Parenting Styles as Predictors of Externalizing and Internalizing Behavior Problems among Children

The present research was aimed to study parenting styles as predictors of externalizing and internalizing behavior problems among children. The study was carried out on the sample of 200 couples including mothers (n = 200) and fathers (n = 200) with minimum secondary education level and having children between the ages of 8 to 12 years. Parenting Styles Dimension Questionnaire (PSDQ; Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 1995) was used to determine personality traits. PSDQ was translated into Urdu and its psychometric properties were established. Child Problem Checklist (Tariq & Hanif, 2007) was administered on parents to rate the behavioral problems of their children. The results indicated positive relationship between authoritarian and permissive parenting styles with internalizing and externalizing behavior problems of children while there was negative relationship between authoritative parenting styles and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems of children. Furthermore, results demonstrated only authoritarian parenting style of mothers and fathers as a significant predictor of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in children.