過去研究發現家長管教子女方式對孩子日後的身心發展、學習與生活適應影響甚鉅，不過到底是什麼因素影響到家長對子女的管教方式，由過去相關研究並不容易得到較清楚的答案，特別是針對學前教育階段所進行的研究仍不多見。基於此，本研究於2008年以問卷方式收集了986位花蓮縣市幼稚園所學生家長資料，建構一個解釋影響學前幼兒家長管教子女方式的因果模式，並以「教養價值觀」做為中介變項，來解釋不同社經背景與幼年受管教經驗的幼兒家長之管教子女方式有所差異的原因，及檢視其管教子女方式是否受到社會化與代間傳遞作用的影響。本研究結果為：（1）幼兒家長普遍較常使用「理性開通」的方式來管教子女，但使用「威權責罰」的管教情形也很常見，另外，相較之下，現在的家長比其父母更常運用「理性開通」，而較少運用「威權責罰」的方式來管教子女；（2）不同社經背景的幼兒家長之管教子女方式並沒有太大的差異；（3）幼年受管教經驗與家長的教養價值觀對其現在管教子女方式具有顯著的影響；以及（4）幼年受管教經驗不同的幼兒家長之管教子女方式有所差異的原因，可部分歸因於其子女教養價值觀有所不同。以上結果顯示學前幼兒家長管教子女的方式，有明顯地社會化與代間傳遞的效果。

Previous studies have shown that parental parenting styles have significant influence on children's future physical/mental development, learning, and life adaptation. However, the factors that affect parenting styles have not been well researched in these studies, and studies that focus on the preschool stage are particularly rare. Therefore, this study collected data from 986 parents whose children were in kindergartens in Hualien County/City, Taiwan during 2008. A path model was tested on factors hypothesized to affect parenting styles of preschool children's parents. Parenting value was included in the model as the mediator in the relations of socio-economic backgrounds and experience of being disciplined in early childhood to parenting styles. We also explored if parenting styles were affected by socialization and intergenerational transmission. Major findings are as follows: (1) Most of the parents adopted the ”enlightened” style to discipline their children, but the ”authoritarian and punitive” style was also commonly used. Compared with their own parents, these parents adopted the ”enlightened” style more frequently than the ”authoritarian and punitive” style. (2) Parenting styles had less significant difference among socio-economic background variables. (3) The experience of being disciplined in early childhood and parents' parenting value were associated with their current parenting styles. (4) The difference in parenting styles among parents with different experience of being disciplined in early childhood could partly be attributed to their parenting value. The above results suggest that parenting styles of preschool children's parents are significantly affected by socialization and intergenerational transmission.