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Family: Early and Enduring Influences

Families: Early and Enduring Influences

  • Families come in diverse structures, including:
    • A child living with mother, father, grandmother, and nine siblings.
    • A child living solely with their mother, adjacent to their aunt and cousins.
    • A child with two fathers who are married and planning to adopt.
  • Despite structural differences, families share common functions:
    • Providing the earliest and most consistent social contact for children.
    • Offering the most profound and lasting interpersonal connections.
    • Sharing a history and future expectations, differentiating them from transient relationships.
    • Serving as a benchmark against which other relationships are assessed.
  • A family is defined as a societal unit where parents and children mutually hold economic, social, and emotional entitlements and obligations, coupled with a sense of dedication and mutual identity.

Socialization within the Family

  • Families serve as socialization systems, guiding children's impulses into socially acceptable actions and teaching necessary societal norms and skills.
  • This socialization begins at birth, influencing standards of behavior that align with parental and societal expectations.
  • The family system comprises multiple subsystems, such as:
    • Mother-father
    • Mother-child
    • Father-child
    • Mother, father, and child
    • Sibling relationships
  • Socialization occurs within each of these subsystems.
  • Family socialization varies depending on social class, culture, and historical context.
  • Families have undergone significant structural and functional changes in recent decades.

The Family System

  • The family operates as an intricate system of interconnected members and subsystems, influencing its overall functionality.
  • Changes in one family member's behavior can affect all others, as evidenced by: (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Kuczynski & DeMol 2015; Sturge-Apple et al., 2010)
  • For instance, a shift in the father's role influences the mother's role and the children's experiences.
  • Family members exert both direct and indirect influences on one another.
    • Direct effects include spouses praising or criticizing each other, parents hugging or spanking children, and children clinging to or talking back to parents.
    • Indirect effects involve a two-step process, such as fathers affecting children by altering their relationship with the mother, which in turn affects the child's development.
  • A functional family system is characterized by:
    • Parents maintaining a positive relationship.
    • Parents being supportive and caring toward their children.
    • Children being cooperative, responsible, and caring toward their parents.
  • Conversely, a dysfunctional family system involves:
    • Parents in an unhappy marriage.
    • Parents being irritable with their children.
    • Children displaying antisocial behavior, exacerbating parental relationship issues.
  • Negative interaction patterns can intensify and solidify, particularly in families with an aggressive child:
    • This is noted in (Dishian & Snyder, 2016).
  • The absence of rational communication, anger management, and problem-solving efforts can entrench families in maladaptive interaction patterns.
  • Adaptability is key to good family functioning.

The Couple System

  • The couple system, the foundational subsystem within the family, significantly impacts children's development.
  • The relationship quality between partners affects parenting, sibling relationships, and children's development.
  • Supportive partners are more likely to provide care to their children, as detailed in: (Cowan & Cowan, 2002, 2010; Klausli & Owen, 2011)
    • Children with supportive and affectionate parents exhibit better adjustment and positivity.
  • Conversely, partners in conflict can negatively affect their children:
    • Conflict in early years can hinder secure attachment development, based on: (Frosch et al., 2000).
    • Conflict in later years can lead to aggression or depression in children, as shown in: (Davies et al., 2015; Katz & Cottman, 1993, 1996).

Impact of Parental Conflict on Children

  • Children are directly affected when they witness parental conflict.
  • Mark Cummings and colleagues demonstrated that frequent and violent conflicts, especially those related to the child, lead to children feeling upset and blaming themselves.
    • This is supported by: (Cummings & Davies, 2010; Davies et al., 2006).
  • Children exposed to intense and destructive conflicts may experience:
    • Emotional insecurity.
    • Depression.
    • Anxiety.
    • Behavior problems.
    • Relationship difficulties.
    • Poor emotion regulation, as reflected in: (Cummings et al., 2006; Cummings & Davies, 2010).
  • In severe cases, children may develop eating disorders, such as described in: (George et al., 2014).
  • Parental conflict can impair children's stress management capabilities, assessed via cortisol levels, according to: (Davies et al., 2007; Sturge-Apple et al., 2012).
  • Constructive conflict resolution, involving mutual respect and warmth, can mitigate harm to children.
  • Constructive parental conflict resolution can teach children effective negotiation skills:
    • Refer to: (Davies et al., 2012, Cicchetti, & Martin, 2012).
  • However, the negative impacts of destructive conflict may overshadow constructive conflict.
  • Children are more likely to develop problems if parents express anger frequently, intensely, physically, and without resolution.
  • Marital difficulties can affect child-rearing practices, leading to anger and intrusiveness, as well as anger in children:
    • See: (Katz & Gattman, 1997), (McCloskey & Stuewig, 2001; Stocker & Youngblade, 1999), and (Bascoe et al., 2009).

Theoretical Explanations for the Effects of Parental Conflict

  • Social learning theory suggests children learn conflict resolution through observation, as demonstrated in: (Crockenberg & Langrock, 2001).
  • Attachment theory posits that exposure to conflict leads to emotional insecurity and later social problems, documented in: (Cummings & Davies, 2010).
  • Cognitive processes theory suggests the impact of parental conflict depends on a child's interpretation of it.
    • If a child perceives conflict as threatening, they may become anxious and withdrawn, noted in: (Grych & Cardoza-Fernandes, 2001; Grych & Fincham, 1990).
  • Mental health theory suggests parental depression mediates the impact of marital distress on children's depressive symptoms, explained in: (Cummings et al., 2005).
  • Genetic factors may contribute to the effect of parental conflict on children's social behavior, supported by: (Harden et al., 2007).

Reciprocal and Transactional Links between Parental Conflict and Child Adjustment

  • The relation between parental conflict and child adjustment is reciprocal – children and parents influence each other over time.
  • Longitudinal studies indicate:
    • Parental discord predicts children's negative emotional reactivity, which in turn affects parental conflict resolution, as studied in: (Schermerhorn et al., 2007).
    • Children's efforts can increase parental awareness of negative effects, reducing conflict, noted in: (Schermerhorn et al., 2010).
    • Dysregulated behavior in children can increase marital discord and adjustment problems.

Overcoming Problems Related to Parental Conflict

  • Programs designed to improve parental relationships can benefit children.
  • One program taught couples about constructive and destructive marital conflict, improving their conflict management and their children's adjustment, as per: (Cummings et al., 2008).
  • Another successful program improved adolescents' attachments with their fathers, explained by: (Cummings & Schatz, 2012).
  • Professionally led group discussions on parenting or marital issues for parents of 4-year-olds resulted in less aggressive behavior and fewer internalizing problems in their children, supported by: (Cowan et al., 2005).
  • Long-term benefits from such programs include positive social outcomes and fewer behavior problems, validated by: (Cowan et al., 2011).

Impact of a New Baby on the Couple System

  • The arrival of a first child brings a shift towards traditional gender roles and less marital satisfaction, according to: (Cowan & Cowan, 2000, 2010), and (Twenge et al., 2003).
  • Mothers experience a greater decline in satisfaction, as found in: (Cowan & Cowan, 2010).
  • Mothers' workload increases more significantly than fathers' after the birth, described in: (Yavorsky et al., 2015).
  • Mutual parental support can lessen the drop in couple satisfaction, according to: (Durtschi et al., 2017, Soloski, & Kimmes, 2017).
  • A child, particularly a difficult one, can strain or undermine a fragile relationship, mentioned in: (Hogan & Msall, 2002).

Transition to Parenthood

  • Becoming parents can be stressful, so psychologists have developed programs to strengthen couple relationships and mitigate adverse effects.
  • The Becoming a Family project studied couples expecting their first baby and involved them in a 6-month group intervention, elaborated in: (Cowan & Cowan, 2000, 2010).
  • The intervention helped couples discuss their dreams, changes, problems, and conflicts related to parenthood.
  • At 18-month assessments, benefits included more involved and satisfied fathers, less negative change in marital satisfaction, and satisfied mothers, proven by: (Schulz et al., 2006).
  • By kindergarten, some positive effects wore off, resulting in a call for