Different child-rearing practices

(based on Annette Lareau's research)

	Child-rearing practices
	'Concerted cultivation'	'Accomplishment of natural growth'
Key elements	Parent activly fosters and assesses child's talents, opinions, and skills	Parent cares for child and allows child to grow
Organization of daily life	Multiple child leisure activities orchestrated by adults	'Hanging out,' particularly with kin, by child
Language use	Reasoning/directives Child contestation of adult statements Extended negotiations between parents and child	Directives Rare questioning or challenging of adults by child General acceptance by child of directives
Interventions in institutions	Criticisms and interventions on behalf of child Training of child to take on this role	Dependence on institutions Sense of powerlessness and frustration Conflict between child-rearing practices at home and at school
Consequences	Emerging sense of entitlement on the part of the child	Emering sense of constraint on the part of the child
Time and money	Constant discussions of finances, inability to pay for 'extras'; Attending events parent/teacher conferences, etc., and getting off work	Money may rarely be discussed (but is usually available when needed); The right job lets parents be more flexible to attend children's events, participate/coach, etc.

• Invisible privilege (e.g., 'human capital,' team sports, prioritizing, competition, dealing with adults)
• 'Cumulative advantage' (early start on some of these skills, small early differences, can widen over time)

Garrett vs Tyrec vs Katie

• Parental involvement
• Upper and middle-class 'micromanagement' of kids' time, activity choices (and the logistics involved)
• Working class--less interest in being involved, activites seen as less consequential, getting kids organized for the mundane daily activities is time-consuming
• Cultivation vs constraint
• Financial considerations (e.g., Tyrec and football)
• Organized activities (Garrett vs Katie, who sings in two choirs, vs Tyrec, who tried football)
• Time budgets--how differently to poor/middle class parents spend their time? How is this affected by household budgets (transportation, shopping, necessary errands, health care, bank, etc.)?
• Parents in household (underlying causes behind single parent status)??
• Kids' behavior around the house vs with peers
• Importance of other family members, extended and nuclear (and entangling alliances)
• Public assistance, the work of getting it
• Food resources, monthly eating cycles
• Homework assistance (how to 'help')?
• Television watching
• Poverty is work (housing issues, laundry, food, transportation, health care ....), chaos (the whole ordeal the Brindles go through with Jenna, her health, moving to Florida, eviction, etc.)
• Mental health, depression
• Race--exposure to diversity
• . . . . . the importance?

 

Harold and Billy

• White working-class vs black housing project
• Use of language, reasoning

  • unspoken emotion
  • speaking with the 'middle class' (e.g., doctors .... schools ... welfare ... at hospitals??)
• Behavior at school and home
• Questioning authority (at home, school, the doctor . . . . welfare?)
• Corporal punishment
• Who's responsible for child's education?
• Trust in institutions (Billy, his mom, and CPS)
• autonomy around the house, control over leisure time ('unstructured play')
• 'code of the street'
• race
• family, kinship
• money in the household, paying bills
• institutions function in ways that 'confer advantages upon middle class children'--what does she mean?
• Bureaucracies, 'ideal types,' bureaucrats . . . . . whose values are reflected?
• Human capital impllications?

Summing up

 

 

Annette Lareau. 2003. Unequal Childhoods. Berkeley: University of California Press (p 30).