Annotated Bibliography on Diverse Family Structure

Annotated Bibliography on Diverse Family Structures

name

ECE 405: Children & Families in a Diverse Society

Jessica Horn

date

Annotated Bibliography

Curenton, S.M., &Iruka, I.U. (2013). Cultural competence in early childhood education. San

Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Family structures can come in many different forms. Our text book tells us about matrilineal culture, and patrilineal culture. In a matrilineal culture, the mother’s family is more involved, and the mother’s brother plays the role of the male role model. This is different than in the United States where we focus on the patrilineal culture and trace our ancestors through the father. Knowing that this can be a factor of a diverse family structure, a Teacher must never assume that a child is without a father. Understanding that the child can have a father is important, that child may just be closer to their uncle because of his culture. I think that this can also have an effect on a child in the classroom, take father’s day for example. The child may not want to make something for his birth father, but he/she may want to make something for their uncle. This evaluation of information has changed my way of thinking. I honestly did not know that there are cultures that have different male role models other than the father. When I think of diversity, I automatically think of race, and where we live. Knowing that different families have different structures is very eye opening, and I hope to be more aware of this as a teacher in a classroom.

Goodman, C., & Silverstein, M. (2002). Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren: Family Structure and Well-Being in Culturally Diverse Families. The Gerontologist,42(5), 676-689. doi:10.1093/geront/42.5.676

This article discusses how the amount of children being raised by grandmothers has more than doubled since 1990. The study was done on custodial grandmothers, and coparenting grandmothers. They evaluated their stress levels, and how it affects the child they are raising. They also looked into what ethnicity is more likely to have grandparents raising the children, and how their culture affects this.