Abstract

• The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of parenting styles on adolescent autonomy among secondary school students. Quantitative approach was used in this study. A total of 640 grade 10 students (320 males and 320 females) from Yangon region and Tanintharyi region participated in this study. The instruments used in this research were Questionnaires for Respondents Measuring Parenting Styles and Questionnaire Measuring Adolescent Autonomy. Both questionnaires were developed by Esther (2014). In the study of parenting styles, the majority of the students were treated by authoritative parenting style and none of the student was treated by uninvolved parenting style. According to the Chi-square results, there was no association between parenting styles by gender and by family size but there was significant association between parenting styles by region (p<0.05). In adolescents’ autonomy, t-test result indicated that there was significant difference by gender in autonomy with respect to emotional autonomy and value autonomy at 0.001 level. And there were also significant differences in students’ autonomy by region and in value autonomy of students by specialized combination. In this study, students’ autonomy was categorized into three levels: low, moderate and high. Most of the students’ autonomy was in moderate level. As an ANOVA result, students treated by authoritative parenting style were higher in autonomy than those of students from authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. Pearson correlation revealed that authoritative and permissive parenting styles were significantly positive correlated with autonomy. But authoritarian parenting style was significantly negative correlated with autonomy. According to regression analysis, the authoritative parenting style was found to be the strongest predictor for autonomy. The authoritative parenting style offers adolescents with the opportunity to develop self-reliant individuals with a healthy sense of autonomy within parental limits. Therefore, parenting styles influence adolescents’ autonomy either positively or negatively.