Parenting Styles and Psychological Well-Being: The Role of Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

Parents are one of the most important relations in a child’s life. Other relationships, experiences and skills can also significantly impact children. One of these is ability of emotional intelligence, a learned skill. This research aimed to investigate whether emotional intelligence predicts psychological well-being in young adults better than their perceived parenting styles. In a survey of 240 undergraduate students of Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Lahore (having both parents alive in their childhood) were included in the sample. Parental Authority Questionnaire, Schutte’s Self-report Emotional Intelligence Test and Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale, were used to assess the parenting styles, ability of emotional intelligence and psychological well-being respectively. Although maternal (r= -.271) and paternal (r= -.230) authoritarianism and maternal authoritativeness (r= .145) significantly correlated with psychological well-being, emotional intelligence (r= .336) was the only significant predictor of psychological well-being and contributed to 10.5% unique variance. This has significant implications for researchers and practitioners planning interventions to improve psychological well-being of young adults. Further, recommendations and future directions have been discussed.