Interpersonal Trust Scores of College Students and Their Parents

The relationship of parentZ' trust of others to their college children's trust was investigated by the use of the Interpersonal Trust Scale. 100 male and 100 female college students, whose scores were , SD above or below the mean of a larger group, were selected. Parents of these students were sent the same questionnaire and a high rate of return (67 percent) was obtained. Fathers appear to exert a significant influence on the attitudes of their sons, but have little effect on daughters. Mothers' scores show a weak statistical trend toward a small and equal effect on sons and daughters. Belief in interpersonal communications is a basic characteristic of a healthy society. Recently, dramatic attention has been brought to an alleged credibility gap regarding many of the statements about foreign affairs which spokesmen for government make and to the increasing evidence that the Negro has little faith in the promises of government officials on all levels. There may be an equally strong but less dramatic reduction in trust in general public reaction toward doctors, teachers, repairmen, and others. The need for studies of the development and maintenance of attitudes of trust or distrust is evident. The area of interpersonal trust is being viewed from the perspective of social learning theory (Rotter, 1954). According to this orientation, choice behavior in specific situations depends upon the expectancy that a given behavior will lead to a particular outcome or reinforcement in that situation and the preference value of that reinforcement for the