Authority, disciplinary intimacy & parenting in middle-class America

Abstract

Children learn about authority first from their parents. A shift in orientation to authority occurred during middle-class formation in the mid-nineteenth century U.S., a style of parenting described as ‘disciplinary intimacy.’ A century later disciplinary intimacy, or ‘child-centered’ parenting characterized childrearing advice across American society. Simultaneously, distrust of all institutions in the liberal democratic state accelerated, causing questioning and confusion at every level of society. In family life, disciplinary practices once considered necessary, such as corporal punishment, came to be regarded as harsh and responsible for authoritarianism. Child-centered parenting, while discouraging ‘restrictive’ childrearing practices, gave little direction about constructive correctives, which fueled parental anxiety even as developmentalists temporarily resolved the decades-long controversy about restrictive vs. ‘permissive’ parenting. By the 1990s a debate formerly contrasting working- and middle-class childrearing values was overshadowed by a second shift focused on children’s school success as earlier considerations of authority and discipline faded from view. As concern spreads about the rise of authoritarianism across the West, the politics of parenting may once again preoccupy social scientists who worry about the nascence of sectarianism, xenophobia, and bellicose nationalism.

Keywords:

• Child development
• authoritarian
• restrictive/permissive childrearing
• parenting
• discipline