Relationship of Percieved Parental Psychological Inflexibility of Adolescents

Abstract

The present research aimed to investigate the relationship of perceived psychological control of parents that is the characteristic of parents who pressure their children to behave and think in a certain way through internally controlling and the parental involvement frequently used in the literature to describe a number of different parenting activities or parenting practices such as guilt induction, conditional approval and shaming into the child’s life with the psychological inflexibility of the individual. The students of grade 9, 10, 11 and 12 were targeted. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant relationship of Perceived Parental Psychological Control and Perceived Parental Psychological Involvement with Psychological Inflexibility in Adolescents and there would be a significant gender difference in Perceived Parental Psychological Control and Perceived Parental Psychological Involvement with Psychological Inflexibility in Adolescents. A Survey research design quantitative correlation was used to collect data from students of schools and colleges of age 12 to 18 which were taken as subjects and the data was collected from different schools and colleges of Karachi City. The sample size was of A=250 individuals, both (males and females) of different schools and colleges of Karachi. Three questionnaires were used, The Parental Psychological Scale by (Bireda, 2013) to assess adolescents’ perception of their parent’s level of psychological control including separate questions for mother and father , Parental School Involvement by (Bireda, 2013) to assess mother’s and father’s different ways of involvement into the adolescent’s life and Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQII) by (Hayes and Bond - (2011) to assess acceptance, experiential avoidance , and over all psychological inflexibility in individuals. The result was analyzed by using Pearson Correlational Statistics. The results showed that Perceived Parental Psychological Control and Involvement has no significant correlation with Psychological Inflexibility in Adolescents. Also, there was no significant gender difference in Perceived Parental Psychological Control and Perceived Parental Psychological Involvement with Psychological Inflexibility in Adolescents. However, it can be seen through researches discussed in this study that parenting style may induce symptoms of depression, anxiety, problems in adjustment and emotional regulation in later years of life.