Life Patterns Project: Follow-up of Patterns of Child-rearing, 1987-1988

In 1951, mothers of 5-year-old children in the Boston area were interviewed about their own and their husbands' parenting practices for a study by Sears, Maccoby, and Levin, Patterns of Child Rearing, 1951-1958 (Log# 00235). The children of these mothers were re-contacted for follow-up by different researchers four times since the original study. These follow-ups are also available at the Murray Research Archive: Nowlis, 1963-1964 (Log# 00570), Crowne, Conn, Marlowe, and Edwards, 1965 (Log# 00572); Edwards, 1968 (Log# 00575); McClelland, 1978 (Log# 00046); and McClelland and Franz, 1987-1988 (Log# 01012). McClelland and Franz interviewed the children from the original study at age 41. Participants were contacted for this wave by mail. Of the participants who could be located, 85% of the women and 66% of the men participated. The sample consisted of 89 participants who completed the mailed questionnaires. Seventy-three percent of the participants were also interviewed. The original participants were all White residents of two suburban towns near Boston in 1952. McClelland and Franz focused on predictors of four types of adjustment: Social and work accomplishment and psychological and physical health. Specifically, the Adult Life Patterns Project explored the effects of childhood, adolescent, and adult experiences on the kinds of lives adults lead and the effects of major life events, both positive and negative, on individual lives. The questionnaire asked about demographic information, parenting, education and employment, social life, recent life changes, and mental and physical health. Interviews included pictorial TATs, and open-ended questions about similar topics as those addressed in the questionnaire. Other questions asked about experiences of crime and trauma, and early life events. Those participants who were interviewed were asked to complete an additional questionnaire including a coping scale, sentence completions, a personal attitudes questionnaire, social attitudes rating, and a spouse questionnaire. The Murray Research Archive holds all numeric file data from this follow-up. Paper Data Availability Note: This study contains audio data that have been digitized. Audio Data Availability Note: This study contains audio data that have been digitized. There are 214 audio files available