The Relationship between Parenting and Attachment Styles and Moral Development in 5 to 7 years old Children

This study aimed to determine the moral development of 5 to 7 years old children in kindergartens in the second district in Tehran based on two criteria including attachment and parenting styles. This research is a descriptive - correlational kind of research. Three kinds of questionnaires were used to collect data including Baumrind parenting style questionnaire, Lotfabadi moral development questionnaire and Oudenhoven and Hofstra questionnaire of children's attachment style. Random sampling method was used to select the sample in this study. Based on Morgan Table, 340 children were selected from 2980 children who were between 5 and 7 years old in kindergartens in the second district of Tehran. Based on type and nature of the study, Pearson correlation and stepwise regression methods were used to analyze the collected data. Based on the conducted investigations, there is an inverse and significant relationship between moral development and authoritative parenting style while there is a direct and significant relationship between moral development and authoritarian parenting style and secure attachment style. Furthermore, the obtained results showed that authoritarian parenting and secure attachment styles are predictors of children's moral development .