Selena Rabago
Everest College
Theories to Real-Life Situations
Introduction
Describe your family environment based on Hagan 's Power-Control Theory. Do you see your behavior as being affected by coming from either a paternalistic or egalitarian family?
I see my behavior as paternalistic, because I’m the breadwinner in my family and rule maker, and my husband is the homemaker at times in less a side job comes along. I try to control my daughter’s behavior before she ends up ruining her life or running away. I try to be a role model to my daughter by working hard and going to school. I tell my daughter all the bad things I’ve done when I was a child and how juvenile is. I want my daughter to fear legal sanctions, because once you’re in trouble you’re in the laws hands. I don’t want her to grow up fast working part-time jobs or running away like I did.
Parents Try
Parents are “paternalistic” towards their kids in many ways. Parents try to steer kids away from bad sex, drugs, hobbies, friends, and jobs. Parents warn that bad hobbies can lead to bad friends, and that bad drugs and friends can lead to bad sex and poor jobs. Parents warn that bad drugs, sex and jobs can lead to bad health. Parents encourage kids to attend school to encourage good jobs, and parents avoid neighborhoods where kids might meet bad friends (Hanson, 2011).
The paternalistic presumption implicit in the schools is that the poor lack the family and community support, cultural capital, and personal follow-through to live according to the middle-class values that they, too, espouse (Hanson, 2011).
Conclusion:
Power-control theory has focused almost exclusively on traditional families and/or single mother families. Children from a single parent or stepfamily may have lower levels of control placed on
References: Hansen, R. (2011) Retrieved from:http://www.overcomingbias.com/2011/02/why-no-job-paternalism.html Patricia L. 1992. Paper now, Becoming a Stepfamily. San Francisco: Joey-Bass Publishers.