Parenting, Family, and Culture

Theory

Family life cycle: sequence of changes in family composition, roles, relationships, and developmental tasks from marriage to death

  • roles can dramatically shift throughout the family life cycle

  • dynamics can change with birth and death/loss

Timeline of a family (Duval 1977)

  • missing factors

    • divorce

    • remarriage

    • mixed/combined families

    • Childless couples (not as large of an assumption now vs the 70’s)

    • Non-parental guardians (foster parents/grandparents)

    • non-independent kids

    • Having children prior to marriage

    • the “gap” child

    • single adults

    • fewer children compared to the 70’s

    • There has been a rise in multigenerational families

    • Fewer caregivers for aging adults

      • more working people and hours

“The tendency to treat others in the same way that we ourselves have been treated is deep in human nature”

Bowlby 1998

  1. Married couples without children

  2. childbearing families

  3. families with preschool children

  4. families with school children (6-13)

  5. families with teenagers (13-20)

  6. Families launching young adults (first child gone to last child leaving the home)

  7. Middle-aged parents (empty nest to retirement)

  8. Aging family members (retirement to death of both spouses)

Psychosocial stages of development

  • autonomy vs shame

    • self-control without loss of self-esteem

    • encouraging environment that tolerates failures

  • initiative vs fear

  • industry vs inferiority

    • skills valued by society have value for pride and peer acceptance

  • identity vs role confusion

    • develop sexual and occupation identities

    • comfort in own body and ability to commit and accept others

  • Intimacy vs isolation

    • supportive relationships, care within relationships, sense of commitments, safety and relationship comfort and love

  • Generativity vs stagnation

    • want children to be their legacy

    • giving back through society

    • “Force for good”

    • people give back to community if they do not have kids

    • middle adulthood

  • Ego integrity vs despair

    • reflection on own life and successful or not

    • evaluation of life

    • late adulthood

Hierarchy of needs

  • basic needs

    • physiological needs

    • safety needs

  • psychological needs

    • belongingness and love need

    • esteem needs

  • self-fulfillment needs

    • self-actualization

      • hard to define

      • achieving one’s full potential

      • no measurement

Limitations

  • ranks theoretical

  • modern interpretations replace top with parenting and mate acquisition/ retention instead of self-actualization

    • limitations with parenting label too

      • how good of a parent are you?

      • will you have a child?

Parenting Styles

Parenting is a complex activity that includes many specific behaviors that work individually and together to influence child outcomes

  • importance to child outcomes less individual and more overall pattern

  • Parents are usually a mix of different styles

Critique of parenting outcomes

  • could outcomes be moderated by cultural factors

  • some negatives of authoritarian styles not observed in more collective cultures/ more authoritarian cultures

    • difficult for second/third generation children

  • Generational immigrants may have culture/parenting conflicts

Baurind: parenting the “normal variations in parents attempts to control and socialize their children”

  • does not include deviant parents

  • balance of parental responsiveness and demandingness

  • only looking within the non-clinical realm (common variance)

Potential 5th style known as snowplow or helicopter parents

  • child cannot persevere through problems themselves

  • listed under authoritarian styles currently

  • parents overcommit their identity to their children

  • becoming more common

  • anxious parents

Indulgent (permissive/nondirective)

Let them do whatever they want

  • do not require mature behavior

  • non-traditional

  • allow self-regulation

  • avoid confrontation

  • two types

    • democratic

      • everything is put up for a vote

    • non-directive

      • gives decision making ability to the child

      • unstructured

      • does not put a limit on behavior

  • Responsiveness > demanding

  • children are more likely to exhibit problem behaviors and low school performance

  • children have higher self-esteem, good social skills, and low rates of depression (but can lead to higher rates later in life)

Authoritarian

controlling and demand obedience and don’t consider the child’s POV

  • Highly demanding > less responsive

  • obedience and status oriented

  • well-ordered and structured homes

  • not a problem if it is in line with what the child wants

  • two types

    • nonauthoritarian-directive

      • directive but not intrusive

      • seems like a supportive parent

    • authoritarian-directive

      • intrusive

  • Children perform moderately will inn school, low problematic behaviors

  • children have poorer social skills, lower self-esteem and higher rates of depression

  • Cultures can influence the degree in which it impacts a child

    • cultural level of punishment has a bigger impact

Authorative

Respect their child’s needs but believe they needs freedoms within limits

  • highly demanding = highly responsive

  • monitor and impart clear standards for children

  • goals liked to child abilities and individual child needs

  • discipline used as a support not punishment

  • desire children to be assertive and socially responsible, self-regulated and cooperative

  • children rated as more socially competent

  • what people strive for when raising children

Uninvolved

uninvolved and uninterested in the child

  • aka neglectful

  • low responsiveness and low demands

  • could include rejecting parents

  • most poor expected outcomes in children