A Descriptive Study: The Views Of Touch As Related To Childrearing Practices Correlated With Certain Demographic Factors

This descriptive study was designed to correlate the views of touch as related to childrearing practices with certain demographic factors. The researcher hypothesized that there would be no significant difference when parent­ ing skills and abusive behavior were correlated with identified demographic variables based on the scores of the researcher-designed questionnaire. A researcher-designed survey was administered to 10 mothers who were participating in a Parents Anonymous group. Nine of the subjects had abused their child/children, while one subject stated she felt she could abuse. All subjects were natural mothers who had received prenatal care while pregnant. Seven subjects had experienced unplanned pregnancies. All stated they had a special child/children, either stubborn, spoiled, premature, or subject to illness. To test each of the null hypotheses regarding parenting skills and abusive behavior as related to age, income, race, education, employment, and marital status, the Pearson’s R and the Biserial Correlation were used. Age was the only demographic variable found to be significant at the .05 level. Because this variable was significant, the theoretical hypothesis was rejected