The influences of parenting styles on the epistemic and interpersonal aspects of parenting

Abstract

The aims of the current study are twofold. The main aim of the study was to examine the relationships between parenting styles, scaffolding behaviours and parenting by lying practices, the last two of which were operationalised as epistemic and interpersonal aspects of parenting, respectively. Since there was no measurement tool to assess parental scaffolding functions, the second purpose of the study was to develop a quantitative measurement tool to assess parental scaffolding practices. The current research consisted of two studies. In Study 1, parents with preschoolers (N = 258) were recruited to determine the factor structure of the Parental Scaffolding within Cultural Learning Scale (PSCL). In Study 2, the relationships between epistemic and interpersonal aspects of parenting were investigated through the PSCL and the Instrumental Lie-telling Scale in a second independent sample (N = 153). Furthermore, the associations between parenting styles and these two aspects were examined through the Parent Attitude Scale. According to the study findings, a statistically valid and reliable measurement tool to assess parental scaffolding practices was contributed to the related literature. In addition, it was displayed that the relationships of different parenting styles with parental scaffolding and lie-telling behaviours show a variety. For example, while authoritative and overprotective parenting practices were related to the task persistence scaffolds, authoritarian and overprotective parenting styles were found to be related to higher use of threat lies. In conclusion, these results pointed out the important associations between different parenting factors that were thought to contribute to children’s social learning.