Raising Young Children: Parental Perceptions

Abstract

Parents' perceptions of raising young children were examined using the Parent Behavior Checklist. The sample included 44 married couples with children between one and four years of age. Parents completed the checklist twice, first based on how each parent was raising one own child and second based on how each perceived the spouse was raising the same child. The results indicated that fathers and mothers had similar developmental expectations for their young children. Fathers tended to be more disciplinarian and mothers more nurturing. Mothers perceived fathers as having higher expectations than did fathers, and fathers perceived mothers as more disciplinarian than did mothers. Correlation coefficients computed to assess agreement between mothers' and fathers' perceptions of their parenting averaged .68, which is comparable to those found for other rating scales completed by parents. Implications are discussed.