Perceived Parent Child Relationship and Bullying in Adolescents

Abstract

The relationship of adolescents with their parents is extremely crucial, as they are navigating a diverse range of aspects, such as their relationship with their parents and dealing with negative issues in school. How adolescents cope with negative behavior depends a lot on the parenting styles they used. The purpose of this research study was to investigate parenting styles and their relationship on bullying and victimization among adolescents belonging to the age group of 13-18 years. 325 students participated in this study amongst which were 36.9% males and 63.1% females. Two instruments were used to measure the study variables i.e., Parent Child Relationship Scales (PCRS) having subscales i.e., Loving, Protecting, Neglecting, Demanding, Object Punishment, Object Reward, Symbolic Punishment, Symbolic Reward, Indifferent and Rejecting and Illinois Bully Scale having subscales i.e., Bully, Fight and Victim. Three subscales of parent child relationship were significant predictors of bullying and victimization. Protecting style was a significantly negative predictor while, rejection and symbolic punishment styles were significant positive predictors of bullying and victimization. This study highlighted the importance of parenting styles and their relationship to bullying behaviors in adolescents, aiming to enrich existing literature on the study. Building on this, interventions could be designed to target behaviors like bullying and victimization, with a focus to enhance and promote more positive ways to deal with negative situations. Such interventions could serve as a valuable foundation for future research, fostering a deeper understanding of parenting styles as well as bullying behavior and strategies to deal with them.