This document provides an overview of topics related to family and parenting from a lifespan developmental perspective. It discusses traditional and modern family structures, attachment styles in early childhood, romantic relationships and marriage, parenting styles and their influence on child outcomes, challenges faced by single parents, cohabitating couples, and LGBTQ families, as well as the effects of divorce and adoption on children. Key concepts covered include Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, reciprocal socialization between parents and children, and influences on parenting such as culture and sociohistorical context.

1. PSY 375:
LIFE-SPAN DEVELOPMENT
Family and Parenting
Week 12

2. What is Family?
Traditional
 Nuclear family
 Two-parent family
Modern
 Single parent families
 Blended families
 Foster families
 Childfree families
 Same-sex couples
 And many others

3. What is a Family?
Some people think of their pets as a
member of their family. What do you
think? Do pets count as family members?

4. What is Family?
 Joint Family Family of
Procreation
 Family of
Orientation

5. What is Family?
Family Systems Theory

6. How Families Develop
Attachment Styles
 Secure
 Anxious-avoidant
 Anxious-resistant
 Coherence

7. Strange Situation
1.mother and child are shown into room with toys
2.child and mother alone in room
3.stranger enters, talks to mom first, tries to interact
with baby
4.mother leaves baby with stranger
5.mother returns and the stranger leaves the room.
6.When the baby begins to play with the toys again,
the mother again leaves the room and the infant is
observed while alone in the room
7.the stranger returns
8.mother again returns to the room

8. How Families Develop
Dating, Marriage, and
(Possibly) Children
 Marriage Market
 Homogamy
 Cohabitation
 Engagement and
Marriage
 Children or Childfree?

9. Relationships and Well-Being
Presence of relationships

10. Relationships and Well-Being
Quality of relationships
 Quality over quantity

11. Are Relationships the
Secret to Happiness?
Relationships Happiness
RelationshipsHappiness
Relationships
Happiness
Another factor
Correlations

12. A Recipe for Happiness?

13. Activity: Changes in Parenthood
What statement is true regarding paid work outside of
the house?
a. Mothers and fathers are now spending equal time
doing paid work.
b. Fathers spend more time then mothers doing paid
work.
c. Mothers spend more time then fathers doing paid
work.
d. There has been no change over time in the amount of
paid work mothers or fathers have been doing.

15. Activity: Changes in Parenthood
How has first time mothers’ age changed over
time?
a. There has been no change
b. Mothers are getting younger
c. Mothers are getting older

17. Activity: Changes in Parenthood
“7% of U.S. fathers with children in their household do
not work outside the home—that’s roughly 2 million
dads.” What is the top reason more dads are staying
home than in the past?
a. Cant find work
b. Caring for family
c. Ill or disabled
d. In school

19. Activity: Changes in Parenthood
What statement is true regarding how today’s
mothers and fathers rate themselves?
a. More mothers think they are doing an excellent or very
good job compared to fathers.
b. More fathers think they are doing an excellent or very
good job compared to mothers.
c. Mothers and fathers think they are doing an equal job.
d. Less working mothers think they are doing an excellent or
very good job compared to non-working mothers.

21. The Six Stages of Parent Development
1. The Image
Making Stage
2. The
Nurturing Stage
3. The
Authority Stage
4. The
Interpretive
Stage
5. The
Interdependent
Stage
6. The
Departure
Stage

22. Parent Development
Parenting Styles
 Authoritative
 Authoritarian
 Permissive
 Uninvolved

23. Influences on Parenting

24. Influences on Parenting

25. Influences on Parenting

26.  Initial search 
best parenting advice
 Focused search 
parenting topic of
your choice
 Find a reliable source
 Answer the questions
on your handout
Exploring Parenting Advice

27. Parenting
 Bidirectional relationship
 Behavior changes over time

28. Parenting in Later Life
 Empty nest
 Boomerang generation
 Sandwich generation
Why do you think more
people aged 25-34 are
living with their parents
than in recent years?

29. Parenting in Later Life
What are some difficulties
that might occur when
adult children live with
their parents?

30. Family Issues and Considerations

31. Family Issues & Considerations
Adoption

32. Happy Healthy Families
 Teach morality
 Savor the good
 Use the extended
family network
 Create family
identity
 Forgive

33. Family Processes
Consider Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory:
• Microsystem—the setting in which the individual lives
• Mesosystem—links between microsystems
• Exosystem—influences from another setting that the
individual does not experience directly
• Macrosystem—the culture in which the individual lives
• Chronosystem—sociohistorical circumstances that
change over time

34. 34
Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological
Theory

35. Reciprocal Socialization
Reciprocal socialization: bidirectional socialization
• Children socialize parents just as parents socialize children
• Sometimes referred to as transactional
Synchrony in parent-child relationships is positively
related to children’s social competence
• Scaffolding, a form of synchrony, can be used to support
children’s efforts at any age
Genetic and epigenetic factors are being studied to
discover parental influences on children and children’s
influences on parents

36. Family as a System
Family can be thought of as a constellation of
subsystems defined in terms of generation, gender, and
role
• Dyadic subsystems—involving two people
• Polyadic subsystems—involving more than two people
• Subsystems interact and influence each other
Positive family climate involves not only effective
parenting but also a positive relationship between the
parents

37. Sociocultural and Historical Influences
Important sociohistorical and historical influences
affect family processes
• Reflect the concepts of macrosystem and chronosystem
Major change: the dramatic increase in immigration of
Latino and Asian families into the U.S.
• Experience stressors less prominent for long-time residents
Subtle changes in a culture are significant influences
• Longevity of older adults; movement to urban and suburban
areas; widespread use of TV, computers, and the Internet; and
a general dissatisfaction and restlessness

38. Multiple Developmental Trajectories
Multiple developmental trajectories refers to the fact
that adults follow one trajectory pattern of
development and children another one
• Adult developmental trajectories include timing of entry into
cohabitation, marriage, or parenthood
• Child developmental trajectories include timing of child care
and entry into middle school
• Timing of some family tasks and changes is planned, whereas
the timing of others is not

39. The Diversity of Adult Lifestyles
Adults today choose many different lifestyles and forms
of families
• United States has more marriages and remarriages, more
divorces, and more short-term cohabiting relationships than
virtually any other country

40. Single Adults 1
Rising rates of cohabitation and a trend toward
postponing marriage has resulted in an increasing
number of single adults
• Single adults are often stereotyped
Common challenges of single adults:
• Forming intimate relationships with other adults
• Confronting loneliness
• Finding a niche in a society that is marriage-oriented
• Bias against unmarried adults in missed job perks and social and
financial prejudices

41. Single Adults 4
Approximately 8% of adults in U.S. who reach the age
of 65 have never been married
Older adults who never marry appear to have the least
difficulty coping with loneliness in old age

42. Cohabiting Adults 1
Cohabitation: living together in a sexual relationship
without being married
• Number of cohabitating couples in the U.S. has increased
dramatically since 1970
• More than 75% of adults cohabitate prior to getting married
• Cohabitation is seen by some as a precursor to marriage;
others, as an ongoing lifestyle
• In the U.S., cohabitating arrangements tend to be
short-lived
• Fewer than 1 out of 10 last for five years

43. Cohabitating Older Adults
Increasing number of older adults cohabitate
• Rates are expected to rise in upcoming years due to the aging
of the baby boomer generation, who bring more
nontraditional values about love, sex, and relationships
• Cohabitation among many older couples may be more for
companionship than love

44. LGBTQA Adults
Number of misconceptions about gay and lesbian
couples have persisted
Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination is faced, due to
widespread devaluation of same-sex relationships

45. Parenting 1
Many adults plan when to become parents; for others,
becoming parents is a surprise
• Many parents are more satisfied with their lives
than nonparents
Age of having children has been increasing over time
• Birth control is a more common practice
• Number of one-child families is increasing
• U.S. women overall are having fewer children or not having
children at all

46. Parental Roles 1
In the transition to parenting, people must adapt to life
with children
• Although most couples enjoy more positive marital relations
before their baby is born, almost one-third show an increase
in marital satisfaction
• Bringing Baby Home project:
• Workshop for new parents that helps couples strengthen relationship,
resolve conflict, develop parenting skills
• Parents are better able to work together, fathers are more involved and
sensitive to the baby’s behavior, mothers have lower incidence of
postpartum depression, and babies show better overall development

47. Parental Roles 2
Parents can play important roles as managers of
children’s opportunities, monitors of their lives, and
social initiators and arrangers
• Help children work their way through choices and decisions in
life
During infancy, parents manage and guide behavior to
reduce or eliminate undesirable behaviors
• Parents’ management of toddler behavior includes corrective
feedback and discipline

48. Parental Roles 4
Effective monitoring becomes especially important as
children move into the adolescent years
• Choice of social settings, activities, friends, and academic
efforts
Adolescents manage parents’ access to information,
disclosing or concealing details of their activities
• Adolescents are more likely to disclose information when
parents engage in positive parenting practices

49. Parenting Styles and Discipline 1
Good parenting takes time and effort
• Quantity and quality of time with children matters
Baumrind’s parenting styles:
• Authoritarian parenting: a restrictive, punitive style
• Authoritative parenting: places limits while encouraging
independence
• Neglectful parenting: very uninvolved
• Indulgent parenting: very involved but with few demands
Parenting styles involve dimensions of acceptance and
responsiveness and demand and control

50. Figure 7 Classification of
Parenting Styles
The four types of parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and
neglectful) involve the dimensions of acceptance and responsiveness, on the
one hand, and demand and control on the other. For example, authoritative
parenting involves being both accepting/responsive and demanding/controlling.
Styles
Accepting,
responsive
Rejecting,
unresponsive
Demanding,
controlling
Authoritative Authoritarian
Undemanding,
uncontrolling
Indulgent Neglectful
©Paul Barton/Corbis/Getty Images

51. Parenting Styles and Discipline 2
Authoritative parenting is linked with child competence
across a range of ethnic groups, social strata, cultures,
and family structures
• Research with ethnic groups suggests that some aspects of the
authoritarian style can also be associated with positive child
outcomes
Parenting styles do not capture themes of reciprocal
socialization and synchrony
• Many parents use a combination of techniques
• Two parents may have different styles

52. Parenting Styles and Discipline 3
Use of corporal punishment is legal in every state in the
United States
Most individuals who are favorable toward corporal
punishment were likely to remember it being used by
their parents
Corporal punishment is associated with higher levels of
aggression later in childhood and adolescence

53. Parenting Styles and Discipline 4
Most child psychologists recommend handling
misbehavior by reasoning with the child
• Especially, explaining the consequences of the child’s actions
for others
• Time-out can also be effective
Role of cultural context:
• In countries where physical punishment is considered normal,
the effects of physical punishment are less harmful to
children’s development
• When physical punishment involves abuse, it can be harmful
to the child’s development

54. Parenting Styles and Discipline 5
Coparenting: the support that parents provide one
another in jointly raising a child
Children are placed at risk for problems by:
• Poor coordination between parents
• Undermining of the other parent
• Lack of cooperation and warmth
• Disconnection by one parent

55. Child Maltreatment 1
Child abuse refers to both abuse and neglect
Child maltreatment is used by developmentalists
• Acknowledges that maltreatment includes diverse conditions
• Types of maltreatment:
• Physical abuse
• Child neglect
• Sexual abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Forms of child maltreatment often occur in combination

56. Child Maltreatment 2
Combination of factors, including culture,
neighborhood, family, and development, likely
contribute to child maltreatment
• Extensive violence in American culture is reflected in the
occurrence of violence in the family
• Family-associated characteristics that contribute to child
maltreatment include parenting stress, substance abuse, social
isolation, single parenting, and socioeconomic difficulty
(especially poverty)
About one-third of parents who were abused go on to
abuse their own children

57. Child Maltreatment 3
Among the consequences of child maltreatment:
• Poor emotional regulation
• Attachment problems
• Problems in peer relations
• Difficulty adapting to school
• Psychological problems, such as depression and delinquency
Later, in the adult years, individuals who were
maltreated as children are more likely to experience
physical, emotional, and sexual problems

58. Parent–Adolescent and
Parent–Emerging Adult Relationships 1
Adolescent push for autonomy and responsibility
puzzles and upsets many parents
• Ability to attain autonomy and gain control over one’s
behavior is acquired through appropriate adult reactions to
adolescent desire for control
• Adult relinquishes control in some areas where the adolescent
can make reasonable decisions
Expectations about the appropriate timing of
adolescent autonomy vary across cultures, parents, and
adolescents
• Boys are often given more independence than girls

59. Parent–Adolescent and
Parent–Emerging Adult Relationships 2
Parent-child attachment remains important
• Mothers maintain closer emotional ties with adolescents than
fathers, especially with daughters
Parent-adolescent conflict escalates during early
adolescence
• Conflict usually involves everyday issues of family life
• Rarely involves major dilemmas, such as drugs or delinquency
• Conflicts become less frequent in late adolescence

60. Parent–Adolescent and
Parent–Emerging Adult Relationships 3
Several factors contribute to the rise in conflict:
• Biological changes of puberty
• Cognitive changes—increased idealism and logical reasoning
• Social changes focused on independence and identity
• Maturational changes in parents
• Expectations violated by parents and adolescents
Adolescents compare their parents to ideal standards
and criticize their flaws
• Many parents see a change in compliance and resistance to
parental standards

61. Parent–Adolescent and
Parent–Emerging Adult Relationships 4
Minor disputes and negotiations facilitate adolescents’
transition from dependence on parents to being
autonomous individuals
Four to five million American families encounter
serious, highly stressful parent-adolescent conflict
• Associated with movement out of the home, juvenile
delinquency, school dropout, pregnancy and early marriage,
religious cult membership, and drug abuse
Acculturation-based conflicts are likely in
immigrant families

62. Parent–Adolescent and
Parent–Emerging Adult Relationships 5
Emerging adults’ relationships with parents improve
once they leave home
• Grow closer psychologically and share more information
Challenges in the parent–emerging adult relationship
involve the emerging adult’s possessing adult status in
many areas while still depending on parents in some
manner

63. Parent–Adolescent and
Parent–Emerging Adult Relationships 6
Emerging adulthood is a time for young people to sort
out emotionally what they will take along from the
family of origin, what they will leave behind, and what
they will create
• Parents act as “scaffolding” and “safety nets” to support
children’s successful transition through emerging adulthood

64. Children in Divorced Families 2
Emotional security theory: children appraise marital
conflict in terms of their sense of security and safety
Divorce can be advantageous if an unhappy marriage
erodes the well-being of children
• If diminished resources and increased risks of divorce are also
accompanied by inept parenting or sustained or increased
conflict, then it may be best if an unhappy marriage is retained
Adolescent adjustment is improved when divorced
parents have a harmonious relationship and use
authoritative parenting

65. LGBTQ Parents 2
LGBTQ couples share child care to a greater extent than
heterosexual couples
Few differences have been found between children
growing up with LGBTQ parents and children growing
up with heterosexual parents

66. Adoptive Parents and Adopted Children 1
Increasingly, U.S. couples have adopted a much wider
diversity of children
• From other countries, other ethnic groups, with physical or
mental disability, neglected or abused children
Increased diversity has characterized adoptive parents
in recent years
• Adults from a wide range of backgrounds are allowed
to adopt
• Many adoptions involve family members

67. Sibling Relationships and Birth Order 1
Approximately 80% of American children have one or
more siblings
When siblings have conflict, parents:
• Intervene and try to help resolve conflict
• Admonish or threaten them
• Do nothing at all
Sibling companionship declines when children become
increasingly involved in the world beyond the family

68. Sibling Relationships and Birth Order 2
Negative aspects of sibling relationships, such as high
conflict, are linked to negative outcomes
• Direct modeling of sibling behavior can also produce negative
outcomes
Sibling relationships also include helping, sharing,
teaching, and playing
• Act as emotional supports, rivals, and communication partners

69. Sibling Relationships and Birth Order 3
Characteristics of sibling relationships:
• Emotional quality of relationship
• Familiarity and intimacy of relationship
• Variation of relationship
Sibling relationships are strongly affected by whether
parents show favoritism or fairness
• Favoritism of a sibling is linked to lower self-esteem and
sadness in the less-favored sibling