Relationship among the Parenting Styles and the Social Competence and Prosocial Behaviors of the Children Who are Attending to State and Private Preschools

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the associations of social competence and prosocial behaviors of the boys and girls who are attending to private or state preschools with the parenting styles of mothers' perception. Participants of the research were 344 children's (ranging from 35 and 75 months of age) teachers and mothers. These children were attending to preschools located in Ankara. In this research Parenting Styles and Dimension Scales and Prosocial Behavior Scale were applied to the mothers, Teacher Rating Scales for Social Competence and Prosocial Behavior Scale were applied to the teachers. Findings revealed that the girls have positive interactions with their peers and teachers more than the boys do and the boys have negative interactions with their peers more than the girls do. Furthermore, the scores of negative interactions with peers of the children who have authoritative parents were higher than those of the children who have permissive parents. In addition, the scores of negative interactions with peers and noninteraction behaviors of the children attending to a private preschool were higher than that of the children attending to a state preschool. Moreover, in terms of both mother and teacher ratings of prosocial behaviors, girls tend to show more prosocial behaviors than boys. The children whose mothers showing authoritative parenting style demonstrate more prosocial behaviors as rated by mothers than the children whose parents showing permissive parenting styles.