Parenting Styles, School Connectedness and Mental Health Among Adolescents in Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract

Adolescents are one of the largest groups that suffered from mental health problems in Malaysia. Since parents and school are vital figures in the development of adolescents, this study aimed to determine the relationship between parenting styles and school connectedness with mental health among adolescents in Selangor. The School Connectedness Scale (Jose, Ryan & Pryor, 2012), Parenting Style Scale (Gafoor & Kurukkan, 2014) and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) (Tennant et al., 2007) were employed to assess the research variables. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 476 adolescents adopting a cluster random sampling method. The study revealed that responsive parenting style, control parenting style and school connectedness are positively correlated to mental health. However, the mental health level appeared to show no difference between male and female adolescents. The study findings also indicated that school connectedness is the strongest predictor in determining the mental health of adolescents. In sum, adolescents with a high level of perceived control parenting style and school connectedness were likely to have better mental health state. This study assists in dispensing a deeper understanding of contributing factors (i.e. parenting styles and school connectedness) as a vital role in the developmental process of adolescents’ mental health. Introduction Mental health is one of the most important issues being debated now in the world. According to global statistics, a large amount of the world population suffered from mental disorders; depression (264 million), bipolar affective disorder (45 million) and schizophrenia (20 million) (World Health Organization, 2019). The latest statistics provided by the Institute for Public Health (2017) showed that mental illness is ranked as the second-highest health problem in Malaysia in which every one out of three people in Malaysia suffers mental illness. The seriousness of this issue agonizing people all over the country as it somehow impacts social peace and well-being. Mental health might be affected by various aspects such as family emotional bonding, peers influence, home environment, school environment, religious belief and economic status. Bronfenbrenner (1994) explained his Ecological Systems Theory that among the five systems, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 1 1 , No. 6, 2021, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2021 HRMARS 867 the microsystem is the smallest and nearest system or environment to the child which consists of family, peers and school. The child will be most influenced by the interaction that he has with his parents and family members. Bandura (1971) strengthens this idea with his Social Learning Theory that posits children observe and imitate influential models such as parent behavior in their social environment. This explained that the behavior of parents in practicing parenting could be imitated by their children in dealing with daily life. Parents are the essential socializing agents in the early stages of children's life which later will develop their personality and skills (Maccoby, 1992). Different patterns of parenting styles affect the child’s development in various aspects such as self-esteem, personality, emotional and behavioral outcomes (Othman & Khairollah, 2013; Hoskins, 2014; Rosli, 2014). This is due to the value and principle practiced by the parents in nurturing their children such as discipline, warmth, trustworthiness, demandingness, and supportiveness. For instance, based on the previous study the Authoritarian (high control and low responsiveness) parenting style effectuated adolescents to poor social skills, low level of self-esteem and high level of depression which could bring to other psychological consequences in later stages of life (Hoskins, 2014). In a different context, school is believed to be the institution that has direct involvement with adolescents which may affect their mental health and social development (Marin & Brown, 2008). School connectedness is elucidated as a student’s belief toward the care of adults and peers in the school about their learning also about them as individuals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). The findings suggested that school connectedness is an important protective factor to reduce the student's engagement in adverse activities including substance use and violence. School connectedness is also implied to shield adolescents with numerous environmental risks from violent and nonviolent offending, and the influence of delinquent peers which indirectly protecting them from the negative developing environment (Sprott, Jenkins & Doob, 2005). Besides, statistics showed that adolescents are the largest sufferer among 424,000 children having mental health problems in this country (Institute for Public Health, 2020). This survey emphasized peer problems as a major contributor to this issue which explained the significance of school connectedness in addressing the mental health problems among adolescents. In the long term period, school connectedness is ascertained to reduce poor health outcomes later in adulthood life including emotional distress and probability of suicidal ideation (Steiner et al., 2019). Even though a huge number of adolescents are reported to suffer from mental health problems, studies regarding adolescents’ mental health in this country are somewhat neglected. The scarcity of studies regarding the association of parenting styles and school connectedness with the mental health of adolescents in Malaysia has urged this study to be embarked on. This is to benefit the related parties to employ the study findings as a foundation to implement intervention programs on enhancing the mental health of adolescents to ensure the well-being of these future leaders and generations. Considering the importance of family and school constitution on adolescents, this study focuses on determining the parenting styles and school connectedness impact on the adolescents’ mental health. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 1 1 , No. 6, 2021, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2021 HRMARS 868 Methodology Research Design and Sampling A correlational research design was adopted to conduct the study. Self-administered questionnaires were used to obtain quantitative data related to the respondents’ background and the variables of the study which were parenting styles, school connectedness and mental health. The present study applied cluster random sampling to select the sample that was secondary school students. Cluster random sampling is a two-stage sampling; in which the first stage was conducted by selecting clusters (districts) randomly from the target population, the second stage is where the sample of elements (secondary schools) was randomly chosen from the selected clusters. 476 respondents of secondary school students were participated in this study considering limitations from the authorities. The current study was carried out in four secondary schools in Selangor. Institute for Public Health (2017) reported in the National Health and Morbidity Survey that Selangor is the second-highest ranked state in the anxiety issue and the highest prevalence state with stress and depression issues. The respondents of this study consist of 476 male and female secondary school students aged between 13 to 15 years old selected through cluster random sampling technique. Instrumentation and Data Collection A set of bilingual Malay-English versions of the self-administered questionnaire which comprised 4 parts: respondent’s background, parenting styles, school connectedness, and mental health was used for data collection. The questionnaires were distributed to the respondents with the assistance of the school teachers. Mental health. The revised version of Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) by Tennant and colleagues (2007) was used to measure the mental health level of the respondents aged above 13 years old. The scale consists of 14 items that measure the mental health of the respondent. The respondents were asked to respond using 5 point scale in which each point brings different frequency ranges from 1 (none of the time) to 5 (all of the time). The reliability value for the present study is 0.844. Parenting Style. The Parenting Style Scale by Gafoor and Kurukkan (2014) was used to measure the respondent’s parenting styles. It consists of 38 items that measure the levels of parental responsiveness and control towards their children. The respondents were required to respond to each of the items based on how the parents deal with them. The response was rated from 1 (very wrong) to 5 (very right). The reliability test for the present study resulted in a 0.949 value of Cronbach’s alpha which indicated the high quality of scale in measuring the parenting style perceived by students. School Connectedness. The School Connectedness Scale (Jose, Ryan & Pryor, 2012) was used to measure the school connectedness level perceived by the respondents. This scale consists of 6 items that assess the student-teacher relationship and sense of school community. These 6 items were being scored using 5-point scale of agreement ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The reliability value for the present study is 0.811. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences Vol. 1 1 , No. 6, 2021, E-ISSN: 2222-6990 © 2021 HRMARS 869 Data Analysis The data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 22.0. There were three types of data analysis were used to analyze the obtained data. Firstly, the univariate analysis includes descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean, standard deviation and frequency, which are used to explain the demographic characteristics of the respondents (age and gender), parenting styles (responsive and control),