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| BRIEF COMMUNICATION |
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| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 10
| Issue : 2 | Page : 134-139 |
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Parenting styles and dimensions of emerging adulthood in yoga and nonyoga practitioners
Raji Venkatesan, Judu Ilavarasu
Division of Yoga and Physical Sciences, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
| Date of Submission | 25-Oct-2021 |
| Date of Acceptance | 22-Jun-2022 |
| Date of Web Publication | 10-Nov-2022 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Judu Ilavarasu
Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Jigani, Bengaluru - 560 105, Karnataka
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/ijoyppp.ijoyppp_32_21
Background: Career choice in engineering, especially in India, is determined by many factors such as parental influence and other inherent traits of students. Understanding the factors that are associated with self-regulated, choiceful decision-making in a career choice is essential to build better human resources. Early yoga practice may influence certain inherent traits, which can enable autonomous decision-making. Hence, exploration of those psychological factors is attempted in this study. Aim: This study aims to explore the parenting styles and dimensions of emerging adulthood among yoga and nonyoga practitioners. Methods: From an engineering college in South India, 311 first-semester students were recruited for the study. The Free will and Determinism Scale, the General Health Questionnaire, the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood, the 13-item short form of the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and the Perceived Parental Autonomy Support Scale were administered. Results: The students were divided into two categories, yoga practitioners and nonyoga practitioners. We performed Pearson's partial correlation between various variables across these two groups, controlling for social desirability scores. Overall, the magnitude of the correlations was low to moderate. Conclusion: There are a few dimensions of emerging adulthood that have desirable outcome trends, both in yoga and nonyoga practitioners. Distinct features of yoga practitioners are students who exercise inner free will, and with autonomy-supportive parenting style tend to have a positive outlook. Therefore, yoga may promote self-regulated ways of inner growth and learning in emerging adults.
Keywords: Emerging adulthood, free will, parenting style, yoga
How to cite this article:
Venkatesan R, Ilavarasu J. Parenting styles and dimensions of emerging adulthood in yoga and nonyoga practitioners. J Appl Conscious Stud 2022;10:134-9 |
How to cite this URL:
Venkatesan R, Ilavarasu J. Parenting styles and dimensions of emerging adulthood in yoga and nonyoga practitioners. J Appl Conscious Stud [serial online] 2022 [cited 2023 May 29];10:134-9. Available from: http://www.jacsonline.in/text.asp?2022/10/2/134/360863 |
| Introduction | |  |
India is the world's largest engineer-producing country. Globally, the first university degree awards in Science and Engineering fields, broadly equivalent to a bachelor's degree, totaled more than 7.5 million. Almost 25% of these degrees were conferred in India (National Science Board, 2018). Every year, around 1.5 million students in India enrolled in engineering programs, 7.7 lakh students complete their under graduation, and 3.7 lakh students get placement. Although engineering is viewed as a profitable career option among students, enrolment in engineering colleges has been steadily declining at a rate of roughly 4.9% each year during the past 5 years. Similarly, the number of engineering colleges has decreased by roughly 2.15% per year over the past 5 years (AICTE, 2021). There are many intrinsic and extrinsic factors contributing to this trend. In this study, we focus on the intrinsic factors.
Individuals can be classed along a continuum of self-determined behavior for the reasons they choose to join, exert effort, and continue in an activity. Amotivation is the least self-determined form of motivation and displays a lack of motivation. Self-determination theory (SDT) identifies intrinsic motivation as the most self-determined sort of motivation. In general, intrinsic motivation can be defined as doing something for the sake of the joy and satisfaction it provides (Deci and Ryan, 1985).
Humans have basic needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, according to SDT. The desire for competence expresses the desire to be perceived as effective in our actions. The desire for autonomy refers to the desire to see one's actions and thoughts as freely decided. The need for relatedness reflects our want to feel connected to others around us. Individuals will choose activities and experiences that meet these three basic demands, according to SDT. An activity is fundamentally joyful or enjoyable if it satisfies an individual's demands for competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan and Deci, 2000).
The reasons for choosing engineering include more available private engineering colleges in India, envious pay packages for some engineering graduates, a diverse range of career opportunities after engineering, and finally, the stereotypical psyche of Indian parents toward engineering as a career option (Aditya, 2011). Joining engineering and being successful requires hard work and the right aptitude. To shape these twin factors, inherent personality and parental influence play a vital role. Without these right attitudes and aptitudes, joining engineering may only produce ill-equipped engineering graduates. The current industry has often remarked about the inadequately training freshers. To explore a potential solution to this problem, we proposed to study the patterns of relationship between yoga and nonyoga practitioners and compare certain intrinsic and parental factors. Yoga has been reported to groom many of the inherent characteristics in a person (Ankamreddy et al., 2020; Khemka et al., 2011; Mattison and Nemec, 2014; Monk-Turner and Turner, 2010; Raghuram et al., 2009; and Trivedi, 2014). This study aimed to explore the parenting styles and dimensions of emerging adults among yoga and nonyoga practitioners.
| Methods | | |
Participants
Three hundred and eleven individuals, 215 male and 96 female, were recruited for the study from first-semester undergraduate courses in an engineering college in South India. Among them, 98% of students belong to Tamil Nadu and 2% of students belong to Karnataka, Kerala, and Bihar. Participants who expressed an interest in participating in the study were included. Students other than the first semester were excluded from the study.
Design
For this study, we employed a survey design.
Ethical consideration
The institutional ethics committee approved this study, and the participant's consent was obtained.
Assessment
Inquisit software was used to assess the psychological variables (Millisecond, 2014). The students' consent was obtained, and all assessments were conducted in the Central Computer Lab. The test took about 45 min to complete. A demographic profile and other psychological characteristics are included in the test. The demographic profile includes the following information: roll number, date of birth, and previous experience of yoga practice with a response range of 0 (no experience) to 3 (over 1-year experience), and the reason for career choice with a response range of 1 (my own interest), 2 (teachers), 3 (friends/seniors), and 4 (parents). The Free will and Determinism Scale was used to measure deterministic and libertarian characteristics. The eight Likert-type items on this scale use a five-point range from “not true at all” to “almost always true” (Rakos et al., 2008). To screen, the individuals' general health was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). It has 12 questions, each of which is answered on a four-point Likert scale, spanning from 0 to 3 from left to right (Lesage et al., 2011). In our study, we used the scoring method of 0-0-1-1. The Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (The IDEA) instrument was used to assess psychological states of emerging adulthood in six subscales which contain identity exploration, experimentation/possibilities, negativity/instability, other focused, self-focused, and Feeling “in-between.” The IDEA instrument contains 31 items with four points answer scale (Reifman et al., 2007). The degree of social desirability in self-report measures was assessed using the 13-item short form of Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne and Marlowe, 1960). The Perceived Parental Autonomy Support Scale (P-PASS) was used to assess autonomy support and control parenting styles. The P-PASS has 24 items, including subscales such as providing options, presenting explanations, being alert, threatening to punish, inducing guilt, and boosting performance. Participants rate how well each item reflects their mother and father on a seven-point Likert-type answer scale (Mageau et al., 2015).
| Results | | |
All raw data from the server computer were collected after completing the tests. Data were extracted from the Excel sheet. Then, for the variables that required reverse scoring, reverse scores were applied, and descriptive statistics were generated for all variables. We performed first-order Pearson's correlation, keeping social desirability as the controlling variable. The statistical computer software R 4.1.0 was used to analyze the data (RCoreTeam, 2021). The raw data and the associated R analysis script can be downloaded from: https://osf.io/5rpk3/?view_only = c96fdf6eb757477abfe96ea84eaf0405.
Descriptive statistics
The total sample size of the study was 311. The mean and standard deviation of psychological variables are presented in [Table 1]. However, we had removed 22 participants, those who had severe distress (GHQ score >6). This led to a final analyzable sample size of 289, which include 201 males and 88 females.
Yoga practice and career choice
We conducted a Chi-square test for independence to assess any difference in proportions between the variables, yoga practice, and career choice. These two demographic variables were converted to dichotomous variables by combining their levels. Any individual who has reported no experience as a nonyoga practitioner, and anybody with any duration of yoga practice as a yoga practitioner. Similarly, career choice was reduced to own choice, i.e., who said they chose engineering with their own interest and choice and other's choice, i.e., who had taken up engineering course due to the influence of either friends, parents, or teachers. Chi-square test of independence showed no significant difference in proportions of own choice and other's choice between yoga and nonyoga practitioners, χ2 (1) = 1.43, P = 0.231. Both the groups had a greater number of students who had self-reported to have joined engineering out of their own choice. We now explore the relationship between various psychological variables among yoga and nonyoga practitioners.
Pearson's partial correlation
The students were divided into two categories, those who are practicing yoga and those not practicing yoga. We then performed Pearson's partial correlation between various variables across yoga practitioners and nonyoga practitioners, controlling for social desirability scores. [Table 2] shows the results of Pearson's correlation and the corresponding P values. Overall, the magnitude of the correlation was found to be low to moderate. We, therefore, looked at the direction of the correlation between the two categories. | Table 2: Pearson's partial correlation across yoga practitioners and nonyoga practitioners (n=289)
Click here to view |
| Discussion | | |
Free will, the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood and parental behavior
Although the personal agency is positively correlated with identity exploration, experimentation, self-focused, and autonomous support in both groups, the correlation with experimentation is moderate in both groups. Whereas the correlation with identity exploration, self-focus, and autonomous support is moderate in the yoga group and low in the nonyoga group. The relationship between personal agency, negativity, and other focus is positive in the yoga group but with a weak correlation. In the nonyoga group, the relationship between personal agency and parental control is negative with a low strength of correlation.
Although personal limitation is positively correlated with parental control in both groups, the correlation is moderate in the yoga group and low in the nonyoga group. The relationship between the personal limitation and other focus is positive and moderate, whereas the relationship between personal limitation and feeling in between is positive and weak in the yoga group.
Previous research results showed that employees who espoused freewill beliefs were given better work performance evaluations than those who disbelieved in free will, presumably because belief in freewill facilitates exerting control over one's actions (Stillman et al., 2010). Findings of another research indicated that informational and normative styles, commitment, and in-depth exploration were positively associated with identity functions, whereas diffuse-avoidant style and reconsideration of commitment were negatively related to identity functions (Schwartz et al., 2013). The result of another study showed that high mindful participants having a higher decision boundary for some tasks tend to enjoy certain tasks more than others (Collier and Shi, 2020). Probably, in our study, yoga practitioners owing to their higher mindfulness show better decision-making capabilities and execute an inner free will for making decisions.
The Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood and parental behavior
Identity exploration is positively correlated with autonomous support in both groups. However, the correlation is weak. Experimentation is positively correlated with autonomous support in both groups. However, autonomous support has a moderate correlation in the yoga group and a low correlation in the nonyoga group. Negativity is positively correlated with parental control in the nonyoga group and the correlation is low. Self-focus and other focuses are positively correlated with autonomous support in the yoga group with a weak correlation. Another focus is positively correlated with autonomous support in the yoga group with a weak correlation.
Previous research results emphasize the continuing influence of parenting style and parent–child relationship quality on emerging adult mental health, particularly for daughters (Steele and McKinney, 2019). Those individuals with high intimacy have less loneliness, greater self-esteem, and more happiness than those with low intimacy (Weisskirch, 2018). The higher adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were associated with feeling less self-focused and less likely to feel this period of life is a time of experimentation and possibilities. Conversely, higher ACE scores were associated with increased negativity/instability (Davis et al., 2018). The expressions of parental psychological control regarding dependency and achievement were related to emerging adults' negative outcomes through different pathways (Liga et al., 2017). The results of our study suggest that in yoga practitioners, a sense of identity exploration, and autonomy-supportive parenting styles are more prevalent.
Independent samples t-test was conducted to find gender-wise differences. The results showed that there was an increase in psychological control, inducing guilt and feeling in between in male participants than in female participants. However, the results were not significant.
Strengths, limitations, and recommendations
We attempted to examine a variety of psychological factors that influence both yoga practitioners and nonyoga practitioners in this study. We propose that practicing yoga can cause long-term changes in a person's life. The study's strength was the large number of students that participated. All of our analyses attempted to account for social desirability factors, so it is more likely to be replicated in future studies. Although there were a few statistically significant findings, most of the associations were determined to be weak to moderately strong. The limitation of the study is that we did not focus on the finer details of what type of yoga practices were being practiced by students. This study only looked at first-semester students. Students' psychological characteristics may vary during their 4 years in engineering school. As a result, it is recommended that the same type of study be undertaken at different time frames throughout their course. These findings, we feel, can also aid in the development of specific counseling approaches to educate both students and parents.
| Conclusion | | |
There are a few dimensions of emerging adulthood that have desirable outcome trends, both in yoga and nonyoga practitioners. Among them, some distinct features of yoga practitioners are students who exert inner free will and tend to have a positive outlook. These students also acknowledge more autonomy-supportive parenting styles. Therefore, yoga may promote self-regulated ways of inner growth and learning in emerging adults.
Acknowledgment
We acknowledge the support of Dr. A. Srinivasan and his team at Dr. Mahalingam College of Engineering and Technology, Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, India, for giving their support to conduct this study. We thank Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana to support this research work. We would like to thank the students who participated in the study.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
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[Table 1], [Table 2]
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