Chapter 6 parenting styles

Most frequent punishments in the U.S

"time outs" removal of privileges getting sent to one's room

Who is more likely to spank?

1. corporal punishment is widely accepted in the African American community 2. Adults who were spanked as children see more value in this and say, " I was spanked and it helped, so i plan to do the same with my kids." 3. But if you feel like the physical punishment got out of hand during your childhood, you are passionate about never hitting your own daughter/son

What qualities allow resilient children to thrive?

1. often have special talent like Churchill's gift for writing, or superior cognitive skills 2. adaptable and able to regulate their emotions 3. High sense of self-efficacy and an optimistic world view 4. possess strong faith and sense of meaning in life However, the quantity of environmental setbacks matters: If exposed to series of tragedies, its is more difficult to preserve your efficacy feelings or rebound to construct a happy life. Those who succeed against incredible odds typically have at least one close, caring relationship with a parent of another adult. Resilient children have the internal resources to extract love from their parched environment. resilience may be genetic

Evidence for "g"

1. people differ in speed with which they process info. Infants who grasp essence of stimulus and habituate more quickly, later perform at higher levels on intelligence test. 2. Intelligence tests also correlate with various indicators of life success such as occupational status. Problem: gateway to high status professions such as law and medicine is school performance, which is what the test predicts

Problem with spanking

1.it is often not used as a backup strategy particularly among the children whom physical punishment clearly does harm (boys/girls with risk of externalizing problems) 2. Frequent spanking tends to promote the behavior it is supposed to cure. (ex: children who had parents that strongly believed in spanking had kids who said it was fine during disagreements with a playmate.)

Does IQ performance predict real world performance?

Charles Spearman believed that a score on IQ test reflects general underlying, all-encompassing intelligence factor called "g"

"g"

Charles Spearman's term for a general intelligence factor that he claimed underlies all cognitive activities. psychologists debate existence of "g" While some believe that IQ score can be used as a summary of a person's cognitive potential for all life tasks, while others believe that people have individual intellectual talents and therefore there is no one dimension quality called "g'" These people think it is important to not classify people as smart or not really smart

SES levels and children's performance in school.

Children from low-income families on average do markedly worse than their upper-middle class counterparts on tests of reading and math. When comparing poverty level African American and Latino children to wealthiest European Americans, the test score gap widens more. The disadvantaged children enter school several yeas behind the affluent children This is because: 1. Children growing up in poverty-level US familes had fewer books. 2. Their parents infrequently read to them 3. They rarely had home computers 4. Practically never went to museums Low income parents care as much about their children as CEO's but when working long hours to provide bare necessities, it takes priority

When are IQ tests like WISC used?

Children take this test generally in elementary school when their is an issue in classroom work. School personnel use the IQ score as one component of a multifaceted assessment which includes achievement scores, teacher's ratings and parent input to determine if child needs help.

Resilient Children

Children who rebound from serious early life traumas to construct successful adult lives.

How do child rearing approaches change, depending on environment?

Difficult life conditions : when parents believe their neighborhood os dangerous they naturally pin down more rules and may act in authoritarian style. ex: for inner-city african americans, authoritarian style predicts success.

Which type of child maltreatment the most common?

Emotional abuse & it is also the most difficult to define

Authoritarian parents

In the parenting-styles framework, a type of child rearing in which parents provide plenty of rules but rank low on child centerdness, stressing unquestioning obedience. more inflexible. Their child motto is "Do just what I say." In these families, rules are not negotiable. While authoritarian parents may love their children deeply, their upbringing can appear to be inflexible, rigid and cold (children are more insecure) RESTRICTIVE, PUNITIVE LITTLE VERBAL EXCHANGE

Permissive parents

In the parenting-styles framework, a type of child-rearing in which parents provide few rules but rank high in child-centerdness, being extremely loving but providing little discipline. total opposite of authoritarian and authoritative parents. Their parenting mantra is "provide total freedom and unconditional love." in these households their may be no set bedtimes and no homework demands. The child-rearing principle here is that children's wishes rule. ENCOURAGE INDEPENDENCE EXTENSIVE VERBAL GIVE AND TAKE

Authoritative parents

In the parenting-styles framework, the best possible child rearing style, in which parents rank HIGH on both NURTURANCE and DISCIPLINE, providing both love and clear family rules. They give their children reasonable freedom and lots of love but also have defined expectations and rules. These families set high standards for their children's behavior. There are specific bedtimes and homework times. However, if a daughter wants to watch a favorite TV program, these parents might relax the rule that homework must be finished before dinner. They could let a son extend his regular 9 pm bedtime for a special event. Although they believe firmly in structure, they understand that rules don't take precedence over human needs.

Rejecting neglecting parents

In the parenting-styles framework, the worst child-rearing approach, in which parents provide little discipline and little nurturing or love. low structure and low love. Their child motto is "minimize involvement with my child." In this house, children are neglected, ignored and emotionally abandoned. They are left to literally raise themselves.

Explain teaching strategies that promote relevance and interest, relatedness and autonomy.

Make extrinsic learning relate to children's goals and desires (relevance) ex: " I want to memorize every bone in the body bc its necessary for my career as a nurse." instead of " I need to memorize everything to graduate" Learning becomes intrinsic when it satisfies our basic needs for relatedness (ex: children who love dinosaurs are read to about dinosaurs) Extrinsic tasks take on an intrinsic feeling when they foster our need for autonomy, or offer us choices of how to do our work. ex: when teachers and parents take away children's autonomy by controlling, criticizing learning tasks they erode intrinsic motivation. ex: in job with a controlling supervisor, we lose intrinsic motivation

Achievement tests

Measures that evaluate a child's knowledge in specific school related areas. Different from intelligence tests

Flynn Effect

Remarkable and steady rise in overall performance on IQ tests that has been occurring around the world over the past century. Due to more years of education and modern media making children and adults far better thinkers than parents and grandparents when they were the same age.

What makes a "successful" school?

Schools that serve disadvantaged but high-achieving children share a mission to have every child succeed. They assume that children can do well at high-level work. Teachers support and mentor one another. Schools work best if they reach out to the wider community and embed parents in the life of the school.

intrinsic motivation

The drive to act based on the pleasure of taking that action in itself, not for an external reinforcer or reward

extrinsic motivation

The drive to take action because that activity offers external reinforcers such as praise, money or a good grade.

Specific Learning disorder

The label for any impairment in language or any deficit related listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing, spelling or understanding mathematics; diagnosed when a child's IQ is far higher than expected compared to her performance on achievement tests, she is classified having a specific learning disorder.

gifted

The label for superior intellectual functioning characterized by an IQ score of 130 or above, showing that child ranks in the top 2% of his age group

Corporal punishment

The use of physical force to discipline a child like spanking

Why do immigrant children struggle the most?

They need to grapple the challenges of poverty & learn a new language. Among second generation children of Mexican heritage, fewer than 1 in 10 have parents who speak english really well.

History on corporal punishment

Until the 19th century, in the US it was legal for men to physically abuse their wives. 24 nations have passed laws to totally ban spanking In U.S spanking is illegal at schools and day-care centers in most states but it is not universally banned (americans feel like it is an intrusion to family life, and most US parents spank children)

What is the worst inconsistency in parenting styles? 1. parents with different parenting syles? 2. Parents who are authoritarian in some things but permissive in others? 3. drastic change in rules of house from permissive to rigid or vice versa

children sometimes reported trouble when 1 parent was one way and other parent was another. but most troubling when: 3. drastic change in rules of house from permissive to rigid or vice versa CONSISTENCY IN PARENTING IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

What happens when people are given external reinforcers for activities that are intrisically motivating ?

people has less of a desire to complete these tasks

What do experts advise about corporal punishment?

physical punishment is never appropriate. they believe that hitting a child conveys the message that it is acceptable for big people to give small people pain. other experts believe that mild spanking is not detrimental and say that if we rule out corporal punishment, caregivers may resort to more damaging, shaming responses such as "i hate you"

What is better than corporal punishment?

positive reinforcements (giving rewards for good behavior) it is important to expel the misconception that spanking produces a well behaved child.

What are Intelligence tests designed for?

to predict a person's general academic potential, or ability to master any school-related task.

Problem of IQ test as only way to measure intelligence

1. People who score low may carry around their score as an inner wound and think they are not smart (learned helplesness) 2. People who score high, may feel like they don't even need to open a book. or they may think, i better not try bc if i try and don't get an A, it must mean my score was wrong

Compare and contrast Wechsler, Spearman, Sternberg, and Gardner's theories of intelligence.

1. Weschsler: IQ as assessment of intelligence 2. Spearman "g" 3. Sternberg: IQ shouldn't be used to assess intelligence only. 3 diff types of intelligence (analytical, practical and creative) 4. Gardner: 8 types (mathematical, listening, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, kinisthetic, naturalistic, spiritual, spatial) Gardner and Strenberg wanted to change the way schools teach

What do most successful parents do?

1. consistency in parenting style 2. love 3. flexibility varying their child-rearing strategies to provide the best discipline-environment fit.

Dyslexia

1. A learning disorder that is characterized by reading difficulties, lack of fluency, and poor word recognition . 2. undercuts every academic skill 3. prevalent in the US: 1/4 high school seniors scored below reading standards. 1/3 4th graders could not id. imp parts of a passage for their grade. 4. Affecting 3x more males. But bc referral bias affects boys, there may be more undiagnosed females 5. May be genetic but other factors may influence lack of reading skill 6. Late appearing language and phonemic deficits are early predictors 7. children prone to dyslexia may be id. at week one of birth by looking at pattern of wave lengths when prompted with diff sounds 8. Although many children with dyslexia eventually learn how to read, condition persists to some extent to adulthood. Early interventions for 1st graders and kindergarteners to help identify phonemes help. After 2nd or third grade its harder to bring them up to level. 9. Boys/Girls with dyslexia perform more poorly on general tests of executive functions. And are at higher risk of developing other mental health problems like depressive and anxiety disorders. About 15-50% have ADHD also

Why do people get IQ scores?

1. If they see some problems in school. 2. want to confirm impression that child is intellectually advanced

How to help children rebound from divorce trauma?

1. Keep life as consistent as possible 2. Give children some say in what happens with regard to visitation and custody, but not too much bc it may be threatening for sons and daughters to have total control. The main key to adjustment lies in the care the parent who gets custody provides. 3. The relationship between the ex-spouses. When husbands and wives battle over visitation rights, continually bad-mouth each other, or turn the children against former partner, children suffer the most.

Effects of reporting child abuse

1. Leaving child in abusive home leads them to be reinjured 2. separating them from primary attachment figure may lead to emotional scars. Therefore if possible, it is best to keep the child in the family and provide parents with intensive support 3. Mental health interventions targeted to improving parent-child relationships in abusive families do work.

Describe Maltreated children

1. Often have insecure attachments 2. May suffer from depression and anxiety and have problems regulating their emotions. 3. Tend to be highly aggressive and get rejected by their peers. 4. Maltreated children can carry their attachment problems into dating relationships 5. At midlife, they earn less than their contemporaries 6. Suffer from comparatively poor physical health 7. Higher risk of mistreating their children 8. Some develop normally and are passionate to become the best possible parents and never ever hit their children

Short-term and long-term impact of divorce on children

1. Studies comparing children of divorce with their counterparts in intact married families show that children of divorce are at a statistical disadvantage academically, socially and in terms of mental health. These findings are misleading because they paint an over all grim picture. 3/4 children whose parents divorce don't have major mental health problems. While some show scars after divorce, others have no problems or thrive. Also, the psychological difficulties children do have may begin before the couple splits up. When parents are continuously fighting, family atmosphere is tense, parents are angry/ depressed. Child-rearing tends to become more disorganized. 2. Families tend to move. Relocation can deprive a child of contact with a much loved nonresident parent adding more stain 2. Eventually, most parents regroup and regain their equilibrium after 1 or 2 years.

How to take action against child abuse

1. Teachers, social workers and healthcare professionals are required to report the abuse to child protective services. 2. Children in danger are removed from the home and the cases are referred to juvenile court. Judges do not have the power to punish abusive parents but they can place their children in foster care and limit or terminate their parental rights

WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children)

1. The standard Intelligence test used in childhood, consisting of a VERBAL SCALE (questions for the child to answer), a PERFORMANCE SCALE (materials for the child to manipulate) and a variety of SUBTESTS. 2. children get a separate IQ score for each part. 3. If child scores at 50th percentile, his IQ is 100. If child scores at 98th percentile and is at the top 2% of children at his/her age, IQ is 130. 4. If child's score is 70, he/she is at the opposite end of distribution performing at lowest 2% of children at that age.

Intellectual Disability

Also called intellectual developmental disorder. Significantly impaired intellectual functioning, defined as when a child or adult has an IQ of 70 or below accompanied by evidence of deficits in learning abilities.

Acculturation

Among immigrants, the tendency to become more similar in terms of attitudes and practices to the mainstream culture after time spend living in a new society.

Child maltreatment

Any act that seriously endangers a child's physical or emotional well-being. Compromised of 4 categories: 1. physical abuse: bodily injury that leaves bruises. Encompasses everything from overzealous spanking to battering that may led to a child's death. 2. Neglect: refers to caregiver's failure to provide adequate supervision or care. May mean abandoning the child, not providing sufficient food, failing to enroll child in school. 3. Emotional abuse: continual shaming or serious acts such as terrorizing or exploiting a child 4. Sexual abuse: cover the spectrum from rape to incest to fondling and exhibitionistic acts. Everyone can identify serious forms of maltreatment, but there is a grey zone as to what activities cross the line. Does every spanking that leaves a bruise qualify as physical abuse? Is a mother who is forced to leave her 8 month toddler to go to work neglectful? Are parents who walk around naked in the house sexually abusive?

Effects of parents' personalities, life stressors, and children's vulnerabilities in abusive situations

As developmental systems theory would predict, several categories of influence combine to cause child abuse to flare up. PARENTS' PERSONALITY PROBLEMS people who abuse their children tend to suffer from psychological disorders such as depression and externalizing problems. They often have hostile attribution biases assuming "bad" behavior from benign activities like a child running around. The combination not to "spoil" their babies is accompanied by other unrealistic expectations. They may believe that a 3 month old can be taught not to cry or that an 8 month old can be totally toilet trained. LIFE STRESS ACCOMPANIED BY SOCIAL ISOLATION CAN BE CRUCIAL Abusive parents are often coping with an overload of upsetting life events from domestic violence to severe poverty. Most importantly, they feel cut off from other people CHILDREN"S VULNERABILITIES Having a child who is "difficult" can fan this fire. Not only may these children need extra attention, their "noncompliant" behavior is apt to be viewed as a personal threat. Some parents report never hurting their "sweet child" but resorting to punishing their "spiteful" child

Which parenting style is the best?

Baumrind found that the children of "authoritative" parents were more successful and socially skilled.

Stenberg's belief on IQ tests

Believes standard IQ tests can do damage in the school environment. Ex: when schools assign children to lower track-less demanding classes on the basis of their IQ tests, their IQ tests slowly worsen Most importantly, he believes that although they do measure one type of intelligence, they do not cover all intelligence. According to him, IQ tests measure analytical intelligence and do not measure creative intelligence or practical intelligence

What does it mean to be intelligent?

Definitions vary from society to society and among different ethnic groups For ex: Latino parents focus on social competence, while mainstream culture views intelligence in terms of cognitive traits. Traditional intelligence tests reflect the mainstream view. They measure cognitive abilities.

Is it better if couples stay together from the sake of the children?

If the marriage is what researchers label "high conflict," the answer is no. For children subject to continual marital fighting and especially domestic violence ending the marriage improves children's well being. When looking at divorce it is important to adopt a developmental systems approach and ask "what are the unique conditions of that family's life?"

Parenting style

In Diana Baumrind's framework, how parents align on two dimensions of child-rearing; NURTURANCE (or child-centeredness) and DISCIPLINE (or structure and rules)

Multiple Intelligences theory

In Howard Gardner's perspective on intelligence, the principle that there are eight separate kinds of intelligence- verbal: measured by IQ mathematical: measure by IQ interpersonal: understanding other people intrapersonal: understanding oneself spatial: ability to grasp where objects are located in space musical: some people kinesthetic: ability to move well (some people) naturalist: gift for dealing with animals and plants plus a possible 9th form called spiritual intelligence PROBLEM: why those 9? will these 9 get child into gifted program?

Practical Intelligence

In Robert Strenberg's framework, on successful intelligence, the facet of intelligence involved in knowing how to act in real world situations ex: brazilian children who make a living selling flowers dont have formal education but show impressive levels of practical intelligence as they know how to handle money

Creative intelligence

In Robert Strenberg's framework, on successful intelligence, the facet of intelligence involved in producing novel ideas and innovative work.

Successful intelligence

In Robert Strenberg's framework, the optimal form of cognition, involving having a good balance of analytic, creative and practical intelligence.

Analytical intelligence

In Robert Strengberg's framework, on successful intelligence, the facet of intelligence involving performing well on academic type problems.

Validity

In measurement terminology, a basic criterion for a test's accuracy involving whether that measure reflects the real-world quality it is supposed to measure. If our predictor is academic performance, the WISC is valid children who score high, have a high academic performance

Reliability

In measuring terminology, a basic criterion of a test's accuracy that scores must be fairly similar when a person takes the test more than once In general, IQ tests are reliable. When taken in childhood and then half a century later, scores remained the same. Changes in IQ happen when children undergo life stressors. This tells us that we should never evaluate a child's IQ during a family crisis like divorce.

Is IQ a good measure of genetic gifts?

No, bc children from a low socioeconomic status are at a disadvantage and may not live our their genetic academic potential. For low income kids, IQ reflects environmental forces, but for upper-middle class children, it may reflect genetic genes ALthough an IQ test may predict school performance, it does not reflect poor child's potential

Guidelines on how when to use corporal punishemnt

One study says that corporal punishment is not bad (most say the opposite) 1. never hit an infant. babies cannot control their behavior. For a preschooler, a few light swats on the bottom can be an effective disciplinary technique to stop immediate behaviors. 2. When using physical punishment, accompany this action with a verbal explantation. Preferably use other techniques such as time-outs or removing the child from the scene. reserve spanking as last resort

How do child-rearing approaches vary by culture/ethnicity?

authoritative involves middle class, individualistic western cultural priorities. those of collectivistic cultures like china and latinos adopt authoritarian culture. Depending on culture some styles work best: 1. collectivist culture authoritarian leads to children who are seen as having superior social skills 2. in individualistic culture, authoritarian leads to children who were "less socially competent."

How do children with learning disabilities score of intelligence tests (IQ)

average but badly on achievement tests and have trouble with school work. Many times they have dyslexia

Harris' argument on socialization?

rather than our parents, our peers socialize us to become adults We cannot use the same working model with our mother and the classroom bully, or we would never survive. Because we live our lives in the wider world, the messages we absorb from the culture of our contemporaries must take precedence over the lessons we are taught at home. Ex: immigrant children: By second generation, immigrants blend in the American norm (acculturation)