Chapter 15 Context of Development: The Family

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Chapter 15 Context of Development The Family
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UNDERSTANDING THE FAMILY

• Most important function is socialization
• Process by which children acquire the beliefs,
  motives, values, and behaviors considered
  appropriate in their society

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UNDERSTANDING THE FAMILY

• The Family as a Social System
• Parents influence children
• Children influence behavior of their parents
• Families are networks of reciprocal relationships
• Happily married mothers are more likely to have
  securely attached children
• Children do best when couples coparent

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• Figure 15.1. A model of the family as a social
  system. As implied in the diagram, a family is
  bigger than the sum of its parts. Parents affect
  infants, who affect each parent and the marital
  relationship. Of course the marital relationship
  may affect the parenting that the infant
  receives, the infants behavior, and so on.
  Clearly, families are complex social systems.
  FROM BELSKY, 1981.

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UNDERSTANDING THE FAMILY

• Families are Developing Systems
• Developmental change occurs within the family
  system
• The family changes with the development of the
  family members
• Families are embedded within larger cultural and
  subcultural contexts
• Affect how family functions are carried out

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• Table 15.1 Changing Family Systems in the United
  States. Data compiled from Bengston, 2001
  Cabrera, et al., 2000 Hetherington Jodl, 1994
  Hetherington et al., 1999 Meckler, 2002 U.S.
  Bureau of the Census, 2000 2002.

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UNDERSTANDING THE FAMILY

• Conclusions about Understanding Families
• Nuclear family with a breadwinning father, a
  housewife mother, and at least 2 children is a
  stereotype (12 of families)
• Families as social systems include dual-career,
  single parent, blended, and multigenerational
  families

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PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION DURING CHILDHOOD AND
ADOLESCENCE

• Two Major Dimensions of Parenting
• Parental acceptance/responsiveness
• Amount of support and affection
• Associated with secure attachment
• Prosocial orientation
• High self-esteem
• Strong sense of morality

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PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION DURING CHILDHOOD AND
ADOLESCENCE

• Parental demandingness/control
• Amount of regulation or supervision
• Appropriate degree of regulation is tied to
  parental acceptance/ responsiveness

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PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION DURING CHILDHOOD AND
ADOLESCENCE

• Four Patterns of Parenting
• Authoritarian
• Very restrictive, expect obedience, do not
  explain why limits exist
• Raise children with less favorable developmental
  outcomes

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• Figure 15.2 Two major dimensions of parenting.
  When we cross the two dimensions, we come up with
  four parenting styles. BASED ON MACCOBY
  MARTIN, 1983.

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PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION DURING CHILDHOOD AND
ADOLESCENCE

• Authoritative
• Controlling but flexible, make reasonable
  demands, provide rationales for limits
• Rational and democratic
• Tend to raise highly competent, well-adjusted
  children

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PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION DURING CHILDHOOD AND
ADOLESCENCE

• Permissive
• Accepting but lax, few demands, little monitoring
• Raise children with less favorable developmental
  outcomes

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PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION DURING CHILDHOOD AND
ADOLESCENCE

• Uninvolved
• Extremely lax and undemanding
• May have rejected their children
• May be overwhelmed and cannot devote energy to
  child rearing
• Raise children who are aggressive, selfish,
  rebellious
• Perform poorly in school
• Are likely to abuse drugs

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PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION DURING CHILDHOOD AND
ADOLESCENCE

• Behavioral Control versus Psychological Control
• Firm behavioral control tends to lead to
  well-behaved children
• Psychological control guilt, shame, or
  withholding affection
• Poor developmental outcomes

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PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION DURING CHILDHOOD AND
ADOLESCENCE

• Parent Effects or Child Effects?
• Parent effects model
• Influences run from parent to child
• Supported by research, suggests stressing dos
  not donts
• Child effects model
• Children influence their parents
• Also supported by research difficult children
  alter caregiving

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PARENTAL SOCIALIZATION DURING CHILDHOOD AND
ADOLESCENCE

• Transactional model
• Socialization is due to reciprocal influence
• Research shows parenting influences children more
  than children influence parenting
• Children do affect parents

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SOCIAL CLASS AND ETHNIC VARIATIONS IN CHILDREARING

• Social Class Differences in Child Rearing
• Economically-disadvantaged and working-class
  parents
• Stress obedience and respect for authority
• Are more restrictive and authoritarian
• Reason with their children less
• Show less warmth and affection

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SOCIAL CLASS AND ETHNIC VARIATIONS IN CHILDREARING

• Differences due to
• Increased psychological distress
• Increased marital conflict
• Loss of emotional security
• Child adjustment problems
• Negatively affects parenting
• Also due to attributes viewed as successful in
  the workplace

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• Figure 15.3 A model of the relationships among
  family economic distress, patterns of parenting,
  and child/adolescent adjustment. ADAPTED FROM
  CONGER ET AL., 1992 DAVIES CUMMINGS, 1998.

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SOCIAL CLASS AND ETHNIC VARIATIONS IN CHILDREARING

• Ethnic Variations in Child Rearing
• Collectivistic cultures tend to stress
• Maintaining close ties to relatives
• Strong respect for authority
• Proper and polite behaviors
• Different behaviors can be interpreted
  differently in other cultures
• Middle-class authoritative parenting may not be
  optimal in all situations

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THE INFLUENCE OF SIBLINGS AND SIBLING
RELATIONSHIPS

• Changes in the Family Systems when a New Baby
  Arrives
• Mother devotes less warm and playful attention to
  the older child
• Child may become difficult and disruptive
• Sibling rivalry often develops

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THE INFLUENCE OF SIBLINGS AND SIBLING
RELATIONSHIPS

• Sibling Relationships Over the Course of
  Childhood
• Fairly quick adjustment to new sibling
• Conflict is normal, and declines with age
• Less if parents get along
• Less if parents monitor childrens activities
• Less if one child is not favored

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THE INFLUENCE OF SIBLINGS AND SIBLING
RELATIONSHIPS

• Positive Contributions of Sibling Relationships
• Older siblings provide caretaking services to
  younger brothers/sisters
• Siblings as Providers of Emotional Support
• With age, protect and confide in each other

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THE INFLUENCE OF SIBLINGS AND SIBLING
RELATIONSHIPS

• Siblings as Models and Teachers
• Younger siblings learn from older siblings
• Direct instruction and modeling
• Older siblings improve in academic aptitude from
  tutoring younger siblings

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THE INFLUENCE OF SIBLINGS AND SIBLING
RELATIONSHIPS

• Characteristics of Only Children
• Relatively high in self-esteem and achievement
  orientation
• More obedient and slightly more intellectually
  competent
• Likely to establish good relations with peers

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Adoptive Families
• Sensitivity of parents predicts attachment
  classifications same as for biologically related
  children
• Adoptees do have
• More learning and emotional problems
• Higher rates of delinquency
• Environmental incompatibilities
• Abuse/neglect prior to adoption

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Adopted children fare better in adoptive homes
  than foster care
• Transracially adopted children also do well
  intellectually
• Open adoption information about or ability to
  contact birth parents
• Positive outcomes

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Donor Insemination (DI) Families
• Fertile woman receiving sperm from an unknown
  donor
• Children were as well adjusted as biological or
  adopted children
• Mothers were warmer, more sensitive
• Fathers were less involved in discipline, but as
  involved in other aspects of parenting

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Gay and Lesbian Families
• Parents are as mentally healthy as any other type
  of parent
• No more likely to molest their children
• Children are not at risk of being stigmatized
• Children are no more likely to become homosexual

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• Figure 15.4 Sexual orientation of adult children
  raised by lesbian mothers, gay fathers, and
  single-parent heterosexual mothers. (Notice that
  children with homosexual parents are just as
  likely to display a heterosexual orientation as
  children raised by heterosexuals. ADAPTED FROM
  BAILEY ET AL., 1995 GOLOMBOK TASSER, 1996.

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Family Conflict and Divorce
• 40-50 of marriages end in divorce
• More than half of children will spend time in a
  single-parent home

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Before the Divorce Exposure to Marital Conflict
• Conflict produces distress
• Anxiety, depression, conduct disorders
• Direct effects
• Indirect effects

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• After the Divorce Crisis and Reorganization
• 1 year crisis period
• Both parents experience emotional and practical
  difficulties
• Psychologically distressed individuals are not
  the best parents
• Mothers become more coercive
• Fathers tend to be permissive

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Childrens initial reactions vary as a function
  of gender and age
• Preschool/early grade school
• Visible signs of distress
• May think they caused divorce
• Older children
• Tend to withdraw
• Become involved in delinquent behavior

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Impact of divorce tends to be stronger and longer
  lasting for boys
• May do better if father is the custodial parent
• Girls may experience more covert distress, more
  difficult to see
• Girls may become involved in early sexual
  behaviors

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Long Term Reactions to Divorce
• Most children show healthy patterns of adjustment
• May still have lingering after-effects
• Perceived loss of closeness with parents
• Fear own marriages will be unhappy

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DIVERSITY IN FAMILY LIFE

• Better for a child to be in a stable
  single-parent home than a conflict-ridden
  two-parent home
• Not all divorcing families experience all of the
  difficulties mentioned previously