Moeilijk temperament van kinderen en het opvoedgedrag van ouders.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a relationship between difficult temperament of the child and parental warmth/support and control. And if this relationship is different between fathers and mothers. Parenting behavior can be influenced by various external factors, including the child's temperament. Parenting behavior is considered as an important factor in the child's social, emotional, behavioral and cognitive development. Data was collected amongst 268 parents of young children (0-4 years old). Parents’ parenting behaviour was measured, and each parent filled in the Comprehensive Early Childhood Parenting Questionnaire (CECPQ). Parents also completed the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) which measures the child’s temperament. There is a relation between a difficult temperament and the parenting behaviour warmth, negative and positive discipline of fathers. The temperament scale of impulsivity is more related to warmth and the inhibitory and soothability scales are related to less warmth in parenting behaviour. Negative discipline of parenting behaviour leads the temperament scale frustration to more negative discipline. For mothers the inhibitory behaviour leads to more negative discipline. The relation between difficult temperament and positive discipline was not found for mothers. When it comes to fathers a relation was found where the soothability and inhibitory temperament scales lead to less positive discipline. The differences in parenting behaviour exist mainly because of the different temperament scales. This means that fathers and mothers, in general, show the same parenting behaviour in relation to the difficult temperament of the child.