Investigation of Relationship Between Parental Acceptance and Psychological Adjustment Among University Students

Objective: In this study, it is aimed to test the relations between parental acceptance/rejection and psychological adjustment variables by using structural equation modeling. Another aim of the study is to investigate the study variables in terms of gender. Method: The sample of the study is formed by 271 females, 135 males out of 406 students aged in 19-36 who are studying at Ankara University. Demographic Information Form, Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ), and Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ) have been conducted to the participants in this study. Results: When the perceived acceptance/rejection from the mother was examined, it was seen that males perceived their mothers more rejective than females in terms of sub-scales of warmth/affection, hostility/aggression, indifference and total maternal acceptance/rejection. When the perceived acceptance/rejection from the father was examined in terms of sub-scales, in all sub-scales (warmth/affection, hostility/aggression, indifference/neglect and undifferentiated rejection) and in total scores males perceived their fathers more rejective than females. In terms of sub-scales of psychological adjustment; in sub-scale of hostility, negative self-esteem, negative self-adequacy and emotional unresponsiveness males scored higher; but in the sub-scale of dependence females scored higher. In the analysis, it was found that the suggested hypothetical model is valid. In the structural model, the latent variables of parental acceptance/rejection predict the psychological adjustment latent variable. Conclusion: In conclusion, the findings have proven that parental acceptance/rejection predicts the psychological adjustment consistent with the theory of Parental Acceptance/Rejection (PARTheory) and the studies in literature. The results of the study have been discussed within the context of PARTheory and the studies in the literature.