RAISING YOUNG-CHILDREN - PARENTAL PERCEPTIONS

Parents' perceptions of raising young children were examined using the Parent Behavior Checklist. The sample included 44 married couples wit h children between one and four years of age. Parents completed the ch ecklist twice, first based on how each parent was raising one own chil d and second based on how each perceived the spouse was raising the sa me child. The results indicated that fathers and mothers had similar d evelopmental expectations for their young children. Fathers tended to be more disciplinarian and mothers more nurturing. Mothers perceived f athers as having higher expectations than did fathers, and fathers per ceived mothers as more disciplinarian than did mothers. Correlation co efficients computed to assess agreement between mothers' and fathers' perceptions of their parenting averaged .68, which is comparable to th ose found for other rating scales completed by parents. Implications a re discussed.