engleski

Competent (And/Or Responsible) Parenting as a Prerequisite for a Complete Child Development

The issue of parental pedagogical competence is becoming more pronounced particularly if it is understood in the context of raising children for a competent and responsible behaviour. Parenting involves undertaking various activities aimed at taking care of the child, encouraging his/her development, and simultaneously developing interpersonal relations. In their parenting, parents seek to fulfil various personal and social expectations, so the key issue is how parents perceive their own pedagogical competence. In order to study how parents (self-)assess their pedagogical competence, a research was conducted on a sample of 90 parents of children of early and pre-school age. Factor analysis identified four factors: lack of knowledge and of confidence in child-rearing, blaming somebody else, and uncertainty in the ability to influence the child, which explain the pedagogical incompetence, and confidence factor in child-rearing which indicates parental pedagogical competence. The T-test was performed and at the significance level of p <0.05 no significant difference was found in self-assessed parental competence with respect to the gender and age of the child. It is reasonable to argue that parents need occasional or more permanent support and help in the acquisition of knowledge of parenting, which can and should be primarily provided by the educators in institutions.

Child development ; competence ; educators ; programs ; parenting

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