Culture and Child Abuse

Abstract

This proposal is for a study of the cultural differences in disciplining children. The participants will be unaware that they are being observed and therefore will not change their behaviors. The participants will be 40 different families from two different ethnic groups. Our goal will be to see how different families from different ethnic groups punish their children when they misbehave. It is hypothesized that African American parents tend to involve a higher degree of physical punishment as opposed to a White American parenting family. Our overall goal for this research will be to analyze the relationship between the two cultures and their different parenting practices.

Running Head: Cultural differences in parenting.

Cultural differences in parenting: Disciplining or nurturing?

Michel Francois

University of Massachusetts Boston

Psychology 101

Dr. Sheree Conrad

Spring 2012

Cultural differences in parenting: Disciplining or Nurturing?

The way we are brought up is a very important part of our lives; it helps us grow in a way that shapes the person we become in the future. Although many researches have been made on the matter it is necessary to see how culture plays an important role in the parenting style. For this study it will be important that we keep in mind the impact of a group socializing with another, in this case since we will be conducting the research on American families, we will keep in mind that this country is mostly populated by White Americans therefore they are the dominant race in America and by default are the host culture.

Unlike the White American group which is the dominant race in America, African Americans are compiled into one main group, although similar in many ways, it is important that we differentiate them. How will the issue of culture socialization affect the generations of African American mothers? Different types of parental control have been identified in the research literature, and these distinctions may be especially important in the determination of parenting styles, particularly in ethnic minority families Gonzales et al. (1998). Will there be any ore factors that can determine the type of parenting a mother would use. Dornbusch and his colleagues (1987) found that parents were more likely to employ an authoritarian style with boys than with girls.

To conclude, the purpose of this proposal