Influence of parenting styles on self-control in emerging adults.

Abstract

The patterns in which parents interact with their children, known as a parenting styles (PS), permeates many aspects of adult cognitions and behaviors. The majority of PS research has focused on behavioral outcomes, such as elementary and high school performance.  There is a dearth of research that examines adults’ recollections of their parents’ parenting styles (PS), and relating that information to outcomes as an adult. Similarly, there is a lack of research examining how PS influences levels of self- control as an adult. A modified version of the Primary Caregivers Practices Report and a modified Self- Control Questionnaire were used to investigate how parenting styles implemented during childhood influenced self-control levels in college students. Participants included 210 students (117 female), from a Northern panhandle University. Two separate two-way ANOVA’s were used to explore the impact of PS and participant’s gender on levels of self-control as an adult, one for the female parents, the other for the male parents, in addition to examining the self-control outcomes of the different combinations of two parent households. It was found that having a male permissive parent was related to having significantly lower self-control scores, particularly for female participants, compared to the other PS’s. Due to the lack of research it is crucial to continue studies, especially with permissive parenting style by using other variables such as the number of children in a family, self-efficacy, as well as using a larger sample size outside of a university setting to better support the findings of this study.