BRIDGING CARE AND CONSEQUENCE: PARENTING DIMENSIONS AND THE SOCIO-EMOTIONAL HEALTH OF ADOLESCENTS

Main Article Content

Syeda Asma Gillani
Palwasha Nasir Abbasi
Shanza Aman Khan
Sadaf Asghar
Marwa Khan

Keywords

Parenting dimensions; Basic psychological needs; Socio-emotional health; Self-Determination Theory; Mediation analysis; Adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between maternal, paternal, and perceived parenting dimensions classified as positive (warmth, structure, and autonomy support) versus negative (coercion, rejection, and chaos) and adolescents' socio-emotional health, and whether those associations are mediated by basic psychological needs satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). A group of adolescents filled in the Parents as Social Context Questionnaire, the Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, with all questionnaires demonstrating acceptable reliability (α = .75-89). Correlational and regression analyses confirmed that positive parenting dimensions were correlated with fewer socio-emotional difficulties and greater prosocial behaviors, whereas the negative parenting dimensions were correlated in the reverse direction. Mediation analyses indicated that need satisfaction in general, as well as for the specific needs, was significantly mediating these relationships across all parenting sources, explaining up to 26% of the variance, with relatedness being the strongest single mediator. The findings provide further support for the main hypothesis of Self-Determination Theory, in that adolescents'" satisfying of autonomy, competence, and relatedness" is the major pathway by which parenting affects adolescents' emotional and behavioral adjustment. Implications could include the possibilities for family-centered interventions focused on enhancing supportive parenting practices in the promotion of adolescents' socio-emotional well-being.

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