Parents ain,t what they used to be...

Press, 10 June 1977, Page 13

Parents ain,t what they used to be...

By

ARTHUR SPIEGELMAN,

Reuter

A new breed of American parent has been born out of the campus rebellions of the 19605, the women’s liberation movement, and the nation’s unprecedented post-war afflulence, according to a prominent researcher. A pollster, Daniel Yankelovich, says the newstyle American parent questions authority, in-

cluding his own; scorns traditional values, such as marriage, religion, patriotism, and success; and is not ready to make sacr - fices for his children. But Mr Yankelovich told a press conference that his survey of 2000 American families with children under 12 showed that the new breed stopped short of imparting his lack of values to his children. He (or she) joins more traditional parents in emphasising to their children those values that Americans seem always to have held unchangeable: Duty before pleasure, “My country right or wrong.” hard work pays off, people in authority know

best, and sex without marriage is wrong. The upshot of al! this at present is confusion for the children as well as the adults, Mr Yankelovich says. The new breed of parent constitutes 43 per cent of the families Mr Yankelovich’s researchers interviewed, compared with 57 per cent of American families with children under 12 who held to traditional values. The traditionalism, as Mr Yankelovich describes them, hold as values: Marriage as an institution, religion, saving money, hard work, and financial security. They are also ready to sacrifice for their children;

want their children to br outstanding; respect authority; and believe that their offspring should do as they say. In contrast, the new breed are self-orientated and not as ready to sacrifice al) to their children. They do not push tneir children to succeed as traditionalist parents would, and they do not expec their children to care for them when they get old. “The traditional parental view is: ‘I give now to the children and they give later’; but the new breed says that both they and their children have lives of their own,” Mr Yankelovich says. This breed was born out of the changing values of the 1960 s that saw rebellions at American universities and the formation of the women’s liberation movement. It also came from the unprecedented affluence in America during the post-war years. Mr Yankelovich does not think that the Viet-

nam war was significant as a cause of the new atti tudes, although it contrib

uted greatly to the breakdown of respect for authority. "The Vietnam war protests and the new morality in the nation made strange and uncomfortable bedfellows. They have been coupled together, but they really don’t belong together.” Mr Yankelovich predicts that within two or three years the new breed would have worked out their problems with their values and would not be transmitting a double message to their children. At present they are telling their children to abide by traditional values while at the same time not accepting them themselves.