Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: September | Volume: 8 | Issue: 9 | Pages: 199-206
Impact of Parenting Styles on Anxiety Sensitivity and Test Anxiety among Eighth Grade School Students
Dr Partha Malakar
Assistant Professor, South Calcutta Girls’ College, University of Calcutta
ABSTRACT
The central aim of the study is to examine the role of parenting style in anxiety sensitivity and test anxiety among the 8th grade adolescents’ school students. In this study, the researcher contacted with 8th grade school students with the age 13 to 14 years of Bengali families in Kolkata with monthly family income of Rs. 10,000-50,000/- per month. The total number of participants were initially about 300 students, but finally 120 (60 males and 60 females) could be retained. Candidates, whose highest obtained score in Parental Authority Questionnaire was same in at least two prototypes (permissiveness, authoritarianism and authoritativeness) in respect of either father or mother or both, were not considered for the present study. Besides, candidates whose selected prototype (the dominant one; selected on the basis of highest obtained score in a particular prototype among different prototypes such as permissiveness, authoritarianism and authoritativeness) differed in scales for father and mother were also not considered. An assurance was made that the selected participants did not suffer from chronic physical and mental disturbances. Results showed that the mean values for both anxiety sensitivity and test anxiety were maximum in case of authoritarian parenting style and the difference between male and female was not significant both for perception of stress and test anxiety. Results further showed that the 8th grade students differed significantly in anxiety sensitivity and test anxiety with the variation in parenting styles. Overall, this study indicated that the parenting style which regards autonomy and consider a rational approach is most preferred one.
Key words: Parenting style, anxiety sensitivity, Test anxiety.