The aim of this study is to examine the values and practices of parents in modern society. Furthermore the study seeks to explore how these values and practices on one hand are linked to the parents’ experiences from their own upbringing and on the other hand are linked to a wider, societal context. The general research question is: “What values and practices do parents today have regarding the parenting of their children, and how is these linked to a wider, societal context and the parents’ own upbringing?
This will be examined from a social constructivist point of view with a qualitative approach, where the parents’ perceptions of their parenthood and parenting will be obtained through 5 semi structured individual interviews with parents, who has at least one child attending school.
As a part of the study’s methodology the design is inspired by the approach of adaptive theory, where the theoretical perspective is based on a selection of specific orienting concepts. The theoretical perspective consists of Pierre Bourdieus concepts of social position and habitus and Annette Lareaus concepts of parenting practices and type of relation between parents and school. These orienting concepts sets the background of the interviewguide used in the interviews with the parents. Furthermore they have played a part in the coding process and analysis of the empirical material to some extent, but still with room for an open minded approach to the empirical work. The results of the first part of the analysis show that the parents’ values and practices in their everyday life as parents focuses on a lot of the same aspects. Their overall values are to be present and accessible, to construct a safe environment with good boundaries and to prepare their children to function in society. Their practices focuses on the child being in the center, to engage and actively participate in the childrens everyday lives and activities and to build a relationship with their children based on trust and equality. The results of the second part of the analysis show that the parents’ values regarding their parenthood is in concurrence with the dominant ideal of parenthood in society, which existing research describes as an involved and intensive parenthood. This indicates that the parents have adopted this dominant ideal in their perception of their own parenthood. Furthermore the results show that the parents’ practices in their everyday lives as parents to some extent differ from the dominant ideal of parenthood in society, and this happens in areas of their parenting where they draw on experiences from their own upbringing. This indicates that the parents’ practices are shaped both by the dominant ideal of parenthood in society, but also by experiences from their own childhood.