Chapter 12: Families Parenting Kati Tumaneng (For Drs. Cook and Cook)

Dimensions of Parenting  Parental warmth – The degree to which parents are accepting, responsive, and compassionate with their children.  Parental control – The degree to which parents set limits, enforce rules, and maintain discipline with children. Parenting Styles and its Correlates:

Four styles of parenting (Baumrind, 1973, 1991; Maccoby & Martin, 1983)  Authoritative parents – Are warm and exert firm control. Warmth: High Control: High

Outcomes  Children raised by authoritative parents: perform better in school; are less hostile and more popular among friends; have greater self-esteem; show more purpose and independence in their activities; and as adolescents are more accurate in understanding their parents’ values. (Baumrind, 1973, 1991; Knafo & Schwartz, 2003; Parke & Buriel, 1998)

Four styles of parenting (Baumrind, 1973, 1991; Maccoby & Martin, 1983)  Authoritarian parents – Exert firm control but are rejecting or unresponsive to their children. Warmth: Low Control: High

Outcomes  Children raised in an authoritarian environment: may feel trapped and angry but afraid to confront their parents (Parke & Buriel, 1998); perform less well in school (Baumrind, 1973); are more hostile and aggressive (Baumrind, 1973); less popular with peers and less independent than children reared by authoritative parents (Baumrind, 1973).

Four styles of parenting (Baumrind, 1973, 1991; Maccoby & Martin, 1983)  Permissive parents – Warm but have little control over their children. Warmth: High Control: Low

Outcomes  Compared to authoritatively raised children, children from permissive homes are: more impulsive; perform less well in school; and are less self-assured, independent, and confident in their activities. (Baumrind, 1973)

Four styles of parenting (Baumrind, 1973, 1991; Maccoby & Martin, 1983)  Rejecting/neglecting parents – Don’t set limits and are unresponsive to their children’s needs. Warmth: Low Control: Low

Outcomes  Children raised by rejecting/neglecting parents fare the worst of all.  Compared to other children, they show higher rates of delinquency, alcohol and drug use, and early sexual activities.  They perform more poorly in school and show other disruptions in peer relations and cognitive development (Park & Buriel, 1998).

Parental Warmth and Control Matrix

Parental Control  Psychological control – Attempts at control that affect a child’s psychological and emotional development (Barber, 1996). Includes inducting guilt, withdrawing love, or shaming.  Behavioral control – “The claims parents make on children to become integrated into the family whole, by their maturity demands, supervision, disciplinary efforts and willingness to confront the child who disobeys" (Baumrind, 1991, pp ). (Darling, 1996)

Parenting Styles: Research on the Dos and Don’ts of Raising Children  Factors to keep in mind Research in this area is largely correlational. The “effects” of parenting styles that are typically reported are not as dramatic as you might expect.  10,000 high school students surveyed about the styles used by their parents and outcomes (Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, & Dornbusch, 1991).  Found that GPA did not differ significantly between the authoritative and authoritarian groups, but GPAs were higher in authoritative (2.86) than in permissive (2.68) or neglectful (2.57) groups. Patterns similar for school performance, psychological symptoms, drugs use, and delinquency.

Parenting Styles: Research on the Dos and Don’ts of Raising Children  Factors to keep in mind (cont.) The correlations of outcomes with parenting styles are not universal. Rarely see a pure style of parenting.

Discipline: Spare the Rod and Spare the Child?  Discipline – Techniques used to teach children appropriate behavior.  Punishment – Techniques used to eliminate or reduce undesirable behavior.  Often overemphasize punishment when disciplining children.  84% of American adults state that “it is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good hard spanking” (Lehman, 1989; Straus, 1994).

Discipline: Spare the Rod and Spare the Child? In the short run, spanking seems to work; however, in the long run, spanking is not effective (Holden, 2002)  Models violent behavior  Creates fear of parents  Focuses on what not to do; does not teach what to do. More info on Spanking:

Discipline: Spare the Rod and Spare the Child? Children who are spanked are:  more physically violent and aggressive;  twice as likely to attack their siblings;  more likely to steal property, commit assaults, and commit other delinquent acts; and  have lower moral standards and lower self- esteem (Straus, 1994; Straus, Sugarman, & Giles-Sims, 1997). Outcomes are related to frequency, severity of spankings. All findings are correlational.

Discipline: Spare the Rod and Spare the Child?  Gershoff (2002) analyzed the results of 88 different studies and found consistent correlations between physical punishment and increases in child aggression, delinquency, and antisocial behavior; increased rates of child abuse by parents; and poorer relationships between children and parents.  Children less likely to internalize moral values and later in life were more likely to suffer from mental problems such as low self-esteem, depression, and alcoholism.  As adults, they were more likely to be aggressive, commit crimes, and abuse their own children and spouses.

Discipline: Spare the Rod and Spare the Child?  Some research suggests that negative effects associated with spanking may due to the parenting style rather than to the spanking itself (Baumrind, Larzelere, & Cowan, 2002).  Spanking does not always work as well as American parents would like to believe. No Spanking:

Appropriate Discipline  Remember Discipline refers to techniques used to teach children appropriate behaviors; rather than punish. No technique works all the time and right away. Positive Discipline:

Appropriate Discipline  Recommendations Manage the situation Set clear rules and limits Praise good behavior Use explanation and reasoning If you must punish, try removing privileges or using timeouts (a disciplinary technique that involves removing the child from the situation and anything that is encouraging the misbehavior to continue, placing the child in a safe and quiet environment).

Mothers and Fathers: Cooperating through Thick and Thin?  Raising children puts a great strain on most marriages.  Vast majority of couples report a significant decline in marital satisfaction in the first year after the births of their first babies.  Most parents work outside the home.  When children are born, couples tend to move toward more traditional gender roles.  Mothers spent 23 hours per week alone with children, whereas fathers spent only 2 hours (Russell & Russell, 1987).

Workforce Trends, (US Census Bureau, 2000b)

Mothers and Fathers: Cooperating through Thick and Thin?  Types of time spent with mothers and fathers is different. Fathers’ play tends to be more physical and rough-and-tumble, while mothers’ play tends to be more toy-oriented and verbal (Park, 1996; Russell & Russell, 1987). Cultural differences. Gender Roles:

Mothers and Fathers: Cooperating through Thick and Thin?  Stalled revolution – The fact that although mothers now work more outside the home, they still shoulder most of the responsibility for day-to-day care of children (Hochschild & Machung, 1989; Newman, 1999).  Guilt gap – The tendency of mothers to worry more than fathers about the negative impact their work may have on their children and families (Hays, 1996; Newman, 1999).  Wage gap – The fact that on average, women are still not paid as much as men for comparable work (Newman, 1999).

 Picture on Slide 2: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 463). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.  Picture on Slide 3: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 466). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.  Picture on Slide 4: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 466). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.  Picture on Slide 5: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 466). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.  Picture on Slide 6: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 466). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.  Chart on Slide 7: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 464). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.  Picture on Slide 11: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 470). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.  Information on Slide 12: from Darling, N. (1999, March). Parenting styles and its correlates. Retrieved April 4, 2006, from  Graph on Slide 15: from Cook, J. L., & Cook, G. (2005). Child development: Principles and perspectives (1st ed.) (p. 475). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.  All other images retrieved from Microsoft PowerPoint Clip Art.