Non-traditional Families

Question 1

What are the types of models to look at family processes?

Answer 1

Social address model
Process-context model
Person-process-context model

Question 2

What is the social address model?

Answer 2

The most simplistic - compares child outcomes based on social situation, geographical area or other address
Comparing mean scores based on some IV
Doesn’t look at what the environment is like, and what could affect the child - only looks at the social address

Question 3

What is the process-context model?

Answer 3

More advanced, looks at the impact of social addresses on family processes, e.g. looking at what activities people are engaged in

Question 4

What is the person process context model?

Answer 4

Most advanced in that characteristics of the child or parent are also considered - for example, looking at gender, or temperament

Question 5

What is the impact of divorce on children? Wallerstein and Lewis

Answer 5

Study in 1971 in California - divorcing families with young children were referred
Longitudinal study
Impact:
loneliness and feel of abandonment
memories of loss and violence
childhood - day the childhood ended
adult relationships - don’t understand why it happened, think it may happen to them
parent child relationship - feelings towards parents was more passionate than their peers, if one parent had rebuilt life and another hadn’t, this distressed the children

Question 6

What are the negative outcomes of divorce?

Answer 6

School performance
Accidents/injury
Emotional and behavioural problems
Mental health
Adult well-being

Question 7

What did meta analysis of divorce studies show? Amato and Keith

Answer 7

Lower mean levels for academic achievement, conduct, psychological adjustment, self-concept, social adjustment, parent-child relationships. but medium effect size .14 (if mean was 6, divorce families would be 5.8). Lots of children have good outcomes too
Recent studies show smaller effects when controlling for other factors. the more methodology used = smaller the effects

Question 8

What are the processes which lead to worse outcomes in divorces?

Answer 8

Parental absence, economic disadvantage, and family conflict

Question 9

What is the difference found between clinical problems and psychological pain in divorced children?

Answer 9

When asked about problems to do with psychological pain, big differences found, lots more:
worrying about going to events
wanting more time with mum and dad
harder childhood
There are very big effects for psychological pain, illustrates that even though there are small differences in actual clinical problems, there is a lot more psychological pain

Question 10

Has there been much research on lesbian mothers?

Answer 10

There hadn’t been before Patterson 1992, used to believe that lesbian mothers shouldn’t get custody because it will impact them negatively, and this is why research has been carried out since

Question 11

What are the 3 main fears addressed in research on lesbians so far?

Answer 11

The children will demonstrate disturbances in sexual identity
The children will be less psychologically healthy
These children will have difficulty in social relationships

Question 12

Patterson 1992 - children of lesbian and gay parents. Results for sexual identity

Answer 12

Little differences
No diff in gender identity
No diff in gender-role behaviour, all kids bade normal toy choices and had normal career aspirations
Sexual orientation - no diff detected, not a risk factor

Question 13

Patterson 1992 - children of lesbian and gay parents. Results for personal development and peer relationships

Answer 13

No more likely to suffer psychological problems
Some studies, find that kids of lesbians demonstrate more positive pro social characteristics
They have good peer relationships, and popular and socially skilled

Question 14

Golombok, Tasker and Murry - in depth quasi study. Results for quality of parenting

Answer 14

Compared 3 family types - lesbian mums, single straight mums and mum/dad
Quality of parenting:
Mother in father absent expressed more warmth
Mother in father absent more M-C interaction and lesbian showed more
Disputes were more severe in father-absent families

Question 15

Golombok, Tasker and Murry - in depth quasi study. Results for children behaviour problems

Answer 15

No differences for behavioural problems
Children more secure in father-absent families
Children perceived themselves to be less cognitively and physically competent in father-absent families - fathers act as role models for self-esteem

Question 16

Golombok, Tasker and Murry - in depth quasi study. Why are the kids ok?

Answer 16

No parental conflict
No seperation from a parent
No mum emotional stress
No economic hardship

Lesbian mothers choose to have children, so will care for them more

Question 17

What is divorce a marker for?

Answer 17

Separation from parent
Parental conflict
Mother emotional stress
Economic hardship

Question 18

Rivers, Noret and Poteat, 2008 - large scale investigation

Answer 18

14 schools, 18 reported female same sex parents
no differences for peer victimisation, psychological functioning or social concerns
children of lesbian parents less likely to use social support (as opposed to peer or family support which was similar)

Question 19

Ciano-Boyce and Shelley-Sireci, 2003 - background and results for social status

Answer 19

Lesbian couples with biological children vs lesbian with adopted vs heterosexual with adopted
All groups had similar backgrounds, well educated, in the late 30’s and early 40’s
No sig differences with respect to education, occupation or income
Yet, lesbian adoptive parents were of higher social status and lesbian couples with a biological child were significantly younger than adoptive parents

Question 20

Ciano-Boyce and Shelley-Sireci, 2003 - who does what?

Answer 20

No difference between the families on decision making or household tasks
All families reported very egalitarian division of labour and all satisfied with their roles
Family types were different in how egalitarian they were in their childcare division:
heterosexual - less egalitarian than lesbian, trend indicating that lesbian biological parents were less egalitarian than lesbian adoptive parents
If part of lesbian couple and you have given birth, you have different roles compared to social mother

Question 21

Ciano-Boyce and Shelley-Sireci, 2003 - whom does the child seek?

Answer 21

Lesbian birth mothers and heterosexual adoptive mothers were sought more for activities such as going to bed, feeding, when the child was afraid or sick
Lesbian non-birth mothers - sought for rough and tumble play
Adoptive fathers - sought after for rough and tumble play and TV watching and reading
Only in lesbian adoptive families was the Childs preference of parent for specific activities a source of conflict - usually a reason why parents specialise in certain activities but in lesbian adoptive, shouldn’t be any difference

Question 22

What did Golombok et al, 2003 look at?

Answer 22

Examined the quality of parent-child relationships and the socioemotional ad gender development of 7 year old children with lesbian parents
Interview and questionnaire measures
Measures: parent-child relationships, children socioemotional development, parents psychological state and child measures

Question 23

What did Golombok et al find in terms of mother child relationships?

Answer 23

No main effects in warmth, but overall parenting, higher quality and greater enjoyment of mothers in two parent families
More disputes in single mothers
Lesbian mothers smacked their children less
Lesbian mothers encouraged more imaginative play

Question 24

What did Golombok et al find in terms of partner child relationships?

Answer 24

No group differences in warmth or parenting quality
More smacking in fathers
Mother engaged in more domestic play than fathers

Question 25

What did Golombok et al find in terms of children socioemotional development?

Answer 25

No significant differences in children in lesbian families
Less peer acceptance of children in single parent families
Mothers sexual orientation was unrelated to children psychological adjustment

Question 26

What did O’Conner et al look at?

Answer 26

Whether the association between parental divorce and children’s adjustment is mediated by genetic factors - could be that behavioural problems from divorced families are due to genetics being transmitted to their children via genetics
Longitudinal study

Question 27

What did O’conner et al find?

Answer 27

Biological families - children who experienced separation by 12 had higher rates of behavioural problems and substance use and lower levels of achievement and social adjustment
Adopted children who experienced divorces experienced high levels of behavioural problems and substance use, but there were no differences in achievement and social competence - suggests that self-esteem, social competence and academic competence are genetically influenced
Divorce less likely in adoptive families
Hard to know if divorce leads to behavioural problems or vice versa

Question 28

Is O’Conners results evidence for genetic mediation?

Answer 28

They suggest that self-esteem, social competence and academic competence are genetically influenced but the relationship between divorce and psychopathology may be due to the environment