BEHS WEEKLY 3
BYSTANDER
BEHS3DISCUSSIONSQUESTIONS.docx1. You are a working single parent of a 16-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter. Your son has an 11 PM curfew on weekends, but recently, he has been ignoring curfew and coming home after midnight. When you try to address this with him, he either ignores you or gets angry and starts screaming at you. When he's at home, he tends to shut himself away in his room. His latest report card shows that his grades are slipping. You are getting very concerned, but you work full-time and parent by yourself, so you are getting frustrated as well.
At the same time, your daughter has been telling you that she doesn't feel well and doesn't want to go to school. After some prodding, she shared that she has been getting teased at school and bullied online.
After reviewing the learning resources for this week, come up with a strategy for dealing with your children that is supported by the literature on adolescent discipline. What are some of the things that you need to take into consideration? What actions would you implement to try and address the problematic behaviors you are witnessing? What actions would you avoid?
For this discussion, an excellent response will be well written and at least 2-3 paragraphs in length, incorporating at least 3 of the learning resources provided. You may also include other resources that you find outside of the classroom. Remember to use in-text citations and a reference list to identify the ideas that you learned from your sources. Any idea that came from something you read must be cited. When in doubt, cite it!
REQUIRED RESOURCES:
Read: Special Topics in Parenting
In this section, we will examine a number of special topics related to parenting today. As you glance through the list it will become immediately apparent that most of the topics are a direct result of societal changes in the United States: intergenerational relationships, single parenting, divorce, stepparenting, parenting children with special needs, parents putting children at risk, and working parents and child care.
Many of you will find a number of these special topics directly relevant to you or to someone close to you. Some of the issues are at the family level, others are at the community or national level. But most of these issues affect all of us in some way.
Read: Parenting Adolescents
Reading about adolescent development, problems often faced by teens and their parents, as well as suggestions for parents on helping their child navigate the teenage years.
Read: Parenting Concerns with Adolescent Children
Risk Behaviors is a compilation of articles on high-risk behaviors, such as:
· Drug Use Among Teens
· HIV/AIDS and its Impact on Adolescents
· Sexual Activity Among Teens and Teen Pregnancy Trends
· Sexually Transmitted Diseases
· Smoking and its Effect on Children’s Health
· Suicide
· Teen Pregnancy
Read: Bullying
This resource defines bullying, describes the many forms of bullying in both children and adults. The authors of the article discuss ways to identify, diagnose, and prevent bullying
Read: Peer Pressure
The authors of this article define peer pressure as “the influence of the social group on an individual.” This article discusses the positive and negative influences of peers and their relation to the family’s influence on the individual.
Read: Multigenerational Issues in Parenting
The term sandwich generation refers to middle-aged people who provide support (caregiving) to their children as well as their parents. This article defines the term, compares caregiving internationally, and summarizes research on the impact on the family.
Read: Grandparenthood
This article differentiates between becoming a grandparent and being a grandparent and discusses the social position and roles of grandparents in different cultures.
Read: Exceptionalities
This chapter concerns issues of parenting children with specific needs and means to promote their well-being and education
Optional resources
Child rearing strategy: Time In and Time Outs
WEEK 6
2. Based on your readings and resources for this week, identify one type of nontraditional family. Discuss the issues that may be encountered by raising children in this type of family structure and identify what the research says about outcomes for children growing up in this type of home. In addition to your weekly learning resources, find at least one recent news article (within the past 6 months) about the non-traditional family type you have chosen and discuss how your news article aligns or provides insight into the non-traditional family of interest. HINT: to find a news article, open Google or your preferred search engine and type in keywords like "parenting," "families," and your non-traditional family type. Once your search returns results, click on the "news" tab and you should see recent news stories.
An excellent response will be 2-3 paragraphs in length, well-written, and include in-text citations and a reference list. Be sure to include a reference to your news story and include the URL.
REQUIRED RESOURCES:
Read: Parenting in Modern Families
Read chapter 10 in Parenting: A Dynamic Perspective for discussions on parenting in nontraditional families.
Read: Parenting During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The APA has some helpful hints about parenting children through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watch: Parenting Concerns with Adolescent Children
Tamara Afifi discusses the impact of divorce on children in this TED talk from 2012.
Read: Military Families
Analyzing data from academic and government research, the authors of the following article “The Demographics of Military Children and Families” compared trends seen in military families with those of civilian families.
Overview on the scientific evidence on gay and lesbian parenting on children.
Optional resources
Child rearing strategy: I-Messages
WEEK 7
3. Based on your weekly readings from the course and any other credible sources that you find, answer the following questions:
1) Are modern parents doing a good job of raising their children?
This is a much trickier question that it seems at first glance. In order to respond, you need to ask yourself two crucial questions. First, what does it mean to be a "modern" parent - what are the challenges that modern parents face that make parenting especially hard in the 21st century? Second, you need to define what "good parenting" is. What is the metric we use to define success as parents?
The responses to this question are likely to be quite diverse, but that's okay. An excellent response will address the two crucial questions, which lead to an answer that incorporates at least 3 of the weekly learning resources (include citations and references). In addition, find and incorporate at least one credible news article or journal article that supports your response. This article should be no more than 2 years old.
2) Refer back to the Week 1 discussion where you identified 2 or 3 questions about parenting that you wanted to have answered. Copy your questions into this discussion. Were your questions answered in this course? If yes, how? If not, how would you go about finding the answers to your questions?
REQUIRED RESOURCES:
Read: Child Abuse, neglect and foster care
Some child rearing situations need intervention and support for the children involved. This article discussed issues of child abuse, neglect and foster care.
Read: Parenting Training
Most jobs that are as challenging and important as parenting have training classes or instruction manuals. Read the following article to learn more about Active Parenting, a video-based parent education program based on Alfred Adler’s work.
Read: Work-Life Balance
In this article for Real Simple magazine, ten female professionals respond to the question, “does work-life balance really exist?”
Read: Beyond Quality Time
Ellen Galinsky summarizes new research about how we spend time with our children. Read the following article to find out what children want most from their parents.
Read: Today's Kids, Tomorrow's Employees: What Children Are Learning About Work
In this article in HR Magazine, Ellen Galinsky makes HR professionals aware of things they can do for and with current employees that will create a more positive attitude toward work in the employee’s children. Do children see their parents overworked, stressed, and cranky? What can HR professionals do to improve the work environment now to better prepare future employees and the work environment?
Read: Do Working Parents Make The Grade
For years there has been a debate between work-life balance and whether or not working parents are able to provide quality time with their children. Experts have studies the debate from the parents’ situation, but not from the children’s perspective. Read about Ellen Galinsky’s “Ask the Children” study to see what children told her when asked, “do working parents make the grade?”
Optional resources
Additional topics impacting parenting
Extra information on adoption, single parenting, family structure, grandparenting, family rituals, mealtimes and more.
