Relationship between parenting styles and internalizing symptoms in children

Abstract

Introduction: In attention to the role of relationship between child and parents in child development, this research was to study internalizing symptoms (anxiety-depression, depression-withdrawal and somatic complaints) in children regarding to parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian and permissive) and determine the role of these variables in prediction of children problems. Method: For this purpose, 271 mothers of 7-9 year old boys educating at first to third grade of 4 primary schools of 6th region of Tehran randomly selected by cluster sampling and completed the parenting styles questionnaire of Baumrind and Ashenbakh system of empirically based assessment. Data analyzed by pearson correlation co-efficiency and regression analysis. Results: Authoritative style had negative significant relationship with all the internalizing symptoms and authoritarian style had positive significant relationship with all the internalizing symptoms. The result of regression analysis showed that authoritative style is a negative significant predictor and authoritarian is a positive significant predictor of all internalizing symptoms. Conclusion: Result of the research was concordant with the past studies in this field. In total, it seems that control along with intimacy is the most important factor in prevention of internalizing symptoms.