Theories Of Child Rearing

Child rearing practices altered as a result of the economic shift as well as intellectual shift. Child rearing had shifted from breaking the will of children by means of corporal punishment to mending behavior through psychology and emotional discipline. Different theories and methods of child rearing were disseminated through advice books. This was directed particularly at immigrant families as a way to assimilate them into the American society. Children fiction books became another method implemented to conform immigrant families. Scholars had proposed other theories describing children as not being with original sin but rather, a blank slate or born innocent.

Victorian family’s.

Victorian families ideals at the beginning of the nineteenth

Industrialization had a massive effect on the construct of family due to the economical slump. Working class families were living at the marginal economic standards. Stable jobs were rarities and families could not settle down permanently in a community. Ideals of “self-made man” and a “true woman” became fantasies to this working class families. Women found jobs outside of the home in factories, but the most prominent method women made money was “outwork”, which involved chores like embroidery or sewing for other people in order to generate more income for the

And after several years of anguish, a time of enjoyment finally came. These post war families enjoyed an economy boom.

Before the war approximately 33% of American families were in the middle class, but during the economy boom an estimated 66% were in the middle class. The struggle of marginal economic existence was now a thing of the past. Families reverted to the traditional roles of one breadwinner, a housewife and children in school instead of factories.

Life was good again and order had been restored to the society. Because people were financially stable, families grew larger; women and men married at earlier ages, had more children and moved to the suburbs. This caused a suburban boom. Marriage rates increased drastically and divorce rates plumped. Marriage was a “fifty-fifty deal”housewives were respected and had an equal say in decision making. Flexible parenting was encouraged; there was no absolute way to raise a child. A child that had been nurtured with love—especially maternal love—reason and good parental example would grow to become a decent member of society.

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