Accuracy of college students' reports of parental handedness

College students' reports of their parents' handedness were compared with data provided by the parents themselves. The students' reports of their parents' writing hand were highly accurate, the reports of their parents' general handedness somewhat less so. For the latter measure, the students were asked, 'What is your mother's (father's) handedness?' and were given the choice 'left','either', 'right',and 'don't know'. Their answers were then compared with the investigators' classification based on the parents' answers to a 10-item hand-use questionnaire. For this measure, the accuracy of the students' reports was also found to be related to the students' own handedness.