Parents' Preferred Communication Style and Locus of Control of Preschool Children

The purpose was to examine within family similarity and across situational consistency in parental models of optimal communication, and to examine parental preferred communi cation strategy in relation to locus of control of young children. Data were collected on 25 middle‐class couples and their preschool‐aged child. Parental communication preference in teaching and child management situations was assesed by a specially devised interview questionnaire technique, and children's locus of control was measured by the Stanford Pre school Internal‐External Scale. Results indicated that mothers' preference for nondirective socratic communication in child management but not teaching situations was related to internal locus of control in children. The importance of considering situational variation in the study of parent‐child relations and locus of control was indicated. 1980 American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences