Mothers' Perceptions of Independent and Responsible Behaviors of Their Preschool Children

Abstract

Twenty-seven tasks which are examples of independent and responsible behavior commonly learned during the preschool years were studied through a questionnaire completed by 242 mothers of 3-, 4-, and 5-yr.-old boys and girls. The mother assessed the age-appropriateness of each task for her child, reported whether her child did the task voluntarily, when told, or never, and whether she expected the task to be done or not. Multivariate analysis of variance yielded significant findings. Age differences were in the expected direction. Girls of each age did more tasks than boys of the same age. The children did “being-alone” tasks most, “care-of-the-physical-self” tasks second, and “helping-in-the-home” tasks least. Implications for parental education and day-care teachers are discussed.