PSC 140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Nuclear Family, Single Parent, Stepfamily
● Ecological Models of Development
○ Need to consider human development in the context of multiple systems that
influence the child / adult
■ Microsystem (home, church, school)
■ Mesosystem ( interactions between microsystems)
■ Exosystem (mass media, parent workplace, church (dominant religious
beliefs of community), government
● Considering the Family
○ Universal goals of parents
■ Survival
■ Economic
■ Cultural
○ Cultures vary as to whether child is “economic contributor” to family or “economic
drain”
○ Estimated cost to raise a child (not including daycare, college tuition, or private
schools ) = $300,000 + ($500,000 + in more affluent areas where cost of living is
higher)
● Variety of family types
○ “Traditional” nuclear family
■ Child (ren) + biological mother and father
○ Single parent (includes never - married, widowed, & divorced)
○ Extended or multigenerational family
■ 10% families; relatives live together
■ Most common in African - American & Hispanic families
○ Blended family (includes stepparents and/ or stepchildren)
○ Gay or lesbian family
○ Adoptive family
● Historically in USA
○ 1970- 40% of all US households were traditionally nuclear
■ Married man and woman w/ biological children
○ 2012 - 20% of all US households are the “traditional” nuclear family
○ Why the drop?
■ Higher rates of divorce
■ Higher rates of single parents
■ Higher rates of alternative or postmodern family arrangements
■ Higher rates of people never getting married
■ Delayed childbearing or no children
● Single - parent families
○ Majority headed by women
○ New York Times,
February 2012
■ Now >50% of children born to mothers under age 30 are born outside of
marriage
● Fastest growth since 1990 in white women w/ some college, but
not a 4 year degree
● Varies by education level (majority of women w/ 4 year degrees
marry before having children)
● Varies by race/ ethnicity (73% of black children are born outside
marriage, compared with 53% of Latinos, 29% of whites)
● Blended families
○ Family structure that includes parent, stepparent, & children
○ Mother - stepfather (most common)
■ Stepfather often seen as “intruder”
■ Often have limited access to biological father
○ Father - stepmother
■ Adjustment more difficult for girls at first; typically confounded by severe
problems with biological mother
○ Protective factors
■ Strong relationship between biological parent & stepparent
■ “Easing” into parent role by stepparent
■ Family therapy
● Children Raised by Same - Gender Parent
○ Increasing in recent years
■ Easier access to donors
■ Increased custody given by courts
○ Developmental effects
■ No differences from children in families with heterosexual parents
■ Depends on quality of parents’ relationship, parenting practices (and
parent - child relationship), SES
○ Issues
■ Relationship to extended family/ relatives may be broken
■ Concern that children may be stigmatized by peers
● Adoptive families
○ Approx. 135,000 children adopted in US each year
■ Most from foster care system
■ International adoptions peaked in 2004
○ Adopted children
■ Tend to have more learning & emotional difficulties compared to non -
adopted age mates in childhood & adolescence (depends on age of
adoption)
○ Development of racial & ethnic identity affected by practices of adoptive parents
Siblings & Development
● Average Family Size
○ In mid 1950s average # children in US family was 3.8
○ 2014 - average # = 2.4
○ Currently - average # = 1.87 (est. 2017)
○ Why the reduction?
■ Greater access to contraception
■ Higher education level of women
■ Delay of childbirth
■ Higher divorce rate
■ More expensive to raise children
● Influence of siblings
○ Role of siblings
■ Care - taker
■ Teacher & role model
■ Playmate / companion
■ Tormentor
● Sibling rivalry
○ Compete for resources, including attention
○ New baby can be especially difficult for children < 4
○ Rivalry most common in situations of
■ Differential treatment
■ Unstable family circumstances
■ Coercive or hostile parenting
● Number of siblings & intellectual development
○ General consensus in research literature
■ Children w/ fewest siblings have the best educational outcomes
○ Why? (Downey, 2001)
■ Resource Dilution Model: parental resources become “diluted” with each
additional child (settings, treatments, opportunities)
■ Other causal possibility: more educated parents tend to have fewer
children
● Therefore- smart people have small families
● Instead of small families make smart people
● Birth order and Intellectual development
○ Family environment affects siblings differently based on the timing of their birth
■ Results of birth order effects on intelligence have been mixed
● Depends on the age children are tested
● A significant correlation between birth order & educational
achievement has been fond for children over 11 years old
(firstborns outscore later borns)
● Damian & Roberts (2015) : Meta - analysis with 377,000 high
school students
○ Correlation between birth order and intelligence = 0.4
■ Why? (Zajonc)
● In their earliest years of development they did not have to share
parental resources
Document Summary
Need to consider human development in the context of multiple systems that influence the child / adult. Exosystem (mass media, parent workplace, church (dominant religious beliefs of community), government. Cultures vary as to whether child is economic contributor to family or economic drain . Estimated cost to raise a child (not including daycare, college tuition, or private schools ) = ,000 + (,000 + in more affluent areas where cost of living is higher) Child (ren) + biological mother and father. Single parent (includes never - married, widowed, & divorced) Most common in african - american & hispanic families. Blended family (includes stepparents and/ or stepchildren) Married man and woman w/ biological children. 1970- 40% of all us households were traditionally nuclear. 2012 - 20% of all us households are the traditional nuclear family. Higher rates of alternative or postmodern family arrangements. Higher rates of people never getting married.
