Enduring and different: A meta-analysis of the similarity in parents' child rearing

The assessment of child-rearing beliefs and behavior has predominantly focu sed on qualities and characteristics believed to reflect consistent, enduri ng qualities of parenting-the similarity in child rearing. This review eval uates the evidence for similarity and differences among 3 types of child-re aring data and includes comparisons across time, children, and situations B oth relative stability and mean level differences were found in all 3 domai ns. The most similarity was found in the across-time and across-children do mains, although it depended on the child-rearing construct and methodology used. It is argued that attention to the variability and change in child re aring must be incorporated into theoretical models of parenting to better u nderstand the nature of child rearing and, in turn, parental influence on c hildren's development.