Perceived Parental Expectations and Level of Stress among Adolescents: A Cross Sectional Study at Bagalkot

Abstract

Background: Parental support is needed for every school student to achieve their academics and career expectations. However, when parents have high expectations rather than support, it would reflect in academics and career expectations of their children. When they could not achieve their parents’ expectations, it prompts stress and impacts their academic achievement and career expectations. Aims: The aim of the study was to find out the correlation between perceived parental expectations and level of stress among adolescents and its association with their socio-demographic variables. Methodology: A structured questionnaire was developed to collect the demographic information, perceived parental expectations among adolescents was measured using structured rating scale and level of stress of adolescents was measured using Modified dave smith’s stress scale from a sample of 100 adolescents who are studying in 8th, 9th and 10th standards of Shri B.V.V sangha`s English Medium High School, Vidyagiri at Bagalkot in Karnataka state India, were selected by disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings: Majority (48%) of parental expectations of adolescents had high expectations and majority (53%) of adolescents had moderate stress. A positive correlation (r=0.296) found between parental expectations and stress among adolescents. A significant association was found between the perceived parental expectations and birth order (χ2= 13.079; P<0.05) and number of siblings (χ2= 24.637; P<0.05) and a significant association was found between level of stress and family income (χ2= 14.710; P<0.05) and birth order (χ2= 15.416; P<0.05). Conclusion: The overall findings of the study revealed that, there was a positive correlation found between the perceived parental expectations and level of stress among adolescents. Keywords: Perceived parental expectations, stress and adolescents.