The Role of Parenting Style in Instilling Adolescents Pro-social Behavior: The Case of Adolescent Students in Arba-minch, Konso, and Jinka, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of parenting styles in instilling adolescents’ pro-social behavior among secondary and preparatory school students. Two adapted instruments, i.e. the Pro-social Tendencies Measure (Eisenberg et al., 1995, Rushton et al., 1981) and Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1988) were used. The researchers hypothesized that, perceived Authoritative parenting significantly predicts adolescents’ pro-social behavior higher than those who perceive their parents relied primarily on Authoritarian, Permissive, or Neglectful Parenting‘s, and there is gender difference in pro-social behavior among adolescent students. Adapted Parental authority questionnaires and pro-social tendencies measure were distributed to 392 adolescent students. The study was employed Correlational research design. The data analysis used statistical techniques like bivariate correlation, regression analysis and independent samples t-test. The significant relationship were found between the permissive as well as the authoritative parenting style and the level of adolescents pro-social behavior development, (P<0.05) at a (.048) and (P<0.05) at a (.049) level of significance respectively. Regression analysis was performed and the hypothesis was rejected because permissive parenting style was found to have a more powerful impact on development of adolescents pro-social behavior with (β =.132, p