Abstract

ANDRADE PALOS, Patricia  and  BETANCOURT OCAMPO, Diana. Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Children: Predictors from the Perception of Parents and Children. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2012, vol.2, n.2, pp.650-664. ISSN 2007-4719.

The objectives of this study were to determine whether differences exist between parents and children in parenting practices, and behavioral and emotional problems of children, to analyze the degree of agreement between the perceptions of children about parenting practices and their emotional and behavioral problems, and parenting practices and problems of the children expressed by the father and mother, and comparing the prediction of parenting practices in emotional and behavioral problems of children from the perspective of the mother, father and children. 552 children participated (52.5% boys and 47.5% girls), with an average age of 10.8 years, students from public schools; 395 mothers and 349 fathers of children were also involved. To measure parenting practices Andrade and Betancourt scale (2010) was used, which consists of five dimensions for mother (Communication, Autonomy, Imposition, Behavioral control and Psychological control) and four for father. (Communication/Behavioral Control, Autonomy, Imposition and psychological control). Andrade and Betancourt scale (2009) was used for measuring emotional and behavioral problems; it assesses eight dimensions (rule breaking, somatic problems, depression, attention problems, harassment, friend's problems, aggressive behavior and thought problems). The results showed that significant differences exist between parents and children in the reporting of emotional problems but not for behavioral problems, we also found no significant differences between the assessments made for mothers and fathers in both types of problems. Regarding parenting practices, only significant differences were found between the perceptions of children, and what was expressed by mothers, in the comparison between parents and children no significant differences were found. As for predicting the level of parenting practices in emotional and behavioral problems of children, from the perspective of different informants, the results showed that the percentages of explained variance of emotional and behavioral problems of children when they are informants are higher than, when the mother and father are the informants.

Keywords : Emotional problems; Behavioral problems; Parenting practices; Informant; Children.