PARENTAL PRACTICES AS A PREDICTOR OF SELF-REGULATION AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

The objective of this study is to assess the direct and indirect relationships between parental practices (punishment and reward), self regulation, and social competence among adolescents. To conduct the study, a sample of 194 adolescents, ranging in age from 12 to 17 years (M age =14.53, Sd = 1.04), were selected from different schools. It was hypothesized that parental punishment would be significantly negatively correlated with self regulation and social competence; and parental reward would be significantly positivelycorrelated with self regulation and social competence. A secondary hypothesis was to assed whether self regulation mediate the relationship between parental punishmentand social competence; and whether self regulation mediates the relationship between parental reward and social competence. The random sampling technique was used to approach the participants. The four susbcales taken from Parent-Child Relationship Scale (Rao, 2000) namely symbolic punishment, object punishment, symbolic reward, and object reward, and social competence, Teen Survey (Child Trends for the Flourishing Children Project), andself regulation scale (Schwarzer, Diehl & Schmitz, 1999) were used to assess parenting practices of punishment and reward, self regulation and social competence respectively. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and Mediation analysis using SPSS and Process software. Results showed that specific parenting practices were significantly correlated with self regulation and social. Results from mediation analyses indicated that self regulation mediated the relationship of mother physical reward and father object punishment with social competence among adolescents. It is concluded that punishment and reward are important factors in adolescent psychological and social adjustment.