Children and Parents

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Children and Parents

• Why have children?
• The parental role
• Transition to parenthood
• What children need
• Socialization
• parenting styles
• class and race differences
• impact of child care
• Economics and childrens well being

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Why have children?

• Economic Model
• Decision to have children based on
• Income
• Resource constraints
• "Taste" for children
• Parents may trade quantity for quality

3
Nine Values of Children(Hoffman and Hoffman)

• 1. Primary group ties
• 2. Stimulation and fun
• 3. Expansion of self
• 4. Adult status, identity
• 5. Achievement, creativity
• 6. Morality, social duty
• 7. Power and influence
• 8. Status, prestige
• 9. Financial security

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The Parental Role

• Stages in most adult roles
• Anticipation
• Honeymoon
• Plateau
• Disengagement

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Rossi -The Parent Role is Different

• Acquired overnight
• No anticipatory stage
• No formal preparation
• No clear disengagement
• Irrevocable can't send them back

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How Infants Changed Families(LaRossa and
LaRossa)

• Changed conceptions of time
• Traditionalized division of labor
• Mother embraced role father distanced himself
• Mothers did more "hands-on care
• Mothers perceived infants as more competent.

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What children need from parents

• Material support
• Emotional support
• Structure/discipline
• Values

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Socialization

• Primary socialization teaching the culture to
  young child
• Involves
• Language/communication
• Behaviors
• Norms
• Values
• Includes support and control

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Parenting Styles(Baumrind)

• Authoritative high support, consistent moderate
  discipline, parent as authority
• Permissive high support, low discipline, parent
  as companion
• Authoritarian low support, high discipline,
  parent in control

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Traditional (Adult-Centered) Socialization

• Goal Raise a competent adult.
• Assumption Children naturally "wild" and must be
  controlled.
• Values obedience, neatness, respect of peers,
  discipline oriented to behavior, unsponsored
  independence.
• Style Authoritarian, "Parent Power
• Similar to working class, natural growth

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Developmental (Child-Centered) Socialization

• Goal Develop child's potential.
• Assumption child has unique capabilities
• Values Self-direction, creativity,
  problem-solving, intellectual ability, sponsored
  independence, discipline oriented to motive.
• Style authoritarian or permissive,
  participatory, democratic.
• Similar to middle class, concerted
  cultivation, intensive mothering

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Fathers and Socialization

• Fathers interact differently with kids
• More play rough and tumble
• Influence is less direct or immediate
• More direct involvement benefit to child
• Direct involvement more difficult for dads
• Little research on other adults as dads (e.g.
  lesbian partner, grandmother, etc.)

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Good Dads Bad Dads2 modern father roles

• 1. Involved Father
• Originated in colonial times
• Lost after industrialization
• Considered voluntary
• Personal and economic sacrifice
• Emotionally rewarding
• Still less involved than mother

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2 modern father roles

• 2. Absent Father
• Results from voluntary fatherhood.
• Supported by women's employment and welfare.
• Related to men's job opportunities.
• Less attached to children.
• More common among Blacks.
• Harmful to children, women, and men.

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How Can We Increase Fathers Involvement?

• Cultural change parenting as men's work
• Individual change learning parental skills
• Marital change wives' support and encouragement
• Structural change incentives and opportunities
  for fathering responsive workplace

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Child Care and Childrens DevelopmentOlder
toddlers, Preschoolers

• Quality care has few or no negative effects.
• Learn social skills earlier.
• Learn nontraditional roles.
• May be more assertive and aggressive.
• May become peer-oriented earlier.

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Child Care and Childrens DevelopmentInfants,
young toddlers

• Findings are less conclusive
• Probably no negative effects if hours are limited
• Infants were less socially responsive, attentive,
  verbally expressive
• May have implications for attachment

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The Well-Being of American Children

• Has well-being declined?
• Compared with when?
• Which children?

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What is well-being?

• Health care probably better overall, but not
  for working poor
• Income rising standard of living, but mostly at
  the top
• Intact families proportion is decreasing

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Poor prospects for children with

• An unmarried mother
• A teen mother
• A mother without a high school degree
• A family income below the poverty line

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Good prospects for children with

• A married mother
• A mother who was 26 or older when 1st child was
  born
• A mother who completed college
• family income 4 times the poverty rate

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Children in the Middle

• Downward drift since 1960s
• More divorce, single parent families
• More mothers working outside the home
• Maybe less parental time
• Moderate decline in economic status

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Summary

• People have children to enhance their lives
• Transition to parenthood is very significant
• Socialization increasingly child-centered,
  developmental
• Fathers role significant, indirect
• Voluntary notion of fatherhood
• Child care has some effects on development
• Mixed prospects for child well-being