Early cultural socialisation of children in the ELFE cohort in family environments [CE-2019-2]

There are three key aspects to the early cultural socialisation of children within the home: the objects which surround them, educational interactions with their parents which occur by inculcation, and finally parental example, which works by imprinting.Monitoring of the ELFE cohort, made up of a panel of 18,000 children born in 2011, allows us to observe how these three modes of acquisition, inculcation and imprinting work according to each household.

The backgrounds to early socialisation are generally rich and varied. The children in the ELFE panel grow up in worlds which are typically well-equipped with diverse cultural products and facilities (books, records, cultural and educational software). At the age of two, parents have broad cultural interactions with their child, sharing several educational activities with them such as talking calmly with them, reading them history books, drawing and even watching television with them. Finally, children encounter parental models of cultural engagement as the parents in this cohort have high levels of media consumption, digital engagement and outings and visits to cultural facilities.

In this context of overall abundance of provision and intensity of parental commitment to cultural activities, provision or privation factors come down to educational choices and economic constraints. This study identifies five family environment profiles for early cultural socialisation, which connect these three areas in different ways and allot specific roles to fathers and mothers.