SELF-ESTEEM AND SUICIDAL IDEATION

AS CO-RELATES OF PERCEIVED
AUTHORITARIAN AND AUTHORITATIVE
PARENTING STYLES IN YOUNG ADULTS
 

BY 
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 ABSTRACT

 The present research was aimed at

addressing the relationship between self
esteem and suicidal ideation among young
adults with perceived authoritarian and
authoritative parenting style. It was
hypothesized that young adults with
perceived Authoritarian parenting style
would score high on suicidal Ideation scale
and low on self esteem as compared to
young adults with perceived Authoritative
parenting style. Moreover, Self esteem and
suicidal Ideation would be negatively co
related and girls with perceived Authoritarian
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 The sampling included 400 young adults from
different institutes and colleges of Karachi. Out
of 200 boys, 100 boys were from authoritarian
parenting style group and 100 boys were from
authoritative parenting style group. Out of 200
girls, 100 girls were from authoritarian
parenting style group and 100 girls were from
authoritative parenting style group.
 The age range of these individuals ranged from
18 to 24 years, with mean age of
21.2(SD=1.52).In order to find out the level of
self esteem and Suicidal Ideation among young
adults Rosenberg Self esteem Scale (RSES),
Modified Scale for Suicidal ideation (MSSI)
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 It was concluded that young adults with perceived
authoritarian parenting style scored high on suicidal
Ideation scale and have low on self esteem as
compared to young adults with perceived
authoritative parenting style. It was further concluded
that self esteem and suicidal Ideation would be
negatively co-related. However no significant
differences were found in between girls and boys on
suicidal ideation and self-esteem with perceived
authoritarian parenting style.

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 Introduction
 Formost young people the years from the late teens
through the twenties are a time of significant change
and importance. Scholars have referred to this period
with such terms as “arrested Adulthood” , “youth”
and “emerging adulthood” (Arnett, 2000).These
emerging adults engage in heightened identity
exploration and greater experimentation in the areas
of work, personal relations and worldviews as they
move towards adulthood. Parenting plays an
important role, in emerging adulthood.

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 A great deal of research have been done to
evaluating parent child interactions using the
parental styles developed by Baumrind (1966&
1971).
 Baumrind (1971) grouped parent's behavior
according to whether they were high or low on
parental demandingness and responsiveness
and created a typology of three parenting styles:
authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive.
Each of these parenting styles reflected different
naturally occurring patterns of parental values,
practices, and behaviors (Baumrind, 1991) and a
distinct balance of responsiveness and
demandingness
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 According to Baumrind’s perspective Authoritarian
parents, were seen as highly demanding and
directive, and not responsive. They are obedience-
and status-oriented, and expect their orders to be
obeyed without explanation“. There is evidence that
suggested that authoritarian parents attempt to
control their children’s behavior through the use of
guilt induction, withdrawal of love, or shaming
(Mayseless,2003).
 However, Authoritative parents are both demanding
and responsive. They monitor and impart clear
standards for their children’s conduct. They are
assertive, but not intrusive and restrictive.

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 However, Authoritative parents are both demanding
and responsive. They monitor and impart clear
standards for their children’s conduct. They are
assertive, but not intrusive and restrictive.
 One key difference between authoritarian and
authoritative parenting is in the dimension of
psychological control.
 Psychological control refers to attempts that intrude
into the psychological and emotional development by
the parent (Baumrind, 1991; Milevesky, 2007)
 Authoritarian and authoritative parents place high
demands on their children and expect their children
to behave appropriately and obey parental rules.
However, authoritarian parents also expect their
children to accept their values, reasons and goals
without questioning. 6/5/12
 On the other hand, authoritative parents are open to
more give and take with their children; they make
greater use of explanations, and listen to their
children’s opinions.
 One of the earliest studies in Pakistan was by Ahmed
(1993) she investigated the child rearing practices in
Pakistan. She found that affectionate interaction with
the baby beyond routine care taking by the parents
can have an adverse effect on the mental health of
child and those parents who considered taking care of
their babies moderately had children who developed
healthy personalities. She further concluded spanking
by parents affects the child positively if it is done
occasionally and on appropriate occasions.

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Relationship between Parental style and Self-
Esteem
 In reviewing the extensive body of self-esteem
research, four fully articulated theories have been
selected for present research.
 Present here a brief review of these theories,
followed by a discussion of how dimensions of
parenting have been shown to influence young’ self-
esteem and how young people’s self-esteem predicts
certain psychosocial outcomes.

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 the theories made clear the importance of
Parents appraisals for the development of
higher self-esteem. Parents are naturally
situated in a position to offer frequent
appraisals of their young adult’s behaviors and
attitudes. Supportive parents are able to offer
their children warmth, encouragement, and
inclusion into the family in-group, thus
enhancing children’s levels of self-esteem.
 On the other hand, parents who use
psychological control to convince young adults
to ignore their own developing selves and
instead succumb to parents’ wishes are likely to
damage the self that is being formed by the
young people. By being mindful that6/5/12
young
Relationship between Parental
behavior and Suicidal Ideation:
 In their attempt to identify the triggers for suicidal
behavior in young adults, researchers agree that the
family environment is the first place to focus
on.According to these studies in crises and stressful
situations, young adults who came from any kind of
dysfunctional families are more prone to suicidal
behavior. Frequent disturbances in family functioning
put young individuals at a higher risk of
demonstrating such behavior.
 Kopko (2007) and Maccoby (2000) suggested that the
quality of parenting, both what is done (parental
practices) and how it is done (parenting style), is one
of the factors that determines the level of young
individuals’ adjustment to the family environment.
The quality of parental practices and style has a
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direct effect on how the young adults perceive the
 Suicidalyoung adults perceive their parents as
less caring, more overprotective, and more
rigid than non-suicidal young adults (Miller,
King, Shain, Naylor, 1992). Kim (1999) and Sim
(2000) studied the influence of parent and child
bonding difficulties on the risk of young adults
suicidal behavior and demonstrated that a
disturbed parents and child relationship, and
lack of warmth, especially maternal warmth,is
associated with suicidal behavior in young
individuals. Lack of closeness (Tobin, 2000),
lack of parental attention and poor parental
care, especially father’s care toward girls
(Adam, 1997) are other aspects of disturbed
relationships between parents and their suicidal
young ones. Other study byBrubeck(1992)
6/5/12 have
 Overall,parenting styles including affection,
warmth, reasonability, fairness, and
supportiveness create a healthy context for
young adults to become well adjusted to
significant changes and feel more secure
(Steinberg, 2001).

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 PURPOSE of the study
 The purpose of this study was to understand the role
and influence of parenting styles on self-esteem and
suicidal ideation among young adults through
comparisons between authoritarian and authoritative
parenting styles.

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objectives
 Despite the strength of the work and researches have
done up till now in Pakistan related to young adults
and parenting, important questions remain un-
answer, whether or not authoritarian parenting really
hinders the child from developing a strong sense of
self.
 In particular researches did not give explanation of
why or how experiences with parents facilitate
positive or negative development into child’s
adulthood. For example, does effective parenting
directly impact young individual characteristics, such
as their sense of self, which in turn equips them to
function more effectively psychologically and socially
in their adulthood?
 Present research was an attempt 6/5/12to see the
METHOD
 Participants:
 The sampling included 400 young adults from
different colleges, Institute and universities of
Karachi. Out of 200 boys, 100 boys were from
authoritarian parenting style group and 100
boys were from authoritative parenting style
group. Out of 200 girls, 100 girls were from
authoritarian parenting style and 100 girls were
from authoritative parenting style.
 The age range of these individuals ranged from
18 to 24 years, with mean age of 21.2(SD=
1.52).
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Procedure:

 Rosenberg Self esteem Scale (RSES),

Modified Scale for Suicidal ideation (MSSI)
and Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ)
were administered in group settings.
 Students were approached in their class
room settings. Researcher themselves
explained the purpose of the study to the
participants ,assured them the
confidentiality of their answers and asked
them to answer honestly .Each participant
first completed the questions regarding
personal data then completed RSES,MSSI
and PAQ questionnaires. 6/5/12
OPERATIONAL DEFINATION
OF KEY TERMS:
 SUICIDIAL IDEATION: Suicidal ideation is a
preoccupation with intrusive thoughts of
ending one's own life.

 SELF-ESTEEM: refers to global or stable sense

of self worth i.e. sense of worthiness and sense
of self efficacy equivalent to others, sense of
having good qualities, positive attitude towards
oneself and satisfaction with oneself.
 YOUNG ADULTS: Individual between the Age
ranges of 18-24.
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hypotheses
 1.There would be significant difference in the
levels of suicidal ideation among Young
Adults with Perceived Authoritarian Parenting
as compared to young adults with
Authoritative parenting.
 2.There would be significant difference in the
levels of self-esteem among Young Adults
with Perceived Authoritarian Parenting
compared to young adults with Authoritative
parenting.
 3.Suicidal ideation and Self-esteem would be
negatively co-related among young adults
with perceived Authoritarian Parenting
6/5/12Style.
HYPOTHESIS NO 1:-

 “There would be significant difference

in the levels of suicidal ideation among
Young Adults with Perceived
Authoritarian Parenting Style as
compared to Authoritative parenting
style”.
 The score on suicidal ideation of 200 young
adults with perceived authoritarian parenting
style is (Mean 1.33,SD=0.561) and score of
authoritative parenting style (Mean 1.12,
SD=0.386) .The t statistics t= 4.342,P<0.05
indicates that there is a significant difference
in these two parenting styles. Young6/5/12
adults
HYPOTHESIS NO 2:-

 “There would be significant difference

in the levels of self-esteem among
Young Adults with Perceived
Authoritarian Parenting Style compared
to Authoritative parenting style”.

 The Self-Esteem scores of 200Young Adults

with perceived Authoritarian parenting is
(Mean 1.67, SD =0.437) and score of 200
authoritative parenting style (Mean 1.80,
SD=0.399).The t statistics t= 3-073,P<0.02
indicates that there is a significant difference
in these two parenting styles. Young6/5/12
adults
HYPOTHESIS NO 3:-

 “Suicidal
ideation and Self-esteem
would be negatively co-related among
young adults with perceived
Authoritarian Parenting Style.”

 The Pearson correlation co-efficient indicates

-.670 at the level of p< 0.01 levels that
suicidal ideation and self-esteem is
negatively co-related among young adults
with perceived Authoritarian Parenting Style.

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HYPOTHESIS NO 4:-
 “There would be significant difference
between Girls and Boys in the level of
suicidal ideation with perceived
Authoritarian parenting style”.
 The scores of girls with perceived Authoritarian
parenting on suicidal ideation scale is (Mean
1.141, SD 0.640).Boys score with perceived of
authoritarian parenting style is (Mean 1.26,
Std.dev 0.463).The t statistics t= 1.870.This
indicates that there is no significant difference
observed in the suicidal ideation scale score of
both the genders.

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HYPOTHESIS NO 5:-

 “There would be significant difference

between Girls and boys in the level of
self-Esteem with Perceived Authoritarian
Parenting style”.
 The scores of girls with perceived Authoritarian
parenting on self-esteem is (Mean 1.65, SD=
0.478).Boys score with perceived of
authoritarian parenting style is (Mean 1.68,
SD= 0.469).This indicates that girls and boys
with perceived Authoritarian Parenting style
scores are not significantly different on the
scale of self –Esteem.
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 Conclusion
 The findings confirm the positive influence of authoritative
parenting on young adults. This result suggests that the
parent’s acceptance involvement in individual’s life leads to
healthy sense of self. Young adults with high self esteem have
a feeling of worthiness. They are confident and competent
about their abilities. The individuals with a sense of personal
worth are able to understand the nature of problem, identify
obstacles to goals and devise a strategy. Therefore individual
with positive perception are capable of dealing directly and
effectively with various stressors of life.
 Whereas young adults from authoritarian parenting because of
strictness and controlling behavior they have low self esteem
and have feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy they have
pessimistic views of about themselves. They are uncertain
about their decisions and actions when they encounter the
stressors. Their negative view about themselves leads to
suicidal behavior.

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 This research is an important contribution to parenting
studies because it shows that the association of
authoritarian parenting associated with negative outcomes
throughout development and authoritative parenting
associated with positive developmental outcomes.
However, further examination of the meaning of parenting
styles and their association with different outcomes of the
young adults is warranted in order to increase knowledge of
the link between parenting and young adults adjustment in
Pakistan.
 The finding suggests potential pathways for developing
effective intervention strategies for parents to improve
their parenting style. Clinical Psychologist, mental health
professionals and community mental health caretakers can
play an active role in designing and conducting such
programs. Programs that teach skills such as self-esteem
enhancement and strategies o mobilize support are likely to
benefit those young adults who are at risk for suicide.

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  RECOMMENDATIONS

In the light of

present research
work on relationship
between self-
esteem and suicidal
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 Further examination of measuring of parental style
through qualitative analysis may also be
considered which could be associated with further
outcomes of life and adjustment process in young
adults.
 An assessment of young adult’s perceptions
regarding each parent (mother and father
separate) may also take into account and
analyzed in future research project.
 Role of self-esteem as a meditational factor may
also be studied.

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 Implication of the study
 Mental health problems are neither widely acknowledged nor
accepted in Pakistan. There is need for effective social welfare
services and training programs which focus on mental health
problems and bringing awareness among general population.
 The findings of this study suggests potential pathways for
developing effective intervention, strategies and awareness
programs for parents as above mentioned self-esteem has been
associated with impaired relationship are on high risk to engage
in suicidal behavior.

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 This suggests that clinicians should therefore take into
consideration the construct of self-esteem and develop
effective therapeutic interventions to help improve
youth’s self esteem, this may intervene the suicidal
behavior.

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