Meta-parenting is a relatively new, multidimensional construct that brings together a parent's intentional thoughts about the development of their child and upbringing under a common concept. It describes thoughts that are consciously accessible and that everyone can control and adapt. In that regard, meta-parenting is a cognitive tool for parents with which they can more successfully regulate their behavior and adapt it to the constantly changing context of upbringing. In my master thesis, I was interested in how meta-parenting is expressed in a sample of Slovenian mothers, which demographic characteristics predict it, and whether meta-parenting is an important predictor of parental educational behaviors. In the study participated 210 Slovenian mothers of children between 3 and 6 years of age. They completed the Slovenian translation of the meta-parenting profile questionnaire (MPPQ) and the Slovenian translation of the multidimensional assessment parenting scale (MAPS). The results showed that the expression of meta-parenting, in the sample of Slovenian mothers, is low to medium-high. It has also been shown that older mothers reported slight, but significantly lower expression of meta-parenting, than younger mothers. Among the important predictors of positive parenting behaviors, only the component of problem-solving was found, and among the predictors of negative parenting behaviors, a combination of components ruminating, assessment, reflecting, and new ideas were found. It seems that a combination of several components is more important for the expression of parenting behaviors, than is a high expression of only one meta-parenting component. This finding is especially important in the planning of interventions for the development of meta-parenting, which enables the parent to regulate their behavior more successfully and thus adapt to the constantly changing context of education.
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