The relationship between parenting styles and adolescents’ educational motivation and emotional state in the context of digitalization

Abstract

Background. The emotional state, the length of screen time and the level of educational motivation of schoolchildren are often a matter of concern for many parents. The study examines the relationship between educational motivation, the level of anger, and parenting styles from the adolescents’ point of view. Objectives. Identification and description of the specific interrelations between various aspects of parenting and the teenagers' motivation and anger in the context of global digitalization. Study Participants. The study involved 265 people (54% — female). The average age of the respondents was 13.8 years (M = 13.8, Me = 14, SD = 1.62). Methods. To study parenting styles, teenagers filled out the ad hoc questionnaire “Adolescents about parents”. The motivational and emotional components of the adolescents’ personality were examined by means of Andreeva & Prikhozhan’ questionnaire “Motivation of learning and emotional attitude to learning”. The level of digital engagement of adolescents was assessed on the basis of daily statistics of the average time spent using a mobile phone. Statistical analysis was performed using the general linear model (GLM) method in the Jamovi 2.3.16.0 program. Results. According to the results of the GLM model, the adolescents’ achievement motivation is negatively related to their average screen time. The level of educational motivation of adolescents is positively associated with the positive interest and autonomy provided by their parents. The teenagers’ level of anger is positively associated with directiveness, hostility and inconsistency of parents. According to the Wilcoxon test results, parenting styles such as directiveness, hostility and autonomy are more pronounced in fathers than in mothers. Conclusions. The most favorable parenting style for achieving high academic motivation and reducing the level of anger in adolescents is a pronounced positive interest and autonomy provided by parents along with a low level of directiveness, hostility and inconsistency. Achievement motivation has a negative relationship with the length of teenagers' screen time.

Keywords

• parenting styles
• adolescence
• screen time
• anger
• educational motivation
• achievement motivation