Emotional and Social Parenting Competences of Spanish Mothers According To Their Educational Level And That Of Their Children
Author(s):
María-Teresa Iglesias-García (presenting / submitting) Raquel-Amaya Martínez-González María-Henar Pérez-Herrero
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Format:
Poster

Session Information

14 SES 07 A PS, Interactive Poster Session

Interactive Poster Session

Time:
2015-09-09
17:15-18:45
Room:
103.Oktatóterem [C]
Chair:
Joana Lúcio

Contribution

This study focuses on analysing emotional and social parenting  competences of mothers with children from 0 to 18 years old. It was decided to research on mothers taking into consideration that current studies state they are the ones more involved in upbringing and educating their children at home (Martínez-González,  Rodríguez-Ruiz & Rodrigo-López, 2012).

Studying emotional and social parenting competences is relevant when considering the Council of Europe Recommendation 2006/19 on Policies to Promote Positive Parenting. According to this guideline, European Union States shall support for parents bringing up and educating their children in a way which promote the full development of the latter. Thus, creating positive family relationships trough assertive communication, stablishing coherent norms and limits to children's behaviour, using positive strategies for conflic resolution and avoiding any kind of violence and children maltreatment is expected. By doing so, this Recommendation underlines that the conditions for positive and democratic development of societies is also fulfilled.

Accordingly, some questions to be answered in this research arise:

  • Do mothers perceive themselve assertive enough to performe their parenting role?
  • Do mothers communicate assertively with their children at home?
  • Do they perceive they stablish coherent norms and limits to children's behaviour?
  • Do they use positive strategies for conflic resolution with their childen, thus avoiding any kind of violence and children maltreatment?

 

Trying to find an answer to these questions is relevant because the family is considered the most universal social institution, the basic unit of the societies and the source of the first and more powerful influences on the human being (Bronfenbrenner, 1986; Marjoribanks, 2002). The family is understood as a social, educational and learning context which, given the adequate conditions, can contribute to human and social development through their socialization and educational function (Martínez-González, 2009; Horton, 2003).

However, in order the families can play this social task, family diversity shall be taken into account considering, among others, personal, educational, evolutive, cultural, ethnic, religious, laboral and financial factors (Bronfenbrenner, 1986; Castelli, Mendel & Ravn, 2003; Martínez-González, Rodríguez-Ruiz & Pérez-Herrero, 2005; Paik, 2004; Symeou, 2007).

In this research, emotional and social parenting competences of mothers with children in diverse evolutive stages (from 0 to 18 years old) are analyzed.  Also, literacy standards of the mothers as well as the school level of their children are taken into consideration in order to check whether these factors might influence significantly mothers' emotional and social parenting styles.

Consequently, additional questions addressed in this study are:

  • Do mothers' assertiveness in performing their parenting role changes according to their literacy standards?
  • Do mothers' assertiveness in performing their parenting role changes according to
  • the school level of their children?
  • Do mothers differ in their communication style with their children according to their literacy standards?
  • Do mothers differ in their communication style with their children according to the school level of the latter?
  • Do mothers differ in their way of stablishing norms and limits to their children's behaviour according to their literacy standards?
  • Do mothers differ in their way of stablishing norms and limits to their children's  behaviour according to the school level of the latter?
  • Do mothers differ in using positive strategies for conflic resolution with their childen according to their literacy standards?
  • Do mothers differ in using positive strategies for conflic resolution with their childen according to the school level of the latter?

 If so, these results should be taken into account when deciding parenting intervention approaches and when organizing parenting programmes.

Method

An exploratory field study was carried out using the Emotional and Social Parenting Competence Scale-ESPCS to gather information (Martínez-González, 2009). The construction of the scale followed the stages indicated by specialised literature about this type of technique (Kerlinger, 2002; Muñiz, 2005). The scale consists of 16 items of close answers Likert type with four options (1-Never; 2-Some times; 3-Nearly Always; 4-Always) to eliminate the tendency to place the answer in neutral position (neutral or indecisive). In this study it was assumed that the latent variables to which the items are linked to are continuous and categorised in four different answer levels, based on the contribution of Hernández-Baeza, Muñiz y García-Cueto (2000) regarding the lost of information caused when categorising a continuous latent variable; these authors point out that, although a small number of alternatives (2 or 3) is not suitable to exemplify the latent variable, it is also true that the amount of information that can be retrieved will not increase by using more than 6 or 8 categories. The 16 indicators of the emotional and social parenting competences included in the scale were classified into five dimensions after performing an analysis of the scale following the basic specifications of the Classical Test Theory (CTT) (Muñiz, 2005). These dimensions correspond to the five factors identified through an exploratory factor analysis (60.25% of variance explained) and a hierarchical clustering analysis: 1) Emotional Self-Control (Cronbach's α=0.79), 2) Self-Esteem (Cronbach's α=0.75) 3) Aggressiveness (Cronbach's α=,0.65), 4) Imposition (Cronbach's α=,0.64) and 5) Coherence when applying consequences (Cronbach's α=,0.44). In addition, socio-demographic items on the literacy standards of the mothers and the school levels of their children were included in the scale in order to identify potential statistical differences in the mothers' emotional and social parenting competences. Children's school level was classified into four categories: Infant, Primary, Compulsory secondary and High education levels. As for the mothers' literacy standards, Compulsory, High school and Higher education levels were considered. Moreover the analysis of the scale described above, descriptive, ANOVA and Scheffé post-hoc comparisons were calculated with the five factors and the socio-demographic variables. SPSS statistic package was used. Data came from a Spanish random sample of 2.437 mothers with children from 0 up to 18 years old who volunteered taking part in the study.

Expected Outcomes

The distribution of the mothers in the sample according to their children's school level is: 34.9% Infant education; 34.2% Primary school; 20.1% Compulsory secondary and 10.8% High school. Considering the mothers' literacy standards: 60.2% completed Higher education; 21.4 High school and 17% Compulsory education. Significant differences were found in the five emotional and social parenting competences factors when considering children's school level. The higher the school level is, the lower mothers are able to: 1) control their own emotions (Factor 1-Emotional Self-Control) (p=0.011); 2) maintain a positive self-esteem (Factor 2-Self-Esteem) (p=0.006); 3) be coherent when applying consequences (Factor-5) (p=0.000) and 4) impose themselves on their children (Factor 4-Imposition) (p=0.000). On the contrary, mothers' aggresive behaviour increases accordingly with the children's school level (Factor 3-Aggressiveness) (p=0.000). When considering the mothers' literacy standards, significant statistical differences appeared in three factors. The mothers with compulsory education have both the highest self-esteem (Factor 2) (p=0.000) and the highest impositive attitude (Factor 4)(p=0.000). Those with higher education are the ones who control their own emotions best (Factor 1)(p=0.000) as well as who impose themselves less on their children when conflicts arise (Factor 4) (p=0.000). Significant differences were not found in relation with Aggressiveness (Factor 3), either with Coherence when applying consequences (Factor 5). These results should be taken into consideration when organizing parenting programmes and intervention. For example, shaping homogeneus groups of parents according to the school level of their children could bring about more effective results. On the other hand, organizing groups putting together parents who have different educational backgrounds could enrich their cooperative learning process as well as facilitate their acquisition of social and emotional parenting competences.

References

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology (22), 6, 723-742. Castelli, S., Mendel, M., & Ravn, B. (Eds.). (2003). School, family, and community partnerships in a world of differences and changes. Gdansk, University of Gdansk, (Poland). Council of Europe (2006). Recommendation Rec(2006)19 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on Policy to Support Positive Parenting. Explanatory Report. Strasburg. Hernández Baeza, A., Muñiz Fernández, J., García Cueto, E. (2000). Comportamiento del modelo de respuesta graduada en función del número de categorías de la escala. Psicothema 2000; 12: 288-91 Horton, C. (2003). Protective factors literature review: Early education and education programs and the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Washington, D.C.: Center for the Study of Social Policy. Kerlinger F.N. (2002). Investigación del Comportamiento. México, McGrawHill. Marjoribanks, K. (2002). Family contexts, individual characteristics, proximal settings, and adolescents’ aspirations. Psychological Reports, 91,769-779. Martínez-González, R-A., Rodríguez-Ruiz, B., & Pérez-Herrero, M.H. (Eds.). (2005). Family-school-community partnership merging into social development. Oviedo, SM Editorial Group. Martínez González, R.A. (2009). Programa-Guía para el Desarrollo de Competencias Emocionales, Educativas y Parentales. Madrid, Ministerio de Sanidad y Política Social. Martínez-González, R.A.; Rodríguez-Ruiz, B.; Rodrigo-López, M.J. (2012). Fathers’ and Teachers’ Perception About Their Partnership in Compulsory Secondary Schools In Spain. Promising Practices for Fathers’ Involvement in Children’s Education. (pp. 79 - 93). Charlotte, NC, Information Age Publishing. Muñiz J. (2005). Classical test models. In: B.S. Everitt and D. C. Howell. Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science (Vol.1: 278-282). Chichester, UK, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Paik, S. (2004). Korean and US Families, schools and learning. In R.A. Martínez-González. & S. Paik, (Guest Editors), International Perspectives on families, schools, and communities: Educational implications for partnership. International Journal of Educational Research, 41 (1) 71-90. Symeou, L. (2007). Cultural capital and family involvement in children’s education: Tales from two primary schools in Cyprus. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 28(4), 473-487.

Author Information

María-Teresa Iglesias-García (presenting / submitting)
University of Oviedo, Spain
Raquel-Amaya Martínez-González
University of Oviedo, Spain
María-Henar Pérez-Herrero
University of Oviedo, Spain

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