Effects of Perceived Paternal Parenting Styles and Communication Patterns on Children's School Adjustment : Comparison between Multicultural and Non-multilcultural Families

Abstract

The purpose of present study is to examine the difference in childrens school adjustment between multicultural and non-multicultural families and the effects of perceived paternal parenting styles and communication patterns on school adjustment of children from both family groups. Research questions are based on the Marginal Man theory and Family System theory. They are as the following: 1) Is there a difference in school adjustment between children from multicultural and non-multicultural families?

2) How are perceived paternal parenting styles and communication patterns associated with childrens school adjustment?

3) Is there a difference in the effect of perceived paternal parenting styles on childrens school adjustment between multicultural and non-multicultural families?

and 4) Is there a difference in the effect of perceived paternal communication patterns on childrens school adjustment between multicultural and non-multicultural families? The subjects of the present study are third to sixth grade children from multicultural families and non-multicultural families living in Jollanam-do. Data was collected using a self-administered survey methodology. Thirty-four elementary schools in 3 rural areas and 4 urban areas in Jollanam-do cooperated with data collection for about two months from October to December 2011 and total of 353 children participated in the survey. Except for 74 incomplete questionnaires, a total of 279 cases were analyzed by reliability analysis, frequency analysis, correlation, and multiple regression analysis by using SPSS 18.0 statistical package. The major findings of this study summarized as the following: First of all, family type (multicultural or non-multicultural family) was not found to be associated with childrens school adjustment. That is, there was no difference in childrens school adjustment between multicultural and non-multicultural families. Additionally, affectionate parenting style and paternal parenting style emphasizing self-control was found to have a statistically significant positive association with childrens school adjustment. Moreover, open communication pattern was found to have statistically significant positive relation to childrens school adjustment. Also, paternal problematic communication pattern was found to have a statistically significant negative association with childrens school adjustment. Lastly, some differences in the effect of paternal parenting styles and communication patterns on childrens school adjustment between multicultural and non-multicultural families were found by using explanatory analysis. Paternal parenting style emphasizing childrens self-control was found to be a predictor of childrens school adjustment in both groups. Achievement oriented parenting styles was found to have significant relation to school adjustment of children from multicultural families, while that was not found in another group. Furthermore, open communication pattern was found to be significant predictor of childrens school adjustment just in non-multicultural family group while problematic communication pattern was found to be significantly related to childrens school adjustment just in multicultural family group. Based on the results, the present study suggests that government should spread the public education support that provides specific knowledge and childrearing skills to fathers and develop various approaches to encourage fathers participation in such program. Moreover, the service provider should reflect different needs of multicultural and non-multicultural families in developing programs. Particularly that parenting education for fathers from non-multicultural families should focus on enhancing open communication skills while fathers from multicultural families are firstly required to manage and regulate problematic communication. Lastly, the other suggestion is to develop the relationship-building program that father and child participate together. This study is meaningful as it is the first study which examined the association between paternal parenting styles and school adjustment among children from multicultural and non-multicultural families based on Family System Theory and Marginal Man Theory. However, this study still carries limitations. First, there are still dangers in generalizing findings because this study used a non-probability sampling method. Second, this study was unable to control mothers parenting styles. Third, there is the possibility of occurring errors at each step in the survey process such as childrens socially desirable responding. Forth, the family-questionnaire was just in Korean. Hence these limitations should be overcome by future studies.

Keywords: childrens school adjustment, paternal parenting styles, paternal communication patterns, multicultural family. Student Number: 2010-20136