Original scientific paper
Parental Behaviour and Family Atmosphere in Self-Supporting Mothers' Families
Gordana KERESTEŠ
Abstract
The aim of this work is to examine the influence of family
strcture, i.e. self-supporting motherhood on the child's and
mother's assessment of the overall family atmosphere and
three dimensions of the mother's parental behaviour (child
acceptance, psychological control, behavioural control) and
to check the interactive influence of the child's gender and
family structure on the mother's and child's perception of the
examined family processes. An additional goal was to
establish the degree of connection between the mother's and
child's assessments and determine whether the structure of
the family is a moderator of this connection. The sample
consisted of 795 children of an early adolescent age (697
from families with both parents, 98 from self-supporting
mothers' families) and 553 mothers (487 from families with
both parents, 66 self-supporting). The results indicated that
the family structure has no influence on the child's perception
of the mother's parental behaviour and the family atmosphere. On the other hand, in the way in which the self-
-supporting mothers and mothers from families with both
parents perceive the examined family processes, certain
differences have been determined. The greatest difference
has been observed in the mother's selfperception of control
of the child's behaviour, wherein the self-supporting mothers
reported less control than mothers from families with both
parents. Similarly, self-supporting mothers also assessed their
psychological control over the child to be somewhat lower
than that of mothers from traditional families. A significant
interactive influence of the child's gender and family structure
on the mother's perception of the family atmosphere has also
been established as well as a limitedly significant influence of
this interaction on the mother's perception of child
acceptance. Correlations between the mother's and child's
assessments are generally moderate in size, while the family
structure has been proven a significant moderator of this
connection only in the assessments of the overall family
atmosphere.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
20007
URI
Publication date:
31.10.2001.
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