Poster #153 - Parenting Styles in a Sample of Portuguese Mothers and Fathers: Looking at individual and Contextual Variables

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Parenting is influenced by several individual, family, and contextual factors (Pleck & Masciadrelli, 2004), with the father’s system being less explored than the mothers. This is relevant since several authors consider that the role of the father is culturally less well scripted, and more susceptible to different type of influences (Cabrera et al., 2007). At a more individual level, parents’ beliefs about their own skills, and competence are central to develop new abilities inherent to the parental role (Bandura, 1989), and have been associated with higher quality of parenting behaviors and father involvement (Lamb, 2010; Young, 2011). On a more contextual level, social support is viewed as promoting quality of parental care, and thus having an impact on parent-child interactions (Belsky & Fearon, 2008). The purpose of this study was to analyze in a Portuguese sample of 380 mothers and 274 fathers (240 were couples), predictors of their parenting styles at a more individual level (age, education, parenting sense of competence) and contextual level (employment status/hours, satisfaction with social support). The moderated role of satisfaction with social support was tested.
Mother and Fathers’ independently answered the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (Johnston & Mash, 1989), Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (Robinson et al., 2001), and the Social Support Satisfaction Scale (Ribeiro, 2011). Data is still being collected.
Preliminary analyzes show that both parents perceived themselves as having a more authoritative style, although mothers’ scores were significantly higher. Interrelationships between sociodemographic variables (mother, father, child), Parenting Styles; Sense of Competence, and Satisfaction with Social Support are presented in Table1. Next, Multiple Linear Regression Models were tested to explain parenting styles. All were statically significant, although explaining a small variance. For the maternal Authoritative Style (F(3,368)= 18.495; p= .000; R2a= .12), mother’s Education (β=.139; t= 2.779; p= .006), parental Efficacy (β=.264; t= 5.044; p= .000) and Satisfaction (β=.130; t= 2.450; p= .015) were significant predictors. For the Authoritarian Style (F(8,347)= 8.362; p= .000; R2a= .14), only parental Satisfaction (β=-.343; t= -5.707; p= .000) was significant; and for the Permissive style (F(8,350)= 10.021; p= .000; R2a= .17), parental Satisfaction (β= -.350; t= -6.036; p= .000), and Satisfaction with the family (β= -.171; t= -3.023; p= .003) were significant predictors. No interaction effects were found. For the Paternal Authoritative Style (F(7,263)= 4.762; p= .000; R2a= .09), satisfaction with Intimacy was a significant predictor (β=1.008; t= 2.379; p= .018), and an interaction effect was found between Efficacy and satisfaction with Intimacy (β= -1.098; t= -2.131; p= .034). For the Authoritarian Style (F(4,266)= 6.992; p= .000; R2a= .08), only parental Satisfaction was significant (β= -.239; t= -3.565; p= .000), and for the Permissive style (F(6,264)= 5.573; p= .000; R2a= .09), child’s age (β= -.147; t= -2.480; p= .014) and satisfaction with Social Activities were significant predictors (β= -.189; t= -2.611; p= .010). Results will be discussed regarding the contributions of the different dimensions of parenting sense of competence and social support, for mother’s and father’s parenting styles.

Authors

• Rita Amaral, ISCTE- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa
  Presenting Author

• Ligia Monteiro, ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa; CIS-IUL
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tiago Dias Domingues, CEAUL, Universidade de Lisboa
  Non-Presenting Author