Parenting in Modern Societies

Abstract

This book debates the high impact modern societies have on the way we raise children. Although problems such as family dysfunction, work–family imbalance, and migration due to war, violence, and poverty are not new, their consequences for children’s well-being and mental health are aggravated by the lack of effective social support networks affecting many children and families living in contemporaneous urban areas. The proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” is as valid now as it was in the early history of less complex communities. However, extended families and the social environment of villages have been substituted by a system of welfare and childcare institutions that, in many cases, fail to provide the appropriate care, education, and support the children need. Job-demanding competitive societies, where career achievement and wealth become the definition of success, force parents to the duality of choosing between family and career and depending on others to parent their children. Likewise, social inequality compels many parents to work in never-ending shifts that add to the hours they spend commuting to their workplaces. Sometimes, parents are forced to migrate, leaving their children behind. Children learn to survive in the absence of their parents and to deal with small or inexistent parental emotional investment. The parent-child relationship and attachment necessities are impacted in ways that will affect children for the rest of their lives. Alternatively, migrant children accompanying their parents to a new host country may feel the shock of a normative society with cultural values different from the ones they left behind. Parenting behaviour and style may then be considered inappropriate, challenging parents’ ability to educate and pass their values to the offspring. This book is an academic reflection on these controversies.

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