MSU

LIBRARIES

 

 

RETURNING MATERIALS:
Place in book drop to
remove this checkout from
your record. FINES wiII
be charged if book is
returned after the date
stamped below.

 

 

'xfl3“v~
r“,

 

w

I! F ’ 0'8 :0 8 '0 "9m

‘4. _ .5
‘ (in: 14.1.;

 

. USEM M002

: ,t,...-.,... it
9 WP H «77:} 2%.“?
:50", 13-; E731".

 

CHILD-REARING PRACTICES IN THE HOMES OF ARAB IMMIGRANTS:

A STUDY OF ETHNIC PERSISTENCE

BY
Elham-Eid Alldredge

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Sociology

1984

JI //U‘-”I

ABSTRACT

CHILD-REARING PRACTICES IN THE HOMES OF ARAB IMMIGRANTS:
A STUDY OF ETHNIC PERSISTENCE

BY

Elham-Eid Alldredge

The thrust of this research was to investigate the
role of Arab ethnic families in the process of
assimilation. Child-rearing practices were used as
indicators of ethnic persistence and/or change. The
general theoretical guidelines assumed that as these
immigrant families live in this society and interact with
it, they experience conflicts over values associated with
rearing of children and that these conflicts result in
certain outcomes.

The research was conducted on a randomly selected
sample of 41 Arab immigrant women who resided in an ethnic
community in Dearborn, Michigan. The data for the research
were collected through a formal interview schedule with the
women, personal interviews with concerned individuals in
the community and some participant observations.

The data were used for two main purposes: first,
describing the organization of Arab families and their
child-rearing and second, testing hypotheses on the

relationship between designated child-rearing and societal

variables. The child-rearing variables were: physical and
emotional dependency, handling aggression, rewards,
punishments, and sex-role differentiation. These were
dependent variables. The societal variables were:
interaction with the host society, mass media use,
participation in the ethnic community and attachment to the
land of origin. These were independent variables. A
number of questions from the interview schedule were
designated for each variable. The responses to these
questions were given scores and then placed in scales.

The analyses of the data indicated that the Arab
mothers under study are basically traditional but are
experiencing changes in certain areas. The women are
taking on added non-traditional responsibilities in making
family decisions. Even though they perceive their own
roles as home-centered, they expressed different role
expectations for their daughters including equal
educational opportunities with their sons. Certain changes
are being eXperienced in the areas of physical independence
training, types of rewards, and handling aggression. The
changes are due basically to exposure to the host society
through mass media use and interaction with the host
society. Small changes were also detected in emotional
independence training, types of punishment, and male and
female roles. Basically, though, the mothers were
persisting in traditional Arab values when it came to these

areas.

DEDICATED

To David C. Alldredge, my husband, whose sacrificial love,
encouragement and continued support were a constant
source of help to me. This work would have been
impossible without his true companionship.

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to express my indebtedness, first and foremost,
to Dr. Frederick Bertolaet, Project Director of the Arabic
Language Bilingual Materials Development Center, University
of Michigan - Ann Arbor, for giving me the opportunity to
conduct this research and for his continued encouragement
for the duration. I wish also to thank the Dearborn Public
Schools and their Bilingual Education Staff for providing
me with contacts and with relevant information.

I am especially thankful to my dissertation
Chairperson, Dr. Thomas Conner, for his intellectual
guidance, encouragement and support. I also want to thank
the other committee members, Drs. Marilyn Aronoff, Barrie
Thorne and Christopher Vanderpool for their constructive
comments on this manuscript.

Special appreciation to my friends, Dr. Laura Zarrugh
for her willingness to read and comment on various drafts
of the manuscript, and Dr. Ghada Khoury for her valuable
guidance in the analysis of the data.

Finally, I owe a special debt to my young children
Ramzy, 6 years, and Zaina, 4 years, who consciously and
unconsciously made sacrifices for me and who, through their

simple Christian faith, provided great emotional support.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . .

LIST OF TABLES O O O O O C O O O O O O O O O C O O O Vii
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION 0 O O O O O O O O O 0

II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND REVIEW OF RELEVANT

LITERATURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Overview of Arab Group . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Theoretical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Factors in Ethnic Persistence. . . . . . . . 25

III. RESEARCH PROCEDURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Background of the study. . . . . . . . . . . 59
The Study Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

The Data Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
The Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
The Variables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Definitions of Major Variables . . . . . . . 84
The Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Problems and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . 89

IV. ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS . . . . . 91
Description of the Data. . . . . . . . . . . 91
Social Organization of Arab Families. . . 92
Child-Rearing Practices . . . . . . . . . 100
Testing of Hypotheses. . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Homeland Attachment and Child-Rearing
Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Mass Media Exposure and Child-Rearing

Practices. 0 O O I O O O O O O O O O 155
Ethnic Participation and Child- -Rearing
Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Host Interaction and Child-Rearing
Practices. . . . . . . . . . . .
Level of Mothers' Education and
Child-Rearing Practices. . . . . . . . 189
Length of Residency and Child-Rearing
Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
How the Family Spends Its Time and
Child- -Rearing Practices. . . . . . . . 193
Sources of Happiness and Unhappiness and
Child-Rearing Practices. . . . . . . . 194

. . . 174

iv

V. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS.

Family Organization. . . . . . .
Decision-Making in the Home .
Role of Women . . . . . . . .
Infant Care . . . . . . . . .
Child-Rearing Practices . . .

Societal Variables and Child—Rearing

Practices . . . . . . . . .

Theoretical Implications o the Study

Recommendations for Further Research

APPENDIX A. ENGLISH VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

BIBLIOGRAPHY . O O O O O O O O C O O O O O

196
197
197
199
200
202

214
219
225
229

241

Figure

2-1

3-1

5-1

LIST OF FIGURES

Arab-American Population Distribution -
Metropolitan Detroit . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Greeley's Ethnogenesis Model . . . . . . . . .
Schermerhorn's Conflict Model . . . . . . . .

Arab Ethnics' Relationship to Schermerhorn's
ConfliCt Mwel O O O O O O O O O O I O 0 O O 0

Northeast Dearborn and the Southend . . . . .

Arab Ethnics' Relationship to the Ethnogenesis
Mwel O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

vi

Page

18

22

24

64

220

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

3-1 Percent of Respondents' and Husbands' Educational
AChievement O O O O I O O O O O O O O O O O O O 77

3-2 Percent of Husbands' Previous and Present Type
Of Empl oymen t O O O O O I O O O O I O O O O O O 7 8

3-3 Percent of Families Migrating for Given Reasons. 79

3-4 Percent of Mothers' Family Size and Their
Nationalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

3-5 Emotional Independence Scale . . . . . . . . . . 83
3-6 Collapsed Emotional Independence Scale . . . . . 83

4-1 Percent of Wives and Husbands Involved in Final
Decisions on Certain Given Issues . . . . . . . 93

4—2 Percent of Mothers Meeting Husbands Through
Certain Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

4—3 Percent of Mothers Feeding Infants on Demand or
by Schedule by Sex of Infant . . . . . . . . . . 101

4-4 Percent of Time Male and Female Infants Were
weaned O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 O 10 2

4-5 Percent of Mothers Expressing Warmth to Their
Infants by Sex of Infant . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

4-6 Percent of Mothers Training Their Children to be
Physically Independent in Given Activities at
Given Ages of Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4-7 Physical Independence Scale. . . . . . . . . . . 109
4-8 Collapsed Physical Independence Scale. . . . . . 110

4-9 Emotional Independence Scale . . . . . . . . . . 113

vii

4-10

4-11

Collapsed Emotional Independence Scale . . . . .
Percent of Mothers Training Children in
Emotional Independence for Given Situations by
sex Of Child O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

Percent of Mothers' Opinions on Expressed
Aggression by Sex of Child . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Fathers' Opinions on Expressed
Aggression by Sex of Child . . . . . . . . . . .

Handling Aggression Scale. . . . . . . . . . . .
Types of Rewards Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Time a Type of Punishment is Used
a Given Situation of Misbehaviour . . . . . . .

Types of Punishment Scale . . . . . . . . . . .
Collapsed Types of Punishment Scale . . . . . .
Percent of Mothers' Responses Regarding

Expectations of Their Childrens' Future by

Of Child O O C O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

Percent of Mothers Training Their Children in
Physical Independence by Sex of Child . . . . .

Percent of Mothers Training Their Children in
Emotional Independence by Sex of Child . . . . .

Percent of Mothers Handling of Agression by Sex
Of Child O O O O O C O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

Percent of Mothers Using Certain Types of
Rewards by Sex of Child . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers Using Certain Types of
Punishments by Sex of Child . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers Resorting to Physical
Punishment for Correcting Misbehaviour by Sex

Of Child O O O O O O O O O I O O O I O O O O O O
Female-Roles Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Male-Roles Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Collapsed Female-Roles Scale . . . . . . . . . .

viii

113

114

118

119
120

122

124

126

126

132

135

136

136

138

139

140

142

142
142

4-33

4-34

4-35

4-36

4-40

Collapsed Male-Roles Scale . . . . . . . . . . .
Homeland Attachment Scale . . . . . . . . . . .
Collapsed Homeland Attachment Scale . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland
Attachment and Their Training of Children in
Physical Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Experience of High and Low
Homeland Attachment and Their Training of
Children in High and Low Physical

Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland
Attachment and Their Training of Children in
Emotional Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Home
Attachment and Their Handling of Aggression . .

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland
Attachment and the Types of Punishments They

use 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland
Attachment and the Type of Rewards They Use . .

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland
Attachment and Female Sex Roles . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland
Attachment and Male Sex Roles . . . . . . . . .

Mass Media Exposure Scale . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and

Their Training of Children in Physical
Independence as Measured on the Collapsed Scale.

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and
Their Training of Children in Physical
Independence as Measured on the Full Scale . . .

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and Their
Training of Children in Emotional Independence .

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and the

Handling of Aggression Expressed by Their
Children 0 O O O O O O O O O O I I O O O O O O 0

ix

142
146
146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

156

158

158

159

160

4-60
4-61

4-62

Percent of Mothers'
Types of Rewards They Use

Percent of Mothers'

Mass Media

Mass Media

Exposure and

Exposure and

Types of Punishments They Use . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers'
Female Roles . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers'
Male Roles . . . . . . . .

Mass Media

Mass Media

Exposure and

Exposure and

Ethnic Participation Scale . . . . . . . . .

Collapsed Ethnic Participation Scale . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic
Their Training of Children
Independence . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic
Their Training of Children
Physical Independence . .

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic
their Training of Children
Independence . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic

Participation and
in Physical

Participation and
in High and Low

Participation and
in Emotional

Participation and

Handling of Aggression Expressed by Their

Children . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic
Types of Rewards They Use

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic

Participation

Participation

Types of Punishment They Use . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic
Male Roles . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic
Female Roles . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic
Female/Male Roles . . . .

Host Interaction Scale . .
Collapsed Host Interaction

Percent of Mothers'

X

Host Interaction and
Training of Children in Physical Independence

Participation

Participation

Scale . . . . . .

Their

161

162

163

163
165

166

167

167

168

169

170

171

172

172

173
181

181

182

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and
Handling of Aggression Expressed by Their
Children 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and the
Types of Rewards They Use . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and the
Types of Punishment They Use . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and Male
ROI-es O I I O O O O O O O O O O O O O I O O O 0

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and Female
ROI-es O O O O O O O I O O O O O O O O O O O O 0

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and Their
Level of Education and Female Roles . . . . . .

Mothers' Level of Education . . . . . . . . . .

Summary of Results of Testing Child-Rearing
Practices and the Mothers' Level of Education .

Percent of Mothers' Level of Education and Their
Training of Children in Physical Independence .

Percent of Mothers' Level of Education and Their
Handling of Aggression . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Mothers' Level of Education and
Types of Punishments They Use . . . . . . . . .

Percent of Arab Families and Whom They Spend
Time With 0 O O O O O C O O O O I O O O O O O 0

xi

183

184

185

186

186

188

189

190

191

191

192

194

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Assimilation of racial and ethnic groups into the
mainstream American culture has long been an important
issue for social scientists. Traditionally, sociologists
have adopted "Anglo conformity" as a model to study
ethnicity. The basic idea of Anglo conformity is to turn
the ethnics into "white" Americans and thus assimilate them
into the American mainstream. Anglo conformity was often
disguised in the "melting pot" metaphor which was popular
in the early part of the twentieth century. The metaphor
'embody(ies) the notion that immigrants from all over the
world somehow fuse together here in America, producing a
new and better amalgam combining the best cultural
contributions of each" (Mindel and Habenstein, 1976:1). A
classic study of that model was Park's race relations
cycle. For him the phenomenon of race relations is to be
studied in a theoretical framework of competition and
conflict (between the minority and the dominant groups) at
the time of initial contact, to be followed by stages of
accommodation and ending in a stage of assimilation of the
minority in the society (Park, 1950). The "melting pot"
concept has survived and is still considered valid by some

1

2
researchers such as Scott Greerl.

Sociologists continue to be occupied with ethnic and
racial groups, especially with the more recent resurgence
of ethnic awareness. Analysts have argued that America is
experiencing a revival of ethnicity and ethnic
consciousness (Novak, 1971; Greeley, 1975; and Kinton,
1977). Even though the "ethnic revival" focuses on second
and third generation white European immigrants, interest in
what Rollins calls "hidden minorities" has also become
salient. These are ethnic groups who have little primary
influence in the political and economic spheres. Yet their
experiences provide a microcosm for the study of the
processes of acculturation and assimilation in the American
environment (Rollins, 1981:1). Conflicts and resolutions
involved in those processes can also be studied.

The Arab immigrants are one of those "hidden
minorities". Their experiences in the American society are
the focus of this study.

The general theoretical guidelines for the present

study assume that the Arab immigrants who live in this

society and interact with it experience conflicts over
certain values associated with the rearing of children.
The assumption is also made that as a result of these

conflicts the immigrants either adapt their child-rearing

 

lSee Greer, Scott, The Urbane View (New York, N.Y.:

Oxford University Press, 1972).

 

3
practices to those of the society or persist in them. The
central focus of the research then is to assess changes
and/or persistence in certain designated aspects of
child-rearing.

The study was conducted in a community in Southeast
Michigan which has continued to receive large numbers of
Arab immigrants especially during the last two decades.

The Arab immigrants have resided in two areas of that
community, one of which is an older ethnically segregated
community referred to as the Southend, and a newer one
which is not segregated and is referred to as the Northeast
community. Both are viable ethnic communities because they
meet the specific religious, educational, dietary and
socializing needs of their members and are characterized by
strong social networks.

The study involved the collection of data regarding
designated areas of child-rearing practices and certain
societal factors. The child-rearing variables were
dependency, discipline (rewards and punishments) and
sex-role differentiation. The societal variables were
interaction with the host society, participation in the
ethnic community, attachment to their land of origin and
exposure to the host society through the use of mass media.
The data was collected mainly through a formal interview
schedule, personal interviews with concerned individuals in
the community and some participant observations. The

sample was made up of 41 Arab women who are mothers of

4
kindergarten students drawn randomly from school records.
These Arab mothers came from Lebanon, Palestine, and Yemen.
Based on observations made by anthropologists and
sociologists (Patai, 1983; Prothro, 1961; Ammar, 1954; and
Miner and DeVos, 1960) who have studied families in the
Middle East, an assumption was made that general patterns
of child-rearing practices existed that could be considered
Arab. Moreover, since very few studies exist on the Arab
family and specifically on child-rearing, Prothro's study
in Lebanon (Prothro, 1961) was heavily relied on and used
as a guide for this research in the area of child—rearing.

The research generated a large body of data which was
used for two main purposes: describing the organization of
Arab families in America and their child-rearing practices
and in testing hypotheses on the relationship of the
designated child-rearing practices and the above—mentioned
societal variables.

In chapter two, the relevant literature is reviewed
and the theoretical framework within which the research
data are analyzed is developed. Chapter three describes
the research design. This includes a statement of
variables and hypotheses, a description of the research
setting, the sample studied, and the collection of the
data. In the fourth chapter, the findings of the research
study are presented. Finally, in chapter five, the
theoretical and practical implications of the findings are

discussed and further research recommendations are made.

CHAPTER TWO
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE
I. Overview of Arab Group

A. Immigration History
The Arabs arrived in America around the last quarter

of the nineteenth century. The early immigrants were
overwhelmingly Christian from Syria who came here as a
result of poverty, depletion of farm lands and religious
persecution during the Ottoman Empire. They were attracted
to this country by an expanding economy and news of wealth
that could be acquired. About a quarter of these early
immigrants ended their journey in the Southern states where
many became successful farmers in Georgia, Texas,
Tennessee, Mississippi, New Mexico and Arizona. About
fifty percent of them stayed on the East coast and settled
in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the New England
States. The rest settled in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana,
Illinois and Iowa (Elkholy, 1969:5). Most of these early
immigrants were not well educated and came mostly from
rural areas and thus provided cheap labour for the rail,
auto and steel industries. A small portion of them,
though, struggled to achieve financial success in small
businesses such as grocery stores and restaurants

5

(Al-Qazzaz, et.al., 1978:45).

From the beginning of the Arab migration to the end of
World War II, the immigrants did not intend to settle in
America permanently. Their main goal was to accumulate as
much money as possible in the shortest time possible and
then return home. This, plus their limited knowledge of
English, slowed their assimilation process and contributed
to the formation of ethnic clusters. The ”less English
speaking an ethnic community is, the more clannish it is,
and the more it segregates itself from American life"
(Elkholy, 1976:153). This has been true of many Arab
communities, and it is true of the community which is the
focus of the present research.

After the 1950's a new pattern of Arab immigration
emerged. While the early immigrants came here intending to
return home, those who came after 1950 came to settle. A
good example of these were the Palestinian refugees and the
Egyptian immigrants. Most of the new immigrants were
highly educated and skilled professionals. Many were
employed as university professors, doctors, school
teachers, engineers, and lawyers. Additionally, they were
no longer overwhelmingly Christian nor restricted to
Lebanon and Syria as the early immigrants were; 78 percent
of them were Muslims. They also started to come from a
number of other Arab countries as well, such as Iraq,
Jordan and Egypt (Ibid).

The political unrest in the Middle East during the

7
last few years has contributed to a constant flow of Arab
immigrants. Between 1971 and 1975, an average of 10,430
immigrants entered the United States every year. Of this
number, an increasingly large proportion have been young
people. The increase is noticeable among children ages 5
years and under and older youth ages 19 years and under
(TESOL Quarterly, 1978). For example, in 1973,
twenty-seven percent of the immigrants from Iraq, Jordan,
Lebanon, Syria and Egypt were under 19 years of age. In
1974, that figure rose to thirty-five percent and, in 1975,
it increased again to forty percent. Since the pattern of
Arab immigrant settlement has traditionally tended toward
grouping rather than dispersal, this increase in youthful
immigrants has significant implication for schools in those
areas with large Arab populations.

The number of these recent immigrants means that there
are enough Arab-Americans to warrant their recognition as a
minority. SOUrces conflict as to the exact number of
Arabic-speaking Americans, but it ranges from 990,000
(Elkholy, 1966:3> to 1,500,000 (Al-Qazzaz, 1978:45) to
roughly 2,000,000 (Naff, 1983:9). The reason for the
conflicting numbers is a lack of sound and reliable
statistical data due to the fact that Arabs are classified
according to the region they immigrated from. Naff says
that in official immigration records until 1899 and in
census records until 1920, all Arabs were recorded,

together with Turks and Armenians, under "Turkey in Asia".

8
After 1920, they were classified as Syrians, but their
religion was not recorded and non-Syrian Arabs might be
counted as "other Asian" and North African Arabs as "other
African". Since 1948, after the creation of the state of
Israel, the majority of the Arab immigrants have been
Palestinians, but in official records they have been
designated as refugees, or as from Palestine or Israel, or
as nationals of the country where they last resided before
coming here (Naff, 1983:11). In the census tracts that
were studied for the present research the Arabs were
categorized under "foreign born". For this reason, and
except for school records, specifying the size of Arab
population concentrations depends mostly on estimates.

The Midwest is a region that has witnessed the
settling of large Arab migration to the United States.
They were mostly attracted by the auto industry and the
presence of already- established Arab communities.
Michigan, in particular, has now the largest number of Arab
immigrants in the U.S.A , and they have resided mainly in
the Detroit Metropolitan Area. See figure 2-1.

The Arab community in the Detroit area has continued
to grow, especially during the last ten years as political
conflicts in the Middle East intensify. The Iraq-Iran war
and the Lebanese civil war are two of the political events

responsible for the major share of the recent growth.

.coflmmflfiuom an coma .wm .m .mmma
.mwwosum swan: mom noucoo .auwmum>flso oumum ochmz "aflouuon
.GHHOB 302 on» :w man< .mp0 .Emnmun< .2 can .m Emnmund uoUHSOm

aflouuma cmuwHomouuozlcoflusnfluumfio samuraamom :wowHoE<lnmu<

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Him whamflm
9858.0 . E A 0..
0828 Q 5!!! 59:8...
86:3: 5 3: __ u <o<z<o a:
u: . gas .5»:
o m .000 0
I . .i
£T£_ _ L 82!: . i.
ED
lira n00.
afar/é .2... a...
.Iaifillsmmm s!
95 ea
5 It:
.xxe. “REM sexmws
38.. 5 . .I. ................. ..........
‘0 \s
.28. n
F V» Es. .u
85:. 8..
m ‘\ ‘ O
5. IA! .. u . “an“ “.3 ..
a —m.—g .o...
H33. .335. 5.38 3.33: 59383
as: a — $3.8 1......
_ Swiss-a!
g 5.: . 8.3., .
ail. _ 3! .3!!!
0.33.: 5 00 052. 8 .520

 

 

 

 

 

 

10
B. Ethnic Identity

The Arabs have migrated to America from a number of
Arab countries which have had varied political experiences.
They also come from different religious backgrounds which
continue to be a source of division here as they were in
their countries of origin. Nevertheless, the Arabs are
still bound by a common language and a common cultural
heritage. In addition, continued crises in the Middle
East, America's increasing involvement in that strategic
region and the emerging importance of that region in world
economy have worked to give the Arab community a more
cohesive structure. This cohesiveness has countervailed
the divisive elements. The Arabs have also become victims
of stereotyping and prejudice especially in the mass media
and in public school social studies curricula.

All the above factors have led to pan-community
organizational activities on the part of the Arab ethnics.
The association of Arab-American University Graduates, the
National Association of Arab-Americans and the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee are examples of
that. Such activity reflects a need on the part of the
Arabs in America to be recognized and to operate as an
ethnic group. A newly developing Arab-American identity is
taking shape and has caught the attention of many
researchers (Hagopian and Paden, 1969: Aswad, 1974;

Abu-Laban, 1980; and Abraham and Abraham, 1983).

11

II. Theoretical Overview

This newly developed ethnic identity on the part of the
Arabs in America is in line with the ethnic revival which
was characteristic of the 1970's. Both these developments
have accentuated the need for more analysis of ethnic groups
and their interaction with the society at large. Generally,
sociologists have resorted to a number of theoretical models
for the analysis of ethnicity, namely, structural-
functionalism, symbolic interactionism and conflict models.
These models have generated three frameworks which are
appropriate for the study of ethnicity - the consensus, the
interdependence and the conflict frameworks (Barth and Noel,
1982:77).

These models vary in their utility depending on the
specific issue to be analyzed. Each of them is relevant to
the study of ethnic groups, but only two are utilized for
the present study - consensus and conflict. Moreover, these
models are not exclusive ways of looking at the same
phenomena. Elements of both models are used to create an
integrated framework within which to analyze the data from
the Dearborn Arab community.

Basically, both models are concerned with relations
among different subsystems or subsections of a society.
Specifically, they are interested in how a group, such as
the Arab ethnic group, becomes part of the whole society.

An ethnic group can be defined as a "collectivity within a

12
larger society having real or putative common ancestry,
memories of a shared historical past and a cultural focus on
one or more symbolic elements defined as the epitome of
their peoplehood. Examples of such symbolic elements are:
kinship patterns, physical contiguity...religious
affiliations, language or dialect form, tribal affiliation,
nationality, phenotypical features or any combination of
these” (Schermerhorn, 1970:12). Moreover, the members of an
ethnic group should have some kind of consciousness of the
above features (Ibid). This consciousness is influenced by
discrimination and prejudice against the group (Rollins,
1981:3). These groups persist as ethnic groups because of
certain boundaries they experience . Having strong ethnic
boundaries serves to perpetuate the ethnic group. Barth
distinguishes four necessary boundaries: 1) biological
(racial) differences that are self-perpetuating; 2) cultural
differences that are shared by the group members; 3)
language and communication differences; and 4) membership
which identifies itself and is identified by others, as
constituting a category distinguishable from other
catergories of the same order (Barth, 1969:10-11).

An ethnic group becomes part of a society through
migration. The type of migration, whether forced or
voluntary, that a group experiences, determines the initial
pattern of relations at the time of contact between the
group and the society. When groups enter a society

different from their own they either come into a situation

13
of superordination and thus become the dominant group of
that society or they come into a subordinate position
(Lieberson, 1972:40). In a situation of migrant
superordination, the indigenous population is subjugated and
conflict might arise and persit over a long period of time.
A good example of this is the subjugation of the aboriginal
Indians in America by the white immigrants. When the
migrant group comes into a situation of subordination, it is
more likely to accept assimilation into the dominant
society. Migration in this case is of the voluntary type.
Examples of these are the European immigrants around the
turn of the century and the Arab ethnics.1
A. Consensus Models
1. Assimilation
After the initial contact, conflict may exist, but
according to the consensus model, eventually a situation of
order and stability will result as the subordinate ethnic
groups adjust to and adopt the values and life styles of the
superordinate group. One of the earliest classic studies
concerning the above was the race-cycle model developed by
Robert E. Park. For him the phenomenon of race relations

is to be studied in a theoretical framework of competition

 

1For the Arab ethnics, the term “subordinate” is not used
here in a derogatory manner but only to signify that the
group as a group did not assume a position of dominance.
This does not preclude the case of "brain drain” from the
Arab world where individuals who are professioanlly
qualified have assumed secure economic and political
positions.

l4
and conflict (between the minority and the dominant groups)
at the time of initial contact, to be followed by stages of
accommodation and ending in a stage of assimilation of the
minority or subordinate group in the society (Park, 1950).
His model though was a unilinear evolutionary model in that
he implied that the minority group will go through each
stage of the cycle until its experience culminates in the
last stage of assimilation-amalgamation (Earth and Noel,
1982:78). The weakness of this model lies in the fact that
it fails to explain the experiences of certain ethnic groups
such as the Black Americans. Their initial contact with the
white society, characterized by accomodation, has not lead
to inevitable assimilation but instead has reverted to an
earlier stage of competition and conflict.

Since Park, some theorists have adopted a basic
assimilationist perspective but have departed from Park's
cycle in important ways. One such theorist is Milton Gordon
who, in 1964, expanded on the assimilationist model. Gordon
spoke of levels of assimilation. One level he called
”cultural assimilation”. At this level, an ethnic group
adopts certain cultural patterns of the core society such as
language and dress. Another level he called "structural
assimilation". At this level, ethnic group members enter
into cliques, clubs and associations of the host society at
the primary group level (Gordon, 1964:71). Gordon saw a
real possibility that ethnic groups may assimilate only

culturally but not structurally. Moreover, Gordon placed

15
great emphasis on the historical factor. He said,

"while this process (of acculturation) is only

partially completed in the immigrant generation

itself, with the second and succeeding

generations, exposed to the American public

system and speaking English as their native

tongue, the impact of the American acculturation

process has been overwhelming...0n the other

hand, the success of the acculturation process

has by no means guaranteed entry of each minority

into the primary groups and institutions of the

white protestant group” (Gordon, 1964:78).

2. Cultural Pluralism

The persistence of cultural identity among many new
and old immigrant groups has led to a renewed emphasis on
"cultural pluralism". This theoretical area has received
serious attention because, as Michael Novak expresses it in
his work, the assimilation, especially of the white ethnics
has not been as extensive as the assimilationists expected
(Novak, 1971).

The "cultural pluralism" model is not a new one. In
fact, Kallen used the term in print for the first time in
1924 (Gordon, 1964:144). Kallen was protesting against the
demand for cultural assimilation on the part of such
movements as that of Americanization. This movement was
apparent in the imposition of a strongly Anglocentric
school curriculum on the children of immigrants and the
denigration of their cultural tradition and values
(Appleton, l983:4). Following in Kallen's footsteps more

recent analysts, specifically in the 1970's, agree that

even though a certain amount of assimilation is inevitable,

16
ethnicity is not on the decline. These analysts, such as
Greeley (1975), Novak (1971) and Kinton (1977), have all
observed that America was experiencing an ethnic revival.
For example, Glazer and Moynihan in their book Beyond

the Melting Pot bring out the continued ethnicity

 

of European immigrants. Even though by the third
generation they had assimilated to some degree and lost
certain original customs and ways they remained culturally
distinctive in many ways. Specifically, they still voted
differently than white Americans, had different ideas about
education and sex and were in many essential ways still as
different as they were when their grandfathers immigrated
here (Glazer and Moynihan, 1963).

The cultural pluralists insist that ethnic diversity
is a reality in this culture and that the assimilation
model is not useful in explaining the persistence of
ethnicity. Both models though are based on a consensus
view. Assimilation predicts that as the immigrants spend
time in this society and begin to adopt the values and
lifestyles of the superordinate group that order will
ensue. Conflict that may exist among the groups is solved
by consensus. Cultural pluralism also assumes that some
stability and harmony will ensue, but the difference is
that assimilation assumes that a homogeneous and orderly
society results from interaction while pluralism assumes
both a higher level of interaction among the groups and a

resultant harmonious yet diverse society. Thus for both

17
the issue of conflict will eventually be resolved basically
by consensus.

Even though ethnic groups may retain their
distinctiveness, a measure of assimilation takes place.
Greeley, in his theory of ethnogenesis, stresses that an
ethnic group, as a result of interaction with the American
culture, such as through the public schools and the of the
mass media, will develop cultural traits common with the
host (dominant) culture. This is assimilation. But he
goes on to say that the growth of the common cultural
traits "bank" does not eliminate cultural traits
distinctive to the ethnic group. In fact, some of these
traits may become more emphasized as a result of
interacting with the American society. This way the
resulting traits are different from those of the immigrant
predecessors and those of people who stayed in the homeland
(Greeley, 1970:306-310). A good example of this is the
Sunday School system adopted by the Muslims in America to
teach their children about Islam. Sunday School is
completely alien to Islam in the Arab world, and this
institution is different from Sunday School in America.
Greeley goes on to say that the result of interaction is an
ethnic group that shares some traits with the host society,
some with the original immigrant group and some traits that
are "new" or "modified", developed specifically by the

immigrants (Ibid.). See Figure 2-2.

.mom comm .qema .osom one
>033 anon 330» 302 .mmpmum copes: on» 2% huwowsnum .3965 .hoamouu «mounom

Hobos mwmosmmocnum m.>oaomuu

 

18

 

 

 

 

 

«um messes
ZOHH<Hm<Q< mo afimwm $595.5
9&8me gnu—.430 gUHmo
mam.
m ”seaweed m .A
w {1:393:31 u 25.325
W H +9'-'---------'
m zeaso m asses
largo-000.000.00.00.coco-Loo ----"-'----.l
A]
'."'-‘-‘-'-"l 8mg
So: I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aufivoz mom: .Hoonom aoaaoov sowuuozua
macaumuocoo

 

 

 

 

 

19

B. Conflict Theories

Theories that follow the conflict model differ from
the consensus theories in that they see conflict as a basic
factor in social change and part of an ongoing process. A
conflict relationship exists when different interacting
social units in a society operate on the basis of
conflicting vested interests. That is ”the crucial, shared
values or objects in which some groups have an established
claim operate to the disadvantage of other groups;
differential vested interests assure that pressures for
change will be opposed and thereby generate a continuous
struggle for power and advantage" (Earth and Noel,
1982:87). Thus conflict can be generated in a number of
areas such as economic and political power, rewards and
resources of society and social values.

Politically and economically, conflict is generated
when groups experience inequalities among them and they
struggle over the available rewards and resources. A good
example of this is in the area of bilingual education. As
Appleton puts it,

"in a shrinking economy, there is increasing

competition for resources needed to fund

education. Since the funding of one plan means

the exclusion of another, conflict along cultural

lines is sure to develop. Bilingual education,

ethnic studies and multicultural education, and
remedial academic programs for struggling

minority students must compete with one another

and with other programs for funding” (Appleton,
1983:166-167).

20

Conflicts over social values also exist. These
conflicts do not necessarily involve material resources but
are concerned with important cultural differences that
exist between different groups. Conflict is generated
because the values may be incompatible and thus cause
clashes among groups.

Cultural conflict does not necessarily have to involve
confrontation or a "struggle” of some sort if the
interaction among the groups is minimal. Appleton remarks
"such might be the case if the contenders had no need to
interact or compete with one another or if they were
unaware of each other and the resulting social arrangement
might be described a peaceful existence" (Appleton,
1983:168). The Amish group is a good example of that. For
groups that do interact with other groups certain
tendencies result. Those tendencies on the part of the
subordinate group that foster separation from the dominant
group are called centrifugal tendencies (Schermerhorn,
1970:81-82). In cultural terms, this frequently means
retention and preservation of the group's distinctive
traditions like language and religion together with
particularistic values associated with them (Ibid.).
Centripetal tendencies, on the other hand, refer to both
cultural trends such as acceptance of common values, and
styles of life, as well as structural features such as
participation in a common set of associations. The first

aspect can be referred to as assimilation and the second as

21
incorporation (Gordon's structural assimilation). When
both subordinate and superordinate groups come in contact
the outcomes vary according to Schermerhorn's typology.
See Figure 2-3.

When both groups favor a centripetal policy, such as in
the case of the Northern European immigrants, then this
favoring facilitates integration. If both groups should
favor a centrifugal policy, then integration in this society
will be of the ”live and let live" type. When both groups
do not agree on any policy, conflict results. Conflict
could be of many types. Cell C represents the situation of
the American Blacks and Cell D represents internal struggles
such as in many new states in Asia and Africa (Ibid.).

These types of conflicts are generally over the unequal
distribution of political and economic rewards in these
societies.

C. Integrated Theoretical Framework

The present study is focusing on two main groups
interacting together within the American society. These two
groups are the dominant White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
institutions and the Arab ethnics. The Arabs have entered
the American society through voluntary migration and, as a
group, have assumed a subordinate position in its structure.
The Arab immigrants interact with the society mainly through
their employment, their contacts with the public schools and
through the use of the mass media. This interaction

introduces the Arabs to values prevalent in the society and

22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A B
Superordinate, Cp Cf
Tending Toward
Integration
Subordinate C C
p f
Assimilation Cultural Pluralism
Incorporation Autonomy
C D
F_'
Superordinate Cf Cp
Tending Toward
Conflict
Subordinate C C
p f
Forced sergregation Forced Assimilation
with resistance with resistence
Cp- Centripetal trends
Cf- Centrifugal trends

 

 

 

Ffimnmez-B
Schermerhorn's Conflict Model

 

Source: Schermerhorn, R.A. Com arative Ethnic Relations.
New York: Random House, I976, Page 83.

23
thus generates conflict because Arab culture is basically
different from American culture with respect to language,
religion, cultural values and life styles. The conflicts
that this research is concerned with have to do with values
and goals associated with child-rearing practices.

To understand the above-mentioned conflicts, aspects of
both Schermerhorn's conflict model and Greeley's pluralist
model are integrated.

The experiences of the Arab ethnics have not resulted
in forced segregation, forced assimilation or complete
assimilation. Therefore they do not fit any of
Schermerhorn's cells but do fit a position in it as shown in
Figure 2-4. Certain cultural values that the Arabs want to
retain and keep separate, Cf, may be the ones that the
superordinate group wants them to change, Cp. With time, if
they change then these values belong in the ”common
features” category in Greeley's model. If they do not
change, these values remain in the ”immigrant group”
category. If these values are modified in a way that is
different from both the original immigrant group and the
host, then they fit in the "ethnic group" category in
Greeley's Ethnogenesis model. Yet another outcome that may
exist is a mixture of values of both groups. The Arabs may
be mixing aspects of American culture and aspects of their

own culture with regards to raising children.

24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A
Superordinate C pi,» \
\
\
\
\-
Subordinate CP
Assumilation
Incorporation
C
F‘I
Superordinate Cf
Subordinate Cp

 

 

 

Forced sergregation
with resistance

Cp- Centripetal trends
Cf- Centrifugal trends

 

 

 

3
Cf
\
\
\
C’
is:fip \\\.
\ "
\V’ Cf

 

 

Tending Toward
Integration

Cultural Pluralism

Autonomy

 

 

 

 

 

Tending Toward
Conflict

Forced Assimilation
with resistence

 

Figure 2-4

Arab Ethnics' Relationship

to Schermerhorn's Conflict Model

 

25

III. Factors in Ethnic Persistence

Certain factors play a crucial role in the assimilative
process of ethnic groups. Some of these factors have
already been discussed. First is the extent to which the
ethnic group's "values, cultural propensities and
goal-orientations are shared with the dominant society"
(Yetman and Steele, 1975:233). Second is the role of public
education and the use of mass media (Gordon, 1964; Greeley,
1974). Third is the length of residence in America. This
factor has been referred to as the historic factor (Gordon
1964; Greeley,1974; Mindel and Habenstein, 1976).

A. Mediating Role of Social Groups

Another factor that contributes to continued ethnicity
is "the role of the social institutions of the minority
group in mediating its experiences and communal life within
the dominant society" (Yetman and Steele, 1975:233). These
social institutions include economic institutions, such as
businesses, social clubs, voluntary organizations, religious
institutions and the family institution.

The Arab ethnics have maintained certain institutions
and developed others in order to protect their values and
meet their special ethnic needs. These institutions
contribute to their separateness from the dominant group.
Greeley (1969) contends that religion is linked to continued

ethnic identification. This is true for the Arabs under

26
study. The Dearborn Arabs have contributed to the building
of a Mosque basically to preserve their religion and to pass
it on to their children. Moreover, the mosque institution
has acquired a social function not common in mosques in the
Middle East; it has become a place where weddings, funerals
and fund-raising activities take place. Even women are
taking part in the life of this institution, which is not
traditional. These adopted activities , based on the
functions of a Christian church, have been curtailed in
areas, such as Dearborn, where recently arrived immigrants,
who are affected by the Islamic revival movement in the
Middle East, have succeeded in bringing about more
fundamental Islamic worship and eliminating all
non-religious activities.

Another institution which has contributed to ethnic
continuity is the coffee house. The coffee houses are
social clubs for men rather than business establishments.
These traditional institutions help maintain the Middle
Eastern character of the Dearborn community. Haddad, in her
study of Chicago's Syrian community, observed that coffee
houses were in use when the male immigrants first came to
gather wealth and then to return to their homeland. When
they brought their families with the intention of settling
permanently, the coffee houses were abandoned and later
replaced by a new pattern of socializing centered around
different clubs (Haddad, s., 1969:96). In the community

under study, the coffee houses have not been abandoned but

27
are still centers not only for socializing but also for
political activities. Wigle and Abraham report that certain
nationality, village and regional divisions appear in the
coffee houses. Within them tables are frequently arranged
according to village loyalties. But in the presence of an
external threat, such as a political crisis in the Middle
East, the coffee houses unite and their members interact
with each other to plan for a demonstration or for a lecture
(Wigle and Abraham, 1974:288-290). Therefore, I can say
that the coffee houses in the Dearborn area serve the social
and political needs of males in a traditional manner, and
thus these social men's clubs are contributing to the
continuance of the ethnic character of this community. The
continued functioning of the coffee houses, which are based
on informal relationships, has not been completely
detrimental to the formation of other formal organizations.
Some formal organizations have emerged in that community as
a reaction to nationalistic need but when the need for the
expression of nationalistic sentiment and solidarity
subsides the membership in those organizations does too
(Ibid).

A new formal organization was formed in 1972 in
response to local community needs. This organization, the
Arab Community Centre for Economic and Social Services
(ACCESS), is definitely a western-type organization formed
to meet the needs of the Arab ethnics who live here. ACCESS

provides legal aid for community residents, vocational

28

counseling, English classes and help in dealing with certain
government agencies such as the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. ACCESS is still in operation and
has served to give the community a greater cohesiveness
(personal interview with the assistant director of ACCESS).

The above factors led to the formulation of certain
hypotheses for this research. These involve the role of
public education, the use of the mass media, the length of
residency and participation in the institutional life of the
ethnic community. These variables were presumed to
contribute to ethnic persistence or change in Arab
child-rearing practices.

B. The Mediating Role of the Ethnic Family

Another very important institution which plays a
crucial role in ethnic continuity and change is the ethnic
family. The family plays an essential role in a society by
assuming the duty of socializing it members. The family
"continues to function as the major vehicle for the
socialization of particularistic norms and provides the
major link between the individual and the community" (Kobrin
and Goldscheider, 1978:97). In an ethnic milieu, the family
role is yet more crucial. "The maintenance of ethnic
identification and solidarity ultimately rests on the
ability of the family to socialize its members into the
ethnic culture and thus to channel and control, perhaps
program, future behavior“ (Mindel and Habenstein 1976:

6-7). Moreover, it is within the family that an individual

29
acquires an ethnic indentity in the first place, and if the
family socialization is successful, that individual will
develop a group consciousness. This consciousness will
strengthen the individual's loyalty to the group. The
development of an ethnic identity and its maintenance "may
provide for many an alternative link to the broader society,
compensating in part for the...impersonal qualities of
modern life" (Kobrin and Goldscheider, 1978:3), and may
provide a haven for new immigrants. For example, the
Chaldeans, Arab Christians from Iraq, are very successful in
the retail grocery business. This has helped them provide
jobs for relatives who are recent immigrants. This has
strengthened the family ties and the ethnic community
(Sengstock, 1974:27-28) and has provided the immigrants a
place in the society almost on arrival.

Not only as individuals, but also as ethnic groups
attempt to assimilate into the social, political and
economic mainstream of a society, they must organize and
develop a sense of their group distinctiveness in order to
enter the social process" (Kobrin and Goldscheider, 1978:3).
The ethnic family is the primary unit which brings about the
above.

Despite the importance of ethnic families, Mindel and
Habenstein report that our knowledge of them is not
sufficient (l976:3). Staples and Mirande in their review of
family studies in the past decade illustrate the increase in

both the quantity and quality of ethnic family literature

30

but point to the need for more research and theory (l976:3).
This applies to the Arab ethnic family studies as well.
There is a dearth of studies both about Arab ethnic families
in America and about the Arab family in general. Goode, in
1963, anticipated a flood of sociological studies in the
major Arab countries in the next decade. He said,

"the rising sense of destiny expressed in the

nationalistic fervor which has freed them (Arabs)

from foreign domination has also stimulated the

beginning of economic planning for the future,

with the aim of enjoying the benefits of

industrialization. These developments have

created a recognition of the need for facts on

which to base adequate planning and are already

stimulating some surveys and studies; these are

attracting the attention of foreign scholars who

will carry out additional research. Many of the

present gaps in our knowledge of the Arab family

will probably be filled within the next decade“

(Goode, 1963:87).
In 1981, Dodd acknowledged the fact that a few
ethnographies and specialized papers have appeared on the
family, but the flood has yet to appear (Dodd,l981:1l7).

The role of ethnic families differ among subsections of
the same group depending on several factors. These factors
include religion, levels of education, socioeconomic
standing, time of arrival, length of residency in America,
past experiences and reasons for migration. For example,
the Ramallah Christian Arabs have experienced more
assimilation than other groups because their educational

and occupational standing upon arrival helped them interact

with this society (Swan and Saba, 1974). The same could be

31

said of the Syrian Christian community (Kayal, 1974). In
her study of Rhode Island Arabic-speaking communities,
Smith found that with length of residency and by the third
generation more assimilation was taking place evidenced by
higher rates of intermarriage and moving out of the ethnic
community (Smith, 1981). Despite that, these ethnics,
mostly Syrian and Lebanese, were maintaining ethnic ties
primarily through the extended family and the ethnic church
(Ibid). This is also true of the Arab elites. These are
both Christian and Muslim Arabs. The reference is to Arabs
who are professionals and whose professional standing has
encouraged full acceptance in the society. They come here
intending to make America their permanent home, and this
facilitates the process of acceptance. Their professional
and social class standing has also sped the process of
assimilation (Elkholy, 1976:155). The ethnic families of
these subgroups are definitely playing different roles
especially in the socialization of their children. Thus it
was hypothesized for the research at hand that maintaining
ethnic ties through the family, reasons for migration and
length of residency were variables contributing to
persistence of traditional patterns of socialization.

Child-rearing is at the heart of the socialization
process. Ethnic families, especially those who are recent
immigrants, such as the Arab Muslim families, socialize
their children in a manner compatible with socialization

common in their countries of origin. When they are exposed

32
to American patterns of socialization, they experience
conflicts. Therefore, child-rearing was selected for
study, to assess the ethnic persistence or change Arab
families are experiencing.

To study the ethnic family of Arab immigrants and
understand its present and future role in assimilation and
ethnic continuity, we need to study and understand its
origins. ”The historical experience of the group both with
respect to when the group arrived on these shores as well
as the conditions under which the members of the group were
forced to live is a vitally important factor in the
explanation of the ethnic family and the ethnic group as
well" (Mindel and Habenstein 1976:7). Moreover, the
immigrants ”bring with them much more than their physical
possessions. Their View of life and the world has been
profoundly shaped by the religious, family and
socio-political foundations of their past” (Abu-Laban,
1980; 27).

The following section includes a discussion of the
structure of Arab families in the Arab world by type, role
of women, sex-role differentiation, child-rearing practices
and values associated with socialization. Changes that
Arab families have experienced in the Arab world are also
discussed. These changes have occurred in areas relevant
to this research such as parent—child relationships. Since
the focus of the research is on immigrant Arab families, a

description of their situation here is included. In some

33
of these areas, literature is quite limited and thus the
discussion tends to be brief.
1. Arab Families in the Arab World

The Middle East is a composite of numerous cultures
and subcultures which have interacted together over the
centuries. The Middle East ranges all the way from the
flood valley of the Nile to the Fertile Crescent. So it is
hard to describe a Middle Eastern family which is typical
of all Arab regions. The differences among regions stem
not only from a geographical nature but also from
differences in religion, rural versus urban life styles,
political regimes, and economic systems. Yet one can
attempt to point to common traits to help define a
framework within which to place the present study
(Abu-Laban, 1980:158).

The Arab family has been described as extended whereby
father, mother, minor children, grown sons, their wives and
their children all live under one roof. This has changed
in many Arab societies and the trend has been towards a
more conjugal type of family. This type of change has
generally been associated with urbanization,
industrialization and/or general modernization (Goode,
1963:19). The Arab family is experiencing that type of
change also but the change is not radical because the
values associated with the extended family still persist.
The extended family is still a strong social and

psychological reality (Prothro and Diab, 1974:70). This

34
shows up in crisis events such as weddings, births, deaths,
economic needs and the like. And even though the
individual may be physically living in a nuclear family, he
is always a part of the larger family (Ibid).

The influence of the family on the life of the
individual in the Middle East is very great, much greater
than is usual in the modern urban society of the Western
world. The entire Arab world is permeated with family
loyalty and influence to such an extent that the terms
"familism" and "kinship culture" have properly been applied
to it; the individual is much more the product of his
family and much less that of other socializing factors than
is true in the West (Patai, 1970:578). Individuals are
socialized from childhood to be subservient to family
authority, to respect elders and to be loyal to the family.
This loyalty is ingrained in the individual and stays into
adulthood. This brings out a fundamental difference in
socialization between the Arab family and the Western
family. The Western family socializes its children to
learn how to do things for themselves, that is, to be
independent. This is most true of the American middle
class families (Adams, 1973:105). Moreover, Hsu points out
that an American core value is that of self-reliance (Hsu,
1972:241). This value is underscored in families and in
schools. Independence is encouraged in a child so that
he/she can take his/her position in the society as an

individual. In the Middle East the emphasis is on training

35
the child to be dependent on and subordinate to the father
and other elders in the family (Patai, 1970:579). A child
learns early that the family comes first and thus
subordinates individual interests to those of the family
(Kassees, 1972:539). Family loyalty is greatest to the
closest kin, but since the child is a part of a much larger
family unit, his/her loyalty transcends beyond those
(Lutfiyya, 1970:507). The emphasis on the family means
that in cases of feuds or serious conflicts involving the
individual it is the family that is held liable (Ibid). In
the West, the emphasis on independence training means that
the individual is responsible for his/her own actions in
cases of conflicts. The emphasis of dependence on the
family group is reinforced in the Arab world by other
mediating institutions including the educational and the
religious (Sharabi, 1977:245). In a Western society such
as the 0.8., the value of independence is reinforced by the
schools also. Students are urged to achieve independently,
and in general, those who are dependent are looked down on
(Appleton, 1983:160). Therefore, to the Arabs dependency
is a value that they are socialized into by their families
and to the Americans independence is a value in
socialization. Dependency was thus selected as a

child-rearing practice to investigate in this study.

36

a. Sex Differences

When children are born in the Middle East, their sex
determines how they are treated and how they will be
raised. The Arabs love children and usually have a number
of them. Children are received with joy and warmth
especially if they are males. There is a proverb in the
Arabic language which describes the joy Arabs derive from
their children and it translates as such, "children are a
treasure in the bosom of the Arab". Males are generally
preferred because the Arab family is patrilineal and
descent is traced through the male line.

The socialization of Arab children differs greatly
between the sexes. This contributes in an essential way to
the roles males and females assume in adulthood.

When a child is born, he or she is swaddled. Prothro
found that, in Lebanon, swaddling was practiced by Arabs
and Armenians (a large ethnic group that has settled in
Lebanon since the 1920's) by Christians and Muslims, city
and village mothers alike. The difference among the groups
was observed in length of swaddling. Upper class mothers
swaddled their children for a shorter period of time than
mothers of other groups (Prothro, 1961:57-58). Arab
children are breast fed from one to two years in the case
of a girl and from two to three years in the case of a boy
(Patai, 1970:579). This is especially true in rural areas

of the Arab world and of the more traditional countries

37
than those which are more modernized. Prothro found that
92 percent of the Lebanese mothers interviewed breast fed
their children, and those who did not mentioned health
reasons which prevented them from doing so (Prothro,
1961:71). Here again differences were found in the length
of breast feeding based on social class. Middle class
mothers tended to breast feed their children longer.
Moreover, Prothro found that boys were breast fed longer
than girls (Prothro, 1961:74). Mothers usually feed their
children on demand; whenever he/she shows discontent or
hunger. In Buarij, a village in Lebanon, women resorted to
prolonged breast-feeding because they believed it was an
accepted way of spacing children (Fuller, 1961:36).

Arab mothers tend to indulge their children and to
pamper and cuddle them. They are at their children's
disposal, so to speak, and pick them up whenever they cry.
Mothers care for their infants almost exclusively. If
mothers have older girls then they share in the care of the
infant. Mothers also tend to be permissive in the care of
their children. As one author put it ”the permissiveness
in regard to nursing, sleep and elimination that are his go
far beyond even the most modern Western practice" (Beck,
1970:574). Mothers are also permissive in punishing
offenses of small children. They are usually admonished
but quickly forgiven since it is said that they have not
yet gained understanding (Fuller, 1961:28). But this

permissiveness does not last. As soon as the child has

38
learned to walk and to talk, the amount of care and
attention he receives diminishes rapidly. With weaning,
there is a sudden break in the close relationship between
mother and child. This experience comes early for a female
child and she soon learns that she is a rather unimportant
member of the family (Patai, 1970:580). This means that
females are rarely the center of attention in the family.
What this does is allow the female "an opportunity to
develop more freely; she learns to cope...to mature more
quickly and learn how to deal with frustrations more
effectively than a boy" (Sharabi, 1977:245). A girl is
also taught at an early age to be subservient first to her
family members (especially males) and later in life to her
husband and his family (Patai, 1970:580). The male child,
who is breast fed almost twice as long as a female child,
learns early that his mother is there to serve him.
(Patai, 1970:581). Since the mother is exclusively
responsible for the development of the child during the
early years, her influence on him/her is great. Since the
male child receives more attention and concern than the
female child, he is allowed to do very little for himself
and soon learns to depend on others for his needs (Sharabi,
1977:246). For this reason, it was hypothesized that there
would be sex differences in dependencey training. As a boy
grows older, the father begins to assume a larger share of
the male child's socialization and by the time he is seven

years old "it is the father who becomes the important

39
disciplinarian... the mother threatens the child by
telling him that she will inform the father" (Lutfiyya,
1970:518). As a result, the child learns not just to love
the father but to fear and obey him without questioning.
”The child begins to look to the mother for help
against...the father, and mothers begin to assume the role
of mediator between father and son" (Ibid). The girls
remain in the women's world; they rarely even require to be
disciplined. When they do, they are harshly disciplined.
This socialization pattern influences relationships between
the sexes and between family members as individuals move
into adulthood. The woman's role is usually restricted to
household matters and the man's role is concerned with
matters outside the home where he deals with people and the
job market. For a female, as she grows older and
approaches adolescence her movements are restricted to the
house. She is trained to help her mother in the house and
with younger siblings. This means that her social
relationships are very limited especially when they involve
non-family members.

An area closely related to socialization of females is
that of family honor. Its basic principle is the chastity
of the females. "The virginity of the unmarried female is
highly valued and there are often extreme negative
sanctions involved against women who engage in premarital
sexual relations. Negative sanctions regarding

extramarital relations are also very strong” (Abu-Laban,

40

1980:29). In a more positive way, for the Druz Lebanese,
for example, a virgin is worth more than a widow or a
divorcee and thus the "mahr' paid is always higher
(Alamuddin and Starr, 1980). These standards do not apply
to males and thus a double morality exists. To achieve the
standard of female chastity, separation between the sexes
is encouraged. This is evident also in the unequal
educational opportunities open to females. As Prothro and
Diab observe, the educational opportunities are limited,
and given the fact that the society is patrilineal and that
the woman's role centers on the home, boys are given
preference and thus are educated more than girls (Prothro
and Diab, 1974:122-124). The fear is that if girls go to
school then they have more freedom of movement and are not
watched by the elders. This might increase the
opportunities for them to misbehave. Now that elementary
education in many Arab countries is compulsory for
everybody, some parents take their girls out of school
before puberty and do not allow them to continue their
secondary education. What has happened in many of these
cases is that males have progressed much farther towards
modernization than females and that has created a gap
between the sexes in intellectual advancement
(Lichtenstadler, 1970:614).

Even though women may have a subservient position and
seemingly lack power in the outside society, they have many

rights and their power is prevalent in their homes where

41

their roles are concentrated. As Sharabe puts it, "the
female may play a limited role in public but her influence
in the family as wife, mother, sister and grandmother is
profound" (Sharabi, 1977:245). In Buarij, Fuller found
that the village women were the main repository and
transmitters of village tradition and lore and since they
played a great role in child-rearing they passed on what
they knew and that impressed on the children a traditional
view of life (Fuller, 1961:18). Women's power is also
apparent in the choice of mates especially for their sons.
Their rights are evident in having a financially secure
position and in inheritance laws. In Islam, husbands must
provide for their wives adequately regardless of how much
money they might own (from their own family). Moreover,
women are entitled to inherit property from their husbands,
children, parents or brothers even though their share is
smaller than that of the males (Lutfiyya, 1970:510-512).

Beliefs regarding the proper role of Arab females are
changing throughout the Arab world. Variations still exist
among the different Arab countries and among rural and
urban areas. Through education and urbanization, and in
some countries industrialization, women are enjoying more
freedom. But the process is slow. Tomeh says in this
regard that changes in attitudes and values are occurring
but sufficiently slowly so that it is an evolutionary
process rather than a revolutionary one (1975:98). Even in

Saudi Arabia, which is considered by many Arabs to be the

42
typical traditional society, the government has opened many
schools for girls. These schools hire female teachers.
Teaching is considered a highly respectable profession. To
meet the demands of a highly urbanizing society, Saudi
Arabia also sends females abroad to attain high levels of
education. It is not uncommon, for example, to see Saudi
women on American or Lebanese college campuses. In
general, educational opportunities are increasing for
women, but more importantly, family attitudes toward the
education of women are changing. In a study conducted in
Lebanon, Prothro and Diab found that most city women and a
substantial number of village women would approve of their
daughters attending a college for girls. Most city women
would send their daughters to a coed school (1974:123). In
another study of higher secondary male and female students
in Lebanese schools, Dodd found that females themselves
were more liberal than males regarding women working,
women's occupational status, pay and education (Dodd,
1981:127). Through such studies, one can detect the
beginnings of change, but the equality of the sexes is far
from being realized. In the Arab world in general,
participation in the labour force outside agriculture, (a
measure of change) is still low (Tomeh, 1975:100) and is
due to the persistent traditional cultural values regarding
the role of women. Based on the centrality of
differentiation among the sexes, differential sex-roles are

selected for investigation in this study.

43

b.Marriage

Changes in educational opportunities for females and
their educational attainment have caused changes in the
area of marriage and mate selection. Highly educated women
are marrying at a later age and young married couples are
breaking away from larger family units and establishing
their own independent homes (Tomeh, 1975:99). From my
experience in that part of the world, I would say that the
above is true of urban areas but not of rural ones.

The marriage institution itself is experiencing change
as well. Marriage used to be almost exclusively arranged
by male elders of the two families involved and the young
people had no choice in the matter (Goode, 1963:91). Even
though the marriages may still be arranged, sons and
daughters are consulted before an agreement is reached
between the families. This is true of areas that have
experienced urbanization and where education is open to
females. Daghestani reports that in many Arab cities, it
is not unusual for a young man to meet a young woman and
decide to marry her and then ask his family to carry on the
process of asking for her hand. (Daghestani, 1970).

Another related feature of marriage which is changing
is polygyny. In Islam, men are allowed up to four wives at
one time. Even though it is still legal, polygyny is not
common due to economic reasons. Goode reports data on

polygyny in certain selected Arab countries which show that

44
from 1944 through 1958, the rate of polygyny ranged from
1.9 percent to 11 percent (Goode, 1963:87). Prothro and
Diab report that poplygyny is declining and seems to be
less common among dwellers of urban areas who are also
educated than it is among peasants and farmers (Prothro and
Diab, 1974:206). Moreover, in some Arab countries today
the practice of polygyny is illegal such as in Tunisia and
Syria (Goode, 1963:104).
c. Parent-Child Relationships

Considering the structure of the Arab family and the
emphasis on a female's role of bearing children it is not
hard to see that Arabs love children. Children are
received with warmth and joy. In rural areas where the
extended patriarchal family is more of a reality than in
urban areas, male children are especially received with
joy. Boys and girls are socialized to be dependent on
their families for support and even for identity. This was
discussed earlier. In exchange for that the child (usually
a male child) is expected to return the succor of his
parents by taking care of them in their old age. Parents
expect that and are proud when a son takes care of them
nicely. The child is also expected to be loyal to the
family, to support it and care for its members in return
for the security and identity it gives (Melikian,
1977:180). This just shows that the value of dependency
permeates the parent-child relationship on both sides.

Moreover, a family which offers so much to its members

45
expects, in fact demands, respect and obedience. Obedience
to parents is a sacred duty to the Arabs both Christians
and Muslims. Both the Koran and the Bible exhort children
to obey their parents.

If the child does not obey then he/she is severely
punished. ”All those who have made first-hand observations
of Arab family life agree that the incidence and severity
of corporal punishment administered to Arab children is
much greater than is the case in the Western world” (Patai,
1983:26). Patai goes on to say that as far as this
particular feature of Arab child—rearing practices is
concerned, one can generalize to all Arab societies (Ibid).
It is usually the father who administers the severe
punishment while the mother serves as a haven to whom the
child runs for compassion. Within the family then,
obedience, especially to the father, is tinged with fear.

There are sex differences in relation to discipline
the implications of which are important for this present
study. Both girls and boys are socialized to be dependent
on their families but more so the boys since the girls will
marry and become members of their husband's families; it is
the boys who are expected to take care of the parents in
their old age. Moreover, since a woman's position in her
husband's family improves with the bearing of male
children, a mother tends to be more partial to her sons.
"She will be more lenient with him, will take better care

of him, devote more attention to him and be more

46
affectionately inclined toward him than she would be to a
daughter” (Patai, 1983:29). In his study of Lebanese
mothers of varying ethnic and religious groups, Prothro
found that boys were treated with more warmth than were the
girls (Prothro, 1961:121).

The emphasis on obedience and discipline as
characteristics of the learning process in Arab families
leads to a logical assumption that aggression, especially
towards parents, is strongly disapproved of. The ideal
child is one who is obedient, quiet, neat and clever (Racy,
1977:286). To Lebanese mothers, the most salient
characteristic of a good child is obedience to the parents;
more than half of the mothers in that study mentioned that
characteristic and nearly half of them mentioned polite or
some similar term (Prothro, 1961:125). It is not
surprising then that parents would frown on aggression
expressed against them. In Prothro's Lebanese study, 90
percent of the mothers stated that children should not be
allowed to express aggression against their parents and
when they do, then mothers used beating to correct them
(Prothro, 1961:93-94).

Since an Arab child in a family is usually one of many
aggression against siblings takes place. Some authors have
implied that parents instigate sibling aggression by
creating rivalry between children. A younger child is
urged to imitate an older sibling and the older sibling is

shamed in front of the younger one (Racy, 1977:286). I

47
personally feel that aggression expressed by siblings
against each other is a release of frustration resulting
from the taboo on aggression towards parents. Another way
of letting out aggression is by playing aggressive games.
This is especially true of the games that boys play.

A great emphasis on punishments as a means of
discipline also assumes a de-emphasis on rewards.
Punishments are negative reinforcers while rewards are
positive ones. Since Arab families rely on punishments, a
question arises as to the use of rewards in child-rearing.
The love a mother expresses to her children is a reward in
itself but the use of specific rewards is limited. In the
review of the literature, only Prothro's study investigated
specific rewards of specific behaviour such as eating and
household chores. Prothro found that differences existed
among the various ethnic groups but in general, Lebanese
mothers used positive reinforcement, through verbal praise
and other rewards, such as food, less often than did
American nothers and that a sizeable minority never
rewarded their children for good behaviour (Prothro,
1961:104-105). Sharabi mentions, but without discussion,
that the Arab family de-emphasizes rewards in the process
of raising children (Sharabi, 1977:250). Punishments,
rewards and aggression are also investigated in this
research.

The learning process in Arab families involves still

another aspect. Besides the emphasis on dependence,

48
punishments, and lack of rewards, Arab families rely on
rote learning to achieve expected and desired behaviour of
children. Basically this method depends on encouraging the
child to repeat and memorize. This style of learning
reinforces the values and attitudes into which their
families had socialized them. The feelings of respect and
obedience are transferred to the teacher. The teacher
resorts to rote learning as a means of achieving results.
Here again, this method discourages inquiry and
experimentation (Sharabi, 1977:251). Moreover, children's
“spontaneity, imagination, individual initiative and
enterprise are discouraged. Instead of individual
responsibility, children are taught docility, respect
toward elders and acceptance of fate" (Beck, 1970:575). As
in the family, the classroom includes hardly any prolonged
exchanges between pupils and teachers or exchanges
initiated by pupils (Miller, 1970:150).

A great deal of change is being brought about in the
Middle East through exposure to a more Westernized style of
education and through western mass media available in the
urban areas. As a result children are rejecting the basic
values of their families, basically that of dependency and
authority, and insisting on different norms of behaviour.
This means that they face conflict within their homes and
outside. The conflicts they face outside stem from the
fact that they find themselves thrown into a situation

where the traditional behaviours will not longer be of help

49
to them in coping (Miller, 1977:152). This situation is
basically an urbanized and changing structure with
different values.

For the parents, the tragedy is that they lose their
role of giving advice and of being leaders to their
children. They lose the obedience and respect they have
long anticipated (Beck, 1970:576).

There is one more area concerned with child— rearing
that should be mentioned. That is the area of privacy. In
Buarij, Fuller remarks on the extraordinary lack of privacy
of any kind within the village world (Fuller, 1961:29). I
feel that the lack of privacy is a result of being born in
a group situation, being socialized into dependency on the
family and being oriented from infancy towards social
relations and not towards things. Sharabi says in this
regard:

”The child grows up without ever being left

alone; he is always surrounded by people. The

moment he wakes up, there is someone to pick him

up and bring him into the company of others. If

he happens to oversleep, the mother gets worried:

'See if the baby is awake.‘ If he is awake

(happily playing or observing the world around

him), he will be immediately brought in. Privacy

is denied him from infancy...He is habituated

into accepting constant togetherness and to

regard wishing to be left alone as odd or

abnormal" (Sharabi, 1977:252-253).

The value of privacy is minimal and it follows that

children are not encouraged to develop individual

interests. It is not common for children to develop

50
hobbies which require being alone. The child is most
interested in cultivating social relationships and learning
how to deal with people.
2. Arab Families in America

When Arab families uproot themselves and migrate to
the United States they, like other ethnic groups, bring
with them all the traditional and transitional values that
they have. These families have to go through a period of
adjustment, which may be prolonged because Arab society,
despite urbanization and modernization, is still sharply
different from American society. This makes them different
from the European immigrants because they come with fewer
common values shared with the host society. When ethnic
families, of all ethnic origins, come here they might find
themselves in a conflict situation. They can either
socialize their members to integrate quickly into the new
society or they can socialize them to cling to traditional
customs and values. In the first case, rapid integration
may require changes in ”values and traditions, seldom an
easy, if at all possible, task for people imbued with
centuries-long sets of distinct values. On the other hand,
maintenance of cultural distinctiveness will inevitably
create problems for the generations raised or born in the
new society, and exposed to the influences and values of
their environment" (Radecki, 1980:47).

Elkholy reports that for the Arab families, the

process of socialization “oscillate(s) generally between

51

preservation of traditional culture and acculturation"
(1976:155). One of the areas where the above is true is
familism. When Arab families come here they maintain the
value of familism. Kassees found that Ramallah (West Bank)
people living in the United States were significantly more
familistic than the Ramallah people living in Ramallah.
Education was the variable that weakened familism for all
his sample (1972). Another area is that of mate selection.
Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, do not desire
intermarriage with Westerners but Elkholy reports that
Muslims strongly resist intermarriage more so than
Christians (Elkholy, 1976:156). But in his own study of
Arab professionals he found that education and professional
standing were more of a factor in intermarriage than
religion (Ibid). The Ramallah Christians, because of high
educational attainment and good mastery of the English
language on arrival, have experienced a high degree of
assimilation. This group, though, has retained its ethnic
identity by maintaining a high rate of endogamy (Swan and
Saba, 1974:103). The Maronites (Lebanese Christians) have
also been highly endogamous. In her study, Ahdab-Yehia
found that only nineteen percent of her Maronite sample
married non—Maronite Christians (Ahdab-Yehia, 1974:147).
So Elkholy's contentions may be true for Christians as a
whole, but within certain sects, endogamy is high.

Traditionally, mate selection was a family affair. As

was mentioned earlier, even in the Middle East, this area

52
of family life is experiencing change. In an alien milieu,
and in an effort to maintain ethnicity, the Arab family
still intervenes in that. For example Abu-Laban reports
that in Canada the family still intervenes in mate
selection by socialization patterns and indirect parental
pressure which guide children to appropriate mates
(1980:160). But conflicts still exist because children
through contacts with the host society and the mass media
develop the value of free choice and individual freedom in
that area. This area of mate selection is so crucial that
religious and non-religious organizations have intervened
to facilitate ethnic marriage. For example the Coptic
Church in Canada initiated charter flights back to Egypt to
facilitate contact with potential Egyptian spouses. The
Muslim Student's Association of the U.S. and Canada
developed a match-making service. The only problem was
having females apply. Moreover, Arab Canadians (and
Americans) make an effort to attend annual conferences and
special socio-cultural gatherings where young people can
meet marriage partners (Abu-Laban, 1980:163).
Intermarriage, nevertheless, is taking place especially
with the passing of time. Barclay studied Arab males in
Lac La Bishe, Canada, and found a relaxation of tradition
on their part regarding intermarriage of their children

(Barclay, 1969:71).

53

a. Role of Arab Women

Another area where the Arab family has oscillated
between preservation and change is that of the roles of
women. Here again differences among the different Arab
groups exist especially with regards to religious and
educational standing.

Working outside the home is common for Arab women who
are in rural areas. In fact, peasant women are very
essential to the maintenance of the agricultural system.
Besides their work in the fields women still manage their
homes and are solely responsible for the rearing of
children. Though women are "employed”, so to speak,
outside the home, they are never economically independent
and always in a lower position in the family hierarchy.

Men are the authority figures and have the power of
decision. When these women come here they have skills that
could be marketable. S. Haddad in her study of the
Syrian-Americans in Chicago (1969) reported that the early
immigrant women helped their husbands in their economic
endeavors by baking and selling bread or making other items
for sale while the men took to peddling. When their
economic standing improved, many of the men established
their own businesses and the women were right there to take
charge of certain aspects of those businesses (Haddad, S.,
1969:88-91). The implications of the women's economic

activities were many. First, the men could not maintain

54
their patriarchal status within the family. Wassef, in a
study of Christian and Muslim men found that they had to
assume certain responsibilities for the maintenance of the
household. These activities involved cleaning windows,
shoveling snow and mowing the grass. Moreover, the wives
reported that their husbands contributed to housework in
general (Abu-Laban, 1980:167). Second, a woman who is
employed outside the home comes in contact with the host
society. This could contribute to a faster assimilation of
their families. S. Haddad said that the Syrian women's
employment contributed to the social mobility of the Syrian
family in the American environment (1969:92). Third, to
meet the demands of the American economic and urban society
the immigrant had to be away from his home and thus the
woman had to take responsibility for certain decisions such
as purchasing clothes for the entire family; a skill
necessary for survival in the American milieu (Ibid). But,
the woman, even when employed, still had the major
responsibility of caring for the family (Ibid). That is
how the Syrian families looked at the role of the woman.
b. Arab Parents and Children

The area of parent-children relationships is another
one where Arab families are experiencing cultural
conflicts. Discipline of children is a good example of an
area of concern to Arab parents here. It is a value in the
Arab culture for parents, especially fathers, to be harsh

with children and administer corporal punishment. This has

55

lead many Americans to report Arab parents to the police
after they have witnessed a harsh beating and to charge the
parents with child-abuse. This is an important source of
confusion to the Arab parents. In my own childhood, I
remember that neighbours would commend my father when they
heard him ”beat" one of my brothers because harsh fathers
are believed to be good fathers. After all, a father would
only beat a son harshly because he wants him to be a man.
Here, a few Americans have commented to me that Arab
fathers and mothers who are violent are so because they do
not know how to deal with their own aggressive tendencies.
Harshness is valued differently in the two cultures. Even
though fathers are the ones who are usually harsh and
severe, I observed that mothers have assumed a similar
role. Basically the fathers are not around the home a lot;
they work different shifts in the auto plants or they spend
a lot of time in the coffeehouses meeting a need for
socializing with other males. This has led many mothers to
assume more of the discipline of the children, and they are
the ones who are being charged with child-abuse. This
conflict over values with regard to harsh dicipline may
have caused mothers in my sample to deny "hitting" their
children a lot.

As the Arab family interacts with the American society
the children are demanding more freedom but the parents,
especially fathers, desire to retain their control over

their children. Ahdab-Yehia found that to be true in the

56
Detroit Maronite community (Ahdab—Yehia, 1974:152). Arab
parents worry about the rearing of their children and not
just in the area of discipline. They worry about the
permissiveness they observe in the society, especially with
regards to females (Abu-Laban, 1980:175). Females are
treated with strictness in the Middle East, and their
behaviour is closely watched. But here the parents fear
that they are loosing their girls to this society where
girls are given a lot of freedom just like boys are. This
is based on the relatively small differences in the
socialization of boys and girls in American society (Barry
et.al., 1972:45) which Arab parents observe.

One group that parents consider as their competitor is
the peer group. In a study of Lebanese adolescents,
Abu—laban found that Lebanese students had a "higher level
of concern about potential parental disapproval, a lower
degree of concern about peer approval and greater concern
about school, homework, and educational values than
American students" (1980:176).

C. Mediating Role of Public Schools

Another influence on children's upbringing is that of
the school system. In a traditional setting, as was
discussed earlier, the school reinforces values that
children are socialized into at home. Basically the
emphasis is on respect and obedience to authority,
dependence and sociability. To achieve the desired

behaviour on the part of the children, parents resort to

57
discipline and shaming them and not to rewards and
persuasion (Sharabi, 1977:251). The school relies on
basically the same system of handling the children and
teaching them.

When Arab children become part of the American public
school system certain conflicts arise for the children and
for the parents. From talking to teachers who deal with
Arab children, their conflicts are basically with
misbehaviour on the part to the children. The children
come from the restrictive environment of their homes to a
free school environment where teachers rely more on
give-and-take than on punishment. Children, especially
boys, expect heavy-handed dicipline and when they don't get
it they misbehave. If they do not misbehave then they are
quiet (since this is how they are raised) and don't ask
questions so the teachers have the tendency to treat them
as slow learners. This seems to be more true of female
students.

Another area of conflict that teachers are concerned
about is that of working individually. As was mentioned
earlier, self-reliance is a value in this society and it is
encouraged in the school. Teachers ask students to work on
individual projects. Arab students have problems in that
area because they are not trained to work in that manner
but are usually told what to do.

Parents also have problems dealing with the school

because of differing cultural expectations. In the Middle

58
East, those who are educated are highly respected and
expected to know what they are doing. Teachers are
especially revered because they have knowledge and thus
ought not to be questioned. This means that parents do not
interfere in the work of the teachers or the schools.
Thus, they do not understand why the schools here expect
them to be involved in the education of their children.
The fact that a great many of these parents have little or
no education aggravates the situation. One teacher was so
frustrated she asked me if there is a way to "force" these
parents to come to the school and talk to her.

In summary, I have discussed the distinctive ethnic
character of Arab families which is a result of the values
that they bring with them from their countries and what
their experiences have been in the American environment. I
brought out the fact that the Arab families are a part of
the society because they have chosen to interact with it
through employment and the schools. This interaction
varies from one Arab subgroup to another depending on the
time the group arrived here, what experiences group members
have had and what their educational and professional
standing is. The interaction with the society has not been
without conflict for these families, especially over
cultural values related to the rearing of children. This

research is focusing on that area of behaviour.

CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH PROCEDURES
1. Background of the Study

The Dearborn Public School District is one of the
school districts in the Detroit metropolitan area which has
been flooded by children of Arab immigrants. As a result,
in 1976, the school district applied for and received a
Title VII basic federal grant for an Arabic bilingual
education program. Since then the heavy influx has
continued. In 1976, the first year proposal listed 474
children system-wide whose first language was Arabic. By
the 1978-1979 school year, that number had grown by 48
percent to 703. In the 1980-1981 school year the number
was up to 1,776 students. By l983-1984, the period of the
current study, the number of Arabic-speaking students
eligible for the bilingual program had reached nearly 2000;
a four-fold increase in just seven years. From an
interview with the Bilingual Education Supervisor, it was
learned that Arab students now (1984) comprised a large
percentage of the total school population in Dearborn. A1].
five schools which were used in the present study had
significant percentages of Arab students. School A had 30
to 35 percent, School B had 35 to 40 percent, School C had

59

60
40 to 45 percent, School D had 60 percent, and School E had
90 percent.

Besides the bilingual program, the Dearborn Public
Schools with the cooperation of the University of Michigan
in Ann Arbor, won a grant for the establishment of the
Arabic Language Bilingual Materials Development Center.

The established goals of this center were to develop school
curricula designed to assist children of limited English
proficiency whose home language was Arabic.

The investigator of the present research has been
involved in the process of material development for the
past three years. This involvement generated a lot of
contact with the Dearborn schools and specifically with
educators who come in contact with Arabic—speaking
students. These educators are committed to understanding
the cultural backgrounds of these students. Many of them
have faced problems in understanding the school behaviour
of Arab children and thus have speculated as to what goes
on in their homes. They expressed to me an interest in
specific activities that take place at home. Examples of
these were types of discipline resorted to by parents,
types of expectations that parents have of their children,
roles that the children are trained to assume and how these
are different for boys and girls, and decision-making on
the part of the children.

As a sociologist and an Arab immigrant, the above has

led to a pragmatic concern on my part with child-rearing

61
practices of Arab immigrants. This concern was based on
the lack of studies in that area of behaviour. Moreover,
there is a paucity of such studies in the Middle East
itself. "There exists a few specific studies — all too
few, to be sure - of child-rearing practices in certain
Arab communities in places as widely scattered as Lebanon,
Palestine, Upper Egypt and Algeria" (Patai, 1983:26). It
is interesting that even though the family is the keystone
of Arab society, Arab researchers have neglected it as an
area of study. The reason may lie in the fact that the
Arabs are not very open about discussing what occurrs
within the confines of their homes. The Arabs are also
extremely concerned with how people will look at them and
what they say about them, and thus they tend to be obscure
regarding such personal areas as family life. Moreover,
family life has been traditionally a woman's world and her
business, and researchers, mostly men, have not intruded on
that world or bothered with it. Segregation based on sex

is very strong in the Arab culture.

II. The Study Setting

The Arab immigrants who are the focus of this study
all reside in Southeast Michigan. This region has a large
number of Arabic-speaking people. In fact, the Detroit
Metropolitan area houses the largest Arab-American
community in the United States, with approximately 200,000

members and it is continuously growing (Naff,1983:17).

62
Arab immigrants have settled in different areas of the city
depending on availability of employment and/or business
opportunities. According to Aswad, the settlements
followed religious divisions which correspond to regional
and kinship groupings in the country of origin. Thus, most
Lebanese Christian Maronites live in east Detroit and the
adjacent suburbs of Roseville, Harper Woods and the Grosse
Pointes. The Chaldeans of Iraq originally settled in
central Detroit and Highland Park and migrated to north
Detroit and the northern suburb of Southfield. Recent
Chaldean immigrants live in Detroit and Highland Park.
Most Muslims (Southern Lebanese, Palestinians and Yemenis)
had settled in central Detroit and Highland Park around the
first Ford Assembly plant, and moved to southeast Dearborn
near the Ford Rouge plant when it was constructed in 1924.
This community has remained a region which continuously
receives Muslim immigrants and is the only Middle Eastern
community in the Detroit area whose members are primarily
of the unskilled laboring class. In recent years some of

its Yemeni population have been moving to Hamtramck where

they work in Chrysler plants. Some upwardly mobile persons
have moved from this community, known as the Southend, to
Dearborn's higher income suburbs. The Ramallah Christians
of Palestine, immigrating somewhat later than the other
groups and having educational, occupational and language
skills which provide mobility, are fairly scattered, but to

some extent they live mostly in Livonia and Garden City

63
(Aswad, 1974:12).

The women who participated in this study resided in
Dearborn. Most of the population from which the sample was
drawn resided in the Southend, a community along the
Detroit-Dearborn boundary. The rest of them resided in
northeast Dearborn. See Figure 3-1.

The Southend has served as a home for a number of
immigrant groups from Italy, Romania and Poland as well as
Americans from the rural South. This was true from the
early 1920's and into the 1940's (Aswad, 1974:55). The
Arab immigrants were few then but have increased in number
from the late 1940's to the present. The Arab population
appears to have become the majority in that community
sometime in the sixties (Abraham, et. al., 1983:166). In
a 1979 survey, Bowker found that 73 percent of the
population identified themselves ethnically as Arab
(Bowker, 1979:23).

The Arab immigrants who live in the Southend are
primarily from Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen. The Lebanese
are the oldest immigrant group in this community, and they
continue to come as a result of the civil war which started
in the early 1970's and has not yet been resolved. The
other two groups became more visible in the sixties. The
Six-Day War of 1967 between Israel and neighboring Arab
countries prompted many Palestinians, mostly from the

villages of El Bireh and Beit Hanina, to migrate and settle

64

 

M—39

 

 

 

Southfield

    
   

schaeffer

 

 

 

0.
Ford Rouge
Plant
N ° Study Area
I ‘ School
Figure 3-1

Northeast Dearborn and
the Southend

65
here permanently after Israel siezed their lands. The
Yemenis also migrated as a result of political oppression,
but mainly because of economic need in their country.
Unlike the Palestinians and the Lebanese, the Yemenis do
not come here to settle permanently. They come to acquire
as much money as possible and return home. Many of the
married immigrants do not bring their families with them in
order to maintain their ties to Yemen (Abraham, N.
1983:120-121).

The Arabs from these different nationality groups are
"bound together by a common language, religion and cultural
heritage" (Abraham, et. al., 1983:181). They live in a
ghetto-like community which is geographically isolated from
its surroundings. The Southend is "adjacent to the Rouge
(Ford) Plant and the Levy Asphalt Company on two sides, on
the other sides (to) a cemetary, a park and railroad
tracks" (Aswad,l974:56).

This community is basically an ethnic one. Even
though it is located in the heart of one of the major
cities of the United States, it has a distinct Middle
Eastern character. If one were to take a walk along Dix
Highway, the main street that runs through the Southend
community, one would feel that one has stepped into a
different world. Middle Eastern groceries, restaurants and
coffeehouses make up the major businesses of the community.
The coffeehouses are distinctly Middle Eastern and are more

like clubs for males than business establishments.

66
Moreover, females are rarely seen on Dix; it is a
congregating place for men (Wigle, 1974:164). Both these
are Middle Eastern characteristics of traditional
communities. I have seen females on that street while I
was conducting the study but not too many. The older women
were dressed in traditional clothes and head covers. The
younger women wore a variety of styles ranging from the
traditional to the more western styles and some mixed both.
I met a couple of teenage girls who wore designer jeans and
stylish long—sleeve shirts but had their heads covered with
scarves.

Another feature of this community is that it is
basically a working class and poor community. Most of the
immigrants are employed by the auto plant as semi-skilled
laborers (Bowker, 1979:58) and 27 percent of them fall
below the poverty line (Abraham et. al., 1983:169).
Moreover, the educational level of these immigrants is low.
Bowker found that a large number of them had limited
English skills and about 20 percent were illiterate even
in the Arabic language (Bowker, 1979:29). As more and more
immigrants of rural backgrounds continue to come, the
community will most likely retain its working class
features. The situation is aggravated by the increasing
unemployment in the community due to the fluctuations in
the automobile industry on which it depends.

Despite the above, the Southend community still serves

as a receiving area for new immigrants. They continue to

67
come because they have relatives who have already
established residence here. This present research also
found that many new immigrants decided to locate in
Dearborn because family members or other kin were already
living here. After initial settling and as they improve
their economic standing some immigrants, especially
Lebanese, choose to relocate in other nearby communities.

The Southend has one public school and all the
residents send their children there. From an interview
with the principal, I learned that in 1982, 85 percent of
the students in that school were Arabic-speaking. In
January 1984, the Bilingual Education Supervisor informed
me that the figure has gone up to 90 percent. Most of the
teachers in this school are Anglo-Saxon. A few Arab
teachers are involved in English as a second language
programmes (ESL) and in the Arabic bilingual programme.

The Southend Arab immigrants are all Muslims of the
Sunni sect. They worship in a mosque that was built on Dix
Highway by Lebanese immigrants in the late 1930's. The
mosque offers weekly classes to instruct children in
religious beliefs and in the Arabic language. Over the
years, the mosque has taken on aspects of a Christian
church. Sunday worship was established in addition to the
traditional Friday worship, women were encouraged to attend
services and the basement became a social hall for weddings
and other social gatherings. According to a report in the

Detroit Free Press, a change to a more fundamental style of

 

68
worship has occurred as a result of Khomeini's Islamic
revolution in Iran. Moreover, the new Yemeni immigrants,
who tend to be traditional, opposed the trend towards
Americanization. They had succeeded in ousting the
American-born Imam (religious leader) and replacing him
with more conservative Imams from the Middle East. Their
success is due to a steady rise in their numbers in the
late 1960's and early 1970's (Abraham, N., 1983:114). An
important consequence of this, which is of concern to this
study, is that women were discouraged from attending the
services and from being involved in any social activities.
The Free Press article also mentioned the existence of an
American Muslim Women's society which along with a men's
religious group have opened their own Sunday School apart
from the mosque. The president of that society was quite
upset with the return to fundamentalism since she believed
that the needs of Muslims here were different than those of

Muslims overseas (Detroit Free Press, November 28, 1983).

 

None of the women interviewed for this study mentioned this
women's society or belonged to it. An obvious conflict
exists regarding the role of the mosque in America between
liberal and conservative elements in this community. A
study of religious conflicts would be an extremely
sensitive topic to address but nevertheless an essential
one.

The rest of the Arab immigrants from which the sample

for this study was drawn resided in the northeast region of

69
the city of Dearborn. This community will be referred to
as the Northeast community. Unlike the immigrants who live
in the Southend, the Arabs here do not live in an
ethnically segregated community but are more dispersed.
See Figure 3-1. This was deduced from the number of
schools that the Arab children attended and from city
directories.

The Arab immigrants who have settled here are
overwhelmingly Lebanese. In his study, Katarsky found that
the majority of his sample came specifically from the
village of Bint Jubail, a town located just north of the
border of Lebanon with Israel (1980:22). They have come
mainly because of political unrest in that country. The
Lebanese civil war is also responsible for the continued
growth of this community. Moreover, the community has been
receiving Lebanese immigrants from the Southend who have
moved here in search of better housing. In this present
study, a few of the mothers who were selected from the
Southend school records had moved to the Northeast
community by the time the interview took place.

Even though the Northeast community is not
geographically or ethnically segregated like the Southend,
nevertheless it is a viable ethnic community. It is new
and growing. Most of the Lebanese immigrants arrived here
within the last 15 years. Katarsky found that the majority
of his sample had lived in the Northeast community for less

than ten years (Katarsky,l980:50). The community's growth

70

was evident through certain indicators. First, the number
of Arab students attending the four schools in that area
has grown. In one of these schools, Arab students
comprised 60 percent of the total school population.
Second, the Northeast community has grown and become
established in its provision of a range of services and
businesses. Warren Avenue is a major street that runs
through this community. This avenue has witnessed the
growth of businesses that are owned by Lebanese and so have
Michigan Avenue and Schaeffer.

From studying Dearborn's city directories for 1979 and
1983 one can sense the rate of growth in this community.
The year 1979 was chosen because the rate of Lebanese
immigration peaked in that year and that was when Katarsky
conducted his study which provided a good basis for
comparison. In 1979, Katarsky counted 5 markets or
restaurants on Warren Avenue, 2 stores or restaurants on
Schaeffer and l on Michigan Avenue. He also counted 2
dentist/physicians and 5 others who were outside Dearborn
but accessible to the residents of the Northeast community
(Katarsky,l980:27-30). By 1983 there were 11 ethnic
markets and restaurants, a hair salon for women, a dry
cleaner, a bike shop, two tailors, a travel agency, a tire
centre and bookstore, all on warren Avenue. Besides the
two food stores that were on Schaeffer in 1979, there are
now a dental studio and pharmacy both owned by Lebanese.

Other businesses are also springing up on other streets.

71
An advertisement in Arabic for a printing shop attracted my
attention but the owner was not listed.

An increase was also noticeable in the area of medical
services. There were 2 dentists and 9 physicians that were
listed in the city directory who practiced in Dearborn.
These were all Arab doctors although I could not
distinguish their nationalities from the name listings. In
an interview with the ESL Adult Education Supervisor, she
showed me information from a local hospital printed in
Arabic concerning medical services such as immunization and
pregnancy.

All the above indicate that the Northeast Arab
community is an established one. There are services to
meet a variety of needs that the residents have and the
community at large is aware of the presence of the Arab
immigrants.

Unlike the working class character of the Southend,
the Northeast community is more of a middle-class one.
Katarsky found that 60 percent of his sample were laborers
in auto plants, 11 percent were teachers (half of them at
the university level), 6 percent have professional
positions, 6 percent were employed by the City of Dearborn
and 9 percent were small shop owners and 6 percent were
unemployed (Katarsky,l980:32-33).

The Arab immigrants here are also Muslims but of the
Shia sect and they worship in the Detroit Islamic Centre

Mosque on Joy Road.

72

The Northeast community has a number of schools that
the Arab children attend. According to one teacher, the
presence of the Arab children now cannot be overlooked when
planning school programs. Moreover, the Arab parents have
succeeded in initiating an after-school program where Arab
children can learn Arabic.

It is within the boundaries of these two communities
that the Arab immigrants under study enter into most of
their interpersonal relationships. "It is in this context
that various aspects of associationships are reinforced and

certain values become systemized and shared" (Wigle,

1974:164).
III. The Data Collection

The data for this study were collected through an
interview schedule administered to 41 Arab mothers and
through personal interviews with community leaders,
teachers and bilingual education staff and some participant
observation. The data were collected in the spring and
summer of 1982. I administered 44 percent of the interview
schedules and all the personal interviews. The rest of the
schedules were administered by female Arabic-speaking
interviewers. Every interviewer administered one schedule
to each mother at her home. The interviewing time
ranged from one and a half hours to three hours depending
on the cooperation of the interviewee and her understanding

of the questions. Besides, a number of these mothers were

73
extremely hospitable which turned this time into a long
visit.

The reasons for choosing a face-to—face type of
interviewing over a mailed questionnaire were the
following: First, the women were assumed to have had
little or no previous experience with scientific studies.
Second, the level of education of the women was assumed to
be low because the whole community was characterized by low
educational achievement (Bowker, 1979; Abraham et. al.,
1983). Third, the Arab culture is male-oriented and the
family is male-dominated. Based on that, I suspected that
the males in these families might either fill out the
questionnaires or influence the way they are filled out.
Fourth, Arab culture is inclined towards face-to-face
interactions rather than impersonal ones.

The decision to use a questionnaire over participant
observation was made because it was a good way to collect a
wide range of data in a short time. To obtain the amount
of data that I have collected through participant
observation would have taken a number of highly-trained
observers and perhaps months or years to accomplish. Both
time and cost were instrumental in making the above
decision. The interviewers were instructed to make
observations which would contribute to this study,
especially the socio-economic status of the families and
any interactions between mothers and children. Added to

the above was the fact that all the interviewers were of

74
nationalities comparable to those of the respondents. I
was brought up in Lebanon, the first interviewer was
brought up in the West Bank (Palestine) and the second was
brought up in Yemen. All the interviewers came to America
as graduate students and thus were considered to have great
familiarity with the culture of the respondents.

Even though much of the literature on the Sociology of
the Family is based on the perspectives of wives and/or
mothers, nevertheless, I decided to concentrate on mothers
because of cultural considerations. As Arab women, we
would not have had successful interactions with the
fathers. In one of the interviews, the husband was
unemployed and thus was home during working hours. He
refused to leave the room because he wanted to know what
was going on. Throughout the interview I was uncomfortable
and so was the mother. He was either correcting her
responses or she was making sure that be approved of her
responses. Another important consideration to keep in mind
is that Arab men are not very involved in the early
socialization of children. They start to assume more of a
role when their children, especially the boys, get older.

The instrument included a large number of open-ended
questions and covered a number of areas. The instrument
generated data on demographic characteristics, family
structure, child-rearing practices, infant care, relations
of the family with the outside society, roles of women,

interactions within the ethnic community and how the women

75
feel about living here. Because of the nature of the
questionnaire, a tape-recorder was used unless the mother
refused that.

Prior to this study, I conducted a pilot study to test
the usefulness of the questions. A number of versions of
the questionnaire were made and a final one was produced.

I constructed the child-rearing section of the
questionnaire with the help of the following studies:
Sears, et. al., 1957, Patterns of Child Rearing ;

Prothro, E., 1961, Child Rearing in the Lebanon ;

 

Prothro and Diab, 1974 Changing Family Patterns in the

Arab East and Eron, et. al., 1961 ”Comparison of Data

 

Obtained from Mothers and Fathers on Child-Rearing
Practices and Their Relation to Child Aggression". The
rest of the questionnaire was constructed from the
literature review and from personal interest. A copy of

the interview schedule is included in Appendix A.

IV. The Sample

The random sample chosen was made up of 41 women who

were Arab immigrants and resided in the City of Dearborn.
The criterion for selection was having a kindergarten child
in the Dearborn Public School District. Five schools from
the district had large numbers of Arab students and these
were used for drawing the sample. The names of Arab
kindergarten students were used as the popoulation and a 15

percent sample was drawn randomly. Then the mothers of

76
these children were contacted and an appointment was set
for an interview at the home of the respondent. After the
first selection, the Yemeni mothers were under-represented
in the sample so all the names of the Yemeni Kindergartners
were pulled out and a small sample was drawn for the
purpose of making the total sample respresentative of the
community. The Arab immigrants came here from Lebanon
Yemen and Palestine in a ratio of about 66 percent, 15
percent and 19 percent respectively. These figures were
based on a personal interview with a community leader who
was born, resided and worked in the Southend community.

A majority of these women went to school, 66 percent,
but a number, 34 percent, never attended any school. Of
those educated, 33 percent finished elementary school, 26
percent had some secondary education but only 15 percent
finished high school. Eleven percent had some university
education. The level of education of the husbands was
higher than that of the wives. Thirty percent of them
finished elementary school, 25 percent had some secondary
education and 17 percent finished high school. Forteen
percent of the husbands had some university education and 6
percent had Bachelor's degrees. None of the women had a
university degree. See Table 3-1.

There were large discrepancies between the
occupational level of the men and that of the women. None
of the women were presently employed and only three of them

had been employed previous to their immigration; two as

77

Table 3-1

Percent of Respondents' and Husbands'
Educational Achievement

Number of Years Respondents Husbands

Educated N % N %

Under 5 Years 3 ll 3 8
5 Years 9 33 ll 31
Some secondary 7 26 9 25
High School 4 15 6 17
Some University 3 11 5 14
University Degree - - 2 6
Totals 27* 100 36** 101

* 14 women had no education

** 5 men had no education
grade school teachers and one as a janitor. Of the men,
only 42 percent were presently employed and 37 percent were
laid-off. Seventy-nine of those employed had semi-skilled
jobs and one man owned a restaurant. Looking at the
employment of the men prior to immigration it was obvious
that a number of these families went down on the economic

scale. See Table 3-2.
The mothers who were interviewed were young in age.

Five percent of them were in the 20—24 year bracket, the
majority, 66 percent, were in the 25-34 year range and the
rest, 29 percent, were between 35 and over 40 years. This
means that the majority of the mothers are still in their
child-bearing years and will probably have additional
children. All of them were married to Arab men of the same

nationality and the same religion.

78

Table 3-2

Percent of Husbands' Previous and
Present Type of Employment

Type of Previous Present

Employment N % N %

Professional 1 3 -- --
Proprietor(sma11) 4 11 l 3
clerical 2 6 —- --
skilled 8 22 6 18
Semi-skilled ll 31 26 79
Unskilled 4 11 -- --
Farmer 6 17 -- --
Total 36* 101 33** 100

* Some husbands were either too young or were students when

they came and thus had no previous employment.

** Total does not match unemployment rate of husbands
because mothers gave type of employment for laid-off
husbands.

The women were asked where they were from and whether
or not the place they came from was a city, town or
village. It was interesting that the majority, 61 percent,
said that they came from cities, 12 percent said they came
from towns and 27 percent said they came from villages.

The literature review indicated that the Arabs who settled
in the Southend came from rural areas. Katarsky found that
the largest percentage of the Lebanese immigrants came from
Bint Jubail, a village in South Lebanon (Katarsky,
1980:38). The discrepancy between the literature and the
mothers' perceptions led me to classify where they came

from. The result was that 34 percent originated from

cities, 5 percent from towns and the majority, 59 percent,

79
from villages.

The women have been here for a relatively short period
of time. The majority, 81 percent, have been here for a
period ranging from 5 to 14 years, 12 percent have been
here for less than five years and 7 percent have been here
for more than 14 years. Only one of the women was born
here in the United States, and she lived in the Southend
community.

The reasons for their migration were investigated. A
large number of them, 47 percent, came to the United States
because they already had family here. Twenty-two percent
came because of war situations. Five percent came seeking
employment after losing a job in the war. This meant that
32 percent mentioned political unrest as a reason to

migrate. See Table 3-3.

Table 3-3

Percent of Families Migrating for Given Reasons

Reasons for Migration N %
War 9 22
Family 17 42
Job 9 22
War/Family 2 5
War/Job 2 5
Job/Family 2 5
Total 14 101

All of the women interviewed were involved in raising

children and none of them were employed outside their

80
homes. A majority of them, 75 percent, had relatives
living in the neighbourhood or close by. Around 10 percent
of them said they had too many relatives to count. In
fact, one of the women told me that all her extended family
migrated to the Dearborn area after the Lebanese war
started.

The size of the families of these women ranged from
one to nine children. The majority of them had families
consisting of three to five children, 66 percent, while 22
percent had six to seven children. See Table 3-4. The
kindergarten children of these women were either five or
six years old. There were 18 male and 23 female

children.

Table 3-4

Percent of Mothers' Family Size and Their Nationalities

Number of Nationality of Mother
Children Lebanese Palestinian Yemeni American
N % N % N % N %

l -- -- -- -- l 17 -- --
2 2 7 -- -- -- -- -- --
3 h 22 3 43 l l7 -- —-
4 6 22 l 14 -- -- 1 100
5 6 22 1 l4 2 33 -- --
6 2 7 1 l4 2 33 -- --
7 4 15 -- —- -- -— -- --
8 1 4 -- -- -- -- -- --
9 -- -- 1 l4 -- —- -- --

81

V. The Variables

The present study falls in the category of survey
research. Because few studies have been conducted on Arab
child-rearing practices and most of them are old, the
present study includes detailed description of the data.
The study, though, is not exclusively a descriptive one but
includes testing of hypotheses.

A dependent variable, child-rearing practices, is
studied in relation to a number of independent variables.
The dependent variable is made up of the following
practices: physical and emotional dependency/independence
training, handling of aggression expressed by a child,
types of rewards and punishments mothers use to achieve
desired behaviour and sex-role differentiation. All these
were considered important practices because they are
related to basic values in the Arab family structure. A
number of questions from the interview schedule are
designated for each child-rearing practice. The responses
to the designated questions are categorized as follows: if
the response indicates that a practice mothers use here is
in line with what is followed in traditional Arab families
then that practice is referred to as "traditional". The
practices that fall in this category are what Arab families

here are persisting in. If, on the other hand, a practice

is oriented to mainstream American culture then it is

referred to as "non-traditional". These practices are

82
indicators of change. Practices that do not fit either
category are discussed as areas of mixture of both Arab and
American cultures; an indication of some change and some
persistence.
The answers to each question are then given scores.
The scores to all the questions dealing with a particular
practice are used to create a scale. The scale ranges from
a "low" (traditional) category to a "high" (non-
traditional) category. As a result, seven scales are
created for seven child-rearing practices. An example will
explain the procedure. To create a scale for emotional
independence training, the answers to the following
questions were used:
1. At what age did your child start to make
his/her own decisions?
2. How does your child behave when you leave
him/her with someone else?

3. Does your child require a lot of attention

from you?

4. Does your child follow you around?

5. Does your child ask you for help with
something he/she can do by himself/herself?

6. What do you do when your child asks you for
help with something when you are busy?

7. Some mothers like to know where their
children are all the time and others
let their children fare for themselves.
What do you do with your child?

The responses of each woman to each of the above questions
were given a score of one, "traditional" (low) or a score
of two, "non-traditional" (high). Then each woman was
given a total score for her answers to all the above

questions. All the scores were then put in a scale. In

83
this example, the Emotional Independence Scale looks as

shown in Table 3-5.

Table 3-5

Emotional Independence Scale

What this scale means is that 7 women scored high on one of
the designated questions, 10 scored high on two of the
questions and so on. The scale shows that none of the
women scored high on 6 or 7 of the questions. The scale
categories were then collapsed into three, "low", "medium"

and "high". The scale then looks as shown in Table 3-6.

Table 3-6

Collapsed Emotional Independence Scale

Low Medium High Total
N = 17 9 15 41
= 41 22 37 100

The study has also designated four independent
variables based on the literature review. The first is the
amount of exposure to the host society that these women are

experiencing through the use of the mass media. The second

84
variable is attachment to the homeland. The third variable
has to do with the amount of interaction that the women
have with the host society. The fourth variable has to do
with the amount of participation the women have in the
ethnic community where they live. Each variable has a
number of indicators from which scales are created
following the same procedure discussed above for the

dependent variables.

VI. Definitions of Major Variables

A. Physical Independence Training

 

This variable means at what age a mother trained her
child to assume certain responsibilities for his/her own
welfare. Seven indicators were used to measure this
variable:

At what age did your child start to perform the
following activities:

1. feed self

2. dress self

3. tie own shoes

4. bathe self

5. venture away from home
6. cross the street by self

7. use the bathroom without assistance.

B. Emotional Independence Training

 

This variable means whether or not a mother
trains her child to be emotionally independent of her.
Seven indicators were used to measure this variable:

1. at what age did your child start to make
his/her own decisions?

’///

85

how does your child behave when

you leave him/her with someone else?
does your child require a lot of your
attention?

does your child follow you around?
what do you do when your child asks
you for help with something he/she can
do by himself/herself?

what do you do when your child asks
you for help when you are busy?

some mothers like to know where their
children are all the time and others let
their children fare for themselves.
What do you do with your child?

C. Handling Aggression

 

This variable refers to how mothers handle aggression

expressed by their children. Four indicators were used to

measure this

1.

variable:

what do you do if your child got angry
and hit or insulted you?

what do you do if your child was rude
to you?

what do you do if your child quarrels
with siblings?

what do you do if your child quarrels
with the neighbourhood children?

D. Types of Punishments

 

This variable refers to types of punishments a mother

resorts to in order to discipline her child. The types

include hitting, scolding, deprivation of a desired item,

threatening to punish, sending child to own room, ignoring

the offense and being upset with the child. This variable

has 11 indicators:

bWNH
o 0

do you hit your child?

how much do you hit your child?

how do you deprive your child?

what do you do if your child breaks
something in the house?

what do you do if your child misbehaves
in front of guests?

86

what do you do if your child lies

to you?

what do you do if your child jumps on
the furniture?

what do you do if your child is not
compliant?

what do you do if your child is not
tidy and clean?

what do you do if your child runs

in the house without clothes?

what do you do if your child does not
respect the property of other members
of the family?

E. Types of Rewards

 

This variable refers to what rewards a mother uses to

reinforce positive behaviour on the part of her child. The

rewards were categorized as either emotional such as

hugging and kissing the child or tangible such as buying

the child ice-

cream or giving him/her candy. The

indicators for this variable are the following:

1.

2.

some parents reward their children when
they behave well, others expect
children to behave well without rewards.
What is your opinion in this matter?
how do you reward your child?

F. Male-Roles and Female-Roles

 

These variables refer to the degree of gender

differentiation. Indicators for these variables are the

the following:
1.

what, in your opinion, is the amount
of education a girl should get?

what, in your opinion, is the amount
of education a boy should get?

do you feel that the way girls behave
should be different from the way boys
behave at this age? (5-6 years)

do you expect your child to do
housework?

what do you hope for your child's
future?

87

G. Exposure to the Host Society Through Mass
Media Use

 

Indicators for this variable are the following:

1.
2.

3.

do you watch T.V.? what are your
favorite programmes?

do you listen to the radio? what
are your favorite programmes?

do you read magazines? what type
of magazines do you read?

H. Attachment to the Homeland

 

This variable refers to how attached are the mothers

to their home of origin. The indicators for this variable

are the following:

1.
2.

do you have American citizenship?
does your husband have American
citizenship?

do you have contacts with your
homeland?

do you receive letters from your
relatives?

do you receive calls (or do you
call) your relatives?

do your relatives from your
homeland visit you?

do you hope to return to your
homeland to live?

does your husband hope to return to
your homeland to live?

do you own your home?

I. Participation in the Ethnic Community

 

The indicators for this variable are the following:

1.

would you like to move to a different
neighbourhood? Why? Why not?

do you speak English?

what language do you speak at home

with your husband and children?

do you read and write English?

whom do you spend time with as a family?
What are the sources of your information?
(this question refers to the sources of
information regarding the way American
mothers raise their children).

88

J. Interaction with the Host Society

 

Indicators for this variable are the following:

1. do you think that the American system of
education has a good or bad influence on
the development of the child?

Please explain.

2. what do you think of the way American
mothers raise their children?

3. what are your sources of information
regarding that?*

4. do you speak English?*

5. do you read and write English?*

6. what American ways would you like your
children to adopt?

7. do you cook American food?

8. do you go out to eat at restaurants?

Some of these questions were also used as indicators
for the ethnic participation variable, but only the

relevant responses were considered for each variable.
VII. The Hypotheses

The review of the literature and the theoretical
framework generated a number of hypotheses and they are the
following:

Hypothesis 1: There is a relationship between the

 

degree of interaction with host institutional and
associational life and child-rearing practices so the

higher the interaction the less traditional the practices.

 

These questions were also used in the scale created
for Participation in the Ethnic community. In that
variable, only the responses relevant to it were used and
the others were dropped. The responses that are relavent to
this variable were used and the rest dropped.

89

Hypothesis 2: There is a relationship between the

 

degree of participation in the institutional and
associational life of the ethnic community and child-
rearing practices so that the higher the participation the
more tradiational the child-rearing.

Hypothesis 3: There is a direct relationship between

 

exposure to the host society through the mass media and
child-rearing practices so that the higher the exposure the
less traditional the practices.

Hypothesis 4: There is a direct relationship between

 

the degree of attachment to the homeland and child-rearing
practices so that the higher the attachment the more

traditional the child-rearing practices.

VIII. Problems and Limitations

Every researcher faces certain problems when a study
of this nature is conducted. Basically, the assumption had
to be made that through the interviewing schedule the
respondents will give reasonably accurate information.

This is a big assumption since the Arabs in general are

concerned with what people say about them and are not too
open regarding their family life. In some instances, the
respondents wanted me to know that they were raising "good"
children so after I introduced myself and the purpose of my
visit, they reacted by saying, "everything is all right; I
have no problems raising my children". My answer was “I

want to find out your opinions regarding raising children".

90
This was usually enough to get started.

Another issue that the interviewers and I faced was
that of suspicion. Many of these families had come to
America from war zones. They were afraid that our purposes
were political or that we had something to do with the
immigration services. This was most evident to me in
questioning them about being members in organizations.
Perhaps the choice of words was not sound. Moreover, many
of the respondents were suspicious of signing the Human
Subjects release form especially after they were assured
that their names would not be used in the study.

Writing down the responses and using a tape—recorder
presented problems also. This was not suprising to me
since the Arab culture in general is not a verbal culture,

and the Arabs have an aversion to forms and signing papers.

CHAPTER FOUR

ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS

The central concern of this research is to
investigate the role of ethnic families in the process of
assimilation. This process can involve a persistence in
ethnic behaviour and/or a certain degree of change. The
focus of the research is a group of Arab ethnic families
who reside in a community located in Southeast Michigan.
The area of behaviour under study is the rearing of
children. Child-rearing practices are used as indicators
of ethnic continuity or change.

In this chapter, a description of these families and
the child-rearing practices they follow in their homes is
presented. The description provides a basis for assessing
change or persistence. Results from testing relationships
between certain designated child-rearing and societal

variables are also presented.

I. Description of the Data

In order to describe the social organization of these
Arab families certain variables are selected. These
variables are: the process of decision-making in the home,

marriage patterns, how the mothers perceive their role as

91

92
women and how they perceive the role of other women
especially those who are employed outside the home.
Certain variables pertaining to the rearing of children are
also selected. These are: infant care, how mothers train
their children to be independent/dependent, how children
are punished and rewarded, how mothers handle aggression
and sex-role differences.
A. Social Organization of Arab Families
1. Decision Making in the Home

Arab mothers selected for this study were asked who
in their families made the final decisions with respect to
certain issues. The question was, "who in your family
makes the final decision with respect to the following?
You, your husband or both of you?" Then a list of issues
was presented to them. The response to the above question
and the list of issues are presented in Table 4-1.

The data in the table indicate a shift from a
traditionally authoritarian family structure to a more
equalitarian one with the wives assuming more

responsibility in certain areas of family activities than

traditionally common. The wives assume more responsibility
for house expenses, dicipline of children, children's
clothing, and their own clothing. The husbands share with
their wives in deciding where to live (59 percent),
dicipline of children (56 percent), whom to visit (64
percent) and timing of children (46 percent). In a few

cases the women told me that even though their husbands

93

Table 4-1

Percent of Wives and Husbands Involved in
Final Decisions on Certain Given Issues

Issues You Your Both NA/No Total N
Husband Decision

Place to 7 34 59 100 41

live
Buy a car 5 44 49 2 100 41
Open a bank

account 3 50 42 5 100 40
House

expenses 29 25 46 100 41
Dicipline of

children 37 7 56 100 41
Children's

clothing 52 10 38 100 40
Timing of

children 17 5 46 22 100 41
Whom to

visit 10 21 64 5 100 39
Wife's

clothes 46 25 29 100 41

Wife's visits
with women 40 43 15 98 40

94

made the final decisions they asked their opinions first.
The husbands still assume a large responsibility for issues
such as opening a bank account (50 percent) and their
wives' activities outside the home (43 percent).

2. Marriage Patterns

The emphasis in traditional family settings has been
on marriage to relatives especially cousins. In this study
most of the mothers were married before they came to this
country; only four were married here. The question posed
to each of them “how did you meet your husband?" is, if
anything, an indicator of family structure before
immigration. The data indicated that the family at large
still played an important role in marriage but that role
was being shared by the involved individuals themselves.

See Table 4-2.

Table 4-2

Percent of Mothers Meeting Husbands
Through Certain Channels

Method of Meeting N %
Through School or Work 7 17
Through the Family 16 39
Through Neighbors 7 17
Through Other People 11 27
Totals 41 100

Males and females still meet each other through the family

in 39 percent of the cases. Other people and neighbors

95
have a role in 37 percent of the marriages. This means
that neighbors or friends who know a girl will talk about
her to families with eligible males. In general, though,
such marriages are arranged by the elders in the families
involved which is basically a traditional way. Moreover,
when the mothers were asked about their husbands, 41
percent of them married relatives.

Some changes are evident in the marriage process.
Seventeen percent of the mothers met their husbands through
school or through a work situation but, as they reported,
they still had to go through the traditional way of having
families ask for the hand of the bride and approve the
marriage. So, in general, the background of these mothers
is basically traditional with regard to their marriage
patterns.

3. Role of Women

A related issue to the organization of the family is
how women perceive their role in life. The question asked
was: "what do you think is the role of a woman in life?".
The question evoked a number of varied responses. To
facilitate the analysis the answers were categorized as
follows: a woman's role towards herself, her role towards
her husband, her role towards her children, her role
towards her household and her role towards society. Only
eleven women (27 percent) mentioned that a woman has a role
towards herself. The major role mentioned under that

category was "to be respected”. Only one woman said that

96
her role should include work outside the home, another that
her role should include "taking care of herself", and two
mentioned "being educated" as part of a woman's role
towards herself
Thirty-three women (80 percent) mentioned that the
role of women is to bear and raise children. Twenty-five
women (61 percent) mentioned a women's role as involving
duties toward their husbands. Their duties were mostly to
take care of the husbands, support them, and respect them.
Eighteen women (44 percent), mentioned housework as part of
their role. Only seven (17 percent) mentioned that a
women's role involves duties toward society namely to be an
"active member of a society" and to “help others". It was
hard to get specific explanations of the latter responses.
From the above one can see that these women View

their first responsibility as bearing and raising children,
then taking care of their husbands, then keeping house,
then being respected and finally to be a part of society at
large. So the family is the most important thing in the
lives of these women, and that is how they see the role of
every woman. Yet, the fact that a few mentioned that their
role involves other than their families is an indication of
certain changes.

The picture was a little different when these women
were asked what they thought of women who worked outside
the house. The question was ”what is your opinion of a

woman who works outside her home?” Now, their responses

"ill

 

,. 405:. -__.

 

97
were not about themselves, since none of them were
employed; they were responding to a situation that does not
involve them. The responses were difficult to analyze
because each woman gave more than one response to the
question. The multiplicity of responses is why the
following percentages do not add to 100 percent. Here
again the responses were placed into four categories to
facilitate the analysis:
It is good for a woman to work.
It is acceptable for a woman to work.

It is not good for a woman to work.
She benefits personally when she works.

bWNH
a

The categories were created according to who benefits or
does not benefit from a woman's employment. Forty-one
percent of the women said that it was good for a women to
work. Fifty-three percent of those thought that she could
help her husband. Some, twenty-nine percent, said it would
be good if she can cope with her house and her outside job
and others, twelve percent, said it is good if there is
someone else to raise the children. One woman said that it
is good only if a woman is respectable.

Forty-four percent said that it is acceptable for a
woman to work but only if certain conditions existed such
as having no children (24 percent), having economic need
(24 percent), not being married (6 percent), and being able
to cope with the demands of the housework and an outside

job (24 percent).

98

Thirty-seven percent of the women feel it is not good
for a woman to be employed. The major reasons here are
family related. A woman should not leave her children and
her house (73 percent), it is hard to work and have a
family (13 percent) and she should be respected (13
percent). Respect used in this context means to be hidden
in her home and not exposed. This is an issue related to
the modesty code in that culture and is discussed more
fully later.

Only nine of the respondents looked at outside
employment as benefiting the woman herself. Three of them,
thirty-three percent, said that a woman who works helps
herself. Four (44 percent) said that she can increase her
education and widen her horizon by working. Eleven percent
said a woman who works has an excellent future and another
(11 percent) said she becomes more sociable as a result of
contact with others.

A few of the respondents, seventeen percent, felt
strongly against outside employment. Five of these (71

percent) said that they did not like to work outside their

homes, and three (29 percent) said that their husbands do
not like them to work. In general forty-four percent of
these women's responses indicated that it was good for a
woman to work and twenty-two percent of their responses
indicated a woman can benefit from working. This means
that a large percentage, sixty-six percent of the responses

were favorable towards outside employment. This is very

99
interesting since none of these women were employed, even
though fifty percent of them had unemployed or laid-off
husbands. Despite that, I see their responses as
indicating a big shift from traditional female roles to
what they perceive the role of women should be.

This shift in attitude towards women is also evident
in the mothers' expectations for their children's future.
Two questions were posed to the mothers regarding that:
"How much education should a girl or boy get?" and "What
do you hope for your child's future?". Seventy-one percent
of the women said that a girl should get as much education
as a boy. These responses were contrary to expectations.
Since their roles revolved around home-related activities
the assumption was that the women would desire the same for
their girls and thus anticipated little education for them.
This was a great departure from tradition. Only one woman
expressed traditional thinking in this matter. She said,
"I don't like girls to get a lot of education; it is enough
if they learn to read and write only; I want my girl to be
a house-wife like me". This woman thought a boy should get
the "highest education possible". In their expectations
for the future of their children, eighty-seven percent of
mothers of females said they wanted their girls to be
educated and only thirteen percent wanted their girls to be
married. In general, the Arab women were traditional in
what they saw their role as women to be but a transition to

non-traditional attitudes could be detected. This outlook

100
was more apparent when they talked about other women and
more so when their daughters were concerned. They seemed
content with what they were doing but wanted something
different for the next generation: their daughters.
B. Child-Rearing Practices

Any study on the rearing of children should include
information on feeding, weaning and toilet-training.
Psychologists are interested in those aspects mainly
because of their influence on later behaviour. In this
study, the purpose of describing these aspects is
comparative. What the mothers do here is compared to what
takes place in the culture of origin for the purpose of
detecting change.

1. Infant Care
a. Feeding

Breast feeding is a normal practice of feeding in
Arab countries, and infants are usually fed on demand
(Prothro, 1961:71; Miner and DeVos, 1960:43; and Ammar,
1954:99). Williams, in 1968, found that the use of the

bottle as a supplement to the breast was becoming more

common, and women were experiencing uncertainty about the
practice of breast feeding (1968:28-29). The Arab women
who live here also tended towards using the bottle for
feeding. Prothro found that ninety-two percent of the
Lebanese mothers in his study breast-fed their children
(1961:71) while here over half of the mothers, fifty-nine

percent, used the bottle exclusively and only a minority,

101
twelve percent, breast-fed their children. Quite a few,
twenty—nine percent, used both the bottle and the breast.
The present data show no meaningful differences between
males and females.

Even though the Arab mothers here have resorted to the
use of a "modern" way of bottle feeding, they have
persisted in the traditional way of feeding on demand
rather than on a schedule. Some sex differences were
apparent here. More boys than girls were fed on demand and
more girls than boys were fed on schedule but the

differences were small. See Table 4-3.

Table 4-3

Percent of Mothers Feeding Infants on
Demand or by Schedule by Sex of Infant

Type of Sex of Infant
Feeding Male Female Total

N % N % N %
On Demand 12 67 14 61 26 63
By Schedule 6 33 9 39 15 37
Totals 18 100 23 100 41 100

b. Weaning
Most of the respondents, 74 percent, weaned their
infants when they were between one and two and one-half
years of age. Two of these children (males), now either
five or six years old, were still taking the bottle.

Weaning included both the bottle and the breast. Sex

102
differences are apparent in weaning. By age two and a half
almost all the girls were weaned but for the boys it was by
age three and a half that most of them were weaned. This

is in line with traditional weaning practices. See Table

Table 4-4

Percent of Time Male and Female Infants Were Weaned

Time Male Female Total

Weaned N % N % N %

Less than 1 6 2 9 3 7
1 year

1 year to 4 22 9 39 13 32

1 yr 5 mos
1 yr 6 mos to 6
2 yr 5 mos
2 yr 6 mos to 6 33 0 0 6 15
3 yr 5 mos
More than 1
3 yrs 6 mos

Weaning techniques were investigated. A large number

of mothers reported that their infants left the bottle by

themselves. Five mothers reported using a bitter substance
on the breast or salt in the bottle. In one case the child
was taken away from the mother. In twenty-five percent of
the cases, either food was given or a cup introduced. The
use of a bitter substance or the separation of mother and
child are both extreme measures of weaning traditionally

resorted to by Arab mothers. Many mothers in Lebanon

103
mentioned those techniques (Prothro, 1961:78) while here
only a few, fifteen percent, did.
c. Warmth

A related aspect of child-rearing to weaning is the
mothers' warmth towards her infant. This was measured by
the mother's response to the infant's cry. The question
posed to the mothers was as follows: "Some mothers carry
their infants when they cry, others let them cry so they
would not get used to being held. What did you do with
_§_?". Traditionally, mothers indulged their children
and picked them up when they cried, but here the majority of
mothers, fifty-six percent, would let their children cry
and only thirty—nine percent would hold them. There were
sex differences in this aspect of child-rearing but
contrary to expectations Arab mothers here exhibited more
warmth to their daughters than they did to their sons. See

Table 4-5 below.

Table 4-5

Percent of Mothers Expressing Warmth to Their Infants
by Sex of Infant

Expressing Male Female Total

Warmth N % N % N %
Hold infant 6 33 10 44 16 39
Let infant cry 11 61 12 52 23 56
Good infant 1 6 l 4 2 5

104
d. Toilet Training

Toilet training is another important aspect of early
socialization. A series of questions in the interview
schedule dealt with that area. The first question dealt
with how the child was trained. Most of the mothers here,
forty-five percent, used a "potty" chair. The next most
used method was to set the child on the toilet.
Twenty-three percent of the mothers reported using that
method. A few of them, eighteen percent, let the child
imitate them or an older sibling.

Then the mothers were asked when they started to
toilet-train their children, how long it took them and
whether or not the children were easy to train.

Most Arab mothers here, sixty-one percent, started
toilet training when their children were between one and
one and one-half years old and quite a few, twenty-seven
percent, started between one and one—half years and two
years. Only seven percent of the mothers started before
their children were a year old and five percent waited

until after the children were two years old.

Anthroplogists that have studied this aspect of
child-rearing in the Middle East reported that Arab mothers
started toilet—training early and took that rather casually
(Williams, 1968:31; Ammar, 1954:104; and Fuller, 1961:36).
Miner and DeVos refer in general to the casual attitude
toward elimination (Miner and DeVos, 1960:51). In

contrast, the more urbanized mothers in Prothro's Lebanese

105
study took toilet—training seriously and resorted to
physical punishment in cases of relapse but were unable to
achieve early results (Prothro, 1961:87). Here mothers
were successful in achieving results probably because they
did not start toilet-training very early. Moreover,
eighty-three percent of them reported that their children
were easy to toilet train and did not take very long to
achieve complete training. Most of them took four months
and a few took between nine months and one year for
successful completion. Sex differences showed here but
were very small. More mothers of boys than girls started
toilet-training earlier but took longer. In general
though, most mothers started later than traditionally
common and took less time to train their children in this
area of behaviour.

Arab mothers here take toilet-training seriously and
about fifty percent of them resorted to corporal punishment
when a child forgot and had an accident in his/her
clothing. Scolding was a next most used method. A few
mothers, ten percent, took time to explain to the child
what had happened and to tell him/her not to repeat that.

From the above, certain changes in aspects of
child-rearing can be detected. Bottle feeding has become
more popular but infants were still fed on demand. Weaning
was accomplished by most mothers when the children were 2
years old. Only a few mothers resorted to extreme

traditional measures to wean their infants. When it came

106
to holding the infants when they cried, mothers were not
traditional. A majority of them let the infants cry.
Toilet training was accomplished easily. Most mothers
started when their infants were between a year and one and
one-half years which is not traditional and accomplished
the training in a relatively short period of time varying
from a week to four months. A few mothers took a little
longer but the majority took up to four months. Mothers
here took toliet training seriously and resorted to
discipline when their infants had relapses.
2. Mother-Child Interactions
The socialization of a child goes beyond the
fulfillment of his/her physical needs in matters of
feeding, weaning and toilet-training. It is a process that
extends beyond that early stage and continues for many
years. Certain aspects of socialization that are being
concentrated on have to do with how Arab mothers train
children in dependence/independence, how they handle
expressed aggression, how they reward or punish children,

and sex differentiation. Sex differences in the variables

are also discussed.
a. Independence/Dependence Training
Training in independence/dependence is an important
aspect of mother-child interaction. "The infant is usually
rewarded for depending on his mother, but the older child
must learn to balance emotional dependency with some degree

of independent action" (Prothro, 1961:132). In the Middle

107

East, mothers are usually delighted to have children and
generally indulge those children to a great extent. For
this reason the assumption was made that the Middle Eastern
children would be dependent on their mothers and that
training in independent behaviour would be delayed.
Estimates of the dependency of children were based on the
mothers' responses to several questions. The physical and
the emotional aspects of dependency were investigated.

Physical dependency was estimated by asking the
following question: "At what age did your child start to
perform the following activities?”. Then a list of
activities were presented to the mothers. The list
consisted of the following: feeding self, dressing self,
tying own shoes, bathing self, venturing away from home,
crossing the street and using the bathroom without
assistance. The data gathered from responses to the above
questions are presented in Table 4-6. The data show that
Arab children here are socialized to be independent at an
early age in certain areas of behaviour namely personal

matters. Forty-nine percent of these Arab children learn

to feed themselves by age two and one-half years:
forty-three percent learn to dress themselves by age three
and one-half years; thirty-seven percent learn to tie their
shoes by age four and one-half years; and about all of
those children can use the bathroom without help by age
three and one-half years. The only personal matter in

which children are not trained to be independent is taking

108

Table 4-6

Percent of Mothers Training Their Children to be
Physically Independent in Given Activities
at Given Ages of Children

Activities
Age of Tie Venture Use
Child in Feed Dress own Bathe From Cross Bath
Years Self Self shoes Self Home Street Room

N=4l N=40* N=4l N=41 N=4l N=4o* N=40

1 to 15 o o o o o 0
1-1/2

1-1/2 to 49 8 2 o o 5 48
2-1/2

2-1/2 to 22 43 5 7 2 5 40
3-1/2

3-1/2 to 5 23 37 7 1o 25 8
4-1/2

4-1/2 to o 20 29 10 27 20 3
5-1/2

5-1/2 to 2 5 12 17 20 25 3
6 years

Not Yet 7 3 15 59 42 20 0
Totals 100 102 100 105--'-151----—156-----152'

One woman did not have any responses to those activities

109
a bath. A majority of mothers, fifty-nine percent, did not
trust their children to clean themselves. These children
seem restricted when it comes to venturing away from home
and to a lesser extent in crossing the street by
themselves.

The data was also analyzed to create a score of
physical independence training for each mother. Responses
were divided into high and low dependency. For example, if
a mother said that her child started feeding
himself/herself by age two and one-half, she was given a
score of low dependency training. This was done for each
activity. Then each mother was given a total score of high
or low independence training. The result was a scale for
physical independence ranging from low, one, to high, five.

See Table 4-7.

Table 4-7

Physical Independence Scale

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Totals
N = 9 6 9 10 7 0 0 41
% = 22 15 22 24 17 0 0 100

The scale was then collapsed into three categories of
"low", "medium", and "high“ independence as shown in Table
4-8. The scales also showed that most Arab mothers train

their children to be physically independent. Forty—two

110

Table 4-8

Collapsed Physical Independence Scale

Low Medium High Totals
N = 15 9 17 41
% = 37 22 42 101

percent of them scored "high" on the scale, twenty-two
percent scored "medium", and thirty-seven percent scored
"low".

Emotional dependency training was also explored.
Estimates of the emotional dependency of children were
based on responses to the following questions:

1. At what age did X start to make own
decisions?
2. How does X behave when you leave
him/her with someone else?
3. Does X require a lot of your
attention?
. Does X follow you around?
. Does X ask you to help him/her with
something he/she can do by himself/herself?
6. Does X ask you to help him/her with
something when you are busy?

7. Some mothers like to know where their

children are all the time and others let
their children fare for themselves. What

do you do with X ?

As far as making their own decisions is concerned
Arab children tended to be independent; about half of them
started to make decisions between the ages of three and a
half and four and a half years. Arab children did not

misbehave when they were left at home because they usually

111
stayed with either their fathers, twenty-seven percent;
older siblings, thirty-four percent, or other relatives,
twenty-seven percent. One woman said she left her child
with a neighbor and one said that she had never left her
child. The mothers who said their children did not
misbehave were seventy-eight percent of the sample. Eight
percent said their children cried and another eight percent
said their children tried to follow them. This question
was considered a bad measure of emotional independence,
though, and was dropped from further analysis. The next
question dealt with the amount of attention a child
requires of the mother. Forty-nine percent of mothers said
that their children require a lot of attention while
fifty-one percent said their children require little or no
attention. This question indicates that a little over half
the Arab children are not dependent on their mothers
emotionally while the rest are. Again thirty-five percent
of the mothers indicated that their children follow them
around and hang onto them while sixty-five percent of them
said their children did not do that or did that a little.
This again indicates that a majority of the Arab children
are not dependent in this area. Another indicator dealt
with whether or not children would ask for help with
something they could do by themselves. Only twenty-two
percent of_the mothers said their children would do that
which indecates little dependency. What do the mothers do

when they are asked for something and they are busy? The

112

answers fell in the following categories:

1. I tell him/her to wait

2. I leave my work and help him/her with
what is needed.

I tell him/her to do it alone

I scold him/her for asking me.

bk»)
0 0

When it came to allowing their children to fare for
themselves an overwhelming majority, ninety-eight percent,
insisted that their children tell them where they are all
the time. A number of mothers check frequently to see
where the child is or allow him/her to play close to the
house. I assume that the responses of some mothers were
not accurate because they did not want to give me an
impression of being bad mothers. In a few cases the mother
would say she knew where her child was and then I would
find out later during the interview that she really did not
know. But I heard a couple of mothers scold their children
and threaten to punish them because they did not tell them
where they had gone. But in general, and as far as this
particular aSpect of dependency is concerned, the data show

that mothers were over-protective of their children. In

many of their responses here and to other questions,
mothers expressed fear of the outside society.

An emotional independence scale was constructed
following the same procedure for constructing the physical

independence scale. In this scale, six questions were used
but only five ranks resulted. The reason was that none of

the mothers got a high score for all of the questions.

113
This scale also ranged from low independence, one, to high

independence, five. The scale was as follows:

Table 4-9

Emotional Independence Scale

1 2 3 4 5 6 Totals
N = ‘7 10 9 10 5 0 41
% = 17 24 22 24 12 0 100

The above categories were then collapsed into "low",

"medium" and "high" as shown in Table 4-10.

Table 4—10

Collapsed Emotional Independence Scale

Low Medium High Totals
N = 17 9 15 41
% = 41 22 36 99

In general, most Arab mothers ranged from medium to high in
their independence training but a large minority, forty-one
percent, scored low on the scale.

Sex differences were studied with regard to emotional
independence training. The data presented in Table 4-11
indicate that female children are more emotionally
dependent on their mother than male children. They require

more attention; they follow the mother around; and more of

114

Table 4-11

Percent of Mothers Training Children in Emotional
Independence for Given Situations by Sex of Child

Sex of Child

Type of Male Female Total
Situations N % N % N %
Requires Attention
Yes 8 44 12 52 20 49
No 8 44 6 26 14 34
Little 2 11 5 22 7 17
Total 18 99 23 100 41 100
Follows Mother
Yes 4 24 10 44 14 35
No 12 71 10 44 22 55
Little 1 6 3 13 4 10
Total 17* 101 23 101 40 100
Requires Help
Yes 2 ll 7 30 9 22
No 13 72 14 61 27 66
Little 3 l7 2 9 5 12
Total 18 100 23 100 41 100

*
One of the women gave no answer.

115

them require help with things they could do by themselves.
When it comes to behaviour when the mother leaves and
knowing where the child is, there are no sex differences.

The sex differences shown in Table 4-11 may be due to
the fact that boys are given more freedom to be outside the
home than girls, are and thus the mothers have the girls
with them for longer periods of time. During many of the
interviews young girls were either inside the house or
playing on the porch. Even though 42 percent of all
mothers did not let their children venture away from home
(Table 4-6), a large percentage of them were mothers of
females. When the data for that particular variable were
analyzed for sex differences, 48 percent of mothers of
females did not allow venturing away as opposed to 33
percent of mothers of boys. Moreover differences may also
be due to wanting the girls to be more emotionally
dependent on their families than boys. In fact I related
to one of the mothers that my own little girl was very
independent and I encouraged that. She was suprised and
said in a scolding manner, "you must not do that because
she won't be compassionate towards you when she grows up."
In general, Arab mothers trained their children to be
independent with regard to physical tasks such as tying
shoes and feeding self. For some aspects of emotional
independence, mothers tended to encourage independence, but
they were over-protective when children interacted with the

outside. A large number of them did not let their children

116
venture away from home and to a lesser extent cross the
street. The mothers also kept close watch over them when
they were outside the home.
b. Handling Aggression

The mothers in this study were asked what course of
action they would follow when aggression was expressed by
their children toward them personally, toward siblings and
toward other children in the neighborhood.

As for aggression against the mother, the question
posed was "what would you do if X got angry and hit you
or insulted you?". Twenty—one of these mothers, a little
over fifty percent, said that type of behaviour had never
happened in their homes. In ten of these homes,
twenty-four percent, the mother would use "beating" (any
form of physical punishment such as slaping/spanking) as a
response to such behaviour. This was the most common
method of punishment. Other responses included scolding,
seven percent, and sending the child to his/her own room,
ten percent. None of the mothers ignored that type of

behaviour on the part of their children. I also asked

"what would you do if _X_ was rude to you?”. Here
fifty-nine percent of the mothers would resort to physical
punishment, hitting or beating, at times harshly. More
mothers, fifteen percent, would scold their children than

they would in the above situation. Only one mother would
ignore such behaviour.

Another question posed to the mothers dealt with

117

aggression expressed toward siblings. The question was
"what would you do if _X_ quarreled with his/her
siblings?". Here again the most common reaction was
hitting or beating, thirty-two percent, followed by
scolding, twenty-four percent. A couple of the mothers
used both methods. Seventeen percent of the respondents
would send the children to their rooms or separate them.

Dealing with aggression towards other children in the
neighborhood with whom the child played was also explored.
The question was similar to the above one: "what do you do
if _X_ quarreled with the neighbor's children?". The
responses of the mothers were different. Thirteen percent
said their children did not fight with other children. In
cases of aggression, hitting was still a frequent response
but only eighteen percent of the mothers resorted to it as
opposed to thirty-two percent who used hitting to correct
aggression toward siblings. More mothers, thirty-three
percent, used separation as a means to correct aggression
in this situation. They would either send the neighbor
children home or send their own children to their own
rooms. Another frequent response was scolding. A few
mothers tried to find the reason behind the fight and who
was at fault and to punish the offender.

Then the mothers were asked how they felt about
fighting in general. The majority of them, fifty-four
percent, did not like their children to fight at all. The

rest, forty-six percent, said that they want their children

118
to fight only in self defense, but they did not want them
to initiate the fighting. Some differences occurred in the
feelings between mothers of males and those of females.

See Table 4-12 below.

Table 4—12

Percent of Mothers' Opinions on Expressed
Aggression By Sex of Child

Mothers' Male Female Total
Opinion N % N % N %
Dislike 9 50 13 57 22 54
Fighting

Approve in 9 50 10 43 19 46

Self Defense

More mothers of females than males disliked fighting,
fifty-seven percent as opposed to fifty percent, but
mothers of both girls and boys wanted their children to
fight if it was a case of self defense. This was

interesting because in an Arab cultural milieu, girls are

socialized to be very timid and lady-like while boys are
encouraged and socialized to be rough.

Mothers were also asked what their husbands' opinions
were on that matter. Their responses are presented in
Table 4-13. A smaller percentage of fathers than mothers
disliked fighting and more of them wanted their children to

defend themselves.

119

Table 4-13

Percent of Fathers' Opinions on Expressed
Aggression by Sex of Child

Fathers' Male Female Total
Opinion N % N % N %
Dislike 8 44 13 57 21 51
Fighting

Approve in 10 56 10 44 20 49

Self Defense

However, more fathers of females than males disliked
fighting.

In general, Arab mothers who live here did not
tolerate expressions of aggression especially against
themselves, and they punished that severely. Mothers also
opposed aggression against other children but seemed more
permissive in cases of self-defense. Mothers and fathers
of female children were a little more opposed to aggression
expressed by their girls than parents of boys were.

A Handling Aggression Scale was constructed based on
the responses to the above questions. In this scale, the
responses were also placed in "high", "medium" and “low"
categories as was done in the previous scales. But the
basis for categorizing here was whether a response was

judged to be "non-traditional" or "traditional". An

120
example of how this was done follows. One of the questions
asked regarding aggression was "what do you do if _X_ got
angry and hit and insulted you?". The answers were

classified as follows:

deprive him/her of something he/she likes
send to room (away from me)

hit/spank/hit harshly

threaten to punish/to hit

ignore him/her

scold him/her

won't talk to him/her and be upset with
him/her

that never happens.

on \JOU‘IDWNH

Based on the literatrure review (Prothro, 1961; Najarian,
1959; and Sharabi, 1977), answers to (l), (2), (5), and
(6), were considered "non-traditional" and given a score of
two and answers (3), (4), and (7) were considered
"traditional". Answer (8) was considered as missing data.
The answers to all the questions regarding aggression fell
in the following scale ranging from traditional, low, to

non-traditional, high. See Table 4-14.

Table 4-14

Handling Aggression Scale

Traditional Non-traditional
Low Medium High Totals
N= 18 17 6 41

121
The scale shows that mothers were either "traditional" or
"medium" in the way they handled aggression. Only fifteen
percent tended to fall in the "non—traditional" category.
This means that they resorted mostly to traditional means
of discipline such as hitting.
c. Rewards and Punishments

All mothers resort to the use of rewards and/or
punishments to achieve their expectations of their
children. Arab mothers do that here too. A major question
posed to the mothers regarding rewards was as follows:
”some parents reward their children when they behave well,
others expect children to behave well without reward. What
is your opinion of this matter?" The majority of the
mothers, seventy-six percent, said that they rewarded good
behaviour. A number of them thought rewards should be used
because they encouraged children to behave well.
Twenty-four percent expected good behaviour of their
children without reward. One mother told me "I don't like
to use rewards", another, "it is better not to reward them
(children)", and yet another, "we really don't like to do
that (rewarding) too much".

Then the mothers were asked what type of rewards they
would use. There were two types, physical rewards and
emotional/verbal rewards. Fifty-two percent of the mothers
said they would hug and kiss their children, thank them and
say "good boy" or "good girl". A large percentage,

forty-two percent, used rewards that involved buying the

122
child something such as clothing, ice cream and candy, toys
or by giving the child money to buy things from the store.
Seven percent said they took their children out to a place
they liked such as McDonald's restaurants. A scale for
rewards was created based on the mothers' responses to a
number of questions dealing with rewards. An
emotional/verbal reward was placed in the non-traditional,
”high", category. A strictly tangible reward or no reward
at all was placed in the "low" category. Responses
including both types were placed in the "medium" category.

The responses fell in the scale as shown in Table 4-15.

Table 4-15

Types of Rewards Scale

Low Medium High Totals
N = 20 19 2 41
% = 49 46 5 100

The scale indicated that even though mothers said they
rewarded behaviour, they ranged from ”low“ to "medium” on
the types of rewards they resorted to.

Punishing undesired behaviour is another aspect of
discipline which was explored in this study. But unlike
the question about rewards, I offered the mothers certain

specific situations and asked them how they would respond

if these situations occurred.

123
The results to these questions are shown in Table 4-16.
The results indicate the following:

1. Mothers resorted to hitting often but not ex-
clusively. The offenses most often corrected by hitting
were lying to the mother and being noncompliant. Thus
mothers use hitting in personal relationships with them.

2. Scolding, i.e., verbal interaction, is an
important means of punishment. It is the most important in
cases where a child breaks something in the house,
misbehaves in front of guests or is dirty. It is second
in importance in cases where a child lies to the mother or
is not compliant.

3. Some offenses are ignored, but not by many
mothers. This is true in cases where a child breaks
something (15 percent), jumps on furniture (5 percent), is
not compliant (5 percent), is dirty (3 percent) and runs in
the house without clothing (2 percent). There is one
exception. Ignoring the child or doing nothing is the most
common response in cases where a child is not respectful of
property belonging to others in the family.

4. A majority of mothers (56 percent) said that
their children do not run in the house without clothes.
This is due to the great value of modesty in the Arab
culture and to the fact that mothers make sure their
children do not do that.

5. Threatening to punish, depriving the child of

something she/he likes, and sending the child to his/her

124

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ooa can con sea son coal och OOH u a
a¢ av ov ov He He av av u z mamuos
o 0 NH O NH N o m Hmauo
m o o o o o o o ammo: umo
nmwcsm
ma 0 o o o o o o mumsuo
o o m o o o o o madam
mousmmoz
o o o m o o o o osmuuxm
om om ma SH NH «N N o :mddmm uoz
o N m m h N ca ca caoom\uwm
o oN mv mN ON «N we we oaoom
«4 N m m m o N ma muoamH
N o o m m N h N :oummuss
ma oN ma mm mN vm ON NH pa:
Boom
o o o ea c N n m 0» ccmm
N o o m o n m o m>auowo
muummoum monuoao Nunwo.mfl ucmflamEoo munuwcusm so» 0» mummam kmcwnu usmsnmwssm
m.uonuo 0\3 was“ x «H #0: ma so again mowa whomon ImEom mo momma
pommmmu x NH x «H x LH x MH mm>mnmn uxmmum
u.:mmoo laws x NH
x MH x MH

 

tango man an Hoa>msmnmaz no mcoaumauam

 

MOH>¢mmmmH2 m0 ZOHBdDBHm ZH>HU fl
mom QmmD mH BzmzmmHZDm ho mmwfi fl HSHB m0 Bzmummm

male mamfls

125
own room as ways of dicipline were not frequently used by
the mothers. Extreme measures, such as forcing the child
to kneel in a corner, were very infrequently used and then
only when a child was not compliant.

Other questions related to discipline in general were
also presented to the mothers. These had to do with who
disciplines the child, the amount of hitting inflicted on a
child and what type of deprivations were used. These
questions and their responses are discussed in the section
on sex roles.

A scale of types of punishment was created using a

number of questions. These questions were the following:

do you hit your child?

how much do you hit your child?

how do you deprive your child?

what do you do if your child breaks

something in the house?

5. what do you do if your child misbehaves
infront of guests?

6. what do you do if your child lies to you?

7. what do you do if your child jumps on the
furniture?

8. what do you do if your child is not
compliant?

9. what do you do if your child is not tidy
and clean?

10. what do you do if your child runs in the
house without clothes?

11. what do you do if your child does not

respect the property of other members of

the family?

bWNH
O.

The responses of the mothers were put in a scale as
shown in Figure 4-17. Then the categories were collapsed
into "low" (traditional), ”medium" and "high”

(non-traditional) as shown in Table 4-18.

126

Table 4-17

Types of Punishment Scale

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Totals

N = 2 4 3 8 6 5 7 l 3 2 41
% = 5 10 7 20 15 12 17 2 7 5 100
Table 4-18

Collapsed Types of Punishment Scale

Low Medium High Totals
N = 23 5 13 41
% = 56 12 32 100

Most of the mothers, 56 percent, fell on the traditional
end of the scale. About a third of them scored high on the
scale which is significant. I see this as an indication of
change from a more traditional to a less traditional way of
discipline.

d. Expectations of Children's Behaviour

What do mothers expect the behaviour of a

kindergarten child to be? The question posed to the
mothers in that regard was the following: "What, in your
opinion, are the characteristics of a 'good' boy or a
'good' girl who is five or six years of age?" An

overwhelming majority, seventy-six percent, said that a

127
good child is an obedient one, well—mannered and respectful
of adults. The next most common response was that a good
child is a responsible one. This last characteristec was
mentioned by about ten percent of the mothers. The rest of
the mothers mentioned 'honest' (2 percent), helps with the
house and siblings (2 percent), not destructive (2
percent), quiet (2 percent) and intelligent (5 percent).
In Prothro's study, Lebanese mothers also thought of the
ideal child as one who is obedient, polite, neat and not
aggressive (Prothro, 1961:99). Even though this data was
similar to Prothro's there were important differences. In
both studies the emphasis was on characteristics that have
to do with relationships with other people. This is a
value in the Arab culture; children are taught from a young
age that they are to obey adults and be polite to others.
They are socialized to function in a society which is
basically other-oriented. In the Lebanese study more than
half the mothers also mentioned 'tidy' and 'neat',
characteristics that will improve relationships with others
because they make one look good. In this study neatness
and tidyness were not so crucial. The mothers here, even
though there were only a few of them, expect a child to be
responsible. This finding was unexpected since
responsibility is a value in Arab culture especially in the
socialization of females. Males, on the other hand,
develop less responsibility based on the over-

protectiveness of the mothers. Sharabi says in this regard

128
that an Arab mother is over—protective of her child and
does not train him to take blame for his actions, thus an
Arab child develops a sense of lack of responsibility
(1977:248-249).

Mothers were also asked what they liked most about
their own children. The most frequently mentioned good
characteristics here were the following in order of
frequency: 43 percent mentioned obedient, 38 percent
quiet, 35 percent intelligent, 25 percent helps with the
house and siblings, 20 percent honest and 10 percent clean.
None of them mentioned ”responsible". The findings here
are in the most part consistent with Arab cultural values.
I also asked them what they disliked most about their
children. It is important to mention here again that Arab
culture is very other-oriented and the mothers did not want
a visitor, such as myself, to think that their children
were bad. As a result, they hesitated before answering
this question. In fact, a few mothers said that their
children had no bad characteristics. In any event, the bad

characteristics mentioned were the following: "obstinate,

argumentative" (20 percent), 'disobedient and rude“ (18
percent), “destructive and reckless“ (18 percent),
”quarrels with siblings" (18 percent) and "interferes, asks
too many questions" (13 percent). Here again being

irresponsible was not mentioned as an undesirable
characteristic. Some of the other bad characteristics

mothers did not like about their children were: bad eating

129
habits, lying, screaming and crying, being silly and being
dirty. But these were not mentioned too frequently.
e. Sex-Role Differentiation

In the literature review, it was discussed that Arab
boys were given a more favorable treatment than Arab girls.
For example, they were breast fed longer and pampered
longer than girls. Moreover, from an early age, girls are
socialized to assume roles that limit them to the house and
to the rearing and bearing of children. Boys, on the other
hand, are socialized to assume roles that deal with being
bread winners of their families. Boys are trained to be
aggressive and independent while girls are trained to be
dependent, submissive and passive. This is reflected is
the type of games that children play. ”Games of physical
endurance and those that allow the expression of aggression
are typically male games while girls participate in
rhythmic...games which reflect obedience training and
conformity to the collectivity...their role-playing
(reflects) not only nurturant behaviour but also
responsibility training" (Al-Hamdani and Abu-Laban,
1971:190).

Sex-role differentiation is of crucial importance in
the Arab socialization process and thus an assumption is
made that this would be an area where the immigrants would
persist in their patterns of child-rearing. Many mothers
expressed their shock at how American girls are allowed to

behave. One mother said based on her observation of

130
frequent interaction between American boys and girls, "they
(American girls) are different than our girls; they have no
honour". Another mother expressed her concern for her
daughter by saying, "I fear for my girl if she has American
friends". The value of the differential treatment of boys
and girls and comments such as the above prompted an
investigation of certain factors related to sex-roles.
These were: how mothers of girls and of boys differed in
their expectations of their children's future, differences
among mothers of girls and of boys regarding their
children's behaviour in general, diferences in expectations
of household chores, differences in the treatment of boys
and girls with regards to punishments and rewards,
differences in their independence training and how mothers
differed in handling aggression expressed by girls and by
boys.
(1) Mothers' Expectation for Children's Future.

All mothers have certain expectations and hopes for

their children, and Arab mothers are not different. Arab

mothers who reside here want all their children to get an

education. Seventy-one percent of all mothers expected a
girl to get as much education as a boy. My expectations
were that a large number of answers would indicate
traditional roles for the female children since over half
of the women interviewed for the pilot study said that
girls should get some education and then get married and

only 40 percent of them said girls and boys should get

131
equal education. In this study only a few mothers are
traditional in this respect. One of them wants her own
girl to learn only how to read and write and then to become
a housewife like herself. Another woman wants her girl to
get only some secondary education.

As for the boys, 75 percent of the women in the
present study thought boys should go to college and get a
specialization in one of the professions. Five percent
thought boys should only get a high school education while
the rest, 20 percent, had no specific expectations. In
general, the mothers were more specific about what they
thought about a girl's education than they were about that
of a boy.

The importance of education for these mothers came up
again when they were asked what general expectations they
had for their children's future. The initial responses I
got during the interview were mostly ”a good future”, "a
successful life" and similar comments. A few probes were
used and the mothers responded more specifically. The data
gathered from this question were coded according to the
most frequently mentioned expectations. This resulted in
four categories: get educated/specialized, get a job, get
a spouse and have good morals/keep own honor. Responses
that did not fit or were vague were dropped, and those that
fit more than one category were counted more than once.

For example, the mother who said, ”I hope that my duaghter

can get an education, find a job and keep her honour” was

132
placed in three categories. See Table 4-19 for the

responses of the mothers.

Table 4-19

Percent of Mothers' Responses Regarding Expectations
of Their Children's Future by Sex of Child

Mothers' Sex of Child

Expecta- Male Female Total
tions N % N % N %
Education 18 75 20 61 38 67
Job 2 8 2 6 4 7
Spouse - — 3 9 3 5
Keep Honor/

Good Morals 4 l7 8 24 12 21
Total 24* 100 33* 100 57* 100

* The totals are the number of responses and not
the number of mothers

The data in the table indicate that 61 percent of the
responses include education for their girls and only 9
percent include marriage. None of the mothers of boys were
concerned about them getting married. More mothers of
girls were concerned with good morals. For the males,

mothers told me that they wanted their boys to be good

people with high moral standards. Mothers of girls wanted
their girls to keep their chastity and honour as females.
(2) Behaviour of Boys and Girls
The question posed to the mothers regarding the

behaviour of children was, "do you feel that the way girls
behave should be different than the way boys behave at this

age (5—6 years)? How?" It was in the responses to this

133
question that traditional differential treatment of boys
and girls surfaced. The answers were varied and overlapped
at times but basically the majority of the mothers believed
that there should be differences in behaviour among the
sexes even at this age, while 27 percent of them believed
that boys and girls should behave in a similar manner when
they are this young. Of those who believed in differences,
30 percent said that the games girls participate in should
be different than boys' games; girls should not ride bikes
or climb trees like boys do. Girls should be quiet and
feminine. Twenty-two percent mentioned family—related
differences. They said that a girl should help her mother
with household chores and with taking care of younger
children. Moreover, a girl should "feel more with her
family“. What they mean here is that a girl should be more
sensitive to her family's needs. Fifteen percent of the
mothers said that boys should have more freedom than girls;
they should be able to go with their friends while the
girls should stay at home. About five percent gave vague
answers.

Thus the responses to the above question show more
traditionalism than answers to other questions. Perhaps
this is due to the fact that this question referred more
directly to actual behaviour on the part of the children
rather than to the mothers' expectation of that behaviour.
It should be emphasized, though, that over a quarter of the

mothers indicated equality of behaviour among boys and

134
girls. This is a significant shift from traditional Arab
culture where boys and girls are trained from a very young
age to assume different roles and are thus expected to
behave differently.
(3) Household Chores

Mothers were asked whether or not they expected their
children to perform household chores. This question
focused on the specific kindergarten child under study.
Even though the questions referred to expectations the
mothers responded in a manner indicating actual behaviour.
The data show a shift from traditional Arab culture as far
as male socialization is concerned. Boys are traditionally
socialized to assume roles dealing with public life and
girls are socialized to assume home-related roles. The
present data support the latter but not the former.
Eighty-seven percent of mothers of females expected their
girls to do housework and 61 percent of mothers of boys did
also. They gave examples of how the boys help by dusting,
setting the table and even helping with the dishes.

(4) Independence Training

Arab mothers trained their male and female children
differently in the area of physical independence but the
differences among the sexes were small. See Table 4—20.
More boys than girls are trained to be physically
independent, 44 percent as opposed to 39 percent, but the
differences are small. The differences also showed in the

first columns where more girls than boys are trained to be

135

Table 4-20

Percent of Mothers Training Their Children in
Physical Independence by Sex of Child

Physical Sex of Child

Indepen- Male Female Total
dence N % N % N %
Low 6 33 9 39 15 37
Medium 4 22 5 22 9 22
high 8 44 9 39 17 42
Totals 18 100 23 100 41 101

less independent, 39 percent as opposed to 33 percent, but
again the differences are not large.

Emotional independence training, on the other hand,
shows great differences among the sexes. See Table 4-21.
The data show that fifty-six percent of the male children
and twenty-two percent of the female children are trained
to be emotionally independent. The reverese is also true.
Fifty-two percent of the female children and twenty-eight
percent of the male children are trained to be less
independent in this area.

(5) Handling Aggression

Handling aggression was another area analyzed for sex
differences. Large differences were not expected since the
variables included in this concept were aggression against
mother, against siblings and against other children in the

neighbourhood. See Table 4-22.

136

Table 4-21

Percent of Mothers Training Their Children in
Emotional Independence By Sex of Child

Emotional Male Female Total
Independence N % N % N %
Low 5 28 12 52 17 41
Medium 3 17 6 26 9 22
High 10 56 5 22 15 37
Totals 18 101 23 100 41 100
TABLE 4-22

Percent of Mothers Handling of Aggression
by Sex of Child

Handling Male Female Total

Aggression N % N % N %
Low 7 39 11 48 18 44
Medium 7 39 10 43 17 42
High 4 22 2 9 6 15

137
In general mothers tend to use more physical punishment in
this area. They are harder on their girls than they are on
their boys. Twenty—two percent of them are less
traditional in handling aggression expressed by their male
children than that expressed by their female children.
Moreover, forty-eight percent of them are more traditional
in handling aggression expressed by their female children.
Quite a few of the mothers scored "medium" on the "handling
aggression” scale which indicates a movement away from
traditionalism.

Sex differences did not hold when the mothers were
asked about aggression in general. Mothers of both boys and
girls disliked fighting and allowed it only in cases of
self-defense. So they teach their girls and boys how to
handle fighting equally, but they themselves are harder on
their girls in handling their aggression. See Table 4—22.

(6) Types of Rewards

Arab mothers tended to reward their girls differently
than they rewarded their boys. It was discussed earlier
that "high" types of rewards include verbal-emotional
rewards and ”low” types include physical, tangible rewards
such as giving money and candy. The "medium" types include
a mixture of both. See Table 4-23. Very few mothers, two
of them, resort to non-traditional types of rewards which
are of the emotional type. Both of these mothers are
mothers of boys. To analyze sex differences then, I

concentrated on the medium category.

138

Table 4-23

Percent of Mothers Using Certain Types of Rewards
by Sex of Child

Types of Male Female Total

Rewards N % N % N %
Low 11 61 9 39 20 49
Medium 5 28 14 61 19 46
High 2 11 - - 2 5

Totals 18 100 23 100 41 100

The data in the table show big differences in how mothers
treat their boys and girls. Sixty-one percent of mothers
of girls use emotional rewards as opposed to twenty-eight
percent of mothers of boys. This is also true for the
"low" category. Boys get more tangible rewards than do
girls. The reason behind these differences could stem from
the fact that mothers give boys physical rewards such as
money and they go out of the home and buy their reward
while girls are given more emotional rewards because it is

more traditional for girls to stay at home.

(7) Types of Punishments
It was discussed earlier that mothers were harder on
their girls in handling aggression than they were on their
boys. Is this true in handling other offenses as well?
See Table 4-24. Differences among the sexes exist. More
mothers of boys resort to less traditional punishments than

mothers of girls, 39 and 26 percent respectively.

139

Table 4-24

Percent of Mothers Using Certain Types of Punishments
by Sex of Child

Types of Male Female Total

Punishments N % N % N %
Low 10 56 13 57 23 56
Medium 1 6 4 18 5 12
High 7 39 6 26 13 32

Totals 18 101 23 101 41 100

There are no differences in the percentage of mothers
resorting to more traditional-type punishments for both
girls and boys. Mothers of females are experiencing some
transition because 18 percent of them are using a mixture
of traditional and non-traditional means of punishing
offenses.

There were sex differences also in the amount of
corporal punishment used with children. See Table 4-25.
It was mentioned earlier that mothers said "sometimes" to
avoid seeming harsh to me. But I feel that "sometimes"
could very well be considered as "a lot". Therefore, rows
one and two were considered together. Here again girls
receive more physical punishment than boys do, sixty-one
percent and thirty-three percent respectively. This was

consistent with previous findings of this study.

140
Table 4-25
Percent of Mothers Resorting to Physical

Punishment for Correcting Misbehaviour
by Sex of Child

Amount of Sex of Child

Physical Male Female Total

Punishment N % N % N %
A Lot 1 6 1 4 2 5
Sometimes 5 28 13 57 18 44
Little 12 67 9 39 21 51

Totals 18 101 23 100 41 100

In conclusion, Arab mothers trained their boys and
girls differently in the areas of physical and emotional
independence. The males were trained to be more
independent in both areas than were girls. The mothers
showed non-traditional tendencies in the areas of
educational expectations for girls, expecting housework of
boys, and in the use of emotional rewards with girls. They
persisted in traditional behaviour in the areas of
expecting household chores of girls, certain female-type

behaviour of girls and in the area of harsher punishment of

the girls.

A Female-Roles Scale and a Male-Roles Scale were
created to measure the degree of gender differentiation
based on the responses to the following questions:

1. what, in your opinion, is the amount of
education a girl should get?

2. what, in your opinion, is the amount of
education a boy should get?

141

3. do you feel that the way girls behave should

be different than the way boys behave at
this age? (5-6 years)

4. do you expect your child to do housework?

5. what do you hope for your child's future?

The responses were divided among the sexes and then
categorized. The same procedure was used here as was used
for creating the other scales. The total number of
variables for each scale was seven since the answers for
question 5 fell in four categories and question 1 was used
for the female-roles only and question 2 was used for the
male-roles scale only. The scales were created on the
basis of traditionalism so that the responses on the lower
end of the scale reflect more traditional Arab practices
and those in the higher end reflect practices compatible
with the American culture. The former were termed
"traditional" and the latter "non- traditional". See Table
4-26 for the female-roles scale and Table 4-27 for the
male-roles scale. These scales were collapsed into “low”,
"medium", and "high" categories as shown in Tables 4-28 and
4—29 respectively. Most Arab mothers tend to be
traditional in the way they socialize their children to
assume differential sex roles. They basically believe in
essential differences of behaviour among the sexes despite
their expressed expectation of education for girls. There
is a small percentage of mothers though who perceive a

certain equality among the sexes. The medium category

indicated that some women are in a process of change from a

142

Table 4-26

Female-Roles Scale

2 3 4 5 6 7 Totals
8 4 12 2 1 0 41
20 10 29 5 2 0 100
Table 4-27
Male-Roles Scale
2 3 4 5 6 7 Totals
0 1 12 4 l 0 41
0 2 29 10 2 0 99
Table 4-28
Collapsed Female-Roles Scale
Low Medium High Totals
22 16 3 41
54 39 7 100
Table 4-29
Collapsed Male-Roles Scale
Low Medium High Totals
24 12 5 41
59 29 12 100

143

traditional Arab culture to the United States mainstream
culture or a mixture of both. Thirty-nine percent and
twenty-nine percent of the responses in each scale
respectively fell in that category. This is a significant
finding in light of the fears mothers have expressed
regarding the behaviour of their girls in this society.

This section of the chapter presented a detailed
description of the organization of Arab families who have
settled in Dearborn and their child-rearing practices. The
description indicates that some changes are occurring in
both areas. First, there is a change in the traditional
authoritarian structure of these families in that the women
assume more responsibilities in their homes here such as,
house expenses, the discipline of children and their own
clothing than they did before migration. Men still hold
the power of decision in the area of the women's activities
outside the home. Second, change is evident in the
perception of women of their roles as women. They still
believe that their primary role is home-related but they
want their daughters to get an education and get trained in
the professions. Third, mothers showed changes in the
areas of infant care such as resorting to bottle feeding
and starting toilet-training later than was traditionally
common. Mothers also showed non-traditional tendencies in
physical independence training and to a lesser extent in
emotional independence training. Mothers still exhibit

more traditional child-rearing in the areas of handling

144
aggression, types of punishments and types of rewards.
Fourth, there are differences in the way mothers raise
their girls and their boys. They are harder on the girls
and resort to more traditional practices than they do with

the boys except in the area of types of rewards used.

II. Testing of Hypotheses

Another major focus of this present study is to test
hypotheses of relationships between child-rearing variables
and societal variables designated for this research. This
testing would show whether or not relationships exist which
will then lead to some determination of which variables may
or may not be contributing to changes in the area of
child-rearing. The societal variables at issue are:
exposure to the host society through mass media, attachment
to homeland, participation in the ethnic community, and
interaction with the host society. Each one of these
independent variables will be tested with each of the
child-rearing variables namely physical and emotional

independence training, handling aggression, punishments and

rewards and sex-role differentiation.
A. Homeland Attachment and Child-Rearing Practices
Attachment to the homeland was a variable created in
this dissertation from a number of questions posed to the
mothers. Homeland attachment was assumed to make a
difference in whether or not these families were

experiencing any changes in their child-rearing: the

145
higher the homeland attachment the more persistence in
traditional child-rearing.

The indicators of homeland attachment were the
following:

1. do you have American citizenship?
. does your husband have American citizenship?
. do you have contacts with your homeland?
. do you receive letters from your relatives?
. do you receive calls or call your relatives?
do your relatives from the homeland visit
you?
7. do you hope to return to your homeland to
live?
8. does your husband hope to return to your
homeland to live?
9. do you own your own home?
10. what language do you speak at home with your
husband and children?

mLflhUJN

Each response was coded as indicating "high" or "low"
attachment to the homeland. The scale moves from a low
orientation to mainstream American culture, referred to
here as traditionalism, to a high orientation to the
American culture, referred to as non-traditionalism. The
responses to the above-mentioned indicators were scaled as
shown in Table 4-30. The scale was then collapsed into
three categories as as shown in Table 4-31. The scale
shows that most women, 54 percent, show high homeland
attachment and 22 percent show medium homeland attachment
while 24 precent experience low homeland attachment. This
scale was used in testing the hypothesis that homeland
attachment and child-rearing are related so that the more
homeland attachment, the more traditional the child-rearing

practices will be.

146

Table 4—30

Homeland Attachment Scale

Collapsed

Table 4-31

Homeland Attachment Scale

High

Non-traditional
Medium Low
9 10
22 24

147

1. Homeland Attachment and Physical Independence
The data resulting from testing the physical
independence training scale and the homeland attachment

scale are presented in Table 4-32.

Table 4-32

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland Attachment and
Their Training of Children in Physical Independence

Physical Independence Training

Homeland Low Medium High Total
Attachment N % N % N % N %
High 9 41 27 7 32 22 100
Medium 3 33 2 22 4 44 9 100
Low 3 30 1 10 6 60 10 100
Totals 15 37 9 22 17 41 41 100
x2=2.5332 =.63 DF=4 N=41

The data showed a relationship between the two variables.
High homeland attachment (traditionalism) is associated
with low physical independence, since 41 percent of the
mothers who scored low in the independence scale also
scored "high" on the Homeland Attachment Scale. Moreover,
60 percent of those who scored high on the independence
scale, also scored ”low" (non—traditional) on the Homeland
Attachment Scale. Because the cases are few, I further
collapsed the two original scales. The direction of the
relationship held and the significance level improved. See

Table 4-33.

148

Table 4-33

Percent of Mothers' Experience of High and Low Homeland
Attachment and Their Training of Children
in High and Low Physical Independence

Physical Independence

Homeland Low High Total

Attachment N % N % N %
QISE""" 26’"??? I'm}? ‘SIWIBI
Low 4 40 6 60 10 100
$22.11?""'21""33""1777“'ZI"'163

X2=1.8724 p=.17 DF=1 N=4l

2. Homeland Attachment and Emotional Independence

The Emotional Independence Scale was tested with
homeland attachment. It was found that there is a
relationship between the two variables; it was clearer for
those who experienced high homeland attachment than for
those who experienced low homeland attachment. Of those
who are highly attached to their homeland, more tended to
train their children to be emotionally dependent than

independent, but the differences are small, 46 percent as

opposed to 41 percent. Of those who are not highly
attached to their homeland, 40 percent train their children
to be independent and 40 percent train them to be
dependent. In general, I can say that only high homeland
attachment makes a difference in how mothers train their
children in the area of emotional independence. See Table

4-34.

149

Table 4-34

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland Attachment and
Their Training of Children in Emotional Independence

Emotional Independence

Homeland Low Medium High Total

Attachment N % N % N % N %
High 10 46 3 14 9 41 22 101
Medium 3 33 4 44 2 22 9 99
Low 4 40 2 20 4 40 10 100

Totals 17 42 9 22 15 37 41 100

Here again, I went back to the original scales and
further collapsed the categories. The X2 square
significance improved to P=.07.

3. Homeland Attachment and Handling Aggression

The Handling Aggression Scale was tested with the
Homeland Attachment Scale. The results are presented in
Table 4-35. Thirty-two percent of the women who experience
high attachment to homeland, handle aggression in a more
traditional way, while 60 percent of those who experience
low homeland attachment resort to traditional means of
handling aggression. This is opposite to what was
expected, which means that most women, 44 percent of them,
resort to traditional means of handling aggression

regardless of how attached they are to their homeland.

150

Table 4-35

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland Attachment
and Their Handling of Aggression

Handling of Agression

Homeland Low Medium High Total

Attachment N % N % N % N %
High 7 32 11 50 4 18 22 100
Medium 5 56 4 44 0 0 9 100
Low 6 60 2 20 2 20 10 100

Totals 18 44 17 42 6 15 41 100

x2=4.8204 P=.30 DF=4 N=41

4. Homeland Attachment and Punishments and Rewards

The Types of Punishments Scale was tested with the
Homeland Attachment Scale and the results are presented in
Table 4—36. There is no significant relationship between
the two variables. Those who experience high homeland
attachment are divided equally among the low and high ends
of the punishment scale and fifty percent of those who
experience low homeland attachment scored low in the

punishment scale and thirty percent scored high.

Rewards like punishments are an important aspect of
child-rearing, but from the literature there was a strong
indication that they were not frequently used in Middle
Eastern culture. Thus an assumption was made that women
who are highly attached to their homeland would not use a
reward system especially not a non-traditional one.

Non-traditional rewards are emotional/verbal and the

151

Table 4-36

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland Attachment
and the Types of Punishments They Use

Types of Punishments

Traditional Non-traditional
Homeland Low Medium High Totals
Attachment N % N % N % N %
High 7 32 8 36 7 32 22 100
Medium 5 56 1 ll 3 33 9 100
Low 5 50 2 20 2 30 10 100
Totals 17 42 ll 27 13 32 41 100

25;ZEEEE"E;TEE"BELZ"QLZI """"""""""""""""
traditional-type rewards are tangible ones. The data
resulting from testing the Types of Rewards Scale and the
Homeland Attachment Scale are presented in Table 4-37.
The data show that of the women who experience high
homeland attachment, fifty percent resorted to traditional
rewards and 41 percent to medium rewards. The relationship
between the two variables is strong for these women. Of
the women who experience low homeland attachment, fifty
percent scored low on the Types of Rewards Scale and fifty
percent scored medium. Here the relationship between the
two was weaker than it was for the women who are highly
attached to their homeland.
5. Homeland Attachment and Sex-Role Differentiation

Sex-role differentiation in an Arab cultural milieu

was discussed in some detail in the review of the

literature because of its importance in that culture.

152

Table 4-37

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland Attachment
and the Type of Rewards They Use

Types of Rewards

Traditional Non-traditional
Homeland Low Medium High Totals
Attachment N % N % N % N %
High 11 50 9 41 2 9 22 100
Medium 4 44 5 56 0 0 9 100
Low 5 50 5 50 0 0 10 100
Totals 20 49 19 46 2 5 41 100

Females and males are socialized from an early age to
assume polarized roles; those of the females centering
around their homes and those of the males centering on life
outside the home. As a result of this polarization, males
and females are treated differently. From the discussion
of the male-role and female-role scales, a majority of Arab
mothers are persisting in their traditional child-rearing
in this area. A few of them, though, are experiencing a

transition from traditional to non-traditional child—

rearing practices or a mixture of both in this area of
behaviour.

To study whether or not attachment to the home of
origin had an impact on sex-role differentiation the
relavant scales were tested together. The results are

presented in Table 4-38.

153

Table 4-38

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland Attachment
and Female-Sex Roles

Female Roles

Homeland Low Medium High Totals

Attachment N % N % N % N %
High 15 68 7 32 0 0 22 100
Medium 7 78 1 ll 1 ll 9 100
Low 4 40 4 40 2 20 10 100

Totals 26 63 12 29 3 7 41 100

X2=6.6775 p=.15 DF=4 N=4l

The table indicated a strong relationship, especially for
women who experience high attachment, 68 percent. For
those who experience low homeland attachment, the
relationship was weaker. Forty percent of them were
traditional, forty percent of them scored “medium”
traditional, and twenty percent were "non-traditional".
When the medium and high cagegories are considered
together, the relationship between the two variables
improves. Even when the categories are considered
separately, the forty percent of the women who show medium
traditional practices are a good indicator of change.

The same is true for the way the males are treated.
Table 4-39 shows that 55 percent of mothers, who are highly
attached to their homeland, are more traditional regarding
male roles. This was the same percentage for the

female-role scale. Sixty percent of those who experience

154
low homeland attachment were also traditional. Homeland
attachment does not have a strong influence on this scale.
In fact, the mothers here are more traditional in most of
the cells. Some transition exists for those who experience
low homeland attachment, because 40 percent of them scored

medium on the Male-Roles Scale.

Table 4-39

Percent of Mothers' Experience of Homeland Attachment
and Male-Sex Roles

Male Roles
Homeland Low Medium High Totals
Attachment N % N % N % N %
High 12 55 5 23 5 23 22 101
Medium 6 67 3 33 0 0 9 100
Low 6 60 4 40 0 9 10 100
Totals 24 59 12 29 5 12 41 100

x2=5.2492 P=.26 DF=4 =41

In summary, I can conclude from the Homeland
Attachment Scale, that most of the women interviewed

experienced high attachment. The hypothesis that homeland
attachment is related to child-rearing practices was proven

for a few of the practices and not for the rest. Physical
independence training is significantly related to homeland
attachment. The relationship is weaker for the emotional
independence training, for handling aggression, for types
of rewards and punishments, and for the sex roles. The

relationship seemed to hold more for mothers who experience

155

high homeland attachment and not for those who experience
low attachment. In all the above tested scales, quite a
few of the mothers are experiencing some transition from
more traditional to less traditional means of treating
their children. This is consistent with the data
description.

B. Mass Media Exposure and Child-Rearing Practices

It was assumed that the Arab mothers would experience
exposure to the values of the American society through the
mass media and that exposure would be associated with an
increased orientation towards values prevalent in America.
Mass media exposure is a variable that is considered
important in the process of assimilation (Gordon, 1964;
Greeley, 1974).

A few questions were posed to the mothers regarding
their use of the mass media. The questions were the
following:

1. do you watch television? what are your

favorite programs?

2. do you listen to the radio? what programs

do you listen to?

3. do you read magazines? what kind?

A scale of mass media exposure was created based on
the responses to the above questions. The resultant scale
has only "high" and "low" categories. The ”low" category
signifies little exposure to the American culture through

the mass media and the "high" category signifies high

exposure. Those women who experienced low exposure to the

156
host culture were assumed to cling to Arab cultural values
in raising children. Those who experienced high exposure
were assumed to adopt values predominant in the American

culture. The scale is shown in Table 4-40.

Table 4-40

Mass Media Exposure Scale

Low ngh Totals
N = 29 12 41
% = 71 29 101

The scale shows that 71 percent of the women fell on the
lower end of the scale. This means that they are more
traditional in their use of the mass media. For example,
even thouth 60 percent of the mothers said they listened to
the radio, an overwhelming majority of them, 80 percent,
listened to the Arabic programme. These types of responses
were coded as "traditional". The same thing occurred with

the reading of magazines. Sixty percent of those who read

magazines said they read Arabic ones. The television was
the major means of exposure to the American culture. The
women watched soap operas, Dallas, Dynasty, and talk shows.
Only a few, twelve percent, watched the Arabic programme.
The women seemed to watch television a lot. During all my

interviews, the television would be on no matter what time

157
of day it was. The children watched also and told the
mothers what was going on.

The Mass Media Exposure Scale was tested with
child-rearing practices for the purpose of proving or
disproving the hypothesis that the higher the exposure to
the host society through the mass media, the less

traditional the child—rearing practices would be.

1. Mass Media Exposure and Physical Independence

The data show that 45 percent of the mothers who
experienced low mass media exposure, also scored low on the
Physical Independence Scale. Of those who experienced high
mass media exposure, forty-two percent resorted to
non-traditional training in this area. The statistical
significance improved considerably when I used the original
scale which ranged from one to five. See Tables 4-41 and
4-42.

Table 4-42 shows that the relationship between the two
variables is statistically significant at the .02 level.
The general direction of the relationship was positive so
that the lower the exposure, the lower the physical
independence training, and the higher the exposure, the
higher the physical independence training. Moreover, the
rank-order correlation between the two variables was also
positive, .27, and to be significant at the .05 level, it

should have been 0.30.

158

Table 4-41

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure
and Their Training of Children in Physical Independence
as Measured on the Collapsed Scale

Mass Physical Independence Training

Media Low Medium High Total

Exposure N % N % N % N %
Low 13 45 4 14 12 41 29 100
High 2 17 5 42 5 42 12 100
High 15 37 9 22 17 42 41 100

X2=4.84 P=.08 DF=2 N=4l

Table 4-42

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure
and Their Training of Children in Physical Independence
as Measured on the Full Scale

Mass Physical Independence Training

Media 1 2 3 4 5 Total
Exposure N % N % N % N % N % N %
Low 9 31 4 l4 4 l4 9 31 3 10 29 100
High 0 0 2 l7 4 42 1 8 4 33 12 100

x2=11.197 P=.02 DF=4 N=41

159
2. Mass Media Exposure and Emotional Independence
The data in Table 4-43 shows some relationship between
mass media exposure and how mothers train their children in
the area of emotional independence. The relationship is

not very strong.

Table 4-43

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and Their
Training of Children in Emotional Independence

Mass Emotional Independence Training
Media Low Medium High Total
Exposure N % N % N % N %
Low 10 35 9 31 10 35 29 100
High 7 58 0 0 5 42 12 100
Totals 17 42 9 22 15 37 41 100

x2=5.ooa P=.08 DF=2 N=41

For those who had low mass media exposure, 35 percent of
them train their children to be emotionally dependent and
35 percent of them train them to be independent also. For
those who had high mass media exposure, forty-two percent,
scored high on emotional independence. This shows that
mass media exposure is having an influence in at least 42

percent of the cases.

3. Mass Media Exposure and Handling Aggression
The handling aggression scale was tested with mass

media exposure. The results are presented in Table 4-44.

160

Table 4-44

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and the Handling
of Aggression Expressed by Their Children

Mass Handling of Agression

Media Low Medium High Total

Exposure N % N % N % N %
Low 14 48 11 38 4 14 29 100
High 4 33 6 50 2 17 12 100

Totals 18 44 17 41 6 15 41 100

x2=o.7777 P=.67 DF=2 N=4l

The table shows a relationship between the two variables.
Forty-eight percent of those who have low exposure through
the mass media are more traditional in handling aggression,
and those who have high mass media exposure use medium
traditional means of handling aggression. Those fifty
percent certainly indicate a transition as a result of high
exposure to the society through mass media.

4. Mass Media Exposure and Rewards and Punishments

The Mass Media Exposure Scale and the Types of Rewards

Scale were tested together. See Table 4-45 for the
results. The data in the table show that the relationship

between the two variables is close to being statistically
significant, but the direction is opposite to what was
expected. Low exposure to the mass media was associated
with non-traditional types of rewards, and high exposure to

the mass media was associated with more traditional

161
rewards. The reason that contributes to such findings is

the classification of the rewards.

Table 4—45

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and Types
of Rewards They Use

Mass Types of Rewards

Media Low Medium High Total

Exposure N % N % N % N %
Low 14 48 15 52 0 0 19 100
High 6 50 4 33 2 17 12 100

Totals 20 49 19 46 2 5 41 100

X2=5.4580 P=.06 DF=2 N=41

Traditional rewards included tangible ones and
non-traditional rewards included emotional ones. By
watching television and being exposed to the American value
of consumerism, the mothers, who would traditionally use
tangible rewards such as food, are being reinforced in
their behaviour and, as a result, are widening their
rewards to include other tangible ones such as toys. So
the "low" category is one where Arab mothers are
experiencing an overlap between their reward system and
that of the American culture.

No relationship between types of punishments and mass
media exposure exists. Exposure through the mass media
does not have an influence on how mothers punish their

children. See Table 4-46.

162

Table 4-46

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and the
Types of Punishments They Use

Mass Types of Punishments

Media Low Medium High Total

Exposure N % N % N % N %
Low 10 35 9 31 10 35 29 100
High 7 58 2 17 3 25 12 100

Totals 17 42 ll 27 13 32 41 100

X2=2.058 P=.35 DF=2 N=4l

5. Mass Media Exposure and Sex-Role Differentiation

Being exposed to American values through the use of
the mass media was assumed to influence the way Arab
mothers raise their male and female children. The
assumption is that the higher the exposure the more the
orientation to American values.

The Mass Media Exposure Scale was tested with the
Female-Roles and Male-Roles Scales. See Tables 4-47 and
4-48 respectively. The relationships between the variables

are not statistically significant, indicating that exposure

to the host society through the mass media does not
influence how mothers raise their boys and girls. The
majority resort to values predominant in the Arab culture.
In summary, the Arab mothers are generally persisting
in their traditional child-rearing practices. Their use of

the mass media is producing some changes in the training of

163

Table 4-47

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and Female Roles

Mass Female Roles

Media Low Medium High Total

Exposure N % N % N % N %
Low 15 52 12 41 2 7 29 100
High 7 58 4 33 1 8 12 99

Totals 22 54 16 39 3 7 41 100

X2=0.2338 P=.88 DF=4 N=4l

Table 4-48

Percent of Mothers' Mass Media Exposure and Male Roles

Mass Male Roles

Media Low Medium High Total

Exposure N % N % N % N %
Low 17 59 9 31 3 10 29 100
High 7 58 3 25 2 17 12 100

Totals 24 59 12 29 5 12 41 100

X2=0.3838 P=.82 DF=2 N=41

164
their children to be physically independent and to a lesser
degree in how they handle aggression expressed by their
children. This could also be said about types of rewards
because there was some overlap between Arab and American
values in that respect. But the use of the mass media does
not correlate with the way Arab mothers raise their
children as far as types of punishment, emotional

independence training and sex-role differentiation.

C. Ethnic Participation and Child-Rearing Practices

A variable that was hypothesized to influence
child-rearing practices was participation in the ethnic
community. The hypothesis was that the higher the rate of
participation in the ethnic community, the more traditional
the child practices. Since membership in ethnic
organizations, such as social clubs, is not acceptable for
females in that culture, the question I asked regarding
that is not a good indicator. In fact, only one woman
belonged to a mothers' club. The social clubs that exist
in the Southend have only male membership. From my

interviews, I concluded there were no social clubs in the
Northeast community.

For the above reason, other indicators were used to
measure the variable of participation in the ethnic
community. These indicators were the following:

1. would you like to move to a different

neighborhood? Why? Why not?

2. do you speak English?
3. do you read and write English?

165

4. what language do you speak at home?

5. what are your sources of information?
(This question refers to sources of
information regarding the ways American
mothers raise their children.)

6. what American ways would you like your

children to adopt?
7. whom do you spend time with as a family?

A scale was created from the responses to these
questions, following the same procedure used for the other
scales. The "high" end of the scale includes responses
indicating a persistence in traditional Arab culture and
high ethnic participation. The category was termed
"traditional". The "low" end of the scale included
responses indicating low ethnic participation, an
orientation towards the American culture and a move away
from traditionalism.

The scale that was created is presented in Table 4-49.
Then the scale was collapsed into "low”, "medium", and
"high” categories. The collapsed scale is shown in Table
4-50. The scale was then tested with each of the

designated child-rearing practices.

Table 4-49

Ethnic Participation Scale

166

Table 4-50

Collapsed Ethnic Participation Scale

High Medium Low Totals
N = 20 8 13 41
% = 49 19 32 100

1. Ethnic Participation and Physical Independence
There is a definite relationship between the two
variables so that high ethnic participation and low
physical independence are related, and low ethnic
participation is related to high physical independence. In
Table 4‘51, the X2 is not statistically significant.
When the categories on the physical scale were further
collapsed the X2 became significant at the .02 level.
See Table 4-52.
2. Ethnic Participation and Emotional Independence
This testing shows that participation in the ethnic
community and emotional independence are negatively

related. See Table 4-53. High ethnic participation is

related to high emotional independence training and low
ethnic participation is related to low emotional
independence. The results are the opposite of what the

relationship was assumed to be. Moreover, the rank-order

correlation was also negative.

167

Table 4—51

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic Participation and Their
Training of Children in Physical Independence

Ethnic Physical Independence Training
Participa- Low Medium High Total
tion N % N % N % N %
High 9 45 4 20 7 35 20 100
Medium 4 50 3 38 l 13 8 101
Low 2 15 2 15 9 69 13 99
Totals 15 37 9 22 17 42 41 100
X2=7.7863 p=.09 DF=4 N=4l
Table 4—52

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic Participation and Their Training
of Children in High and Low Physical Independence

Ethnic Low High Total

Participation N % N % N %
High 13 6S 7 35 20 100
Medium 7 88 1 13 8 101
Low 4 31 9 69 13 100

Totals 24 59 17 42 41 101

x2=7.239o =.02 DF=2 N=4l

168

Table 4-53

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic Participation and Their Training
of Children in Emotional Independence

Ethnic Emotional Independence Training
Participa- Low Medium High Total
tion N % N % N % N %
High 7 35 5 25 8 40 20 100
Medium 3 38 2 25 3 38 8 101
Low 7 54 2 15 4 31 13 100
Totals 17 42 9 22 15 37 41 100

x2=1.2723 P=.86 DF=4 N=41

The significance of this finding may be that ethnic
participation is not relevant to emotional independence
training. Other factors may be contributing to the
negative relationship. Moreover, it could be that these
mothers feel secure in living in the ethnic community and
thus do not train their children to be emotionally
dependent.

3. Ethnic Participation and Handling Aggression

There is some relationship between ethnic

participation and the way mothers handle aggression. See
Table 4-54. Sixty percent of the women who experience high
ethnic participation handled aggression in a more
traditional manner. For those who experience low ethnic
participation, 46 percent scored medium on the handling
aggression scale and 23 percent scored high. The

relationship between the two variables varies in the

169

Table 4-54

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic Participation and Handling of
Aggression Expressed by Their Children

Ethnic Handling of Agression

Participa- Low Medium High Total

tion N % N % N % N %
High 12 60 5 25 3 15 20 100
Medium 2 25 6 75 0 0 8 100
Low 4 31 6 46 3 23 13 100

Totals 18 44 17 42 6 15 41 101

$32323";13"BE;2"§;ZI """""""""""""""""""
expected direction, but is not as strong since a large
percentage of the women resort to "medium" rather than to
non-traditional ways of handling aggression. It is
interesting to note that seventy-five percent of the women
who experience ”medium" ethnic participation, also
practiced "medium" modern ways of handling aggression.

4. Ethnic Participation and Types of Rewards
and Punishments

Testing types of rewards and ethnic participation
showed that a relationship exists between the two
variables. See Table 4-55. Fifty-five percent of those
who experienced high ethnic participation resort to
traditional means of rewarding behaviour. For those that
have low ethnic participation 46 percent reward it in a
"medium" way; adding the high category to the medium, one
strengthens the relationship. In this way, 54 percent of
the women who experience low ethnic participation also

score high on the rewards scale.

170

Table 4-55

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic Participation and the Types of
Rewards They Use

Types of Rewards

Ethnic Traditional Non-Traditional
Participa- Low Medium High Total
tion N % N % N % N %
High 11 55 9 45 0 00 20 100
Medium 3 38 4 50 1 13 8 100
Low 6 46 6 46 l 8 13 100
Totals 20 49 19 46 2 5 41 100

X2=2.556l P=.63 DF=4 N=4l

Participating in the ethnic community also has an
influence on what types of punishments mothers resort to.
See Table 4-56. Forty percent of those who experience high
ethnic participation resort to traditional means of
punishment, while 39 percent of those who experience low
ethnic participation resort to non-traditional means of
punishment. The influence though is not very strong, since

35 percent of the mothers of high ethnic participation
resort to non-traditional punishments and 39 percent of

them who have low ethnic participation resort to
traditional types also. Despite that, a trend of change
from more traditional types of punishments to

non-traditional ones is evident depending on lower ethnic

participation.

171

Table 4-56

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic Participation and the Types
of Punishments They Use

Types of Punishments

Ethnic Traditional Non—Traditional
Participa- Low Medium High Total
tion N % N % N % N %
High 8 40 5 25 7 35 20 100
Medium 5 63 2 25 1 13 8 101
Low 4 31 4 31 5 39 13 101
Totals 17 42 11 27 13 32 41 101

x2=2.5191 P=.64 DF=4 N=41

5. Ethnic Participation and Sex-Role Differentials

Participation in the ethnic community does not seem to
have an influence on sex—role differentiation. For male
roles, see Table 4-57. Most of the mothers are traditional
whether or not they have high or low ethnic participation.

Participation in the ethnic community does not have an
impact on the female roles either. See Table 4-58. Most
mothers are traditional whether they have high or low
ethnic participation. Seventy percent of them experience
high ethnic participation and were traditional regarding
female roles, and 54 percent experience low ethnic
participation and are also traditional regarding female
roles. The relationship holds only for those who

experience high ethnic participation.

172

Table 4—57

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic Participation and Male-Roles

Ethnic
Participa-
tion
High
Medium
Low

Total
N %
20 100
8 100
13 100
41 100

Low
N %
12 60
4 50
8 62
24 56
P=.95 DF=4

Male Roles
Medium High
N % N %
6 30 2 10
3 38 1 13
3 23 2 15
12 29 5 12
N=41
Table 4-58

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic Participation and Female-Roles

Female Roles

Ethnic
Participa-
tion

High

N %
l 5
l 13
l 8
3 7

Total
N %
20 100
8 100
13 100
41 100

X2=1.3l8l

Low
N %
14 70
5 63
7 54
26 63
P=.85 DF=4

Medium

N %

5 25

2 25

5 39

12 29
N=4l

173

Table 4-59 below collapses the two original sex-role

scales further and provides a comparison.

Table 4-59

Percent of Mothers' Ethnic Participation
and Female and Male Roles

Ethnic Female Roles Male Roles
Partici- Low High Total Low High Total
pation N % N % N % N % N % N %
High 14 70 6 30 20 100 12 60 8 40 20 100
Medium 5 63 3 38 8 100 4 50 4 50 8 100
Low 7 54 6 46 13 100 8 62 5 39 13 100
Totals 26 63 15 37 41 100 24 59 14 42 41 100
X2=0.8897 P=.64 X2=0.3061 P=.85

For those women who experience high ethnic
participation, 70 percent are traditional on the
female-role scale, while only 60 percent are traditional on
the male-role scale. In both cases, high ethnic
participation is strongly related to traditionalism. For
those who experience low ethnic participation, the
relationships to traditionalism or non-traditionalism on
the sex-role scales exist, but it is a weak one. Forty-six
percent of the women scored high on the female-role scale
and 39 percent of them scored high on the male-role scale.
It is interesting that low ethnic participation is having
more of an influence on the mothers regarding female roles

than male roles.

174
D. Host Interaction and Child-Rearing Practices

In the original design of this study, an independent
variable that was assumed to have great influence on
child—rearing was participation in the organizational and
institutional structure of the host society. The stated
hypothesis was that the higher the participation in the
host society the less traditional the child-rearing
practices would be and thus the more ethnic change.
Participation was assumed to introduce the women to
American values regarding areas of behaviour such as
child-rearing.

To be able to measure actual participation in the host
society two questions were posed to the mothers. The first
one had to do with employment outside the home. None of
these mothers are presently employed. Only three of them
had been employed before marriage but not in this country.
Therefore, this question is not a good indicator of
societal participation. What the answers to the question
do indicate is that these women do not participate in the

host society through employment.

The second question dealt with membership in
organizations or institutions. In general, the women were
uneasy about answering this question. I believe the
reasons may have had to do with the translation of the
question and the political background of the subjects. The
word for "organizational membership" in Arabic may have

implied political activity and they were apprehensive about

175
that. A large number of families have come from areas of
political upheaval. A number of the mothers were quick to
answer "no" to the question before I even finished asking
it. In any event only one of the mothers belonged to a
"Mothers'" club. Based on my personal communications, I
tend to think that this club is mostly made up of Arab
mothers. Another woman said that she presently did not
belong to any group which suggested to me that she might
have at sometime and still another said that she had served
on the school advisory board. Five of the women who said
they did not belong to anything added that the reason they
didn't was because they did not have time for that sort of
thing; they had too much to do at home. Even though this
question also did not generate much data the responses
indicate a definite lack of societal participation.

Even though husbands are not included in this study as
respondents it is interesting here to describe their
participation as perceived by their wives. Only one woman
said her husband belonged to the auto workers union even
though more of them probably do since they work at the Ford
Rouge Plant. One of the husbands belonged to a sports
club, another belonged to the school advisory board, two
belonged to a Muslim religious group, six belonged to a
national social/charity clubs and one belonged to a
"library” (I think that meant a book club, but I am not
sure). The men are more active than the women but only a

small portion of them (34 percent) belong to anything at

176
all. Those who are active belong mostly to ethnic
organizations.

Because the above questions generated little data in
societal participation, the variable could not be used for
testing hypetheses. Since the women interacted with the
host society directly, such as through the public schools,
or indirectly, by being observants of it, I decided to use
interaction as a variable instead of participation. The
hypothesis then was changed to the following: the higher
the interaction with the host society the less traditional
the child-rearing practices would be.

Since the variable societal "interaction" was created
after the data collection was completed, its indicators
were not pre-planned. A decision was made on what
questions would contribute to the above variable. The
questions chosen were the following:

1. do you think that the American system of

education has a good or bad influence on
the development of a ild? Please explain.

2. do you speak English;*

3. do you read English?

4. what are your sources of information? (This

question refers to sources of information

regarding the ways American mothers raise
their children).

5. what American ways*¥ould you like your
children to adopt?

 

*This question was divided into "good" and "bad",

thus resulting in two variables.

**These questions were also used in the Ethnic
Participation scale. But, as in that scale,
only the responses relevant to the variable were
considered.

177

6. what do you think of the way American mothers

raise their children? (The responses here
were divided into "positive" and "negative"
and this this question was considered as two
variables).

7. do you cook American food?

8. do you go out to eat at restaurants?

Even though the mothers did not participate in the
host society actively, they interacted with it especially
through the public school system. All the mothers that
were interviewed had children in school. For a number of
these women the schools were the only means of contact they
had with the host society since they lived mostly in an
ethnic community. Others interacted with the society
through such activities as shopping and going to doctors'
offices. The mothers mentioned the above activities on
their own; they were not specifically asked about them.

The question dealing with the school was posed to the
mothers in this manner: "Do you think that the American
system of education has a good or bad influence on the
development of the child? Please explain." During the
interviews a number of probes were used in connection with
this question in an effort to explain it. The women were
having trouble understanding it. Despite the probes eight
of the women could not answer it at all. The reasons could
have been lack of understanding or lack of ease. As one
woman told me, ”this is their (Americans) country and their

educational system; we do not have the right to criticize

them”. Four other women responded by saying that the

178
educational system was good but they could not explain why
they thought so or give reasons. This means that the
following analysis was based on the responses of only
thirty-three women (29 of them who had specific responses
and the four who had no explanations for their responses).
Almost 49 percent of the women thought the educational
system was good here because the level of learning, or
acquiring knowledge, was high and the language development
was good. Even though these responses were positive, they
had little to do with how the system affects the
development of the children. Five of them, 15 percent,
were impressed with the way teachers here interacted with
their children. They mentioned how American teachers
allowed their children to express their opinions, learn at
their own rate and enjoy a little freedom. As one of the
mothers reported, "my son is comfortable at school here; he
is not pushed“. The mothers compared the teachers here to
the teachers in their home countries. There, the children
were passive learners; they were expected to receive

information from teachers and not give opinions. Every

child was also expected to work at the rate set by the
teachers and the school. Moreover, children in Arab
schools were not given any freedom but were taught to
comply without questioning. Here the teachers give and
take with the children. The mothers thought that had a
good influence on the development of their children.

Of the thirty—three women who responded, almost 40

179
percent, 13 women, responded negatively regarding the
educational system. Their concerns were that boys and
girls were going to school together, that the children were
given too much freedom, and that there was lack of
discipline and respect for elders. Three of the mothers
did not like the environment of the school because they
taught children that they were the center of everything,
because of widespread use of hashish and drugs and because
they taught them mature things. The latter response
referred to a film about menstruation that was shown at the
school.

Another question that was posed to the mothers had to
do with what they thought of the way American mothers
raised their children. The responses to this question were
assumed to be a result of observation and thus were
considered as part of the "interaction” variable. Arab
mothers thought that American mothers had a good
realtionship with their children. They oserved that
American mothers were patient with their children and took
time to explain things to them rather than hit them and
thus American children listened to their mothers. Some of
the Arab mothers, though, said that was only true when the
children were young.

Arab mothers also thought that there were serious
problems with the way Americans raised their children. All
the problems stemmed from the amount of freedom American

children were given. More specifically, 75 percent of the

180
Arab mothers said Americans were lenient with their
children, gave them too much freedom, left them on the
street too long and did not check up on them. The amount
of freedom was mentioned again when mothers were asked what
difficulties they were facing in raising their own children
here. A majority of Arab mothers expressed concern.
Fifty-four percent of them said that they found raising
children here to be more difficult than raising them in
their home country. Of the 54 percent, 41 percent saw the
environment and American friends as major difficulties.

It was clear that the Arab mothers were concerned
about living here when it came to raising children. They
were afraid of what went on in the school- hashish,
individualism, coed, mature subjects and lack of
discipline. They were concerned about the freedom American
children enjoyed and how that could influence their own
children. This was expressed strongly when mothers were
asked if there were American ways (values) they liked their
children to adopt. Forty-six percent of the mothers did

not want their children to adopt anything from this

society. Of those who said yes, 50 percent (that is 25
percent of the total number of women) wanted their children
to learn good English, 15 percent wanted their children to
be good at sports, 10 percent to be independent and 5
percent to learn to obey the law. 80 very few in reality
wanted their children to adopt American values.

Other indicators of "interaction" were whether or not

181
the mothers cooked American foods, went out to eat and
spoke English. Thirty-nine percent said that they cooked
American food; mostly hamburgers and spaghetti. A majority
of them said that they went out to eat but mostly at fast
food resturants. Some mothers said that usually the
fathers took the children out while they stayed at home.
Only 39 percent of the mothers spoke English which limited
interaction with society. The rest either spoke no English
or knew a few words to get by.

A scale of host interaction was created using the
questions listed above. The scale was created following
the same procedure for all the other scales. The scale is
shown in Table 4-60. Then the scale was collapsed into
three categories "low", "medium" and "high" interaction as

shown in Table 4-61.

Table 4—60

Host Interaction Scale

N = 3 6 8 6 7 9 2 41
% = 7 15 20 15 17 22 5 101
Table 4-61

Collapsed Host Interaction Scale

182

The "low" category referred to women who tended to maintain
their culture by having little interaction with the host
society. The "high" category included women, who because
of high interaction with the society, were learning about
the American values. These were referred to as
non-traditional and the former were referred to as
traditional. The above scale showed that the women were
almost equally divided among the low and high categories.

The scale was tested with all aspects of child-rearing
designated for this research:

1. Host Interaction and Physical Independence

Whether or not Arab women trained their children to be

physically independent was related to their host

interaction as shown in Table 4-62.

Table 4-62

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and Their Training
of Children in Physical Independence

Physical Independence Training

Host Low Medium High Total
Interaction N % N % N % N %
Low 8 47 3 18 6 35 17 100
Medium 2 33 0 0 4 67 6 100
High 5 28 6 33 7 39 18 100
Totals 15 37 9 22 17 41 41 100
X2=4.5356 =.33 DF=4 N=4l

A large percentage of mothers, 47 percent, who

experienced low host interaction were also low on physical

183

independence training, and 39 percent of them who
experienced high host interaction were also high on
physical independence. The significance level improved to
P=.16 (maximum likelihood, P=.07) when I tested host
interaction with the original phsysical independece
training scale.

2. Host Interaction and Emotional Independence

Interaction with the host society has no influence on
emotional independence training. The mothers were divided
almost equally among the high and the low categories of the
independence scale and that was also true for the high and
the low categories of the host interaction scale.

3. Host Interaction and Handling Aggression

Table 4-63

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and Handling
Aggression Expressed by Their Children

Handling of Agression

Host Low Medium High Total

Interaction N % N % N % N %
Low 8 47 6 35 3 18 17 100
Medium 3 50 3 50 0 0 6 100
High 7 39 8 44 3 17 18 100

Totals 18 44 17 42 6 15 41 100

X2=1.5268 P=.82 DF=4 N=4l

The relationship between interaction and handling
aggression exists, as shown in Table 4-63, but it is

stronger for those who have low interaction than for those

184
who have high interaction. Forty-seven percent of the
women have low interaction and resort to traditional means
of handling aggression. Looking at the totals, those who
have interaction with the host society, 44 percent, were
traditional in handling aggression and 42 percent used
medium means. This was a good indicator of some change due
to interaction with the host society.

4. Host Interaction and Types of Rewards
and Punishments

Table 4-64

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and
the Types of Rewards They Use

Types of Rewards

Host Low Medium High Total

Interaction N % N % N % N %
Low 6 35 ll 65 0 0 17 100
Medium 3 50 3 50 0 0 6 100
High 11 61 5 28 2 ll 18 100

Totals 20 49 19 46 2 5 41 100

X2=6.3453 p=.17 DF=4 N=41

The table above shows that a reverse relationship
exists between the two variables so that high interaction

with the host society is associated with the more
traditional practices and low host interaction is
associated with "medium" practices. Moreover, the
correlation matrix and rho were both negative for these two
variables. This is significant when the classification of

rewards is kept in mind. The use of traditional-type

185
rewards, tangible ones, is reinforced with higher
interaction with the society.
As for the types of punishments, interaction with the
host society is not crucial. The relationship between the
two variables is only strong for those who have low host

interaction. See Table 4—65 below.

Table 4-65

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and Types of
Punishments They Use

Types of Punishments

Host Low Medium High Total

Interaction N % N % N % N %
Low 10 59 2 12 5 29 17 100
Medium 2 33 l 17 3 50 6 100
High 11 61 2 11 5 28 18 100

Totals 23 56 5 12 13 32 41 100

x2=1.5249 P=.82 DF=4 N=41
4. Host Interaction and Sex Roles

Interaction with the host society was also assumed to
influence the way the women bring up their children as far
as sex-role differentiation was concerned. The assumption
was that if the women interacted with the host society,
then their practices would tend to be more compatible with
those of the host society. The data support the above, but
only to some degree. See Tables 4-66 and 4-67.

The data show that low interaction is associated with
clinging to Arab traditional sex-role differentiation.

This is more so for the female roles than for the male

186

Table 4-66

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and Male Roles

Male Roles
Host Low Medium High Total
Interaction N % N % N % N %
Low 10 59 5 29 2 12 17 100
Medium 4 67 l 17 l 17 6 100
High 10 56 6 33 2 11 18 100
Totals 24 56 12 29 5 12 41 100

Table 4-67

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction and Female Roles

Host Low Medium High Total

Interaction N % N % N % N %
Low 12 71 3 18 2 12 17 100
Medium 2 33 3 50 1 l7 6 100
High 12 67 6 33 0 0 18 100

Totals 24 63 12 29 3 7 41 100

187
roles, 71 percent as opposed to 59 percent. For those that
have high interaction, their perception of roles is still
more traditional for female roles than for male roles, 67
percent and 56 percent respectively. A little change was
apparent here. Thirty-three percent of the women are
experiencing "medium” (mixed) sex-role perceptions. This
is true for female and male roles. The change is more for
male roles because a few mothers, 12 percent, are showing
"high" (non-traditional) sex-role perception for the males.
Statistically, the relationship between the variables is
not significant.

The relationship between host interaction and female
roles is statistically significant when I controlled for
the level of education of the mothers. This is true only
for those who had no education or very little education.
This is a significant finding in that host interaction has
a significant influence only on the women who are not
educated. See Table 4-68.

The educational level of the mothers did not have any
influence on the significance of the relationship between
host interaction and male roles.

A number of other variables were also tested with
child—rearing practices. These variables were the
following: level of mothers' education, length of
residency here, whom the family spends time with, and
sources of happiness or unhappiness. The testing will be

discussed briefly in this section.

188

Table 4-68

Percent of Mothers' Host Interaction , Their Level of
Education and Female Roles

Interaction Female Roles
With
Education Host Low Medium High Total
Society N % N % N s N % x2
Low 12 86 1 7 7 14 100 9.79*
Low Medium 1 50 l 50 0 0 2 100
High 0 0 2 100 0 0 2 100
Low 0 0 2 67 1 33 3 100 7.46

189

E. Level of Mothers' Education and Child-Rearing
Practices

In general, the mothers that were selected for this
study had a low level of education. I collapsed the nine
categories of education into "low", "medium", "high". The
low category included those who had no education, had some
elementary education, and the one woman who had some
Quranic education (religious education). The medium
category included women who finished their elementary
education and those who had a Brevet (equivalent to ninth
grade education). The high category included those who
finished high school, those who had second baccalaureate
(equivalent to the first year of university education) and
the one woman who had some university education. The

results are shown in Table 4-69.

Table 4-69

Mothers' Level of Education

Low Medium High Totals
N = 18 16 7 41
% = 44 39 17 100

This data was tested with each of the child-rearing
practices designated in this study. The testing showed
that level of education is significantly related to how
mothers handled aggression and what types of rewards they

used. See a summary in Table 4—70.

190

Table 4-70

Summary of Results of Testing Child-Rearing Practices and
Mothers' Level of Education

Child-Rearing Practices X P
1. Physical Independence 3.2997 .50
2. Emotional Independence 0.9128 .92*
3. Handling Aggression 8.6948 .06
4. Types of Punishments 7.5125 .11**
5. Types of Rewards 10.350 .03
6. Female Roles 2.5980 .62
7. Male Roles 0.3186 .98

'k
This is close to a .05 level of significance.

**
P<.05

Even though most of the above relationships are not
statistically signigicant, they still exist between
educational level and some of the child-rearing variables.
First, level of education and physical independence
training show a relationship; especially for those who have
a high level of education. See Table 4—71.

Forty-three percent of the women who are highly
educated also scored high on the independence scale and 43
percent of them scored medium. For those who have low
education, the relationship is weaker since 39 percent of
the women scored low on the independence scale and 39
percent score high. Second, level of education is related

to handling aggression. See Table 4-72.

191

Table 4-71

Percent of Mothers' Level and Education and Their Training

of Children in Physical Independence

Physical Independence Training

Levels of
Education

Low
Medium
High

High
N %
7 39
7 44
3 43
17 42

Total
N %
18 100
16 100
7 100
41 101

X2=3.2997

Percent of Mothers'

Low
N %
7 39
7 44
1 14
15 37
P—.50 DF=

Medium
N %
4 22
2 l3
3 43
9 22
4 N=4l
Table 4—72

Handling of Aggression

Level of Education and Their

Handling of Agression

Level of
Education

Low
N %
12 67
4 25
2 29
18 44

Medium
N %
3 17
10 63
4 57
17 42

High
N %
3 l7
2 13
1 14
6 15

Total
N %
18 100
16 100
7 100
41 100

X2=8.6948

192

Most of the mothers, 67 percent, who have little education,
also use more traditional means of handling aggression.
For those who have a high education, a large percentage of
the mothers. 71 percent, resort to "medium" or
non-traditional means of handling aggression.

Third, level of education is related to types of
punishments. Those who have low education resort to more
non-traditional means of punishments. See Table 4-73

below.

Table 4-73

Percent of Mothers' Level of Education and Types of
Punishments They Use

Types of Punishments

Level of Low Medium High Total
Education N % N % N % N %
Low 10 56 2 11 6 33 18 100
Medium 12 75 1 6 3 19 16 100
High 1 14 2 29 4 57 7 100
Totals 23 56 5 12 13 32 41 100
x2=7.5125 =.11 DF=4 N=4l

Fourth, even though level of education and types of

rewards are related significantly, their relationship is
negative. Women who have low education resort equally to
traditional and non-traditional means of rewards and those
who have high education also resort to traditional means of
rewards. Here again, traditional rewards are tangible ones

and most of the mothers used them.

193
F. Length of Residency and Child-Rearing Practices
As was discussed earlier, most of the mothers have not
been here very long. A majority, 81 percent, have been
here between five and fourteen years, 12 percent have been
here for less than five years and seven percent have lived
here for more than 14 years. Only one of the women who
were interviewed was born here. When length of residency
was tested with each of the child-rearing practices, no
significant relationships were found. Moreover, most of
the mothers, regardless of how long they have lived here,
tended to hold on to Arab cultural values in their
child—rearing. Some changes were detected, but they were
not related to length of residency. One exception was in
the area of physical independence training. Forty-one
percent of the mothers who have been here for five to ten
years, scored high on the independence scale and 50 percent
of those who have been here for ten to fifteen years,
scored high on that scale. There are no strong
relationships for those who have been here less than five

years or more than 15 years.

G. How the Family Spends Its Time and Child-Rearing
Practices

The women were asked whom they spend time with as a
family; especially visiting, parties, and exchanging gifts.
None of the families spent time with non-Arabs. See Table

4-74.

194

Table 4-74

Percent of Arab Families and
Whom They Spend Time With

Arab
Friends
Arab and
Relatives 'Friends Relatives Totals
N = 19 6 16 41
% = 46 15 39 100

This information was tested with child-rearing practices.
Here again, there are no significant relationships except
for female roles. The relationship between whom the family
spends time with and how mothers perceive female roles is
significant, P<.01 (P=.004); they persist in traditionalism
when they spend most of their time with family but tend to
experience certain changes when they spend more time with

friends.

H. Sources of Happiness and Unhappiness and Child-
Rearing Practices

When asked as to whether or not they were happy here,

the mothers gave reasons for being happy and unhappy. This
question was open-ended and generated a lot of information.
I classified the sources of happiness and unhappiness as
being society-related or family-related. Examples of the
former would be: "I am happy here because my husband has a

job"; "I am happy because life is easy and comfortable"; I

195

am unhappy here because our traditions are different"; "I
am unhappy because I worry about the children in the school
environment"; and so on. Examples of the latter are: "I
am happy because my family and relatives are here; "I am
unhappy because I am away from my people and my country";
"I am unhappy because we feel like strangers here"; and so
on.

There were no significant relationships between
sources of unhappiness and most of the child-rearing
practices.

As for sources of happiness, they are significantly
related to physical independence training, P<.05, types of
rewards, P<.05, and female roles, P<.05.

In Chapter Five, the findings presented in this
chapter are discussed and related to findings of other
studies. They are also discussed in relation to the

theoretical framework created for this study.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS

The guiding theoretical models for the present study
provide important assumptions. First, Arab immigrants have
become a subsection of this society through migration. The
culture they have brought with them is different than the
American culture in many respects such as religion,
language, life styles, and family structure. These basic
differences generate conflicts over values, especially
those associated with the socialization of children.
Second, as a result of conflict, the immigrants became
involved in a persistence-change process; either they
experience change in child-rearing practices as a result of
interacting with the American culture or they persist in
the practices they brought with them. The central focus of
the present research was to assess change and persistence
in ethnic patterns of child-rearing.

The data for the research were collected through a
formal interview with a randomly-selected sample of
mothers, personal interviews with concerned individuals in
the ethnic community and some participant observations of
child-mother interactions. The questions for the interview
schedule were constructed from previous studies on that

196

197
topic, from the literature review and from my personal
experiences in the Arab culture.

The findings from the analysis of the data form the
basis for the coming sections. The findings are
summarized, discussed in comparison to other studies and
explained in light of the theoretical models utilized in

this study.

I. Family Organization

A. Decision—Making in the Home

The present research indicates that a shift from a
traditionally authoritarian family structure to a more
equalitarian one is evident. The mothers here assume more
responsibility in the areas of house expenses, discipline
of children, children's clothing and their own. They share
with their husbands decision-making in areas such as where
to live, discipline of children, whom to visit and the
timing of children. Husbands still retain authority in
areas where a woman has to interact with others outside the
home namely opening a bank account and their wives going
out with other women. But even in these two areas, the
percentages of women making final decisions is high but
lower than the husbands'.

The above findings indicate that these families who
migrated here are experiencing some changes. This is also
true of families in the Arab world. Prothro and Diab found

that in the cities of Amman (Jordan), Damascus (Syria),

198
Beirut and Tripoli (Lebanon), women reported cooperation
between them and their husbands on most issues. The women
from the two villages they studied, Buarij (Lebanon) and
Artas (Jordan), spoke of some cooperation but most of them
said their husbands made the decisions. The issues they
investigated were: place of residence, name of newborn,
discipline of children, marriages of children, whom to
visit, the wife's dress and when to have children (Prothro
and Diab, 1974:131-132). The Arab women under study here
come mostly from rural areas but living here has lead them
to assume more responsibilities for their families
associated with urban living. As some mothers related to
me, "our husbands are not always around” which is the
reason behind the adjustment. The men work mostly in the
auto industry and are on different shifts, and when they
are laid off, they spend most of their time in the coffee
houses.

The areas of decision-making where the husbands are
still in control, wives visiting and opening a bank
account, are quite related to the modesty code. This code
is based on the segregation between the social spheres of
men and women. To reinforce a strict modesty code, the
activities of women, household chores, agricultural duties,
visiting and child-rearing, must be subject to supervision
(Dodd, l970:9). The Arab men here who keep control in
those areas where their wives will interact with outsiders

are generally sticking to the modesty code. The wives,

199
though, are beginning to assume more responsibilities even
in those areas.

This finding is different from findings of studies of
some early immigrant families where the role the wife was
unaltered especially in the first generation. Her domestic
role confined her to the home and reinforced her dependence
on her husband. This exacerbated her traditionally
subordinate position (Spiro, 1955:1247-1248).

B. Role of Women

Any changes in the modesty code reflect changes in the
role of Arab women. One aspect of that role is the rate of
their employment outside the home.

In agricultural areas of the Middle East, women work
in the fields as well as in their homes (Williams, 1968:
63). City women did not work. Around the 1930's changes
in that area began to take place, and more city women began
to seek employment (Prothro and Diab, 1974:125). That
trend has continued, but women's involvement in
non-agricultural labour is still limited mainly because of
the attitude towards their employment. Prothro and Diab
found that husbands were described by the women as being
generally opposed to women's employment (Prothro and Diab,
1974:127). None of the women in my sample were employed.
The majority were extremely traditional in their attitudes
and indicated a women's role is to bear and raise children,
take care of their husbands and do their housework. Only

one mother said that a woman's role involves employment and

200

a few mentioned being involved in society as part of a
woman's role. A change in attitudes occurred when the
mothers expressed their hopes that their girls will be
educated. Concern with their modesty was still apparent
but their priority was in education. Dodd observed that
education promised great changes in the modesty code, more
so than urbanization (Dodd, 1970:21).

In the areas of decision—making and women's roles, the
Arab mothers I studied are experiencing certain changes.
The changes are to a more non-traditional family structure.
According to Greeley's model, the "common features” between
the host society and the immigrant group are increasing
with regards to the aspects of family organization
discussed above.

C. Infant Care

The same trend is also apparent in the area of infant
care. Even though breast feeding is a normal practice in
the Arab world, most of the mothers here used the bottle
but persisted in feeding on demand which is a traditional
practice. More males than females were fed on demand
rather than on schedule. The pampering of males is still a
value in this area. Mothers are experiencing more
modernity in the feeding of females. Traditionally, Arab
boys are fed longer than girls and this is true among the
women of my sample also. Moreover both sexes here are left
to cry when mothers feel nothing is wrong. Prothro found

that more than three~fourths of his sample responded to

201
crying (Prothro, 1961:61) while only 40 percent of my
sample responded in that way. The pampering of males was
not evident in this area. More boys than girls were left
to cry. These changes may be due to the fact that mothers
live in a nuclear family setting here and do not have help
from other relatives as they would in their own countries.
The lack of relatives may also encourage the mothers to act
more independently. Without help and with the increased
absence of husbands, more may be required of mothers here
and thus they do not have time to carry their babies
whenever they cry.

When it comes to toilet-training Arab mothers have
also experienced change. Traditionally mothers started to
train their infants before they were a year old but here
they started between one and two years, and 63 percent took
up to four months to complete training. Observers of Arab
families in the Arab world such as Beck (1970) commented on
the permissiveness of Arab mothers in such areas as
elimination. Here Arab mothers took this seriously and
punished their children when they had relapses by hitting,
scolding, and explaining to them that it should not be
repeated. Here again the reason behind this could be the
lack of help from relatives. Another reason may be the
fact that the Lebanese comprise the majority of the sample
and Prothro had found Lebanese mothers to be serious
regarding this aspect of behaviour. In this case the

change is taking place in the families of the other

202
nationalities.
D. Child-Rearing Practices

Child-rearing practices go beyond matters of infant
care to training the child to function in the society
he/she is born in. The practices focused on in this study
are: dependency/independence training, handling of
aggression, rewards, punishments and sex-role
differentiation. Even though sex roles are discussed
separately, sex differences in the other variables are also
discussed.

1. Dependency

Dependency involves interaction between the mother and
the child. Dependent children often follow the mother
around, touch her, smile at her and talk to her. The goal
of this type of behaviour is to keep contact with the
mother (Sears, 1957:174). This type of children might
resort to the above to reassure themselves of their
mothers' love, especially when they feel that love is
withdrawn as a disciplinary act (Ibid.). Mothers who
express their affection openly but withhold the affection
as a means of discipline would have dependent children
(Sears, 1957:175). From living in the Arab culture and
from reading the literature, Arab mothers can be
characterized as very affectionate towards their children
(Prothro, 1961; Najarian, 1959 and Sharabi, 1977). This is
in sharp contrast to the often-mentioned severity of

treatment on the part of the father. The difference

203
between the two parents "is so often referred to in Arabic
literature, including proverbs, and in studies dealing with
Arab communities, that one cannot doubt its widespread
occurrence... In the lives of both sons and daughters the
love of the mother remains important, even in marriage”
(Patai, 1983:26). The extreme affection of the mother in
her rearing of children "seeks without conscious intent to
create ... a dependent child" (Sharabi, 1977:246). This
is especially true for the male child who is usually
surrounded by females who are there to serve him. The male
child, thus, is "allowed to do very little for himself. If
he tries to climb the stairs, or to open a door, or to push
a chair, someone is there to do it for him. He soon learns
to give up doing things for himself and to expect others to
do them for him“ (Sharabi, 1977:246).

In their extensive review of studies conducted in
America, Maccoby and Jacklin reported that when considering
the evidence as a whole, there was no clear demonstration
of sex differences with regards to reinforcement of
dependency. They added ”it is well to remember that there
is very little difference between the sexes in the
frequency or intensity with which dependent behaviour
occurs; hence it should not be surprising that patterns of
differential reinforcement have not become apparent"
(Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974:322-323). As for independence
training, even though few studies showed that girls were

trained to be more independent, most studies found that

204
boys and girls were given equal encouragement for
independent individuality (Ibid).

As a result of the above, Arab children were assumed
to be dependent emotionally and physically rather than
independent and that differences existed among the sexes.
Mothers were also assumed not to be concerned that
dependency would interfere with the child's later
adjustment and thus would train their children to be
dependent. In fact, Prothro found that in Lebanon, mothers
were tolerant of dependency; about one-fourth of them said
that such behaviour showed that children loved their home
and their parents (Prothro, 1961:134). Thus any
considerable change was assumed to be a result of acquiring
values prevalent in the American culture.

In this study, two aspects of dependency are studied
separately, the emotional and the physical. The emotional
aspect is what Sears and Prothro investigated. The
physical aspect involves the dependence of children on the
parents to meet their physical needs such as feeding and
dressing.

The present data show that in general Arab children
who are raised here are socialized to be physically
independent except in taking baths by themselves and, to a
lesser extent, venturing away from the house. There are
some sex differences but they are very small. More boys
than girls are trained to be physically independent. This

is in agreement with what Hatfield et.al. found regarding

205

what I termed physical independence. These are areas that
were helpful to the mothers and thus they exerted pressure
on their children, both boys and girls, to be independent
and rewarded that behaviour (Hatfield et.al., 1967).

Emotional independence training presented a different
picture. The assumption was made that males would be more
emotionally dependent than females, who, as Sharabi put it,
are rarely the center of attention in the family and thus
have an opportunity to develop freely (Sharabi, 1970:246).
Prothro found no sex differences in his study of Lebanese
mothers (Prothro, 1961:136). In the present study the male
children are trained to be more emotionally independent
than are the female children. For all children, it seems
half of them are trained to be independent and the other
half to be dependent. The only area where children of both
sexes are trained to be emotionally dependent is in being
away from home. This is referred to in other studies as
the restrictiveness (versus autonomy-granting) dimension
(Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974:316). An overwhelming majority
of mothers, 98 percent, insist on knowing where their
children are all the time. This is in agreement with many
studies here where no sex differences were found in that
dimension (Ibid). Few studies that reported sex
differences found greater independence- granting for girls
(Ibid). For the women in this study, their behaviour is
unlikely to be a result of adopting American values but

rather as a reaction to being in an alien society. Mothers

206
expressed fears of the "American society" and this may be
one way they try to shelter their children from that
society. Their reaction though was not expected since most
of them live in a basically ethnic community.
2. Aggression, Rewards and Punishments

A mother's interactions with her children also include
the handling of expressed aggression and the giving of
rewards and punishments to achieve desirable behaviour.
Aggression is an important area of child behaviour.
Prothro says in this regard, "aggression is closely related
to general questions of discipline, not only because
punishment may be thought of as a type of parental
aggression, but also because psychologists have often
argued that parental discipline and child aggression are
interrelated" (Prothro, 1961:93). I investigated
aggression expressed against mothers, against siblings and
against neighboring children. In Lebanon, Prothro reported
that all the groups he investigated showed the same general
pattern of disapproval of aggression toward parents
(Prothro 1961:94). This is true in this study also, but a
little over fifty percent of the women who live here said
their children would never aggress against them. This
finding is consistent with the type of family that is
common in the Middle East which is authoritarian and
demands respect and obedience. Mothers here also would
"beat" the children who commit that offense or would scold

them, and ten percent would send the children to their

207
rooms. None of the Lebanese mothers in Prothro's study did
the latter. Mothers are also harsh with their children if
they were rude to them and more of them would beat their
children than they did in the above case. The use of such
discipline leads me to agree with Prothro that Arab mothers
resort to control rather than training in dealing with
aggression (Prothro, 1961:94). In this present study, with
regard to handling aggression among siblings, threatening
to punish was not a common response, instead "reconciling
the children" followed beating and scolding. Aggression
against neighborhood children is also expected when these
children interact with each other. In Lebanon, Prothro
found that a majority of mothers said their children got
along fairly well with other children in the neighborhood
and few mothers, eighteen percent, reported quarrels taking
place (Prothro, 1961:95). Here only thirteen percent of my
sample said their children get along peacefully with the
other children. When they do not, most mothers resort to
separating the children both here and in Lebanon or they
would resort to hitting and scolding. It is important to
point out, though, that in the Lebanese study, children
played mostly with siblings and had low contact with
children outside their families. Here, a large percentage,
thirty-nine percent, still played with siblings but
one-half the children, fifty-one percent, played with
friends, mostly Arab ones. In all cases of handling

aggression, Arab mothers resort to control and not to

208
training. They correct the offense by discipline in order
to control it but they do not take time to reason with
their children. When sex differences are explored, more
mothers of girls are stricter than mothers of boys. They
used less traditional means of handling aggression
expressed by their boys, such as scolding and sending the
child to a room, while the girls are treated more
traditionally, by physical punishment. Moreover, mothers
and fathers of females are more opposed to aggression
expressed by their girls than are parents of boys. In
America, parents do not value aggression in either sex
(Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974:340). In general, Arab mothers
here seem to persist in using more traditional means of
handling aggression such as hitting and in being harder on
their girls.

Other areas where punishment would be used were also
investigated. Here some changes are detected. Mothers
still resort to hitting, but not exclusively. The areas
where hitting is the most common means of punishing
children are lying to the mother and not being compliant.
This is in line with the Arab cultural value of obedience
to elders. Extreme measures of punishment such as forcing
a child to kneel in a corner or putting hot pepper in
his/her mouth, were very infrequent and used only when
children were disobedient. Mothers are resorting more to
verbal punishments such as scolding. Shaming, which

Sharabi claimed was an important means of discipline, is

209
rare in this study, and ridiculing is never mentioned as a
way of discipline for any offense. Sharabi claimed that
ridiculing was used to correct misbehaviour in front of
guests (Sharabi, 1977:248). Most of the mothers said they
scold their children after the guests leave. It is also
interesting to note that mothers ignore only a few offenses
but this is the most common response in cases where a child
is not respectful of property belonging to other members in
the family. This is reflective of the family being
group-oriented and not individualistic. The idea behind
this is that everything belongs to the whole family and not
to individuals so a breach of personal property is not seen
as an offense worthy of control. Ignoring an offense is
mentioned by young people in the Arab world as a way that
was not used by their own parents but that they would use
with their children; they considered that to be a modern
way of child-rearing (Najarian, 1959:15). When all types
of punishments are grouped in a scale, a third of the
mothers are resorting to modern-type punishments while the
majority are still more traditional.

Rewarding children is a topic that is generally
de-emphasized in the literature about the Arab family and
very little studied. Sharabi says that Arab culture
generally de-emphasizes rewards (Sharabi, 1977:250) and
Prothro reports in his study that, in general, positive
reinforcement, through the use of praise and other rewards,

is used less by Lebanese than by Americans but, when

210
questioned about specific tasks, he found mothers would
praise or reward their children (Prothro, 1961:104-105).
Najarian, in her study of young men and women from Lebanon,
Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, reported that for these

young people material and non-material rewards were common

(Najarian, 1959:15). Despite that, Prothro indicated that
a "sizeable minority" never rewarded their children for
good behaviour (1961:105). In this study also, mothers
were asked to react to rewarding behaviour in general and
to rewarding specific tasks. I found that the majority,
seventy-six percent, reward behaviour and twenty—four
percent expect good behaviour of their children without
rewards. In specific tasks, the overwhelming majority of
mothers said they always rewarded their children. The
types of rewards that Arab mothers here use are different
than the ones Lebanese mothers used. Prothro reported that
food was the most frequently mentioned tangible reward and
two-thirds praised the child (Prothro, 1961:104). In my
study, I found that fifty-two percent of rewarding mothers
use emotional/verbal rewards such as hugging and saying "a
good boy" or "a good girl". The rest use more tangible
rewards like buying their children things, such as clothing
or toys, and food such as ice cream and candy. Very few of
the mothers, seven percent, take their children out to eat
as a reward. When the responses of all the mothers to all
the questions having to do with rewards are scaled, only a

few are resorting strictly to emotional rewards, but more

211

are using a mixture of both emotional and tangible rewards
and almost one half of the mothers use tangible rewards
only. Even though the latter were considered traditional,
it is in reality an area where Arab mothers are
experiencing an overlap with American culture. Through
television, Arab mothers may be influenced by the value of
consumerism and thus, instead of using food as a reward,
they go out and buy things.

3. Sex Roles

In discussing child-rearing practices in Arab homes,
one cannot ignore the distinction between the rearing of
boys and girls. Actually, the separation between the roles
of men and women is one of the characteristic features of
the traditional Arab family and the society in general
(Berger, M., 1962:115-117). The separation of the
male/female role begins early. Moreover, the Arabic
language does not have a word for "child" or "infant".
Every noun is either feminine or masculine. This means as
Patai says, that the concept of "children" does not exist
in the Arab consciousness and accordingly, "there are no
'child'-rearing practices in the Arab world, but only
'boy'-rearing practices on the one hand, and 'girl'—rearing
practices on the other." (Patai, 1983:28). Even though
some differences in the socialization of boys and girls
exist in the American culture, they are not as distinct as
they are in the Arab culture. Barry, Bacon and Child

report that there is a pattern of socializing girls towards

212
nurturance, obedience and responsibility and socializing
boys towards self-reliance and achievement but the
differences are relatively small (1972:47). If any changes
are or are not occurring because of migration I expected to
find them in this crucial area of behaviour.

Mothers here believe in education and they expect that
all their children, both male and female, will be educated.
Small differences among the sexes surfaced when the amount
of education was specified. A large majority, seventy-one
percent, think that girls should get as much education as
boys. Even though the girls may not actually get a lot of
education, their mothers' attitude toward that is a good
indicator of change. The implications of that attitude are
that girls are not going to be closely supervised because
they will be at school and they will be mixing with boys
during the school day and interacting with male teachers.
Despite that most mothers want their girls to be as
educated as their boys. I expected more traditional type
responses indicating a traditional role for females. A few
mothers still feel a girl should get some education and
then be a housewife. In a separate question, only thirteen
percent of the mothers hoped their daughters would get
married but eighty-seven percent hoped that they would get
an education.

The issue of a girl's modesty came up but it was not a
priority, contrary to what I had expected. A major concern

of parents in the Middle East is that their girls, when

213

they go to school, where they are not closely supervised by
their mothers, will be more likely to loose their honor.
This honor reflects on the family and prescribes the roles
of men and women and their behaviour in the company of each
other (Antoun, 1968). Moreover, if women are expected to
behave in a modest way then the behaviour of men towards
women must be according to that modesty (Ibid.). When I
questioned the women about their future expectations for
their girls, thirteen percent of the mothers hoped their
girls would get married and thirty-five percent hoped their
girls would keep their honor. Marriage is one way of
insuring that a girl stays honorable. Adding the two
responses together resulted in forty-eight percent of
traditional responses. Even though that was high, it still
indicates quite a change in the treatment of girls by their
mothers. Perhaps interviewing fathers would have yielded
more traditional responses. After all, they are the ones
who would be dishonored if a girl's behaviour were to
deviate from the traditional value of chastity. I am not
saying that mothers here are not concerned with this issue,
because they are, but it seemed from the data that
education for girls is more of a priority to them as they
live in this culture.

Even though the responses regarding education indicate
a shift to more non-traditional behaviour, they are only
expectations and not actual behaviour. Used with other

questions to create scales for male roles and female roles,

214
the majority of the mothers tended to be traditional.
Regarding female roles 39 percent of the mothers were in
the medium category of the scales and 29 percent of them
scored medium on the male-role scales. These categories
are indicative of a transition in the extremely rigid
traditional male and female roles. There were also a few
mothers who were classified as non—traditional in this area
but they were very few. This is an indication of the great

difficulty of change in this area.

II. Societal Variables and Child-Rearing Practices

For the Arab immigrants who are interacting with the
host society, certain societal variables were assumed
to influence their behaviour. In this study the variables,
exposure through mass media, participation in ethnic
community activities, interaction with the host society and
attachment to the homeland, were hypothesized to have an
influence on child-rearing practices. The hypotheses were

that if mothers were highly attached to their homeland, had

low exposure to the host society and experienced low
interaction with it, and had high participation in their
ethnic community then they would tend to raise their
children according to Arab cultural ways. These mothers
can be referred to as traditional. If they experienced low
homeland attachment, high exposure to the host society,
high interaction with it, and low ethnic participation then

they would tend to raise their children in a

215
non-traditional way compatible with mainstream United
States culture. These mothers can be referred to as
non-traditional. Each child-rearing practice was tested
with each of the above societal variables.

Physical dependency is an area where Arab mothers are
experiencing change as a result of being in this society.
Exposure to the host society through the use of the mass
media is significantly related to physical independence at
the .02 level. The more Arab mothers use mass media the
more they train their children to be physically
independent. Physical independence is also related to low
home attachment and low ethnic participation in a positive
direction. The more mothers interact with the host society
the higher their physical independence training.

Emotional independence was an area that was weakly
related to home attachment and to mass media exposure. It
is not related to interaction with the host society but
related negatively to participation in the ethnic
community. High ethnic participation is related to high
emotional independence.

Handling aggression, like physical independence, is an
area where mothers are experiencing change or transition as
a result of living here. Even though it is weakly related
to home attachment it is related to low ethnic
participation. Those mothers who are experiencing low
ethnic participation are using "medium" means of handling

aggression. The medium category includes a mixture of

216
traditional and non- traditional ways of handling
aggression. This is an indication of a transition from
traditionalism to non-traditionalism in this area. The
transition is also apparent in the relation of handling

aggression to mass media exposure. High exposure to the

host society through the use of mass media is related to a
mixture of traditional and non-traditional means of
handling aggression. The relationship between these two
variables becomes statistically significant when the use of
television only is tested with handling aggression.

Types of punishment is weakly related to home
attachment and to participation in the ethnic community.
Only low interaction with the host society is related to
more traditional punishments but high interaction is not
making a difference. Types of punishments are not related
to mass media exposure.

The types of rewards present interesting relationships
with the societal variables. Rewards are weakly related to
home attachment. Emotional-type rewards are related to low
ethnic participation. Rewards are related negatively to
host interaction and mass media exposure, so that high host
interaction and high media exposure are related to
tangible-type rewards which are considered traditional.
Keeping in mind the original classification of rewards
explains this. Mothers who are experiencing high exposure
to and interaction with the American environment are

adopting a consumer behaviour which is prevalint in the

217
society and thus buy their children rewards. So for them
this is an area of overlap with the American society.

I had expected that certain changes in sex-role
differentiation would take place, but I anticipated that
the changes would be slow in this crucial area. As for
high home attachment, the relation to traditional female
roles is clear, but for those who are experiencing low home
attachment, forty percent scored "medium" and twenty
percent scored "high" on the female role scale. They are
mostly traditional regardless of their ethnic participation
and their mass media exposure. Interaction with the host
society is contributing to some changes. Even though the
majority of the women are traditional regardless of the
rate (amount) of interaction, a third of them who have high
interaction with the society scored "medium" on the
female-roles scale and fifty percent of those who had
medium interaction also scored medium on the female-roles
scale. Medium is an area where a mixture of traditional
and non-traditional practices exist. The relationship
between interaction and female roles is statistically
significant (P<.05) for those women who have little or no
education. Thus, mothers who have very low education and
low interaction also show very traditional female roles.
Another significant relationship (P<.01) is found between
the mothers' female-roles perception and whom their
families spend time with. Relatives reinforce traditional

values while friends seem to reinforce change.

218

Certain indicators of change are also apparent for
male roles. In general mothers are traditional regarding
male roles whether or not they reported high or low home
attachment. But for those who reported low home
attachment, forty percent scored "medium" on the male-roles
scales. Mass media is not related. Mass media exposure is
mostly through watching television and listening to Arabic
programs on the radio. This may be clouding the effect of
mass media. Ethnic participation is also not related.
Mothers are also generally traditional in relation to host
interaction. But as with the female roles thirty-three
percent of the mothers who have high host interaction
scored medium on the male-roles scale. This means that a
significant minority of Arab mothers are experiencing
change.

The mothers' level of education is significant in
other areas of child-rearing such as handling aggression
and types of rewards. The relationship between education
and rewards is negative though significant at P less than
.05. Here again, it is due to the classification of
rewards. It seems that highly educated mothers resort to
more tangible rewards. Highly educated mothers resort to
less traditional ways of handling aggression and
punishments. Yarrow, Scott, DeLeeuw and Heinig also found
that the education status of mothers was a variable in
child-rearing practices but only when their work status was

considered also (1972:324).

219
Length of residency is not a significant variable in
the study. It has no influence on any of the child-rearing

practices designated for this research.

III. Theoretical Implications of the Study.

The Arab immigrant families who are the focus of this
study are basically traditional in maintaining the values
that pertain to child-rearing. They reside in ethnic
communities which tend to reinforce these values. These
ethnic communities are not separate from the outside
environment, as the Amish communities are, but interact
with it basically through the public schools and the mass
media. This has given these families a chance to learn
something of the values of the host society. Areas of
conflict over values arise. These families are
experiencing some adaptation and change in certain areas
but resisting the outside influence in others.

When these families first arrived here, they shared
very little if anything, with the host society. See Figure
5—1. As they interact with the host environment, the
common features "bank" starts to grow. These are what
Schermerhorn calls centripetal tendencies. In this study,
the common features include the attitude of Arab women to
the role of women, assuming more decision-making in the
home, expecting equal educational opportunities for girls
and boys, experiencing changes such as in physical

independence training and rewards and some transition in

Hocoz mammcmoocnum map on mwnmcowumamm .moacnum an4

Hum musmflm

 

220

 

ZOHH<Hm<fi< mo MZHH
mzmamwm A<¢DHADU

non—JEN... 333 no N553“. hoaovaooon.

zuhmwm HMDHAPU
macaw UHZIHN

A<zHuHmo
hucovsooov Hwaoau

 

coach «Hmaum.vam ma
owmawcua van :oamaa
Hz<moH2zH m<m¢

r‘|I|'||l'Ill||"'l

 

1 I

 

noaou mama van «Hosea a“ nowouao «sow
vow: ovumsmu mo momma

.. . . . .. . . . . . .. ..uSERuu: wuéuuaumvflmq. .Hmmwwfifii
naufiw can when you :owuuosvo Hanan

soap: you Nazca wafixualaounaouv «no:
swabs «0 mac» avucsou movauauu<

. ....‘0...’. ......O.". ......

.oooo’OoooooOOO

WM

 

 

Hmom

 

 

 

 

I'l|l|l""||"l

amen

 

 

 

 

coauoououau goo: vac «Hum: mom: .Hoosum—

 

 

262200

 

221
male and female roles. These changes are small but they
are there. These changes will probably be clearer for the
second generation. See Figure 5—1.

In this study, I found one small area where these
immigrant families have maintained a basically traditional
value and adapted it in a way to make it uniquely ethnic.
This area is that of the dependency of females. From the
literature review it was learned that female socialization
encouraged emontional independence. In America, there were
no patterns of differential training among the sexes in the
area of dependency. The Arab mothers here are changing
their training of females in a way that is producing more
emotionally dependent daughters. This pattern is different
from the original Arab pattern and from the prevalent
American pattern. It is an adaptive pattern that these
mothers are following as a reaction to being in this
society. This area of socialization fits in Greeley's
"ethnic group" category. See Figure 5-1.

Areas of resistance to change also exist. The Arab
families are retaining and preserving their distinct
tradition through the maintenance of their religion. They
have centers of worship where they can practice their
religion. They also have meat markets where they can eat
"Halal" meat (Arab Muslims eat only meat that has been
slaughtered after invoking the name of God.) and they all
speak only Arabic at home. In Katarsky's study, all of his

respondents, with the exception of one, stated that every

222
member of their family spoke Arabic (Katarsky, 1980: 22).
Arabic is used almost exclusively in the homes of the
mothers that are the focus of this study. The women speak
Arabic exclusively to their children and husbands but they
reported that their children speak both English and Arabic
with each other. Many mothers expressed to me their joy
over the after-school Arabic instruction classesl because
that helped the children keep their language and their
culture. Thus, both language and religion are being used
by the Arab immigrants to foster separation (i.e.,
centrifugal tendencies).

In the child-rearing area, many of the practices
designated in this study indicate more ethnic persistence
than change even though some change is apparent. The areas
of male and female roles is experiencing a little change,
but it is still basically ethnic and traditional. The same
applies to the areas of emotional dependency and types of
punishments. They are areas that are resisting change.
Basically these areas are related to very important values
in the Arab culture. Emotional dependency is related to
dependency in general which is a value that Arab children

are socialized into. Unlike what I assumed, high ethnic

 

1I attended one of these classes and observed that the

teaching method was traditional (ie. rote learning). The
children were expected to sit quietly and obey what the
teacher said. The children were obviously frustrated and a
few of them expressed that to me. One child was given a
few lines to write one hundred times in Arabic.

223

participation was found related to emotional independence
rather than dependence. The women may feel comfortable in
the ethnic community and let their children fare for
themselves. I can say though that this area is resisting
change. During the interviews many mothers expressed their
fear of the outside society. To counteract that, they
train their children to be emotionally dependent. The
items used to create the Emotional Independence Scale did
not get at these fears. Types of punishments are related
to the authoritarian character of the Arab family which
demands respect and obedience, and the tendency to resort
to control rather than to training. Some changes have
occurred here though the majority of the mothers maintain
traditionalism. Female and male roles are related to the
Arab cultural value of "honor" and the separation of the
sexes. The changes that are occurring in this area are in
educational equality, but basically the mothers are
persistent in their traditional ways. This surfaced when
mothers were asked specifically if girls should behave
differently than boys. The mothers agree that differences
should occur for the girls especially in the areas of
games, helping mothers with siblings and being more family
oriented. All these are very traditional values and
mothers are clinging to them. See Figure 5-1.

Any ethnic group whose goal is to protect its values
needs to meet certain structural requirements such as

demands for endogamy and separate associations

224
(Schermerhorn, 1970:81—12). The centrifugal tendencies
among the Arabs to foster ethnic distinctiveness are
apparent in their emphasis on endogamy. Katarsky found
that only six percent of his sample had non-Arab spouses
(Katarsky, 1980:23). None of the mothers in my sample were
married to non-Arabs.

Associational life was non-existent among the Arab
mothers. Associations do exist in the ethnic communities
where they reside but membership in these are limited to
males only, a traditional practice. Most of these
associations are regional such as Beit Hanina Charity Club
(Beit Hanina is a village in the West Bank) or the Yemeni
Benevolent Association. This reflects a very traditional
behaviour because even in their countries these women would
not join any associations. Their lives there and here
revolve around their homes and their families. Arab women
elsewhere in the U.S.A. have created their own
associations and achieved certain goals. An example was
cited of the Arab Muslim women in Toledo who were very
active in the building of the Toledo mosque and still are
involved in its maintenance (Elkholy, 1966).

Even though the women are not members of formal
associations, or do not seem to be, they become very active
in an informal—type association when there is a great need
in the community. Wigle and Abraham report that when a
crisis arises in any of the home countries of these

immigrants the women become involved in relief

225
organizations, clothing drives and fund-raising activities.
They have even defied tradition and joined demonstrations.
When the crisis is over, this type of organizational
activity also ends (Wigle and Abraham, 1974: 290). In
this way, women will venture out of their homes to assume
non-traditional roles but basically their lives rotate
around home-related activities.

In conclusion, the Arab Ethnic families studied in
this research are undergoing certain changes and going
through a process of adaptation without losing social
meanings that are culturally important. This is true in
the area of child-rearing. But as Mindel and Habenstein
put it,

"there is little chance that this process will

give way overnight to a new family form

expressing the rational-purposeful, means-ends-

dominated, instrumentally oriented features of a

family that serves only the functional requisites

of a corporate-business-dominated society.

Neither will the modern ethnic family singly

reflect the overarching and homogenizing forces

of a mass, consumption—orientated society.

Somewhere between these great grindstones that

would pulverize traditional family organization a
type of family... persists: prolean, adaptive,
conservatizing, generating meanings, and forming
a sense of identity partly from the realities of
an earlier time, partly from the exigencies of
the present" (1976:428).

IV. Recommendations for Further Research

The above discussion indicates that there is a great
need for further research on the families of Arab ethnics,

specifically in the areas of child-rearing and roles of

226
women. These areas of behaviour are of a primary nature
and would be resistent to cultrual assimilation so more
studies such as this present one need to be conducted on a
continuous basis in order to be able to detect changes.
The time element is not crucial for the immigrants I
studied but could be for the coming generation.

One of the difficulties that a researcher encounters
in this type of study is deciding what are the specific
cultural values of these immigrants regarding
child-rearing. My cultural background was a great help to
me personally. But for non-Arab researchers, it would be
extremely helpful if studies are conducted on the
immigrants on arrival to specify aspects of their home
culture. Moreover, a study of second generation mothers
(that is the kindergarten children in this study) who still
live in the ethnic community would provide a basis for
comparison. Such comparative studies would provide a good
basis for assessing ethnic change and persistence. These
studies will also better document the conflicts the group
might be facing since second generation mothers would have
lived through them. An offshoot could also be study of the
participation of second generation women in the labour
force.

A study of religion as a variable in the assimilative
process of these families is also needed. Spiro reports
that religion can accelerate or retard the process and

points out that the church acts as an antiacculturative

227
force by maintaining the value of the traditional family
structure. This is also relevant to the study of the
position of women in the family (1955:1246).

The present research, nevertheless, provides a good
start. To my knowledge, no studies have been specifically
conducted on child-rearing practices of Arab immigrants.
More studies on the different Arab subgroupings are also
needed. Since ethnic boundaries for each group may be
different considering the historical experiences of each
group, it would be useful to find out whether those ethnic
boundaries influence child—rearing in any way. For
example, the situation of the Yemeni immigrants is
different than that of other Arab immigrants. The majority
of them come here to make money and go back to their
homeland. As a consequence, they do not make efforts to
assimilate. How is that reflected in their child-rearing
practices? This question could not be addressed in this
research because only six Yemeni mothers were interviewed.
This number did not provide a good basis for making
generalizations about the Yeminis.

Varieties among the different Arab groupings exist
because of social class, so studies including the concept
of "ethclass" (Gordon, 1978) would be needed.

More studies are also needed to investigate issues
that the children of these immigrants are facing because of
conflicting values in their homes and in their schools.

This type of study will depend on participant observation

228
of interactions between Arab students and non-Arab
teachers. Such studies will be of great help to teachers
since cultural factors are determinants of learning. For
example, Arab children who are socialized to be very
obedient and dependent may seem non-curious to their
teachers and may require more attention because they will
wait to be told what to do. Thus the implications of such
studies for bilingual programs are important.

Since ethnicity and ethnic groups continue to be
topics of importance to social scientists, studies such as
this present one will always be needed. Such studies are
beneficial to assess the type and direction of change that
families experience as separate units and as part of an

interacting whole: the society.

AP PEND IX

Appendix A

English Version of the Interview Schedule

To begin with, I would like to ask you a few questions

 

about you and your family.

 

1.

When were you born?
(If respondent cannot answer this question ask her to
estimate her age, or you can estimate that.)

 

Where were you born? (Country)

 

City
Town
Village

 

 

Probe: Was the place a city, a town or a village?

When did you come to the U.S.A.?

 

What were the reasons that prompted you to migrate?

 

 

 

 

Did you live anywhere else in the U.S.A. before you
moved to this neighbourhood? Yes, No.
If yes, where did you live?

 

How did you meet your husband?

 

 

 

6a. Was your husband one of your relatives?
Yes, No

Where were you married?

 

 

Where was your husband born?

 

 

229

230

Instructions : Ask each part of Question 9 separately.

 

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How many children do you have? How old are they?
Do they go to school? What grade?
Girls Age Grade Boys Age Grade
a. a.
b. b.
C. c.
d. d.
e. e.
f. f.
g. 9-
h. h.
Does any relative live with you here? Yes, No
If yes, who?
Do you have relatives in this neighbourhood or
close by? Yes, No.
If yes, how many? , .
(families) (persons)
What, in your opinion, is the ideal family size?
No. of boys , No. of girls , Don't know .
What in you husband's opinion is an ideal family size?
No. of boys , No. of girls , Don't know .
Probe: Try to find out why there are discrepancies
between the husband and the wife.
Are you employed outside the home? Yes, No.
If yes, what type of work do you do?
Did you ever work outside the home? Yes, No.
If yes, what type of work did you do?
What does your husband do for a living?
What type of work did he do before you immigrated?
What is your opinion of women who are employed outside

the home?

 

 

 

 

19.
20.
21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

231
Do you own your home? Yes, No.

What is your religion?

 

What is your husband's religion?

 

Who in your family makes the last decision as far as
the following? You? Your husband? or Both?

Your
You husband Both
Where to live?
Buying a car?
Opening a bank account?
House expenses?
Discipline of children?
Clothing for children?
Timing of children?
Whom to visit?
How wife dresses?
Wife going out with
other women?

LLB-:30 mm CLOUD)

Do you have American citizenship? Yes, No.

Does your husband have American citizenship?
Yes, No.

Do you hear from your relatives in the your home

country? Yes, No.

25a. Do you receive letters? Yes, No.

25b. Do you call on the phone? Yes, No.

25c. Do you get visitors from your home country?
Yes, No.

Do you hope to go back to your home country to live?

 

 

How does your husband feel about that?

 

 

 

Would you like to move to a different community?
Yes, No. Why?

 

 

 

or Why not?

 

 

 

232

Now I would like to ask you a few questions regarding

 

education.

 

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

Did your circumstances allow you to go to school?
Yes, No. If no, go to next question.

If yes, how many years did you study?

 

 

Did your husband go to school? Yes, No.
If no, go to next question.
If yes, how many years did he study?

 

 

Do you speak English? Yes, No, a little.
31a. Does your husband speak English?
Yes, No, a little.

31b. What language do you speak at home with your
husband and children?
31c. What do the children speak at home?

 

 

Do you read and write English?
Yes, No, a little.

What, in your opinion, is the amount of education that
a boy should get?

 

 

 

 

What, in your opinion, is the amount of education that
a girl should get?

 

 

 

 

Do you think that the American system of education
has a good or bad influence on the development of the
child? Please explain.

 

 

 

 

 

Probe: If respondent answers Question 35 in a
general way ask her to explain her response.
e.g. Can you explain some more? How is that
related to the development of the child?

233

Now I would like to ask you a few questions regarding the
way you raise your children. In these questions, the
focus will be mainly on your kindergarten child.

Name of child ? X

 

 

Instruction: Write the name of the kindergarten child in
the above blank. Refer to the name in the
following questions.

 

 

36. How did you feed? X when he/she was an infant?
breast ?, bottle ?, or both ?

37. When did you wean X ?
37a. How did you wean X ?

 

38. Some mothers feed a baby on demand, while others
follow a schedule. What did you do with X ?

 

 

 

 

39. Some mothers pick up a child when he/she cries, others
let him/her cry so he/she won't get used to being
picked up. What did you do with X ?

 

 

 

 

40. Tell me about the method you used to toilet-train
X ?

 

 

 

 

 

41a. When did you start?

 

 

 

 

41b. Was X easy to train?

41c. How long did it take to train X
completely?

40d. What did you do when X sometimes

 

forgot after having been trained?

 

 

Now let us focus on the present. X is 5 or 6
years old and he/she goes to kindergarten.

 

 

 

41. What school does X attend?

 

42. Whom does your child play with most of the time?

 

Probe : siblings, relatives, neighbors (Arab or
non-Arab)?

 

43.

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

234

Some mothers like to know where their children are all
the time and others let their children take care of
themselves. What do you do with X ?

 

 

Some parents reward their children when they behave
well. Others expect the children to behave well
without reward. What is your opinion on this point?

 

 

Probe : If mother rewards good behavior, ask her
what type of rewards she uses.

 

 

At what age did X start to do the
following by himself/herself:

a. Eat by himself/herself

b. Dress by himself/herself?

c. Tie his/her shoes?

d. Bathe himself/herself?

e. Choose his/her friends?

f. Venture away from home?

9. Cross street by himself/herself?
h. Use toilet by himself/herself?
i. Make own decisions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When X misbehaves and has to be
disciplined, who usually does it?

 

 

 

 

Do you beat X as a way disciplining him/her?
a. A lot?

b. Sometimes?

c. A little?

 

 

 

Do you deprive X of something he/she really
likes as a way of disciplining him/her?
Give me an example.

 

 

 

Instructions : In the question on the following page,

 

it is possible that a mother resorts to
more than one way of dicipline for a
given situation. Do not suggest any
answers only put a check mark where
appropriate.

49.

235

What do you do if the following situations occur:
Deprive
him/her Send
of to
something his/ Beat
he/she her him/
likes room her

If X breaks
something
in the house?

 

If X misbehaves
in front of
your guests?

 

 

If X is rude
to you?
If X got angry

and hit you?

 

If X fights
with his/her
siblings?

 

If X fights
with the
neighbor's
children?

 

If X lies to
you?

 

If X jumps on
furniture?

 

If X is
non-compliant?

 

If X is not
neat or clean?

 

If X runs in
the house
without clothes?

 

If X does not

respect things
that belong to
others in the

family?

 

Threaten
him/
her
with Ignore
punish- him/
ment her Other

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

50.

51.

52.

53.

54.

55.

236

Some people feel it is very important for a child to
learn not to fight with other children; others feel
there are times when a child has to learn how to
fight. How do you feel about this?

 

 

 

 

50a. How does your husband feel about this?

 

 

 

After X is disciplined what do you do?

 

 

51a. Do you send X to own room?
51b. Do you explain why he/she was diciplined?
51c. Do you hug and kiss him/her?
51d. Do you leave him/her alone?

 

 

 

 

Do you usually have time so that X can talk
to you to you about things that interest him/her or
upset him/her?

 

 

 

 

Suppose you were absent and X

intentionally did something naughty but you did not
see him/her do it. Does he/she come and tell you
about it without your having to ask him/her?

 

 

 

a. All the time?

b. Most of the time?
c. Some of the time?
d. Almost never?

e. Never?

 

 

 

 

 

What do you do when X says he/she is afraid?

 

 

 

 

What qualities of X do you like best?

 

 

 

 

 

56.

57.

58.

59.

61.

62.

237

What qualities of X upset you most?

 

 

 

 

Does X require much attention from you?

 

 

57a. How about following you around and sticking
close to you?

 

57b. Does X ask you for help with something
he/she can do by himself/herself?

 

 

57c. What do you do when X requires attention
and you are busy?

 

 

Whom do you leave X with when you go out of
the house?

 

 

What does he/she usually do when you go out of the
house and leave him/her with another person?

 

 

 

Do you expect X to do some chores at home?

 

61a. What are they?

 

 

 

 

61b. Do you reward him/her for that?

 

61c. How?

 

 

 

Do you feel that behaviour of girls should be
different from the behaviour of boys at this age
(5-6 yrs of age)?

How?

 

 

 

 

 

 

63.

64.

65.

238

In general, do you and your husband agree on how to
raise your children?

 

 

63a. Do you think that he is very strict, strict,
not strict with the children?

 

 

63b. Does he think you are very strict, strict, or
not strict with the children?

 

 

63c. Can you tell me about an incident in which you
did not agree?

 

 

 

 

Do you raise your children the way you were raised?

 

64a. How is that different?

 

 

 

 

What do you think of how American mothers raise their
children?

 

 

 

 

Instructions : If the answer to Question 65 is very

 

66.

67.

general, ask the respondent to explain
more: What do you mean by that?
Can you explain more?

Where do you get that information?

 

 

 

 

Does X face any problems or difficulties at
school?
67a. What are they?

 

 

 

 

 

67b. How do you handle that?

 

 

68.

69.

70.

71.

72.

73.

74.

239

Do you feel that it is more difficult to raise
children here than in your country?

 

 

68a. What are some of the problems that you face?

 

 

 

 

If you have any problems or difficulties raising
children, who would you discuss those problems with?

 

 

 

What in your opinion are the characteristics of a
"good" boy or a "good" girl who is 5 or 6 years of
age?

 

 

 

Are there American things you would like your
children to adopt? Yes, No. If Yes, what
are they?

 

 

 

 

Does your husband spend time with the children?
Yes, No. If yes, how?

 

 

 

 

We are coming to the end of our discussion. I would
like to ask you a few more general questions.

 

 

Whom do you and your family spend most of your time
with as far as visiting, attending parties,
exchanging gifts, ...etc.?

a. Relatives?

b. Arab friends?

c. Non-Arab neighbors and friends?

 

 

 

Do you watch TV? Yes, No.
74a. What are your favorite programs?

 

 

74b. Do you liSten to the radio? Yes. No.
740. What are your favorite programs?

 

 

240

Instructions : Do not ask the following question if the

 

75.

76.

77.

78.

79.

80.

81.

82.

respondent cannot read.

Do you read magazines? Yes, No.
a. Which ones?

 

 

 

 

Do you belong to any organizations, such as Parent
Advisory Committee, labor unions, mothers groups,
ethnic groups, community groups, etc.?

Yes, No. Which ones?

 

 

 

Does your husband belong to any organizations?
Yes, No. Which ones?

 

 

 

Do you cook American food for your family?

 

 

Do you and your family go out to a restaurant to eat?

 

 

 

Are you happy here? Yes, No.
80a. Why?

 

 

 

 

80b. Why not?

 

 

 

 

What, in your opinion, is the role of a woman in life?

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have anything to add?

 

 

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abraham, Nabeel.
1983 "The Yemeni Immigrant Community of Detroit:
Background, Emigration and Community Life".
In Arabs in the New World. Sameer Y.
Abraham and Nabeel Abraham, eds. Pp. 110-134.
Detroit: Wayne State University, Center for
Urban Studies.

Abraham, Sameer Y., Nabeel Abraham and Barbara Aswad.
1983 "The Southend: An Arab Muslim Working
Class community". In Arabs in the New
World. Sameer Y. Abraham and Nabeel
Abraham, eds. Pp. 163—184. Detroit:
Wayne State University, Center for Urban

 

 

Studies.
Abu-Laban, Baha.
1980 An Olive Branch on the Family Tree: The
Arabs in Canada. Toronto, Ontario:

 

McClelland and Stewart Ltd.

Adams, Bert.
1971 The American Family - A Sociological Inter-
pretation. Chicago, Illinois: Markham
Publishing Company.

 

Alamuddin, Nura, and Paul Starr.
1980 Crucial Bonds: Marriage Among the Lebanese
Druze. New York: Casanaw Books.

Al-Hamdani, M., and Baha Abu-Laban.
1971 "Game Involvement and Sex-Role Socialization
in Arab Children". International Journal
of Comparative Sociology 12(3): 182-191.

 

Al-Qazzaz, Ayad, Ruth Afifi and Audrey Shabbas.
1978 The Arab World: A Handbook for Teachers.
Albany, California: NAJDA (Women Concerned
About the Middle East).

Ammar, Hamed.
1954 Growing Up in an Egyptian Village. London:
Routledge and Regan Paul, Ltd.

 

241

242

Antoun, Richard.

 

1968 "On the Modesty of Women in Arab Muslim
Villages". American Anthropologist 70(4);
671-697.

Appleton, N.
1983 Cultural Pluralism in Education. New York
Longman, Inc.

 

Aswad, Barbara.
1974 "The Southeast Arab Community Struggles for

Survival Against Urban 'Renewal'". In Arabic
Speaking Communities in American Cities.
Barbara Aswad, ed. Pp.53-83. New York:
Center of Migration Studies and the
Association of Arab-American University
Graduates, Inc.

 

Barclay, H. B.

1971 "A Lebanese Muslim Community in Lac La Biche,
Alberta". In Immigrant Groups. J.L. Elliot,
ed. Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice-Hall
of Canada, Ltd.

 

Barry, Herbert III, Margaret Bacon and Irvin Child.
1972 "A Cross-Cultural Survey of Some Sex
Differences in Socialization". In Readings on
The Family System. Ira Reiss, ed. Pp. 39-
47. New York: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston,
Inc.

 

 

Barth, Fredrik, ed.
1969 Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. Oslo: Johansen,
and Nielsen Boktrykkeri.

 

Barth, Ernest A.T., and Donald L. Noel.

1975 "Conceptual Frameworks for the Analysis of
Role Relations: An Evaluation". In Majority
and Minority, 2nd edition. N.R. Yetman and
C.H. Steele, eds. Pp. 15-31. Boston: Allyn
and Bacon, Inc.

 

Beck, D.F.
1970 "The Changing Moslem Family". In Readings in
Arab Middle Eastern Societies and Cultures.
Abdulla M. Lutfiyya and C.W. Churchill, eds.
Pp. 567-577. The Hague: Mouton.

 

 

Berger, Morroe.
1962 The Arab World Today. Garden City, New York:
Doubleday.

 

243

Bowker, Joan P.
1979 Health and Social Service Need Assessment

Survey. Mimeo. Dearborn: The University of
Michigan.

Daghestani, Kazem.
1970 "The Evolution of the Moslem Family in the
Middle Eastern Countries". In Readings in
Arab Middle Eastern Societies and Cultures.
Abdulla M. Lutfiyya and C. W. Churchill, eds.
Pp. 554-566. The Hague: Mouton.

 

Dearborn, Wayne County, Michigan City Directory
1979 Taylor, Michigan: R.L. Polk and Co.,
Publishers.

Dearborn, Wayne County, Michigan City Directory
1983 Taylor, Michigan: R.L. Polk and Co.,
Publishers.

Detroit Free Press.

1983 "Worship in a World Apart". Monday, November
28. Page Cl.

 

Dodd, Peter C.
1981 "The Effect of Religious Affiliation on
Women's Role in Middle Eastern Arab Society".
In Women in The Family and the Economy.
George Kurian and Ratna Ghash, eds. Pp. 117-
129. Wesport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

1970 "Family Honor and the Forces of Change in Arab
Society". Paper presented at the Fourth
Annual Middle East Studies Association Meeting
Columbus, Ohio. November 7.

 

Elkholy, Abdo.
1966 The Arab Moslems in the United States:
Religion and Assimilation. New Haven,

Connecticut: College and University Press
Services, Inc.

1969 "The Arab-Americans: Nationalism and
Traditional Preservations". In The Arab-
Americans: Studies in Assimilation. Elaine
Hagopian and Ann Paden, eds. Pp.3-36. Wilmette,
Illinois: Medina University Press, Inc.

 

 

244

1976 "The Arab-American Family". In Ethnic
Families in America: Patterns and Variations.
Charles H. Mindel and Robert W. Habenstein,
eds. Pp. 151-167. New York: Elsevier.

 

 

Eron, Leonard D., Thomas Banta, Leopold Walder and Jerome
Laulight.
1961 "Comparison of Data Obtained from Mothers and
Fathers on Child-Rearing Practices and Their
Relation to Child Aggression". Child
Development 32(3): 457-472.

 

Farsoun, Samih.
1970 "Family Structure in Modern Lebanon". In
Pegples and Cultures of the Middle East, Vol.
II. Louise Sweet, ed. Pp. 257-307. Garden
City, New York: Natural History Press.

 

Feagin, Joe R.
1978 Racial and Ethnic Relations. New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.

 

Frazier, F.E.
1972 "Sociological Theory and Race Relations". In
Inter-Group Relations. Pierre VanDen Berghe,
ed. Pp. 15-25. New York: Basic Books, Inc.

 

 

Fuller, Ann H.
1961 Buarij: Portrait of a Lebanese Village.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

 

Glazer, Nathan and Moynihan, Daniel P.
1963 Beyond the Melting Pot. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press and MIT Press.

 

Goode, William J.
1963 World Revolution and Family Patterns. New
York: Free Press.

 

Gordon, Milton.
1964 Assimilation in American Life. New York:
Oxford University Press.

 

1978 Human Nature, Class and Ethnicity. New York:
Oxford University Press.

 

 

Greeley, Andrew M.
1974 Ethnicity in the United States. New York:
John Wiley.

 

245

 

1971 Why Can't They Be Like Us?. New York: E.P.
Dutton and Co., Inc.

 

Haddad, Safia.
1969 "The Woman's Role in Socialization of Syrian-
Americans in Chicago". In The Arab-Americans:

 

Studies in Assimilation. Elaine C. Hagopian
Hagopian and Ann Paden, eds. Pp. 84-101.
Wilmette, Illinois: Medina University Press
International.

 

Hsu, Francis.
1972 ”American Core Value and National Character".
In Psychological Anthropology. Francis L.
Hsu, ed. Pp. 241-262. Cambridge: Schenkman.

 

Kassees, Assad S.
1972 "Cross Cultural Comparative Familism of a
Christian Arab People". Journal of Marriage
and the Family 34(3): 539-544.

 

 

Katarsky, Anthony P.
1980 "Family Ties and the Growth of an Arabic
Community in Northeast Dearborn, Michigan".
M.A. Thesis, Wayne State University, Detroit

Kayal, Philip M.

1974 "Religion in the Christian Syrian-American
Community". In Arabic Speaking Communities
in American Cities. Barbara Aswad, ed.

Pp. 111-136. New York: Center for Migration
Studies.

 

 

Kinton, Jack.
1977 American Ethnic Revival. Aurora, Illinois:
Social Service and Sociological Resources.

 

Korbin, Frances, and Calvin Goldscheider.
1978 The Ethnic Factor in Structure and Mobility.
Cambridge, Massachusettes: Ballinger
Publishing Co.

 

Lichtenstadter, Ilse.
1970 "An Arab Egyptian Family". In Readings in
Arab Middle Eastern Societies and Cultures.
Abdulla M. Lutfiyya and Charles W. Churchill,
eds. Pp. 602-618. The Hague: Mouton.

 

Lieberson, Stanley.
1972 "A Societal Theory of Race and Ethnic
Relations". In Intergroup Relations. Pierre
VanDen Berghe, ed. New York: Basic Books,

 

246
Inc.

Lutfiyya, Abdulla M.
1970 "The Family". In Readings in Arab Middle
Eastern Societies and Cultures. Abdulla
M. Lutfiyya and Charles W. Churchill, eds.
Pp. 505-525. The Hague: Mouton.

 

 

Maccoby, Eleanor E., and Carol N. Jacklin.

1974 The Psychology of Sex Differences, Vol. I.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.

 

Melikian, Levon H.

1977 "The Model of Personality of Saudi College
Students: A Study in National Character". In
Psychological Dimensions of Near Eastern
Studies. Carl Brown and Norman Itzkowitz, eds.
PP. 166-209. Princeton: The Darwin
Press.

 

Miller, Gerald D.

1977 "Classroom 19: A Study of Behavior in a
Classroom of a Moroccan Primary School". In
Psychological Dimensions of Near Eastern
Studies. Carl Brown and Norman Itzkowitz,
eds. Pp. 142-153. Princeton: The Darwin
Press.

 

Mindel, Charles H., and Robert W. Habenstein, eds.
1976 Ethnic Families in America: Patterns and
Variations. New York: Elsevier.

 

 

Miner, Horace M., and George DeVos.
1960 Oasis and Casbah: Algerian Culture and
Personality in Change. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology.

 

 

Naff, Alixa.
1983 "Arabs in America: A Historical Overview".
In Arabs in the New World. Sameer Abraham
and Nabeel Abraham, eds. Pp. 8-29. Detroit:
Wayne State University, Center for Urban
Studies.

 

Najarian, Pergrouhi
1957 "Changing Patterns of Family Life". Paper
presented at Actes du XVIIe Congress
International de Sociologie, Beirut, Lebanon.

Park, Robert E.
1950 Race and Culture. Glencoe, Illinois: Free
Press.

 

247

Patai, Raphael.

 

 

1983 The Arab Mind. New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons.
1970 "Familism and Socialization". In Readiggs in

 

Arab Middle Eastern Societies and Cultures.
Abdulla M. Lutfiyya and Charles W. Churchill,
eds., Pp. 578-582. The Hague: Mouton.

“Population Characteristics of the Dearborn Public School
1983 District as Revealed by the 1980 Federal
Census". Office of Research and Evaluation,
Public Schools, Bulletin No. 1234. July 5.
Dearborn, Michigan.

Prothro, Edwin T.
1961 Child Rearing in the Lebanon. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.

 

Prothro, Edwin T. and Lutfy N. Diab.
1974 ChanginggFamily Patterns in the Arab East.
Beirut: Heidelberg Press.

Racy, John.
1977 "Psychiatry in the Arab East". In
Psychological Dimensions of Near Eastern
Studies. Carl Brown and Norman Itzkowitz,
eds. Pp. 279-329. Princeton: The Darwin
Press.

Radecki, Henry.
1980 "The Polish-Canadian Family: A Study in
Historical and Contemporary Perspectives". In
Canadian Families: Ethnic Variations.
K. Ishwaran, ed. Pp. 41-64. Toronto:
McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.

Rollins, Joan.
1981 "Ethnic Identiy, Acculturation and
Assimilation". In Hidden Minorities: The
Persistence of Ethnicity in American Life,
Joan Rollins, ed. Pp. 1-36. Washington,
D.C.: University Press of America, Inc.

Schermerhorn, P.A.
1970 Comparative Ethnic Relations. New York:
Random House.

 

Shabbas, Audrey.
1979 "The Child in the Arab Family". The Link.
12(2): 2-14.

248

Sharabi, Hisham and Mukhtar Ani.
1977 ”Impact of Class and Culture on Social
Behavior: The Feudal-Bourgeois Family in Arab
Society". In Psychological Dimensions of
Near Eastern Studies. Carl Brown and
Norman Itzkowitz, eds. Pp. 240-256.
Princeton: The Darwin Press.

 

 

Sears, Robert, Eleanor Maccoby and Harry Levin.
1957 Patterns of Child Rearing. Evanston, Ill.:
Row, Petereson and Co.

 

Sengstock, Mary.
1974 "Iraqi Christians in Detroit: An Analysis of
an Ethnic Occupation". In Arabic-Speaking
Communities in American Cities. Barbara
Aswad, ed. Pp. 21-38. New York: Center for
Migration Studies.

 

 

Simpson, G. and Yinger, J.
1965 Racial and Cultural Minorities. New York:
Harper and Row.

 

Smith, Marlene Koury.
1981 "The Arabic-Speaking Communities in Rhode
Island". In Hidden Minorities: The
Persistence of Ethnicity in American Life.
Joan Rollins, ed. Pp. 141-175. Washington,
D.C.: University Press of America.

 

 

Spiro, Melford E.
1955 "The Acculturation of American Ethnic Groups".
American Anthropologist 57: 1240-1252.

 

Staples, Robert, and Alfredo, Mirande.

1980 "Racial and Cultural Variations Among American
Families: A Decennial Review of the Literature
on Minority Families". In Journal of Marriage
and the Family Nov: 157-173.

 

 

Swan, C.L., and L.B. Saba.

 

1974 "The Migration of a Minority". In Arabic
Speaking Communities in American Cities
Barbara Aswad, ed. Pp. 85—110. New York:

Center for Migration Studies.

TESOL Quarterly.
1978 Vol. 12, No.3.

 

Tomeh, Aida.
1975 The Family and Sex Roles. Toronto: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston of Canada.

 

249

 

Wigle, Laurel D.
1974 "An Arab Muslim Community in Michigan". In
Arabic Speaking Communities in American Cities,
155-168. New York:

Barbara Aswad, ed. Pp.
Center for Migration Studies.

Wigle, Laurel D., and Sameer Abraham.
1974 "Arab Nationalism in America: The Dearborn

Arab Community". In Immigrants and Migrants:

The Detroit Ethnic Experience 10(2, 3 and 4):
Pp. 279-302. Detroit: Wayne State University

Williams, Judith R.
1968 The Youth of Haouch e1 Harimi. Harvard Middle

Eastern Monographs, No. 20. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press.

Yarrow, Marian Radke, Phyllis Scott, Louise Deleeuw and

1972 Christine Heinig.
"Child-Rearing in Families of Working and Non-

Working Mothers". In Readings on the Family
314-328.

System. Ira Reiss, ed. Pp.
New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc.

Norman R., and Steele, C. Hoy.
Boston:

Yetman,
3rd Edition.

1982 Majority and Minority.
Allyn and Bacon, Inc.