Negative Maternal and Paternal Parenting Styles as Predictors of Children's Behavioral Problems: Moderating Effects of the Child's Sex

Mothers and fathers often adopt different approaches to raising their children, and the influence of different parenting styles on the development of behavioral problems may be different for boys and girls. Using data from 89 subjects, 42 boys and 47 girls, with a mean age of 62.8 months (SD = 3.3), the current study tested the influence of early negative maternal and paternal parenting styles on the development of boys' and girls' aggressive and behavioral problems. Parents, when children aged 5-6, completed the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, and when children aged 8-9, the child behavior checklist. Children were evaluated for aggressive behavior with peers using the Direct and Indirect Aggression Scale at age 8-9. Our results show that an authoritarian maternal style is positively associated with both children's externalizing and internalizing problems while the combination of an authoritarian maternal style and a permissive paternal style was negatively associated with internalizing problems, but only in boys, and this type of family was positively associated with both types of aggressive behavior in girls and boys. Besides, the combination of a permissive maternal style and a permissive paternal style was positively related to girls' (but not boys') physical aggression.