Abstract

This paper focuses on parent-student relationship, student's development, and social skill. Using random sampling method, around 65 students age 18-19 years old will be given two types of questionnaires to measure the social skill and parent-student development. The main objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between parent-student relationship and social skills. Roughly observed, student that practices a good relationship with their parents tends to stand out more in public and have good social skills. As a conclusion, this research is to prove the hypothesis which is a good parent-student relationship result in a good student's development in social skills and to prove that there is a relationship between student's development in social skills and student's relationship with parents.

1.0 Introduction

A variety of factors can influence the personality development of the student. Attachment with parents thereby plays an important role in adolescents' social and emotional adjustment [1]. To understand the parent-student relationship, we must look at the ways the parents and student interact with one another physically, emotionally, and socially. There is a previous research by Biller & Weiss talks about the father-daughter relationship and the personality development of the female [2]. Therefore, this research objective is to identify and to widen the research about the related topic with the focus on the parent-student relationship and student's development in social skills.

Student development involves the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy. It is a continuous process with a predictable sequence, yet having a unique course for every student. It does not progress at the same rate and each stage is affected by the preceding developmental experiences. Because these developmental changes may be strongly influenced by genetic factors and events during prenatal life, genetics and prenatal development are usually included as part of the study of student development.

The social investment principle states that devoting in social institutions, such as age-graded social roles, is one of the factors of personality development. Three assumptions underlie this principle. It was stated that people build identities by making psychological efforts to social institutions in the form of social roles, such as work, marriage, family, and community.

A parent-student relationship can influence the student's social skills. The degree of influence that parents and peers have on adolescents has been investigated over the last 40 years under the headings of parent–peer conflict and parent-peer linkages [3]. A secure attachment to parents stimulates the development of identity. However, identity traits are not fully based on parents. The research found that the communication in the marital relationship observed by the adolescents was also modestly correlated with their identity exploration [4].

The research objective is to investigate the relationship between parent-student relationship and student’s development in social skill. The research hypothesis is there is a relationship between parent-student relationship and student’s development in social skills.

In a research article by Collins and Russell (1991), they stated that mother-student and father-student relationships in terms of several common hypotheses implied by the theoretical literature on differential roles of mothers and fathers in socialization and changes in these roles as a function of developmental changes in offspring [5]. Another research found that the communication in the marital relationship observed by the adolescents was also modestly correlated with their identity exploration [4]. The trend observed in the correlations suggested that adolescent males rated higher in exploration observed reciprocated separateness between their parents. For females, identity exploration was negatively related to reciprocated connectedness (permeability from each parent to the other and mutuality from father to mother).

Therapeutic relationship variables play critical roles in the treatment process and, therefore, have a significant impact on clinical outcomes of student and adolescents [6]. Understanding how specific aspects of the therapeutic relationship are related to youth outcomes may facilitate efforts to improve clinical training and develop more effective interventions for student and adolescents.

Attachment theory predicts that attachment to parents may affect other social relationships of adolescents [7]. The parental attachment may provide a set of expectations about how to interact with others and how to interpret the needs and feelings of others [8]. Adult attachment relationships differ from infant-parent attachment in that they are reciprocal, with both members of the dyad being providers and recipients of care. Another difference in the attachment relationship is that it is transformed from external, observable interactions to internally represented beliefs and expectations, where felt security becomes central [8].

Attachment theory is a well-accepted and valid developmental theory that explains the nature of the parent-student bond. It is originally applied to infants and young student, attachment behaviours consist of proximity seeking, safe haven, and secure base. Proximity seeking involves approaching, staying near to, and making contact with the attachment figure. The safe haven function involves turning to the attachment figure for comfort, support, and reassurance in the face of threat or danger. The secure base phenomenon involves the use of the attachment figure as a base from which to engage in exploration [9]. Parents who provide their student with the assurance that they are trustworthy and worthy of being loved and cared for, the student grow up and likely to become a self-confident and healthy adolescent[8].

A research about parental attachment and adolescents' adjustment conducted in 2001 shows that middle adolescents' indicators of parental attachment were notably related to social skills [8]. But, the quality of communication with parents among early adolescents was not related to anxiety to perform social skills.

Social skills and relational comparability are assumed to be elements of the working models that explain how parental attachment is connected to emotional adjustment in adolescence [8]. Adolescents who are attached to their parents should be better able to develop enough social skills, which is necessary for the initiation and maintenance of warm, satisfying and mutual relationships with friends and romantic partners. Adolescents; own relation expertise, in turn, is most important for young people's emotional adjustment [8,10].

2.0 Methodology

Subjects for this research will be students from age 18-19 years old. The subjects comes from different gender, age, religion and race. Quantitative method will be used in this research. Two questionnaires regarding the title will be distributed to the students. The first questionnaire is Parent-Student Relationship Schema Scale (PCRSS) and the second one is Social Skills Assessment.

In the PCRSS, there are two sections or parts that needed to be completed by the participant. In the first part, participants are asked to rate the statements that should occur (SO) in a family. Meanwhile in the second part, participants are asked to rate the statements that actually occur (AO) in their family.

The assessment contains 31 items. Participants are directed to rate each of the items. A is for almost always; I am really good with this, B is for sometimes; I am okay with this and C is for rarely; I am not very good at this. There are three types of social skills based on this assessment. The type A is the relatively strong social skills. The type B is the moderate social skill and type C is low social skill. The score for this assessment is obtained by finding the mod between A, B or C. The mod will be the type of social skill the participant have.

A consent form will be distributed to the students as an agreement for answering the questionnaires. Students from age 18-19 years old will be given questionnaires regarding the title of this research which is PCRSS and Social Skills Inventory. The data collected will be analyzed. The central aims of the research project were to describe the attachment between student and parents and the effect of the attachment on student’s social skills. Respondent will be selected by finding out about their family background first. Respondent with a single parent will be avoided to prevent any emotional disturbances.

3.0 Results and Discussion

The first table shows the correlation between the social skill mean (SSM) and should do mean of the parent-student relationship schema scale (SOM). Through the correlation method, it is shown that there is no correlation between parent-student relationship and social skills in this research. This is because the degree of correlation did not achieved by both variables. Through the correlation table, it’s been analyzed that the correlation degree for should occur mean (SOM) and social skills type (SOM) is 0.118 which is above the correlation degree.

The second table shows the correlation between the social skill mean (SSM) and actually occur mean of the parent-student relationship schema scale (AOM). The correlation degree for actually occur mean (AOM) and social skills type (SOM) is 0.055, which is also above the degree of correlation eventhough the difference was only 0.005. So, through the correlation method, there is no correlation shown.

Despite the correlation method shows that there is no correlation between parent-student relationship and social skills in this research, the tabulated data shows that there is a little bit of relationship between Parent-Student Relationship Schema Scale (PCRSS) score and the types of social skills obtained by the participants in the Social Skills Assessment. Based on the data, participants that score a high score of PCRSS tends to be in type A of social skills. Meanwhile, participants that have low score of PCRSS tends to be in type C. This shows a relationship between the two variables even though the correlation method did not obtain that. From the tabulated data and the pie chart in Figure 1, it shows that majority of students, 65 % are in type A.

Type A social skill, as described in the assessment, says that this type can work in ‘in the scene’ types of work. This is because some jobs require a person to have relatively strong social skills. This is because some jobs require very frequent interaction with customers and co-workers. 25 % of type B social skill, as described in the assessment, says that this type can work in ‘behind the scene’ jobs. Some jobs might require that person to work nearcustomers, but that particular person might not have to interact with them on a regular basis. Type C social skill, as described in the assessment, 12 % says that this type can work in ‘out of the scene’ jobs. This type of jobs do not require to work near or with customers at all. In addition, some jobs does not require that person to spend a lot of time with co-workers either.

There are a few limitations of this study that can be detected. The first one is that there is no recent research regarding this topic. The range of year of the related research is from 2012-1991. The most latest research that can be found is Parent–student attachment and internalizing symptoms in studenthood and adolescence: A review of empirical findings and future directions [11]. The reason why there is no recent research regarding this topic cannot be confirmed.

The other limitation is the validity of the questionnaires. Through the references and literature review made, most of the previous researches uses interview method instead of questionnaire method. So there is not much of the research that uses questionnaire method. Therefore, the validity of the questionnaires used needed to be revised by doing a pilot test before using it as a valid measures especially the PCRSS. The PCRSS is an instrument to investigate the expectations and experiences of the parent-student relationship.

The next limitation is the number of sample. The number of sample has to be widened, at least 300 participants [12]. Meanwhile our numbers of participants were only 70 people, subtracting 5 of the participants that did not complete the questionnaires, so the remaining participants were only 65 students. This could happen due to the questionnaires was distributed a little late and students might have to deal with stresses.

In addition, human error of participants answering the questionnaires can also occurred. This is because not everyone is willing to share their family conditions with others. It can be seen that some participants answered the questionnaires perfunctory, without paying close attention to the statements that have negative scale and also positive scale.

4.0 Conclusion

The correlation method shows that there is no relationship between parent-student relationships and social skill. But through analyzing the tabulated data, it is shown that there is a relationship between the two variables. Some aspects that needed to be taken account is there are adolescents that view friendships as an important aspect of early adolescents’ quest for autonomy, because they view friendships as domains over their relationship with their parents. Parents who offer warm, supportive and accepting bonds to their student unintentionally teach them the social competence and social skills required to develop the same kind of relationships with their peer. Parental and peer attachment and identity development in adolescence, shows in their findings, that one aspect of secure attachment to parents, specifically communication, encourages the exploration of identity commitment. Therefore, to improve the research in the future, steps that needed to be taken are to widen the samples, to choose the best inventory to measure the variables and to take account other factors that can affect the variables.

References

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