Family Flashcards
Final Exam
what family provides
- promoting survival
- support
- socialization
survival (family)
a primary goal is often keeping your family members alive
- Biological family, chosen family, friend family, etc.
support (family)
emotional support, financial support, physical support
socialization (family)
how kids acquire values, behaviors, skills beliefs
- What they learn is appropriate within their culture
family relations map
interactions between:
- parent relations
- sibling relations
- parent 1 child relations
- parent 2 child relations
When we’re studying families/parents, we need to understand how all the difference pieces relate to/influence each other
parenting styles
on a scale between warmth/support/acceptance/responsiveness vs. control/demandingness
- permissive
- authoritative
- uninvolved
- autoritarian
warmth and support
May be physical, emotional, accepting, responsiveness, etc
control/demandingness
behavioral control: how they try to manage/enforce their children’s behavior
psychological control: trying to shift their psychological states
i. Shame, guilt, pride, etc.
permissive parent (indulgent)
highly supportive but makes few rules and trusts rather than monitors
- very warm and affirming but lack expectations
- Don’t try to adjust kids behavior
authoritative parent
highly supportive AND closely monitors and sets rules
- couple rules w/ warmth and support
- “here are the rules, but I’m going to tell you why”
- Not coupled w/ as harsh punishment
- More warmth & care
uninvolved parent (aka neglectful)
sets few rules, does not monitor, and offers little active support
- doesn’t give encouragement/affirmation OR rules
authoritarian parent
sets many rules and closely monitors but offers little support
- traditional parenting style
- Set lots of rules, but aren’t necessarily giving the warmth and support with it
- Setting strong demands/expectations
outcomes of authoritative parenting styles
- often cheerful
- show self control, reliance
- good relationships w/ peers and adults
- adapt well to stress; more likely to bounce back
also higher in: - social competence
- GPA
- academic competence
low: somatic of symptoms of distress & school misconduct
outcomes of authoritarian parenting
○ Set strict expectations and rules
§ Don’t always learn how to do things on their own; fear over meeting those expectations
- Often well behaved and compliant, but may be aggressive
- Often fearful, anxious, unhappy
Struggle w/ social connection and self reliance
lower reliance, social competence, and academic competence than other parenting styles
outcomes of permissive parenting
- Often impulsive, struggle with self-regulation
- May show aggression, deviant behavior
○ Drug use, skipping class, etc. - Difficulty in school
- Decent self-esteem and social skills
Also: high social competence; higher somatic symptoms of distress & school misconduct
outcomes of uninvolved parenting
- More likely to exhibit a wide range of challenges
○ Schools, peers, behavioral problems
high school misconduct & somatic symptoms of distress; low GPA
aspects of parenting
- warmth/support/acceptance/responsiveness
- control/demandingness
- discipline
discipline
- Do you use rewards or punishments? Reasoning?
- What’s the impact of using physical punishment
○ Physical discipline often associated with spanking/physical discipline
- What’s the impact of using physical punishment
parent relations
Parents relationship with each other might not be as impactful as the parent relationship’s with the child
- Parents relationship w/ each other vs. parents relationship w the child
- Measuring quality of parent relationship vs. quality of parenting
major detrimental effects of spanking (physical discipline)
- victim of physical abuse
- child mental health problems
- negative parent-child relationship
- externalizing and internalizing behavior/mental health problems
parenting vs bad marriage
The confound: good parenting but poor marriage ==> good buffer against the negative impacts of a bad marriage
divorce: outcomes on children
increased % of children showing serious emotional problems in the following:
- parent conflict
- stress (esp in parents)
§ When they go thru divorce, they experience mental health challenges
§ Leads to less than ideal parenting
- economic difficulties
almost always accompanies divorce
§ Changes in households, friends, relocation, etc
§ Kids do much better following divorce if you have less economic shift/changes
□ Buffers negative effects of divorce
- relocation
- diminished parenting
- social difficulties/changes
- absence of a parent/fear of absence
divorce: increased risk of problems
- Not huge increased risk, but there is some
- 2.5x increased risk
○ 25% of these children show emotional programs
○ Most children who have divorced parents are doing fine
studying: divorce vs conflict
Longitudinal study: over 12 years
- When they begin the study: all are married
- Measure: the amount of conflict in the family
In families where there’s a lot of conflict:
- If there’s divorce, they’re now doing better
○ Less psychological distress, more happiness
In families when there’s not conflict when the parents divorce:
- children fair worse
divorce as a process: pre-divorce
- Children who’s parents who will get divorce: show increased risk of difficulties
○ Effects happen even before the divorce
divorce as a process: short-term effects
Short-term effects: 1-2 years after
○ 1 year after: height of challenges; reduces after 2 years
- Most times, kids recover after these differences
divorce as a process: long-term effects
Long-term effects
- Greater risks of dropping out of school, divorce in the future, etc.
same sex/gender parents
- no difference in adjustment, personality, achievement, sexual orientation
- children from families with LGBTQ+ parents report feeling different and subjected to social slights BUT: feel positively about their families
- children w/ same-sex parents appear to have closer parent-child relationships
parent relations: what is or isn’t related to child outcomes
related to child outcomes:
- quality of parent relationship with each other
- parent conflict
- parent divorce
NOT related:
- sex/gender of parents
children of divorce: young adults
- By the time the children of divorced parents have grown into young adults, there’s still a correlation w/ more emotional problems
○ Most of those effects happen more in the short term
○ But: reduction occurs as we get older (i.e. time goes on)
differences in children with same-sex parents
- Often experience harassment bullying
- They feel that their family is different than the presumed norm
Despite this, they still feel very positively about their family
same sex/gender parents: closer relations
- Tend to have closer parent-child relationships
○ How much of this has to do with the nature of the relationships vs being more well off (less stress, more time w/ kids, etc.) - Confound: families of same-sex parents are wealthier + more educated
○ If you’re two men, you often have to invest time and money (ex: adoption, surrogate, etc.)
○ Often, queer parents that are having kids often have more support/more well off
parenting within a cultural context
When socializing a child to be a part of a competent society, culture/society plays a role in what’s considered competent
- Norms of behavior - Beliefs about parenting: what parents should be/how they should teach - Role of extended family: how much they are involved - Resources available: money, time, accessibility, etc.
role of culture + how it intersects with parenting styles
–> the model we see was developed from an NA perspective
§ The goal is often independence; self-reliance; self control
○ Criticized: how much does this way of thinking about parenting extend beyond north American/western contexts?
parenting: similarities across culture
- use of warmth/support and control
- warmth/support appear beneficial for development
○ Universally beneficial: parents that use more support kids’ do better
parenting: how warmth and support differ across culture
- Very different connotations of what is warmth and support
○ Ex: in many Asian cultures: sliced fruit
parenting: how control differ across culture
- w/ authoritative parenting: there’s a “moderate tie” between control/demand
- is this consistent across cultures? - different “ideals” of control
chinese parenting (culture & parenting)
less warmth: tend to withhold praise, believed to lead self-satisfied children
○ Rooted in collectivistic values: you don’t want children who are too separate
more controlling: belief in deeply-involved parens, respect for family & authority
○ Involvement: parents have a role to be involved in their children’s life
○ Chinese character: “To supervise” or “to govern” - seen as a neutral connotation of the word
§ This word has some love or neutrality involved in it
mixed findings w/ outcomes associated w/ Chinese parenting approaches
- classic studies show no negative effects of higher-control parenting in Chinese families
- recent studies show authoritarian is linked to similar outcomes that we see within north American contexts
○ Anxiety, over reliance, etc.
Chinese parenting styles: critiques on findings
- Differences across age?
- Differences across regions within China and with immigrant populations?
○ China is huge!!
○ Not always the same w/ immigrants, etc. - Differences across types of control?
○ Physical, involvement, verbal etc.? - Changes over time
○ Has to do w/ globalization
Latino/x/e parents (culture and parenting)
more warming –> familismo: desire for family ties, for family support
more control –> respeto: fulfill obligations, maintain harmonious relationships
Lainto/x/e parenting: inconsistent findings
- Some don’t find authoritative finding as the best, others do
- Some find positive outcomes linked w/ warmth + higher level of control
culture & parenting: conclusions
parenting is culturally situated
- what is valued as “good” parenting differs
- the relationship between parenting practices and outcomes may differ
- and even within cultures, there may be a lot of variability
normativeness
Within each cultural context, not all parents are thinking/behaving the same
* if parents practices are congruent w/ others in their cultural context –> adaptive for children
normativeness in parenting
Similarity: What might be particularly influential is in your context, are your parents doing what everyone else is doing?
Comparison: If your parents are strict/demanding and the only ones who are doing so, that might not be so great
Standards: If everyone’s parents are strict, the standard might be different and thus what’s considered good/bad is different
Idealism: The more normative practices might be ideal
sibling relationships: influenced by parent relationships
- When parents get along better, siblings get along better
- When parents have better relationships with their kids, siblings get along better
sibling relationships
Typically neither vertical or horizontal power structures
§ Not the vertical relationship that’s seen with parents (parent –> child)
§ Not like the parallel relationship with peers (peer <–> peer)
Marked by both warmth/support and conflict
Non-voluntary
§ You don’t get to choose your sibling
Long lasting: you might fight, but they’re not going anywhere
§ If you get into a fight, they’re still gonna be there
sibling relationships: warmth/support + conflict
- Warmth and support coupled with conflict
- Devastating lack of inhibition: lack of inhibition in warmth, support, love, etc.
○ More than peers and friends, in many cases
○ BUT: they’ll also fight, tease, and threaten more than friends do
- Devastating lack of inhibition: lack of inhibition in warmth, support, love, etc.
sibling relationships: functions
- practice communication and social skills
- models of behavior
- context to try out new behaviors
- can be opportunity for learning about another gender
- promote individuality
- buffer for peer refection, parent conflict, stressful experiences
- conflict: destructive or constructive
modeling (siblings relationships)
seeing what older siblings do and imitating that behavior
- Good to learn socialization
- Can model/imitate less than ideal behavior
- Deviancy training: if your older sibling is doing something deviant, a younger sibling might copy that
deviancy training
if your older sibling is doing something deviant, a younger sibling might copy that
- seen in modeling
mixed behaviors (siblings relationships)
- Learning of behavior around gender roles
- Learn about different genders in different contexts
promote individuality (siblings relationships)
many are interested in finding their own identity as separate from their siblings
- When parents don’t treat siblings totally the same (ie have their own relationships with them), it’s linked w/ better outcomes
buffer from painful experiences (siblings relationships)
- Being alone at school
- Tension with parents
- Tension between parents
Effect of high stressful life events on internalizing symptoms (siblings relationships)
High sibling affection = better outcome
Low sibling affection = worse outcome
conflict between siblings (siblings relationships)
- In childhood, siblings on average engage in 7-8 disputes per hour
○ Tend to be short; average was 45 seconds- Siblings on the high end of the conflict spectrum is not good
- Some conflict is good in siblings - it forces us to learn conflict resolution skills
variety and change in relationships (siblings)
age; age gaps; gender; disability; biological vs adopted vs step vs half siblings
types of sibling relationships
- caregiver
- buddy
- casual/uninvolved
- critical/conflictual/rival
same-sex dyads: trends (sibling relationships)
closeness increases during adolescence, and then stabilizes
mixed-sex dyads: trends (sibling relationships)
drop off during adolescence, then rises during later adolescence
caregiving sibling relationship
one sibling serves as a quasi-parent for the other
- more common w/ big age gap; more common if there’s an older sister
buddy sibling relationship
both siblings like each other and try to be like each other
- closeness; affinity; doing a lot of the modeling
○ Common when closer in age
○ In girl-girl relationships
casual/uninvolved sibling relationships
siblings have little to do with each other
- don’t have a lot to do w/ each other; less involved
But also: less fighting
rival sibling relationships
one sibling tries to dominate the other
- teasing & fighting
- characterized by a lot of conflict, fighting, domination
○ Brother-brother relationships
Less likely to be associated w/ the benefits of siblings (eg buffer of stress)
stereotypes for birth order
First: perfectionist; achiever; leader; bossy; controlling; cautious
Middle: adaptable; independent; go-between; people please
Last: social; charming; uncomplicated; manipulative; seeks attention
Only child: confident; conscientious; responsible; center of attention
research on birth order
quite mixed, and the results are tiny
- Birth order is unreliable on traits, etc.
- Structures of sibling relationships seem to have much greater effects than birth order
○ Sibling relationship, parent relationship w/ children, age differences, gender make-ups, etc.
only children: traits
- higher self-esteem & do better in school
HOWEVER: less popular, less peer acceptance
○ Only in NA
only children in China
no difference in peer acceptance and peer relationships
- They spend more time w their cousins
- If you’re an only child, you may get the function of cousins from extended family
- When this research was done, the norm was to be an only child (due to one child policy)
culture variations on sibling relationships
primary bond: In NA, parent-child is the most central
○ Not always true everywhere
time spent together: In Latin American families, siblings tend to spend more time together on average
caregiving roles: siblings roles may differ w/ culture
gender norms: how strictly we adhere to them
○ w/ more traditional gender norms: may be differences in mix gender sibling dynamics
grandparents in canada: living
In Canada: 10% of children live w/ their grandparents
- More common in indigenous & immigrant families
Most who live w/ grandparents also live w/ 2 parents
grandmother hypothesis (evolutionary perspec.)
idea that women living past menopause is rare in animals - but humans do!
- Anthropologists argue that one of the reasons we live past reproduction is because it might be adaptive as a species
- Grandmothers may play an adaptive role in helping to support & protect their grandchildren
- Why evolution selected for a longer grandparent life
grandmothers: research in Gambia
Having a grandmother present in a family is correlated w/ a reduction of child mortality
- Fewer children die in communities where there are grandparents present
- May be simply due to having more hands around
- Women, as we get older, tend to sleep less in the older morning
○ Very helpful in hunter-gatherer communities, where having someone awake that early may play a significant role in protection
grandparents + emotional wellbeing
Having grandparents present is correlated w/ emotional wellbeing
- Seen in buffers against stress
The closer kids are to their grandparents, the less likely that being in a single-parent or step-family is tied to depressive symptoms
grandparents: key roles
- evolutionary –> useful for survival?
- can boost emotional wellbeing
- can serve as buffers in children growing up in risky contexts
- but lots of variability: different roles
grandparent types
Influential: lots of contact w/ kids; play a parenting role, raising kids, authority figure
Supportive: there, but not authority
Passive: not around
Authority-oriented: just with authority, but not w/ time or intimacy
