Similarities in the socialization practices of African-American preschool children's parents and teachers

This investigation examined the effect mother's and teacher's socialization practices have on African-American preschool children's social and cognitive behavior. Socialization practices included traditionality, developmental expectations, responses to children's misbehavior, attitudes about the effects of physical discipline on children's outcomes, and teaching styles. Teaching styles included question and nonquestion suggestions, positive and negative feedback, and nonverbal intrusion.;Mothers and teachers differed on beliefs about how physical discipline affects children and nonverbal intrusion. In comparison to mothers, teachers were more likely to think that physical discipline leads to bad outcomes for children and more nonverbally intrusive with the study children during the teaching task.;Multivariate multiple regression was used to predict children's social behaviors from mother's and teacher's socialization characteristics. Results suggested that mothers' and teachers' teaching styles were significant predictors for children's social behaviors during the teaching task. Children were more accepting of mothers' help if mothers tended to give more question and nonquestion suggestions; children were more dependent on mothers for help if mothers were more nonverbally intrusive; and children were more rejecting of mothers' help if mothers gave more question suggestions. During the teaching task with teachers, children were more accepting of teachers' help if teachers were more nonverbally intrusive.;Differences between mothers' and teachers' teaching styles and parenting characteristics were found to be predictors of children's social behaviors with mothers and teachers. Children were more accepting of and more dependent on mothers' help during the teaching task with mothers if mothers were more likely to be less expectant of early development for children than were teachers, and children were less accepting of mothers' help if mothers were more likely to think that physical discipline leads to bad outcomes for children than were teachers. Children were more likely to be dependent on teachers' help during the teaching task if mothers tended to be more traditional than teachers.;Findings from this study highlight the variation in the socialization practices of African-American preschool children's mothers and teachers. Results are discussed in terms of the implications that the findings have for continuity-discontinuity between familial and nonfamilial environments for African-American preschool children.