Date of Award

1997

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Art

First Advisor

Marilyn Patterson

Second Advisor

Pamela Nickels

Third Advisor

Edward Doerr

Abstract

A study was completed looking at marital status as it relates to parental contentment with the parent-child relationship. This varied from previous studies which looked at the quality of the marital relationship or measured the child's satisfaction with the parent-child relationship. A total sample of 48 parents participated, comprised of 34 married parents and 14 single parents. All participants were Caucasian, had children ages five to 14 attending a Midwest, urban, Catholic elementary school, and were between the ages of 27 and 49. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The Index of Parental Attitudes (IP A) was utilized to measure parental satisfaction with the relationship with their child. This index is a 25 question likert-type scale. It was mailed to all 120 families in the school and 48 were completed and returned to the researcher within a three week time period. In order to determine if there was a significant mean difference between the contentment with the parent-child relationship of married and single parents at-test was utilized. At-test for independent samples was completed and no significant mean difference was found between the married and the single parent groups.

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