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Importance of Socialization

(Art by Sarah Mazzetti)

The importance to socializing children cannot be understated. Socialization is one of the fundamental things that parents and caregivers are able to provide children, as it teaches them to interact with society in a meaningful way by being part of a group and taking on shared values, behaviors and beliefs of that group. It also teaches children the best ways to handle different situations, how to process and feel emotions, manage stress, resolve conflicts and to fit in by communicating with others in their surroundings.

Diana Baumrind, a developmental psychologist, has concluded through her research that there are three distinct parenting styles. Each different style of parenting has different effects on the child’s behavior, which can often be identified by specific characteristics. Each style also has its own degree of responsiveness, which is the extent to which parents are sensitive to their child’s needs and demandingness, which is the amount of control parents put on their children in an attempt to determine their behavior.

The three styles are permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative. Parent’s who are permissive provide the necessary support but exercise little control over their children. Parent’s who use the authoritarian style of parenting often use low amounts of support with coercive attempts at control. The most successful style of parenting, according to research is the authoritative style of parenting, which is the “best of both worlds” combining the needed warmth and support, which moderate discipline, based on requests and explanations rather than strictly force or punishment. The different styles of parenting are an important starting point in understanding socialization, but it is not the only determining factor as socialization, as socialization involves intersectionality, the combining of several elements from each families’ lives to determine the final outcome of how the family socializes their children.  

As discussed in the book “Public and Private Families: An Introduction”, race and ethnicity are one of the intersections in determining what socialization may look like to a particular family versus another family. For example, in African American communities, parents are somewhat more likely to use physical punishment than white parents, but this does not correlate to African American children suffering behavior problems in their teenage years as is the case with European American children, nor did it affect how the African American children viewed their mothers who had spanked them, as it did for European American children.

Also discussed in “Public and Private Families: An Introduction”, social class is also an important element to analyze when discussing socialization of children. It has been found that middle-class parents tend to emphasize autonomy and self-direction when socializing their children, which means that they are attempting to enhance their children’s talents and opinions, where, the parents of low- and working-class families often tend to emphasize obedience and conformity for their children, which indicated that the class to which you belong can also have a stark impact on how you socialize your children. Things as simple as the gender of the child or the family’s religion can also play a part in how the family determines to socialize the child.  

This post is a call to parent’s to be aware of not only how you socialize your children, but also why you are socializing them in that way and to socialize them in a way that is going to benefit them in the future. Most parent’s want their children to grow up and lead a better life than they themselves did and socializing your children in a way that is going to provide them with the best set of tools to participate in that culture, is one of the best things that you can do to set them on the path to a better life.  

Public and Private Families, An Introduction, 9th Edition, by Andrew J. Cherlin. McGraw Hill, Publishers.   ISBN: 9781260240825.