diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/DummyTasklet.java b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/DummyTasklet.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..996ed41b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/DummyTasklet.java
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+package org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml;
+
+import org.springframework.batch.core.StepContribution;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.scope.context.ChunkContext;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.step.tasklet.Tasklet;
+import org.springframework.batch.repeat.RepeatStatus;
+
+/**
+ * @author Dan Garrette
+ * @since 2.0
+ */
+public class DummyTasklet implements Tasklet {
+
+	public RepeatStatus execute(StepContribution contribution, ChunkContext chunkContext) throws Exception {
+		return null;
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserTests.java b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserTests.java
index d78416ee9..726dbc552 100644
--- a/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserTests.java
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserTests.java
@@ -20,10 +20,16 @@ import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
 import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 
 import java.lang.reflect.Field;
+import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.springframework.aop.framework.Advised;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.Step;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.StepExecutionListener;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.listener.CompositeStepExecutionListener;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.listener.StepExecutionListenerSupport;
+import org.springframework.batch.core.step.AbstractStep;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.step.item.ChunkOrientedTasklet;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.step.item.ChunkProvider;
 import org.springframework.batch.core.step.item.FaultTolerantStepFactoryBean;
@@ -97,10 +103,25 @@ public class StepParserTests {
 		assertTrue("'s1' bean not found", beans.containsKey("s1"));
 		Step s1 = (Step) ctx.getBean("s1");
 		CompletionPolicy completionPolicy = getCompletionPolicy(s1);
-		System.err.println(completionPolicy);
 		assertTrue(completionPolicy instanceof DummyCompletionPolicy);
 	}
 
+	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+	private CompletionPolicy getCompletionPolicy(Step s1) throws NoSuchFieldException, IllegalAccessException {
+		Field taskletField = TaskletStep.class.getDeclaredField("tasklet");
+		taskletField.setAccessible(true);
+		Tasklet tasklet = (Tasklet) taskletField.get(s1);
+		Field chunkProviderField = ChunkOrientedTasklet.class.getDeclaredField("chunkProvider");
+		chunkProviderField.setAccessible(true);
+		ChunkProvider chunkProvider = (ChunkProvider) chunkProviderField.get(tasklet);
+		Field repeatOperationsField = SimpleChunkProvider.class.getDeclaredField("repeatOperations");
+		repeatOperationsField.setAccessible(true);
+		RepeatOperations repeatOperations = (RepeatOperations) repeatOperationsField.get(chunkProvider);
+		Field completionPolicyField = RepeatTemplate.class.getDeclaredField("completionPolicy");
+		completionPolicyField.setAccessible(true);
+		return (CompletionPolicy) completionPolicyField.get(repeatOperations);
+	}
+
 	@Test(expected = BeanDefinitionParsingException.class)
 	public void testStepParserNoCommitIntervalOrCompletionPolicy() throws Exception {
 		new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
@@ -121,25 +142,75 @@ public class StepParserTests {
 		try {
 			new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(contextLocation);
 			fail("Context should not load!");
-		} catch (BeanDefinitionParsingException e) {
+		}
+		catch (BeanDefinitionParsingException e) {
 			assertTrue(e.getMessage().contains("'ref' and 'class'"));
 		}
 	}
 
-	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
-	private CompletionPolicy getCompletionPolicy(Step s1) throws NoSuchFieldException, IllegalAccessException {
-		Field taskletField = TaskletStep.class.getDeclaredField("tasklet");
-		taskletField.setAccessible(true);
-		Tasklet tasklet = (Tasklet) taskletField.get(s1);
-		Field chunkProviderField = ChunkOrientedTasklet.class.getDeclaredField("chunkProvider");
-		chunkProviderField.setAccessible(true);
-		ChunkProvider chunkProvider = (ChunkProvider) chunkProviderField.get(tasklet);
-		Field repeatOperationsField = SimpleChunkProvider.class.getDeclaredField("repeatOperations");
-		repeatOperationsField.setAccessible(true);
-		RepeatOperations repeatOperations = (RepeatOperations) repeatOperationsField.get(chunkProvider);
-		Field completionPolicyField = RepeatTemplate.class.getDeclaredField("completionPolicy");
-		completionPolicyField.setAccessible(true);
-		return (CompletionPolicy) completionPolicyField.get(repeatOperations);
+	@Test(expected = BeanDefinitionParsingException.class)
+	public void testStepParserParentAndRef() throws Exception {
+		new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
+				"org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserParentAndRefTests-context.xml");
 	}
 
+	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+	@Test
+	public void testStepParserParentAttribute() throws Exception {
+		ConfigurableApplicationContext ctx = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(
+				"org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserParentAttributeTests-context.xml");
+		Map<String, Object> beans = ctx.getBeansOfType(Step.class);
+		assertTrue(beans.containsKey("s1"));
+		Step s1 = (Step) ctx.getBean("s1");
+		assertTrue(beans.containsKey("s2"));
+		Step s2 = (Step) ctx.getBean("s2");
+		assertTrue(beans.containsKey("s3"));
+		Step s3 = (Step) ctx.getBean("s3");
+		assertTrue(beans.containsKey("s4"));
+		Step s4 = (Step) ctx.getBean("s4");
+
+		assertTrue(s1 instanceof TaskletStep);
+		assertTrue(getListener((TaskletStep) s1) instanceof StepExecutionListenerSupport);
+
+		assertTrue(s2 instanceof DelegatingStep);
+		assertTrue(getListener((DelegatingStep) s2) instanceof StepExecutionListenerSupport);
+
+		assertTrue(s3 instanceof TaskletStep);
+		assertTrue(getListener((TaskletStep) s3) instanceof StepExecutionListenerSupport);
+
+		assertTrue(s4 instanceof DelegatingStep);
+		assertTrue(getListener((DelegatingStep) s4) instanceof StepExecutionListenerSupport);
+	}
+
+	private StepExecutionListener getListener(DelegatingStep step) throws Exception {
+		assertTrue(step instanceof DelegatingStep);
+		Field delegateField = DelegatingStep.class.getDeclaredField("delegate");
+		delegateField.setAccessible(true);
+		Object delegate = delegateField.get(step);
+		assertTrue(delegate instanceof TaskletStep);
+		return getListener((TaskletStep) delegate);
+	}
+
+	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
+	private StepExecutionListener getListener(TaskletStep step) throws Exception {
+		Field listenerField = AbstractStep.class.getDeclaredField("stepExecutionListener");
+		listenerField.setAccessible(true);
+		Object compositeListener = listenerField.get(step);
+
+		Field compositeField = CompositeStepExecutionListener.class.getDeclaredField("list");
+		compositeField.setAccessible(true);
+		Object composite = compositeField.get(compositeListener);
+
+		Class cls = Class.forName("org.springframework.batch.core.listener.OrderedComposite");
+		Field listField = cls.getDeclaredField("list");
+		listField.setAccessible(true);
+		List<StepExecutionListener> list = (List<StepExecutionListener>) listField.get(composite);
+
+		assertEquals(1, list.size());
+		StepExecutionListener listener = list.get(0);
+		if (listener instanceof Advised) {
+			listener = (StepExecutionListener) ((Advised) listener).getTargetSource().getTarget();
+		}
+		return listener;
+	}
 }
diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserParentAndRefTests-context.xml b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserParentAndRefTests-context.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..603663a87
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserParentAndRefTests-context.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch" xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch/spring-batch-2.0.xsd
+	http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd">
+
+	<beans:import resource="common-context.xml" />
+
+	<job id="job">
+		<step id="s1" parent="baseStep" ref="step1"/>
+	</job>
+	
+	<step id="baseStep" abstract="false">
+		<listeners>
+			<listener class="org.springframework.batch.core.listener.StepExecutionListenerSupport"/>
+		</listeners>
+	</step>
+	
+</beans:beans>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserParentAttributeTests-context.xml b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserParentAttributeTests-context.xml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..dfe4bf058
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-batch-core/src/test/resources/org/springframework/batch/core/configuration/xml/StepParserParentAttributeTests-context.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch" xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch http://www.springframework.org/schema/batch/spring-batch-2.0.xsd
+	http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd">
+
+	<beans:import resource="common-context.xml" />
+
+	<job id="job">
+		<step id="s1" parent="baseStep" next="s2">
+			<tasklet reader="reader" writer="writer" commit-interval="5"/>
+		</step>
+		<step id="s2" ref="standalone2" next="s3"/>
+		<step id="s3" parent="baseTaskletStep" tasklet="dummyTasklet" next="s4"/>
+		<step id="s4" ref="standalone4"/>
+	</job>
+
+	<step id="standalone2" parent="baseStep">
+		<tasklet reader="reader" writer="writer" commit-interval="5"/>
+	</step>
+	
+	<step id="standalone4" tasklet="dummyTasklet" parent="baseTaskletStep">
+		<tasklet reader="reader" writer="writer" commit-interval="5"/>
+	</step>
+
+	<step id="baseStep" abstract="true">
+		<listeners>
+			<listener class="org.springframework.batch.core.listener.StepExecutionListenerSupport"/>
+		</listeners>
+	</step>
+	
+	<!-- TODO: Use baseStep instead once BATCH-1136 is implemented -->
+	<beans:bean id="baseTaskletStep" abstract="true">
+		<beans:property name="stepExecutionListeners">
+			<beans:bean class="org.springframework.batch.core.listener.StepExecutionListenerSupport"/>
+		</beans:property>
+	</beans:bean>
+
+	<beans:bean id="dummyTasklet" class="org.springframework.batch.core.configuration.xml.DummyTasklet"/>
+
+</beans:beans>
\ No newline at end of file