The researchers observed how often parents in the 1990s spanked, read to and showed affection to their kids, and compared that to how these parents were treated by their own mothers. The study found significant generational changes in parenting practices, with great increases in the amount of reading and affection shown to children today, and reductions in the amount of spanking. But Vespa pointed out that while the second generation of mothers closely followed what their mothers did, some parenting practices were handed only to a certain degree. He said: "If parents really just learned from their own parents, we wouldn't witness such dramatic generational shifts as were seen in this study. We need to look at the broader culture to find other sources of change that shape how parents learn to parent." The research was presented in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. The data was provided by the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a nationally representative survey of people nationwide conducted by Ohio State's Center for Human Resource Research.
