Parents' Goals and Practices: To What Extent do Parental Goals for Socialization Relate to Their Practices?

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between a parents' goals for their children and their parenting behaviors. An ecological framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1990) provides the primary theoretical basis for the study, locating the relationship between parent goals and parent practices within a network of other influences on parenting practices, such as family income, ethnicity, parent educational level, and the degree of similarity in temperament between parent and child. Three different types of parental goals were investigated, using the Parenting Goals Questionnaire (Martin, Halverson, & Hollett-Wright,1991); achievement, independence, and respect for parents. These goals were relevant to subscales of the Child Rearing Practices Questionnaire (Block, 1986). Results indicated partial support for a relationship between parenting goals and parenting practices. The hypothesized link was found for independence-oriented goals and practices, and for traditional goals and authoritarian behavior, but not for traditional goals and parental encouragement of emotional expression.