Relationship Between Parenting Styles and Psychosocial Problems Among University Students

As individuals move from adolescence to adulthood, they confront life's challenges. This phase is crucial for university students, marked by newfound independence, academic pressures, and social complexities, impacting their psychosocial development. Parenting practices play a pivotal role in influencing their overall well-being and adaptation to life's demands. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the association between parenting styles and their impact on psychosocial problems among university students. The central hypothesis posited that the authoritative parenting style would demonstrate a negative correlation and serve as a negative predictor of psychosocial problems, while the converse would be true for the authoritarian and permissive styles. The participant pool consisted of 203 students, aged 18-26, comprising 95 males and 108 females, drawn from diverse universities in Karachi, Pakistan. To identify parenting styles, the researchers employed the Parenting Authority Questionnaire, while the Strengths and Difficulty Questionnaire was utilized to gauge dimensions of psychosocial problems. The results revealed a negative association between the authoritative parenting style and psychosocial problems, contrasting with a positive correlation observed in authoritarian parenting. The study identified authoritarian and authoritative mothers as significant positive and negative predictors of psychosocial problems, respectively. Notably, only authoritarian fathers emerged as significant positive predictors of psychosocial problems.