Parenting children from ‘mixed’ racial, ethnic and faith backgrounds: typifications of difference and belonging

Abstract

In this article, we draw on data from an in-depth study of thirty-five parent couples from different racial, ethnic and faith backgrounds to explore how they understood and negotiated difference and belonging in bringing up their children. We identify and abstract three main typifications the mothers and fathers drew on in their accounts: open individualized, mix collective and single collective, and elaborate their constituent discursive motifs. Using in-depth case studies, we then consider the part played by these typifications in how parents negotiate their understandings with their partner where they hold divergent views. We conclude that Parents' understandings are developed and situated in different personal and structural contexts that shape rather than determine their understandings and negotiations.

Keywords:

• Family
• qualitative
• individualism/collectivism
• interethnic marriage
• interracial families
• intermarriage

Notes

1. .The ‘Parenting Mixed Children: Negotiating Difference and Belonging’ study was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and we are grateful to them for their support.

2. . The research also involved quantitative analysis of 2001 UK Census data on mixed couples and their children. See Caballero, Edwards and Smith 2008.