Parenting styles and children’s lives

Guest: Annette Lareau

How do parents influence their children’s achievement in school and in life? Penn sociologist ANNETTE LAREAU set out to answer that question in the late 90’s when she began following 12 middle class, working class and poor families. She found very different parenting styles among the two groups – one more hands off and the other more actively involved in managing their children’s lives, education and activities. Lareau documented it all in an award-winning book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life and published the findings of a follow-up study in the second edition of the book. She joins us in the studio in this hour of Radio Times to explain how children of different socioeconomic backgrounds are influenced and shaped by their parent’s attitudes and styles.