Compare and Contrast African American, Native American, Latino, and Asian American, and Caucasian Parenting. What Are the Primary Differences in Parenting Practice?
The United States has always been considered a melting pot and because of all the cultural diversity there exist many different beliefs and values about raising our children. The three major ethnic groups in the United States today are African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. This is followed by the three different parenting styles that many parents go by when raising their children. The Authoritarian style show very little emotion but give their children a lot of direction in life, they are viewed as very controlling. Their attitude is “I am in charge and set/ enforce the rules, no matter what. Because of this these parents may sometimes be viewed as harsh or emotionally aloof. Hispanic parents have been described as more authoritarian than Caucasian parents. To African American parents they view this style as Eurocentric and therefore inaccurate. It has been said that the parents using this style often use physical or otherwise harsh punishment when disciplining. In contrast, the laissez-faire parenting style is permissive, allowing children to set their own limits with little or no parental guidance. This style has little or no parental direction or control but is high on emotional nurturing leading to the “spoiled child.” These parents give into their children’s demand almost as if the child is the adult. In the long run this causes a lot of problems for the child starting off with child depression and poor mental health, low school performance, behavior problems, high rates of teen sexuality and pregnancy, and problems with the law. Native Americans can be described as laissez-faire they respect children enough to allow them to work things out in their own manner. They reject the authoritative parenting style and spend very little time with their child at times they feel over whelmed and feel like giving up. The final parenting style is the authoritative which is described as warm, firm, and fair it combines emotional nurturing and support