The influence of parenting style on aggressive behavior and self-esteem in high school students

Abstract

The present research focuses on the study of the relationship between parenting styles, self-esteem and aggressive behaviors in high school students. To carry out the study, a number of 60 students between the ages of 14 and 19 from rural areas were selected, and to test the proposed hypotheses, three tools validated on the Romanian population were used: Aggression Test (A.H. Buss & M. Perry), Self-Esteem Scale and Authority Questionnaire (PAQ). The results illustrate positive, statistically signifi cant correlations between the authoritarian parenting style and the aggressive behaviors of adolescents manifested through verbal aggression, hostility and anger. Adolescents’self-esteem correlates negatively with their verbal aggression and positively with their anger and hostility. The results show a statistically signifi cant negative correlation between adolescent self-esteem and permissive parenting style.