Parenting styles adopted by mothers of pre-school children according to mother variables

Parenting styles are defined as set of attitudes; beliefs and goals parents have and put into practice in their daily interactions with their children. Baumrind (1971) has mentioned three types of parenting styles viz., authoritative/democratic, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. The present study was under taken to know the parenting styles adopted by mothers of pre-school children. The study sample were mothers of 220 preschool children in Tirupati and Hyderabad towns where three types of pre-schools viz., laboratory nursery schools, anganwadi centers and private schools were available. Mothers were administered with Parenting Style Questionnaire. Results revealed that Majority of the mothers were following authoritative parenting style. Mothers differed significant in implementing authoritarian parenting style according to their age. Mothers did not differ in their parenting styles according to their birth order. Mothers differed significantly in using permissive parenting style according to their education qualification and occupation.