Parenting Style and Gender in Relation to Mental Health Among Adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of the present investigation was to study the effect of parenting style and gender on mental health of adolescents. There were two independent variables, the first independent variable was parenting style, varied at two levels, positive parenting style and negative parenting style and second independent variable was gender that was varied at two levels male and female, the dependent variable was mental health. For this purpose, the sample was consisted of 80 subjects, 40 males and 40 females of age range 14-18 years of age. The mental health of subjects was measured by mental health scale constructed and standardized by Dr. Kamlesh Sharma (2002). The parenting scale was used in this study for categorizing the positive and negative parenting style, constructed by R. L. Bhardwaj, H. Sharma and A. Garg (1998). Obtained data were analysed by using the Mean value, S.D value and two way ANOVA. The results indicate that parenting style significantly affect the level of mental health of adolescents and gender is not an influencing factor for mental health of adolescents.