Relationship of maternal parenting behaviors to preschool children's temperament.

Abstract

Mothers of 182 preschool nursery school children rated their own parenting responses on a "Parent's Report" questionnaire. At the same time the mothers responded to the "Behavior Style Questionnaire" (BSQ) from which scores were determined for nine categories of temperament. On the basis of category scores the children were grouped into one of five temperament clusters i.e. easy, difficult, slow to warm up, high intermediate, low intermediate. The children's membership in BSQ clusters was independent of sex, age, birth order, and mothers employment status but there was a significantly higher ratio of "easy" children from higher socioeconomic classes I and II. Mothers of children grouped in either the "difficult" or "slow to warmup"clusters were more likely to use "guilt inducing" and "temper-detachment" parenting styles than mothers of children grouped in the "easy" cluster.