Impact of Parenting Styles and Parent’s Mental Health on Child’s Behaviour

Abstract

The current research question discussed the impact of parenting styles and mental health of parent on the behavioral consequences of children and it can be said that this is one of the critical gaps existing in the body of knowledge that can be applied to determine the synergistic impact of parenting and their mental health. The type of research design that was used was a quantitative cross-sectional research design. They used standardized tests such as Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire ( PSDQ), Parental Stress Scale (PSS) and the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) to establish parenting style, parental mental and behavioral problems in children. The relationships proposed were tested using correlation and regression tests. It was found that authoritative parenting had the highest correlations between the parenting styles and the child behaviour outcomes, authoritarian parenting was the most closely correlated, whereas permissive parenting correlated with the behaviour problems more closely. There was a positive correlation between parental stress and disruptive child behaviour indicating that the greater the psychological stress of parents, the greater the behavioural problems of children. The regression analyses also found parenting styles and parental stress to have significant predictive value on child behaviour scores which indicated their complementary effect in explaining the adaptation of children to emotional and behavioural adjustment. All in all, this research paper has highlighted the significance of the healthy parenting behavior and mental health of the parent in ensuring good development outcomes. The implication of the findings to the psychologists, educators and family intervention programs are that parental well being could be optimized and balanced parenting styles facilitated to minimize the behavioral problems in children.