Change in Parental Attitudes as a Result of Experience in a Cooperative Nursery School Program

• Main Author: Lehner, Melba Judge
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@USU 1960
• Subjects: parental; attitude; experience; cooperative; nursery; school; program; Education
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/2221; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3228&context=etd

The purpose of this study was to determine if parents change in their attitudes toward child guidance after participating in a Cooperative Nursery School Parent Education Program. The study was conducted in the Fall of 1959 in the Weber College Department. Control and experimental groups were used. The experimental group was made up of forty mothers and father who were enrolled in the Parent Education Program and whose children were enrolled in the nursery school. The control group was made up of forty mothers and fathers whose children were on the waiting list of the nursery school. Attitudes were determined by means of parent attitudes scale in the form of a questionnaire. The questionnaires were given to the control and experimental group before and after a thirteen-week Parent Education Program. The experimental group participated in this program which consisted of a ten-week study discussion group under the direction of the investigator, and a thirteen-week experience of actively participating in a cooperative nursery school teacher. Parents were tested in four areas in which they might change as a result of experience in a Cooperative Nursery School Program. These were (a) dependency, (b) child aggression toward parents, (c) child aggression toward other children and (d) relationships with other children. The results of the study show statistically significant changes in all four areas in the attitudes of the experimental group mothers toward more permissive guidance, while the control group had essentially the same attitudes at the conclusion of the study as they had at the beginning. Fathers and mothers differed in their attitudes toward child guidance in that fathers favored punitive control while the mothers were more permissive.