Parenting Styles and Emotional Intelligence of Adolescents

Parents occupy the most important place in the perceptual world of the child and generally feel ambivalent towards the adolescents’ maturity and movement away from the family. They also want to steer their child away from the problem that they experienced in becoming adults. Steinberg’s (1990) research indicated that a majority of parents feel that the adolescent years are the most difficult ones for child rearing. It has generally been observed that in addition to genetic factors, child-rearing practices play a vital role, in the development of a child particularly the disciplining practices are considered more important. Inspite of rapid changes within the modern family, parental disciplining is very essential for building healthy emotionality and personality of the child. Emotional intelligence is essential for the success of an individual. So in the present study an attempt was made to examine the influence of parenting styles on the emotional intelligence of adolescents. It also examined the relationship between the demographic, social and personal variables and parenting styles and emotional intelligence. The Parental Interactional Style Questionnaire developed by Vivekan Reddy (1996) was used to elicit information regarding selected demographic variables and also the parenting styles adopted by the parents. Emotional Intelligence Inventory developed by Uma Devi and Mayuri (2003) was used to find out the emotional intelligence of the adolescents. The sample comprised of 120 parents with equal number of parents in each parenting style and their children between the age range of 15-17 years from the city of Visakhapatnam. The data collected were subjected to correlation co-efficient and F test. Parts of the data was presented in frequencies and percentages. In the authoritative parenting style most of the boys had above average scores on emotional intelligence. Coming to the sub scales and their dimensions, adolescents with authoritative parents were assertive, more socially responsible had more stress tolerance and impulse control, compared to the adolescents of authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. The findings of the study indicate that education of the parents plays an important role in influencing the adolescents on dimensions like self-regard, problem solving, stress tolerance and impulse control. Adolescents from large families were good at problem solving and had happy disposition, adolescent boys were more socially responsible and had better impulse control than girls. The results indicated were in congruence with Baumrind’s findings that children of authoritative parents were cheerful, socially responsible; self-reliant achievement oriented, had excellent social skills and were co-operative with adults and peers. By contrast children of authoritarian parents tended to be moody, easily annoyed and unfriendly. Children of permissive parents were often impulsive and aggressive; tend to be bossy and self-centered lacking in self control and quiet low in independence and achievement. Findings of the present study helps us to understand the influence of parenting styles on the emotional intelligence of adolescents. It can create awareness among parents, educators and counsellors and help them to have a closer look at emotional intelligence and its role in making an individual successful.