In this master's thesis, we wanted to find out whether there are connections between the identity positions of Slovenian students and the parenting styles of their parents. In the theoretical part, we first defined the main concepts – adolescence, identity, and identity positions according to the author James Marcia, and parenting styles according to the author Diane Baumrind. In the empirical part, we researched the connection between the identity positions of students and the parenting styles of their parents, while including some other variables, such as age, gender, final academic achievement of students, and the socio-economic status of the family. In the quantitative research, we used two separate questionnaires: the Parental Authority Questionnaire PAQ (Alkharusi et al., 2011) and the Marcia Identity Positions Questionnaire EOM-EIS2 (Nwe Oo, 2015). The research included male and female high school students in the Dolenjska region who are attending programs of upper secondary vocational education and upper secondary technical education. A total of 198 students (100%) completed the questionnaire measuring parental style, while 177 students (89.4%) completed the questionnaire measuring dominant identity position.
The results showed that each of the parenting styles is statistically significantly associated in a positive direction with at least one of the identity positions. In the case of an authoritative parenting style, a statistically significant association with a mature identity position was confirmed. For the authoritarian parenting style, we proved the connection with the diffusion status, foreclosure status, and moratorium, while for the permissive parenting style, we proved a connection with two identity positions – diffusion status and foreclosure status. We also proved statistically significant differences between genders in parenting styles and identity positions of students: in the case of authoritarian and permissive styles of parenting, as well as in the diffuse and foreclosure identity positions – higher results were achieved in all categories by male students. In most cases, statistically significant differences were not found between younger and older students except with authoritarian parenting style, which was more prevalent among younger students. We also found that there is a negative, statistically significant correlation between the academic achievements of students and authoritarian and permissive styles of parents, as well as with the most identity positions – diffuse, foreclosure, and moratorium. We also proved statistically significant differences between the socio-economic status of the family in authoritative and permissive parenting styles. In the case of identity positions, statistically significant differences regarding the socio-economic status of the family did not emerge.
The obtained results can significantly contribute to the understanding of the current identity positions of adolescents and the broader environment in which they are growing up. The latter can enable professionals to apply more thoughtful pedagogical actions and responses and make better intervention choices.
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