Parents‟ Attitudes and Beliefs: Their Impact on Children‟s Development

Exploring the Influence of Parents' Attitudes on Children's Development

Abstract

Child-rearing attitudes are cognitions that predispose an individual to act either positively ornegatively toward a child. Attitudes most frequently considered involve the degree of warmth andacceptance or coldness and rejection that exists in the parent-child relationship, a powerful impact onbehavior, even if parents are distressed by or unaware of that impact. Researchers interested inchildren‘s development have explored parenting attitudes, cognitions, and the resulting emotions (suchas anger or happiness), because of their influence on parenting behavior and on the subsequent impactof that parenting behavior on children‘s socioemotional and cognitive development.