Who Is Listening to the "Experts"? The Use of Child Care Materials by Parents

Many sources of information and advice about child care are currently available to parents. The purpose of the present study was to examine their utilization of these materials. Information regarding frequency of use, types of materials used, reasons for reading them, and perceived benefit was obtained by a questionnaire sent to a randomly selected sample. The results suggest that the use of child care materials by parents is a widespread phenomenon. Nearly all (96.9%) of the parents surveyed indicated that they did at least some child care reading when their children were young. The reason most commonly cited (76.2%) for consulting these materials was to obtain general information about child development and care. In addition, the findings suggest that today's parents are consulting these materials more frequently than did earlier generations of parents.