The relationship between child rearing attitudes of mothers and problematic behaviors in their preschool period children

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the child rearing attitudes of mothers having children at preschool period and to compare the child psychiatry outpatient referred mothers with nonreferred ones and to investigate the effects of problematic child behavior and mother's education on rearing attitude. Methods: There are three groups (n=200) consisting of preschool children between ages of 24 and 72 months old and their mothers. Study group (n=71) was taken from children who referred to Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic. Risk group (n=59) was taken from siblings whose brother/sister have been admitted to child psychiatry clinic. Healthy control group (n=70) was composed of children in day-care units, whose families haven't been referred to child psychiatry. Demographic data form including psychosocial risk factors and developmental properties, Childhood Behavior Checklist CBCL/2-3 and CBCL/4-18 and Parent Research Instrument (PARI) were instruments. The data was analysed using SPSS 16.0 programme. Results: Among three groups there were significant differences in the subdimensions of over-protective motherhood, rejection of homemaking role, marital conflict and harsh discipline; mother who has admitted to child psychiatry outpatient clinic (those were in study group and risk group) exhibited more negative child rearing attitudes. Mothers with lower school education(less than high school) showed more negative attitude than the ones with higher education (equals to or more than high school). There were no significant differences in the PARI scores between the children with physical disorders and children without any. There was a relation between the marital conflict and both of the externalizing and internatizing symptoms of the children. Also higher means in the subdimensions of rejection of homemaking role and harsh discipline were observed in higher externalizing symptoms whereas overprotective motherhood was found in correlation with the internalizing scores. Conclusion: There is a positive correlation between the maternal negative attitudes and the psychopathology of the children. Positive child rearing attitude is observed in higher educated mothers. Family atmosphere must be evaluted in every children referred to the clinics regardless of what the diagnosis is. The parents must be supported in the development of appropriate child growing and in coping against the psychopathology in their offsprings. (Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2012;13:67-74)