Child-Rearing Authoritarianism Measure

The child-rearing values measure, introduced by Stanley Feldman and Karen Stenner in 1997, gauges an authoritarian predisposition indirectly by asking which qualities respondents most want to instill in children. Each item forces a choice between an autonomy-oriented quality (such as independence or curiosity) and a conformity-oriented quality (such as obedience or good manners). Because the questions never mention politics, the resulting four-item index measures a deep disposition toward order and sameness without contaminating it with the political attitudes it is meant to explain, avoiding the tautology that plagued earlier authoritarianism scales.