Family Characteristics (Applied Research Bulletin)

1
Family Characteristics (Applied Research
Bulletin)

• Effect of parental separation on children's
  behavior
• 13.8 of children born in 1983-84 experienced
  parental separation before age 6 years
• 1987-88 increased to 15.9
• Questions
• Do children who experience parent separation have
  more emotional and behavioral problems?
• Does the type of arrangement (mother only)
  affect behavioral and emotional problems?

2

• Method
• Used NLSCY data of children 2-11 years of age
• Emotional and behavioral disorders anxiety,
  emotional disorder, hyperactivity, inattention,
  conduct disorder, aggression, unsocial.
• Results Rates of Problems
• More behavioral and emotional problems in
  children living with parental separation than
  those living with both parents.
• Small difference 32.5 vs 28
• Majority (2/3rds) of children have no problems

3
(No Transcript)
4

• Results
• Gender, number of siblings, and SES are better
  predictors of behavioral/emotional problems
• Being male increased chance of problems
• Prevalence for girls 38 less than boys
• More siblings increases chance of problems
• Each additional sibling increases chance of
  problems by 7
• Mothers education, age, and income are strongly
  related to problems
• Those with no high school are 42 more likely to
  report problems in their children
• Each year older the mother is, the odds of her
  child having a problems decrease by 8
• Higher income associated with less problems

5

• Results Custody Arrangement
• Custody arrangement did not have an effect on the
  rates of problems
• Conclusions
• Conclude that behavioral and emotional problems
  are the result of a number of processes
• Resiliency in children
• Time since separation is important in healing

6
Children in Lone-Parent Families

• Almost 16 of Canadian children live in single
  parent families
• Research suggests they are at risk for mental and
  physical health problems, poorer well being,
  competence, and attainment.
• US data indicates that they are 2x as likely to
  drop out of school and have kids before age 20,
  and 1.5x more likely to be out of work and school
  in late adolescence and early adulthood.
• But, Canadian data suggests children in single
  parent families grow up healthy

7

• Canadian researchers looked at outcomes of
  children from single parent families
• Measured vulnerability (health, behavior,
  emotional and academic outcomes) among 2-11 yr
  olds.
• Found that the majority of children in single
  parent families were not vulnerable to poor
  outcomes
• Differences are due to a small number of children
  with extreme scores
• Parenting style was most related to vulnerability
• More than income, parental and community
  resources, and family characteristics

8
(No Transcript)
9
Family Characteristics and School

• How do family characteristics affect school
  success?
• Researchers used NLSCY data of 4300 6-11 yr olds
  to see how families affect school achievement.
• Family School Relationships (FSR) Model
  characteristics of the family that are most
  connected to school will have the greatest effect
  on school success
• Childs personal characteristics have the largest
  effect, then what families do at home to promote
  school success

10
(No Transcript)
11

• SES directly positively related to achievement
• Above and beyond family characteristics
• SES associated with positive attitudes towards
  school, which is related to school achievement
• SES associated with more social support, which is
  related to less depression, which decreases
  family dysfunction and ineffective parenting,
  which are associated with more positive school
  attitudes and higher achievement.
• Policy implications improve SES
• Target parents (psychological services, education
  programs, parenting classes)

12
Working Mothers and Learning

• NLSCY 25 of Canadian preschoolers have some
  delays in vocabulary, 10 very low
• At risk for school problems
• Researchers hypothesize that both family labor
  force and income both predict vocabulary
• Labor force leads to more income (positive), but
  reduces time mothers spend with children
  (negative)
• Used NLSCY data for 3000 4-5 yr olds.
• Vocabulary (PPVT), Labor (weeks a mother works
  per year), income (family income)
• Amount a mother works has little effect on
  vocabulary
• Those who work more have children with higher
  vocabulary scores

13
(No Transcript)
14

• Mothers who work more read just as much to their
  kids as those who work less
• Reading correlated with vocabulary
• Mothers education more important predictor of
  preschool vocabulary than income
• Mothers with more education may talk more with
  their children and also have innate skills that
  they pass on to their children
• Income not as strongly related to vocabulary, and
  mainly for the very poor, so increasing income
  for these individuals may make a difference

15
Parenting Teti Huang

• For infants parenting competency can be defined
  by the security of the infant-mother attachment
• Ainsworth attachment research parental
  sensitivity is the most important feature for
  having a secure attachment
• Mothers ability to perceive and interpret signs
  in her infants behavior
• Awareness of signals, alertness
• Ability to interpret the signals (empathy and no
  distortion)
• Responding to the signals promptly and
  appropriately

16

• Instrumentally competent child independent,
  responsible, achievement, friendly, cooperation
• Parenting Styles
• Authoritarian high control and maturity demands,
  low nurturance and clarity of communication
• Permissive high nurturance and clarity, low
  control and maturity demands
• Authoritative high on all dimensions, nurturing
  but have firm consistent control, clear rules
• Children from authoritative homes are the most
  instrumentally competent
• Independent, assertive, achievement oriented,
  friendly, and cooperative

17

• Authoritarian hostile, less achievement
  oriented, more dependent
• Permissive dependent, poor self-control
• Neither teach children how to cope with stress
  and adapt to life situations
• Control and Discipline
• Power assertion threat or use of force, physical
  punishment, and withdrawing privileges
• Love withdrawal ignoring or showing
  disappointment
• Reasoning/Explanation communicating to the child
  what was done wrong and showing how it affected
  others rights and feelings
• Best for fostering internalization, but can be
  used with other methods

18
Spanking Children (Kazdin Benjet, 2003)

• Spanking children is a broad area interest in
  many disciplines
• Using corporal punishment for discipline in the
  home has been banned in some counties (Austria,
  Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden)
• UN is against all forms of physical violence to
  children
• In the US, there are laws against being hit by
  others for adults, some organizations lobby for
  the same laws for children

19

• In the US 74 of parents say the spank their
  children (aged 17 and under).
• Of those parents with 3-4 yr olds, 94 say they
  use corporal punishment
• What is considered spanking?
• hitting a child with an open hand on the
  buttocks or extremities with the intent to
  discipline without leaving a bruise or causing
  physical harm
• What is Physical abuse?
• corporal punishment that is harsh and excessive,
  involves the use of objects (belts, paddles) is
  directed towards parts of the body other than
  extremities, and causes or has the potential to
  cause physical harm

20

• Views of Spanking
• Pro-corporal punishment not supported in
  academic research writings, but occurs in
  society
• Biblical quote spare the rod and spoil the
  child
• Promotes spanking and states that negative
  consequences result from not spanking
• Anti-corporal punishment Focuses on the negative
  consequences of corporal punishment
• Violence begets violence, modelling and social
  learning
• Morality of inflicting pain
• Conditional corporal punishment spanking is not
  negative or positive, but depends on the
  conditions
• Spanking varies across dimensions (frequency and
  intensity) and contexts. Does not advocate or
  refute.

21

• Gershoff (2002) conducted a meta-analysis of 88
  studies on corporal punishment
• Looked at relation between corporal punishment
  and child outcomes (compliance, moral
  internalization, aggression, criminal and
  antisocial behaviour, parent-child relationship,
  mental health, and abuse).
• Spanking tended to lead to immediate compliance
  of the child, but
• Associated with decreased internalization of
  morals, poorer parent-child relationships, poorer
  mental health of child and adult, more
  delinquency and antisocial behaviour.
• At risk for abuse or abusing ones child or
  spouse
• More angry, aggressive and stressed

22

• The review had studies with more harsh
  punishments or even physical abuse and these
  studies had more negative outcomes
• Another review (Larzelere, 2000) found that mild
  spanking, as a back up, may not be detrimental
• Key Issues for Research
• Different definitions of spanking
• Most research on the effects of spanking on child
  outcomes are retrospective, with ratings
  completed by the same person (parent)
• Difficult to say that spanking actually preceded
  the outcome (e.g. child deviance)
• Spanking may be a proxy for other variables
  related to negative child outcomes.
• Parents who spank tend to do less reading,
  playing, and hugging with children
• They have more stress and major life events,
  marital dysfunction, mental illness and substance
  abuse

23

• Goal of discipline is to decrease some behaviors
  (negative) and develop others (positive)
• Not a lot of research to show punishment is the
  best strategy
• Positive reinforcement techniques work
• Child abuse has many serious negative effects
  (changes in the brain), but it is not clear if
  how the brain distinguishes between abuse
  spanking
• Need research on how spanking affects other
  psychological processes (attachment, emotion reg)
• Harsh frequent spanking has negative outcomes,
  but effects of mild occasional spanking are
  unclear
• Caution against use of spanking other good
  methods and may lead to more harsh punishment