Lecture 7 - Families Flashcards
Mothers and fathers
Fathers can fulfil a parenting role just as much as mothers, but frequently do not
Fathers attend birth but burden of child care still falls on women
Fathers parenting activities (Lewis, 1986):
Often changes nappies
Bathtime
Putting to bed
Getting up at night
Helps in period after birth
Types of families
Nuclear family
Extended family
Reconstituted family
Lone parents
Adoptive parents
Belsky’s model of parenting
Three main influences on quality of parental functioning:
Personal psychological resources of parent
Contextual source of support
Characteristics of child
Parents role in child development
Reinforcement
Modelling
Environment
Parenting style
The relative importance of parenting?
Parental input on child behaviour and development is primarily at genetic level
Studies of MZ twins reared apart indicate that environmental effects are minimal, and may only apply in extreme cases (e.g. of neglect)
Monozygotic / identical twins reared apart and together have similar impact on the child
Parenting style
Permissive
- Inconsistance
- Emphasise independence -> Learn from mistakes
- Freedom to learn
- Dont learn emotion regulationg (lack of ruls and restraints)
- More agressive and impulsive
- Little sense of direction
- Low achievement in school
Authoritation
- Extremely strict -> dont question me
- No understanding of why rules exsist just to follow or punishment
- Very demaning
- More deseetful
- Low social confidence -> why they have to behave in certain ways
- Unhappy
- Unfriendly
- Low self esteem
- Boys fair worse than girls
Authoritative
- Optimal parenting style
- Consider childs veiws -> ‘How would you feel…’ , ‘why do you think youre having a time out’
- Rules but with explainations
- Understanding
- Higher social confidence and self-esteem
- Regulate emotions -> cant just hit someone
- Talking about thoughts, behaviours
- Self-reliant
- Higher confidence and relationships
- Better accedemically
- Feel good about themselves
- Popular
Neglecting
- Rejectiving -> disingaged
- Dont respond
- Lack rules and constraints
- Dont really monitor behaviour
- Not very supportive
- Unworthy -> not cared about
- Internalisation of feelings
- Anxiety and depression
- Struggle academically
Other influencers -> grandparents
Ave. age = 50
Average life expectance = 75-80
Lack of mobility/ energy
Effect child development:
Indirect - parental attitudes influenced by way parent has been brought up
Direct - looking after child/surrogate parent Johnson (1983)
Support and contact drops significantly with age of grandparent.
Role/ importance varies with societal changes
Other influencers -> siblings
Positive and negative behaviours (Katz et al., 1992).
Hostile siblings -> anxious, depressed
Being put down constantly
But older can help scafold early
Other veiws and talkings
Important to help develop this -> high quality similarly
First born -> more time with parents,
Consciousious and helpful
Studious
Not huge amounts into the effect but their is evidence
Divorce on children
Younger child -> less support network for divorce
More sadness
Less self esteem
Less socially compitant
More likely to have externalising problems -> fighting and hit behaviours, dont know what to do with it
Less secure attachment styles
Increase marital conflict -> who gets child when
Availability of parent
Can they count on their parent
Self-esteem effects
Divorce and step-parenting
Compare mother-custody divorced families with non-divorced families
Average age of child(ren) at separation = 4 years
1 year: Behaviour problems
2 years: Much improved - problems with boys a little more persistent
6 years: Grew up faster, mother-son relationships problematic
Greater decision making ability
Less attention -> parental monotoring
Step father improves at least for sons
Dependent on levels of parental conflict
Divorce -> Acute distress syndrome
Upset (protest)
Apathy or Depression (despair)
Loss of interest (detachment)
Change in routines
Schools change
More irritable
More coersion and less patients/ warmth to control child
Less empathy on what child going through
More positive when parents have reasonable relationship after divorce
Dad tries to be more the fun parent, mother tries to maintain parenting and being controlling but has an effect on relationship with child as inconsistent parent
Should parents delay divorce?
- Economic security - More time for child, less working need
- Academic achievement - Low income -> low academic achievement link, less motivated, more disorganised
- Physical well-being - More likely to have asthma/ headaches, less monitered could result in this
- Behavioural problems - More agressive, disobedient, lack self-control -> link to offending behaviour, temperament changes and impacts parenting style
- Will parental conflict rise and possibly focus more on the child?
Emery (1999) reported that many studies find that children’s problems after divorce were present prior to separation, but other studies have not found this.
Children from divorced homes have more psychological problems than children from homes where there was a death in the family. - conflict effects
Interparental Conflict
Other mediating factors on effect of divorce
Age
Preschool = most dramatic reactions (e.g. separation anxiety, aggression), less emotion regulation skills, can’t get away from it as easily
5-12 = similar but less openly expressive.
Adolescents = more resources (e.g. understand the situation better, more interests outside the home) than the younger
Sex
Time since separation
Post-divorce arrangements
Relationships and support
Divorce and family interventions
Child-focused interventions (Interventions that are aimed at improving children’s adjustment)
Support parent-child relationships
Reducing ongoing parental conflict
Contact issues
Practical assistance -> Working with children
Family work
Group work
Individual work
Age appropriate explaination of whats happening
Knowledge of what parents are going to do (e.g. move away)
Teenage pregnancy
Many in first three months after sexual activity
Highest in the US
There are ethnic differences: US (5% teens), Israel (1.7%) , Japan (0.4%)
Decreasing
Friendships impact -> values of whats accepted and expected
Ethnic differences in marrying baby father
5% of African Americans
26% of Hispanics
41% of Whites
17% mother maintain romantic relationship with the baby’s father after first few months following birth
Teen parents are?
Than mothers 20+:
Less likely to marry the father of their first child
More likely to become divorced
Twice as much time spent as a single parent prior to age 30
More likely to drop out of school
Less likely to earn a high school diploma by age 30
Work more hours at a lower rate of pay
Than fathers 20+
Less likely to earn a high school diploma
More likely to work in a blue-collar occupation
More likely to experience lower income levels
More likely to engage in delinquent and criminal behaviours
More stress -> parenting, echonomic, responsibilty, education
More stress => more conflict -> is there the strength to overcome without splitting?
Teen parents -> economic insufficiency
Less likely to complete school, go to college, or find stable employment
Poverty = high crime, high violence areas and moving frequently
3 factors predict economic success:
Educational attainment
Family size
Marital status
Teen parents -> depression
More identity diffusion
Less autonomy
More difficulties with trust and lower self-esteem (Zeanah, 1993)
More depressed
Less cognitive maturity
Less able to cope with this
Emotions -> emotional availability to child
Less rules of social interactions -> getting less experience of this
Teen parents -> knowledge of child’s development
Limited knowledge of children’s development
Understanding => healthy parenting attitudes (Buchholz and Korn-Bursztyn, 1993).
Underestimate the rate of mental development in children, and therefore assume that they only have physical needs (Brody and Sigel, 1990)
Understanding need for responsiveness and sensitivity
Teen parents -> attachment
More dysregulated patterns of interaction. E.g. mother yells when child cries E.g. mother laughs when child is angry
More impatient and intolerant with their young children
Infants show more avoidant behaviour patterns
More likely avoidantly attached
Overatribute what child will do -> they will sleep when i want them to
May need to get things like homework done
Teen parents -> perception of risks
Adolescents mothers were less likely to intervene than the adult mothers:
A child unrestrained in a car seat;
Infant unrestrained in a car seat
Infant ignored in a bath
Infant left in a crib with the crib railing down.
Adolescents less likely to intervene -> thought child would be more okay, dont perceive as a risk
Teen parents -> testing resilience
Weed et al. (2000)
5 year longitudinal study with 103 adolescent parents
83% parents with high resiliency graduated high school, had good self-esteem, low anxiety, and showed no signs of depression.
Vulnerable mothers had not been able to complete their education or maintain stable employment.
Many experienced anxiety, low selfesteem, and moderate to severe depression.
Teen parents -> protective factors
Social support is one of the most important buffers
85% of adolescent mothers do receive help from family members (Cervera, 1994)
Improves mother-child interactions, child cognitive development (Furey, 2004)
Children’s developmental outcome is increased when there is another person in the home providing alternative supportive care -> beneficial for the attachment between adolescent mother and her infant (Haskett et al., 1994)
Teen parents -> support from the father
Many males try to financially support their partners and children
30% of teen pregnancies are the fathers also a teen (Weinstein & Rosen, 1994)
Partner support is positively related with maternal psychological well-being (Roye and Balk, 1996)
