Social Inequality, Childhood and the Media by Ingrid Paus-Hasebrink & Jasmin Kulterer & Philip Sinner

Author:Ingrid Paus-Hasebrink & Jasmin Kulterer & Philip Sinner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030026530
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

6.4 Extra-Familial Socialisation Contexts

Besides the families, extra-familial contexts, such as kindergarten or school alongside friends and peer groups, also played a major role in the adolescents ’ socialisation and grew in importance over the years. In contrast to early childhood and mid-childhood , the dominance of the family decreased as the scope of the children’s living environment increased and they explored new micro-systems.

6.4.1 Relatives and Friends of the Family

Relatives, and especially grandparents , played a relevant role for many families. They weren’t only helping the family with a range of issues but supported them financially as well. Mrs. Weiss inherited real estate and didn’t have to work anymore, as the rental income provided a living for her children and herself.

The children were often supported by their grandparents as important caregivers in their everyday life , for example, by giving the children pocket money when the parents could not afford it, as with Mrs. Aufbauer, a single parent. Occasionally, the grandparents or relatives gave presents in the form of media devices like laptops or smartphones . The grandparents , aunts and uncles not only helped to improve the financial situation of the families but also offered educational help or saw to their grandchildren’s welfare while the parents were over-challenged (with respect to research on aunts , see May & Lahad, 2018). Olivia Fein identified her grandmother as an important person in her life and would even discuss puberty problems (during the fifth wave of the survey ) with her. Her mother did not have either time for the concerns of her daughter or any interest in them. After Olivia in 2008 threatened to fall down the stairs in school on purpose, while behaving aggressively towards the other children, her grandmother, together with the school principal, approached the child protection services to initiate an examination of the domestic circumstances. After that, Olivia was taken into an assisted living community , where adolescents of different ages were living together and receiving therapeutic treatment. During that time, she visited her family only every second weekend. For Elisabeth Ebner, her aunt was the most important companion in her everyday life . Her parents did not have enough time because there was so much work on their farm, so Elisabeth spent a lot of time with her aunt , who became her most important confidante. In the same vein, the aunt intervened in the Pfortner family and mediated a conflict caused by the seemingly extraordinary alcohol consumption of the father. In the case of Alfons Weiss, his uncle paid for the boy’s cell phone contract without his mother knowing. For Torsten Kaiser, his grandparents were very important, although his mother was concerned about the contact to the paternal grandfather, as he allowed Torsten to play games she found inappropriate.

However many families lacked any good connection to their relatives. Families with meagre resources —financially and temporally—would have particularly profited, either through the grandparents supervising their children or supporting the family through money. Some of the families were

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