The impact of parenting styles and gender on prosocial tendencies among senior secondary students in Ethiopia

Abstract

Despite their educational tasks, students need to develop a sense of moral and social responsibility and demonstrate these obligations in society by engaging in positive behaviors. As a form of positive behavior, prosocial behavior is a healthy way to connect adolescents to their community; however, few previous studies in the Ethiopian context have explored its links to parenting styles and gender compared to antisocial behavior. This research intended to identify the level of prosocial tendencies, the contribution of parenting styles, and students‘ gender in influencing their prosociality. Three hundred and fifty-three senior secondary school students have completed the Prosocial Tendencies Measure and the Parenting Style Scale. In order to analyze the obtained data, researchers used means, standard deviations, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson‘s moment-product correlation coefficient, and t-tests, including independent and one-sample. The results revealed that the status/level of prosocial tendencies was above average, indicating non significant variation by gender. A significant positive relationship resulted between prosocial tendencies and parenting styles. The authoritative and permissive parenting styles showed a statistically significant difference in prosocial behavior among the participants. Gender didn‘t affect prosocial tendencies, while authoritative and permissive parenting styles positively contributed to students‘ prosocial functioning. The results suggest that these two parenting styles are crucial in promoting adolescents‘ prosocial behavior, which requires schools to integrate programs that promote prosocial values and educate parents on effective parenting styles.