CPSY 4336 Exam 2
socialization
"process by which children acquire the beliefs, values, and behaviors, deemed significant and appropriate by the older members of society" - most widely recognized function: child-rearing
relationships as sources of protection/vulnerability theme
(1) friendships - doughboy protects Tre in the beginning of the film (2) sibling - doughboy is very loyal to his family - why he ends up dead at the end of the film (3) father-child - jason tells Tre that the long term decisions that he makes are going to have long term consequences - when Ricky dies and Tre goes with Doughboy to get revenge, he chooses to get out of the car
what does it mean that families are complex?
- "holistic structure, consisting of interrelated parents, each of which affects and is affected by every other part, and each of which contributes to the functioning of the whole" (Shaffer, 2000, p. 359) - reciprocal, reinforcing dynamics - indirect and direct effects revisited
parenthood: families as complex
- "holistic structure, consisting of interrelated parents, each of which affects and is affected by every other part, and each of which contributes to the functioning of the whole" (Shaffer, 2000, p. 359) - this is a story about the Buchmann family, but it is also about some nuclear families that are conjoined to one another and how they interact with each other - introduction of the youngest brother and his son Cool: father (Frank) takes responsibility because he didn't take responsibility with his youngest son (Larry), Larry is Frank's favorite because Gil caused Frank a lot of stress because he was sick when he was younger, and he was really worried about him, causing him to resent Gil a little bit, Frank saw Larry as someone that is doing what he would've wanted (not have a family, live on his own, do his own thing)
parent-behavior models
- "top down" assumptions about influence (parent to child) - molar approach: clustering characteristics of parent behavior into a few summary types - typical research: correlations between parent patterns and child behavior - Baumrind's patterns of control (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive/indulgent, neglectful)
does self blame mediate the conflict-problems link?
- 10-14 yr olds - perceived threat mediated link to internalizing problems in both samples - self-blame mediated link - no mediation of externalizing behavior
parent licensure: arguments for
- Todd (Parenthood) makes a point that you need a license to drive and even catch a fish, but anyone can be a parent - people shouldn't be parents: any activity that has the potential to inflict harm on another person requires competence, which should be evaluated via licensure from the government - foster parents needs a license and need to go through many checks - should be the same for biological parents as well - would help minimize the size of the foster system - parents who obtain licensure would want to be parents and take good care of their child - we already have systems in place to determine a parents suitability to gain custody of a child
what are the two "natural" correlates of individual risk in transitions?
- age/developmental status - gender
Cummings study
- background conflict and children's behavior - exposes the child to "background anger" - diminishes the quality of parent-child interactions - mean distress responses to background anger vs positive emotion:
Moffit et al. (2003)
- benefits of having father present contingent on (moderated by) characteristics of dyad, association is much weaker when father outwardly expresses negative attributes/emotions - father presence good for children ONLY if the father is NOT antisocial
similarities between mother-child and father-child dyads: infancy and early childhood
- caregiving competence - attachment to child - degree of positive and negative reactions to child
case 3: same-sex parenting
- controversial - disparity between political opinions and research evidence (watch your sources ... case of Paul Cameron) - bulk of evidence: children reared by same-sex parents similar to those by opposite sex parents - most evidence from convenience samples (critique). however, some evidence from nationally representative datasets
we know most about the least common of these...
- custodial grandparents - large racial/ethnic disparity (AA > W, H) - informal arrangements, often related to mental health problem of parents - poverty common - some evidence that religiosity of grandparent predictor of child well being in this arrangement, but in general children don't seem to be faring especially well in this group (not nec due to GPs)
direct effects
- dad spanks child - child smiles
some moderators of transition-outcome links of divorce:
- degree of (continued) parental conflict - parenting - absence of the non-custodial parent - economic loss v. available resources - other transitions (e.g., remarriage) - child characteristics - support system
developmental status as a dimension of vulnerability/risk:
- divorce impact not clearly different by age - coping styles, however, may be more adequate for older children - remarriage has a stronger impact on older children - SUM: divorce is less risky for older children, remarriage is more risky for older children
exogenous vs endogenous variations
- endogenous conditions (within the family) that constrain/influence relationships - exogenous conditions (external forces) that impinge on the family via relationships
what do we gain from relational models?
- expose contingencies in socialization - open up new perspectives on socialization outcomes
parenthood movie themes:
- families as complex - families as dynamic - families as embedded
do fathers matter? prevalent view:
- fathers essential to positive child development - "good" fathering most likely within heterosexual marriage
differences in mother-child and father-child relationships: infancy and early childhood
- fathers less frequency or totally in constance with children - more time with mothers during caregiving, with fathers during play
support systems following divorce based on gender
- girls make extensive and explicit use of friends - boys less likely to confide in or compare circumstances with friends
direct comparisons of mother-sibling dyads
- hostility between mother and one child correlated with hostility in other dyads - coercive mother-child relationships correlated with aggressiveness between siblings - conflict in the parents' relationship generally correlated with siblings conflict
Feinberg & Hetherington: Sibling differentiation processes
- idea: sibs who are more similar (in gender, age, birth order, etc.) early on in life become more different from each other than less similar sibs - found: Correlations on adjustment measures lower for sibs: 0-2 yrs apart, BUT no effect on their relationships
what are the unique functions of sibling relationships in development
- impact on social competence: specific interaction and conflict management skills; facilitating social interactions beyond the family - impact on cognitive development: skills for social understanding; effective learning of non-social information and skills
what can exposure to background anger do?
- increases angry reactions - decreases positive reactions - increases aggression
how do sibling relationships change over time?
- increasingly egalitarian: assessment of relative power changes later in life, really intense early in life - decreasing intensity: a function of people going off and living their own lives, relationships become more voluntary than they were earlier in life, may not feel as obligated to upkeep relationships with siblings as you would with your parents
what are the operative factors of marital discord?
- inevitably affects others - stimulated third parties to intervene to reduce the conflict - often precedes divorce, sometimes for lengthy periods - links to child outcomes much as family transitions do.
case 1: parental differential treatment
- involves differences in relative affection, control, responsiveness - affected by age/relative age and by gender - intesifies under stress - seen in both mo-ch and fa-ch dyads
relational models example 2: Mo's behavior X ch's temperament (Kochanska)
- longitudinal: toddler, preschool, KG - assessed fearfulness, security, M's discipleary styles, ch's conscience - for toddlers and preschoolers, conscience: - 1) gentle discipline for "fearful" children - 2) maternal responsiveness, mutual engagement for "fearless" children - "open up" possible outcomes ignored in other models - 1) balance between self and other orientations
how does marital discord impairs quality of parent-child relationships?
- lower involvement - less adequate monitoring - more coercive strategies - more physical punishment
adult offspring of divorced parents higher in the follow:
- marital instability - tendency for reciprocated, escalating, negative exchanges, and poor problem-solving in interactions - divorce in first 5 years of marriage (70% higher)
why does marital discord link to child outcomes?
- mediation - impact of background anger
sibling differences on physical traits and common diseases
- moderate correlations for height and weight - much lower correlations (greater differences) for diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, breast cancer, diabetes, and hay fever
sibling differences in psychological traits
- moderate correlations on religiosity, traditionalism, delinquent acts, IQ in childhood - low correlations (greater differences) on IQ in adulthood, verbal fluency, spatial ability, unipolar and bipolar depression, and most personality traits
common transition-outcome links of divorce (short-lived effects):
- more behavior problems - reduced social activity - academic, school adjustment declines - disrupted peer relations - lower self-esteem, more depression - less positive attitudes, expectancies, goals
how families have changed over the last 50 years:
- more single adults - postponement of marriage - decreased childbearing - more female employment - more divorce - more single parents: now: ⅓ children have this experience, with huge variability by race/ethnicity and US as global outlier - more children living in poverty: large % of children living in single parent, female head of household live under conditions of poverty, compared to 2 parent households - more remarriage: 80% who divorce remarry, rates higher for men than women
differences in mother-child and father-child relationships: childhood and adolescence
- more time with mothers - more time with mothers during caregiving, with fathers during play - less closeness, more emotional distance with fathers - more intimacy with mothers - mothers note changes, self views sooner than fathers
how is gender a dimension of vulnerability/risk?
- negative effects of divorce greater for boys than girls (esp. mother-son relationships), in typical situations, the children live with their mother, so boys are losing their father and that has more detrimental effects - remarriage linked to more problems for girls than boys, BUT depends on numerous factors, new partner may be seen by the child as a threat their relationship with their parent - both boys and girls show more behavior problems and depression than those from non-divorced families
do fathers matter? alternative view:
- neither fathers nor mothers per se are essential - responsible fathering occurs in varied families - evidence shows fathers affected by familial
Dunifon, 2013
- non-custodial (88%) - grandparents do not have custody and do not live in the home - three-generation (10%) - within the same home - custodial (2%) - grandparent is a legal guardian - reports that there is some evidence that race and age of child may moderate findings with AA infants benefiting from GP presence but AA school age children actually faring worse on academic outcomes
Azmitia & Hesser
- older siblings and an older familiar peer in an unstructured building task - then, one older child taught the younger one how to copy a model windmill - Test: younger sibling asked to copy another model windmill - results: Sibling-taught children scored higher on test, Both older children used similar teaching methods, BUT older siblings provided more spontaneous guidance, provided more explanations, more positive feedback; also yielded more control
grandparent-child relationships: then and now
- overlap between parenting and grand-parenting less frequent today, women aren't having children as young as they used to - relationships with grandparents last longer now - contact and affection generally decline with age of child into young adulthood. Some recovery of affection
relational models example 1: contingencies in the effects of punishment
- punishment consistently associated with peer physical aggression and external moral orientation - this association is strongest when: - parents show "disregard, inconsistency, and uninvolvement" toward the child - children perceive the punishment as rejection
Whitbeck et al
- quality of grandparent-parent relations most important determinant of grandparent-child relationship quality (Why?) - frequency of face to face contact also important to quality - no major differences between genders, but grandfather-grandson pairs generally closer
three generation households
- racial ethnic differences (AA, H, A (~15%) > W (7%)) - often been studied in context of teen parenting - mixed findings: some studies show evidence of risk - Dunifon (2013) reports that there is some evidence that race and age of child may moderate findings with AA infants benefiting from GP presence but AA school age children actually faring worse on academic outcomes
what is involved in recovery from marital discord/divorce?
- recovery is the rule, rather than the exception, it is odd if children go an unusual period of time without adjust to these changes - process is slow, especially for boys (following divorce) and girls (following remarriage)
Parpal & Maccoby: what characteristics of parent-child interaction → compliance?
- responsive play: Mother followed child's lead - free play: Mother played "just like at home" - noninteractive: Mother "busy"; you play alone - Then tested child's compliance to mother - FOUND responsive play → more compliance than mother's usual style - Maccoby's bottom line: "there appears to be a common core of meaning that defines the optimal cluster (of authoritative parenting), and it has to do with inducting the child into a system of reciprocity."
parents' differential treatment (PDT): origins and consequences theme
- ricky and Doughboy's mom favors Ricky - ricky has a good outlook: college, NFL (not likely, but makes Ricky the one to invest in), big money for their family
social economic status as a persuasive stressor: unpredictability theme
- scene where helicopter is in the residential area - neighborhood is under a mircroscope. Always something going on, always have to worry about themselves and their neighbors.
does dissolving high conflict marriages benefit children?
- separation and divorce linked to increasing behavior problems, regardless of pre-divorce marital conflict - in marriages that do NOT break up, high marital conflict linked to even greater increases in children's behavior problems than if parents separated/divorced
case 2: being reared by a teenage mother
- single-parent families - maternal age - rearing by a single or single-residential mother: - variety of negative outcomes (immediate) for both mo's and children - depend on timing, circumstances, social support, and subsequent life history - big factor: difficult in attending to parenting tasks - long-term follow-ups surprising... effects small in long-term
boyz n the hood themes
- social economic status as a persuasive stressor: unpredictability - parents' differential treatment (PDT): origins and consequences - relationships as sources of protection/vulnerability
David Lykken, University of Minnesota, significance
- sociopaths: anti-social youth as a result of their experiences - psychopaths: regardless of their socialization, are anti-social and were always going to be anti-social (i.e. genetics) - David's distinction is not compelling because antisocial behavior is typically a result of both socialization and genetics
Updegraff et al.
- studied 159 adolescent sibling pairs and their friendships - friendships of girls with brothers included more controlling behavior, reflects the experience of controlling behaviors within the sibling relationships - brothers' friendships little affected by sisters, brothers don't typically feel controlled by their sisters
relational models
- the impact of dyads on individuals - fuller understanding of some traditional certainties about parental behavior - RESULT: merging dyadic processes into non-relational models of parenting - reciprocity in relationships enhances parent influence
what do the Azmitia & Hesser results reflect?
- there is trust - there have been repeated interactions of this sort - yield more control because there has been a better baseline - younger siblings more often observed, imitated, and consulted older sibs; also often prompted them to explain and pressured them into yielding more control of the task
which children are most affected by parents' differential treatment?
- those with lower self esteem. why? PDT would affirm their doubts about themselves. Don't have anyone to pull them out of their feelings of low self-esteem - those with high emotional reactivity. why? problem is amplified in their brain - older children. why? easier for them to recognize it
how do sibling relationships function within family systems?
- transition from one-child to two-child family: at 24 months, mother-older sibling relationships changed more in families with new babies and were more playful, less strained in one-child families
parental licensure: arguments against
- what would this process of gaining licensure look like? - people's definitions of good parenting are all different, Cultural differences - this assumes that we should be focusing on the parent rather than systemic reasons for negative parent-child relationships - difficult to trust the US government to create systems that are equitable, concerning to think about the government deciding which groups of people are suitable/able to have children - someone could appear to be a great parent and becoming a bad parent and vise versa - however, there are many people who go through this, get approved, and still shouldn't be parents - foster parents' reproductive rights are not being taken away - taking away low income individuals' ability to have children enforces inequality based on socio-economic status. I don't think the solution to this issue is taking away their right to have a child, rather it would be better to focus on fixing systemic inequalities regarding socioeconomic status and placing resources into these low income neighborhoods that would be negatively targeted by parental licensure.
functions of the family
1) socialization 2) survival, economic, self-actualization goals
what does it mean that families are developing systems?
age of children, death, changes, in dyadic relationship quality all impact the whole system
gender moderates links between puberty and closeness to grandparents:
boys report they feel closer to their grandparents (particularly with grandfather) during the most intense pubertal change (buffer stress?). why? - boys pass on the family name - are more likely to start working (traditionally), not so much now girls report that they feel less close to their grandparents during the most intense change (distancing themselves emotionally?) - more concern for girls during puberty (i.e. pregnancy) traditionally - girls going through puberty means something different than boys going through puberty
authoritative
clear demands for appropriate beahvior; teaching rather than force as the strategy (high control, high warmth)
parents' differential treatment of siblings linked to:
dyads: greater sibling, negativity individuals: (less factored child has poorer outcomes) → - lower emotional adjustment (age 7) - antisocial behavior - self-worth, self-esteem, sense of competence (temperament controlled) - problem behavior (adolescence)
authoritarian
emphasis on obedience; force as the main strategy (high control, low warmth)
moderation
explaining WHEN two variables are linked. moderators are measures of the conditions under which the variables are and are not linked
mediation
explaining WHY two variables are linked. mediators are additional variables that explain why two variables are correlated with each other
parenthood: families as dynamic
families as subject to change - ex. Todd and Julie go back and forth (love each other, get married, want to be rid of him, he moves in with them, Todd starts racing, Julie wants to leave, Helen helps Julie realize that she has to stick with him)
key property of grandparent-child relationships
grandparent-child relationships are more different from each other than similar
do sibling relationships provide a bridge to peer relationships?
having siblings is NOT related to later popularity or having friends, BUT for children who do have siblings: - sibling conflict moderately correlated with peer conflict - positive sibling relationships buffer negative effects of social isolation (from peers) - quality of both sib & peer relationships negatively affected by marital conflict and stressful life changes
what does a study of parental differential treatment find?
it is unlikely that a parent is going to show more warmth to a particular sibling (right side of graph is the parent shows more warmth to the younger sibling and the left side is warmth towards the older sibling)
neglectful (rare)
low control, low warmth
permissive/indulgent
low demands, low discipline (low control, high warmth)
indirect effects
mother-child interactions differ as a function of mom's relationship with dad (families marked by low inter-parental conflict also tend to include mothers who respond sensitively to their children)
maternal responsiveness and gratification
mothers having a second child have parental experience already, thus explaining why their responsiveness and gratification is increased when the parent is younger.
Dunifon and Bajracharya (2002)
physical distance strongest predictor, along with quality of grandparent-parent relationship. however, little evidence with youths' grades or risky behaviors
similarities between mother-child and father-child dyads: childhood and adolescence
salient in achievement-related activities
Levine's (1974) observations of universal (cross-cultural) goals of families:
survival (most important), economic, self-actualization goal
parenthood: families as embedded
the impact of work-related stress - gil is stressed about going to work all the time because he wants to spend more time with his oldest son - gil quits his job because his boss is very not sympathetic regarding his stress at home
what does it mean that families are embedded systems?
we've talked previously about the extra family influences that can impact children's social development