DO WHAT I SAY, NOT WHAT I DO: CHILDREN'S REACTIONS TO PARENTS' BEHAVIORAL INCONSISTENCIES

The present study looked at others' reactions to dissonant behaviors in a domain particularly sensitive to such discrepancies, i.e., religious observances. We might often say we are Catholic/Protestant, etc. and educate our children as such but personally not practice religion. How do children react to such inconsistencies? In a study of 210 high school students we determined congruent/incongruent parents and extent of their children's worry or upset based on their answers to a questionnaire designed for this purpose. Apparently children are well aware of such inconsistencies and multivariate analyses of variance show that children of incongruent parents are significantly more troubled, more upset with their parents' behavioral incongruities than are children of congruent parents. Also of interest is that boys and girls reacted in the same manner and no interactions were found. It appears to be important for parents to be aware of the negative consequences their inconsistent behaviors have on their children.