Cumulative, 1/3 on Units 11 and 12, rest on Units 1-10 general concepts
Units:
- 11 - The Family
- 12 - Moral Development
- (less important)
- 1 - How and why we study development
- 2 - Prenatal Dev
- 3 - Genetics and Brain Dev
- 4 - Perceptual and Motor Dev
- 5 - Cognitive Dev
- 6 & 7 - Conceptual Dev & Intelligence
- 8 - Language Dev
- 9 - Attachment
- 10 - Emotional Dev
Unit 11 - The Family
Family Structure:
- 2 parents households falling in US - 88% in 1960, 70% in 2022
- Changes across ethnic groups, 51% of black children (compared to: 29% latino, 21% white)
- Also across education: 17% for children of parents w degree vs 36% for only high school
- Age of parents changing for US women: 21 in 1970 to 27 in 2021
- Older:
- Higher-status occupations, higher incomes
- More likely to have planned births and fewer children
- Less likely to get divorced within 10 years if married
- Tend to be more positive in parenting
- “men who delay parenting… more positive about the parenting role and tend to be more responsive, affectionate, and cognitively and verbally stimulating with their infants”
- Older:
- 1/10 children live with a grandparent (GP)
- 6% of children have GP as primary caregiver
- These kids are more at risk: emotional/behavioral problems, however could stem from: GPs, poor parenting from bio parents, or trauma of seperation
- 6% of children have GP as primary caregiver
- Families are smaller, and more fluid (divorce?)
Specific family structures:
Gay
- 1% of all children living with same-sex parents (2019), 2/3 biologically related to one
- Child outcomes: not different in mental health, behavior, and academic achievement
- Better outcomes in some studies (parent-child relationship and psych adjustment)
- Child identity: the same in orientation, gender, romantic involvements, and sexual behavior
Cohabitating
- 5% of kids living with two parents cohabitating but not married
- More than half of these live with one bio and one “social parent” who is partner of bio parent
- Social parents tend to be less motivated to spend money on their non-bio children
- “Children growing up with cohabiting parents have worse health outcomes, lower educational attainment, and more problematic behavior than children growing up with stably married parents”
Divorced
- 4.6 mil with only mother, 1.3 mil with only father
- Situations tend to be characterized by more irritability and coercion, and less warmth, emotional availability, consistency, and supervision
- Often impacts children’s routines and networks (like moving)
- Effects:
- Children tend to adjust best during and after the divorce if their custodial parent is supportive and emotionally available
- Children of divorce are more likely to experience depression and sadness, have lower self-esteem, and be less socially responsible and competent
- prone to externalizing problem behaviors such as aggression and antisocial behavior, both soon after the divorce and years later
- drop in academic achievement
- greater tendency to drop out of school, engage in delinquent activities and substance abuse, and have children outside of marriage
- Most children whose parents divorce do not suffer significant, enduring problems as a consequence … effects are small overall
- Could even be positive if parental conflcit is high during marriage
Stepparents
-
5 million in household with stepparents
Family Dynamics
Discipline:
- Teach children how to behave
- led to internalization - permanent change in childs behavior
- Other-oriented induction is particularly effective (teaching them empathy)
- Pressure:
- Too little and children ignore
- Too much and children listen but only because they have to, no internalization occurs
Styles:
- Warmth and parental control
- PSC140Y-VL22
Mothers vs Father: - Mothers usually more time and more responsible
- Father more play, especially physically
- Parental warmth linked with child’s positive adjustment
Child’s Influence:
In one study, adolescents’ reports of relatively high levels of externalizing problems (e.g., delinquency, loitering, intoxication) and internalizing problems (e.g., low self-esteem, depressive symptoms) predicted a decline in parents’ authoritative parenting styles (as reported by youths) 2 years later, whereas an increase or decline in authoritative parenting over the same 2 years did not predict a change in the adolescents’ adjustment (Kerr et al., 2012).
- Just as much as parents influence kids, kids can influence parenting
- Children relationship better when:
- Parents are warm
- Little favoritism
Family Socioeconomic Context
Cultural Contexts:
- Affects things like discipline
Economic Contexts: - Children are expensive, and compete for limited income
- Also influences quality time, low income parents may need multiple jobs or irregular hours
- Stress this causes can lead to many negative effects
- Children more likely to be living in poverty than any other demographic(<18 (15%), 19-64 (11%), >64 (10%))
- For children: poverty -> “lower academic achievement, more mental health problems, more behavioral problems, and more health problems than their higher-income peers”
- Even some literature showing high-income families can results in “higher rates of drug use, delinquent behavior, and mental health problems compared with their low-income peers”… multiple ways to arrive at maladaptive outcomes
Parent’s Work: - 1/3 of parents reported family difficulties/conflicts from work
- This was true for both high and low income jobs, negative stress had bigger impacts than positive income
Maternal Work:
- This was true for both high and low income jobs, negative stress had bigger impacts than positive income
- research inconclusive, many results found (+ and -), even pertaining to effects of maternal employment in first year of infants life
- However, mothers in night shifts have negative effects (aggressive behavior, anxiety, and depressive symptoms than did the children whose mothers worked a typical daytime schedule), and often spent less time with adolescents
Childcare: - 62% of children from birth through age 5 are in center-based childcare, 38% are cared for by a relative, and 20% are cared for by a nonrelative in a home environment
- (children can fall in multiple boxes)
- Findings concerning agression in childcare centers is mixed, but 2 large ones in norway found no link (quality of cc centers is high)
- NICHD study found the opposite, number of hours experienced in first 2 years predicted lower social competence and adult noncompliance
- Continued in young childhood, but generally non significant by 6th grade
- Did predict risk taking and impulsivity at age 15
- Does not apply to children from very low income high risk families, its even positively related unless quality of care is very low