Child in Context Exam 3

What is the Family and Medical Leave Act? What are pros and cons of legislation?

• FMLA in US provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave 

  • Individualism driving US policy

  • Only 9 states have paid leave 

• Family and medical leave act = 12 weeks of unpaid leave with job protection (1993)

• Offered only if 

  • Employee worked at least 1,250 hours in past year

  • 50 employees live within 75 miles of worksite 

• Only 59.2% of employees meet these requirements 

• Over 40% not covered

What is working-class and working poor?

An important Niche: working class and working poor factors in the US

• Minimum wage in MA (2010) = $8/hour, MA yearly income at min. Wage = 16,640

• 2 parents full time work = $33,280

  • Working class = $40,000, working poor = 25,000

• 200% of poverty = 37,068, poverty level for family of 3 = 18540

What are challenges that working-class and working-poor face in managing work and family that different from middle class families?

Unique challenges facing low wage workers 

• Low wages 

  • Federal minimum wage = $7.25/hour 

  • Mass minimum wage = $13.50/hour 

• Lack of stable hours 

  • Employers keep employees below 32 hours to avoid paying benefits 

• Poor family-friendly policies 

  • No paid leave, no sick time, personal time must be planned/approved, no childcare benefits 

  • Employers can demand you to come in even if sick

• Just in time scheduling 

  • Worker gets their schedule on a weekly basis, based on company needs 

    • Cant properly schedule childcare

How does supervisor support shape new mothers depression overtime?

Replication of study on Single moms

• Maternal depressive symptoms

  • Lower levels at 1 year postnatal 

  • Decline in symptoms over 1st year

• Work Factors

  • Job autonomy, Job urgency, and coworker support showed NO influence on depressive symptoms 

  • Biggest predictor and protective factor for single moms was supervisor support 

Graph 

• Low supervisor support predicts significant rise in depressive symptoms after returning to work 

• High supervisor support showed depressive symptoms continuing to decrease after returning to work

Mothers depressive symptoms overtime and why is change occurring

Graph: depressive symptoms and first year of parenthood 

• Decrease of depressive symptoms but at 6 months, it increases due to return to work 

• Moms have higher symptoms in 3rd trimester → recover post birth → symptoms begin to rise again upon return to work 

  • Lots of variability 

Change can occur due to work conditions as well

• Job conditions 

  • Job autonomy 

  • Job urgency 

• Workplace supports 

  • Supervisor support 

  • Co-workers support

Moms job urgency and supervisor support predicting moms depression symptoms 

• Moms reporting high job urgency and low supervisor support do not have declines in depression (stays constant)

  • Server jobs → high stress jobs, supervisors don’t care, cant have consistent hours

• Conditions of high urgency and high supervisor support lead to a decline in depression

Racial and ethnic differences in mothers depressive symptoms? Possible explanations?

Change in moms depressive symptoms by race and ethnicity 

• African American moms start high and then have a steep decline and stay at low levels → black moms “have always worked”, expected for them to go back to work culturally 

• Latina moms start high and stay pretty high → due to them feeling judged by family for going back to work (cultural standard)

How are parental leave supportive work policies (e.g. flexibility) related to mothers depression?

Workplace policies and mental health 

• Work policies 

  • Length of leave in weeks 

    • Average = 8.9 weeks

  • Policies and benefits 

    • Scheduling flexibility 

    • Child care support 

• Mental health 

  • Depressive symptoms (levels and change overtime)

Graph 

• Parents with short leave and poor policies (no flexibility or child care support) had the highest levels of depression and least decline in symptoms overtime 

• Lowest levels of depression and greatest decline in symptoms were moms with longer leave and good policies 

  • Policies class driven → higher pay, longer leave 

  • Hidden risks if you use sick days for kids

How is supervisor support and job autonomy related to mother-child interaction?

Work autonomy and parenting 

• More autonomy on the job predicted a greater sense of control and, in turn, more sensitive and responsive parenting

  • Workplace autonomy → sense of control → mother-infant interaction quality 

• Makes you feel better about self → reflected in their interactions with children

Supervisor support and parenting 

• Supervisor support on the job predicted greater sense of control and, in turn, more sensitive and responsive parenting 

  • Supervisor support → sense of control → mother-infant interaction quality

How are moms and dads job autonomy in childs first year of life related to childrens behavior problems in the 1st grade?

Parent supervisor support in 1st year and child behavior problems in the first year 

• Looked at both moms and dads work hours and supervisor support in the 1st year

• Moms supervisor support in the first year directly related to child behavior problems in 1st grade NEGATIVELY

  • Not dads 

  • First year is important foundation 

• The more both moms and dads worked (hours) the fewer kids behavior problems

  • Due to more hours = more money = more stability and less stress for parents

  • Protective for parents well being 

Parent job autonomy in first year, parenting, and child behavior problems 6 years later

• Moms job autonomy directly related to fewer behavior problems in kids (direct effect)

• Moms job autonomy leads to less overreactivity from mom which leads to more behavior problems (median effect) 

• More dad jobs autonomy leads to less father overreactivity and that leads to more behavior problems as well

Parent job autonomy in first year and children's adaptive skills 6 years later 

• More Moms job autonomy → less overreactivity → less adaptive skills 

• More Moms job autonomy → more involvement → more adaptive skills 

• Dads job autonomy → less overreactivity → less adaptive skills 

• Dads autonomy → more involvement → more adaptive skills 
  

Findings suggest 

• Conditions of low wage work for parents related both positively and negatively to parent child outcomes 

• Low wage jobs not all bad → more complex with different factors

What can we do to better support working parents?

What can we do

• Paid family leave (for both parents)

• Paid sick time (not paid time off)

• Listen to workers voices 

  • Many employers afraid of unions but if they listen to their workers then they are less likely to unionize if their needs are met

• Stop mandatory overtime → childcare closes at 5 

  • Solution: have the option to pick what day to do overtime, can be able to schedule childcare in advance and work still gets done

Ann Masten and Resilience, do you have to be remarkable to be resilient?

The importance of “ordinary magic”

• Early work on resilience suggest that you need to be special to overcome adversity 

• However you don’t need to be extraordinary to be resilient → just requires basic human adaptive systems 

Children and older human interactions have capacity for resilience when basic protections are in place

• Parental leave, sick time, schedule flexibility, meaningful work, co-worker supports and supervisor supports, and autonomy on the job

What is media? what controls media in the US?

Understanding mass media

• “Media” refers to any type of communication that shapes and spreads culture 

  • Books, magazines, social media, news 

Macrosystem influences on mass media

• Mass communication the US characterized by private ownership and corporate profits 

• Broadcasts in US are designed to attract audiences to whom to sell products, SO they convey messages that are likely to influence attitudes and behaviors

What are concerns about how TV affects family rituals and interactions?

Pictorial media: TV and Movies 

• Effects of other activities 

  • Family rituals and interactions change 

    • 64% of households, TV is on during dinner 

    • No more family dinners, movie nights and rituals due to social media 

  • Physical activity 

    • Body mass index (BMI) has gone up in 3-7 year olds and found physical activity and TV viewing most associated with overweight risk

    • Inactivity and TV become stronger predictors 

  • Sexuality 

    • Young people are exposed to a constant flow of sexual images 

    • Research suggests that sex in TV also impairs memory for product (just like violence)

      • Losing money, unprofitable for advertisers → profit drives media 

      • Viewers of programs with sexually explicit or violent content less likely to remember commercials immediately after exposure and even 24 hours later 

  • Media is harmful because of what it takes away from kids AND the content

Why might early exposue to media, for infants, have different impacts than later exposure? (Christakis Ted Talk and paper)

The effect of infant media usage 

• The older infants (up to 24 months) get, the increased their TV and/or DVD/Video viewing 

Why does this matter?

• Human infants are born with brains that are not fully developed

• The infant brain triples in size in first 2 years 

• Brain growth is in direct response to external stimulation

What are the 2 mechnisms by which TV can lead to negative child outcomes? (Christakis Ted Talk and paper)

2 mechanisms by which TV can lead to negative effects on child

• Formal features of the medium 

  • Flashing lights

  • Scene changes

  • Quick edits and auditory cuts 

• Displacement 

  • What activities are displaced by TV watching 

  • Human interaction

  • Play 

  • Media takes away time outcome, interactions with siblings (which teach social skills)

What did Christakis mean by “content” and “context” of media? Why should we focus on content and context not just exposure to media?

Conceptual model of TV exposure 

• Content (what kids watch) MATTERS! → TV Exposure and outcomes, and TV exposure → outcomes as well 

• Context (how they watch it) → tv exposure and outcomes

  • Ex: mom giving ipad to babysit child, used for boredom, time which they use

  • When can shows be good? When parents watch with kids and explain

TEDTALK Christakis

• Overstimulation hypothesis 

  • Prolonged exposure to rapid images → inattention later in life

• More TV before age 3 → more attention problems later in life

• More cognitive stimulation → less attention problems later in life

  • Reading, singing, going out with child 

• Power puff girls vs. mr rogers

  • Fast vs slow pacing in shows 

  • Mr rogers didnt negatively impact kid brains 

• Tested mice → watched 6 hours of TV a day

  • activity/risk taking → overstimulated mice take more risks

  • Novel objects → overstimulated mice payed equal attention to both objects = not learning like normal 

• Building blocks early or late in development

  • Early group had better language acquisition

Does content of programming affect relationship between exposure and outcomes?

GRAPH

• Theorized that pacing (e.g. fast, quick screen changes) might post greater risk for development 

  • Violent TV increases likelihood of attention problems = NOT GOOD

  • Educational TV more positive effects

Effects of TV watching on Infants cognitive development

• Studies on early infant TV watching are sparse 

• One study found that for each hour of early TV watching (before age 3) was associated with negative effects on Peabody individual achievement test reading recognition scale 

• Its not known if these associations are due to a direct effect of exposure to medium or via displacement (e.g. lack of other types of play or interaction)

Effects of TV on children's attentional capacity

• 2004 Christakis did large study

  • Modest and positive association between TV watching before age 3 and attentional problems at 7

  • Other research found TV watching at age 5 unrelated to attentional issues at age 6

• Emerging data suggests that the timing of exposure is a critical mediator of the effects 

  • Early exposure seems detrimental

How did Baby Einstein videos affect lamguage development?

Effects of TV on language development

• Infants learn language better through native speakers than a screen 

• Baby einstein DVDs for infants DO NOT enhance language 

  • For each hour an infant watched DVDs, they know average of 6-8 FEWER words 

• In sum 

  • No evidence that early exposure to TV/DVD can enhance infants language development 

  • Scientific evidence suggest the opposite, TV watching can have deleterious effects

Has TV been linked to pre-school reading skills? How?

TV effects on children’s reading and communication skills 

• Time spend in front of TV is related to the general decline in reading levels and test scores on standardized tests

  • Children spend more time watching TV shows than any other activity except sleeping 

  • TV’s impact on reading and other academic skills depends not only on the amount of TV watched, but also on what is being watched as well as age of the child

How does background TV affect retention of skills during homework time? (TV n older kids)

TV and older school children 

• Students reported spending 4 times as many hours each week watching TV as doing homework 

• Children who watch over 3 hours per day, show the greatest decline in reading ability 

• TV on in the background interferes with the retention of skills and information during homework time

• Patterns set in pre school with regard to TV viewing can snowball as the child gets older and schoolwork becomes harder 

• In long-term study of high schoolers, viewing educational TV as a preschooler was associated with higher grades, more reading, less aggression, and more value placed on academics 

Positive and Negative effects of preschool children’s programming on their reading abilities

TV and preschool children 

• Children who watch educational programs aimed at their age level (such as sesame street) do better on pre reading skills at age 5 than children who watched infrequently/not at all

• Children who watch cartoons or other purely entertainment TV shows during preschool years do poorer on prereading skills at age 5 

• Children ages 3-5 are at a critical stage in brain development for the development of language and other cognitive skills

  • Heavy TV viewing can influence the development of brain neural networks, and displaces time the child would spend in other activities and verbal interactions, influences early cognitive development

TV and early elementary school age children 

• Children achieve more success in early reading skills if they have experience with books and other print media and were read to preschoolers 

• TV can influence acquisition of early reading skills in 2 ways 

  • Reading fluency only comes with practice 

  • In one study, children who watch cartoons and other more entertainment TV programs were less likely to spend time with books or other print media

What can parents do to control effects of mdeia on kids?

What can parents do?

• Control the number of hours of media exposure

• Check ratings and evaluate programs 

• View TV with their children and discuss the programs 

• Arranging family activities other than TV viewing 

• Help children discuss their “online brand”

  • Cell phones, digital footprint, no phone 

What was the goal of parents in the video we watched about “parent pact” related to childrens media use?

The video explained how parents came together to make sure their kids and their friends didn’t have phones and were encouraged to do more activities not involving electronics. The kid in the video would go to the library to study, and ride her bike everywhere, etc. The goal was to let kids be kids together while also making sure they don’t feel fully left out

How does media function as a macrosystem in our country? Give examples

Macrosystem influences on mass media

• Mass communication the US characterized by private ownership and corporate profits 

• Broadcasts in US are designed to attract audiences to whom to sell products, SO they convey messages that are likely to influence attitudes and behaviors

Media function serves as a macrosystem since it teaches children and even adults the values that society holds, and also helps develop values as well (especially as technology has increased in younger generations) we see this through policies that have been made to restrict childrens use of online media, or through print media

Example: Print media: books and magazines

• Reading books and magazines 

  • Enables socialization because it is written language 

  • Increases a child's languages and reading skills

  • Transmits values 

    • Heather has 2 mommies 

    • Macrosystem, teaching values to kids

What is a community?

Structure and function of the community 

• Community is a group of people living in the same geographic area (but not really anymore; online communities) under common laws with a sense of fellowship and a sense of belonging and obligation to the group 

  • Good community → good mental health

What are the five functions of community?

Community’s influence on socialization 

• Community is structured to have 5 functions 

  • Social control → rules, guidelines and structure 

  • Mutual support → 2 way street 

  • Socialization → learn how to be a person in community

  • Social participation → cant be apart of community if you dont show up

  • Production - distribution - consumption → community has purpose, hows gonna work?

What physical factors of communities can influence behavior?

• Physical factors of the community that influence childrens behavior:

  • Population density: too dense, harder to connect with people (vertical and horizontal density architecture)

  • Noise: more levels of noise lead to more stress and attention issues 

  • House type and arrangement: no more front porches, many back porches, houses are farther apart → no community 

  • Play settings: where do kids go to play?

How do economic characteristics of community affect people’s lives?

• Economic factors in community play a central role in shaping the daily lives of families who live and work there 

  • Wealthy vs poor communities, based on what's in town or incoming of people

  • Yet everyone is expected to apply to schools the same

What factors impact community interaction?

Physical, Economic, and Social-Emotional

What was the goal of the Urban Thinkscape and how did it shape community? What were the goals of urban thinkscape?

The goal was to give parents and children a place to have the opportunity to take to each other, engage in playful learning and build community. They built it at a bus stop in a town which is very populated, and It shaped community to because it involved parents and kids in order to build it and learn what the community wanted which then shaped the urban thinks cape. they had these families involved in all processes to make it possible and what should be included in it. the goal of the actual structure was to help kids build spacial skills, narrative skills (literacy), social emotional skills, executive function skills, and taught them to wait and think (inhibit).

What are human services? What are community services?

Human services

• What are human services?

  • A broad range of activities, programs, and agencies designed to meet the physical, intellectual, and socioemotional needs of individuals and families 

  • Usually microsystem settings, therapy, direct service 

  • Anything that supports human well being 

• What are community services? 

  • Services that directly address larger social arenas

  • Controlling crime, sanitation services, recreational services (ex: filling potholes)

Human services can be classified based on..? (5 dimensions)

Classifying human services 

• 1. Timing (when do you approach issue)

• 2. Goals (what end result do we want)

• 3. Scope (how big does the issue go)

• 4. Direct / Indirect

• 5. Formal versus informal or public/private

Timing of Human Service

Timing of service

• Prevention or remediation

• Prevention focuses on reducing incidence of problem before it occurs

  • Hard to prove it works 

  • Ex: urban landscape → preventing lack of community 

• Remediation focuses on solving problem after it occurs 

  • Mental health crisis, child abuse issues

  • Have goals

Human Services goals (intervention vs. prevention, minimizing vs. optimizing, intervention and assumptions of intervention)

Goals: intervention vs. prevention 

• Do you prevent the problem before it occurs or remediate the problem after it occurs?

• Where do you intervene? At many levels 

• Individual, relationship, community, and societal strategies 

Understanding goals 

• Minimizing vs Optimizing 

  • Minimizing approach: lowering the negative impacts and factors to solve problem before it occurs → start with an individual or family perceived as malfunctioning

    • Issue: need to blame someone for problem → need to go through lots of hoops to prove something happened 

    • Ex: when someone is raped they have to go through many steps to go to court 

    • “The client must step over an invisible line of failure” ex: dyslexia, SNAP benefits, physical disabilities 

      • Huge scale of physical disability and insurance wont cover unless it is no mobility at all

  • Optimizing approach: uplifting positive factors of the problem to help prevent problems before they happen 

Intervention 

• Underlying assumptions of interventions

• Individual functioning is on a continuum → good to bad functioning everyone at different point of scale 

• Limited resources for intervention

• We don't know how to optimize development 

• Human services safety net catches those who fall out of acceptable range 

  • You have to fail before you can get help

Underlying assumptions of intervention 

• Goal to maximize individuals or families potential 

  • The incredible years program is an example 

• Resources are limited but well spent by focuses on optimal approach

• We do know how to intervene to facilitate development

Scope of Human Services

Scope of services 

• Do services deal with the whole child or one narrow aspect of the problem?

• Categorical 

  • Services only deal with one aspect of clients life 

  • E.g. foster placement for abuse 

• Comprehensive 

  • Supply emergency childcare, counseling, from an ecological perspective program that provides individual counseling, family social services, community awareness programs

Direct/Indirect approaches of Human services

Direct vs. indirect approaches

• Direct approach: involves face to face interaction with clients to provide immediate support

  • Client centered: direct services prioritize individual needs and personalized care

  • Short term immediate action, addresses urgent needs

• Indirect approach: focuses on systemic change through policy advocacy and community programs 

  • Resource allocation: indirect services often aim to improve resources and infrastructure for broader community impact

• Immediate vs long term goals

  • Direct approaches address urgent needs, while indirect approaches seek sustainable solutions 

• Examples: direct services include counseling and case management, indirect services include training and awareness campaigns

Formal vs. informal human services and how can we better integrate them?

• Formal approach

  • Utilizes structured programs like government-funded mental health clinics

  • Employs  licensed professionals such as social workers or therapists 

  • Follows established protocols and regulations for service delivery 

• Informal approach

  • Involves community support groups or peer-led initiatives

  • Relies on family and friends providing emotional support 

  • Adapts to individual needs and community resources without strict guidelines 

    • Meet people where they are at to be most effective

What are ways we can be more successful with our approach to human services?

How do we do it?

• Recognize limits of professionalism 

  • Bulk of human services declined informally by friends, neighbors, relatives, great potential resource

• Consultation

  • Greatest obstacle is attitudes that “we need to help them” → check yourself

• Advocacy

  • Become advocates of community members to develop community

• Use existing social resources

  • Effective, inexpensive, flexible

  • Sustainable, simple

  • Compatible with goals and values of community

4 key dimensions of public policy?

4 key points in defining public policy

• It represents an identifiable course of action (ex: paid leave, childcare for all)

• It is hammered out in a political arena 

• It has the goal of maximizing satisfaction of relevant interest groups 

• It has to have the goal of improving general welfare

What are the 5 characteristics of public policy?

Characteristics of public policy

• 1. Requires a group decision

• 2. Solutions are based on value judgements 

  • 1. If it could be solved in a lab it would be

  • 2. Policy involves value judgements 

• 3. Issue is of broad interest or concern (ex: paid leave wasn’t cared about by majority of people for a while)

• 4. Issues are controversial 

• 5. Issues are recognized by key decision makers as problems (ex: birthrate is low and people aren’t replacing the population)

Why focus on depression as an outcome for parents and work?

Focus on depression as an outcome because:

• Approximately 9-28% of women experience depression either during pregnancy or in first 12 months postpartum 

  • 1 in 7 women will get postpartum depression 

  • In low-income samples that number is 1 in 4 

• Approximately 5-20% of fathers experience postpartum depression