Parent Education in Popular Literature: 1972-1990

Content analyses of popular literature have been performedfor data on child‐rearing advicefrom 1820 to 1970. This study extends these analyses from 1972 to 1990 and identifies main topics by writers and contemporary trends in advice giving about parenting. During this period, the primary topics of interest in three women's magazines were parent‐child relations (27%), the socialization of children (17%), and children's developmental stages (17%). Advocated childrearing practices included promoting androgynous parenting roles, taking a nonsexist approach to child rearing, adjusting to mothers' employment outside the home, helping children adjust to parental divorce, adopting a child‐rearing style that was authoritative in context and practice, avoiding the use of physical punishment with children and adopting more psychologically oriented methods, and enhancing communication skills within thefamily while discussing issues honestly with children. Implications are discussed in relation tofour themes emergingfrom the analysis of parenting advice in popular literature.