Families

1
Families

• Adolescents Families
• Historically
• Today
• Impact
• Conflict
• Parenting Style
• Attachment
• Siblings
• Divorce

2
Historical ChangePatterns over Two Centuries

• Three changes over the past two centuries have
  influenced family life
• Lower birth rate
• In 1800, women in the U.S. had an average of 8
  children
• Today the average number of children is 2
• Longer life expectancy
• Up until 1900, the average life expectancy was
  about 45
• Now the average human life expectancy is over 70
• Movement from rural to urban residence
• As recently at 1830, 70 of children lived in
  farm families
• By 1930, this figure had dropped to 30
• Today it is less than 2

3
Historical Change The Last 50 years

• The most dramatic changes have been in the
  following three areas
• Divorce Rate
• The current rate is so high that nearly half of
  the current generation of young people are
  projected to experience their parents divorce by
  the time they reach their late teens
• Single Parent Households
• Mothers represent 90 of custodial parents
  (parents who lives in the same household as the
  children)
• Besides divorce there has been a rise in the
  proportion of children born outside of marriage
• Dual-Earner Families
• Employment among women with school-aged children
  has increased from about ¼ to over ¾

4
Changes in Families
Fewer than 15 of todays teens live with both
biological parents in a household where the
father is the only breadwinner.
5
Changes (contd)

• High rates of divorce and high rates of
  childbirth outside of marriage
• Majority of adolescents born during 1990s will
  spend some of childhood/adolescence in a
  single-parent household
• Half of teens whose parents divorce will spend
  time in a stepfamily
• Therefore many factors that could impact
  adolescents development

6
The Changing Functions of the Family
Function Performing Institution, 1800 Performing Institution, 2000
Educational Family School
Religious Family Church/Synagogue
Medical Family Medical Profession
Economic Support Family Employer
Recreational Family Entertainment Industry
Affective Family Family
7
Extended Family Relationships

• Traditional Cultures
• Young men generally remain in their family home
  after marriage and young women move into their
  new husbands home
• This practice has been remarkably resistant to
  the influence of globalization
• This pattern is typical in India, China and most
  traditional cultures in Asia and Africa
• In these cultures children typically grow up in a
  house that includes parents, siblings as well as
  grandparents and often uncles, aunts and cousins
• Similar patterns of closeness to grandparents
  have been found among adolescents in American
  minority cultures

8
Extended Family Relationships

• American Majority Culture
• Adolescents contact with extended family members
  is relatively infrequent
• Extended family members often live many miles
  away
• American adolescents have significantly less
  contact with their extended family members as
  compared with adolescents in European countries
  because European extended family are more likely
  to live in close proximity
• An exception to this pattern occurs among
  adolescents in divorced families who tend to have
  increased contact with grandparents during
  adolescence (especially with their maternal
  grandfather)

9
Family Systems Approach

• To understand family functioning one must
  understand how each relationship within the
  family influences the family as a whole
• The family system is composed of a variety of
  subsystems

• EXAMPLE The subsystems in a family consisting
  of
• two parents and an adolescent would be
• Mother and adolescent
• Father and adolescent
• Mother and father

10
Family Systems Approach

• Based on 2 key ideas
• Each subsystem influences every other subsystem
  in the family
• A change in any family member or family subsystem
  results in a period of disequilibrium until the
  family system adjusts to the change

11
Adolescents Families

• Beginning of adolescence a time of family
  transformation
• Renegotiation of power and responsibility
• Often coincides with parents own midlife
  crisis
• Increased concern about bodies and physical
  attractiveness
• Beginning to feel that the possibilities for
  change are limited occupational plateau

12
Changes in Family Relationships Family Needs

• Changes in the family as a whole unit
• Changes in economic circumstances
• Large anticipated expenditures (e.g., college)
• Parents belong to Sandwich generation
• Changes in familys relationship to other social
  institutions
• Increasing importance of peers
• Changes in family functions
• Familys role during adolescence less clear than
  infancy or childhood

13
Transformations in Family Relationships

• Changes in the balance of power
• Shift from an asymmetrical relationship toward a
  more equal relationship with parents
• The role of puberty
• Biological/cognitive maturation at puberty throws
  the family system out of balance
• Violations of Expectations
• Cognitive changes in views of family expectations

14
Changes in Family Relationships The Parents

• Parents of adolescents
• Increased concern about bodies, physical
  attractiveness, and sexual appeal
• Midlife crisis (most are in 40s)
• Beginning to feel that the possibilities for
  change are limited
• Occupational plateau
• Mental health of parents

15
Is there a midlife crisis?

• For most people midlife is in may ways the prime
  of life (despite popular beliefs)
• Job satisfaction peaks
• Job status and power peaks
• Earning power increases
• Marital problems decline
• Marital satisfaction increases
• Gender roles become less restrictive
• Peoples tend to become more flexible and
  adaptive
• Adolescents growing autonomy my be welcomed by
  parents (e.g. empty nest syndrome)
• but thats not the whole story

16
The crisis of midlife .. Two illustrations

• For men in blue-collar professions that require
  physical strength and stamina, such as
  construction or factory worker, job performance
  becomes more difficult to sustain in middle
  adulthood and job satisfaction declines
• Only about one fourth of divorces take place
  after age 40 but midlife divorces tend to be even
  more emotionally and financially difficult

17
Sex Differences in Family Relationships

• Minimal differences between sons and daughters in
  family relations
• Similar degrees of closeness, types of rules,
  patterns of activities
• Sex of the parent may be a more important
  influence than sex of the teen
• Teens tend to be closer to their mothers, have
  more intense relationships
• Fathers rely on mothers for information about
  adolescent, perceived as distant authority figures

18
Families (contd)

• Overall get along well, feel close to parents
  (particularly mother), respect parents judgments
• Tend to disagree over mundane issues
• Disagreements stem from different perspectives
• Part of problem method of conflict resolution
• Similar beliefs about fundamental attitudes and
  beliefs
• Differ in opinions of personal taste (dress,
  leisure)

19
Families (contd)

• Progressively less time spent together
• 5th graders 25-30 of waking hours
• 12th graders 12-15 of waking hours

20
Parent-Adolescent Conflict

• G. Stanley Hall (1904)
• Anna Freud (1946)
• Both researchers made it sound as though it was
  universal and inevitable that ALL adolescents
  rebel against their parents and that ALL parents
  and adolescents experience intense conflict for
  many years
• How accurate are these early theories?

21
Is There A Generation Gap?

• Popular advice for parents of teens
• Emphasizes nonnormative development, stereotypes
  of strained relationships
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Research indicates
• Very little emotional distance between teens and
  parents
• Parents and teens have similar beliefs about core
  values
• If generation gap, it exists in matters of
  personal taste (e.g., style of dress, music
  preferences, leisure activities)

22
Parent-Adolescent Conflict

• Few scholars on adolescence believe this anymore!
• Adolescents and their parents agree on many of
  the most important aspects of their views of life
• Studies in the 1960s (which were the first to
  dispel the stereotype of storm and stress)
  found that
• a great majority of adolescents like their
  parents, trust and admire them
• when disagreement does occur it was usually over
  seemingly minor issues (e.g. clothes, curfews)

23
Conflict Details

• Conflict with parents increases sharply in early
  adolescence and remains high for several years
• Conflict in adolescence is especially frequent
  and intense between mothers and daughters
• It is only in late adolescence and emerging
  adulthood that conflict with parents diminishes
  substantially

24
Reasons for Conflict in Early Adolescence

• Biological Changes
• Adolescents become bigger and stronger physically
  making it more difficult for parents to impose
  their authority by virtue of their greater
  physical presence
• Cognitive Changes
• Increased abilities for thinking abstracting and
  with more complexity make adolescents better
  arguers and it becomes more difficult for parents
  to prevail quickly in arguments with their
  children

25
What Do Parents and Teens Fight About?

• Mundane issues, not big ones (e.g., curfew,
  leisure time, cleaning room)
• Disagreements stem from different perspectives on
  issues
• Parents see issues as a matter of right or wrong
  (social conventions or moral issues)
• Teens see issues as a matter of personal choice
  (e.g., how to dress)

26
Culture and Conflict with Parents

• Conflict is not universal and natural
• Biological and cognitive changes take place among
  adolescents in all cultures
• Parent-adolescent conflict is not typical in all
  cultures

T H E R E FORE

• Culture can take the raw materials of nature and
  shape them in highly diverse ways

27
Conflict in Traditional Cultures

• It is rare for parents and adolescents to engage
  in the kind of frequent, petty conflicts typical
  of parent-adolescent relationship in the American
  majority culture
• Reasons
• Economic In non-industrialized traditional
  cultures, family members tend to rely a great
  deal on each other economically
• Culture Cultural beliefs about parental
  authority and the appropriate degree of
  adolescent independence

28
Is There Emotional Distance Between Teens and
Parents?

• Very little emotional distance between parents
  and adolescents (unlike stereotypes)
• Most Teens
• Feel close to parents
• Respect parents judgment
• Feel loved by parents
• Respect parents as individuals
• 20 say their top concern is not having enough
  time with parents

29
Parents and Emerging Adults

• Typically relationships between parents and
  emerging adults improve once the young person
  leaves home
• Emerging adults report greater closeness and
  fewer negative feelings toward their parents
  after moving
• Those who had moved at least an hour away by car
  from their parents reported
• highest levels of closeness to their parents
• valued their parents opinions most highly
• Those who remained home
• Poorest relations with their parents in these
  respects

30
Parenting Styles

• Baumrinds classification
• Parental responsiveness (warmth)
• The degree to which parents are sensitive to
  their childrens needs and the extent to which
  they express love, warmth, and concern for their
  children
• Degree to which parent responds to childs needs
  in an accepting, supportive manner
• Parental demandingness (control)
• The degree to which parents set down rules and
  expectations for behavior and require their
  children to comply with them
• Degree to which parent expects/demands mature,
  responsible behavior from the child
• Parental monitoring vs. psychological control

31
Styles (contd)
Demandingness
High Low
High Authoritative Indulgent
Low Authoritarian Indifferent
Responsiveness
32
Parenting Styles

• Authoritative
• warm but firm, use induction
• Authoritarian
• place a high value on obedience and conformity
• Indulgent
• behave in an accepting, benign, and somewhat more
  passive way
• Indifferent
• minimize the time and energy they devote to
  interacting with their child

33
The Interaction of Demandingness and
Responsiveness
Authoritative
Authoritarian
Indulgent
Indifferent
34
Styles (contd)

• Authoritative parents - warm but firm
• Emotional autonomy granting
• Authoritarian parents - obedience and conformity
• Indulgent parents - benign, passive
• Indifferent parents - minimize time and energy
  spent interacting with their child

35
How parents might sound?
No you cant go to the mall today. You know the
family made plans to go to see your sick aunt.
How about we drop you off at your friends house
on the way home. Good enough compromise?
Do it my way because I said so! Dont argue with
me its my house and my rules
Adolescent Mom are you home mom no answer
I guess Im in charge of dinner again
Sure you can have a party in the house while
were away the key to the liquor cabinet in is
you fathers sock drawer
36
Styles (contd)

• Authoritative linked with positive outcomes
• Self-esteem, social skills, intellectual growth,
  development of autonomy identity, healthy peer
  relationships
• Older adolescents (Weiss Schwarz, 1996)
• Personality (more agreeable, openness)
• Academic achievement, less drug and alcohol use,
  positive adjustment

37
Styles (contd)

• Authoritative parenting in practice
• After a hard day at work, you come home to find
  your 15-year old daughter snuggling on the couch
  with a boy youve never met
• Company is coming and your son refuses to clean
  his room when you ask
• Your teen is arrested for underage drinking

38
Styles (cont)

• Why is authoritative parenting effective?
• Balance between restrictiveness and autonomy
• Gradually acquire independence and build up
  self-reliance
• Enabling interactions or discussions rather than
  constraining
• Sets stage for strong attachment

39
Parenting and Temperament
Adolescents who differ in temperament are
affected in different ways by the same parenting
40
Styles (cont)
41
Styles (cont)
42
Styles (cont)
43
American Parenting Styles

• What beliefs are reflected in the parenting
  styles?
• Research on child rearing goals shows that
  American parents tend to value independence
  highly as a quality they wish to promote in their
  children
• Authoritarian parenting clearly discourages
  independence but the other three parenting styles
  which account for 85 (shown in the previous
  graph) reflect parents beliefs that it is good
  for adolescents to learn autonomy

44
A More Complex Picture of Parenting Effects

• Reciprocal or Bidirectional Effects
• Adolescents not only are affected by their
  parents but also affect their parent in return
• Complexity of Siblings
• Most research on the effects of parenting styles
  involves only one adolescent per family
• The few studies that have included more than one
  adolescent per family have shown that adolescent
  siblings within the same family often give very
  different accounts of what their parents are like
  toward them

45
A More Complex Picture of Parenting Effects

• Differential Parenting
• Parents behavior often differs toward siblings
  within the same family
• Non-shared Environmental Influences
• Differential parenting can result in non-shared
  environmental influences meaning that the
  adolescents experience quite different family
  environments and the consequences of these
  differences are evident in adolescents behaviour
  and psychological functioning

46
Parenting in Other Cultures

• The most striking difference in parenting styles
  is how rare the authoritative parenting style is
  in non-Western cultures
• Parents expect that their authority will be
  obeyed, without question and without requiring an
  explanation
• The role of the parent carries greater inherent
  authority than it does in the West
• Parents are not supposed to provide reasons why
  they should be respected and obeyed

Does this mean that the typical parenting styles
in traditional cultures is authoritarian?
No. The fact is they do not fit very will into
the parenting scheme presented. They are
generally closest to authoritative parents
because like them they tend to be high in
demandingness and high in responsiveness.
However their demandingness is very different
from authoritative parents in American or Western
cultures
47
Traditional Parenting Style Two Examples

• Asian Americans
• Chao (2001) argues that White researchers
  misunderstand Asian American parenting and
  mislabel it as authoritarian
• Asian adolescents show none of the negative
  effects typically associated with authoritarian
  parenting
• They have higher educational achievement, lower
  rates of behavioural problems and lowers rates of
  psychological problems

• Latino Americans
• Latino parents in American society have also
  typically been classified as authoritarian
• The Latino cultural belief system places emphasis
  on respecto (respect and obedience to parents and
  elders especially fathers)
• Latino cultural beliefs also believe is familismo
  (love, closeness and mutual obligations of Latino
  family life)

48
Ethnic Differences in Parenting Styles

• Authoritative parenting is less prevalent among
  African-American, Asian-American, or
  Hispanic-American families than among white
  families
• Beneficial effects are found for all ethnic
  groups

49
Ethnic Differences in Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian parenting is more prevalent among
  ethnic minority than among white families (even
  when SES is taken into account)
• Adverse effects are greater for white adolescents
  than for ethnic minorities
• May carry benefits for ethnic minorities who live
  in dangerous areas

50
American Parenting Styles
51
Autonomy and Attachment in the Family

• Adolescents who are permitted to assert their own
  opinions within a family context that is secure
  and loving
• develop higher self-esteem
• develop more mature coping abilities
• Adolescents whose autonomy is squelched
• at risk for developing feelings of depression
• Adolescents who do not feel connected
• more likely than their peers to develop behavior
  problems

52
Attachment

• Quality of relationship between parents and
  child/adolescent
• Related to competence, fewer feelings of
  depression, better mental well-being, identity
  development, less problem-behavior
• Sets stage for other healthy relationships as
  well with peers, siblings, romantic partners

53
Attachment Theory

• Originally developed by John Bowlby (1969, 1973,
  1980)
• Attachments between parents and children have an
  evolutionary basis in the need for vulnerable
  young members of the species to stay in close
  proximity to adults who will care for and protect
  them
• Mary Ainsworth (1967, 1982) described two general
  types of attachment
• Secure attachment
• In which infants use the mother as a secure base
  form which to explore but seek physical comfort
  and consolation from her if frightened or
  threatened
• Insecure attachment
• Infants are wary of exploring the environment and
  resist or avoid the mother when she attempts to
  offer comfort or consolation

54
Research on the Effects of Secure Attachment in
Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood
Secure attachment to parents in adolescence is
related to a variety of favorable outcomes

• Effects on Adolescents
• Adolescents well being
• Higher self-esteem
• Better psychological and physical health
• Tend to have closer relationships with friends
  and romantic partners
• More autonomous and self-reliant

• Effects on Emerging Adults
• Higher educational and occupational attainment
• Lower psychological problems
• Lower drug use

55
Positive Parenting

• Warm, affectionate, caring, supportive,
  emotionally attuned and emotionally literate
• positive attention, no door mats
• Clear and appropriate boundaries and supervision,
  backed up by positive discipline
• negotiated rules, consistency, agreed sanctions
  for inappropriate behaviour, no hitting or
  shouting, allowing children their own space,
  handling conflict helpfully
• Age appropriate expectations, responsibility and
  challenges
• providing opportunities to try new things, but
  not over stimulation, encouragement for trying,
  not for succeeding

56
Outcomes of unhelpful parenting

• antisocial behaviour
• delinquency
• criminality
• violence
• poor social competence
• poor peer relationships
• poor educational outcomes

57
Odds of poor mental health age 26 yrs according
to relationship with parents age 16 yrs
Nagging/complaining Strict/bossy Dont
understand me Treat like child Overprotective
Generous Helpful Loving/ caring Can talk to them
Allow me freedom









1970 Birth Cohort adjusted for sex, social
class and mental health age 16 years
58
Odds of poor general health age 26 yrs according
to relationship with parents age 16 yrs
Nagging/complaining Strict/bossy Dont
understand them Dont understand me Treat like
child Overprotective Generous Helpful Loving/
caring Understanding Allow freedom




1970 Birth Cohort adjusted for sex, social
class and mental health age 16 years
59
Behavioral Genetics Why Are Siblings So
Different?

• Siblings may have very different family
  experiences
• Treated differently by parents
• Perceive similar experiences in different ways
• Unequal treatment often creates conflict among
  siblings, but most (75) treatment is not
  differential
• If all siblings are treated well, research shows
  that differential treatment can actually be a
  good thing
• Leads to siblings getting along better
• Less sibling rivalry
• Sibling deidentification
• Trying to distinguish self from sibling can also
  diminish feelings of competition

60
Sibling Relationships

• Adolescents relationships with siblings
• become more equal
• become more distant
• become less emotionally intense
• Quality of sibling relationships are affected by
  quality of parent-child relationship
• Quality of adolescent-sibling relationship
  affects adolescents relationships with peers

61
Siblings (contd)

• Branje et al. (2004)
• Relationship between perceived support from a
  sibling and adolescent adjustment
• Controlled for other sources of support
• Key results
• Perceptions of support differed between younger
  and older siblings over time
• Support negatively related to externalizing
  behaviors
• Sibling conflict related to internalizing
  behaviors

62
Sibling Relationships

• Five Common Patterns in Adolescents
  Relationships with Their Siblings

1. Caregiver relationship
2. Buddy relationship
3. Critical relationship
4. Rival relationship
5. Casual relationship

In traditional cultures, the caregiver
relationship between siblings is the most common
form Adolescents in traditional cultures often
have child-care responsibilities
63
Gene-environment Correlations

1. Passive
2. Reactive (Evocative)
3. Active (Niche-picking)

64
Common Sense Gene-Environment Correlation
Childs Genes
Childs Phenotype
Childs Environment
65
Passive Gene-Environment Correlation
Childs Genes
Childs Phenotype
Parents Genotype
Childs Environment
66
Reactive (Evocative) Gene-Environment Correlation
Childs Genes
Childs Phenotype
Parents Genotype
Childs Environment
67
Reactive (Evocative) Gene-Environment Correlation
Riggins-Caspers et al. (2003)
Biological Risk For Problem Behaviors
Adolescent Oppositional and Conduct-disordered
Problems
Parents Genotype
Coercive/Abrasive Interactions and Harsh
Discipline From Adoptive Parents
68
Active (Niche-picking) Gene-Environment
Correlation
69
Gene-Environment Correlation
70
Gene-Environment Correlation
Ge et al (1996)
71
Divorce

• Process of going through a divorce, not resulting
  family structure, matters most
• Adverse consequences of divorce are linked to
  exposure to marital conflict and disorganized
  parenting
• Sleeper effect for adolescents
• More problems if a remarriage occurs during early
  adolescence rather than childhood

72
Changes in Divorce Rate
Americans have the highest divorce rate of any
country in the world
73
Effects of Divorce Family Process

• Family process is the quality of family members
  relationships, how much warmth or hostility there
  is between them, and so on
• Three factors of family process with regard to
  the effects of children and adolescents of
  divorce
• Exposure to conflict between parents
• Exposure to parents conflicts, more than the
  specific event of divorce is especially damaging
• Affects on parenting practices
• Divorce is stressful and painful to most of the
  adults who experience it and it affects their
  role as parents
• Increases in economic stress
• Money is tight in mother-headed households
• Income in mother-headed households decreases by
  an average of 40 to 50

74
The Changing Family Divorce

• The Longer-Term Effects of Divorce
• Individuals whose parents divorce during
  preadolescence and adolescence often demonstrate
  adjustment difficulties later

75
Effects of Divorce

• Young people whose parents have divorced are at
  higher risk for a wide variety of negative
  outcomes
• Behavior problems
• Psychological distress
• Lower academic achievement
• Higher rates of drug and alcohol use
• Initiate sexual intercourse at an earlier age
• Depression and withdrawal
• Anxiousness
• Less likely to attend college

76
Effects of Divorce

• In emerging adulthood, the effects of parental
  divorce are evident in
• Greater problems in forming close romantic
  relationships
• Wariness of entering marriage
• Their determination to avoid divorce

77
The Changing Family Divorce

• Custody, Contact, and Conflict following Divorce
• It is the quality of the relationship between the
  adolescents divorced parents (not which one he
  or she lives with), that matters most

78
Effects of divorce on the development of
emotional problems A long-term study of British
individuals (Cherlin et al, 1998)
79
Family in a Changing Society

• Implications of high divorce rates and high rates
  of childbirth outside of marriage
• Most American adolescents born during 1990s will
  spend some of their childhood or adolescence in a
  single-parent household
• Half of teens whose parents divorce will spend
  time in a stepfamily

80
Effects of Single Parenthood

• Just as in divorced families, adolescents in
  never-married, single-parent households are at
  greater risk for a variety of problems
• Low school achievement
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Substance use
• Early initiation of sexual activity

81
The Changing Family Economic Strain and Poverty

• Parents under financial stress are harsher, more
  inconsistent, less involved
• Adolescents living in these conditions have
  greater risk of
• psychological difficulties
• problem behaviors

82
Effects of Dual-Earner Families
The effects of dual-earner families depend on the
gender of the adolescent

• Effects on Girls
• Often quite positive
• Tend to become more confident
• Have higher career aspirations

• Effects on Boys
• More negative than the effects on girls
• Have more arguments with their mothers and
  siblings
• Poorer school performance for boys in
  middle-class and upper-middle-class families

83
The Changing Family Remarriage

• 75 men and 67 women remarry after divorce
• Adolescents growing up in stepfamilies often have
  more problems than their peers
• African-American teens more likely to experience
  parental divorce and less likely to experience
  parents remarriage

84
Effects of Remarriage

• Adolescents typically take a turn for the worse
  when their mothers remarry
• Adolescents in stepfamilies have a greater
  likelihood for a variety of problems
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Conduct disorders
• Lower academic achievement
• More likely to engage in delinquent activities
• More problems adjusting to the remarriage
• Girls tend to have an especially negative
  reaction to their parents remarriage

85
The Importance of the Family in Adolescent
Development

• Adolescents who feel that their parents or
  guardians are there for them caring,
  involved, and accepting are healthier, happier,
  and more competent than their peers
• Despite growing importance of peers, adolescents
  still need love and support of adults who care
  about them