Parental Attitudes and Preschool Children's Social Competence

Abstract

Abstract The present study examined (a) the association between parental attitudes toward child rearing and preschool children's social competence and (b) the association among various aspects of social competence. Ss were 25 male and 22 female preschool children and their parents. Mothers' and fathers' attitudes on the Maryland Parent Attitude Survey were similar to each other but not associated with children's age or sex, except that combined parental Indulgence was greater for boys. In general, parental Indulgence and Protectiveness were associated with higher scores on measures of the child's self-concept, vocabulary, empathy, and altruism although not all correlations were significant. The children's vocabulary scores were positively correlated with their self-concept and empathy scores, and mothers' and fathers' ratings of child behavior were positively correlated, but most of the correlations among the social competence indices were nonsignificant. Apparently a weak association exists between parental attitudes toward child rearing and various aspects of preschool children's social competence.