Week 8 - Parenting, Peer relationships, and Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model Flashcards
Urie Bronfenbrenner - bioecological model of development
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.
Microsystem
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)
Mesosystem
the interconnections between different microsystems; supportive mesosystems can be beneficial for the child (e.g in terms of school performance)
Exosystem
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)
Macrosystem
consists of the general beliefs, values, customs, and laws of the general society
Chronosystem
changes over time that influence other systems, e.g access to digital information
Family
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
Family structure
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
older first-time parents tend to…
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
simple stepfamily household
a new stepparent joints the household
complex / blended stepfamily household
involve a new stepparent and stepsibilings
Family dynamics
how family members interact through various relationships
Socialization
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
Discipline
the set of strategies and behaviours parents use to teach children how to behave appropriately
Internalization
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.
Parenting style
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
Spanking
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);
Authoritative parenting
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.
Authoritarian parenting
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.
Permissive parenting
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.
Uninvolved parenting
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.
Differences in mothers’ and father’s interactions with their children
- 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
bidirectionality
the idea that parents and children are mutually affected by one another’s characteristics and behaviours
Child maltreatment
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
Play
activities that children pursue for their inherent enjoyment
Piaget’s view on peer relationships
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.
Vygotsky’s view on peer relationships
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.
Social-emotional development affected by play
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.
Nonsocial types of play
unoccupied play, onlooker play, and solitary play
Unoccupied play
the child watches things in the environment, but only briefly; nothing holds their interest for very long
Onlooker play
the child watches other children’s play; they might ask questions about it but will not try to engage in
Solitary play
the child engages in their own activity and does not attend the behaviours of others
Social types of play
parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play
Parallel play
the child plays alongside, but not with, other children; children typically engage in similar activities but play independently
Associative play
the child plays with other children but there is no common goal, e.g sharing toys
Cooperative play
the child plays with other children in an organised way with a common goal, e.g playing a game
Child-centered play therapy (CCPT)
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
Relational aggression
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
Popular children
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.
Aggressive-rejected children
children who are viewed as especially prone to physical aggression, disruptive behaviour, delinquency, and negative behaviour such as hostility and threatening others
Withdraw-rejected children
are socially withdrawn, wary, timid, and socially anxious; frequently victimised by peers and many feel isolated, lonely, and depressed
Neglected children
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
Controversial children
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
