Competent (And/Or Responsible) Parenting as a Prerequisite for a Complete Child Development

Abstract

The issue of parental pedagogical competence is becoming more
pronounced particularly if it is understood in the context of raising children
for a competent and responsible behaviour. Parenting involves undertaking
various activities aimed at taking care of the child, encouraging his/her
development, and simultaneously developing interpersonal relations. In their
parenting, parents seek to fulfil various personal and social expectations, so
the key issue is how parents perceive their own pedagogical competence. In
order to study how parents (self-)assess their pedagogical competence, a
research was conducted on a sample of 90 parents of children of early and
pre-school age. Factor analysis identified four factors: lack of knowledge and
of confidence in child-rearing, blaming somebody else, and uncertainty in
the ability to influence the child, which explain the pedagogical
incompetence, and confidence factor in child-rearing which indicates
parental pedagogical competence. The T-test was performed and at the
significance level of p <0.05 no significant difference was found in selfassessed
parental competence with respect to the gender and age of the child.
It is reasonable to argue that parents need occasional or more permanent
support and help in the acquisition of knowledge of parenting, which can and
should be primarily provided by the educators in institutions.