Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF FAMILY STUDIES, ss.1-33, 2025 (SSCI, Scopus)
This article examines how parents’ socio-cultural and class
backgrounds shape expectations and parenting practices
concerning their children’s success, within the context of neo-
liberal familialist policies in Türkiye. Since the 1980s, the
retrenchment of state services in education and skills provision has
positioned parents as the primary actors responsible for their
children’s future. Drawing on Gillies’ (2008) discussion of ‘new
parenting in the neoliberal era,’ this article considers how Türkiye’s
unique socioeconomic and historical context reshapes parental
aspirations and strategies. Based on semi-structured interviews with
44 parents from lower and upper-middle classes, the study
compares how “success” is defined, the expectations placed on
children, and the resources mobilized to achieve these goals. The
findings show that both groups share the aspiration of raising a
“successful child” who obtains a good education, a stable career
and social respect. However, resource differences generate
divergent practices. Upper-middle-class parents focus on cultivating
autonomy, sociability and skills that open pathways to self-
realization and global competitiveness. Lower-class parents, facing
structural constraints, emphasize resilience, moral responsibility,
and realistic awareness of social position, enabling children to
navigate barriers and pursue upward mobility. These contrasting
strategies reveal distinct social functions of parenting across classes,
aimed at sustaining or improving family standing aimed growing
inequality.