Attitudes toward parenting strategies, potential for child abuse, and parental satisfaction of ethnically diverse low-income US mothers

Among a sample of 176 low-income mothers from 3 ethnic groups in the United States, the authors investigated ethnic differences in attitudes toward pr eferred parenting strategies, or styles; ethnic differences in the potentia l for child abuse; and the relationship between parenting strategies, the p otential for child abuse, and parental satisfaction. They distributed the M aternal Reactions to Child's Deviant Behavior subscale (K. M. Rickard, W. G raziano, & R. Forehand, 1984), a shortened version of the Child Abuse Poten tial Inventory (CAPI; J. S. Milner & R. C. Wimberley, 1979), and a Parental Satisfaction Scale (N. P. Medora, S. M. Wilson, & J. Larson, 1996) to the participants. The results indicated no significant ethnic differences in pr eferred parenting styles. Mothers from all 3 ethnic groups ranked praise an d reasoning as the Ist and 2nd preferred parenting strategies. There were n o ethnic differences in the perceived potential for child abuse. Parental s atisfaction was negatively related to 2 of the CAPI subscales-loneliness an d Problems. The parenting strategy reasoning was positively correlated with parental satisfaction.