Family Structure and Independence Training in a Taiwanese Village.

Data collected in a Taiwanese village were used to test predictions derived from Lambert's exchange theory of family structure differences in child training (1971). Thirty-seven women with children between the ages of 4 and 10 were interviewed about their socialization practices, and a number of questions concerning independence training were selected for analysis. As predicted, mothers in extended families were considerably less likely to train their children to be self-reliant, but it was not clear that this difference could be attributed to the grandmother's role as a "low-cost" parental surrogate. Several alternative explanations are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]