Chapter 12: The Family Flashcards
What is family structure?
the number of and relationships amongst the people living in a household
What are alterations in family structure?
- influence interactions amongst family members
- affect family routines and norms
- affect children’s emotional well-being
What are family structures like in Canada?
- more children live with single or unmarried parents
- first-time parents are older than in the past
- more children live with grandparents
- families are smaller
- family structures are more fluid
Why is it more beneficial to have older first-time parents?
- planned birth with fewer children
- more education
- higher job status
- more financial resources
- more positive parenting
What are the negative effects of children living with their grandparents?
- financial constraints for grandparents because of limited income and retirement funds
- children more likely to experience emotional and behavioural problems
Why are there smaller families now compared to before?
- women delaying pregnancies for careers
- increased access to birth control
Why has teen pregnancy dropped dramatically over the past two decades?
- better sex education
- access to birth control
- abortion
What are teen risks related to become pregnant?
- disadvantaged household
- school problems
- low expectations for college
- early first intercourse
What are the consequences of adolescent pregnancy?
- higher risk of poverty
- negative school outcomes
- less high school and/or college graduation
- less positive parenting
What is an intervention program for teen pregnancy?
teen-tot progran
How does the development of children of same-sex parents differ from children of hetero parents?
it does not differ, child adjustment depends on family dynamics and closeness of parent-child relationship
What mechanisms can divorce affect children?
- parent with whom child lives: single, time-intensive, financially constrained
- new school, neighbourhood disrupting routines and social networks
What are outcomes of divorce?
positive: less conflict, fewer emotional problems
negative: depression, delinquent behaviour
How are children’s adjustment to divorce?
- children experience sadness, depression
- boys may externalize problems
- may be a drop in academic achievement
What are the different structures of stepfamilies?
- simple: a new stepparent joins another parent and their children
- complex/blended: new stepparent and new stepsiblings
What are factors that can affect a child’s adjustment to a stepparent?
- less frequent contact with noncustodial parent
- relationship with stepparent
- attitude of noncustodial parent toward the stepparent and level of conflict
- homicide
What are family dynamics?
the way in which family members interact through various relationships: mother-child, father-child, mother-mother, sibling-sibling
What is ethology?
study of behaviour within an evolutionary context and attempts to understand behaviour in terms of its adaptive or survival value
What is evolutionary psychology?
with the evolutionary history of our species, certain genes predisposed behaviour and they solved adaptive challenges for survival
What is the parental-investment theory?
stresses the evolutionary basis of many aspects of parental behaviour
What is socialization?
process through which children acquire the values, standards, skills, knowledge, and behaviours that are regarded as appropriate for their present and future roles in their culture
What are two key aspects of parenting and important for children’s development?
- parents’ use of discipline
- parenting style
What is discipline?
the set of strategies and behaviours parents use to teach children how to behave appropriately
What is internalization?
effective discipline that leads to a permanent change in child’s behaviour; child learn and accepted desired behaviour
What is punishment?
a negative stimulus that follows a behaviour to reduce the likelihood that the behaviour will occur again
Why is spanking ineffective?
- does not improve children’s behaviour
- increases children’s risk for a range of negative outcomes
- spanking is linked with negative outcomes equally across cultural groups
What are the different parenting style?
- authoritative
- authoritarian
- permissive
- uninvolved
What are two dimensions of parenting style that important?
- degree of parental warmth and responsiveness
- degree of parenting control and demandingness
What is authoritative parenting and what are children from authoritative families like?
high in demandingness and supportiveness
children tend to be:
- competent
- self-assured
- popular with peers
- good coping skills
What is authoritarian parenting and what are children from authoritarian families like?
high is demandingness and low in responsiveness
children to be:
- relatively low in social and academic competence
- unhappy and unfriendly
- low in self-confidence
- inability to cope with everyday stressors
- high levels of depression, aggression, delinquency, and alcohol problems
What is permissive parenting and what are children from permissive parenting like?
high in responsiveness but low in demandingness
children tend to be:
- impulsive
- low in self-regulation
- high in externalizing problems
- low in school achievement
What is uninvolved parenting?
low in both demandingness and responsiveness
children tend to be:
- have disturbed attachment relationships
- have problems with peer relationships
- antisocial behaviour
- low academic competence
- promiscuous sexual behaviour
- more
What are the differences in mothers’ and fathers’ interactions with their children influenced by?
- level of involvement
- child-rearing strategies
- culture influences
- effects of warm and responsive parenting
What is bidireactionality?
the idea that parents and their children are mutually affected by one another’s characteristics and behaviours
What are contributing factors to parenting received by children?
- differential susceptibility to quality of parenting
- individual differences in behaviour, personality
- temperaments
- attractiveness
How do siblings affect one another’s development?
- sharing
- reciprocity
- rivalry
- social skills
What is child maltreatment?
action or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker that results in physical or emotional harm to a child or a risk of serious harm
What are the main types of maltreatment?
- neglect
- physical abuse
- emotional harm
- sexual abuse
- exposure to family violence
What is the most common form of maltreatment?
neglect
What is polyvictimization?
the co-occurence of multiple forms of maltreatment
What are risks of maltreatment?
- parental lack of knowledge about child needs and abilities
- range of limited resources
- alcohol and drug dependence
- social isolation
- emotion regulation and self-control
What are consequences of maltreatment?
immediate outcomes:
- physical pain and injury
- physical discomfort
- fear/anxiety
longer-term outcomes:
- attachment challenges; increased risk of cognitive and social struggles
- psychiatric disorders in adolescence and adulthood
- heightened anger cue response; increased negative emotions
more chronic abuse:
- worse outcomes for child later in life: higher rate of substances abuse, violent delinquency, and suicide
Do most children recover from maltreatment?
positive outcomes are more likely if:
- abused children have sources of resilience in their lives
- physical needs are met
- parents are otherwise nurturing and in stable relationship
- access available to medical care and social services
What are the five general strategies to prevent both child abuse and neglect?
- strengthen the economic situation of families
- change social norms to promote positive parenting
- provide quality early education to children
- enhance parenting skills
- intervene to help children and prevent recurrence of maltreatment
What is the bioecological model?
considers the child’s environment as composed of a series of nested structures that impact development
- microsystem: family; bidriectionality
- mesosystem: microsystem interconnections
- exosystem: indirect, but influential
- macrosystem: larger cultural and social context
- chronosystem: temporal dimension, change over time
How does cultural context affect families?
- beliefs and practices linked with a family’s country, religion, ethnic group, race, group, or affiliation
- degree to which parents in different cultures engage in specific disciplinary practices
- degree to which similar parental behaviours affect child outcomes across different cultures
How do low-income families affect their dynamic?
- more hours at work and less time with their children
- higher stress leading to depression, irritability, harsh parenting practices
- more difficult to provide basic necessities: food, medical care, shelter, safe schools and neighbourhoods
What is the effect of a high-income family?
- more, better-quality goods and experiences
- parents pressure children to overachieve
- children experience psychological stress
- comparable or higher rates of drug use, delinquent behaviour, and mental health problems than low-income peers
How does parents’ work affect their parenting?
parents’ sense of accomplishment at work enhances mental health and quality of parenting
- work-family conflicts related to higher levels of emotional and behavioural problems in their children
