The effects of parenting styles on each personal growth initiative and self-esteem among Japanese university students

Abstract

a faculty of nutrition, Kagawa nutrition university, sakado, Japan; b faculty of letters, aichi university, toyohashi, Japan ABSTRACTThis study investigated the extent to which individual differences in personal growth initiative (PGI) and self-esteem are effected by parenting style. The sample consisted of 329 Japanese university students. The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) measuring three parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive), the PGI, and the self-esteem scale were used to guide data collection. Multiple regression analyses showed that PGI and self-esteem were significantly affected by the authoritative parenting style. The study also showed that most of the subscales of PGI and selfesteem were not significantly affected by the authoritarian parenting style whereas, for female students, readiness for change which is subscale of PGI was significantly affected by the authoritarian parenting style. On the other hand, PGI and self-esteem were not significantly affected by the permissive parenting style. These results indicate the importance of the influence of the authoritative parenting style on each PGI and self-esteem among Japanese university students.

Parental Socialization and Development of Chinese Youths: A Multivariate and Comparative Approach

“…Parents are the main and most intimate socialization agent fundamentally influential of youths’ various aspects of development, in which actions of parental figures performed and the socialization environments they created are generally referred as parental socialization [2,7,9]. Nevertheless, prior family research tended to treat parenting practices of parental caregivers tantamount to parental socialization, therefore overlooking the effects of other parental socialization facets on youth development [1,7,9]. Consonantly, recent research revealed that parental socialization is a multifaceted concept comprising of not only parenting behaviors but also family processes.…”

“…Specifically, authoritative parenting, as demonstrating both high parental demandingness and responsiveness concurrently, has been corroborated to positively contribute to youths’ establishment a self-identity of worth, competence and respect, development of cognitive and psychological strengths, and decrease of mental health problems and behavioral maladjustment [1,4,6,12]. Conceptually, social learning theory and social control theory can help explain the beneficial effects of authoritative parenting on youth development, in which youths’ self-concept, value orientations, cognitive approaches, psychological traits and behavioral choices are cultivated in the processes of social learning and controlling and parents are the prime socialization agent to foster and steer development of their youth children by instructions, rules, directions, support and expectations set in their parenting practices [1,14,15]. Empirically, Hirata and Kamakura (2018) found that authoritative parenting was significantly related to higher personal growth initiative and self-esteem among university students and such relationships did not exist in authoritarian and permissive parenting styles.…”

“…Thus, if youths are of higher self-esteem, they would develop better self-control, future orientation, perspective taking behavior and lower externalizing problems [20,21]. Furthermore, as family is a fundamental nurturing context to develop youth self-esteem mainly through parental socialization [1,17]; it is believed that youth self-esteem would mediate the relationships between parental socialization and youth outcomes. Empirically, Li and Wang [22] found that self-esteem significantly mediated the effects of authoritative parenting and family relation on Chinese youths’ development of leadership.…”

“…Theoretically and practically, family experiences have profound influences on youth development, which are mainly through the process of parental socialization [1,2,3,4]. Nevertheless, prior family studies generally considered parenting practices as tantamount to parental socialization, ignoring its multifaceted nature [5,6].…”

“…Furthermore, youth development involves multiple aspects of cognitive, psychological and behavioral changes synchronously [10,12]. However, extant research predominantly examined only one or two youth outcomes in a single study [1,2,5], which hence tends to overlook diverse and interrelated aspects of youth development.…”