Unequal Childhoods

Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life
Author(s)	Annette Lareau
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject(s)	Sociology; American Studies; Ethnic Studies
Genre(s)	non-fiction
Publisher	University of California Press
Publication date	September 2003
Pages	343
ISBN	0520239504
OCLC Number	315483187
Dewey Decimal	305.23 21
LC Classification	HQ767.9 .L37 2003

Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life is a 2003 non-fiction book by American author Annette Lareau based upon a study of 88 African American and white families (of which only 12 were discussed) to understand the impact of how social class makes a difference in family life, more specifically in children's lives. The book argues that regardless of race, social economic class will determine how children cultivate skills they will use in the future. In the second edition, Lareau revisits the subjects from the original study a decade later in order to examine the impact of social class on the transition to adulthood. She covers the subjects awareness of their social class,high school experiences and the effect of organized activities as they went through their adolescent years. She emphasizes the use of concerted cultivation and natural growth as tools parents in different social and economic classes use in order to raise their children and by continuing her research ten years later she is able to show how these methods of child rearing helped to cultivate the children into the adults they are today.

Methodology

Lareau and her graduate researchers followed these families around in their daily lives. They attended sporting events, spent the night in the family's home, and attended a doctor's visit to observe the differences between the working and poor-class families, and middle class families. During her observations, she notices two different parenting styles.

Parenting Styles

Annette Lareau distinguishes between two different parenting styles: Concerted Cultivation and the Achievement of Natural Growth.

Concerted Cultivation: The parenting style, favored by middle-class families, in which parents encourage negotiation and discussion and the questioning of authority, and enroll their children in extensive organized activity participation. This style helps children in middle-class careers, teaches them to question people in authority, develops a large vocabulary, and makes them comfortable in discussions with people of authority. However, it gives the children a sense of entitlement.

Accomplishment of Natural Growth: The parenting style, favored by working-class and lower-class families, in which parents issue directives to their children rather than negotiations, encourage the following and trusting of people in authority positions, and do not structure their children's daily activities, but rather let the children play on their own. This method has benefits that prepare the children for a job in the "working" or "poor-class" jobs, teaches the children to respect and take the advice of people in authority, and allows the children to become independent at a younger age.

Reviews

• Margaret Foley, "Class Matters", "Mother's Movement Online", October, 2005.
• Harry Brighouse, "David Brooks on Annette Lareau’s Unequal Childhoods", "Crooked Timber", March 12, 2006; BW05
• Elizabeth Lower-Basch, "Review: Unequal Childhoods", "Half Changed World", May 4, 2005

See also

Concerted cultivation
Middle class
Working class
Social class

External links

• "Unequal Childhoods", University of California Press,
• "Annette Lareau, Ph.D" University of Pennsylvania, Department of Sociology , from University of Pennsylvania
• "Annette Lareau, Professor" "Department of Sociology", From University of Maryland, College Park
• Unequal Childhoods, by Annette Lareau from "Beingnotdoing.org"

Further reading

• David R. Roediger: Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24070-4
• "Sharon Hays": Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195176018
• "Linda Stout": Bridging the Class Divide: And Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing. Beacon Press. ISBN 9780807043097
• Michael Katz: The Price of Citizenship: Redefining the American Welfare State.. (Metropolitan Books.) New York: Henry Holt, 2001. ISBN 0-8050-5208-9
• Viviana Zelizer: Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children, Princeton University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-691-03459-1
• "William Corsaro": Sociology of Childhood, Pine Forge Press (2004). ISBN 0761987517 / 9780761987512