Parenting Styles and Their Impact on Self-Esteem of Youth

The young adult years have unique stresses and pressures and therefore parents play a vital role in providing support and helping young adults to achieve their best. There are conflicts between parents and their young adult children because of the generation gap and the parent’s inability to understand their young adult boys and girls. Parenting young adults has rewards and challenges. Good parent-young adult boy and girls relationships include respect, understanding, trust, and concern. Building a good relationship with their young adults by spending time together, keeping promises, using humour, and appreciating their efforts and strengths can prove to be beneficial for a teen’s success and self-image. It was observed that young adults were less likely to take risks if they have good relationships with their parents. This research aims to study the effects of parenting attitudes on young adults’ self-esteem. A qualitative study was done with a sample size of 30 young adults (15 girls and 15 boys) by making a parental authority questionnaire was made for young adults in the age range 18-25 to ask about general information name, age, sex, education qualification, and occupation. Various statements were made to know how parents behave with their young adults it helped us to know the effect of parenting styles on the self-esteem of young adults over a gender basis. It was concluded that some parents were so strict that they don’t allow their young adult girl child to question the norms of family they just have to follow the rules without asking any questions in boy’s case its vice versa parents tend to involve their young adult boy child to know how family policies are formed. The parenting style scale was taken to know the way parents behave with their young adults’. various statements will help to investigate different parenting styles used by parents in different situations. It was developed by Divya and Manikandan in 2013. To find out the reliability of the scale Cronbach Alpha coefficient was computed for each style and it was found that the authoritative style is having an Alpha coefficient of 0.79, authoritarian 0.81and permissive 0.86. All the styles of the perceived parenting style scale have an acceptable level of reliability. It was a standardised test. The authors claim that the scale has face validity. When scoring was done based on answers marked by young adults it was concluded that the authoritative parenting style was the best parenting style for young adults as reasonable demands and support were there always for young adults. They provide resources to fulfil their goals and abilities while authoritarian parenting was strict parenting where they need to follow rules and permissive parents were not bothered about their children’s abilities. Teen self–esteem scale was used which will help us to measure how the self-esteem of young adults’ boys and girls.  It concluded through the study that parenting style plays a very important in nurturing the self-esteem of young adults. Self-esteem — a person’s sense of worth — was important for success. When young adults feel confident and secure, they’re more likely to succeed in school and achieve personal goals. They learn to confront problems and resist peer pressure as they grow older. Authoritative parenting was the best parenting style to nurture the self-esteem of both young adults girls and boys.  Recommendations for this study were-When you have to confront your child, avoid blaming, criticizing, or fault-finding, which undermine self-esteem and can lead to resentment. Instead, strive to nurture and encourage, even when disciplining your kids. Make sure they know that although you want and expect better next time, your love was there no matter what. Parents should have access to information about the effects of various parenting styles on young adults’ personality traits.