Primary Socialization Theory: Comments on Racism, Sexism, Generational Neglect, Abuse, and Abandonment

Abstract

This article asks whether primary socialization theory adequately deals with the most distressed and disadvantaged members of society. whether for most of them the family, school, and peers are the primary sources of socialization. Children who are subjected to the effects of racism, sexism, physical and mental abuse, inferior dangerous schools, and abandonment to foster care from birth may find other sources of primary socialization which can be either negative and positive. “Nihilism” and “anomie” are used to describe such children's position in their societies, and the article asks if those without benefit of the three primary sources of socialization can find ways to create new and positive norms, or whether they are doomed to lives of hopelessness and deviance.

Key Words:

• Child endangerment
• Rootlessness
• Abandonment
• Nihilism