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Exploring the Intersection of Parenting, Ethnicity, Race, and Gender in the Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family Archetype

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Abstract

This chapter explores social science literature on the nuclear family as related to variables of race, ethnicity, and parenting. In doing so the contributors have struggled with what are the most important things to say about a topic that is so vast in scope. We focus on the main purpose of parenting which is the socialization of children, but also provide critical analysis of the challenges that social science faces in defining family as a socially constructed system evolving within the culture of the USA. This evolution impacts the function of parenting given the subcultural contexts in which parenting occurs. Bornstein (Being and becoming a parent, handbook of parenting. Psychology Press, 2002) states that:

“Despite the fact that most people become parents and everyone who has ever lived has had parents… parenting remains a most mystifying subject…parents create people…Parenthood is a job whose primary object of attention and action is the child” (Bornstein, 2002, ix).

The online version of the original chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8860-6_19

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8860-6_19

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA

    James E. Dobbins Ph.D., Brigitte Beale & Amber Thornton

  2. Union Institute and Graduate School, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Tiffany G. Porter Psy.D.

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  1. James E. Dobbins Ph.D.
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  2. Brigitte Beale
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  3. Amber Thornton
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  4. Tiffany G. Porter Psy.D.
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Correspondence to James E. Dobbins Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Columbia University Teachers College, New York, USA

    Marie L. Miville

  2. Department of Human Development and Psyc, Howard University, Washington, USA

    Angela D. Ferguson

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Dobbins, J.E., Beale, B., Thornton, A., Porter, T.G. (2014). Exploring the Intersection of Parenting, Ethnicity, Race, and Gender in the Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family Archetype. In: Miville, M., Ferguson, A. (eds) Handbook of Race-Ethnicity and Gender in Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8860-6_7

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