Background: Technical schools students are in the critical period in terms of developmental stages where they are expected to gain more skills. One of the most basic social life skills is problem solving which supports technical students' course completion, participation in further education and improves their labor market outcomes. Parental attitudes in nurturing their adolescents have a great influence on their behavior including their problem solving abilities. Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to investigate problem solving skills and its relation to parental authority among technical secondary schools students. Design: A cross sectional research design was used in the current study. Sample: A stratified random sample of 200 technical school students was selected.
Instruments:The study variables were assessed by self-administered questionnaires which are Personal Data Sheet, parenting styles questionnaire, and problem solving questionnaire.
Results:Results of the current study revealed that 62.5% of the students agree that authoritative style is the style parents commonly use. There were a highly statistically significant negative relation between problem concept, defining problem, generating alternatives, making decisions, and evaluation abilities of technical school of maintenance technology students and their authoritarian parenting style. Conclusion: A positive correlation was found between problem solving skills among technical school students and the authoritative parenting style while there was a negative correlation with the authoritarian parenting style. Recommendations: Psycho-educational programs are required for parents to mitigate disparities in treating their children and promote a transition from an authoritarian parenting approach to an authoritative one.