Parenting Notes - Dr Heather Branigan

Learning Outcomes - LO1: Outline the methodologies psychologists use to examine major parental influences on children. - LO2: Evaluate the existing evidence to identify an optimal parenting style for child development. - LO3: Outline the specific psychological impacts that the period of adolescence has on families. - Integration: These outcomes are achieved by synthesizing data across the entire lecture context. # Dimensions of Parenting (Baumrind, $1991$; Gray & Steinberg, $1999$) - Acceptance: Defined as the level of emotional warmth directed toward a child and the extent of the child's acceptance by the parent. - Strictness of Supervision: Concerns the amount of control exerted over a child's behaviour and the specific methods used to exert that control. - Autonomy Giving: Assesses whether the child is granted an appropriate level of independence based on their developmental stage. # Authoritarian Parenting Style - Acceptance/Involvement: Low; characterized by a cold and rejecting attitude toward the child. - Strictness of Supervision: High; utilizes coercive discipline with minimal or no explanation (e.g., "because I say"). - Control Mechanisms: Employs both behavioural and psychological control. - Autonomy Giving: Low; the child’s life is heavily regulated with negligible input from the child. - Consequences (Baumrind, $1971$, $1991$; Lamborn et al., $1991$): - Early and Middle Childhood: Children tend to be anxious, unhappy, and suffer from low self-esteem and self-reliance. They often "act out" (externalize) when frustrated. - Late Childhood and Adolescence: Typically results in poor academic performance, though children tend to be well-behaved in formal settings. # Permissive Parenting Style - Acceptance/Involvement: High; parents are warm, accepting, and often indulgent. - Strictness of Supervision: Low; very little direct control is exerted over the child's actions. - Autonomy Giving: High; children are permitted to make decisions they lack the maturity to handle. - Consequences (Baumrind, $1971$, $1991$; Lamborn et al., $1991$): - Early and Middle Childhood: Children lack self-control and tend to be overly dependent on adults with low persistence in tasks. - Late Childhood and Adolescence: Often leads to defiance toward authority figures, increased anti-social behavior, and poor school performance. # Uninvolved Parenting Style - Acceptance/Involvement: Low; parents are emotionally withdrawn, distant, and the style often verges on neglect. - Strictness of Supervision: Low; little to no direct control is maintained over the child. - Autonomy Giving: High (though by default); parents are uninterested in the child’s personal viewpoint. - Consequences (Baumrind, $1971$, $1991$; Lamborn et al., $1991$): - Early and Middle Childhood: Results in low social skills, poor academic performance, and attachment difficulties. - Late Childhood and Adolescence: Leads to poor emotional self-control, increased anti-social behaviour, and poor school performance. # Authoritative Parenting Style - Acceptance/Involvement: High; parents are genuinely involved in the child’s life in a warm and caring manner. - Strictness of Supervision: High; parents make appropriate and consistent demands, fostering self-control through structured discipline. - Autonomy Giving: High; children are encouraged to make their own decisions, and disagreements are resolved through discussion and reasoning. - Consequences (Baumrind, $1971$, $1991$; Lamborn et al., $1991$): - Early and Middle Childhood: Children are well-tempered, cooperative, persistent, and demonstrate good self-control. - Late Childhood and Adolescence: Associated with good academic progress, high levels of maturity, and high self-esteem. # Why Authoritative Parenting is Effective - Social/Emotional Models: Authoritative parents serve as effective models of social and emotional competence (Lindsay & Mize, $2000$). - Autonomy and Responsibility: Fosters self-esteem by granting appropriate autonomy (Carlson, $2000$). - Inductive Discipline: Children are more likely to comply and internalize rules when discipline is reasonable and fair, a concept known as inductive discipline (Hoffman, $2000$). - Agent Efficacy: Disapproval is most effective when it comes from an agent who consistently shows warmth and care. - Buffering Effect: Supportive parenting can "buffer" children against adverse environmental conditions like poverty or family stress. Petit et al. ($1997$) found supportive parenting moderated the impact of adversity on school adjustment. # Parenting Style and Attachment (Karavasilis et al., $2003$) - Middle Childhood/Adolescence Study: Investigated the relationship between parenting styles and maternal attachment. - Positive Associations: Secure attachment styles are linked to warm parental involvement, behavioural monitoring, and psychological autonomy granting. - Negative Associations: Insecure attachment styles are negatively correlated with these positive parenting traits. # Behavioural vs. Psychological Parental Control - Behavioural Control: Actions intended to manage or regulate specific child behaviours (e.g., "Don’t do that, you will hurt yourself"). - Psychological Control: Control attempts that intrude upon the child’s psychological and emotional development, affecting thinking processes, self-expression, and attachment. - Examples of Psychological Control (Barber, $1996$): - Constraining Verbal Expressions: Cutting off, changing subjects, or dominating conversations. - Invalidating Feelings: Discounting or misinterpreting family members' emotions. - Personal Attack: Attacking a member's worth or place in the family, or using past events as weapons. - Guilt Induction: Guilt-tripping or highlighting how a behaviour negatively impacted another's emotions. - Love Withdrawal: Threatening to withdraw love or attention unless expectations are met. # Impact of Psychological Control - Predictors of Maladjustment: Psychological control predicts internalising problems like depression and externalising problems like anti-social behaviour (Barber, $1996$). - Affection paradox: Combined with high affection, psychological control can lead to problem behaviour even in kindergarten-aged children (Anunola & Nurmi, $2005$). - Adolescent Distress: High psychological control in adolescence predicts internal distress (Gray & Steinberg, $1999$). # Parenting in Adolescence - Quest for Autonomy: Characterised by the search for autonomy (Soenens et al., $2019$). - Emotional Autonomy: Relying on oneself for guidance and de-idealising parents. - Behavioural Autonomy: Making decisions based on informed, personal judgement. - Supportive Parenting: Fosters autonomy while maintaining monitoring (Crouter & Head, $2002$). - Controlling/Coercive Parenting: Leads to mutual escalation of conflict and negative impacts on future social relationships (Kim et al., $2001$). # Conflict and "Sturm und Drang" - Early Theories: Freud and Erikson ($1968$) characterized adolescence as a period of conflict and identity crisis. - Evidence Against Constant Conflict: Rutter et al. ($1976$) found that $75\%$ of adolescents report happy, peaceful relationships with parents. The remaining $25\%$ often came from families with prior difficulties. - Normative Conflict: High-intensity conflict is "not the norm" (Steinberg, $1990$). Conflicts that do occur can be adaptive (Branje, $2018$). # Parental Adjustment to Adolescence - De-idealisation Impact: Parents must adjust as children stop seeing them as perfect. Steinberg and Steinberg ($1994$) found $40\%$ of parents experienced lower self-esteem and increased anxiety/depression. - Perspective Gap: Parents view conflicts as moral issues and are more affected; adolescents view them as matters of personal choice and are less affected. - Wellbeing Factors: For parents, midlife changes and marital satisfaction often have a larger influence on wellbeing than parent-adolescent conflict (Keresteš et al., $2012$). # Recommended Reading - Baumrind, D. ($1971$). Current patterns of parental authority. Developmental Psychology. - Baumrind, D. ($1991$). Effective parenting during the early adolescent transition. Family Transitions: Advances in Family Research. - Branje, S. ($2018$). Development of parent–adolescent relationships: Conflict interactions as a mechanism of change. Child Development Perspectives. - Hughes, C. ($2011$). Parenting and Children’s Social Understanding. - Karavasilis, L., Doyle, A. B., & Markiewicz, D. ($2003$). Associations between parenting style and attachment. International Journal of Behavioral Development. - Keresteš, G., Brković, I., & Kuterovac Jagodić, G. ($2012$). Predictors of psychological well-being of adolescents’ parents. Journal of Happiness Studies. - Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., & Beyers, W. ($2019$). Parenting adolescents. Handbook of Parenting.