Abstract
The conditions under which middle- and working-class parents punish their pre-adolescent children physically, or refrain from doing so, appear to be quite different. Working-class parents are more likely to respond in terms of the immediate consequences of the child's actions, middle-class parents in terms of their interpretation of the child's intent in acting as he does. This reflects differences in parents' values: Working-class parents value for their children qualities that assure respectability; desirable behavior consists essentially of not violating proscriptions. Middle-class parents value the child's development of internalized standards of conduct; desirable behavior consists essentially of acting according to the dictates of one's own principles. The first necessarily focuses on the act itself, the second on the actor's intent.
Keywords
Class (philosophy)Social classPsychologySocial psychologySociologyPolitical scienceComputer scienceLawArtificial intelligence
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1959
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 352-352
- Citations
- 129
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Melvin L. Kohn
(1959).
Social Class and the Exercise of Parental Authority.
American Sociological Review
, 24
(3)
, 352-352.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2089384
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.2307/2089384