Sociocultural influences

Children develop with influence from their family, neighborhood, community, culture and world.  Bronfenbrenner developed an ecological model for understanding cultural influences.  The child is at the center of the model.

Microsystem: child’s immediate contacts

Mesosystem:  social influences involving reciprocal relationships

Exosystem:  social settings in which the child is usually not an active participant, but that influence the child indirectly through their effects on the microsystem.

Macrosystem:  influences of a particular culture.

The family and socialization

The family here is defined as any group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, or any sexually expressive relationship in which 1) the people are committed to one another in an intimate, interpersonal relationship, 2) the members see their identity as importantly attached to the group, and 3) the group has an identity of its own.

Different types of families:

Single parent family: one parent and one or more children

Nuclear family: father, mother and children

Extended family: one person, possible mate, any children, and other relatives that live near them or close by and in frequent contact.

Blended or reconstituted family: formed when a widowed or divorced person with or without children remarries.  If the remarried husband or wife has children,  a stepfamily is formed. 

Binuclear family: original family divided in two by divorce

Communal family: group of people who live together and share various aspects of their lives

Gay or lesbian family: adults of same sex in sexual relationship who live together, with or without children.

Cohabiting family: two people of opposite sex who live together in a sexual committed relationship, with or without children, and are not legally married.

The family is responsible for generational transmission – transmitting of knowledge, values, attitudes, roles, and habits from one generation to the next, and also for socialization – the process by which persons learn the ways of societal or social groups so that they can function within them.

Parental competence and Family Environment

The parents psychological adjustment, parenting style, and the quality of their marriage all have an effect on the children’s emotional maturity, social competence, and cognitive development.

Parents’ Psychological Adjustment

  When parents expose children to high levels of parental anger, the result is heightened emotional and behavioral reactivity on the part of the children.

Parents who are psychologically healthy are more likely to have a positive effect on their children’s development.

Marital Quality

  The quality of the marital relationship affects children’s adjustments and development and influences children’s behavior problems over a wide age span. Harmonious marriages are associated with sensitive parents and warm child-parent relationships.  Parents with poor marital quality are more likely to engage in problematic parenting and socialization practices, such as increased hostility and decreased reasoning, which adversely effects the parent child relationship.

But not all marital conflict is harmful to children, if it is calm and eventually resolved, conflicts could teach children how to handle disagreements.  Unresolved conflicts leave children with a sense of stress, fear, anger, and unhappiness.

Patterns of Parenting 

Authoritarian: Emphasizes obedience, using force to curb children’s self-will, restricting autonomy, and discouraging verbal give and take.  This leads to children becoming withdrawn, fearful, dependent, and generally moody or overly aggressive.

Permissive: Frees children from restraint, accepts impulses.  Parents are indulgent or indifferent.  These children tend to be rebellious, aggressive, impulsive, and in turn are socially rejected.

Authoritative: Directs children’s activities in a rational manner, encourages discussion and firm control when confronted with disobedience.  These children are the best adjusted; they are self-controlled, self-confident, and socially competent.  Baumrind concluded that this is the best style of parenting in the socialization of children.

Research by Schaeffer emphasized both the pattern of control and the degree of affection.  These dimensions interact to form four patterns: love-autonomy, love-control, hostility-autonomy, and hostility-control.  Successful parenting means showing maximum amount of love, and the right balance between autonomy and control.

Discipline 

Discipline is a process of learning by which socialization takes place; its purpose is instruction in proper conduct.  It is supposed to move from external to internal.  The following enhance this development:

1.      Children respond more readily to parents within the context of a loving, trusting relationship of mutual esteem.

2.      Discipline is more effective when it is consistent rather than erratic.

3.      Learning is enhanced if responses involve rewards and punishments.

4.      Discipline is more effective when applied as soon after the offense as possible.

5.      Discipline that inflicts pain should not be used.

6.      Discipline becomes less effective if it is too strict or too often applied.

7.      Extremes of either permissiveness or authoritarianism are often counterproductive.

8.      All children are different.  There are times where highly resistant children in high-restrictive families turn out very well.  This outcome assumes some degree of effectiveness in the parents’ control.

9.      Discipline needs to take into account children’s age.

10. Methods of discipline to be avoided are those that threaten the child’s security or development of self-esteem.

The Father’s Role

  With increasing numbers of married women employed outside the home, fairness would seem to demand that husbands take increased responsibility for housework and child care.  This has happened to some extent, but equality of roles has not yet been achieved.  Their help is often limited.  Advantages of father involvement include improvement of marital relationship and well-being of the mother, and parent-child relationships benefit.  In addition, the father tends to favor a son over a daughter.  If the father leaves home, the more treats the children with more equality.

Working Mothers

Studies show that while maternal employment is not uniformly detrimental to the child’s well-being, neither is it likely that is it uniformly beneficial.  Many studies are poorly conducted.  One suggests that there was a stronger negative effect of maternal employment in families of higher socioeconomic status.  The use of substitute child care resulted in less positive behavioral outcomes.  However, child care could expand developmental opportunities in families of low SES.

Sibling relationships

Birth order: Research tends to indicate that firstborn children have some advantages over other children in the family.  The youngest are also usually given special attention because they are the youngest.  Middle children tend to have lower self esteem than do first born and last born, probably because they have a less well-defined function in the family.

Number of siblings: In general terms, the greater the number of children, the less they will be able to complete their education.

Gender: The sex of a sibling is significant.  If the sibling is of the opposite sex, the child develops a positive attitude toward that sex, and vice versa.

  Older brothers and sisters: Having older brothers and sisters in the same family can have a significant influence on younger children – either positively or negatively.  This depends on the type of relationship they have.

Grandparents

  The relationship a grandparent has with a child is important for the following reasons:

  1)     Grandparents can help children feel loved and secure

2)     Grandparents can help children to know, trust, and understand other people.

3)     Grandparents help children to bridge the gap between the past and the present.

4)     Grandparents can provide children with experiences and supervision that their own parents do not have the money or time to provide.

5)     Grandparents – as a result of years of living – can give children a fine sense of values and philosophy of life.

6)     Grandparents can give children a wholesome attitude toward old age.

Grandparent problems:

1)     Grandparents are often puzzled about the roles they’re expected to play in relationship to their grandchildren.

2)     Grandparents may have different ideas about raising children.

3)     Grandparents have a tendency to give unsolicited advice to parents and grandchildren and to preach.

4)     Sometimes parents become jealous of the affection that the children develop for their grandparents.

5)     Some grandparents become too possessive of their grandchildren.

6)     In the case of disagreements, parents and grandparents need to talk things over.

Nonnuclear families

One-parent families

Between 1970 and 1997 there was a 216% increase in the number of one-parent families in the U.S.  Of this total number, 83% were maintained by mothers.

Children who grow up in single-parent households, especially those whose mothers have never married, are significantly more likely to live below the poverty line, and demonstrate emotional or behavior problems.

  The female headed family is associated with limited income.  Single mothers have difficulty performing all family functions well.  Studies show that after divorce many custodial mothers have trouble communicating with their children, showing as much affection, controlling them, and spending as much time with them as previously.

  Solo fathers face many of the same problems, although limited income is not as much of a problem.  Also, most single fathers are worried about not spending enough time with their children.

Effects of paternal absence on sons

  The earlier a boy is separated from his father and the longer the separation is, the more affected the boy will be in his early years.  Father absence may also affect the development of masculinity.  Boys raised without a father have a lower level of educational attainment and consequent lower income as adults.  The effect of father absence is dependent partially on whether boys have surrogate male models.

Effects of paternal absence on daughters

  Lack of meaningful male-female relationships in childhood can make it more difficult to relate to the opposite sex.  Nevertheless, a father-present home is not necessarily always better for the children than a father-absent home.

Gay and lesbian families

  Overall, the relationships are very positive; however, strain is reported.  Families formed by lesbian mothers closely resemble heterosexual stepfamilies: All relationships require adjustment in terms of new responsibilities and roles.   

Divorce and children

  A growing number of clinicians emphasize that children perceive divorce as a major, negative event that stimulates painful emotions, confusion, and uncertainty.  Researchers have found a larger number of variables – individual, family, and environmental – that affect the quality of adjustment to divorce.  These include child’s gender and age at time of divorce, temperament, interpersonal knowledge, and level of coping resources.

Short-term reactions have been fairly well described.  Children go through a period of mourning and grief.  Other reactions are a heightened sense of insecurity and anxiety about their future, and a tendency to blame themselves.  Another common reaction is preoccupation with reconciliation to try and bring their parents back together.  After the initial upset of divorce, one common reaction is anger and resentment.  Children then have to adjust to the absence of one parent.

Child custody

  Custody – refers to legal custody (who has decision-making rights over the child) and physical custody (where the children live).

Legal custody – right to making decisions regarding the welfare of the child

Physical custody – legal residence of parent that the child lives with.

Joint custody – both parents share in decisions regarding the welfare of the child.

Traditionally, sole custody has been given to the mother unless she has been declared unfit.  In some cases, the father may be more competent than the mother.

Visitation rights are given to the parent who was not given custody.

Emotional support

  Two factors that result in the greatest impact (including health and mental health) on the mother and child are payment of child support and emotional quality of the father’s relationship with the child.

Stepfamilies

  A stepfamily is formed when a remarried husband or wife brings children from a former marriage.

Stepparents have unrealistically high expectations for themselves and usually end up disappointed at the outcome.  Parents and stepparents enter into their new family with a great deal of regret over their failed marriage and divorce.  A stepparent’s role is ill defined .  They confront the necessity of attempting to deal with children who have already been socialized by another set of parents.  They expect gratitude and thanks for what they do, but often get rejection and criticism instead.  They are often faced with unresolved emotional issues from the prior marriage and divorce.  Therefore, family cohesion tends to be lower in stepfamilies than in intact families.

Adoptive families

  Over half of those who petition for adoption are related to the child they wish to adopt.  Among petitioners not related to the child, about 40% of placements are through public agencies, 30% are through private agencies, and another 30% are through independent sources.

In open adoption, the natural mother is permitted to meet and play an active role selecting the new adoptive parents.

The crucial factor in adoption is not whether a child is adopted or not, but what is the quality of the family environment in which the child is raised.

The Development of Peer Relationships

All normal children pass through the following 4 stages:

1)     autosociality – infancy and toddler stage of development in which children’s interests, pleasures, and satisfactions are themselves.

2)     Childhood heterosociality – ages 2 to 7 during which during which children seek the companionship of others regardless of sex

3)     Homosociality – ages 8 to 12 during which children prefer to play with others of the same sex.

4)     Adolescent and adult heterosociality – ages 13 and over, in which the individual’s pleasure, friendship, and companionship are found with those of both sexes.

Infants and toddlers

  Babies’ first social experiences are usually with parents and siblings.  By the time they are toddlers they have made a strong beginning in establishing group relations that are a main source of emotional security and orientation.

Two Year Olds

  Children of this age enjoy playing alongside one another, rather than with one anther.

Three Year Olds

  As children grow older, they engage in fewer solitary activities, do less passive watching of other children, and become less inclined toward isolated play.

Four and Five Year Olds

  Children at this age gradually develop more socially competent interactions with their peers, and there is much intermingling between sex and race.

Friendships

  The older children become, the more important that companionships becomes.  Parents become concerned about the kind of friends their children want to bring home.  However, some parents are overprotective of their children and won’t allow them to play with other children in the usual way.  Others expect too much of their children.

Popularity

  Types of children who are generally considered popular:

      1) socially aggressive and outgoing

      2) have a high energy level they use in activities approved by the group

      3) have positive self perceptions

5)     actively participate in social events enthusiastically

6)     are friendlier and sociable in relation to others

7)     accept others and are comforting to them

8)     are cheerful, good-natured, and have a good sense of humor

9)     above average in school intelligence, but no too above others

10) popular with teachers

11) have superior cognitive and communication skills

Peer rejection 

Rejected children have been found to be at heightened risk for a number of negative outcomes, including delinquency and criminality, dropping out of school, or needing mental health services.  Poor peer relationships are stressful because of the lack of social support, making children more vulnerable to other life stresses.  They also report significantly more loneliness than average-accepted and popular children.

Social Cognition

Social cognition: the capacity to understand social relationships.

Robert Selman has advanced a theory of social cognition outlining predictable stages in social role taking.  This is defined as the ability to understand the self and others as subjects and to react to others as like the self.

Stage 0: Egocentric undifferentiated stage. The stage of awareness when another person is seen egocentrically, undifferentiated from the self’s own point of view (ages 0 – 6).

Stage 1: Differentiated or subjected perspective-taking stage. The stage of awareness when the other is seen as different from the self, but the other person’s perception of the self is still undifferentiated (6 – 8).

Stage 2: Self-reflective thinking or reciprocal perspective-taking stage. The stage of awareness when the self can take the perspective of another person and know that the other person can also take the perspective of the self (8 – 10).

Stage 3: Third person or mutual perspective-taking stage.  The stage of awareness when children see their own perspective, their partner’s, plus a third person’s perspective (10 – 12).

Stage 4: In-depth and societal perspective-taking stage.  The stage of awareness when the self can take a generalized societal perspective of the self-other interaction (adolescence to adulthood).

The family plays the primary role as to how social competence develops.

Television as a Socializing Influence

  Children spend more time watching television than they spend in conversation with adults or siblings.

Violence and aggression

  TV violence is associated with increased aggressive behavior in children who watch it, although precise cause and effect relationships are hard to establish.  Reports found that children model and imitate what they see, and they come to accept aggression as appropriate behavior.  The effect is interdependent.  Aggressive children select more violent television programs and view more of them, and those who watch more violent programs tend to be more aggressive.  Regardless of whether the experiences depicted are real or fictional, very young children do not have a full understanding of the difference between real and vicarious experience or between appearance and reality, but tv can arouse emotions in either case.

Family Interaction

  Extensive viewing has been associated with a decrease in family interaction, social communication, and interpersonal conversation.  However, it is likely that increased tv viewing is the result of trouble in the family, not the case.  Children use tv as an escape from the stress of the home environment.

Cognitive Development

  Heavy tv viewing by children of low socioeconomic status has been associated with higher scholastic achievement and reading comprehension and at the same time with lower abilities among children of high socioeconomic status.

The Development of Gender Roles

One of the negative effects of tv is that sometimes it portrays stereotypical gender roles.

  Gender – our biological sex

Gender roles – our outward expressions of masculinity or femininity in social settings

Influences on Gender roles

  Biological – The chromosomal combination is the initial controlling factor in the development of gender.  It is also influenced by the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen.

Changes in prenatal hormonal levels in humans may have marked effects of gender-role behavior.

Cognitive – Sex-role identity has its beginnings in the gender cognitively assigned to the child at birth and subsequently accepted by him or her while growing up.

Environmental Influences – A child learns sex-typed behavior the same way he or she learns any other type of behavior: through a combination of rewards and punishment, indoctrination, observation of others, and modeling.  Giving children gender-specific toys may have considerable influence on vocational choice.  Also, many teachers still develop traditional masculine-feminine stereotypical behavior in school. 

Gender constancy – the understanding of the gender that one is, and the knowledge that gender is going to remain the same: usually achieved by 7 years of age.

Gender stereotypes – widespread, assumed gender characteristics of what boys and girls are like

Moral Development

  Piaget concluded that there is a morality of constraint in the first stages of early development.  This is conduct coerced by rules or by authority.  Later, they learn from social interaction a morality of cooperation, that rules are not absolute but can be altered by social consensus.

  Piaget said that there are, first, judgments based solely on the consequents of wrongdoing (objective judgments) and, second, judgments that take into account intention or motive (subjective judgments).

Expiatory punishment – punishments that result from an externally imposed regulation; associated with morality of constraint

Punishment of reciprocity – self-imposed punishment; associated with morality of cooperation.

Imminent justice – the child’s belief that immoral behavior inevitably brings pain or punishment as a natural consequence of the transgression

Equity – assignment of punishments in accordance with transgressors’ ability to take responsibility for a crime.

Moral Behavior

   Moral judgment is the knowledge of right or wrong.  Moral motivation is the strength of desire to do right.  Moral inhibition as it is manifested in a strong conscience, is the strength of desire or feelings not to do wrong.  One study showed that the higher that moral motive strength and temperamental inhibitions were, the greater the possibility of moral behavior.  This was defined as behavior that did not transgress rules that children clearly knew to be valid.

Another study indicated that observable physical consequences are predicted to be major determinants of preschoolers’ judgments of lies and truthful statements.  First, children react initially with censure for lying but, over time, learn to react with pride for truthfulness.  Second, there’s a change from children’s reliance on punishment as a basis for their moral judgments to a greater reliance on internal evaluative reactions.