Abstract

Research has established the importance of family support, and parental support in particular, in predicting adolescents’ educational and psychological outcomes. The family has been identified as a critical force even more powerful and direct than teachers in their children’s education. A number of studies have attempted to compare the belief, attitudes, values of parents and their children and also the extent to which parents opinion agree or conflict with that of children. These studies have shown that parents’ potentially influence adolescent’s identities. However, few studies have been undertaken to find the perception of adolescents about parental influence. The present study investigated the perception of adolescents about their parents’ influence in academic activities. The sample for the present study comprised two hundred senior secondary school students namely Class XI studying in various private, government, central and aided schools of Delhi. The tool used was a self constructed questionnaire comprising 40: agree-disagree statements on a 5-1 Likert scale. The scores indicated that Class XI students belonging to private, government central and government aided schools of New Delhi perceived their parents as influencing their academic activities and the factor which was most influential was parental support.

Key words: Adolescents, parental support, perception, parental influence, academic activities.