Is the American dream that exists for the middle class equally available to the working class? Using extensive interviews with parents and a variety of data sources, this book examines how social contexts and culture affect parenting decisions. By analyzing class differences in neighborhoods, schools, and networks, as well as their relationship to mobility-related parenting practices, the authors demonstrate that cultural differences are no match for economic inequalities. They show how middle-class parents have access to social contexts characterized by security, which gives rise to what the authors call “strategic parenting”—a set of practices that allow adolescents to develop the qualities and skills they will use to go off to college and, subsequently, achieve the American dream. Conversely, the contexts of working-class parents are characterized by precarity, giving rise to “defensive parenting”—an almost frantic use of harm-mitigating interventions to protect adolescents from threats to both their well-being and prospects for mobility. This important book calls for a shift in public policy away from trying to change working-class parents to improving the social contexts in which society asks them to raise the next generation. Book Features: An explanation for social class differences in educationally relevant, mobility-related parenting practices that contrasts with the dominant cultural explanation.Research findings that are informed by a variety of data sources, including interview data, survey data, social network data, census data, and crime statistics.Two new parenting concepts—strategic parenting and defensive parenting—that capture how middle-class and working-class parents pursue social mobility for their children.

Child Development at the intersection of Race and SES, Volume 57 in the Advances in Child Development and Behavior series, presents theoretical and empirical scholarship illuminating how race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status intersect to shape children's development and developmental contexts. Important chapters in this new release include the Implications of Intersecting Socioeconomic and Racial Identities for Academic Achievement and Well-being, The home environment of low-income Latino children: Challenges and opportunities, Profiles of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status: Implications for ethnic/racial identity, discrimination and sleep, Youths' sociopolitical perceptions and mental health: Intersections between race, class, and gender, and much more. Rather than focusing on the additive effects of race/ethnicity and SES, which is typical (and a limitation) in the developmental literature, the scholarship in this book considers how the factors and processes shaping the development of children of color can differ markedly across the socioeconomic continuum. This collection illustrates how applying an intersectional lens to developmental science can yield unique insights into the challenges confronting, and assets buoying, both minority and majority children's healthy development. - Includes contributions from renowned developmental scholars working at the forefront of their fields - Presents a multidisciplinary focus that will be useful to developmental psychologists, sociologists, family scientists and those whose interests and work fall under the purview of those disciplines - Examines multiple dimensions and factors shaping childhood development

First published in 1999, Mary Pattillo’s Black Picket Fences explores an American demographic group too often ignored by both scholars and the media: the black middle class. Nearly fifteen years later, this book remains a groundbreaking study of a group still underrepresented in the academic and public spheres. The result of living for three years in “Groveland,” a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, Black Picket Fences explored both the advantages the black middle class has and the boundaries they still face. Despite arguments that race no longer matters, Pattillo showed a different reality, one where black and white middle classes remain separate and unequal. Stark, moving, and still timely, the book is updated for this edition with a new epilogue by the author that details how the neighborhood and its residents fared in the recession of 2008, as well as new interviews with many of the same neighborhood residents featured in the original. Also included is a new foreword by acclaimed University of Pennsylvania sociologist Annette Lareau.

This volume takes the child's environment (culture, education, family, peers and media) as an essential component of child development.

FROM CHAPTER THREE "For a kid, every day should begin with 'Once upon a time ... ' Every moment of every day should be an adventure. Today, during this first century of a new millennium, are we in danger of scheduling our kids' lives away? And, for what purpose? I don't know about you, but years from now, I do not want to wake up and look back and realize that I missed out, that I was so consumed by my own life that I forgot to live in the moment with my children ... that I raised my kids to live like me-far from the present moment-and, that I spent so much energy worrying about my tomorrows and my goals and my ambitions that I failed to receive and cradle a most sacred calling, this privilege of parenting." "The Awe-full Privilege is a heartwarming and personal account of the joy of parenting. It illustrates beautifully the importance of slowing down and enjoying our children while they are with us ... and giving them the most precious gift of all, our time." -ANITA HITTINGER, Director of Risen Lord Montessori School

"The bestselling author of Bowling Alone offers [an] ... examination of the American Dream in crisis--how and why opportunities for upward mobility are diminishing, jeopardizing the prospects of an ever larger segment of Americans"--

An ideal text for aspiring teachers, the new Fourth Edition of Introduction to Teaching thoroughly prepares students to make a difference as teachers, presenting first-hand stories and evidence-based practices while offering a student-centered approach to learning.

During the last decades the appearance of a family has changed substantially. Not long ago a typical family consisted of an employed man and a home-managing woman living together for their whole life times, and having one or more children, which primarily were raised by the wife. Today differing living models are much more common than before. House husbands, late motherhood, and a delayed work entry of the children are some of the related phenomena, which at the same time are reasons for and consequences of the changed view on the favorite family. Not surprisingly, this change has provoked much scientific interest. In this book we present a collection of recent economic research work on the resources management and development of families and households respectively. Assorting three general topics, we focus on the time allocation within the household, the family structure and development, and the transition to work of young adults.

Covering a series of issues, this book seeks to reestablish sociology of the family as a key area in undergraduate studies. It provides a theoretical and scholarly overview of the area and includes various essays.

The intro textbook that keeps students reading. Continuing his tradition of highly engaging, trade-like writing, best-selling author David Newman once again starts in a familiar place - the everyday world - and then introduces sociological concepts and institutions as they influence students′ daily existence. Full of vivid, real-world examples and touching personal vignettes, this text offers a solid introduction to basic sociological concepts and helps students realize their role in constructing, planning, maintaining, and fixing society. New to the Ninth Edition: * all statistical information and all contemporary illustrative examples have been updated to keep the book as fresh as possible both from the students′ and instructors′ perspectives * micro-macro connections help students better understand the link between individual lives and the structure of society * research features expose students to the importance and functionality of social scientific research * visual essays have been strategically changed to provide a fresh perspective