parenting exam 3

family characteristics

•Nuclear Family is a group composed of a couple and their children

•Extended Family is a group composed of several generations living close together

•Traditional foundation for a family is the committed relationship of two adults

Because of social changes taking place in society, family definitions and structures are also changing in response to personal needs of individuals

basic family functions

•Reproduction of new members of society,

•Legitimizing sexual relations of adults,

•Having reciprocal economic relations between the group and the larger society, and

•Socializing children to become future adults

other family functions

•Meeting emotional needs of members,

•Teaching effective interpersonal skills, and

•Providing a personal identity

marriage

•There are fewer married people today in the U. S.,

•Cohabitation appears to have increased,

•Age at first marriage has risen for both women and men, and

•There are large number of young unmarried adults in the U. S.

births

•In general, birth rate has been steadily decreasing over the past decades,

•Even though the general trend is decreasing, there are some increases in births among unmarried women, and fertility rates differ across racial and ethnic groups.

divorce and remarriage

•About one in every two marriages is likely to end in divorce within seven years,

•which accounts for the large number of single-parent families in the U. S.,

•Most persons of divorce remarry within 3 years,

•Remarriage creates stepfamilies (blended families).

family income

•Both adults are employed full-time in the majority of families in the U. S. today,

•Family income influences the quality of parenting children,

•Employment of both adults has a number of ripple effects in a family, and

•While the median income has risen over the years since WWII, buying power of the dollar has shrunk. People work longer for less buying power than in the past.

poverty and homelessness

•These are more commonly observed among single-parent families headed by women,

•There have been significant increases in poverty and homelessness in recent years,

•There is an increasing number of the “working poor,”

•A variety of factors account for homelessness, and

•Poverty and homelessness affect the quality of parenting that children receive.

contemporary family structures

—changed in response to changes taking place in the larger society; these also reflect changes in attitudes as well as needs of individuals

¡Single parent families

¡Blended families

¡Adolescent parents

Grandparent-headed families

Single parent families can be created in several ways:

¡single by choice : conscious choice to form a single parent family

¡single after the death of a partner: death of one of the parents, widowed

¡single post divorce (most common): divorce, desertion, or separation of the adults

most single households are headed by

mothers (80%)

Single parent families have become

a common family structure in the US

Facing reality after divorce

family members acknowledge that divorce is happening, with feelings such as insecurity, sadness, relief, anger, and hate

physical separation after divorce

family dismantles, removing one parent's presence from the family can leave children with feelings of abandonment

family reorganization after divorce

divorced parents form a new relationship with children, single parent family adapts by evolving new rules, roles, patterns, and living conditions

family redefinition after divorce

the custodial and non-custodial parents and children explore and adapt to the new single-parent family system

children adjust to divorce in stages

•Children's reaction to parental divorce is a process that is affected by factors such as the child's age, gender, and past experiences.

•The initial stage occurs after parents inform the child of the decision to separate, it is marked by high level of stress.

•The transition stage starts about one year after the parent separation and lasts for up to three years. In this restructuring stage, children adapt to the evolving new family patterns.

•The restabilization stage occurs about five years after the separation when the new single parent family system is more stable (Papernow, 2015)

Divorce is

a process rather than an event, affecting the entire family system including the children

Research typically suggests the effect of divorce on children as negative

¡children experience the effects of parental divorce in ways that can be disruptive and distressful

¡divorce have short term as well as long term effects on children

¡long term effect may appear in adulthood when individuals experience difficulties in establishing intimate relationships

not all children whose parents divorce react

negatively. The manner in which the divorcing adults maintain their role as parents matters to children's outcomes. Parents who succeed in a collaborative divorce will also reduce the potential damage of divorce on all concerned, including children (Alba-Fisch, 2016). In families with high marital conflict, children may be better off after parental divorce living in conflict free environment (Cui & Conger, 2008).

major challenges for single parent families

include financial difficulties and role strain

—Financial Difficulties for single families

¡U.S. Census suggests higher poverty rate as compared to that of married couple families with children (Kramer et al., 2016; West, 2015).

¡Factors such as mother’s lower income (Kramer et al., 2016) and absent or erratic child support payment by the father (Kim et al., 2015).

role strain for single families

¡Performance in all of the competing roles (e.g., parenting, employment) falls as roles strains and stress increases (Nomaguchi & Johnson, 2016).

singe mothers function as sole full-time parent, the time demand could be overwhelming, which could increase stress, and affect the quality of parenting and parent-child relationships

Mother headed households are more likely to be living in

poverty, only 70% of such households receive child support regularly.

nonresident fathers

¡Never married fathers are less likely than divorced fathers to spend time with their children.

¡Nonresident fathers can play important role for children, but most often they just play, not parent.

¡Frequency of father visitation is not a good predictor of child development or adjustment.

Quality of nonresident fathering

¡can predict positive child outcome, that is, not amount of time spent with children but how nonresident fathers interact with them (authoritative, warm, encourages, disciplines).

¡Child support payment is also positively related to child well-being.

¡Conflict between single mothers and nonresident fathers increases children’s behavior problems.

Single parent families headed by fathers is

increasing in the US

Men assume the custodial parenting role for a variety of reasons, two main ones are

•Fathers feel capable and motivated to parent their children effectively

•when the mother shows no desire to continue parenting or is deemed unable to do so because of physical problems, mental illness, or addictive disorders

Compared with single mothers

single fathers typically have better financial situation

single fathers experience role strain more than single mothers

For example, many single fathers were not involved in household tasks before the divorce, so everyday family responsibilities such as grocery shopping and cooking could be more challenging for single fathers. 

may lead single parents to spend less time at home with their children, or fewer after-school activities, or less quality time together, less consistent parenting practice, little opportunity for communication with children and child monitoring, and keeping certain family traditions and activities

seeking financial solvency

•family may have to live on less money, and single parents may have to work, or work more (such as over time or second job), which then lead to role strain.

—Challenges of being a single parent

¡Seeking financial  solvency

¡Practice consistent discipline

¡Open communication with children

¡Maintaining or developing family traditions

Child Outcome in Single Parent Families

—may affect child outcome negatively.

—Studies suggest that such negative effects can be through reduced quality of parenting and parent-child relationships.

—However, not all children are affected negatively. Positive parenting practice, such as supportive and consistent parenting, can buffer the potential negative impact and promote child resilience.

—This highlights the important role of parenting.  

Child Custody Issues

•custody should be awarded to one parent or both parent or another person according to the best interest of the child

•the child’s preference (if the child is old enough to have a preference) should be considered by the court

•any custody decision should be subject to modification and change

•reasonable visitation rights should be granted

Sole Custody

•One parent can have either sole legal custody or sole physical custody of a child. Courts generally won't hesitate to award sole physical custody to one parent if the other parent is deemed unfit - for example, because of alcohol or drug dependency, a new partner who is unfit, or charges of child abuse or neglect.

However, in most states, courts are moving away from awarding sole custody to one parent and toward enlarging the role a divorced father plays in his children's lives

Joint Custody

•Parents who don't live together have joint custody (also called shared custody) when they share the decision-making responsibilities for, and/or physical control and custody of, their children.

•Joint custody can exist if the parents are divorced, separated, or no longer cohabiting, or even if they never lived together.

•Joint custody may be joint legal custody, joint physical custody (where the children spend a significant portion of time with each parent), or joint legal and physical custody. It is common for couples who share physical custody to also share legal custody, but not necessarily the other way around.

•Even where courts do award sole physical custody, the parties often still share joint legal custody, and the noncustodial parent enjoys a generous visitation schedule. In that situation, the parents would make joint decisions about the child's upbringing, but one parent would be deemed the primary physical caretaker, while the other parent would have visitation rights.

—Blended, or reconstituted, family is typically formed by:

¡Remarriage/repartnering

¡adoption

¡fostering

divorce leading cause for

single status after a first marriage. remarriage likely to occur if adult has been divorced rather than widowed

2/3 of people divorced

remarry

In Andrew Cherlin’s 2009 book, the marriage go-round,

Cherlin describes that the Americans value marriage yet at the same time value personal freedom. As a result, unique in America is the phenomenon that people go in and out of marriage

Couples who are happy with their remarriages could be due to factors that they are more

mature, having learned from a previous marriage, and are more motivated to improve communication and enhance marital outcomes

challenges of step families

•Melding different family cultures into a new family system

•Role confusion in the new family system

•Acquiring new ways of doing family business

•Balancing loyalties to former family systems with those to the new one

•Ex-spouses and ex-grandparents can continue to have input and influence into the new stepfamily created by remarriage

•More challenging if one partner has never lived in a stepfamily as a child or adult; or one with negative past experiences in stepfamily life

A stepparent’s role has a

high degree of role ambiguity (Schrodt, 2016)

Stepparent’s co-parenting with the biological parent has the best parenting outcome if

¡the best interests of the children are considered

¡marital problems should not spill over into the relationship with the children (Kuehnle et al., 2014)

Stepparents are more successful if they are

—are sensitive, familiar, and vested in stepfamilies and find their own reality (Ganong & Coleman, 2017)

—Some positive stepparent parenting behaviors include positive attitude and communication

Relationship with stepchildren vary by sex and age of stepchildren

¡Stepmothers and stepdaughters have the least favorable relationship, especially when the daughter has regular contact with her biological mother.

Preschoolers have the least problems with their stepmother; problems increase as the ages of children increase

—Stepmothers and stepfathers have different experiences:

¡similar problems in role ambiguity, however, compared to stepmothers:

¡stepfather are less hampered by myths and stereotypes

¡stepfathers experienced problems with financial affairs (e.g., child support payment)

¡feelings of resentment and guilt

Resentment and guilt

the money may be much needed by the new stepfamily which can produce feelings of resentment about the formal marriage. Guilt can derive from the sense that the biological children have been abandoned after the new stepfamily system was formed.

The lives of stepchildren

—) often are thought to be improved upon remarriage of their parent. Research does not support this assumption (Brown et al., 2015). —Children are expected to make a series of adjustments when biological parents divorce and later remarry. These adjustments are stressful.

—However, experience could be positive with addition to family resources and new parental figure.

Quality parenting matters •Researchers report that children from stepfamilies fair neither better nor worse than children from single parent families in term of well-being (Brown, et al., 2015).\

•When compared with children from intact first marriage families, children from both stepfamilies and single parent families are rated as less well adjusted.

stepsiblings

—Relations between stepsiblings frequently are problematic (e.g., rivalry, jealousy).

—Sexual tensions can exist when stepsiblings are pubertal or adolescent.

—On a more positive note, stepsiblings can develop strong relationship where mutual support can be found and the friendships flourish (Ganong & Coleman, 2017).

Ex-spouses/Ex-in-laws

—Contrary to popular belief, divorce only alters a relationship between co-parents; it doesn’t usually become completely severed.

—Custody arrangements usually aren’t altered by an ex-spouse’s remarriage.

—Ex-spouses and ex-in-laws can continue to influence a remarriage in a variety of ways which may or may not be positive.

Few legal rights exist for ex-in-laws following a divorce

Positive Parenting in Stepfamilies

—Developing long-term family goals

—Managing discipline of children between spouses

—Facilitating stepparent-stepchild bonding

—Developing new rituals and traditions

—Developing ways for interacting effectively with households of former spouses

—Locating sources of support and assistance

—Seeking therapeutic assistance if necessary

Parenthood during adolescence can

—be overwhelming. Adolescents are still searching for identity and exploring the world of employment, education, and relationships. It can be extremely challenging dealing with the responsibility of parenting an infant.

teen pregnacy

has declined

Teens tend to become pregnant because

¡increased frequency of sexual intercourse at earlier age

¡less social stigma is placed on teen pregnancy

¡they lack contraceptive knowledge and/or fail to use it

¡personal attitudes about sexual activity, pregnancy, and parenthood

¡Other contributing causes:

Other contributing causes

•Emotional problems

•Embarrassment about sexual matters (leading to lack of having correct information)

•Impulsiveness to enter into sexual activity

•Dating coercion and violence

•Desire to prove masculinity/femininity

•Desire to gain adult status

•Peer pressure

Marriage among pregnant/teen parents is usually not a good solution

—as these are high-risk relationships (e.g., Dahl, 2010).

—Adoption or abortion is often not seen as a viable solution.

—Most teen mothers retain custody of their baby but need significant amounts of support from their family and other sources in order to perform well as parents and to continue their lives.

—Public assistance can be an essential resource.

There are both short- and long-term implications for teen mothers

¡Education

¡Marriage/Relationships

¡Work/Economic

¡Health

Most teen fathers are

—absent or non-residential fathers since most teen mothers remain single and retain full custody.

—More teen fathers are starting to acknowledge their role (e.g., Fagan, 2014).

—They report experiencing a range of sentiments and reactions to their situation.

—Some teen fathers may be uncaring, uninvolved, and immature; whereas others make a remarkable transformation to become committed coparents to their child.

—There are several risk factors contributing to poor parenting abilities.

However, adolescent parents can work to overcome stereotypes

•May lack psychological immaturity

•May lack knowledge on children’s developmental needs

•May lack sensitivity to behavioral cues of infants, and increase likelihood of abusiveness

•May lack interest in playing with children and be more ignorant of child needs

•May be more stressed as a parent

•May affect relationship with own parents

Babies with more problems than babies of older mothers

prematurity, low birth weight

Later, a greater likelihood of for teen pregnacy

¡Academic difficulties

¡School failure

¡Behavior problems

•These children are at greater biological, developmental, and psychological risks than those born to an older mother. For example, an infant is more likely to be born with health challenges if the mother is 15 years or younger and especially if the mother received no prenatal care.

•The negative effects have also been shown to carry beyond infancy and childhood and into later life.

protective factors of teen pregnancy

¡Positive parenting

¡Father involvement

¡Social support

•it is worth noting that researchers have also identified protective factors that can influence the adjustment of children born to teen parents, including developing resiliency, having an involved father, having some type of religious affiliation, civic engagement, and having mentors and close ties in their communities.

Adolescent Family Life (AFL) program

•created in 1981 by the federal government. It aims at support both demonstration and research grants to develop, implement and evaluate program interventions to promote and to provide comprehensive health care, education and social services to pregnant and parenting adolescents.

Even Start Program

funded by the US department of education, promoting the continuation of schooling of teen mothers by providing child care during school hours and teaching parenting and family skills

Educational programs should focus on maintaining pregnant adolescents in schools and providing special programming for parenting and preventing future unwanted pregnancies

As we know that two most important elements for teen mothers to be resilient and successful in adulthood is through obtaining education and forming a stable relationship

grandparent-headed families

—With the absence of the middle or parental generation, some call this the “skipped-generation” households.

—More grandmothers than grandfathers have custody of grandchildren.

—Contemporary grandparents are younger, physically active, still employed, and may assist in providing care for grandchildren.

—The grandparent role is nebulous by lacking clear definitions and boundaries; there are unclear expectations.

Face unique challenges not found in other kinds of families

reasons for grandparents raising grandchildren —Created typically when parents experience some type of personal problem that prevents active involvement with children.

¡Teen pregnancy

¡Abandonment

¡Illness of adult child

¡Divorce of adult child

¡Death of adult child

¡Other (e.g., deemed unfit, in prison)

Positive Aspects for Grandparents

—Grandparents want child to be raised by a blood relative not in foster care

—Want to have access to child

—Child provide companionship for grandparents

—Help grandparents feel younger and healthier

—Sense of satisfaction

—Can make things right by raising another

—New lease on life and enhanced sense of self worth

Challenges for grandparents

—Restriction in daily activities

—Financial burden

—Stressful

—Role of grandparent is lost

—Behavior difficulties with grandchildren

—Lack of support from other family members

•For grandparents during the stage of older adulthood, it is a time for reflection, it’s a time when grandparents should be focusing on their own declining health, care for ailing spouse, and try to enjoy retirement. So taking on parenting role has several negative aspects.

•For example, everyday activities such as driving children around could be physically taxing on older grandparents.

•Also, since they are now parents, they lost the role of traditional grandparents where they enjoy grandchildren holiday and summer visits.

Also, parenting style could change too, for example, grandparents are less firm and more indulgent and permissive

Experience of the Children with grandparents as parents

—Feeling of being ignored

—Difficulty forming attachments

—Confusing emotions

—Behavior problems

•They may feel loss, grief, embarrassment, anger, and may have hard time talking about this with grandparents. For example, with inappropriate display of anger, children may act out against other children, teenagers may become more aggressive or abusive to others.

Also because grandparents are more lax in monitoring and rules, children may exhibit behavioral problems

—Communication is important, and authoritative parenting is preferred.

When parents become abusive to their children

—they create an unhealthy family environment as well as lasting detrimental effects on children. This continued behavior usually leads to dissolution of the family or termination of parental rights.

—Most children in foster care today are there because of parental abuse and termination of their parents’ rights to custody.

Child abuse or maltreatment is defined as

behavior that causes significant harm to a child. It also includes when someone knowingly fails to prevent serious harm to a child

WHO (2016) states that child maltreatment or abuse

constitutes “all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child's health survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.” —WHO considers maltreatment to be synonymous with abuse.

Maltreatment/Abuse delineates four areas of cruelty to children:

¡Neglect

¡Physical abuse

¡Sexual abuse

¡Emotional abuse

Neglect

the persistent lack of appropriate care, failure to provide a child with adequate and nurturing home environment that provides basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and supervision. When identifying neglect, one should look for cues such as a child being developmentally smaller due to malnutrition, serious illness, physical harm such as bruises and cuts likely due to lack of supervision. For example, one case in California where a teen was living in a cabinet for years and developmentally look like a 6 year old. Another indication from neglected children is low self esteem

Physical abuse includes

•hurting, injuring, inflicting pain and injury, smothering, drowning, and poisoning. Identifying cues include marks of lacerations, swollen, cuts, and bruises on face, head, chest, buttocks, thighs, cigarette burns, human bite marks that are systematic that indicates physical abuse rather than accidents as a result of lack of supervision. Indication from child victims are complains of discomfort, wearing clothes not appropriate to the season to hide those marks, withdrawn, and aggression.

Sexual abuse

•includes direct or indirect sexual exploitation, forcing, tricking, or coercing sexual behavior between a child and an older person, engaging a child for prostitution. This also include indirect sexual behavior such as exposing children to pornographic material. When disclosed, the initial reaction of others is usually disbelief and rejection in that whether a child’s statement can be trusted. And it is difficult to prove. However, one could tell of sexual victimization from behavioral cues in addition to physical cues. The effect of sexual victimization include lost of trust, feeling of guilt, self abusive behavior, anti-social behavior, depression, identity confusion, low self esteem, and emotional problems, and such effect goes far beyond childhood.

Emotional abuse

•refers to repeatedly rejecting, humiliating, and denying the child’s worth and rights as human beings. Behaviors such as belittling, shaming, ridiculing, verbally threatening. It’s rather difficult to detect because of the hidden scars. However, such victimization does manifest in some ways, such as in babies, they usually show anxiety, insecurity, and slow development. In older children - low self esteem, destructive behavior, withdraw, and suicide.

facts about child abuse

—78% child victims experienced neglect, 17% physical abuse, fewer than 10% were sexually abused.

—Children from birth to age 1 had the highest rate of victimization.

—Girls were slightly more likely to be victims than boys.

—More than 80 percent of perpetrators of child abuse are biological parents.

—Mothers are more likely to be perpetrators than fathers.

—Death of child victims is not uncommon as a consequence.

40% of child fatalities were caused by multiple types of maltreatment

The psychiatric model

assumes that abusive parents are mentally or emotionally ill. Therefore child abuse is due to abusive parents’ personality characteristics

The ecological theory

suggests that child abuse is influenced by the broader environment, for example, in a culture where physical punishment is accepted, parents are more likely to use physical force

The sociological model

suggests that social values and attitude shape parental abusive behavior.

The social psychological model

emphasizes on behavioral patterns, such as parental violence will likely transmit from parents to child generation, so an abusive parent is likely abused as a child when they grew up.

The patriarchy model emphasizes

•that violence occurs in families as a result of the traditional social dominance of adult males, which leads to the use of violence to support male dominance.

The social control model

•suggests that parents have control over their children, for example, parents’ using violent behavior to express anger and gain control.

The information-processing approach

proposes that neglectful parents fail to process information about children's need for care, which leads to physical neglect

There is a cycle of violence in families

¡Perpetrators tend to have been abused themselves as children; the cycle repeats itself

Factors Associated with Parents’ Abusive Behavior

—SES

—Stress

—Social isolation from other families

—Substance abuse

—Family form (e.g., single parent families and stepfamilies)

—Intergenerational

—Developmental status of children

SES

Families from lower socioeconomic groups where the quality of life environmental, stressors, and the cultural conditioning or standards may be felt more keenly than they are in other social groups

Stress

stress is closely related to child abuse. Acts of violence or abuse form part of a person's coping mechanism for stress. Sources of stress may include poverty, unemployment, financial problems, single parenthood, or a child with a disability

Social isolation from other families

•increases the risk of abusive behavior directed toward children. This may be a contributing factor to the likelihood of abuse occurring in single parent families.

Substance abuse

is related to child abuse. Substance abuse may play a role in 50% to 90% of cases of physical abuse of children by parents

Family form

the majority of reported cases of child abuse occur in single parent families partially because of effects of poverty on single parent families. Stepfathers are more likely to abuse children than biological fathers

Intergenerational

there is a strong evidence of intergenerational transmission of abusive behavior.

Age of children

younger children are more vulnerable

Characteristics of Abusive Families and Parents

—Had an unhappy childhood

—Were mistreated or abused as a child by their parents

—Had parents who failed to provide an appropriate parenting model

—Were socially isolated from other adults

—Had low self-esteem, emotionally immature, and depressed

—Had strong belief in physical punishment

—Practice authoritarian parenting

Parents Who Neglect Their Children

—Even though it’s not as dramatic as physical or sexual abuse, it is the most frequently reported type of child abuse (over 75% of all reported cases, Children's Bureau, 2016). Therefore need to be taken seriously.

—Physical neglect almost always associated with emotional neglect as well.

—Difference between one-time (e.g., as a result a family crisis) and chronic parental neglect (e.g., chronic stress, poor parenting skills).

Parents Who Physically Abuse Their Children

—Many are not aware that this is wrong.

—Often associated with authoritarian child-rearing style.

—Adults have poor coping skills.

—Parents are impatient, quick to anger, and have poor empathy and are insensitive to children’s needs.

—Influenced by recidivism; substance abuse; lack of internal locus of control.