Child-Rearing and Child-Care Practices among Israeli Students

Abstract

To compare child-rearing practices cross-culturally, Cox ( 197 1 ) developed a 28-item questionnaire and used it in a study of Ethiopians. To enhance crosscultural comparability, the same questionnaire was given to comparable students: Chu and Ryback (1973) studied child-rearing practices in the Republic of China, and Ryback (1974) repeated the study in Thailand. To obtain information on child-care practices among the Hebrew population of Israel the same questionnaire was translated into Hebrew and administered to a sample of 150 predominantly Jewish Israeli students at Bar-Ilan University, living in the city of Tel Aviv. Although no statistical evaluation of the data from these studies was made, inspection of data suggests some aspects of child-rearing in Israel are remarkably similar to practices in other cultures, and some aspects are quite different. Among the Ethiopian, Chinese, Thai, and Israeli students, a greater proportion of Israeli students saw children as being made to feel loved and the parents as being sensitive to the child's needs. More Israelis appeared concerned about free urination and defecation by the young child and fewest appeared patient in training the child. More Ethiopian and Thai than Israeli and Chinese students (65% and 58% vs 30% and 29%, respectively) believed in the effectiveness of physical punishment. More Israeli students appeared to expect their children to become quickly independent of the family than any of the other three groups. More Israeli (46% yes, 50% no) than Ethiopian (22% yes, 73% no), Chinese (19% yes, 69% no) or Thai ( 5 % yes, 89% no) students were in general likely co allow aggressive behavior in children. More Israeli (54% yes, 42% no) and Ethiopian (46% yes, 54% no) than Chinese (16% yes, 69% no) students said they were likely to encourage fighting with other children.