental discipline and psychological wellbeing of adolescents

Abstract

Parents at their level provide care and education related to personal and social norms to their children. Discipline is a type of strategy parents use to discourage inappropriate behavior and accomplish compliance from their children. Disciplining adolescence is more challenging because at this stage they go through various biological and psychological challenges. Adolescents are argumentative and have lesser experience.  During this vulnerable stage parents’ failure to provide care and attention will affect adversely on their development including their wellbeing. Present study aimed to explore the relationship between disciplining techniques used by parents and psychological wellbeing of adolescents. To assess disciplining techniques five point rating scale was developed which consisted twenty statements. Based on selected dimensions of psychological wellbeing, only eighteen items measuring Autonomy, Positive relations with others and self-acceptance were selected from Ryff’s psychological wellbeing scale. The study was conducted on total 242 adolescents both boys and girls age range varying between 13 and 18 years. Pearson’s correlation was computed to correlate eight disciplining techniques used by parents and three dimensions of psychological wellbeing of adolescents. In case of psychological aggression r values -.196 and -.294 exhibited significant negative correlation with positive relation with others and self-acceptance respectively. Time out, corporal punishment and penalty also confirmed significant negative correlation with positive relation with others and self – acceptance. Reward as positive technique used by parents showed positive correlation with autonomy and self- acceptance in adolescents.