Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life

“It is their class differences and how they are enacted in family life and child rearing that shape the ways children view themselves in relation to the rest of the world.”

Lareau’s study examines the ways class differences (middle-class, working-class, and poor) affect family dynamics, their daily lives, and their child-rearing practices. She finds that children develop either a sense of entitlement (in concerted cultivation, usually found in middle-class homes) or a sense of constraint (in the accomplishment of natural growth, usually found in working-class and poor homes). A child’s perception of their position in the world, in the face of authority, and within institutions, has an effect on their future prospects in terms of their career and personal life.

“Parents’ social structural location has profound implications for their children’s life chances.”

Lareau refers to the economic and social position parents and their children find themselves in have a significant influence on children’s future. Depending on whether they are part of the middle or working-class or if they are extremely poor, parents will be able to afford their children certain opportunities. This usually comes in the form of extracurricular activities like sports and art. Children in the middle-class learn through these experiences to negotiate and customize their situations and deal with authority in an assertive way, which follows them into their future education and career. Working-class and poor children, on the other hand, are not afforded these white-collar skills and thus are at a disadvantage later in life.