VERBAL SOLUTIONS TO PARENT-CHILD PROBLEMS1

Researchers have turned either to reports of parents or children concerning past parental action or to some assessment of parental attitudes toward children, and the techniques used to accumulate this information have ranged from survey questionnaires to clinical interviews.

Abstract

Children frequently cross the adult-defined boundaries which separate desirable and undesirable behavior. When this occurs, adults, especially parents, often take action aimed at the reduction of these boundarycrossings. Study of this action promises to yield valuable information concerning the parent's concept of the parental role, his basic attitudes toward the use of authority, the nature of the child, etc. The importance of this action from the standpoint of its effect upon children is obvious. It is hardly surprising then that some of the earliest studies in the area of child development concerned an analysis of parental control and of children's attitudes toward that control (12). Despite the importance of the problem, empirical investigations of parental reaction to a child's misbehavior have been less than successful. The obvious difficulty which confronts the researcher is the unpremeditated or spontaneous character of these events. He just cannot be there when it happens. If he is fortunate enough to be present, his very presence represents a variable which may affect quite drastically the events he hopes to observe. As a substitute for this on the spot observing, researchers have most frequently used two approaches. They have turned either to reports of parents or children concerning past parental action (4, 9, 14) or to some assessment of parental attitudes toward children (2, 3, 6, Io, I1, 13). The techniques used to accumulate this information have ranged from survey questionnaires to clinical interviews. Conclusions based upon data provided