Pre-School Children's Perceptions of Parental Attitudes

Abstract

The influence of particular parental attitudes on a child's school progress depends not only upon the extent and form of expression of these attitudes but also upon how they are construed by the child. An exploration of the ways in which parent-child relationships are construed was carried out with children attending publicly founded or subsidized playgroups which provided a traditional nursery school programme in urban areas of social need. The emotional relationships within 48 families, as perceived by their pre-school children (24 boys and 24 girls), were examined using the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test. The patternu of the results resembled those for older 'disadvantaged' children receiving a high level of maternal interest. It is suggested that the children who respond to a pre-school programme by displaying accelerated progress are those who not only experience but also perceive a high level of maternal interest, have the support of normal emotional relationships within the family and come from homes in which pre-school provision is viewed with favour.