The Racialized Consequences of Intensive Parenting

• In Event: 220 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 13. Parenting and Racial Identity

Abstract

What, and how, do white parents teach their children about being white in America? Though whites are the majority racial group in the United States, very little is known about how they racially socialize their children. The few white racial socialization studies that do exist provide us with an incomplete understanding of the process by which white parents teach their children about race. Almost all of this research focuses on the explicit racial socialization efforts of middle class parents. These studies examine what middle class parents say to their children about race, but not what they do, perhaps unconsciously, to facilitate or hinder the development of a white racial identity. To fill these gaps in the literature, I conducted ethnographic research at a playground located in a multiracial neighborhood. At the playground, I observed how middle class, white parents negotiated interracial contact for themselves and their young child while in a multiracial space.
Most of the middle class, white parents I observed at the park were “hoverers” who appeared to adhere to an “intensive mothering” type of parenting philosophy and practice (Hays, 1996). Hoverers remained footsteps behind their child at all times. Middle class parents desire to control their child’s social environment and to remain highly engaged meant that parents frequently obstructed their child from having meaningful interaction with nearby children or adults, many of whom were individuals of color. Thus even though white parents brought their children to a multiracial space to play, interracial play rarely occurred.

Author

• Megan Underhill, University of Cincinnati