Parenting practices and adolescents’ mental health: Serial mediation by parental acceptance and adolescents’ grit

ABSTRACT

This quantitative cross-sectional study assessed the serial mediation effect of perceived parental acceptance and adolescents’ grit on the relationship between effective parenting practices and adolescents’ mental health. A total of 761 school-going adolescents (468 females; aged 13–18 years) from the Klang Valley area were recruited using purposive sampling method. They completed the Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire, Short Grit Scale, Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. PROCESS macro analysis revealed that the relationship between paternal and maternal effective parenting practices and adolescents’ mental health were independently mediated by both perceived parental acceptance and adolescents’ grit. This shows that effective parenting practices used by fathers and mothers help in reducing adolescents’ mental health issues as effective parenting is perceived as a form of acceptance and is able to improve grittiness in adolescents. Moreover, a serial mediation analysis found that higher usage of effective parenting practices in fathers and mothers are perceived for higher acceptance, contributing to higher grittiness, which then lowers mental health issues in adolescents. Our results suggest that organizations and individuals involved with adolescents should actively promote the adoption of effective parenting techniques by both mothers and fathers to enhance the mental well-being of adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• Parenting
• parental acceptance
• grit
• mental health
• adolescence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualization: P.J.W.; Formal analysis: S.L.W. and G.J.R.Y.L.; Writing – original draft: G.J.R.Y.L.; Writing – review & editing: S.L.W. and G.J.R.Y.L.; Reviewing and supervision: S.L.W., P.J.W. and C.C.Y.; Funding acquisition: S.L.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author (Wu Shin Ling).

Ethical approval

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committee of Sunway University (Approval code: SUREC 2021/012). All participants have provided consent to participate in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme of the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, FRGS/1/2020/SS0/SYUC/03/1. The authors would like to show their appreciation for the funds given.

Notes on contributors

Glen Johan Ri Young Lim

Glen Johan Ri Young Lim is a graduate student at Sunway University, Malaysia.

Shin Ling Wu

Shin Ling Wu is a senior lecturer at Sunway University, Malaysia.

Chin Choo Yap

Chin Choo Yap is a senior lecturer at Sunway University, Malaysia.

Pei Jun Woo

Pei Jun Woo is a senior lecturer at Sunway University, Malaysia.