Attitudes of the Adolescent toward the Working Wife and Mother

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the attitudes held by adolescent boys and girls toward the employed wife and mother.As a means of achieving the goals in this research, the writer developed two objectives.(1) To determine the attitudes of boys and girls in grades eight and twelve toward their mothers’ employment; and (2) to determine the attitudes of these adolescent boys and girls toward the expectation of the employment of the future wife. The study was conducted in a midwestern suburban community during the winter and spring of 1961.Six hundred seventy-nine boys and girls from grades eight and twelve in School District 66, Douglas County, Omaha, Nebraska, participated in this research. Data were gathered in the form of a three page questionnaire designed for this study. Some reasonable conclusions might be interpreted as the result of analysis of the data from this research.Whereas the adolescent children of working mothers seemed to be quite happy in accepting the working mother in their lives, the adolescent children of non-working mothers did not appear to be very anxious to see their mothers joining the ranks of the employed married women.Responses from boys and girls revealed that the adolescent girls appeared to have a greater expectation of the wife’s working after marriage than the boys. The actual experiences of having a mother who is working caused adolescents to become more favorable rather than less favorable toward working mothers.Wherever differences existed in attitudes toward having mothers work, either now or in the future, the differences were more favorable among the adolescents of working mothers.Hence, if working mothers cause unfavorable effects upon family life, the adolescents do not seem to be too aware of these ill effects.Adolescents of non-working mothers indicated more possible ill effects of working mothers than adolescents of working mothers. Advisor: Harold Abe