Child-Rearing Practices in a Low Socioeconomic Group

Abstract

Our findings support the view that there are characteristics in child-rearing practices which are related to class status, and that these differences become more pronounced with the extremes of class. In this sample of low-class mothers interviewed when tile child was 2½ years of age, we found some maternal rejection of the child, coldness, and physical punishment. There was lack of restrictiveness in regard to toilet training and training for manners. At 5 years there was much restrictiveness in regard to aggression against parents, and against sex play. There was great concern for education for the child, and a strong feeling that the child should fight back if molested. Some of these attitudes, we believe, came out of the mother's rejection of her own social situation and segregation into a lower caste. The maternal attitudes and child-rearing practices which we have described and which were related to class, undoubtedly helped mold the developing child. If we can speculate, we would say that certain things in his environment were helpful to the child. He was permitted to grow at his own speed. If he was unable to perform, he did not meet with criticism and pressure to do better. He learned how to work. He was encouraged to fight for his rights. On the other hand, there was confusion as to who had authority over him and what behavior was acceptable, since many persons with different expectations had a parental role. He was accustomed to extremes of adult authority, being very controlled at times, and not at all controlled in others. He early became used to corporal punishment. He was treated with relative coldness and he was not praised for achievement. The stimuli which are supplied by books, toys, and cultural experiences were often missing. There was little opportunity for a boy to identify with a male figure. There was lack of interest in the personality characteristics which differentiate one individual from the other and which contribute to a strong feeling of self-identification. Other elements in the environment were preparing the child to take over a lower class role. The inadequate incomes, crowded homes, lack of consistent familial ties, the mother's depression and helplessness in her own situation, were as important as her child-rearing practices in influencing the child's development and preparing him for an adult role. It was for us a sobering experience to watch a large group of newborn infants, plastic human beings of unknown potential, and to observe over a 5-year period their social preparation to enter the class of the least-skilled, least-educated, and most-rejected in our society.

Infant psychotherapy: Theory, research, and practice.

“…In a gratuitous confirmation of recent psychotherapeutic findings, infant theorists and researchers hold that regnant characteristics of the interacting adult's mode of response include accurate understanding, sensitive responsiveness, and facilitative accommodation in carrying forward the infant's behavior toward its natural effects (Ainsworth, Bell, & Stayton, 1972;Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969;Bettleheim, 1967;Bowlby, 1969;Lambie & Weikart, 1970;Rheingold, 1961;Walters & Park, 1965;. Studies of depriving home environments (Wortis, 1963) and institutions (Provence & Lipton, 1961;Yarrow, 1961) provide soft indirect evidence of the importance of this ingredient. Furthermore, research indicates that the adult should provide immediate responses (Ainsworth, 1967;Ainsworth, Bell & Stayton, 1972;Cairns, 1966;Gewirtz, 1969;Lewis & Goldberg, 1965;Watson, 1966Watson, , 1967Yarrow, Rubenstein, Pedersen, & Jankowski, 1972) to a wide spectrum of infant behaviors (Yarrow, 1973).…”

Maternal employment reconsidered: Effects on infants.

“…Differences between the child-rearing practices of lower-class and middle-class parents have been documented. 39 From inter views with parents of children at ages two-and-a-half and five, it was found that child-rearing patterns in lower-class families were characterized by less posi tive affect and more restrictiveness and punitiveness than middle-class families.…”

The contribution of social environment to the development of premature children.

“…The subjects were drawn from a sam ple studied in the course of an investi gation of the development of premature infants in relation to certain complica tions of the neonatal period. The selec tion of the sample and the objectives of the study have been described; several previous reports have been made on these subjects.2, a, 4,6, 7, 19,20,21 The subjects were ( 1 ) premature, single-birth Negro infants (weighing up to 2100 grams at birth) who were ad-mitted to the Kings County Hospital Premature Nursery from October, 1956, to June, 1959, and (2) a small number of Negro term infants born in the same place. Kings County is a municipal hos pital which serves the medically indigent in a densely populated area with a very high prematurity rate.12 Premature chil dren born to white and Puerto Rican mothers also were followed.…”