The Influence of College Students’ Perception of Parental (or Primary Caregiver) Expectations on Coping Behavior and Adjustment in Early Adulthood

Author

Jessica Smith

Date of Award

2007

Degree Name

Psychology

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Christopher Legrow

Second Advisor

Marianna Linz

Third Advisor

Keelon Hinton

Abstract

While some research has examined how parental expectations affect educational achievement, there is very little known about how parental expectations affect the development of coping skills and adaptive and maladaptive psychosocial functions. Participants were asked to complete a measure of their abilities in academics, sports, leadership, honesty, responsibilities, among other things. Then, they completed a measure of what they perceived their parents’ expectations of those areas were. Lastly, they completed the Behavioral Assessment System for Children-College Self Report of Personality form as a measure of adaptive and maladaptive functioning. The goals of this study are to investigate 1) if participants' actual ability level is related to coping skills and maladaptive behaviors, 2) if a discrepancy between abilities and mothers’ expectations affect development, 3) if a discrepancy between abilities and fathers’ expectations affect development, and 4) if a global assessment of the quality of the parent-child relationship affect development.

Subject(s)

Academic achievement.

Adjustment (Psychology)

Recommended Citation

Smith, Jessica, "The Influence of College Students’ Perception of Parental (or Primary Caregiver) Expectations on Coping Behavior and Adjustment in Early Adulthood" (2007). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 854.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/854