Children's cultural values and parental child rearing strategies

Researchers during the past 40 years have infrequently disentangled the relationship between young black children's personal identity and group identity, generally treating them in an undifferentiated manner. Investigators suggest that impersonal agents determine young black children's white-biased cultural values, usually ignoring the influence of parental child-rearing strategies. Findings from three studies in the Midwest, North, and South document that preschool children show consistently Eurocentric (white-biased) choice behavior; the trend for most attitudes and preferences changes to an Afrocentric orientation during middle childhood. Parental interviews obtained from a subsample of Southern parents offer alternative interpretations of these choice patterns; values transmitted (e.g., teaching children about civil rights and racial discrimination) predict children's Afrocentric racial attitudes and preferences.     

Follow-up evaluation of 55 child guidance cases

Parents coming to a child guidance clinic reported behaviour in their children which they (parents) viewed as problems or symptoms. The first 55 families coming to a new clinic were selected as part of a programme to evaluate the effects of the clinic's services on its total caseload. A follow-up inquiry was made about the presenting symptoms six months after the family ceased attending the Center. The parental reports of improvement in the child's symptoms appeared to be related to the extent to which both parents participated in coming to the clinic: the child's age also had some relationship to reported improvement. The kind of service provided, and the number of contacts with the Center appeared to be unrelated to reported improvement.     

Early child rearing in Japan: Cross-cultural and intra-cultural perspectives

Within the field of cross-cultural developmental psychology, examinations of parenting serve to focus attention on development in the proximal context of the family and the distal context of the culture. Even though Japan is economically in the mainstream of the industrialized Western world, there are many cultural differences between Japan and Western countries; these include differences in cultural values, beliefs about children, parental behaviours and differences in the children themselves. The focus of this special issue is observational studies of early child rearing in Japan; included are cross-cultural comparisons with the United States, Germany and France, as well as studies within Japan. The contexts of the observations reported in this special issue include homes, laboratory playrooms, and day care centres. With intra-cultural and cross-cultural perspectives, an updated view of Japanese child rearing in the early years is presented.     

Enduring and different: a meta-analysis of the similarity in parents' child rearing

The assessment of child-rearing beliefs and behavior has predominantly focused on qualities and characteristics believed to reflect consistent, enduring qualities of parenting--the similarity in child rearing. This review evaluates the evidence for similarity and differences among 3 types of child-rearing data and includes comparisons across time, children, and situations. Both relative stability and mean level differences were found in all 3 domains. The most similarity was found in the across-time and across-children domains, although it depended on the child-rearing construct and methodology used. It is argued that attention to the variability and change in child rearing must be incorporated into theoretical models of parenting to better understand the nature of child rearing and, in turn, parental influence on children's development.     

Parental control in child rearing and multidimensional locus of control.

272 French-Canadian adolescent boys and 286 girls took part in a study of the association between parental control in child-rearing and Levenson's locus of control dimensions. Analysis showed relations between parental control and the two external dimensions but not with the internal one. Age and gender did not contribute to the various relationships.     

Parents' perfectionism and its relation to child rearing behaviors

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between parents' perfectionism and self‐reported parenting behaviors. The study included 786 parents (417 mothers and 369 fathers) of high school students. Results showed that parents' positive and negative perfectionism were differently related to specific forms of child rearing practices. Namely, positive perfectionism was positively, while negative perfectionism was negatively related to parental acceptance for both mothers and fathers. Mothers' and fathers' negative perfectionism was positively related to parental criticism and permissiveness. In addition, fathers' positive perfectionism was negatively associated with permissive child rearing practices. After controlling for background variables, parents' positive and negative perfectionism explained significant amounts of variance in all self‐reported parenting dimensions for fathers and significantly accounted for the variance of parental acceptance and criticism for mothers. According to our findings, parents' perfectionism might have an important role in shaping parenting behaviors.     

Differences in child rearing attitudes between immigrant Chinese mothers and Anglo-American mothers

In order to explore cultural differences in child rearing attitudes, we studied 30 Anglo-American mothers and 30 immigrant Chinese mothers in the US, together with their preschool children and the children's teachers. Mothers completed a measure of child rearing attitudes, children were assessed for perceived competence, and teachers rated children's competence. Results showed that immigrant Chinese mothers were more authoritarian overall, as expected from previous research, but that they also were more likely to encourage independence and demand maturity from their children. Chinese-American children scored higher than Anglo-American children on cognitive competence, and their cognitive competence was related to authoritarian child rearing. The results are discussed in the context of Confucian and American cultural values. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fifty years of child guidance: A psychologist's View

Abstract

MARTHA HARRIS, B.A.: Inside Information on Understanding Infants, (birth to 5 years). A paperback published by the Dickens Press, price 5s. Od.

MARY MILES?: Live and Learn. George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 18s.

DILYS DAWS: Your One Year Old; CHRISTOPHER DARE: Your Six Year Old; MARTHA HARRIS: Your Eleven Year Old, Your Twelve to Fourteen Year Old, Your Teenager; ELSIE L. OSBORNE: Your Four Year Old, Your Five Year Old, Your Seven Year Old; EDNA O'SHAUGHNESSY: Your Eight Year Old, Your Nine Year Old, Your Ten Year Old; DINA ROSENBLUTH: Your Baby, Your Two Year Old, Your Three Year Old, Corgi Books (1969), Cash Sales Department, P.O. Box 11, Falmouth, Cornwall. 3s. (15p).