Maternal Teaching Strategies in Chicano Families of Varied Educational and Socioeconomic Levels

LAOSA, Luirs M. Maternal Teaching Strategies in Chicano Families of Varied Educational and Socioeconomic Levels. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 1129-1135. The relationship of maternal teaching behavior to educational level and occupational status was studied among Chicano families. 43 mothers were observed teaching cognitive perceptual tasks to their own 5-year-old children. Significant relationships were found between the teaching strategies mothers used and the amount of formal education they had received. Mothers who had received more years of formal education used inquiry and praise more than mothers with less education. On the other hand, the lower the mothers' formal education level the more they used modeling as a teaching strategy. In addition, but for boys only, there was an inverse relationship between maternal formal education level and maternal teaching strategies considered to involve physical punishment.