PSC 140 Study Guide - Final Guide: Stepfamily, Family Therapy, Nuclear Family
The contexts of early Childhood development
●Be familiar w/ the definitions of the several types of families described in lecture. Describe some
of the risks/ problems with some of these family types (if any) & the “protective” factors that
increase the chances for optimal development within these different kinds of families
○“traditional “ nuclear family
■Child (ren) + biological mother & father
○Single parent
■Includes never married, widowed, & divorced
■Majority headed by women
■From book:
●“.. compared with European Americans, African Americans are more
supportive of single - parent families & attach less stigma to them..”
●“.. extended - family pattern characteristic of the Hispanic & African
American cultural traditions may mean that children have a network of
kin that provides additional support”
●“...because the single mothers in their study had never been married, their
families were not exposed to the sudden emotional & financial changes
typically experienced by divorced families”
○Mothers may have stronger commitments to their
nonconventional family structure than those who were divorced
○Extended or multigenerational family
■Relatives live together
■10% families
■Most common in African - American & Hispanic families
○Blended family
■Includes stepparents and/ or stepchildren
■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
○Gay or lesbian family (same - gender parenting)
■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 family
■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
■
●Note: there is a discrepancy between the book’s definition of nuclear family & what I told you in
class. Please learn the definition I gave you in lecture of “traditional” nuclear family. That is,
married mother, father, + biological children
●Describe changes in the prevalence of nuclear families in US households from 1970 to present
day. What accounts for the drop in the nuclear 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
○Single parents
○Alternative or postmodern family arrangements
○People never getting married
○Delayed childbearing or no children
●Be familiar with the percentage of children born outside of marriage to women between 20 - 30
years of age (New York Times article) & how this has changed in recent years. How do the
percentages vary by mother’s race of ethnicity? How do the percentages vary by maternal
education level?
○Over 50% of children are 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 educational level
■Majority of women w/ 4 year degrees marry before having children
○Varies by race/ ethnicity
■73% of black children are born outside marriage
■53% Latinos
■29% whites
●Has the average # of children per family increased or decreased in the past 50 years? What are
some reasons for why?
○The average number of children per family has decreased
○1950: average = 3.8
○2014: average = 2.4
○Currently: average = 1.87
○Why the reduction?
■Greater access to contraception
■Higher education level of women
■Delay of childbirth
■Higher divorce rate
■More expensive to raise children
■
●What are some of the causes of sibling rivalry?
○Competition for resources
■Including attention
○New baby can be especially difficult for children under 4
○Rivalry most common in situations of
■Differential treatment
■Unstable family circumstances
■Coercive or hostile parenting
●Be able to describe the RESOURCE DILUTION MODEL for the influence of multiple children
on the intellectual development.
○Resource Dilution Model: parental resources become “diluted” with each additional child
(settings, treatments, opportunities)
●How and why can birth order affect intellectual development? Is this a meaningful difference
between siblings?
○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 found 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
●Firstborn children get intellectual advantage of being “tutor” to younger
as they grow older
●What are some developmental effects of having no siblings?
○Positive outcomes
■High self - esteem
■Achievement - oriented (as much as children with 1 other sibling)
■More Privacy
■More financial resources
○Negative outcomes
■May be more pressure from parents
■May have more difficulty in social relationships
■Lack of sibling relationship
●How do siblings and birth order relate to theory of mind development?
○Theory of mind and Siblings
■Strong evidence that having siblings is associated with higher performance on
theory of mind tests (such as false belief) in preschool years
●Children with siblings outperform singletons
●Having more older siblings ( that is, being one of the youngest in the
family) appears most beneficial
●Not just in preschool years, extends into middle childhood as well
●Be able to describe and give examples of the four major types of parenting styles: authoritarian,
authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved/neglectful (know how they vary on responsiveness and
demandingness). What types of behaviors/child outcomes are each of these parenting styles
associated with? Does this vary by culture/SES? If so, why and how?
Document Summary
Be familiar w/ the definitions of the several types of families described in lecture. Describe some of the risks/ problems with some of these family types (if any) & the protective factors that increase the chances for optimal development within these different kinds of families. Child (ren) + biological mother & father. Compared with european americans, african americans are more supportive of single - parent families & attach less stigma to them . Extended - family pattern characteristic of the hispanic & african. American cultural traditions may mean that children have a network of kin that provides additional support . Because the single mothers in their study had never been married, their families were not exposed to the sudden emotional & financial changes typically experienced by divorced families . Mothers may have stronger commitments to their nonconventional family structure than those who were divorced. Most common in african - american & hispanic families. Often have limited access to biological father.
