The relation between psychosocial symptoms and parenting styles in hospitalized children.

Objective: Hospitalization is a serious experience affecting emotional, physical and developmental needs of the children. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between psychosocial symptoms and parenting styles in hospitalized children.

Design And Methods: The sample of this cross-sectional descriptive study consisted of parents of hospitalized children between the ages of 6-12 years. The data collection tools included 'Scale for Diagnosis of Psychosocial Symptom for Inpatient children (SDPSIC)' and 'Multidimensional Parenting Assessment Scale (MAPS)'.

Results: The highest scores for psychosocial symptoms belonged to anxiety (8.64 ± 2.03) and regressive behaviours (3.89 ± 1.59). The highest scores for parenting styles belonged to warmth (13.30 ± 1.98) and supportiveness (12.69 ± 2.33). Parenting styles were predictore of the hospitalized child's psychosocial symptoms and explained 23% of the variance in psychosocial symptoms. While a positive relation existed between lax control, hostility, physical control parenting styles and psychosocial symptoms like anxiety, regressive behaviours, communication difficulty; a negative relation occured between warmth, positive reinforcement styles and anger-aggression.

Conclusions: Focusing to the processes associating parenting styles and parenting practices with child outcomes will make the understanding of psychosocial symptoms of the child in hospitalization process easier.

Practice Implications: Identification of psychosocial symptoms-related risk factors in hospitalized children will contribute to compliance of the child to disease and treatment as well.