The Relationship between Parents' verbal Control Modes and Children's social competency

부모의 언어통제유형과 아동의 사회적 능력과의 관계

The present study was conducted to elucidate the relationship between parent's verbal control modes and children's social competency. Two questionanires were developed by the authors for this study. The questionnaire for measuring parent's verbal control modes was composed of 84 and 87 items for mother and father, respectively, which assesses three types of verbal control modes; imperative control position-oriented control and person-oriented control. The questionnaire for measuring children's social competency perceived by mothers was composed of 27 items, which assesses four areas of social competency; initiative sociability responsibility and self-disclosure. the subjects of this study were 436 mothers and their children of fifth and sixth grade in elementary schools located in Seoul. The results of this study were as follows: 1) Parents control their children mostly by position-oriented mode and least by imperative mode. 2) There were significant correlations between father's verbal control mode and children's social competency. children's social competency was related positively to the person-oriented and position-oriented modes but negatively to the imperative mode. The best variables explaining boy's social competency were father's imperative and position-oriented modes whereas that for girl's was position oriented mode. 3) Mother's verbal control mode was not significant in explaining children's social competency. 4) The negative impact of father's imperative mode in combination with the mother's person-oriented mode on the children's social competency was greater than other combinations of father's and mother's verbal control modes.