2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

Parenting PracticesA variety of factors shape child development. In the early years, home environments and interactions withparents and other family members particularly influence children. Thus, in the effort to understand theindependent effects of the Palm Beach County service system on children’s development, it is importantto gather information about these other influences, including home and neighborhood characteristics,children’s daily activities, and the kinds of parenting practices they experience. In this section, wedescribe the kinds of parenting activities that study mothers reported for themselves and theirhusbands/partners in the fifth-year interview for any of their children. We clustered these activities intotwo broad categories, “positive” and “negative,” to reflect their potential for either beneficial or harmfuleffects on children’s development.Positive Parenting PracticesThe vast majority of mothers (90% or more) reported that they engaged in the following activities withtheir children in the 3 months prior to the survey: praised them, took them on errands, took them outsidefor a walk or to play, read books to them, encouraged them to read, sang songs with them, and told storiesto them (see Table 22). Somewhat smaller percentages, though still a majority, did household chores withtheir children, played a game, did a puzzle, or played with a building toy with children, and talked to theirchildren about television programs. However, a much lower percentage of the mothers (43%) took theirchildren to the library during the previous 3 months.In families in which husbands/partners had had contact with their children over the previous 3 months, thedistribution of their parenting activities was similar to that of mothers, although the percentage of fatherswho engaged in each activity tended to be lower than the percentage of mothers who did. Mothersreported that their husbands/partners most often engaged in the following activities: praised children, tookchildren outside for walk or play, took children on errands, encouraged children to read, read books tochildren, told stories to children, and sang songs with children. When asked about the frequency ofChapin Hall at the University of Chicago 42