Childrearing and Socialization

Below are some articles that we read in order to be able to complete our research on child- rearing. Though not all articles are directly related to gender they do help us in trying to figure out different methodology for child-rearing practices. Our extensive research has helped us become strongly affiliated with our subject matter. We hope these summaries allow you to deeper understand how child rearing has come to affect our society.

1. Esteinou, Rosario(2005)'Parenting in Mexican Society',Marriage & Family
Review,36:3,7 — 29

In the article, Parenting in Mexican Society, Rosario Esteinou, argues that anthropological studies examine child rearing practices, but merely present their findings as “customs.” Therefore, the author goes on the to place substantial emphasis on the fact that societal changes have great impact on the Mexican child and the family. Those changes include, economic crisis, labor market, restructuring, demographic alterations, and globalization. Due to these same problems within their society the family ties grow stronger as they try to surpass those hardships, showing that they are family oriented. Esteinou comes to a conclusion that Mexican children are more family oriented and many of their decision are put under the control of the parents.

2. McLanahan, Sara, and Christine Percheski. "Family Structure and the Reproduction of Inequalities." Annual Review of Sociology, 34.1 (2008): 257.

In the article, Family Structure and the Reproduction of Inequalities, the author’s argument is that family formation is an important method in the reproduction of poverty and inequality Researchers indicate that when the biological parent lives separately the child’s future and life chances will be deeply affected. Single motherhood actually lowers a child’s future life possibilities due to a drop in parental resources accessible. Children that have a lower income allocation are more likely to experience father absence then any other child. Therefore, family formation increases inequality between minorities and men and women.

3. Raley, Sara, and Suzanne Bianchi. "Sons, Daughters, and Family Processes: Does Gender of Children Matter?." Annual Review of Sociology, 32.1 (2006): 401.

In the review by Sara Raley and Suzanne Bianchi, the main focus is to examine if there is an influence of gender, based on family life, when it comes to a child, and how that will inevitably come to affect adult behavior. Raley and Bianchi discovered that the father continues to devote time to market work and occupation attainment while the mother devotes most of her time to child rearing. The authors discovered that parents reinforced gender differences by subtly treating them differently and diverse uses of language between sexes. For example, when it came to play, boys were encouraged to play with trains and cars, while girls are encouraged to play house and wash dishes. In conclusion, the authors suggest that the gender of a child has implications for ways in which a parent treats, spends time with, invests in, and ultimately receive care from their child later on in life.

4. Wohlwend, Karen. "Damsels in Discourse: Girls Consuming and Producing Identity Texts Through Disney Princess Play." Reading Research Quarterly, 44.1 (2009): 57-83.

In the article, Damsels in Discourse: Girls Consuming and Producing Identity Texts through Disney Princess Play, written by Karen E. Wohlwend (2009) explains a study that was conducted in a Kindergarten classroom. The purpose of this study was to see if there is a correlation between Disney’s Princesses characters and the identity kindergarten girls portray while in class. The results showed that kindergarten girls imitate to the exact words and actions of the Disney’s Princesses. One of the scenarios that was explained in this article is that of a little girl’s story book that she drew herself. The assignment that was given by the Kindergarten teacher was to make up a play and write/draw it on paper. The young girl was drawing the play to demonstrate the ‘happily ever after’ ending and in her own letters she wrote “the queen and king went into the castle and took a nap (2009, p. 67). Little girls were observed in make-believe play on the playground and during story time would get into specific conversation about Disney’s Princesses lives. Wohlwend firmly believes that Disney has an effect on how girls are growing up to think that their main priorities in life are to be beautiful and find prince charming. Many girls are being socialized in school and are growing up to believe that “happily ever after” is attainable in every day life.

5. Jambunathan, Saigeetha, Diane Burts, and Sarah Pierce. "Comparisons of Parenting Attitudes Among Five Ethnic Groups in the United States." Journal of Comparative Family Studies V. 31 No. 4 (Autumn 2000) P. 395-406, 31.4 (2000): 395-406.

It is obvious that different ethnic backgrounds cause a different method in child rearing. In the article, Comparison of Parent Attitudes, researchers focus on comparing parenting attitudes between four different minorities and European Americans. They successfully complete this by showing the cultural variations in the parenting attitudes of mothers that belong in various ethnic groups. For example, African American mothers are seen as authoritative and must be spoken to with profound respect, whereas Asian American mothers are primarily concerned with forming a close bond. Seeing that in most minority cases the mother was the quintessential figure in most children’s lives, there was a stronger bond made with females.

6. Modry-Mandell, Kerri, Wendy Gamble, and Angela Taylor. "Family Emotional Climate and Sibling Relationship Quality: Influences on Behavioral Problems and Adaptation in Preschool-Aged Children." Journal of Child & Family Studies, 16.1 (2007): 59-71.

Kerri L. Modry-Mandell, Wendy C. Gamle, and Angela R. Taylor, argue in their article, that preschool aged children mock the attitudes and behaviors of their parents. It was noted in the article that the participants of the study were “95% of Mexican descent” (2006, p. 61). Results showed that the preschoolers, both boys and girls, who were more aggressive and temperamental, were most likely to have parents who would either treat their spouse that way or would treat them (their children) that way. Results also showed that the relationship these preschoolers had with other siblings in their family, were agonist and competitive, as stated by Modry-Mandell, Gamle, and Taylor (2006). It was suggested that if one wants to understand how or why a preschooler boy or girl acts the way they do, they should get to know the parents first.

7. Pascoe, C.J., “Dude, You’re a Fag: Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse”

In “Dude, You’re a Fag,” C.J. Pascoe argues that American adolescent boys become masculine through the fag epithet. The author goes on to prove this through a study done in a high school. Through the study Pascoe finds that the fag insult has multiple meanings, which are mainly gendered, but also sexualized and raced. It is gendered because it does not apply to the female population. Focus is mainly on the fact that the fad discourse is not primarily used to describe, as it is used to describe heterosexual boys as well. Boys try to be as masculine as possible to try and escape the epithet, as one boy in the study says, “ it reduces a boy to nothing.” Research was also dedicated to demonstrate how the word fag has turned to race. For example, an African American boy who is familiar with the hip hop culture can be clean-cut and care about his appearance, while if a white boy dedicates time to looking good he will become a fag. Due to the nature of socialization, gender is embedded in a multitude of social structures, like the family and most importantly school. The fag epithet has not only become an identity deemed to homosexual boys, it has come to serve as a discourse by which boys disciple one another.

8. Reay,Diane, “Spice Girls,” “Nice Girls,” “Girlies,” “and “Tomboys”: Gender Discourses, Girls’ Cultures, and Femininities in the Primary Classroom”

The article by Diane Rae, is focused on establishing the manner in which gender discourses position girls in school, in order to be able to understand the femininities formed in the primary classroom. To accomplish this she observes a classroom of seven year old children and then goes on to interview them. Throughout her research she comes to find that in both cases, of boys and girls, it is believed that being a boy is better. It is clear that gender operates as a hierarchy and the girls’ are left behind when it comes to who is more popular in school. It is prevalent that throughout her study she finds that though boys are neither academically superior nor are better behaved in the classroom. In conclusion, though overall, females in the classroom perform better then boys the dominant view is that it is preferable by both sexes to be a boy.

9. Zittleman, Karen, “Being a Girl and Being a Boy”

In Zittleman’s article it is argued how the Schema theory is a great influence on how boys and girls view “the good or bad things” about being their gender. Gender schema is a non-conscious hypothesis about sex differences that guide people’s perceptions and behaviors, leading men and women alike to overvalue males and undervalue females. This belief resembles exactly what the results showed in the study described in her article. An example of this is that over 40% of the girls agreed that being a boy is better and 95% of the boys agreed that there is no good thing in being a girl and that they would rather kill themselves than being a girl.

10. Hiedemann, Bridget, Jutta Joesch, and Elaina Rose. "More Daughters in Child Care? Child Gender and the Use of Nonrelative Child Care Arrangements." Social Science Quarterly (Blackwell Publishing Limited), 85.1 (2004): 154-168.

In many households child care is an essential part of everyday life, as parents must work. In the article, More daughters in child care?, the author’s argue that decisions based on nonrelative child care arrangements are related to a child’s gender. In many cases, girls are placed in nonrelative care, due to maturity levels, which boys lack. This will inevitably come to affect not only the child, but the family as well. Families with sons are said to have higher paternal earnings, have fathers that are more engaged in everyday activities, greater maternal stability, and more traditional gender roles. Therefore, due girls lacking in maternal care, boys will reap the long term benefits in terms of finance and emotional stability with two-parent families.

11. Cote, Linda, and Marc Bornstein. "Child and Mother Play in Three U.S. Cultural Groups: Comparisons and Associations." Journal of Family Psychology V. 23 No. 3 (June 2009) P. 355-63, 23.3 (2009): 355-363.

Linda Cote and Marc Bornstein, argue that in a child’s second year of lie, play moves from being exploratory to becoming symbolic and pretense oriented. They go on to describe how different cultural backgrounds affect child play, a form of socialization. Research indicates that the three cultural groups being investigated all resembled one another when it came to mother and child play. Boys were being more engaged in exploratory play whereas girls were involved in more symbolic play. Take for example, boys saw a ball as a way for physical manipulation of the object and girls saw the same ball and pretended it was an orange and ate it. Study finds that in all cases of gender, play is more sophisticated when the mother encourages the child, than when children imitate play or play alone.

12. Kroneman, Leoniek, Rolf Loeber, Alison Hipwell, and Hans Koot. "Girls' Disruptive Behavior and Its Relationship to Family Functioning: A Review." Journal of Child & Family Studies, 18.3 (2009): 259-273.

This article takes a look at parental socialization and differential development among girls and boys as the framework for later gender inequality. This article describes the unique aspects of the development of disruptive behavior in girls and how they pertain to family risks and protective processes. Links between dysfunctional families and a daughter’s aggressive behavior have been found. Girls tend to be more oriented towards inter-personal relationships and gaining social approval than boys. This makes girls vulnerable to the effects of low parenting warmth and high level of familial comfort. The article goes on to explain a girl’s phenotype and development of disruptive behavior comes much more severe than boys in early child hood. Boys show more overt aggression whereas girls show more relational aggression, which is talking about her friends and spreading rumors about one another. Girl’s disruptive behavior included running away from home, truancies, lying, and drug or alcohol abuse. Boy’s disruptive behavior included more cheating, vandalism, and stealing. Overall the article points out that parent behaviors toward girls change over time with their warmth decreasing for them and increasing for boys which results in the bad behavior of girls . Parenting is influenced by genetic make-up, socio economic status, race/ethnicity, and parent’s Psychological health.

13. Lareau, Annette. "Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families.2002): 747-776." American Sociological Review, 67.5 (

This article takes a look at the socioeconomic and ethnographic differences in childrearing. The focus is mainly at the ways in which the white middle class, African American working class, and poor parents nurture their children. The thesis argues that race has little impact on social class. The working class and poor parents engage in the accomplishments of natural growth whereas the middle class parents focus on the child’s talents. The article proves its thesis by the results obtained over an experiment of 3 different examinations . An overall result showed that race did not show much impact on social class but it did not necessarily mean it did not matter. Lower class black fathers were more interested in monitoring their children’s outside life to refrain them from experiencing racism. Middle class African-American men were more occupied by teaching their children what it meant to be a black male in today’s society. The overall organization of daily life also differed by social class. Working class poor children spent most of their free time with informal play, Middle class children spent their free time doing adult driven activities that enhanced their intellectual beings and better their talents such as piano lessons and sports. Upper class used their free time with more academic activities such as reading. Due to African American families focusing much of their time on their culture and race, they do not succumb success as much as white families do.

14. Gardner, Frances, Thomas Dishion, Daniel Shaw, Jennifer Burton, and Lauren Supplee. "Randomized Prevention Trial for Early Conduct Problems: Effects on Proactive Parenting and Links to Toddler Disruptive Behavior." Journal of Family Psychology V. 21 No. 3 (September 2007) P. 398-406, 21.3 (2007): 398-406.

This article’s thesis states that Proactive and Positive parenting helps reduce the risk of toddler disruptive behavior. A random study was conducted to look at 120 low-income two year old boys. The study showed parents who address their children’s disruptive behavior with violence showed a higher rate in crimes committed into early adult hood. It is plausible that negative interaction patterns are more enduring, driven by negative emotion, and therefore require structured and persistent interventions to change. Negative feedback is characterized as any type of threatening, yelling, and criticizing. Study shows that negative feedback more frequently affects girls than it does boys. Multi-problem families are likely to be successful in retaining positive proactive parenting by allowing careful attention of positive motivation, family centered intervention and feedback. It is essential for positive parenting at a young age because it will certainly foreshadow where the child will stand in the future.

15. Fitzgerald, Hiram, Tammy Mann, Natasha Cabrera, Michelle Sarche, and Desiree Qin. "Development of Infants and Toddlers in Ethnoracial Families." Infant Mental Health Journal, 30.5 (2009): 425-432.

In the article, “ Development of Infants and Toddlers in Ethnoracial Families,” research is used to try to attempt to identify the effects of multicultural families in the development of a child. Due to the rising levels of interracial marriages it has become easier to focus on families that have a wide array of cultures within the family. The diversity of cultures in a family has proven that if a parent is born in their country of origin, and is anyplace other than the U.S., their child will have be more negative, due to negative parenting. For example, children who had parent that were born in Mexico were said to be less ready for school then those who had parents born in the U.S. In any case, girls displayed more emotional readiness than boys did. Children who come from and ethnoracial background will struggle more, however focus should be placed upon discovering ways in which children from various cultural backgrounds can be helped to perform more successfully.

Historical Overview

- Child rearing has been in context for as long as children have been born. Through out the centuries the act of child rearing has transformed. In many ways the alteration of child rearing has been viewed as a rehabilitation, but to some it has changed to a media driven society causing a socialization of parenting ruled by various institutions. Those institutions have come to include the family, schooling systems, and the media. These shifts in the socialization of parenting have been fused by different social, political, and economic shifts that have taken place. There is no exact date by which we can stand by and say where the history of child rearing begins, but trends and patters are perceptible.

A Brief History

Child rearing can date back to the 1400’s when the Europeans first colonized the America’s. Native American families seemed to be more close knit. Tribal parents showed more affection to their children and were more supportive than European families. Children would engage in tribal rituals, which would help them develop their future adult roles.

In the 16th century parents were unsympathetic when it came to the raising of their children. Paternal authority was a must, and disobedience was seen with much revulsion. Puritans, of New England, were strict with their offspring because they believed they were born of sin. In the South many children were orphaned, which caused a high death rate.

Prior to the onset of the 20th century, the health of children was a dominant issue. Medical care was lacking, causing a high infant and mortality rate. A big factor that contributed to death was that many children were working prior to the civil war. Child labor was common and poor families had children contributing to the economic unit of the household.

By the second half of the 19th century, child rearing greatly improved. Due to ideas of the Enlightenment, parents became more affectionate, and children were seen as innocent creatures that needed to be molded. The parent-child relationship grew to have stronger bonds and a more sincere relationship.

Now in the 21st century, child rearing has had a dramatic shift. Parenting is now overcome by outside sources other then the family. The socialization of child-rearing has become uncontrollable, as outside sources begin to play a factor on the bringing up of a child. Now children are being taught by schools, friends and more importantly, the media.

* Below are a few models that sparked the commencement of different modes to the raising of children.

Modes of child rearing
- Infanticidal Mode : children were a representation of evil therefore had to be controlled and even killed. This was seen back in the 4th century and continued into the late 1800’s. This is known to many as the reversal reaction and is present through infancy up until adolescence. It is presented through extreme acts of sexual abuse.
- Abandonment Mode: Parents began to discover that these children too had souls. The children were no longer being killed but they still had to control them. The only way of doing so was by distancing themselves from them and abandoning them. This was seen up until the 1600’s. Children were mainly sold into slavery or sent away to foster families.
- Ambivalent Mode: Though children were still seen as these dangerous creatures parents geared towards a more empathic manner of bring them up. They now saw themselves as caregivers and felt it essential to mold these children into being able to reach their full potential.
- Intrusive Mode: Beginning in the 18th century the reversal reaction began to decline and parents became more involved in their child’s life. This sparked the start of child rearing manuals which were geared to help parents improve child care.
-Socializing Mode: Sparked by the commencement of the 19th century parents continued to become even more empathic. The parent was seen as the guide and aid in socializing the child.
- Helping Mode: Seen up until the mid 20th century the helping mode proposed that the parent is merely there to help the child in what he thinks is best for him. Growing for this is a strong independent child who has little fear of higher powers.

Though the history of child-rearing in reality does not have an exact chronological marking we have examined and come up with some events that have helped shape the socialization of child rearing.

Title XI:
The amendment presented in 1972 brought great diversification through schools. Though it is predominantly targeted to the equal opportunity of athletics between gender there was no mention in the amendment of athletics. It was a turning point because it allowed for women to also be allowed to play in where known as “men’s” sports.

School as a Socializing institution
In the 1960’s and 1970’s research showed that schools did not promote social equality and instead reinforced the inequalities found in social structure. Children spend the majority of their lifetimes in schools and this is where they are being taught that there is a difference among their peers, on the basis of gender.

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Townsend P The Smallest Pawns in the Game. Granada Publishing. London, 1980.