PARENTING STYLES, LONELINESS AND EMOTIONAL EATING

Abstract

Exploring the intricate connections between parenting style, loneliness, and eating patterns in adolescence was the objective of our study. We utilized a correlation research design, hypothesizing that there is a positive and negative relationship between the three variables: parenting style, loneliness, and emotional eating. The intention of the research is to delve into the effects of parenting style, specifically authoritative and permissive parenting, on the eating habits of adolescents, taking into account the influence of loneliness. To ensure the integrity of our research, we only included participants who are both parents were alive. Our sample consisted of adolescents aged between 18 and 34 years old, with approximately 200 participants selected from different universities in Karachi, Pakistan. We employed the UCLA 3-item loneliness scale, the Emotional Eater Questionnaire, and the Parenting Style Questionnaire to gather data for our study. The study's objective required the use of descriptive statistics such as mean, median, mode, frequency, and percentage, while inferential statistics, including correlation and t-test, were used to gain insights into the data. Research suggests that parenting style may play a role in the development of emotional eating, and that loneliness maybe an important factor to consider in understanding this relationship. Parenting styles showed characteristics such as a lack of attention and communication, which were not fulfilled, leading to the development of a lack of emotional control, psychological issues, and low self-esteem in later life as adults. The result appeared that there's a centrality positive relationship between authoritarian parenting fashion and permissive child rearing fashion with depression and emotional eating, and shows that there's a negative relationship between authoritative child rearing fashion with loneliness and emotional eating.