Abstract

The two primary objectives of the present study were to (a) investigate mothers’ and fathers’ reports of their own as well as their partner's parentingstyles, and (b) assess how mothers’ and fathers’ parentingstyles uniquely and jointly predicted toddlers’ externalizing, internalizing, and adaptivebehaviors. Fifty-nine mothers and fathers independently completed the ParentingStyles and Dimension Questionnaire (PDSQ; Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 2001) and the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children-2 (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004). Parents’ self-reports of their parentingstyles were positively correlated with each other for all three parentingstyles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive). Comparisons between parents’ reports of their partner's styles with that of the partner's self-reports were positively and moderately correlated for all three parentingstyles. Findings revealed mothers’ and fathers’ self-reported parentingstyles explained 44% of the variance in youngsters’ externalizingbehaviors. In particular, permissive parenting by mothers and authoritarian parenting by fathers uniquely and significantly predicted toddlers’ externalizingbehaviors, while authoritative paternal parenting was predictive of adaptivebehaviors.