Aceptación-rechazo de padres y madres cuencanos relacionados a las características personales de los hijos entre 5 y 12 años

Abstract

Parental acceptance-rejection, a dimension linked to child personality traits, is a construct studied both in the Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory (IPARTheory) developed by Rohner, and in the Model of Joint Construction. IPARTheory states that socialization is predicated on the child’s sense of acceptance-rejection emanating from the parents or other attachment figures. The Model of Joint Construction shows that parent-child relationships are bidirectional and that parenting behaviors are non-linear. A total of 569 parents, whose children attend public and private schools in Cuenca, from first to seventh grade, participated in this study. For the statistical analysis, age, sex, birth order, and behavior of their children were analyzed in order to assess their relation to the dimensions of affection, rejection and parental control. Overall, the results indicated that parents tend to see themselves as affectionate and highly controlling. Parental aggressiveness is more common towards male children (m=8.77) compared to female children (m=8.36). On the other hand, parental control is more common towards female children (m=16.0) compared to male children (m=15.4). With regards to birth order, the findings revealed that there tends to be less affection and more indifference shown towards the middle child. Furthermore, age in and of itself did not seem to substantially influence the dynamics of affection, rejection and parental control.