Predictive Relationship among Perceived Parental Efficacy, Bullying Victimization and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a distinct stage of the developmental life cycle in humans (Elliot & Feldman, 1990; Spear 2000). It reflects many changes physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively. Studies defined adolescent’s period from age 10 to 18 years (Curtis, 2015). The role of parenting in this age has a vigorous impact on their mental health and to deal with the challenges of bullying in their life (Jaworska, 2015). Therefore, the present study was conducted to understand the relationship of parental efficacy with bullying victimization and depressive symptoms in adolescents. 

The study investigated parental efficacy among a stratified random sample of N=309 school children (Boys=153 and Girl=159)) with the age range of 12 to 18 years (M=14.06) (SD=4.41) participated in the study. The study results revealed that emotional bullying is the positive predictor of depressive symptoms in adolescents. On the contrary, gender of boys, students of class 10th and awareness of parents is the negative predictor against depressive symptoms. Implications of this study from the perspective of adolescents are discussed.