MAProject Dissertation Final

PROJECT DISSERTATION
MA (PSYCHOLOGY)
IGNOU
Programme Code : MAPC

Course Code : MPCE - 026
Name of the Learner : MEGHNA SINGH
Enrollment No. : 163331188
Name of the Supervisor : Dr. PRIYANKA SRIVASTAVA
Address : H-83, Sector-25, Jalvayu Vihar, Noida, 201301
Phone no. : +91-9810152499
Email : meghnahome@gmail.com
Study Centre Name : Jamia Milia Islamia
Study Centre Code : 0707
Study Centre Address : Coordinator, IGNOU Study Centre,
Department of Psychology,
Jamia Milia Islamia, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi – 110025.
Regional Centre : J-2/1, Block B-1, Mohan Cooperative Industrial Estate,
Mathura Road, New Delhi - 110044
Regional Centre Code : 07
1|Page
A CORRELATIONAL STUDY OF PARENTING ATTITUDE, PARENTAL STRESS, AND
ANXIETY IN MOTHERS OF CHILDREN IN GRADE 6th
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED BY
MEGHNA SINGH (En. No. : 163331188)
To Discipline of Psychology
School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University
Maidan Garhi, NEW DELHI- 110068
For fulfillment of MA Psychology (Counselling Stream)
June 2018
2|Page
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
This is to certify that the Project Report titled “A Correlational Study Of Parenting Attitude,
Parental Stress, And Anxiety In Mothers Of Children In Grade 6th” submitted to Indira Gandhi
National Open University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of Master of
Arts Degree in Psychology (MAPC) is an original work carried out by Mr./ Ms. Meghna
Singh (Enrolment Number: __163331188___).
The matter embodied in this Project is a genuine work done by the student and has not been
submitted whether to this University or to any other University/ Institute for the fulfillment
of the requirement of any course of study.
Signature of the Learner Signature of the Supervisor
Name: Name:
Enrolment Number: Designation:
Place: Name of Instt./ Org.:
Date: Date:
3|Page
CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
This is to certify that Mr./Ms. ________MEGHNA SINGH_______ Enrolment No.
163331188 has successfully completed Project in MPCE 016/ MPCE-026/MPCE-036 titled
under the guidance of DR. PRIYANKA SRIVASTAVA
Signature of the Learner Signature of the Guide/Supervisor
Name: Name:
Enrolment No: Designation:
Study Centre: Place:
Regional Centre: Date:
Place:
Date:
4|Page
Acknowledgement
After an intensive period of trials and tribulations of around seven to eight months, my objective is
achieved: writing this note of thanks is the finishing touch on my dissertation. It has been a period of intense
learning for me, not only in the scientific area of research but also on a personal level. Writing this
dissertation has had a big impact on me. I would like to reflect on the people who have supported and helped
me so much throughout this period.
I want to take this opportunity to express my foremost gratitude and sincere thanks to Dr. Priyanka
Srivastava, my project guide. She showed immense amount of patience to my idiosyncrasies and at the same
time led me to understand the little nuances of research study, methods and statistical analysis in a very
subtle way.
I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to our professor at IGNOU, Mr. Usama Rehman. His insights
were precise and hit the right notes in setting things straight when they were not.
My family and friends have been my greatest support, whose constant love and encouragement pushed me to
carry on my course of my dream. This effort would have been in vain if I did not have the values, morals,
life experiences that I learned from the kind of upbringing I received from my parents, especially my mother
Mrs. Shikha Banerji.
A lot of credit goes to my better half as well, Mr. Vinay Singh for his unconditional love and support, for
being a dear friend and guide, inspiring me all along. Thanks to my in-laws for taking care of my adorable
children Ishaan and Arunima, and providing a positive environment for everyone to flourish back home.
Thank you very much, everyone!
Meghna Singh
Date: 26th May, 2018
5|Page
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................................................................................ 3

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION ............................................................................................................................ 4
Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER 1.................................................................................................................................................................... 10
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 2.................................................................................................................................................................... 18
REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................................................................................. 18
CHAPTER 3.................................................................................................................................................................... 31
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................................. 31
CHAPTER 4.................................................................................................................................................................... 33
PROBLEM STATEMENT................................................................................................................................... 33
OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................................................................................... 33
HYPOTHESIS ....................................................................................................................................................... 33
RESEARCH VARIABLES .................................................................................................................................. 36
RESEARCH DESIGN .......................................................................................................................................... 36
RESEARCH SETTING ........................................................................................................................................ 36
SAMPLING REQUIREMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 36
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION.............................................................................................................. 37
PROCEDURE ....................................................................................................................................................... 37
TOOLS OF DATA COLLECTION:................................................................................................................................ 38
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY........................................................................................................................ 38
DATA ANALYSIS METHOD ............................................................................................................................. 40
CHAPTER 5.................................................................................................................................................................... 42
DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................................................ 56
CHAPTER 6.................................................................................................................................................................... 67
FUTURE RESEARCH ............................................................................................................................................. 70
CHAPTER 7.................................................................................................................................................................... 74
LIMITATIONS and SUGGESTIONS ........................................................................................................................ 74
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................................. 79
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................................... 88
6|Page
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX I : Graphical representation of Parenting Attitude, P. Stress and Anxiety of

Mothers
APPENDIX I I : Evaluation Scheme for Project
APPENDIX I I I : Consent Letter of Supervisor
APPENDIX I V : Proforma For Approval of Project Synopsis
APPENDIX V : Record of Visits carried out by the Learner
APPENDIX V I : Letter To Mothers
APPENDIX V I I : Tools and Scales used for the Project
APPENDIX V I I I : Master Data
APPENDIX I X : Project Synopsis in Original
7|Page
ABSTRACT
This research study used Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient statistics to establish correlations
between Parenting Attitudes (Laxness, Over-reactivity & Verbosity), Parental Stress and Anxiety of
Mothers whose child was promoted to standard 6th. Most of the research existing today on Parenting
is in context of impacts of Parenting Style on outcomes in children and or Parenting stress due to
various child psychological, physical or medical conditions. But none to ascertain that somewhere
parent’s attitudes could be what is leading to parental stress and anxiety or vice versa. A child’s
transition from primary to middle school is a crucial phase that brings in lot of challenges both for
the child to adjust to middle school unique requirements and mother’s to adjust and accommodate
their parenting according to the changing needs of their child. Thus the child feels pressured from
their parents and the parents (mostly mothers) experience parental stress and anxiety. A sample of 70
mothers, whose child was in class 6th, were administered with the Parenting Attitude Scale, Parental
Stress Scale and Beck’s Anxiety Scale. The data revealed that 84% (N=59) of the mother’s were
dealing with poor parenting, 40% (n=28), mothers had high parenting stress, anxiety was overall low.
A weak to moderate positive correlation was suggested by the data across all Parenting Attitude
variables with both parental stress and anxiety. For Total Parenting Attitude with Anxiety (0.3 <
r=.35 < .50), and (-1<r=.23<0.3). The data analysis confirmed that all the three variables under study
i.e. Parenting Attitude, Parenting Stress and Anxiety, do co-exists in mothers and hence there
definitely exists a relationship between them. To this regards, t-test and ANOVA was also conducted
to ensure that significant relationship exists. Both the statistics revealed that Parenting Attitude was
significantly related to Stress and Anxiety i.e. Over-reactivity was impacted by the number of kids a
mother had, also that working mothers were Laxed in their parenting as compared to non-working
mothers. Overall Poor Parenting of Mothers was found to be significant with presence of Anxiety.
The t-test results suggested that an independent/dependent relation existed between the Parenting
Attitudes and Stress and Parenting Attitudes with Anxiety, although the direction of the relationship
could not be affirmed. A comparative experimental study is required to establish the direction of
relationship between the said variables. The same could be bidirectional as well because Parenting
Attitude could lead to stress and anxiety, and a prevailing stress and anxiety condition could lead to a
particular parenting attitude in mothers.
Keywords: Parenting Attitude, Parental Stress, Anxiety, Laxness, Over-reactivity, Verbosity, Transition,
Adolescent Children, Primary school, Middle school
8|Page
9|Page
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
THOUGHT – “There has to be some relationship and corresponding association between attitudes of
mothers towards parenting and the amount of parenting stress & anxiety they experience at different
developmental and or transitional stages of their child! “
Parenting Attitudes play a huge role in the all-round development of their children. At the same time it
has been well established by various studies that continuous parental stress and anxiety leads to adverse
impacts on the emotional, cognitive and behavioural well-being of a child. A relaxed but practical and
flexible, parenting attitude shall fairly enable a healthy child rearing environment and additionally effect
in reduction of unnecessary stress and anxiety in parents especially the mothers.
Parenting attitudes have been found to forecast parenting skills and behaviors (Tremblay RE, et. al, 2015).
Positive attitudes toward parenting are related with more positive parenting practices and a close and
more nurturing parent-child relationship. On the contrary, negative attitudes toward parenting (and
idealistic expectations about how children should behave) can result in parents experiencing high levels
of frustration, stress, anger and hopelessness and also a greater susceptibility for child abuse and neglect
(Bavolek, 1984).
This project proposes to establish that specific parenting attitudes definitely have impact on the levels of
stress and anxiety of mothers and hence they are correlated. To obtain an effective outcome this project
shall target those mothers whose child is studying in sixth standard as this is a critical transition phase for
the child i.e. switch from primary to middle (or senior) school. The children being mostly in the range of
10 to 12 years of age, are either at the onset of adolescence or have already entered the adolescent stage,
hence experience manifold changes academically, cognitively, emotionally, physically and
psychosocially. As a parent, mothers may not be well equipped to manage and handle multiphase changes
10 | P a g e
experienced by their child, at the same time being over protective & apprehensive about future
consequences, they might start over burdening themselves. At this juncture their attitudes and beliefs that
is the way they think, believe and act holds the key to the extent of stress and anxiety they experience.
This is exactly what this study shall try to establish.
DEFINITIONS
1. Attitude: Attitudes are evaluations people make about objects, ideas, events, or other
people. Attitudes can be positive or negative. Explicit attitudes are conscious beliefs that can
guide decisions and behavior. Implicit attitudes are unconscious beliefs that can still influence
decisions and behavior.
As per APA, attitude is the learned, relatively stable tendency to respond to people, concepts,
and events in an evaluative way.
An attitude is "a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies
towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols" (Hogg & Vaughan 2005, p. 150)
2. Stress: A stressor is any event, experience, or environmental stimulus that causes stress in an
individual. These events or experiences are perceived as threats or challenges to the individual
and can be either physical or psychological.
3. Anxiety: The American Psychological Association defines anxiety as an emotion characterized
by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure.
People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may
avoid certain situations out of worry. They may also have physical symptoms such as sweating,
trembling, dizziness or a rapid heartbeat. People suffering from anxiety often have recurring
intrusive thoughts or concerns.
4. Parenting Attitude: Parents in most cases demonstrate the behaviour of their own parents. Their
belief system, attitude towards life, self and external environment are guided mostly by what
they experienced while growing up, under their respective parents. Attitude of parents can also
11 | P a g e
be influenced by information about appropriate parenting acquired through books, websites, or
informal and formal advice received from friends and family. However, another major
determining factor of their behaviour lies in their general attitude along with the specific beliefs,
thoughts, and feelings that are triggered during parenting: These have a powerful impact on their
interactions and behaviour, even if they are distressed by or unaware of that impact. Certain
parenting attitude types that are used often in such studies is Over-protectiveness (e.g.
pampering), Rejection, Communication (usually lack of), Acceptance (in case of disabilities or
special children), Laxness, and Verbosity etc.
Researchers delving in children’s development have investigated parenting attitudes, cognitions,
and the resulting emotions (such as anger, anxiety or happiness), because of their influence on
parenting behaviour and on the subsequent impact of that parenting behaviour on children’s
socio-emotional and cognitive development. Research has shown that children are more likely to
have higher academic achievement levels and improved behavior when families are involved in
their education (Bryan, 2005). Academic failure has been linked with risk behaviors and
negative outcomes such as; substance abuse, delinquency, and emotional and behavioral
problems (Annunziata, Houge, Faw, & Liddle, 2006).
5. Types of Parenting Attitude:
 Laxness (lax): This type of parenting attitude signifies parenting that is not strict enough,
more towards carelessness and negligence if in extreme, it is not firm and rigid but loose or
slack and it is vague as well, for example a parent won’t be able to give clear instructions on
what are the expectations from the child. So parents who give away to their child’s demands
easily or are unable to stick to or implement set rules of conduct and discipline or are unable
to take remedial measures for their child’s misbehaviour. Therefore low laxness score
signifies good or better parenting whereas higher scores confirm that parenting attitude
requires to be modified for better parenting outcomes.
12 | P a g e
 Over-reactivity (over): When parents use anger, harsh behaviour and over-reaction in
various situations to discipline their children then it signifies their over-reactive parenting
attitude. Such parents believe that they are helping their child but it is not the case, the child
shall become more irritable, short tempered and get upset more often on minor issues. Quite
a reflection of the similar parenting attitude. Research (Lipscomb, 2012) in this regard have
established that over-reactive parenting leads to increased negative emotionality in children
and results in behavioural misconduct. This can be seen in kids as young as 2 year olds.
 Verbosity (verb): Verbosity is the characteristic of parents who give too much of verbal
instructions, explanations to their children. For a child it is mostly confusing and he/she loses
track of the real message. High verbosity is observed more in mothers and it is higher after a
child commits any mistake. Hence high verbosity implies a poor parenting attitude.
6. Parenting & Outcomes for children: One should not associate variation in individual
internalized psycho-somatic symptoms with a single dimension of the parent–child relationship.
Warmth and conflict are both consistently linked with depression and anxiety; however, the
influence of control strategies is normally found to be much weaker. In addition, several groups
have suggested that internalizing behaviours in children may be linked with parenting styles that
might not have traditionally been assessed, such as overprotectiveness (Connor, T. 2007). Thus
parenting style and attitude definitely have varying impacts on a child’s attitude, learnings,
thoughts, feelings and behavior.
7. Parenting stress & anxiety: Parenting stress is a normal part of the parenting experience. It
arises when parenting demands exceed the expected and actual resources available to the parents
that permit them to succeed in the parent role.
If the parents are unable to comprehend the impacts of their stress and anxiety on their children,
the same shall reflect and impact the attitude, behavior, cognition, self-image and so many other
aspects of the child’s persona and development.
13 | P a g e
Stress and Anxiety is positive to only a certain extent when it is part of one’s coping mechanism
(before exams) or when facing challenges (interviews, emergency situations etc.) and the
outcomes are fruitful. When any kind of stress or anxiety starts affecting one’s normal day to day
functioning and adversely impacts performance, health and relations then it is time to address it
and if possible seek advice. Some symptoms that one is in stress is prolonged: Insomnia,
Fatigue, Dietary issues, Headaches, Irritated, increased health issues, etc.
It is more like a vicious cycle where parents feel the stress of parenting and at the same time their child’s
outcomes adds on further to their stress that has an effect on their parenting styles and attitudes. Many a
times parents actually have no clue as to how to address or manage their child’s growth and
developmental aspects including their school, education, academic performance etc.
Other factors of Stress: We need to understand based on various studies and surveys that there are
other factors too that increases stress and anxiety in mothers.
According to a recent Nielsen survey in “Women of Tomorrow”, out of 21 nations and 6500 women,
India is a leading nation when it comes to stress in women. About 87% of women were stressed most of
their time and 82% claimed that they did not find time to relax. The reason behind it is that Indian
women have to play different roles in daily life i.e. work and home related activities. Career
opportunities for Indian women are increasing but social norms and family expectations are the root
cause of this stress. One of the major stressors for mothers is being able to allocate to time and attention
to all her near and dear ones. Children require her time for care and nurturing, as well as the additional
demands of extra people in the household, most mothers feel a lack of sufficient time. Whether it’s a
lack of sufficient time to get the laundry done, time to spend just playing with the kids, time to one’s
self, or time for dozens of other important activities, many mothers find that there are simply not enough
hours in the day to do everything that they need or would like to do. Another very common aspect of
stress is the financial burden that a growing family brings with it. The needs of the child increases with
growing years and intellectual growth as well, leading to increase in expenses, along with other family
14 | P a g e
expenses. Managing it well is a constant cause of stress for parents. As mothers invest the necessary
time into their relationships with their children, sometimes other relationships take a back seat,
especially when children are young and need more attention.
The survey also found that women in the age range from 22 years to 55 years are the most stressed and
are struggling hard to strike a balance between their home lives, social activities and job. Outdated
family structures have an uneven effect on the lives of Indian women. This also includes women from
urban areas who are highly educated and probably the first one in their family to go for professional
career. The research conducted revealed that most of the women woke up as early as 4:30am in the
morning, preparing breakfast for in-laws, children and husband and going for work, all day long. After
returning home, they have to prepare dinner for family and clean up their home.
Mothers of young children often feel torn between meeting the needs of their little one and still having
the energy for stimulating conversation, playful times and even physical intimacy with her husband.
They may also find it more difficult to make time for their friends as they juggle the responsibilities of
motherhood.
Also, as children grow and change, mothers can change and grow in new directions, which can also put
pressure on longstanding relationships. Single mothers can face this to an even greater degree, especially
when it comes to entering into newer relationships.
Mothers who are working have work related stress that increases with the constant pressure to meet the
demands of both their homes and professional obligations. Hence we find that there could be quite a
number of factors that cause stress in mothers. Anxiety could be a by-product of stress and or an
individual’s temperament could be that of an anxious person. Many a time’s health issues could also
trigger anxiety situations.
Lot of sub factors also play an important role in resulting in varied degrees of Parenting stress, anxiety
and they are the demographic factors like Age of the mothers, the number of kids they have to manage,
15 | P a g e
the age gap between the children and the family type (nuclear or joint) implying number of members in
the family.
The age and stage of the child could also be a cause of parenting stress and anxiety. Throughout the
various developmental stages of the child a mother goes through drastic physical and emotional
upheavals and changes. Where she has to constantly adopt, adapt herself. Either when she has a new
born and is sleep deprived but constantly think of feeding and caring for her baby, or when she has to
continuously pay attention since her baby has started to crawl, walk, talk or adapting to the changes in
the diet of the child (liquid to solid). She even goes through fear for the safety of her child when little by
little the baby becomes independent. The situations and scenarios are endless and it could be different
for different mothers but no one can deny that it does not exists.
Transition from Primary to Middle School
Most children move to middle or secondary school and thrive on the challenges of the new environment
and varied experiences that secondary school provides. They find it both exciting and scary to be going
from being the oldest group in the school to the youngest; to be moving from a familiar environment to
a larger and unfamiliar environment; and from being well known by many teachers to being relatively
unknown (Bryan, 2005). For some students, however, it is a nightmare to leave the security of their
primary schools. It is quite possible that they lose their connection with school and learning at this time.
That is why it is vitally important for parents to make the transition a positive experience for their
children. No matter when the transition to secondary occurs – whether it is at the age of 10, 11 or 12 –
there is potential for the child’s educational progress to stall if parenting style and attitude is not
modulated or adapted as well along with other factors including school environment.
Based on all the above discussion it is imperative to hypothesize if there is a possibility that Parenting
Stress, Anxiety are interrelated with the type of Parenting attitude the mothers exhibit, more so when
their child transitions from the protective environment of Primary school to the realistic environment of
Senior school.
16 | P a g e
This research project hence wants to tie a very complex scenario of Mothers, their parenting attitude,
their parenting stress and anxiety, when their child transitions from primary to senior school, explicitly
saying moves on to 6th standard. As mentioned in the beginning there are studies existing that relate
parenting styles with stress and pressure in children or impacts of parenting attitudes on children with
mental disorders or having psychosomatic problems. There are innumerous studies on Parenting stress
and anxiety that has been associated with their child’s conditions like Autism, Conduct issues, behavior
patterns, academic performance, learning disabilities, physical disabilities etc. But there exists very
limited studies that associate parenting stress and anxiety with their parenting attitudes or styles itself.
Since there has not been any survey or study done yet in this respect, it would be a good opportunity to
be able establish any kind of correlational relationship existing between the above mentioned factors. If
established then Causal studies could be in scope of future studies leading to new insight into Parental
Stress, Anxiety impacting Parenting Attitude or vice versa.
Counselling Need of Parents: Preventive or educational or psychological counselling techniques could
then be implemented to emphasize and encourage good parenting attitudes that result in reduction of
parenting stress and anxiety. Or by creating better awareness around parenting education on child
development and growth to manage and cope with the stress, resulting in better parenting skills.
As a developing nation, and with the largest young population in the world, it is essential to build a
strong nation that flourishes and excels in every walk of life. It is evident in the hearts and minds of all
the young people. Somewhere on broader spectrum we realize that Parenting has such a huge
responsibility towards the building up a robust nation of thriving young minds. If the main executer of
parenting that is the Mother is not well equipped with appropriate parenting skills or is under constant
pressure of family obligations, managing various interpersonal matters, a constant giver of emotions and
support to the family. Then having children who are caring, understanding, considerate, sincere and
obedient is a far cry, and hence a distant dream for a better nation.
17 | P a g e
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Parenting Stress and Anxiety has been researched a lot in terms of relationship between parental style
and child rearing and development, their education, mental retardation, life threatening diseases, other
psychological disorders and academic performance, but very few correlational studies are there with
respect to parental attitude.
Most of the Parenting Attitude studies try to establish relationship or correlate with the amount of
pressure, stress etc. the child suffers, or they widely focus on parenting stress and anxiety caused due to
various psychological conditions of their child or academic performance. Whereas very limited studies
exist that try to evaluate cause of parenting stress and anxiety with their own parenting attitudes and
styles. There is no substantial study that associates or links these factors together. The type of parenting
that the parents display in this case the mothers display could very well be because of the parenting
stressors they experience or the anxiety linked with the uncertainty of rearing their children. This could
be a cyclic phenomenon where parenting attitude is leading to their stress & anxiety or their parenting
stress & anxiety is leading to a certain kind of parenting attitude towards their children.
Hence most of the literature here has been reviewed in light of such studies that delve into stress and
anxiety issues of parents in context to their parenting styles and arguments have been provided by
referencing certain books or papers that highlight the need of conducting more parenting attitude studies
to establish relationship to their stress and anxiety.
When we talk about attitude we must know it is mutual between the giver and the receiver of a behavior
or action, as Daniel Katz (1960) suggests through the functional areas:
Knowledge- Attitudes provide meaning (knowledge) for life. The knowledge function refers to our need
for a world which is consistent and relatively stable. This allows us to predict what is likely to happen,
18 | P a g e
and so gives us a sense of control. Attitudes can help us organize and structure our experience. Knowing
a person’s attitude helps us predict their behaviour. 
“This is reflected in the mothers attitude (due to her knowledge about the transition her child is about to
venture into) to pre coach her child about the massive changes he shall be faced with in grade 6, that
shall be difficult for him/her.”
Adaptive- If a person holds and/or expresses socially acceptable attitudes, other people will reward
them with approval and social acceptance. Attitudes then, are to do with being a part of a social group
and the adaptive functions helps us fit in with a social group. People seek out others who share their
attitudes, and develop similar attitudes to those they like 
“We find all mothers sharing, discussing on the uphill task their child shall experience in grade 6, many
mothers who are generally relaxed about it also get stressed. “
The Ego-defensive function- refers to holding attitudes that protect our self-esteem or that justify
actions that make us feel guilty. Positive attitudes towards ourselves, for example, have a protective
function (i.e. an ego-defensive role) in helping us reserve our self-image. 
“We need to understand a lot depends on the mothers parenting attitude, she had for her child up until
class 5th that led her to seek justification for her current actions, thoughts and feelings towards the
school transition of her child. Adjusting to the transition is difficult hence a challenging period for both
mother and child.”
The basic idea behind the functional approach is that attitudes help a person to mediate between their
own inner needs (expression, defense) and the outside world (adaptive and knowledge). In the context of
this study, parenting attitude of any type does definitely impact the behavioral and cognitive growth of a
child that is manifested in his/her attitude towards school, studies, society, peers, family etc. This is
reflected more when the child passes through certain crucial stages or phases of growth and
development, in this case transitioning from primary to secondary school.
19 | P a g e
Parenting Styles & Parenting Attitude
Baumrind’s (1971) conceptualization of Parenting Styles as authoritarian, permissive and authoritative
was the first of its kind, which encompassed various characteristics such as maturity, communication
styles, nurturance, warmth and involvement. Authoritarian parenting style suggests that children are
expected to be submissive to their parent’s demands, while parents are expected to be strict, directive,
and emotionally detached. Permissive parenting style like the name implies connotes less parental
restrictions or limits on the child. The implication of this is that children are expected to regulate their
own activities. Authoritative parenting style similar to authoritarian parenting entailed clear and firm
direction to children. However, the difference between the two similar parenting styles lies in
moderating discipline with warmth, reason, and flexibility as ensued by authoritative parenting.
Maccoby and Martin (1983) indicate that these parenting styles capture two important dimensions of
parenting (a) parental acceptance (also known as parental warmth or supportiveness) and (b) parental
control (also known as parental demandingness or behavioural control). Parental acceptance refers to the
extent to which parents intentionally foster individuality, self- regulation and self-assertion by being
attuned, supportive and acquiescent to children’s special needs and demands. Parental control refers to
the claims parents make on children to become integrated into the family by their maturity demands,
supervision, disciplinary efforts and willingness to confront the child who disobeys. Studies have clearly
found that an authoritarian parenting style in which parents stress on obedience and respect for authority
is associated with children who are less socially competent relative to children whose parents have an
authoritative parenting style.
Question arises - What could be leading to a particular parenting style in mothers or parents in general
i.e. Authoritative, Authoritarian or Permissive parenting styles? For that matter question can be
reframed as – What could be leading to in mothers a particular type of Parenting Attitude (Laxness,
Over-reactivity and Verbosity) for their children?
20 | P a g e
It is known that attitudes formation is generally a lengthy process and parenting attitudes refers to
perspectives, reactions, or settled ways of thinking about aspects of parenting or child development,
including parents' roles and responsibilities. “Attitudes” may be related to cultural beliefs founded in
common experience. And “practices” refers to parenting behaviors or approaches to childrearing that
can shape how a child develops. Generally speaking, “knowledge” relates to cognition, attitudes relate
to motivation, and practices relate to ways of engaging or behavior, but all three may emanate from a
common source.
These three components are reciprocal and intertwined theoretically, empirically, and bi-directionally,
informing one another. For example, practices are related to knowledge and attitudes, and often involve
the application of knowledge. According to behavior modification theory (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980;
Fishbein et al., 2001), a person's attitude often determines whether he or she will use knowledge and
transform it into practice. In short, if one does not believe in or value knowledge, one is less likely to act
upon it. What parents learn through the practice of parenting can also be a source of knowledge and can
shape parents' attitudes.
Parenting attitudes are influenced as well by parenting self-efficacy, which has been broadly defined as
the level of parents' self-belief about their ability to succeed in the parenting role (Jones and Prinz,
2005).
In situations especially with one’s child, adapting ones attitude to the changing child (psychosocially)
and his environment is difficult. Unless the parent is able to cope with these changes in his child, he/she
shall not be able to ensure coping attitude in his/her child. In general, the empirical data has suggested
that parents' attitudes toward their children's academic performance may directly, or indirectly, shape
children's perceptions of their academic competence.
Parenting Attitudes and Child behaviour
Although considerable discussion has focused on attitudes and beliefs broadly, less research attention
has been paid to the effects of parenting attitudes on parents' interactions with young children or on
21 | P a g e
parenting practices. Few causal analyses are available to test whether parenting attitudes actually affect
parenting practices, positive parent-child interaction, and child development. Even less research exists
on fathers' attitudes about parenting. This puts greater emphasis to conduct more and more correlational
studies.
Parents' attitudes toward parenting are a product of their knowledge of parenting and the values and
goals (or expectations) they have for their children's development, which in turn are formulated by
cultural, social, and societal images, as well as parents' individual/personal experiences and their overall
values and goals (Cabrera et al., 2000; Cheah and Chirkov, 2008; Iruka et al., 2015; Okagaki and Bingham,
2005; Rogoff, 2003; Rosenthal and Roer-Strier, 2006; Whiting and Whiting, 1975). People in the United States
hold several universal, or near universal, beliefs about the types of parental behaviours that promote or
impair child development. For example, there is general agreement that striking a child in a manner that
can cause severe injury, engaging in sexual activity with a child, and failing to provide adequate food
for and supervision of young children (such as leaving toddlers unattended) pose threats to children's
health and safety and are unacceptable. At the same time, some studies identify differences in parents'
goals for child development, which may influence attitudes regarding the roles of parents and have
implications for efforts to promote particular parenting practices.
While there is variability within demographic groups in parenting attitudes and practices, some research
shows differences in attitudes and practices among subpopulations. For example, qualitative research
provides some evidence of variation by culture in parents' goals for their children's socialization. In one
interview study, mothers who were first-generation immigrants to the United States from Central
America emphasized long-term socialization goals related to proper demeanour for their children, while
European American mothers emphasized self-maximization (Leyendecker et al., 2002). In another
interview study, Anglo American mothers stressed the importance of their young children developing a
balance between autonomy and relatedness, whereas Puerto Rican mothers focused on appropriate
levels of relatedness, including courtesy and respectful attentiveness (Harwood et al., 1997). Other
ethnographic and qualitative research shows that parents from different cultural groups select cultural
22 | P a g e
values and norms from their country of origin as well as from their host country, and that their goal is
for their children to adapt and succeed in the United States (Rogoff, 2003).
Similarly, whereas the larger U.S. society has historically viewed individual freedom as an important
value, some communities place more emphasis on interdependence (Elmore and Gaylord-Harden, 2013;
Sarche and Spicer, 2008). The importance of intergenerational connections (e.g., extended family
members serving as primary caregivers for young children) also varies among and within cultural
communities (Bertera and Crewe, 2013; Mutchler et al., 2007). The values and traditions of cultural
communities may be expressed as differences in parents' views regarding gender roles, in parents' goals
for children, and in their attitudes related to childrearing.
In the Indian society and context, where societal variations thrive across regions, cities, states,
communities, there is a constant face-off between age old customs, traditions of parenting and the
foreign parenting concepts. The influences of modern times and technology, families shrinking into
nuclear forms, having working parents, reducing support from the grandparents, changes in the
development environment of children all play a part in impacting the parenting styles and attitudes as
well as they hold the key to causes that lead to stress and anxiety in general, but specifically parenting
stress.
Emotional and Behavioral Competence : It is essential to promote in children positive emotional
health and well-being that supports their overall mental health, including a positive sense of self, as well
as the ability to cope with stressful situations, temper emotional arousal, overcome fears, and accept
disappointments and frustrations. Parents and other extended family members or caregivers are essential
resources for children in managing emotional arousal, coping, and managing behavior. They serve in
this role by providing positive affirmations, showering love and respect and engendering a sense of
security. Providing of support by parents helps minimize the risk of internalizing behaviors, such as
those associated with anxiety and depression, which can impair children's adjustment and ability to
function well at home, at school, and in the community (Osofsky and Fitzgerald, 2000). Such symptoms
23 | P a g e
like extreme fearfulness, helplessness, hopelessness, apathy, depression, and withdrawal are indicators
of emotional difficulty that have been observed among very young children who experience inadequate
parental care (Osofsky and Fitzgerald, 2000).
According to Bandura’s Social Learning theory, children observe how other individuals behave that
includes their parents, and they may later imitate those behaviors. As soon as babies are born, they start
to decipher their social world and begin to learn everything about it. Researchers have found that babies
tend to misbehave and get upset more than normal, whenever they have parents who constantly
overreact and get angry.
A study was done by researchers from Oregon State University that established relationship between
over-reactivity of parents and increase in negative emotions of their child (Lipscomb et al., 2012), in
which data from 361 families that were linked to adoption was collected, toddlers from these families
were studied and followed from 9 to 27 months of age. It was found that adoptive parents who
overreacted when their children made some mistakes or misbehaved had significantly negative effects
on them. For instance, their children misbehaved more, and were quicker to anger compared to other 2-
year-old children. It’s normal for 2-years-old to misbehave and get emotionally upset. It has been
observed that toddlers who exhibit excessive negative emotions tend to have more behavioural and
conduct issues when adolescent. The same can be found in another study by (Calkins, 2002; Maccoby,
2000; Rothbaum & Weisz, 1994; Shaw et al., 2003; Tremblay et al., 2004) that suggests Over-reactive
(harsh, irritable, or angry) parenting is consistently associated with negative outcomes such as
externalizing problems during childhood and adolescence. This line of research suggests that when
parents are unable to control their own emotions while interacting with their children, that is when they
yell, threaten, and use aggression, children experience difficulties with emotion regulation, negative
emotionality, and externalizing behaviors.
(Malissa & Maureen, 2009), in their study tried to examine the relationship between compliance of
toddlers and mothers verbosity, in one of the test of hypothesis it was found that Mothers who were high
24 | P a g e
on verbosity, their children were less compliant and mothers with lower verbosity resulted in higher
compliance of their child. It seems excessive details about what children should or should not do
appears to be related to child behavior and supports Patterson's premise of "nattering."
Researchers have uncovered convincing links between parenting styles and children’s outcome on social
development (Altay & Gure, 2013, Lam, 2015, Tong et al, 2009):
i. Children of authoritarian parents: They might feel undervalued and emotionally hampered.
Sometimes, it is associated with the undesirable social outcome, like anti-social behavior.
ii. Children of authoritative parents: They can maintain satisfactory social relationship with others
and take others into account. They also have the appropriate assertiveness and willing to bear
responsibility. Research indicates that supportive parenting styles promote positive empathy
development, which is linked to positive social behavior into adolescence and adulthood.
iii. Children of permissive parents: They tend to have positive self-identity and self-esteem but they
are more easily drawn into negative social behavior because they are self-centered.
iv. Children of uninvolved parents: They have the lowest ranking in emotional and empathy
development, which is considered as the major significant factor with regard to social
competence. They might find difficult to cooperate, interact and communicate with others
Parental Attitude and Child Education: The involvement of the family is one of the strongest
predictors of good educational outcomes for the child. This association of Parental Attitude with the
child’s education significantly relates with the child’s motivation to learn, attention to details, task
persistence and perseverance, receptive vocabulary skills, and low conduct problems. The way a family is
involved in their child’s education has been identified as a favorable factor in young children's learning as
per the National Research Council [NRC], 2000; (U.S. Department of Education, 2000). It is, therefore, a
key constituent of national educational policies and early childhood programs. Much of the research on
parent involvement, as it relates to children's outcomes, has emphasized the relationship between specific
parent involvement behaviors and children's achievement. Parental involvement at school (e.g., with
25 | P a g e
school activities, direct communication with teachers and administrators) is associated with greater
achievement in mathematics and reading (Griffith, 1996; Reynolds, 1992; Sui-Chu & Willms, 1996).
Higher levels of parent involvement in their children's educational experiences at home (e.g., supervision
and monitoring, daily conversations about school) have been associated with children's higher
achievement scores in reading and writing, as well as higher report card grades (Epstein, 1991; Griffith,
1996; Sui-Chu & Willms, 1996; Keith et al., 1998). Other research has shown that parental beliefs and
expectations about their children's learning are strongly related to children's beliefs about their own
competencies, as well as their achievements (Galper, Wigfield, & Seefeldt, 1997). Parents who evidenced
high levels of school contact (volunteering in the classroom, participating in educational workshops,
attending Policy Council meetings) had children who demonstrated greater social competency than
children of parents with lower levels of school contact (Parker et al., 1997). It was hypothesized that
home-based involvement would be most strongly associated with positive classroom learning outcomes
and that direct school-based involvement would predict lower levels of conduct problems. Home-Based
Involvement activities, such as reading to a child at home, providing a place for educational activities, and
asking a child about school, evidenced the strongest relationships to later preschool classroom
competencies. These activities were related to children's approaches to learning, especially motivation
and attention/persistence, and were found to relate positively to receptive vocabulary. The attitude of the
parents signifies that the supporting nature of family in their children’s education. The parental attitude
can be negative or positive. The negative attitude of the parents or poor parenting with regards to
education and schooling can prevent their children from getting proper growth in education. With less
parental support in school work, it can result in low level of motivation and poor self-esteem of children.
Positive attitude or Good Parenting behavior of the parents can be beneficial to their children in many
cases and can be reflected in improvement in class performance, creating interest among children to learn,
and higher achievement scores in reading and writing and overall increase in self-confidence. The
growing awareness regarding education makes many families value their children’s education and act
26 | P a g e
favorably towards schooling and education of their children. They become a part of the decision making
process of school, and decide their children’s future regarding higher education.
Therefore, it is imperative to assess the degree of favorableness of attitude especially in Indian
context as well.
Parental Stress & Style
Bronfenbrenner’s (1979, 2006) ecological systems approach as well as Family systems theories
highlight family functioning as a key force contributing to adaptive, and maladaptive, child
development. Parents’ parenting approaches and its effectiveness is related to many factors including
Parenting Stress. Parents experiencing high levels of stress, particularly from economic difficulties,
typically are less responsive and affectionate with their children and more likely to use power-assertive
techniques, as compared with parents without such stress (see McLoyd, 1990). It follows that excessive
parental stress affects parenting that could negatively affect a child’s social-cognitive development;
however, two studies have yielded mixed results. Cole and Mitchell (1998) observed an inverse
relationship between parental stress and children’s performances on false belief tasks. In this study,
fifty‐seven children aged between 4 and 5 years were assessed for their ability to be convincing in an act
of deception (expressive deception) and also for their understanding that minds are susceptible to
deception (theory of mind). Thirty four mothers completed a questionnaire which provided information
on socio‐economic status, parenting style, parental stress and family structure. The results confirmed
significant associations between family background and deceptive ability. It is important to understand
that combination of all the above mentioned factors result in a specific kind of behavior in children that
is deceptive in nature that might lead to anti-social behaviour in later stages. In contrast, Symons and
Clark (2002) observed that mothers’ self-reported emotional distress when their child was 2 years old
positively predicted their child’s performance on a caregiver location task at 5 years of age. Although
contradictory results are observed because of differing methods; however, both studies have begun to
explore systematically these complex family relationships.
27 | P a g e
Bowlby (1982) suggested that secure attachments enable children to learn about their caretaker’s
perspective, which then allows a child to recognize differences between his/her own and his/her
caretaker’s perspectives. During the fourth stage of attachment children become able to attribute
different thoughts and feelings to themselves and others (Humfress, O’Connor, Slaughter, Target, &
Fonagy, 2002). A central characteristic of secure parent–child attachments is responsive parenting.
Mothers with secure attachments are sensitive tutors, meaning they modify their instructions
appropriately in reaction to their children’s behaviour (Meins, 1997; Meins et al., 1998). Responsive
parenting also involves reflecting on a child’s motives and mental states (Symons & Clark, 2002).
In a study done by Ang P. R. (2008), the relationship between dysfunctional parenting and parenting
stress in a sample of 54 mothers of aggressive boys in Singapore was examined. In this study it was
found that dysfunctional parenting attitude did predict maternal parenting stress, especially maternal
laxness led to stress from unrewarding mother-child interactions and maternal over-activity resulted in
stress due to poor attachment. These findings have implications for prevention and intervention efforts
that attempt to improve the quality of parent-child interaction and modify forced operant possibilities
within families.
Parental style and stress has been compared mostly between normal and mentally challenged, or
physically disabled or psychological disorders, but research studies have not focused much on normal
children or children who have not yet been assessed for maladaptive psychosocial symptoms. Almost all
studies are centered on parenting attitude of parents having a special child or a child with ADHD or a
child with life threatening ailment like cancer etc. For example, Yousefia SH., Soltani Far A.,
Abdolahian E. (2011) in their comparative study on Parenting stress and parenting styles in mothers of
ADHD with mothers of normal children, re-established that ADHD children cause parenting stress in
their mothers, who use punishment methods for controlling their children. It was confirmed in this study
that mothers of ADHD children have more exceeded levels of stress than the mothers of normal
children. Although in comparison with ADHD mothers’, stress of mothers of normal children is lesser
28 | P a g e
but it does not nullify the fact that mothers in general are stressed or anxious while executing their
parenting duties.
In a study by Kennedy D. (2012), The Relationship between Parental Stress, Cognitive Distortions, and
Child Psychopathology, the results indicate that parental stress arbitrates the relationship between
distorted parental thinking and child mental state, therefore providing empirical support for cognitive
behavioral models of parental stress and parenting behaviors. Results indicate that distorted thinking is
strongly associated with depressive symptoms and levels of perceived competency, which is consistent
with multiple researches in both parent and nonparent populations. But that parental attitude and attitude
type could be the key to the change in cognitive behavioral model leading to stress has not been dealt
with.
In a study by Hidayangam, (2012), that compared the level of parenting stress of normal and mentally
challenged children in the age group of 5-10 years it was revealed that higher per cent of parents of
mentally challenged children had clinically significant parenting stress (73.4%) than parents of the
normal children (21.7%).
In a meta-analysis study (Stephanie A. Hayes, Shelley L. Watson, 2012) that compares the Experience
of Parenting Stress in Parents of Children with and without various disorders like ASD, ADHD etc.
found that such psychological issues of their children definitely increases the stress of parents. There is
very limited study in this regard to assess parenting stress due to challenges faced by normal children.
Rather studies focus more on academic pressure on children or stress & anxiety in children due to
parenting style. For example, in a study by Bakhla, Sharan, Yashi, Verma, and Chaudhury (2013) -
Anxiety in school students: Role of parenting and gender, found that 11% of the class 8th students were
anxious since they were subjected to authoritarian parenting style.
Parenting Anxiety & Attitude
Parenting style is one potential contributor to the development of adolescents’ cognitions, self-esteem
and emotional problems. In a study done by (Park S. et. al. 2016) on middle school and high school
29 | P a g e
Korean students maternal rejecting attitudes were positively associated with depressive symptoms via
increasing negative autonomic thoughts and decreasing self-esteem among female adolescents. Among
male adolescents, maternal rejecting attitudes were associated with low self-esteem, but they were not
associated with depressive symptoms.
All the above studies indicate impacts of parenting styles and attitudes on child /adolescent behavior
including psychological issues of stress, depression and anxiety, leading indirectly to the fact that
maladaptive parenting attitude (practices) shall definitely impact the psychological affairs of the parents
themselves.
30 | P a g e
CHAPTER 3
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Parenting has become even more challenging in today’s time of fast life, technology growth manifolds
in recent years, high rate of competition in every field especially education, management of finance,
acceptance in the society, immense amount of global exposure and impacts of all these changes on the
mental, physical, social, emotional growth and health of both parents and their offspring. There is not
one but multilevel stressors all around us. Attitude of parents towards the external environmental factors
and their attitudes & beliefs towards parenting affects their way of parenting and enables them to handle
the upbringing of their children. Expectations from their child’s educational institute (school), process of
imparting education, nurturing the child, the abilities, attitude of the teachers, level of extra-curricular
activities, competitive environment, facilities and infrastructure; expectations from themselves and their
children; and perceived expectations of external factors, all account to the extent of stress, the parents
experience. The point is, irrespective of upbringing, lifestyle and economic status parents are picking up
on stressors each day. Unless they are able to orient and adapt themselves to these stressors i.e. have a
healthy and positive change in their parenting attitudes, there is not a single drop of doubt that their
child shall be impacted adversely in varied degrees.
A child’s carefree and indifferent attitude might lead to anxiety in parents especially mothers since she
has pre conceived notion that school transition from primary to middle shall bring huge changes in
terms of academic load and the approaching difficult times of board exams, competitive exams etc.
A child who gets bogged down by the mammoth extent of this transition for example increased syllabus,
increase in exam times i.e.1 hour to 2 to 3 hrs. Multiple subject teachers, shift of individual focus of
teachers etc. might withdraw and show lack of interest in studies or poor performance in exams.
Another aspect that should not be ignored is the child entering the adolescent stage. Adolescent age (9 to
17) in itself brings in new equations of self, identity, peer pressure, social desirability, cognitive
31 | P a g e
expansion, that are equally big challenges faced by the child. This affects the mother leading to her
being even more stressed and anxious. Her parenting attitude at this juncture shall play a vital role in
bringing her child out of this misery.
There are studies that have confounded that Counselling Intervention for Parents can impact their child’s
personality and academic achievements positively & constructively. In a study by Sahu A and Bhagel,
B. (2012). 488 students between the ages of 7 to 10 years of class 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th
standard of three English medium schools in Jabalpur (India) and their parents took part in the
pre counselling and post counselling sessions, in which 14PF by Cattel gave lot of improvement both
at personality level as well as their scholastic performance. Rise in more and more counsellor
involvement in schools across cities and states, shows that definitely there is a huge need to address so
many psychosocial issues. Parents and children both need counselling to be more effective in their
respective areas of work. A strong parenting attitude can bring in remarkable effective improvements in
the children.
Therefore research and analysis of impacts of parenting attitudes on parents' interactions with young
children or on parenting practices and on overall mental health of parents (e.g. stress, anxiety,
depression etc.) is required, to strengthen the position of the existing available studies, simultaneously
provide ground work on reinforcement of attitudes that creates a nurturing & fruitful family
environment for both the parents and the children alike.
32 | P a g e
CHAPTER 4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The purpose of this study is to examine if parenting attitude, parenting stress and anxiety in mothers
of children who have been promoted from primary to middle school i.e. Grade 6th are correlated or
not.
OBJECTIVES
The study shall be conducted on mothers of middle school children i.e. children who have been
promoted from class 5th to class 6th, and shall consist of the following objectives:
1. To obtain the demographic details of the sample: Age, Number of Children (NOC), Number of
Family Members (Joint/Nuclear) and Occupational Status (Working or Non-Working)
2. To assess the Attitude Type of the mothers i.e. Laxness, Over-reactivity, Verbosity, using the
Parental Attitude Scale
3. To assess degree of Parenting Stress using the Parental Stress Scale: High/Low
4. To assess degree of Anxiety using the Beck’s Anxiety Inventory: Low, Moderate and Severe
5. To assess the correlation between Parental Attitudes of mothers and their Parenting Stress
6. To assess the correlation between Parental Attitudes of mothers and their Anxiety
7. To assess relationship between the sociodemographic variables with parental attitude, parenting
stress and anxiety
HYPOTHESIS
H1(LAX, ANX): There would be significant Correlation between parental Laxness and Anxiety in
mothers of class 6th students
H2(OVERR, ANX): There would be a significant Correlation between parental Over-reactivity and
Anxiety in mothers of class 6th students
33 | P a g e
H3(VERB, ANX): There would be a significant Correlation between parental Verbosity and Anxiety in
mothers of class 6th students
H4(LAX, STRESS): There would be a significant Correlation between parental Laxness and Stress in
mothers
H5(OVER, STRESS): There would be a significant Correlation between parental Over-reactivity and Stress
in mothers
H6(VERB, STRESS): There would be a significant Correlation between parental Verbosity and Stress in
others
H7(MA, LAX): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Age groups
of mothers and their corresponding Laxness Attitude
H8(MA, OVER): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Age groups
of mothers and their corresponding Over-reactivity Attitude
H9(MA, VERB): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Age groups
of mothers and their corresponding Verbosity Attitude
H10(MA, STRESS): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Age
groups of mothers and their corresponding Parenting Stress
H11(MA, ANX): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Age groups
of mothers and their corresponding Anxiety
H12(NOC, LAX): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number of
Children of mothers and their corresponding Laxness Attitude
H13(NOC, OVER): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number of
Children of mothers and their corresponding Over-reactivity Attitude
H14(NOC, VERB): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number of
Children of mothers and their corresponding Verbosity Attitude
H15(NOC, STRESS): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number
of Children of mothers and their corresponding Parenting Stress
H16(NOC, ANX): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number of
Children of mothers and their corresponding Anxiety
34 | P a g e
H17(NOF, LAX): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number of
Family Members of mothers and their corresponding Laxness Attitude
H18(NOF, OVER): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number of
Family Members of mothers and their corresponding Over-reactivity
H19(NOF, VERB): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number of
Family Members of mothers and their corresponding Verbosity
H20(NOF, STRESS): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number
of Family Members of mothers and their corresponding Parenting Stress
H21(NOF, ANX): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the different Number of
Family Members of mothers and their corresponding Anxiety
H22(OCC,LAX): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the Working/Non-

Working mothers and their corresponding Laxness Attitude
H23(OCC, OVER): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the Working/Non-
Working mothers and their corresponding Over-reactivity Attitude
H24(OCC, VERB): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the Working/Non-
Working mothers and their corresponding Verbosity Attitude
H25(OCC, STRESS): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the Working/Non-
Working mothers and their corresponding Parenting Stress
H26(OCC, ANX): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the Working/Non-
Working mothers and their corresponding Anxiety
H27(HPA, ANX): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the High/Low Parenting
groups of mothers and their corresponding Anxiety
H28(LPA, STRESS): There would be a statistically significant relationship between the High/Low
Parenting groups of mothers and their corresponding Parenting Stress
HT(ATT, STRESS, ANX): There exists significant difference of Means between the Parenting Attitude
Variables (Laxness, Over-reactivity, Verbosity), Parental Stress and Anxiety
35 | P a g e
RESEARCH VARIABLES
At this point since it is a correlational study there is no clear dependent or independent variables.
Variables:
1. Stress Levels (High Stress/Low Stress)
2. Anxiety Levels (Severe Anxiety, Moderate Anxiety, Low Anxiety)
3. Parenting Attitude – Laxness, Over-reactivity, Verbosity
* High values of Parenting Attitude indicates poor parenting.
RESEARCH DESIGN
This project is a Quantitative Study that used Descriptive Correlational Design. Data was collected
using self-administered standard questionnaires
RESEARCH SETTING
This study is not dependent on a specific setting or location since it uses Purposive sampling, hence
based on the convenience and availability of the Samples (Mothers), the location was selected. The
data collected used self-administered questionnaires, all participants were not required to be in one
place. The mothers were approached in groups of 10 and 15 in a common area, where they were
briefed about the project, its purpose and all the questionnaires were explained in detail.
They were told that true and prompt answers were expected and that correct responses shall ensure
relevant outcomes.
SAMPLING REQUIREMENTS
SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
Homogeneous Purposive Sampling technique was used. Mothers of class 6th children were
approached through common acquaintances, or references from the same school.
36 | P a g e
SAMPLING SIZE & NATURE
70 mothers whose children were in 6th standard. Hence Sample Size for this project is 70. All mother-
child pair was from the same school.
SAMPLING CRITERIA
Inclusion criteria:
 Mothers of children in class 6th
 Children from same school
Exclusion criteria:
 Fathers not part of this study
 Mothers of children in other classes excluded
 Other schools not included in the study
METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
PROCEDURE
A proper Documentation was prepared prior to the commencement of data collection activity. It
included a Letter of Consent/Communication form and Project brief along with the questionnaires for
the mothers.
Three schools were approached for permission to conduct the survey. But no permission was
received.
Through references and personal approach to mothers of children in class 6th were contacted. The
mothers thus contacted were invited to meet in batches of 10 and 15 at a common place, where the
survey was conducted. The meetings were held only with those mothers who willingly participated in
the study and gave prior consent.
37 | P a g e
Every meeting was initiated with exchange of pleasantries. After which the project purpose and
objectives were explained. All queries were resolved. Mothers were asked to feel absolutely relaxed
and free of any unwanted thoughts before filling in their responses.
Doubts & queries around the tests were resolved before the responses were collected. Assurance of
confidentiality of information was provided and maintained. Purpose of the study and instructions of
the tools, was explained before administration of the questionnaires. The mothers were told that true
and correct responses were to be shared to ensure good outcomes.
The data collected thus, was analyzed and compared to achieve the objectives of the study,
subsequently using appropriate statistics the research hypothesis were tested.
TOOLS OF DATA COLLECTION:

The tools used for data collection are as stated below: Forms are attached in the Appendix 1
 Socio Demographic Performa (General Info: Name, Age, Number of family members,
Occupation etc.)
 Parental Attitude Scale (developed by Susan G. O'Leary, David S. Arnold, Lisa S. Wolff, &
Maureen M. Acker)
 Parental Stress Scale (developed by Berry and Jones)
 Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (By Aaron T. Beck)
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
 Parental Attitude Scale
The parenting scale (Arnold et al., 1993) is a 30-item self-report scale of parental discipline.
Parents indicate their tendencies to use specific discipline strategies using 7- point Likert scales,
where 7 indicates a high probability of making the discipline mistake and 1 indicates a high
probability of using an effective, alternative discipline strategy. The scale has good internal
38 | P a g e
consistency (0.84) and is associated with behavioral observations of parenting in younger
children (Arnold et al., 1993). Cronbach’s alpha overall is (0.82)
 Parental Stress Scale
Parental Stress Scale (PSS) was developed by Berry and Jones in 1995. It consists of 18 items that
describe the parent-child relationship and the parents’ feelings regarding it. Parents respond by
indicating the extent to which they agree or disagree with the statement. This scale has satisfactory
levels of internal reliability (.83), and test-retest reliability (.81) and high Cronbach alpha > 0.9.
 Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI):
Beck’s Anxiety Inventory was developed by Aaron T. Beck and other colleagues. A 21-question
multiple choice self- report inventory is used for assessing the severity of anxiety in children and
adults. The internal consistency reliability of (BAI) for Cronbach’s α = 0.92. The test-retest
reliability (1 week) for the (BAI) =0.75
39 | P a g e
DATA ANALYSIS METHOD
Descriptive as well as Inferential statistics was used for data analysis in the proposed study.
Statistics Used: Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, t-test and ANOVA
Pearson’s Correlation: Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (-1< r > +1) was used to get the
correlation coefficients between all the Parenting Attitude variables (Laxness, Over-reactivity,
Verbosity), Parenting Stress and Anxiety in mothers.
Use of ANOVA
In the process of examining the relationship between variables, researchers can use ttest or ANOVA
to compare the means of two groups on the dependent variable (Green & Salkind, 2012). The main
difference between t-test and ANOVA is that t-test can only be used to compare two groups or two
set of variables while ANOVA can be used to compare two or more groups. In the process of
selecting the data analysis technique for this study, I considered both ANOVA and t-test. The
advantage ANOVA has over t-test is that the post-hoc tests of ANOVA allow to better controlling
type 1 error (Hopkins, 2000). Therefore, in order to control type 1 error, I chose ANOVA as data
analysis technique for this study. Although no post-hoc tests were performed.
t-test: The t-test, statistics was evaluated to assess significant difference of Means exists between
Parenting Attitude variables and Parenting Stress & Anxiety respectively, from the same sample of
Mothers of class 6th students.
Note: 1) Although it’s a Correlational Study and ANOVA is not required. ANOVA was thought as
important to analyze the impacts of Age, Number of Children, Number of family members, Working
or Non-Working, on the Parenting Attitude, Parental Stress and Anxiety of the sample, as these
factors play a crucial role.
2) Both ANOVA & t-Test, were mentioned in the synopsis.
40 | P a g e
DATA EXPLANATION:
Tools/Scales used Variable Range/Degree
Demographics Age of Mothers 33 to 47 yrs.
Number of children 1, 2, 3
Number of Family Members 2 to 10
Working Mothers 40
Non-Working Mothers 30
Parenting Attitude Laxness (Less rules, High (S>3.5*), Low (S<3.5*)
relaxed, less punishment) * factor score (average)
Over-reactivity (too strict, High (S>3.5*), Low (S<3.5*)
too much action, counter
reaction/response to child
behaviour) * factor score (average)
Verbosity (too much High (S>3.5*), Low (S<3.5*)
talking, verbal instruction,
long verbal dialogues) * factor score (average)
Parental Stress Stress High (S>=40), Low (S<40)
Beck’s Anxiety Anxiety Severe (S: 36 and above),
Moderate (S: 22 - 35),
Low (S: 0-21)
*High Parenting Scores  Poor/Bad Parenting, Low Parenting Scores  Good Parenting
41 | P a g e
CHAPTER 5
RESULTS
1. DEMOGRAPHICS
Table 1: Distribution of Sample (70) Age-wise, Number of Family Members, Number of Children
and Occupation Status
Parameters N %
1 Age (yrs) of Mother
<37 10 14.3%
37 – 40 41 58.6%
41 – 44 14 20.0%
> 44 5 7.1%
2 Number of family
members
Less than 5 42 60.00%
4<n>8 22 31.43%
3 Number of children
1 22 31.43%
2 46 65.71%
3 2 2.86%
4 Working Mothers 40 57.14%
Homemakers 30 42.86%
As per the above figures in Table 1, we find that from the sample of mothers (70), 58% are in the age
group between 37 & 40 and 27% above 40 yrs. 60% of the families are nuclear and remaining are
joint families. 65.7% have 2 children and almost 57% are working mothers while 43% are
homemakers. Overall the sample distribution is quite balanced.
42 | P a g e
Table 2a: Distribution of variables Attitude/Stress/Anxiety with respect to Age of Mothers
Age of Mothers Parenting Attitude Degree Frequency %
> 37 (10) Laxness High 5 50.0%
Low 5 50.0%
Over-reactivity High 7 70.0%
Low 3 30.0%
Verbosity High 10 100.0%
Low 0 0.0%
Stress High 4 40.0%
Low 6 60.0%
Anxiety Severe 0 0.0%
Moderate 3 30.0%
37 - 40 (41) Laxness High 25 61.0%
Low 16 39.0%
Low 13 31.7%
Low 9 22.0%
Stress High 19 46.3%
Low 22 53.7%
Moderate 5 12.2%
41 - 44 (14) Laxness High 11 78.6%
Low 3 21.4%
Low 2 14.3%
Low 6 42.9%
Stress High 3 21.4%
Low 11 78.5%
Moderate 3 21.4%
> 44 (5) Laxness High 4 80.0%
Low 1 20.0%
43 | P a g e
Low 0 0.0%
Low 0 0.0%
Stress High 2 40.0%
Low 3 60.0%
Moderate 1 20.0%
High*: Indicates bad parenting, lot of stress; Severe*: Very high anxiety requiring immediate remedial action; Moderate*: high anxiety
requiring corrective actions.
Overall, Mothers of age greater than 44yrs are showing highest degrees of Poor Parenting across the three
parameters i.e. Laxness, Over-reactivity and Verbosity, Stress and Anxiety. Refer Fig 5 in Appendix 1 for
the bar chart.
We can also observe that overall mothers do not exhibit severe anxiety across all age-groups. High Stress %
is lesser than the Low Stress % across all age – groups too, so Mothers (>44yrs) 60% have lower stress
figures. Similarly 78% of mothers (40<n>44) have low stress. The gap between high and Low stress % is
least in the age group of Mothers between 37 & 40 i.e. High Stress (46%) & Low Stress (53.7%). But there
definitely is a good amount of mothers who are stressed across all age groups who cannot be ignored. 40%
of mothers less than 37yrs and greater than 44yrs all show High levels of Parental Stress. Mothers between
37 to 40 yrs are showing around 46% of Parental Stress and 21% of mothers in the age group between 41 to
44 yrs. have parental stress. Thus around 40% of the total sample (70) displays or has high levels of
parenting stress. 30% of mothers less than 37yrs are displaying Moderate Anxiety. Total 15 mothers are
showing Moderate to severe Anxiety, i.e. 21% of mothers. Though comparatively it is less but we need to be
aware that these mothers definitely require some level of counselling and help to overcome and cope with
their anxiety as it might be affecting their parenting and adding on to their parenting stress.
44 | P a g e
Table 2b: Distribution of variables Attitude/Stress/Anxiety with respect to Number of Family
Members
Number of Family Members Total Parenting Attitude Degree Frequency %

Less than 5 42 Laxness High 32 76.2%
Low 10 23.8%
Low 12 28.6%
Low 10 23.8%
Low 25 59.5%
Moderate 9 21.4%
less than 8 22 Laxness High 10 45.5%
Low 12 54.5%
Low 4 18.2%
Low 4 18.2%
Stress High 8 36.4%
Low 14 63.6%
Moderate 2 9.1%
> 7 <11 6 Laxness High 3 50.0%
Low 3 50.0%
Low 2 33.3%
Low 1 16.7%
Stress High 3 50.0%
Low 3 50.0%
Moderate 1 16.7%
45 | P a g e
The above data is telling us that all the Parenting parameters/variables i.e. Laxness is highest when
members are less than 5, and it decreases when number of members increase; Over-reactivity is
more when members are between 5 and 7, and decreases to 66% when members are more than 7 but
equally high in nuclear families i.e. 71% . Verbosity increases with greater number of family
members so its 83% (between 5 & 7) and 81 %(> 7), least when nuclear family i.e. 76%.
Although count of high stress mothers is less but we cannot ignore that 40% (less than 5), 36%
(between 5 & 7) and 50% (>7) of the mothers do suffer from high stress.
Anxiety figures are comparatively low again across all.
Table 2c: Distribution of variables Attitude/Stress/Anxiety with respect to Number of Children
No of kids Total Parenting Attitude Degree Frequency %

1 22 Laxness High 14 63.6%
Low 8 36.4%
Low 3 13.6%
Low 4 18.2%
Stress High 5 22.7%
Low 17 77.3%
Moderate 5 22.7%
Low 16 34.8%
Low 15 32.6%
Low 11 23.9%
Low 25 54.3%
Moderate 6 13.0%
46 | P a g e
Low 1 50.0%
Low 0 0.0%
Low 0 0.0%
Low 0 0.0%
Moderate 0 0.0%
Only 2 Mothers have 3 kids each, but it definitely shows that they are very high on Parenting as well
as Stress. Overall we can observe that families with 1 child are higher in Bad parenting as compared
to mothers having 2 kids. But stress of mothers is more when they are having more kids as compared
to a single child Stress: 22% (1 child), 45% (2 children) and 100% (3 children). Fig 4 in Appendix
for the bar chart.
Anxiety remains low across all although for Mothers with 3 kids, it rises to 50%. These are extreme
figures since only 2 mothers fall in this category.
47 | P a g e
Table 2d: Distribution of variables Attitude/Stress/Anxiety with respect to Occupational Status of the
Mothers.
Occupation Parenting Attitude Degree Frequency %

Working 40 Laxness High 28 70.0%
Low 12 30.0%
Low 11 27.5%
Low 9 22.5%
Low 21 52.5%
Moderate 9 22.5%
Non-Working (Housewife) 30 Laxness High 17 56.7%
Low 13 43.3%
Low 7 23.3%
Low 6 20.0%
Stress High 9 30.0%
Low 21 70.0%
Moderate 4 13.3%
From the figures above working mothers are exhibiting overall Bad parenting (~220%), and greater Stress
(47.5%) than compared to Non-Working Mothers (~200%) & Stress (30%).
Both Verbosity and Over-reactivity are at the higher side for both working (77.5% & 72.5%) and non-
working mothers (80% & 76.7% respectively)
48 | P a g e
2. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
Table 3a: Mean and SD of all the variables of the study
Variables N Mean SD
Laxness 70 39.31 8.88
Overreactivity 70 38.03 6.54
Verbosity 70 27.56 5.74
Anxiety 70 12.59 10.22
Stress 70 38.06 10.09
The study sample consisted of 70 mothers. Variable Laxness has mean scores of 39.31 and standard
deviation of 8.88, Over-reactivity has mean scores of 38.03 and standard Deviation of 6.54,
Verbosity has a mean of 27.56 and a standard deviation of 5.74, Anxiety has a mean score of 12.59
and standard deviation of 10.22 and finally the Parenting Stress has a mean of 38.06 and standard
deviation of 10.09.
Table 3b: Distribution of Degree of Parenting Attitude, Stress and Anxiety across the sample
Variables/Degree Total High Low
Laxness 64% 36%
Over-Reactivity 74% 23%
Verbosity 79% 21%
Stress 40% 60%
Total Parenting 84% 16%
Low Severe Moderate
Anxiety 79% 4% 17%
49 | P a g e
3. INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
a. CORRELATION
Table 4: Pearson Correlation ‘r’ across all the variables of the study
Attitude Anxiety Stress

Laxness Over-reactivity Verbosity Total Total Total
Laxness 1
Over-reactivity 0.52 1.00
Verbosity 0.53 0.58 1.00
Attitude Total 0.83 0.82 0.78 1.00
Anxiety Total 0.49 0.12 0.24 0.35 1.00
Stress Total 0.25 0.07 0.28 0.23 0.40 1.00
Laxness and Anxiety: A Moderate Positive correlation exists between the two variables (r=.30< .49
<.70), indicating that if high laxness is found then it’s probable that higher anxiety shall exist. Hence
our H1(LAX, ANX) is accepted.
Stress and Anxiety: Moderate Positive correlation exists but not strong correlation since (r = 0.40).
Anxiety and Attitude: Overall Positive correlation exists between Total Parenting Attitude and
Overall anxiety of the sample but not strong since (r=.30< .35 <.70).
Stress and Attitude: Positive and weak correlation. r= ( 0.23 < .30), with Laxness (r=.25), with Over-
reactivity it’s almost not correlated (r=.07) and with Verbosity it is weak positive correlation (r=.28).
Stress has weak correlation with all the Parenting Attitude variables i.e. Laxness, Over-reactivity and
Verbosity.
Based on the above correlations, all the alternate hypothesis H1(LAX, ANX), H2(OVER, ANX) , H3(VER, ANX) ,
H4(LAX, STRESS) , H1(OVER, STRESS) and H1(VERB, STRESS) are accepted.
Interpretation: The results confirm that positive correlation is definitely there between Parenting
Attitude variables and Stress and Anxiety but one cannot conclude that High Positive significant
correlation exists, between parental attitude and various degrees of stress and anxiety in mothers.
Except Laxness (attitude) that is moderately correlated to Anxiety.
50 | P a g e
b. ANOVA
ANOVA was applied to establish relationships if any existed between the test variables with respect to
demographic factors to test the hypothesis (H2(MA, LAX), H3(MA, OVER), H4(MA, VERB), H5(MA, STRESS), H6(MA,
ANX), H7(NOC, LAX), H8(NOC, OVER), H9(NOC, VERB), H10(NOC, STRESS), H11(NOC, ANX), H12(NOF, LAX), H13(NOF, OVER),
H14(NOF, VERB), H15(NOF, STRESS), H16(NOF, ANX), H17(OCC,LAX), H18(OCC, OVER), H19(OCC, STRESS), H20(OCC, STRESS),
H21(OCC, ANX) and H22(HPA, ANX) & H23(LPA, STRESS)). The sample was divided into two groups each based on
the following factors: Refer Appendix for all abbreviations.
Demographic Factors Group1 Group 2
Mothers Age (MA) Less than 40 Greater than & equal to 40
N: 39 N: 31
Number of Children (NOC) 1 2&3
N: 22 N: 48
Number of Family Members Nuclear Joint
(NOF) N: 42 N: 28
Occupational status (W/NW) Non-Working Working
N: 30 N: 40
Parenting Attitude High Parenting Low Parenting (good)
(poor/bad) N: 59 N: 11
51 | P a g e
Table 5: Analysis of variance between Demographic Factors and Parenting Attitude Variables,
Parenting Stress and Anxiety
Variables Mean df F (stat) P-value F Crit
1 Age Groups
Laxness (< 40 yrs) 38.15 1, 68 1.52 0.22 3.98
Laxness (> = 40 yrs.) 40.77
Over-reactivity (< 40 yrs.) 37.36 1, 68 0.92 0.34 3.98

Over-reactivity (> =40 38.87
yrs.)
Verbosity (< 40 yrs.) 27.82 1, 68 0.18 0.67 3.98

Verbosity (> = 40 yrs.) 27.22
Stress (< 40 yrs.) 39.0 1, 68 0.77 0.38 3.98

Stress (> = 40 yrs.) 36.87
Anxiety (> 40 yrs.) 10.87 1, 68 2.53 0.12 3.98

Anxiety (> = 40 yrs.) 14.74
Joint/Nuclear Family
2
groups
Laxness (< 5) 40.33 1, 68 1.39 0.24 3.98
Laxness (> = 5) 37.79
Over-reactivity (> 5) 38.24 1, 68 0.11 0.75 3.98

Over-reactivity (> = 5) 37.71
Verbosity (> 5) 27.90 1, 68 0.38 0.54 3.98

Verbosity (> = 5) 27.03
Stress (> = 5) 36.00 1, 68 0.30 0.59 3.98

Stress (> = 5) 37.25
Anxiety (> = 5) 12.76 1, 68 0.03 0.86 3.98

Anxiety (> = 5) 12.32
Number of Children
3 Groups
Laxness (1) 40.14 1, 68 0.15 0.86 3.98
Laxness (>=2) 38.94
Over-reactivity (1) 40.5 1, 68 5.03 0.028* 3.98
52 | P a g e
Over-reactivity (> = 2) 36.90
Verbosity (1) 28.73 1, 68 1.72 0.19 3.98

Verbosity (> = 2) 27.02
Stress (1) 36.09 1, 68 0.87 0.35 3.98

Stress (> = 2) 38.96
Anxiety (1) 12.05 1, 68 0.003 0.96 3.98

Anxiety (>=2) 12.83
Working/Non-Working
4 Groups
Laxness (30) 37.17 1, 68 3.170 0.079** 3.98
Laxness (40) 40.93
Over-reactivity (30) 38.73 1, 68 0.61 0.44 3.98

Over-reactivity (40) 37.5
Verbosity (30) 28.23 1, 68 0.73 0.40 3.98

Verbosity (40) 27.05
Stress (30) 37.73 1, 68 0.05 0.82 3.98

Stress (40) 38.3
Anxiety (30) 11.2 1, 68 0.96 0.33 3.98

Anxiety (40) 13.63
5 High/Low Parenting
Anxiety (High Parenting) 13.66 1, 68 6.15 .0156 3.98
Anxiety (Low Parenting) 5.4
Stress (High Parenting) 38.52 1, 68 1.201 .276 3.98

Stress (Low Parenting) 35.60
*α<.05), ** α <0.10
From Table 4, a p value of less than .05 was required for significance, the ANOVA was significant in three
instances 1) Parenting attitude ‘Over-reactivity’ of Mothers having one or more children to take care of,
gives an F(1, 68) = 5.03, p= .028 where F(crit)= 3.99. This result allows us to accept the alternate
hypothesis H8(NOC, OVER) for Over-reactivity of Mothers having 1child vs Over-reactivity of Mothers having 2
or more children. 2) Parenting Attitude Laxness of working and non-working mothers gives an
F(1,68)=3.170 , p= .079, where F (crit) = 3.98. This result allows us to reject the alternate hypothesis H5, at
α <.05. But the result is significant at α <.10, since F(1,68)=3.170 > F (crit) = 2.781, with p=0.079, hence
53 | P a g e
the alternate hypothesis H17(OCC, LAX), can be accepted, at α <.10, and p=0.079 for Laxness of working vs
non-working mothers. 3). Anxiety of High Parenting Attitude and low Parenting Attitude mothers gives an
F(1, 68) = 6.15, p=.0156, F (crit) = 3.98. This result allows us to accept the hypothesis H22(HPA, ANX), at
α <.05, and it confirms that a significant relationship exists between anxieties of High Parenting Attitude
Mothers and Low Parenting Attitude Mothers. For all other ANOVAs, the alternate hypothesis (H2(MA, LAX),
H3(MA, OVER), H4(MA, VERB), H5(MA, STRESS), H6(MA, ANX), H7(NOC, LAX), H8(NOC, OVER), H9(NOC, VERB), H10(NOC, STRESS),
H11(NOC, ANX), H12(NOF, LAX), H13(NOF, OVER), H14(NOF, VERB), H15(NOF, STRESS), H16(NOF, ANX), H19(OCC, STRESS), H20(OCC,
STRESS), H21(OCC, ANX) and H23(LPA, STRESS)) are rejected at α <.05 . Whatever difference exists is purely by
difference in the groups by coincidence or chance and are not having any significant relationship.
c. t-Test
Table 6: Mean, Standard Deviation, t-test for all variables. Used two tailed t-test.
Variables Mean SD t-test t crit P-Val
a. Laxness 39.31 8.88

1 4.29E-34
Anxiety 12.59 10.22 23.02 1.99
b. Laxness 39.31 8.88
0.37
Stress 38.06 10.09 0.90 1.99
c. Over-reactivity 38.03 6.54

2 1.37E-28
Anxiety 12.59 10.22 18.60 1.99
d. Over-reactivity 38.03 6.54
0.98
Stress 38.06 10.09 -0.02 1.99
e.
Verbosity 27.56 5.74
3 1.589E-18
Anxiety 12.59 10.22 11.98 1.99
f.
Verbosity 27.56 5.74
1.02E-12
Stress 38.06 10.09 -8.71 1.99
(α = .05); wherever (p <.05), the Alternate hypothesis is accepted
54 | P a g e
The above t-tests in Table 6, are giving p values that are significantly less than the (α = .05), thus
allowing us to interpret that there definitely exists significant difference of means between the
various variables of Attitude, Stress and Anxiety. There exist significant difference of means of
Laxness & Anxiety of mothers at (α = .05), t= 23.02 < t(crit) = 1.99. Hence Hypotheses HT(ATT,
STRESS, ANX) is accepted for variables Laxness & Anxiety.
There exist significant difference of means of Over-reactivity & Anxiety at (α = .05), t= 18.60 <
t(crit) = 1.99. Hence HT(ATT, STRESS, ANX) is accepted for Over-reactivity & Anxiety.
There exist significant difference of means of Verbosity & Anxiety at (α = .05), t= 11.98 < t(crit) =
1.99. Hence HT(ATT, STRESS, ANX) is accepted for Verbosity & Anxiety
There exist significant difference of means of Verbosity & Stress at (α = .05). Hence HT(ATT, STRESS,
ANX) is accepted for Verbosity & Stress.
The alternate hypotheses HT(ATT, STRESS, ANX) is rejected for Parenting Attitude Laxness with Stress
and Over-reactivity with Stress.
Interpretation: The above t-test results indicate that there is a possibility of independent and
dependent relationship between Laxness, Over-reactivity and Verbosity & Anxiety, additionally
Verbosity & Parenting Stress display a similar outcome. The above test also suggests that except for
Verbosity, remaining attitudes are independent of stress. Or that stress in mothers can be caused by
various other factors and parenting attitude is a weaker factor causing stress. The direction of
relationship cannot be established at this point.
55 | P a g e
DISCUSSION
This project was conceptualized on the basic thought that many a times stress of parenting is due to the
parenting attitude of mothers and or a particular type of parenting or overall poor parenting that could
result in or lead to parenting stress and anxiety that the mothers experience. More so when their child
transitions from primary school to senior school, since it brings with it manifold challenges at different
levels both for the child as well as parents.
1. It was hypothesized hence to first assess the degree of Parenting Attitude, Parenting Stress and
Anxiety across the entire sample. One thing that clearly comes to light ref Table 3b, is the fact that
majority of the Mothers’ exhibit negative parenting (84%) or poor parenting attitudes are high on all
the parameters i.e. Laxness (64%), Over-reactivity (74%) and Verbosity (79%). This clearly signifies
that parenting is definitely a challenge for the mothers in today’s times and there is a huge gap in the
desired balance between the Parenting Attitude variables. It also conveys that Mothers are more
towards the stricter side, who are constantly fighting to adjust on how much to be laxed or show
anger or be too vocal while disciplining their child? Table 3b additionally conveys that 40% of the
sample is highly stressed due to parenting and only 21 % have anxiety. It indicates that definitely
Mothers have parenting stress although its 40% of the sample (n=28). Mothers are burdened with
major part of the responsibility of their child/children in every aspect; for instigating moral values,
for taking care of their academic interests and performance, to including extra-curricular activities in
their daily routine, to cater to their food and nutrition needs, to be there for their emotional needs, for
continuous guidance and counselling during their growing years especially adolescent stage, all this
along with other family/work responsibilities, pressure and obligations.
This brings us to the next aspect that is extinction of joint families. Most of the mothers in this
project come from nuclear families (n=42). Almost 41% of the mothers from Nuclear families are
experiencing Parenting Stress. Handling and managing household affairs with minimum family
support, being educated and aware of the various social situations prevailing like heinous crimes
56 | P a g e
committed by juveniles’, crimes like rapes on young children, other adolescent challenges like
bullying, peer pressure, self-identity, future career goals, addiction, anger and aggression, all this
adds up to their stress. During an informal chat with the mothers, they were even worried about their
child being mostly inactive, lazy and uninterested in any creative activities. Few were worried that
their child was not sharing much or had reduced communication. If and when they realize that all
their efforts are not paying off and that their child is not exhibiting expected development and
behavior then it is likely they feel stressed. And that is what happens, mothers experience stress
related to parenting.
So it is quite obvious that in today’s times Mothers have little or no clue about what type of parenting to
embrace to be more effective and hence are displaying poor parenting attitude skills, additionally there are
not one but numerous factors that can be associated with parenting stress in mothers of children who have
transitioned to senior school, since not all mothers with bad parenting attitudes are displaying high
parenting stress.
2. Our Next set of Hypothesis tries to establish correlation (ref Table 4) between the Parenting Attitude
Variables and Parenting Stress and Anxiety, it revealed that positive correlation exists between all the
variables although weak or moderate. But none of the correlations were high i.e. (r>0.7), except the
correlations existing among the Attitude variables themselves and with respect to Total Parenting
Attitude they were r-0.83 (Lax, Tot Parenting), r>0.82 (Over-R, Tot Parenting) and r>0.78 (Verb, Tot
Parenting). This indicates that mothers who are high on Laxness, Over-reactivity and Verbosity will
display overall poor or negative parenting skills. This somewhere also establishes that even if a
single Parenting Attitude is high (poor parenting), then it’s quite a possibility that the other parenting
attitudes are also on the higher end. So if a mother displays high Verbosity, it is quite possible that
she might be high on over-reactivity as well.
We know that Correlation Hypothesis in Table 5: although accepted cannot suggest a causal
relationship between the variables. Hence it cannot be advised that High (poor) Parenting is due to
Parenting Stress or vice versa that Parenting Stress or Anxiety is caused by High (poor). But it
57 | P a g e
definitely establishes that certain traces of Parenting Stress and Anxiety shall be visible in Mothers
who are having Laxed or Over-reactive or Verbose Parenting Attitude. It can be also suggested that
in case of Good Parenting Attitude, there shall be absence or less amount of Parenting Stress and
Anxiety. Mothers who are able to strike a balance between all the three parenting attitudes shall be
more relaxed, in control and satisfied with their child’s overall behavior and growth and progress in
school and academics.
For all correlations that are weak especially all parenting attitude have weak positive correlation with
parenting stress, this indicates that the levels of stress may not all be triggered or associated with
parenting, other external forces like work pressure, personal growth, relationship issues etc. also play
a vital role in causing stress. This also implies that it is not necessary that all mothers will have
parenting stress. The same goes with anxiety, it is not necessary that anxiety symptoms shall always
be present if poor parenting is established as we find that out of the 59 mothers with Poor parenting
skills almost 75% (44) of the mothers have low anxiety. It allows us to suggest that Anxiety is an
independent factor which could be more of an aspect of an individual’s nature and or psychosomatic
health.
Over-reactivity shows the least correlation with both Parenting Stress and Anxiety. What can this
imply? As per (Lipscomb, 2012), Over-reactive mothers are those who are taking immediate
mechanisms to release their stress build-up i.e. display of anger, harsh words, show certain levels of
hostility, include derogatory comments, and sometimes rough physical interaction (Lipscomb, 2012)
to combat any kind of misbehavior or misconduct on their child’s part. It is mostly a strong part of
their belief system that the child should be disciplined in the way they think is right, thus leading to
no stress at all or very low Parental stress.
Verbosity vs Stress: Verbosity is that attitude of Mothers, when they are too vocal and most of their
parenting is around having long soliloquies, detailed explanations, too much of information on pros
and cons around certain displayed behavior of their child. Mostly children are receptive to
information floating around them but it has been found that too much of verbal instructions or too
58 | P a g e
many instructions confuses the child or the child loses interest in the conversation. Their span of
attention is less too, that refrains them from receiving all information shared by their mothers. It is
observed that such children shall repeat similar unwanted behavior again and again, which the
mothers are unable to realize as being the cause of information being lost between too many words.
This leads to frustration on the mothers part that even after so many instructions, explanations the
child is not learning and repeating the mistakes, giving rise to her frustration and stress.
Laxness vs Stress: Both have a weak correlation with each other. This implies that Mothers who are
comparatively relaxed in their parenting attitude and who administer less rules and are less strict in
their parenting have lesser amount of stress. Absolutely as expected since a mother who shall be less
strict or unable to implement fixed rules of conduct shall not be stressed if her child displays
indiscipline or often does mistakes. She might usually ignore her child’s behavior or not address it
appropriately for effective results.
We also need to understand that many a times long term stress due to other factors including mothers
going through psychological issues like depression might exhibit Over-reactive or dysfunctional
parenting attitude.
The results are suggesting that Anxiety and all the Parenting Attitude variables: Laxness, Over-
reactivity except Verbosity have weak correlations. Anxiety has a moderate correlation with
Verbosity. This is suggesting that Anxiety could be an independent factor and not be directly linked
with Parenting Attitudes. Although it does display moderate correlation with Parenting Stress and
with Total parenting attitude. We can say that presence of high parenting stress might confirm the
presence of certain level of anxiety amongst the mothers.
Thus we do not have any evidence to establish any kind of causal inferences between parenting
attitudes and Anxiety. When we talk about Anxiety it is defined by the symptoms triggered due to
feeling of anxiousness. The reasons behind feelings of anxiousness can be different, so one cause of
mothers anxiety could be constant worry for their child’s well-being, or could be uncertainty of their
59 | P a g e
future or it could be a completely different aspect of her personality, fears of different kind. The data
collected also indicates that overall anxiety symptoms across the mothers is low 78% (55), 14 %( 12)
mothers have moderate anxiety and 4% (3) have Severe Anxiety symptoms. There was no
mechanism to establish the reasons behind the symptoms of their Anxiety to their Parenting Attitude
or Parenting Stress.
Hence it can be concluded based on the results that positive correlation definitely exists between
parenting attitudes (Laxness, Over-reactivity & Verbosity), parenting Stress and Anxiety.
Additionally, it can be said that high values of Anxiety and Parenting Stress may not be linked with
Parenting Attitude rather it could be because of other factors not covered in the scope of this project
study.
3. Our next set of hypothesis tries to establish if there is exists any kind of significant relationship
between all the Parenting Attitude Variables, Parenting Stress and Anxiety with respect to the
demographics of the sample, Age of Mothers, Nuclear/Joint Family, Number of Children,
Working/Non-Working.
ANOVA was used to understand if different groups of Age play a role in impacting the levels of
Parenting Stress and Anxiety. The Sample was divided into two Age-Groups, Mothers of age less
than 40yrs and Mothers of Age 40yrs and above. The idea was to find if Mothers at different Age
affected their Parenting Attitude, Stress or Anxiety (ref Table 5.
Age Group vs Parenting Attitude: There is no significant relationship amongst the two age groups
and the corresponding Parenting Attitudes. This indicates that the range of age of the sample (33 yrs.
to 47yrs) and the two age groups (less than 40 and above 40) does not play any role in suggesting
variations in Parenting Attitude. So it is quite possible that across all mothers the probability of
finding a certain type of parenting attitude is not dependent on age. We need to remember that all
these mothers have children in class 6th. But we also need to remember that some other mothers have
two or more children and some are young adults or toddlers too. Of course we cannot ignore the fact
that with a bigger sample how the data would have looked and resulted in?
60 | P a g e
Age Groups vs Parenting Stress and Anxiety: The F(1, 68) values are all less than the critical values
signifying that there exists no significant relationship between Age and Parenting Stress and Age &
Anxiety of mothers, implying that age supposedly does not play a significant role in impacting on
parenting stress and anxiety. Parenting stress and anxiety are independent of the effects of age.
Family Type (Joint/Nuclear) vs Parenting Attitude, Parenting Stress and Anxiety: ANOVA test for
the above variables suggest the same that the type of family either joint or nuclear does not impact
the level and type of Parenting Attitude that the mothers shall display. Neither does it signify a good
relationship with Parenting Stress and Anxiety. Although independently the Mothers do display high
Parenting Stress up to 44% (17), Laxness 62% (24), Over-reactivity 64% (25), Verbosity 85% (33)
and Anxiety 18% (7).
Number of Children vs Parenting Attitude, Parenting Stress and Anxiety: The ANOVA results
suggest that Number of Children significantly impacts or affects the Parenting Attitude Over-
reactivity. Over-reactivity parenting attitude seems to be significantly associated with the number of
children the mothers have, and as per Table 2c as well, we find that with growing number of children
Over-reactivity of mothers grows along and is almost 100%. This definitely suggest that mothers are
challenged when they have more kids to manage and parenting is highly impacted, and they tend to
become more reactive, strict and harsh rather than being relaxed, settled and in control. All the
remaining Parenting variables Laxness, Verbosity and Parenting Stress and Anxiety are not showing
significant relationship with different number of children mothers have. This could mean that
mothers are by nature for example verbose and in some cases relaxed too that does not get impacted
by the number of kids they have.
Additionally Parenting Stress & Anxiety do not seem to be related to the Number of children
Mothers have. Having one child or two, doesn’t seem to affect the parenting stress that the mothers
experience. Same is apt for Anxiety in mothers, Anxiety is symptoms due to certain factors mostly
associated with worry and fear, and worry and fear may not be always related to mothers to generate
Anxiety Symptoms.
61 | P a g e
Occupation Type (working/non-working) vs Parenting Attitude, Parenting Stress and Anxiety: As per
the ANOVA results in Table 5, for establishing significant relationship between Laxness of Working
and Non-Working Mothers, the F value (3.170) is not significant at α = .05, the Null Hypothesis is
accepted that there exists no significant relationship between the Laxness of working and non-
working mothers. But on looking further we find that F (3.170) is significant at α = .10 and p=0.079
< α, since F(crit) = 2.781. We can consider to reject the null hypothesis at p<.079. More so because
the Laxness scores are highest compared to verbosity and over-reactivity for non-working and
working mothers both, additionally as per Table 2d, 70% of Working and 57% of non-working
mothers are displaying High Laxness Parenting Attitude. The point is at (0.10 < p > 0.05), there is
significant relationship between Working and Non-working Mothers with Laxness. Indicating that
the Occupational status of mothers does affect the magnitude of Parenting Attitude Laxness.
Working mothers tend to be more relaxed with rules and punishment to their children. Their work
place experiences, stress or sense of performance and lack of sufficient time with her kids, can result
in her being not too strict but rather understanding and compromising. She might be less attached too
with her child and too engrossed in her work priorities that she is unable to administer proper
discipline decorum in the house. Non-working mothers on the other hand may be in a better position
to implement discipline and be in control and not be too laxed in their parenting.
4. The subsequent hypothesis set tries to establish if Mothers with High Parenting or Low Parenting
have any significant relationship with Parenting Stress and Anxiety. Our Alternate Hypothesis states
that significant relationship exists between Parenting Attitudes and Parenting Stress & Anxiety.
ANOVA was done by dividing the sample into two groups i.e. High Parenting (Poor/Bad Parenting)
and Low Parenting (Good Parenting), and then testing to establish relationship with Parenting Stress
and Anxiety. There was no significant relationship found with Parenting Stress, indicating that
Parenting Stress may not be related to any kind of Parenting Attitudes. But significant relationship
62 | P a g e
was established with Anxiety at p=0.015, F(stat) = 6.15 which is greater than the F(crit) = 3.98. This
indicates that Mothers displaying good or bad parenting definitely impact the amount of anxiety that
she might experience. Or we can say that Anxiety in Mothers is related to the levels of good or bad
parenting skills of mothers.
5. The result of t-test (ref Table 6)are equally significant for Verbosity & Anxiety, Over-reactivity &
Anxiety and Laxness & Anxiety, implying that there is a possibility of having a dependent &
independent relationship between the Parenting Attitudes and Anxiety although the direction of
relationship cannot be established with the current scope of the study. Future control and experiment
study or comparative studies can confirm if Parenting Attitude causes Anxiety or Anxiety leads to
Parenting Attitude. Similarly Verbosity & Stress are also suggesting to be related, but the direction of
relation cannot be confirmed. The t-test result is significant at α =0.05, with p values very low, lower
than p<.001, and it is a confirmation to our Correlation outcomes as well. Hence we can say that
Parenting Attitude, Parenting Stress and Anxiety coexist in today’s mothers thus impacting their
overall parenting.
6. Transition of Children from Primary to Middle School: As this was the basic condition of the sample,
and the mothers were briefed before providing responses that the responses have to be in lieu of their
experiences and emotions around their child’s transition to middle school. This complements the
results to a great extent. Informal chat with the mothers covered most of the mothers stress and
Tension around the challenges that they are faced with regards to their child going to class 6th.
7. Impacts of Personality on Attitude: Some recent studies suggest that an individual’s personality
might be responsible for the type of attitudes one holds. The same can be said about parenting
attitude as well, a new study from Truity (2016), a company that specializes a personality
assessments, found that every personality trait affects his or her parenting style. This is the first
personality test that gauges a person's attitude towards having kids. The researchers gathered 2,689
63 | P a g e
mothers and 818 to take a 52-question personality test based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI). The results were quite a revelation of the fact that specific personality traits and types
exhibited a specific kind of parenting attitude or behavior. In such a scenario it forces us to believe
that the not so very conclusive results or correlations between parenting attitude, parenting stress and
anxiety in mothers could be because it is manifested in their personality itself hence cannot be related
directly or a causal relation cannot be established with Parenting Stress and Anxiety in mothers. This
study by Owens, (2015) addresses the question how our personality types might affect the roles we
take on in the family, and investigates how personality type might drive the choices we make in our
family lives. Are some types more likely to have children young, or to have big families? Are some
types more drawn to leave their careers in favor of full-time parenting? Are some types more likely
to decide not to have children at all? These are some of the questions that have been addressed in this
study and the same has been associated by their personality types.
8. Stress and anxiety caused by other factors: The sample of mothers displays sufficient amount of
Parenting Stress (40%) and lesser amount of Moderate to Severe Anxiety (21%), but somehow our
statistics doesn’t establish any significant relationship between Parenting Attitudes and Parenting
Stress or between Parenting Attitudes and Anxiety, although positive correlations exists. This leads
us to believe that Parenting Stress and Anxiety variables could be independent of the impacts of
different parenting attitudes. Indicating that Parenting Stress and Anxiety could have been present
due to factors other than Parenting Attitudes. These factors can be genuine worry of mothers for their
children’s well-being, or anxiety about their performance in exams, or overall behavior of their child
which is not as per their expectations. Which has nothing to do with their type of parenting but can
definitely lead to Parenting Stress and Anxiety. If the mother is unable to look after her kids due to
work pressure, or due to adverse economic conditions, or other family emergencies then it could lead
to stress and anxiety. If the mother is going through relationship issues either in her marriage or with
64 | P a g e
her in-laws or any other trauma, then also her neglect of her children might trigger parenting stress
and anxiety symptoms.
9. Association with child performance, behavior habits, growth and development: There are again many
studies that correlate parenting attitudes or styles as well as parenting stress with child outcomes.
Researchers have uncovered convincing links between parenting styles and children’s outcome on
social development (Altay & Gure, 2013, Lam, 2015, Tong et al. 2009). So Mothers who are laxed in
their attitude shall develop positive self-development and identity but such children might be easily
be drawn to negative social behavior due to being too self-centered. On the other hand mothers
showing a balanced parenting approach and attitude shall definitely rear children who can maintain
satisfactory social relationships, are responsible and are considerate of others as well.
10. Demographic analysis: In this study we have considered certain relevant demographics of the
sample such as Age of the Mothers, their Occupational Status, The number of children they have and
the type of family they belong to. There are various other demographics that might have some level
of relationship with Parenting Attitude, Parenting Stress and Anxiety, like Socio-Economic Status:
there are disparate studies that suggest that parents from low socio economic background shall be
high on parenting stress due to poor financial conditions or be very high on parenting attitude in
order to provide a better life to their child. On the contrary there are studies that establish that
parenting attitude is very relaxed in parents from poor families because they do not have time to look
after them or their children are working too and display independent behavior from very young.
Similarly parenting attitudes in high income families may be equally relaxed and or over-reactive or
depending on their attitude towards their life, status, business, peer pressure, etc.
This particular study has definitely established that mothers today are juggling too many things at
one time and hence are tolled by the sheer intensity of the jobs in hand especially parenting.
Therefore their Parenting Attitude is overall very high (poor) and subsequently they also display
certain levels of parenting stress and to a certain extent anxiety.

65 | P a g e
11. Parenting challenges due to their Child’s psycho-biological condition: Although this was not in scope
of the project but if at all this condition existed with few of the mothers then it remains unknown.
Parenting can be a big challenge for parents whose child is either physically challenged, mentally
challenged, has learning disabilities, is autistic, or is a Down-syndrome child or a child suffering
from a life threatening disease like cancer etc. To adjust, accommodate, plan for rehabilitation,
special education, finding good care, managing funds for treatment etc. are not one but many factors
that impact parenting attitudes, trigger immense parenting stress and in certain cases definitely give
rise to Anxiety symptoms.
To summarize the project outcomes based on our sample responses, descriptive statistics, inferential
statistics and analysis of the data, we can say that the correlational study was able to achieve the objectives
but at the same time it raises further questions on various factors and influences that were not in scope of the
project. It also forces us to understand that bigger sample size and a comparative study might have provided
us with better insight into the relationships of the variables.
66 | P a g e
CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION
The goal that was set out to assess the correlation between the Parenting Attitudes, Parenting Stress
and Anxiety was achieved successfully through this study. It was established that all the Parenting
Attitude variables i.e. Laxness, Over-reactivity and Verbosity were correlated with Parenting Stress
and Anxiety of mothers of children who had just recently transitioned to class 6th. Indicating that if
there was High Parenting Attitude scores in mothers, then it is quite likely that Parenting Stress and
Anxiety shall be present OR if mothers were going through high levels of parenting stress then it is
quite likely that their parenting attitude is also high. This was the very objective of this project to
establish relationship between the said variables.
Transition from primary to middle school (6th standard), as explained in Chapter 1, requires too much
of adjustment for the children and brings in a huge challenge for the Mothers with regards to their
parenting skills. This phase is very confusing for both the child and the mother as they re-adjust their
interactions, conflicts on stringent rules, increased expectations on both sides, all this because of the
growing academic burden that this transition brings.
Apart from correlation, the study was also able to establish that 1) The number of children a mother
has impacts her parenting attitude (Over-reactivity), 2) Working mothers are more Laxed in their
parenting attitude as compared with non-working mothers and that 3) Poor Parenting could trigger
anxiety in mothers.
The number of children that a mother rears definitely affects a mothers parenting attitude and she
tends to be over-reactive in her interactions with her child. Here we need to understand that a single
child demands and receives different kind of parenting care than compared with mothers having 2 or
more children. A single child usually receives full attention and lot of pampering that could lead him
to become snobbish, too demanding, aggressive or too weak and fearful. As per Adler’s birth order
67 | P a g e
theory, only children lack siblings, they lose the immediate availability of others near their own age
with whom to interact socially. In context to parenting a single child, encouraging the child to be
socially active and adaptable might be stressful for the mothers. However, only children must work
to win friends because family life does not provide them. However, only children are also often seen
as high-achieving, motivated, and successful (Brophy, 1989, p.56). They have been found to be quite
comfortable in presence of adults and are able to manipulate them.
Mothers have been found to be too emotionally attached to their only child and have the fear of
losing the bond or attachment. The entire universe of such mothers circles around their single child
and fulfilling his or her needs and demands. At the same time they are also conflicted with the
pressures to discipline her only child, or rather make his the perfect child. This leads the mothers to
take on the Attitude of Over-reactivity to control the child. Over-reactivity seems to be her weapon to
subdue her only child. Refer Table 5, we see that Over-reactivity (Mean) of 1 child is 40.5 which is
greater than the Mean of Over-reactivity scores of children 2 or more, indicating that over-reactivity
is greater in mothers with one child.
Now having two or more children, a mother’s responsibility increases in multiple aspects education,
discipline, household work, if she is working then managing professional obligations in such a
scenario (her focus is divided) being over-reactive is natural because maybe her rules, her
instructions are not adhered too but at the same time we do have studies that tell that mother’s
mellow down a bit when they have the second child. Having siblings is advantageous in developing
multiple interpersonal skills like sharing, caring, accommodating, of course rivalry too, competition,
adjusting and so much more. Sometimes a mother’s burden of rearing the child is also reduced when
it is shared by husband or the elder sibling or if theirs is a joint family.
The project also established a significant relationship between the effects of working or non-working
status on laxness attitude of the mothers. Working mothers are less Laxed in their parenting as
compared to the Non-working mothers, indicating that working mothers try to be relaxed and calm in
68 | P a g e
their parenting attitude compared to non-working mothers. It is quite possible that working mothers
get the opportunity to have a part of life where they are independent, are creative and are also able to
vent out their frustrations. The same is not possible for mothers who remain at home.
The study also established as a conclusive fact that High Parenting is significantly related to high
levels of anxiety in mothers. Indicating that poor parenting skills with the condition of their child
promoted to middle school, triggers anxiousness in mothers.
A glimpse of the t-test (ref Table 6), confirms that there exists bidirectional relationship between the
Parenting Attitudes & Parental Stress and Parenting Attitude and Anxiety. Since this study was a
correlational one, no comparative study can be evaluated based on the data.
For mothers today their child’s all round development is very important that includes Physical Health
and Safety, Emotional and Behavioural Competence, Social Competence and Cognitive Competence.
They desire their child to be very competitive and be at par with the best of best, but somewhere it is
observed that children are more carefree and do not have longer span of interests at least during this
transition phase. It’s a common but serious source of worry for parents: One starts to notice a lack of
motivation and commitment in their child’s attitude towards school. This becomes a good reason for
parents to experience parenting stress and anxiety.
Therefore it can be concluded or suggested that studies on parenting attitudes do not allow for the
identification of core parenting attitudes consistently associated with their parenting stress and
anxiety especially during crucial academic transition phases of their child. However, the available
evidence points from this study has established suitable correlation between the said variables hence
it becomes imperative to taking parents' attitudes and beliefs into consideration to assess their
parenting stress and anxiety that leads to specific child outcomes during transition from primary to
middle school
69 | P a g e
FUTURE RESEARCH
This project has opened multiple avenues for further study and research. The need of the hour is data,
data of all kinds of all sorts consisting of all permutations and combinations. While conducting the
project and writing it, realization was achieved that empirical data is very important to conduct
conclusive research and hence a certain level of restriction and limitation was experienced. The
correlational study tried to assess if there was any relationship between the Parenting Attitude
Variables, Parenting Stress and Anxiety in mothers, but other factors that also play an important role
in affecting these were not in the scope of this study. The future research work could run parallel
studies with such factors. The prospective areas where this study can be expanded to are explained
here:
1. Detailed assessment of Parenting Attitudes in Mothers/Fathers across varying age groups of
children for comparison
The current study dealt with mothers of children who experience a massive change in the form of
transition from primary to middle school. Increase in subjects and respective teachers, large
syllabus, lack of very supportive and caring environment of the primary school, loss of all the
bond established between the primary teachers and the child, sudden sense of independence, and
impacts of adolescent stage etc. Every age and stage brings its own set of challenges hence there
is enough scope for studies that try to gauge differences in parenting attitude or styles in parents
across their child’s growth and development. Does the attitude really change with time? Or the
change is triggered only when some emergency in life is reached. Hence we know there are many
aspects to this study that can be explored further.
2. An impact study of Personality on type of parenting parents display
70 | P a g e
As already mentioned in the Discussion (Chapter 5), this comes across as an interesting area for
future research to explore if specific personality types impact the type of parenting attitude or
style a parent embraces. As per Daniel Katz, Knowledge, Adaptive Behaviour or nature and Ego
Defense are the functional areas that define our attitudes towards life and people. It is based on
our experiences and we shape our attitudes such, in hope of having a particular type of
experience. Similarly our Personality is formed based on both our inherent traits that we are born
with and based on our interactions, learnings and knowledge of the environment around us.
Personality is more a static phenomenon whereas attitude might be adaptive according to
situations. Our personality manifests in us how we understand, project and change our attitudes.
Hence it is quite possible that Personality type signifies the type of attitude a person holds
consequently the same holds for parenting attitude in individuals. Hence studies to associate
Personality with specific Parenting Attitudes has a good prospect for future studies.
3. Causal Analysis of factors leading to Parental Stress and Anxiety in parents of normal children
There are multiple comparative studies between parental stress and anxiety of parents having
special children or terminal kids or mentally retarded children with normal kids. But causal
analysis of specific factors that lead to Parental Stress and anxiety for normal children is limited.
Hence this could be one area to research. Additionally this project establishes correlation
successfully but the findings do suggest that the direction of causal relation may not be Parenting
Attitude  Parenting Stress & Anxiety but the opposite as well i.e. Parenting Stress and/or
Anxiety  Parenting Attitude formation.
4. Effectiveness of counselling for better parenting
The data from this project clearly suggests that 84% (N=59) of the mothers exhibit poor parenting
skills. This gives us an opportunity to study if proper training and counselling can be provided to
the mothers to improve their parenting attitudes/styles for better outcomes for their children.
71 | P a g e
There could be a pre-test and post-test of effectiveness project to test the hypothesis that
counselling can improve parenting attitudes and reduce parenting stress to a large extent.
5. Correlational study of parenting attitudes, stress and anxiety in parents from low SES
Most of the research studies give varying results for different socio economic backgrounds. Same
studies might even give contradictory results across different countries, cultures and
communities. Hence it shall be good to understand how similar correlational study of Parenting
Attitudes, Parenting Stress and Anxiety in parents from low socio economic strata shall look like.
As per (Hoff, Laursen, Tardif, & Bornstein, 2002) their book suggests the evidence indicates that
both external and internal factors influence parenting and that multiple causal variables work,
separately and in conjunction, to effect SES-related differences in parenting. In Indian context the
results could be different or introduce a new aspect to this parenting scenario. It’s quite likely that
mothers and fathers have poor parenting attitudes but no parenting stress or anxiety related with
parenting. Or results could suggest that parents from low SES have working parenting styles that
support positive outcomes for their children. As we find more and more children from low SES
doing well in administrative exams in India. Hence this area is worth exploring.
6. Impact studies of parenting attitudes with different child outcomes (academic performance,
behavior, psychological issues etc.)
There is no dearth of research studies that have not dealt with this topic, but it is still very limited
in Indian context and scenarios. India being such a vast nation with diversity in every aspect of
life may it be food, clothing, habits, terrains, life styles, climate, economic stratas, religion and
above all people, requires more and more studies on across the entire spectrum to give rich
information. Parenting attitudes might be impacted as well by such factors that lead to varying
effects on the child’s outcomes. The child’s academic performance might be going down, the
child is displaying conduct issues or he/she is going through some psychological issues due to a
72 | P a g e
certain kind of parenting so for example: An over-reactive parent might make a child very fearful
and scared or a parent high on verbosity might lead a child to become indifferent.
7. A Pilot project to test an indigenously created robust parenting attitude scale or parental stress
scale
Creating and testing more and more psychometric instruments that are applicable in Indian
context across all domains of work and research studies. Since the scales used in this study were
all created by non-Indians in western populations, it is quite a possibility that results are not
entirely representative of the Indian Population! Hence it is imperative that good scales are
created on parenting and standardized on large samples in India.
We can conclude that this study definitely opens up new doors for a wide range of studies
involving parenting attitudes, parenting stress and anxiety. And all these research studies could be
executed gender wise, age wise to give better results.
73 | P a g e
CHAPTER 7
LIMITATIONS and SUGGESTIONS
Any kind of survey or study or research project can never be perfect, there shall always remain some
areas and aspects which are not touched or some aspects of the research question that remain un-
answered, or certain conditions that are not in our control and or the finding were not as per the
expectation of the research work. This is a boon in disguise since it allows researchers, analysts to
rethink, revisit their studies and come out with newer theories, models and frameworks for future
studies. There is always scope of improvement to any kind of study and the research design.
This particular study is no different and there were definitely some limitations. Following are some
areas which would have definitely enhanced this project and would have provided much better
results:
Sample Size: For any research study and analysis a large sample always renders better conclusive
results and hence it is advisable as well. Larger sample ensures a normal distribution and data
becomes more and more reliable. The researcher also finds faith in studies with larger samples. The
same cannot be said for this study. Although sample size 70 is reasonable but it would have been
better to have at least 100 mothers for the study. This is one of the biggest limitations to this study.
Initial idea was to approach schools and gather data via the students of class 6th of that school. This
would have easily provided a sample of at least around 200. But unfortunately the desired permission
could not be received from the schools thus limiting the sample size.
Correct and True Responses: Any research cannot guarantee 100% correct responses from its
sample. There is no way to identify corrupt answers. Even though most of the mothers were referred
and were acquaintances and were briefed about the project, its purpose and objective, it cannot be
denied that some responses may not be true facts hence the results could have been impacted. All the
74 | P a g e
doubts of the mothers were cleared, they were repeatedly explained and told about the importance of
the study and how it would be helpful in deriving material for future studies. As a researcher I want
to have complete confidence in my subjects. But still there can’t be any guarantee that the responses
were not rushed, random, and incorrect.
Current State of Mind of the Sample: When the mothers were filling their responses, at that point
of time what was their state of mind (happy, sad, irritated, relaxed, tensed etc.) cannot be predicted
nor assessed. Hence how the questions were interpreted and responses were provided cannot be
determined. Despite putting efforts to let the mothers relax and convincing them that their
information shall be safeguarded and not disclosed without permission, we cannot ensure that the
mothers were relaxed. It is quite possible that some work issue was bothering them or some family
matter was troubling them or some personal crisis did not allow them to relax and hence the
credibility of their responses might be impacted.
Lack of studies: There is a genuine dearth of studies in this regard hence found myself very
restricted in analysis and interpretation of the study. Had to refer mostly studies on parenting styles
and its impacts. Most of the studies with regards to Parenting is associated with impacts on children.
Even parenting stress is associated with their children. There seems to be lack of studies that actually
address parenting styles, attitudes, issues etc. with different outcomes in parents itself? An
individual’s behavior can be externally influenced but most of the attitudes and corresponding
behaviours are manifested from conditions within as well. Unless the factors affecting specific
parenting attitudes, parenting stress, parenting behaviours is not associated with individual
conditions, they cannot be addressed, corrective measures cannot be applied and hence effective
parenting cannot be achieved a true requirement of today’s times for our children.
But on second thoughts it does come across like an advantage since now we have at least a
correlational basis to connect Parenting Attitude, Parenting Stress and Anxiety. Many future studies
can be designed based on the findings of this study.
75 | P a g e
Operational limitations:
Permissions denied from schools: Participation of schools in research studies should be compulsory
since many or most of the studies require children or school environment etc. A lot of time got
wasted in coordinating with school for meetings, and waiting for response on the status of the
permission for the project.
Data Collection: Based on contacts and references I had foreseen a sample size of 100 very easily,
but somehow this notion did not work. It took 3-4 months to collect data from 70 mothers.
Organizing meetings at an informal setting with group of 10 to 15 mothers. Debriefing them about
the project, collecting the responses, transposing them in excel, mothers not turning up for the
meetings, etc. are some of the common operational issues faced during this project.
Getting SPSS was another challenge as there is still not a version compatible with OS Windows 10.
Could not rely on the free SPSS packages since they are laden with virus. Hence took the trial
version that did not run couple of times.
Scales & Tools used that are not created or standardized for Indian Population: Both scales that
is the Parenting Attitude Scale and the Parenting Stress scale are designed by non-Indian researchers.
There is quite a possibility that the Items are not applicable in Indian context or population since they
have not been standardized for Indian population.
Project Concept /Second Thoughts: The idea for this project came from my daily interaction with
mothers, their constant worries, frustration and laments around their child’s academic performance,
day to day behaviours, drawbacks, short comings etc. My continuous thoughts were around the fact
that why did the mothers behave the way they did? Why do they exhibit constant worries, frustration
and negativity around their child’s development? I was perplexed by the fact that they would keep
talking about the pressure that the child is going through academically, but was even surprised by the
fact that they were themselves under so much of stress and pressure of parenting. Most of the mothers
are well educated take deep interest in their child’s activities and are actively involved in the proper
76 | P a g e
growth and development of their child. Based on my observation of these mothers I derived the
hypothesis that definitely it is their parenting attitude that makes them remain worried, stressful and
constantly under pressure. There is an innate learning on matters of parenting attitude that the mothers
were not ready to give up. If the attitude could be tweaked or adjusted then lot of pressure problems
will fizzle out on its own. The children were more or less indifferent to their mothers’ condition.
While executing the project I did realize the following design issues with my project that limited its
scope.
1. The project title is restricted: ‘Correlational study of mothers of class 6th’
2. No comparative study possible with such a restricted scope: I could have considered Mother and
Father of class 6th children, or Mothers of class 6th and mothers of primary school students (since 6th is
a transition phase) to provide a better insight into the data, even ANOVA got restricted. If variables
were such that grouping could be done properly then ANOVA must have given us better conclusive
results.
3. Sample from same school: Again the sample if collected from at least two schools would have
provided us a better picture on parenting attitude and the correlations.
Limitations of the Researcher: Being a very first attempt towards conducting research, lack of
practical knowledge, implications of assumptions, confusion etc. might have definitely limited the
project study in a certain way. It’s quite possible that experience and working knowledge of how
things work would have helped.
Based on the above mentioned limitations, the following can be suggested for future ventures into such
research studies:
1. Target a bigger sample size
2. Research Design & Methodologies need to be well thought
3. The objectives and hypothesis statements should complement each other
4. Proper steps should be taken to ensure genuine subject responses
77 | P a g e
5. Schools should be directed to get involved in such kind of studies as the outcomes have inherent
benefits for the school system as well
6. Keep conducting more and more research studies to gain insight and enhance one’s operational
knowledge
78 | P a g e
REFERENCES
1. Abdorreza, K., Rozumah, B. Parenting attitude and style and its effect on children’s school
achievements. Int. J. Psychol. Stud. 2, 217 (2010) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijps.v2n2p217
2. Altay, F.B., & Gure, A. (2013). Relationship among the parenting styles and the social
competence and prosocial behaviors of the children who are attending to state and private
preschools. EDAM, 12(4), 2712-2718.
3. Annunziata, D., Hogue, A., Faw, L., & Liddle, H.A. (2006). Family functioning and school success
in at-risk, inner-city adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35, 105- 113.
4. Arnold, D. S., O’Leary, S. G., Wolff, L. S., & Acker, M. M. (1993). The Parenting Scale: A measure
of dysfunctional parenting in discipline situations. Psychological Assessment, 5(2), 137-144.
5. Bakhla AK, Sinha P, Sharan R, Binay Y, et al. (2013) Anxiety in school students: Role of parenting
and gender. Ind Psychiatry J 22: 131-137.
6. Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology
Monographs, 4, 1–103.
7. Bavolek, S. J. (1989). Assessing and treating high-risk parenting attitudes. Early Child Development
and Care, 42, 99-112.
8. Beck, A.T., & Steer, R.A. (1993). Beck Anxiety Inventory Manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological
Corporation.
9. Berry JD, Jones WH. The Parental Stress Scale: initial psychometric evidence. Journal of Social and
Personal Relationships, 1995; 12: 463-472.
10. Bertera EM, Crewe SE. Parenthood in the twenty-first century: African American grandparents as
surrogate parents. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. 2013; 23(2):178–192.
11. Bowlby, J. (1979). The making & breaking of affectional bonds. London: Tavistock Publications.
12. Brophy, B. (March 6, 1989). It doesn't hurt to be alone. U.S. News and World Report, 106, 54-55.
79 | P a g e
13. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press.
14. Bryan, J. B. (2005). Fostering educational resilience and achievement in urban schools through
school- family-community partnerships. Professional School of Counseling, 8, 219-227.
15. Cabrera N, Tamis-LeMonda CS, Bradley RH, Hofferth S, Lamb ME. Fatherhood in the twenty-first
century. Child Development. 2000;71 (1):127–136.
16. Calkins, S. D. (2002). Origins and outcomes of individual differences in emotional regulation.
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, 250–283.
17. Cheah CS, Chirkov V. Parents' personal and cultural beliefs regarding young children: A cross-
cultural study of aboriginal and Euro-Canadian mothers. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
2008;39(4):402–423
18. Cole, K., & Mitchell, P. (1998). Family background in relation to deceptive ability and understanding
of mind. Social Development, 7, 182–197.
19. Douglas K. S., Clark S. E., 2002. A Longitudinal Study of Mother‐Child Relationships and Theory of
Mind in the Preschool Period. Dr. Doug Symons Psychology Department, Acadia University,
Wolfville NS CANADA, B0P 1X0.
20. Elmore CA, Gaylord-Harden NK. The influence of supportive parenting and racial socialization
messages on African American youth behavioral outcomes. Journal of Child and Family Studies.
2013;22(1):63–75.
21. Epstein, J. L. Effects on student achievement of teachers’ practices of parent involvement. In S. B.
Silvern (Ed.). Advances in reading/language research: Vol. 5. Literacy through family, community,
and school interaction (pp. 261-276). (1991).
22. Fishbein M, Triandis HC, Kanfer FH, Becker M, Middlestadt SE. Factors influencing behavior and
behavior change. Evaluation & the Health Professions. 2001; 24(4):363–384.
23. Galper, A., Wigfield, A., & Seefeldt, C. (1997). Head Start parents' beliefs about their children's abilities, task
values, and performances on different activities. Child Development, 68(5), 897-907.
80 | P a g e
24. Green, S. B., & Salkind, N. J. (2010). Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and
Understanding Data (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
25. Griffith, J. (1996). Relation of parental involvement, empowerment, and school traits to student
academic performance. Journal of Educational Research, 90(1), 33-41
26. Hakman, M.; Sullivan, M., 2009. The Effect of Task and Maternal Verbosity on Compliance in
Toddlers. Infant and Child Development, v18 n2 p195-205.
27. Harwood RL, Miller JG, Irizarry NL. Culture and Attachment: Perceptions of the Child in Context.
New York: Guilford Press; 1997.
28. Hayes, S. A., & Watson, S. L. (2013). The impact of parenting stress: A meta-analysis of studies
comparing the experience of parenting stress in parents of children with and without autism spectrum
disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43, 629–642. doi: 10.1007/s10803-012-
1604-y
29. Hidangmayum, N., & Khadi, P. B. (2012). Parenting stress of normal and mentally challenged
children. Karnataka Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 25 (2), 256-259.
30. Hoff, E., Laursen, B., Tardif, T., & Bornstein, M. (2002). Socioeconomic status and parenting. In M.
H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Volume 2, biology and ecology of parenting (pp. 231-
252). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
31. Humfress, H., O'Connor, T. G., Slaughter, J., Target, M., and Fonagy, P. (2002). General and
relationship-specific models of social cognition: explaining the overlap and discrepancies. J. Child
Psychol. Psychiatry 43, 873–883. doi: 10.1111/1469-7610.0013_7
32. Iruka IU, Durden T, Kennel P. Changing faces: Parenting, culture, and child learning and
development. ZERO TO THREE Journal. 2015;35(4):10.
33. Jones TL, Prinz RJ. Potential roles of parental self-efficacy in parent and child adjustment: A
review. Clinical Psychology Review. 2005; 25(3):341–363.
81 | P a g e
34. Keith, T. Z., Keith, P. B., Quirk, K. J., Sperduto, J., Santillo, S., & Killings, S. (1998). Longitudinal
effects of parent involvement on high school grades: Similarities and differences across gender and
ethnic groups. Journal of School Psychology, 36(3), 335-363.
35. Lam,G.(2015).How does maternal employment affect children’s socioemotional functioning?. Tung
Wah College Education, 135(4),457-464.
36. Leyendecker B, Lamb ME, Harwood RL, Schölmerich A. Mothers' socialisation goals and
evaluations of desirable and undesirable everyday situations in two diverse cultural groups.
International Journal of Behavioral Development. 2002;26(3):248–258.
37. Lipscomb, S.T., Leve, L.D., Shaw, et al. (2012) ‘Negative emotionality and externalizing problems
in toddlerhood: Overreactive parenting as a moderator of genetic influences’, Development and
Psychopathology, 24(1), pp. 167–179. doi: 10.1017/S0954579411000757.
38. Kennedy, D. The Relationship between Parental Stress, Cognitive Distortions, and Child
Psychopathology (2012). PCOM Psychology Dissertations. 207.
39. Maccoby, E. E. (2000). Parenting and its effects on children: On reading and misreading behavior
genetics. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 1–27.
40. Maccoby, E. E., & Martin, J. A. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent–child
interaction. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.) & E. M. Hetherington (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology:
Vol. 4. Socialization, personality, and social development (4th ed., pp. 1-101). New York: Wiley.
41. McLoyd, V. C. (1990). The Impact of Economic Hardship on Black Families and Children:
Psychological Distress, Parenting, and Socioemotional Development. Child development, 61(2), 311-
346. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1990.tb02781.x
42. Meins, E. (1997). Security of attachment and maternal tutoring strategies: Interaction within the zone
of proximal development. British Journal of Developmental Psychology
43. Meins, E., Fernyhough, C., Russell, J., & Clark-Carter, D. (1998). Security of attachment as a
predictor of symbolic and mentalising abilities: A longitudinal study. Social Development, 7, 1-24.
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9507.00047
82 | P a g e
44. National Research Council and Institute of Medicine; Committee on Integrating the Science of Early
Childhood Development; Board on Children, Youth, and Families; Commission on Behavioral and
Social Sciences and Education. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood
Development. Shonkoff JP, Phillips DA, editors. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2000.
45. Okagaki L, Bingham GE. Parenting: An Ecological Perspective. 2nd ed. Luster T, Okagaki L,
editors. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 2005. pp. 3–33. (Parents' social cognitions and
their parenting behaviors).
46. Osofsky JD, Fitzgerald HE. WAIMH Handbook of Infant Mental Health. Vol. 1. Chichester, UK:
Wiley; 2000. (Perspectives on Infant Mental Health).
47. Park S., Bung-Nyun K., Park MH. The relationship between parenting attitudes, negative cognition,
and the depressive symptoms according to gender in Korean adolescents (2017). Int. J. Ment. Health.
Syst. doi: 10.1186/s13033-016-0069-3
48. Parker, F. L., Piotrkowski, C. S., Kessler-Sklar, S., Baker, A. J., Peay, L., & Clark, B. (1997). Parent
involvenient in Head Start (Executive summary). New York: National Council of Jewish Women
Center for the Child.
49. Rebecca P. Ang (2008) Dysfunctional Parenting Behaviors and Parenting Stress Among Mothers of
Aggressive Boys, Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 30:4, 319-336, DOI:
10.1080/07317100802483181
50. Reynolds, A. J. (1992). Comparing measures of parental involvement and their effects on academic
achievement. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 7(3), 441-462. EJ453450.
51. Rogoff B. The Cultural Nature of Human Development. New York: Oxford University Press; 2003.
52. Rosenthal MK, Roer-Strier D. “What sort of an adult would you like your child to be?”: Mothers'
developmental goals in different cultural communities in Israel. International Journal of Behavioral
Development. 2006;30(6):517–528.
53. Rothbaum, F., & Weisz, J. R. (1994). Parental caregiving and child externalizing problems in
nonclinical samples: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 55–74.
83 | P a g e
54. Shaw, D. S., Gilliom, M., Ingolds by, E.M. & Nagin, D.(2003).Trajectories leading to school-age
conduct problems. Developmental Psychology, 39, 189–200.
55. Sui-Chu, E. H., & Willms, J. D. (1996). Effects of parental involvement on eighth-grade
achievement. Sociology of Education, 69(2), 126-147.
56. Tong, L., Shinohara, R., Sugisawa, Y., Tanaka, E., Maruyama, A., Sawada, Y., Ishi,Y.,& Anme,T.
(2009). Relationship of working mothers’ parenting style and consistency to early childhood
development: a longitudinal investigation. Journal of advanced nursing, 65(10), 2067-2076.
57. Tremblay, R. E., Nagin, D. S., S éguin, J. R., Zoccolillo, M., Zelazo, P. D., Boivin, M., et al. (2004).
Physical aggression during early childhood: Trajectories and predictors. Pediatrics, 114, e43–e50.
58. Tremblay RE, Boivin M, Peters RDeV, eds. Tremblay RE, topic ed. Encyclopedia on Early
Childhood Development [online]. Updated September 2015.
59. Whiting BB, Whiting JW. Children of Six Cultures: A Psycho-Cultural Analysis. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press; 1975.
60. Yousefia SH, Soltani Far A, Abdolahian E. Parenting stress and parenting styles in mothers of
ADHD with mothers of normal children. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2011; 30: 1666
– 1671.
61. Ajzen I, Fishbein M. Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall; 1980.
62. Connor, T., Scott, S. (2007). Parenting and outcomes for children. London: Joseph Rowntree
Foundation
63. Hogg, M. A., & Vaughan, G. M. (2005). Social psychology (4th ed.) (p. 150). London: Pearson
Education
64. Katz, Daniel (1960). "The Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes". Public Opinion
Quarterly. 24 (2): 163. doi:10.1086/266945.
65. Parenting Matters: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Division of
Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Board on Children, Youth, and Families; Committee
84 | P a g e
on Supporting the Parents of Young Children; Breiner H, Ford M, Gadsden VL, editors. Washington
(DC): National Academies Press (US); 2016 Nov 21.
Websites
http://www.apa.org/topics/anxiety/index.aspx
https://hbr.org/2011/08/why-are-indias-women-so-stress
https://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/default/files/jrf/migrated/files/parenting-outcomes.pdf
http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/sites/default/files/dossiers-complets/en/parenting-skills.pdf.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK402020/
85 | P a g e
APPENDICES
86 | P a g e
APPENDIX I
Graphical representation of the Sample Data
1. Figure 1
Parenting Attitudes
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Laxness OR Verbosity Stress
High Low
Fig 1: Percentage of Mothers, showing Poor (High) and Good Parenting (Low)
2. Figure 2
Age vs All P.Attitude, P. Stress, Anxiety

120.0%
100.0%
80.0%
60.0%
40.0%
20.0%
0.0%
High Stress Mod/Sev anxiety High OR High Verb High Lax
> 37 37 - 40 41 - 44 > 44
Fig 2: Percentage Distribution of Age-wise High Attitude, P.Stress and Anxiety
87 | P a g e
3. Figure 3
NOF vs P.Attitude, P.Stress, Anxiety

100.0%
80.0%
60.0%
40.0%
20.0%
0.0%
High Stress High Lax Mod/Sev anxiety High OR High Verb
Less than 5 less than 8 > 7 <11
Fig 3: % No. of Family Members of mother’s vs High Parenting Attitudes, P. Stress and Anxiety
4. Figure 4
NOC vs P.Attitude, P. Stress, Anxiety

120.0%
100.0%
80.0%
60.0%
40.0%
20.0%
0.0%
High Stress High Lax Mod/Sev anxiety High OR High Verb
1 Child 2 Children 3 Children
Fig 4: % of Mothers with different number of children vs High Parenting Attitude, P. Stress and Anxiety
88 | P a g e
5. Figure 5
Good/Bad Parenting Agewise

120.0%
100.0%
80.0%
60.0%
40.0%
20.0%
0.0%
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low
Lax OR VER Tot Lax OR VER Tot A Lax OR Ver Tot Lax OR Ver Tot
> =37 (10) 37 - 40 (41) 41 - 44 (14) > 44 (5)
Fig 5: Age-wise % of Poor Parenting and Good Parenting
89 | P a g e
APPENDIX II
EVALUATION SCHEME FOR PROJECT

(To be filled by the External Examiner)
Name of the Programme: MAPC Course Code:
Study Centre: Regional Centre:
Name of the Learner:
Enrolment No.:
Details Maximum Marks Marks Obtained
Review of Literature 5
Significance of the Study 5
Methodology 15
Data Analysis 20
Results and Discussion 20
References 5
Viva voce 30
Total Marks 100
Comments if any:_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
Signature: __________________________ Signature: _________________________
Name of Internal Examiner Name & Address of External Examiner
_____________________________ _________________________________
Date: Date:
90 | P a g e
APPENDIX V
91 | P a g e
APPENDIX VI
Letter to Mothers
Information and Consent Form cum Letter to Conduct a Survey on Parenting Attitude vs Stress &
Anxiety
Dear Mothers/Parents,
Class 6th (senior school) must have been a huge transition for both your children as well as you in terms of
curriculum, change in exam pattern and overall academic/parenting workload. As a mother of two, I myself
know what it takes and how impactful it is in our day to day interactions with our child and his/her school, in
every possible way. There is enough understanding of the extent to which mothers contribute and put efforts
behind their kids and it is truly appreciated. It is for this reason alone that our children are smart, bright, alert
and doing so well in every aspect.
There have been numerous studies done on how Parenting Pressure is impacting the children but very few or
zero research done on how the parents especially mothers are under pressure due to the constant Demands of
parenting. The purpose of this study is exactly this that is to gauge the levels of Stress and Anxiety that the
mothers bear due to the immense pressure of parenting. We are looking for 100% participation and
encourage you to not miss this opportunity. This exercise shall allow us together to address this untouched
issue and guide us for the way ahead.
Brief of the Survey:

There are 3 different questionnaires along with a Demographic Form listed here:
1. Demographics (General Info e.g. Name, Age etc.),
2. Parenting Attitude (your interaction with your child)
3. Parental Stress (How your involvement with your child impacts your own self?)
4. Beck’s Anxiety (how often feeling of nervousness, sweating etc. you experience linked with parenting)
The effectiveness of this survey lies in prompt and true responses from the mothers. Request all mothers to
be calm and settled when answering the questions. The questionnaire is very straight forward and you shall
be able to relate yourself to the questions. The duration of the survey is between 10 to 15 min (max).
Kindly return the filled in questionnaires latest by Date:
Thanks a lot for your participation.
Meghna Singh
(Project Coordinator, For any queries you can call at 09810152499 between 10 AM to 4 PM)
Pursuing MA in Psychology (Counselling): IGNOU
92 | P a g e
APPENDIX VII
Forms and Scales for Data Collection
Form 1
DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS
Kindly provide general details about yourself and your family.

Name
Gender Age
Address
Family Details
No. of Members Nuclear Joint
Number of children
Details Name Age Gender Class School
Child 1
Child 2
Child 3
Education
Occupation
Do you feel parenting is a challenge in today’s times? How?
What are the main concerns regarding your child’s study habits and attitude?
Do you have any of the following ailments?

Diabetes Thyroid Blood Pressure Weight Other
*All information provided shall be used only for research purpose and shall remain confidential.
93 | P a g e
Form 2
94 | P a g e
95 | P a g e
Form 3
Parental Stress Scale
The following statements describe feelings and perceptions about the experience of being a
parent. Think of each of the items in terms of how your relationship with your child or
children typically is. Please indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with the
following items by placing the appropriate number in the space provided.
1 = Strongly disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Undecided 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly agree
1 I am happy in my role as a parent

2 There is little or nothing I wouldn't do for my child(ren) if it was
necessary.
3 Caring for my child(ren) sometimes takes more time and energy than I
have to give.
4 I sometimes worry whether I am doing enough for my child(ren).
5 I feel close to my child(ren).
6 I enjoy spending time with my child(ren).
7 My child(ren) is an important source of affection for me.

8 Having child(ren) gives me a more certain and optimistic view for the
future.
9 The major source of stress in my life is my child(ren).
10 Having child(ren) leaves little time and flexibility in my life.
11 Having child(ren) has been a financial burden.
12 It is difficult to balance different responsibilities because of my
child(ren).
13 The behaviour of my child(ren) is often embarrassing or stressful to me.
14 If I had it to do over again, I might decide not to have child(ren).
15 I feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of being a parent.
16 Having child(ren) has meant having too few choices and too little control
over my life.
17 I am satisfied as a parent
18 I find my child(ren) enjoyable
96 | P a g e
Form 4
Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
Below is a list of common symptoms of anxiety. Please carefully read each item in the list. Indicate how
much you have been bothered by the symptoms during the past 2 months, including today, by circling the
number in the corresponding space in the column next to each symptom.
Not At All Mildly but it Moderately - Severely – it
didn’t it wasn’t bothered me
bother me pleasant at a lot
much times
Numbness or tingling □ □ □ □
Feeling hot □ □ □ □
Wobbliness in legs □ □ □ □
Unable to relax □ □ □ □
Fear of worst □ □ □ □
happening
Dizzy or lightheaded □ □ □ □
Heart □ □ □ □
pounding/racing
Unsteady □ □ □ □
Terrified or afraid □ □ □ □
Nervous □ □ □ ×
Feeling of choking □ □ □ □
Hands trembling □ □ □ □
Shaky / unsteady □ □ □ □
Fear of losing control □ □ □ □
Difficulty in breathing □ □ □ □
Fear of dying □ □ □ □
Scared □ □ □ □
Indigestion □ □ □ □
Faint / lightheaded □ □ □ □
Face flushed □ □ □ □
Hot/cold sweats □ □ □ □
97 | P a g e

MAProject Dissertation Final

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

MAProject Dissertation Final

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

MAProject Dissertation Final

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

PROJECT DISSERTATION

Programme Code : MAPC

ANXIETY IN MOTHERS OF CHILDREN IN GRADE 6th

Singh (Enrolment Number: __163331188___).

of the requirement of any course of study.

Signature of the Learner Signature of the Supervisor

Enrolment Number: Designation:

Place: Name of Instt./ Org.:

This is to certify that Mr./Ms. ________MEGHNA SINGH_______ Enrolment No.

163331188 has successfully completed Project in MPCE 016/ MPCE-026/MPCE-036 titled

under the guidance of DR. PRIYANKA SRIVASTAVA

Signature of the Learner Signature of the Guide/Supervisor

Enrolment No: Designation:

Study Centre: Place:

Regional Centre: Date:

me so much throughout this period.

Mrs. Shikha Banerji.

Thank you very much, everyone!

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................................................................................ 3

APPENDIX I : Graphical representation of Parenting Attitude, P. Stress and Anxiety of

APPENDIX I I : Evaluation Scheme for Project

APPENDIX I I I : Consent Letter of Supervisor

APPENDIX I V : Proforma For Approval of Project Synopsis

APPENDIX V : Record of Visits carried out by the Learner

APPENDIX V I : Letter To Mothers

APPENDIX V I I : Tools and Scales used for the Project

APPENDIX V I I I : Master Data

APPENDIX I X : Project Synopsis in Original

developmental and or transitional stages of their child! “

in reduction of unnecessary stress and anxiety in parents especially the mothers.

hence experience manifold changes academically, cognitively, emotionally, physically and

This is exactly what this study shall try to establish.

decisions and behavior.

and events in an evaluative way.

and can be either physical or psychological.

3. Anxiety: The American Psychological Association defines anxiety as an emotion characterized

intrusive thoughts or concerns.

special children), Laxness, and Verbosity etc.

Researchers delving in children’s development have investigated parenting attitudes, cognitions,

problems (Annunziata, Houge, Faw, & Liddle, 2006).

5. Types of Parenting Attitude:

requires to be modified for better parenting outcomes.

established that over-reactive parenting leads to increased negative emotionality in children

internalized psycho-somatic symptoms with a single dimension of the parent–child relationship.

thoughts, feelings and behavior.

that permit them to succeed in the parent role.

aspects of the child’s persona and development.

Fatigue, Dietary issues, Headaches, Irritated, increased health issues, etc.

developmental aspects including their school, education, academic performance etc.

other factors too that increases stress and anxiety in mothers.

especially when children are young and need more attention.

when it comes to entering into newer relationships.

trigger anxiety situations.

Transition from Primary to Middle School

Stress, Anxiety impacting Parenting Attitude or vice versa.

Counselling Need of Parents: Preventive or educational or psychological counselling techniques could

respect to parental attitude.

Singh (Enrolment Number: 163331188_).

This is to certify that Mr./Ms. __MEGHNA SINGH_ Enrolment No.