The Relationship between Students’ Perceptions of Parenting Styles and their University Life Adjustment

The current study examines the association between university students’ perceptions of parentingstyles and their university life adjustment. Data were collected from Sultan Qaboos University(SQU) in Oman. The sample consisted of 2562 undergraduate students (59% were females) from differentcolleges and study years. The participants responded to two questionnaires. The first questionnaireexamined students’ perceptions of three parenting styles: authoritative (7 items), authoritarian (7 items),and permissive (6 items). The university life adjustment was examined by a questionnaire that focusedon psychological (10 items) and non-psychological (5 items) problems that students face during universityyears. Both measures were found to be stable and reliable. The findings showed that college studentsreported high levels of authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles, low levels of permissivestyle, and low psychological and non-psychological problems. Additionally, results of two separate regressionanalyses indicated that students’ psychological problems were predicted positively by authoritarianmother and negatively by authoritative mother and authoritative father; the non-psychologicalproblems were predicted negatively by authoritative father and positively by authoritarian mother andpermissive father. Findings were discussed within Omani cultural context.