Parental support and bullying: an imperative factor to promote Malaysian adolescents’ life satisfaction

Abstract

Bullying has become widespread among secondary school students. Early life experiences in bullying may have long-term impact on multiple facets of adulthood especially life satisfaction, making parental support is crucial. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of bullying and parental support on adolescents’ life satisfaction. A cross-sectional survey design was employed. Students' Life Satisfaction Scale, Personal Experience Checklist, and Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale were completed by 417 adolescents. A significant main effect of parental support on life satisfaction was found using factorial ANOVA. Among the cultural and relation-based bully groups, parental support had a substantial main effect on life satisfaction. Low life satisfaction was revealed to have a significant main effect across low experiences of physical, cyber, and relation-based bully groups. No significant interaction effect was discovered in any of the combinations. High parental support, has a favourable impact on adolescents' life experiences. Students with lower ratings on physical, cyber, and relational experiences, had better life satisfaction. Findings suggest that parents are encouraged to become more conscious of their roles in supporting their children's life journey in achieving healthy life satisfaction. Schools should consider the findings of this study into account when implementing the Parent-Teacher Association regulations.