A Study On The Relationship Between Junior High School Students’ Interpersonal Trust And Parenting Styles

Interpersonal trust is the prerequisite as well as basis of humancommunication. It is an attitude of communication reflected in the process ofcommunication between an individual and other people. Parenting styles arecritical factors in individual development and socialization, thus they play animportant role in an individual’s growth and maturity. Junior high schoolstudents are just in the critical period of physical development and mentalmaturity. As a result, exploring the relationship between junior high schoolstudents’ interpersonal trust and their parenting styles exerts great influenceupon their growth and maturity. There are a number of studies oninterpersonal trust at present, which can be generally classified into twodirections: one is to approach the current situation of interpersonal trust ondifferent groups of people; the other is to investigate the relationshipbetween interpersonal trust and other varieties which include self-esteem,self-conception, self-happiness and other subjective factors. However,people have neglected the influence of parenting styles as major external factors upon junior high school students’ interpersonal trust. Most scholarsin previous studies have restricted research objectives to collage studentswhile studies on high school students’, especially junior high schoolstudents’ interpersonal trust are far from enough.This study uses a questionnaire method. Interpersonal trust scale (ITS)and Egma Minnen av Bardndosnauppforstran (EMBU) are selected todistribute to460junior high school students in Qiqihaer. The analyses ofreturned questionnaires are as follows:⑴Significant difference of gender exists in junior high schoolstudents’ interpersonal trust with boy students superior to girl students. Also,there is significant difference between town and county in junior high schoolstudents’ interpersonal trust. Rural students’ degree of interpersonal trust ishigher than urban students’. The only child’s degree of interpersonal trust ishigher than non-only child’s.⑵There exist distinctive differences of gender and grade in junior highschool students’ parenting styles. Parents tend to employ a more activerearing style to girls than to boys. Moreover, there is significant differencebetween parenting styles on only child and non-only child. And the parenting styles of parents from divorced family and that from integratedfamily is different from each other.⑶The correlation between parenting styles and junior high schoolstudents’ interpersonal trust is significant in each dimension. Furthermore,parenting styles remarkably forecast junior high school students’ level ofinterpersonal trust.