Is er een relatie tussen ouderlijke warmte en discipline en de sociaal emotionele ontwikkeling van jonge kinderen, en zijn er verschillen in die relatie tussen vaders en moeders?

Abstract

This study examined the links between mothers’ and fathers’ parenting behaviour and the social emotional development of their children, aged between 12 and 48 months. Therefore, 416 fathers and mothers in families with young children completed questionnaires about the warmth and discipline they provide to their children. A distinction was made between positive and negative discipline. In another questionnaire they indicated how their child’s social emotional development was progressing. Because fathers have an increasingly important role in raising their children, and research about this is still lacking, the results of fathers and mothers were compared. The results revealed that mothers warmth is positively associated with the social emotional development of their children, however for fathers there was no association found. Negative discipline of mothers was negatively associated, there was again no association found in fathers. This means that mothers’ negative discipline is related to more social emotional problems. There was no relation found between positive discipline of both parents and the social emotional development of their children. In conclusion, the results suggest that none of the fathers’ parenting behaviours in this study seem to have a relation with the social emotional development of their children. Mothers do, when it comes to warmth and negative discipline. Further research is needed to learn more about the influence of fathers in the upbringing of their children. It is important to know whether the parenting behaviours warmth and discipline of fathers really have no influence on the social emotional development of their children, as suggested by this thesis.