week 9 - development in the family context

Question 1

What child outcomes are associated with divorce?

Answer 1

mental health problems, low self-esteem, aggression and antisocial behaviour, decline in academic performance, difficulties forming and sustaining relationships. Despite risks, outcomes for most children are good, especially for families with high conflict pre-divorce.

Question 2

What factors affect the impact of divorce?

Answer 2

Level of parent conflict, stress experienced by custodial parent and children, age of child, long-standing characteristics of child, quality of contact with noncustodial parent, and custody arrangements.

Question 3

What are the impacts on maternal employment on early childhood?

Answer 3

Concerns about a negative influence are unfounded, as long as childcare is good quality.

Question 4

Explain the circles of Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model (1979).

Answer 4

Microsystems: immediate environments

mesosystems: interconnections among Microsystems
ecosystems: settings with indirect influences
macrosystem: cultural context
chronosystem: change over time

Question 5

According to Bronfenbrenner’s model, the family system has:

Answer 5

wholeness (the whole is greater than the sum of parts), adaptability.

Question 6

What does bidirectionally between parent and child mean?

Answer 6

Children are not just passive recipients of parenting - they influence parents and vice versa.

Question 7

What is the impact of child attractiveness on parenting?

Answer 7

Attractive children elect more positive responses, parents may invest more resources towards survival of attractive child.

Question 8

What is the impact of birth order on parenting?

Answer 8

More responsive to first born and higher expectations.

Question 9

What is parental socialisation?

Answer 9

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 10

What are Baumrind’s (1971) 5 parenting styles?

Answer 10

Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive, Uninvolved, and Unclassified.

Question 11

What are the parent behaviours and child outcomes of authoritarian style parenting?

Answer 11

Parents are: high in coercive control, demand obedience, inconsistent discipline, manipulative, verbal hostility, misinterprets or ignores child’s feelings and needs.
Child outcomes: worst outcomes at adolescence in terms of lower competence and more mental health problems, hostile towards parents, higher levels of delinquency and alcohol abuse.

Question 12

What are the parent behaviours and child outcomes of authoritative style parenting?

Answer 12

parents are: high in demanding ness not non-coercive, use discipline to teach and promote self-regulation, high in support, communicate and attempt to resolve disagreement jointly.
child outcomes: best outcomes at adolescence in terms of competence, popular with peers, lower drug use.

Question 13

What are the parent behaviours and child outcomes of permissive style parenting?

Answer 13

parents are: highly responsive to child’s needs and wishes but overindulgent, low in control, fail to provide authority and order, permit child to make decisions before they are capable.
child outcomes: poorer mental health, lower academic achievement, more behaviour problems, more drug and alcohol problems.

Question 14

What are the parent behaviours and child outcomes of uninvolved style parenting?

Answer 14

parents are: Low in responsiveness, emotionally detached, neglect, low in control, lack of rules / goals.
Child outcomes: poorer mental health, insecure or disorganised attachment relationships, more impulsive and anti social, less achievement oriented.

Question 15

What are the socieconomic influences on parenting style?

Answer 15

Authoritarian parenting is more likely among parents with low SES. But relationship between SES and parenting is complex.

Question 16

What are the ethnic influences on parenting style?

Answer 16

Parenting styles may be ethnocentric, can have different outcomes for different groups.

Question 17

What is the Psychoanalytic theory (Alder, 1928; Freud, 1946)?

Answer 17

Dethronement of first-born child, resentment at loss of parental attention, leaves lasting impact on personality (birth order effects).

Question 18

What are the key findings of transitioning to having a sibling?

Answer 18

No persistent negative effectives, any increases in aggression subsided by 4 months. Main predictors: attachment security, father’s parenting confidence, parents relationship quality.

Question 19

What were the findings of the Pike and Oliver (2017) longitudinal study on sibling relationships?

Answer 19

Individual child behaviour predicts sibling relationship quality. sibling relationship quality predicts later child behaviour. Older siblings play a dominant role in modelling positive behaviours to younger siblings.

Question 20

What were the results of Ross and Lazimski (2014), where parents were trained to mediate sibling conflict?

Answer 20

Post-intervention, parents were more likely than controls to discuss emotions, avoid blame and propose solutions. Children were more likely to initiate plans to resolve the conflict and discuss emotions.

Question 21

How do parent characteristics influence sibling relationships?

Answer 21

Warm and responsive parenting is linked to more supportive sibling relationships, authoritarian responses to conflict leads more negative sibling relationships.

Question 22

Explain Parents’ Differential Treatment of Siblings (PDT).

Answer 22

PDT is common, even if parents don’t like to admit it. Occurs due to different needs, personalities, emotional connections, gender, etc. Parents sometimes compensate for each other’s preferences. PDT leads to poorer sibling relationships and child outcomes.

Question 23

Effects of PDT are reduced when:

Answer 23

Parenting is warm and responsive, children interpret PDT as justified, in adolescence, when children are boys.

Question 24

What were the findings from Henderson and Taylor (1999) on PDT in established stepfamilies vs non-stepfamilies.

Answer 24

Mothers displayed more warmth and support with biological children, but also more monitoring and conflict. Fathers were more coercive, angry, and negative with non-biological children. Children also displayed more warmth to biological parent.

Question 25

According to Bronfenbrenenr’s Bioecological model, the neighbourhood in which a child lives is part of the

Answer 25

Macrosystem.

Question 26

According to Baumrind’s classification, parents who are high in warmth, support, and responsiveness and low in demandingness are…

Answer 26

Permissive

Question 27

Kerr, Stattin, and Ozdemir (2012) investigated changes in youth behaviours and parenting style over a two year period. The relationship between these two factors was such that:

Answer 27

Youth behaviours predicted changes to parenting style.

Question 28

How does a child’s birth order affect parenting behaviours?

Answer 28

More responsive to first born.

Question 29

What type of parenting style is being displayed by parents who attempt to control their child’s behaviour through criticism, threats, and punishment?

Answer 29

Authoritarian.