Lack of Adequate Parenting: A Potential Risk Factor for Aggression among Adolescents

Adolescence has been considered as a period of challenges and strains. Aggressive behavior usually escalates during this period due to multiple reasons (e.g., physiological changes, need for independence, establishment of new identity, and role conflict). Parents play vital role in managing and monitoring adolescents’ social relationships and behavior (Parke & Burial, 1998). A lack of adequate parental role as a manager is a potential risk factor that is related to aggressiveness and juvenile delinquency (Patterson & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1984). The present study was carried out to investigate the role of demographic variables (viz., parents’ education and parents’ income) and parenting styles in aggression among late adolescents. The sample consisted of boys and girls from 9th and 10th grades, age ranged between 15 and 17 years. Sample was recruited from public and private schools of Punjab, Pakistan. Parents were approached through students at their homes. Data was collected by using Parenting Style Questionnaire (Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 1995) and Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992). Significant gender difference appeared on total aggression and its components except for hostility. A considerable amount of variance in total aggression was accounted for by authoritarian parenting, permissive parenting, and income of parents. Parenting styles predicted distinctively in four components of aggression.