The relationship between parenting styles and emotional intelligence of kindergarten children

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between the parenting styles and emotional intelligence of a sample of kindergarten children in Zarqa II Governorate, Jordan. To achieve this objective, two measures were utilized, namely, the emotional intelligence scale of the kindergarten children and the parenting styles scale on a sample of 100 kindergarten children, 47 of whom were male and 53 were female. The results revealed that the prevalent parenting styles were the democratic, authoritative, and permissive styles respectively. Further, the results showed a statistically significant positive relation between the democratic parenting style and emotional intelligence in all its domains, and showed a statistically significant negative relationship between the authoritative and permissive styles and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, the results revealed a lack of statistical differences in all areas due to the impact of gender in emotional intelligence. The study recommended that parents should pay more attention to the most appropriate parenting styles with their children.