Perceived Parental Autonomy Support as Predictor of Psychological Well-Being among Undergraduate Students

Abstract

One of the key developmental challenges for university students as emerging adults is developing their sense of autonomy. For the sake of their children’s psychological wellbeing, parents must create an environment that supports students’ autonomy and encourages them to act on their own initiative. Keeping this in view, the present study aims to explore the predictive role of perceived parental autonomy support on psychological well-being among undergraduate students. The sample for the study comprised of 200 undergraduate students (100 males and 100 females) randomly selected from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. Perception of parents scale (POPS) develop by Robert J. Robbins (1994) and well-being manifestation measure scale (WBMMS) developed by Masse et al. (1998) were used to collect the data. The data was analyzed using SPSS -20. A cross-sectional, exploratory study survey method was used to collect and analyze results; descriptive statistics, t-test, correlation, and multiple regression analyses were done. Results found that perceived parental autonomy support is a significant predictor of psychological well-being among undergraduate students.  However, no significant difference was found in perceived parental autonomy support and psychological well-being among undergraduate students with respect to their gender.