Many domestic servants live and work in Qatar. The domestic servants are asked to care for children in addition to
the house work. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between domestic servants and
children in Qatari homes and the mediation of this relationship by negative parenting styles. A set of questions was
developed along three main themes: the affiliation of children to domestic servants, fear and anxiety and sharing of
personal matters. Based on factor analysis, a measure of closeness of children to domestic servants was created. A
set of endogenous and exogenous variables was used to predict this measured relation using a stepwise regression
equation. The endogenous variables measured the parenting styles as perceived by the children. The exogenous
variables measured the background information of the domestic servants. The main predictive variables were the
demeaning of children by their parents and the mother‘s lack of attention or presence, which drew the children
toward the domestic servants. The main exogenous variables of knowledge of language and years of employment
were also strong predictors because the domestic servants may have worked a number of years in the homes, which
made the children more easily attracted to the servants. The closeness to the domestic servants and that parenting in
this part of the world is still strongly driven by the mother of the household as the core of the family