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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. National Council on Family Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Marriage and Family.Parents differ in terms of what characteristics they value most for their children, and several studies by Kohn and others have demonstrated that these differences in values are related to social class. However, there is relatively little in the literature regarding the extent to which parental values are associated with parenting practices. In this study, data on 65 mother-infant dyads are used to test a hypothesis, proposed by Kohn, regarding the relation between values and parenting behavior. In addition, an extension of Kohn's conceptual model is proposed. Support was found for Kohn's hypothesis and for the extension of Kohn's model. In recent years there has been increasing interest in the determinants of parenting behavior (Belsky, 1984). Drawing on the work of Kohn (1977), this study examines the relation between parental values and maternal behavior. Although the antecedents of parental values have been extensively studied, little is known about their behavioral correlates.Over 25 years ago, Kohn (1963) proposed that parents from various social class levels differ in terms of what characteristics they value most for their children and that these differences in values contribute to differences in parenting behavior. The causal sequence proposed by Kohn has been Department of Family and Child Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1030. diagramed in the following way: social classconditions of lifeparental valuesparental behavior (Gecas, 1979).According to Kohn, the lower a parent's social class position, the more likely he or she is to value conformity to external authority. Parents who value conformity emphasize such things as obedience and good manners. The higher the parent's social position, the more likely he or she is to value characteristics indicative of self-direction, such as an interest in how and why things happen, self-control, and responsibility. Kohn (1977) and others (Wright and Wright, 1976), using large, representative national samples, have repeatedly demonstrated that social class is related to parental values for both mothers and fathers. Moreover, analysis of national survey data indicate that a substantial relation between social class and values remains when numerous other factors-including national background, religious background, urbanicity, region of the country, and race-are statistically controlled (Kohn, 1979;Wright and Wright, 1976). Results consistent with the U.S. findings have been reported in other countries as well (Kohn, 1979).Although the evidence linking social class to parenta...

This study tested Belsky's model of the determinants of parenting. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), the study focused on 898 mothers (African Americans, n = 347; Caucasians, n = 551) and their 6-to 8-year-old children. Consistent with Belsky's model, mothers who provided better quality home environments had higher levels of education, intelligence, and self-esteem. Mothers with higher family incomes, fewer children, and higher marital quality provided more supportive home environments. In addition, age and gender of the children were significantly related to the quality of the children's home environments. Additional analyses indicated that the quality of the home environment that mothers of both ethnic groups provided was related to their children's achievement.

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