1045967

research-article2021
GPHXXX10.1177/2333794X211045967Global Pediatric HealthAtout et al

Original Research Article

Global Pediatric Health

Parental Child Rearing Practices in Volume 8: 1­–9 

© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/2333794X211045967
https://doi.org/10.1177/2333794X211045967
journals.sagepub.com/home/gph

Maha Atout, RN, PhD,1 , Intima Alrimawi, RN, PhD2,

Mutaz Dreidi, RN, PhD3, Ahmad Rajeh Saifan, RN, PhD4,
Eman Abusalameh, RN, MSN5,
and Nabeel Al-Yateem, RN, PhD6

Abstract
The objectives of this study were to explore parenting practices from the perspectives of Palestinian parents and
their children, and concordance between parents and children in their reports of parenting practices, in a culture
that is underrepresented in the literature. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. The Alabama Parenting
Questionnaire (APQ) was administered to 120 parents and 120 children drawn from 4 districts in Palestine. Children
had higher scores on parental involvement, positive parenting, poor monitoring, inconsistent discipline, and corporal
punishment. Three significant parent–child relationships were obtained1: parental involvement (r = .276, P = .003),
positive parenting (r = .0301, P = .001), and poor parental monitoring (r = −.241, P = .008). The findings of this study
might be used by Palestinian authorities and policy-makers to formulate guidelines and training to aid parental
decision-making about child rearing.

Keywords
child rearing, parental perception, rearing practices, school-aged children
Received July 27, 2021. Accepted for publication August 25, 2021.

Background Developmental psychologists consider that children’s

social world and the manner in which they develop cog-
Intended to aid children to develop normally, child-rear- nitively and emotionally are critically dependent on
ing practices differ from one society to another as they child-rearing practices.5 Learning by observation or
are shaped by parental culture, conceptions, and social emulation is advocated by social cognitive theory as a
and economic circumstances.1 As defined by Ekpo and major driver of development.6 This implies that children
Igbokwe,2 child-rearing practices mediate children’s acquire learning from observation of what their parents
social, emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual and others do and what the results of their actions are.7
development by ensuring that their basic needs, includ-
ing education, love, material needs, and welfare, are
met. Furthermore, through the child-rearing practices
that they adopt, parents help children to embrace the cul- 1
Philadelphia University, Scool of Nursing, Amman, Jordan
ture and customs of the society they were born into.3 2
Trinity Washington University, Washington DC, USA
Parental culture has a massive influence on the percep- 3
Faculty of Nursing, Pharmacy and Health Professions, Birzeit
tions that parents hold about child-rearing practices, dis- University, Palestine
4
cipline, and behavioral regulation. Parents encounter Applied Science Private University, Nursing College, Amman,
Jordan.
many difficulties in getting their offspring ready to cope 5
Trinity College Dublin, Irland
with the problems and complexity of life, so child rear- 6
University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE
ing is a tremendous undertaking.4 Consequently, parents
Corresponding Author:
draw on their own experiences and their understanding Maha Atout, School of Nursing, Philadelphia University, Office 509,
of cultural conceptions, including morality, when they Jerash Road, P.O. Box 19392, Amman 19392, Jordan.
raise their offspring.2 Email: m.atout@philadelphia.edu.jo

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
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2 Global Pediatric Health

Thus, from this perspective, child behavior is molded that the way in which Indian teenagers behaved could be
first and foremost by the parents. most accurately anticipated based on lack of consistency
in discipline. Meanwhile, in their US study on 135 cou-
ples living together and having children in the age range
Review of the Literature
6 to 12 years old, Gryczkowski et al22 explored how chil-
Child-rearing practices mediate progress from 1 phase dren’s externalizing behavior was shaped by the child-
of development to the next, and therefore they are rearing practices employed by the mothers and fathers.
essential to how children develop.8 The impact of these They reported that children were more likely to exhibit
practices is felt not only on how children behave and on increased externalizing behavior due to lack of consis-
their personality,9-11 but also on how children perform tency in the discipline exercised by their mothers rather
in school and how they develop emotionally, psycho- than their fathers. Additionally, in a study conducted in
logically, socially, and physically.11-13 Australia, Duncombe et al23 also found that disruptive
Depending on their effects on how children develop behavior was intensified by lack of consistency in
cognitively, psychologically, and emotionally, 2 types discipline.
of child-rearing practices can be distinguished, namely, Children can be adversely affected in a number of
positive and negative practices. For instance, child ways by an authoritarian style of parenting. Melis Yavuz
development is favorably influenced by parental and Selcuk24 investigated a sample of Turkish children
involvement. As reported by Barnard14 and Stright and of preschool age to determine whether obese or over-
Yeo,15 children’s performance in school is improved weight status could be anticipated based on parenting
when parents actively participate in their day-to-day styles and child-feeding practices. According to the
activities, such as attendance of school activities, parent results, the risk of obesity was higher among children
meetings, and activities outside school. On the other whose mothers exercised an authoritarian style of par-
hand, children might be negatively affected emotionally enting. Furthermore, Baker and Hoerger18 reported that
and behaviorally if parents get excessively involved in lack of trust and somatic disorders caused by distress
every little aspect of their children’s lives. Aboobaker stemmed from parental ostracism and excessive control
et al16 accentuated this issue in an investigation of the associated with impaired self-regulation, problems with
determinants of emotional and behavioral troubles adjustment and psychopathology.
among Indian teenagers; findings indicated that the Burlaka et al17 noted that parental neglect and inad-
teenagers were adversely affected emotionally due to equate supervision had negative effects in terms of
excessive parental involvement. children’s care and guidance needs, school attendance,
Burlaka17 argued that positive child-rearing practices and practical support, increasing the probability of
can support children to learn to communicate effec- behavioral issues, non-compliance with rules, aggres-
tively, which is an essential career-aiding skill. Similarly, sive behavior, and attention issues.25-27 By contrast,
in a study on 286 undergraduate students, Baker and children are less likely to engage in risk-taking behav-
Hoerger18 reported that the participants who received ior if their parents monitor them appropriately.28
affection from their parents were more successful in Moreover, as suggested by Aboobaker et al,16 teenagers
regulating themselves, acquiring effective interpersonal are more likely to develop prosocial skills under close
skills (eg, the ability to open up, engage with and trust parental watch.
others) and adapting to academic life (eg, resilience and An aspect of child-rearing practices associated with
patience in achieving academic goals). Furthermore, a number of unfavorable implications is corporal pun-
irrespective of age, children are more emotionally and ishment, which is considered a major factor ongoing
behaviorally stable when they interact favorably with occurrence of violence in society29. In a study con-
their parents.19 Meanwhile, Legate et al20 examined how ducted in the US on children with mothers of average
children’s bullying behavior was shaped by parenting age of 28.11 years old, Mulvaney and Mebert30 reported
styles and observed that cyberbullying behavior was that corporal punishment was significantly correlated
demonstrated more often by teenagers exposed to a rigid with negative behavioral adjustment. In a different US
and controlling style of parenting than by teenagers study on 2582 parents and their children in fifth and
exposed to a parenting style emphasizing independence sixth grade, McKee et al31 established a connection
and support. between child problem behaviors and severe verbal and
Frick21 documented a close correlation between lack physical discipline. Nevertheless, the damaging effects
of consistency in discipline and behavioral problems of severe physical discipline were attenuated by the
among teenagers. Likewise, Aboobaker et al16 indicated favorable parental practice of expression of affection.
Atout et al 3

In addition, in a Spanish study on 1071 children, Methodology

Gámez-Guadix et al32 discovered that children were
more prone to behaving in an antisocial manner if they Design
had been punished physically, such as by being caned To address the stated objectives, the study adopted a
or flogged. research design widely applied in nursing studies,
namely, a cross-sectional descriptive correlational
The Situation in Palestine design. The advantage of this type of design is that it
facilitates not only the investigation of inter-variable
In the Middle Eastern country of Palestine under the correlations at particular points, but also the collection
occupation, children account for around 50% of the total of data regarding the features of groups, circumstances,
population and the socio-economic standing of about a or the rate at which variables occur.37
quarter of the population (25.7%) is low.32-34
The politically unstable environment in which they
live affords a singular character to the life conditions of Sample and Setting
children in Palestine and their psychological develop- The eligible participants were parents (mother and father
ment might be adversely impacted as a result. An as a couple) and their middle school and adolescent chil-
investigation of the social, individual, familial, and dren between 9 and 15 years who lived in 1 of 4 targeted
educational determinants of children’s mental health districts in Palestine (ie, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Jenin,
under circumstances of armed conflict revealed that and Hebron). These participants were interviewed as a
children and their families were often mentally trauma- couple simultaneously. Participants had to read and
tized, but the extent to which children were vulnerable write Arabic. Children aged 6 to 8 years were excluded
varied.35 Therefore, in such regions, child-rearing prac- from the study because they might not fully understand
tices contribute massively to help children deal with the the questions or be able to read and write properly.
difficulties caused by poor mental health. Additionally, parents and children with physical or cog-
However, living under conditions of armed conflict nitive impairments were not included in the study.
can also have an impact on parents and, implicitly, on
the child-rearing practices and discipline measures that
they implement. In a comparative analysis of the strate-
Instruments
gies employed by mothers in Qatar and Palestine to Two instruments were used to collect data for this study:
enforce discipline, Kamal et al36 discovered that the the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) and an
physical and psychological strategies of discipline used investigator-developed demographic data form. The
by mothers in Palestine were more severe than those APQ was used in this study for several reasons: (1) its
used by mothers in Qatar. The authors attributed this dif- widespread use as a measure for assessing parenting
ference to the privation and suffering experienced by practices,38 (2) its standardization for use in different
mothers in Palestine and the fact that they were younger countries (eg, Germany, Spain, Qatar), and (3) its appli-
and less well-educated. cability in different settings, including community and
Ample research in the field of developmental psy- clinical referred samples.
chology conducted particularly in the West highlights This scale was designed to measure 5 parenting con-
the significant impact of child-rearing practices on chil- structs: parental involvement, positive parenting, poor
dren’s development. By contrast, this topic has not been monitoring/supervision, inconsistent discipline, and
extensively studied in a Palestinian setting and the corporal punishment.39,40 This questionnaire contains 84
majority of existing studies explore child-rearing prac- questions, 42 for parents and 42 for children, that cover
tices not from the children’s point of view but from the various aspects of parenting practices based on a 5-Point
parents’ point of view.36 The present study sought to Likert scale.
address this limitation by investigating child-rearing The literature has already established this scale’s
practices for children of school age from the viewpoints validity and reliability.41-44 The instrument was trans-
of both parents and children and comparing those view- lated to Arabic according to World Health Organization45
points. In line with this aim, the study had 2 objectives, guidelines and then was sent to a professional translator
namely, to characterize conceptions and practices of to perform double-blind back translation. To ensure its
child-rearing from the viewpoints of parents and chil- compatibility with the local culture, a pilot study was
dren in Palestine and to examine correlations among carried out to make sure that the Arabic version was
those viewpoints. reliable. The internal consistency for this version was
4 Global Pediatric Health

measured using Cronbach’s alpha. The values obtained Table 1.  Participant’s Characteristics.
were .68 for parental involvement, .71 for favorable
Parents
child-rearing practices, .72 for suboptimal supervision, characteristics Category Frequency Percentage
.75 for lack of consistency in discipline, and .75 for cor-
poral punishment. Age Under 30 30 25.0
30-50 75 62.5
Over 50 15 12.5
Data Collection Gender Male 60 50.0
Female 60 50.0
Participants were recruited through parental meetings
Education level High school 48 40.0
held within governmental schools in each district. These
Diploma 38 31.7
parental meetings usually take place upon invitation by
Bachelor 29 24.2
schools, especially at significant times during the study Master 5 4.2
year, for example after exams and activities, and the end Residence Village 95 79.2
of the year. Researchers asked parents if they would Camp 4 3.3
agree to participate in this study with their children. City 21 17.5
Additionally, information sheets and recruitment flyers The city Jerusalem 29 24.2
concerning this study were distributed during such Ramallah 28 23.3
meetings. Jenin 30 25.0
The parents who agreed to participate in the study Hebron 33 27.5
were asked to discuss this with their children to confirm Marital status Married 116 96.7
their approval and then give the researcher their contact Divorce 2 1.7
information. A total of 500 questionnaires were distrib- Widowed 2 1.7
uted to the parents and children (250 for children and Religion Islam 120 100
250 for parents). Of those, 252 were returned completed, Christianity 0  
giving a response rate of 50%. This response rate was other 0  
attributed to participants’ busy schedules. However, Child Category Frequency Percentage
according to Salant et al46, a response rate of 50% to characteristics
60% is to be expected from general public samples. Of Age 10-11 75 62.5
the completed questionnaires, 12 were not included in 12-13 30 25
14 15 12.5
the analysis because they had missing data. Thus, a total
Gender Male 52 43.3
of 240 questionnaires (120 parents and 120 school-aged
Female 68 56.7
children) were left for analysis.
N [parents] = 120, N [child] = 120.

Data Analysis
collected data would be used for the research purpose
The derived data were analyzed using SPSS program
and accessed only by the research team, with the poten-
Version 20.0. Descriptive statistics portrayed partici-
tial for publication without reference to individual
pants’ demographic characteristics and current child-
names.
rearing practices from the parents’ and the children’s
perspectives. Several inferential correlation tests,
including bivariate Pearson correlation analysis, Results
explored the relationship between parent and child
regarding their practice with other variables using the Demographics
Alabama questionnaires (APQ), which separate ques- There was a total of 240 participants in this study:
tions into 5 sub-groups (ie, involvement, positive par- 120 parents and 120 school-aged children (Table 1).
enting, poor monitoring, inconsistent discipline, and The sample involved families from the Jerusalem,
corporal punishment). Ramallah, Hebron, and Jenin districts. Regarding par-
ents’ characteristics, half were female (50%), and most
were between 30 and 50 years old (63%), with a high
Ethical Considerations
school education (40%). Most lived in a rural area (79%)
Approval was obtained from participants and the ethi- and were married (97%). All mothers were Muslim
cal committee of Birzeit University and the Palestinian (100%). As regards the children, most (63%) were in the
Ministry of Education. Participants completed a writ- age range 10 to 11 years old and females made up more
ten consent form, and researchers clarified that all the than half of the sample (57%).
Atout et al 5

Table 2.  The Perspective of Parents and Children on the Rearing Practices.

Item Mean SD Range Minimum Maximum

Children
 Involvement 59.6 10.6 47 37 84
  Positive parenting 22.5 4.5 17 13 30
  Poor monitoring 20.2 6.6 28 10 38
  Inconsistent discipline 14.9 3.4 14 8 22
  Corporal punishment 7.5 2.8 11 3 14
Parents
 Involvement 40.6 10.6 47 18 65
  Positive parenting 16.5 4.5 17 7 24
  Poor monitoring 10.2 6.6 28 1 28
  Inconsistent discipline 8.9 3.4 14 2 16
  Corporal punishment 4.5 2.9 11 1 11

N [parents] = 120, N [child] = 120.

Perspectives of Children and Parents Toward views. Results showed that a child’s perceived involve-
Child-Rearing Practices ment is significantly and positively correlated with
parents’ perceived involvement (r = .276, P = .003).
The results of parenting practices showed that the most Concerning positive parenting from the child’s perspec-
frequent parenting practice as perceived by children was tive, it was significantly and positively correlated with
involvement 59.6 (SD = 10.6) and the lowest was corpo- involvement (r = .0301, P = .001) and negatively corre-
ral punishment 7.5 (SD = 2.8). In relation to separate lated with poor monitoring from parents’ perspectives
items, the highest score was for “Your parents calmly (r = −.241, P = .008).
explain to you when your behavior was wrong” Poor monitoring from the child’s perspective was sig-
(M = 3.6), and the lowest was “Your parents make you nificantly and negatively correlated with involvement
sit or stand in a corner as a punishment” (M = 1.6). (r = .221, P = .015). Moreover, inconsistent discipline
For parents, the results were similar. The highest was significantly and positively correlated with poor
score for parenting practices as perceived by parents monitoring (r = .182, P = .047). This indicated more
was for involvement 40.6 (SD = 10.6), and the lowest inconsistent discipline is linked with high poor monitor-
was for corporal punishment 4.5 (SD = 2.9). The sepa- ing. In general, these results showed agreement between
rate items were the same as children. The highest score children and their parents regarding rearing practices
was for “You calmly explain to your child why his (Table 3).
behavior was wrong” (M = 3.2), and the lowest one was
“You make your child stand or sit in a corner as a pun-
ishment” (M = 1.7). Discussion
The data from parents’ and children’s perspectives The purpose of this study was to assess and compare
regarding parenting practices showed there was concor- child-rearing perspectives and practices for school-aged
dance for involvement, as it had the highest rate from children from parents and children’s perspectives. A
children and their parents (M = 59.6, SD = 10.6) and cross-sectional quantitative approach was used whereby
(M = 40.6, SD = 10.6), respectively. However, children parents and their children were recruited during parental
rated involvement higher than their parents. This indi- school meetings to participate in this study. The results
cated that children perceived sharing parents in their of the present study suggest that parents and children
activities more than parents’ perspectives (Table 2). generally agree on their reports of parenting, but they
also provide variability in their perspectives of parenting
Relationship Between Parents’ and Children’s practices.
The results of parenting practices showed that the
Perspectives of Rearing Practices
most frequent parenting practice as perceived by chil-
A bivariate Pearson correlation analysis was performed dren was involvement and the lowest was corporal pun-
to assess the associations among involvement, positive ishment. This is congruent with a study conducted,15
parenting, poor monitoring, inconsistent discipline and which examined (712) children’s perceptions of moth-
corporal punishment of parents, according to children’s ers’ parenting styles and maternal involvement to
6 Global Pediatric Health

Table 3.  The Correlations Among the Parents and Their School Aged Children Perspectives Around the Child Rearing
Practices.

Involvement Positive Poor Inconsistence Corporal

Category child parenting child monitoring child discipline child punishment child
Involvement parent r = .267 (.003) r = .301 (.001) r = −.221 (.015) r = .028 (.764) r = −.051 (.578)
Positive parenting r = .161 (.079) r = .302 (.001) r = −.048 (.606) r = .116 (.209) r = .051 (.577)
Poor monitoring r = −.142 (.123) r = −.241 (.008) r = .545 (P < .001) r = .182 (.047) r = .214 (.019)
Inconsistence discipline r = −.01 (.912) r = −.065 (.480) r = .156 (.089) r = .121 (.189) r = .286 (.002)
Corporal punishment r = .076 (.410) r = .034 (.716) r = .047 (.613) r = .141 (.124) r = .100 (.275)

N [parents] = 120, N [child] = 120).
Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).

predict their school achievement and conduct in This study had some limitations that should be
Singapore. acknowledged. The cross-sectional design used in this
The findings of the current study indicated that study need cautious interpretation of the results especially
Palestinian parents reported using of positive parenting as the parents depends on recall of previous parenting
practices toward their children. The relatively old age of practices. Additionally, the sampling approach was con-
the parents might explain such favorable outcomes to venience, which limits the ability to generalize findings
some extent. Most parents were aged between 30 and among all the families in the Palestinian community.
50 years old, meaning that they were no longer at the Furthermore, the sample was selected from a governmen-
stage of young adulthood at which parenting difficulties tal school meeting, which might imply potential sampling
of a health, physical, and psychological nature are more bias. Other factors include the data collection process, a
likely to be confronted. From this perspective, the study shortage of resources, length of the questionnaire, and dif-
corroborates the results reported by Burlaka et al,17 ficulty of transportation. Another limitation of this study
which indicated that child-rearing practices in Ukraine include that the data was drawn from only 4 districts in
were markedly influenced by the age of the parents. Palestine and that the study used participants’ self-reports.
The findings of the current study showed that the Using other resources of information such as report from
association found in the present study indicates that chil- other family members and observing parents’ behaviors
dren, compared to parents, had significantly higher in the real context might strengthen the results. This study
scores for involvement, positive parenting, poor moni- recommends conducting further qualitative studies or
toring, inconsistent discipline, and corporal punishment. perhaps mixed method studies to demonstrate the cultural
Stright and Yeo15 reported relatively similar findings in aspect of parenting in Palestine. Additionally, the absence
their Singapore investigation of how children’s percep- of a significant relationship between analyzed correla-
tion of their mothers’ parenting style affected their tions may be due to the nature and small size of the sam-
school conduct and achievements. The findings showed ple. Generally, the parents provided low scores for their
that the children typically perceived their mothers’ par- practices compared with children.
enting styles very positively, reporting that their mothers It is important that the policy maker and health care
were warm and used moderate amounts of behavioral providers being aware of these parenting pattern to pro-
control and less psychological control. vide culturally based intervention to diminish them. The
Although the least-used parental style was corporal current study provides crucial information for develop-
punishment from the parents’ and children’s perspec- ing critical and culturally sensitive interventions with
tive, it suggests that some parents used some corporal parents in Palestine. One of the most important issues is
punishment. There is a possibility that this result may be to make these interventions to be affordable to parents
underreported by comparison to earlier studies by who live in poverty with lower socioeconomic back-
Burlaka25 in the Ukraine and Gershoff et al47 in the US, ground. The most important message for Palestinian
which indicated that corporal punishment was used on a parents is to learn to avoid corporal punishment for their
regular basis by 75% to 80% of parents. The reason children, supervise and actively participate in the lives
behind this difference might be explained as Palestinian of their children and to motivate their good behaviors.
parents are more likely to report positive behavior, Finally, for the health professionals who work in those
which could relate to the influence of social desirability parents to acknowledge the potential adverse impact of
effects, as bad parental practice is criticized in sociality. the political issues on parents.
Atout et al 7

Palestinian policy makers should further support par- Author Contributions

ents’ capacity to conduct their child rearing role through All authors had the major input into the design, analysis, and
conducting training sessions and workshops. Moreover, interpretation of the data, as well as drafting the article or revis-
corporal punishment was still reported, albeit infre- ing it critically for important intellectual content. All authors
quently. Therefore, there is a need to incorporate legisla- have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript.
tion to protect children and monitor parents’ practices in
this area. Declaration of Conflicting Interests
Moreover, professionals who work with children and The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
their families, including teachers, social workers, nurses, respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
and doctors, must assess children’s and parents’ needs article.
concerning rearing practices, with attempts to support
them and help them to avoid problems. They also need Funding
to assess children’s developmental needs and their holis- The author(s) received no financial support for the research,
tic family environment. authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Further studies are needed to enhance the evidence
concerning child-rearing practices in the Palestinian ORCID iD
community. For instance, there is a need for more sur-
Maha Atout https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6290-9100
veys to explore the perspective of high-income parents
and their children and investigate their rearing practices.
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