Risky play and parenting styles

Abstract

This study investigated the predictive power of parenting styles towards children and demographic characteristics on children’s risky play. 890 parents of 4–6 year-old children enrolled in public preschools and kindergartens in Denizli, Turkey completed the questionnaires related to demographic characteristics of themselves and their children, their thoughts about risky play and parenting attitudes towards children. Results indicated that parenting styles and gender, education level and number of children are significant predictors of parents’ thoughts about practices and benefits of risky play. In particular, overprotective and permissive parenting predicted parents’ practices of risky play while overprotective, permissive and democratic parenting styles influenced their thoughts about the benefits of this play. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.