THE FAMILY
Chapter 11
Chapter 7 Outline
• What is a family?
• Parenting Style
• Classification System
• Causes and Outcomes
• Siblings
• The Good Side
• The Bad Side
• Birth Order
• Sibling Classifications
What is a family?
• A social unit in which adult spouses or partners and
their children share economic, social, and
emotional rights and responsibilities and a sense of
commitment and identification
• Genetically or legally related
• Involuntary and permanent
• Social and legal obligations
Parenting style
• Emotional Involvement
• Warm and loving vs. cold and rejecting
• Level of Control/Demandingness
• Permissive and undemanding vs. demanding
and restrictive
EMOTIONALITY
permissive, restrictive,
undemanding demanding
CONTROL
warm, responsive
rejecting,
unresponsive
Authoritative
Authoritarian
Reasonable demands,
consistently enforced,
sensitive to and accepting
of child
Many rules/demands; few
explanations for rules;
little sensitivity to child’s
needs/views
Permissive
Uninvolved
Few rules/demands;
children have much
freedom; indulge child
Few rules/demands;
parents uninvolved and
insensitive to child’s needs
Parenting Style Activity
1.
It is bedtime and the children do not want to go to bed.
2.
Your child broke a favorite toy.
3.
Your child's room is a mess.
4.
It is time for your child to come home, but he/she is in the middle of a
project and wants to finish it first.
5.
Your son came in later than he was supposed to with a worried look on
his face.
6.
Your daughter came home from the store with a candy bar that was
not hers.
What causes parenting style?
Causes of Parenting Styles
• Genetics
• Identical twin mothers were more similar in degrees of warmth
toward children than fraternal twin mothers
• Personality
• Authoritative – Extraverted, Agreeable, and Neurotic
• No relationship – Conscientiousness and Openness to
Experience
• Quality of couple relationship
• Insecure relationships pose a risk factor for poor parenting.
• Risk is highest when both parents are insecure
• Avoidance and anxiety romantic attachment are less
responsiveness toward partner and child
• Culture
• East Asian cultures – authoritative works best
• Western cultures – authoritarian works best
Bidirectional: Parenting Style and
Child Behavior
•Does parenting style cause children’s
behavior?
•Does children’s behavior cause
parenting style?
Bidirectional: Which parenting style
results in each preschool child?
Child #1: Cheerful, socially responsible, self-reliant, achievement-oriented,
cooperative, more socially competent than other children
ENERGETIC-FRIENDLY CHILD
Child #2: Mood, unhappy, easily annoyed, unfriendly, aimless (not
achievement-oriented)
CONFLICTED-IRRITABLE CHILD
Child #3: Impulsive, aggressive, bossy, self-centered, low independence,
low orientation uncontrolled, noncompliant
IMPULSIVE-AGGRESSIVE CHILD
Child #4: Aggressive, rebellious, externalizing behaviors, poor academic
performance, impulsive, aggressive, noncompliant, and moody
IMPULSIVE-AGGRESSIVE-NONCOMPLIANT-MOODY CHILD
Bidirectional: Patterson’s (1986)
Model of Antisocial Development
Defiant and
Coercive
behaviors
Harsher
parenting
Bidirectional: Parenting Style and
Middle Childhood Prosocial Behavior
• Coded parental interactions for mother and father
sensitivity
• 54-months old, 3rd graders, and 5th graders
• Child’s autonomy, Supportive Presence
• Parents and teachers reported on child’s prosocial
behavior with peers
• 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades
Maternal
Sensitivity
Child’s
prosocial
behavior
Paternal
Sensitivity
Child’s
prosocial
behavior
Bidirectional: Parenting Style and
Adolescence Adjustment
Adolescent’s
Parental Style
Changes
Adjustment
• School maladjustment, LSE, low disclosure, and changed
parental style to neglected
• High disclosure moved parents from neglected to
authoritative style
• **Parental Style did not lead to changes in child adjustment
problems over time
(Kerr, Stattin, & Ozdemir, 2012)
Dissimilarity in parenting styles
• Older Findings: Mothers and Fathers had similar styles
• Mothers’ self-reported parenting style and partner-reported
• More authoritative compared to father
• No differences in 3 other styles
• Fathers’ self-reported parenting style and partner-reported
• Less authoritative and permissive than mother
• More authoritarian than mothers
(Winsler et al., 2005)
Dissimilarity in parenting styles
Children assessed mother and father’s parenting styles
Parents assessed E/I problems
• Parenting Style and Externalizing / Internalizing Problems
• All parenting styles positively correlated with E problems
• Rejection and overprotection positively correlated with I
problems
• Dissimilarity in Parenting Styles
• Dissimilarity is positively correlated with presence of I and E
problems
• Dissimilarity in parental emotional warmth → I problems
• Dissimilarity in overprotection → I and E problems
(Berkien et al., 2012)
Name The Parenting Style!
•Video #1
•Video #2
•Video #3
•Video #4
Siblings
•Children spend more free time with siblings
than anyone else
•Time spent with sibling decreases as children
age
•What are some favorable outcomes of having a
sibling?
•What are some unfavorable outcomes of having
a sibling?
Siblings – The Good Side
• Sibling warmth and support linked to
• Peer acceptance, social competences
• Academic engagement, educational attainment
• Intimate relationships in adolescence and young adulthood
• Develops
• Relationship skills for future friend and romantic relationships
• Language and reading skills (older siblings)
• Intimacy decreases I problems (e.g., depression)
• Sister-sister pairs – highest intimacy (Cole & Kearns, 2001)
• Dyads with 1 brother – more conflict (Cole & Kearns, 2001)
• One of the strongest predictors of mental health in old age
(Waldinger et al, 2007)
Siblings – The Bad Side
• Sibling interactions create challenges for parenting style
• Most frequent source of parent-adolescent disagreement is how
well siblings are getting along
• Sibling conflict occurs up to 8 times per hour
• Linked to increase in I problems
• Sibling aggression
• 70% of families report physical violence between siblings
• Over 1 year period, 40% children were kicked, bitten, punched by
their siblings
• Sibling violence linked to substance abuse, delinquency,
aggression
• Over time, older siblings E problems led to younger siblings E
problems (Shortt et al., 2010)
• E problems in one child associated with greater depression in other
child (Branje et al., 2004)
Siblings and Parenting Styles
• Harsh and authoritarian parenting associated with more sibling
conflict
• Parental Differential Treatment (PDT)
• Children evaluate themselves through comparisons with siblings
• Parents treat children differently based on sibling comparison
• **Based on siblings’ perception of differential treatment
• PDT Outcomes
• Less positive sibling relationships from early childhood through
adolescence
• Disfavored sibling = higher depression, antisocial/delinquent
behavior, substance use
• More unfavorable for girls and younger children
• May be negated if child perceives his/her siblings needs the extra
attention
Siblings: Birth Order
• Modern Family
• What is your birth order?
• First, middle, last, only child
• Compare your birth order personality to your siblings
(or cousin).
• Similarities in Big Five? Differences in Big Five?
• How does your birth order explain these personality
differences?
With an X, indicate the sibling who scores the highest on the following 5 personality traits.
Birth Order
Name
Openness to
experience
First-born
Michelle
Second-born
Michael
I
Third-born
Steven
III
Fourth-born
Julie
Conscientious
Extraversion
Agreeableness Neuroticism
IIII
I
III
I
III
I
I
I
II
Siblings and Birth Order
• First, Adler.
Then, Sulloway
• Competition for parental investment causes
sibling rivalry
• Birth order provides a strategy for children to
compete for parental love, resources, etc.
• To increase survival of their genes
• Unique Environmental Effect
Siblings: Sulloway’s Birth Order Theory
• Firstborns – Arrive first and secure position by identifying
with parents’ personality
• More C (responsible, achieving)- seek parents’ favor by acting as a
surrogate parent
• More Extraversion b/c defend their status quo with dominance,
assertiveness
• More Neurotic – anxious about maintaining their status
• Laterborns – find older, dominant sibling is favored by
parents, so look for other ways to improve standing
• Laterborns high in OE b/c more accepting of revolutionary ideas
• High in A b/c adopt traits opposite of firstborn – sociable,
empathetic, altruistic
Siblings: Sulloway’s Birth Order Theory
• Middle Children – lack advantages of being first or last
• Parent will invest in firstborns (closest to reproductive age) and
lastborns (most vulnerable to disease)
• More independent of family, more peer-oriented
• Only Children – no sibling rivalry
• High C b/c conform to parental authority
• Not More Neurotic or Less Extraverted than other children
Siblings and Birth Order: Research Says!
• Nomination Procedure (Paulhus et al., 1999)
• First-born: highest in C; Later-born: highest in A
• **Limitations to nomination procedure
• 9 adopted sibship pairs (Beer & Horn, 2000)
• All biologically first born, but raised in different rearing orders
• Compared first-reared to later-reared
• Firstborns more Conscientious (Beer & Horn, 2000; Healey & Ellis, 2006)
• Laterborns more OE (Healey & Ellis, 2006)
• But other research….Firstborns more OE (Michalski & Shackelford,
2001)
• Any relationship b/w birth order and personality is weak
Sibling Classifications
• African American Families: Fathers, mothers, and 2
siblings
• Home interviews and later surveys
• Sibling Assessment – 3 dimensions to classify siblings
• Positive – “I go to my sister/brother for advice and
support”
• Negative- “My sister/brother gets mad or angry at me.”
• Control – “In our relationship, I am the boss”
(McHale et al., 2007)
Sibling Classifications
Positive
• High Positivity, Moderate Conflict, Moderate
Control
Negative
• Low Positivity, High Conflict, High Control
Distant
• Low Positivity, Moderate Conflict, Moderate
Control
(McHale et al., 2007)
Positive
Negative
Distant
5
4
3
2
1
Older Younger Older Younger Older Younger
Sibling Sibling Sibling Sibling Sibling Sibling
Positive Positive Conflict Conflict Control Control
(McHale et al., 2007)
Positive
Negative
Distant
5
4
3
2
1
Older Younger Older Younger Older Younger
Sibling Sibling Sibling Sibling Sibling Sibling
Positive Positive Conflict Conflict Control Control
(McHale et al., 2007)
Sibling Classifications
•IN POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE GROUPS
•Older siblings reported more conflict (green)
and control (black) than younger siblings
•IN DISTANT GROUPS
•Younger siblings reported more conflict (pink)
and control (red) than older siblings
(McHale et al., 2007)
Sibling Classifications: Causes
• Parents’ Education Level
• Distant Children – father more educated than mother
• Positive Children – no difference in educational level
• Negative children – mother more educated than father
• Maternal and Paternal Warmth (listed by decreasing warmth)
• Warmth toward older-positive, older-distant, vs. older-negative
siblings
• Parental Differential Treatment (PDT)
• Positive and distant children perceived parents as more fair than
negative children
• Some other factors
• Mothers w/ negative children – highest levels of discrimination
• Parents in positive group reported greatest levels of spirituality
(McHale et al., 2007)
Sibling Classifications: Outcomes
•Positive children
•More favorable ethnic identity
•Positive and distant children
•Fewer depressive symptoms
•Negative children
•Highest levels of risky behaviors