A Factor Analysis of Parental Attitudes of Fathers

Parental attitude research has tended to pay more attention to the childrearing attitudes of mothers than of fathers. This may be justified on the basis of the assumption that mothers' attitudes are likely to be more influential in determining the child's behavior since they typically spend more time with children than fathers. However, some recent research (2) has suggested that this may not necessarily be the case. Schaefer and Bell (3) and Zuckerman, Ribback, Monashkin, and Norton (8) have published factor analyses of parental attitudes of mothers measured by PARI, and Milton (i) has published a factor analysis of mothers' attitudes as assessed by interview. It was the purpose of this study to do a comparable analysis of fathers' attitudes for comparison purposes and to develop factor scales for the measurement of parental attitudes of fathers.