Parenting Predictions

1. Parenting Predictions • Will you limit television? How? How much? • Will you limit computer time? Content? • Will you use physical punishment? How and when? • Should there be laws prohibiting any physical punishment?

2. Will you restrict what your child eats? • Will you restrict how much your child eats? • Will you encourage “sex-role-appropriate” behavior in your child?

3. Views of Parenting • Older view: unidirectional—parents shape children • Newer view: reciprocal—both children and parents shaped by interaction • Ecological model—many levels of interaction

4. Parenting & Age of Child • Infancy: high control, physical control • Preschool: increase in reasoning, decrease in physical control. Parents do scheduling. • School age: decrease in time with parents; parents continue to monitor

5. Baumrind’s Parenting Styles • Authoritarian: rigid rules, no backtalk, work hard, be tough • Authoritative: firm guidelines, but encourage independence within guidelines, much verbal interaction. • Permissive: Neglectful and Indulgent subtypes

6. How do styles shape children? • Authoritarian: socially inept, lack confidence, sometimes aggressive • Authoritative: good social skills, best category • Permissive Neglectful: socially incompetent, lack self control • Permissive Indulgent: lack self control

7. Physical Punishment • Has immediate effect of changing behavior • Has later effects of avoidance, fear, anger in child • Provides poor role model for handling emotions • Can lead to abuse

8. Cross-cultural • Several countries have banned physical punishment • Rates of juvenile delinquency, alcohol abuse, rape, & suicide have gone down

9. Physical Child Abuse—Vasta’s model • Cultural/environmental norms • Parental history of abuse • Poor parenting skills • Age-inappropriate expectations • Child problems • Socio-situational factors • Parental hyper-reactivity

10. Physical punishment can lead to instrumental aggression when caretaker is not mad • When parent aroused, can result in irritable aggression = abuse

11. Birth Order • Interacting factors: number of siblings, age spacing, sex of siblings, age of parents • Generalizations: first borns under more pressure, can be more anxious, closer relationship to parents • Only child: achievement oriented and good personality • Middle children: more confident than firstborns, medium achievement

12. Working Mothers • More positives than negatives • Good role model for both daughters and sons • Mother’s job matters: if fulfilling career, good; if disliked job, not good • Amount of stress in job matters • Mothers still do more than half of household & caretaking work

13. Divorce • Stay together or split up: which is better? • Depends on how much conflict before and after divorce. • Many child problems associated with divorce, but some occurred even before divorce • Two years average adjustment time; majority of children do reasonably well

14. Stepfamilies • Stress of adjustment, especially if both parents bring children to blended family • “Boundary Ambiguity”—new stepparents often shy away from too much control • Difficulty dealing with children one reason divorce rates higher for second than first marriages

15. Gay & Lesbian Parents • Legal aspects being explored in many states now, such as gay marriage • Child development not very different compared to heterosexual parents: adjustment, popularity, likelihood of being heterosexual themselves