ABSTRACT
Inasmuch as the literature is replete with studies concerned with the measurement of parental attitudes, there is little evidence concerning how these attitudes, as measured in the reported investigations, are related to the behavior of parents in interaction with their children. It is commonly assumed in these studies that measurements of parental attitudes yield important insights into existing parent-child relationships. This study discusses that maternal attitudes toward child rearing are significantly related to selected behaviors of mothers observed in interaction with their children; maternal behavior is independent of social class; maternal behavior is independent of the sex of the child with whom the mother interacts. The advantage of recording behavior at the moment of occurrence in terms of yielding precise statements is obvious, yet relatively few studies have been undertaken using members of the same family in which their behavior has been rated according to predetermined categories and rated at the time of occurrence.
