A comparison of the attitudes of mothers of non-handicapped children and of mentally retarded children towards their child and their relation to the school behavior of the child

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between the characteristics of behaviour of children at school and the attitudes of their mothers toward their children. To this end, a sample of 357 mothers of non-handicapped children, and 93 mothers of mildly retarded children were interviewed. Further, an assessment was made of certain characteristics of behaviour at school of the children of mothers from both groups. Results showed that behaviour at school of non-handicapped children was strongly related to the attitude of the parent towards the child. This primarily refers to the relation between the child's achievement at school and those dimensions of the attitude of the parent in which the emotional component predominates. However, on the second sample it could be determined that, although there was a relation between behaviour at school and the attitude of the parent, it was much less marked. In this case, those dimensions of the parental attitude with a more pronounced cognitive component are in question.