Consistency, Praise, and Love: Folk Theories of American Parents

Abstract

Studied folk models and theories of childrearing in 49 families located through birth records in Durham County, North Carolina. Parents, who had been raised in the South, Northeast, or Midwest of the US, were interviewed during 2-hr sessions at 1-yr intervals. The children were 3–5 yrs old in 1984. The 1st interview covered 9 hypothetical child-related problems. The 2nd covered development of children during the previous year, childrearing philosophy, and 4 child-related problems, 2 of which repeated situations described by the problems covered in the previous interview. The middle-class American parents used several disciplinary techniques; teaching right and wrong, based on the American moral–religious ethics, was the focus of these techniques; parents believed that techniques must be tailored to each child's needs; and situational factors were emphasized in disciplinary decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)