The nurture assumption
Subtitle: why children turn out the way they do
By: Judith Rich Harris.
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 462
Subjects: Child development -- United States; Child rearing -- United States; Nature and nurture -- United States; Children and the environment -- United States
Description: How much credit do parents deserve when their children turn out well? How much blame when they turn out badly? This book explodes some of our deepest beliefs about children and parents and gives us something radically new to put in their place. With eloquence and wit, Judith Harris explains why parents have little power to determine the sort of people their children become. It is what children experience outside the home, in the company of their peers, that matters most.

Parents don't socialize children: children socialize children.

Harris looks with a fresh eye at the real lives of real children and shows that the nurture assumption is nothing more than a cultural myth. Why do the children of immigrant parents end up speaking in the language and accent of their peers, not of their parents? Why are twins reared together no more alike than twins raised apart? Why does a boy who spends his first eight years with a nanny and his next ten years in boarding school nevertheless turn out just like his father?

The nurture assumption cannot provide an answer to these questions. Judith Harris can. Through no fault of their own, good parents sometimes have bad kids. Harris offers parents wise counsel on what they can and cannot do, and relief from guilt for those whose best efforts have somehow failed to produce a happy, well-behaved, self-confident child.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 419-450) and index.