Abstract
Increased awareness of inappropriate touch with children may discourage positive parent-child touch. The present study was designed to assess the extent of agreement regarding the appropriateness of various types of parent-child touch. Respondents were 83 men and 121 women who were shopping in an open air market in a metropolitan area. Touches involving parents and children in several settings were rated on a scale of appropriateness. Reasonably clear norms emerged for touching with children of different ages. There were no differences in relation to the gender of the respondents and few in relation to the respondent's age, family income, or marital status. Blacks rated many of the touches as less appropriate than did Whites but cultural differences within the two groups were not investigated. It was concluded that rating scales may be useful in assessing norms for parent-child touch but cultural differences are probably important.
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Harrison-Speake, K., Willis, F.N. Ratings of the appropriateness of touch among family members. J Nonverbal Behav 19, 85–100 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02173168
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02173168