Parenting beliefs and behaviors in northern and southern groups of Italian mothers of young infants

Similarities and differences in northern and southern Italian mothers' social and didactic parenting beliefs and behaviors, and relations between their beliefs and behaviors, are reported. Both groups of mothers reported that they engaged more in social than didactic interactions with their infants, whereas in actuality both groups engaged in didactic behaviors with their infants for longer periods of time than they engaged in social behaviors. In addition, northern mothers engaged in more social interactions with their infants than did southern mothers. No correlations between beliefs and behaviors emerged in either group. These data speak to issues of intracultural variation and cross-cultural similarities in family psychology and parenting, belief-behavior relations in parenting, and the importance of methodology (parental report or observation) in the study of parenting and family functioning.