July 2013, Volume 1, Number 3 Parenting Styles and Dimensions of Children's Maladaptive Behaviors Nafiseh Mahdavi 1*, Khalil Esmaeilpour 2, Vajiheh Khajeh 2 1. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran. 2. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education & Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran. Article info: A B S T R A C T Received: 15 Feb. 2013 Accepted: 09 May 2013 Objective: Many behavioral problems are resulting from inappropriate parenting styles and inattention to behavioral-emotional difficulties in childhood. The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between parenting styles and dimensions of children's maladaptive behaviors. Methods: 120 six-year old boys, who were enrolled in the first grade of elementary school, were selected and completed Baumrind’s Parenting Styles Questionnaire, Adaptive Behavior Scale and Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices (RCPM). Results: The results showed that permissive parenting style is positively related to violence and disruptive, antisocial, outburst behavior, and hyperactivity tendency. Maternal and paternal educations were positively related to outburst, and untrustworthy behavior, respectively. Intelligence of children was positively related to outburst, and untrustworthy behavior. There Keywords: was not any significant relationship between parenting styles with parents’ education and children’s intelligence. Adaptive behavior, Behavior disorders, Disruptive behavior, Conclusion: Based on current research results and adding up previous studies, new hypotheses Parenting style for future studies were suggested. 1. Introduction rists and researchers consistently were that how children and adolescents show their problems and what causes n recent decades, many scientific efforts about the behavior problems. Since 1920s, famous psycho- maladaptive behaviors of children and adoles- logical theorists (such as Freud, Adler, Erickson, Hor- cents have been accomplished. Part of these ef- ney, etc.) have mentioned the role of family as well as forts have resulted in classification of children child rearing in children’s problems incidence (Schultz I maladaptive behaviors in Diagnostic and Sta- & Schultz, 2005). tistical Manual of Disorders (DSM-IV; American psy- chiatry association, 1994), and two general categories: Some of these theorists have focused on social factors internalizing and externalizing problems (Achenbach besides the family, but many have considered the role & Rescorla, 2001). In this conceptualization, problems of family beyond the other social forces. For example, such as depression, anxiety, withdrawal, and physical Framo (2003), one of the family therapy theorists, be- complaints referred to internalizing problems, in which lieves that the effect of family is more than all other the patient usually bothers himself. Problems such as forces that had already known. In his point of view, the rule breaking, aggression and outbursts, which are asso- role of family is beyond the culture, friends, and relatives ciated with harming others, have been classified into ex- and so on. Nevertheless, parenting styles, as a new field, ternalizing problems. Fundamental questions for theo- have been introduced by Diana Baumrind in 1970s, and * Corresponding Author: Nafiseh Mahdavi, MA Address: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: [email protected] 163 July 2013, Volume 1, Number 3 drew researchers’ attention. Since that time, psychologi- elevated rates of child disruptive behavior problems. cal theories in prevention and treatment of child prob- Low levels of warm involvement were associated with lems, have focused more on parent-child interaction and elevated rates of child disruptive behavior problems. parenting styles change specially through parent training Physically aggressive parenting was linked more spe- (e.g. Patterson & Reid, 1973). Parenting styles of parents cifically to child aggression. Milich and Lonely (1979) have also important role in mental-social growth and suggested that family correlates with children’s aggres- development of adolescence, family relationship, and sion, such as hostile and punitive parenting, would show educational success, decision ability and self-confidence their effects on adulthood. Peterson and Zill (1986) also (Seyed-Fatemi et al., 2010). Central to the process of the reported the relationship between parental control and socialization of children are the parenting behaviors and children behavior problems. They concluded that inap- discipline responses, which children experience within propriately poor or high control was associated with family settings (Halpenny, Nixon, & Watson, 2010). child behavior problems. In recent decades, vast amount of research literature Survey on researches about parenting styles show that on risk factors of behavioral problems in children has there is association between parenting styles and risky focused mainly on parenting and family correlates as behavior among children and teenagers. In Ferrari and behavioral problems predictors. These researches show Olivetti’s (1993) research, the teenager girls, who per- that parenting style is one of the major factors in mal- ceived both parents as too arbitrarily, evaluate himself adaptive behavior of children (Frick, 1994). unable to make decisions. While there were no signifi- cant difference in decision-making reports of the girls Baumrind (1971) has divided the parents’ parenting who assessed their parents parenting styles as high or styles into authoritarian, authoritative and permissive. low decisive and confident (authoritative style), high, In authoritarian parenting style, parents force their or low permissive. Dubow, Hesmann and Buxer (2003) children to blindly obey. These groups of parents limit concluded that permissive and authoritarian parenting their children, give them less freedom and authority, styles are possible causes of aggression in childhood. and believe that they should monitor their children’s These children also had poor school performance than behavior. As a result, standards of behavior would be children whose parents were authoritative. inflexible and one-sided, and sometimes they punish their children for the same standards. In authoritative In summary, it has demonstrated that authoritarian and parenting, parents treat their children with authority. permissive parenting styles, both are related to negative However, unlike the first group, they accept flexibility behavioral outcomes, including aggression, internalize in children’s behavior. These parents give their children and externalize disorders (Dubow, Hesmann, & Buxer, opportunity to protest, if necessary, and develop certain 2003). However, authoritative parenting style is related discipline with clarification of reasons. The third kind with positive developmental outcomes including aca- of parenting style is permissive, in which parents have demic achievement, greater self-reliance, less deviant more tolerance for misbehavior of children and ignore behavior, and positive relationships with peers. And it is their misbehaviors. With this description and according confirmed that positive impact of this approach would to Darling and Steinberg’s (1993) definition, parenting be constant over the time, while impact of other parent- styles are collection of trends, actions and nonverbal af- ing styles remain stable or may be increased (Steinberg fects that indicate the nature of parent-child interactions et al., 1994). Contrary with these results, a few research- in various situations. They describe parenting styles as ers also have expressed cultural differences in suitabil- emotional atmosphere that moderate effects of parent- ity of some parenting styles. For instance, Garcia and ing behaviors. Garcia (2009) concluded that the optimum style of par- enting for Spanish adolescents is indulgent one. In previous research, two trends can be found. Some researchers have studied the relationship of parenting Despite the fact that association between some of styles, and others examined the association of parent- parenting styles with children maladaptive behaviors ing behaviors with children and adolescents problems have been distinguished, there are also contradictions. or disorders. For example, Stormshak and colleagues Therefore, current study sought to examine the proba- (2000) in study of parents of elementary school students ble relationship between parenting styles and children’s with disruptive behavior problems (e.g. oppositional, maladaptive behaviors to determine which children aggressive, hyperactive) concluded that parenting be- maladaptive behavior is associated with the three par- haviors including punitive interactions associated with 164 July 2013, Volume 1, Number 3 enting styles (authoritarian, authoritative or permissive) (1995) has reported the reliability of subscales by test in their parents. retest, 0.69 for permissive style, 0.77 for authoritarian, and 0.73 for authoritative. 1. Methods Adaptive behavior questionnaire-school edition: Participants This questionnaire provided first time by Lambert and The statistical population of current study composed colleagues in 1974. This questionnaire demonstrates of all 6-years old male students in district 3 of Tabriz beneficial descriptive information to diagnose maladap- city that completed preschool and were ready to enter tive behaviors of elementary school