The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction effects of parent-child relationship and internal locus of control on adolescents?? school adjustment. Subjects of this study consisted of 513 middle school students who were attending four ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction effects of parent-child relationship and internal locus of control on adolescents?? school adjustment. Subjects of this study consisted of 513 middle school students who were attending four different middle schools in C city. Parent-child relationship was measured with PBI(parker, 1979), school adjustment with Kim's School Adjustment for Adolescents'(2003), and locus of control with ?eLocus of Control Scale for Children(Nowicki and Strickland1, 1973). School adjustment was consisted of four sub-categories such as teacher adjustment, peers adjustment, class adjustment, and adjustment to school rules. Data were analyzed by SPSS 12.0 version. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, t-test, F-test, Duncan post hoc. test, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical regression were employed. Research explores whether parent-child relationship and adolescents' internal locus of control influence school adjustment, and whether internal locus of control has moderation effect.
The results of this study were as follows:
First, parent-child relationship was different by general background. Father control was highly perceived by female than male students, and fathers with college degree or higher had stronger father control than ones who had less. There were no significant differences in parent-child relationship by mother's education. Mother support was perceived in the order of participants' academic achievement level. Groups reported as high achievers were influenced more by mother support than groups reported as middle or less achievers.
Second, there were differences in internal locus of control depending on student's gender. Female students' internal locus of control was higher than male students'.
Third, adolescents' school adjustment was different by general background. Male students had better relationship with teachers than female students. And they adapted more easily to school rules. Groups whose father with higher education adapted better to classes in school. There was no relation between mother's education and adolescents' school adjustment. High achievers had better relationship with teachers and peer, and they showed better adjustment to school classes and school rules as well.
Then, this study dealt with the relative impact of demographic variables, parent-child relationship, and adolescents' internal locus of control on school adjustment. Also, investigation on whether internal locus of control moderates the influence of parent-child relationship on adolescents' school adjustment was done.
First, for the adolescents' adjustment to relationship with teachers, there were meaningful relations between the student's gender and mother support, and between mother control and the student's internal locus of control. Male students and students who perceive mother control highly showed meaningful interaction. In the case of the groups with high internal locus of control, the stronger mother control they had, the poorer adjustment to the relationship with teachers whereas the groups with low internal locus of control showed better adjustment to the relationship with teachers when they had high mother control.
Second, gender, grades, mother support and internal locus of control had meaningful infthences to peer adjustment. Female students, high achievers, high internal controller and adolescents who perceive mother support highly had better relationship with peers and there was no interaction effect among those variables.
Third, for the adolescents' adjustment to school classes, gender, grades, father support, mother control and internal locus of control were statistically meaningful. Male students, higher achievers, adolescents' with high internal control, adolescents who perceived father support highly and ones who perceived less mother control adjusted to school classes better but there were no interaction among those variables.
Lastly, for the adolescents' adjustment to school rules, interactions among gender, grades, father support, mother control, and mother control were statistically meaningful. Male students, higher achievers, adolescents who perceived father support highly adjusted to school rules better. In addition, groups with high internal locus of control showed poor adjustment to school rules when they get strong mother control, while groups with low internal locus of control showed better adjustment to school rules due to the meaningful interaction between mother control and internal locus of control.
In conclusion, this study shows gender is the most significant variable on teachers adjustment. The fact that students who perceive mother support highly show the better adjustment to the relationship with teachers reveals that the parent-child relationship has strong influence over adolescents aged 13 to 15.
Also, the result of the reduced mother support with the addition of interaction between mother control and the internal locus of control shows that adolescents' internal locus of control regulates the parent-child relationship. This reveals that parental influence on adolescents is significant but can be affected by adolescents' internal locus of control. This result shows that it is necessary that schools and parents approach to adolescents with relevant knowledge of psychological development. Better relationship with classmates was revealed when adolescents perceive mother support highly. This means adolescents can deal with problems with their friends when they believe strong parents' support. In terms of the adjustment to the school rules, the internal locus of control has effects on the increase of father support, and the interaction between adjust to school rules. It means that even though parent-child relationship was important, it was necessary to develop adolescents' internal locus of control for better adjustment to schools and their independence from parents. Therefore, emotion regulation program that promotes adolescents' internal locus of control may contribute to the parents education program and school social work programs to help adolescents' school adjustment.