Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Department of Psychology
Family Relationships
• Family Systems
– Multiple dyadic relationships
– Changes in individual impact changes in multiple
dyads and can create disequilibrium
– Disequilibrium can result in both positive and
negative outcomes
– What are some sources of disequilibrium?
Parental Development in Midlife
• Climacteric—changes in functioning of sex
organs
– Males—reduced level of testosterone
– Females—reduced levels of estrogen
• Sociocultural changes
– Potentially higher levels of professional/career
responsibilities
– Changes in peer groups for parents
– Facing expenses (e.g. college expenses;
mortgages, health care)
– Higher levels of satisfaction as adolescents
become more autonomous
Sibling Relationships
• Multiple and Potentially Overlapping Relationships
– Caregiver
– Buddy
– Critical
– Rival
– Casual
• Relationships move from critical/rival to more
buddy/casual across childhood and adolescence
• With family change (e.g. divorce) relationships can
get closer
Extended Family Relationships
• Traditional Cultures (e.g. Kyrgyzstan):
– Single children frequently live with parents until
marriage
– Females tend to move to male’s village and home
upon marriage
– Marriage is younger
– Ties close with extended family (e.g.
grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins)
– Closeness with extended family members similar
among USA minority groups
– European adolescents show similar closeness
Extended Family Relationships
• Divorce or Death of a Parent:
– Relationship with grandparents becomes closer
– With maternal custody upon divorce, maternal
grandfather assumes aspects of father role
– Extended family members fill multiple roles
Parenting Styles: Diana Baumrind
• Parenting defined by two dimensions:
– Responsiveness—warmth, caring, sensitive,
supportive
– Demandingness—expectations, supervising,
monitoring
Parenting Style: Authoritarian
• Low responsiveness
• High demandingness
• Characteristics
– Corporal punishment, severe sanctions against
infractions
– High expectations with Low support
– Decisions are not open to discussion
– Rationales are not provided
Parenting Style: Authoritarian
• Child & Adolescent Outcomes:
– Rigid in perspective
– Lack problem-solving skills
– Likely not eager to make difficult decisions
– Passive
– Dependent
– Conforming (looks to powerful peer groups)
Parenting Style: Permissive—Indulgent
• High responsiveness
• Low demandingness
• Characteristics:
– Few rules or boundaries
– Adolescent is not accountable for behavioral
outcomes
– Responds positively to most requests made by the
adolescent
– Few negative consequences for problem behaviors
– Inappropriately involves adolescent in parental lives
Parenting Style: Permissive—Indulgent
• Child & Adolescent Outcomes:
– Poor emotional control
– Low persistence to difficult or unpopular tasks
– Frequent externalizing behavior when desires are
denied
– Poor decision-making skills
– Blurred boundaries between adolescent and
parent
Parenting Style: Disengaged
(neglectful, indifferent)
• Characteristics:
– Inconsistent discipline based on impact of
behavior on parents’ own activities and
preferences
– Few rules or boundaries
– Punishment, when given, can be harsh
– Low parental monitoring
Parenting Style: Disengaged
(neglectful, indifferent)
• Child & Adolescent Outcomes:
– Low levels of performance in social and academic
domains
– Frequently poor emotional control
– Typically lacks clear understanding of contingency
of outcomes on behaviors
– May seek out peers for support with little
attention to norms of the peer group
Parenting Style: Authoritative
• High responsiveness
• High demandingness
• Characteristics:
– Sets consistent and reasonable boundaries for
adolescents’ behaviors
– Uses reason and discussion as first option for
discipline
– Low-to-no use of corporal punishment
– Models civil discussion
– Monitors adolescents’ behaviors
– Allows adolescents’ involvement in family decisions
– Maintains parental role with little or no enmeshment
Parenting Style: Authoritative
• Child & Adolescent Outcomes:
– Higher levels of achievement in social and
academic domains
– Recognizes relationship between behaviors and
outcomes
– Adaptive level of emotional control
– Develops adaptive decision-making skills
– Lower levels of psychological distress
– Appropriate peer relationships
Parenting Style: Traditional Parenting
• High Responsiveness
• High Demandingness
• Characteristics
– Compliance with cultural and traditional demands
with little or no negotiation
– High levels of warmth & closeness
– High levels of family interdependence
– Likely associated with collectivist cultures
– Demandingness linked to narrow socialization
Parenting Style: Traditional Parenting
• Abused adolescent:
– Violation of trust
– Difficulty in relationships
– Extreme sexual reactions (avoidant/promiscuous)
– Higher risk for
• Substance abuse
• Psychological disorders
• Suicidal ideation and attempts
Runaways & Throwaways
• Runaway Criteria:
– Child leaves home without permission and stays overnight
– Child 14 years or younger leaves home without permission
and chooses not to come home when expected to and
stays away overnight
– Child 15 years old or older who is away from home and
chooses not to come home when expected to and stays
away overnight
Runaways & Throwaways
• Throwaway Criteria:
– Child is asked or told to leave home by a parent or
other household adult, no adequate alternative
care is arranged, and the child is out of the
household overnight
• Family poverty
• Gender-based exploitation
Discussion Exercise
• http://www2.lv.psu.edu/jkl1/runawaylives/Fe
elingLonelyAndUnwanted.html
• As read the piece by “F,” how might her take
relate to what you read about families
(structure, process) and their relationship to
adolescents’ experiences of distress and risk.