Parenting in privilege or peril : how social inequality enables or derails the American dream / Pamela R. Bennett, Amy Lutz, Lakshmi Jayaram.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bennett, Pamela R., author.

Lutz, Amy, author.

Jayaram, Lakshmi, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Child rearing--Economic aspects--United States.

Child rearing.

Families--Economic aspects--United States.

Families.

Families--Economic aspects.

Equality--Economic aspects.

Equality.

Child rearing--Economic aspects.

United States.

Equality--Economic aspects--United States.

Physical Description:

x, 242 pages : illustrations, charts ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Teachers College Press, [2021]

Summary:

"Is the American dream that exists for the middle class equally available to the working class? Using extensive interviews with parents and a variety of data sources, this book examines how social contexts and culture affect parenting decisions. By analyzing class differences in neighborhoods, schools, and networks, as well as their relationship to mobility-related parenting practices, the authors demonstrate that cultural differences are no match for economic inequalities. They show how middle-class parents have access to social contexts characterized by security, which gives rise to what the authors call 'strategic parenting'--a set of practices that allow adolescents to develop the qualities and skills they will use to go off to college and, subsequently, achieve the American dream. Conversely, the contexts of working-class parents are characterized by precarity, giving rise to 'defensive parenting'--an almost frantic use of harm-mitigating interventions to protect adolescents from threats to both their well-being and prospects for mobility. This important book calls for a shift in public policy away from trying to change working-class parents to improving the social contexts in which society asks them to raise the next generation." -- Publisher's description

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Social Contexts Matter

Culture, Conditions, and Constraints: Themes and Variation in Explanations for Social Reproduction

Defensive and Strategic Parenting: An Illustration

Data

Overview of the Book

1. Worlds Vastly Different: The Neighborhood and School

Contexts of Middle-Class and Working-Class Families

The School Contexts in Which Middle-Class and Working-Class Children Learn

The Residential Contexts of Middle-Class and Working-Class Parents

Summary

2. Networks to Get Ahead and Networks to Get By

Measuring Social Networks

Class Differences in Social Network Resources

Class Differences in the Utilization of Social Network Resources

From Getting by to Getting Ahead

3. Navigating Adolescence in Unequal Contexts

Vigilance Among the Working Class

Fostering Autonomy Among the Middle Class

4. Opportunities to Participate: Unequal Contexts and Social Class Differences in Structured Activity Participation

Studying Parents' Engagement With Structured Activities

Social Class Differences in Structured Activity Participation

Parents' Expressed Cultural Logic

Schools as Equalizing Institutions

Financial and Institutional Constraints on Non-School Activities Among the Working Class

5. In Search of a Good School: Middle-Class and Working-Class Parents' Navigation of the High School Application Process

Universal Participation in the Application Process

The Middle-Class Pursuit of an Elite Public Education

Working-Class Parents' Avoidance of Dangerous Schools

Teacher Assistance in Choosing Schools

Social Class Differences in High School Selectivity

6. Unequal Contexts and Parents' Educational and Occupational Expectations

Educational Expectations

Occupational Expectations

The Meaning of Adolescent "Mistakes"

7. The American Shift to Child-Centered Parenting

Child-Centered Parenting

Conclusion

To Strategize and Defend

The Privilege to Live One's Values

What Can We Do? Policy Recommendations.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0807766011

9780807766019

080776602X

9780807766026

OCLC:

1247680395