本研究目的有三：一、探索母親對幼兒自主的信念。二、探討母親對文化中與幼兒自主概念有關的信念。三、了解父母社經背景、母親年齡對幼兒自主能力信念和有關文化變項的影響。 本研究在台灣北中南三區及澎湖、金門共發出3155份，回收1768份，符合由本國籍母親填寫問卷的有效問卷為1171份。資料以描述統計和ANOVA做分析。整體而言，大部分的母親認為3-6歲的幼兒具有功能性自主（如自我依賴、判斷表達），但互動性自主（如自我主張、自我控制）可能由於具有動態的特質而未能從量表得知。例如自我控制分量表出現內部不一致的現象。可能因為幼兒在這個階段本來就較不易自我控制，幼兒在不同的情境下有不同的行為，而且父母對三歲幼兒的期望可能和五歲、六歲者不相同。再者，經因素分析後保留了自我主張分量表中描述幼兒表達自己想法的題項，刪除其中「不受他人支配或影響」的題項。可能原因為在自然情境下「不受他人支配或影響」可以解讀為堅持自主權，或是蓄意反抗，不容易透過自陳量表呈現。建議未來可從觀察親子在自然情境下的互動，以獲得這方面的資訊。 有趣的是大多數的母親認為其幼兒具有功能性自主，但同時也強調親子間的情感聯繫。71.65%的母親不但認同親子同寢的信念，也經常如此做，且無社經背景的區別。社經地位是影響母親對幼兒自主能力信念的重要指標。社經地位較高的母親較認為幼兒具有自主能力，也對幼兒的反抗行為抱以較正面的觀點。 本研究希望能增進父母、幼教工作者對台灣教養文化的了解，激發相關領域的工作者繼續從事親子關係的研究並思考如何融合我國與西方文化，進而發展適合本土的親職課程。

The purposes of this study are three folds: (1) exploring mothers’ perspectives on young children’s autonomy; (2) examining mothers’ cultural beliefs related to children’s autonomy; (3) investigating the influences of SES factors on mothers’ beliefs in young children’s autonomy and other related cultural beliefs. The participants are 1,171 Taiwanese mothers whose children aged between three to six years old. The mothers completed measures of mothers’ beliefs in children’s autonomy, which was composed by two concepts. One was functional autonomy such as self-reliance and self-judgment. The other one was interactive autonomy such as self-control and self-assertion. In addition, the cultural factors such as mothers’ beliefs in co-sleeping with their children as well as mother’s beliefs in negativism were also investigated. The statistical analyses applied to this research are descriptive statistics and ANOVA. Overall, most of the mothers believe that their young children are functionally autonomous. However, due to the dynamic nature of interactive autonomy, it was not revealed through this measurement. Observations on parent-child interactions in a naturalistic context may convey more valuable data regarding interactive autonomy. For example, the low value of Cronbach α of self-control could be that children aged from 3 to 6 years old may have different levels of self-control; meanwhile, the subscale of self-assertion is mainly measuring one dimension of self-assertion, that is self-expression. In a naturalistic context, the meanings in self-assertion may appear to be multi-layers; for example, self-assertion can be seen as showing one’s autonomy or revealing one’s defiance. Interestingly, although the mothers expected their children to be functionally autonomous; emotionally they also wished to be close to their children. 71.65% of the mothers co-slept with their children until their kids were 6 years old. Bed sharing is seen by the mothers as a way to enhance the intimacy with their children. The results also indicate that mothers from different SES backgrounds hold different beliefs in young children’s autonomy and related cultural beliefs. Generally speaking, the mothers with higher SES backgrounds tend to believe that their children have more autonomous competence. On the other hand, the lower SES mothers tend to give less credit for their children’s autonomous competence. Implications for parental education and further research are also suggested.