The influence of childrearing beliefs and parental efficacy on child care arrangements
Date
1999
Authors
Sease, Becky Jean
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Crase, Sedahlia Jasper
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Abstract
The major purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of mothers' parenting beliefs and certain descriptive variables on parents' decisions for their children's care. The participants were volunteers from a factory in Iowa. Thirty-three surveys were completed and returned to the researcher. The variables were measured using self-report questionnaires. The participants indicated satisfaction with both their child care arrangements and their work arrangements. The more hours a mother worked, the more likely she was to believe that her child could be spoiled by her responsiveness. This may be the mother's attempt to ease her guilt. Slightly more than one-third of the participants (36.4%) in this study cared for their children through a split-shift arrangement in which the mother- and father-figures work different hours, enabling one parent to be home with the child the majority of the time.
The mother holding a strong belief in more discipline and control over the child was a strong predictor that the family used a split-shift arrangement in which the parents worked different hours and the father provided for the child while the mother worked. Because these parents wanted to maintain control over their children, it is possible they were not trusting of others to enforce their restrictions.
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thesis