The perception of parenting styles and its influence on prosociality, aggression and emotional instability in children in social vulnerability due to poverty

LEMOS, VIVIANA

Melbourne

Simposio; 27 th International Congress of Applied Psychology; 2010

International Association of Applied Psychology

The influence of parenting practices in the emotional and social development of children has been widely studied. The traditional model of socialization, which assumes that if the parents behave in a certain way the children perceive such conduct and interiorize it, has proven to be insufficient in view of the fact that, in the internalization of parenting styles, the interpretation and the acceptance that the child possesses of said message play an important role. The interpretation and acceptance will also depend on the parents-children relationship and how far the child feels he/she has participated in such relationship or if he/she feels the parents have imposed it. This is the reason why this study starts with the perception children have of parenting practices and assess the influence of such perception in prosocial behavior, aggression and emotional instability in a sample of 269 children between 10 and 12 years of age both male and female, in four schools in the city of Buenos Aires and Paraná (Argentina). The children are in a context of vulnerability due to poverty in less supporting parenting styles that do not encourage prosociality, thus this relation is very important to be analyzed. The following instruments were used:  Argentine Scale of Perception of Relationships with Parents for 8 to 12-year old children (Richaud de Minzi, 2004), Prosocial Behavior Scale (Caprara and Pastorelli, 1993; Del Barrio, Moreno and López, 2001), Emotional Instability Scale (Caprara and Pastorelli, 1993; Del Barrio, et al., 2001) and Physical and Verbal Aggression Scale (Caprara and Pastorelli, 1993; Del Barrio, et al., 2001). The results show how the perception of certain parenting styles, mainly from the mother, influences both prosocial behavior and aggression, as well as the emotional stability of children.