Parenting Styles as Correlates to Physical, Socio-Emotional and Cognitive Competencies of Kindergarten Pupils; Basis for a Wellness Program

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Republic Act 10157, or "The Kindergarten Education Law" made Kindergarten the compulsory and mandatory entry stage to Basic Education. Section 2 of this Act provides that all five (5)-year old children shall be given equal opportunities for Kindergarten Education to effectively promote their physical, social, emotional and intellectual development, including values formation so that they will be ready for school.

METHODS

The study employed the descriptive correlational research design with an interview and use of documents. Descriptive method (Sevilla, 1992) is designed for the investigator to gather information about present existing condition/ Descriptive Research use systematic observation to describe a specific behavior. Descriptive researchers create very detailed records and observe many subjects. Descriptive research cannot make predictions or determine causality. It simply identifies behaviors and describes the behavior and the participant. This study determined the parenting styles, pupils physical, social-emotional and cognitive competence of selected kindergarten pupils who were described in the present study, based on the existing conditions.

RESULTS

The data and findings presented in this study are presented, analyzed and all the pupils have experienced different parenting styles at the varied extent of having authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and uninvolved parents. However, except for an insignificant number of four, all the kindergarten pupils have constantly to exceedingly experienced having authoritarian parenting style with a weighted average means of 4.42 (constant extent). As to authoritative, the extent is 2.90 or moderately permissive, 2.02 or fairly and uninvolved, 1.78 or fairly involved.

DISCUSSIONS

In addition to differing on responsiveness and demandingness, the parenting styles also differ in the extent to which they are characterized by a third dimension: psychological control. Psychological control "refers to control attempts that intrude into the psychological and emotional development of the child" (Barber, 1996, p. 3296) through use of parenting practices such as guilt induction, withdrawal of love, or shaming. One key difference between authoritarian and authoritative parenting is in the dimension of psychological control. Both authoritarian and authoritative parents place high demands on their children and expect their children to behave appropriately and obey parental rules.