John and Elizabeth Newson work from the conviction that the causes and the consequences of child-rearing attitudes can fruitfully be investigated only in the framework of the total social environment in which they occur. This book continues their analysis of child rearing in an English urban setting.

1: Background and Introduction; 2: The Child in his Context; 3: Focus on Four-Year-Olds; 4: Pressures for Independence; 5: Social Learning and the Control of Aggression; 6: Rights and Privileges of Property and Play; 7: Shared and Private Worlds; 8: Meal Times and Manners; 9: Must We to Bed Indeed?; 10: Rituals and Comfort Habits; 11: Coda to Toilet Training; 12: Who Told Thee that Thou Wast Naked?; 13 1: Patterns of Persuasion and Compulsion; 14 1: Verbalization and The Question of Truth; 15: Satisfaction and Doubt in the Parental Role