Week 8 - Parenting, Peer relationships, and Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model

Question 1

Urie Bronfenbrenner - bioecological model of development

Answer 1

The child’s environment is composed of distinctive structures. The model is ecological in the sense that it considers how multiple levels of context influence outcomes.

Question 2

Microsystem

Answer 2

the immediate environment of a child; it starts with the child’s family and becomes richer and more complex as the child grows older (e.g teachers, peers, neighbourhood)

Question 3

Mesosystem

Answer 3

the interconnections between different microsystems; supportive mesosystems can be beneficial for the child (e.g in terms of school performance)

Question 4

Exosystem

Answer 4

environmental settings that a child does not directly experience but they still have an impact on the child’s development, e.g work environment of the parents (policies about parental level, flexible work hours, and on-sited childcare)

Question 5

Macrosystem

Answer 5

consists of the general beliefs, values, customs, and laws of the general society

Question 6

Chronosystem

Answer 6

changes over time that influence other systems, e.g access to digital information

Question 7

Family

Answer 7

a group that involves at least one adult who is related to the child by birth, marriage, adoption, or foster status and who is responsible for providing basic necessities as well as love, support, safety, stability, and opportunities for learning

Question 8

Family structure

Answer 8

refers to the number of and relationships among the people living in the household.
Recent changes include: living with single or unmarried parents, first-time parents are older than in the past, more children live with grandparents, families are smaller, family structures tend to be more fluid, same-sex parents

Question 9

older first-time parents tend to…

Answer 9

have more education, high-status occupations, higher incomes, more financial resources for raising a family;
they are more positive in their parenting (lower in harsh behaviours),
they tend to be more responsive, affectionate, and cognitively and verbally stimulating with their children

Question 10

simple stepfamily household

Answer 10

a new stepparent joints the household

Question 11

complex / blended stepfamily household

Answer 11

involve a new stepparent and stepsibilings

Question 12

Family dynamics

Answer 12

how family members interact through various relationships

Question 13

Socialization

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Discipline

Answer 14

the set of strategies and behaviours parents use to teach children how to behave appropriately

Question 15

Internalization

Answer 15

the process through which children learn and accept the reasons for desired behaviour

Reasoning and other-oriented induction have been linked with greater social competence in children.

Discipline techniques that apply too much psychological or physical pressure on children are not effective at promoting internalisation.

Question 16

Parenting style

Answer 16

the constellation of parenting behaviours and attitudes that set the emotional climate in regard to parent-child interactions; they are considered in two dimensions:
(a) the degree of parental warmth and responsiveness
(b) the degree of parenting control demandingness

Question 17

Spanking

Answer 17

does not improve children’s behaviours; increases children’s risk for a range of negative outcomes (e.g depression, lower self-esteem, lower cognitive abilities);

Question 18

Authoritative parenting

Answer 18

High in demandingness and supportiveness; authoritative parents set clear standards and limits for their children and they are firm about enforcing them, they are attentive and responsive to their children’s concerns and needs, they also respect their children’s perspective

Children from authoritative families tend to be relatively high in social and academic competence, self-reliance, and coping skills and relatively low in drug use and other problem behaviours.

Question 19

Authoritarian parenting

Answer 19

low in responsiveness and low in demandingness; authoritarian parents tend to be nonresponsive to their child’s needs and tend to enforce their demands through the exercise of parental power and the use of threats and punishment.

Children of authoritarian parents tend to be relatively low in social and academic competence, unhappy, and unfriendly, low in self-confidence. They tend to exhibit high levels depression, impulsive behaviours, and externalising problems.

Question 20

Permissive parenting

Answer 20

high in responsiveness (to children’s needs and wishes) but low in control; permissive parents do not require their children to regulate themselves or act in appropriate ways;

Children of permissive parents tend to be impulsive, low in self-regulation, high in externalising problems, and low in school achievement.

Question 21

Uninvolved parenting

Answer 21

both low in demandingness and responsiveness; these parents are focused on their own needs rather than their children’s.

Children of uninvolved parents tend to have problems with peer relationships, exhibit a wide range of problems, from antisocial behaviours and low academic competence to internalising problems (e.g depression, social withdrawal), substance abuse, and risky sexual behaviours.

Question 22

Differences in mothers’ and father’s interactions with their children

Answer 22

• the amounts of time mothers and fathers spend caring for their children,
• what types of child-rearing behaviours mothers and fathers engage in, e.g mothers are more likely to provide physical care and emotional support, whereas, father are more likely to engage play activities

Question 23

bidirectionality

Answer 23

the idea that parents and children are mutually affected by one another’s characteristics and behaviours

Question 24

Child maltreatment

Answer 24

an action or a failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker that either results in physical or emotional harm or puts a child in danger of serious harm

(a) neglect - the failure to provide necessary food, water, shelter, clothing, medical care, or supervision
(b) physical abuse
(c) emotional abuse - rejecting, repeatedly criticising, or withholding love from a child or otherwise comunicating to a child that they are worthless, unloved, or unwanted
(d) sexual abuse

Question 25

Play

Answer 25

activities that children pursue for their inherent enjoyment

Question 26

Piaget’s view on peer relationships

Answer 26

Piaget suggested that because children are relatively equal in social status, they tend to be more open and spontaneous when expressing their ideas and beliefs with peers than with adults.

Question 27

Vygotsky’s view on peer relationships

Answer 27

Vygotsky observed that children learn new skills and develop new cognitive capacities in peer interactions; he emphasized the ways in which children’s working together helps to build new skills and abilities, as well as to convey the knowledge and skills valued by the culture.

Question 28

Social-emotional development affected by play

Answer 28

Children learn how to cooperate, share, take turns, and try out social roles. They experience happiness through play, learn and practice empathy and concern for others. They also practice problem-solving, their memory, and express their creativity.
Play also encourages language development and motor skills, coordination, balance, and strength.
Play promotes emotion regulation and increases positive emotions.

Question 29

Nonsocial types of play

Answer 29

unoccupied play, onlooker play, and solitary play

Question 30

Unoccupied play

Answer 30

the child watches things in the environment, but only briefly; nothing holds their interest for very long

Question 31

Onlooker play

Answer 31

the child watches other children’s play; they might ask questions about it but will not try to engage in

Question 32

Solitary play

Answer 32

the child engages in their own activity and does not attend the behaviours of others

Question 33

Social types of play

Answer 33

parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play

Question 34

Parallel play

Answer 34

the child plays alongside, but not with, other children; children typically engage in similar activities but play independently

Question 35

Associative play

Answer 35

the child plays with other children but there is no common goal, e.g sharing toys

Question 36

Cooperative play

Answer 36

the child plays with other children in an organised way with a common goal, e.g playing a game

Question 37

Child-centered play therapy (CCPT)

Answer 37

encourages children to express their emotions and thoughts through free play; shown to be effective in reducing children’s externalising problems and internalising symptoms, as well as improving social skills

Question 38

Relational aggression

Answer 38

a kind of aggression that involves excluding others from the social group and attempting to do harm to other people’s relationships, e.g spreading rumours about peers, withholding friendship to inflict harm

Question 39

Popular children

Answer 39

they are viewed positively but many people and viewed negatively by few peers; they are perceived as cooperative, friendly, sociable, helpful, and sensitive to others; they are able to control the interactions of their peers.

Question 40

Aggressive-rejected children

Answer 40

children who are viewed as especially prone to physical aggression, disruptive behaviour, delinquency, and negative behaviour such as hostility and threatening others

Question 41

Withdraw-rejected children

Answer 41

are socially withdrawn, wary, timid, and socially anxious; frequently victimised by peers and many feel isolated, lonely, and depressed

Question 42

Neglected children

Answer 42

they are not nominated as either liked or disliked by peers; they perceive that they receive less support from peers, yet they are not particularly anxious about their social relationships

Question 43

Controversial children

Answer 43

they are liked by numerous peers and disliked by numerous others; they tend to be aggressive and disruptive but also cooperative, sociable, good at sports, and humorous