Characterization of Parent-Child Communication in School-age Children:
Study with a Portuguese Sample
Keywords:
Parent-child communication, School-age children, Comparative studyAbstract
Parent-child communication is a central dimension of the parenting task. The main goal of the present study was to identify and compare the perceptions of 467 parents and 329 children (ages between 7-11 years) related to parent-child communication, using the Perception Scale of Parenting Communication. Student’s t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlations revealed some statistically significant results: a positive emphasis of mothers/daughters on communication, a positive relationship between meta-communication and sharing/confidence dimensions for children, and the influence of sociodemographic variables (low levels of financial income and education, rural context) on the quality of communication. In general, these results seem to indicate the necessity of paying attention to the parent-child relationship in disadvantaged school and socioeconomic contexts.
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