Relationships of parents' perceived actions toward their children

Research has generally supported the view that parents' attitudes and practices predispose children to act in certain ways. Bell (1968), however, proposed an alternate theory which suggested that children and adolescents often mold the way their parents act. Parish (1980) subsequently reported support for Bell's position in that parents were, indeed, found to parent like one another, possibly in response to their children's actions. The present study sought to further examine the Bell (1968) theory by seeking to determine if parents are consistent with each other or with themselves in their parenting attitudes and practices. Parents were perceived to act like one another (at least to a moderately significant degree), but fathers were much more likely to parent in particular ways (i.e., if they were restrictive they were also more likely to be warm, or if they were permissive they were also more likely to be hostile), independent of how their wives were perceived to act. The implications of these findings are discussed.