Parental characteristics of Jews and Greeks in Australia

A controlled study was conducted in Sydney to assess the reported characteristics of Jewish and Greek parents. Using a measure of fundamental parental characteristics the 81 Jewish subjects differed from controls only in scoring their mothers as less caring. The 125 Greek subjects scored both parents as more overprotective; further investigation revealed that the Greek parents were overprotective of their daughters only. Findings in the latter study suggest that overprotection by Greek parents may be influenced slightly by the age of the child when migrating, and that such a cultural pattern is resistant to acculturation effects.