Het Effect van het Temperament van Kleuters op de Warmte/Ondersteuning en Stimulering van Ouders

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of preschoolers’ temperament on parenting behavior and paternal and maternal differences in the influence of temperament. Three temperament factors were studied: surgency, effortful control and negative affect. Parenting behavior included the dimensions warmth/support and stimulation. Data was collected through questionnaires among mothers (n= 224) and fathers (n= 80). The average age of the preschoolers was 4.65 years old. No effects of surgency were found on parental warmth/support and stimulation. A significant negative effect was found of negative affect by preschoolers on parental warmth/support, no effect was found for stimulation. Effortful control by preschoolers showed a positive effect on both parental warmth/support and stimulation. We also studied the differences between paternal and maternal parenting in the influence of the three temperament factors on parental warmth/support and stimulation. First of all, the dummy variable gender is significant. Analyzing the interaction-effects of the three temperament factors with gender of the parent on parental warmth/support and stimulation. No significant interaction-effects were found between gender of the parent and preschoolers’ effortful control and negative affect. For surgency there was found a significant interaction-effect on warmth/support. Overall, there were no differences found between paternal and maternal warmth/support and stimulation in the influence of temperament, accept for surgency on warmth/support. Conclusions, limitations and suggestions for future studies are discussed.