ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1597721
This article is part of the Research TopicBreaking the Mold: Groundbreaking Methodologies and Theories for Parental Involvement in EducationView all 8 articles
A Comparative Study on Parental Rearing Styles and Competitive Attitudes Among College Students from Different Family Income Backgrounds
Provisionally accepted
- Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, China
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Objective: To explore the differences in parental rearing styles and competitive attitudes between college students from low-income and non-low-income families. The goal is to provide insights into their holistic development and psychological adaptation in diverse competitive environments. Methods: A total of 1,000 college students were surveyed using a general information questionnaire, the Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran questionnaire, and the Competitive Attitude Scale. Among them, 188 were identified as low-income students and 750 as non-low-income students. Results: ① Significant differences were observed between low-income and non-low-income students in parental emotional warmth and understanding, paternal denial and rejection, maternal favoritism, and malignant competitive attitude (p < 0.05). ② Parental emotional warmth and understanding were positively correlated with benign competitive attitude (p < 0.01). ③ Parental rejection, denial, favoritism, and overprotection were negatively correlated with malignant competitive attitude (p < 0.05). ④ Paternal punishment and strictness were positively correlated with malignant competitive attitude (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Positive parental rearing styles enhance the subjective well-being of low-income students and foster benign competitive attitudes, whereas negative parental rearing styles reduce well-being and promote excessive competitive tendencies.
Keywords: Family income, parental rearing style, competitive attitude, Mental Health, Family environment
Received: 21 Mar 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Wang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tingting Xu, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, China
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