The Parent Trap: The Challenges of Socializing for Autonomy and Independence

It’s worth noting that Rutherford’s research points to children’s increased autonomy in the private sphere (choices about clothes or meals), and decreased autonomy in the public sphere (less freedoms to explore, wander from home unmonitored, etc.). See Rutherford 2011.

The Culture of American Families Project was a three-year investigation into the family cultures that are impacting the next generation of American adults, examining the cultural frameworks and diverse moral narratives that both inform and are informed by American family life. The data for this project were collected in two stages from September 2011 to January 2012: first, a web-based survey of a nationally representative sample of 3000 parents of school-aged children and second, follow-up, in-person interviews conducted with 101 of the survey respondents. This essay draws from these 90-min, semi-structured interviews. All respondents in the interview sample were parents of school-aged children, the average age was 41 years old, 70% of the sample were female, about half had a college degree or more, about 58% were white, 20% black, 12% Hispanic, and 10% other race. For more information about the study, see “The Culture of American Families Project” at www.iasc-culture.org/caf. See especially Jeffrey Dill, “The Culture of American Families: Interview Report”, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, December 2012.