Fathers’ and Mothers’ Socialization Goals for Their Young Children: Similarities, Differences, and Couple Agreement

Objective. We examined similarities and differences in Hispanic and non-Hispanic fathers' and mothers' socialization goals—the qualities that parents desire their children to develop—in two U.S. samples. Design. A total of 442 parents of toddlers (49% fathers; N = 76 parents in Sample 1; N = 366 parents in Sample 2), from 255 English- and Spanish-speaking households (N = 49 families in Sample 1; N = 206 families in Sample 2) ranked a list of 15 child qualities—modified from Harwood et al.'s (1996) foundational concepts of socialization goals (Achievement; Self-Maximization; Connectedness; Proper Demeanor)—in order of importance. We compared average rankings of each goal for fathers and mothers, tested associations between fathers' and mothers' rankings within a family (i.e. agreement), and examined the sociocultural correlates of parents' rankings and agreement. Results. In both samples, fathers and mothers uniformly ranked qualities associated with both individualism and collectivism as highest in importance, along with honesty. At the group level, fathers' and mothers' relative rankings of socialization goals did not differ in either sample, but parent-child gender combinations (e.g. father-son versus mother-daughter) revealed differences and parents' education consistently related to parents' socialization goals. At the family level, father-mother agreement was moderate on average, with striking variation among dyads. Dyad agreement was not associated with the degree of match between parents in education, ethnicity, or age. Conclusions. Fathers and mothers as a group show high similarity in the qualities that they consider important for their children to develop but with large individual differences for father-mother pairs. The qualities parents emphasize for their children, and their agreement around those qualities, may have implications for parenting practices and the coparenting relationship. Findings underscore the value of scientific replication and considerations of how sample demographics, such as parent education, may shape parents' views for children.