Ecological Determinants of Parenting

Abstract

An ecological model of human development was used to assess the interrelationship between psychological determinants of parenting parental age and parenting skill for a sample of 210 parents. Parents race was found to be significantly related to attitudes toward childrearing knowledge of child development and perceived social support. Punitive attitudes toward childrearing and parental race were significant predictors of the quality of parenting with more punitive and younger parents having less supportive and less nurturant home environments. The subjects were recruited from 3 agencies in the Midwest. Data were collected between March 1984 and March 1985. Each subject was interviewed and a HOME instrument was administered to each one. The HOME is a 45 item interview/observation scale which contains 6 subscales: emotional and verbal responsivity avoidance of restriction and punishment organization of the environment provision of play materials maternal involvement and variety in daily stimulation. The apparent unimportance of parental age as a predictor of parenting raises doubts about the appropriateness of equating chronological age with poor caretaking. The results do not give an indication of the cause-effect relationship between depression knowledge expectations attitudes and perceived social support. Low income participants with relatively little education were high in reported levels of social support.