The Influence of Parents� Parenting Style Towards The Independence Of Preschool Children

Objectives: To find out parenting style implemented by parents of preschool children and the influence of parenting style of parents toward independence. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The research method applied was quantitative approach. The population in this research was as many as 260 students. The number of samples determined based on cluster random sampling technique was 90 students. The data collection technique was conducted by doing validity testing, reliability, instrument, normality test, linearity test and hypothesis test which are processed by using SPSS 16.0 for windows program. Findings: The research findings show that most of the parents of preschool children at Ratu Agung District of Bengkulu City implemented democratic parenting style. The percentages of independence level of preschool children were as follow: 16.67% of preschool children categorized as having high independence level, 67.78% of preschool children categorized as having moderate independence level, and 15.55% of preschool children categorized as having low independence level. There was positive and significant influence between democratic parenting style toward independence. It was proven by the value of rcalculation of democratic parenting style variable and independence variable which was 0.236, while rtable was 0.207. It can be seen that rcalculation was higher than rtable. The amount of contribution of democratic parenting style toward independence was 5.6%, while 94.4% was determined by other variables or factors which were not discussed in this research. Application/Improvements: A positive influence between democratic parenting style towards the children independence occured. The parents had better to be open-minded, close to be like friend to the children and care to their needs. Keywords: Democratic, Education, Independence, Parenting Style, Preschool Children