Annette Lareau's Unequal Childhood

As is discussed by Annette Lareau in Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, the way a child is brought up has a great effect on their life later down the road. Lareau performed extensive studies and research to arrive to her conclusion that social class and race in childhood has a profound effect on who the children grow up to be, and what kind of life they grow up to live. She observed two different elementary schools, a study that included talking to the parents of eighty-eight of the children, and going into the homes of twelve families to observe what their family life in the privacy of their own houses was like as well.
Lareau focused on two different methods of raising children. The first, “concerted cultivation,” was more …show more content…
These children do not experience the luxuries of the middle-class, such as a wide variety of extracurricular activities, or structured play with other children. Instead, these children tend to live their lives closer to home, as their parents do not have the availability to do more for them. Compared to the children brought up using the “concerted cultivation” method, children from lower-class and poor families are taught that in the presence of adults, they are not to be disobedient or speak unless spoken to. These children often do not experience reciprocal relationships with adults, instead their relationships are very one sided: adults are there to provide direction to the children, but not much beyond that. Because of this, the children from the working/lower-classes are often less confident and …show more content…
This is due to many aspects, such as the fact that these families spend a great deal of time at home and thus with each other, and that their physical homes are much smaller in size, thus limiting the space available to spend time. On the other hand, the children in middle-class homes often spend very little quality time with their parents, and when they do spend time with them, it is often going to and from one of the myriad of activities they are involved in; the time is short and thus not as personal. This could also potentially lead to why down the road, the children of lower-class families tend to express such appreciation for their parents—they had a closer relationship with them as a