PERCEIVED PARENTAL SUPPORT AS A FACTOR OF PREVENTING MALADJUSTED BEHAVIOUR IN ADOLESCENCE

Abstract

Social support refers to the benefits one is capable of receiving from relationships with other people. Family as a primary unit is the one that should be the greatest source of all forms of social support. However, young people sometimes do not feel that their family is the source of that kind of support, so it could be said that perceived and actual support are not the same thing. Perceived support is the subjective sense one has, and it does not have to be (and it is usually not) in accordance with actual support others offer. Thus, perceived support should be measured, since based on that perception one gets the impression of how much one can rely on others and what can be expected from others, which on the other hand, undoubtedly determines one’s behaviour. The aim of the research was to determine a relationship between perceived parental support and appearance of maladjusted behaviour among adolescents (high-school students). The research was carried out on a sample of 110 high-school students that answered the Maladjusted Behaviour Questionnaire, the Social Support Questionnaire, the Former Relationship with Parents Questionnaire and the Current Relationship with Parents Questionnaire. The research results indicate that appearance of maladjusted behaviour and support adolescents perceive they receive from parents are in a negative correlation in the sense that perceived parental support is lesser with adolescents who show more forms of maladjusted behaviour. Further on, the results indicate that perceived parental support from the father and mother is in correlation to maladjusted behaviour, with the exception that perceived support adolescents receive from the father is in somewhat greater correlation than perceived support from the mother, which leads to the conclusion that perceived parental support of both parents is a significant factor for prevention of maladjusted behaviour, particularly perceived support of the father. Keywords: perceived parental support, family, forms of maladjusted behaviour

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