Factors of perceived parental rearing styles: the EMBU-C examined in a sample of Dutch primary school children

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore the dimensional framework underlying the original item pool of 81 items of the Dutch EMBU-C in a large sample of primary school aged children ( n=824). It was demonstrated that the full range of 81 items of the Dutch EMBU-C, could be reduced to four reliable factors, Emotional Warmth, Rejection, Overprotection and Favouring Subject. It was shown that the EMBU-C Scales for children have conceptually much in common with their adult and adolescent counterparts. Thus, the EMBU-C can be considered to be a suitable measure examining whether relations between psychological disorders and the perception of parenting style, as found in older subjects, can be confirmed in childhood. Preliminary results showed that the associations between perceived parenting, as measured by the EMBU-C, and trait anxiety in children, as measured with the STAIC, are consistent with findings yielded in studies with adults where anxious individuals expressed that they had been reared in a more rejective and protected way than their non-anxious equivalents.