The relationship between parenting styles and antisocial behaviour

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between parenting styles, parental punitiveness and family structure, and antisocial behaviour, as well as the influences of parental educational levels on respondents’ antisocial behaviour. Participants consisted of 227 male and 140 female students from the University of Limpopo, whose ages ranged from 17 to 24 years.

Families were classified into one of four parenting styles (namely, authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent and neglectful) on the basis of respondents’ ratings of their parents on two parental dimensions: warmth/acceptance and supervision/control. The respondents were then compared with antisocial behaviour. The results indicated that the difference between the four groups of parenting styles did not reach statistical significance on antisocial behaviour. As well as the relationship between family structures and antisocial behaviour did not reach statistical significance. However, there were significant and positive relationships between parental punitiveness and antisocial behaviour. There were significant relationships between parental educational levels and antisocial behaviour. Parental warmth and supervision were also significantly and negatively related to the respondents’ antisocial behaviour. Finally, the implications and limitations of the study are described.