The relationship between socio-economic status and parenting style and personality-motivational characteristics of children with mild mental retardation

This descriptive-correlational study sought to determine the personality-motivational characteristics of children with mild mental retardation. It also aimed to find out the relationships between the parental socioeconomic status, parenting style, and children’s personality-motivational characteristics. There were 56 parent-respondents and 33 special education teachers of children (age 7 to 15) with mild mental retardation. The children with mild mental retardation are enrolled in either one of the three public schools with SPED centers and three private special schools in Metro Manila. Two survey questionnaires were administered to the respondents. Correlational statistics were used to find out if parents’ socioeconomic status and parenting styles were related to the children’s personality-motivational characteristics. Findings of the study revealed that most of the parents of children with mild mental retardation belonged to lower socioeconomic status (62.50 %) and practiced authoritative parenting style most frequently (x = 3.84) toward their children. Out of seven dimensions of children’s personality-motivational characteristics, only “obedience†domain was perceived by teachers to be manifested by children with mild mental retardation in their day-to-day activities (x = 3.62). The study also found out that there was a significant relationship between authoritarian parenting style and the children’s effectance motivation (r =-.266, p\u3c.05). The socio-economic status of parents was related to the children’s personality-motivational characteristics in area of creativity/ curiosity (r = .351, p\u3c.01). The study further revealed that the socio-economic status of parents was related to the three parenting styles (r = .301, p\u3c.05 (authoritative), r = -.400, p\u3c.01 (authoritarian), r = -.283, p\u3c.05 (permissive))