Relationship of maternal parenting behaviors to preschool children's temperament

Mothers of 182 preschool nursery school children rated their own parenting responses on a Parent's Report questionnaire. At the same time the mothers responded to the Behavior Style Questionnaire (BSQ) from which scores were determined for nine categories of temperament. On the basis of category scores the children were grouped into one of five temperament clusters i.e. easy, difficult, slow to warm up, high intermediate, low intermediate. The children's membership in BSQ clusters was independent of sex, age, birth order, and mothers employment status but there was a significantly higher ratio of easy children from higher socioeconomic classes I and II. Mothers of children grouped in either the difficult or slow to warmup clusters were more likely to use guilt inducing and temper-detachment parenting styles than mothers of children grouped in the easy cluster.