Parental Attachment

Parental Attachment

1. emotional availability

   • Biringen (2000)
   • high responsiveness & sensistivity
     • try to meet child's needs
     • responds to emotional needs
     • Van Den Boom
     • attachment
       • secure = higher emotional availability & responsiveness
       • insecure avoidant = maternal rejection/withdrawal of contact
       • insecure resistant = mother is psychologically unavailable ie depression
       • Disorganised = early trauma, life stress
   • emotional warmth
     • Domitrovich & Bierman
     • Steelman et al
     • Simons, Robertson & Doms
     • Radin
     • Goldstein, Davis-Kean & Eccles
     • Pettit, Bates & Dodge
   • other factors
     • communication patterns
       • highly elaborative parents = better memory & more complex language
       • Barnes & Olson
       • Diamond (2002)
     • methods of control
       • how parents discipline their children
         • however control/discipline are not isolated elements of parenting
       • consistency of rules has a significant effect on behaviour
       • physical punishments have immediate effect by little long term effect
       • Behaviourism
         • the assumption that is a child is rewarded it is more likely to repeat the behaviour and the opposite with punishment
         • Ginsburg & Bronstien
         • Prinzie et al
         • Schwartz
           • when given extrinsic rewards , internal motivation decreases

2. Aspects of parenting

   • Acceptance
   • Involvement
   • Autonomy granting

3. Styles of Parenting

   • authoritative
     • acceptance and involvement is warm responsive and patient
     • high control and emotional warmth
     • responsive to individual needs and expects maturity in relation to child's level of development
     • uses discipline and enforces boundries
     • grants age appropriate autonomy & listens to child's point of view
     • good outcomes
       • more compliant and less deviant @ age 2
         • Crockenberg & Litman
       • fewer behaviour problems higher self esteem
         • Amato & Farler
       • better school performance in adolescence
         • Steinberg, Elman & Mants
   • Authoritarian
     • highly controlling, over-involved, demanding and critical
     • do not grant age-appropriate autonomy
     • expect rules to be followed without excpetion
       • Glasgow et al
     • emotionally unresponsive
     • harsh discipline
     • often results in children being anxious & withdrawn or very aggressive
       • Caputo et al
       • withdrawn or defiant
     • children perform less well at school, have lower self esteem & experience more social problems
   • too what extent are parenting styles effected by external factors ie social-economic growth, education of parents
   • Pemisive Parenting
     • warm and accepting
       • but either overindulgent or inattentive
     • low in control
     • avoids discipline and control
     • grants too much autonomy
     • effects may be particularly noticeable in adolescence
     • children are less independent than peers
   • Uninvolved
     • uninterested, little control
     • lack of emotional warmth
     • lets child make age-inappropriate decisions
     • parents are often depressed or anxious
     • leads to risky impulsive behaviour in adolescence
       • Block et al
   • Maccoby & Martin criteria

4. Steinberg & Bornbusch

   • followed 11,000 teenagers in longitudinal study
   • measured parenting styles
   • Authoritative parents showed the highest GPA (measure of academic achievement
     • & lowest delinqeuncy
   • Authoritarian parents had the 2nd lower GPA and 2 lowest delinquency
   • Neglected children had the lowest GPA & highest rates of delinquency
   • Permissive parents had children with 2nd highest GPA but 2nd highest delinquency rating