Alternatives in child rearing in the 1970s.

Drawing upon pilot interviews and home observations representing 50 families from rural and urban communes, single middle-class mothers, and “unmarried marrieds,” the child-rearing practices, values, and beliefs of counter-culture groups are examined and compared with those of two-parent nuclear families of the 1970s. Attitudes and practices of “new” families bring into focus a number of fundamental issues, such as effects of multiple caretaking, anti-sexist attitudes, heightened interest in social relationships, and generalized trust of adults on the psychological growth of the child.