ABSTRACT
Prior research has found a significant relationship between parenting styles and the levels of academic stress of students in higher institutions of learning. While there are variations in the roles of the parenting styles, namely, Authoritarian, Authoritative and Permissive, on the onset, extent and outcome of Academic stress levels, this study aimed to determine the extent to which the named parenting styles affected the levels of academic stress as experienced by the undergraduate student population of the University of Benin. It also found the difference in the stress levels between the male and female populations of the University, comparing the levels of academic stress of respective male and female undergraduates in each parenting style category. A correlational design was adopted for this study, and the sample comprised Three hundred and Sixty Three (363) undergraduate students from the 13 Faculties of the university, with the sample drawn by multistage sampling, consisting of three (3) stages, each employing a simple random sampling by balloting. For the purpose of data collection, a self-administered questionnaire, adapted to assess the type of parenting style, and the level of academic stress was designed, validated by experts from the department of educational and counselling psychology, and distributed to the respondents of the study. The study found that there was no significant relationship between the Authoritarian parenting style and academic stress levels of undergraduate students of the university, while also revealing a significant relationship between the levels of academic stress with the Authoritative and Permissive parenting styles. The study also found that while there was a significant difference in the degrees of academic stress between male and female undergraduates who had been raised with the Authoritarian style of parenting, it failed to demonstrate a significant difference in the degrees of academic stress experienced by male and xii female undergraduates raised with the Authoritative and Permissive styles of parenting. The study concluded that parenting styles played an important role in the onset of academic stress, as well as the differences in the degrees to which academic stress was experienced by male and female undergraduates. Recommendations included the design of counselling techniques tailored to favour the inculcation of the parenting styles that favoured lesser degrees of academic stress, viz; Authoritative and Permissive styles, as well as the promotion of measures to mitigate the emergence of academic stress in the student population.
