The Influence of Parents, Peer Relationships and Happiness on Adolescents Coping with Problem Experiences

Authors

Pravakar Duari1 and Ratnakar Mohapatra2*
1Lectuer In Psychology, BNMA College, Palibindha, Bhadrak, PIN-756167, Odisha, India
2Assistant Professor, Department of History, KISS, deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, PIN- 751024, Odisha, India

Article Information

*Corresponding Author: Ratnakar Mohapatra, Assistant Professor, Department of History, KISS, deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, PIN- 751024, Odisha, India
Received: March 25, 2021
Accepted: April 09, 2021
Published: April 14, 2021

Citation: Duari.P and Mohapatra.R. (2021) “The Influence of Parents, Peer Relationships and Happiness on Adolescents Coping with Problem Experiences”. Clinical Psychology and Mental Health Care, 2(4); DOI: http;//doi.org/03.2021/1.10028.
Copyright: © 2021 Ratnakar Mohapatra. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly Cited.

Abstract

It is considered that parents and peer relationships, rating of self - perception and that of the environment, and happiness usually have an impact on adolescents’ coping with problem experiences. The aim of the present study is to assess how certain external factors such as relationships with parents and peers and certain internal factors like one’s perception of self and of the environment and happiness in an adolescent’s life influence his coping styles. The study also aims at bringing out differences in gender. The independent variables in this study include adolescents’ relationship with parents, with peers, self – rating of self and environment, happiness and gender. Adolescent coping orientation for problem experiences is the dependent variable. The sample included 200 early adolescent boys and girls from two English medium co-educational schools in Bhadrak, Odisha. Gender was equally represented in the sample. The age of the sample ranged from 13 years to 15 years. The tools used for this study are Family, Friends and Self Form (FFS), Adolescents’ Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences (A-Cope), and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. Student’s t – test and Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation were used to analyse the data.


Keywords: Coping; happiness; stress; self-rating; adolescent

I. Introduction:

An adolescent is defined by W.H.O (2003) as a person between 10-19 years of age. It very well may be viewed as the temporary stage from adolescence to adulthood. Youth can be a period for both confusion and disclosure. The momentary period can raise issues of freedom and self-personality. In some cases, teenagers might be trying different things with medications and liquor or sexuality. During this time, the friend gatherings and outside appearance will in general be critical.

To characterize youthfulness, it is important to think about natural, mental and sociological changes of the juvenile. A natural definition underlines the occasions of pubescence that change the groups of kids into those of explicitly and genuinely develop grown-ups. A mental definition recognizes youthfulness regarding the formative assignments to be refined, every one of which identifies with the focal undertaking of accomplishing an individual personality. A sociological definition characterizes youths as far as their status inside society, explicitly, as a temporary period among adolescence and adulthood.

G. Stanley Hall, (1904) one of the chief originators of formative brain science in the United States, considered youthfulness a period of "tempest and stress" during which the individual was tossed about by alternate extremes, for example, activity versus inaction, energy versus quiet, euphoria versus wretchedness, self-assurance versus questions about confidence, and the requirement for power versus the need to oppose authority. Albeit some new examinations have recommended that youth isn't really a period of tempest and stress and that there are numerous special cases for the standard, Hall's perspective on has won. Overall, it is considered as a time of abnormal passionate choppiness.

A young adult is tested to make various changes. With the beginning of adolescence, the previous youngster gets equipped for multiplication. The topic of how to manage the limit with regards to proliferation and its related longings is one that each juvenile should adapt to. The mental self-view changes extraordinarily with actual changes and improvement. Erik Erikson (1970) has suggested that the chief assignment of a young adult as far as friendly advancement is to frame an unmistakable character comprising of a hearty self-appreciation and a picture of one's future course. Issues frequently emerge in the young adult's battle to finish this assignment, and it is feasible to talk about a character emergency. According to the perspective of intellectual turn of events, the juvenile gets equipped for formal tasks, comprising of the capacity to utilize images with adaptability and think in unique terms.

Adolescence -Coping:

Puberty is when adapting is vital, when numerous new encounters and duties are pushed onto people. Youngsters need to adapt in an assortment of settings, including school, home, peer gatherings and the work environment, and with a scope of life issues like separation and assessments. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) characterized adapting as "continually changing intellectual and social endeavors to oversee explicit outside and/or inward requests that are assessed as burdening or surpassing the assets of the individual". Adapting is seen as a progressing dynamic cycle that adjustments because of the changing requests of an upsetting experience or occasion. Moreover, adapting is conceptualized as intentional reactions that are coordinated toward settling the unpleasant connection between oneself and the climate (issue-centered adapting) or toward vindicating negative feelings that emerge because of stress (feeling-centered adapting).

Copeland and Hess (1995) directed an investigation to quantify the distinctions in youthful young people's adapting reactions utilizing the Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences (A-Cope) (Copelend& Hess, 1991). This examination was pointed toward deciding if the detailed contrasts in methodologies would change by sexual orientation and additionally identity (Anglo or Hispanic). 244 10th grade youths finished A-COPE to give a proportion of their self-detailed adapting systems. Females announced participating in friendly connections and making change either in genuine or intellectual terms all the more much of the time, though guys would in general depend on pressure decrease exercises or redirections. Ethnic contrasts upheld the more regular utilization of social exercises and looking for profound help among Hispanics when confronted with challenges.

Family Influence:

As indicated by Lerner and Steinberg (2009), three premises have risen up out of sizeable writing on familial impacts during youthfulness. In the first place, familial connections have far – arriving at suggestions for young people's relations with friends, instructors, and different grown-ups; for heartfelt connections; for school exhibitions; and for inevitable word related decision and level of accomplishment. Second, associations with guardians go through changes that set up for less progressive connections when youths arrive at adulthood. Third, relevant and social varieties altogether shape teenagers' familial connections and encounters and thus influence the course and results of improvement both during and past adolescence.Much of the examination demonstrates that regardless of modified examples of collaboration, parent – kid connections stay significant social and passionate assets well past the youth years.

Peer Influence:

From the early years through the present, scientists have remained emphatically irresolute about the impacts of companions on teenagers. (Berndt,1999), yet few keep the importance from getting peer connections and collaborations during this phase of life. It is generally acknowledged that enrollment in peer bunches is an incredible power during immaturity. These gatherings give a significant formative perspective through which young people acquire a comprehension of the world outside of their families. Inability to grow cozy associations with peers, notwithstanding, frequently brings about an assortment of issues for teenagers – from wrongdoing and substance maltreatment to mental problems. Moreover, higher friend stress and less friendship support from peers have been related with a lower social self-idea in young people.

An examination by East, Hess and Lerner inspected (1987), 101 early teenagers in four sociometric gatherings (peer-dismissed, disregarded, famous, and dubious) fluctuate in their view of companion social help and in their conduct, psychosocial, and academic change. Sociometric bunches were shaped utilizing results from a friend assignment survey. The outcomes demonstrated that peer-dismissed young people were generally inadequate in seen peer social help and displayed the most noteworthy pace of change issues.

Perception of self and environment:

The perception of one’s self and the way in which an adolescent perceives his environment including his family, friends, teachers, school, house, the things that belong to his family and himself, the things that he owns and the way he perceives his life in general have an impact on the way in which he copes with problems in his life.

Happiness:

Clinicians, all in all, characterize joy as a drawn out feeling of enthusiastic prosperity and happiness. Obviously, there are transitory states of mind of joy that people insight occasionally, however bliss as found in mental investigates is a general inclination of fulfillment with life that overruns and stands throughout longer-timeframes. Satisfaction is generally considered by therapists as the fundamental manner by which individuals can assess how well their lives are going.

Capraraa1 et al (2006) directed an investigation which analyzed the simultaneous and longitudinal effect of self-adequacy convictions on emotional prosperity in immaturity, specifically sure reasoning and bliss. This investigation comprised a gathering of 664 Italian young people. The discoveries show that teenagers' self-viability convictions to oversee positive and contrary feelings and relational connections add to advance uplifting assumptions regarding their future, to keep a high self-idea, to see a feeling of fulfillment for their lives and to encounter more good feelings.The objectives of the current study are to find out the impact of family, friends, self and happiness on adolescence coping with problem experiences and to examine the difference between adolescent boys and girls in coping with problem experiences.

Method:
Sample:

The sample consisted of 200 early adolescent boys and girls from two English medium co-educational schools in Bhadrak, Odisha. Gender was equally represented in the sample. The age of the sample ranged from 13 years to 15 years (mean age = 14, s.d = 1.414). Convenient sampling procedure was used in this study.

Tools

  1. Family, Friends and Self Form (FFS) by Simpson and McBride (1992):

The effect of family, companions and self was estimated by Family, Friends and Self Form (FFS). The FFS is a three-section instrument with an aggregate of 60 things. The stock has a five-guide rating scale toward give an exhaustive evaluation of young people including family setting and relations, peer exercises and association, and individual impression of self and climate just as mental change. The three pieces of the FFS contain various subscales. The subscales of Family scale are, "warmth", "control", and 'struggle. There are four Friends subscales in particular "peer action", "inconvenience", "knowledge of guardians" and "ordinary contribution". The last arrangement of scales is called Self Rating scale which incorporates, "confidence", "climate" and "school fulfillment". The subscales have great inside consistency with alphas going from .725 for "regular association" to .912 for warmth. This test likewise has great prescient legitimacy. High scores got in this scale show a higher impact of family, companions and self in an individual's life.

  1. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire by Hills and Argyle (2002):

The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire comprises of 29 thing and the things depend on a 6-point rating scale. Slopes and Argyle (2002) announced satisfactory legitimacy for the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire by furnishing information on connections with other self-report sizes of character characteristics, human qualities and abstract well - being. The scale has high scale alpha dependability of 0.91. The entomb – thing connections for Oxford Happiness Questionnaire went from - 0.04 to 0.65. The character factors associate emphatically with this scale.This questionnaire was found to have good construct validity. High and low scores on this scale indicate higher and lower levels of happiness, respectively.

  1. Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences (A-Cope) by Patterson and McCubbin (1991):

The A-Cope is a 54-thing instrument intended to gauge the practices that young people find accommodating in overseeing issues or tough spots. The things in the A-Cope were created both from writing audit and meetings with teenagers in regard to life changes. This stock estimates 12 variables albeit the all-out score can likewise be utilized as a general proportion of adapting. The subscales of A-Cope have reasonable for great inner consistency, with alphas that range from .50 to .75. This scale has reasonable prescient legitimacy, with a few connections in anticipated ways with utilization of illegal substances including liquor and pot. High scores on this scale demonstrate youths' better adapting direction despite tricky encounters.

Results:

Student’s t – test and Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient Correlation were used to analyse the data.

 

Variables

 

 

Gender

 

Mean

 

Std. Deviation

 

t-value

 

Warmth

B

 

G

34.3

 

35.133

9.688

 

8.033

 

0.728

 

Control

B

 

G

17.166

 

18.20

5.092

 

3.744

 

0.442

 

Conflict

B

 

G

3.33

 

3.783

3.872

 

3.268

 

0.568

 

Peer Activity

B

 

G

8.766

 

7.12

4.190

 

3.872

 

1.10 

 

Familiarity with Parents

B

 

G

10.866

 

11.433

2.773

 

2.349

 

0.384

 

Trouble

B

 

G

4.576

 

5.533

3.114

 

3.962

 

0.360

 

Conventional Involvement

B

 

G

15.843

 

16.566

2.960

 

4.190

 

0.172

 

Self Esteem

B

 

G

13.41

 

12.133

4.512

 

2.310

 

0.168

 

Environment

B

 

G

20.42

 

20.333

3.358

 

4.674

 

0.774

 

School Satisfaction

B

 

G

12.366

 

12.82

2.873

 

2.679

 

0.379

 

Happiness

B

 

G

3.813

 

3.901

0.752

 

0.671

 

    1.  

 

A – Cope

B

 

 

G

 

182.7

 

175.366

 

32.866

 

21.070

 

0.308


Table 1:

showing student’s t – test values, mean scores and standard deviations between boys and girls on the variables of the Family, friends and self-form, happiness and adolescent coping with problem behaviours.

Table 1 shows the student’s t – test values, mean and standard deviation scores of the variables in the Family, Friends and Self Form, Happiness and A- Cope with respect to gender. It shows that the obtained t- vales are not statistically significant at 0.05 level. Hence, we can say that gender plays no significant role in the influence of family, friends and self, happiness and adolescence coping with Problem Experiences.

 

Variables

 

 

Standard Deviation

 

R

 

Warmth

 

8.53

 

0.432**

 

Control

 

4.66

 

-0.186

 

Conflict

 

3.66

 

-0.320*

 

Peer Activity

 

4.17

 

0.476**

 

Familiarity with Parents

 

2.57

 

0.287*

 

Trouble

 

3.36

 

0.049

 

Conventional Involvement

 

3.55

 

0.231

 

Self Esteem

 

3.62

 

0.342*

 

Environment

 

4.13

 

0.422**

 

School Satisfaction

 

2.88

 

0.267*

 

Happiness

 

1.46

 

0.220

** p< .01, * p < .05

Table 2: Showing Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient and standard deviation of the variables of the Family, friends and self-form and happiness with adolescent’s coping with problem behaviours:

Table 2 indicates the coefficient correlation of each of the variables with adolescence coping orientation with problem behaviours. The variables of warmth, peer activity and environment, show positive correlations (p < .01), with adolescent coping. The variables of conflict, familiarity with parents, self – esteem and school satisfaction also show positive correlations (p < .05) whereas the variable of conflict is negatively correlated (p < .05) with adolescent’s coping with problem behaviours.

Discussion:

The present study has found that some of the variables under the Family sub - scale namely warmth, under Friends sub – scale namely, peer activity and familiarity with parents, and under the Self sub – scale namely self-esteem, environment and school satisfaction have an impact on Adolescent’s coping with problem behaviours.

Support for the finding relating to the warmth variable has been found in a study conducted by Nahmias and Plunkett (2010) in which self-report information were gathered from 729 young people from migrant families in one Los Angeles school. The outcomes demonstrated that parental warmth was fundamentally and emphatically identified with family backing and social help, while contrarily identified with ventilating emotions and substance use adapting and that parental cruelty was decidedly identified with social help, ventilating sentiments, and substance use adapting.

An examination identifying with the companion movement variable was directed by Brown, Clasen, and Eicher (1986). In this investigation, two examples, comprising of an aggregate of 1,027 sixth twelfth graders from discrete networks, were given proportions of companion congruity airs, view of friend pressing factor, and self-detailed recurrence of conduct concerning 2 significant parts of adolescent life in particular companion association and wrongdoing. Results show that the example saw less companion pressure toward offense than peer association and furthermore were relatively less able to follow peers in wrongdoing demonstrating that they adapted better and were more open to associating with their friends than in enjoying unsafe conduct with them.

The present study also indicates that peer’s familiarity with an adolescent’s family has a positive impact on the adolescents coping with problem behaviours. This finding was supported bya studyconducted by Fröjd, Kaltiala-Heino and Rimpelä (2007), the point of which was to contemplate the relationship between family structure, parental checking and maladjustment results among center young adult young ladies and young men. Information was gathered through a school-based review of a broadly delegate test of 17,643 Finnish youths matured 14–16 years. The outcomes showed that the less the guardians knew the young people's companions and whereabouts, the more normal were all the maladjustment results contemplated.

An investigation identifying with oneself – regard variable was led by DuBois, Bull, Sherman and Roberts (1998). This examination researched the turn of events and upkeep of worldwide confidence as indicators of the enthusiastic, conduct, and scholastic change of 213 youthful teenagers. Results showed that higher revealed levels of worldwide confidence were related with more ideal scores on most proportions of change.

The effect of the climate variable on the young adult's adapting practices was likewise portrayed in an examination directed by Johnson and Pandina, (1991). This investigation analyzes the generally speaking and relative commitments of an assortment of family climate measures to more youthful and more seasoned juvenile's liquor, cannabis and other medication use, delinquent action, and useless techniques for adapting to issues. The outcomes demonstrated that, all in all, liquor use among the more youthful subjects was all the more unequivocally dictated by the utilization and mentalities of a similar sex parent. Conversely, among more established subjects, father's liquor use was critical to the posterity's utilization.

An examination identifying with the school fulfillment variable was directed by Huebner and Gilman (2006). The significant objective of this examination was to explore connections among 341 optional school understudies' school fulfillment and different intrapersonal, relational, and scholastic measures. Understudies were set into three gatherings dependent on their school fulfillment reports, including exceptionally low, normal and extremely undeniable degrees of school fulfillment. Understudies with exceptionally low school fulfillment contrasted from understudies with extremely secondary school fulfillment on all change means; understudies with extremely low school fulfillment additionally varied from understudies with normal degrees of school fulfillment on all actions, aside from the confidence measure. Comparative with understudies detailing normal degrees of school fulfillment, understudies revealing high fulfillment showed fundamentally higher scores on proportions of worldwide life fulfillment, trust, and interior locus of control.

The discoveries of this current examination additionally show that the control variable under the family sub – scale contrarily affects young adult's adapting practices. An examination identifying with this variable was directed by Lin and Lian (2011). This examination pointed toward investigating apparent nurturing styles among Malaysian understudies and furthermore the connection between saw nurturing styles with teenagers' adapting ability. The outcomes showed that nurturing styles, explicitly tyrant fatherly and legitimate maternal nurturing relate with teenagers' adapting capacity.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it was found that family, friends and self-have an impact on adolescence coping with problem experiences. The warmth under family sub – scale, peer activity and familiarity with parents under friends’ sub – scale and self-esteem, environment and school satisfaction under self-sub – scale have a positive impact on adolescents’ coping with problem experiences. Control under family has a negative impact on adolescents’ coping with problem experiences. It was also found that there is no significance difference between adolescent boys and girls in coping with problem experiences.

Acknowledgement:
We acknowledge with grateful thanks to Prof. H.K. Satapathy, Dr. P.K. Routray, Dr. Azizur Rahman, Prof. Harihar Panda and Prof. Byomakesh Tripathy for their encouragement and valuable suggestions in course of the preparation of the article. We are grateful to Prof. (Dr.) Achyuta Samanta, the founder of KIIT & KISS, deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha who encouraged us for the writing of this article.

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