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Predominant Patterns of Parental Authority Among Amish Communities

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Predominant Patterns of Parental Authority Among Amish Communities PREDOMINANT PATTERNS OF PARENTAL AUTHORITY AMONG AMISH COMMUNITIES Medea Loibl A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2012 Committee: Dr. Bruce Collet, Advisor Dr. Margaret Booth Dr. Montana Miller © 2012 Medea Loibl All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Dr. Bruce Collet, Advisor The focus of this ethnographic case study was to explore the social and cultural factors of informal education that influence Amish adults regarding their approach to parenting. Four Amish participants, living in the Holmes County Settlement located in Northeast Ohio, and two experts on Amish culture participated in individual open-ended semi-structured interviews. The qualitative analysis of this data employed Erik Erikson’s (1993) theory of eight stages of human development as a theoretical background for categorizing and understanding crucial life stages in Amish communities and assisted in understanding how patterns of parental authority develop. These patterns of parental authority were then analyzed within Diana Baumrind’s (1978; 1971) and Maccoby and Martin’s (1983) framework of parenting styles. The cultural concept of Ordnung was found to be central for the development of patterns of parental authority. The findings and analysis of life span development also revealed that the Amish communities studied exhibit only six out of the eight stages of human development presented by Erikson. Utilizing Baumrind’s and Maccoby and Martin’s framework in relation to the findings of this research lead to the conclusion that Amish parents in the community investigated represent a mixture of the authoritarian-autocratic and the authoritative-reciprocal patterns of parental discipline. In addition, the indifferent-uninvolved pattern of parental discipline was found the least suitable to describe the parent-child relationship of the Amish families studied. This thesis aimed to serve as a basis for further research in the field of Amish studies, since it connected cultural socialization processes with parenting styles, which represent an area that has hardly been studied yet. Moreover, this research has implications for policy makers when discussing public iv educational policies about the Amish, for educators and educational researchers who are interested in different approaches toward the role of schools and compulsory education, and for the general public who wants to learn more about differences in parenting styles due to differences in cultural background. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I acknowledge my thesis committee, Dr. Collet, my academic advisor and chair, Dr. Booth, and Dr. Miller for all their assistance and guidance in the process of writing this thesis. Dr. Collet, I am very grateful for your eye for detail when reading drafts of this thesis. Your helpful edits and feedback assisted me tremendously with developing this research project. Your patience and calmness gave me security in this very stressful period. Dr. Booth, thank you for your expertise on the methodology section of this thesis. Dr. Montana Miller, thank you for all your assistance with my HSRB application and your encouragement and enthusiasm for fieldwork. I also want to acknowledge Dr. Landgraf’s efforts to organize a graduate assistantship for me which allowed me to study abroad. A special thank you to the faculty and staff at the Department of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages at Bowling Green State University for allowing me to work for and with you and providing my beloved work space. All your words of encouragement were highly appreciated. Thank you Hilde for making me coffee late at night and distracting me whenever I needed a break. Thank you Christy for making me watch TV with you on Sunday nights and for reminding me to take time off. I would like to recognize my colleagues Alison, Alyssa, and Sarah for listening to all my thesis worries. A special thank you to Dorothy Mayne for proofreading large parts of this thesis. I also acknowledge Global Connections and their work for international students. Thank you for organizing a trip to the Amish settlement, which assisted in getting started with this research project. I am indebted to my gatekeeper for arranging interviews and inviting me to her house. Finally, I would like to thank my family, especially my fiancé Christoph for all their support and advice. Christoph, without you I would not have made it to this point. Thank you for believing in me when I was hardly believing in myself. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................. 1 Background of the Study ........................................................................................... 3 Significance of the Study ........................................................................................... 4 Organization of the Thesis ......................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................. 7 Amish Philosophy of Cultural Socialization ............................................................. 7 Ordnung ......................................................................................................... 7 Gelassenheit ................................................................................................... 9 Life Span Development of Amish Communities ....................................................... 12 The Eight Stages of Man ................................................................................ 13 The Amish Life Cycle .................................................................................... 14 Amish School System ................................................................................................ 23 The State of Wisconsin v Jonas Yoder et al. ................................................ 25 Ideological Foundations of the Supreme Court Decision .............................. 28 Results of the Supreme Court Decision ......................................................... 33 Parenting Styles and Amish Communities ................................................................ 36 The Authoritarian-Autocratic Pattern of Discipline ...................................... 37 The Indulgent-Permissive Pattern of Discipline ............................................ 38 The Authoritative-Reciprocal Pattern of Discipline ...................................... 39 The Indifferent-Uninvolved Pattern of Discipline ......................................... 40 vii Predominant Parenting Styles in Amish Communities .................................. 41 CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................... 44 Researcher Perspective .............................................................................................. 47 Case Study Method .................................................................................................... 49 The Case ........................................................................................................... 50 Setting ........................................................................................................... 51 Participants and Participant Selection ........................................................................ 51 Data Collection .......................................................................................................... 54 Open-ended Semi-structured Interviews ........................................................ 55 Observations .................................................................................................. 56 Audiovisual Materials .................................................................................... 57 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................... 58 Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................... 58 Validity ........................................................................................................... 59 Limitations ........................................................................................................... 60 CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................ 63 Amish Philosophy of Cultural Socialization ............................................................. 63 Ordnung and Amish Life ............................................................................... 63 Discussion of Ordnung .................................................................................. 73 Gelassenheit and Amish Life ......................................................................... 77 Discussion of Gelassenheit ............................................................................ 80 Life Span Development of Amish Communities ....................................................... 82 Infancy ........................................................................................................... 83 viii Discussion of Infancy .................................................................................... 85 Little Children ...............................................................................................
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