Child Rearing Theory

Abstract

The assignment focuses on explaining and understanding the relevance of parental ethno theories in the development and rearing of a child from a psychological perspective. The assignment attempts to achieve this purpose through highlighting and linking the theories with real life incidents/situations (which the student observed at her agency). It explores all the facets of a parent-child relationship and a parent’s goal towards conditioning of their child according to their culture (the assignment focuses on child-rearing according to the Indian culture).

Key word: Parental ethnotheories, culture, child.

Introduction

Understanding Parental-ethnotheories

Parental ethnotheories are shared beliefs about the goals of child development

What the parents think and perceive directly affects a child. Most of the theories that have been written on this component focus widely on the health issues and concerns of the parents which define the longevity of a child. Though, it also touches other domains. We can say that ‘cultural transmission’ forms a part of it as psychology of caretaker is the medium between culture and child development. A child’s socialization process, his language and thinking ability, cognitive skills, emotional development depends on the behaviour of this care takers be it parents or guardians. Working at the Crime against Women Cell (CAW cell) I came across many clients who more or less influenced by the psychology of their parents and also children of the clients were adapting the language and thinking ability according to the environment at home. For instance, in one such case the client said that her husband physically abuses her. The session included the client’s parents and as well as her in-laws. To this, her father-in-law said that “she must have done something that is why he must have hit her”. Also her mother-in-law said that, “even we were abused by our husbands, a female has to bear all this in her marriage”. So, we can derive here that the client’s husband was brought up in such an environment where he saw his mother getting beaten up by his father. Also, many of the child’s temperament and dispositions are formed by his parent’s behaviour towards each other and the family members. For instance, a client who also complained of physical violence said that her 4 year old child doesn’t like her father and says that he will hit him (his father) and his father hits the client. So, apart from psychology of the parents their behaviour also has a huge impact on a child’s