Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Lareau: “Unequal Childhoods”
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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper discusses Annette Lareau’s book “Unequal Childhoods” and argues that although it is compelling, it also has some flaws, especially the fact that her sample is very small. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVLareau.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
step. Observing children and their parents closely, she argues that poor and middle-class parents have distinctly different parenting styles. This paper examines her book more closely. Discussion A moments reflection
suggests that her idea has merit: after all, its quite likely that a black family with an income of $200,000 per year has more in common with a white family
in that income bracket than they do with a black family making less than $20,000. Class, not race, may be the great leveler. She found that when it comes to
child-rearing, at least within the narrow sub-set she examines, that the breakdown is along class lines, not racial ones. In order to formulate her thesis, Lareau observed "classroom interactions,
interviewed parents in 88 families, and eventually conducted intensive home observations of a selected sample of 12 families with third graders" (Review: Unequal Childhoods, 2005). She found that middle-class parents,
both white and black, engaged in what she calls "concerted cultivation" of their children: "In these families, parents actively fostered and assessed their childrens talents, opinions, and skills. They scheduled
their children for activities. They reasoned with them. They hovered over them and outside the home they did not hesitate to intervene on the childrens behalf" (Lareau, 2003, p. 138).
This intervention sometimes took the form of discussion with the childrens schools in order to get them to "accommodate childrens individual needs and preferences (Review: Unequal Childhoods, 2005). But
poor and working-class parents used a very different strategy, something Lareau calls "the accomplishment of natural growth" (Review: Unequal Childhoods, 2005). Parents in these social strata see their responsibility to
their children as "making sure that their children are fed, housed, appropriately clothed, clean and attending school" (Review: Unequal Childhoods, 2005). For people in the lower economic brackets, these are
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