The Relationship Between a Mother\u27s Knowledge of Human Sexual Reproduction and Her Child Rearing Attitudes Toward Her Preschool Child\u27s Emerging Sexuality

Two hundred mothers were contacted through the child care center in which they placed their preschool child. They were tested on the Parent Attitude Research Instrument, which measures maternal attitudes toward child rearing, and the 24 Item Miller Fisk Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire, which measures knowledge of human sexual reproduction. A correlational analysis of the scores on these instruments revealed that mothers with high authoritarian and controlling attitudes toward children and children\u27s emerging sexuality have a low level of sexual knowledge (r = -.65, p \u3c .0001). It was also determined that single parent mothers are significantly more authoritarian and controlling in their child rearing attitudes (p = .05) than mothers in other family structures, i.e., original family intact, step/blended family, or divorced/separated family. Mothers of children in Head Start, as compared with mothers of children in university-based child care, corporate/private care, or church-affiliated child care, demonstrated the lowest level of sexual knowledge, (p = .05). These findings are important in the development of a comprehensive, systematic sex education program for parents