Greek Preschool Children’s Perceptions of Parental Warmth in Cases of Family Crisis

Abstract

The purpose of the present research is to study preschool children’s perceptions of parental warmth, in cases of family crisis stress, in Greece. Specifically, it aims at investigating the connection between family crisis (parental unemployment, divorce/separation or migration) and perceived maternal or paternal acceptance and rejection. The sample consisted of 550 preschool children (Μ=4.91 years, SD=.56), almost half of them boys (48.9%) and half of them girls (51.1%). In addition, setting a criterion of specific family crisis cases (unemployment, divorce/separation, moving/immigration) for 24 months or less, during the sampling procedure, families without crisis reached 50.4% of the sample and families facing crisis reached the 49.6%. The respondents completed the Greek version of the Early Childhood Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (ECARQ), for mother and father. The main results of the research indicate that (a) mothers are perceived as warmer and more hostile at the same time in the total sample, (b) parents who are members of families with crisis are conceived as more indifferent and hostile, (c) fathers of families with crisis are conceived as less warm, (d) in families with divorce/separation fathers are conceived as more indifferent and more hostile than fathers in families with unemployment or immigration. Concluding, parental divorce/separation is the case of family crisis that correlates the most with the parental acceptance and rejection, as perceived by preschool children.