The Relationship between Parenting Practices and Accountability of High School Students in Mehr Town, 2015-2016 (Iran) Parvaneh Doodman*

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Family has important functions, such as reproduction of human resources, ensuring emotional needs, mental health, promotion of the tolerance capacity, and has a constructive role in providing social integration through sociability, child upbringing, providing ethical and behavioral patterns and norms. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of parenting practices on the accountability of high school students in Mehr city. Methods: This descriptive-correlational study was carried out on 200 high school students in Mehr city (100 girls and 100 boys) in the academic year 2015-2016. The students were selected by random cluster sampling method. Harrison-Goff Accountability Scale was used to assess the accountability, and Baumrind's Scale (1973) was used to evaluate parenting practices. Reliability of the Accountability Assessment Questionnaire was calculated to be 0.76 in general scale, and reliability of the Baumrind Parenting Styles Scale was obtained to be 0.90 in general scale; and the validity of the questionnaires was confirmed. Data were analyzed using inferential correlation statistics, simultaneous multiple regression, and independent t-test. Results: Parenting practices were able to predict children's accountability; moreover, the results of simultaneous multiple regression indicated that among the three parenting practices, parents' rational authority method and parents' authoritarian authority methods are able to predict children's accountability; and parental permissiveness method has a low predictive power to predict children's accountability. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that parenting practices can be effective in high school students' accountability; and among the three parenting practices, parents' rational authority method has a higher positive effect on children's accountability, and, on the contrary, parents' authoritarian method leaves negative effects on the level of children's accountability.