The Influence of Parents in Adolescents' Misbehavior

Abstract

Positive relationships within the family, parental support, a consistent and constructive parental discipline style and adult supervision tend to be related negatively to adolescents deviant behaviors and their associations with deviant peers. Poor family relationships were found to be associated with higher levels of delinquent behaviors, possibly due to the fact that parents in those families provided poor role models and engaged in ineffective discipline strategies. Problem statement: A considerable number of secondary school students were involved in delinquent behavior and they are not doing well in school. School authorities with the supervision of education departments and the Ministry of Education have done their best to guide and monitor students’ discipline. Yet the problems related to misbehavior still occur in schools. A study was conducted on 113 at risk students to examine whether parental factors could contribute to their misbehavior problems. Approach: Interviews were conducted using open ended questions. Data were analyzed qualitatively using in vivo software to extract categories of parental influence. Results and Conclusion: Findings showed that the adolescents do have problems with their families including lack of parental attention, communication problems and poor relationship between parents. The implications of the findings were discussed.