Marxist theory suggests that full-time working parents disrupt primary socialisation because they...

• A. Spend more time away from home at work
• B. Provide too many external influences
• C. Spend money on non-educational activities
• D. Are absent from the home for long hours

Answer: (D)

Primary socialisation happens in the home, where parents shape a child’s norms, values and everyday behaviours. Marxists see the family as part of a wider system that helps reproduce the capitalist order and social inequalities, but this still relies on parents giving children the early guidance and discipline they need. When full-time working parents are away from home for long hours, their direct influence on that early socialisation is reduced. With less day-to-day shaping from parents, children may receive less consistent guidance from the family, and schools, peers, and the media—institutions that operate within a capitalist society—take on a larger role in teaching and reinforcing norms. This aligns with the idea that the family’s ability to dominate early socialisation is weakened by long parental absence.