Maternal Parenting Style, Emotional Intelligence, and Discipline Character of Preschool Children: A Mediating Role of Socialization Methods

The development of discipline character needs to be established since an early period. Specifically, in preschool aged where the foundations of character begin to develop. Mother as primary caregiver for children plays a key role that determines the development of discipline on children. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the relationship and influence of parenting styles, socialization methods, and mothers’ emotional intelligence on the discipline character of preschool children. The research method used in this study is quantitative method, with a cross-sectional study design. The research locations were selected purposively, considering that they included both progressive and conventional kindergartens in Bogor City and Bogor Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia. There were 103 mothers with 103 preschool-age children (47 boys and 56 girls) who participated. Self-administered questionnaires was utilized to collect the data of mothers, while for the data of children, interviews were conducted using visual aids, and the questionnaire was filled in by the researcher. This study discovered that authoritative parenting style has a significant and positive relationship with the improvement of discipline character, while the permissive parenting style has a significant negative relationship with the deceleration of discipline character. Meanwhile, there was no significant relationship of mother’s emotional intelligence and discipline character of children discovered in this study. Compositely, well-implemented socialization methods also have a significant relationship with discipline character. The results of path analysis revealed that authoritative parenting style influences discipline character, both directly and indirectly, through socialization method. Socialization method was also found to have a significant positive influence directly on discipline character. Consequently, parents and mother in particular, have a crucial role to develop discipline on children through the application of parenting style and socialization method.