Impact of Parenting Styles on Emotional Maturity and Social Adjustment among Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study

Parenting style is a central family-context determinant of adolescent development, shaping the emotional and interpersonal capacities required for navigating school, peer and community environments. Adolescence involves simultaneous changes in identity, autonomy, emotional regulation and social expectations; consequently, the quality of parental responsiveness and control may be particularly consequential during this stage. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 500 adolescents (250 boys and 250 girls) drawn from ten higher-secondary schools in the urban area of Rajnandgaon district during the academic session 2025–2026. Random sampling was used to select participants from private CBSE and government schools. The Parenting Style Scale (PSS-GMMD) by Madhu Gupta and Dimple Mehtani, the Emotional Maturity Scale (EMS) by Tara Sabhapathy and the Social Adjustment Scale (SAS-KA) by Ashutosh Kumar were administered in bilingual Hindi–English forms. Dominant parenting style was classified from the highest parenting-style subscale score. Descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare emotional maturity and social adjustment across parenting-style groups. Democratic parenting was dominant among 363 adolescents (72.60%), followed by autocratic (97; 19.40%), permissive (19; 3.80%), tie (13; 2.60%) and uninvolved parenting (6; 1.20%). Emotional maturity differed significantly across parenting-style groups, F(3,474)=19.679, p<0.001, η²=0.111. The democratic group obtained the highest mean score (126.47±13.61), whereas the permissive group obtained the lowest mean score (109.16±12.80). Social adjustment also differed significantly, F(3,469)=8.798, p<0.001, η²=0.053. Democratic parenting was associated with the highest mean social adjustment score (58.46±7.34), while permissive parenting was associated with the lowest (52.95±7.21). Category-wise analysis showed that 38.40% of adolescents in the democratic group had high emotional maturity, compared with 19.10% in the autocratic group and 0% in the permissive group. Adolescents reporting democratic parenting demonstrated significantly higher emotional maturity and social adjustment than those reporting less structured or less responsive parenting patterns. The findings are associational rather than causal, but they support family-focused psychoeducation, adolescent counselling and school-based parent engagement initiatives. Future longitudinal and multi-informant studies should examine mediating mechanisms such as autonomy support, self-esteem, psychological flexibility and parent–adolescent communication.