Children's Ethnic Attitudes: II. Relationship to Parental Beliefs concerning Child Training

A number of studies3 have shown a positive and appreciable correlation between attitudes of children and of their parents in various attitude areas. Correlations range from about +.20 to about +.8o, with characteristic values in the range +.40 to +.55. Many of these studies imply that the attitudes maintained by parents provide learning situations wherein children develop attitudes-of their own which resemble the points of view expressed by the parents. It might be argued that the personality patterns of parents produce a kind of pervasive family atmosphere, within which children develop similar personality structures, including particular attitudes, biases, and beliefs. Attitude patterns of adults have been shown to be congruent with certain broad personality characteristics which are more extensive than the particular attitudes in question. There is now accumulating evidence that attitudes in children likewise tend to be associated with broader personality characteristics. The work of Frenkel-Brunswik (1, 2) and a previous paper by the present writers (3) illustrate this point. Since the prejudiced personality, at least in the anti-Semitic and antiNegro areas, seems to be rather rigid and authoritarian, it occurred to the present writers that these aspects of personality might likewise appear in the attitudes toward children expressed by adults and even in the childrearing practices preferred by them. The present study was aimed to explore, at least in a preliminary fashion, such possible relationships. In another paper (3) the writers have described the development of an eighteen-item attitude scale toward Negroes for young children. They have shown how the attitude identified by this scale appears to relate to certain personality characteristics of children in the intermediate grades. The present study is predicated on the assumption usually made in research on children that patterns of family experience can be identified in