Impact of the Level of Parental Education on Adolescent Adjustment: a Cross Sectional Study

We examined the impact of the level of parental education on adolescent adjustment from early adolescence into late adolescence, across gender and grade groups comprising high school and Grade 12. Participants in this crosssectional study consisted of 1337 students (676 boys and 661 girls) from High School and grade 12 in various institutes of north coastal Andhra Pradesh. Adjustment patterns were measured along the six adjustment dimensions of the Culturally Relevant Bell Adjustment Inventory (Ashok, Madhu, Suneetha&Ramana, 2004). These dimensions include - Home adjustment, Health adjustment, Submissiveness Vs Assertion, Emotionality, Hostility Vs Friendliness and Masculinity Vs Femininity. Results obtained indicated a significant impact of parental education on adolescent adjustment with a greater impact at the high school level as compared to grade 12 level. Both paternal and maternal education were relatively equal predictors of adolescent adjustment. While paternal education was a more significant predictor of adjustment for males at the high school level, maternal education became a slightly more powerful determinant of adjustment for males at the grade 12 level. Maternal education was also a slightly more influential predictor of adjustment among female students. An impact of the level of parental education was seen on the dimensions of home adjustment, hostility and masculinity in the male subsample and the dimensions of emotionality and masculinity in the female subsample. Male students with graduate fathers exhibited a greater degree of home adjustment difficulties and lowest levels of hostility. A higher level of maternal education was found to foster better home adjustment among males at Grade 12 and better emotional adjustment among females at the high school level. Both the independent and interaction effects of parental education largely revealed that the levels of masculinity tended to be high for both males and females, regardless of the grade group, when both the parents had either graduate or post graduate levels of education.