Autonomy, Control, and Other Reasons Why "Mom Is the Greatest": A Content Analysis of Children's Mother's Day Letters

Abstract

WEISZ, JOHN R. Autonomy, Control, and Other Reasons Is the Greatest: A Content Analysis of Children's Mother's Day Letters. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 801-807. For Mother's Day, a community newspaper published letters from children on Why my Mom is the greatest. Letters from the 249 children, aged 7-17, were analyzed for age and sex differences in the matemal behaviors selected for positive evaluation. References to granted autonomy and control declined with age; this was interpreted as evidence for developmental gains in identiflcation of the intent underlying parental behavior. References to physical nurturance decreased with age, while references to psychological nurturance and just being there increased—findings consistent with person-perception literature on age increases in the use of abstract, covert, and psychological categories. Sex difl erences were harder to interpret, but appeared consistent with the literature on sex-role identiflcation in children. In addition to its substantive flndings, the study illustrates the use of a multivariate procedure that is particularly well suited to naturalistic data in nonorthogonal designs.