Family

Question 1

What are the values of parenting?

Answer 1

The nurture of children’s development

The promotion of their personal health and well-being

The protection of children from the risks of violence; substance abuse and economic insecurity

The instilling of a sense of personal responsibility for ones own and ones family’s future

Question 2

What is the difference between family type and processes?

Answer 2

Type is who we are raised by but that’s less important than the processes which refers to quality of care

Question 3

What are the three theories about parenting behaviour?

Answer 3

Diana Baumrind and Maccoby and Martin - a typology of parenting

Nancy Darling and Laurence Steinberg - parenting style as context

Rand Conger et al - parenting as a component of a process model of effects on children

Question 4

What is Baumrinds view on parenting?

Answer 4

She believes that children experience differences in the rules parents apply and how they are enforced

Emphasis on the influence of how they are enforced on differences in children’s development

Emphasises an overarching PARENT STYLE instead of parenting behaviours

Question 5

What are parenting styles?

Answer 5

Parent behaviours and attitudes that set the emotional climate of parent-child interactions

Question 6

How did Maccoby and Martin expand Baumrind’s theory?

Answer 6

Describe the styles as a continuum and that they converge on two dimensions :

1) emotional responsiveness
2) control/demandingness

Question 7

What is Darling and Steinberg’s parenting style as context theory?

Answer 7

Parenting style affects children’s development by:

> the goals toward which socialisation is directed

> the parenting practices used by parents to attain goals

> the parenting style or emotional climate within which socialisation occurs.

Goals and values orient a parents behaviour towards their child, for example they might want them to be independent when they leave or kind and selfless.

The extent to which a parent is warm and responsive to their child will in turn influence their willingness to be socialised by them in the future.

Warmth and responsiveness will also interact with the parents behaviour and the adolescents outcome.

Question 8

Family structure

Answer 8

The number of people and the relationships among the people living in a household

Those with biggest influence on child have most contact, financially support and raise the child

Changes can be continuous and gradual - but sudden changes can occur e.g death, divorce or birth

Question 9

Changes in family structure in US

Answer 9

Percent whose immediate family are biological has rapidly decreased

First time parents a re older on average (advantages are better education, more financially stable, more mature and more likely to be planned)

More children living with grandchildren - tend to be poorer, more old fashioned parenting style

Family sizes are smaller now

More fluid - increase in divorce

More transitions for children - affects development

Question 10

Same sex parents

Answer 10

Research consistently shows that children of same sex parents are no different to those of heterosexual parents, including sexual orientation and the degree to which their behaviour is gender-typed.

Question 11

Divorced parents impact on child development

Answer 11

Child most likely live with one parent that’s recently single - financial strain and reduced quality time

Stress placed on parent - less warmth and affection

Might move to new neighbourhood and school - disruption of routine

Parental conflict - if reduces after divorce may be beneficial

Increased risk but most children don’t suffer greatly

Question 12

Cherlin et al (1991)

Answer 12

Conducted a US and UK longitudinal study and found that children of divorce between 7 and 11 had more behavioural problems and lower academic attainment but once they accounted for behaviour problems, academic achievement and family distress before divorce the effect of divorce were non significant.

Question 13

Step parents - impact on child development

Answer 13

Simple structure or complex/blended

Can be stressful and lead to adjustment issues - depends on relationship/bond formed

Can have close relationship - best when everyone gets along

On average there’s greater conflict between stepparents and children than biological (parent investment hypothesis)

Attitude of noncustodial parent is very influential

Question 14

Family dynamics

Answer 14

The way in which family members interact through various relationships is known as family dynamics.

This determines how well the family functions in general and how this contributes to the child’s development.

Question 15

Socialisation

Answer 15

The 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 particular culture.

Parents often have long-term goals in mind when socialising children e.g wanting them to be honest or hardworking etc.

Question 16

Discipline

Answer 16

Set of strategies and behaviours parents use to teach children how to behave appropriately and is only effective if the child stops the behaviour and learns the desired behvaiour through internalisation.

To teach empathy and consequences other-oriented induction is most commonly used emphasising the hurt caused to another person.

Internalisation works best when the correct amount of psychological pressure is placed on the child, too little and they discount parents message and too much and they stop the behvaiour only in fear of being caught by parents

Question 17

Punishment

Answer 17

A negative stimulus that follows a behaviour to reduce likelihood of reoccurrence.

There are many forms such as time outs, yelling, withdrawing affection, but many studies demonstrate they apply too much psychological pressure and fail to cause internalisation.

Question 18

Parenting style and key dimensions

Answer 18

Refers to the parenting behaviours and attitudes that set the emotional climate in regard to parent-child interactions, such as parental responsiveness an demandingness.

Two key dimensions are the degree of parental warmth and responsiveness and the degree of parental control (monitoring and managing behaviour) and demandingness (expectation of conformance)

Question 19

What are Baumrind’s 4 parenting styles?

Answer 19

Authoritative – (do as I ask) high in demandingness and supportiveness (warm), set clear standards and limits, firm with enforcing them but allow considerable freedom within limits and are attentive and responsive to their needs and respect their perspectives. Measured and consistent in discipline.

Authoritarian – (do as I say) high in demandingness but low in supportiveness, non-responsive to needs and force demands through power and threats. They are oriented toward obedience and expect unquestioned compliance.

Permissive – (do what you want) high in responsiveness but low in demandingness. Responsive to needs but do not require them to act appropriately.

Uninvolved – (I don’t care what you do) low in both demandingness and responsiveness, generally disengaged.

Question 20

Outcomes of parenting styles

Answer 20

Children of authoritative parents tend to be competent, independent, self-assured, popular with peers, and low in antisocial behaviour.

The children of authoritarian parents tend to be low in social and academic competence, unhappy, unfriendly and low in self- confidence.

Children of permissive parents tend to be impulsive, and low in social achievement. As adolescents they engage more in misconduct and drug use.

Children of uninvolved parents haven’t got a good internal model of relationship functioning and tend to have problems with peer relationships, exhibit antisocial behaviour etc.

Question 21

Rutter (2010)

Answer 21

States we need to recognise the interplay between inner psychological stressors and external social circumstances.

We also must remember that parents are people and any understanding of parenting needs to take into account factors that facilitate or interfere with good parenting.

Question 22

Conger et al (1994)

Answer 22

Studied effects of a mid western farming crisis in which the price of wheat crashed which thousands of families relied on and so were plunged into an economic crisis.

It proved difficult to link how this resulted in child adjustment issues empirically.

He found parents were depressed due to economic pressure which results in limited capacity to have a meaningful relationship as you lack the emotional resources which can cause marital conflict and cause family problems that impact the child.

This demonstrates you cannot protect a family from external stressors.

Question 23

Differences in mother and father interactions with their children

Answer 23

Fathers are more involved now than in the past

Mothers still tend to spend more time (might be due to laws) and offer more physical and emotional care and fathers play more

Cultural differences - Sweden, Malaysia and India fathers reported less playing

Question 24

Childs influence on parenting

Answer 24

Children who are disobedient, angry our challenging make it more difficult for parents to use an authoritative style

Cause coercive cycles - child’s behaviour elicits frustration in parents leading to punishments that escalate behaviour

Bidirectional relationships

Question 25

Sibling relationship

Answer 25

Playmates and sources of support, instruction, caregiving and security

Can be peer like or parent like

Can also be rivals = conflict

Reduced if treated equally

Question 26

Pastorelli et al (2016)

Answer 26

Found that mothers and children in several different countries reported high levels of positive discipline e.g inductive reasoning suggesting warm and positive parenting in preferred across cultures. There are clear similarities in teaching
about good and bad behaviour and rates of
love withdrawal; however there are some clear cross country
differences in how often parents yell or scold,
threaten punishment, take away privileges and use physical punishment (Gershoff et al. 2010).

Question 27

Cultural differences in parenting

Answer 27

Several studies have shown that African American’s spank their children more than European.

There are some differences between the positive impact on the child’s development of different parenting styles for example in China there is a weaker positive effect of authoritative parenting compared to European and even show more authoritarian styles as they believe child owe unquestioned obedience.

Question 28

Economic context

Answer 28

Low income children face a range of material hardship and get less quality time with parents

Parents are more stressed

Tend to live in a more dangerous neighbourhood- fear for safety

Question 29

Equifinality

Answer 29

The phenomenon that there is more than a single pathway to maladaptive outcomes.

E.g high income children whose parents spend less time with them

Question 30

Childcare

Answer 30

Increase in mothers working leads to demand for childcare

Controversy - attachment theory (disrupts formation of bonds)

Experiences vary depending on child and quality fo care

Can be good for learning social skills but can also lead to imitation of problem behaviours (social learning theory principle)

Averdijk et al (2012) found association between quantity of time spent i day care and problems at follow up, its important to note quality of care may vary greatly between different places.

Interplay between maternal sensitivity and quality of day care

Question 31

Gomajee et al (2018)

Answer 31

Followed 1428 children from pregnancy to age 8 and divided them into three groups; child-minder, centre-based childcare and informal childcare (parents/grandparents/friends).

The study is longitudinal and follows a good proportion of lifespan but is specific to childcare in France.

Findings indicated that compared with children from informal care those who attended centre-based childcare has a lower likelihood of having high level of emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems and low prosocial behaviours.

Those who were looked after by a child-minder had a higher likelihood of following a high trajectory of conduct problems. Attendance of centre based childcare for more than 1 year was especially protective of high levels of emotional, peer related difficulties and low prosocial behaviour.