INFLUENCE OF PARENTING STYLE AND
P. Usha
Lakshmi S.
INTRODUCTION
Deterioration
of mental health of the youngsters is one of the problems of the world
today. Mental health of an individual is
equally important to that of his physical health. A person is said to have good mental health
when he succeeds to maintain harmonious relationship between himself and his
environment. For a nation to progress,
its citizens have to be both physically and mentally healthy. Kerala has a
leading role among the other Indian states with regard to literacy and the
physical health of its people. At the
same time, growing evidences suggest that there is a gradual deterioration in
the mental health level of its people. The outcomes of mental health problems
are stress, frustration, irritability, mistrust, isolation and alienation. Many adolescents resort to socially
destructive and personally devastating ways of coping this stress. The very
high suicide rate in Kerala is comparable to the highest rates of suicides in
the world. The most unfortunate and astonishing thing is that the number of adolescents’
suicides in the state is increasing. Statistics reveals that the alcohol
consumption has also increased in the state. This is also evident from the long
queue of youngsters and adults in front of the liquor shops. Besides, there is an increasing rate of
crime, drug-addiction, self-harm, running away from home, depression,
stammering, bed wetting, nail biting, etc. among the adolescents. All these are the manifestations of the
outcomes of mental health problems, which may range from simple behavioural
problems to varying degrees of psychiatric problems. All these point out to the
need for a study on the mental health of adolescents in Kerala. Mental health is a broad term which
involves a complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the
absence of any diseases. It is an
important aspect of one's total health. Social interest, concern for others, a
cooperative approach to the life and striving for ideal community promote both
physical and psychological well being. It is an adjustment of an individual to
the environment with maximum efficiency and comfort. The present study was
taken up to find out the influence of parenting style and self-compassion on
mental health of secondary school pupils.
OBJECTIVES
*To
study the main effect of Parenting Style and Self-Compassion on Mental health
for total sample and sub samples.
*To
study the interaction effect of parenting style and Self-Compassion on mental
health for the total sample and sub samples.
HYPOTHESES
1.
The main effect of Parenting Style and Self-Compassion on Mental health for the
total sample and sub samples on the basis of sex, locale and type of school
management will be significant.
2.
The interaction effect of Parenting Style and Self-Compassion on Mental health
for the total sample and sub samples on the basis of sex, locale and type of
management of schools will be significant.
METHOD
Variable
Mental
health is the key to wholesome adjustment (Scott, 1961; Nunnally, 1961; Smith,
1961). It is the freedom from disabling
and disturbing symptoms that interfere with mental efficiency, emotional
stability or peace of mind (Maslow, 1954). According to Meninger (1945), it is
the ability of human beings to adjust to the world with maximum effectiveness
and happiness. Parenting style denotes the extent of parents’ demandingness
(control, supervision and maturity demands) and responsiveness (warmth,
acceptance and involvement) in overall development of the child. For the present study, authoritative
parenting style is considered. Authoritative parenting style is an effective
style of parenting in which the parent is warm and loving, yet sets well
defined limits that he/she enforces in an appropriate manner. Authoritative parents are demanding of and
responsive to their children, and also clearly communicating expectations and
rules. Neff (2003) derived the construct "Self-Compassion" from
Buddhist psychology. Self-Compassion entails being kind and understanding
toward oneself in instances of pain or failure rather than being harshly self
critical, perceiving one's experiences as part of larger human experiences
rather than seeing them as isolating and holding painful thoughts and feelings
in mindful awareness rather than over identifying with them. Though the
construct has its origin from the eastern philosophical thought, the
investigator could find only a very few studies in
Sample
The
present study is conducted on a representative sample of 500 pupils of standard
IX from 6 schools of Pathanamthitta and 3 schools of Alapuzha district of
Kerala state. Samples are drawn by proportionate stratified sampling method
giving due representation of factors like sex, locale and type of management of
schools.
Tools
The
tools were used for measuring the variables of the present study were: 1.Parenting
Style Inventory (Usha and Sindu, 2004); 2. Self-Compassion Inventory (Usha and
Lakshmi, 2007); and 3.Mental Health Status Scale (Usha, Anil & Remya,
1999).
Statistical Techniques
The
study used two-way analysis of variance with 3x3 factorial design for finding
out the main effect and interaction effect of Parenting Style and
Self-Compassion on mental health of secondary school pupils.
FINDINGS
The
main effect of Parenting Style on mental health was found to be significant at
0.01 level of significance for the total sample (f = 13.390) and the sub
samples based on sex (for boys, f = 5.012 and for girls f = 4.991) and locale
(for urban, f = 7.420 and for rural f = 4.120) at 0.01 level of significance.
The main effect of Parenting Style on Mental Health was found to be significant
for Aided school pupils (f = 10.761) at 0.01 level but it was found not to be
significant for government school pupils (f = 0.542) even at 0.05 level of
significance. The main effect of Self-Compassion on Mental health was found to
be significant for the total sample (f = 12.084) and the sub samples based on
sex, (for boys, f = 15.167 and for girls, f = 7.691), locale (for urban, f =
11.448 and for rural, f = 6.161) and type of school management (for aided, f =
9.626 and for government, f = 14.835) at 0.01 level of significance. The
interaction effect of Parenting Style and Self-Compassion on Mental health was
found not to be significant for total sample (f = 0.851) and sub samples based
on sex (for boys, f = 0.375 and for girls, f = 0.175), locale (for urban, f =
1.558 and for rural, f = 0.727) and type of school management (for aided, f =
0.689 and for government, f = 0.849) even at 0.05 level of significance.
CONCLUSION
Today,
much importance is being given to mental health and related areas because it is
found that a poor mental health condition may prevent an individual from doing
any progressive activity. Mentally
healthy people are able to fulfill their social roles successfully. They enjoy peace of mind, happiness, self
confidence and other's company. Today's children are tomorrow's citizens. So, they must be brought up as citizens with
good mental health. For that we must be aware of the variables that affect
one's mental health. From the present study,
it can be concluded that parenting style and self-compassion influence the
mental health of secondary school pupils.
IMPLICATIONS
In
order to improve the Mental health of pupils, parents should consider the
following suggestions. They must never
set rules, requirements and restrictions. They must encourage healthy
bi-directional communication with their children. They must provide their
children with a rationale for their actions and priorities. They must accept
the child's uniqueness. They must encourage the child to correct mistakes and
develop capacities. They must give enough freedom to the child so that he can
develop at his own place. Parents and teachers can do the following to raise
the self-compassion and thereby the mental health of pupils. If a parent or a
teacher identifies a self-critic child, they must help him to understand the
fact that all human being have got their own limitations and therefore failures
can happen to anyone who is fully human. Thus, the child may learn to forgive his
limitations and failures rather than being a self-critic. In instances of pain, help him to correlate
his experiences as part of the larger human experience rather than seeing them
as isolating. When the child faces
failures, parents and teachers must point out where he has gone wrong and
remind him about his previous achievements so that he regains self-confidence
and self-kindness. Whenever the child succeeds, parents and teachers must be
careful to appreciate the child at his success so that he feels proud of
himself. Schools can adopt the following
measures to promote the mental health of students. Conscientizing parents with
regard to their influence on the child's mental health, arranging classes and
lectures by experts on self-compassion and mental health and discouraging
unhealthy competition among students.
There must be provision for counselling in school and the counselling
services in school must include facilities like psychological testing materials
for assessing one's mental health. Thus, parents, teachers and school play a
significant role in promoting the mental health of children. By promoting a child's mental healthy they
are helping the nation because a mentally healthy citizen directly or indirectly
becomes an asset to national progress.
REFERENCES
Maslow,
A.H. (1954) Motivation and Personality.
Harper and Row,
Menninger,
K. (1995) The Human Mind.
Neff,
K.D. (2003) Self-compassion: An
alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude towards oneself. Self
and Identity 2, 85-100.
Nunaly,
J.C. (1961) Popular Conceptions of Mental
Health: Their Development and Change. Holt, Rinchart and
Scott,
W.A. (1961) Research definitions of mental health illness. In Sarbin, T. R. (Ed.) Studies
in Behaviour Pathology, 8-22. Holt, Rinehart and
Smith,
M.B. (1961). Mental health reconsidered: A special case of the problem of
values in psychology. American
Psychologist 16, 299-306.