Family Relationships Flashcards
What is discipline?
- the set of strategies parents use to teach their children how to behave appropriately
- effective if child stops engaging in inappropriate behaviour and engages in appropriate behaviour instead
- ideally leads to internalization
What is internalization?
- the process by which children learn and accept the reasons for desired behaviour
How can a caregiver foster internalization?
- reasoning that focuses on the effects of a behaviour on someone else is best strategy for promoting internalization
- teaches empathy
- reasoning has to be combined with psychological pressure to foster internalization
What is the sweet spot of psychological pressure?
- slightly raised voice and disapproving look
What happens if there is too little psychological pressure?
- child disobeys and ignores message
What happens if there is too much psychological pressure?
- child is obedient but only because they feel forced to do it
- will only comply of there is a risk of being caught
What are some guidelines to disciplining young children?
- show and tell
- set limits
- give consequences
- hear them out
- give them your attention
- catch them being good
- know when not to respond
- be prepared for trouble
- redirect bad behaviour
- call a time out
What are the 2 dimensions of parenting?
- discipline/control
- sensitivity/support/warmth
What is the discipline/control dimension?
- extent to which parents monitor and manage their children’s behaviour through rules and consequences
What is the sensitivity/support/warmth dimension?
- extent to which parents mirror their children and are responsive to them
What are the parenting styles?
- authoritative
- authoritarian
- permissive
- uninvolved
What is authoritative parenting?
- high sensitivity/warmth and discipline
- attentive and responsive to child’s needs and concerns and respect the child’s perspective
- set clear standards and limits for their children and are firm and consistent about enforcement, but also allow autonomy within those limits
What is the effect of authoritative parenting on kids?
- good self confidence
- socially skilled; tend to have many friends and are well liked
- internalizes adults’ expectations and behave accordingly
- do well academically
What is authoritarian parenting?
- high in discipline, but low in sensitivity
- cold and unresponsive to child’s needs
- expect child to comply with parent’s desires without question
- exercise power by using threats, punishments, psychological control
What is the effect of authoritarian parenting on kids?
- creates hostility in children towards parents
- may be obedient in front of parent but tend to not internalize parent’s message
- more likely to rebel against parent’s rules, especially in adolescence
- lower in self confidence and generally higher levels of mental problems
- lower social competence
- more behavioural problems, like aggression and delinquency
What is permissive parenting?
- high in sensitivity, but low in discipline
- responsive to child’s needs and wishes but overly lenient
- do not require child to regulate themselves or act in appropriate ways
What is the effect of permissive parenting on kids?
- higher in impulsivity and tend to struggle with self control
- lower in academic achievement
- more behavioural problems, like aggression and delinquency
What is uninvolved parenting?
- low in discipline and sensitivity
- generally disengaged from parenting
- sometimes rejecting and neglectful
- focused on their own needs instead of children’s needs
What is the effect of uninvolved parenting on kids?
- struggle with self worth and mental health problems
- insecure attachment
- low in social competence
- low academic achievement
- more behavioural problems
What is moms parenting like?
- spend on average, even those that work, 1.5 hours more with their children than dads
- more likely to provide physical care and emotional support to children
What is dads parenting like?
- more likely to play with children than moms
What is parenting like across cultures?
- many similarities
- all parents teach about good and bad behaviour very often and are least likely to use love withdrawal
- some differences
- Italian parents are most likely to yell or scold
- Kenyan parents are most likely to threaten or use punishment, but least likely to take away privileges
What are cultural differences in the effects of parenting practices on children?
- Chinese/Chinese American parents are more likely to use authoritarian parenting style
- authoritarian parenting has fewer negative consequences for Chinese/Chinese American children
- positive association between authoritative parenting and positive outcomes in children for both European Americans and Chinese children but this association is weaker for Chinese children
- suggests that authoritative parenting is best across cultures, but authoritarian parenting is less harmful in cultures where it is the norm
Is spanking bad?
- 60% of children worldwide experience regular physical punishment
- rates are higher in countries where authoritarian parenting is the norm
- negative outcomes found across cultural groups
- research shows spanking is bad
- in the United Nations, spanking is a form of violence against children that violates human right to be protected from violence
What effects does spanking have on children?
the more children are spanked, the:
- less they comply and the more aggressive they are
- more problematic relationship with parents
- more mental health problems they have
- lower their self esteem
What are parent-child interactions?
- bidirectional
- each influences and reinforces the other’s behaviour
- can create both positive and negative cycles
What’s a positive parent-child cycle?
positivity in child <–> parental warmth
What is the coercive cycle?
- parent makes request or says no
- child disobeys
- parent gets angry and yells
- child yells/throws tantrum
- parent yells
- parent gives up or succeeds
- gives up: reinforces child’s tantrum
- succeeds: reinforces harsh parenting
What is the role of shared genes in the parent-child interaction?
- parent’s and children’s behaviour can also both be caused by the genes they share
What are the implication to the bidirectionality of the parent-child relationship?
- a correlation between parenting and a child’s behaviour could be due to parenting practices, the child’s behaviour and/or shared genes
- parenting practices are not solely responsible for children’s outcomes
What is the importance of longitudinal research?
- only way of definitively showing bidirectional relationship between children’s behaviour and parenting practices
What do “older” first time parents tend to have?
- more education and higher income
- fewer children
- less likely to get divorced in first 10 years
- more authoritative parenting
What is the difference with same sex parents?
- children raised by same sex parents are no different than children raised by different sex parents
- similar mental health, social competence, sexual orientation, and academic achievement
- shows that parenting style matters, not parents’ sexual orientation
How many marriages end in divorce?
- 35 - 42%
How does divorce impact the child?
- initially, divorce negatively impacts children’s well being
- kids show more depression, lower, self esteem, more behavioural problems, and do worse academically
Does a child’s age affect their adjustment to divorce?
- younger kids (grade 1-5) whose parents divorced shows more internalizing symptoms (depression, anxiety) vs. older and no divorce kids
- younger kids whose parents divorced shows more externalizing symptoms (aggression, disobedience, impulsivity)
- older kids (grades 6-10) whose parents divorced had poorer academic performance
Do negative effects of divorce last?
- negative effects of divorce on children tend not to last long
- differences in well being of adults whose parents divorced vs adults whose parents stayed married are very small (10% separation, 90% overlap)
When do children have a harder time adjusting to divorce and do worse?
- multiple changes (divorce, new home, new school, etc)
- ongoing conflict between parents/steparents
How does ongoing conflict between parents after divorce effect the child?
- puts child in the middle and in the role of mediator
- guilt inducing
- feel like they have to choose
When do children have an easier time adjusting to divorce?
- if parents and stepparents are able to be civil and communicate directly with each other
- if parents show high levels of sensitivity/warmth
When is divorce a good thing?
- if parents were engages in a lot of conflict before getting divorced
- kids’ psychological well being improves after divorce if parents had a lot of conflict (psychological distress decreases and happiness increases)
What is the role of siblings?
- can be friends and support each other
- can be competitive for resources, like toys and parental attention
What does a negative sibling relationship predict?
- more depression
- more social withdrawal
- more problem behaviours
What are predictors of positive sibling relationship?
- siblings are treated equally by parents
- parents get along with each other
What happens if siblings are not treated euqally by parents?
- if favouring happens, the least favourite child’s well being suffers
- differential treatment less detrimental if the least favoured child views it as justified, is older sibling, is growing up in a collectivist culture
Why is parents getting along important?
- modelling a positive relationship with family member
- if parents are engaged in a lot of conflict, parental attention may because a scare resource that siblings feel the need to compete for
Why are siblings so different sometimes?
- differences in temperament
- differences in parental treatment
- differences in family context
What is the myth of birth order personality?
- research consistently shows no meaningful effects on birth order on personality and intelligence
How does low SES affect children’s development?
- lower academic achievement
- more behaviour problems
- more depression and anxiety
Why does low SES negatively affect children’s development?
- material hardships
- negative effect of low SES on parenting
- amount of time parents can spend with their child is lower
- creates stress which can lead to poor parental mental health, harsh parenting, and marital conflict
How does high SES affect children/adolescents?
- increased drug and alcohol use
- more delinquent behaviour
- more depression and anxiety
Why does high SES negatively affect children?
- parents spending more time at work
- high pressure to achieve and excel
