Perceived parental warmth and parental control among adolescents with suicidal ideation

Abstract

Adolescence is a developmental period during which rapid transitions occur in biological, cognitive, social and emotional fields of life. Parents play a major part in entertaining their children on dealing with the life challenges. Nevertheless the degree to which the styles of parenting establish suicidal behaviors among adolescents remains unclear The major objectives of the present study were to investigate and (1) To screen out adolescents with suicidal ideation,(2)To examine the level of perceived maternal responsiveness/warmth between suicidal ideation and control group of adolescents, (3)To observe the difference in perceived maternal control between suicidal ideation and control group of adolescents,(4)To evaluate perceived paternal responsiveness/warmth and perceived paternal control between the two groups. The sample of the study is comprised of one hundred and fifty students between the age group of 17-19 years from Varanasi city, India. One hundred and fifty students studying in class 12th of urban locale were selected through the method of purposive sampling. Two scales viz. Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire – Revised (SBQ – R) and Scale of Parenting Style (SPS) were administered. The cut off scores were decided statistically i.e. M+1SD for screening the adolescents with suicidal ideation. Likewise subjects who scored between M-1SD to M+1SD were designated as controls. Final screening stands with 14 subjects each in both the groups. Mean, standard deviation, and t-tests were applied to analyze the data. The results obtained revealed significant difference between the two groups in the level of, maternal responsiveness, maternal control, paternal responsiveness and control, thereby suggesting the need of intervention for adolescents having suicidal ideation.