Influence of Parenting Style to Neuroticism Among College Freshmen Amidst Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of changes, including the shift of academic setup from face-to-face to remote learning where home became the place of their study and students spend most of their time with their parents and guardians. Thus, parents play a big role in students’ emotional status during the remote learning. This study determined the relationship between the three different parenting styles, and the level of the neuroticism of select college students during the pandemic. The study used descriptive-correlational design with 70 freshmen students as participants selected through stratified sampling technique. The research instrument used Perceived Parenting Style Scale, to measure the parenting style, and Eysenck’s Personality Inventory, to measure the level of neuroticism. The findings of the study showed that students mostly have experienced an authoritative parenting style. Henceforth, the majority of them have a high level of neuroticism. Moreover, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles influence the level of neuroticism of the respondents; both have positive correlation with the level of neuroticism. This study concludes that parenting style can influence the level of neuroticism of the students. This implies that children of parents with high demands but gets low response and parents with low demands but gets high response are likely to develop unstable emotions.


Introduction
As the world tries to recover from the mayhem caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines imposed closure of school premises and the suspension of face-to-face or in-person classes to further reduce the number of infections. In order to flatten the curve of infection, several measures were implemented (Guo et al., 2020). In the academic setting, one of the major changes was the remote learning. With this pedagogy, students from all levels were required to spend most of their time at home together with their families. However, However, there are several suicide cases identified due to depression. The National Center for Mental Health (2020) also reported an increase in the suicide related calls received by the mental care hotline. In terms of learning, parents play an important role in the students' learning academic journey during the pandemic. However, parents also raise concerns regarding their children dealing with depression from being homeschooled (Thurman 2020).
It is indeed clear and true that parents play a big role in guiding the students in the new normal. Parenting style as well as the attitudes and behaviors toward children and emotional climate in which the parent's behaviors were expressed (Darling & Steinberg, 1993) is one of the major factors that affects students emotionally and mentally. Baumrind (1991) asserts that parenting has a great impact on child's development. Existing research has shown that variation of parenting styles is related to a child's temperament and emotional intelligence (Farrell 2015).
Negative temperament refers to children having a naturally negative mood that appears to be gloomier, sad or negative than being happy (Raymanowicz, 2018). For instance, Alizadeh et al.
(2011) assessed parenting styles such as authoritarian, permissive, and authoritarian and children's behavioral problems (internalizing and externalizing symptoms) and found that an authoritarian parenting style with high responsiveness and high demanding behavior was directly related to fewer children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. As studies of the relationship between parenting style and negative temperament arise, the sense of having negative emotions related to neuroticism can also be anchored to negative temperament. Neuroticism describes the low emotional stability or negative emotionality. It is one of the Big 5 personality traits referring to the ability and tendency of a person to experience negative emotions such as anger, anxiety or depression (Fiske et al., 2003).
This scenario on parenting heightened during the new normal where students spend more time at home with their parents. Online classes put the mental health of students at risks and incidences of suicide has been recorded. As such, the value of parenting style during the pandemic 48 | International Review of Social Sciences Research, Volume 2 Issue 2 is relevant in defining emotional instability of the students while in the remote learning pedagogy. Schaffer et al. (2009) argue that emotion, behavior, and cognitive development are some of the aspects that can be affected by parenting styles. Thus, this study aims to correlate parenting styles with the level of neuroticism among students who experience different learning modalities. The main purpose of this research is to determine the influence of experienced parenting style to the level of neuroticism of the freshmen students from a state university in the Philippines. The results of the study provide insights on the importance of the parenting style and its effect on the behavior of children.

The New Normal
As a response to COVID-19, the Philippines was put under community quarantine that has led students and teachers to study and work from home that caused different risks, problems and challenges especially in the higher education institutions (Bao, 2020). However, the new normal in education brought several challenges to the students. The study of Besser et al. (2021) found that sample of 1, 217 college students had pervasive negative reactions to the online learning.
Many students had to cope with the sense of isolation and loneliness, stress and anxiety. Other studies documented the heightened anxiety and distress among people going through the pandemic (Casagrande et al., 2020;Flett & Hewitt, 2020;Horesh & Brown, 2020).
The pandemic also brought psychological impacts to the Filipinos. In a study by Tee et al.
(2020) involving 1, 879 respondents, 16.3 % rated psychological impact of the outbreak as moderate-severe, 16.9% as moderate-severe depressive symptoms, 28.8% moderate-severe anxiety level and 13.4% moderate-severe stress level. The results showed that during the early phase of the pandemic in the Philippines, one fourth of the respondents reported moderate-severe anxiety and one sixth reported moderate-severe depression and psychological impact. Similarly, the study conducted by Son et al. (2020) found that out of 195 students, 138 (71%) were found to have increased stress and anxiety due to COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. The study identified multiple stressors such as fear and worry about their own health and of their loved ones, difficulty in concentrating, disruptions to sleeping patterns, decreased social interactions due to physical distancing and increased concerns on academic performance.

Parenting Style
Diana Baumrind (1960) introduced the types of parenting styles and their classifications through the basic dimensions that compose parenting styles namely: responsiveness and demandingness (Baumrind, 1995;Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Both of them are used to define each parenting style. Accordingly, there is a close relationship between the type of parenting style and the children's behavior. Thus, different parenting styles can lead to different child development and child outcomes. c. Permissive parenting. These parents are also known as indulgent parents. They relatively make few demands on their children. As a result of their low expectation for self-control and maturity, discipline is rare. The study of Bunag (2020) found that the highest-ranking parenting style in two participating barangays in the Philippines is the permissive parenting style by which it is high in communication but low in standards.
According to the researchers, permissive parents tend to act as advisors and not decision makers. They ignore the children's behavior and do not set limits on the child's actions.
The focus on parenting styles shows the need to teach parents to build warmth and close relationships with their children. Research in neuroscience and developmental sciences emphasizes giving importance to responsive interaction and relationships that contribute to a child's physical and emotional well-being, social competence, cognitive development (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2007) and spiritual and moral development (Fowler & Dell, 2006). In the Philippines, two different terms intertwined: parenting practices and parenting styles. As defined by Darling and Steinberg (1993), parenting practices are the behaviors that parents engage in to achieve particular socialization goals for their children. On the other hand, 50 | International Review of Social Sciences Research, Volume 2 Issue 2 parenting styles embody parent's attitudes toward their children (Bernardo & Ujano-Batangan, 2007). The combination of parenting practices and parenting style could lead to a clearer understanding of parent's influence on their children's development.
According to Ochoa and Torre (2014), authoritative parenting style is the most common in the Philippines. The Filipino children have different interpretations of parental control and styles (Bernardo & Ujano-Batangan, 2007). According to Alampay (n.d), Filipino parents exercise authority, obedience of the children and meeting familial obligations. However, longitudinal studies in Cebu City in the Philippines showed that parents consistently had permissive style over time with mothers more consistent than fathers (Hock, 2013). It also highlighted the gender roles of male and female, mother and fathers in Philippine society. Authoritative parenting style was also shown to be a predictor of better educational attainment, self-esteem, and protection of son's getting into drugs. Thus, the said style scored the highest for adolescents who spend time with family. The younger respondents explained the warmth authoritative relationship they had with their parents (Gilongos & Guarin 2013).

Neuroticism
According to Weed (2017), the concept of neuroticism can be traced back to ancient Greek.
Moreover, the Hippocratic Model of four basic temperaments such as: choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholic could also be linked to the development of the concept of neuroticism. Neuroticism is frequently recognized as a first general factor in contemporary psychometric investigations of personality and psychopathology. It is the tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or depression. It is sometimes called emotional instability, or is reversed and referred to as emotional stability (Fiske et al., 2009).
The study conducted by Klein et al. (2019) has shown an inverse relationship between trait neuroticism and trait mindfulnessneurotic people are frequently preoccupied with worries about the past and future, making it harder for them to be present. However, previous research has shown that being distracted was not shown in a lower IQ or worse work performance. Accordingly, neurotic people have noisier, more chaotic mental control systems. According to Liu et al. (2011), depression increased quickly in people with high neuroticism than those with low neuroticism. In short, the higher an individual's neuroticism degree, the more depressed feelings they experience, the greater their risk of depression, and the greater their chance of recurrence of depression following treatment. In addition, previous research revealed that neuroticism was shown to be adversely associated with need for cognition. Moreover, anxiety has been found to be strongly linked to neuroticism; women have also been found to have greater levels of neuroticism and anxiety than men; and long-term academic performance has been linked to the need for cognition (Johansson & Olund, 2017;Reyes et al., 2008).

Parenting Style and Neuroticism
Some of the parenting practices that integrate responsiveness show correlations with positive developmental outcomes, while other parental demanding practices show correlations with negative or undesirable developmental outcomes. Positive responsiveness includes parental practice such as: monitoring and supervision, behavioral control, autonomy granting, appropriate maturity demands and expectations, and inductive discipline (De Clercq et al., 2008;Sanders, 2008). The study of Reza (2020) showed that demonstration of ineffective parenting style contributes to negative emotional and social growth of children. Authoritarian parents do not communicate warmly to their children that adversely affect the children's development and relationship skills as they interact with their peers. Parental practices have also been found related to reduced alcohol consumption (Mogro-Wilson, 2008), higher academic functioning (Wang et al., 2007), less exposure to situations of sexual risk (Baptiste et al., 2007), higher life satisfaction (Suldo & Huebner, 2004), higher prosocial behavior (Krevans & Gibbs, 1996), and higher confidence (Collins & Barber, 2005). On the other hand, negative demandingness includes parenting practices such as psychological control, inconsistent and punitive discipline, and harsh disciplining (Barnett et al., 2008;Barry et al., 2007;Lim et al., 2008;Shelton & Harold, 2008), which have been found to correlate with internalizing.
Existing studies showed that there is a significant association between parenting style and adjustment among emerging adults. The study of Parra et al. (2019) revealed that most beneficial styles during the emerging adulthood stage are the authoritative and permissive since authoritarian style was being more closely related to psychological distress. The study also showed that in both Portugal and Spain, high levels of well-being are most closely to authoritative and permissive styles, while neglectful and authoritarian score lowest in the levels of well-being. It is likely that the negative effect of control, which when combined with low levels of warmth is linked to psychological distress, is due to the age of the young adults in the sample. The behavioral control exercised by parents tends to diminish as adolescence progresses.

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In terms of the academic performance, Sanchez (2017) concluded a strong association between the parenting style, academic performance and behavior of students. The study further revealed that respondents who experienced a permissive style of parenting thought that being open to someone is too personal, they are not close to their parents and siblings and they cannot easily cope up with school life. Similarly, the study of Obaid, (2021) showed that authoritative parenting style has a positive correlation to child behavior. On the other hand, authoritarian and permissive styles have negative correlation towards child behavior. Results also showed that parents who use authoritative style to their children demonstrate a lower level of problematic behavior, greater academic competence, and higher level of psychosocial development. In contrast, parents who use authoritarian style was significantly associated with child abuse and thus, lead to increased stress and affect the family negatively.

Theoretical Framework
The study was anchored on Diana Baumrind's Theory of Parenting style or Maccoby and Martin parenting styles. The theory is an initial work of Diana Baumrind, a Developmental Psychologist (1960s) which was refined by Maccoby and Martin (1980s). According to the theory, there is a close relationship between the parenting style and the children's behavior. Henceforth, different parenting styles can result in different child development and outcomes.
Initially, Baumrind's intensive observation, interviews and analyses resulted in the identification of the three types of parenting style namely: authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting and permissive parenting. Hence, Maccoby and Martin expanded the three types of parenting style using the two-dimensional framework (1983). They expanded the permissive parenting style into permissive (also known as indulgent), and neglectful parenting style (also known as uninvolved parenting style). Each parenting style was defined based on demandingness and responsiveness; the two dimensions of parenting behavior and styles. Demandingness refers to how the parents control their children's behavior or demand their maturity. On the other hand, responsiveness refers to the degree of how the parent accepts and is sensitive to their children's emotional and developmental needs.
Authoritative Parenting is high in demandingness and high responsiveness. They have high expectations for achievement and maturity, but they are also warm and responsive. Authoritarian Parenting is high in demandingness but low responsiveness.

Methodology
The study used descriptive correlational research methodology to determine the relationship between perceived parenting style and the level of neuroticism of select seventy (70) Table 1 shows the mean scores of the authoritative parenting style indicators. Indicator 7 has the lowest mean score of 3.30 and with a standard deviation of 1.11. This indicates a moderate level, which implies that the respondents are sometimes being pursued for taking their own decision. It means that the parents of the respondents sometimes allow them to follow the decision they want to take. Indicator 1 has the highest mean score of 4.46 which is a very high level, and a standard deviation of 0.76. This implies that the parents of the respondents are always capable of making the respondents understand about "right" and "wrong". It means that the parents are able to teach the respondents of what is right and what is wrong. The overall weighted mean score is 3.83 and a standard deviation of 1.08. This shows that respondents perceived authoritative parenting style at a high level. They often have the freedom to make their own decision, and their opinions and ideas are being considered. It means that the respondents are being supported and guided by their parents.

Findings and Discussion
According to Cherry (2020), democratic parenting is a term used to describe an authoritative parenting approach. It entails a child-centered strategy in which parents have high expectations for their children and back them up with encouragement and support. These parents pay attention to their children and give love and warmth, as well as limits and fair discipline. Instead of using punishment and threats, this style of parenting use strategies such as positive reinforcement.  Table 2 shows the mean scores of the authoritarian parenting style indicators. Indicator 3 has the lowest mean score of 1.41 and with a standard deviation of 0.77. This indicates a very low level, which implies that the respondents have never experienced insults and never been beaten in front of others. It means that the respondents do not experience abuse from their parents in front of others. Indicator 6 has the highest mean score of 3.73 which is a high level, and a standard deviation of 1.08. This implies that the parents of the respondents often behave in a strict manner.
It means that the parents of these respondents have unbending rules that the respondent must follow. The overall weighted mean score is 2.48 and a standard deviation of 1.09. This shows that respondents perceive their experience on authoritarian parenting style at a low level. They rarely experience being blamed for not doing things properly and parents are sometimes in control over each of the respondents' activities. It means that the respondents rarely receive directives from their parents.
According to Weaver et al. (2014), authoritarian practices and roles changed in the last 50 years with significant reduction in parental directive control. Parents' responsibilities evolved from 56 | International Review of Social Sciences Research, Volume 2 Issue 2 stereotypical portrayals of fathers as decision-makers and mothers as caregivers to both parents sharing choices and earning children's respect.  Table 3 shows the mean scores of the permissive parenting style indicators. Indicator 6 has the lowest mean score of 2.13 and with a standard deviation of 1.20. This indicates a low level, which implies that the parents of the respondents rarely don't meet or satisfy the respondent's needs. It means that the parents of the respondents often provide their needs. Indicator 2 has the highest mean score of 2.87 which is a moderate level, and a standard deviation of 1.13. This implies that the parents of the respondents sometimes help their children do the day-to-day activities on time. It means that these respondents sometimes receive help from their parents. The overall weighted mean score is 2.44 and a standard deviation of 1.11. This shows that respondents perceive permissive parenting style at a low level. This implies that the respondents rarely perceive the parenting style they experience as permissive. Thus, the parents of the respondents rarely don't inquire about the things about their child. The parents of the respondents rarely don't make efforts to provide the needs of the respondents.
According to Cherry (2020), permissive parenting is a parenting style that combines low expectations with great responsiveness. Permissive parents are usually very caring, but they don't give many boundaries or restrictions. These parents don't expect their children to be mature, and they frequently appear to be more of a friend than a parent.  Table 4 shows that authoritative parenting style has the highest frequency of 55 comprising 78.57% of the respondents. Moreover, permissive parenting style has a frequency of 9 and a percentage of 12.86. While there are only 6 respondents (8.57%) who experienced authoritarian parenting. This indicates that majority of the respondents perceived to have authoritative parents.
Authoritative parenting style is widely used and considered as the most effective parenting style among the 3, since the parents in this parenting style are affectionate, supportive, and the children's autonomy and independence were encouraged.
According to Lee (2021), the authoritative parenting style has been found to provide the best results in children, including improved emotional health, social skills, resiliency, and strong bonds with their parents. A child's growth is extremely essential and has a significant influence on their whole existence as they progress into adult functioning individuals. Similarly, Balswick and Balswick (2014) find authoritative parenting as more efficient. Authoritarian and permissive parenting style have been perceived the least. Presumably, the very strict rules and rare discipline practices are moderately manifested by the Filipino parents.

Total 70 100
Legend  Most of the respondents have a high level and very high level of neuroticism maybe due to the transition and adjustment period during the online classes considering the participants as freshmen college students. This is clearly explained by the Light Program (2020) that students moving to college face a number of challenges, including academic pressure, financial stress, uncertainty about which major or career route to pursue, greater social media use, and a lower stigma associated with seeking help. In addition, the transition to college is a period rather than a single event that causes significant levels of stress in college freshmen students in particular (D'Zurilla & Sheedy, 1991). The pandemic situation has contributed much to the pressing challenges faced by the students. Table 6 shows the test of relationship between profile as to: age, sex, college, and living arrangement, and level of neuroticism of the respondents. As to age, the computed r-value -0.110410366, is less than the CV which is 0.2444. Thus, accept Ho, therefore there is no significant relationship between the age and level of neuroticism of the respondents. As to sex, since the computed r-value is -0.120395806 which is less than the CV of 0.2444, the null hypothesis is also accepted. Similarly, as to the college department, the Ho is accepted therefore there is no significant relationship between the college and the level of neuroticism of the respondents, as a consequence of the computed r-value of -0.129512249 being lesser than the CV of 0.2444. As to living arrangement, it also doesn't have a significant relationship to the level of neuroticism of the respondents as the computed r-value is -0.126292615 which is less than the CV of 0.2444. Thus, accept Ho, therefore, the living arrangement of the respondents doesn't influence the level of neuroticism of the respondents. The demographic profile of the respondents has no significant relations with the level of neuroticism. The test of relationship clearly indicate that the demographic profile of the respondents doesn't affect the level of neuroticism. Thus, the results contradict most of the cited studies such as Donnellan et al. (2008) that there is a general declined in the average level of neuroticism with age but it is increased slightly with the onset at around age 80 and Lahey (2009) that that neuroticism and mental and physical health adjust accordingly by age, gender, and socioeconomic levels.  Table 7 shows the test of relationship between the level of neuroticism and parenting style of the respondents as to authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive.
As to authoritative parenting style, the computed r-value -0.165984701 being lesser than the CV 0.2444, implies that the Ho is accepted. Thus, the authoritative parenting style is not significant to the level of neuroticism of the respondents. Although it is tested that authoritative 60 | International Review of Social Sciences Research, Volume 2 Issue 2 parenting style and the level of neuroticism has no significant relationship, the table shows a negative correlation. It means that the higher the tendency for a parent to be authoritative, the lower the level of neuroticism. This contradicts the findings of Obaid (2021) that authoritative parenting is utilized more than other parenting styles and has a strong positive relationship with child behavior. As explained by Rahimi (2013) that children raised by authoritative parents had better levels of self-esteem and quality of life than children raised by authoritarian or permissive parents.
As to authoritarian parenting style, the computed r-value is 0.415357586 and is greater than the CV of 0.2444. The Ho is rejected, therefore there is a significant relationship between the authoritarian parenting style and the level of neuroticism of the respondents. It means that authoritarian parenting style influences the level of neuroticism of the respondents. Moreover, the positive correlation indicates that as parents become more authoritarian, the level of neuroticism increases. Authoritarian parents are high in demandingness but low in responsiveness, they have high expectations and standards that if not met, the parent will blame and punish their children.
These punishments lead the children to experience and feel negative emotions. Consequently, their children experience the feeling of being easily hurt when people find fault with their work.
A significant relationship between permissive parenting style and the level of neuroticism was also determined. With a computed r-value of 0.44199485 which is greater than the CV of 0.2444 the Ho is rejected. It entails a positive correlation, which implies that as parents become more permissive, the level of neuroticism increases. Permissive parents practice lenient parenting style wherein they make all the possible efforts not to upset their children, to meet all their demands, and they emphasize their children's autonomy rather than responsibility. Henceforth, children with permissive parents were taught that sadness and disappointment are intolerable due to their parent's effort not to make them experience distress. Permissive parenting style hampers children's emotion that results in difficulty dealing with their emotions. Thus, when children face stressful or emotionally difficult situations, they tend to lack apt decision making and problem solving capabilities, leading them to feel negative emotions. Lionetti et al. (2021) explain that increased ruminative coping mechanisms in sensitive children were linked to permissive parenting, which predicted greater levels of depression. As a result, ruminating has emerged as a key cognitive risk factor for the development of depression symptoms in children who are susceptible.
Based on the result, authoritarian and permissive parenting style influences the level of neuroticism of the respondents. Moreover, both of them have positive correlation with the level of neuroticism.

Conclusion
The findings of the study showed no significant relationship between the level of the neuroticism and the profile of the respondents as to: age, sex, college, and their living arrangement.
Similarly, there is no significant relationship between the level of neuroticism of the respondents and authoritative parenting style. This implies that authoritative parents do not affect the level of neuroticism of the respondents. However, there is a significant relationship between authoritarian parenting style and permissive parenting style and the level of neuroticism. As such, this study concludes that authoritarian parenting, parents with high demandingness but low responsiveness, affects the level of neuroticism. In addition, permissive parents, low in demandingness but high in responsiveness, also affects the level of neuroticism.
This study suggests both parents and their children to be mindful and sensitive on the parenting style that could deter or harm the emotions and mental health. Further studies are encouraged on the use of different standardized test on neuroticism level and parenting styles. As the current study has limited participants, similar study with higher number of participants are highly recommended to further validate the relationship between parenting style and level of neuroticism.