Do College Girls Conform to the Standards of Their Parents?

This article deals with the findings of a study regarding the parental influence on college daughters. The girls were relatively conformist. They accepted parents' standards in ten out of twelve areas on the average. Conformity in regard to drinking alcoholic beverages was startlingly high when one considers that the girls were freshmen and sophomores and that their average age was 18. It might be due to the acceptability of social drinking in U.S. metropolitan cities. Most parents approved of this type of drinking and wanted their daughter to become accustomed to it. However, they usually did not insist that she drink. High conformity in choice of college can be explained on the basis of the family's social class and their desire for social mobility. The parents were mainly lower middle class and accepted the values of higher education. Although most lacked college experience, they wanted their daughters to go to college. A frequent standard the parents set dealt with the maximum cost of college education. Conformity which indicated that the daughter was given a share in determining her own standards was in keeping with the U.S. pattern of democratic family control. A few girls accepted their parents' standards without question and appeared to display immaturity and dependency upon parental advice. The most serious type of nonconformity was in the matter of mate selection.