College students\u27 perception of parenthood : predictors of parenting attributions

Emerging adults hold a variety of motivations and perceived views of parenthood. With many new parents struggling to balance parenthood, relationships, and careers, it is reasonable to question individuals\u27 motivation and perceived views of parenthood. Research shows that emerging adults hold parenting motivations, future career expectations, and expectations about children that may be related to their perceived views of parenthood. Thus, to further understand the predictors of future parenting attributions, the current study examined the relationships among the motivation to become a parent, future role expectations, interpersonal relationships, and parenting attributions. One hundred forty-three college undergraduates who were not already parents completed a packet of questionnaires including measures of the variables described above. Result of this study indicated that the variables examined in this study demonstrated interesting relationships and that the motivation to parent served as an important predictor of individuals\u27 attributions for perceived parent control over success in parent-child interactions. These findings emphasize the importance of research that can identify the best ways to assist emerging adults in planning for parenthood in the future