ABSTRACT

In 1951-1952 Robert Richardson Sears and his colleagues made a study of social class and child-rearing practices which is to some extent comparable with a study made in 1943 by Allison Davis and Robert Havighurst. The Harvard interviews were held with mothers of kindergarten children and dealt with the training of the kindergarten child only. The Chicago interviews were held with mothers of preschool age children but dealt with every child of the mother. The disagreements between the findings of the studies are substantial and important. The interviewing seems to have been competent in both studies. Inadequacies of sampling in both studies may be a source of at least some of the differences. Changes in child rearing ideology between 1943 and 1952 may be in some measure responsible for the differences. The problem of interpreting the statements of mothers answering identical questions about their children who are exposed to quite different environmental stimulation is a major one.