Parental bonding, peer influence, and parent-adolescent conflict among school going adolescents in Kampala and Wakiso Districts

Abstract

The study purposed to examine the relationship between parental bonding, peer influence and parent-adolescent conflict. The study used a correlational research design in which purposive random sampling was used to select 255 secondary school respondents between the ages 16 and 20, both male and female who were adolescents with both biological parents from secondary schools in Kampala and Wakiso districts. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 23. The hypotheses were tested using One-Way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient to determine whether relationships exist between variables. The Mediating Role of Peer Influence on the Relationship between Parental Bonding and Parent-adolescent Conflict was tested using the conditional process analysis (PROCESS) tool. The study results showed that there was statistically significant difference in parent-adolescent conflict scores for the four parental bonding groups (F (3,251) =13.86 p<.001). A one way between group analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to explore the impact of the different parental bonding categories on the peer Influence. Parental Bonding was divided into four that is, affection constraint, optimal parenting, affectionless control, and absent or weak bonding. There was statistically significant difference in peer Influence scores for the four parental bonding groups (F (3,251) =18.37 p<.001). The conditional process analysis (PROCESS) tool was used to investigate the hypothesis that peer influence mediates the relationship between parenting styles and parent-adolescent conflict. Results indicated that peer influence was a significantly related to parent-adolescent conflict (b = .36, se =.0812, p <0.05). Parental Bonding styles were a significantly related to Parent adolescent conflict (b= .71 se= .214, p< 0.05) and peer influence (b=.532 se=.190, p<0.05. Parental Bonding had a significant direct effect on Parent-adolescent conflict.