Discussion post week eight

Collective Efficacy

Supportive control is a strength for collective efficacy where ignoring culture is a limitation. Supportive control, whether from authoritative parenting or collective efficacy, promotes conformity by deterring delinquency and affiliation with deviant peers (Simons, 2005). Supportive control gives children the same message regardless of who is conveying the message. Ignoring culture reduces informal social control by not recognizing conventional values (Warner, 2003). If the conventional values of the family are not recognized by the collective efficacy of the community, it causes strife when families and children don't feel their beliefs are considered by others.

Collective efficacy is based on trusting and cohesive relationships and tends to impact the quality of parenting that decreases delinquency and affiliation with deviant peers (Simons, 2005). This is especially true with a growing number of single-parent families in communities. A single parent carries the whole load of raising children and providing for the household at the same time. Where a single parent does not have the ability of being available to the child at all times, if a babysitter, neighbor, or even teachers, feel differently than the parent, communications become mixed and confusing to the child and can drive the child to delinquency from the mixed communications. When the babysitter, neighbor, and teachers, or all members of the collective efficacy, uphold the values and rules of the parent, the child receives the same messages from all the directions, reinforcing the rules and values of the parent. If a parent discourages association with deviant peers and punishes delinquent acts and the whole collective efficacy of relationships recognize the parent's discouragement and punishment, the child is brought into conformity by the same message from all the collective efficacy relationship members and deterred from delinquency and association with deviant peers.

Ignoring cultural values in collective efficacy relationships decreases informal social control (Warner, 2003). All cultures do not place the same emphasis on the same values. Without recognizing the cultural conventional values, children become resentful with other collective efficacy relationships often with feelings of discrimination. As a general rule, Hispanic families place a high dependency on family where older children play big roles in the rearing of younger children. It creates a different special kind of bond within these Hispanic families. If other cultural members of the collective efficacy relationship feel it is not the child's place to raise their siblings, the Hispanic youth often feel their values are being discriminated against and become resentful toward the other cultural members in their communities. This non-recognition of the cultural values causes strife among community members and leads children to delinquent acts and association with deviant peers by feeling their family is being discriminated against.