FSW 261: Exam 3 - Ch. 9-12

Mothers Images and Reality

• “Should” be primary psychological parent

• Typically do engage in more hands-on parenting and take primary responsibility

• “Should” enjoy and intuitively know what to do

• Some do not want to be involved with or primarily responsible for daily care

• Many have to learn how to parents

Fathers Images and Reality

• What is a “good dad”?

• New “good” dad: takes financial responsibility and is actively involved

• But fathers still viewed as “helpers”

• Growing number taking primary responsibility of kids (graphic)

Do the reasons why stay-at-home parents stay at home differ by gender?

• Yes, they do

• Graphics

For Optimal Parenting…

1. Adequate economic resources

2. Involvement in child’s life and school

3. Supportive family communication

4. Having support from family and/or friends

5. Family-friendly workplace policies

6. Safe and healthy neighborhoods

   1. AND…(not mentioned in book)

7. Affordable, accessible, high-quality child care

Child Care in US

• Pre-pandemic

  • Fragmented

  • Inequitable

  • Inaccessible

  • Underfunded

• “When Covid-19 was layered onto the already fragile child care system, it shattered”

Examining America’s Child Care Crisis

• When did the US have a child care system that worked?

  • In times of war (WWII) when men fought and women were working

• How are we different from France?

  • France has national childcare centers

  • Government funding

  • Less expensive

• Why doesn’t the math work?

  • Childcare is expensive (on average 10,000 a year), and childcare providers do not get paid much

  • There is a gap that government funding would fill

Conservative were against childcare because of the “Family Decline Perspective” because they believed…

The the mother should stay home with the kids

Parenting in Twenty-First Century America

• In 2022, 70% of children, ranging in age from birth to 17 yrs, lived with two parents

  • Among these children, 65% of children lived with two married parents

  • 5% of children living with two unmarried cohabiting parents

• 22% of children living only with their mothers

  • Second most common living arrangement

• 5% lived with only their fathers

  • Significantly increased from 0.8 million in 1968 to 3.3 million in 2020, but still small

• About 4% do not live with parents

  • About ½ of these children resided with their grandparents

• The percentage of children younger than 18 years old living with a mother only has doubled since 1967

• Looking further at single-parent households, 51% of single mothers and 41% of single fathers were never married in 2022

• More than 1 in 5 different sex couples who lived together in 2021 had at least one partner who had children with more than one partner

Multi-Partner Fertility

• Having biological children with more than one partner

• Tend to have their first child at a young age, often outside of marriage

• Tend to share characteristics of lower levels of education and income

  • Thus, these families can further increase the insecurity of unmarried couples with children

Parenting Challenges and Resilience

• In general, parents today have more education and are likely to have had some exposure to formal knowledge about child development and child-raising techniques

• Many fathers are more emotionally involved today than several decades ago

• Fewer children are exposed to violent crimes today than 20 years ago

• Some parents blame themselves for when the outcomes for their children are not what they wanted, but children can be remarkably resilient

• There is evidences that one caring, conscientious adult can generate a resilient child

• Societal features that make parenting difficult:

  • Conflicts with employment, and employers typically place work demands first; a majority of parents worry about juggling work and parenting

  • Today’s parents raise their children in a society characterized by conflicting values and points of view; “they/them, etc.; may be greater for immigrant parents

  • The emphasis on how much parents influence their children’s health, weight, eating habits, intellectual abilities, behaviors, and self esteem can be overwhelming

  • Today’s parents are often simultaneously caring for their children and their parents; lack of sleep builds stress as parents juggle everything

  • Society wide support has diminished for the child-raising role, so some communities show less willingness to support publicly funded child-care centered facilities and programs

  • Today’s parents are given full responsibility for successfully raising “good” children, but their authority is often questioned

  • Today’s parents, especially mothers, are expected to do intensive parenting, putting in more time and effort than 20 years old, while being judged harshly both in person and on social media

A Stress Model of Parental Effectiveness

• The idea that stress experienced by parents causes parental frustration, anger, and depression, increasing the likelihood of household conflict and leading to poorer parenting practices

• Some questions from a parental stress scale:

  • The major source of stress in my life is my children

  • I feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of being a parent

  • Having children leaves little time and flexibility in my life

  • Having children has been a financial burden

• Having social support from relatives, friends, Internet sites, parenting classes and groups, or social activities that include both parents and children diminishes this adverse relationship

The Transition to Parenthood

• The circumstances involved in assuming the parent role

• With little experience, many first-time parents, heterosexual and same-sex, abruptly assume 24 hr duty, caring for a fragile, dependent baby who interrupts parents’ sleep, work, and leisure time

• Relatinship satisfaction may decline

• Results in less alone time as a couple

• For same-sex couples, raising children in a heteronormative society that defines heterosexuality as the correst way to be can cause new-parent stress

• One of the greates challenges for new parents is a feeling of isolation

• Studies found that during the lockdown in the early phase of Covid-19 pandemic, both parents and children experienced greater levels of mental health issues, which may has persisted after the lockdown was over

• During the pandemic, many pregnant women gave birth alone at hospitals

• Declines in emotional and sexual relationships

• Employedparents face the challenge of finding affordable, quality healthcare

• Couples who had been more focused on the romantic quality of their relationship may find the transition more difficult

• Among parents who rated their relationship high in quality before becoming parents, the transition was easier, even with an unusually fussy baby

• Religious attendance reduced declines in marital satisfaction because it is a community support

• When a new mother’s expectations are met concerning how much support she will receive or how much her partner will be involved with the baby, the transition will be easier

Paradox of Parenting

• New parents feel overwhelmed, but the motivation to overcome their stress and do their best proceeds from the stressor itself—the child as a source of love, joy, and satisfaction

Gender and Parenting

• Historically, fathers are supposed to be the breadwinners, but today, a father is expected to be involved with childcare

• In 1970 almost ½ of couples with children younger than 18 lived in households where only the dad worked

  • Today, dual earner households with children are the majority of two parent households with children in the US

• On average, fathers spent 8 hours a week on childcare in 2016, which is more than triple the among of time fathers spent in 1965

• Mothers continue to spend significantly more time than fathers on childcare (10 hrs in 1965 and 14 hrs in 2016)

• Mothers still assume primary responsibility for raising children

• Just 17% of stay at home parents are fathers

• Compared to ¼ of stay at home fathers, ¾ of mothers do so to care for their family

• Of fathers, 40% are at home because they are ill or have a disability

• The estimate amount of employment related costs for women with children providing unpaid care is $295,000 on average over a lifetime

• Lack of accessible and affordable childcare puts so much financial burden, especially ion historically marginalized communities such as Black mothers, because they are least likely to cut back employment after having children due to challenging economic situations

• During Covid-19, the percentage of parents working at home increased from 22% to 42% from 2019 to 2020

• Parents, especially mothers, working from home during the pandemic spent more time on household labor through juggling parenting and paid work during the pandemic

• The amount of time spent on secondary children, supervising children while doing other things such as working, increased significantly from 2019 to 2020

• “Gay and bisexual fathers and transgender and gender-fluid parents challenge assumptions about gender, sexualities, and families and highlight the need for theories that move beyond gender categories while retraining insights provided by feminist theory”

Doing Motherhood

• Mothers still do more hands-on parenting than father's and they take primary responsibly for their children’s upbringing

• A study of employed, coupled heterosexual parents found that mothers often define “quality time” differently from fathers

  • Fathers are more likely to see quality time as being home and available if needed

  • Mothers more often see quality time as having heart-to-heart talks with their children or engaging in child-centered activities

• We have redefined men’s roles to include larger part in the day-to-day care for their families

• When mothers see fathers as competent parents—and when fathers believe that their child’s mother has confidences in them—fathers are more likely to be highly involves

Single Mothers

• About 40% of all births occur to unmarried women, about ½ of these to cohabiting mothers

• We can therefore conclude that between 15 and 20% of all births occur to uncoupled, single mothers

• The experiences of single mothers differ by race and ethnicity, immigration experience, education, and socioeconomic class

• Some women have purposefully decided to raise a child as a single parent

• The vast majority of single mothers never intended to raise their child alone

  • Sometimes the couples split up

  • Or the couple knew they were not permanent, but it was an accident

• Single mother’s median family incomes are considerably lower than those for either married mothers or single mothers or single fathers

• More likely to live in poverty

• Some single mothers keep the fathers of their children at a distance due to poor relationships with them, safety concerns for their children, or apprehension about the father’s illegal activities, or because they see them as generally unreliable

• Single mothers report feeling stigmatized

• But single mothers evidence creativity and resilience as they construct support networks to help with finances, housing, childcare, and other needs

• Single mothers may rely on brothers, brother-in-law, grandfathers, uncles, or male cousins to serve as father figures for their children

• To improve life for themselves and their children, many single mothers choose further education

• The average result of single mothers’ time constraints, generally less economic resources, and resultant higher depression levels—not family structure per se—is less effective parenting behaviors

• Variations in income, education, stress, and depression levels largely explain child-outcomes differences

Private Safety Net

• Social support from family and friends rather than from public sources

• Associated with children’s better adjustment

• Those most in need of financial or other practical assistance are often in neighborhood, family, or friendship networks that are least able to help because their own circumstances preclude doing so

• Social support from extended family is not always without cost

Nonresident Mothers

• Mothers living apart from their children

• According to the Urban Institute, there are over 2 million nonresident mothers, and they tend to experience more economic disadvantages than nonresident fathers

• Nonresident fathers tend to wrokd all year, but nonresident mothers are more likely to report not being in the labor force

• The average amount for child support paid by nonresident fathers is higher than that of nonresident mothers, and nonresident mothers are less able to pay child support than nonresident fathers

• Children living apart from their mother are more likely to live with neither parent than children living apart from their father

• Their children are more likely to be socially and economically vulnerable

• It is important to provide support to children with nonresident parents

Doing Fatherhood

• A father’s involvement in their child’s upbringing is related to positive cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes from infancy into adolescence

• Especially for boys, father absence has generally been associated with adverse effects on children’s cognitive, moral, and social development

• Father absence can be more than simply residential absence and can include psychological absence, or indifference with minimal positive father-child interaction

• Residential fathers have more opportunities to develop psychological presence than nonresidential fathers

• Encouraging father contact is not always best for children

Social Fathers

• Men who are not biological fathers but perform the roles of a father, such as a stepfather

• Percentage of non-marital births increasing and rise in divorce increases the likelihood that children live with a social father

• Data from the 1980s and 1990s tended to suggest that living with stepfathers was not beneficial, however, more recent studies suggests that many adolescents rate their relationships with their stepfathers as close, and stepfathers are making significant investments in their nonbiological children

• “New father” term has extended to step fathers

• Married fathers are increasingly involved and invested in their children’s daily lives from birth as they engage in breadwinning, planning, sharing activities, and teaching their children

• About 60% of fathers say they don’t spend enough time with their children, mostly due to work

• Children’s interactions with fathers differ than from mothers

• Better educated fathers with more satisfying jobs and men who wanted the pregnancy show higher levels of parental engagement

• Experiencing high unemployment, money problems, or workplace pressure adds to fathers’ stress, resulting in less effective parenting

Married-Couple Families with Stay-at-Home Father

• Grown to about 2.5 million over the past decade or so

• Lack of status with full time parenting

• Often butt of jokes

SIngle Fathers

• The proportion of single fathers is dramatically small compared to single mothers

• Amond families with children younger than age 19, about 2.4% are single-father families

  • 4% for the Black population

  • 3% for the Hispanic population

  • 2% for the non-Hispanic White population

  • 1% for the Asian population

• Single fathers often assumed their role when they “stepped up” in difficult and unforeseen circumstances

• Often know that extended family support is available, but may not rely on it

• Fathers as primary parents report fighting stereotypes that regard them as odd, unmasculine, or weak

• Single fathers have organized various support groups

Nonresident Fathers

• Dramatic increase in the number of children living in households without fathers

• About 1 in 4 fathers live apart at least one of their children younger than 18, and 17% are living apart from all of their children

• Typically biological or, less often, adoptive fathers who do not live with one or more of their children

• Less true for divorced fathers, never-married, nonresidential fathers move in and out of their children’s lives, a situation generally viewed as problematic by researchers

  • Family instability is related to problems for children

• Due to multi-partnered fatherhood, a father may be living with one or more biological children but be a “nonresident” with regard to others

• Nonresident father may be serving as a social father to other children

• Cooperative coparenting does not occur in most nonresident father families

• The majority of nonresidential fathers maintain some presence in their children’s lives and provide them with various kinds of practical support, such as diapers, formula, or childcare

• Whether a nonresident father is involved depends on their employment status, age, education, religious participation, and substance misuse history as well as their family background

• Some research shows that a nonresident father is more involved when their child is a boy

• Involvement also depends on a conflict-free relationship with the child’s mother and, to a lesser extent, the extended family

• Involvement typically declines over their children’s lifetimes, especially for daughters

• Many researchers encourage policy support—programs to bolster nonresident father involvement

What do children need?

• Children of all ages need parental acceptance, encouragement, adequate nutrition and shelter, parental interest in their schooling, and consistency in rules and expectations

Infants

• Need to bond with a consistent and dependable caregiver

• To develop emotionally and intellectually, they need affectionate, intimate relationships as well as conservation and variety in their environment

• Discipline is never appropriate for babies because they cannot understand its purpose and are unable to change their behavior in response

Preschool and School-Age Children

• Preschool

  • Need opportunities to practice motor development as well as wide exposure to language, especially when people talk directly to them

  • Need consistent, clear definition of what behavior is unacceptable

• School-Age

  • Need to practice accomplishing goals appropriate to their abilities and to learn how to get along with others

  • They meed realistic feedback regarding task performance to better accept criticism as they get older

  • Need to feel that they are contributing family members by assigning tasks and taught how to do them

Teenagers

• Social scientists, mental healht professionals, teachers, and parents are increasingly concerned about adolescents’ rising rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, suicide attempts, and overall unhappiness over the past 10 years or more

• Generally, experts trace causes to the demise of local communities and of unstructured time or activities

• Majority of teenagers do not cause familial “storm and stress, but the teen years do have special potential for reducing marital quality and sparking parent-child conflict

• Adolescents need caregivers to listen to them

• Need firm guidance coupled with parental accessibility and emotional support

• Need to learn effective methods for resolving conflict

• Despite stereotypical ideas, influences from teens’ peers are not necessarily negative and can be positive

• Parents can and do influence behavior

Parenting Style

• A general manner of relating to and disciplining their children

• Combine two dimensions:

  • Parental warmth

  • Parental expectations—coupled with minitoring of their children

Authoritarian Parenting Style

• All decision making is in parents’ hands, and the emphasis is on compliance with rules and directives

• Parents are more punitive than supportive, and use of physical punishment is likely

• Evidence a hostile parenting style, criticizing a child’s ideas, insulting or swearing at time, shouting or yelling in anger, for example

• More likely to spank their children or use otherwise harsh punishment

Permissive Parenting Style

• One of three parenting styles in this schema, permissive parenting gives children little parental guidance

• Leads to the classic “spoiled child”

• A second variant of the permissive style is low on both parental direction and emotional support—a situation of emotional neglect

• Associated with childrens and adolescents’ depression and otherwise poor mental health, low school performance, behavior problems, high rates of teen pregnancy, and juvenile delinquency

Authoritative Parenting Style

• Sometimes called positive parenting

• More effective of the parenting styles

• Parents accept the child’s personality and talents and are emotionally supportive

• At the same time, they consciously set and enforce rules and limits, whose rationale is usually explained to the child

• Parents provide guidance and direction and state expectations for the child’s behavior

• Parents are in charge, but the child is given responsibility and must take the initiative in completing schoolwork and other tasks and in solving child-level problems

• More likely to have children who do better in school and are socially competent, with relatively high self-esteem and cooperative yet independent personalities

• Positive effects last into adulthood

Is Spanking Ever Appropriate?

• Spanking refers to hitting a child with an open hand without causing physical injury

• A little more than ½ of American parents say they will never spank their children

  • 58% of Hispanic

  • 55% of non-Hispanic White

  • 31% of Black

• According to the late domestic violence researcher Murray Stratus, parenting should never hit children of any age under any circumstances

• Spanking or vigorously shaking an infant can lead to permanent damage and even death

• Being frequently spanked in childhood is linked to later behavior one’s parents in adolescence, and later abuse of one’s own children a well as intimate partner violence

• Physical punishment can be “harsh: and disciplining in these ways has been linked to mood and anxiety disorders in adulthood

Parenting Styles

• Manner of relating to and discipling children

• Two dimensions:

  • Nurture/warmth

  • Control/monitoring

Parents Spanking Children

• Hitting child with open hand (without causing injury)

• 49 countries have been banned all physical punishment of children

• Legal in every US state (graphics of popularity)

• Getting less popular over time

• American Academy of Pediatrics:

  • Spanking is never appropriate

  • Other methods of discipline effective in long-term

  • Frequent spanking linked to later behavioral and mental health problems

• Many parents spank, at least occasionally

• Boys, especially under age 2, spanked most

• Caregiver/family characteristics related to spanking: gender, age, education, and family size

  • More likely in mothers,

  • Younger parents,

  • Lower education levels, and

  • Larger families

American Academy of Pediatrics

• Called for an end to corporal punishment in schools

• Corporal punishment in schools legal in 23 states (graphic)

  • Almost 70,000 students hit each year

  • Disparities by: gender, race, disability status

    • More likely to happen to boys,

    • Black students, and

    • Students with documented disabilities (ex. ADHD)

• State bans only apply to public schools, not private schools

A Closer Investigation of Diversity: Straight Parents and LGBTQIA+ Children

• Parenting a LGBTQIA+ child can be both broadening and challenging

• When child comes out, family members may feel confused ambivalent, alone, embarrassed, and/or angry

• Even parents who see themselves as progressive may be surprised at their disappointment and grief

• If being LGBTQIA+ is against the parent’s religion, a child coming out can be all the more disconcerting

• It helps to recognize the following:

  • All cultures and historical periods include individuals who have identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender

  • The American Psychological Association and the American Pediatric Association do not consider being LGBTQIA+ as a psychological disorder

  • LGBTQIA+ adolescents and young adults may feel guilty about thier sexual orientation, worried about responses from their families and friends, and fearful of discrimination in clubs, sports, college, or the workplace

  • Hiding one’s sexual orientation can be extremely stressful and isolating

  • The physical and mental health of LGBTQIA+ youth is better when they feel social support

  • Parents’ acceptance of their child’s sexual identity allows for open discussions about the child’s dating relationships and related issues, such as ways to deal with prejudice and discrimination or how to reduce risks associated with HIV/AIDS

• As parents work through their feelings, they may want to talk with a counselor

• Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) is a national organization comprising local educational and support groups and providing internet sources

Conditional Families

• These are families where parents accept their children on the condition of the child’s heteronormativity, or being cisgender or straight

• A tragic result for LGBTQIA+ youth may be family expulsion and homelessness, however, things do not have to stay that way

Social Class and Parenting

• There are effective and ineffective parents in all social classes

• Virtually all opportunities and experiences are influenced by socioeconomic status

• Research shows that family education and income have more influence on parenting behaviors and children’s outcomes than do race and ethnicity or family structure in and of itself

• We have seen that parents who are less stressed and relatively content practice more positive child-raising behaviors

Middle and Upper-Middle Class Parents

• Can better afford to provide their children’s needs and wants

• Higher SES parents have the resources to hire household help, purchase devices like baby monitors, or hire academic or athletic coaches for their children

• They reside in neighborhoods conducive to successfully raising and educating their children

• More highly educated parents are older than other parents, and on average, have fewer children, show less anxiety regarding their parenting skills, and are likely to emphasize concerted cultivation

• Likely to be have a neighborhood and school friends who share their parent’s values and can therefore serve as parallel socialization agents

• By volunteering at their children’s schools and monitoring other students’ and even teachers’ behavior, highly educated parents secure educational advantages for their children

• Should problems arise at school, higher SES parents are likely to have network contacts with community professionals who can help and may even challenge school officials’ decisions

• Likely to get parenting information from professional sources, such as books or the internet

• Often using authoritative parenting style, they negotiate with their children in ways meant to foster language and critical thinking skills, self-direction, initiative, and self-advocacy

  • This parenting style well prepares children for high academic achievement and success in the broader society because schools and professions value these skills

Concerted Cultivation

• The parenting model or style according to which parents often praise and converse with their children, engage them in extracurricular activities, take them on outings, and so on, with the goal of cultivating their child’s talents and abilities

Hyperparenting: Intensive Parenting the “Hurried Child,” “Helicopter Parents,” and “Snowplow” or “Lawnmower” Parents

• Many parents, particularly higher SES parents, engage in hyperparenting

• Helicopter parents hover over and meddle excessively in their children’s lives

• Snowplow parents remove every obstacle or children’s lives

• These kids do not have opportunity to develop tools to handle life’s challenges

• Critic have warned that often higher income parents engage their children in too many scheduled activities

• Hurried child is denied free time while encouraged to assume too many challenges and responsiblities too soon

• The hurried child is overprotected

• In one author’s opinion, children tuyrn to their smartphone and social media becasue it’s one area left to them where they can explore the world relatively unsupervised

• Compared with life in higher SES families, childhood looks different in families of lower SES, where children have grown up with less supervised play, fewer scheduled activities, and more unplanned interaction with extended family members and friends

• Higher SES parents determine to promote self-direction in their children by exercise subtle forms of control that can undermine their intent

• Conversely lower SES parents tend to espouse obedience by often grant children considerable autonomy

Working-Class Parents

• Working class parents have suffered the negative effects of declining factory work and union power, decreased wages and benefits insecurities associated with temporary work, and escalating housing, utilities, and transportation costs

• Children are more likely to watch a lot of TV and to eat fast food

• Families can be less harried by tight scheduling, and children are able to live at a slower pace

  • Can relax and have free time

• They can interact equally with cousins, for instance, and spend time with other relatives instead of being on a constant forced march to do well academically and rack up trophies or ribbons in extracurricular activities

• Parents do not necessarily view the concerted development parenting model as good parenting

• They tend to follow the accomplishment of natural growth parenting model

• Some parents employ the authoritative parenting style

• Much parent-child communication tends to be authoritarian

• More likely to tell their children what to do rather than trying to persuade them with reasoning

• Likely to encourage their children to keep their thoughts and questions to themselves, when dealing with professionals

• Many parents are involves in their children’s schools and do promote academic success in their children

• Children are likely to grow up with feeling of discomfort, constraint, and distrust regarding their school and work experiences

Accomplishment of Natural Growth Parenting Model

• Educational model in which children’s abilities are allowed to develop naturally

• This included working class children spending more time watching TV and playing video games than children of highly educated parents

Low Income and Poverty Level Parents

• The majority of parents work at minimum or less than minimum wage jobs with irregular and unpredictable hours and no employer subsidized medical insurance or other benefits

• Many low income parents have two or three jobs

• Many low income families move from city to city to live with relatives or to search for jobs

• Struggle to provide their children with not only clean clothes or lunch money, but with few extras, such as a respectable birthday party, school field trips, or a high school class ring

• Generally raise their children in more cluttered homes with fewer books

• Less likely to have internet or to live in neighborhoods that value education or encourage high achievement

• More likely to live with more air pollution and to have poorer nutrition, more illnesses, schools that are less safe, and limited access to quality medical care

• Not having enough money causes stress, which often leads to parents’ depression, in turn, are associated with lower parent-child relationship quality, a situation that results in a child’s lower psychological well-being

Families Experiencing Homelessness

• Approximately 35% of homeless people are in family groups

• Children younger than age 18 make up about ¼ of the homeless population

• Fathers, some one whom are single parents, are also found among the homeless population

• Move often and have little in the wau of a helpful social network

• Getting children to school and supervising their homework are difficult for homeless parents

• Life in a homeless shelter is stressful

  • Some shelters require the families to leave during the day, no matter the weather

• Problematic rules involve bedtimes, mealtimes, keeping children quiet, and the requirement that children be with their parents at all times

Parenting and Diversity: Sexual Identity, Race and Ethnicity, and Religion

• Considerable overlap among class and race/ethnic categories

• There is considerable ethnic diversity within the following group

Black Parents

• Attitudes, behaviors, and hopes for their children are similar to those of other parents in their social class

• Black people are far more likely than any other race to see race or ethnicity as central to their identity

• Take race and the possibilities of racial discrimination into account when deciding about their child’s school options

• More likely than White European American or parents of Hispanic descendant to spank their children

• Physical punishment is more acceptable 

  • Argues that it goes back to slavery, when children could have lost their lives if they misbehaved

• Even higher SES Black individuals remain vulnerable to discrimination

Native American Parents

• Been described as exercising a permissive parenting style that some critics have viewed as bordering on neglectful

• NA culture has emphasized personal autonomy and individual choice for children as well as adults

• Before the arrival of Europeans, NA successfully raised their chidlren by using nonverbal teaching examples and light discipline

• NAs continue to respond with warmth to their children’s needs and also to respect children enough to allow them to work things out in their own manner

• Teach children through story telling

• Some let children make mistakes and learn from the consequences

• NA parents and children demonstrate resilience

• NA extended family is a strong support system

Hispanic Parents

• Exhibit complementary roles (traditional)

• Described as more authoritarian than their non-Hispanic White counterparts

• The concept of hierarchical parenting may more aptly apply

• Collectivism has been found to be functional

• Family cohesion lessened the relationship between economic stress and negative parenting

• Teach their children the traditions and valued of their cultures origin

• Multicultural children are often expected to translate for their monolingual parents, but this role can be stressful

Hierarchical Parenting

• Concept used to describe the Hispanic parenting philosophy that blends warm emotional support for children with demand for significant respect for parents and other authority figures, including older extended family members

• Designed to instill in children a more collective value system rather than relatively high individualism

Asian American Parents

• Highest average income

• Also found in lower SES strate and may experience economic hardship

• 56% of Asian Americans are college graduated or have advanced degrees, compared to 35% of all Americans older than 24

• At 88%, non-Hispanic Asian American mothers are more likely to be married than the US average at 60%

• Parenting style is often characterized as authoritarian, emphasizing obedience and possible using physical punishment, but coupled with more praise and hugs than mainstream American society

• Extremely strong ties between Asian American parents and their children have been found to lessen parent-child conflict, along with potential negative effects of shaming

• Have experienced discrimination

Confucian Training Doctrine

• Concept used to describe Asian and Asian American parenting philosophy that emphasizes blending parental love, concern, involvement, and physical closeness with strict and firm control

Parents of Multiracial Children

• 1 in 7 (14%) if US babies born in 2015

• Of these children, about ¾ are White individuals in combination with at least one other race; about 16% of multiracial infants born in 2015 are Black individuals in combination with another race

• As it is becoming more accepted, the amount of multiracial children is expected to climb

• Has unique rewards and challenges with raising children

  • Sensitive remarks

  • Tension between parents and children over cultural values and attitudes

• Many schools are more sensitive to the needs of multiracial children, and more resources are available

Parents of Transnational Families

• Less likely to engaged with their children’s teachers or be active in their communities

• Typically, family members work to keep their home culture alive; maybe taken children to visit country

• Research speaks to deep and irreversible harm done to children whose parent(s) is/are exported

Religious Minority Parents

• Those who participate in religious activities typically have better health outcomes

• The thinking is that it is less about religious beliefs but more about the community that is important for family life

• American parents of religious minorities generally hope that their children will remain true to their religious heritage amid a majority culture that seldom understands and is sometimes threatening

Spiritual Capital

• Coping resources of faith and values derived from commitment to a religious tradition

Same Sex Parents

• Estimated to be 114,000 same sex couples raising their children in the US (28,000 male, 86,000 female)

• The majority (68%) of same sex couples were raising biological children

• Same sex couples are more likely to adopt or foster a child

• Many same sex parents emphasize their similarity to heterosexual parents

• Stereotype that gay men are less interested in having children, but that is not true

• For gay men, the process of having a biological child, including finding a fertility doctor, a lawyer, and a gestational carrier, is often arduous and costly

• Fertility clinics may not work with LGBTQIA+ parents if their health insurance does not cover it

• Children are well adjusted without significant differences from children of heterosexual parents in school prefomance, behavior, emotional development, gender identity, or sexual orientation

• Children may experience prejudice, and discrimination from friends, classmates or teachers

• Parents are particularly aware of potential stigma when choosing their child’s school

Raising Children of Minority Race, Ethnic, Religious, or Gender Identity in a Prejudicial and Discriminatory Society

• The felt stigma for LGBTQIA+ adolescents and young adults is associated with a suicide rate 5 times higher than the heterosexual population

• Adds pain and stress to an already demanding parenting process

• Families of color, sexual minorities, and religious minorities often attempt to serve as an insulating environment, shielding children from or confronting injustices

• Most racial, ethnic, and religious minority parents engage in race socialization

• Valuing one’s cultural heritage while simultaneously being required to deny or “rise above” it in order to advance in mainstream society can stoke tensions between parents and their children

• Minority parents may encourage their children to participate successfully in the larger society with regard to occupation and education while maintaining their original cultural values

Race Socialization

• The socialization process that involves developing a child’s pride in their cultural heritage while warning and preparing them about the possibilities of encountering discrimination

Issues for Thought: Heteronormative Bias within the LGBTQIA+ Community

• Two studies suggest that heteronormative, race, and class biases can affect all Americans, including LGBTQIA+ individuals themselves

• Lesbian and gay parents can also experience internalized heteronormative bias, along with race and class biases as well

Grandparents as Parents

• In 2021, there were about 7,094,232 grandparents living with their grandchildren younger than age 18 in the US, and approximately 33% of them were directly responsible for taking care of their grandchildren

• Number is expected to rise

• Taken together, unmarried parenthood, divorce or separation, poverty, substance misuse, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, abandonment, and incarceration account for the large majority of families headed by grandparents

• One study found that grandparents’ coping strategies involved relying on their religious faith as well as imagining the situation would somehow “just go away”

• Significant change after not living with children for a while

• Grandparents raising grandchildren is characterized by ambivalence

• Some grandchildren being raised by a grandparent see one or both parents either regularly or sporadically, but often complicated relationships

• A grandparent’s living in the home of a low income single mother is advantageous because it can add income

• Tend to provide stability, family cohesiveness, and solidarity while possibly enhancing young children’s cognitive development

• Grandmothers has been found to be most sensitive and beneficial to infants

• Some children got closer to grandparents, while some distanced themselves

Formal Kinship Care

• Out of home placement with biological relatives of children who are in the custody of the state

• Some states offer financial compensation to grandparents or other relatives who raise their grandchildren as state-licensed foster parents

• Some grandparents report having trouble navigating the system due to the fear and distrust of the child welfare system and daunting bureaucratic regulations, etc.

Foster Parenting

• When officials determine that someone younger than age 18 is being abused or neglected, they can take temporary or permanent custody of the child and remove them from the parental home for placement in foster case

• Children are financially supported by the state

• In 2021, there were 391,098 children and youth in foster care in the US

• 79% of foster care takes place in a foster family home

  • 44% with non-relatives

  • 35% with relatives

• Others can be in group homes (4%) or institutional settings (5%)

• The mean age of children in foster care is 8 yrs old

• Children stay in foster care for an average of about 22 months, but 42% stay for less than 1 yr

• 46% were White children; 21% were Hispanic, 20% were Black

• Very often without family support, those who are neither reunited with family members nor adopted “age out” of the system

• For the most part, these youth were older when they became foster children because they had the strongest developmental needs

• More likely to become imprisoned, homeless, unemployed, or pregnant outside of marriage

• Motivations to become a foster parent include religious principles, enjoying children, providing a companion for one’s only child or for oneself, and earning money

• Foster caregiving can be stressful

• Some foster parents see fostering as a step toward adopting

• About ¼ of foster children are available for adoption

Parenting Young Adult Children

• Found that relationships between parents and children in adulthood are complex and diverse

• Some young adult children and their parents are estranged, a situation in which parents typically may feel misunderstood and children, generally unsupported

  • These situations are in the minority

• As young adults transition to adult roles, parent-child relations may grow less conflicted

• Throughout their 20s and beyond, individuals benefit from their parents’ practical guidance, emotional support, and positive attitude toward whatever challenges they are facing

• At the same time, both parents and young adults may be angry or depressed over student loans due to rising college costs, lingering childhood issues, or difficulties with assuming adults roles

• Concerns over the young adult’s delayed transition to adulthood can cause parental ambivalence and parent-child conflict

• Parents who see their children growing up needing too much support report poorer life satisfaction

• One study found that, although receiving parental assistance is useful and helpful, recipients evidence higher levels of depression and lower self-esteem, compared to those who do not receive parental assistance

• Parents in all income brackets help out their young adult children, offering services such as babysitting, housing in their home, or financial help

• A significant majority of higher SES parents lend or give their children money to repay student loans, buy a car, help with rent or credit card debt, or put a down payment on a house

• One study found that parents tend to provide money not only to their neediest but also to their most successful children, the latter in anticipation of help from the child as the parent grows older

Families might negotiate a parent adult child residence sharing agreement. The following are likely issues to negotiate:

• How much money will the adult child contribute to the household?

• What are the standards for neatness?

• Who is responsible for cleaning what and when?

• Who will cook what and when?

• How will laundry tasks be divided?

• What about noise levels?

• When are guests welcome and in what rooms of the house?

• What are the expectations about informing other family members of one’s whereabouts?

• If the grown child has returned home with one or more children, who is responsible for their care?

Toward Better Parenting

• The family ecology model suggests that one way to improve parenting would be to build stronger family-school partnerships

• Recent community crises have occasioned new and positive examples of school-family partnerships

• Sociological research has examined the effects of divorce and father absence on children’s economic and social-emotional well-being over their life course and found negative effects on children-s education, mental health, and family relationships

• The benefits of father’s involvement depend absolutely on the quality of the fathers’ parenting and on their relationship with their children

• Some programs target adolescent fathers aim to teach skills that improve co-parent relations regardless of romantic involvement

• STEP and PET combine instruction on effective communication techniques with emotional support for parents

• Intervention programs might be effective in enhancing parenting are important for development

• The stress model of effective parenting suggests that reducing parents’ stress would improve parenting

• Improving the socioeconomic conditions of parents would also improve parenting

• Freeing up time for parents would improve parenting

• Informal social support has been found to mitigate stress and hence to be related to more positive parenting, but policy makers also urge greater civic and community activism on the part of parents

• He meant that good parenting involves working for better neighborhoods, communities, and family-centered social policies—and these, in turn, result in better parenting

Studies show that optimal parenting involves the following factors:

• Supportive family communication

• Involvement in a child’s life and school

• Private safety nets—that is, support from family or friends

• Adequate economic resources

• Workplace policies that facilitate a health work-family balance and support parenting in other ways as well

• Safe and healthy neighborhoods that encourage positive parenting, school achievement, and reciprocal social support

• Society wide policies that bolster all parents

The Interface of Work and Family Life

• The concepts of sociological imagination and the family ecology perspective hold that family life is influenced by cultural expectations and social structures external to it

  • Ex. of influences of economy is the Great Recession in 2007 and Covid-19

• Today’s jobs often pay less than those before the Great Recession and are more likely to be part-time and/or temporary without benefits equivalent to before the Great Recession

• Blue-collar, white-collar, and professional jobs such as those in accounting and publishing have moved overseas

• Student loan debt is historically higher than ever before

• The workplace influences everyday family life because their policies such as availability of parental leave, impact fertility decisions, worker stress and health, and parents’ labor force participation

• Family members can also influence the workplace with strikes, labor unions, etc.

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Spillover

• How pleasures or stresses associated with work affect interaction with the family, and vice versa

• Research shows significant spillover from employed mothers’ perceived workload and from the quality of mothers’ interactions with supervisors to interactions with their children

• Feeling overloaded or enduring supervisor criticism are positively correlated with harsh and withdrawn mother-child interactions; not feeling overloaded or enjoying supervisor praise were positively associated with warm mother-child interactions

• Also indicative of the stress model of parental effectiveness

• Increasingly, fathers experience work-family conflict

• Having a job in an LGBTQIA+ friendly workplace reduced parental anxiety at home, whereas an unfriendly work atmosphere had the opposite effect

• Spillover can be seen in the other direction as well

  • Ex. family life and negatively impact work life

Gender and the Work-Family Interface

• A 2017 poll found that 77% of women felt a lot of pressure to be an involved parent, compared with 49% men

• Meanwhile, 44% of women felt pressured to be successful in their job or career, compared with 68% of men

• The analysis of 2017s American Community Survey revealed that for women with a bachelor’s degree who gave birth in the past year, the majority (60.9%) were employed at work

  • This proportion was even higher for women with a graduate or professional degree (71.2%)

• Based in a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 29% of marriages were egalitarian, where couples earn about the same amount of income, which increased from 11% in 1972

• Despite social change, evidence of traditional expectations and behavior persists

• When couples earn the same amount, the women spend a greater amount of time on caregiving and housework

• Only in families where women are the primary breadwinner, men and women spend about the same amount of time on household chores

• Found the “female-breadwinner well-being penalty,” where men and women are less satisfied with thier lives in the female-breadwinner households compared to dual-earner and male-breadwinner households

  • Suggests that men continue to attach more significance to their employment status than their partner’s employment status

• Unemployed men with breadwinner wives are not free form the social stigma