Chapter 13: Families

Authoritarian parenting style:

Parents who combine high levels of control and low levels of warmth, and who expect compliance from the child.

Authoritative parenting style:

Parents who combine high levels of control with a good deal of warmth and encouragement, together with reasonable expectations and explanation of the parents' rules.

Disengaged parenting style:

Parents who do not set limits or rules for their children and are not emotionally connected to them.

Permissive or indulgent parenting style:

Parents who provide a great deal of warmth and acceptance but few, if any, rules or restrictions.

Coparenting:

Sharing parenting responsibilities between two or more people.

Which individual illustrates the largest change in the American family in recent years? a. Ginny has always returned to work after having giving birth to her children b. Lauren just married and is pregnant with her first child c. Aaliyah stays home with her children d. Yolanda has three children, including a set of twins

a

Which individual is an example of most only children? a. Malek is successful at school b. Sophia has a hard time with new situations c. Emily is very neurotic d. Tanner is usually lonely

a

Which is considered to be the ultimate form of power assertion? a. spanking b. lecturing c. time out d. grounding

a

Which term is used for a family that consists of nuclear and other relatives? a. extended family b. stepfamily c. foster family d. adoptive family

a

Which theory helps to explain that children and families are affected by influences at many different levels? a. ecological theory b. transactional model c. internalization d. inductive discipline

a

Which type of discipline sets clear limits and consequences and explains the reasons for the rules? a. inductive discipline b. no-nonsense parenting c. boundary ambiguity d. transactional model

a

Internalization:

The process by which individuals adopt the attitudes, beliefs, and values held by their society.

According to the video, about 1/3 of preschool children have primary care in which kind of setting? a. foster care b. adoptive family c. child care center d. family care with grandparents

d

Which concept focuses on the many different levels that families are influenced? a. multifinality b. parent effects model c. transactional model d. ecological theory

d

Which parenting style is characterized as being high in control and low in responsiveness? a. permissive b. authoritative c. disengaged d. authoritarian

d

Which parenting styles provide neither warmth nor control to their children? a. authoritarian b. permissive c. authoritative d. disengaged

d

Which scenario is illustrating other-oriented induction? a. "You will burn yourself if you get to close to that." b. "Put the treat away, or you won't be hungry for lunch." c. "Pat the kitty nicely, or she will scratch you." d. "See how upset Timmy is because you took his toy."

d

Which shared Latino cultural value is characterized by a strong sense of obligation to family? a. chaio shun b. guan c. respeto d. familismo

d

Shared physical custody is beneficial to children even when there is a high level of conflict between the parents. a. true b. false

a

The percent of children living in a stepfamily has not changed substantially since 1960. a. True b. False

a

The percent of children living in a stepfamily has not changed substantially since 1960. a. true b. false

a

Demandingness/control:

A dimension of parenting that measures the amount of restrictiveness and structure that parents place on their children.

Acceptance/responsiveness:

A dimension of parenting that measures the amount of warmth and affection in the parent-child relationship.

Power assertion:

A disciplinary technique that emphasizes control of the child's behavior through physical and nonphysical punishment.

Nuclear family:

A family consisting of a husband, a wife, and their biological and/or adopted children.

13.1 What constitutes a family?

A family is the basic social unit for socializing children, but it takes different forms from one culture to another. A nuclear family consists of a husband, wife, and their biological and/or adopted children, but there are many other family structures. The number of single-parent families in the United States has increased substantially in recent years and single parents face their own unique challenges. The divorce rate in the United States is high but may be declining for younger cohorts. Many divorced parents share physical custody of their child and most also share legal custody. It takes time for everyone in a family to adjust following a divorce and it affects children of different ages in different ways, but after a period of adjustment, most children who have experienced a parental divorce are not very different from those in intact families. Adjustment to a parent's remarriage and the creation of a stepfamily also takes time. Noncustodial parents continue to be important people in the lives of their children. Coparenting occurs in married, divorced, and separated couples, as well as in couples who have never married and families in which parenting is shared with another person. Grandparents sometimes raise their grandchildren, which can be challenging for older adults. Children raised by gay or lesbian parents are as well-adjusted as children in other types of families. Adopted families have unique challenges, but adopted children and their adoptive parents often prefer having an open adoption. Foster care is a temporary living arrangement, so it may be difficult for foster children to adapt to this living arrangement, but there is now support for older adolescents when they age out of foster care.

Extended family:

A family structure that includes nuclear family members and other relatives, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Command strategy:

A parenting technique in which the parent does not make any overt threats of punishment, but the child responds to the legitimate authority that the parent has to make a request of the child.

Inductive discipline:

A parenting technique that involves setting clear limits for children and explaining the consequences for negative behavior, why the behavior was wrong, and what the child might do to fix the situation.

Mutually responsive orientation:

Both parent and child are cooperative and responsive to each other in the context of an emotionally positive relationship.

Parenting styles:

Fairly regular and consistent patterns of interacting with children.

13.2 What roles do individuals in a family fill and how have these roles changed?

Families are dynamic systems made up of the individuals and relationships within them. Today, more mothers are employed in the workforce, and fathers are more involved with the caretaking of their children. Sibling relationships are unique because they can embody both closeness and conflict. Siblings are not as similar as we might think because of the impact of their nonshared environment. Birth order has little or no effect on a child's characteristics. Differential parental treatment of siblings can create problems unless the child who is not receiving the preferential treatment understands the reasons for it. Although only children do not have siblings, they are as likely to be as well-adjusted and happy as children with siblings.

13.3 How do parents socialize their children?

Models of parenting have included the parent effects model and the child effects model, but a transactional model is the one used most often today. Parents use a variety of positive and negative discipline techniques to socialize their children, including inductive discipline, command strategies, mutually responsive orientation, psychological control, and power assertion. Although many parents rely on spanking as a way to control a child's behavior, it is not effective in the long term. Based on the amount of parental acceptance/responsiveness and demandingness/control, we can describe four parenting styles: authoritative parenting style, authoritarian parenting style, permissive parenting style, and disengaged parenting style. In many cultural contexts authoritative parenting is associated with a number of positive characteristics, and children raised by disengaged parents do the worst. However, the effectiveness of any particular parenting style depends in large part on the values of the culture in which the child lives. The typology of parenting styles typically used in Western research may not adequately represent the styles found in other cultures. As adolescents become more autonomous, parents need to balance autonomy granting with continuing attachment. Family mealtime is a good opportunity for family members to connect with each other. Although conflict becomes more common in adolescence, it is usually about mundane, everyday issues and is not damaging in most cases to adolescents' long-term relationship with their parents.[Page 469]

13.4 What interventions are used to improve family life?

Programs to promote better family life can be implemented at the national, community, or family level, and they can aim to prevent problems or to help families recover from them. At the family level, intervention may include family therapy. Interventions with families work best when professionals collaborate with parents to achieve family-driven objectives.

Nonshared environment:

The different experiences that siblings in the same family have in that environment.

Foster care:

The temporary placement of children in a family that is not their own because of unhealthy situations within their birth family.

Psychological control:

The use of psychological or emotional manipulation to get a child to comply with what the parent wants.

Children who are adopted by gay or lesbian parents are no more likely to have cross-sex gender identification than those adopted by heterosexual parents. a. True b. False

a

Children who are adopted by gay or lesbian parents are no more likely to have cross-sex gender identification than those adopted by heterosexual parents. a. true b. false

a

Couples who have married more recently have a lower risk of getting divorced than couples who married in the 1970s and 1980s. a. True b. False

a

Couples who have married more recently have a lower risk of getting divorced than couples who married in the 1970s and 1980s. a. true b. false

a

Jamila has recently gone back to work after having her baby. Her partner has also returned to work. When she is at work, many days she feels guilty that she is not with her baby. Her partner does not seem to have these same feelings. Which is a reason that Jamila and not her partner would feel guilt by going back to work after the birth of a child? a. cultural expectations b. boundary ambiguity c. adaptive parenting d. parenting plans

a

Jeannie goes to preschool two days a week for 4 hours each of those days. Her mother and grandmother both went with her to tour the school. Since Jeannie stays with her grandparents while her mother is at work, it is her grandmother who will be dropping her off and picking her up from school. Jeannie's care away from her mother will be primarily with her ______. a. grandparents b. child care center c. stepfamily d. adoptive family

a

Living part time with both parents after a divorce is associated with a positive effect on children's adjustment. a. True b. False

a

Malek and Trina have set rules for their children. They have explained why each rule is in place. If one of their children feels that a rule is unfair, they will listen and consider the argument. They may or may not change the rule, but the conversation is an open one. There is a great deal of emotional attachment within the household. Malek and Trina would be considered which kind of parents? a. authoritative b. permissive c. disengaged d. authoritarian

a

Many governmental programs help children to achieve a better start in life. a. True b. False

a

More recently, there is a greater willingness to accept differing forms of family as an acceptable way to raise children. a. True b. False

a

On average there are only small differences between children of divorce and children in intact families. a. True b. False

a

On average there are only small differences between children of divorce and children in intact families. a. true b. false

a

Parents' relationships with their children is influenced by their relationship with their partner, other children, parental employment, community characteristics, and ______. a. supports or stresses b. multifinality c. transactional model d. their lifebook

a

Research has not found any effect to young children from maternal employment to later academic achievement and behavior problems. a. True b. False

a

Research has shown that children's outcomes are determined by their relationship with their mother rather than whether or not she is employed. a. True b. False

a

Shared physical custody is beneficial to children even when there is a high level of conflict between the parents. a. True b. False

a

A family system consists of the parent-child relationship, sibling relationships, and ______. a. the nuclear family b. the adult relationship c. socialization d. qualitative attachment

b

Children from same-sex families experience problems with gender identification more so than their peers from nuclear families. a. True b. False

b

Children of authoritarian parents have the worst outcomes of all the parenting styles. a. True b. False

b

Children raised with authoritarian parents are more likely to become highly competent and well-adjusted. a. True b. False

b

Children who grow up without siblings tend to be more self-centered, maladjusted, lonely, and neurotic than children who grow up with siblings. a. True b. False

b

Children who grow up without siblings tend to be more self-centered, maladjusted, lonely, and neurotic than children who grow up with siblings. a. true b. false

b

First-born and later-born children are usually very different from each other on a number of personality traits and intelligence. a. True b. False

b

First-born and later-born children are usually very different from each other on a number of personality traits and intelligence. a. true b. false

b

Good parenting is good parenting, so the same parenting strategies work equally well for children in all cultures. a. True b. False

b

Good parenting is good parenting, so the same parenting strategies work equally well for children in all cultures. a. true b. false

b

How are single-parent families and poverty related? a. Single-parent or co-parent families are less likely to live in poverty b. Roughly 41% of children in single-parent families live in poverty c. About 75% of children in single-parent families live in extreme poverty d. Just about all single-parent families live in poverty

b

Ling has been having some trouble making ends meet since she had her baby and was laid off from her job. She has enrolled in a program that helps her to afford the proper groceries for herself and her baby. Ling is receiving help from which level of the ecological theory? a. individual b. governmental c. family d. transactional

b

The majority of women who are single but living with the father of their baby when their baby is born are likely to marry the baby's father shortly after the baby's birth. a. True b. False

b

The majority of women who are single but living with the father of their baby when their baby is born are likely to marry the baby's father shortly after the baby's birth. a. true b. false

b

There is a great deal of parent-adolescent conflict in most families with adolescents. a. True b. False

b

There is a great deal of parent-adolescent conflict in most families with adolescents. a. true b. false

b

Which child in birth order theory was thought to be artistic and rebellious? a. oldest b. youngest c. middle d. only

b

Which individual is using self-oriented induction? a. Tyler redirects Shoshana to another activity b. Martha asks her 4-year-old to think about how his sister would feel if he takes the toy c. Levar gives his 3-year-old a star for being good d. Kyla tells her 5-year-old to look at how sad his sister is after he yelled at her

b

Which is an example of an intervention at the family level? a. housing vouchers b. parental skills training c. WIC program d. refugee centers

b

Which term refers to the sharing of parenting responsibilities? a. socialization b. coparenting c. shared environment d. attachment

b

Which type of discipline uses emotional manipulation to get a child to comply? a. transactional model b. psychological control c. inductive discipline d. power assertion

b

At one point in time, personality research believed that first born children were ______. a. artistic b. popular c. high achievers d. rebellious

c

Isla does not attend her child's sporting events usually. She is pretty distant at home as well. There are no real rules for the house and many times there is not enough food to make dinner. Isla is too consumed with her own life to take much interest her child. Which type of parent is Isla? a. permissive b. authoritative c. disengaged d. authoritarian

c

Omar is pretty well adjusted and has good grades in school. Most of his friends who have siblings worry that he would be lonely at home. Omar explains that he isn't lonely at all. What type of child have Omar's friends assumed he is? a. middle b. first born c. only d. youngest

c

Residing with one parent all of the time is which kind of custody? a. visitation b. joint c. sole d. legal

c

The sharing of parenting responsibilities is known as which concept? a. no-nonsense parenting b. multifinality c. coparenting d. shared environment

c

Which family illustrates an extended family? a. Omar lives with his mother b. Kayla lives with her mother and father c. Keisha lives with her mother, grandmother, and aunt d. Levar lives with his two fathers

c

Which reason is given for the likelihood of grandparents in grandchildren's lives? a. stranger anxiety b. preattachment c. longevity in this century d. emotional refueling

c

Which type of family consists of two biological parents and their children? a. stepfamily b. single-parent family c. nuclear family d. extended family

c