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, inductive-reasoning, 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 According to the study results, children’s social behavior (aggressive, prosocial and shy/withdrawn) can be predicted significantly by parents inductive reasoning, warmth and punitive styles toward children.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.