“I Want to Succeed for Her, So I Can Assure a Better Future for Her”: Parenting in Bedouin Society in Israel

Bedouin society in Israel is characterized as a marginalized minority (Muslim) society struggling to maintain its uniqueness in a Western (Jewish) dominant society. In this unique qualitative study, we aimed to shed light on the distinctive characteristics of Bedouin parenting practices in the context of social change by exploring Bedouin parents’ accounts of factors contributing to or hampering their parenthood. Ninety-nine parents (Mage = 33.25, SD = 4.89) were interviewed about their parenting and their perceptions of Bedouin society. Interviews were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. Parents’ accounts indicated a tension between preserving traditions, social norms, and religious rules that offer cohesion, comfort, and security and embracing individualistic values and cultural changes to promote social mobility for future generations. Bedouin mothers were conflicted between seeking selffulfillment and meeting societal expectations. Whereas some emphasized investing time and effort in parenting as a form of ensuring their children’s success, others saw investing in themselves as a means to improve family mobility. The findings suggest the need to be mindful of cultural values that are important to parents (e.g., maintaining traditions) and of barriers to help-seeking (e.g., viewing secular ideas as threats to religiously based social structures) when working with parents from minority indigenous societies such as the Bedouin.