When it comes to raising their children, today’s parents are much more likely to show affection and to read to their children than their own parents were, according to researchers at Ohio State University who conducted a study of parenting practices across two generations.
The study found that mothers tend to follow the same practices their own mothers did, while fathers were less likely to use their own mothers as parenting role models.
The researchers looked at how often parents in the 1990s spanked, read to and showed affection to their children, and compared that to how these parents were treated by their own mothers. “We were surprised that mothers seem to learn a lot about the parenting role from their own mothers, but fathers don’t follow their mothers as much,” Jonathan Vespa, co-author of the study and doctoral student in sociology at Ohio State was quoted as saying.
“These fathers were growing up in the 70s and 80s and received much of their parenting from their mothers,” Vespa said. “Although more women were entering the workforce then, they still did the lion’s share of parenting and childcare.”
Fathers may have been more influenced by their dads, but the surveys used did not examine the fathers’ behavior. Vespa said, “We really need to learn a lot more about how fathers learn to parent.”
Vespa conducted the study with Elizabeth Cooksey, associate professor of sociology at Ohio State, and Canada Keck, a senior research associate at Ohio State’s Center for Human Resource Research.
The data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a nationally representative survey conducted by Ohio State’s Center for Human Resource Research. Men and women aged 14 to 22 in 1979 were interviewed annually from 1979 to 1994, and once every two years from 1996 forward. A second survey followed all the children born to mothers in this original survey from birth through adulthood, as they became parents themselves.
In both generations, the researchers looked at how often parents spanked their children in the past week; how often they showed their child physical affection and praised them in the past week; and how often they read to their child in the past month.
Results showed for all three behaviors, the second generation of mothers closely followed what their mothers did. For example, mothers who were spanked at least once a week were nearly 50 percent more likely to spank their own children than mothers who weren’t spanked at all. Fathers who were spanked as children, however, were less likely to spank their own children. Only 28 percent of the second generation of fathers reported spanking their children, compared to 43 percent of mothers.
Another surprising finding was fathers who spanked their children also tended to show high levels of affection. “Some fathers might feel that being a strict disciplinarian is part of the way that fathers show affection to their children,” said Vespa. There was no such connection between affection and spanking for mothers.
Vespa said the results show some parenting practices are passed down from mother to mother ““ but only to a point. “If parents really just learned from their own parents, we wouldn’t witness such dramatic generational shifts as were seen in this study,” he said. “We need to look at the broader culture to find other sources of change that shape how parents learn to parent.”
SOURCE: Presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, August 9, 2009
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