The Slovak-American "swaddling ethos": homeostat for family dynamics and cultural continuity.

Publisher: Family Process Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0400666 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0014-7370 (Print) Linking ISSN: 00147370 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Fam Process Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: New York, NY : Family Process
Original Publication: Baltimore [etc.]

Child Rearing* ; Culture* ; Ethnicity* ; Family*; Attitude ; Child, Preschool ; Czechoslovakia/ethnology ; Dependency, Psychological ; Dominance-Subordination ; Female ; Humans ; Individuation ; Infant ; Interpersonal Relations ; Male ; Mother-Child Relations ; Personality ; Self Concept ; Socialization ; United States

This paper explores the systemic relationships among cultural ethos, family dynamics, personality configuration, and child-rearing patterns among multigeneration Slovak-Americans. The "swaddling ethos" is posited to serve as a homeostat whose regulatory function can be discerned through the analysis of family structure and process, in particular through the explication of values, affective patterns, roles, boundaries, and structural units within the family. The core of the ethos is a dependency-security complex that attaches the individual to an extended family network of obligation, indebtedness, and reciprocity (ethnic, Slovak); induces rebellion against such attachment (mainstream American); and undermines efforts toward separation-individuation, resulting in the perpetuation of an ethnic tradition.

Date Created: 19780301 Date Completed: 19781220 Latest Revision: 20211203

20231215

10.1111/j.1545-5300.1978.00031.x

700068