Parenting Styles and Child Outcomes in Puerto Rican Families
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate observed parenting styles among Puerto Rican parents living in Puerto Rico. Participants included 51 families with a child between the ages of 6 and 11. Families engaged in different behavioral observational tasks. Observations were coded for parenting dimensions and family parenting styles in order to determine its relationship to child outcomes. The Parenting Styles Observation Rating Scale was used to code the observations and the Child Behavior Checklist was used to assess for behavioral problems. Overall, parents received high ratings on warmth, demandingness, and autonomy granting. Supportive demandingness was negatively associated with internalizing, externalizing, and total child problems. The majority of the sample was categorized as authoritative (68.6%), while 23.5% was categorized as “cold.” Authoritative parenting was significantly associated with lower child problems across the board in comparison to “cold” and permissive families. Limitations of the current study were considered. Lastly, the implications of the results and directions for future research in regards to Puerto Rican parenting for families living in Puerto Rico were discussed.