Agreement of Family Member Conceptions of “Good” Parent and Child Roles

N HER classic study of conceptions of family member roles, Duvall' designated a conception traditional if it were "what used to be expected," and if the conception was rigidly conceived. On the other hand, the conception which she designated as developmental was characterized as one emphasizing growth and development of the individual rather than specific behavioral conformities.2 Although little empirical evidence has been obtained which reveals the extent to which members of the same family agree in their conceptions of these family member roles, clinical observation has indicated that familial conflict is not infrequently a function of differences in family member role expectations. Too, several studies have pointed out that significant differences in the conceptions of family member roles exist between groups and afford important insights into the behavioral correlates of these conceptions.3 To date only one study4 has appeared in which evidence has been presented concerning the differences in conceptions of mothers, fathers, and children from the same families. No significant differences were found to exist between the conceptions of college students and their fathers or between the students and their mothers; however, the students' conceptions reflected a greater acceptance of a developmentally oriented viewpoint than either their fathers or mothers. There was some indication that the parents and children alike favored a more traditional role for children than for parents; however, the largest number of subjects responded in such a manner as to make their classification into a traditional-developmental dichotomy arbitrary. Many of the subjects checked approximately an equal number of traditional and developmental items, indicating a conception intermediate between traditional and developmental viewpoints. The study herein reported describes an extension of the investigation mentioned above, and presents evidence concerning the extent to which mothers, fathers, and their children agree with * The authors wish to express appreciation to the Florida State University Research Council for financial support of the research on which this paper is based, and to Dr. Theodore B. Johannis, Jr., University of Oregon, for his contribution in the development of the instrument which was used in the study. I Evelyn Millis Duvall, "Conceptions of Parenthood," The American Journal of Sociology, 52 (1946), pp. 193-203. 2 Detailed operational definitions of traditional and developmental family member role conceptions have been presented by Duvall, ibid.; and by Ruth Connor, Theodore B. Johannis, Jr., and James Walters, "ParentAdolescent Relationships. II. Intra-familial Conceptions of the Good Father, Good Mother, and Good Child," Journal of Home Economics, 46 (1954), pp. 187-191. 3 Duvall, op. cit.; Rachael-Ann L. Elder, "Traditional and Developmental Conceptions of Fatherhood," Marriage and Family Living, 11 (1949), pp. 98-100, 106; Robert 0. Blood, "A Situational Approach to the Study of Permissiveness in Child Rearing," American Sociological Review, 18 (1953), pp. 84-87. Duvall's results indicated that "mothers of lower social classes, Negroes, and those with older children tend to have more traditional conceptions than do mothers of higher status, white mothers, and those with younger children." Elder found that fathers of two or more children were significantly more developmentally oriented than were fathers of one or two children and that skilled tradesmen tended to be developmentally oriented while semi-skilled tradesmen tended to be traditionally oriented. Traditional fathers placed significantly more emphasis on commercialized spectator events, movies, and sports, while developmental fathers placed more emphasis on mutual activities. The children of traditionally oriented fathers were disciplined for a significantly larger number of reasons and for a greater variety of reasons, but received fewer kinds of discipline. A significant difference between responses of traditionally and developmentally oriented fathers was noted with regard to housework, the developmentally oriented fathers indicating that they should help regularly with the housework more frequently than did the traditionally oriented fathers. Blood's findings indicated that parents who adhere to a developmental conception are significantly more permissive in their child rearing practices than are parents who are traditionally oriented. 4Connor, Johannis, and Walters, op. cit.