Comparing Parenting Styles of Mothers of Pre-school children with and without Intellectual Disabilities

Aim and Parenting styles are particular methods that parents use of them in nurturing of their children.The aim of this study was comparing parenting styles of mothers of pre-school children with and without intellectual disabilities. Method and Material: This is a causal-comparative research.The statistical population of this research includes the whole mothers of pre-school children with and without intellectual disabilities in Shiraz city. The sample size was 116 mothers of pre-school children (58 Mothers of Pre-school children with intellectual disabilities and 58 mothers of Pre-school children without intellectual disabilities) that were selected by purposeful sampling. Parenting styles questioner (Robinson et al., 1995) was used for measuring of parenting styles. Analysis of data using multiple analysis of variance test showed that the authoritarian and permissivesParenting styles of mothers of pre-school children with intellectual disabilities significantly are more than the mothers of pre-school children without intellectual disabilities(P<0.001). Moreover multiple analysis of variance showed that authoritativeparenting style of mothers of pre-school children without intellectual disabilitiessignificantly are more than of mothers of pre-school children with intellectual disabilities(P<0.001). According to the finding of this research, designing family training workshops for enhancing knowledge and awareness of parents about Parenting styles and effects of parenting styles on their children is necessary. Also it is suggestedauthoritativeparenting style should be taught for mothers of pre-school children with intellectual disabilities.