Correlation Between Parenting Styles, Resilience, and Socioeconomic Status on Emotional Intelligence of College Students

Abstract

The family is the first and most important place for human interaction. Parents are the most important interaction objects. Numerous studies have pointed out that parenting styles can have a large and long-term impact on children. Several studies have linked parenting styles to emotional intelligence and resilience in children and adolescents. However, fewer studies have explored whether parenting styles are associated with college students’ emotional intelligence and resilience. In addition, few studies have explored whether socioeconomic status is related to emotional intelligence and/or resilience. Therefore, this study takes 210 college students aged 18–23 years as research participants to explore the relationship between these variables. The instruments are Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), Two-factor Index of Social Position, Inventory of Adolescent Resilience (IAR), and Emotion Management Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation analysis. The findings suggest that parenting styles are associated with emotional intelligence. However, resilience is related to the caring dimension of parenting styles, but not the control dimension. Similar result was also found in socioeconomic status. The developmental changes of these variables and their mechanisms still need further research to explore. Keywords: emotional intelligence, parenting styles, resilience, socioeconomic status