How Do Parenting Practices Explain Children's Misbehaviors? A Methodological Consideration

Abstract

Several studies have shown that there is a strong relationship between how parents discipline their children and their children 's behavior . While some researchers indicate that each parental behavior separately determines how the children behave, others assign the importance to the combined effect of these parental practices. This paper aims at examining how the techniques employed by parents to discipline their children affect their children's behaviors in the school setting. The study collected the
necessary data from seventh and eighth graders through a questionnaire. The findings indicated that each of the two parental behaviors (warmth/love . and control/demandingness) does not account for any unique variance in children's misbehavior separately. Instead, the study suggests that it is the interaction of the parental behaviors that explains, to a substantial degree, children's involvement in wrongdoing in the school setting. The study particularly showed that a very close relationship between parents and their children marked by consistent love and warmth combined with high control and demand tend to lower the frequency that children will engage in wrongdoing.