Relationship between Sibling Status, Parenting Style and Self-efficacy among Indian Adults

Although previous research has established that components of family interaction and structure, like parenting style and sibling order, have a strong influence on aspects of psychological development in adults like the formation of self-concept, behavioural outcomes, personality traits, it has ignored the enmeshed relationship of these predictor variables. Existing research has not sufficiently accounted for how certain components of family environment impact the relationship between other such predictor variables and indicators of individual psychological development like self-concept. The current study explored the relationship between parenting style, sibling status and self-efficacy (a key element of overall self-concept), and whether parenting style plays a mediating role in the relationship between sibling status and self-efficacy. Participants (n=190) were asked to retrospectively appraise their parents’ parenting styles and responded to a self-report questionnaire assessing their level of self-efficacy. The results indicated that authoritative parenting is a positive significant predictor of self-efficacy among Indian adults, but that parenting style does not have a significant mediating effect on the relationship between sibling status and self-efficacy. Future studies focussed on retesting similar hypotheses with a larger sample size, or exploring other components of family environment, like psychological sibling status and parental conflict, and their impact on self-efficacy, within a similar mediation framework, could broaden understanding of the factors that contribute to the development of self-concept as adults.