The relationship between children's self-control and parenting style / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effect of parenting styles on the children' s self-control,and distinguish the influence between father and mother.Methods The present study selected 1 531 children (766 girls) between 3-10 years old.Data on parenting style were collected by parenting style questionnaire,while data on children' s self-control were measured by dual-system of self-control scale.Principal component analysis was conducted to examine common method bias.Results (1) No common method bias was found in this study.(2) Boys scored (31.66±5.95) on control system lower than girls (32.91±5.49),t=4.071,P＜ 0.01,but they had higher scores (43.19±8.32) on impulsive system than girls (41.96±8.32),t=2.226,P=0.027.(3)The associations of children's self-control scores with parents' spoiling,neglectful,authoritarian,inconsistent style were significant (r=-0.054～-0.174,P＜0.05),while it correlated positively with parents' democratic style (r=0.231,r=0.243,P＜0.05).The correlation between children's impulsive system scores and parents' spoiling,neglectful,authoritarian,inconsistent style were significantly positive (r=0.116-0.195,P＜0.05),while its associations with parents' democratic style were significant (r=-0.107,r=-0.108,P＜0.05).(4) As controlling children's age and sex,father democracy (β=0.120),inconsistency (β=-0.159),and mother democracy (β=0.188) were significantly correlated with children' s self-control (R 2adj =0.107,P＜0.05).Father despotism (β=0.070),inconsistency (β=0.136),mother's democracy (β=-0.063),despotism (β=0.099) and inconsistency (β=0.061) significantly predicted children's impulsive system (R 2adj =0.082,P＜0.05).Conclusion Each dimension of self-control and parenting style is high correlation.Father and mother's different rearing traits and the combination of different rearing traits contributed variously to children' s self-control system.