The Autonomous Child

Originally published in 1986, this book’s focal point is a field study which asks whether the social childrearing context of daycare transmits to young children values different from those within America’s dominant value tradition of individualism. Daycare critics were concerned that this social childrearing within daycare would weaken the family and promote collectivist rather than individualistic values, and thereby threaten the social continuity of America’s values. Through participant observ