Final answer:
In North America, parents in suburban neighborhoods may worry about reinforcing the class system, gender norms, and outdated disciplinary practices through traditional child-rearing methods. Allowing children to cross gender boundaries in dress, play, and behavior can challenge these norms, encouraging equality and a healthier self-concept. Adapting a flexible, authoritative parenting style can help nurture high self-esteem and strong social skills regardless of the child's gender.
Step-by-step explanation:
In raising children in a traditional suburban neighborhood in North America, parents may be concerned with several psychological phenomena that emerge from socialization practices. These include the reproduction of the class system, the enforcement of gender norms, and shifting notions of discipline. Research by Kohn (1977) and the National Opinion Research Center (2008) suggests that working-class families may prioritize obedience and conformity, while more affluent families often value judgment and creativity. Consequently, children are socialized to fit the occupational roles their parents hold. Additionally, gender socialization is prevalent, as noted by societal influences and parental expectations (Kimmel 2000; Coltrane and Adams 2008).
One way to address these concerns is for parents to permit children to explore identities and roles that cross gender boundaries. By doing so, they challenge traditional gender norms and allow for a diverse range of expressions and activities, which can promote equality and allow children to develop a healthy self-concept as suggested by Diana Baumrind's parenting styles (Baumrind 1971, 1991). Encouraging such flexibility can lead to child development that includes high self-esteem and strong social skills.
As social factors continually influence family life and child-rearing practices, parents may nurture egalitarian values and reduce the reproduction of biases related to social class, race, and gender by consciously adopting less conformist and more authoritative parenting styles.