Family Values: Do Parents Send Mixed Signals?

Survey Finds Gap Between What Parents Think They Are Teaching and What Kids Are Learning

CONTACT: Marisa Ollins of Kaplow Communications, +1-212-221-1713, marisao@kaplowpr.com, for American Greetings Corporation

NEW YORK, Oct. 20 -- For generations, parents have griped that kids just don't listen: it's "in one ear and out the other." However, a new survey finds that children are listening, but parents aren't delivering the messages they think they are.

While parents place great value on teaching kids how to treat others well and how to share, kids are hearing moms and dads say that getting ahead and doing well in school are bigger priorities, according to a new nationwide survey commissioned by American Greetings, owners of The Care Bears brand, characters that have been teaching caring and sharing for over 20 years.

Parents believe caring and sharing skills are important but don't communicate those values clearly:

• 92% of parents say that knowing how to treat others well is very
  important for children to have long-term success in life.
• Half of parents (50%) report they talk to their kids daily about
  sharing.
• However, children report that the primary topic they hear parents
  talking about on a daily basis is doing well in school and getting good
  grades (51% say so).
• Only a third (38%) of kids say they hear about sharing on a daily basis.

Kids and parents agree that kids aren't doing a great job of sharing and
caring: half or fewer of kids actually believe they are very good at treating others well or knowing how to share (38% and 49% respectively) and relatively small numbers of parents think their kids are very good treating others well and at sharing (56% and 49% respectively).

Despite parental priorities, children value these essential interpersonal skills, even if they think they sometimes fail to live by
them: eight out of ten children (80%) say it is important to treat others the way they would want to be treated.

How Do Your Children Measure Up?

Parents have a much better opinion of their own children's ability to share than they do regarding the sharing skills of their children's peers.

• Even though a third of parents (32%) think other kids' bad sharing
  habits will not affect their own children, 38% think that spending time
  with other children who don't share will make children more selfish.
• In fact, 91% of parents think that other children aren't sharing as well
  as their own children.
• Another four in ten parents (43%) think that kids having more
  possessions today than children did decades ago is part of what makes
  them less willing to share with others.
• Parents are more likely to blame an over-emphasis on materialism (77%)
  and appearance (62%) for often causing interpersonal problems. They are
  much more likely to consider a lack of sharing skills (47%) to be the
  cause.

There is no doubt that parents and children both find sharing important, but that kids still have room to improve.

"There is a great gap between what both parents and children believe is important for life success and the behaviors exhibited by kids," states Dr. Sylvia Rimm, a child psychologist, a clinical professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the author of several parenting books focusing on preschool social skills and beyond. "Parents need to work harder -- or differently -- to give children the basic social tools for learning to share, while also encouraging them to select friends who are willing to share."

Mom vs. Dad

Mothers and fathers disagree on what is most important for their kids'
long-term success in life, which could possibly result in a discrepancy in the way values are being taught at home.

• Mothers are more concerned with the "emotional" aspects of child
  development, like treating others well (97% of mothers vs. 86% of
  fathers), knowing how to share (94% vs. 80%), and volunteering (63% vs.
  45%). Fathers place greater priority on traditional or physical
  elements, like looking their best (40% vs. 25%), having lots of friends
  (36% vs. 23%), and doing well in sports (29% vs. 16%).
• Both mom and dads recognize the importance of generosity: 94% of parents
  believe that doing volunteer work to help people in need is very or
  somewhat important for their children and 97% think it's very or
  somewhat important for their children to share food and clothes with
  needy families.

How to Help Parents Help Kids Learn

According to the survey findings, parents and children value the importance of caring and sharing but when it comes to implementing these values, they still have work to do. For more than 20 years, the Care Bears brand has communicated the importance of behavior and emotional values, communicating individual emotional identities that children can relate to. The Care Bears brand provides numerous resources and tools to help parents and teachers empower children with core social skills and to encourage emotional intelligence.

The Care Bears Web site, www.care-bears.com, offers parents a "Good Deeds" Web kit that includes tips from Dr. Rimm and activities that demonstrate core caring and sharing values while supporting what is being taught in Preschool classrooms across the country.

The Good Deeds Web kit serves as a companion piece to the Preschool Curriculum, "You're Never Too Young to Care," available to early educators and teachers and used in over 31,000 preschool classrooms nationwide reaching more than ten million kids, parents and teachers.

"As a society, we value the importance of caring and sharing but in terms of implementing these actions, there is a big disconnect between parents and their children," says Dr. Rimm. "By providing parents with a more effective approach to teaching their children the skills of caring and sharing, we will better equip them to succeed in life."

About the Survey

This national survey was conducted by NOP World national telephone Omnibus in August 2005. On an omnibus survey of over 1000 adult Americans, 500 parents of kids under age 18 were surveyed. 300 children ages 6-12 were also surveyed using a follow-up youth Omnibus. The margin of error is +/- 6% for the parent population and +/- 8% for the child population, both at the 95% confidence level.

About American Greetings Corporation

American Greetings Corporation (NYSE: AM) is one of the world's largest manufacturers of social expression products. Along with greeting cards, its product lines include gift wrap, party goods, candles, stationery, calendars, educational products, ornaments and electronic greetings. American Greetings is also the creator and owner of many celebrated character properties, including Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, American Greetings generates annual net sales of approximately $2 billion. For more information on the Corporation, visit http://corporate.americangreetings.com.

The Care Bears brand is owned by American Greetings Corporation (NYSE: AM), one of the world's largest manufacturers of social expression products. For more information on the Care Bears Good Deed Web Kit, visit www.care-bears.com.

CONTACT:
Marisa Ollins
Kaplow Communications
212-221-1713
marisao@kaplowpr.com

SOURCE American Greetings Corporation