Parenting Practices and Adolescents’ Mental Health: The Mediating Role of Perceived Maternal and Paternal Acceptance-Rejection and Adolescents’ Self-Efficacy

Shin Ling Wu (), Pei Jun Woo, Chin Choo Yap and Glen Johan Ri Young Lim
Additional contact information
Shin Ling Wu: Department of Psychology, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Petaling Jaya 47500, Malaysia
Pei Jun Woo: Department of Psychology, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Petaling Jaya 47500, Malaysia
Chin Choo Yap: Department of Psychology, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Petaling Jaya 47500, Malaysia
Glen Johan Ri Young Lim: Department of Psychology, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Petaling Jaya 47500, Malaysia

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: Parenting practices are essential in promoting children’s mental health, especially in effective and ineffective parenting. The use of ineffective parenting practices is no longer encouraged in the west; however, it remains a common practice among Asian households. Ineffective parenting consists of inconsistent discipline, corporal punishment, and poor monitoring which may result in mental health consequences. Thus, this study assessed the mediating effects of adolescents’ self-efficacy and parental acceptance-rejection on the relationship between ineffective parenting practices and adolescents’ mental health. The current study involved a total of 761 school-going Malaysian adolescents aged 13–18 (38.5% males; M age = 15.65; SD age = 1.43). This study utilized a cross-sectional design where it measured adolescents’ mental health, ineffective parenting practices, parental acceptance-rejection, and adolescents’ self-efficacy. Both paternal and maternal parenting practices and acceptance-rejection were measured independently. Adolescents’ self-efficacy and perceived paternal and maternal acceptance-rejection were found to be significant mediators for ineffective parenting practices and adolescents’ mental health. Our findings suggest that ineffective parenting practices will result in perceived parental rejection and lower self-efficacy which in turn resulted in poorer mental health among adolescents. It means parents should be mindful of their parenting approaches as they have a direct and indirect impact on the mental health of their offspring.

Keywords: parental practices; parental acceptance-rejection; self-efficacy; adolescents; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/2/1052/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/2/1052/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:2:p:1052-:d:1027588

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().