The Lifespan Parenting Project (LPP)

83

The Controversy Over Parental Influence

CHAPTER 4

The question might seem ludicrous at first: Does parenting really matter?Contrary to the fanciful accounts of Tarzan the Ape Man or of Romulus andRemus, the first mythical kings of Rome, gorillas and wolves just do not cut it. Every child needs adults to provide care, safety, and other basic needs.

Historical Evidence About Parental Influence

Experiments of Nature Animal Studies

Associations Between Parenting and Children’s Outcomes

Parent-Child Attachment Parenting Styles Specific Parenting Behaviors

The Human Behavioral Genetics Challenge

A New Perspective on How Parents Matter

Establishing Trajectories Mediating Trajectories Modifying the Speed

Trajectories and Development

Healthy Physical Development Competent Social Relationships

Chapter Preview: True or False?

• The way children are attached to their parents at 12 months determines their later behavior.

• Some people argue that peers have a bigger effect on children than parents.

• One way to think about how parents affect their children is to look at how they guide developmental trajectories.

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But to what extent do the actions of parents—their techniques, habits, and styles—truly influence a child’s development and outcomes? What power, if any, does a parent have to determine the course of a child’s temperament, personality, and life choices? This is the question of parental influence.

Recall from Chapter 2 that the psychologist John B. Watson considered parents to have almost limitless ability to determine what their children developed into— be it a banker or a beggar. He believed that simply by controlling the environment, parents can mold children in various ways. Of course, the paramount importance Watson gave to “nurture” is an extreme view. At the other end of the continuum of influence lies the biological authority of genetic material, commonly called “nature.” Some behavioral geneticists (and others) believe that parental influence is limited to their genetic contribution made during procreation.

Historical Evidence About Parental Influence

Throughout much of history, how parents rear their children has been assumed to be of fundamental importance. Many examples in the first three chapters support the importance of parental nurture during the younger years. Early philosophers never doubted it. Freud and many subsequent psychologists developed various theories about the ways that parents influence their children. Indeed, as Chapter 3 illustrates, multiple scientific approaches have been developed to examine and doc- ument how child rearing influences children.

Other evidence of widely held assumptions about parental influence includes sayings and folk theories concerning development. The lore of many countries contain some variation on the proverb: “Like father, like son; like mother, like daughter,” including “The son of a swan is a good swimmer” (Egypt) and “From such a stick comes such a splinter” (Spain). The British poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850) phrased the idea as “The child is the father of the man.” Another adage, from the Roman poet Virgil (70–19 BCE), more explicitly suggests the role of nurture: “As the twig is bent, the tree inclines.”

In our contemporary society, many of our social troubles have been associated with problematic child rearing. Substance abuse, high-school dropouts, poverty, delinquency, crime, and teenage pregnancy are just some of the problems that many people assume are a consequence of poor parenting (e.g., Westerman, 1994). The antidote to those problems and other social woes, according to some individ- uals, is better parenting. Pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton even went so far as to argue that good nurturing during the first three years of life protects children against the lure of tobacco when they become adolescents (Brazelton, 1998).

To what extent do parents influence their children’s development? If so, then how? Research has been accumulating on that question and will be discussed in this chapter. The body of evidence begins with what are called “experiments of nature.” Animal studies also were influential in efforts to understand parental influence. Subsequently, research into parent-child attachment, parenting styles, and specific child-rearing techniques has informed the question.

84 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

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Experiments of Nature

Experiments of nature, for our purposes, refer to incidents in which children have been raised without parents or deprived of a normal environment because of reasons other than a scientist’s intentions. Sometimes these cases result from intentional abu- sive parenting (see Box 4.1), but not always. The best-known examples of these nat- ural experiments come from reports of “feral children”; that is, children raised by animals in the absence of parents, language, and culture (see www.feralchildren.com). Fewer than 100 cases of such children have been reported throughout history. After a careful analysis of each case, however, most of the supposed feral children were in fact abandoned children who were already mentally ill, in some way handicapped, or survivors of abuse (Clarke & Clarke, 1976; Newton, 2002). Only in a few of the cases does it appear that a child was actually reared by an animal, such as the case of the “wild boy of Aveyron” who was discovered in France in 1799 (Itard, 1962). Even in that case, because there is no information about the state of the child before his unusual experience or about the duration or quality of that experience, it is impossible to draw any useful scientific conclusions about the role of parents.

A better source of experiments of nature concerning the effects of not having parents comes from children raised in orphanages and residential institutions. In the 1940s, the alarm sounded that children deprived of mothers were developing abnormally and were at risk for a variety of emotional, cognitive, and health

Chapter 4 • The Controversy Over Parental Influence 85

A Girl Named Genie

The best-documented example of the effects of isolation on a child comes from the sad case of Genie. She was discovered in 1970 after having been raised in a closet and isolated from social interaction. Her isolation began in her second year of life and continued until she was 13 years old. Her abusive and mentally ill father (who also abused his wife) strapped Genie to a potty chair for much of that time. When she and her blind, helpless mother finally escaped, Genie weighed just 59 pounds and was mute.

During the next few years, she showed remarkable development, as described by the linguist who worked with her (Curtis, 1977). Genie eventually learned to talk and developed some of the sensory, motor, and social skills she was missing, but she was unable to fully recover from her long-term neglect. One of the most obvious deficits she had concerned her syntax—how she put words together. Although she developed a large vocabulary, she was never able to master the rules of grammar.

A fascinating history of the case can be found in a book titled Genie: A Scientific Tragedy by Russ Rymer (1993). In the book, Rymer raised serious ethi- cal questions about whether the team of therapists and scientists who studied and worked with Genie were more interested in furthering their careers than in providing the best psychological help.

BOX 4.1

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problems. Psychiatrist René Spitz (1945) described the children as being starved of affect (referring to the children’s need for loving care) and the resulting prob- lem as “hospitalism.” Later, psychologists recognized that those children were deprived of many things besides love, including social interaction and cognitive stimulation.

Although studies of children in institutions suffered from various methodolog- ical problems (Pinneau, 1955), the research provided sufficient evidence to con- firm the obvious: The absence of appropriate social contact early in life is deleterious to healthy development. The investigations into institutional depriva- tion had the positive effect of shuttering institutions in Western Europe and America. Unfortunately, less affluent countries could not afford alternative care and continued the practice of orphanages. When Westerners began adopting children from Eastern European and Asian (Romanian, Russian, and Chinese) orphanages in the late 20th century, some of the children continued to show signs of the poor conditions they were raised in. Problems such as nonorganic failure to thrive (when otherwise normal children show stunted growth patterns) and diffi- culties forming relationships are sometimes found in these children. Notice the relatively few child-care workers and the sterile environment in the photo of the orphanage in Illustration 4.1.

86 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

Illustration 4.1 A postcard of a room in an orphanage from the first half of the 20th century.

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Animal Studies

Other evidence about the importance of parents and the effects of early experience come from animal studies. One of the first and most provocative psychologists to use animals for addressing questions about development was the American-trained Chinese researcher Zing-Yang Kuo (1898–1970). Kuo investigated such fundamental questions as the nature of animal instincts, the role of the environment in develop- ment, and the relation between nature and nurture. A number of his animal studies challenged the prevailing views about the nature of development by demonstrating that animals could be trained to behave in ways that appeared “unnatural” or even anti-instinctual. For example, he trained rats to rear cats, and he modified the fight- ing, eating, and sexual behavior of pugnacious chow dogs (Kuo, 1967). Through his manipulations of the environment, Kuo created extraordinary demonstrations of the variability of behavior and the role that experience can play in subsequent behavior.

Another influential animal-behavior scientist was Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989), one of the founders of the field of ethology (the study of behavior in animals’ nat- ural habitats). Lorenz is remembered for, among other discoveries, the phenome- non of imprinting. This concept refers to rapid learning—usually very early in life—that is apparently independent of behavioral consequences. Lorenz famously got a gaggle of goslings to follow him because the incubated baby geese imprinted on the first moving object they saw at about 36 hours after hatching.

Imprinting in geese provided evidence for the idea of irreversible critical periods in development. This concept refers to time periods early in life when an organism is particularly susceptible or vulnerable to experiences or substances. Subsequent research in the area of embryology has documented many critical peri- ods for the development of organs. If a developing embryo or fetus is exposed to certain substances in utero (such as alcohol, drugs, or certain medications), this can cause irreversible negative effects. If a period is “sensitive” though, rather than crit- ical, the effects may not be irreversible (Bornstein, 1989). The concepts of imprint- ing and of critical and sensitive periods have influenced subsequent thinking about the importance of parents early in a child’s life.

One psychologist who studied animals as a way of better understanding parent- child relationships was Harry Harlow, first introduced in Box 2.1. Harlow used rhe- sus monkeys to challenge contemporary views about why the young seek out their parents. Harlow did not subscribe to the learning theory view that children love their mothers because mothers are the source of nourishment, and hunger is a fun- damental drive. At the University of Wisconsin, Harlow and his colleagues devel- oped experimental apparatuses to investigate various questions about the nature of love, the role of early experience, and animal intelligence.

Harlow studied, among other questions, the effects of raising rhesus monkeys in isolation. Harlow discovered that without mothers, baby monkeys developed extreme pathological behavior, including stereotyped behaviors (repetitive or ritu- alistic movement, postures, or utterances) and antisocial behavior. When these monkeys became adults, they showed abnormal sexual behavior (Harlow, Dodsworth, & Harlow, 1965).

Chapter 4 • The Controversy Over Parental Influence 87

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Subsequent investigations documented the dramatic effects of early social deprivation in a variety of other species (e.g., Cairns, 1979). These studies served to highlight the importance of early parent-child relationships. Although the animal work reflects an indirect source of evidence about human development and is limited by issues of generalizability to humans, it has played a prominent role in development and in conceptualizations of parental impact on children’s develop- ment (Clarke-Stewart, 1988). Experiments of nature and animal research, then, provided preliminary evidence and set the stage for investigations into the effects of child-rearing environments on children’s development.

Associations Between Parenting and Children’s Outcomes

The once prevailing view that parents had a one-way or unidirectional effect on children was clear in the words of a psychologist who wrote, “Recent psychological studies indicate that personality is very largely a product of the interactions between parents and child” (Symonds, 1949, p. 3). Investigators typically assumed that when a parent behavior related to a child behavior, it was because the parent’s behavior had caused the child’s. However, virtually all of the findings purportedly showing parental effects on children reveal not causes but correlations between parental characteristics (behavior) and child outcomes. So it is more accurate to describe the results of such research as reflecting associations between characteris- tics of parents and children.

The literature on parent-child associations is voluminous; a thorough review could fill several books. Reviews of the literature published can be found in the Handbook of Child Psychology, published approximately every decade. The latest one, a four-volume set published in 2006, was the sixth edition (Damon & Lerner, 2006). Another source is the second edition of the Handbook of Parenting (2002b), edited by Marc Bornstein. As these sources indicate, there is now a voluminous amount of research into parent-child relationships.

Rather than even attempt to provide a comprehensive review of the research linking parenting to children’s outcomes, this chapter provides a representative sampling of some of the best work on the topic. The research cited has relied on a variety of theoretical approaches (Chapter 2) and reflects work from all eight approaches to the study of parents (Chapter 3).

Research findings into the associations between parenting and children’s char- acteristics and behavior can be grouped into positive outcomes, negative outcomes, and no apparent associations. However, views about what are positive, substantive, and empirically verifiable outcomes in children change over time. For example, children’s resistance to temptation in laboratory settings (tested by leaving a child alone in a laboratory room with an appealing but prohibited toy) was a prominent outcome in the 1960s, because it was considered a key index of the ability to delay gratification and rudimentary conscience. That outcome variable has been discarded in favor of more ecologically valid and direct indices of children’s functioning, such

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as mothers’ reports about children’s guilt and remorse after misbehavior (Kochanska, DeVet, Goldman, Murray, & Putnam, 1994). Currently, the central positive child outcomes associated with parenting include general competence, peer relations, internalization, prosocial behavior, cognitive development, and school achievement. We will use the outcome of general competence as an example as we discuss the study of beneficial associations between parenting and child outcomes.

Competence refers to being able to make use of environmental and personal resources to achieve positive personal development. Parenting has chiefly been related to children’s general competence through three areas of investigation: parent-child attachment, parenting patterns (also called parenting style), and spe- cific parenting behaviors.

Parent-Child Attachment

Recall from Chapter 2 that, according to Attachment Theory, infants who are securely attached at 12 months of age will develop a positive working model of them- selves and others. They will then carry these ideas into new relationships, such as with teachers and peers. Many studies have found support for the theory: Children securely attached to their mothers at 12 or 18 months of age are indeed more com- pliant, enthusiastic, persistent, cooperative, and better at problem solving than are insecurely attached children (Thompson, 2006). The evidence, though, is not always clear cut. For example, the predictive validity of the association is not always strong. In one study, although securely attached preschool-aged girls were more socially competent than insecurely attached girls on several different indices—such as teacher and peer ratings—the relations did not hold for boys (LaFreniere & Sroufe, 1985). In another example, using a modification of the Strange Situation procedure for older children (see Table 2.2), it was found that 6-year-old boys who were classified as inse- curely attached were less well liked by peers and rated as less competent by teachers. However, no comparable associations held for girls (Cohn, 1990).

There are several explanations for these mixed results. First, relationships are dynamic and changeable. A child who is securely attached at one age may subse- quently form an insecure attachment owing to his or her parents’ divorce, a move to a new town, or some other stressful experience (Pianta, Sroufe, & Egeland, 1989). Another reason for mixed results can be due to the fact that children may have a different quality of attachments with their mothers and fathers. Children’s attach- ment to their parents is often of similar quality, but not always. For example, in a meta-analytic review of attachment classifications between mothers and fathers, 69% of children had the same secure (50%) or insecure (19%) classification with both their mother and father (see Illustration 4.2). The remaining 31% of the children were securely attached with one parent but not the other (Fox, Kimmerly, & Schafer, 1991). Furthermore, there are various other plausible influences and life experiences (such as the impact of peers and siblings) that are independent of a caregiver but can still affect a child’s competence.

Rather than making predictions about children’s outcomes based solely on their attachment classification at 12 months of age, researchers are currently focusing on

Chapter 4 • The Controversy Over Parental Influence 89

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individuals’ internal working models (see Chapter 2). These mental models, developed from an individual’s previous history of close relationships, provide a repre- sentation of both the self and others (Bretherton & Munholland, 2008). Using a carefully designed inter- view (the Adult Attachment Interview [AAI]), or ques- tionnaires to assess current attachment styles (Crowell, Fraley, & Shaver, 2008), a number of developmental and social psychologists are finding links between how people think about their early attachment relations and how they currently function. In adults, representations of others have frequently been studied using the con- ceptual framework of four adult attachment styles, by Kim Bartholomew (1990) and others (e.g., Feeney, 2008). Bartholomew created a 2-by-2 matrix to diagram the four possibilities of how we view ourselves and others (see Table 4.1).

People who have a positive view of self and others are considered to have a secure attachment style. However, people who have a negative view of self and a positive view of others are considered to have a pre- occupied attachment style. These individuals would be uncomfortable having someone else accept them for who they are. They may feel they could not live up to others’ expectations. They would not understand

how someone else could love them and thus would undermine the other person’s loving efforts, which would only serve to confirm their low expectations. Individuals whose view of others is negative, but view of self is positive, would be classified as having a dismissing attachment style. These people would be likely to negate other people’s feelings and inflate the importance of their own. Finally, negative views of both the self and others define a fearful attachment style. These individuals do not think they are worthy of being loved nor are there

90 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

View of Self

View of Others Positive Negative

Positive Secure Preoccupied

Negative Dismissing Fearful

Table 4.1 Classification Scheme of Attachment-Based Representations of Self and Others

Source: From Bartholomew, 1990. Reprinted with permission of SAGE Publications.

Illustration 4.2 A father cares for his two toddlers in Yemen, Southwest Asia.

Source: Photograph by J. P. Bell.

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other people worthy of loving. Consequently, they are fearful of forming attach- ment relationships.

These four adult attachment classifications relate to both interpersonal compe- tence as well as childhood recollections. Persons who hold secure representations of attachment with their parents are comfortable with intimacy as well as being autonomous. These individuals value their attachment experiences and are able to provide an objective and balanced description of their childhood—one that may include negative experiences as well as positive ones. Preoccupied individuals, as well as individuals forming the other two categories, experience relationship problems. Preoccupied adults provide confused or incoherent accounts of their childhood attachment relationships. They may express anger or passivity in recalling their childhood. People characterized as dismissing provide autobiographical accounts that devalue their attachment relationships and may have difficulty in recalling them. The recollections of these individuals indicate a separation from the emo- tional nature of their childhood relationships. Such individuals may idolize, dero- gate, or even may be unable to recall their early experiences. Fearful individuals are likely to report negative or traumatic childhood experiences.

Individuals classified into these categories have been found to have systematic personality and behavioral differences. Many of the findings are reviewed in the second edition of the Handbook of Attachment (Cassidy & Shaver, 2008). The results from a variety of studies highlight the importance of working models. For example, prospective mothers’ attachment representations, assessed with the AAI during their pregnancy, accurately predicted the Strange Situation attachment classifica- tions of their 12-month-old infants in 75% of the cases (Fonagy, Steele, & Steele, 1991). Mothers who expressed autonomous views of their own relationships were likely to develop a secure attachment with their infants, but women who were dis- missing or preoccupied were likely to have an insecure attachment. Many examples can be found in the quality of dating relationships among college students. For instance, along the lines of the theory, students with secure representations have better-quality romantic relationships than students with other types of internal representations (e.g., Feeney, 2008; Simpson, Rholes, & Nelligan, 1992).

Parenting Styles

A different way used to link parenting with subsequent child competence can be found in the Parenting Traits research approach (see Chapter 3). Since the 1950s, a number of investigators have found connections between parenting style and vari- ous child behaviors. The most careful and prominent work along these lines was conducted by Diana Baumrind (1971). In a longitudinal sample of children and their parents, Baumrind found evidence indicating that different parental patterns of child rearing were associated with particular outcomes in children. Authoritative parenting—characterized by warm, open communication but also firm limits— was correlated with a variety of positive outcomes in children at different ages. Children of these parents were more competent, as exhibited by greater social responsibility (including cooperative behavior and friendliness toward peers) and independence. Baumrind wrote that the outcome associated with the authoritative

Chapter 4 • The Controversy Over Parental Influence 91

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pattern “is uniformly positive for both sexes at all ages studied, unlike any other child rearing pattern” (1983, p. 138).

The two other major patterns of child rearing were associated with lower levels of child competence. Authoritarian parents discouraged independence, the ques- tioning of parental authority, and displays of affection. When a child misbehaved, authoritarian parents tended to resort to harsh punishment. Their children were less independent, less assertive, and less achievement-oriented than were the children of authoritative parents. The third major category—permissive parents— was warm and loving but failed to control or expect mature behavior from their children. These children were neither independent nor achievement oriented.

Despite researchers’ enthusiasm for using Baumrind’s typology of parents, the effects are not as robust as is commonly thought. A close reading of her work indi- cates that the associations between parenting types and child outcomes are com- plex. For example, some of the associations differ based on the gender of the child. Furthermore, Catherine Lewis (1981) pointed out that the data could be inter- preted in a different way. She argued that the direction of effect could be opposite from Baumrind’s interpretation: Competent children may elicit authoritative child rearing from their parents. Indeed, a parent does not need to use harsh discipline with an easy, compliant child. Thus, Lewis argued for child effects on parents. Although Baumrind (1983) has taken issue with that interpretation, it is likely that the competence of both parents and children is a product of a reciprocal process.

Many studies concerning associations between parents and the functioning of their children—from preschoolers through adolescents—have adopted Baumrind’s parenting classification scheme. For instance, the typology proved its usefulness in accounting for relations between parenting characteristics and adolescent behavior in a study of some 4,000 families. Based on self-reports and school records of teenagers, youth from authoritative families were found to be the best adjusted. This assessment tapped a variety of indices, including psychosocial development (self-reliance, work orientation, self-esteem, and personal competence), problem behaviors (substance use, delinquency, and antisocial behavior), psychological dis- tress (anxiety and depression), and school achievement. Children from neglectful homes fared the worst (Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, & Dornbusch, 1991). In a fol- low-up study with 2,353 of the adolescents one year later, the results were replicated and extended (Steinberg, Mounts, Lamborn, & Dornbusch, 1994). Differences in adjustment (such as levels of delinquency or academic competence) that were asso- ciated with parenting style were maintained or had even widened. These studies sparked renewed enthusiasm for the Parenting Traits approach as a way of reveal- ing associations between parents and children.

Specific Parenting Behaviors

A third approach intended to link child rearing with child competence focused on correlates of particular parenting practices. One example of this work was a cross-cultural study that found, in both North America and Egypt, maternal vocal stimulation was positively related to toddler behavioral competence (Wachs et al., 1993). A second example was the finding that parental encouragement of emotional

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expressiveness was related to teacher-rated competence in preschoolers (Roberts & Strayer, 1987). A third study discovered that parental support, infrequent punish- ment, and assigning school-age children household chores were specific behaviors each linked to child competence (Amato, 1989). Reviews of the research on the topic indicate that other parental practices associated with competence in children include appropriate behavioral control, empathic responsiveness, warmth, effective problem solving, monitoring, and flexibility so the parent responds to the particu- lar circumstances of the situation (Crouter & Head, 2002; Grusec & Davidov, 2007).

The Human Behavioral Genetics Challenge

The problem with all the studies mentioned above, according to the perspective of behavioral genetics, is that they do not take into account of the role of genes. For example, consider the parent whose genotype prompts him to have an aggressive personality. Given that children share about 50% of each parents’ genes, that child may inherit the genes that contribute to aggressive behavior. According to the orig- inal behavioral genetics viewpoint, it does not matter whether the parent subse- quently behaves in a gentle or an aggressive way. The fact that the child carries those genes means that parent is destined to be aggressive.

The more recent behavioral genetic view is more nuanced, focusing on gene- environment interactions. That is, a child may have a genetic makeup that provides a proclivity toward certain responses, but it takes an environment to either bring out that proclivity or to protect against it. One example of this interaction between genes and the environment—labeled the Diathesis-Stress Model—has been recog- nized in clinical psychology to account for the emergence of psychiatric disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia. This model assumes that there is a genetic predisposition toward a problem but that the expression of the problem only occurs when in combination with particular kinds of environmental stressors (e.g., Gazelle & Ladd, 2003).

David Rowe, in a book titled, The Limits of Family Influence (1994), reviewed the evidence about genetic influences on children’s outcomes. Based on twin and adop- tion studies, he argued that the evidence for child-rearing effects on intelligence, per- sonality variables, and various behaviors (such as delinquency and smoking) was modest at best. Instead, the correlations between monozygotic (identical) twins, for example, indicate a strong genetic influence on such variables as inattentiveness and hyperactivity (see Table 4.2). Rowe concluded that specific parenting practices or pat- terns do not appear to have much effect on children’s outcomes. As he carefully worded it, “Variation in rearing is a weak source of trait variation” (p. 223).

Another psychologist who used the behavioral genetic approach was Sandra Scarr. She joined in the budding controversy over parental influence through a provocative statement in her presidential address at the Society for Research in Child Development, published in 1992:

Ordinary differences between families have little effect on children’s develop- ment, unless the family is outside of a normal, developmental range. . . .

Chapter 4 • The Controversy Over Parental Influence 93

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Children’s outcomes do not depend on whether parents take children to the ball game or to a museum so much as they depend on genetic transmission, on plentiful opportunities, and on having a good enough environment that supports children’s development to become themselves. (p. 15)

A few years later, Judith Rich Harris (1995) contended that much of what has been attributed to parental nurturance is genetic in origin. She developed her argu- ments in a popular book titled, The Nurture Assumption (Harris, 1998). The book received considerable attention, and articles about her theory appeared in maga- zines and newspapers around the country. Although she relied on behavioral genet- ics data as a starting point, she distanced herself from that approach by arguing that the environment does play an important role in development—but the environ- mental influences do not come from parents but from peers. She has proposed the theory of group socialization, which will be discussed in Chapter 9.

The next year, psychologist David Cohen (1999) published his perspective on parental influence, which was also based on a behavioral genetics argument. He contended that parents had little impact on their children, except perhaps in the domain of sociability. But in contrast to Harris, he did not believe that peers held particularly long-term influence. Peers may hold sway during the adolescent stage but significantly less once individuals move into adulthood. He concluded that parents cannot take responsibility for their children’s successes but neither should they be held in blame if the child goes astray.

Taken together, this behavioral genetics–inspired assault on the role of child- rearing behavior has attracted a considerable amount of attention from the media and stirred up a controversy among psychologists and other scientists. A series of detailed and scholarly critiques has appeared in order to address a variety of issues raised by the Human Behavioral Genetics approach. Scholars have identified limitations

94 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

Characteristic Mean r Social Relation Number of Pairs

Extraversion .43

.23

MZ twins

Siblings

116

177

Inattentiveness/ hyperactivity

.62

.23

MZ twins DZ twins

64 98

IQ .86

.72

.60

.47

MZ twins

MZ twins, reared apart

DZ twins

Siblings

4,672

65

5,533

26,473

Table 4.2 Some Human Behavioral Genetics Data Regarding Correlations Between Siblings

Source: Adapted from Rowe, 1994.

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with the approach, including specific shortcomings of research reviews, such as the exclusion of gene-environment interaction studies (Collins, Maccoby, Steinberg, Hetherington, & Bornstein, 2000), wide variations in heritability estimates (Maccoby, 2000) and conceptual and statistical problems inherent in the approach (Gottlieb, 2003).

A New Perspective on How Parents Matter

Parental nurturance—with its thousands of reprimands, reinforcements, reminders, and lectures, and its tens of thousands of hours of attention—is not without power. But at least some of the behavioral genetics argument is probably right: Child rearing does not have the ability to mold a child the way John Watson envisioned. Variations in child rearing from one parent to another appear to have limited effect in terms of modifying personality or intelligence. However, appear- ance is not proof, and only more research—using newer and better methods and concepts—can answer that question. So the controversy about parental nurtu- rance continues, in part because of the different approaches used to support the opposing views.

Child rearing is a multidimensional, multi-activity endeavor. As was listed in Table 1.1, effective parenting involves many roles and functions. Parents must feed, clothe, and protect their children. They also stimulate, educate, and discipline them, as Bradley itemized. However, another type of role that was not listed because it has been largely ignored by researchers is guiding a child’s development. Parental guidance can have a profound effect on how a child develops and functions as an adult. And its investigation could pro- vide a rapprochement between the researchers, parents, and others who believe that parental nurturance plays a fundamental role in children’s development and those who just as strongly argue that child rearing has little impact on children.

It can be hypothesized that parents guide their children’s development in three ways. First, parents establish trajectories, determining the direction that the children’s development will take. Second, parents medi- ate these trajectories, exerting a powerful influence on how children perceive, react to, and understand their environment and experiences. Third, parents modify the speed at which children have experiences that may pro- mote their development. Parental actions can then result in either accelerating or slowing down that development (see Illustration 4.3).

Chapter 4 • The Controversy Over Parental Influence 95

Illustration 4.3 Parents help guide a child down a slide—and through childhood.

Source: Photograph by J. P. Bell.

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Establishing Trajectories

Parents determine how children develop through selecting the environments that children are exposed to, thereby influencing the direction of their personal development. To visualize what is meant by trajectories, imagine a trail through the woods. The scenery is always changing; thus one must adjust one’s speed, exertion, and direction in order to stay on the path. The concept is helpful, because children are constantly changing as they grow. Of course, in reality, children do not travel just one path; they develop simultaneously on multiple trajectories.

Parents are the ones who usually set the child’s feet on the path. They might “put up fences” to attempt to block entrance to other, less desirable paths. This is a simple picture of what is meant by parental establishment of trajectories.

We can discover hints as to the types of trajectories a child is on by looking at the environment within his or her home. Some homes have lots of books, maga- zines, and other types of reading materials. Other homes have musical instruments around, and music is always playing. Sports equipment can be found in some homes, while religious symbols—such as crosses, menorahs, or the star and cres- cent of Islam—may be displayed in others.

Those objects could serve as symbols of possible trajectories that a child could be on, but even better evidence could be gathered by observing parental behavior. What activities do the parents engage themselves and their children in? Some focus their children’s time and attention on schoolwork, but others orient their children into competitive games and sports, or perhaps musical expression, or a busy con- coction of all of the above. By selecting environments, activities, and social interac- tions, parents are guiding development.

The establishment of trajectories may or may not be a conscious decision. And the parents themselves are likely influenced by culture, socioeconomic status, goals, values, resources, and their own parenting history. Although each influence is important, we know the most about parental goals for their children. A study on parental values and goals in midwestern middle-class American families provides some examples (Dunn, Kinney, & Hofferth, 2003). The most commonly mentioned goal of parents for their children was “happiness.” This was further delineated into physical health, financial stability, and specific child attributes such as social compe- tence. Those goals and others were compiled into a list by Ted Dix and Sylvia Branca (2003) that can be found in Table 4.3. Depending on the parental goal—and the parents’ views about how to obtain that goal—different trajectories are promoted.

Parents establish and promote trajectories in a variety of ways, but the most obvious is in the decisions they make—large and small—that affect their children’s lives. When purchasing a home, parents may consider features such as the quality of the school district, safety of the neighborhood, presence of other children, and accessibility of parks. As children grow, so do the number of decisions parents make regarding trajectories. New pathways can be launched in various domains such as music, athletics, and religion. Social pathways are influenced by the number of social agents the child is exposed to as well as the quality of the social interactions. Some parents initiate an educational trajectory even before their child is born—by registering their unborn child in a particular day care, purchasing prenatal stimu- lation equipment, or equipping the nursery with materials designed to promote

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cognitive development. Illustration 4.4 provides a conceptual drawing depicting the increase of pathways over time. Six developmental trajectories (represented by arrows) are illustrated and highlight certain characteristics of trajectories. Some trajectories start earlier in development than others. One ends in early adolescence, while the others continue. Certain trajectories are more prominent than others, as depicted by the thickness of the arrow.

Chapter 4 • The Controversy Over Parental Influence 97

Desire for their children to

Survive; be healthy and safe

Be obedient

Follow family routines

Display proper manners

Be socially competent

Do well in school

Respect

• Parents • Elders • Property • Cultural traditions, customs

Be loyal to family

Be independent

Be happy

Be a moral person

Be economically self-sufficient; get a good job

Table 4.3 Examples of Parental Socialization Goals

Source: Dix & Branca, 2003. Reprinted with permission of SAGE Publications.

Adolescence

Middle childhood

Preschool

Infancy

Illustration 4.4 Conceptual Figure Illustrating Trajectories and Development

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As the child grows, the parents’ provision of experiences becomes increasingly intentional. By the time a child is in elementary school, parents engage in what Furstenberg (1993) called “promotive” strategies, designed to foster the child’s tal- ents and opportunities. These strategies may involve encouraging, engaging in parent-child collaborative activities, or creating new pathways through such activi- ties as music lessons, after-school programs (like Scouts), summer camps, and reli- gious youth-group events. In a study of inner-city children and their parents, Furstenberg and his colleagues found that almost all (95%) of the parents reported engaging in some activity to promote development of a child’s talent or skill (Furstenberg, Cook, Eccles, Elder, & Sameroff, 1999). These actions ranged from investigating opportunities and encouraging participation to volunteering as a coach or even transferring to a more favorable school.

Parents also guide their children toward particular pathways by direct instruc- tion. In a study of Mexican American and European American parents, more than 90% reported intentionally teaching their children how to behave appropriately, as well as how not to misbehave (Azmitia, Cooper, Garcia, & Dunbar, 1996). Some parents explicitly pointed out negative role models in an effort to educate their children about positive developmental trajectories (Azmitia et al., 1996).

Just as parents instruct their children about positive pathways, they also proac- tively initiate these pathways in an attempt to avoid potentially negative outcomes. They regulate their children’s circumstances and experiences in the hopes of pro- tecting them from potentially hazardous individuals or settings—such as negative peer influence, substance use, early sexual activity, emotionally upsetting experi- ences, and violence. Furstenberg et al. (1999) labeled these protective and instruc- tive behaviors parental “preventive strategies.”

One preventive strategy adopted by some parents is to homeschool a child in order to buffer that child from negative influences in the school system (see Box 4.2). Goodnow (1997) dubbed this type of practice, whereby parents seek to shield their children from negative influences for some period of time, “cocooning” (p. 352). By forestalling exposure to perceived negative influences, parents hope their children will develop resiliency through the internalization of parental values. This shielding of a child from potential negative social influences includes curbing a child’s exposure to those influences or to alternative values. It may also involve restricting behavior that conflicts with parental values (Goodnow, 1997; Harrison, Wilson, Pine, Chan, & Buriel, 1990; Ou & McAdoo, 1993).

Starting a child down a pathway is not enough, however, to keep the child on course. Parents must attend to their children, encourage and support them, and usually provide them material help (such as by purchasing athletic equipment or chauffeuring them to events). Leibham and her colleagues (2005) found that children who continued to pursue particular interests across a 1-year time span (from age 4 to 5 years) had parents who, compared with parents of children who did not have sustained interests, provided more materials (like corresponding books and objects) in the home and believed in academic stimulation as well as the importance of curiosity. Consider what parents of world-class athletes, musicians, or mathematicians have to do in order to develop their children’s talents. As Feldman and Piirto (2002) summarized, it is well established that parents, after first

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recognizing unusual talent in their children, must invest at least 10 years of “sustained, coordinated, and effective support . . . to have a chance at fulfilling its promise” (p. 205).

Mediating Trajectories

Not all parents, of course, have the time, money, or know-how to make the choices they would like for their children. For example, parental employment may preclude moving to a more preferable location. Or a family may not have the finan- cial resources to move out of the inner city. Nevertheless, these parents still have the ability to mediate trajectories by interpreting their child’s experience and sense of reality. They can do this in three ways: Pre-arming prepares children mentally and emotionally for what is coming; concurrent mediation helps children make sense of their world in the midst of an experience; and debriefing can help after the experi- ence is over.

Pre-arming. Imagine (or remember), while you were in grade school, you moved to a new city or state. Moving is stressful for anyone, but it can be particularly painful for children leaving a close group of friends. Besides moving, many other experi- ences have the potential to derail a child’s positive developmental course: the birth of a sibling, separation and divorce, serious illness, peer problems, exposure to vio- lence, and racism. Bradley (2007) calls these “developmentally challenging circum- stances” (p. 99). By preparing the child for these types of experiences, parents can influence how the child will perceive and react. Pre-arming helps to prepare children for adverse situations and feelings, so the technique has also been called “parental inoculation.”

Pre-arming may prove a particularly important technique when parents must counteract stereotypes or cultural pressures in contexts not amenable to change. Several investigators (e.g., Hughes, 2003; Thornton, Chatters, Taylor, & Allen, 1990) found that when African American parents anticipated that their children would experience hostility, prejudice, and discrimination, they provided various coping

Chapter 4 • The Controversy Over Parental Influence 99

Homeschooling as Protection

An increasingly common preventive strategy in contemporary American society in the domain of parenting and education is homeschooling (Princiotta & Bielick, 2006). In 2003, some 1.1 million children were homeschooled in the United States, and that number increases each year. In fact, there has been a 29% increase in the percentage of U.S. children homeschooled from 1999 to 2003 Although there are many motivations for homeschooling, the single most com- mon reason, identified by 31% of a sample, was concerns about the school environment. This concern presumably included worries about negative peer and cultural influences, as well as poor educational quality.

BOX 4.2

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techniques. These included offering specific strategies, denigrating the threatening group, and discussing the potential for discrimination. Similarly, parents prepared their daughters for gender discrimination in sports by providing special encour- agement (Fredricks & Eccles, 2004).

Another pre-arming strategy is to draw attention to potential dangers. Mothers living in dangerous neighborhoods on the East and West coasts rehearse with their children the dangers that destroyed the lives of people they know (Ardelt & Eccles, 2001; Azmitia et al., 1996). Anecdotal parental reports indicate that another pre- arming technique related to times when parents can not be directly monitoring their children is to provide simple rules or what could be called “mantras.” These sayings are given to children to help them deal with problematic situations. “Make good decisions,” “Don’t talk to strangers,” and “Remember who you are and what you stand for” are three examples.

Concurrent mediation. The second way parents mediate children’s experience is by helping a child interpret a situation while (or shortly after) the child is experienc- ing it. Here, the parent attempts to modify the child’s perceptions and reactions to an event in order to remediate a negative experience or influence—such as exposure to inappropriate media, discrimination, bullying, teasing, or trauma. Concurrent mediation is most often designed to counteract negative experiences but sometimes highlights or reinforces a positive behavior or experience.

Power (2004) reviewed the strategies parents use to influence their children’s appraisal of stress. As parents model their own emotional reactions to a situation, they also may coach their child on how to react. Such coaching includes drawing attention to relevant stimuli, seeking out appropriate information, encouraging logical thinking, helping to understand cause and effect, and encouraging perspective taking.

Most research into concurrent mediation has focused on parental reactions to media influence. For instance, parents practice mediation in order to interpret objec- tionable televised content (e.g., Weintraub-Austin, Bolls, Fujioka, & Engelbertson, 1999). This practice consists of watching TV with their children and then dis- cussing the content (Nathanson, 2001). Parents praise actions they value when they see an actor engage in them; they point out why the behaviors of other actors are wrong and should be avoided. In this way, parents can help to shape children’s reac- tions to what they see.

Debriefing. A third type of trajectory mediation is debriefing, or attempting to influence how a child perceives or thinks about an experience after the event is over. Here the parent may be counteracting a damaging experience or a negative message directed at the child. Researchers have rarely investigated this type of mediation, and when they have, it has been conducted following traumatic events (Stallard & Salter, 2003). So the best evidence about parents engaging in debriefing comes from the child sexual-abuse literature. Following disclosure of abuse, parents (assuming they did not engage in the abuse) who are sympathetic, take the child’s accusations seriously, and are responsive, have children who are better able to cope with the abuse than are children whose parents deny the abuse, invalidate its damage, or take no action against it (Elliott & Carnes, 2001).

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Parents can also serve a debriefing function by nonjudgmentally encouraging children to express their feelings. This enables children to process the emotions associated with a difficult situation. Debriefing helps to explain the finding that mothers who are more aware and communicative about their adolescents’ prob- lems had teens who were functioning better (Hartos, Eitel, Haynie, & Simons- Morton, 2000). In this way, parents attempt to repair damage done to their child and reroute them onto a positive trajectory.

Modifying the Speed

In addition to directing and supporting developmental pathways and mediating the experiences children have while traveling them, parents also affect their children’s development by influencing the speed by which a child progresses on a certain trajectory. Parents can encourage acceleration or deceleration on a pathway.

Acceleration. American parents are often eager to speed up their children’s develop- ment. It is not difficult to find examples of this: expectant mothers training their fetuses, infants enrolled in cognitive-enrichment day cares, parents reading to infants to enhance later literacy skills, and toddlers participating in organized sports (Clarke-Stewart, 1998; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Some parents promote early independence in their children by separating themselves from their infants. Another indication is the abundance of commercial products available to purport- edly speed up child development, ranging from prenatal devices to computer programs. This interest in acceleration is not a recent phenomenon; more than 50 years ago, Jean Piaget recognized this national preoccupation and dubbed it the “American Question” (Niemark, 1975, p. 584).

Elkind (2001) characterized children who are pressured to grow up too soon and too fast as “hurried children” (p. 3). He argued that parents have increasingly been over structuring their children’s leisure-activity time. Parents fast-track their children for multiple reasons. They may do this to give their children a head start in the com- petitive world, provide peer interactions in the absence of same-age peers, guard children’s safety, promote a child’s self-esteem, or feel their own pride in the child’s accomplishments. The effect on the child, according to Elkind, is stress and burnout at an early age. However, a recent review of the evidence does not find overschedul- ing to be a widespread phenomenon in the United States. Hofferth, Kinney, and Dunn (2006) determined that 23.9% of a sample of 315 9- to 12-year-old children could be classified as “hurried.” These children were involved in either three (or more) activities per week, or two activities, for four or more hours, on two days per week.

Deceleration. Alternatively, some parents may seek to slow down their children’s development, at least in some trajectories. The motive may be to protect a child from having to grow up too quickly, to give the child a competitive advantage, to allow a delayed child a more level playing field with peers, or to maintain control over a child rather than allow the appropriate autonomy.

Parents use several techniques to decelerate development. “Overprotection” occurs when parents make all the decisions for the child (Parker, 1983) and refuse

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or delay giving the child increasing and age-appropriate autonomy. Other parents may seek to protect and prolong the stage of cognitive “innocence” by promoting fantasy beliefs such as Santa Claus or the tooth fairy (Woolley, 1995).

Another type of deceleration technique is to delay certain types of social involve- ment. Keeping a toddler away from peers or not allowing an older child to partici- pate in extracurricular activities serves to delay normal socialization experiences. But one increasingly popular method today is to delay school entry—“academic redshirting.” By waiting a year before enrolling in kindergarten or the first grade, a child gains the benefits of a year of physical, cognitive, and social maturity. Existing research results are conflicting as to whether this helps children in the long run. This “gift of time” does not ensure academic success, although it is often an advan- tage in sports (Graue, Kroeger, & Brown, 2002; March, 2005).

Trajectories and Development

Parents who actively and appropriately guide their children’s trajectories provide an influence on children’s outcomes. Such a view is in line with current work that increasingly recognizes the goal-directed nature of child rearing (e.g., Dix & Branca, 2003; Hastings & Grusec, 1998). The following examples from two trajec- tories—healthy physical development and social competence—illustrate parents’ role in promoting positive developmental trajectories.

Healthy Physical Development

Throughout infancy, childhood, and adolescence, parents engage in a variety of actions to promote their children’s health and safety. Most mentally sound parents desire their children to be healthy. However some parents are more successful than others at accomplishing this goal. Good health is promoted through a variety of actions, including modifying the environment, modeling good habits, instructing, creating rules, reinforcing, and punishing (Tinsley, Markey, Ericksen, Ortiz, & Kwasman, 2002). For example, new parents safeguard their infants by “childproof- ing” the home; they structure and plan activities to avoid dangers (Holden, 1985). They also make decisions and rules about whether to allow their toddlers to engage in certain behaviors, based on beliefs about safety and perceptions of the child’s abilities. In middle childhood, parents engage in various forms of socialization to prevent childhood injury. These include lecturing, disciplining, changing the envi- ronment, modifying rules, and/or imposing restrictions. And it pays off; parents who monitor their children more closely than other parents experience a lower incidence of accidents and injuries in their children (Crouter & Head, 2002).

Promoting healthy eating patterns is another example of parents guiding a healthy developmental trajectory. Consequently, increasing evidence has docu- mented various ways that parents can prevent or contribute to children’s obesity (Patrick & Nicklas, 2005). For example, Hays, Power, and Olvera (2001) found that those immigrant Mexican American mothers who discussed healthy eating practices with their children (4 to 8 years old) had children who were more knowledgeable

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and aware of the related health issues. It is increasingly clear that obesity prevention requires concerted parental efforts: modeling sensible eating habits, purchasing proper foods, controlling (in appropriate ways) children’s eating practices, educat- ing children about nutrition, and monitoring children’s eating actions from infancy through adolescence.

As will be discussed in Chapter 9, the preadolescent and adolescent years pose a variety of new potential health and safety hazards: cigarette smoking, automobile dri- ving, alcohol and drug use, precocious or risky sexual activity. There is evidence that the parent’s role is important for successfully navigating this challenging developmen- tal period. Parents who were concerned about the health consequences of adolescent cigarette smoking were more active in combating it by discussing the topic, discour- aging its use, and monitoring and controlling their children. These techniques were successful for nonsmoking parents but less so for parents who smoked (Chassin et al., 2005), highlighting the dominant role of behavioral modeling in shaping trajectories. With regard to driving, adolescents who reported their parents engaged in more con- trolling and monitoring of behavior reported less risky driving behaviors and traffic violations (Hartos et al., 2000). Teenagers who perceived parental disapproval or other negative consequences for drinking alcohol were less likely to drink alcohol or binge drink, engage in premarital sex, or become pregnant (Resnick et al., 1997). Parental monitoring decreases the likelihood—or delays the onset—of drug use both in mid- dle childhood and adolescence (Crouter & Head, 2002). Conversely, parents who were unaware of their children’s involvement with alcohol (Beck, 1990) or attempts at sui- cide (Walker, Moreau, & Weissman, 1990) had children with more emotional prob- lems. Parental reasoning, modeling, and disapproving of health-harming substances are part of what has been proposed as “risk socialization” (Miller-Day, 2002), a concept tantamount to keeping children on a safe and healthy trajectory.

Competent Social Relationships

A second trajectory that parents commonly value and promote in their offspring is social competence. A variety of child-rearing behaviors have been linked to this goal, with both indirect and direct effects (Ladd & Pettit, 2002). The road to social competence begins in infancy, when the origins of social interactions (reciprocity, turn taking, and synchrony) first appear (Harrist & Waugh, 2002).

Parental sensitivity—leading to secure attachment—is linked to social competence, although the evidence is somewhat ambiguous (Thompson, 1998). The data are much clearer about the direct influences that parents have in promoting social competence in their children. By designing, mediating, supervising, and monitoring their children’s peer relationships, many parents are actively guiding this trajectory (Ladd & Pettit, 2002). In a review of over 50 years of work on monitoring and peer relations, Crouter and Head (2002) found that the practice of parental monitoring was positively associ- ated with social competence in children. Monitoring is increasingly being recognized, though, as a bilateral variable or as reflecting the bidirectional parent-child relation- ship, due to the fundamental role of disclosure: A parent cannot monitor what a child successfully disguises (Stattin & Kerr, 2000). Monitoring parents faced with the prob- lem of an undisclosing youth must determine ways to promote communication.

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For minority-group parents, the task of maintaining a positive social trajectory is even more challenging. Parents need to prepare their children to be successful in mainstream culture while maintaining their children’s own sense of self and their cultural heritage (Hughes, 2003; Johnson, 2005). Investigations into racial social- ization revealed that parents pre-arm their children in preparation for potential dis- crimination by first promoting racial/cultural pride and ethnic history; messages encouraging mistrust of members of the majority group are delayed until early adolescence (Johnson, 2005). There are a variety of other racial coping skills that parents may teach or model, ranging from inoculation of racist ideas to conflict avoidance (Garcia Coll et al., 1996; Johnson, 2005).

Chapter Summary

The ways that parents may influence children is a fascinating topic attracting increased attention. Researchers from various theoretical orientations have made valuable con- tributions to understanding the role of nature and nurture in development. The dif- ferent perspectives, including attachment, parenting traits, and human behavioral genetics, have each contributed pieces of understanding to the puzzle of development.

As researchers gain a better understanding of children’s development, it is clear that the model promoted by early researchers of a direct parental effect (P ! C) is no longer tenable. The equation linking how children are parented and how they develop is considerably more complex. For example, particular parent and child characteristics may interact with each other, resulting in different effects. Mediators and moderators are also operating. In addition, it is clear that children affect parents and vice versa. The characteristics of both parents and children shape expe- riences, some described as a “transactional principle” of influence. Nevertheless, the argument advanced by Harris (1998) and a few other individuals to, in essence, throw parents out of the equation is off base.

In addition to the established approaches for understanding how parents influ- ence their children, another way of thinking about parents’ role in development is to consider them as guides of their children’s developmental trajectories. This view does not negate other important influences on children’s trajectories, such as child effects, peers and other individuals, resources, or culture. However, it reframes the question of how parents may be influencing their children.

Thought Questions

• What ways do you think your parents have influenced you? • Why would twins be more similar in personality or intelligence than non-

twin siblings? What about identical twins? • Why do children and youth “fall off” positive developmental trajectories? • What characteristics of children make them more resilient so they remain on

positive trajectories—despite problems around them?

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