Parental Involvement and Academic Stress as Predictors of Youth Quality of Life

Abstract

The current research examined how parental involvement and academic stress impacted the quality of life of Pakistani youth, as well as the differences in this variable on a gender basis. The research design used was cross-sectional where stratified random sampling was used to gather data on a sample of the young people living in Pakistan. The parental involvement scale (Voydanoff & Donnelly, 1999), the academic stress scale (Kim, 1970) and the youth quality of life scale (Patrick & Edwards, 2002) were all psychometric measures that were used. The analysis of multiple linear regression showed that parental involvement was a predictor of quality of life with a significant and negative impact (β = -.146, p < .05) indicating that parental involvement was perceived to have a negative impact on youth well-being when perceived as controlling and excessive but not supportive. Although academic stress was negatively related to quality of life, it was not a statistically significant predictor (β = -.115, p > .05). The t-test results of independent samples showed a significant difference between genders in the parental involvement (t = 2.14, p < .05); the males reported higher parental involvement compared to the females. There was no major gender disparity in terms of academic stress (p = .84, d = 0.027), but female respondents rated the quality of life much higher than male respondents, which could be explained by culturally-specific patterns of social support and demands on males (p = .03, d = 0.63) in Pakistani society. Thus, research shows that the relationship between family, academic stressors and cultural background impacts youth well-being in a complicated way that requires culturally competent parenting and academic stress management interventions to improve the quality of life in Pakistani adolescents.