Perceived parental acceptance-rejection, emotion regulation and socio-behavioural among adolescents in Selangor, Malaysia
Adolescents are faced with many challenges relating to adjustment to society, and they need support from the public at large in order to thrive as an adult. Indeed, escalating rates of mental health issues and social problems involving adolescents signify the need for all to have a comprehensive...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/84200/1/FEM%202019%2023%20UPM%20ir.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/84200/ |
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| Summary: | Adolescents are faced with many challenges relating to adjustment to society,
and they need support from the public at large in order to thrive as an adult.
Indeed, escalating rates of mental health issues and social problems
involving adolescents signify the need for all to have a comprehensive
understanding of the factors contributing to adolescents’ adjustment in the
socio-behavioural domain, in order to improve adolescent functioning and
society functioning as a whole. Based on postulates of the Bioecological
Model and the Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory (IPARTheory), an
adolescent’s development is heavily influenced by the adolescent’s parents,
specifically in terms of their acceptance-rejection behaviours as perceived by
the adolescent, where perceived parental acceptance tends to relate to
positive child outcome, while perceived parental rejection often leads to
negative child outcome. Whereas much research has been done to establish
the relationship between perceived parental acceptance-rejection (PAR) and
adolescent adjustment, important gaps exist in literature: 1) little is known of
the mechanism that links PAR to adolescent adjustment; 2) limited research
focused on the socio-behavioural aspect of adjustment; 3) limited similar
studies have been conducted in Malaysia. The main aim of this study was
hence to fill these gaps and uncover the mechanism that explains how PAR
leads to adolescent socio-behavioural adjustment (SBA) by testing the merits
of emotion regulation (ER) as a mediator in the relationship. The moderation
effects of gender and family income were also examined to understand how
the aforementioned relationships differ across subgroups in the population.
In addition, differences and similarities between paternal and maternal PAR
were examined. The sample consisted of 1,382 students drawn from 33 National Secondary Schools selected around Selangor, Malaysia, using the
probability-proportionate-to-size (PPS) sampling method. Adolescent
respondents (mean age = 14.5 years) completed self-report questionnaires
which contained four measures: Parental Acceptance-Rejection
Questionnaire (PARQ) for Father and Mother, Emotion Regulation Index for
Children and Adolescents (ERICA), and Personality Assessment
Questionnaire (PAQ). Analyses using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)
revealed that as predicted, Malaysian adolescents tended to adjust well
socio-behaviourally when they perceived their parents to be accepting, and
face socio-behavioural maladjustment when they perceive their parents to be
rejecting, regardless of their gender or family income. Most importantly, a
significant mediation effect of ER was found using the bootstrap method,
indicating that when perceived parental acceptance is high, adolescents tend
to be more emotionally regulated which leads them to have better SBA,
regardless of their gender or family income. Additionally, examination of
latent mean differences across paternal and maternal PAR revealed that
adolescents generally perceive their fathers to be colder and more neglecting
as compared to mothers. Comparing paternal and maternal PAR in terms of
their association with adolescent SBA further showed that adolescents who
perceive their mothers to be rejecting become worse off socio-behaviourally
than adolescents who perceive their fathers to be rejecting, regardless of their
competence in ER. Overall, findings of the present study contributes to our
understanding on the pathway through which PAR relates to adolescent SBA
via ER, and further provides policy makers and practitioners alike with
insights on the factors contributing to adolescent SBA. |
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