Socialization: Family

Socialization: Family Chapter 15

The family is a social system – networks of reciprocal relationships that are constantly evolving • Direct effects • Indirect effects

Parent effects model • Child effects model • Transactional model

Parenting Styles • Baumrind • Dimensions of parenting: • Acceptance/responsiveness • Demandingness/control

Figure 15.2 Two major dimensions of parenting. When we cross the two dimensions, we come up with four parenting styles. BASED ON MACCOBY & MARTIN, 1983.

Child-Rearing Patterns and Adolescence • Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, and Dornbusch (1991) • measures of psychosocial competence and psychological and behavioral dysfunction

A parent takes a child to a shoe store and the parent selects three pairs of shoes that are acceptable to the parent in price and type. The child is told, “You may decide which you would like. This is what we can afford and I think these are suitable styles and quality.” (Think about what impact this parenting style might have on the child’s eventual ability to pick out shoes on his/her own.)

A parent takes a child to a shoe store and says, “What do you like?” The child selects a pair that costs more than the parent can afford or that is not a suitable type of shoe in the parent’s judgment. The parent says, “No, I can’t buy that pair.” The child whines and fusses until the parent gives in.

A parent takes a child to a shoe store and tells the salesperson, “We’ll try on those.” The child is given no say and ends up with a pair of shoes that s/he hates. The child feels disrespected. (“No one asked me what I wanted.”) The child says nothing out of fear of parental love-withdrawal (parent pouts and gives child silent treatment) or fear of harsh reaction (parent says, “You are just a spoiled brat; you don’t appreciate anything I do for you!” or parent slaps or spanks child for complaining).

Appropriate behavior needs: • Compliance • Internalization of standards

Effects of Prohibitions • Carlsmith • Kindergarteners rank toys on attractiveness • E leaves, told not to play • Mild vs. severe threat • Temptation period • Preference for toys assessed

Effects of Prohibitions • Are they using this time to reflect on their behavior and attribute it internally or externally? • What if children are told that all other children had obeyed E? • If given before the temptation period, what would you expect? • If given after the temptation period, what would you expect?

Effects of Rewards • magic markers and paper set up on a table in a preschool classroom • children who drew with them during free time were later taken to another room and asked to draw again • 3 conditions: • expected reward • unexpected reward • no reward • 2 weeks later markers returned to table in classroom

Minimum Sufficiency Principle • it’s important to produce compliance • failure to gain compliance reduces likelihood of future compliance • must exert enough control to gain compliance • control is subtle enough to not be perceived as sole reason for compliance

Behavioral vs. Psychological Control • Behavioral control • regulating conduct through firm but reasonable discipline and monitoring activities • Psychological control • attempts to influence a child/adolescent’s behavior by psychological means • Separation anxious • Achievement oriented

Social Class Differences • Low SES parents compared to middle SES parents • stress obedience and respect for authority • more restrictive and authoritarian • more likely to use power-assertive discipline • less likely to show warmth and affection

Explanations for SES Differences • More stress • Work-role requires deference to authority

Sibling Relationships • 80% of Americans grow up with at least one sibling • Drop on maternal involvement with older child with birth of baby • Older sibs become more domineering, aggressive, and also more likely to initiate helpful, playful, and other prosocial behaviors • Younger sibs become more compliant

Sibling Relationships • Sibling Relationships During Middle Childhood and Adolescence • during middle childhood  increase in conflict • continue to rely on each other for companionship, emotional support, and assistance with everyday tasks

Sibling Relationships • Parents harmony matters • Parental monitoring matters • Sibling relationships are better if parents respond warmly and sensitively to all children

Sibling Relationships • Siblings provide emotional support • Siblings can be models and teachers • Children in one-child families  well-adjusted and socially competent • May even be more obedient and slightly more intellectually competent

Adoptive Families • Sensitivity associated with secure attachment • Can bring issues related to insecure attachments from previous homes… • Unresolved curiosity about roots • Transracial or transcultural adoption  identities are healthy blends • Move towards open adoptions

Donor Insemination Families • Infertile couples/single women • Concerns • Golombok’s 12-year longitudinal study

Figure 15.4 Sexual orientation of adult children raised by lesbian mothers, gay fathers, and single-parent heterosexual mothers. (Notice that children with homosexual parents are just as likely to display a heterosexual orientation as children raised by heterosexuals. ADAPTED FROM BAILEY ET AL., 1995; GOLOMBOK & TASSER, 1996.

Family Conflict and Divorce • 40-50% of marriages end in divorce • More than half of children will spend time in a single-parent home • Not a singular life event • Often begins with marital conflict • Includes many life changes

Family Conflict and Divorce • Period prior to divorce often includes a rise in family conflict • Regular exposure to marital discord contributes to adjustment problems, including anxiety, depression, and externalizing disorders • Direct and indirect effects

Divorce • Families often disrupted for a year or more after divorce • Friends/financial situation may change • Mothers may be overwhelmed with new responsibilities

Divorce • Period immediately following divorce associated with more negative outcomes • high level of conflict during that time • adverse economic conditions • stresses resulting from mother having to start work or increase hours • compound effects of the father leaving and the mother being physically and emotionally less available to the child • child often temporarily “loses” both parents

Divorce • Children’s initial reactions vary as a function of gender and age • Preschool/early grade school • Preteen/early teens • Adolescents

Divorce • Long Term Reactions to Divorce • Better for a child to be in a stable single-parent home than a conflict-ridden two-parent home • Not all divorcing families experience all of the difficulties mentioned previously

Divorce • Longitudinal data from the large-scale longitudinal National Survey of Children: • poor relationships with their fathers and mothers • dropping out of high school • repeating a grade • being in the lower half of class • receiving psychological help

Socialization: Family