Parenting Style and Anti-social Behavior: An Exploratory Study of Secondary School Students

Abstract

The primal objective of present study was to investigate the relationship of parenting style with secondary school students’ antisocial behaviour. Population of the study consisted of all students enrolled in public secondary schools of the Sahiwal division. Random sampling technique was employed for sample selection. Researchers selected all three districts of Sahiwal division i.e. Pakpattan, Okara and Sahiwal. Eight schools from each district were randomly selected as sample of the study. Data were collected from 190 male (95 urban and 95 rural) and 200 female (100 urban and 100 rural) students by using two questionnaires viz.  Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and Sub-Types of Antisocial Behaviour (STAB). Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. Pearson r was run to analyze the data. It was inferred from  analysis that majority of public secondary schools students perceive fathers’ parenting style to be authoritarian and mothers’ to be authoritative. No significant correlation was found between authoritative parenting style and students’ antisocial behaviour. Authoritarian as well as permissive parenting styles were significantly correlated with students’ antisocial behaviour. To conclude, both authoritarian and permissive parenting styles are the major contributors to lead students towards antisocial behaviour. It is recommended that parents should employ authoritative parenting style in rearing their children