Emotional competence, attachment, and parenting styles in children and parents

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine whether a subject’s emotional competence correlates to attachment styles and parenting styles in children and their parents. The study was conducted with fifty children (9–11 years old) and their parents, both of whose emotional competence (EKF) and parenting style (PAQ) were measured. The attachment styles of parents and children were measured with the Adult Attachment Scale (AAS) and the Bochumer Bindungstest (BoBiTe), respectively. The findings provide initial support to the assumption that attachment is related to emotional competence in parents. This relationship, however, was not significantly correlated in children. In addition, authoritative parenting and permissive parenting were significantly associated with emotional competence in parents. Emotional competence in children showed to be associated with an authoritative parenting style.