Transcript Parenting - icherney.com

Parenting
Anne Bautch
Maren Hankey
Chris Vacek
I might want to have
children because . . .
It would be selfish for
me not to have children
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0
Agree
Strongly
Disagree
Somewhat
It would please my parents/inlaws
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Agree
Strongly
Disagree
Somewhat
I have stepchildren or adopted
children, but I want children of my
own
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10
8
6
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Agree
Strongly
Disagree
Somewhat
I would be a good mother/father
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Agree
Strongly
Disagree
Somewhat
Parenting Styles
 Refers to how parents interact with and
respond to their children
 Expectations placed on children by parents
 Important predictor of a child’s development
 Form of environmental variability
 Parental cognition
 Influences parenting style
 Parental cognition
 Influences parenting style
Four Styles of Parenting
 Authoritative: Reasonable discussion between
parents and children about expectations
 Authoritarian: Parents are directive but not
responsive
 Indulgent: Parents are more responsive than
they are demanding
 Uninvolved: Parents are not responsive or
demanding
Topics
 Gender and parenting
 Adoption
 Cross-cultural differences
Gender and Parenting
Does gender play an important role in
parenting style and child development?
If so, is the gender of the parent or the
child more significant?
Theories on Parental
Behavior
 Theories take a gender-based approach
to parenting
 Gender Congruence Theory (GCT):
 Mothers: care givers
 Fathers: breadwinners
“Identity Conditions”
 Social Mediation Theory (SMT):
 Role level (“I am a parent”)
 Domain level (How one acts in their role)
What is Gender?
 Gender identity is defined as a person’s
identification as a male or a female
 Usually formed by age three
 Gender identity affected by:
 Biological Factors (genetic predispositions)
 Social Factors (including parenting style)
Expression of Gender
Identity
Socialization through gender-specific colors and toys
Self expressed identification with a specific gender:
“I am male” or “I am female”
Prosocial Behavior
 Prosocial behavior and gender identity
 Positive actions that promote friendship
and acceptance with others
 Females and males are “nice” to each other
in different ways
 Females: generally more prosocial
 Males: generally more engaged and assertive
Prosocial Behavior and Parental
Socialization
 Mothers contribute most strongly to the
prosocial behavior of their children
 Encouragement of sex-typed behaviors
 Fathers encourage such behaviors more
than mothers
 This implies that sex differences in prosocial
behavior may be developmental, not just
biological
Maternal Parenting Traits
 Physical dependence
of newborns on their
mothers
 Direct care for infants
 Clear biological
connection between
mother and child
 Questions of paternity
Paternal Parenting Traits
 Reinforcement of social
norms and sex-typed
behavior
 More direct responses to
the prosocial behavior of
sons than daughters
 Belief that daughters
need more protection
than sons
 Expression of less
affection toward sons
than daughters
An Evolutionary
Approach to Adoption
Cost/Reward Approach
 The rewards of reproduction must outweigh
the costs in order for it to be practical
 Biological aspect
 Distribution of resources among children
 Importance of relatedness
Evolutionary Approach
to Adopted Children
 Less genetic relatedness
than with biological
children
 Strain on resources
otherwise used to improve
the reproductive likelihood
of biological offspring
Step-parenting
 Demonstration of increased attachment to
biological children
 Less emphasis on increased fitness and
survival for children lacking biological
relatedness
 Example of Preferential Treatment
American Attitudes
 Social stigmas concerning adoption
 Children come from less optimal hereditary
backgrounds
 Children have questionable mental health
 Adoptive parents violate the American norm of
the nuclear family
 Adoption is driven by illegitimacy and infertility
Adoption Trends
 A national survey showed that 4 in 10
Americans have considered adoption
 If only 1 in 500 Americans adopted from the
foster care system, every child would have a
family
 There are currently 523,000 American
children in foster care
14
Percent Adopted
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American Attitudes
 Emphasis on the
presence of a
biological relationship
 Demonstrates heredity
 Parents are closer to
children who resemble
them
 Only 2-4 percent of
adoptions are interracial
Cross-cultural differences
Cultural models
•
Model of independence
• Characterized by emotional and economical independence
• Individual is regarded as unique, separate from others, and defined
by stable attributes and traits
• Self confidence and competitiveness are important
• Western industrialized and postindustrialized information societiesurban, educated famiies

Model of interdependence
 Characterized by emotional and economical interdependence
 Individual is an interrelated part of a group
 Obedience, respect, loyalty toward the elder family members help to
maintain a harmonic functioning
 Prevalent in traditional rural, subsistence-based families

Model of autonomous relatedness
 Characterized by emotional interdependence with economical
independence
 Focuses on development of autonomy and integration of the family
 Urban educated middle-class families in societies with an interrelated
cultural heritage
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Familism- loyalty, reciprocity, and solidarity
Cultures in the model of independence exhibit less familism than both
interdependence and autonomous relatedness
Research indicates that familism has a significant indirect effect on
parenting ethnotheories via socialization goals.

Ethnotheories
•Collective beliefs held by a cultural group about children’s
development and behavior
•Derives from the parents cultural experiences with their
community and reflect cultural beliefs about children by the
society in which the child is being raised
•The attributes that parents hope will be expressed in their children
are a reflection of the cultural context in which parents affiliate
•Parenting goals, discipline practices, and beliefs about children’s
development differ based on “individualistic” and “collectivist”
societies.

Individualism
 Fostering independence and individual achievement
 Associated with egalitarian relationships and flexibility in roles
 Promoting self-expression, individual thinking, and personal choice
 Focus on developing initiative in infants
 Show more anti-social behaviour

Collectivism
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Emphasis on group effort and cooperation
React favorably to obedience and social behavior
Show less anti-social behavior
Promotion adherence to norms, respect for elders, and group consensus
Associated with stable, heirarchical roles
Research differences

Comparing Anglo-American parents with Chinese-American parents
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64% of the Anglo-American parents mentioned building children’s self-esteem as a
childrearing goal while only 8% of the Chinese-American parents agreed.
40% of the Anglo-American mothers considered helping the child to be aware of his/her
feelings and encouraging the child to be honest to be important while none of the
Chinese-American mothers did
In Asian cultures, doing well academically may be fueled more by desires to fulfill
family expectations rather than by individualistic desires to achieve
Chinese-American mothers show significantly higher levels of verbosity and agree
that it is important for children to understand why their behavior is problematic.
European-American mothers are less lax than Chinese-American
East Asian parents downplay children’s success and highligh children’s failure.
Americans do the opposite.