Culture and Child Rearing

Culture and Child Rearing Practices The purpose of this paper is to express the different ways culture affects child-rearing practices. Culture and child rearing are both essential in child development. Culture and ethnicity can have a deciding effect on the child-rearing techniques that families implement throughout the world. Differences such as methods of discipline, expectations regarding acceptance of responsibilities and transmission of religious instruction will vary among families. The paper includes interviews from three families from different backgrounds about child-rearing practices. Culture is the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group(Robbins,1997). Child rearing practices are ways in which children in a society are raised(Robbins, 1997). Regardless of their cultural orientation, parents play a significant role in helping their children become honorable and contributing members of society. They accomplish this by nurturing their children, engaging in problem solving with them, and modeling by example of culturally acceptable ways of living and solving problems. A culturally evaluative theory called neo-Freudianism focuses on personal development in that it puts much importance on early childhood experiences being crucial to the development of the adult. The focus was that of socialization and cultural institutions. It is believed that the cause of adult personality stemmed from early child rearing techniques, but that these techniques were largely based on the influences of cultural institutions on the child rearing practices. Child rearing patterns or parenting types have been categorized into three: Autocratic or Authoritarian, Democratic or Authoritative and laissez-faire or permissive (Mindel, 1998). Parents who predominantly rely on the autocratic child rearing lay much emphasis on getting immediate and long-range obedience from their children. The relationship that exists between

References: Broude, Gwen J. Marriage, Family, and Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1994. Mindel, Charles H., Robert W. Halberstein, & Roosevelt Wright , Jr. Ethnic Families in America: Patterns and Variations, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998 Robbins, Lillian C.,The accuracy of parental recall of aspects of child development and of child rearing practices, The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1997