1A. Encourage prospective parents to carefully consider their readiness to assume the roles and responsibilities of becoming a parent.
References:
Abstract:
Premise: If parenting attitudes could be assessed during high school, health education classes could be set up based on the findings, and intervention could be initiated with students with poor parenting attitudes.
Research Question: What is the parenting attitude among high school students, and to what degree does their attitude affect their parenting skills?
Subjects: 501 high school students from 3 different schools in a large metropolitan area in the Southwest.
Study Design: Two instruments were administrated: one with a demographic profile such as age, sex, race, etc., and another that employed a 32-item questionnaire on a 5-point attitudinal scale called the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI).
Findings: Seventy-five percent or more of students indicated average to high understanding of expectations for child, empathy for child, low value of physical punishment, and the absence of role reversal on the study instrument. Ten percent had low average scores and it was suggested that follow up for these students prior to becoming parents would be beneficial.
Research reviewed by Elaine Petros, RN, while a student at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Nursing, in Richmond, VA.