Adults' Thinking about a Child-Rearing Problem: Effects of Experience, Parental Status, and Gender

HOLDEN, GEORGE W. Adults' Thinking about a Child-rearing Problem: Effects of Experience, Parental Status, and Gender. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 1623-1632. The effects of caregiving experience on adults' thinking about a child-rearing problem were examined in 2 studies using a new assessment technique. In Experiment 1, 192 adults (male and female parents and nonparents) diagnosed why an infant was crying. Women were more efficient and accurate than men in solving the problem, and nonparents, particularly males, had more difficulty in solving the problem than parents. The experienced groups also differed from the less experienced groups by learning the infant's age earlier in their problem solving. A second study, using a modification of the software, replicated and extended some of the first study's findings with 42 mothers and 42 nonmothers. The results from both studies furnish evidence that previous caregiving experience influences how individuals solve a child-rearing problem and offer support for a new technique for examining the cognitive processes that individuals employ as they think and reason about infants and children.