Family Relationships

Question 1

ways in which parents affect their children

Answer 1

• Adult attachment model (their own attachment style)
• Direct instruction (telling kids how to behave)
• Indirect socialization (the way they behave)
• Social management (choosing who their kids interact with)

Question 2

2 main dimensions of parenting styles

Answer 2

1. Warmth/responsiveness

2. Demandingness

Question 3

4 types of parenting styles

Answer 3

• authoritative
• authoritarian
• permissive
• rejecting-neglecting

Question 4

authoritative parenting

Answer 4

• High in warmth/responsiveness
• High in demandingness
• Set clear standards for children’s behaviour, but allow children autonomy within their limits (exert behavioural control, but NOT psychological control)
• Pay attention to their children’s concerns
• Consistent and measured in their disciplining of child

Question 5

effects of authoritative parenting

Answer 5

• Kids are more competent, self-assured, and popular with their peers
• Kids are better verbalizers
• More prosocial
• Good at academics and in employment
• Low drug abuse and problematic behaviour (both internal and external)

Question 6

authoritarian parenting

Answer 6

• Low in warmth/responsiveness
• High in demandingness
• Enforce behaviour and thinking through parental power (exert both behavioural and psychological control) -> use threats and punishment
• Tend to believe that negative behaviour comes from the child and that positive behaviour comes from external sources
• Engage in psychological control

Question 7

effects of authoritarian parenting

Answer 7

• Lower social and academic competence
• Experience more bullying
• Have difficulty coping with stress
• Higher rates of depression, delinquency, and substance abuse (both internal and external)

Question 8

permissive parenting

Answer 8

• High in warmth/responsiveness
• Low in demandingness
• Lenient with their children (little to no discipline)
• Responsive to their wishes and desires
• Don’t require their children to act in socially appropriate ways

Question 9

effects of permissive parenting

Answer 9

• Lacking in self-control
• Exhibit greater externalizing problems
• Have lower academic achievement
• Have worse behaviour and are at increased risk for substance abuse
• Have lower self-esteem (self-esteem based on external approval)

Question 10

rejecting/neglecting parenting

Answer 10

• Low in warmth/responsiveness
• Low in demandingness
• Don’t set limits and don’t monitor behaviour
• Focus on their own needs (or other events) and not on children
• May be completely neglectful

Question 11

effects of rejecting/neglecting parenting

Answer 11

• Have disturbed relationships with other children
• Exhibit anti-social or problematic externalizing behaviour
• Exhibit internalizing problems such as depression and social anxiety
• Have higher rates of substance abuse and risky sexual behaviour
• Have problems that get worse in adolescence

Question 12

Diana Baumrind

Answer 12

• the first to define parenting styles in the 1970’s
• Stated that authoritative parenting is typically best style, and rejecting-neglecting style is the worst
• All styles have effects on child development

Question 13

cultural differences in parenting styles

Answer 13

• Info about effects of parenting styles can’t be generalized to the entire population
• Most of these studies were conducted with European-Canadians and European-Americans
• Authoriatrian parenting may look different in other countries and have different effects on child development
• But urban areas outside North America/Europe are beginning to shift towards Western parenting practices

Question 14

authoritarian effects cross-culturally

Answer 14

• strictness tends to be higher in other countries/cultures (Everywhere except European-American/Canadians, warmth and strictness go together)
• High strictness predicts negative outcomes in European-Canadian children, but not in Chinese children, Latino children, and African-American children
• – Scolding, shame, and guilt don’t predict negative outcomes in these populations
• – Excessive physical punishment still predicts negative outcomes
• If parental strictness is normative, a higher cultural value is placed on parental strictness
• – Seen as a sign of warmth/protectiveness
• – Suggests that it’s not the strictness itself that predicts negative outcomes, but whether kids feel that they’re being treated differently than their peers

Question 15

family dynamics

Answer 15

the way in which the family operates as a whole

Question 16

bidirectionality of parent-child interactions

Answer 16

• parents and their children are mutually affected by one another’s characteristics and behaviours
• ex. kids’ temperament or attractiveness affects ways parents interact with them, which affect kids’ behaviour, which affects parents’ behaviour, and so on

Question 17

SES and parenting styles

Answer 17

Low SES tend to use authoriarian style, high SES tend to use authoritative style

Question 18

influence on sibling relationships

Answer 18

• better relationship if parents are warm and accepting, treat them similarly, and get along with each other
• cultural differences exist in terms of preferential treatment (ie. in familial cultures, it’s not negative)

Question 19

parenting practices in Canada

Answer 19

• Much of the work on parenting practices on done with mothers
• • Most children are still raised primarily by mothers
• • Allows for more scientific control in studies
• Paternal involvement is increasing in Canada (due to Canadian parental leave policy)

Question 20

mother vs. father interactions with kids

Answer 20

• Mothers tend to spend more time with their children, and engage in:
• • Emotional and physical care
• Fathers may spend less time with their kids, but engage in more play (especially physical play)
• • The amount of play that a child has with his/her father predicts positive outcomes (motor, cognitive, social, etc.) in childhood/adolescence for both boys and girls
• cultural differences exist - ie. in some countries, fathers don’t report playing with kids at all

Question 21

changes in Canadian families over the last 50-60 years

Answer 21

• Age of parents
• Marriage
• Divorce rates
• Multiple partnerships
• Same-sex marriage

Question 22

age of parents

Answer 22

• Age at childbirth has increased for both men and women in Canada
• • Older marriage age
• • Family planning techniques
• Live births after mother is 35
• • 4% of all Canadian births in 1987
• • 19% of all Canadian births in 2010

Question 23

marriage

Answer 23

• Marriage rates have gone down

- More children born to unmarried parents

Question 24

divorce rates

Answer 24

• Divorce Act (1986)
• Rates of divorce in Canada are higher (35-42% currently -> down from 50% in 1987)
• divorce predicts:
• • Higher rates of depression/anxiety
• • Lower self-esteem
• • Higher levels of externalizing behaviour problems
• • Lower academic achievement
• • Future divorce

Question 25

multiple partnerships

Answer 25

- More common to marry/partner more than once | - More children have step-parents than before

Question 26

same-sex marriage

Answer 26

- Marriage Act (2005) said that marriage is between two consenting adults regardless of sex or gender identity - Of same-sex couples in Canada: - - 16% of homosexual female couples have children living with them - - 3% of homosexual male couples have children living with them - In most ways, kids raised by same-sex vs. Opposite-sex parents are identical

Question 27

older parents - effects on children

Answer 27

- Smaller families, no siblings - Physical play decreases - Parents more highly educated - Parents more affluent - Lower rates of harsh parenting and more satisfaction with parenting - But many of these effects have been studied with older parents of only children -> benefits decrease for older parents when they have more than one child

Question 28

more highly educated parents - effects

Answer 28

- Adolescents' standardized test scores correlate highly with parental education - College students' degree expectations are higher when they have more educated parents - But college students with less educated parents have same success in college, and GPA and college satisfaction is the same in both groups

Question 29

parents more affluent - effects

Answer 29

- More likely to have financial resources for raising a family - High SES protects against a number of outcomes - Manutrition (fruit and veggie intake; obesity) - Depression (low SES children 2.5x more likely to be depressed) - Antisocial behaviour - Low language development - Low IQ

Question 30

more satisfaction in parenting - effects

Answer 30

- Older mothers have more positive emotions, more sensitivity to infant's needs - Older fathers are more responsive, affectionate, and verbally stimulating

Question 31

factors influencing how much divorce affects a child

Answer 31

- Parental conflict: Level of parental conflict before and after divorce - Stress: Stress for custodial parent post-divorce - Child's age: Different outcomes for children at different ages (infants, young kids, and older adolescents okay, middle childhood not okay) - Non-custodial parent contact: Parenting styles may be different between parents (only good if high quality)

Question 32

ways kids raised by same-sex and opposite-sex parents are similar

Answer 32

- Adjustment and personality similar - Sexual orientation and gender-typed behaviour are also not affected - Social relationships are mostly unaffected (some exclusion from peers in some communities) - Adjustment outcomes for children of same-sex parents follow the same logic as for children of opposite-sex parents

Question 33

children have better adjustment outcomes when there is...

Answer 33

- Low parental conflict - Sharing of parental responsibilities - High positive sexual identity

Question 34

effect of working moms on their daughters

Answer 34

- good thing! - daughters feel less confined to gender roles - have higher self-esteem and self-efficacy

Question 35

non-maternal childcare

Answer 35

- has minimal effect on quality of mother-child relationship - kids in low-quality childcare may be more aggressive, but not in high-quality - high-quality childcare has some benefits for cognitive and language development