| Abstract: | Retrospective accounts of child rearing obtained from parents of 3-year-olds were compared with reports they previously gave in the course of a longitudinal study begun with the birth of the child. The parents were quite inaccurate in their memory of details about child rearing practices and early development progress, in spite of the frequent rehearsal of these data due to their participation in the longitudinal study, and in spite of the relatively young age of the children. In-accuracies were greatest for items dealing with the age of weaning and toilet training, the occurrence of thumbsucking, and demand feeding. Inaccuracies tended to be in the direction of the recommendations of experts in child rearing, especially on the part of the mothers. In general, mothers recalled more correctly than fathers. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
