Correlation between adolescents’ manipulation and perceived parenting style

Anja Ašič, Jerca Bergant, Maša Lebar, Leja Mauko, Katja Škoda

 Full article (pdf)  |   Written in Slovene  |  Published: 13. September 2020 |  Reads: 448

Abstract

A child‘s perception of their parents‘ parenting style is thought to affect their behaviour more than the categorization of the parenting style obtained with observation. The child‘s perception of parenting style correlates significantly with psychological outcomes during emerging adulthood; that is why we were curious if it is connected to adolescents‘ manipulation in regard to their parents. Manipulation represents the ability to influence and control other people‘s emotions and behaviour for one‘s own benefit. We have set the first three hypotheses based on prior research concerning the correlation between lying – which is a related construct to manipulation – and the perception of parenting style. We expected (1) a negative correlation between a perceived authoritative style and manipulation, (2) a positive correlation between a perceived authoritarian style and manipulation, (3) a zero correlation between a perceived permissive style and manipulation, (4) a different degree of manipulation between sons and daughters, and (5) more prominent manipulation directed toward the mother. 287 adolescents participated in the survey (122 women, 2 other), the average age is 18,2 years. They filled out two questionnaires: The Scale of Emotional Manipulation and the Questionnaire of Parents’ Authority, with which we evaluated their relationship with one of their parents. Results show that there is a negative correlation between manipulation and an authoritative parenting style (although statistically insignificant), and that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between manipulation and authoritarian as well as permissive parenting style. We can ascertain that the parenting style which is linked the least to manipulation is the authoritative style. The differences in the frequency of manipulation between genders and the direction of manipulation more toward a certain parent are statistically insignificant.

Keywords

manipulation, perceived parenting style, pupils, parent-child relationship

Cite

Ašič, A., Bergant, J., Lebar, M., Mauko, L., & Škoda, K. (2020). Povezanost manipulativnosti mladostnikov in zaznanega starševskega sloga [Correlation between adolescents’ manipulation and perceived parenting style]. Eksperimentator, 4, 50–57.