engleski

Children's Perception of Parental Acceptance and Rejection: Age and Gender Differences

The aim of this study was to determine specific aspects of parental behavior towards boys and girls of different age. The research was conducted on the sample of 527 children aged 11 to 15 years (276 boys and 251 girls). Family context and it’ s role in child development are investigated often and numerous measurements in this area were made. The Quality of Family Interactions Scale (KOBI) is a 55-item questionnaire designed to asses children’ s perceptions of the family climate as well as their parent's behavior toward them along five subscales (family satisfaction, father acceptance, mother acceptance, father rejection, mother rejection). All subjects completed the questionnaires for assessment satisfaction with their family climate and parental acceptance and rejection operationalized according with the PART - theory. Reliability coefficients ranged from 0.86 to 0.89. For specific forms of parental behavior it could be concluded that they change as the child grow up, although the structure of parental behavior is mainly stable. The purpose of this research was to determine if the parental behavior was different toward boys and girls of a different age. The results show that the girls perceive significantly more positive emotional aspects in the relations with their mother and significantly less rejection and misunderstanding in relations with both, mother and father, than boys. Also, girls were more satisfied with family life than boys. Results show differences in evaluation considering the age of subjects. Older children are less satisfied with family life and the relations with their father are evaluated more negatively than in younger children. Compared with younger children, the older ones consider the relations with both parents as less close, with less support and confidence.

parental acceptance; parental rejection; children

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