Chapter suggest that parenting styles and their

Chapter 4DiscussionAccording to our hypothesis the parenting styleaffects the emotional intelligence of children in their adult life. Emotionalintelligence is an interesting and growing concept which seems to be relevantto patient centered approach in the field of medicine. Thisstudy explored the level of emotional intelligence of undergraduate medicalstudents and linked it to parenting style.

Duringstudy we focused on examining the relationship between perception of parentingstyle and perceived emotional intelligence & our findings providedimportant information about the role of parenting style in the development ofemotional intelligence in children. Thefindings of the present study suggest that parenting styles and theirdimensions are positively correlated with the development of emotionalintelligence and are in accord with some past studies (Barber et al, 2005; Ryanet al, 2006; Saarni, 1997; Sillick & Schutte, 2006; Tsay et al, 2006). Theresults revealed that “ perceived autonomy support” of father and then mother’sautonomy support is the most influential factor in the growth of emotionalintelligence in children. These results are somehow opposing to previousfindings, as those of Shun-Chi, 2006 who found that “ perceived warmth” canpredict the changes of “ emotional intelligence”. Delale et al, 2007 of theopinion that supervision and control better predict emotional intelligence andregulation of emotions. Thedifference in results highlights the cultural variations and demand of time. Thestudy in different cultural perspective ensures that different groups of peoplepossess diverse beliefs and practice that may be normal in their own culturebut may not be acceptable in another culture (Bornstein & Lansford, 2010; Harkness et al., 2007).

It is apparent that to have an appropriate understandingabout the process of parenting it is necessary to study it in respective culture(Bornstein, 1995). Furthermore, fathers and mothers have different perception and practice, different parentingstyle for boys and girls, but the most of researches on parenting still focuson mothers. In the present study, mother’s autonomy support is the second mostinfluential predictor of emotional intelligence, whereas mother’s involvementappeared as the third powerful factor in the development of emotional intelligence. According to Desi and Ryan (1985) as per self-determination theory, which is amotivational model, the achievement of satisfaction by parents for their basicneeds increase the motivation and make them to follow parental values. Alsopromote their self-awareness and regulation of emotions and which ultimately leadsto development of competencies and better social interactions.

Parental warmthis the parents’ ability to generate and internalize values in their offspring. This develops a capacity of appraisal, to regulate and express the emotions. Ifparents’ way of regulating the behaviour is not suitable then ultimately childwill become incompatible.

(Asghari & Basharat, 2011).  Theconcept of autonomy has emerged as to be an individual, different and self-competent(e. g.

, Emde & Buchsbaum, 1990; Matas, Arned & Sroufe, 1978), and the wayit is inculcated termed as autonomy support. It is in fact parents’ behaviourin context of their responsiveness, valuating child’s opinions, and feelings. Inother words it is the  adeptness of aperson for another’s perspective and to encourage self-initiated expression andaction (Ryan & Solky, 1996). In an ideal situation, the autonomy support wouldlead to high independence in the behavior, cognition and emotions (Collins, Gleason & Sesma, 1997; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986).

As opposed to it isdependence on parents for decisions making. Inthe recent researches it found that autonomy support is in 2 forms, one interms of promotion of independence (PI) and second as promotion of volitionalfunctioning (PVF).             Anumber of authors have described parental autonomy support as promotion ofadolescents’ independent expression, their thinking and decision making by the parents (Gray & Steinberg, 1999; Silk et al., 2003; Steinberg , 2002).

According to the view of promotion ofindependence (PI), parents can react either by granting them freedom andindependence or may decline and maintain dependence of adolescents (Steinberg& Silk, 2002).  In later situation itleads to development of relations in which the adolescents remain dependent onparents. Incontrast to the view of promotion of independence (PI), self-determinationtheory (SDT) suggests autonomy support is the development of more volitionalfunctioning, and the adolescents’ behaviour built up on internal values andinterests (Ryan, Deci & Grolnick, 1995). This approach enables the parents toempathize with their children’s perspective, and provide choices if possible.

There is minimum use of control and assertive attitude rather parents’ helptheir children to find and act upon their true internal values and interests(Grolnick, 2003; Ryan et al., 1995). Thus autonomy support welcomes the other’sviews, feelings and favour self-initiated expressions and actions (Ryan , 1996).  However, PI and PVF bothare strong predictors of children’s well-being, adjustment (e. g., self-esteem)and academic excellence (e. g., Grolnick, 2003; Grolnick, Ryan & Deci, 1991).

xxxxxx             Althoughperceived warmth plays the key role in the growth of emotional intelligence, but experiencing the feeling of autonomy is crucial for the necessary energyfor appraisal, utilization and regulation of emotions. So autonomy support byboth parents is as much important as parent’s warmth because autonomy supportin adolescence cultivate the strength and motivation in children to achieve thenecessary skills for self-regulations and achieving emotional intelligence. Asadolescence begins, these warm relationships complemented by recognition ofemotions, thoughts and choices and giving the child permission of autonomy, inorder to lead to reinforcing the ability of self-confidence, self -initiation, self – regulation and to experiencing the feeling of emotional integrity.             Autonomysupport is a critical component of parenting to manage children’s behavior andcrucial strategy to boost the effectiveness of their abilities. Controlis the opposite to autonomy support that ruins the psychological needs ofchildren and force them to think, feel and behave in a specific way, whereasautonomy support provides and helps to develop children’s inner motivationalresources. Parentswho support autonomy, they accept children’s perspective and appreciate theirthoughts, feelings and actions.

They allow their children for autonomousself-regulation. Autonomy support nurture innermotivational resources by providing explanatory rationales. Parents givingautonomy support show patience to allow time for self-paced learning and theyacknowledge and accept the expressions of negative affect.              Furthermore, adolescents high in self-knowledge aremore likely make wiser career choices (Gelso & Fretz, 2001) and of course, social competence will enhance the probability of career success in any fieldthat involves relating to other people. Thepresent study also analyzed demographic details of participants to see therelationship between emotional intelligence and demographic characteristics. The variables of sex, age, household income, fathers and mothers’ level ofeducation, number of siblings, marital status and location of residence wereused as independent variables in a regression model with EI as the dependentvariable.

Correlationtests showed no significant relationship between emotional intelligence andage, marital status, number of siblings and residential area. The mean scoreof males’ emotional intelligence is 128. 83+ 13. 43 ranged from 82. 00 to151.

00 and females’ mean score is 130. 50+16. 03 ranged from 87. 00 to162.

00, which is slightly higher than males. As other studies confirmed thatfemales have better level of emotional intelligence than males (Brackett , 2003; Mayer et al., 2002;  Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden & Dornheim, 1998; Thingujam , 2000).

Ingeneral, findings suggest that females tend to favor social support, emotionfocused and avoidant coping strategies relative to males (e. g., Ptacek, Smith& Zanas, 1992; Stein & Nyamathi, 1999). Females have good Interpersonalsocial skills, which are closely linked to emotional intelligence (Argyle, 1990). Further, Schutte et al.

,(1998) proposed and found gender differences intheir measure of trait EI with females scoring higher than males.  Althoughresearches suggested that females have high effortful control and lowerdispositional anger and frustration than do boys (Kochanska et al., 2000; Esinberg, zhou, et al.

, 2003). Parents also tend to be warmer with their girlsas compare to boys (Eisenberg, Losoya, et al., 2001).

Girlshave higher peer group acceptance, more mutual friendships and strongerprosocial orientation than boys (Coie, Dodge & Coppotelli 1982; Ladd, Kochenderfer & Coleman, 1996). Boys appear more competitive with friends(Berndt, 1981) and have more difficulty resolving conflicts with friends(Parker & Asher, 1993). Parents’education appeared as a strong predictor in the development of emotionalintelligence. As parents’ education increase, the level of emotionalintelligence is also improves especially mother’s education plays importantrole in this domain. The EI scores rose steadily with increasing educationlevels of mothers. Autonomysupport is the crucial feature and dimension of authoritative parenting style. The present study indicated the authoritative style (especially autonomysupport factor) is the powerful predictor of emotional intelligence.

Other twoparenting styles: authoritarian parenting style (high control and lessresponsiveness) and permissive parenting style (less control and highresponsiveness) have a negative association with EI. The most harmful andnon-recommended style is neglectful style that lack dimensions, control andwarmth. The results show negative association between household income andemotional intelligence. As household income increases above 50, 000 theemotional intelligence level decreases.

Those students have higher score inemotional intelligence who belong to middle class families. This difference maybe due to cultural values that are more appreciable and considerable in suchfamilies in our country. Thereare many potential, social and societal benefits of incorporating a focus onemotional intelligence, which has been shown to be moldable (Cohen, 1999; Goleman, 1995; Topping, Holmes & Bremmer, 2000) into higher education. Asit has been recommended that the learning of emotional intelligence in primaryand secondary school syllabus plays important role to improve emotionalintelligence and reduce emotional and behavioral problems which can interferewith the education processes (Caplan et al., 1992; Cohen, 1991). Thereis need to develop structures that strengthen the emotional bonds betweenteachers and learners.

Many researches also advocate the teaching of positivestrategies in order to promote optimism and positive thinking, and to produceresilient and confident students. Teachers should support this approach bycreating classroom environment that promote optimism and by using positive andnon-judgmental language. Sofindings of the study recommend that parents should have and show warmth duringearly relations with their children and gradually when child develops and getsmaturity, he needs autonomy in order to gain self-confidence, self-initiation, self-regulation and to experiencing the emotional integrity. At theoreticallevel, this finding can provide a better understanding of the role of theparent’s parenting and the child’s perception of it. At practical level, findings show the necessity to educate parents, students and also therapists toincrease cognitive skills. 4. 1ConclusionsThe present researchsupports the notion that authoritative parenting cultivates high emotionallevel in children that facilitate them throughout their academic and sociallife. The basic characteristic of authoritarian parents is autonomy supportthat has proved the most crucial quality of parenting through this study.

Students gained high scores in emotional intelligence test who have autonomysupport from their parents, because it encourages them to become fully aware ofand act upon their interests and personal values. This study alsoindicates the way an adolescent perceive his parent’s parenting predictschanges in the amount of his emotional intelligence. This study has shownvarious statistically significant relationships, differences and predictivevariables that may help guide future EI research in the area of adolescence andbeyond. The results of thisstudy also call for further exploration of the variables identified aspredictors of emotional intelligence, such as female gender, household incomeand parents’ education. Emotional intelligence is linked to success in life andeveryday social interactions; therefore any environmental factor that has aneffect upon EI development is important to take into consideration forpersonality and individual development. 4. 2LimitationsThe first limitation ofthis study was related to the population of the research that was students of amedical college.

Second, this study was correlational, in which self-reportmeasures were used because they provide an efficient, cost-effective method ofcollecting data. Although self-report measures are identified as the reliableresources but not ideal, because participants have to answer about long-agoinformation that may be inaccurate due to recall difficulties. The prospective andlongitudinal studies provide the most thorough information but such studies aretime-consuming and expensive. However for generalizing the findings, theseshould be taken into consideration. In addition, possible problems related tothe validity of POPS should not be ignored. To get the most accurate andreliable data, future studies may wish to apply multiple measures of eachvariable.

There is scope to run similar projects using widespread samples fromdifferent colleges and universities of the country and from general public. 4. 3 SuggestionsThe present study isbased upon a segment of population. While this study suggests the link betweenemotional intelligence and parenting may be worth pursuing, much work remainsto be done to fully explore the relationship between parenting and emotionalintelligence in students in various health professions.  It is suggested a prospective study may beconducted involving wider a population may be from various colleges anduniversities or general public.