Mothers' and fathers' judgments about young girls' and boys' autonomy

This study examined how mothers and fathers reason about young children's autonomy and personal discretion. Since fathers' ideas about these issues remain unexplored, the goal of the present study was to assess both fathers and mothers conceptions of young children's areas of personal choice, as well as to analyze the effect of child's gender on those conceptions. Seventy-seven upper-middle class White American mothers (n=39) and fathers (n=38) of children ages 3-5, half girls and half boys, were individually interviewed regarding their judgments about a set of hypothetical scenarios depicting daily life conflictual interactions between a preschool age child's action or desires and his/her parent's expectations. Parents evaluated and justified differently children's expression of resistance to their authority or expectations as a function of whether the child's action was perceived to be a moral, a conventional, or a personal matter. While parents treated moral and conventional scenarios as issues that parent should control based on moral and conventional concerns, they allow for children's assertions and decision-making around personal issues. Fathers tended to be more conventional in their thinking on parental authority and autonomy issues than mothers. However, both mothers' and fathers' judgments reflect concerns for the development of children's personal autonomy along with acknowledgment of parental responsibilities to regulate children's social and moral behaviors. Child's gender was not found to affect parents' judgment about autonomy issues for preschool age.