Black Parent-Child Relations: Some Correlates

Abstract

This paper is an examination of statistical associations between parent-child relations and family structure, parents’ education, family income and general happiness. The parent-child relations variable includes the following component variables: frequency of time spent together doing things with parents, parent-child relationship during childhood, parental adequacy in teaching children how to do things-and increase their skills, present parent-child relations, actual parental advise, and actual parental help. The data for this analysis come from a larger study, “Socialization and Aspirations of College Black Females.” The research is based on a systematic random sample of 219 females, ages 17-26, attending a midwestern, regional university. The data were collected by the interview method, controlling for race of interviewer. The parent-child relations variables are positively associated with all the other variables with which they are correlated. The associations were tested by use of chi-square and the gamma statistic. The results were mostly statistically significant and of moderate strength. Overall, the parent-child relations seem healthy, thus conforming to societal expectations. This holds for early childhood as well as late adolescence.