الملخص الإنجليزي
The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between parental child-rearing attitudes and social behavior among (342) male and female kindergarten children, aged between 4-6 years. The parental attitudes scale, consisting of (146) items, was administered to the mothers of the respective children; while the social behavior scale, which consisted of (64) items, was administered by the kindergarten teachers. Both scales mentioned above had sufficient validity and reliability. Furthermore, they were modified to suit the Omani Culture by obtaining factorial, face, and internal consistency validity. Where as reliability was obtained through Cronbach's Alpha. Based on this analysis, the final version of the parental attitudes scale consisted of (68) items, measuring two factors: the authoritative and non authoritative attitudes; while the social behavior scale, after modification, consisted of (57) items.
The results were analyzed using correlations, Manova and Anova . No significant relationships were found between both the subscales of the parental attitudes and the social behavior of the children. On the other hand, the results showed that parental attitudes differed according to mothers' educational level but there was no difference in accordance to the sex or the birth order of the child. Furthermore, findings revealed that the social behavior of the children varied according to the sex of the child but there was no difference in accordance to the educational level of the mother or the birth order of the child. Several explanations for the inconsistencies of the present research results were proposed.
The implications for children's socialization processes and the assessment of children social behavior and the parental attitudes in Oman are discussed.
