Parenting, family policy and children's wellbeing in an unequal society : a new culture war for parents / Dimitra Hartas, University of Warwick, UK.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hartas, Dimitra, 1966- author.

Series:

Palgrave Macmillan studies in family and intimate life

Palgrave Macmillan studies in family and intimate life.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Child development.

Parenting.

Family policy.

Child welfare.

Children--Social conditions.

Children.

Equality.

Physical Description:

ix, 241 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

Western societies face many challenges. The growing inequality and the diminishing role of the welfare state and the rapid accumulation of the resources of a finite planet at the top 1% have made the world an inhospitable place to many families. Parents are left alone to deal with the big societal problems and reverse their impact on their children's educational achievement and life chances. The 'average' working family is sliding down the social ladder with a significant impact on children's learning and wellbeing. We now know that parental involvement with children's learning (although important in its own right) is not the primary mechanism through which poverty translates to underachievement and reduced social mobility. Far more relevant to children's learning and emotional wellbeing is their parents' income and educational qualifications. The mantra of 'what parents do matters' is hypocritical considering the strong influence that poverty has on parents and children. We can no longer argue that we live in a classless society, especially as it becomes clear that most governmental reforms are class based and affect poor families disproportionately. In this book, Dimitra Hartas explores parenting and its influence on children's learning and wellbeing while examining the impact of social class amidst policy initiatives to eradicate child poverty in 21st Century Britain.

Contents:

Part I the Early Home Environment in an Unequal Society: Do Parents Matter?

1 Home Learning Environment and Children's Learning and Well-Being 21

Home learning and child outcomes 24

Parent-child interactions and child outcomes 28

Parental behaviour and aspirations and child outcomes 31

2 Parents' Social Class Still Matters... 36

Parents' socio-economic status and child language and literacy 37

Parents' socio-economic status and children's social behaviour 41

Parenting, class and the achievement gap 42

3 Parenting in an Unequal Society 48

Cultural trends in parenting in diverse families 48

Parenting and a 'culture of poverty' 51

Patterns of parenting and social class 54

Part II Neoliberal Family Policy: Early Intervention and Parent Remodelling

4 Family Policy in 21st Century Britain 75

New Labour family policy 75

The coalition government's family policy: Early-intervention 81

5 Critical Reflections on Early Intervention 90

The scientific rationale for early intervention 91

The pragmatic rationale for early intervention 100

The ethical rationale for early intervention 109

Paradoxes and tensions in early intervention 112

6 Neoliberalisin and Family Policy in Britain 121

Etho-politics: The ethological governance of parents and children 126

The end of privacy in family life 132

Individuated risks and neglect of the big issues 135

A departure from humanism and egalilarianism 137

Final thoughts 140

Note: Statistics on risk and 'children in need' 140

Part III Parenting, Culture Wars and Civic Renewal

7 Parenting: A New Culture War 147

The making of the 'good' parent in late modernity 150

Nudge and the remodelling of parents 157

The science of parenting: 'what works?' 162

8 Family Policy and the Capability Approach to Parents' and Children's Weil-Being 166

A capability approach to parenting 167

Family policy through a capability lens 170

9 A New Paradigm for Family Policy: Civic Education, Equality and Public Reasoning 188

Families' capability building 188

The family in a civic society 202

Note 207.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230354951

0230354955

OCLC:

871480621