A Comparative Study Of Parents' Beliefs About Children's Social Withdrawal Behavior

This article aims to explore parents' beliefs regarding social withdrawal in preschools.In the 1980 s,the society began to pay attention to the social withdrawal in preschools.Many researches at home and abroad have proved that social withdrawal has a profound impact on the social development of children.In order to understand parents' belief in children's social withdrawal,the study distributes questionnaires to parents.The fathers(N = 453)and mothers(N = 610)of a first class kindergarten in Pudong and Xuhui participate in the survey.Since parental beliefs are influenced by their parenting perspectives,attitudes and behaviors,we refer to the research method of Mills & Rubin(1990).Through a questionnaire survey,we analyze parents' affective responses,causal attribution(locus of cause,stability and intentionality),development expectations and social strategies to study the difference between parents' beliefs about social withdrawal in preschools.This research indicates:1.There is a difference in emotional responses of parents to children's social withdrawal.The father's emotional response to children's social withdrawal is mostly anxiety.The mother's emotional response to children's social withdrawal is mostly confused.2.There is no difference in the sense of efficacy of parents in children's social withdrawal.The overall sense of efficacy is high.They all think that they can cope with children's social withdrawal.3.Parents attribute three causes to children's social withdrawal.Firstly,there is no gender difference in parents' attribution of internal and external causes.However,most parents believe that “quiet and lonely” social withdrawal is the result of interaction between children's personality and the environment.“Taciturnity” is due to personality.Secondly,parents do not have gender differences in stable attribution.Most parents think that children's social withdrawal is not stable.Thirdly,fathers are more likely than their mothers to believe their children's social withdrawal behavior unintentional.4.There is no difference in parents' expectation for the development of social withdrawal children.Parents believe that social withdrawal has the greatest impact on children's social adaptation,followed by peer relationships.Parents believe that they have little impact on academic performance.5.Parents' social strategies for the social withdrawal behavior of “quiet and lonely” children are mainly teaching.The most social strategies for “taciturnity” children is giving advice.In this paper,the results of the study are analyzed and discussed,and some suggestions are put forward.