Attitudes of postpartum mothers concerning children and child rearing.

To assess contemporary maternal attitudes about children, child rearing, and family life, a 32-item attitude scale--the Parent Attitude Scale (PAS)--was developed and given to 523 postpartum mothers. The PAS was shown to be a highly reliable attitude assessment instrument. Maternal attitudes generally were pro-child in nature. Variations in total and individual item PAS scores were a function of maternal race, age, marital status, and employment status. Implications of the attitude survey for clinicians in terms of the treatment and prevention of developmental problems and for physician-parent interactions, are discussed.