Original scientific paper
Parental Child-Rearing Styles, Leisure-Time Activities and Youth Risk Behaviour
Zora RABOTEG-ŠARIĆ
; Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Slavko SAKOMAN
; Klinička bolnica "Sestre milosrdnice", Zagreb
Andreja BRAJŠA-ŽGANEC
; Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Abstract
The aim of the present research was to examine whether
parental child-rearing practices are related to different styles
of children's leisure-time activities and to find out which
aspects of parental behaviour and after school activities are
related to children's school achievement and substance use.
The research was carried out on a representative sample of
2 823 Croatian high school students. The participants
completed scales that measured parental support,
monitoring and joint decision-making. Adolescent's school
achievement, leisure-time activities and self-reported alcohol
and drug use were also measured. Multiple regression
analyses were conducted with school achievement, alcohol
and drug use as criterion variables and sociodemographic
variables as covariates followed by parenting practices and
leisure-time activities as groups of predictor variables.
Parental monitoring was the only variable among various
parenting practices that significantly predicted positive and
negative aspects of adolescent behaviour. Lower monitoring was related to lower school achievement and more frequent
substance use. Besides lower parental monitoring, inadequate
support from the same sex parent was a significant
predictor of drug use among adolescents. An unorganised
pattern of after school activities named ''going out and
having fun'' was the most significant predictor of a lower
school achievement and more frequent substance use, while
adolescents' involvement in creative and extracurricular
activities and higher interest in reading and cultural activities
was related to a higher school achievement. Additional
analyses revealed that parents influence adolescents'
psychosocial adjustment indirectly, by directing their children
into various after school activities. The results are discussed
in accordance with theoretical models that point out to the
joint influence of parents and peers in adolescent
psychosocial development.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
19687
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2002.
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