Parenting Styles as a Predictor of the Preschool Children’s Social Behaviours

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate relationship between children's social behaviors and parenting styles. Specifically, the study examines children's aggressive, prosocial and socially inhibited behaviors in association with parenting dimensions namely warmth, inductivereasoning, obedience-demanding and punitive. In addition to this, children's social behaviors and parenting styles are examined in relation to children's gender. The research was conducted on 60-72 month-old 276 children attending preschools in Konya, Turkey. In order to assess parenting styles, the Child Rearing Questionnaire developed by Sanson et al. and adapted by Altan was used. This questionnaire has four subscales, namely inductive reasoning, punishment, obedience demanding behavior and warmth. The questionnaire was completed by mothers. In order to assess child social behaviors, the Teacher Assessment of Social Behavior Scale developed by Cassidy and Asher and adapted by Seven was applied. This scale was completed by the teachers. According to the study results, children's social behavior (aggressive, prosocial and shy/withdrawn) can be predicted significantly by parents inductive reasoning, warmth and punitive styles toward children. In addition to this, boys' aggression scores are found to be significantly higher than girls and girls shyness scores are found to be significantly higher than boys.

Parenting style and child mental health at preschool age: evidence from rural China

“…Regarding the age of the child, the literature also has shown (as does our study) that younger children are expected to obey rules and norms more often than do older children. Therefore, the literature shows that parents are more likely to adopt the authoritarian parenting style when they are rearing older children [ 49 ].…”

“…Research also has investigated the reasons why different patterns of parenting styles have been shown to have different degrees of associations with the mental health problems of young children [ 31 , 40 – 47 ]. Previous studies have shown that warm and responsive parenting behavior are consistently associated with developmental outcomes of early childhood, including mental health; in contrast, the children of parents that displayed low levels of warmth showed elevated levels of oppositional behavior [ 42 , 48 , 49 ]. Since authoritative parents care more about the feelings of their children, and give more encouragement to their children, this behavior not only provides psychological support but also autonomy in various activities; in short, children raised by authoritative parents can express their ideas freely and can create their own self-confidence and responsibility with less problematic behavior [ 36 , 46 , 47 , 49 ].…”

“…In contrast, authoritarian parents are not only often unresponsive to the needs of their children but also frequently are demanding. Parenting strategies, such as punishments, the use of forces and harshness are mostly used by authoritarian parents, and these actions often result in disobedient behavior, aggression, and restlessness of children, which can ultimately be detrimental to the mental health of children [ 43 , 45 , 48 , 49 ]. According to Baumrind (1967; 2013), permissive parents do not guide their children to regulate their behavior; instead, permissive parents tend to allow their children to make their decisions alone.…”

“…According to Baumrind (1967; 2013), permissive parents do not guide their children to regulate their behavior; instead, permissive parents tend to allow their children to make their decisions alone. Therefore, the children of parents that us a permissive style of parenting often become dependent and lack social responsibility, exhibiting either internalizing or externalizing behavior problems [ 32 , 38 , 40 , 49 ].…”

“…Previous studies have also revealed that certain demographic characteristics of children and households are associated with the adoption of different parenting styles [ 30 , 50 – 52 , 44 , 49 , 53 – 55 ]. When examining child characteristics, a strand of literature has explored the differences of parenting styles that are used with children of different gender [ 30 , 51 , 55 – 57 ].…”