Language Socialization in Working Families

Abstract

In recent decades, there has been a rise in dual-career families as women have increasingly entered the paid workforce in the USA, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere. Accompanying these trends is a growing body of cross-disciplinary research that examines the relations between work and family, or what are commonly called “working families.” Though broad enough to describe any family in which one or more adults work, this term has been used to refer to dual-earner or employed single-parent families with children, in contrast to families where only one of two cohabiting parents is the wage earner. Much of this literature has analyzed survey data and self-reports, such as questionnaires and interviews. It is in this context that the language socialization paradigm has offered new ways of analyzing working families through careful attention to their everyday social interaction across settings within and outside the home. This research takes a distinctly ethnographic approach, revealing what working families do during their daily lives and illuminating how language socialization occurs through family activities, routines, and talk. This chapter reviews language socialization research that focuses on the work and family interface, including how postindustrial families grapple with cultural ideologies and pressures as they seek to balance work and family demands, and negotiate their children’s autonomy and dependence.