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TransitiontoParenthood-CompatibilityMode.pdf
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The Family and the Child: A Psychological View Psych 441_Vaughan
W eek 9
Transition to Parenthood and the Early Parent C hild- Relationship System
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Discussion Areas
Transition to Parenthood u Theories guiding this process
u The choices of individuals and couples; options related to timing
u Patterns and parenting styles: links to care and nurturance
u Universal/cross-cultural aspects of parenting
u Stages of parenthood
u Changing and redefining roles
u Parent-child relationship system
u M utual and Bidirectional influences
u Parenthood in the current times: impacts from the pandemic, COVID-19 restrictions and racial justice and racial reckoning
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Couples to Parents
u What are the shifts in the transition of the couple to marriage/commitment? What are some concerns?
u With the planning and birth of the first child, what factors guide the transition to parenthood?
u How relevant and important are prenatal/antenatal classes? u Example: Harvard Children’s Zone and Baby College
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Pregnancy as a Transition
• Pregnancy is an important transitional period.
• Relevant and ongoing care, information and advice is important for new parents-to-be during the transition.
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Couples to Parents
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Couples to Parents/Families
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Parenting Within Context
u Is the transition to parenting a “normative transition, “a normative stressor ”, and/or a time for great personal joy and growth? u Parents experience some emotional upheaval, but
preparation serves as a buffer.
u Much of the early family research on parenting theories focused on practices, roles and patterns two-parent, middle class families; contemporary research has shifted to address broader demographics.
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Parenting within Context
u There are etic approaches to understanding parenting (parenting ideas imposed and derived from outside the social or cultural group) and emic approaches to parenting (parenting ideas derived from within the social and cultural group) M .A. Fine & F.D. Fincham , 2013, p. 250). W e w ill refer to som e earlier source. readings as w ell.
u Coparenting u How two parents coordinate their roles in these areas.
Important for all parenting, but very critical when there is separation or divorce. u Agreement on childrearing
u Division of labor
u Support
u Management of family interactions
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Parenting Theories
How do we best understand the transition to parenting and the early parenting process? Perspectives: Birth mothers, birth parents and foster/adoptive parents (surrogates?)
u Attachment Theory
u Family System theory and Interdependence u C ouple system
u Parent-child system
u Ecological Theory u C onsiders diversity and various system s that im pact the child.
u Ethnocultural background in term s of exam ining roles and patterns of care.
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Transition to Parenting
§ Family System: Dimensions of the Transition to Parenting or too the Family Stage
§ a parent's anxiety about becoming a parent (the inner life) § the need to be involved in a family (the quality of relationships
in the family)
§ the demands of a job outside the home (stress outside the family),
§ the negotiation of new roles and decisions within the family (the quality of marriage or partnership)
§ the intricate connectedness of lives of the parents, and the consequences of a normative life change (having the baby).
Source: Deave, Johnson & Ingram (2008)
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Growing Families
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Babies and their Influence
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Six Stages of Parenthood: Ellen Galinsky (1987)
u Image Making: Begins before child arrives; expectations. What is ahead? Image shaping continues throughout parenthood, a transforming developmental experience.
u Nurturing: Birth to 24 months; Bonding and attachment. Holding, touching, and caring. Setting priorities on how to spend time. (Closer to age 2 - oppositional or “No” Stage)
u Authority: Ages two though four - five. What type of authority to be? How to set and enforce rules? How to resolve problems and challenges?
u Interpretive; Elementary school years: How parents interpret themselves to their children. Developing children’s self-concepts; teachers’ and others’ views of their child. Ongoing connectedness and emerging independence.
u Interdependent: Teen years; distance and closeness. Communication. Limits and guidance. New relationship with almost adult child.
u Departure: Characterized by evaluations of parent and grown-child relationship. Takes a long time. Caring and helping without controlling. New rituals, habits and traditions established.
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Mind in the Making, (Galinsky, 2010)
u Linking parenting to children’s holistic development u Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs u 1. Focus and Self-control
2. Perspective Taking 3. Communicating 4. Making Connections 5. Critical Thinking 6. Taking on Challenges 7. Self-directed, Engaged Learning
u https://www.mindinthemaking.org/7-essential-skills/
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Parenthood: One Developmental Pathway
• There are changes in family trends and household composition over the last 30-40 years . These changes continue. However, parenthood remains a part of a “predictable pattern in the developmental pathway” of the family life cycle (Day, 2010, p. 62).
• There is structural diversity in the process of shifting to parenthood. ▫ Delayed parenting as one factor ▫ There are various developmental ways to shift from
couple to parents, or from a single person to a parent.
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A Parenting Competency Model Johnson, Berdahl, Horne, Richter & Walters (2014)
u Decades of research from multiple perspectives (e.g., child psychology, child development, family systems, forensic psychology, parent education, and pediatrics) have identified and labeled parenting tasks and dimensions associated with optimal emotional, developmental, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes in children. u Effective Parenting Practices and Styles
u Effective Parental Attributes, Beliefs, and Cognitions
u Contextual Influences on Parenting and Bidirectional Interaction
u Review of competencies and sub-competencies
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Competent Parenting
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Children Coming into the World
• Estimates worldwide: 7.9 billion people in the world • In total, an estimated 140 million children will be born in 2021. Their
average life expectancy is expected to be 82 years. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/new-years-babies-over-370000- children-will-be-born-worldwide-new-years-day-unicef
• Review of UNICEF Data on neonatal and child survival and mortality • https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-survival/neonatal-mortality/ • https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-survival/under-five-
mortality/
• UNICEF video
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Universal Aspects of Parenting
• Families around the world are focused on the birth and survival of their children. • Role of already established biological and social connections. • Plans for the provision of care and protection. • Transmission of beliefs, rituals, and culture begins early. • Links to promoting child survival and competence
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Universal Goals of Parenting (Robert Levine,1988, new ideas: 2016).
u Parents seek to prom ote the survival and success of their offspring, but their behavior is adapted to the socioeconom ic and dem ographic conditions of agrarian and urban-industrial societies and further differentiated by local cultural traditions. Three areas”
u 1.ensuring physical health and survival
u 2. developing behavioral capacities for econom ic self- m aintenance
u 3. instilling behavioral capacities for m axim izing cultural values such as m orality, prestige, and achievem ent.
u Review of excerpts
u https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2016/0 9/do-parents-matter-world/499808/
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Child and Parent Mutual Influences
• Parental expectations • What parents need • Parental comfort with roles • Child factors
• Child gender
• Child temperament and goodness of fit
• Child identity
• Child’s health and needs
• Role of social support
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Realities and Risks
• More time with children; what happens to time with partners’ identity as a couple? ▫ Space for children ▫ Space for couple relationship
• Focus on care and protection; managing worries and stressors
• Potential for decreased marital or couple satisfaction due to shift in the amount couple’s time together. The pie chart of family time.
• Demands, wishes, and needs lead to focusing the majority of time on children
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Boundaries and Subsystems
• Balancing work and family • Balancing roles: Individuals occupy roles within the family
identity • Role strain and role transition • Role overload • Role conflict
• Managing emotional climate • Managing household tasks • Finances • Direct and indirect costs
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Developing Parental Identity Considerations for Parents
• Planning and preparation during the pregnancy • Time with children: Participation in caregiving tasks,
child-rearing and child-related activities • Sense of competence in the parental role; role
sharing • Co-residence with children • Parenting satisfaction • Stress and support levels; regulation of emotions;
fears and concerns • Role of education and employment
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Helping Couples Become Parents
� Research findings emphasize the vulnerability of the couple relationship during the transition to parenthood.
� Findings also emphasize the centrality of marital quality to subsequent family relationships and children's adaptation.
� Reactions vary based on whether this is a natural childbirth, who is the birthing person and whether there was a reliance on reproduction technologies.
� Adoption involves a deeply similar advance level of commitment.
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Families May Continue to Expand
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Families Together
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Key Tasks of Parenting
Caretaking, Caregiving and Nurturing:
Attending to the physical, em otional, social and psychosocial needs. C hildren’s routine and daily activities are vital as are the m eanings parents place on these.
M onitoring, Protecting and Disciplining:
Evolving parental strategies and parenting styles to support child safety, self- regulation and positive outcom es
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Caregiver and Family Roles: Mother, Father, Both?
u Sources of love Others? Your Ideas? u Protectors
u Guardians u Heads of families
u Care providers (for physical and emotional health) u Family Income providers u Teachers
u Mentors u Models of behavior u Communicators
u Household managers: Cooks and cleaners, etc. u Appointment makers
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Influence of Fathers (Fine & Fincham, 2013,pp. 94-95)
u Parenting behaviors, such as warmth, commitment and sensitivity, are equally important features for father-child relationships as they are for mother-child relationships.
u Paternal playfulness and boisterousness were a focus of early father- child studies. There is no evidence the variation from this type of more active play impacts children’s adjustment.
u Children who have positive relationships with their fathers or a second parent with a unique parenting play style tend to develop specific social skills that facilitate interactions and peer relationships.
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Notes on Parenting Science
u There is definite need and significance for a cultural approach to parenting science. Descriptively it is invaluable for revealing the full range of hum an parenting. The study of parenting across cultures also furnishes a check against an ethnocentric w orld view of parenting.
u Acceptance of findings from any one culture as “norm ative” of parenting is too narrow in scope, and ready generalizations from them to parents at large are blindingly uncritical.
u C om parison across cultures is also valuable because it augm ents an understanding of the processes through w hich biological variables fuse w ith environm ental variables and experiences. Parenting needs to be considered in its socio-cultural context, and cultural study provides the variability necessary to expose process.
u (Excerpt from Bornstein, M ., 2012 p.212.)
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Parenting Styles
REVIEW AND DISCUSSION:
CONSIDERATION OF CULTURAL APPLICATIONS
ROLE PLAY ACTIVITY
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Diana Baumrind
• Diana Baum rind (Born 1927)
• A clinical and developm ental psychologist at the Institute of Hum an Developm ent, University of C alifornia, Berkley w here she also received her Ph.D.
• She is know n for her research on parenting styles and for her critique of deception and control in psychological research, especially Stanley M ilgram 's controversial experim ent.
• Baum rind’s original three parenting styles included: Authoritarian, Authoritative and Perm issive
• Note; Early measure of parenting style: The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ; Buri, 1991), a 30-item questionnaire, which measures authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles.
• Others that relate to the early parenting typologies include the Parental Style and Dimensions Questionnaire (Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 1995), and the Parental Nurturance Scale (Buri, Misukanis, & Mueller, 1988).
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Parenting Strategies and Styles in the Parent-child Relationship System
• Parenting strategies ▫ Nurturing children: warmth, acceptance comfort
▫ Controlling child behaviors: providing safety from harm, supporting children to act in socially appropriate ways
• The Four Parenting Style Model adapted from Baumrind by Macoby & Martin, 1983 included levels of: ▫ Parental responsiveness
▫ Parental demandingness
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Parenting Typology: Four Categories Macoby & Martin (1983) Adapted from Baumrind’s typology
u Parenting styles are linked to parental practices, values and behaviors.
u Each style includes a level of responsiveness and demandingness.
u Styles u Authoritative
u Authoritarian
u Indulgent
u Uninvolved
Newer Typologies exist
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Four Parenting Styles Summary
• Authoritative: demanding and responsive; clear standards for conduct that are explained
• Authoritarian: demanding, very directive, and not responsive; orders without explanation
• Indulgent (permissive): responsive and more demanding; lenient and avoid confrontation; Two subtypes: democratic and nondirective
• Uninvolved: low in both responsiveness and demandingness; sometimes thought of as neglectful in combination with permissive
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Children of Authoritative Parents
• lively and happy disposition • self-confident about ability to master tasks. • well developed emotion regulation • developed social skills • less rigid about traditional gender-typed traits (ex:
sensitivity in boys and independence in girls) • balance of warmth and control
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Children of Authoritarian Parents
• anxious, withdrawn, and unhappy disposition • poor reactions to frustration (girls are particularly
likely to give up and boys become especially hostile)
• do well in school (studies may show authoritative parenting is comparable)
• not likely to engage in antisocial activities (such as, drug and alcohol abuse, vandalism, gangs)
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Children of Permissive Parenting
u poor emotion regulation (under regulated) u rebellious and defiant when desires are challenged. u low persistence to challenging tasks u antisocial behaviors
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Child Well-being Outcomes
• Parenting style (authoritative qualities): parenting that provided warmth, support, clear communication, reasoning and monitoring is associated with positive outcomes
• Parenting style with high psychological control is associated with negative outcomes
• Uninvolved parenting also has detrimental affects that are evident early on and continue into early adulthood.
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Parents’ Contributions
• What are examples of determinants? • Developmental histories and and cultural beliefs
and experiences • Personality • Psychological health • Interpersonal resources • Responsibility, empathy, nurturance • Capacity to de-center
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Child Characteristics
• Temperament • Gender • Special needs: areas of need, type of diagnosis,
degree and intensity of needs. • Child’s supports: caregivers, teachers, social
environment • Key Factor
• Goodness of fit between parent and child traits
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Cultural Factors and Considerations
u Parent socialization goals relate to cultural beliefs.
u Significance of directive parenting
u Variations in primarily individualistic v. collectivist cultures
u Baumrind began to distinguish among authoritative, directive, and authoritarian parenting styles which are high on demand or control but vary in quality of control, responsiveness, and socialization goals.
u This connected to Macoby’s and Martin’s parenting style typology.
u Cross-cultural researchers have emphasized that socialization goals and practices vary across cultures because different qualities and outcomes in children are valued and emphasized (e.g., Chao, 1994, 2000, 2001).
u The same parental behavior and parenting style may be interpreted differently (e.g., as more or less adequate) depending upon the cultural meaning of this behavior or style in the particular cultural group (e.g., Chao, 2000, 2001; Deate rDeckard, Dodge, & Sorbring, 2005)..
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Parenting Behavior and Practices
u A large body of research indicates that the optimal combination of parental behavior involves a high level of support, a high level of monitoring, and the avoidance of harsh punishment (Baumrind. 1968, 1978; Darling & Steinberg, 1993; Maccoby & Martin. 1983; Rollins & Thomas, 1979).
u In non-authoritative cultural contexts, such as more permissive/indulgent or more authoritarian contexts there are positive outcomes reported related to cultural practices and beliefs (Garcia & Garcia, 2009).
u Some cultures and families rely on their collectivist thinking and beliefs and may view an authoritarian style as facilitating more harmony. In vertical collectivist contexts, the organizational strategies of the authoritarian parenting style are considered beneficial for the children (Sheik, 2008; Graf., Mullis & Mullis)
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Parenting in Contemporary Thinking
Term s that try to capture parenting for parents:
Attachm ent parenting
Tiger M om s
Helicopter parenting
Free-range parenting
Law nm ow er parenting
Bulldozer parenting
Boom erang children
u Have you heard some off all of these? Others? Your thoughts and any critiques of the use of these terms.
u We will look at some media and related articles.
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Tough Love
u How does this model fit with parental goals and the organization of daily activities and their meanings?
u What is “tough love” from your perspective? u What type of parenting style does the “tough love” resemble? u Do some cultures value a strict model of parenting? What is your
experience? u Amy Chua’s growing up and then her later experiences as a parent led her to
write a book The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother u What was the response to Amy Chua’s work? Discussion of
variations within cultures.
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Parenting Style: Determinants
u Jay Belsky Model (Influential Model of Parent Functioning, originally published in 1984) u Used as a m eans to understand context of parenting and the
context of child caregiving and child m altreatm ent.
u Includes: u Parental personal psychological resources
u Uniqueness of child characteristics
u Contextual sources of stress and support
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Parenting During Infancy: Mothers and Fathers
� Trajectories of Parenting During Infancy: The Role of Infant Temperament and Marital Adjustment for Mothers and Fathers (2013)
� Quantity and quality of parenting and caregiving � Marriage quality � Role of child temperament
� According to Belsky’s process model, child characteristics such as temperament can influence parenting behaviors, and in fact, the relation between a child’s temperament and parenting has been well established (Belsky, 1984 as cited in Planalp, Braungart- Rieker, Lickenbrill & Zentall (2013)
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Trajectories Study (2013)
u Longitudinal study u Sample N= 120 families u Examined: mother’s and father’s levels of levels of
caregiving, play, and sensitivity. u Constructs/variables
u Parent involvement: caregiving and play
u Infant temperament: surgency (pleasure, heightened activity), negative affectivity (fear, sadness), regulation (modulation of emotional reactivity)
u Marital adjustment: Questionnaires
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Children’s Activities: Meaning for Parents
u “Day in the life” questions u Links to promoting child competence u Cultural aspects u Parental beliefs
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Harkness, et al. (2011)
u A mixed-method approach to studying children and their parents.
u Questions asked include: u How do we record and understand all the activities of a family's day?
u What meanings do parents give to their beliefs and their approaches to parenting?
u How do these activities support competence. What role does culture play?
u The article focuses on Western cultures. How might this type of study work in other cultures?
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Families’ Views
u Studies of ethnic and racial socialization attempt to reflect psychologists’ efforts to understand families of diverse backgrounds and experience.
u Abad & Sheldon (2008) investigated how families discuss social inequalities and injustices, and how they teach children to manage, respond and adapt.
u Related data on parental concerns https://www.pewresearch.org/social- trends/2015/12/17/3-parenting-approaches-and- concerns/
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Autonomy and Identification
u Cultural Identity: Related constructs for consideration
u Acculturation/assimilation: Links to well-being
u First and second generation immigrants
u Parental autonomy support
u Parenting styles
u Self-determination
u Emerging identity u Source: Abad, N.S. & Sheldon, K.M. (2008). Parental autonomy
support and ethnic culture identification among second- generation immigrants. Family Psychology, 22, 3, 652-657.
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Parenting Realities and Risks
• More time with children; what happens to time with partners’ identity as a couple?
▫ Space for children
▫ Space for couple relationship
• Focus on care and protection; managing worries and stressors
• Potential for decreased marital or couple satisfaction due to shift in the amount couple’s time together. The pie chart of family time.
• Demands, wishes and needs to focus majority of time on children
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Boundaries and Subsystems
• Balancing work and family • Balancing roles: Individuals occupy roles in the family identity
• Role strain and role transition • Role overload • Role conflict
• Managing emotional climate • Managing household tasks • Finances
• Direct and indirect costs
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Developing Parental Identity: Mothers and Fathers
• Planning and preparation during the pregnancy • Time with children: Participation in caregiving tasks,
child-rearing and child-related activities • Sense of competence in the role; role sharing • Co-residence with children • Parenting satisfaction • Stress and support levels • Education and employment • Class Reading: Parenting Competency Model
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Other Contexts of Parenting
• Parental levels of stress and support • Coping and adaptation: managing stress and the
emotional climate • Concerns and realities • Relationships and social networks • Work environment and supports • Safety and proximity • Cultural values and beliefs
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Child’s Contribution
u Parents influence children and children influence parents.
u What are some child factors?
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