Establishing a methodology for research on parenting style in families with children between 0 and 7 years and on features of parenting style

Abstract

The parent–child relationship has an effect on different areas of personality development, so understanding the general experience of rearing and educating children is a central issue in both educational and psychological research. One aim of this studyis to present the methodological process in developing research tools. Another is to review the main differentiating factors in parenting style drawn from the data. Our study is descriptive and contains exploratory, cross-sectional, quantitative and qualitative elements. The target population consisted of the parents of children between 0 and 7 years living in Hungary, of whom 980 persons participated in the study after the random sampling. Parenting style was measured with the modified version of the Child-rearing Practices Report (CRPR), which contains 40 statements describing parenting attitudes. After the descriptive statistical tests, closer relationships between the variables were explored using mathematical statistical tests. Furthermore, factor analysis, correlation analysis, and the χ2 test were employed. The effects of the seemingly relevant variables were confirmed by multivariate analysis. Parenting styles in our sample are separated along the two dimensions found in the literature. All the restrictions as well as the caring dimension appear in the statements. During the analysis of the data with mathematical statistical tests, it was found that among the parents in the study, aspects and practices of child-rearing attitudes related to control were less emphasized. The expression of care was rather pronounced among parents with flexible child-rearing/educational attitudes. The most significant differentiating factor in parenting style proved to be a mother’s high level of education.