Another article for this week was from the Economist, titled "Parenting in America: Choose Your Parents Wisely." It profiles families who live in two very different settings: Bethesda, Maryland - an upper middle class suburb of Washington DC, and Cabin Creek, West Virginia.
Whereas our discussion of Millenial parents focused on time (current day experiences of a generation) and the heavy influence of social media, this article discusses socioeconomic differences in families and the influence of 'place.'
In the comments section below, please discuss the following questions:
How would you characterize children's outcomes in the two settings?
How would you characterize parenting experienced by the children in the two settings?
What is life like for the parents in the two settings?
And in particular, what role does where the families live play in parenting, and children's experiences and outcomes?
Please don't feel the need to respond to all questions. Just contribute to the conversation, and when you join in, please offer something not yet voiced.
In the examples portrayed in the article I think the children will have very different outcomes than the other. The Bethesda child will have more opportunities because of her socioeconomic status,as well as a stronger desire to continue her education and achieve more in life compared to the child in Cabin Creek. The child in Cabin Creek lives in a more rural setting, less economic stability, poverty, and has a low desire to advance in school and life. The parenting experienced in either situation is very different. The Bethesda mother is very authoritative, she is very active in her child's life, its very structured, but still worries she should nurture her more. She worries how she parents and relies on parenting books and various technologies to help. Her child went to excellent schools, attends Hebrew school, and is an active ballet dancer. They live in a very rich area where these types of activities and styles of parenting are the norm or almost expected. Compared to the mother in Cabin Creek who knows she could do better, but with a struggling economy, the reliance on government assistance to help her family and her overall child's desire to rather play with friends than do homework is the lesser of the two evils. She knows she should enforce homework, but she can't stop her kids when there are much bigger problems. These examples show just how different life is for the parents in these two settings. It shows just how much of a gap there is between upper class and lower class in America and how hard it is to fix. It goes back to the basics of nature versus nurture and how big of an impact they have on our development and outcome. The social and living environment children grow up in has a huge role on their experiences and outcomes. If you live in a more economically sound area you will have more experiences and opportunities available to you than for someone living in a poor, economically unstable rural area.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything that Lilly has touched on and think that she gave a great review of the article. A couple of pieces of information that I just found really intriguing from this article were the facts given about learning/hearing words and the stats about SAT scores. I was shocked that the children of lawyers, doctors, and other high income professionals will hear about 30 million more words by age 3. This creates a huge spread in language proficiency and general education between children. Also, I was surprised by the stat saying children that have at least one parent with a graduate degree will score about 400 points higher on average on the SAT. Clearly the education levels of parents make a difference in the experiences, education, and success of children. Therefore, the children in Bethesda have a much better chance for a successful, positive outcome than the children in Cabin Creek, as they will likely receive a better education, be presented with many more opportunities, and go on to receive a higher level of education.
ReplyDeleteI think that the 30 million more words by age 3 is an even more important statistics to point out after looking at the slides "What do babies need". The number one thing that is listed is linguistic richness and it is stated that sensitive period for language is from birth to age two.
DeleteThis article was interesting to me and all too true. My aunt and uncle live in Bethesda and they adopted a baby girl from Kyrgyzstan in 2009 and the examples from this article were very familiar to me. It seems as if families in this type of area have all the resources at their fingertips; for activities, events and any other groups they could possibly want and need. Even though there are much more factors involved, children from this category are more likely to succeed. Children from Cabin Creek and their parents don't necessarily have the resources to achieve the best outcomes.
ReplyDeleteThe gap of incomes between the two regions seems to be the biggest standout to me. Because the Bethesda families make plenty of money, it probably makes them confident in putting more emphasis on their children's future. Families from Cabin Creek, because they aren't as financially stable, have their main focus on putting food on the table and paying the bills.
The unlimited resources provided to the families in Bethesda also works as a guide to parenting, they are probably part of more support groups than the Cabin Creek families. The Bethesda families are more involved in the children's life and also want to get their children more involved with life! Cabin Creek families are constantly working to keep their families alive which puts their children in child care facilities most of the day and resulting in less together time.
When I read this article I just kept thinking about a Family Policy class I had taken last year. Families are impacted so much because of economic stability and thats why our government does so much for families and kids who live in hardship. Breaking the poverty cycle is difficult but once it is broken and kids are able to succeed and go to college through government resources life becomes less stressful and more stable. The section about the SAT scores made me think of this because education levels of parents do make a tremendous difference in the lives of children. If you're well educated parent and your children are raised knowing that they are going to college and that the finances are there for college, they are going to prepare for college and try harder than those children who don't know if college is feasible for their family or not. The child's mindset itself would make parenting much easier for parents who are in situations similar to Bethesda compared to Cabin Creek. I think America is all about hard work and regardless of where you come from, if you work hard you can get where you want to go and be successful, it is a lot easier for those who are financially stable, that's why we see trends like the article points out with SAT scores but it's not impossible for children of Cabin Creek, it just takes more effort.
ReplyDeleteThere is not much I can add in regards to the questions, as everyone before me has touched upon all of them with great depth. I would like to add that these two communities are diametrically opposite from each other -- one is very impovershed, another is very affluent, so there is not much segregation or contrast in terms of income or education levels within those communities. If poor people live surrounded by people of the same stature, there is obviously no room for comparison and hence less drive for younger people to try to do better in life, the social ladder is not as palapable for them unlike to the people who live in larger cities and can see the difference with their own eyes. I think that is another important factor that can be taken into account when we talk about the role of places people live in.
ReplyDeleteKhanh, you raised a great point that there isn't much socioeconomic differences within the communities. The children growing up in Cabin Creek are so used to the way their lives are led, and the same with those growing up in Bethesda. To compare, in Minneapolis we have extreme income diversity. There are neighborhoods in Minneapolis that the median cost of a house for sale is over a quarter of a million dollars. In the same city, there are neighborhoods that the median cost is closer to $85,000. This means that two children, both raised in Minneapolis, will have extremely different values and success in schools. Maybe the poorer of the two children goes to school and meets another child from a wealthier part of town. They might become really good friends, and in turn, the success of the poorer child gets positively affected by the wealthier child.
DeleteIn the two cities from our article, the children in schools seem to be surrounded by other children from their same socioeconomic backgrounds. Since the children will be socialized with only with similar children, there isn't much room for personal growth. This is probably an extreme example, but I think it is very important to consider.
Reading this article really helped give evidence to the reality of social inequalities and cyclical poverty in America today. Using two vastly different situations allowed the readers to see how parental involvement and access to resources really makes an impact on children's futures. In my opinion, just the fact that poverty is so prevalent, public resources are limited, and parents are often distracted by economic hardship and instability within the family structure, means that children in Cabin Creek are facing severe challenges. Based on what the research presented in the article "Young children develop in an environment of relationships", we know that attentive parenting and quality childcare are positive factors in children's later success in education and in life. There are reasons that poverty is often a cycle over generations of families and I think these studies have given some helpful information on just why this cycle continues.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that there are many factors as to why poverty is so cyclical. One can imagine the effects being raised in poverty might have on an impressionable child as opposed to growing up not thinking about where your next meal is going to come from. Having parents that are constantly stressed out about things like making enough money for rent, whether conscious or not, is going to be rub off on the child. Adding to this, this sense of normalcy that is bestowed upon the child living in poverty may lead them to feel like they are destined to live like this anyways, so why change?
DeleteI think mostly everything was covered in depth by the people who responded before me, but there are a few things to add. One concept that stood out to me when reading this article was its relation to Maslow and his "Hierarchy of Needs". Many families who live in neighborhoods like Cabin Creek are financially unstable and are often consumed with basic needs, such as whether or not they will be able to pay their bills and put food on the table. Therefore, they are not able to recognize and put effort towards their own and their children's other stages of needs, such as making sure their children are doing their homework or developing properly. In contrast, families in wealthier neighborhoods like Bethesda have their basic needs met, so they are able to invest in their children a lot more and provide them with the resources to be successful in the future. As an upper middle class American, it is often easy to look at people in poverty and expect them to be able to pull themselves out of their unfavorable situations. This article was a reminder that the cycle of poverty is a sad reality for many people and the situation that you are born into can and will effect many aspects of your future.
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