Ethnocentric perception of childrearing practices in protective services

The protective services system in the United States may be committing a form of institutional abuse of minority families if the professionals who work in that system are not sufficiently well versed in the unique childrearing practices of each culture in the communities the system represents. It is easy for misunderstandings to occur from an ethnocentric perspective, and these misunderstandings are unlikely to be in the minority group's favor. Although there is wide agreement that this represents a problem, there is not enough information readily available to allow protective service professionals to adopt a cross-cultural perspective in conducting their work. To discover some of the possible misunderstandings by the dominant American culture of subculture childrearing practices, this study was conducted through in-person interviews with members of six minority groups, Mexican-, Japanese-, Vietnamese-, Filipino- and Samoan-Americans and Blackfeet Indians, in three communities in conjunction with an evaluation of child abuse prevention demonstration projects. The themes of delegating responsibility to children and issues of dominance and submission emerged as areas for awareness and sensitivity on the part of child protective services.