Ideas About Child Rearing Among Jamaican Mothers and Early Childhood Education Teachers

Abstract

Teachers in early childhood programs in Jamaica, West Indies, and mothers with children in these programs completed questionnaires about their child rearing ideas and feelings. Correlational analyses revealed positive associations among scales tapping valuing of obedience in children, traditional child rearing ideas, and intrusiveness. Traditional child rearing ideas and intrusiveness were, in turn, negatively correlated with belief in the importance of fostering inquisitiveness. Teachers accorded more importance to inquisitiveness and less importance to rule-conformity than did mothers. Moreover, while teachers saw inquisitiveness as more important than rule-conformity, mothers rated these two goals as equally important. In addition, teachers were less likely to agree that they should be privy to children's private thoughts (intrusiveness) than were mothers. Significant associations between education level and child rearing ideas indicated that mothers and teachers who had completed only high school agreed with traditional child rearing values more than did those with either technical school or university degrees. There were no interactions between role (mother versus teacher) and education level.