Chapter 4 - Family Lecture Notes PDF

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Chapter 4 lecture notes on the family. For the course The Psychology of Adolescence PSYC 322 with professor Alan Meca. ...

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Chapter 4 - Family ● Is there a generation gap? ○ Despite the stereotype, ■ Parents and teens have similar core values ● Include values regarding religion, work, and education ● Likely result of common social, region, and cultural backgrounds ■ However, there are differences in opinions on matters of personal taste ● Includes style of dress, music, hairstyle ● Tastes are based on transitory fads ● What do parents and teens fight about? ○ Fight over mundane issues ■ Curfews ■ Leisure time activities ■ Clothes ■ Cleanliness ○ Disagreements stem from ■ Different perspectives on issues ● Parents: social convention seen terms of right and wrong ● Adolescents: define as matters of personal choice ○ Adolescents, rebel without a cause? ■ Despite the stigma, adolescents rarely rebel against their parents for the sake of rebelling ■ Research indicates adolescents ● Likely to accept parents’ rules as legitimate when viewed as a moral issue or one involving safety ● Less inclined when parents’ authority focused on the issue of personal choice ■ As a result, adolescents/parents clash over the defintion of the issue rather than the specifics ● Family relationships at adolescence ○ Family systems theory ■ Views the family as an interacting system ● Each individual affects the other ● Any disequilibrium in an individual affects the system ■ From this perspective, the family is ● An interacting social system ● A developing system ● A contextually embedded system

● The family as a social system ○ Types of effects ■ Direct ● Influence in which any pair of family members affects and is affected by each other’s behaviors ■ Indirect ● Interaction between any two family members are influenced by attitudes/behaviors of a third ● Requires a family system by composed of 3 or more individuals ● The family as a developing system ○ Each family member is ■ Changing over time. ■ Faced with their own developmentally appropriate challenges and concerns. ○ Change ■ Critical aspect of the system. ■ Can lead to disequilibrium which affects the ENTIRE system. ● Family as an embedded system ○ Families are also embedded within a larger cultural and subcultural context. ○ For example, ■ Economic hardship exerts a strong influence on parenting. ■ However, hardship is buffered if the family is closely tied with the local community. ● Family relationships at adolescence ○ During adolescence, ■ Changes results in a reorganization of the family system leading to changes in ● Relationships among family members. ● Daily activities. ■ However ● Issues emerge as a result of the interaction between EVERYONE in the system. ● Important to take into account characteristics of adolescents’ parents and siblings. ● Changes in family relationships: the parents ○ Parents of adolescents ■ Typically around early 40s at onset of adolescence. ● Concerns similar to adolescents’

○ Parents faced with ■ Increased concern about bodies, attractiveness, and sexual appeal. ● While adolescents are coming into sexual maturity. ■ Beginning to feel possibilities for change are limited. ● While adolescents are developing capacity for forethought. ■ Occupational plateau . ● While adolescents are just starting their careers. ○ Mental Health of Parents ■ Adjusting may take more of a toll on parents than adolescents. ■ Current Research ● Low point in parents’ marital and life satisfaction. ● Influencing Factors ○ Work outside of the home may buffer against consequences. ○ Single mothers are especially vulnerable. ● Parents’ mental health improves once children leave the home. ○ Although fathers may feel a sense of loss. ● Changes in family relationships: family needs ○ Changes in the family: ■ Economic circumstances ● Increase in regular expenses and “must haves”. ● Large anticipated expenditures. ● “Sandwich generation”. ○ Provide for children and their aging parents ■ Increased Importance on Peers and other social institutions ■ Family functions ● During Childhood: nurturance, protection, & socialization. ● During Adolescence: support, guidance, & direction. ● Transformations in family relationships ○ Changes in the balance of power ■ Throughout adolescence, youth increasingly likely to assert their opinions on family decisions. ● In early adolescence, may do this by interrupting their parents. ● By middle adolescence, have greater influence on family decisions. ■ Successful transition requires that parents and adolescence have a “shared sense of reality”. ● A serious discussion may be construed as an argument. ○ The role of puberty ■ Although may create greater distance between adolescent and parent, not associated with conflict. ● Indeed, rates of conflict comparable to that prior to

adolescence. ■ However, the dynamic of argument changes, reflecting one more of power struggle. ■ That being said, by late adolescence ● Distancing decreases. ● Parent-Child relationship become less conflicted and more intimate. ○ Differences in Transformation of Family Relations ■ Variation varies across ethnic/racial groups due to differential endorsement of family structure and obligation. ○ For example, among immigrants ■ Hispanics culture endorses familism or orientation in life in which needs of family precede one's own. ■ Asian culture endorses filial piety or respect, obedience, and care for one's parents and elderly family members. ○ Within these groups, relationship contingent on differential acculturation, a process by which one embrace American values. ■ If parents are more traditional than youth, may result in generational dissonance, creating parent-adolescent conflict. ● Sex differences in family relationships ○ Minimal differences between sons and daughters in family relations ○ Sex of the parent may be a more important. ■ Fathers sought for objective information. ■ Mothers sought for support or guidance. ● Relationship with mother tends to be closer, ● But also more emotionally charged. ● Family Relationship and Adolescent development ○ Focus on the general experiences faced by the family. ○ However, ■ Parent–adolescent relationships differ from family to family. ■ Differences emerge result of interaction between parents’ and children’s behavior. ● Parents will influence their adolescents’ behavior. ● Adolescent behavior and personality will also influence their parents and their parenting style. ■ For this reason, parent-adolescent relationships are a two-way relationship. ● Parenting styles ○ Research mainly looked at how parents affect their children. ○ Baumrind’s Dimensions of Parenting ■ Acceptance/Responsiveness ● Amount support and affection a parent displays. ● Accepting parents smile, praise, and encourage. ● Less accepting parents criticize, belittle, punish, or ignore. ■ Demandingness/Control ● Amount of regulation/supervision parents undertake.

● Controlling/Demanding parents place limits on children’s freedom. ● Less controlling /demanding parents make fewer demands and allow considerable freedom. ○ Outcomes as a function of Parenting Style ■ Authoritative: ● Tend to be positively oriented, socially responsible, selfreliant, achievement oriented, & corporative. ■ Authoritarian: ● Tend to be moody and seemingly unhappy as well as uneasily annoyed, unfriendly, and relatively aimless. ■ Permissive: ● Tend to be impulsive, aggressive, and tend to be bossy and self-centered while lacking self-control and motivation to achieve. ■ Uninvolved Parenting ● Perform poorly in class, become hostile, selfish, and rebellious. ● The power of Authoritative Parenting ○ Balance between restrictiveness /autonomy. ■ Gives opportunity to develop self-reliance. ■ While providing standards, limits, and guidelines. ○ By being warm/accepting, ■ Communicate caring concern which motivates children to comply. ○ Unlike authoritarian parents, ■ Exert control in rational way, carefully explain their point of view, and considering the child’s. ■ Allows for verbal give-and-take that fosters cognitive and psychosocial development. ○ Adolescents who are permitted to assert their own opinions, with love and without fear: ■ have higher self-esteem & social competency, ■ are more psychologically mature (i.e., responsible), ■ have better coping abilities, ■ express greater creativity , ■ are more intellectually curious, ■ and are more academically successful. ○ Adolescents whose autonomy is squelched ■ at risk for developing feelings of depression and low self-esteem

○ Adolescents who do not feel connected ■ more likely than their peers to develop behavior problems ● Ethnic Differences in Parenting Styles ○ Prevalence of Parenting Style ■ Authoritative is less prevalent among Black, Asian, or Hispanic than among White families. ■ Instead, authoritarian is more prevalent instead. ○ Effects of Parenting Style ■ Authoritative style found to be beneficial for all groups. ■ Authoritarian style seems to be less detrimental among ethnic minorities. ● May be beneficial in the context of marked by violence. ● Sibling relationships ○ As children mature from childhood to adolescence sibling conflict increases. ○ In adolescence, sibling relationships become: ■ more equal ■ more distant ■ Less emotionally intense ○ Quality of sibling relationships ■ Affected by the quality of parent–child relationship. ■ Affects adolescent’s relationships with peers ○ A considerable amount of research indicates that the quality of the parentadolescent relationship influences the quality of relations among adolescent brothers and sisters, which in turn influences adolescents’ relationships with peers. ● The changing family: divorce ○ Dramatic increase from 1960 and 1980 ■ Leveled off since then ○ Today, ■ 40% of first marriages will likely and in divorce or separation ■ 40% of american children will experience their parents’ divorce ○ Findings ■ Effect of divorce is significant but relatively small ○ Factors ■ Quality of relationships in a teen’s life matters most not the number of parents. ■ It is the divorce process itself, not the resulting family structure, that matters most.

● Marital conflict/disorganized parenting affect outcomes. ■ Some differences may be due to genetic factors ○ The longer-term effects of divorce ■ Higher levels of educational and behavioral problems. ■ May be the result of: ● Lack of parental supervision/monitoring. ● Exposure to past or even current levels of marital unhappiness and conflict. ● Individual differences in the effects of divorce ○ Children differ in their vulnerability to the effects of divorce ○ In general, immediate problems are relatively more common among: ■ Boys ■ Younger children ■ Children with a difficult temperament ■ children who do not have supportive relationships with adults outside the immediate family ● Custody, contact, and conflict following divorce ○ Immediately following divorce, ■ Children fare better with same sex parent. ● However, no long-lasting differences over time. ○ Continued contact can be beneficial ■ Assuming it does not result in greater conflict. ■ Relationship with nonresidential caregiver is positive. ○ In essence, immediately following divorce, divorced parents relationship has the greatest impact on outcomes: ■ Positive Relationship ● Parents have a congenial and cooperative relationship and consistently discipline. ● Associated with the ■ Negative Relationship ● Parents continue to fight, place a child between them, and inconsistently discipline. ● Changing family: remarriage ○ Remarriage is highly likely ■ 75% men and 67% women. ■ Divorce rate is higher among second marriages. ● As a result, adolescents may also experience more than one divorce. ○ Adolescents often have more problems.

○ Factors Explaining Poor Adjustment ■ Double dose of marital conflict. ● Regular conflict between parent/stepparent ● Continued conflict between biological parents. ■ Adjustment to new authority with potentially different ideas on rules and discipline. ■ Improving Outcomes ● Establish consistent, supportive, authoritative discipline. ● Establish positive relationship between parents. ● Changing family: economic strain and poverty ○ Prevalence ■ 17% grow in poverty ■ 21% grow in low-income ○ Trends ■ Large and increasing gap between poor and wealthy. ■ More likely among non-White adolescents. ○ Living in poverty almost always negative ○ Parents under financial stress are harsher, more inconsistent, less involved. ○ Adolescents living in these conditions have greater risk of ■ psychological difficulties ■ Problem behaviors ● Changing family: diversity in family forms ○ Adolescents with adoptive parents ■ Mixed and sometimes contradictory findings. ● Adopted individuals show relatively higher rates of problems ■ Magnitudes of differences are very small. ● Likely result of high variability among youth and feelings about adoption. ○ Gay and Lesbian Parents ■ No evidence that youth are psychologically different. ■ Evaluated across a BROAD variety of indicators. ● Importance of the family in adolescent development ○ Adolescents who feel that their caregivers are “there” for them are healthier, happier, and more competent ○ In essence, despite growing importance of peers, adolescents still need love and support of adults...