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Chapter Ten

Children and Parents

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What Are Parents Supposed to Do for Children? Parents supply:

love, nurturing, and care to develop sense of trust

assistance towards autonomy guidance, discipline and support

Socialization is shaped by: ethnicity gender social class

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Socialization as Support and Control Types of Parenting (Baumrind)

Authoritarian low support and coercive attempts at control

Permissive some support with low or no control

Authoritative high levels of emotional support and inductive control

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Socialization and Ethnicity Baumrind’s classification more likely

to apply to middle-class whites Primary task of socialization is to

familiarize child with his/her culture Teaching of norms and values

Norm = a widely accepted rule Value = a goal or principle that is held in

high esteem by a society

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Socialization and Social Class Differences related to social

classification Social class and parental values Working class are highly supervised

at work More likely to focus on authority,

conformity, and good manners Middle class are less supervised at

work More likely to focus on independence,

self-direction, curiosity, and initiative

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Differences in obedience and independence

Educational level for population increased in 20th century

More importance put on individual autonomy in the last part of 20th century

Both middle and working-class families have drifted toward greater emphasis on autonomy and self-direction

Historical Trends in Social Class Values

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Socialization and Gender Treating daughters and sons

differently Distinctions parents make may reflect

biologically based differences Sociological emphasis on conscious

social learning Boys and girls may develop different

senses of self due to unconscious psychoanalytic processes of merging and separating from primary caretakers

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Material and physical support support, food, clothes, shelter

Emotional support encouraging: security, ability to love Control

consistent, firm but moderate Androgynous behavior

behavior that has characteristics of both genders

may be helpful in today’s society

What is Important?

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Concern about father absence Encouragement for fathers to

participate more in child-rearing Fathers relate to young children

differently than mothers – “Rough and tumble” play

Father’s influence is often indirect

What Difference Do Fathers Make?

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Father’s influence shows up in long term and day-to-day life

Influence on daughters may be different than on sons

Quality of interaction, not time spent, is what is important for nonresident fathers

Fathers do have a significant effect But not as great as mother’s effect– much

more involved in childcare

What Difference Do Fathers Make?

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What Prevents Parents From Doing What They Are Supposed to Do? Unemployment and Poverty

Can affect the way parents act toward each other and children

Unemployment Fathers under economic pressure are more

irritable and hostile to wives and children Children became more sullen, depressed

and aggressive

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Living in poverty Similar to feelings of unemployed and

their children Misbehavior of child may cause parent to threaten harsh punishment Child gets little consistency in

emotional support and discipline

What Prevents Parents From Doing What They Are Supposed to Do?

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Large portion of African-American children live with persistent poverty

Parental distress may be consequentialto their development

More likely to be raised by grandmother Quality of parenting in a three- generation

household may be lower

What Prevents Parents From Doing What They Are Supposed to Do?

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Divorce and Remarriage Most common way in which child

comes to live in single-parent family is when parents divorce

First two years after separation, children are distressed

Mother ends up with lower economic status May be depressed and angry, not

able to give consistent support or supervision

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In the long-term, most children do not suffer substantial harm

Remarriage does not appear to increase well-being of children Similar to children with unmarried,

divorced parents

Divorce and Remarriage

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Single-Parent Families

Studies show that single parents do not monitor children as well as married or cohabitating parents do

If incomes are adequate, they usually provide good care

All things being equal, it is better for children to be in two-parent families

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Family day care homes are most common form of childcare

Day care centers are second most common

Increase in children in care outside the home has alarmed some observersTypical arrangements do not seem

to cause harm

Non-Parental Childcare

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Lesbian and Gay Parents New birth technology Questions raised by researchers

about how children develop sexual identities

Studies of children in lesbian families No significant differences from those in

heterosexual families Does not appear to alter sexual identity

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The Well-Being of American Children

Has their well-being declined?

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Typical standard of living much lower in first half of 20th CenturyHealth carePoverty

Changes in the family Intact familiesDivorce rateSingle parents

Compared to When?

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Which Children?

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Which children? Well-being related to

socioeconomic status Children with three of the four

characteristics have poor prospects for adulthood

an unmarried mother a teen mother a mother without a high school degree a family income below the poverty line

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Which children? Children with three of four characteristics

have good prospects for adulthooda married mothera mother 26 or older when child was

borna mother who completed collegea family income 4x poverty level

Children who fall between two groups have an average prospect

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Which children? By Race and Ethnicity

Black children, in general, are more likely to live in poverty at some point in their lives

Also more likely to live in a single-parent family

Single-parent families more likely to live in poverty, regardless of ethnicity

1980-1995, increase in Hispanic children in poverty - related to immigration

1999, number dropped

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Summing Up

Poor and Wealthy Children Poor children may be getting less

supervision More difficult to start and maintain

two parent family Wealthy children appear to be more

fortunate and have fewer risks

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Summing Up Children in the middle

Downward drift since the 1960s More divorce, more single-parent families

Youth more at-risk of dropping out of school, teen pregnancy

Most do not suffer long-term harmful effects

Changes in families may have contributed to the moderate deterioration of the well-being of children

Real crisis is for those of lowest income level