Study On The Parenting Characteristics Of Mothers And Grandmothers Of 2?6 Year Old Children And Their Relationship With Children's Behavior Problems

Objective:Since the implementation of our country's family planning policy,many of the“post-80s” generation of only children have become parents.Due to various factors such as living in different regions and work pressure,many parents had handed their children to their grandparents.Grandparents have become an important and indispensable role in the process of children's development due to their rich experience and tolerant attitude.Differences between parents' and grandparents' educational levels,economic conditions,ideological cognition have lead to disagreement about child-rearing,and thus influence on the children's early developmental areas.Such as cognition,behavior,social interactions.Therefore the trend of intergenerational parenting has become a social concern.Domestic and foreign research results are controversial rgarding which methods of parental rearing and intergenerational parenting were more beneficial.The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the characteristics,differences and the relationship between two different parenting styles and children's behavioral problems.And to explore a more favorable parenting model for a healthy early development of children.Methods:Children aged 2 to 6 years old from the city in Developmental Behavioral Outpatient Clinic and Early Education Center of Shanxi Children's Hospital were selected randomly.Divided into mother's group and grandmother's group according to how long the primary caregivers spend with the child each day.For this study,the daily time of taking care of 2 ~3 years old children was more than 14 hours per day.The daily time of babysitting 3~6 years old children was more than 12 hours per day.In each group we had 100 cases,with a total of 200 cases.The research was carried out with the consent of the principal caregivers.To achive the purpose of this study,the researchers used the “general family environment”,“0~6 years old family rearing environment scale”,“2~6 years old preschool children behavior scale” to investigate the main caregivers.The database and the statistical analysis was done using SPSS17.0 software package.A chi-square test was used to count the data,t test was used to make comparison among groups.The rank sum test was used when the variance was not equal.Correlation analysis,multivariate linear regression and binary Logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the children's family rearing environment and behavior problems.The test level was alpha =0.05.Results:1.There were significant differences in family structure(?2=10.391,p=0.006),education level(?2=63.395,p<0.01),occupation and personal monthly income(?2=18.333,p<0.01)between mother group and grandmother group(p<0.05).There were no significant differences in sex(?2=0.021,p=0.884),age group(?2=1.135,p=0.287),housing area(?2=3.038,p=0.379),and the number of children(?2=0.080,p=0.777)(p>0.05).2.When we assessed the group of family with 2~3 years old child using Family Rearing Environment scale,we found that there was significant difference in emotional warmth/environmental climate factor(t=2.072,p=0.042)between mother group and grandmother group(p<0.05).But there were no significant differences in language/cognition(t=0.977,p=0.333),social adaptation/ self-care(t=1.339,p=0.185),neglect/punishment factor(t=0.161,p=0.873)(p>0.05).When we assessed the group of family with3~6 years old child using Family Rearing Environment scale,we found that there were significant differences in language/cognition(t=2.074,p=0.040),social adaptation/self-management factors(t=2.481,p=0.014)between mother group and grandmother group(p<0.05).But there were no significant differences in emotional warmth/self-expression(t=1.862,p=0.065),neglect / intervention / punishment(t=0.476,p=0.635),diversity of activities / play participation(t=0.073,p=0.942)and surrounding atmosphere(t=-1.447,p=0.150)(p>0.05).The family environment was influenced by the education level of the care providers(t=2.327,p=0.021)and the fact if the child was only child or had sibbings(t=2.271,p=0.024).The higher the educational level of care providers,the higher the total score of the family environment.The total score of raising environment was higher on family that had more than one child.3.The positive rate of the total score of behavioral problems in children was 66.5%.The positive rate of mother group was higher than that of grandmother group,but there was no statistically difference.The highest positive rate of behavior was emotional control in mother group,hyperactivity in grandmother group.There were significant differences in emotional control(t=3.738,p<0.01)and anxiety(t=2.165,p=0.032)between mothers and grandmothers(p<0.05),that meant mother had higher scores inemotional control and anxiety;there were no differences in the factors of attention(t=-0.128,p=0.898),hyperactivity(t=-1.164,p=0.246),withdrawal(t=0.458,p=0.647),somatization(z=1.602,p=0.111)and aggression(z=0.833,p=0.406)(p>0.05).There was a negatively correlation between the total score of the Family rearing Environment scale for the2~3-year-old child group and withdrawal behaviour(r=-0.262).There was a negatively correlation between the total score of the Family rearing Environment scale for the 3~6-year-old child group and aggressive behaviour(r=-0.197).The total score of children's behavior problems were significantly affected by their age(OR=0.965,p=0.006).4.Mothers and grandmothers were different in general parenting knowledge and parenting concepts.Both generations paid attention to the nutrition and safety of children,and thougt that early development of children were related to nutrition and intelligence development.Mothers paid more attention to the cultivation of early childhood habits,the cultivation of children's personality and social relationships.55% of mothers surfed the Internet to solve a problem.Grandmothers paid attention to children's sleep,but less attention to children's spiritual need.41% of grandmothers asked a friend for advice to solve a problem.There was a statistical difference between the two groups in the time allocated for feeding in raising children(t=2.694,p=0.008)(p<0.05).Conclusions:1.Mothers paid more attention to the cultivation of early childhood habits,the cultivation of children's personality and social relationships,had higher education,concerned more about children's cognition and language,accepted new knowledge quickly.Grandmother paid attention to children's physiological needs,had a relaxed upbringing enviroment,concerned less about children's spiritual needs,accepted things relatively simple.2.There was a difference among children's behavior problems on children raised by mothers and children raised by grandmothers.Children raised by mothers had poor emotional control,were prone to temper and anxiety,the score of internalized sexual behavior in children was higher than that in grandmother group.Children raised by grandmothers had more externalized behaviors such as hyperactivity.3.When raising children,we suggest that parents should be the main caregivers,grandparents can help.Therefore they will establish a good family environment,taking into account the traditional concept of parenting,this will help the early and healthy development of children.