<![CDATA[Social-emotional competence in children aged 4-6 years underlies their ability to cooperate, adapt, and regulate emotion, and parenting style is widely regarded as one of its strongest determinants. This study aimed to examine the relationship between parenting style and social-emotional development among children aged 4-6 years at RA/TK Melati Humairah Simalingkar, Medan City, following a preliminary survey that identified several children with underdeveloped social-emotional behavior. A quantitative correlational-analytic design with a cross-sectional approach was applied to all 60 parents of registered children (total sampling) at RA/TK Melati Humairah Simalingkar during May-June 2026. Data were collected using the Parenting Style Questionnaire (PSQ) and a validated child social-emotional development questionnaire, then analyzed through univariate description and bivariate Chi-Square testing. The results showed that most parents (70.0%) applied a democratic parenting style, and more than half of the children (53.3%) demonstrated good social-emotional development. The Chi-Square test yielded χ² = 13.916 with p = 0.001 (p < 0.05), confirming a significant relationship between parenting style and children's social-emotional development, with democratic parenting associated with markedly better outcomes than authoritarian or permissive styles. These findings reinforce the importance of promoting balanced, warm, and communicative parenting practices to optimize early childhood social-emotional growth, while acknowledging the cross-sectional design as a limitation for establishing causality.]]>
