Ecology_of_Parenting.pdf

1. Ecology of
Parenting
Macrosystem Influences on Parenting
Socioeconomic Status
Political Ideology
Ethnicity, Culture, and Religion
Collectivist Values
Individualistic Values
Chronosystem Influences on Parenting
Historical Trends
Family Dynamics & Changes
Family Characteristics
Child's Characteristics
Parenting Styles
Microsystem Influences on Parenting Style
Mesosystem Influences on Parenting Style
Appropriate Parenting Practices
Inappropriate Parenting Practices
An Ecological Model of Risk and Resilient
Factors in Child Maltreatment
This influences children in the way they are
raised and their ideas about the world,
society, and how it should function.
Families interact according to the socioeconomic stress that they face. This
influences children in the amount of time they have with their family, the
quality of that time, and the parental occupations also influence the type of
interactions between parent and child.
Similar Parenting Goals
Across Cultures
1. Ensure Physical Health and Survival
2. Develop Behavioral Capacities for Economic Self-
Maintenance
3. Instill Behavioral Capacities for Maximizing Cultural Values
such as Morality, Prestige, and Achievement.
These cultures value dependence, harmony, hierarchy,
obedience, loyalty, indirect and nonverbal communication,
inward expression of emotions, shame and guilt, and high
expectations with regard to skills.
These cultures tend to value independence, universalism with
rules, respect for achievement, informal and impermanent
relationships, direct communication, open expression of feelings,
preventative discipline, and competitive skill development.
Historical trends have long influenced children and their
treatment. Before the 18th Century, they were viewed as
miniature adults and were held to the same expectations as
adults. In the 18th Century, philosophers suggest that
children were blank slates and that their environments
impressed upon them. In the 19th Century, over-direction of
children was viewed as a bad thing for their development.
Parenting was finally becoming child-centered. In the 20th
Century, behaviorism was introduced and children's behavior
was intentionally controlled. Today, parents spend as little
time with their children than ever before because of
demanding careers and technology.
Children's characteristics also influence the family dynamics in a
bidirectional manner. Some of these influences change as a
result of the maturing child both physically and mentally. the
child's temperaments, gender, or even a presence of a disability
within the child. All of these factors of the child can influence the
way the family interacts with this child as well as with other
children.
Family Characteristics influence a child's development in a
bidirectional manner. Family characteristics are influenced by
how many members it consists of, its configuration between
generations or step family members, the parent's marital
quality or stage of life, or the parent's capacity to deal with
stress appropriately,
Types of Parenting Styles
Each of these parenting styles are influenced by varying
levels of parental demandingness, control, acceptance, and
responsiveness.
Authoritarian, Authoritative, Permissive, Uninvolved.
- Parenting styles also
influence the type of attachment between the parent and
child. Attachment styles consist of Secure, Resistant,
Avoidant, and Disorganized/Disoriented.
PARENT CHILD ATTACHMENT
Self-Regulation and Prosocial Behavior
Socioemotional and Cognitive Competence
The support systems available to the parents influence the
type of parenting style that they use with their children.
Appropriate parenting practices involve taking the child's age
and capacities into account when dealing with them,
maintaining reasonable expectations, considering and
working with the child's strengths/limitations/needs, using a
range of acceptable disciplinary techniques, providing basic
care, nurture, and support, and modeling self-control.
Inappropriate Parenting practices consist of parents being
focused on their own needs, setting impossible expectations
for the child, employ harsh disciplinary approaches, do not
provide basic care, nurture, or support, deliberately take
frustrations out on the child, and are self-righteous.