Parenting Attributions and Attitudes in Cross-Cultural Perspective

SYNOPSIS

Objective. This article used the Parenting Across Cultures Project to evaluate similarities and differences in mean levels and relative agreement between mothers' and fathers' attributions and attitudes in parenting in 9 countries. Design. Mothers and fathers reported their perceptions of causes of successes and failures in caregiving and their progressive versus authoritarian childrearing attitudes. Gender and cultural similarities and differences in parents' attributions and attitudes in 9 countries were analyzed: China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. Results. Although mothers and fathers did not differ in any attribution, mothers reported more progressive parenting attitudes and modernity of childrearing attitudes than did fathers, and fathers reported more authoritarian attitudes than did mothers. Country differences also emerged in all attributions and attitudes that were examined. Mothers' and fathers' attributions and their attitudes were moderately correlated, but parenting attitudes were more highly correlated in parents than were attributions. Conclusions. We draw connections among the findings across the 9 countries and outline implications for understanding similarities and differences in mothers' and fathers' parenting attributions and attitudes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank E. Schmidt and T. Taylor. This research was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant RO1-HD054805 and Fogarty International Center grant RO3-TW008141 and supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.