Reading reflection

Unst 228A Keela Johnson

§ Parenting Styles: § Baumrind § Cultural relevance

§ Attachment Theory

• Gender Roles

PARENTING STYLES

§ Diana Baumrind- 1967 identified three parenting styles: § Authoritative- parental demands are met at

high levels and these demands are reasonable. Parents allow their children to comment and enjoy independence and freedom of thought, and a warm and cordial relationship exists between the child and the parents. They allow their children to express their ideas, and provide the grounds for their future progress. This style of parenting can lead to increased self-regulation, compliance, and obtaining a college education

§ Authoritarian- rigid set of rules and illustrate heartlessness, lack of attention to the developmental needs of the child, low emotional support, and strict discipline. This style is associated with features such as reduced admission and high control that create underlying problems such as weak social skills, low self-esteem, and aggressiveness, and will prevent them from becoming highly educated individuals

§ Permissive- low expectations from their children. Acceptance, high responsiveness, relaxation in social attitudes, discipline, and customs, and less control from parents cause underlying problems such as aggression, low self-control, negligence, emotional problems, school dropout, and tendency toward drugs and crime; however, they also result in high confidence. In this parenting style, abundant love substitutes punishment by parents

BAUMRIND’S PARENTING

STYLES CONTD

Maccoby and Martin- 1983- expanded Baumrind’s ideas: • Permissive parenting was expanded to include

indulgent (permissive) and neglectful (uninvolved)

Parenting styles refer to the interactions of parent demandingness and responsiveness

CULTURAL RELEVANCE?

Baumrind’s (and Maccoby and Martin) parenting styles theory is based on individualistic cultures, like the US

Outcomes are different depending on cultural context- authoritative parenting tends to correlate with better grades for Caucasian adolescents, and authoritarian and permissive parenting with lower grades; in the same study, only authoritarian parenting in Asian families had any correlation to grades

THREE EXPLANATIONS

FOR DIFFERENCES

Explanation one: Authoritarian parenting style is associated with positive parental characteristics in collectivist cultures and with negative parental characteristics in individualist cultures

Explanation two: Training is a culture- specific form of parenting that is distinct from Baumrind’s parenting styles and parenting dimensions of warmth and control

Explanation three: The positive versus the negative perceptions of adolescents in collectivist and individualist cultures respectively mediate and ameliorate the negative effects of authoritarian parenting

§ Similar to Baumrind’s parenting styles, attachment theory postulates four types of attachment: § Secure attachment: the parent consistently responds to

the infant, so children feel they can rely on their caregivers to attend to their needs of proximity, emotional support and protection. It is considered to be the best attachment style.

§ Anxious-ambivalent attachment: the parent inconsistent in their response the the infant, so the infant feels separation anxiety when separated from the caregiver and does not feel reassured when the caregiver returns to the infant.

§ Anxious-avoidant attachment: the parent does not respond to the infant’s needs, so the infant often self-soothes, and will disconnect from their bodily needs

§ Disorganized attachment: parents behavior is unpredictable, leading to the child fearing their parent and being indifferent to their return, possibly running up to the parent initially and then ignoring the parent

Bowlby and Ainsworth developed attachment theory- focused on the

relationship between infant and mother (or substitute

mother), importance of social support of parents

Strange situation experiment

CULTURAL CRITIQUES OF ATTACHMENT

THEORY

Indigenous, Aboriginal, Native, First Nations applications/responses

• Attachment theory used as justification to remove First Nations children

• Collectivist society doesn’t support individualistic attachment theory

Outcomes of attachment style are culturally dependent