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The Family and the Child: A Psychological View

Psych 441 Spring 2022

Peggy Vaughan Preview: Family Types, Adversity, and Diversity

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Diversity and Adversity: Family and Child

� Diverse in family types and structures: Marriage, divorce, single-parenthood, step-families, same-sex parent families, blended families, adoptive and foster/kinship care families, military families, etc.

� Diverse parents/parent figures (single parents, same sex parents, psychological parents)

� Socioeconomic status and its influence: based on income level, education level, and occupation/work status.

� Diversity as a strength: Children thriving and adapting in various family structures and situations.

� Adversity as a challenge: Children facing adverse experiences in the family context. What are the protective factors?

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Trends in Attitudes about Family Diversity

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Understanding Adversity � ACE) – A term introduced by the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study

(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Kaiser Permanente, 1995- 1997) to refer to the specific types of household challenges assessed in that study, occurring prior to an individual’s reaching age 18.

� ACE study index – The measure used in the ACE study to assess childhood exposure to the following adversities: physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; parental mental illness; substance abuse in the household; incarceration of a household member; and witnessing violence against a mother. Two additional adversities—child neglect (emotional or physical) and parental separation or divorce—were added to the study in follow-up investigations.

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Understanding Adversity � Childhood adversity – One or more events or circumstances (including, but not

limited to, those used in the ACE study) that can be harmful to a child’s short- and long-term physical and psychological health.

� Toxic stress – An over-activation of the body’s stress response system, accompanying trauma, which can lead to lasting impairments in physical and mental health, brain development, and genetic structure.

� Trauma – An individual’s experience of one or more events or circumstances as psychologically and/or physically harmful or life-threatening.

� Trauma-informed care – A service system, program, or intervention in which all participations, practices, and policies reflect an understanding of the far- reaching impact of trauma, identify its signs and symptoms in individuals, provide pathways for recovery, and avoid re-traumatizing the individuals affected.

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ACES Nine adverse experiences are included in this indicator. These were adapted from the earlier ACEs research[3] for use in a survey where parents are the reporters about their child. For each item, parents are asked to respond whether the focal child “ever” had the experience.

� Econom ic hardship (if experienced “som ewhat” or “very” often)

� Divorce/separation of a parent

� Death of a parent

� A parent served tim e in jail

� W itness to adult dom estic violence

� Victim of or witness to neighborhood violence

� Living with som eone who was m entally ill or suicidal

� Living with som eone who had an alcohol or drug problem

� Being treated or judged unfairly due to race/ethnicity

All references to parents refer exclusively to parents who lived with the child. Economic hardship was excluded in comparisons based on poverty level.

Source: Child Trends

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Adverse Child Experiences Linked to Family Circumstances

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Adverse Child Experiences Linked to Family Circumstances

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THREE OR MORE ACES

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ACES and Parental Education

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ACES and Poverty Level

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Mitigating ACES

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Parental Responses to Children’s Emotions and Adversity

• Children need to cope with emotions, both positive and negative emotions • Families influence each other. • Children have a more developmentally difficult time coping with negative

emotions such as anger and fear.

• Parents need to assist children with stress and coping, both mothers and fathers.

• Children are at risk for behavioral and emotional dysregulation when coping with and facing parental stress and depressive symptoms.

Nelson, J.A., O’Brien, M., Blankson, N.A., Calkins, S. D. & Keane, S. P. (2009). Family stress and parental responses to children’s negative emotions, Family Psychology,23, 671-679;

Lunkenheimer, E., Skoranski, A. M., Lobo, F. M., & Wendt, K. E. (2021). Parental depressive symptoms, parent– child dyadic behavioral variability, and child dysregulation. Journal of Family Psychology, 35(2), 247–257

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Family Types: Diversity � Same-Sex Parents and LBGTQIA Families

� Foster Care, Kinship Care and Adoptive Families

� Grandparent-headed Families

� Transnational Families

� Inter or Multi Cultural Families

� Young Parent Families

� Military Families

� Others?

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Family Structure � Single Parents

� Married Parents

� Cohabitating Parents

� Blended Families/Stepfamilies

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Family Structure � USA: PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN AGES 0–17 BY PRESENCE OF PARENTS IN

HOUSEHOLD, 2010–2020

Across several countries https://www.oecd.org/els/family/database.htm

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Family Structure

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Family Structure Data � In 2020, about 70% of children ages 0–17 lived with two parents (67% with

two married parents and 4% with two unmarried cohabiting parents), 21% lived with their mothers only, 5% lived with their fathers only, and 4% lived with no parent.5

� Among children living with two parents, 91% lived with both of their biological or adoptive parents, and 9% lived with a stepparent.6

� About 5% of children who lived with two biological or adoptive parents had parents who were not married.

� The majority of children living with one parent lived with their single mother. Some single parents had cohabiting partners. Of all children ages 0–17, 5.1 million (7%) lived with a parent or parents who were cohabiting.

� Older children were less likely to live with two parents: 67% of children ages 15–17 lived with two parents compared with 69% of children ages 6–14 and 75% of those ages 0–5.

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Living Arrangements of Children Under 18

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Relationships and Living Arrangements

� As relationships, living arrangements and family life continue to evolve for American adults, a rising share are not living with a romantic partner. A new Pew Research Center analysis of census data finds that in 2019, roughly four-in-ten adults ages 25 to 54 (38%) were unpartnered – that is, neither married nor living with a partner.

� This share is up sharply from 29% in 1990.

� Men are now more likely than women to be unpartnered, which wasn’t the case 30 years ago.

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Living Arrangements Marriage and Partnering Trends

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Women Today in U.S. More Likely to Have Children Than a Decade Ago

� The majority of women ages 40 to 44 who have never married have had a baby

� Biggest increases in motherhood among women with postgraduate degrees; shifts in timing evident across all educational groups

� Women of all races and ethnicities delaying motherhood.

� There is an adjustment in recent trends, given the impact of COVID-19.

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Motherhood Trends

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Single Parent Family: Dyads: Mother-son

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Single Parent Family � Enormous diversity: due to unmarried birth or

adoption, separation or divorce from partner, death of spouse or partner, incarceration

� Single parent families: various equations; single dads, single moms, single grandparent with grandchildren, single foster or adoptive parent;

� Often a steppingstone before re-partnering � Half of children spend some time in their childhood as

part of a single-parent household.

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Single Parent Dyads: Father and Son

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Teen Pregnancy Rates � The US teen birth rate (births per 1,000 females

aged 15 to 19 years) has been declining since 1991. Teen birth rates continued to decline from 17.4 per 1,000 females in 2018 to 16.7 per 1,000 females in 2019.

� This is another record low for US teens and a decrease of 4% from 2018.1,2 Birth rates fell 7% for females aged 15 to 17 years and 4% for females aged 18 to 19 years.2

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Teen Pregnancy � Although reasons for the declines are not totally clear, evidence

suggests these declines are due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity, and more teens who are sexually active using birth control than in previous years.

� Still, the US teen pregnancy rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations, and racial/ethnic and geographic disparities in teen birth rates persist.

� Young or teen parents do face challenges, which require family of origin support if raising a child alone. Custodial teen parents are primarily mothers.

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Teen Pregnancy Data Source: cdc.gov

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Non-custodial Fathers � A third of non-custodial fathers

including teen fathers live in poverty. In addition, some analysts have identified as a disincentive to identifying father and enforcing payment of child support, the states’ policies of retaining payments due to children of TANF (welfare) recipients.

� Some have argued that policies to strengthen the enforcement of child support should not be structured in a way that discourages the involvement of low-income fathers with their children.

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Single Parents � Relationships

� Family of origin function as source of support; there may be shift in terms of partner’s/spouse’s family of origin based on reasons that led to being single parent � Reliance on family of origin may link to level of

individuation

� Role of friendships – maintaining personal rather than couple friendships of single post-divorce

� Dating: men date sooner than women post-divorce

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Single Parents � Sole administrator: accepting complete authority for

household and family tasks and enlisting help of others when needed. Includes acceptance of changes after partner/spouse no longer present in home.

� Parental child: a role assumed by a child (often an older child) to care for younger children or even the parent in a single parent system.

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Divorce: Altering the Family System

� Divorce as one family process or transition often leading to single parenthood � Stages:

� Pre-divorce family dynamics � Individual cognition -- feeling dissatisfied or distressed

� Separation: long transition leading ultimately to moving out/divorce mediation and/or formal legal divorce (custody and the emergence of a binuclear family system)

� Family reorganization

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Divorced Parents � Come to terms and the acceptance that marriage

has ended

� Understand legacy from issues in the family system.

� May feel some form of continued attachment to prior spouse even up to four years after divorce.

� May face additional stresses in the family system

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Divorce: Adaptation

• Ex-spouses’ and children’s adaptation ▫ A process lasting a few years

• Adults need to: ▫ Have a clear understanding of causes ▫ Rebuild personal lives ▫ Parent children through the change and try to maintain schedules with

little interference

• Children: ▫ Are dealing with loss of an intact family ▫ Are dealing with loss of the presence of one parent (or two parents

united in one home) ▫ Need to maintain close one-on-one relationships with their parents

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Family Types: Linked to Divorce and Couple Separation

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Other Family System Types � Stepfamily: A family where both partners bring

children into the household and where there are now both biological and non-biological parents (one parent may not have children).

� Blended family: A family consisting of remarried adults, stepchildren, and stepsiblings.

� Metafamly: A broad system that considers and is inclusive of all biological and step-relatives and extended family systems.

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Stepfamily or Blended Family: Parents and Children

� What are the various equations and situations for stepfamilies and blended families?

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Various Forms and Ages: Step Siblings and Half-Siblings

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Theories Assisting Research on the Stepfamily, Blended Family Structure

� Family Systems Theory

� Social Capital/Social Exchange

� Symbolic Interactionism

� Attachment Theory

� Conflict Theory

� Parenting Theories

� Stress and Resiliency Theories � What are your ideas on the relevance of these theories

to the study of this family structure? Refer to Fine and Fincham, 2013, Chapter 16.

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Stepfamilies � All members have experienced important

_____________.

� All members come with_____________

� Parent-child bonds predate the new ___________ relationship

� One biological___________ is absent or elsewhere and not a full-time family member.

� Children are often members of two__________.

� _________________ have few legal rights.

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Concepts to consider � Differences with cohabitating and remarried

blended families

� Family communication

� Remarriage process (Anderson and Sabatelli, 2011) � Resolution

� Gradual modification of the single parent system � Anticipation of remarriage � Early remarriage and identity tasks, leading to middle

and late remarriage

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Problems and Joys in Blending Families

• Adjustment and adaptation

• Conflict ▫ Triangles with the ex-spouse/ or partner ▫ Triangles within the new blended system ▫ Triangles with the extended family (ies) ▫ Risk for some splits or isolation

• Cohesion ▫ New forms of trust and closeness ▫ Healthy changes ▫ Reestablish boundaries and rules ▫ Greater harmony

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Stepfamilies and Blended Families

� Relationships and boundaries

� Begin with….. � Strength of any existing biological bonds and ties.

� Move to …… � Learning how to negotiate and develop new emotional

bonds and create closeness. � Developing healthy boundaries within the stepfamily.

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Relationship Satisfaction � With same sex couples, there are few differences in

comparison to heterosexual couples as far as relationship satisfaction.

� Satisfaction is linked to similarity in attitudes and values.

� Argue at similar rates about the same topics including money (finances), sex, partner criticism and household tasks.

� Pursue same strategies for conflict resolution: negotiation, compromise, etc.

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Hetero and Homosexual (Same-Sex) Couples

� Couples regardless of orientation have more similarities than differences � Maintenance behaviors – shared tasks such as

cooking, household tasks, child rearing and financial tasks.

� Options to have biological children are easier for lesbians, but adoption is increasingly more common among all same-sex or gender non-conforming couples.

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Support and Trends � Support for same-sex parents is growing steadily

among Americans.

� A recent Pew Research Center survey found for the first time that a majority of people (52%) who were surveyed indicated support for the notions that that gay men and lesbians should be allowed to adopt children.

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Same-Sex Marriage � In the United States, support for same-sex marriage has

steadily grown over the past 15 years.

� Earlier polls began to show an increase in support: for same- sex marriage from 38 percent in 1999 to 46 percent in 2008.

� According to recent data, support for same-sex marriage remains near its highest point since Pew Research Center began polling on this issue. Based on polling in 2019, a majority of Americans (61%) support same-sex marriage, while 31% oppose it.

� https://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/changing-attitudes-on- gay-marriage/

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The American Community Survey (ACS)

� In 2019, the ACS improved its measure of same-sex couple households, explicitly asking people if they are same-sex or opposite- sex spouses or partners.

� According to the ACS, same-sex parents were more likely to be female. In 2019, 22.5% of female same-sex couple households had children under 18 present, compared with 6.6% of male same-sex couple households.

� In households with children, neither male nor female same-sex couple households were more likely to have biological children present, although male same-sex couple households were more likely to have adopted children and less likely to have stepchildren.

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Revisiting Family Definitions

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Family(apa.org) � A kinship unit consisting of a group of individuals

united by blood or by marital, adoptive, or other intimate ties. Although the family is the fundamental social unit of most human societies, its form and structure vary widely: biological family; extended family; nuclear family; permeable family; stepfamily.

� Open discussion of new ideas

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Inclusive Definition of Family � Family

� Any relatively stable group of people bound by ties of blood, marriage, adoption; or by any sexually expressive relationship; or who simply live together, and who are committed to and provide each other with economic and emotional support (Schwartz & Scott, 2007).

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Revisiting Family definitions: Family is…..

� What meanings do we personally give to the term family?

� How do we view and understand family life in all its diverse forms and structures?

� How do children grow, learn, and successfully adapt when families change due to unique and diverse family circumstances?

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