PSYC1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Longitudinal Study, Childhood Obesity, Lgbt Rights By Country Or Territory
Week 11: Developmental Psychology (Child Development
and Parents)
Maternal Employment
Some experts predicted two potential negative outcomes:
1. Increase in maternal employment would decrease quality of maternal
caregiving (esp. in first year).
2. Maternal employment would produce generations of “latchkey” children,
leading to increases in delinquency.
In general, these concerns are unfounded.
Quality of mother-child interactions does not diminish in working mothers
(Gottfried et al., 2002).
Working mothers spend more time engaging infants in social interaction
(Huston & Aronson, 2005).
Even during 1 styear of life, results aren’t consistent:
In low-income African American mothers’ early maternal employment
predicts better adjustment at age 7-years.
In other ethnic groups there is no relationship.
Specific benefits for girls:
Hoffman (1989): Children with employed mothers more likely to reject traditional
gender roles.
Hoffman & Youngblade (1999): More likely to be exposed to egalitarian parenting
→ greater feelings of effectiveness.
Gottfried et al. (2002): Tend to have higher career aspirations.
Types of Employment
Type of employment appears to matter.
Duniform et al. (2013): 3 – 5-year-old children of mothers who work night shifts
show increased:
Aggressive behaviour.
Anxiety & depression.
Han et al. (2010): adolescents with mothers who work nights have lower quality
home environment.
Effect does not hold for mothers who worked evening shifts that finish at
midnight.
Suggests maternal presence is important.
A healthy balance may be important
Mothers working part-time
Have fewer depressive symptoms than non-working mothers.
Show more sensitive parenting during preschool years and their children
show less externalising problems than mothers who work full-time.
Such effects need to be interpreted with some caution:
They are statistical tendencies.
They will interact with many other variables (e.g., SES).
Effects of Child Care
Does the amount of time in child care influence development?
Once again, a very complex picture:
In countries with uniformly good child care (e.g., Norway) no relationship between
time in child care and problem behaviour.
In the USA, where care is variable, long hours in poor quality care predicts poor
outcomes (e.g., non-compliance, aggression, anxiety/depression).
Unstable childcare environment (e.g., number of changes in carers) also has
negative effects.
Interacts with SES: children from poor families benefit from longer time in child
care
The most important factor appears to the be the quality of the care.
High quality care promotes development of cognitive abilities, language, and
attention (NICHD, 2002).
Cause-and-effect can never be established → number of hours and quality of child
care determined by many factors (e.g., financial situation, parental education).
Media and Child Development
Early studies showed that educational TV shows had beneficial effects on
development.
Watching Sesame Street was associated with high vocabulary, with positive effects
persisting through to high school
Media Violence
Violence tends to be glamorised and trivialised. Esp. in incidents if violence
perpetrated by heroes.
Scientific debate on the topic is over: media violence has a negative effect on
children in 4 different ways.
1. Seeing violent acts results in social learning through imitation (Bandura’s
Bobo dolls)
2. Viewing aggression primes children’s own aggressive thoughts, feelings, and
tendencies. (Subsequent ambiguous situations interpreted as aggressive)
3. Media violence increases arousal – increases chances of reacting violently to
provocation.
4. Long-term exposure leads to emotional desensitisation.
Exposure to violence typically results in unpleasant physiological
arousal → inhibits violence.
This reduces with greater exposure to violence → reduced
Document Summary
Week 11: developmental psychology (child development and parents) Some experts predicted two potential negative outcomes: increase in maternal employment would decrease quality of maternal caregiving (esp. in rst year), maternal employment would produce generations of latchkey children, leading to increases in delinquency. Quality of mother-child interactions does not diminish in working mothers (gottfried et al. , 2002). Working mothers spend more time engaging infants in social interaction (huston & aronson, 2005). Even during 1 styear of life, results aren"t consistent: In low-income african american mothers" early maternal employment predicts better adjustment at age 7-years. In other ethnic groups there is no relationship. Ho man (1989): children with employed mothers more likely to reject traditional gender roles. Ho man & youngblade (1999): more likely to be exposed to egalitarian parenting. Gottfried et al. (2002): tend to have higher career aspirations. Duniform et al. (2013): 3 5-year-old children of mothers who work night shifts show increased:
