Psych 201 EXAM 3 PT 3 - Jeremy Fox PDF

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Potential Topics from Chapter 12 24. Family as a social system  Parents are essentially responsible for bringing their children into development through socialization, allowing them to have opportunities to both learn and grow  Parents as direct instructors: directly teaching skills, rules, strategies; gives child tips/advice/command/etc. Can be used for discipline as well – under strategies and behaviors to help teach children how to behave properly. It is the hope that children will internalize this instruction so that the discipline will be effective and lead to permanent change  Parents as indirect socializers: indirect socialization through their own behavior with or around their kids; just by spending a lot of time with your children they will learn and model behavior displayed by you – the parent  Parents as Social Managers: managing children’s experiences and social lives, including exposure to people, activities, and information that could have an impact on development; role of parents in structuring a child’s day to day life – giving them options for different opportunities 24. Baumrind’s Parenting Styles 1. Parental demandingness and responsiveness  Parental Demandingness: the extent to which a parents expects mature and responsible behavior from the child (parental control, parents have certain degree/limit setting of being able to set expectation for child in terms of choices; can range from excessive unrealistic limits, or become more flexible).  Parental Responsiveness: the extent to which parents respond to their child’s needs (warmth); degree to which the parent shows the child the degree to which they love them by being – responsive to them, there for them, and affectionate towards them 2. Authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful styles – know whether high or low on control and warmth, as well as the typical outcomes  Authoritative: control = high, warmth = high, outcomes = idependent, socially responsible, prosocial, and self-confident; responsive, attentive, sensitive to child’s needs and encouraging them to express their thoughts, feelings, desires, etc.; when they disagree, they are often prone to engage in joint decision making; encouraging of independence; best parenting style that carries into adulthood and adolescence.  Authoritarian: control = high, warmth = low, outcomes = anxious and withdrawn or hostile and aggressive; low self-esteem and depression – however less anti-social and better academic performance perhaps due to the high limit/expectation setting, but emotional wellbeing at risk; does not allow rules to be bent or challenged by the child; no negotiations or listening to the child’s point of view. Not as warm/affectionate, sometimes will threaten or use coercive parenting with the child. This parent is at a

higher risk for child abuse, but ay not go as far as abuse – parents could simply just be rigid with their rules and expectations, but does not buffer this with warmth and affection.  Permissive: control = low, warmth = high, outcomes = impulsive, dependent, aggressive, irresponsible, demanding; parent is very high in acceptance and warmth, but perhaps inattentive and overindulging – may be lax rather than appropriate in autonomy. A style where parents have few demands and will ultimately cause the child to have higher chance of becoming overly dependent and rebellious – could effect social functioning/interaction with peers and academic scores.  Neglectful: control = low, warmth = low, outcomes: poor social skills, antisocial behavior, low frustration tolerance, school problems; parents give very little time and emotion commitment to their children, not very interested in being a parent – thus will be emotionally and physically detached from the child; deficits in cognition and social interaction, low emotion-regulation and self efficacy. This is a form of maltreatment, which could also extend to nutrition and health care. 24. Co-Parenting – work as a team vs. hostility and competition; gatekeeping  Spouses coordinate their parenting practices in a two-parent household  Ideal: working as a team, similar parenting styles and even if not they communicate to assure that their parenting styles work in accordance with one another. Foster cooperation, cohesion, and harmony (and also allows kids to be more respectful to the dynamic seeing both parents work together, which they can learn from).  Imbalance of Parental Involvement: (one parent more heavily involved than the other, causing one parent to be hostile towards the other); competition between caregivers because one really wants child’s time or wants parenting style to be enforced over other parent’s parenting style – differences get magnified when parents live in two different homes running two “different shows” or extended family showing different mindsets raising kids – you want to foster harmony and agreement on how to parent.  Fosters Child Aggression: when parents don’t agree, it causes tension = child aggression  Gatekeeping: one parent limits or controls the other’s involvement => can lead to anxiety witnessing one parent being excluded from their life; my make it so one parent does not have as many opportunities with the child as the other one does – one parent “calling all the shots” = tension 24. Enmeshment – parent-child alliance, parent role  Type of family where one parent draws in child to fulfill one’s own needs; This could be any type of scenario where a child’s personal space is violated; parent lacking socialization or social opportunities outside of the family, resulting in the parent relying on kid to give them daily social “fix” which is problematic, as child may become too close and make it hard to establish parent vs. friend, not really having clear separation

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Parent-Child Alliance: gatekeeping; where the parent recruits the child in dynamic that boxes out/closes out other parent Parent Role: parent is not just depending on the child for social needs, but also every daily need. Parent struggling with mental / physical / emotional health, causing child to take care of parent or take on the parent role; predictive of childhood depression

24. Mothers vs. Fathers – main differences  Mothers: spend 1.5 hours more with their children than fathers do (and this is on a daily basis – type of activity is different too; as mothers provide more emotional/physical comfort to children, while dad’s take on lighter activities like playing with kids)  Fathers: typically spend more time playing with their kids than mothers do; but playing varies by culture (Swedish, Malaysia, and India fathers rarely play with their children – but different in USA and most of North America it’s common). 24. Contributing Factors to Parenting 1. Cultural differences in parenting – who uses authoritative more? Who uses authoritarian more?  European American: more likely to use Authoritative approach  Chinese/Chinese American: more likely to use Authoritarian approach  High control in Hispanic, Pacific Island, African-American families promotes child competence and favorable adjustment (firm limit setting in these cultures tends to be coupled with more warmth – buffering effects of high control. Control could be important for children in more economically disadvantaged communities because studies have shown that if you use more control in these contexts, it could protect them from delinquent/antisocial/risky behaviors. Combination of different studies have shown while physical discipline and authoritarian parenting is not normally associated with positive outcomes in some places it can be)’ excessive control in chinese families predicts poorer academic and social competence 2. Educational level  Highly educated mothers more likely to engage in cognitively stimulating caregiving activities with their children (basically the more less quality education a mom has, is associated with the frequency of using/playing with different cognitively stimulating puzzles and games helping them develop; there are other cognitively stimulating ways to play with your child- but watching TV or something to that effect is NOT one). 3. Low-income families  Parents spend less quality time with their children (because parents that need to work more due to low income/financial hardship have no time, plus they are stressed out due to finances so thus they express more harsh parenting styles and finds that there’s more risk for parents to be more critical, and use physical punishment. Could also be

because parents feel powerlessness – so develop “power/control” role in the home). Parents emphasize external qualities (expect more obedience, more friendliness, neatness in their kids, and may be factor of parents who feel powerless outside, may want their home which is in their control to be better controlled/to their standard). More harsh parenting (criticism, coercive style). 24. Parental Age – what are the advantages of having children at an older age?  Getting pregnant at an older age allows the mother/woman to focus on fully developing their careers before having kids 24. Family Size 1. Why are families getting smaller?  Women are delaying pregnancies for careers/developing careers before having children; increased access to/usage of birth control 2. What are the effects of smaller vs. larger families?  Smaller families are linked to better child outcomes (healthier, somewhat higher IQ scores, academic achievement/higher degree, fewer behavioral issues; could be better opportunities because of less people, less chaos with less kids, and more attention from their parents).  Larger families are often struggling financially, it may just be that lower SES is associated with these outcomes; if you have a relatively high SES with a big family and can support them however, it can attribute to positive outcomes in a bigger family too. 3. What are the benefits and challenges of having siblings?  Can promote sharing, reciprocity, and social competence (just bring positivity; and find children with siblings have a better perspective sharing ability as they have had practice trying to understand and learn from others taking on other perspectives more easily, have better social competence with peers for practicing with peers in similar age range).  Can also promote rivalries and conflict, especially if parents are less warm (if parents tend to be more distant or removed, sibling may have to fight for attention more or be insecure about their place in the house due to lack of reassuring warmth).  Older sibling may show resentment as they adjust to sharing parents’ attention and affection (if we have a child who has been raised as an only child for a number of years and now needs to share attention with younger sibling – it can be challenging. But it’s actually more common for older sibling to have sympathetic concern for baby sibling, may make sure they want to be okay because they see and younger version of themselves in their little siblings). 24. Divorce 1. How common is divorce?

50% of all marriages end in divorce. In 2015 4.8 million children lived with a divorced mother, and much fewer with a divorced father (1.3 million). 2. What are the immediate and long-term consequences?  Immediate: increased family conflict and reduced income (a lot of research shows impact on very long term and hort term impact on kids. In the short term, increased family conflict and reduced income can have impact on the kids. Parents may be trying to decide who the child is going to live with, if they must change schools, if the one parent must move out, changes in routine, etc. – all causing added stress and impact on child’s overall development and cause disorientation. One thing that kind of exasperates the disorientation is the minimal or very contradictory parenting styles. Minimal parenting = seen mostly in mothers post divorce, that they may experience high stress, depression, anxiety, etc. and thus may struggle to maintain order and routine within the home – like chores, bedtimes, etc.  Long Term: increased risk of low self-esteem and greater emotional or behavioral problems, such as depression that could be present in all children, or externalizing behavior in boys (shown often with oppositional defiant disorder). As you can see, there are multiple conflicts and consequences of divorce. 

What promotes positive adjustment to divorce?  Effective parenting styles could buffer any negative effects of divorce (if parent in the months prior to and the months after divorce cannot have either minimal or conflicting parenting styles). Including how parents handle stress and shield their children from conflict; not exposing them to the conflict helps them to not have disturbances or mishaps in life.  Importance of good father-child relationships particularly key (pattern where mother will take more responsibilities of child rearing and lessen dad role, but if dad can find way to help or balance child rearing with the mom, it can also buffer the negative effects of divorce) and divorce mediation (a series of meetings between divorcing couple and therapist to avoid legal battle over custody of child and could intensify family conflict – does not involve child). Joint custody (both parents given equal say in child’s upbringing and share equal time with them), child support (supporting child’s needs financially) to reduce conflict and enforce positive adjustment.  Adolescents and college-age children are less reactive to parental divorce (whereas middle-childhood and early teen children are more reactive to divorce). 24. Remarriage and Blended Families

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4 million children (5%) will live with stepparents (born out of statistic that says 2/3 of divorced parents will remarry; ½ of second marriages will end in divorce – so some kids may go through multiple divorces which could lead to significant negative impacts on the children/child development). Blended Families: we call a family where there is an addition of a stepparent to a “simple step family”; where there are more than one stepparents and siblings become involved, it’s a blended family.

1. Difference between stepfather and stepmother families  Stepfathers are less likely to be involved  Stepmothers may be forced to take disciplinary role or feel more obligated to tend to the needs of children (children are more resistant and have poorer adjustment in stepmother familes; because stepmoms are more expected to take on another parent role which could lead to, “you are not my mother” situation.  Solutions = gradual building of relationship and involvement + Parent Coalition (stepparent cooperate & collaborate) with biological parent helping child to adjust and be more receptive to stepparent. 2. What factors influence child adjustment to stepparent families?  Girls/Older kids/Teens have the toughest adjustment; important as psychologist so that you could assess or anticipate risk  Child could have reoccurring scenarios of divorced parents… Causing reoccurring episodes or family conflict and inconsistent/minimal parenting that can be disruptive to child’s development 24. Children of gay parents – how does their development compare to kids of heterosexual parents? 

Most children of lesbian or gay couples were born when one of their parents were previously in a heterosexual relationship, meaning that 59% of children in same-sex parent households are biologically related to one of their parents

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Children of same-sex parents are not different than children with heterosexual parents in terms of adjustment, personality, relationships with peers, and academic achievement.

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In addition, these children are also similar in the sense that their sexual orientation and the degree to which their behavior is gender-typed; as well as their romantic involvements in and sexual behavior as adolescents

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Children of lesbian/gay parents actually report very low levels of stigmatization and teasing, although they sometimes feel excluded or gossiped about, by peers.

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As with heterosexual relationships, the adjustment of children in homosexual relationships seems to depend more so on family dynamics, including the closeness of the parent/child relationship, how well parent get along, regulated discipline, and the degree of stress parents experience in their parenting

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Children of lesbian parents are better adjusted when their parents are not highly stressed, when they report sharing childcare duties evenly, and when they are satisfied with the division of labor in the home.

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When gay adoptive father have low levels of social support and a less positive gay identity, they experience more stress regarding parenting and are more likely to have poorer relationships with their kids – responses that are likely to affect child development.

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In families with a gay father and his partner, a son’s happiness with his family life is related to the relationship with the partner as well as the biological father...