Concerted Cultivation in Canada: Class-Based Approaches to Parenting.

Abstract

The literature on concerted cultivation describes how higher-class parents reproduce their social class standing in their children by engaging in 'cultivating' parenting practices. I use Latent Class Analysis and multinomial logistic regression applied to survey data from Canada to inductively uncover distinct approaches to parenting and then determine whether they are reflective of parental social class. The uninvolved parenting approach is characterized by the absence of any of the cultivating attitudes or practices included in the study. The low aspirations parenting approach includes low expectations for the children but positive parent-child interactions and ensuring that the children successfully complete their homework. The demanding parenting approach involves high aspirations for the children, saving for the children's postsecondary education and enrolling the children in extracurricular activities but spending little time involving themselves in their children's homework or talking with their children about school-related issues. The involved parenting approach encompasses nearly all of the cultivating attitudes and practices included in the study. The uninvolved approach tends to be adopted by lower-class families, the demanding and involved approaches tend to be adopted by higher-class families and the low aspirations approach is situated between these positions.