PARENTING STYLES AND SOCIAL INTERACTION OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN IMO STATE, NIGERIA

The purpose of the study was to determine the major parenting styles and their influence on senior secondary school students' social interaction in the area. The study made use of a sample of 1517 senior secondary class 2 students. It was an expost facto design with a structured questionnaire for data collection. The instrument was pre-tested to establish its validity and reliability. The results indicated that most parents seemed to adopt authoritative parenting style in their child rearing. The study showed that parenting styles have significant influence on students' social interaction. It was inferred that authoritative parenting enables students to have positive self-concept, self assertuion, self reliance, understanding, and creativity that lead to high performance and social competence while other parenting styles lead to anti-social behaviour. Authoritative parenting style is therefore recommended to enhance students' social interaction. Parents, students, school authorities and Government would benefit from the study.