Parental Child‐Rearing Behavior Perceived by Parents and School‐Age Children in Divorced and Married Families

Abstract

The Child's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory (CRPBI) was administered to children (ages 7 to 11 years) and parents in 29 divorced and 30 married families to determine if perceptions of parental behavior differ as a function of member ship in a divorced or married family. Dimension scores of the CRPBI—acceptance, psychological control, lax discipline—constituted the dependent variables. There were no significant differences on acceptance. This finding is inconsistent with previous research. For psychological control, mean dimension scores indicated that children of married fathers viewed their fathers as exercising more psycho logical control than did children of divorced fathers. For lax discipline, mean dimension scores revealed that children of divorced fathers perceived their fa thers as more lax in discipline than did children of married fathers. In divorced families, children reported fathers more lax in discipline than mothers. Finally, the lax discipline mean dimension scores for self‐reports by mothers showed that divorced mothers perceived themselves as more lax in discipline than did married mothers. Results indicate that children's perceptions of their fathers' parental behavior are consistent with previous findings that divorced fathers are less re strictive with their children than married fathers.