Attributions and Attitudes of Mothers and Fathers in the Philippines

Objective. This article investigates the mean level and within-family similarities and differences in Filipino mothers\u27 and fathers\u27 attributions about success and failure in caregiving situations, and their progressive and authoritarian parenting attitudes. Design. Mothers and fathers in 95 families in metropolitan Manila in the Philippines completed interviews. Results. Controlling for parents\u27 age, education, and possible social desirability bias, there was a significant gender difference in modernity of attitudes, with mothers exhibiting higher levels of modernity than fathers. There was a strong correlation in mothers\u27 and fathers\u27 authoritarian attitudes and moderate correlations in modernity of attitudes. There were neither parent gender effects nor concordance in the attributions of mothers and fathers. Conclusions. Cultural explanations are presented to account for the findings, specifically the sociocultural values that foster traditional attitudes favoring parental authority and child obedience, and the differences in gender and family roles of Filipino mothers and fathers