Readings in Child Socialization

Readings in Child Socialization reviews some of the most important findings in child socialization and covers topics ranging from achievement motivation and parental behavior to maternal retrospection, mother-infant interaction, and children's attitudes to theft. Interaction in families with a schizophrenic child is also explored, along with identification and imitation in children; the taking of adult roles in middle childhood; social origins of elaborated and restricted codes; and the problem of identification with the father. This book is comprised of 14 chapters and opens by discussing three currents of thought that stimulated the empirical investigation of socialization: the learning approach, the positivist tradition, and Sigmund Freud's ideas. The following chapters explore the child's learning of adult role behavior; the role of parents in the child's achievement motivation; and the effects of sex of the dominant parent on sex-role preference, identification, and imitation in children. The influence of marital integration on parent-child relations is also examined, along with the direction of effects in studies of socialization. This monograph will be a useful resource for sociologists, social scientists, and child psychologists.