The purpose of present study is to elucidate the influence of mothers parenting attitudes and perceived parenting attitudes of their children on the behavior of emotional maladjustment. The advantage of present study compared to previous studies is th...
The purpose of present study is to elucidate the influence of mothers parenting attitudes and perceived parenting attitudes of their children on the behavior of emotional maladjustment. The advantage of present study compared to previous studies is that this study examines the perceived parental characteristics in aspects of both mothers and children. This study also compares the influence of both sides on the behavior of emotional maladjustment of children.
Three-hundred and twenty-two students in 5th or 6th grade of elementary schools and their mothers participated in present study. The methods of survey used in this study were questionnaire of behavior index of parenting(Young-Ae Park, 1995) and questionnaire emotional maladjustment(Young-Suk Kim, 1988). The main results are as follows :
First, in case of mothers parenting attitudes only parental warmth/acceptance had great influence on the behavior of emotional maladjustment of the children. Whereas, in case of children perceptions of parenting attitudes, more various parental styles had influence on the emotional maladjustment behaviors.
Second, mothers' parenting warmth/acceptance correlated negatively with all subdimensions of emotional maladjustment except for compulsive behaviors of boys and excessive behaviors in girls. However, in each subdimensions of parenting attitudes perceived by children all parental styles(warmth/acceptance, rejection/control, permission/neglect) affected on subordinate factors of emotional maladjustment. In the relationship between parenting attitudes perceived by children and behaviors of emotional maladjustment, warm and acceptance had only influence on the withdrawal behaviors of boys and girls. Especially, parental rejection/control perceived by children was correlated positively to all the behaviors of emotional maladjustment.
Third, in both genders various relationships between parenting attitudes perceived by mothers and children respectivily were found. In aspects of parental warmth/acceptance and rejection/control the correlations were high, whereas in aspects of parental permission/neglect the correlations were low.
Fourth, in boys, the higher levels of parental warmth/acceptance perceived by children than parental warmth/acceptance by mothers were associated with lower levels withdrawal behaviors, and the higher levels of perceived parental rejection/control by boys than parental rejection/control by mothers were also associated with higher levels of regressive and obsessive behaviors. In case of girls, although there were a little differences, the higher levels of parental warmth/acceptance perceived by children were associated with lower levels of all the subdimensions of emotional maladjustment except obsessive behaviors. Moreover, the higher levels of parental rejection/control perceived by children than mothers' parental rejection/control were related to the higher levels of excessive and regressive behaviors. Parental attitude perceived by children is more predictive in children's emotional maladjustment than that perceived by mothers.
Fifth, in aspect of aggressive behaviors, boys had only positive correlations with parental rejection/control, whereas girls had positive correlations with not only parental rejection/control but also parental acceptance/neglect. This result means that the girls are apt to be affected by various factors of perceived parenting attitudes.
In conclusions, mothers' parenting attitudes have a great influence on the behaviors of emotional maladjustment in children, and there are some differences between mothers' parenting attitudes and parenting attitudes perceived by children. Moreover, according as perceived parenting attitudes are positive or negative, the behaviors of children are found differently. The interesting point is that the main factors of parenting attitudes by mothers are parental warmth/acceptance only, but there are more various and discriminating factors of parenting attitude by children.