Temperament Characteristics of Preschoolers and Maternal Acceptance and Rejection Statuses of Their Mothers

Abstract

The study was conducted to examine the relationship between maternal acceptance-rejection and children’s temperament characteristics and whether children’s temperament characteristics predicted maternal acceptance-rejection. The data of the study, which employed a predictive correlational design, were obtained from 349 children in the 4-6 age group attending preschool education and their mothers. The data were collected using the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire and the Child Behavior Checklist and analyzed using Pearson’s Correlation Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis. As a result of the study, a significant relationship was found between maternal acceptance-rejection and all temperament traits except discomfort, fear, shyness, impulsivity, and approach/positive participation. It was also found that maternal coldness and lack of affection were predicted by perceptual sensitivity, low-intensity pleasure, and smiling and laughter, maternal hostility and aggression were predicted by falling reactivity and soothability, maternal indifference and neglect were predicted by sadness, and maternal undifferentiated rejection was predicted by the temperament characteristics of attentional focusing and anger/frustration.

Keywords

• Maternal acceptance rejection
• child temperament characteristics
• preschool period

References

1. Akın Sarı, B. (2018). Temperament features and it’s impact on development. Turkish Clinics J Child Psychiatry-Special Topics, 4(1), 5-9.
2. Akın Sarı, B., İşeri, E., Yalçın, Ö., Akın Aslan, A., & Şener, Ş. (2012). Reliability study of Turkish version of Children's Behavior Questionnaire Short Form and a vailiditiy prestudy. Turkish Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 15(3), 135-143.
3. Ali, S., Khatun, N., Khaleque, A., & Rohner, R. P. (2019). They love me not: A meta-analysis of relations between parental undifferentiated rejection and offspring’s psychological maladjustment. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50(2), 185-199.
4. Anjel, M. (1993). The transliteral equivalence, reliability and validity studies of the Parental Acceptence-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) Mother-Form: A tool for assessing child abuse. (Unpublished Master Thesis), Boğaziçi University, Institute of Social Sciences, İstanbul.
5. Aytemiz, T. (2010). Ebeveynin kişiliği, çocuğun mizacı ve ebeveyn tutumları arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesi.[The relations between parent personality, child temperament and parenting]. (Unpublished Master Thesis). İstanbul University, Institute of Educational Sciences, İstanbul.
6. Babadağı, Z. (2015). 3-6 yaş çocuklarda baba mizacı, tutumu ve ruh sağlığının çocuk mizacı ve ruh sağlığı ile ilişkisi.[The associations between the fathers' temperament, attitudes, psychopathology and temperament and mental health of the 3-6 years old children]. (Unpublished Master Thesis). Ondokuz Mayıs University, Institute of Health Sciences, Samsun.
7. Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2020). Sosyal bilimler için veri analizi el kitabı istatistik, araştırma deseni SPSS uygulamaları ve yorum. [Data analysis manual for social sciences]. Ankara: Pegem.
8. Büyüköztürk, Ş., Kılıç Çakmak, E., Akgün, Ö.E., Karadeniz, Ş., & Demirel, F. (2010). Bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri. [Scientific research methods]. Ankara: Pegem.

9. Can, A. (2019). SPSS ile bilimsel araştırma sürecinde nicel veri analizi. [Quantitative data analysis in the scientific research process with SPSS]. Ankara: Pegem.
10. Carminar, P. M. (1991). The effect of temperament on cognition during the first two years. (Doctoral Dissertation). Accessed from, https://search.proquest.com/docview/303930516.
11. Chess, S., & Thomas, A. (1996). Temparament: Theory and practice. New York: Brunner Mazel. Accessed from, https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-06334-000.
12. Denham, S. A. (1989). Maternal affect and toddlers ‘social‐emotional competence. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 59(3), 368-376.
13. Dixon, W. E. & Smith, P. H. (2000) Links between early temperament and language acquisition. Merrill-Palmer Quaterly. 46(3), 417-440.
14. Gölcük, M., & Kazak Berument, S. (2019). The relationship between negative parenting and child and maternal temperament. Current Psychology, 1-13.
15. Goldsmith, H. H., Buss, A. H., Plomin, R., Rothbart, M. K., Thomas, A., Chess, S., Hinde, R.A., & McCall, R. B. (1987). Roundtable: What is temperament? Four approaches. Child Development, 58(2), 505-529.
16. Gürbüz S. ve Şahin, F. (2018). Sosyal bilimlerde araştırma yöntemleri. [Research methods in social sciens]. Ankara: Seçkin.
17. Hinde, R. A., Easton, D. F., Meller, R. E., & Tamplin, A. M. (1982). Temperamental characteristics of 3-4-year-olds and motherchild interaction. Ciba Foundation Symposium, 89, 66-86).
18. Işıkoğlu Erdoğan, N., Yoleri, S., & Tetik, G. (2017). Examination of the relationships between children’s temperament and parents’ child rearing attitudes in early childhood period. Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of Education Faculty, 0(42), 226-239.
19. Karadeniz, G., & Öngider, N. (2012). Parental Acceptance and Rejection Theory: Turkish studies. Maltepe University Journal of Science and Literature Faculte, 73-102.
20. Kaytez, N., & Durualp, E . (2016). Examination with regart to some variables of mother’s acceptance and rejected level with child’s temperament. Academic Overview Journal of International Refereed Journal of Social Sciences, 58, 418-431.
21. Khaleque, A. (2015). Perceived parental neglect, and children’s psychological maladjustment, and negative personality dispositions: A meta-analysis of multi-cultural studies. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(5), 1419-1428.
22. Khaleque, A., & Rohner, R. P. (2002). Perceived parental acceptance‐rejection and psychological adjustment: A meta‐analysis of cross‐cultural and intracultural studies. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(1), 54-64.
23. Kılıçlar, A., Şahin, A., Sarıkaya, S., & Bozkurt, İ. (2017). Effect of personality traits on taste preferences. Journal of Tourism and Gastronomy Studies, 5(3), 93-117.
24. Lam, C. B., Chung, K. K. H., & Li, X. (2018). Parental warmth and hostility and child executive function problems: A longitudinal study of Chinese families. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1063-1074.
25. Lengua, L. J., & Kovacs, E. A. (2005). Bidirectional associations between temperament and parenting and the prediction of adjustment problems in middle childhood. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26(1), 21-38.
26. Micalizzi, L., Wang, M., & Saudino, K. J. (2017). Difficult temperament and negative parenting in early childhood: A genetically informed cross‐lagged analysis. Developmental Science, 20(2), 1-14.
27. Oliver, K. K. (2002). Understanding your child's temperament. Family Life Month Packet. 5, 1-2.
28. Öztemür, G. (2018). Relationships between executive functioning, private speech, and emotion regulation in preschoolers. (Unpublished Master Thesis), Boğaziçi University, Institute of Social Sciences, İstanbul.
29. Öztürk Can, H., & Aksel E. Ş. (2017). Parental acceptance/rejection of the relationship between parental control applications and related factors, Humanities Sciences, 12(1):35-51.
30. Özyürek, A. (2015). Çocuk ve aile içi ilişkiler. [Child and family relationships]. In Y. Aydoğan & G. Gülümser Akduman (Eds.), Çocuk ruh sağlığı [Child mental health] (pp. 71-108). Ankara: Eğiten.
31. Putnam, S. P., & Rothbart, M. K. (2006). Development of short and very short forms of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 87(1), 102-112.
32. Rohner, R. P. (1994). Patterns of parenting: the warmth dimension in worldwide perspective. W. Lonner, & R. S. Malpass, Psychology and culture (pp. 113-120). United States: Allyn and Bacon.
33. Rohner, R. P. & Khaleque, A. (2005). Handbook for the study of parental acceptance and rejection. USA: Rohner Research Publications.
34. Rohner, R. P., & Ali, S. (2016) Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ). In V. Zeigler-Hill & T. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences (pp. 1-4). Germany: Springer.
35. Rohner, R. P., & Britner, P. A. (2002). Worldwide mental health correlates of parental acceptance-rejection: review of cross-cultural and intracultural evidence. Cross-Cultural Research, 16-47.
36. Rohner, R. P., & Khaleque, A. (2002). Parental acceptance-rejection and life-span development: A universalist perspective. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 6(1), 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.9707/2307-0919.1055
37. Rohner, R. P., Khaleque, A., & Cournoyer, D. E. (2003). Cross-national perspectives on Parental Acceptance-Rejection Theory. Marriage & Family Review, 85-105.
38. Rohner, R. P., Khaleque, A., & Cournoyer, D. E. (2005). Parental Acceptance‐Rejection: Theory, methods, cross‐cultural evidence, and implications. Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology, 33(3), 299-334.
39. Rohner, R. P., Saavedra, J. M., & Granum, E. O. (1978). Development and validation of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire: Test-manual. American Psychology. 8, 17-48.
40. Rothbart, M. K., & Derryberry, D. (1981). Development of individual differences in temperament. Advances in Developmental Psychology, (1), 37-86.
41. Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., & Evans, D. E. (2000). Temperament and personality: origins and outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122-135.
42. Rothbart, M. K., Ahadi, S. A., Hershey, K. L., & Fisher, P. (2001). Investigations of temperament at three to seven years: The Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Child Development, 72(5), 1394-1408. 10.1111/1467-8624.00355
43. Sarıtaş, D., Grusec, J. E., & Gençöz, T. (2013). Warm and harsh parenting as mediators of the relation between maternal and adolescent emotion regulation. Journal Of Adolescence, 36(6), 1093-1101.
44. Seçer, İ. (2015). SPSS ve LISREL ile pratik veri analizi analiz ve raporlaştırma. [Practical data analysis analysis and reporting with SPSS and LISREL]. Ankara: Anı.
45. Senehi, N., & Brophy-Herb, H. E. (2020). Role of maternal affect and regulatory strategies in toddlers’ emotion and behavior regulation. Infant Behavior and Development, 60, 1-16.
46. Shahid, S. F. B., Mullick, M. S. I., Nahar, J. S., Naher, J., Khan, S., Morshed, N. M., Shah, M. A., & Qusar, M. S. (2009). Relationship between parental rejection and personality. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Journal, 2(2), 61-65.
47. Silinskas, G., Kiuru, N., Aunola, K., Metsäpelto, R. L., Lerkkanen, M. K., & Nurmi, J. E. (2020). Maternal affection moderates the associations between parenting stress and early adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing behavior. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 40(2), 221-248.
48. Slagt, M., Dubas, J. S., Deković, M., & Van Aken, M. A. G. (2016). Differences in sensitivity to parenting depending on child temperament: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 142(10), 1068–1110.
49. Sönmez, K. (2019). Okul öncesi dönem çocuklarının mizaçları ile akran ilişkileri arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesi. [The investigation of reletionship between the preschoolers' temperament and peer interaction]. (Unpublished Master Thesis), Trakya University, Institute of Educational Sciences, Edirne.
50. Taymur, İ., & Türkçapar, M. H. (2012). Personality: Description, classification and evaluation. Current Approaches in Psychiatry, 4(2), 154-177.
51. Trawick Swith, J. (2013). Erken çocukluk döneminde gelişim-çok kültürlü bir bakış açısı. [Early childhood development-a multicultural perspective]. In B. Akman (Ed.), Bebeklikte sosyal ve duygusal gelişim [Social and emotional development in infancy] (Ö. Özgün, Çev.) (pp. 168-195). Ankara: Nobel.
52. Yavuz, H., Selçuk, B., Çorapçı, F., & Aksan, N. (2017). Role of temperament, parenting behaviors, and stress on Turkish preschoolers’ internalizing symptoms. Social Development, 26(1), 109-128.