Parenting

Question 1

influences on parenting

Answer 1

• characteristics of child
• characteristics of parent
• characteristics of context (ex. Bronfenbrenner’s model)
• all of these interact with each other

Question 2

characteristics of child

Answer 2

• Appearance: smiling, crying, cuteness trigger parental responses
• Health status: ex. preemies interact differently with parent
• Gender: influences parents’ descriptions/expectations of kids (ie. crawling abilities)
• Temperament and personality: ex. responsiveness, readability (can you tell what behaviours mean?), predictability

Question 3

characteristics of parent

Answer 3

• Biology: ex. genetics
• Personality: influences mate selection, job, etc.
• Age and stage of life: older parents have more realistic expectations, more financially stable, and are more cognitively developed than young parents, but older parents may have biological issues or find it harder to relate to children
• Beliefs, goals, attitudes, expectations, perceptions (ie. of their parenting ability), attributions (ie. reasoning behind why kid didn’t do homework -> lazy or doesn’t understand?)
• Behaviours (ex. responsiveness, control, monitoring, communication, expressions of physical and emotional support/love, etc.)

Question 4

are we biologically wired to parent?

Answer 4

• Yes -> reproduce to keep species going; hormones related to birth, breastfeeding, etc.; use IDS
• However, doesn’t necessarily mean we’re wired to be good parents in today’s developed society

Question 5

Baumrind’s parenting styles

Answer 5

• Permissive/indulgent: High support, low control
• Authoritative: High support and control
• Authoritarian: Low support, high control
• Uninvolved/neglectful: Low support, low control

Question 6

outcomes of parenting styles

Answer 6

• Authoritative produces happy, compliant, autonomous children
• Authoritarian produces unhappy, moody kids without self-confidence
• Permissive produces selfish kids without responsibility and self-control
• Authoritative has most positive outcomes; neglectful has least positive; mixed outcomes for authoritarian and permissive
• Outcomes include: self-reliance, social competence, GPA, academic competence, somatic symptoms of distress, school misconduct

Question 7

Gender and parenting ability

Answer 7

• Equal ability to parent between cisgender moms and dads; equal outcomes regarding capacity to parent for trans/non-binary people
• Gender of parents does not seem to impact children’s adjustment

Question 8

Differences in parenting (moms vs. dads)

Answer 8

• Fathers spend less time with children
• Fathers assume less responsibility for children
• Moms and dads engage with children in different ways:
• • Fathers more playful, more unpredictable
• • Mothers more rhythmic, more soothing
• But this is not true for all parents, and is heavily influenced by culture

Question 9

Attachment and parents

Answer 9

• Most infants show attachment behaviours to both parents
• But when both parents are present, most infants do prefer mother when distressed (because fathers tend to spend less time with kids)

Question 10

Attachment

Answer 10

• Specific, enduring, emotional bond between 2 people

- Infant’s first social relationships

Question 11

Attachment figure

Answer 11

• stronger, smarter caregiver to child
• Provides infant with secure base from which exploration can take place
• Provides guidelines for internal working models (ex. Seeing yourself as lovable and worthy)

Question 12

Strange Situation Method

Answer 12

• Developed by Ainsworth
• Assesses quality of attachment between infant and primary caregiver
• Categorizes infants into one of 4 styles (secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant/ambivalent, disorganized)
• Relies on:
• • Fear of strangers
• • Fear of separation from parents
• • Attachment behaviours -> wanting to be near parents

Question 13

secure attachment

Answer 13

• Use parents as “secure base” when playing
• Show wariness towards stranger
• Crying/searching when parent leaves
• Re-engage and be comforted when parent returns
• 65% in North America
• Predicted by sensitive, responsive parenting

Question 14

insecure-avoidant attachment

Answer 14

• Not distressed by parent leaving
• Actively ignores/avoids parents on reunion
• 20% in North America
• Predicted by unavailable/rejecting parenting

Question 15

insecure-resistant/ambivalent attachment

Answer 15

• Keep very close to parents
• Very distressed by stranger and parent leaving
• Act ambivalent upon reunion
• 10% in North America
• Predicted by inconsistent/unresponsive parenting

Question 16

disorganized attachment

Answer 16

• Don’t fit any classification
• Show contradictory behaviour patterns
• 5% in North America
• Predicted by abuse/maltreatment

Question 17

Strange Situation Procedure

Answer 17

• Mother (M) and Baby (B) enter room and begin to play
• Stranger (S) enters and interacts with B
• M leaves and S plays with or attempts to comfort B if distressed
• M re-enters, then both M and S leave (B is alone)
• S re-enters, plays or comforts
• M returns, S leaves

Question 18

Effects of secure attachment

Answer 18

• Predicts positive emotional development
• More pro-social behaviours
• Competence with peers
• Social skills
• Empathy
• More resilience

Question 19

Effects of insecure attachment

Answer 19

• Higher hostility
• Higher impulsiveness
• Higher negative affect
• More vulnerable to adverse circumstances

Question 20

Attachment interventions

Answer 20

Interventions can be successful if they start before child is 3, are only a few sessions long, and have clear behavioural focus -> ie. Aiming at refining quality of parental responses

Question 21

Other measures of attachment

Answer 21

• Q-Sort: based on home observations, gives a continuous score on attachment
• Variations to Strange Situation for different ages (ex. Cassidy-Marvin system, Pre-School Assessment, Main-Cassidy system)
• Doll-Play Procedure: kid instructed to use doll family to complete attachment-related stories

Question 22

adjustment

Answer 22

• personal characteristics that allow people to function well in their everyday life
• Well-adjusted people have good social skills, comply with rules/authority, function well at school/work, and establish meaningful relationships
• But, does not account for all individual differences (other factors exist, like culture, personality/temperament, etc.)

Question 23

adjustment is largely affected by

Answer 23

• Quality of parenting and parent-child relationships
• Quality of relationship between parents
• Economic, social, and physical resources available to the family (SES)
• Congenital/innate differences

Question 24

adjustment: quality of parenting and parent-child relationships

Answer 24

• Degree of love, affection, emotional commitment, reliability, and consistency
• Ability to provide stimulation, guidance, and limits
• Gender not relevant: both men and women have same capacity to be good parents

Question 25

adjustment: quality of relationship between parents

Answer 25

• Marital conflict associated with child maladjustment, whether or not parents are still together
• Employment and division of labour matter less than the parent’s satisfaction with them

Question 26

adjustment is NOT largely affected by

Answer 26

• Family Structure
• • divorce
• • single parenthood
• • gender of parents
• • sexual orientation of parents
• • biological relateness

Question 27

adjustment: divorce/single-parent families

Answer 27

• Most children in single-parent and divorced households are well-adjusted
• But they are more likely to have problems (ex. Behavioural, psychological, social, and academic problems)
• • Can be due to parental conflict, financial challenges/changes, less ideal parenting practices, absence of a parent (usually father)

Question 28

adjustment: gender of parents

Answer 28

• Children do not need a female and male parent to be well-adjusted
• Children in non-traditional families often hold more flexible views of gender stereotypes/roles

Question 29

adjustment: sexual orientation of parents

Answer 29

• Children raised by gay/lesbian parents as well-adjusted and successful as children raised by straight parents
• No difference in adjustment of children between gay parents and lesbian parents
• Children raised by same-sex couples often hold more flexible views of gender stereotypes/roles

Question 30

adjustment: biological relatedness of parents and children

Answer 30

• ex. step-families, adoption, etc.
• Adopted kids tend to be as well-adjusted as kids raised by biological parents -> parents are sometimes even more competent/committed
• Differences typically come from early trauma prior to adoption

Question 31

goals of parenting

Answer 31

• Survival of child: nurture and protect them
• Form child into appropriate member of society for your culture (ie. Being self-sufficient)
• Help children understand and express appropriate feelings and emotions
• Help children behave in developmentally appropriate ways
• Preparing children for roles/contexts they’ll encounter throughout development (ie. School, work)

Question 32

attachment throughout infancy (development)

Answer 32

• 0-2 months: indiscriminate social responsiveness (respond similarly to multiple different people)
• 2-7 months: discriminating sociability (socially smiling, particularly at parents)
• 7-24 months: attachments begin to form

Question 33

what causes attachment?

Answer 33

• John Bowlby argued that attachments form between infant & caregiver because of evolutionary advantage -> attachment is advantageous for survival
• Quality of adult-infant interaction
• • Sensitive parenting is key (quality important)
• • Quantity of interactions is not as important

Question 34

long-term effects of attachment

Answer 34

• “Internal working model” of relationships: based on their attachment relationships with parents; shapes how a child comes to expect other relationships to be
• Better outcomes associated with secure attachment in infancy (ex. Predictive of lower obesity rates in adolescence)
• Negative outcomes associated with disorganized attachments in infancy

Question 35

adjustment: socioeconomic status

Answer 35

• Measured by income, job prestige, education
• Being from a low SES family is considered a risk factor for children
• Impacts:
• • Parent education (less educated about kid’s development)
• • Home environment (less stimulating)
• • General well-being and health (ex. Ability to feed nutritious foods)
• • Social support (ex. Access to doctors)
• • Parenting practices (ex. Talk less to children)

Question 36

culture and parenting

Answer 36

• Most research on parenting has been done with middle-SES, Anglo, US-based couples
• Although universal goals of parenting are the same and universal “wiring” to parent exists, culture shapes parents and parenting behaviour & culture is transmitted through parenting

Question 37

culture and attachment

Answer 37

• Percentage of secure attachment similar across cultures
• All infants in all cultures form attachments
• Certain cultures have different percentages of insecure attachment types (ex. Japan & Israel have higher rates of insecure-resistant attachment)

Question 38

why do certain cultures have different levels of insecure attachment?

Answer 38

Strange Situation could be experienced differently in different cultures where a parent leaving baby alone would be atypical (compared to North American culture where going to daycare/separation is more typical)

Question 39

Chinese families and parenting style

Answer 39

• Chinese parents often authoritarian, yet kids have high academic outcomes
• However, a culture-specific classification of parenting may be at play: “Training/chiao shun”
• Therefore, good outcomes are associated with “Training”, rather than authoritarian parenting (as it would be in Western countries)
• • OR, perhaps Western researchers are misinterpreting parenting in other cultures and labeling it as authoritarian? Perhaps “training” is actually authoritative?

Question 40

Training/chiao shun

Answer 40

• Use of parental control, monitoring, guidance
• Emphasize values of hard work, self-discipline, achievement, honour, obedience
• Parenting involvement/investment (guan)
• • If your kids fail, it’s seen as a reflection on you -> parental failure

Question 41

culture and parenting styles

Answer 41

• Non-white/non-European parents typically more authoritarian
• Advantages for authoritative parenting less consistent for non-white/non-European families (more advantages for authoritarian parenting)