Psychology of Parenting: Topic 5 - Determinants of Parenting

What are the four categories of determinants of parenting (aka what influences parenting behavior?)

1) General cultural factors (culture, SES, Religion)

2) Individual factors (Sex of parent/child, prior experiences, social cognition, personality, age of mother, stress)

3) Interpersonal factors (family structure, marital relations, parental employment, social support)

4) Setting (neighborhood, home vs playground, presence of others, time of interaction)

Determinant: General Cultural Factors → Culture

What is cultural context, setting, language/social interactions/material products, parental values/goals/beliefs, norms/expectations?

Cultural context = shared way of life (social, psychological aspects) (norms, values, beliefs, customs, behaviors shared that influences person’s way of life and interactions)

Setting = where do people live in which culture thrives

Language, social interactions, material products

Parental values, goals, beliefs = differ between cultures

Norms & expectations = expected behaviors (unwritten rules), attitudes, average happenings

Example = Mauritania (daughters for marriage)

Determinant: General Cultural Factors → Culture

Explain is cross cultural research is easy or difficult and why?

It is difficult and expensive to do

language barriers, cultural bias, hard to compare cultures

Determinant: General Cultural Factors → Socioeconomic Status (SES)

What is SES? How is it measured?

• resources, influences, power

• measured by income, education levels, employment, occupations (and prestige)

Determinant: General Cultural Factors → Socioeconomic Status (SES)

What are parents from lower SES more likely to use and why?

• Likely to use physical punishment/coercive discipline (threating of punishment to get child to obey you)

• Why? = because high stress levels, control, generational

  • Also, SES may influence values then influence childbearing then influence parenting

Determinant: General Cultural Factors → Socioeconomic Status (SES)

What is concerted cultivation vs natural growth?

• Concerted cultivation =

  • Middle class parenting

  • parents actively structure child’s lives with organized activities and encourage development

  • allow for child express opinions, question authority

  • heavy involvement in child’s education

• Natural growth =

  • working class parenting

  • focus providing child with basic needs and allow children to develop more freely

  • clear boundaries between parents and child

Determinant: General Cultural Factors → Religion

What does religion influence? How does it influence that (examples)?

• Influences parent’s beliefs, practices

• influences law, cultural institutions, norms

• Influences transmission of moral values

• Example = Buddhism → mindful parenting

• Example = Christianity, Judaism, Islam → emphasize family, devote a lot time and attention to kids

Determinant: General Cultural Factors → Religion

What is the difference between religious and non religious parents?

Religious =

• give more time to kids

• idea of discipline

• more family oriented activities they do

• better modeling and coping

After having kids people tend to be more religiously involved

Determinant: Individual Factors → Sex of parent/child

Difference in Involvement

There’s a difference in involvement in childcare

Mom’s tend to be more involved in child chare

Determinant: Individual Factors → Sex of parent/child

Changes in parental perceptions

Changes when child is either girl or boy

perceptions based on sex of child (how they interpret or understand it which therefore impacts how they interact with child)

Determinant: Individual Factors → Sex of parent/child

What are the differences in behaviors and attitudes between fathers and mothers?

Fathers =

• talk less to kids, do more activities, want kids have more self control (expects them to act more appropriately)

Mothers =

• Enforce rules

• play certain things like peak a boo

• more importance on emotions

• focus on kids enjoyment like doing things they do not like but their child does

Determinant: Individual Factors → Prior Experiences

What are those 3 prior experience types that influence parenting?

1) Parent’s own childhood

• Think attachment style they developed with own parents

• plays a role in how you will parent

2) Non parenting experience with other kids

• Ex = babysitting

3) Previous parenting experiences

• Ex = having multiple children, being more stricter with oldest child

Determinant: Individual Factors → Social cognition

What is social cognition, what is it linked to (2), and what does it effect?

• Social cognition

  • our understanding of social interactions, our attitudes, beliefs, perceptions

• Linked to our behavior and emotions

  • Ex = belief that child need be potty trained by age 3 and your child is not so you are frustrated with them

• Effect parental mood

  • influences ability to respond sensitively to child and manage stress

  • Having negative perception contribute to emotional distress and less effective parenting

  • We may snap at child

Determinant: Individual Factors → Personality

What is the five factor model? (OCEAN) How does it influence parenting?

• we have these 5 traits but they vary how high/low (how much we have of these traits)

• we parent differently based on our personality

• Openess = how open you are to new things

• Conscientiousness = how organized or detailed oriented you are

• Extraversion = how outgoing or sociable you are

• Agreeableness = willingness and ability to work well with others

• Neuroticism = how anxious or irritable you are

Determinant: Individual Factors → Personality

What two other aspects influences parenting

Parental maturity and psych well being

Determinant: Individual Factors → Personality

What can compensate for negative experiences?

Positive parenting practices =

• develop positive coping skills

• Ex = child doing poor in test, parent help cope/support/talk it out then child learns how to cope alone

Determinant: Individual Factors → Personality

How does empathy influence?

Capacity for empathy impacts

• Empathy is feeling WITH the person (you actually feel it)

• Parents more empathetic have more positive outcomes

• understanding, giving space to child feelings (others may be dismissive and say they are not a big deal)

Determinant: Individual Factors → Age of mother

• Teen mothers =

  • less talk to kids

  • more likely engage in harsh discipline

  • financial issues, brain not developed

• Mothers in 30s

  • kids achieve high levels of education

  • parents have had time to be in school, finish their degrees before having kids

Determinant: Individual Factors → Stress

Is stress good? What is additive effect?

• positive and negative stressors (can be neg or pos)

• Pos stressors = having kids, promotions in job

• A little bit of stress can be good for us

• Additive effect = little stress adds up together which create big stress

  • neg influence on parental health and functioning

Determinant: Interpersonal Factors → Family Structure

Single, two parents, divorce, number of children

• Single vs two parent

  • Not having ppl share parent with you (single)

  • Financial issues (single)

  • not have much time spending with kids (single)

• Divorce

  • lessen conflict between parents

  • impact parenting

• Number of children

  • influences how discipline

Determinant: Interpersonal Factors → Martial Relations

How does it impact parenting and what is spillover hypothesis vs compensatory hypothesis?

• Quality of relatiuonship

  • very high moderator meaning it really impacts how people parent

• Conflict

• Spillover hypothesis

  • experiences and emotions in one area (like work) can "spill over" and influence another (like family)

  • Ex = issues at work spills over into their homes, or violence between parents

  • Issues in one relationship spills into others

• Compensatory hypothesis

  • issues in one relationship (you are going to compensate for that)

  • seek satisfaction in one area (like family) to make up for deficiencies in another (like work),

  • Ex = bad at work but have good relationship with partner at home and that makes up for it, it compensates for it

Determinant: Interpersonal Factors → Parental employment

How impact parenting and emotional state?

• Child rearing commitment

  • between work and parenting

• Impact on mother’s emotional state

  • Either pos or neg

  • Can increase finance or increase stress

Determinant: Interpersonal Factors → Social Support

What is positive parenting effect

• social support from people like family, friends, teachers, social media, strangers

• Positive parenting effect =

• warm, love, kindness, support, encouraging, teaching them they are loved and matter, teaching then emotional intelligence

• fostering a supportive and nurturing environment,

• promoting healthy development and strong parent-child relationships

• encourage positive behaviors, trust

• create harmonious family dynamic

  • active listening, empathy, and consistent boundaries

Determinant: Interpersonal Factors → Setting

We act differently based on different settings (4 settings, what are they and what is their effects of each)

1) Neighborhood = can affect our parenting

2) Home vs park/playground/store = we may parent differently based on our location

3) Prescence of others = we may act differently which impacts our parenting

4) Time of interaction = time of day or year

• Ex = Christmas we may be more stressed or more lenient