“College Students’ Perception of Their Parents’ Style of Parenting in Enugu and Abakiliki, South-East Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Adolescents’ college students perception of their parents’ style of parenting has taken diverse forms in different societies/cultures and this may impact on their psychosocial development. Methods: This is a cross sectional study which accessed adolescent college students’ perception of their parents’ styles of parenting. Using simple random sampling the students were selected in proportion with the size of the class. This study assessed the “college students’ perception of their parents’ style of parenting in Enugu and Abakiliki, South-East Nigeria. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 19. Chi-square was used to test significant association of categorical variables. Results: A total of eight hundred and twenty eight adolescent college students aged 10-19 years with a mean age, 13.8 ± 1.5 years comprising four hundred and ninety (59.2%) males and 338 (40.8%) females completed the questionnaire. Three hundred and sixty one (43.6%) respondents reported having an autocratic parent while 206 (24.9%) and 227(27.4%), reported permissive, authoritarian styles respectively.  Twenty four (4.1%) did not report on any parenting styles. There were no statistically significant difference in the parenting styles of the college students and their socioeconomic class and gender. χ2 = 4.577; p = 0.101.  χ2 = 1.041; p = 0.904. Conclusion: This study revealed that the commonest style of parenting among adolesents college students is the autocratic style which is in-keeping with societies with strong ethnic and cultural background. We noted no association between parenting styles with gender.