Family Experiences of Competition and Adolescent Performance

The authors examined how mothers' and fathers' feelings of competition at home and work affect their relationships with their daughters and sons using time‐diary data from a national sample of 220 families. Multivariate analyses revealed 3 relationships between parents' feelings of competitiveness at work and home and feelings of competition experienced by their children at school and home: (a) parents' and adolescents' competitiveness varied across home, work, and school—with mothers and fathers reporting similar levels of competition at work but daughters feeling more competitive at school than sons; (b) parents' competition at work was associated with similar activities; however, daughters' and sons' competition at school varied by activities; and (c) mothers' competition was associated with strategies for college enrollment and varied by gender, most notably with respect to daughters' academic progress. The results suggest how parents' competitive disposition may motivate their children's academic performance, especially between working mothers and their daughters.     

Providing More but Receiving Less: Daughters in Intergenerational Exchange in Mainland China

This study investigates the gender pattern of both downstream and upstream transfers between older parents and their children in China. Based on theories about the generation gap in the understandings of family norm and the heterogeneous effects of the social forces that encourage women to contribute more in elder care by generation, the author proposes a gender asymmetrical pattern in which the patrilineal norm governs parents' decisions of downstream transfers but exerts little effect on children's upstream support for parents. Capitalizing on a survey of the population older than 60 years, the author fitted several simultaneous equation models. Empirical results suggest that, all being equal, daughters provide more monetary and housework assistance to older parents than do sons, but daughters are comparatively disadvantaged in the probability of receiving either type of transfer from their parents. The pattern of “providing more but receiving less” for female caregivers affirms the gender asymmetrical pattern.     

Which Children Will Go to Secondary School? Factors Affecting Parents' Decisions in Rural Thailand1

Abstract This study examines parents' decisions about educating some or all of their children beyond primary school in rural Thailand. Their strategies often involve choices between sons and daughters and between older versus younger children. We find that the more children there are in a family, the lower the proportion who are sent to secondary school. Parents send more sons than daughters and more youngest than eldest children. The decision is sometimes associated with a specific “investment” strategy, but it may also reflect parents' ability to afford to send children beyond primary school. Important economic factors include children's perceived earning potentials, anticipated opportunity costs, and parents' poverty status. However, the issues of access to schools and the safety of children, particularly girls, are also critically important. These concerns are often weighed as heavily, or more heavily, than economic considerations.     

The Influence of Parental Attitudes and Behaviors on Children's Attitudes Toward Gender and Household Labor in Early Adulthood

The paper assesses parental influences on young adults' attitudes toward gendered family roles, housework allocation, and housework enjoyment. The effects of parents' housework allocation, educational attainment, and religious participation are examined, as well as mothers' gender role attitudes and labor force participation. Using data from an intergenerational panel study, the analysis finds that children's ideal allocation of housework at age 18 is predicted by maternal gender role attitudes when the children were very young and by the parental division of housework when the children were adolescents. Adult children's gender role attitudes are associated with maternal gender role attitudes measured during both early childhood and midadolescence.     

Exploring the relationship between parents’ and children’s housework time in Spain

Intergenerational transmission has been successfully employed in economic research to explain the persistence of certain economic behaviors across generations. This paper evaluates the relevance of this transmission process in the formation of gender roles during childhood. In particular, we analyze the relationship between parents?? and children??s housework allocation patterns. We propose a simple theoretical model that predicts that parents with a strong adherence to gender to traditional gender norms??as proxied by their division of household labor??are more likely to allocate housework to children in a way that reflects stereotypes of men??s and women??s domestic tasks. The empirical application is carried out with data from the 2002?C2003 Spanish Time Use Survey. The sample restricts to two-parent households with at least one child aged 10?C17?years. We find a significant positive correlation between a more egalitarian parents?? allocation of housework and a less asymmetrical distribution of domestic chores between sons and daughters.     

Parents' Relationship Quality and Children's Behavior in Stable Married and Cohabiting Families

Although an extensive literature has shown that family structure is linked with child well‐being, less well understood is how the dynamics within families affect children, in particular the extent to which positive mother–father relationship quality is linked with children's outcomes. In this study the authors used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 773) to examine how couple supportiveness in stable coresident families is related to children's externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems over ages 3 through 9. Using latent growth curve and fixed effects models, they found that parents' greater supportiveness has a slight association with lower levels of children's behavioral problems. Using cross‐lagged structural equation models to examine the direction of the association, they also found some evidence that parents' relationship quality and children's behavioral problems are reciprocally related. Overall, this study suggests that more positive couple interactions are beneficial for children residing with both of their biological parents.     

Parents' hopes and expectations for their children's future occupations

Qualitative research has generated important insights into the intersection of social class, parental values and children's experiences of education and their role in the reproduction of inequalities. There has been less analytic engagement with parents' expectations and aspirations regarding their children's future occupations. Such expectations and aspirations have attracted much research and policy interest. Typically, analyses have been quantitative and focused on outcomes for children. Whilst parental expectations are deemed very influential for children's future occupational outcomes, there is relatively little evidence on the shaping of such expectations, or the ways in which future work and occupations are discussed between parents and children. This article reports on an analysis of parents' ideas about their children's future occupations and the contexts in which these ideas accrue meaning. Drawing on primary data from interviews with parents we explore diversity within, as well as across, social classes. First we explore parents' expectations and aspirations for their children's future occupations. Secondly we consider how parents see their own role in shaping such futures. The evidence highlights the salience of parents' own biographies and class backgrounds in shaping their orientations to, and manner of engagement with, their children's futures. Thirdly we briefly explore how parents' expectations and engagement with their children play out in class differentiated ways as their children approach early adulthood.     

Signs of Change? At‐Home and Breadwinner Parents' Housework and Child‐Care Time

The authors analyze American Time Use Survey data to examine patterns in domestic work among at‐home and breadwinner parents to gauge how time availability, relative earnings, and gender shape time use in couples with extreme differences in earnings and work hours. They find that involvement in female‐typed housework is an important driver of overall housework time. It is counternormative housework behavior by at‐home fathers that shapes conclusions about how time availability, relative resources, and gender influence parents' housework. Although time availability appears to shape child care in comparable ways across parents, mothers are more engaged in child care than similarly situated fathers. Overall, comparisons point to the importance of distinguishing among gender‐normative housework tasks and accounting for differences in engagement on work and nonwork days. The results provide a basis for assessing the social significance of growing numbers of parents in work–family roles that are not gender normative.     

Parental Discipline and Abuse Potential Affects on Child Depression,Anxiety, and Attributions

The current study investigated differences in children's emotional functioning as a product of their parents' reported disciplinary practices and child abuse potential. Families with no known history of abuse were recruited to ascertain whether depressogenic attributional style and depressive or anxious symptomatology was evident in children of parents who used harsher physical punishment and who had higher abuse potential. Forty‐two New Zealand children ages 8–12 participated with their parents. Child‐report measures of depression, anxiety, and attributional style were compared with parents' responses on physical discipline scenarios and child abuse potential. Children's anxiety symptoms were higher in those children whose parents obtained higher abuse potential scores and had harsher discipline practices. Children's depressive symptoms and some components of maladaptive attributional style were also found in families with higher abuse potential. Results suggest emotional difficulties similar to those of maltreated children even without identifiable abuse.     

Unique Influence of Mothers and Fathers on Their Children's Antisocial Behavior

The social development model ( Catalano & Hawkins, 1996 ) was adapted to examine the unique influence of mothers and fathers on their children's antisocial behavior. Analyses examined 325 families with sixth‐grade children. Structural equation modeling was used to assess unique influences of constructs specific to mothers or fathers. Multiple‐group comparisons were conducted to identify differences in the relationships between constructs for daughters versus sons. Results suggested that, although the relationships were often similar for both parents and for both daughters and sons, mothers and fathers uniquely influenced their child's antisocial behavior depending on the child's gender. Overall, cross‐gender influence appeared to be particularly important for fathers’ control of their daughters’ antisocial behavior. Implications for the prevention of antisocial behavior are discussed.     

Ambivalence Toward Adult Children: Differences Between Mothers and Fathers

The authors examined how ambivalence toward adult children within the same family differs between mothers and fathers and whether patterns of maternal and paternal ambivalence can be explained by the same set of predictors. Using data collected in the Within‐Family Differences Study, they compared older married mothers' and fathers' (N = 129) assessments of ambivalence toward each of their adult children (N = 444). Fathers reported higher levels of ambivalence overall. Both mothers and fathers reported lower ambivalence toward children who were married, better educated, and who they perceived to hold similar values; however, the effects of marital status and education were more pronounced for fathers, whereas the effect of children's value congruence was more pronounced for mothers. Fathers reported lower ambivalence toward daughters than sons, whereas mothers reported less ambivalence toward sons than daughters.     

Nonoffending Parent Expectations of Sexually Abused Children: Predictive Factors and Influence on Children's Recovery

This study examined the influence of parental expectations on the functioning of sexually abused children. Participants included 67 sexually abused youth and 63 of their nonoffending primary caregivers. Parental expectations about how sexual abuse will impact children were predictive of parents' ratings of children's behavior at pretreatment, while parental expectations of children's overall future functioning were not predictive of parents' ratings of children's behavior. Parental expectations about how sexual abuse will impact their children and about their children's overall future functioning were not predictive of parents' ratings of children's behavior at posttreatment. Results highlight the influential role the sexual abuse label has in shaping parental expectations about children's functioning. Recommendations for research and intervention are discussed.     

‘She is Too Young for These Chores’ — Is Housework Taking a Back Seat in Urban Chinese Childhood?

The child in contemporary urban China is experiencing an increasingly exclusive focus on academic achievement at the expense of non‐academic activities, particularly housework. In‐depth interviews with caregivers (including grandparents and parents) from 9 three‐generational families (n = 34) and parents from 10 nuclear families (n = 20) were conducted. Results show that although children from both family types were low in housework participation, children in three‐generational families were perceived by their caregivers to be less competent in performing self‐care and family‐care tasks. They were also less frequently assigned regular tasks as compared with children from nuclear families. Unlike caregivers from western societies, where children's participation in housework is seen as either a means of socialisation or a source of domestic labour, Chinese caregivers consider housework as a distraction, at best an addendum to academic work.     

A Prospective Study of Behavioural Disturbance in Children Who Subsequently Experience Parental Divorce

This study examines changes in children's behaviour as a function of parental divorce. As part of a large scale general population study on the effects of marital disharmony on children, 139 children from the general population were followed up from a previous study. These children and their mothers were interviewed first between 1979 and 1982 (time 1) and then followed up between 1984 and 1986 (time 2). Between the time 1 interview and the time 2 interview, 16 children's parents had separated or divorced. This paper deals with the mothers' report of changes in the behaviour of these children between time 1 and time 2 as a function of their parents' divorce, and compares this with changes in children's behaviour whose parents live in disharmonious (N = 40) or harmonious homes (N = 50). Children's reports of their own behaviour at time 2 are also presented. The data show that children in disharmonious homes and children whose parents subsequently divorce show higher levels of disturbance than children in harmonious homes. Children whose parents subsequently divorce show their disturbance prior to the divorce. Children's coping strategies in response to divorce were also investigated and and an association was found between children's behavioural problems and (a) self-blame and (b) not having friends whose parents had divorced.     

Correlates in Children's Experiences of Parents' Racial Socialization Behaviors

This study examined racial socialization processes among 94 African American parents of third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade children as they were predicted by children's ethnic identity exploration and unfair treatment as well as by parents' ethnic identity and discrimination experiences. Findings indicated that children's ethnic identity exploration and parents' perceptions that their children had been treated unfairly by an adult because of their race were both significantly associated with the frequency of messages to children regarding discrimination (Preparation for Bias). Parents' perceptions of children's unfair treatment from an adult and children's perceptions that they had been treated unfairly by peers were significantly associated with parents' cautions and warnings to children about intergroup relations (Promotion of Mistrust). Moreover, the influence of parents' perceptions on Promotion of Mistrust were especially pronounced when children also reported unfair treatment from adults. Children's identity exploration and unfair treatment were not associated with parents' emphasis on ethnic pride, heritage, and diversity (Cultural Socialization/Pluralism). Thus, findings suggest that parental factors are most central in the racial socialization messages that children receive. However, children's perceptions of discrimination and information seeking regarding their own history appear to have some influence on parental messages about race.     

THE ROLE OF PARENTS IN THE MAINTENANCE OF SECOND GENERATION VIETNAMESE CULTURAL BEHAVIORS

Although previous research shows that biculturalism is adaptive for the children of immigrants, in the United States there is a great deal of pressure for assimilation. This study examines whether parents who model cultural behaviors and encourage interaction with co-ethnics increase the likelihood that their adult children will engage in cultural behaviors. Data are from a survey of second generation Vietnamese members between the ages of 18 and 30 (N=66) living in Atlanta. Results indicate parents' cultural behaviors (speaking and reading) affect adult children's cultural skills and the ethnic composition of their social networks enhances the likelihood that their children's networks are ethnically based. Moreover, the parents' influence is direct, not mediated by children's social networks. Mothers exert stronger influence than fathers, but respondents' own gender does not predict cultural retention. We discuss results in terms of implications for maintaining ethnic cultures in a context that encourages assimilation.     

Changes in Parenting and Youth Adjustment Across the Military Deployment Cycle

This study examined how changes in at‐home parents' mental health and parenting practices related to changes in their children's adjustment throughout the course of a service members' military deployment. Participants included at‐home parents from 114 National Guard families who were interviewed at four different occasions across the deployment cycle. The results revealed changes across the deployment cycle among the following three indicators: parental warmth, depressive symptoms, and children's externalizing behaviors. Changes in parental warmth were associated with changes in children's adjustment. Overall, these findings indicate that during parental separation, at‐home parents' responses to children have important implications for children's adjustment.     

Parental views of surveillance for early speech and language difficulties

Objective : To investigate parents' experiences of surveillance for early talking difficulties. Design : Qualitative study nested within a randomised controlled trial. Setting : Interviews with the parents of 20 children identified as having early difficulties. Results : Most parents were in favour of surveillance of children's language. Parents do not totally welcome surveillance, however, as it also potentially medicalises their children's early lives. The study also revealed that many of the parents felt stigmatised by their children's difficulties. Conclusions : Listening to parents' accounts can increase professionals' understanding of their responses to monitoring of their child's development and referral to specialist services.     

Parenting,Uncertainty, and Expert Advice: How Privileged American Families Work with Private Counselors in Their Children's College Race

This article uses privileged families who hire Independent Educational Consultants (IECs) as an instance to examine how privileged parents collaborate with individuals whom they consider educational experts to support their children in the college race. We argue that advantaged parents' anxieties about their children have created a market for IECs who provide expert advice in order to mitigate the uncertainties that these parents experience and to manage various goals that they want to achieve at an important turning point in their children's lives. Drawing primarily on interviews with parents who work with IECs, we introduce the concept of “collaborative cultivation” to analyze the processes whereby advantaged parents rely on the expertise and expert status of private counselors to cope with their and their children's vulnerability in the college race while at the same time preparing their children for the unknown future. The parental method of “concerted cultivation” reveals how elite parents rely on individuals they perceive as experts to establish “bridges” between their own social worlds and the academic worlds that appear to beyond their control. This bridging labor points to the myriad cultural beliefs enacted to justify the child‐rearing goals that privileged parents wish to accomplish by working with IECs.