PARENTAL VERBAL ABUSE AND SOCIAL SUPPORT AS CORRELATES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING

Authors

  • Barnabas E. NWANKWO
  • Solomon A. AGU

Keywords:

psychological health, aggression, parenting styles, wellbeing, family type.

Abstract

  The society expects parents to have good and desired foundations for the child, which will enable the child learn and acquire proper and safe health of mind and actions. This study examined parental verbal abuse and social support as correlates of psychological well-being. One hundred and eighty seven (187) participants took part in the study comprising Ninety (90) male and ninety-seven (97) female drawn making use of convenience sampling method from the two main hostels of Caritas University Amorji-Nike, Emene, Enugu. Their age ranged between 18-27 years with a mean age of 23years and a standard deviation of 3.60. Three set of instruments were used in the study which are: The Ryff Scale of Psychological Well-Being (Ryff, 1989), Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) (Cohen S., et al, 1985), and Parental Verbal Abuse scale developed by the researchers. Correlational research design was used while Pearson Product Moment Correlational Coefficient statistics result revealed that the dimensions of social support have significant positive relationships with psychological well-being at (Appraisal support, r = .33, P < .01, r2 = .11; Belonging support r = .48, P < .01, r2 = .23; and Tangible support r = .47, P < .01, r2 = .22) respectively. This indicates that social support and psychological wellbeing increases and decreases at the same direction. Parental verbal abuse was also found to correlate negatively with psychological well-being at r = -.71, p<.01. The results also showed a significant interaction between parental verbal abuse and social support on psychological wellbeing, F (4, 186) =74.13 P<.01. From the result it was clear to note that both social support and parental verbal abuse are implicated in psychological wellbeing. Thus, having access to adequate social support is essential to a healthy life for intellectual and social development while parental verbal abuse must be averted as much as possible because of its negative association with psychological wellbeing. 

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Published

2018-03-31

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Vol. 21 No. 1 (2018): AFRICAN JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY OF SOCIAL ISSUES

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