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Revista Iberoamericana de la Educación, Vol - 7 No. 1, January - March 202 3
e-ISSN: 2737-632x
Pgs 1-12
*Doctor in Education
University of Guayaquil
lidia.estrellaa@ug.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3628-
0481
**D. in Education
University of Guayaquil
alba.herasc@ug.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4967-
3356
***Doctor in Education
University of Guayaquil
alexandra.huertac@ug.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2719-
3960
Received: March, 2021
Approved: July 2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31876/ri
e.v6i4.234
http://www.revista-
iberoamericana.org/index.
php/es
How to cite:
Estrella, L., Heras, A.,
Huerta, A., (2023) Estilos
parentales y su incidencia en
el desarrollo afectivo de la
primera infancia. Revista
Iberoamericana De
educación, 7(1)
Parental styles and their impact on
affective development in early childhood
Estilos parentales y su incidencia en el desarrollo afectivo de la primera
infancia
Os estilos parentais e o seu impacto no desenvolvimento afectivo da
primeira infância
Lidia Patricia Estrella Acencio*
Alba Isabel Heras Cordero**
Alexandra Cecibel Huerta Cruz***
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of parental
styles on the affective development of children between 4 and 5 years
of age. The methodology was of mixed approach, field, bibliographic
type and under the method of analysis-synthesis reasoning. The
research techniques were an interview to the director of the
institution, a survey addressed to parents and a checklist applied to
the children. The results showed that the authoritarian and permissive
style is the most prevalent in 4-year-old children. In addition, it was
noted that the communication and family functionality used by
parents have a direct consequence on the emotional state of the
children.
Key words: Parental styles, teaching, family functionality, affective
development.
Resumen
El presente trabajo tiene como propósito analizar la influencia de los
estilos parentales en el desarrollo afectivo en niños de 4 a 5 años. La
metodología fue de enfoque mixto, de campo, tipo bibliográfica y
bajo el método de razonamiento análisis-síntesis. Las técnicas de
investigación fueron una entrevista al director de la institución, una
encuesta dirigida a los padres y una lista de cotejo aplicada a los
niños. Los resultados demostraron que el estilo autoritario y
permisivo es el que más prevalece en niños de 4 años de edad.
Además, se denota que la comunicación y la funcionalidad familiar
que emplean los padres de familia tienen una consecuencia directa en
el estado emocional de los pequeños.
Palabras clave: Estilos parentales, enseñanza, funcionalidad
familiar, desarrollo afectivo.
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Parental styles and their impact on affective development in early childhood
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Resumo
O objectivo deste documento é analisar a influência dos estilos
parentais no desenvolvimento afectivo das crianças de 4 a 5 anos de
idade. A metodologia foi de abordagem mista, de campo, de tipo
bibliográfico e sob o método de raciocínio de análise-síntese. As
técnicas de investigação foram uma entrevista com o director da
instituição, um inquérito dirigido aos pais e uma lista de verificação
aplicada às crianças. Os resultados mostraram que o estilo autoritário
e permissivo é o mais prevalecente nas crianças de 4 anos. Além
disso, verificou-se que a comunicação e a funcionalidade familiar
utilizadas pelos pais têm uma consequência directa sobre o estado
emocional das crianças.
Palavras-chave: estilos parentais, ensino, funcionalidade familiar,
desenvolvimento afectivo.
INTRODUCTION
In view of this premise, where the pre-school stage, children from 4
to 5 years of age begin with the development of prosocial skills and
behaviors, it is important to assess the affective development and
parenting styles of children, in this case derived from the parenting
style received by their guardians, which constitutes an axis of
attention; those that are considered inadequate may affect childhood
and lead to social problems on which strategies should be oriented to
generate spaces and develop prosocial behaviors.
Parental styles should not only be analyzed as the parental affection
that the child receives from his parents, but also the perceptions and
inferential processes, the emotional climate that he receives from the
environment and the objectives of upbringing. For this reason,
parental styles should be identified through a bibliographic study and
motivate affective development in the children of this locality.
Regarding population characteristics, according to information
presented by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC)
describes that the nation has a population of 16'278,844 inhabitants,
where multiethnic and multicultural characteristics are determined
and composed of mestizo, Afro-Ecuadorian, indigenous, and white
population. Zone 8 has a high population density, slightly implying a
significant percentage of men, as expressed by Datos Macro (2021).
This last indicator is interesting because of the type of population that
will be evaluated in this study.
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Parental styles and their impact on affective development in early childhood
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It is appropriate to note that worldwide there is a growing interest in
schools to promote activities to improve the daily interaction between
parent and child. This kind of activities would benefit children in
improving social relations with their environment, favoring their
emotional control, improving their individual and collective
interaction with friends, classmates, teachers, mainly to participate in
learning and socialization scenarios with greater adaptability.
Considering that in the province of Guayas there are not so many
activities that allow household members to participate and the
predominance of men as parental figure, with a high effort to work,
affective development and parental education in children under 5
years of age may be a key factor, not addressed. In relation to the
"National Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of the
Socioeconomic Phenomenon of Drugs 2017 - 2022", academic
failure is one of the risk factors considered in Ecuador; for such
reason, the need to make the educational system work by establishing
a solid structure of values related to affections and more effective
intervention of the family, allows it to reduce drug use and help
reduce conflicts.
The report details that parental style initiatives are crucial in
addressing the various problems related to the educational growth of
Guayas. These family inclusion programs have proven to be effective
in the treatment of behavioral difficulties, such as aggressive
behavior, consumption and use of narcotic substances, and
deficiencies in academic and social skills (OAS, 2013).
According to the above, it can be highlighted that the role of the
representatives within the educational field of their students is
transcendental, since the parental style they apply has a significant
impact on their development, therefore, it is important to take into
account how they are educating the children, fundamentally to
promote positive parenting styles, since if they use an inappropriate
style with their children they can have unfavorable consequences in
the development of the infants and sometimes it is due to deficiencies
in the knowledge acquired by the parents or other family members.
One of the most important factors in the bond between parents and
their children is the affective development, which significantly
influences the development of the student's integral personality, since
his personal balance, decisions, behaviors, relationship with others
and with himself depends on it. The effects of adopting one parenting
style or another are markedly different; children who grow up with
authoritarian parents grow up with insecurity and withdrawal, since
excessive control prevents them from developing their autonomy,
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Parental styles and their impact on affective development in early childhood
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resulting in high dependence and personal dissatisfaction, with a
tendency to rebellion.
However, the most disadvantaged are the children because they
suffer negative effects of the styles adapted by their parents.
Therefore, the democratic style is considered to bring the greatest
benefits and is suitable for children to have high self-esteem, good
adaptability and independence, to be respectful of their peers and to
form better social relationships.
In this aspect, family dynamics have a direct influence on the growth
of its members, considered as the first school of love and knowledge,
being the basis in the life of the human being from childhood, parents
form the personality, become a role model, as an example of life for
the child.
According to a manual presented by the United Nations Children's
Fund, UNICEF (2022, p. 33) states that "emotional bonds and
experiences influence brain development". This implies that it is very
important for the child's upbringing, because everything that happens
in the first stages of his life, are vital for the brain development of the
infant, generating confidence, security in the activities performed by
the infant in his daily life.
As indicated by Andrade and Gonzáles (2017), negative parenting
styles characterized by physical punishment, recurrent yelling or
other aggressions, end up affecting children permanently as they
determine for life their way of learning.
Therefore, this study is considered convenient, since it seeks to
provide solutions to the study problem, which allows us to analyze
the influence on the affective development and parental styles, as
well as the factors that intervene significantly in the behavior of the
infant. This topic is convenient to analyze in order to demonstrate
how parental styles influence children and to identify how the role of
the father or mother influences their emotional behavior, whether or
not it favors their learning and emotional competencies, which are
the basis of their growth.
The social relevance consists of the inquiry to be carried out on the
affective development of children, developing a model of healthy
coexistence so that the representatives can interact, educate and
reinforce the behavior at home, the same that can be reflected in the
classroom.
The practical implications are aimed at working with families,
through the guidance of activities directed to parents, thus developing
affective capacities in the children of the institution, who must have
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Parental styles and their impact on affective development in early childhood
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the necessary support to be able to educate and positively influence
the affective development of those they represent.
On the other hand, the present study will facilitate the analysis from
a theoretical perspective, to better understand the affective
development and contribute to detail the characteristics of the
parental styles at the same time this research will fill a gap in
knowledge, based on the research topic, which will help and
strengthen the affective part of the students in relation to the
predominant style of their parents.
Lozano (2017) from the Graduate School Universidad César Vallejo
of Peru, conducted research with the topic: "Educational styles of
parental type and how it is related to social skill in 5 year old boys in
the Educational Unit N317 Montecarmelo" In that work theories such
as Maccoby's were raised highlighting the variations that exist in
terms of child rearing, contributing to Baumrind's theory relating to
parenting styles, whose objective was to know how the educational
style of parents is related to the social skills of their children, through
a cross-sectional, non-experimental design, using a sample of 35
legal representatives and research instruments, such as the scale of
educational styles and social skills of parents.
According to the article published in the Argentine Journal of
Relational Psychotherapy and Social Interventions in their research
work entitled "Infant Emotional Self-regulation and Parental Styles",
Losada et al. (2020), where they propose to identify how parental
styles influence issues related to emotional self-regulation in
students, based on narrative reviews of published data.
In the infancy period we move from externalized regulation, provided
through their parents and how it is contextualized to internal
regulation, where an infant acquires control mechanisms.
Emotional self-regulation is considered the subject's capacity to
change his/her behavior in response to the demands of specific
experiences. Parenting styles are classified as democratic,
authoritarian, permissive and negligent. The democratic parenting
style, used with authority, flexibility, responsibility and affection, is
considered the best for their intellectual and moral growth, unlike
other styles that present more risk factors interfering with adequate
emotional development. Empirical studies on the variables of
parenting styles and emotional self-regulation in infants are
suggested.
In the scientific article of the authors: Pinta et al., (2019) which was
entitled: "Early childhood, relational analysis in the development of
emotional competencies and parenting styles" Its essential purpose
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Parental styles and their impact on affective development in early childhood
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was the relationship between strengthening the development of
emotional skills and parenting styles, in order to determine that there
are deficiencies, impairing the development of affective and
behavioral skills. The method used was descriptive and exploratory
with a quantitative measurement scope, being essential the field
observation to evidence the improvement of emotional skills in
children, based on the parenting styles used by their parents is very
important for the infant to achieve an optimal emotional
development.
The authors Castro and Paredes (2019), presented the topic
"Parenting styles in the behavior of infants aged 4 to 5 years
Workshops for the development of parenting skills for parents"
conducted for the National University of Cordoba. Its purpose was to
evaluate how the parenting style affects the behavior of children from
4 to 5 years old of the "Escuela de Educación Básica Fiscal
Clemencia Coronel de Pincay", considering the contributions of
several educators; Salvador Minuchin, Vygotsky and Virginia Satir,
additional the design met the requirements, the same allowed finding
answers to existing problems, using theoretical, analytical-synthetic
and inductive-deductive methods, in addition to bibliography and
field research.
On the other hand, Aguirre and Villamar (2022) in their research
project entitled "Emotional development and parenting style in
infants from 5 to 6 years old of the Ancon Educational Unit during
the confinement time by Covid-19". They showed that the parenting
style is the way in which parents monitor how infants behave and that
they are important because they have a significant impact on the
development of infants' thinking. The purpose of this study was the
analysis of the emotional development and parenting style in infants
from 5 to 6 years old of the Ancon Tiempo Educational Unit of
Covid-19 through a bibliographic and descriptive research, in order
to design a guide of activities addressed to regular caregivers. The
methodology was of mixed approach being bibliographic,
exploratory and field, using instruments such as surveys and
interviews.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The methodological utility used in the study is of a mixed type, since
in the first instance the information is obtained from the theoretical
bases, through the collection of information that is needed.
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Through the inductive-deductive method, it allows us to understand
the study variables, analyzing them from their particularity, towards
their general characterization. In addition, it allowed us to draw
conclusions about the parental styles in the affective development,
which is carried out with the groups of parents, participants of the
educational institute.
The population is made up of 35 students, 35 parents, 1 authority and
1 teacher, which is what involves an entire educational institution,
and who possess similar qualities and make up the universe related
to the research problem. In this study, the population is composed of
students between 4 and 5 years old, parents and the institution's
management staff.
A survey was prepared with 10 questions, which was addressed to
the parents of the children attending the educational institution, and
was applied online through the Google Forms platform. In this way,
we sought to identify the reliable opinion of the group of parents to
be investigated. In this research we worked with a Likert scale with
five categories, which allows us to evaluate and know the level of
conformity of an individual surveyed according to the premise; their
appreciation is very important for the analysis of the conclusions.
Additionally, another survey was designed with 10 closed questions
for parents and representatives, in relation to the variables of study,
parental styles in the affective development, to collect and analyze
results, also, a script of 5 questions was made for the interview to the
Rector of the institution. In this way it was possible to obtain the
conclusions and final recommendations regarding the research
problem.
Finally, a checklist with 12 indicators was executed to evaluate
children from 4 to 5 years of age in the Initial 2 sublevel, in order to
observe their affective relationships. According to Pérez (2018, p. 2),
the ideal is to make a list of actions or behaviors that are sought to
observe and structure them to give answers to the questions
formulated. That is, through this instrument it was possible to verify
the behavior, attitudes and determine the predominant parental style
of students.
RESULTS
Below are the results of the interview applied to the director of the
institution and the checklist applied to the students.
Interview with the director of the institution:
1. Do you think that parenting styles influence the behavior and
affective development of children in early childhood education?
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Answer: Of course we do. Nowadays we have different
parenting styles, generally this comes from the family side
and according to the new trends in many cases families are
destroyed and in a direct way the early school stage is
affected.
Analysis: It is important to mention that in the educational
institution there are several types and family situations, on
which the well-being of the child will depend.
2. Why would the application of activities linked to the identification
of parenting styles be important?
Answer: It would be very important, because this is
practically the fundamental basis for the academic
performance of the students, here we have different types of
parents, 50% of them are attentive to their children and the
other 50% are the opposite, that half is the consequence of
school failure, that is why it would be important to apply
activities to eliminate these consequences from the initial
stage and thus it would not affect a higher grade.
Analysis: Educators will need to implement activities that
allow the parent to participate and interact in an affective way
with the student, and thus change the parental styles that have
been part of their home.
3. Do you know if teachers are concerned about the emotional
development of students?
Answer: Of course, it is one of the things that teachers keep
in mind, not only for themselves, but also within the
institutional regulations that the emotional and affective
aspect of the student comes first, each of the teachers is
concerned about how the child is when they observe
something different, how they feel, if something affects them.
Analysis: The teachers of the institution are trained to inform
the situations that each student shows in their affective and
social part in the classroom.
4. What tactics do teachers use to strengthen students' affective
development?
Answer: Well, we have here mainly what is the active and
direct implementation of the teacher towards the student. It
also seems to me that, because of the maternal part that each
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Parental styles and their impact on affective development in early childhood
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teacher has, it helps us a lot to try to implement some free
strategy, by listening, helping and providing security to the
student.
Analysis: The institution enables the teaching staff to transmit
their experiences in an integral and active manner, awakening
and strengthening critical thinking in each of their students.
5. Do you consider the design of a guide for parents, aimed at
strengthening parental competencies, as transcendental?
Answer: Of course, since there are currently families made up
only by the father or mother and in many cases by neither of
the parents, but by third parties, and if this guide is developed,
it would be a fundamental and essential basis for the academic
and emotional development of the students.
Analysis: A structurally elaborated guide for parents is
required, where interest can be awakened during the teaching
and learning process of their children.
Checklist:
The checklist applied to the students consisted of choosing between
yes and no to the different statements shown in Fig. 1 below:
Figure. 1. Results of the checklist
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CONCLUSIONS
By means of the checklist it was possible to observe and analyze the
most relevant figures related to the emotional bonds of the children.
As can be seen in the first item, a percentage of 62.9% of the children
do express their feelings and emotions, however, a total of 37.1% did
not express any emotion, this figure is a little alarming because
children at this age should expose their emotions and feelings
because they may have future consequences such as depression,
frustration and failure to resolve conflicts.
On the other hand, in items 2 and 3 it was found that 51.4% of
students do not provide affection and 48.6% do not seek affection.
These figures show how fundamental it is to strengthen affective
bonds within the home, being necessary to do so in the early years of
life so that the child can relate and express him/herself with the
family. Likewise, regarding item 5, 31.4% of students do not share
their experiences, affecting their socialization with others; it is
essential that they express their experiences to strengthen their
security and self-esteem by being listened to.
Finally, in items 10 and 11 with a percentage of 37.1% and 31.4%
respectively, do not practice or follow established rules and do not
respect the opinions of others, considered as somewhat negative
attitudes on the part of the children. For this reason, it is substantial
to design a guide for parents aimed at strengthening the affective
development of their child to achieve an adequate interaction,
through different established activities, to contribute to a more
effective social emotional and intellectual bond.
The following conclusions can be drawn from this:
• The parents of the educational institution make use of the
authoritarian parenting style.
• It is evident that parents who exercise a strict and authoritarian
parenting style influence the affective development of children.
• The design of a guide for parents with playful and didactic
activities will favor the affective development of children from 4
to 5 years old.
• The director of the educational institution states that parenting
styles have an impact on the child's school performance.
• The evaluation showed that some children do not seek or give
affection to others.
To conclude, the following is recommended:
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• For parents, seek professional guidance to learn the mechanisms of
communication with their children, avoiding behaviors that may
negatively affect their emotional and psychological development.
• To students, researchers and teachers, to continue with studies that
allow to investigate the long-term consequences that can have a
person who has been exposed since childhood to adverse situations
due to the authoritarianism applied by parents during their
upbringing.
• Conduct parenting schools within the educational institution to
strengthen parental functions, achieving positive effects on the
child's school performance.
• Reinforce communication, attention and affection within the home,
so that the child feels loved and secure.
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