An investigation of parenting styles and related factors on the self-concept of school-age children with short stature

• Main Authors: YU-CHIH LIN, 林毓芝
• Other Authors: MIAO-JU CHWO
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/31711287374251708371

碩士 === 國防醫學院 === 護理研究所 === 94 === Abstract For children with short stature at school age, they often face ridicules from their peers mostly due to their physical limitations. Over time, it may affect them psychologically and cause them to lose their self-esteem or self-confidence. Although growth hormone therapy may help enhancing their stature, unsatisfactory results and the stress over treatment periods often leave lasting impacts on the children’s self-concept. This research investigates the impact of parenting style on the self-concept of children with short stature at school-age. In addition to school-age children with short stature, their peers of normal height were also selected to compare the self-concept differences. This research is a comparative study. The design collected a total of 138 children between the age of 10 and 12. The research tool used structured questionnaires to collect data; the analysis used SPSS 13.0 (Window XP) software to process data. The results would indicate the following. (1) Children with normal height, short-stature children with growth therapy, and short-stature children without growth therapy, all three groups of children significantly differed socially at school and in their self-concept. (2) In various basic qualitative data, those answered “good” or “acceptable” on their academic performance, and those coming from a “coupled family”, influenced positively on their self-concept. (3) Short-stature children felt their exterior appearance made them inferior to the “school group” children. (4) From the aspect of parenting, an open authoritative style had positive effects on the children’s self-concept. This research showed that short stature and parenting style would affect the self-concept of school-age children. With the help of clinical nursing staffs, unnecessary worries or expectations can be alleviated to increase the self-concept of short children. The research result provides future clinical references for the nursing care of children with short stature.