Predicting Emotional Maturity of Female Students Based on Parenting Styles and Perceived Social Support

This study has been conducted as an effort to predict emotional maturity of female students based on authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful parenting styles as well as perceived social support. This research had a descriptive, correlational design. The statistical population of the study was comprised of all female senior high school students in Karaj in 2016-17 school year from among whom 196 students were selected via multi-stage cluster sampling method. The research instruments included Emotional Maturity Scale (Singh & Bhargava, 1991), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988), and Parenting Styles Questionnaire (Naghashian, 1979). The obtained data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and simultaneous multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that authoritative parenting style and dimensions of perceived social support, i.e., family, friends, and important individuals, could positively predict students’ emotional maturity, whereas authoritarian parenting style could negatively predict emotional maturity (P<0.01). The dimension of important individuals played a more powerful role in predicting students’ emotional maturity. Permissive and neglectful parenting styles did not significantly predict emotional maturity. It can be concluded that emotional maturity develops through authoritative parenting style and dimensions of perceived social support facilitate this process. Hence, it is desirable that parents be encouraged to use authoritative parenting style and pay attention to the role “important individuals” plays in emotional maturity of female adolescents.