The Family: Parenting and Discipline

1
The Family Parenting and Discipline
Chapter 14
2
Agenda

• Hour 1 The Family (pp. 563-572)
• Parenting Styles
• Impact of Culture on Parenting
• Hour 2 The Family (pp. 573-586)
• Discipline Techniques
• The Contemporary Family
• Hour 3 Peers
• Hour 4 Schools Influence

3
Definitions of Family

• Agrarian cultures allow people to live and work
  more communally (in or near home) based on clan
  or extended family units.
• Industrialization of Western culture required
  separation of work and home, shifted basic social
  and economic unit to nuclear family

4
Functions of the Family

• Family is primary institution of socialization
• Socialization parents teach children to be
  functioning members of society
• Behavioral control, power hierarchies, etc.
• Norms, values, attitudes
• Family seen as a haven from world provides
• material and economic security
• emotional stability, acceptance

5
Remember Attachment?

• Securely Attached (65)
• Insecurely
• Avoidant (20)
• Resistant/Ambivalent (10)
• Disorganized/Disoriented (5)

6
Components of Secure Attachment

• Secure attachment reflects our socialization
  goals, in a child who
• Explores freely developing autonomy
• Is upset when separated from caregiver needs
  caregivers support
• Greets caregiver warmly at reunion emotionally
  connected, bonded

7
Factors Influencing Attachment Security

• Characteristics of the Infant
• Cultural expectations and practices
• Quality of Caregiving
• High levels of physical contact
• Prompt and consistent parental care
• Responsiveness to childs emotional states

8
Caregiving Styles
Bowlby Ainsworth

• Sensitive caregiving
• Follow childs lead
• Respond to childs signals
• Use cooperative control
• Offer child-directed choices

• Insensitive caregiving
• Mother directed activities
• Frequent use of physical control
• Childs signals not used to guide responses
• Rejecting relationship

9
Child-Rearing Styles in Context

• Definitions of sensitive caregiving must be
  culturally specific.
• The most fundamental, underlying characteristic
  of sensitivity is the establishment of a
  harmonious caregiver-child relationship
  (Ainsworth et al., 1974)
• Harmonious relationships are best fostered by
  caregiving practices designed to produce
  culturally valued traits in the child (Harwood,
  Carlson).

10
Parenting Style Impacts Development

• (Diana Baumrind)
• In a series of observations of parents
  interacting with their preschoolers, two broad
  dimensions of parenting emerged.
• Demandingness
• Responsiveness

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Parenting Styles
12
Parenting Styles

• Authoritative (demanding, responsive)
• Warm, supportive relationships
• Set firm limits
• Give clear explanations
• Outcome competent, confident, energetic and
  friendly children

13
Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian (demanding, unresponsive)
• Strict control emphasizing obedience
• Lack of warmth
• Low responsiveness
• Outcome Irritable, resentful, externalizing,
  unhappy and anxious children

14
Parenting Styles

• Permissive Child Rearing (responsive,
  undemanding)
• overly tolerant approach to child rearing
• Outcome immature children who have difficulty
  controlling impulses, are overly demanding and
  dependent on adults, and show less persistence on
  tasks.

15
Parenting Styles

• Uninvolved Child Rearing (unresponsive,
  undemanding)
• undemanding and indifferent, rejecting behavior
• At the extreme, this is neglect.
• Outcome Children have a low tolerance for
  frustration, poor emotional control, achievement
  difficulties in school, and delinquency in
  adolescence.

16
Benefits of Authoritative Style

• Nurturant parents who are secure in the standards
  they hold for their children provide models of
• caring concern
• confident, assertive behavior
• Control that appears fair and reasonable to the
  child is more likely to be
• complied with
• internalized

17
Benefits of Authoritative Style

• Throughout childhood and adolescence,
  authoritative parenting is associated with
• task persistence
• social maturity
• high self-esteem
• internalized moral standards
• superior academic achievement

18
Cultural values conveyed by each

• Authoritative
• Autonomy, self-reliance are valued
• Individual needs are important
• Democratic values, rationality
• Exploration of self and environment (curiosity)
• Self-control and self-expression are both valued
• Authoritarian
• Power hierarchy, obediance are important
• Parents needs are more important than childrens
• Self-expression is not valued

19
Recall Harwoods study

• Puerto Rican mothers display a mix of
  authoritative and authoritarian styles
• High Demands
• Very directive
• Frequent use of physical control to reposition
  infant
• Mothers goals are primary
• High Warmth
• Very loving and affectionate

20
Cultural Variations in Parenting

• Chinese adults describe their parenting
  techniques as more demanding (they have very high
  expectations).
• In Hispanic and Asian Pacific Island families,
  high parental control (particularly by the
  father) is paired with high maternal warmth.
• Some research suggests that African-American
  mothers often rely on an adult-centered approach
  in which they expect immediate obedience from
  children. Many use strict discipline to
• Promote self-reliance
• Promote self-control
• Encourage a watchful attitude in risky
  surroundings

21
Disciplining
22
How best to discipline and control?

• Physical Punishment (Strassberg et al., 1994
  Gershoff, 2002)
• Catharsis (Mallick McCandless, 1966)
• Time Out (McMahon Forehand, 1978)

23
Physical Punishment and Aggression (Strassberg,
et al 1994)
Childrens aggressive acts / hour
24
Using Time Out (McMahon Forehand, 1978)
of inappropriate behaviors
Baseline
Treatment Period
25
Compliance Developmental Considerations
Understanding and obeying caregivers wishes and
standards emerges between 12 and 18 months.

• Toddlers assert autonomy by sometimes not
  complying.
• Warm, sensitive caregiving increases compliance.

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Helping Toddlers Develop Compliance and
Self-Control

• Respond with sensitivity and support
• Give advance notice of change in activities
• Offer many prompts and reminders
• Reinforce self-controlled behavior
• Encourage sustained attention
• Increase rules gradually

27
The Family Changing Definitions
28
The Contemporary Family

• Single parents have to work
• Maternal employment / dual-income homes are
  dramatically increasing
• High Divorce rates

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Divorce and the Family

• 1900 lt 1/1000 divorces per year
• 1960 2/1000 divorces per year
• 1990 10/1000 divorces per year
• 50 of all marriages end in divorce the
  percentage is even higher among second marriages!

30
The Contemporary Family is Diverse

• Single-parent households
• Re-marriage Blended families
• Gay-parent families
• Adoptions and in vitro babies are increasing
• Not one definition of family better to think of
  families