Handling children who are often angry and furious is not easy. It is a situation known as temper tantrum. Temper tantrum is the most common behavioral problem in children aged 16 months to 6 years in the form of exploding anger shown by lots of crying and screaming, violent and aggressive actions such as throwing things, rolling on the floor, banging heads. and kicking or hitting parents. Temper tantrum is common in pre-school children, but it is not normal if it occurs every day. Temper tantrum abnormalities bring a lot of negative effects on children. Short-term effects may include children’s anger by hurting themselves and others or destroying objects around them, as well as uncontrolled emotions and aggressiveness. In the long run, children cannot deal with their environment, cannot adapt to new environments and have difficulty in solving a problem. Children who have anger with abnormal frequency are also associated with delinquency in their teenage years.
A study conducted by Kirana in 2013 in Indonesia showed that high-frequency temper tantrums in preschool children reached 26% of 88 respondents. Syam in 2012 reported the result of his study showed 34.2% of 38 reported parents could not control their children’s anger. Parents often did not realize that they could allow tantrums to occur in their children. Parents with low Parenting Self-Efficacy (PSE)/ / low are usually not sure of their own abilities as parents so when children throw tantrums, they cannot show anger as an appropriate response. Parents often succumb to the desires of their children, so it will potentially lead to rampage when the requests are rejected.
The behavior of parents in caring for and educating children is one of the main predictors of anger in children in addition to environmental factors and characteristics of children. PSE is the main determinant that will influence the strategies chosen by parents in dealing with temper tantrums which then influence tantrum behavior. Parents with high PSE will be more responsive to all the needs of children during tantrums, so parents can handle and prevent tantrums well. The level of PSE also influences the parenting style chosen by parents. Parents with a democratic parenting style tend to have children with normal anger and parents who apply an authoritarian parenting style tend to have children with abnormal anger. Therefore, a study conducted to identify the correlation between Parental Self-Efficacy and frequency of temper tantrums in children.
This study used a cross-sectional approach involving 96 parents of students. Data were collected using a Self-efficacy for Parenting Task Index-Toddler Scale (SEPTI-TS) questionnaire to measure PSE levels and a Multidimensional Assessment of Preschool Behavior Problem (MAP-DB) questionnaire to measure children’s anger.
The results of this study found that there is a significant correlation between the level of PSE with the developmental status and behavior of children, where the higher the level of PSE will lead to the better the status of development and behavior exhibited by children. PSE can be a factor mediating components that affect the quality of care such as maternal depression, child temper and social support. Discipline in children is closely related to the parenting patterns that parents follow in dealing with their children, one of which influences authoritarian attitudes and disciplines. In authoritarian care, parents have a tendency to care for children according to what is considered best by them, such as with punishment and ignorance, this attitude can cause discomfort that allows chaos at home. Parents with authoritarian care have children with anger who are more out of control than parents with democratic care.
Based on these results, preschool programs to build and run a parenting class program to improve the knowledge and ability of parenting in order to improve Parenting Self-Efficacy. Moreover, preschool programs are also recommended to increase the number of character building programs that shape the characteristics of children to prevent anger.
Author: Ferry Efendi, S.Kep., Ns., M.Sc., PhD.
Details of this research available at:
https://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijphrd&volume=10&issue=8&article=541
Fauziah, Y., Efendi, F., Pratiwi, I. N., & Aurizki, G. E. (2019). Parental Self-Efficacy on Temper Tantrum Frequency in Children. Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 10(8), 2798-2802.
DOI Number: 10.5958/0976-5506.2019.02296.4
