She says that this differs from the parents of children in working-class families, who attribute much of their child raising tactics to the accomplishment of natural growth.
During the 2005–2006 school year she moved to Palo Alto, California to complete a residence at the Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Sciences.
In this book, she highlights the benefits and shortcomings of raising children through either concerted cultivation or natural growth.
Some examples of this type of parental teaching is engagement in critical thinking such as asking challenging questions, the use of advanced grammar, and help a stronger family support structure.
[2] "The Accomplishment of Natural Growth" is the type of childrearing that working class and poor parents practice, and not necessarily by choice.
[2] The book Unequal Childhoods includes detailed descriptions of her encounters and organized data from her analysis.
The book contains a great deal of quotes, stories of her experiences while observing, and connections that explain why particular children might act a certain way.
Each chapter is an in-depth analysis of a different family, concerning the specific situation surrounding the child and how it has affected their life.
Through her research she has found that the childrearing ways of the middle class perpetuate inequality because of the advantages that the children have through participation in extracurricular activities, engagement in critical thinking and problem solving.
In 1992–1993 she received a grant from the Spencer Foundation to study a third grade classroom in Lower Richmond, an urban school district.
With Elliot Weininger and Dalton Conley, she also reported national data on children's participation in organized activities which affirmed the findings of her ethnographic study.
In 2004, she won the American Sociological Association Section on Children and Youth Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award.