Parenting behavior amongst mothers of preschoolers

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of subjective childhood socioeconomic status on maternal parenting sensitivity; specifically, in relation to maternal intrusive behaviours as observed during tasks requiring varying degrees of conformity. The main hypothesis for this paper is that the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status and intrusiveness will largely vary by the context of the task presented to the mother and child. This paper will consist of three major parts: the first will review research linking socioeconomic status to parenting sensitivity. Next, it will examine literature on the life course perspective relative to socioeconomic status, in order to understand the intersubjective meanings that mothers across socioeconomic status have towards rules and other facets of conformity. Finally, it will describe a means of investigating this work in an ongoing study conducted within the Centre for Research in Child Development and will analyse and discuss relevant preliminary data. Results from this study provide an avenue for further discourse into understanding how subjective socioeconomic status affects the way in which mothers understand and appreciate different contexts thereby resulting in differing parental behaviours across socioeconomic lines.