Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life

Lareau opens by introducing Garrett Tallinger, a white middle-class fourth grader, and Alexander Williams, a Black middle-class fourth grader, who both live busy and tailored lives with many different activities in modest but more than decent houses. Lareau calls this “concerted cultivation” (2), which is designing a child’s life to cultivate their talents in a specific and direct way and “eliciting their children’s feelings, opinions, and thoughts” (3). On the other side are the blue-collar neighborhoods, where Wendy Driver (white), Harold McAllister (Black), and Little Billy Yanelli (white) (all three also in fourth grade) live in public housing. Their lives consist of little or no extracurricular activities, and extended family is a major focus. The parents of these working-class families see the obligations of parenthood differently than their middle-class counterparts, believing that children should be treated as children. In this way, they are less directive in the way their children spend their free time, which Lareau calls the “accomplishment of natural growth” (3). Lareau argues that institutions such as schools are designed to use concerted cultivation. Middle-class children develop a sense of entitlement, which gives them more trust in and power within institutions, whereas working-class children often develop “an emerging sense of distance, distrust, and constraint” (3) in institutions. These children are five of the 12 featured in Lareau’s sociological study of the differences in child rearing for different classes. Her research relies on interviews and naturalistic observations of the children and families living their daily lives. Lareau notices that these patterns of child rearing seem to be consistent because “differences among families seem to cluster together in meaningful patterns” (3), which influences the ways children’s self-image and worldview develop.

Lareau cites the “dominant set of cultural repertoires” (4) decided upon by professionals, such as teachers, doctors, and psychologists, which are essentially a set of principles that are generally agreed upon as the effective method of child rearing. These ideals include playing an active role in a child’s education and avoiding physical force with children. In this way, this small number of experts influences a vast number of parents. The strategy of reasoning with children rather than punishing them is relatively new, as are many current positive parenting techniques. As cultural repertoires surrounding parenting change, middle-class parents seem to adapt more quickly and easily than working-class and poor parents. Lareau speculates that this may be largely motivated by the threat to the middle class, which makes parents want to seize every possible opportunity to secure their children’s future. There are benefits to each approach to child rearing, with middle-class children experiencing more verbal communication in the home and thus learning to communicate with authority figures in such a way that leads to their advantage and working-class children being more able to navigate dangerous situations. However, the former advantage is more useful for advancing in school, employment, and with potential law enforcement. Middle-class children’s sense of entitlement leads them to feel more comfortable negotiating their needs with authority figures, but it also leaves them less independent from them. Working-class children, on the other hand, tend to develop an “emerging sense of constraint” (7), which prevents them from speaking out or trying to mold situations to their advantage. Instead, they may either accept their circumstances or rebel in other ways. Lareau argues that American individualism leads them to put full responsibility on the individual for his or her life outcome and to believe that anyone can move up if they work hard enough. Lareau notes that differences in class are the biggest predictor of life outcomes, though fewer than one-fifth of Americans believe this.

Unequal Childhoods is based on the naturalistic study performed by Lareau on “twelve families (six white, five Black, and one interracial) with children nine and ten years old” (8). She hopes to determine the interactive relationship between children and their parents by visiting them at or around their homes, schools, churches, and other activities. Lareau and her team of research assistants took a semi-active but mostly backseat role, doing much more observing than interacting. The children seemed to be enthusiastic about participating, and many parents were as well. Lareau adds a disclaimer, stating that she did not opt to leave out any data based on the potential risk of “reinforcing stereotypes” (11). She believes that it is important to represent her findings exactly as they are.