| Abstract: | In a survey of current attitudes of parents towards child rearing, 386 parents of 4th grade children completed questionnaires containing Hereford's Parent Attitude Scale. Results indicated that parents with the highest education and occupational status were: more confident in themselves as parents; more inclined to believe that they could influence their child's behaviour; more accepting of the child as an individual; shared ideas and feelings more often with their child; and were more likely to enjoy a mutually trusting relationship with their child. This suggests that programmes aimed at improving parent-child relationships should be primarily directed towards the less well educated and those of lower occupational standing. Yet the Health Commission, in pilot Parent Effectiveness Training (PET) programmes found that parents who joined the programmes were even better educated than those in the survey, and already had very favourable attitudes towards child rearing. |
