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Parental child-care practices of Slovenian preschoolers' mothers and fathers: The Family Environment Questionnaire
Maja Zupančič, Anja Podlesek & Tina Kavčič
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Written in English. | Published: September 28, 2004
Abstract: The paper reviews evidence on the construct validity and reliability of the newly developed Family Environment Questionnaire (FEQ), and presents data on the structure of socialisation practices the Slovenian parents use in daily interactions with their three-year-old children. The FEQ is a parent report measure designed to provide an assessment of individual differences in parental practices that are representative among the parents of preschool children in the given cultural community. Factor analysis of the 63 items reliably recovered a four-component solution in both, maternal and paternal self-reports indicating the following broad-band parenting practices: Authoritative Parenting, Ineffective Control, Power Assertion, and Stimulation. Variables loading high on more than one component and those that did not load on the same factor obtained from maternal and paternal data were excluded from further analyses. The 51 items that were retained and corresponded to the four factors demonstrate adequate internal consistency for both samples of respondents. In addition, parental stimulation was positively linked to authoritative parenting, while it was negatively related to ineffective control and power assertion. The mothers perceived themselves to be more authoritative and stimulative than did fathers, who described themselves as more power assertive and ineffective in control. The parent-pairs were also found to share, at least to some extent, similar parenting practices, whereas their self-perceived expression of these practices was not dependent on their child's gender.
Keywords: parenting practices, self-report questionnaire, mothers, fathers, three-year-olds
