Relationship between Parents’ Parenting Style and Level of Fear and Cooperation of 4-8 Years Old Children Referring to Dental Clinics of Qom City, (Iran)

Background and Objectives: Fear and anxiety of dental treatment decrease cooperation of child during the treatment. Parenting style is one of the factors influencing child's behavioral reaction to dental treatment. In this study, the effect of parenting style of parents was investigated on the levels fear and cooperation in 4-8 year children. Methods: The present research was randomly performed as a cross-sectional study on 150 children referred to dental centers of Qom city. Parenting style was assessed by Baumrind questionnaire and children's fear level was analyzed using Children's Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale questionnaire and children's cooperation was assessed using Frankl's Behavior Rating Scale. The relationship between parent’s parenting style and children's fear and cooperation, was analyzed by correlation test and regression if necessary. Results: In this study, there was no significant correlation between permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative parenting styles with children's fear scores. But, based on post hoc Tukey test, the authoritative style of children in the negative group showed a significant difference in the Frankl's test, which was higher than other groups (p=0.001). Conclusion: According to the results of this research, children with authoritative parents showed less cooperation with dental treatment, but the children’s fear was not related to the parents’ parenting style