Parental Educative Attitudes and Socioemotional Responses in Early Childhood

ABSTRACT: Parents shape their children‟s development in many different ways. Attitudes exhibited by parents are one of the principal ways. The present research primarily aimed to explore whether parental educative attitudes towards their children are associated with the children‟s socioemotional responses towards their parents as reported by Turkish Cypriot parents and secondly, to explore whether socioemotional responses of children is related to factors such as parental trait anxiety, parental care and social support provided by father to the mother and by the extended family to the parents. The sample consists of 54 mothers and 54 fathers of children aged between 12 and 48 months old. A questionnaire including the Turkish versions of the “Baby‟s Day Test” (Mertan, 1995), the “Trait Anxiety Inventory” (Oner & Le Compte, 1985) and the “Parental Bonding Instrument” (Kapçı & Küçüker, 2006) was used in data collection. The findings of the study suggest that parental educative attitudes towards their children are related to the children‟s socioemotional responses towards their parents. In other words, positive socioemotional responses of children increase as the parents exhibit positive educative attitudes. Keywords: Parental Attitude, Child Development, Socioemotional Response, Trait Anxiety, Parental Care, Father Support, Extended Family Support. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………