Parental Psychological Control:Predicting Personal Responsibility and Academic Buoyancy

The aim of this study was to explain personal responsibility and academic buoyancy based on parental psychological control. Participants were 313 junior and senior high school students from Firoozabad city, in 1396-1397 academic year. They were selected by random cluster sampling. They answered Dependency-oriented and Achievement-oriented Psychological Control (Soenens etal, 2010), Personal Responsibility (Mergler & Shield, 2016), and Academic Buoyancy (Hosseinchari & Dehghanizadeh, 1391) Scales. To study the reliability and validity of the instruments, Alpha Cronbach coefficients and factor analysis were used. The results of simultaniuous regression analysis showed the component of cognitive control and personal accountability was predicted positively by conditional parental regard and negatively by achievement-based control. Emotional - behavioral control was predicted by dependence on parents. About academic buoyancy, it was found that parental achievement-based control predicted academic buoyancy negatively. Regarding gender as a moderator, results showed that in girls, dependence on parents predicted both components of personal responsibility negatively while in boys, conditional parental regard predicted cognitive control and personal accountability positively. Academic buoyancy in girls was positively predicted by parental achievement-based control and in boys positively by conditional parental regard and negatively by dependence on parents. According to these findings, conditional parental regard, due to the emphasis on behavior and its consequences, has increased personal responsibility among students. But, in parental achievement -based control, because of the emphasis on performance above the standard and ability beyond the cognitive development of the students, personal responsibility decreased. Besides, dependence on parents in behaving and problem solving, weakens behavioral and emotional control. Achievement -based control weakens academic buoyancy by causing stress and anxiety and inducing emotions such as guilt and shame.