The Adverse Influence of Permissive Parenting on Personal Growth and the Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence

ABSTRACT

In this research the presumed negative associations between permissive parenting and both adolescents' emotional intelligence and personal growth were examined. Previous studies have demonstrated a positive association between emotional intelligence and personal growth as well as a negative association between permissive parenting and personal growth. The authors extend previous research by testing a hypothesized process model through which permissive parenting negatively predicts scores on an ability measure of emotional intelligence that, in turn, predicts personal growth. The results indicated that emotional intelligence is both negatively associated with permissive parenting and that individual differences in emotional intelligence predict increased personal growth. In addition, we found that permissive parenting's negative influence on subsequent personal growth is mediated by emotional intelligence. It is suggested that permissive parenting might adversely influence the development of emotional intelligence by limiting both the number of challenging emotional experiences and the extent to which parents directly facilitate emotional growth.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional intelligence
• parenting style
• permissive parenting
• personal growth
• well-being

Notes

1. In earlier analyses correlations were specified between the other two measures of parenting style assessed by the Parenting Authority Questionnaire (authoritative and authoritarian parenting). They were not significantly correlated with the EI measure.