Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life

Citation

Lareau, A. (2011). Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (2nd ed.). University of California Press.

Chapter Summary

The book is an ethnography of how social class shapes family life. The publisher describes it as drawing on in-depth observation of black and white middle-class, working-class and poor families in the United States, and as contrasting "concerted cultivation" among middle-class parents with "the accomplishment of natural growth" among working-class and poor parents. The second edition adds a preface, a new Part IV of three chapters on the same families as young adults, and extra appendices. Chapters 3–11 are organised around individual children, each titled with the child's name, so the structure moves from the framework to case studies and then to conclusions and follow-up.

Preface to the Second Edition; Chapters 1–2: Concerted Cultivation and the Accomplishment of Natural Growth; Social Structure and Daily Life

Chapter 1 introduces the two contrasting approaches to childrearing that give the book its argument. Chapter 2 places families in the wider social structure and prepares the ground for the case studies. The preface to the second edition explains what the later chapters add.

Part I: Organization of Daily Life (Chapters 3–5)

Three chapters on how time and activity are arranged, each built on one child: "The Hectic Pace of Concerted Cultivation: Garrett Tallinger", "A Child's Pace: Tyrec Taylor" and "Children's Play Is for Children: Katie Brindle". The titles contrast busy organised schedules with a slower pace and with children's own play.

Part II: Language Use (Chapters 6–7)

"Developing a Child: Alexander Williams" and "Language as a Conduit for Social Life: Harold McAllister" turn to how language is used in the home and what it makes possible for children.

Part III: Families and Institutions (Chapters 8–12)

Four case chapters look at how families meet institutions such as schools: "Concerted Cultivation in Organizational Spheres: Stacey Marshall", "Concerted Cultivation Gone Awry: Melanie Handlon", "Letting Educators Lead the Way: Wendy Driver" and "Beating with a Belt, Fearing 'the School': Little Billy Yanelli". Chapter 12, "The Power and Limits of Social Class", draws the findings together.

Part IV: Unequal Childhoods and Unequal Adulthoods (Chapters 13–15)

New to the second edition. Chapter 13 looks at class differences in the information and intervention parents give young adults. Chapter 14 reflects on longitudinal ethnography and the families' reactions to the study. Chapter 15, "Unequal Childhoods in Context: Results from a Quantitative Analysis", is co-authored by Lareau, Elliot Weininger, Dalton Conley and Melissa Velez.

Afterword and Appendices

The Afterword is followed by Appendix A on methodology ("Enduring Dilemmas in Fieldwork"), Appendix B on theory ("Understanding the Work of Pierre Bourdieu"), and two appendices of tables, followed by notes and a revised bibliography.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–2

• Concerted cultivation: the middle-class approach to drawing out children's talents and skills through organised activity and attention.
• Accomplishment of natural growth: the working-class and poor approach, in which development is assumed to unfold as long as comfort, food and shelter are provided.
• Social structure and daily life: the link the book draws between families' position and their routines.

Parts I–III

• Organisation of daily life: how time and leisure are arranged for children.
• Language use: how speech in the home differs and what it prepares children for.
• Families and institutions: how parents deal with schools and other organisations.

Part IV and Appendices

• Longitudinal ethnography: following the same families over time, discussed in Chapter 14.
• Class and young adulthood: how class differences continue into the transition to adulthood.
• Bourdieu's work: the theoretical background set out in Appendix B.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Close, detailed observation. The case-study chapters are built on intensive observation of individual children and families, and reviewers praised this: the publisher quotes the American Journal of Sociology review for its "powerful portrayal of class inequalities", and Social Forces for taking readers deeper into children's lives than most studies.
• Open about method. The same American Journal of Sociology review praised the book's frank engagement with methodological and analytic dilemmas usually glossed over, and Appendix A is devoted to fieldwork dilemmas.
• Readable. The Social Forces review quoted by the publisher points to its readability and clear expression of basic sociological ideas about class, inequality and family life, which it says make the book ideal for undergraduate classes.
• A follow-up that tests the findings. Part IV, on the same families in young adulthood, together with the quantitative Chapter 15, lets readers see whether the original argument holds over time. The Canadian Journal of Sociology review quoted by the publisher highlighted the persistence of the childrearing patterns.

Limitations

• Small sample. The Canadian Journal of Sociology review, as quoted by the publisher, notes that intensive observation covered twelve families. Readers should treat the concepts as findings from a small group of cases, as the added quantitative chapter implicitly acknowledges.
• Dated and national. Data collection began in 1989, with the main observation in 1993–95 (same review), and the setting is the United States, so comparisons with other countries or later decades require further sources.
• Class is the main lens. The title names race and the publisher says middle-class parents of both races share the same approach, so class is shown to explain more than race for the families observed; readers whose interest is race, gender or neighbourhood will want complementary work.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the class and inequality course, Lareau is the book that shows class at the scale of the family. Mike Savage and colleagues' Social Class in the 21st Century is a survey-based account of class in Britain built on economic, social and cultural capital, which makes a useful comparison with Lareau's US ethnography. Dennis Gilbert's The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality supplies a model of the US class structure and data on jobs, income and wealth that Lareau's families can be placed against.

Jeff Manza and Michael Sauder's Inequality and Society and the reader Social Stratification gather classic and current writing on inequality across the social sciences, and give wider context. Erik Olin Wright's Understanding Class is a theoretical treatment that sets Marxist, Weberian and stratification approaches side by side; it pairs with Lareau's Appendix B, which introduces Bourdieu.

How to Use This Book

No sociology background is needed; the publisher's reviews describe it as accessible. It suits undergraduates in sociology, education, family studies and related fields, and parents or teachers interested in how class shapes childhood.

A practical plan:

• Core: Chapter 1 for the central contrast, then Chapter 2, then the case chapters of Parts I–III. Chapter 12 collects the argument.
• Selective reading: the case chapters are self-contained enough that a course can assign one from each part, for example Chapters 3, 7 and 8.
• Second edition material: read Part IV if the question is about long-term consequences; Chapter 15 gives the quantitative evidence.
• Methods and theory: Appendix A for the ethics and practice of ethnography, Appendix B for the Bourdieusian background to "cultural capital".
• Study use: write a short comparison of two families as you read, noting time, language and institutions as the three headings under which the book organises its evidence.