THE CHILDS AWARENESS OF ADULT BELIEFS CONCERNING THE CHILD - THE EFFECTS OF GENDER AND SUBCULTURE

Patterns of agreement among mothers' and teachers' beliefs about their children, children's self-beliefs, and children's beliefs about adults' beliefs were investigated among Afro-American inner city matrifocal families. Findings were compared to those previously obtained with Italian-American families. Twenty-four mothers, their 10-12-year-old children, and their children's teachers were administered the Family Belief Interview Schedule assessing adult beliefs about the child and the child's beliefs about adult beliefs. Findings indicated that children were more accurate in predicting teachers' than mothers' beliefs. Among Afro-American children and in the combined Afro-American and Italian-American samples, girls, relative to boys, were more accurate in predicting mothers' beliefs, assumed greater similarity of mothers' beliefs to their own, and assumed greater consistency between mothers' and teachers' beliefs. Among boys, relative to Italian-Americans, Afro-Americans assumed significantly less similarity of mothers' beliefs to their own. These findings are interpreted within a subcultural family socialization framework. © 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporation.