How gender, age, and socioeconomic status predict parenting goal pursuit

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2923652
AutoresBonnie M Le (0000-0002-1857-6716, University of Toronto, autor de correspondencia), John Kitchener Sakaluk (0000-0002-2515-9822, University of Victoria), Lisa C Day (University of Toronto Mississauga), Emily Impett (0000-0003-3348-7524, University of Toronto Mississauga)
Año2019
Volumen36
Número10
Páginas3313-3338
Fecha de publicación2019-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Social and Personal Relationships (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0265-4075 • E-ISSN: 1460-3608
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0265407518818375
OpenAlexW4232142239
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas45

There are many factors that may influence parenting, from societal norms and expectations, dispositional differences, experience and maturity, and availability of resources. In the current research, we examined how stable demographic characteristics associated with these different factors predict the goals parents pursue with their children. We examined whether the pursuit of four parenting goals-child love and security, child development, parent image, and child acceptance-varies based on the characteristics of parents (i.e., gender, age, and socioeconomic status) and their children (i.e., gender and age). First, we provided evidence for the measurement invariance of the Parenting Goals Scale. The results suggested that across key characteristics, parents largely pursue the same four parenting goals on which they could be meaningfully compared. Second, meta-analytic results ( k = 5; Ntotal = 2,240) indicated that parents were largely similar in the goals they pursued with their children across their own and their child's characteristics. We identified only a few exceptions, with these differences being small in magnitude: mothers and noncollege-educated parents pursued child love and security goals more than fathers and college-educated parents, older parents pursued child development goals less than younger parents, parents of older children pursued image goals more than parents of younger children, and lower income parents pursued child acceptance goals more than higher income parents. These results suggest that while there may be some small differences in parenting goal pursuit based on demographic characteristics, parents are largely motivated by similar goals when caring for their children

Developmental psychology · Maturity (psychological · Population · Scale (ratio · Socioeconomic status · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Demography · Early Childhood Education and Development · Psychology · Social Psychology