Parenting Styles and Social-Emotional Competency among Grade 6 Public School Students

The study determined the relationship between parenting styles and social-emotional competency (SEC) among Grade 6 students in two primary public schools at Gapan North Central School and San Nicolas Central School during the School Year 2023-2024. The study involved 112 Grade 6 public school students. A descriptive-correlation design was employed, utilizing a survey questionnaire adopted from the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) developed by Buri (1991) and the Washoe County School District – Social-Emotional Competency Assessment Short Form (WCSD-SECA, 2018), an open-source instrument. The instrument was translated into Filipino and pre-tested to ensure validity. The study employed descriptive statistics such as frequency count, percentage, mean, and standard deviation to present data and inferential statistics such as Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation to determine the relationship between socio-demographics and social-emotional competencies (SEC) and the Pearson’s Chi-square Test of independence to find out the association of parenting styles and SEC. The results revealed that most respondents were 12 years old, with a relatively even distribution of male and female participants. Most parents had a high school diploma or equivalent, with fathers being overwhelmingly employed. The parents were perceived to have an authoritative parenting style, prioritizing balanced warmth and structure in their approach. Decision-making was rated the highest regarding SEC, followed by relationship skills, social awareness, selfmanagement, and self-awareness. Overall, the respondents indicated their global SEC as easy but recognized areas for improvement. The study found a significant correlation between sex, social awareness, and relationship skills. The study revealed a significant association between self-management, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. On the other hand, no significant association was found between fathers' parenting style and most SECs except for responsible decision-making. This suggests that mothers may play a more substantial role in shaping their children's SEC, particularly in social awareness, relationship skills, decision-making, and self-management.