2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

various activities, mothers reported that they or their husbands/partners tended to engage in all of theparenting activities, on average, about once per week, with the exception of taking their children to thelibrary, which was done much less frequently, and praising children, which was done with far greaterfrequency.Table 22. Positive Parenting Practices during Previous 3 Months at Year 5 aActivity%Mothers(N=310)%Husbands/Partners(n=225)MeanFrequency b (SD)Praised children 99 97 1.1 (.36)Took children on errands (e.g., post office or store) 98 89 1.5 (.57)Took children outside for walk or play 96 90 1.6 (.58)Encouraged children to read a book 95 87 1.4 (.56)Read books to children 95 83 1.5 (.61)Sang songs with children 92 75 1.3 (.51)Told stories to children 90 78 1.6 (.66)Did household chores with children 79 51 1.5 (.62)Played with a game, puzzle, or building toy 77 63 1.9 (.69)Talked to children about a television program 75 65 1.5 (.63)Played with clay, drew pictures, or other arts/crafts 75 51 1.8 (.68)Took children to library 43 30 2.5 (.59)Mean (SD) Positive Parenting Score (range: 0–1) c 0.92 (.13) 0.81 (.21)a Data were weighted to adjust for the oversampling of mothers in the Glades and mothers screened “at risk.”b Lower number indicates higher frequency. Average frequency reported by only those mothers who responded affirmatively thateither they or their husbands/partners had done each activity during the previous 3 months, using a 3-point scale: 3=“once or twice amonth,” 2=“at least once a week,” and 1=“daily or most days.”c The mean parenting score is based on only the items included in all surveys so that comparisons could be made over time. Thefollowing items were excluded in calculation of the mean: “played with a game, puzzle, or building toy,” “did household chores,”“talked about a television program,” and “took child to library.”*Paired sample t-tests indicate that the following year-to-year differences are statistically significant at p < .05 or lower: books(mother) vs. books(partner); stories(mother) vs. stories(partner); songs(mother) vs. songs(father); errands(mother) vs. errands(partner); outside(mother) vs. outside(partner); arts(mother) vs. arts(partner); game(mother) vs. game(partner); library(mother) vs.library(partner); chores(mother) vs. chores(partner); praised(mother) vs. praised(partner); encouragedreading(mother) vs.encouragedreading(partner); television(mother) vs. television(partner).As shown in Table C- 13, there were some differences in the proportions of foreign- and U.S.-bornmothers who reported engaging in certain activities with their children. U.S.-born mothers were morelikely to report: (1) encouraging their children to read; (2) doing household chores with their children; (2)playing games, working puzzles, or playing with building toys with their children; (3) talking to childrenabout television programs; (4) doing arts and crafts with children; and (5) taking their children to thelibrary. Most of these differences were not only statistically significant but substantive as well, with somedifferences equivalent to twenty percentage points or more. In addition, many of the activities for whichthere were differences are those associated with children’s cognitive and language development.Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 43