MONEY AND CHILDRENS HOUSEHOLD JOBS - PARENTS VIEWS OF THEIR INTERCONNECTIONS

Parents' ideas and practices regarding monetary payments and children' s household jobs have been considered as an index of more general valu es related to what children should learn and what parents should do. T he present study explores (a) the acceptability to parents of a variet y of practices, and (b) some general ideas about money in exchange for jobs that may provide a background for discussing actual practices. A t issue are both the content of parents' ideas and the degree to which there is coherence or structure within the ideas held and between ide as and practices. The sample consisted of 118 Australian parents (moth ers and fathers) each with a child aged either 9-11 or 14-16 years. Th e results indicate the value of exploring ideas about money as a route into parents' ideas about children and their development, together wi th the value of exploring both the extent to which ideas are shared by parents and the nature of departures from a coherent set of ideas.