Predicting the quality of caregiving in marital relations based on Perceived parenting styles and self-esteem

Aim: Caregiving styles have been conceptualized as supportive, affective and compassionate behaviors among couples, which includes emotional access and responsiveness, caring responsiveness and interaction with the partner. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of self-esteem and perception of parental parenting styles of married students in predicting their careging styles. this is a descriptive correlational study. The statistical population of the present study was all married male students of shahid beheshti university of Tehran in 2016. That 245 of them were selected by available sampling method and they completed the Caregiving Inventory (Kunce & Shaver, 1994), Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and Perceived Parenting Styles (Dirik, Yorulmaz & Karanci, 2015). The data were analyzed by pearson correlation and multivariate regression. Findings: The results showed that self-esteem, warmth and emotional intimacy, predicts the proximity and sensitivity positively and significantly, and the rejection, negatively and significantly predicts the proximity and sensitivity (p<0.05). The results also showed that self-esteem, overprotection and emotional intimacy predicts the control negatively and significantly, and the rejection, predicts the control positively and significantly (p<0.05). The results also showed that self-esteem and emotional intimacy predicts obsessive negatively and significantly (p<0.05). The results of this study indicate that self-esteem and perception of parental parenting styles play an important role in predicting the caregiving styles of married people. Therefore, by enhancing self-esteem and correct the parenting styles, can prevent the formation of poor caregiving styles in the next generation.