Different parenting styles among Christian and Muslim populations living in homogenous Israeli communities – In relation to their possession of the three capital types

Abstract

Modern society is structured as a social hierarchy where highly ranked individuals enjoy various advantages. Many theoreticians have attempted to quantify social hierarchy, and one of the modern ones, Pierre Bourdieu, proposed that this hierarchy can be examined by an individual’s three types of capital: economic (the individual’s material resources), cultural (their level of education), and social (their social connections with others). Likewise, it is known that different social classes practice varying parenting styles. Our study aims to examine whether parenting approaches differ between two groups of the Arab population residing in Israel – Muslim and Christian, as regards the three types of capital. It is known that the Christian population possesses more of the three types of capital, giving them an advantage over the Muslim population. We conducted a qualitative study of in-depth interviews with two population groups. Each group comprised 15 participants, one group of the Muslim faith and the other group Christians. Each religious group was further divided into two more groups: upper social class and lower social class. Analysis of the participants’ responses showed significant differences in the parenting styles of each group. This could intensify the existing inequality in Israeli society, especially within Arab society.