Original thinking in preschool children and parental childrearing attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess what effects mothers' childrearing attitudes, family income, and the age, sex, and IQ of the child have on original thinking in preschoolers. Sixty preschool children, from diverse family backgrounds, were administered the Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure to assess original thinking, and a short version of the WPPSI was administered to assess IQ. The children's mothers completed the Parent as a Teacher Inventory during an interview to assess their parental childrearing attitudes in the areas of creativity, childrearing frustration, control, play, and teaching-learning. Multiple regression was used to determine the effect of nine independent variables on preschoolers' original thinking scores. No significant relationships were found with the exception of age contributing significantly to original scores. A multiple regression used to determine the effect of the independent variables (less IQ) have on IQ, found income to contribute significantly to IQ. These findings suggest that variables that are related to IQ are not appropriate for predicting original thinking in preschool children.