Families in childhood and adolescence Flashcards
3 studies on parental involvement in infant care
Lamb 1987: in a psychological sense fathers can fulfil a parenting role just as much as mothers but tend not to
Lewis 1986: study of fathers of 1 yr olds in Nottingham. 100 in 1960 and 100 in 1980. Majority attend births but majority of childcare falls on mothers.
Russel G and Russel A 1987: 6-7 yr olds in Australia. Interviews focused on time spent with children, performance of child-need tasks and frequency of parent-child interactions. mothers interacted with children more, more caregiving and directive. Fathers interactions more in the context of play. No difference in responsiveness or being restrictive.
PEW research from the American Time Use Survey 2011: still gaps in hrs but gap lessened and both spend more time with childcare
Then office for national statistics 2021: in comparison to 2015, mother’s childcare hours were similar and fathers increased by 16%: covid or long-term shift?
Children with highly involved fathers:
Pre-school:
more cognitive competence, internal locus of control, empathetic, less gender-role stereotyping (Lamb 1987)
Primary school (Amato 1987)
Self-control, Self-esteem, life skills and social competency
Belsky’s model of parenting 1987
3 main influences on quality of parental functioning
1) Personal psychological resources of parents
(their mental health, development history and internal representations of relationships)
2) Contextual source of support
(social network, job conditions, financial circumstances)
3) Characteristics
(difficult or easy temperament)
Two dimensional framework (Maccoby and Martin 1983)
When looking at parents as sources of influence, 2 dimensions to be considered:
1) degree of parental warmth, support and acceptance
2)degree of parental control and demanding ness
When warm parenting, they will continue to want parental approval (Baurmrind 1991; Grusec + Daviddov 2007) if cold and rejected not much to lose. Responsive parenting build security and more likely to accept parental values
2 types of parental control
Behavioural: setting reasonable rules, reasoning and discussing alternatives to behaviours
Psychological: emotion-based tactic (guilt, shame. taking away love/affection. Leads to low self esteem, anxiety and possible depression
Parenting style on child outcomes Lamborn et al 1991
4100 15-18 yr olds from diverse backgrounds
Self-report measures of parenting
Parenting considered in the light of a wide range of outcome variables. (education, internalised distress and behaviour)
Authoritative parenting had best performance.
Darling and Steinberg 1993 cultural differences
Chinese parenting styles more authoritatrian fostering high achievement but in extreme cases leads to anxiety, anti-social and depression (Wang et al 2007)
Baumrind’s typology is a better predictor for eurpoean-american than african-american
Grandparent influences
Tinsley and Parke 1984
Indirect influence: parental attitudes influenced by the way parents have been brought up
Direct: looking after child
Johnson 1983:
support and contact drops significantly with age
Role is changing with change in societal structure and roles
Sibling influences
Direct influence: social partners and role models
Indirect: larger family dynamics and diluting recources.
Millennium cohort study- de la Rochebrochard and Joshi 2013
Interactions with older siblings facilitate cognitive development and emotional understanding language and other’s emotions and perspective.
Siblings allow children to experience different behaviours.
Mediating factors include
Birth order (having role model or being one)
Age gap (spacing gives access to equal parental resources)
Same sex tend to be more influential
Hetherington Cox and Cox 1982;1985
Compared mother-custody to normal families
Average age of child at divorce- 4yrs
1yr later: behaviour problems associated with dysfunction in family
2yrs later: much improved, problems with boys more persistent
6 yrs later: grow up faster and boys have suffering relationship with mother
Divorce and attachment
Those with divorced parents less secure in attachment styles (brennan and Shaver 1998; Lewis, Feiring & Rosenthal 2000) Not influenced by parenting style
May be because of parental conflict, less secure if parents are constantly arguing.
Lack of parental availability
Multiple separations from attachment figures can be worsening
Divorce acute distress syndrome
Immediate and intense distress felt after divorce (anx, depress, sleep distrubance)
Upset (protesting)
Apathy (despair)
Loss of interest (detachment)
Change in residence, financial status, routine
Parents having to spend more time at work due to finance so less available for child. Can cause stress, worsening relationship
Fathers move out and more permissible, making mum seem more strict and cause conflict/ rebel
Factors in divorce outcome
Economic security
Academic achievement (change school, no longer afford tutor)
Physical wellbeing( additional stress)
Behavioural problems
High vs Low conflict divroces
High : more behaviour problems, more adjustment difficulties, similar outcomes
Emery 1982; Kelly 2000
Age and divorce
Preschool: most dramatic reactions as have less understanding of relationships
5-12 year old similar psychological reactions but less openly expressive
Adolescents have more resources and understand situation better and have more interests outside of home.
Cannot be generalised
Mediators vs moderators
Mediators: explain relation between 2 variables
Moderators: changes and often weakens relation between 2
Lansford 2011
Link between parental divorce and children’s adjustment.
Moderators between divorce and adjustment are timing, children’s adjustment prior to divorce and stigmatisation
Mediators between the 2: income, interparental conflict, parenting and parental wellbeing
Divorced children more likely to internalise problems, problems in social and cognitive but no long-term negative outcomes
Younger children more at risk
Child-focused interventions
With parents: reduce on going conflict. contact issues, practical support
With children: family , group and individual work- destigmatise divorce
Teen pregnancy
ONS 2017: more pregnant at older age (sex ed and access to contraception)
Miller et al 2006
17% of teen mums retain romantic relationship with father after first few months following birth
Compared to peers, less likely to finish school/ college.
Find stable employment
Lower income.
Poverty then increases likelihood of living in high crime/ violence areas and moving more frequently
Teen parents pt 2
Teen parents have more dysregulated patters of interactions and infants show more avoidant behaviour patterns.
Their knowledge of children’s development is limited and underestimate mental development, only tending to physical needs (Bordy and Siger 1990)
If born to teen mum, associated with poorer educational attainment, life satisfaction and income Lipman et al 2011
Social support is one of the greatest buffers
Partner support is positively related with maternal psychological wellbeing (Roye and Balk 1996)
85% of adolescent mums do receive help from family (Cervera 1994)
Improved mother-child interactions and cognitive development (Furey 2004)
