Relationship between child response style to parenting and psychological well-being among secondary school students in Owerri, Nigeria.

Abstract

There is global concern about the behaviour and psychological well-being of children in relation to how they respond to parenting. This study examined the relationship between child response style to parenting and the psychological well-being of secondary school students in Owerri, Nigeria. The study used mixed methods, specifically the explanatory sequential design to examine the characteristics of the response styles, the levels of psychological well-being and the relationship that exists between the response styles and psychological well-being. The data for the study was generated using three instruments-the Child Response Style Scale by Egunjobi (2021) and the Psychological Well-being Scale by Viejo et al. (2018) and seven open-ended questions for focus group discussions. A descriptive analysis was used for the research questions, with the results presented in tables and figures as frequencies and percentages, mean and standard deviations, and the summaries presented as Pearson's (r) correlational coefficient. The findings reveal that the Adherer is the most prevalent (n = 87, 58%) of the child response styles, high levels of psychological well-being and that there is no relationship between child response style to parenting and psychological well-being. The hypothesis result indicated that there is no significant difference between child response styles to parenting and psychological well-being. The study concluded that the response style to parenting does not predict psychological well-being.