The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between parental behaviors and dimensions of parenting with the level of development of socio-emotional competencies of preschool children that may be indicative for the development of various behavioral difficulties in further development. The research started with the assumption that the variables of family structure and socioeconomic status will be significantly related to parental behavior and the level of development of socio-emotional competencies. It was assumed that the sex and age of the child would not determine parental assessments of the level of development of socio-emotional competencies, while assessments of parental behaviors would show that parents would implement greater control over boys and be more lenient toward younger children. In the conducted research, the Behavior and emotions questionnaire BERS-2, the Parental behavior questionnaire URP-29 and four questions constructed for the purposes of this research were used to examine the parental boundary setting in given situations. N=116 parents of preschool children (3-7 years) participated in the study, of which N=113 mothers and N=3 fathers of preschool children. Research has found that younger parents are more prone to positive aspects of parental behavior than older ones, and parents of younger children are more likely to use inductive reasoning in their parenting practice. Parents with a higher level of education assess their children's intrapersonal competence as lower, and the quality of parenting decreases with a larger number of children, so parents are less likely to show warmth to their children, i.e. they are more prone to impose authority and decision-making from a position of power. Parents with a larger number of children assess the child's interpersonal and affective competencies as worse. The order of birth of the target child has proven to be extremely important because parents rate the positive aspects of parental behavior lower as the child is younger than other children in the family. Warmth, autonomy and inductive reasoning are 88 positively correlated with assessments of children's competencies, they are also intertwined, while a significant link between indulgence and intrusiveness and punishment and intrusiveness has been determined.