Prospective Parents' Knowledge About Parenting and Their Anticipated Child‐Rearing Decisions

• Author: Katherine Karraker,Darcey N. Powell
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12259
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

D N. P Roanoke College

K K West Virginia University

Prospective Parents’ Knowledge About Parenting

and Their Anticipated Child-Rearing Decisions

Objective: To examine whether the theory of

planned behavior can be used to understand

intentions for child-rearing practices.

Background: Parenting intentions are formed

before becoming a parent, but it is less clear

what nonparents’ intentions are and how sub-

jective norms, attitudes, and perceived control

predict their intentions.

Method: Nonparent emerging adults (N=353,

Mage =19.6 years, 72% female) wereasked about

their intentions to (a) breastfeed or support a

partner in breastfeeding, (b) circumcise a male

infant, (c) co-sleep, and (4) put their infant

in nonparental daytime care. They were also

asked what proportion of American parents they

thought engaged in each and why they would or

would not engage in each practice.

Results: Most intended to breastfeed and to cir-

cumcise their male infants, but not to co-sleep

or to put their infant in nonparental daytime

care. Participants’ inaccurate knowledge about

actual parents’ behavior (i.e., subjective norms)

and the factors that they thought might affect

their own future behavior (i.e., attitudes toward

and perceived control) were associated with

their intentions for the child-rearing practices.

Conclusion: This study replicated prior research

on breastfeeding intentions and extended the

viability of the theory of planned behavior to

Department of Psychology, Roanoke College, 221 College

Lane, Salem, VA24153 (dpowell@roanoke.edu).

Key Words: Caregiving, decision making, emerging adult-

hood, parenting education, parenting infants and toddlers.

understand prospective parents’ intentions for

other child-rearing practices.

Implications: Practitioners should consider dis-

cussing the norms surrounding child-rearing

behaviors during health- and development-

focused courses in secondary or postsecondary

school and with expecting couples.

From a baby’s name to breastfeeding to sleeping

arrangements, parents must make countless

decisions during the early postnatal period.

Before having children, individuals form expec-

tations about the experience of parenting

(Calvert & Stanton, 1992; Coleman, Nelson,

& Sundre, 1999; Pajulo, Helenius, & Mayes,

2006), but research has rarely examined the

specic decisions individuals anticipate making

as parents. The present study was designed

to examine the decisions that emerging adults

think they will make once they become a parent

(i.e., their intentions), as well as how their

perception (i.e., subjective norms) about actual

parents’ decisions regarding child-rearing prac-

tices and their reasoning (i.e., attitude toward

and perceived control) for their intentions are

associated with their intentions. Therefore, we

sampled nonparent emerging adults, who are at

the precipice of becoming parents themselves

and expressed the desire to become a parent in

the future, in order to examine their intentions

with regard to breastfeeding, male circumcision,

co-sleeping, and nonparental daytime childcare.

A variety of parenting decisions could have been

examined, but we chose these four because they

Family Relations 66 (July 2017): 453–467 453

DOI:10.1111/fare.12259