CHAPTER 11 Parenting

1. CHAPTER 11 Parenting

2. Chapter 11: ParentingChapter Outline • Choices Perspective of Parenting • Transition to Parenthood • Parenthood: Some Facts • Principles of Effective Parenting • Child Rearing Theories • Single Parenting Issues • The Future of Parenting

3. Chapter 11: ParentingIntroduction • Quote: “Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist.” • Michael Levine, Pianist • Discussion: How do you think the media affects parenting for families that publicize their families like Jon and Kate Plus 8?

4. Chapter 11: ParentingIntroduction • True or False? • Infants who sleep with their own parents in the parents’ bed are at significant risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome when compared with children who do not share a bed with their parents.

5. Chapter 11: ParentingIntroduction • Answer: FALSE • A study of 260 SIDS deaths found that the usual bed sharing, where one infant shares the bed with a parent, is not associated with SIDS. • However, where the parent slept on a sofa or where more than one child was in the bed, there was an increased risk of SIDS.

6. Chapter 11: ParentingIntroduction • True or False? • Parents, compared to nonparents, report higher marital satisfaction.

7. Chapter 11: ParentingIntroduction • Answer: FALSE • A study of the effect children have on marital satisfaction found that: • Parents (both women and men) reported lower marital satisfaction than nonparents. • Mothers of infants reported the most significant drop in marital satisfaction. • The higher the number of children, the lower the marital satisfaction. • Factors that depressed marital satisfaction were conflict and loss of freedom.

8. The Choices Perspective of ParentingNature of Parenting Choices • Parents might keep the following points in mind when making choices about how to rear their children: • Not to make a parental decision is to make a decision. • All parental choices involved trade-offs. • Reframe “regretful” parental decisions. • Parental choices are influenced by society and culture.

9. PHOTO ESSAY: Parenting Roles • Caregiver • Emotional Resource • Economic Resource • Teacher • Protector • Health Promotion • Ritual Bearer

10. Six Basic Parenting Choices • Deciding whether to have a child. • Deciding the number of children. • Deciding the interval between children. • Deciding one’s method of discipline and guidance. • Deciding the degree to which one will be invested in the role of parent. • Deciding whether or not to co-parent.

11. Transition to Parenthood • The transition to parenthood refers to that period from the beginning of pregnancy through the first few months after the birth of a baby. • The mother, father, and couple undergo changes and adaptations during this period.

12. Transitions to ParenthoodTransitions to Motherhood • Mothers soon learn that much of the work of parenting falls to them. • Although childbirth is sometimes thought of as painful, some women describe the experience as fantastic, joyful, and unsurpassed. • Emotional bonding may be temporarily impeded by a mild depression, characterized by irritability, crying, loss of appetite, and difficulty sleeping. • Baby Blues • Postpartum Depression • Postpartum Psychosis

13. Transitions to ParenthoodTransitions to Fatherhood • Children Benefit from Involved Fathers: • Make good grades • Less involved in crime • Good health/self-concept • Have a strong work ethic • Have durable marriages • Have a strong moral conscience • Have higher life satisfaction • Have higher incomes as adults • Have higher education levels

14. Transitions to ParenthoodTransitions to Fatherhood • Children Benefit from Involved Fathers: • Form close friendships • Have stable jobs • Have fewer premarital births • Have lower child sex abuse • Exhibit fewer anorexic symptoms

15. Transitions to ParenthoodTransition from a Couple to a Family • Researchers disagree over whether children have a negative or positive impact on a couple’s marital relationship. • Regardless of how children affect the feelings spouses have about their marriage, spouses report more commitment to their relationship once they have children.

16. Percentage of Couples Getting Divorced by Number of Children

17. Parenthood: Some Facts • Views of children differ historically • Parents are only one influence in a child’s development • Others include siblings, teachers, media, and the Internet • Each child is unique • Parents soon become aware of how each child is different from every other child they know

18. Parenthood: Some Facts • Birth order effects: Sulloway identified some personality characteristics that have their basis in a child’s position in the family: • First child: Conforming/Traditional • Middle child: Experimental/Adventurous • Youngest child: Neurotic/Emotionally Unstable

19. Parenthood: Some FactsParenting Styles Differ • Permissive parents are high on responsiveness and low on demandingness. • Authoritarian parents are high on demandingness and low in responsiveness. • Authoritative parents are both demanding and responsive. • Uninvolved parents are low in responsiveness and demandingness.

20. Principles of Effective Parenting • Give time, love, praise, and encouragement • Since children depend on their parents for the development of their of emotional security, parents must provide a warm emotional context in which the children can develop. • Avoid overindulgence • Avoid giving children too much, too soon, and for too long.

21. Principles of Effective Parenting • Monitor child’s activities/drug use • Abundant research suggests that parents who know where their children are and who they are with are less likely to report that their adolescents are involved in delinquent behavior such as drinking alcohol, poor academic performance, and sexual activity. • Monitor television and pornography exposure • Research shows that teens watch an average of 4.5 hours of TV daily and use 1.5 hours of nonschool Internet. Also, research indicates that there are negative effects of pornography exposure on teens.

22. Principles of Effective Parenting • Monitor cell phone/text messaging use • Teens may be sending inappropriate text messages. • Set limits and discipline children for inappropriate behavior • The goal of guidance is self-control. • Guidance may involve reinforcing desired behavior or providing limits to children’s behavior.

23. Principles of Effective Parenting • Have family meals • Parents who stay connected with their children build strong relationships with them and report fewer problems. • Encourage responsibility • Giving children increased responsibility encourages the autonomy and independence they need to be assertive and independent.

24. Principles of Effective Parenting • Provide sex education • Although parents may be reluctant to discuss safe sex, their doing so often has positive consequences. • Express confidence • If the parents show the child that they have confidence in him or her, the child begins to accept these social definitions as real and becomes more self-confident.

25. Principles of Effective Parenting • Respond to Teen Years Creatively • Catch them doing what you like rather than criticizing them for what you don’t like. • Be direct when necessary. • Provide information rather than answers. • Be tolerant of high activity levels. • Engage in some activity with your teenagers.

26. Single-Parenting Issues • A single-parent familyis one in which there is only one parent. • The other parent is completely out of the child’s life through death, sperm donation, or complete abandonment. • A single-parent householdis one in which one parent typically has primary custody of the child or children but the parent living out of the house is still a part of the child’s family.

27. Single-Parenting IssuesChallenges Faced by Single Parents • Responding to the demands of parenting with limited help • Coping with adult psychological/assaultive issues alone • Resolving the issue of adult sexual needs • Lack of money • Guardianship • Parental Care • Absence of a father (or mother) • Negative life outcomes for the child in a single-parent family • Perpetuation of single family structure

28. The Future of Parenting • The future of parenting will involve new contexts for children and new behaviors that children learn and parents tolerate. • While parents will continue to be the primary context in which their children are reared, because the financial need for both parents to earn an income will increase, children will increasingly end up in day care, afterschool programs, and day camps during the summer.

29. Quick Quiz • What is the primary focus of parent effectiveness training? • Family systems theory • Letting children make their own decisions • Operant conditioning • Life and behavior based on how children view their world

30. Quick Quiz • The theory that children feel powerless and act out to compensate for it is the basis for the: • social learning approach • family systems theory • socioteleological approach • reality therapy

31. Quick Quiz • What style of parenting is associated with obedience at all costs? • Authoritative parenting • Permissive parenting • Authoritarian parenting • Democratic parenting

32. Quick Quiz • Who are more likely to defer to their children? • Permissive parents • Democratic parents • Authoritative parents • Authoritarian parents

33. Quick Quiz • Which of the following is not a challenge faced by a single parent? • Independence • Satisfaction of adult needs • Financial struggles • Discipline of children