The Relationship Between Parenting Styles and Fourth Graders' Levels of Empathy and Aggressiveness

Abstract

This survey-based study examines the relationship between, on the one hand, the empathy and aggressiveness levels of 634 randomly selected Turkish fourth graders, and on the other, their perceptions of their mothers' and fathers' parenting styles. Its data-collection tools consisted of a Background Information Form, the Scale of Empathy for Children, the Parenting Style Scale, and the Aggressiveness Scale. Analysis revealed that the sampled children's empathy skills did not differ significantly according to gender, age, school type (private/public), or parental monthly income, but did vary significantly according to their number of siblings. The fourth graders' aggressiveness levels, in contrast, did not exhibit any significant differences according to number of their siblings, school type, or income, but did vary significantly with gender and age. There was also a negative correlation between the children's aggressiveness levels and their perceptions related to all dimensions of the Parenting Style Scale (i.e., psychological autonomy, acceptance/involvement, and strictness/supervision), but no significant relationship between their empathy levels and such perceptions. Lastly, no significant relationship was detected between the surveyed children's empathy skills and aggressiveness levels.