Evaluation of family educational styles in the city of Cuenca

  According to Baumrind, a 20th century clinical and developmental psychologist well known for her research on parenting styles, a distinction can be made between three styles of family education. Based on her work a project was initiated to characterize the educational style of the parents and single mothers of the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, and to unravel and characterize the educational strategies they apply. The study population consisted of 445 randomly selected parents of 6-7 year old children attending the second year of basic education at one of the 19 public and private urban schools. Factor analysis indicated that the education styles of the families can be classified in the three educational style classes defined by the classical theory, respectively the authoritarian, the democratic and the permissive. Additionally, results of the cluster analysis revealed that: (i) the undefined educational style predominates; (ii) parents/mothers alternate educational strategies of the three styles, with a trend toward democratic educational practices; (iii) no dominant educational style is applied according to Baumrind’s theory; and (iv) ample opportunity exists to investigate the educational trends of parents/mothers. Based on these findings the implementation of parent education programs is recommended to improve the nurturing and development of children.