Parental Acceptance and Power/Prestige as Predictors of Psychological Adjustment Among Pakistani Adolescents

Abstract

This study dealt with the impact of paternal versus maternal acceptance on the psychological adjustment of adolescents in relation to parental power and prestige within the family in the Lahore region of Pakistan. The study drew from a sample of 91 adolescents (46% males) ages 13 through 17 years (M = 14.86). Measures used were the child version of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (mother and father forms), the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire, and the youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire. Results showed that perceived maternal and paternal acceptance were significantly correlated with adolescents’ psychological adjustment. However, neither power nor prestige was correlated with either maternal or paternal acceptance. Results of hierarchical regression analyses confirmed that adolescents’ perceptions of psychological adjustment were uniquely predicted by both maternal and paternal acceptance irrespective of either parent’s power or prestige within family.

Keywords

interpersonal power prestige maternal acceptance adolescents Pakistan

Introduction from the Editors

In order to avoid unnecessary redundancy across the data-oriented articles in this Special Issue, common issues relevant to all articles are discussed in Rohner’s Introduction (Rohner, 2014). These issues include an introduction to the International Father Acceptance-Rejection Project, of which this article is a part. Common issues also include description of measures used by authors, as well as data analytic procedures employed by all authors. Only information specific to this study is included here.

Method

Participants

The sample comprised ninety-one, 13- through 17-year-old adolescents (46% males) with a mean age of 14.86 years (SD = 1.15). The youth were recruited from Grades 9 through 11 from different schools and colleges in Lahore, Pakistan. Seventy-two percent of the fathers of sample youth were employed in low-status jobs or in low-status business or professional occupations. Most mothers (89%) were housewives. Only 11% of them were gainfully employed. Fathers’ educational attainment ranged from grade school (41%) to high school (43%) through professional college degrees (16%). Eleven percent of the mothers were illiterate, 63% had a grade school or high school education, 17% had a college education, and 9% had professional educational qualifications.

Measures

The youth responded to Urdu versions of all the following self-report measures except for the Gender Inequality Scale, which was administered to adults in English. The self-report measures included the following:

Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire (3PQ; Rohner, 2011)

The 3PQ was translated into Urdu using standard forward and backward translation procedures. Coefficient alphas for the 3PQ youth version in this study was .72 for the total score, .62 for the power scale, and .72 for the prestige scale. Principal components factor analysis with Varimax rotation was carried out to determine the construct validity of the 3PQ, which revealed a two-factor solution—an Interpersonal Power factor and a Prestige factor—with 40.56% of the total variance explained by these two factors.

Child Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire: Father and Mother, Short Forms (Child PARQ; Rohner, 2005)

Coefficient alphas for the Urdu Child PARQ (translated by Malik, 2011) used in this study and in Malik and Rohner (2012) were .90 for the father version and .86 for the mother version.

Child Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Child PAQ; Rohner & Khaleque, 2005)

Cronbach’s alpha in this study for the Urdu version of the total Child PAQ (Naz & Kausar, 2011) was .71.

Gender Inequality Scale (GIS; Rohner, 2012)

Scores on the GIS were computed from a sample of 55 adults (48% men) holding either an MPhil or a PhD degree. Participants ranged in age from 21 through 30 years (M = 24.48, SD = 3.03). Cronbach’s alpha for the GIS was .84. The mean GIS Score was 19.36 (SD = 1.31), indicating that Pakistan is perceived by respondents to be characterized by great gender inequality.

Procedure

Data were collected with the help of two trained research assistants after receiving formal permission from public schools and colleges in Lahore. Informed consent for data collection was taken from authorities as well as from the adolescents. The researchers sought the cooperation of classroom teachers in schools and colleges for data collection. Scales were administered in a booklet form to small groups of 10 to 15 individuals.

Results

Table 1 shows that there were no gender differences on any variable in the study. The table also shows that both males and females tended to perceive their mothers and fathers to be accepting, and it shows that the overall psychological adjustment of both males and females tended to be reasonably good. Finally, both males and females tended to see their parents as being approximately equal in interpersonal power and prestige.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics and Gender Differences in Measures of Perceived Maternal and Paternal Acceptance, Adolescents’ Psychological Adjustment, and Power and Prestige.

Measures	M	SD	N	t
Maternal acceptance
Males	38.64	8.93	42	0.35
Females	37.84	12.29	49	0.35
Total	38.21	10.82	91
Paternal acceptance
Males	40.45	10.73	42	0.38
Females	41.51	15.28	49	0.38
Total	41.02	13.38	91
Psychological adjustment
Males	89.71	11.17	42	0.51
Females	91.14	15.01	49	0.51
Total	90.48	13.32	91
Power
Males	15.14	4.51	42	1.11
Females	14.18	3.72	49	1.11
Total	14.63	4.11	91
Prestige
Males	14.83	3.39	42	0.86
Females	14.18	3.74	49	0.86
Total	14.48	3.60	91

Table 2 shows that perceived maternal and paternal acceptance were significantly correlated with youth’s (both males’ and females’) psychological adjustment, but neither parental power nor prestige was significantly associated with youth’s adjustment. To determine whether parental (maternal or paternal) acceptance, parental power, or parental prestige interacted significantly to affect students’ psychological adjustment, we conducted the hierarchical multiple regression analysis shown in Table 3. Variables were entered into the regression model in three steps. Step 1 included students’ gender, age, and level of education as control variables. Step 2 included perceived maternal and paternal acceptance as well as parental power and prestige. Finally, Step 3 included the interaction terms.

Table 2.

Correlations Between Maternal and Paternal Acceptance–Rejection, Interpersonal Power and Prestige, and Adolescents’ Psychological Adjustment (N = 91).

	1	2	3	4
1. Maternal acceptance	—
2. Paternal acceptance	.39***	—
3. Power	.05	−.06	—
4. Prestige	.01	−.08	.60***	—
5. Psychological adjustment	.43***	.32**	.05	.06

p = .05. **p = .01. ***p = .001.

Table 3.

Hierarchical Regression Analyses Predicting Adolescents’ Psychological Adjustment (N = 91).

Predictors		β	R ²	Δ R²
Step1			.16	.02
Constant	−.02
Gender		.02
Age		.13
Education		−.18
Step 2			.20	.21**
Constant	−.66
Paternal acceptance		.21*
Maternal acceptance		.34***
Power		.01
Prestige		.06
Step 3			.24	.03
Constant	−.30
Paternaccept × Power		−.13
Paternaccept × Prestige		−.06
Maternaccept × Power		.20
Maternaccept × Prestige		−.02

Note. Maternaccept = maternal acceptance–rejection; Paternaccept = paternal acceptance–rejection.

p = .05. **p = .01. ***p = .001.

None of the control variables in Step 1 was significantly associated with students’ psychological adjustment. However, both perceived maternal acceptance and paternal acceptance made unique (independent) contributions to the adolescents’ adjustment in Step 2. But neither parental power nor prestige was associated with student adjustment. Finally, data in Step 3 show that there was no significant interaction between perceived parental acceptance and power or prestige. Only main effects but no interactions were found in these models, which explain approximately 21% of the variance in adolescents’ psychological adjustment.

Discussion

Results of this research show that adolescents (both males and females) in the Lahore region of Pakistan perceive their mothers and fathers to be accepting as well as to self-report fairly positive psychological adjustment. In addition, the adolescents tend to see their parents as being approximately equal in interpersonal power and prestige. However, even though perceived parental acceptance (both maternal and paternal) is significantly correlated with the psychological adjustment of both males and females, neither parental power nor prestige is associated with the youth’s adjustment.

These correlational results are supported by results of hierarchical multiple regression, where both maternal and paternal acceptance are shown to be unique (independent) and significant predictors of adolescent adjustment. But neither parental power nor prestige is a significant predictor of adjustment, and neither interacts with perceived acceptance to affect adolescents’ psychological adjustment.

These results—especially as they pertain to the correlational analyses—are consistent with results reported in prior studies in Pakistan. For example, Hussain and Munaf (2012) found that young adults who remembered their fathers as having been accepting when the adults were children reported overall positive psychological adjustment. More to the point as far as the present study is concerned, Najam, Hussain, Kanwal, Malik, and Kausar (2013) found in hierarchical multiple regression analyses that both perceived paternal and maternal acceptance independently predicted the psychological adjustment of young Pakistani adults, but neither perceived parental power nor prestige was associated with their adjustment. Thus, it appears that data in Pakistan fail to support the central hypothesis of this research, which states that the relationship between perceived parental acceptance and offspring’s psychological adjustment is moderated by offspring’s perceptions of parental power and/or parental prestige.

In conclusion, we can say that this study contributes for the first time an important understanding of the role of perceived maternal and paternal acceptance in shaping Pakistani adolescents’ psychological adjustment irrespective of the level of adolescents’ perceptions of parental power or prestige. However, the central hypothesis of the study should be tested in a larger and more diversified sample than the one used in this study to be more confident that neither parental power nor prestige moderates the relationship between perceived parental acceptance and youth’s adjustment in this population.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

Farah Malik is in charge of the Clinical Psychology Unit in the Department of Psychology, Government College (GC) University, Lahore, Pakistan. There, she is also an associate professor of psychology. Her research interests focus on both parental and teachers’ acceptance and rejection, and their impact on the psychological adjustment of children. She is also interested in spousal acceptance and its effect on children’s perception of parental acceptance–rejection in Pakistan and worldwide. She has also published a number of articles in developmental psychopathology, child abuse, and family violence.

Muhammad Mussaffa Butt, MPhil, is a lecturer at GC University, Lahore, Pakistan. His research interests focus on interpersonal acceptance and rejection, drug addiction, emotion regulation, and psychopathology.

Rukhsana Kausar, PhD, is a professor and director of the Institute of Applied Psychology, University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. She is also a director of the Centre for Clinical Psychology, University of Punjab. Her research interests focus on neuropsychology, stress and coping, health psychology, rehabilitation health-related behaviors and associated disorders, implications of caregiving, translation and adaptation of psychological assessment measures, psychological implication of disasters/trauma, geriatrics, parental acceptance rejection, and peace psychology.

Najma Najam, PhD, is a professor and vice chancellor of Karakarum International University, Gilgit Baltistan. She has been ex-vice chancellor Fatima Women University, Rawalpindi. She has many internaltional and national awards on her credit like Fullbright Fellowship, USA and Pride of Performance by Govt. of Pakistan. She is an eminent researcher and has published number of researches in the area of neuro psychology, experimental psychology, interpersonal relationships, parental acceptance rejection, and peace psychology etc.

Faiza Rasool, MS in applied psychology, is a research scholar at the Institute of Applied Psychology, University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Her research interests focus on clinical psychology, social psychology, and psychological testing and assessment.

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