Abstract
Baby raising is not only related to psychology or pedagogy seeking for the “best” and “evidence-based” practices but it is embedded in particular cultural practices. Family interaction in baby raising is a process of cultural transmission influenced by family members’ position in the social structure. The present study focused on how two generations resolve the intergenerational conflicts and transmit their value orientations when grandparents are involved in baby raising. Ten typical families are sampled according to family background and conflict coping style. It was found that in Chinese families, the intergenerational conflict about baby raising is essentially a struggle for family authority to define the boundaries of different role identity, where the generation having a higher position in the social structure has more possibilities to gain authority and therefore the chance to transmit their value orientations in raising young babies.
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Notes
- 1.
Number of interviews:F—family,M—mother,G—grandmother,N—nurse. The numbers represent the number of families. For example, F2–M2 represents mother’s narration of family NO.2, and F2–G2 represents grandmother’s narration of family NO.2. There are some digests that are numbered in only families, as F14, which represents that the data is reported by other interviewees.
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Acknowledgment
We are very grateful to the families who are willing to share with us their personal stories about raising young babies. The research could not be done smoothly without their trust and experiences.
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Pan, YJ., Sun, L., Dong, SS., Tu, Y. (2017). Intergenerational Conflicts and Transmission of Values in Raising 0–2-Year-Old Chinese Babies. In: Li, L., Quiñones, G., Ridgway, A. (eds) Studying Babies and Toddlers. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, vol 20. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3197-7_8
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