Family Influences on Childhood Behavior and Development

Family Influences on Childhood Behavior and Development

Author: Thomas P. Gullotta

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2008-04-17

Total Pages: 750

ISBN-13: 1135889856

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Irrespective of theoretical orientation, families matter. Families are the entity in which children are introduced to words, objects, shapes, and colors. Families are the people related in a myriad of conventional and unconventional ways that clothe, bathe, and feed its biological and acquired offspring. Influenced by race, ethnicity, income, and education, families relate not only to each other within the unit but to others in the neighborhood, the community, and beyond. This book is about families and their children. This book is about those times when the family unit experiences distress. This distress may be found in the serious illness of a child or a parent. It may be the result of a reconfiguration of the family as in divorce and remarriage. Or it may involve the harming of a family member sexually or physically. In this volume, the authors explore what family means today, what functions it serves, and those circumstances that can make family life painful. Importantly, the authors provide readers with clearly written information drawn from the most recent scientific investigations suggesting how the topics in this volume might be addressed to either ease that discomfort (treatment) or prevent its occurrence.


Parenting Matters

Parenting Matters

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2016-11-21

Total Pages: 525

ISBN-13: 0309388570

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Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.


Children's Influence on Family Dynamics

Children's Influence on Family Dynamics

Author: Ann C. Crouter

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-04-02

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1135632820

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This volume addresses how children's personal qualities make their mark on families in ways that may in turn influence children's subsequent development.


Parenting and Child Development in Nontraditional Families

Parenting and Child Development in Nontraditional Families

Author: Michael E. Lamb

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 1998-10-01

Total Pages: 435

ISBN-13: 113568300X

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The goal of this volume is to discuss--in depth--the ways in which various "deviations" from "traditional" family styles affect childrearing practices and child development. Each of the contributors illustrates the dynamic developmental processes that characterize parenting and child development in contexts that can be deemed "nontraditional" because they do not reflect the demographic characteristics of the traditional families on which social scientists have largely focused. The contributors deal with the dynamics and possible effects of dual-career families, families with unusually involved fathers, families characterized by the occurrence of divorce, single parenthood, remarriage, poverty, adoption, reliance on nonparental childcare, ethnic membership, parents with lesbian or gay sexual orientations, as well as violent and/or neglectful parents. By doing so, the authors provide thoughtful, literate, and up-to-date accounts of a diverse array of "nontraditional" or traditionally understudied family types. All the chapters offer answers to a common question: How do these patterns of childcare affect children, their experiences, and their developmental processes? The answers to these questions are of practical importance, relevant to a growing proportion of the families and children in the United States, but also have significant implications for the understanding of developmental processes in general. As a result, the book will be of value to basic social scientists, as well as those professionals concerned with guiding and advising clients and public policy.


Family Influences on Childhood Behavior and Development

Family Influences on Childhood Behavior and Development

Author: Thomas P. Gullotta

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2008-04-17

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1135889864

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Irrespective of theoretical orientation, families matter. Families are the entity in which children are introduced to words, objects, shapes, and colors. Families are the people related in a myriad of conventional and unconventional ways that clothe, bathe, and feed its biological and acquired offspring. Influenced by race, ethnicity, income, and education, families relate not only to each other within the unit but to others in the neighborhood, the community, and beyond. This book is about families and their children. This book is about those times when the family unit experiences distress. This distress may be found in the serious illness of a child or a parent. It may be the result of a reconfiguration of the family as in divorce and remarriage. Or it may involve the harming of a family member sexually or physically. In this volume, the authors explore what family means today, what functions it serves, and those circumstances that can make family life painful. Importantly, the authors provide readers with clearly written information drawn from the most recent scientific investigations suggesting how the topics in this volume might be addressed to either ease that discomfort (treatment) or prevent its occurrence.


Handbook of Adolescent Behavioral Problems

Handbook of Adolescent Behavioral Problems

Author: Thomas P. Gullotta

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-10-14

Total Pages: 717

ISBN-13: 1489974970

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The Second Edition of the Handbook of Adolescent Behavioral Problems clarifies the current state of treatment and prevention through comprehensive examinations of mental disorders and dysfunctional behaviors as well as the varied forces affecting their development. New or revised chapters offer a basic framework for approaching mental health concerns in youth and provide the latest information on how conditions (e.g., bipolar disorder, suicidality, and OCD) and behaviors (e.g., sex offenses, gang activities, dating violence, and self-harm) manifest in adolescents. Each chapter offers diagnostic guidance, up-to-date findings on prevalence, biological/genetic aspects, risk and resilience factors, and a practical review of prevention and treatment methods. Best-practice recommendations clearly differentiate among what works, what might work, what doesn't work, and what needs further research across modalities, including pharmacotherapy. Key topics addressed include: Families and adolescent development. Adolescent mental health and the DSM-5. Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder. Autism spectrum disorder. Media and technology addiction. School failure versus school success. Bullying and cyberbullying. The Second Edition of the Handbook of Adolescent Behavior Problems is a must-have reference for researchers, clinicians, allied practitioners and professionals, and graduate students in school and clinical child psychology, education, pediatrics, psychiatry, social work, school counseling, and public health.


Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth

Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2004-10-18

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0309166608

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Children's health has clearly improved over the past several decades. Significant and positive gains have been made in lowering rates of infant mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases and accidental causes, improved access to health care, and reduction in the effects of environmental contaminants such as lead. Yet major questions still remain about how to assess the status of children's health, what factors should be monitored, and the appropriate measurement tools that should be used. Children's Health, the Nation's Wealth: Assessing and Improving Child Health provides a detailed examination of the information about children's health that is needed to help policy makers and program providers at the federal, state, and local levels. In order to improve children's health-and, thus, the health of future generations-it is critical to have data that can be used to assess both current conditions and possible future threats to children's health. This compelling book describes what is known about the health of children and what is needed to expand the knowledge. By strategically improving the health of children, we ensure healthier future generations to come.


Family Investments in Children's Potential

Family Investments in Children's Potential

Author: Ariel Kalil

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2004-07-22

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 113561525X

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The papers in this volume bring together a cross-disciplinary mix of researchers--developmental psychologists, evolutionary biologists, economists, anthropologists, and sociologists--working on the common theme of investments in children. The interdisciplinary conceptual framework adopted by this collection of papers is loosely built around the idea that there are two broad dimensions of parental investments. These include resources (e.g., income, wealth) on the one hand, and behaviors (e.g., parental instrumental support and parental activities that promote warmth, socialization, and cognitive stimulation) on the other. Believing that parental investments yield a "return" in improved child and young adult outcomes, the papers discuss how parents differ in terms of the resources they have available to invest, the choices parents make, the behaviors they engage in, and relevant policy and program interventions. More specifically, core questions addressed by the authors include: Why do some families invest while others do not and are differential investment patterns related to biology, economics, or social factors? What constitutes a successful "investment portfolio?" How are "investments" measured and/or characterized? Are different investments interchangeable, compensating, or off-setting? Given a set of resources, why are some families able to make more effective investments in child outcomes? How well do these investments affect outcomes for children and for these children as young adults? Can interventions or public policies help families build assets or become "better" investors in their children's potential? Developing a better understanding of what investments matter, when they matter, and how resources can be successfully invested in children's potential is key to shaping efficient interventions and social policies. Knowledge of how parents invest and what strategies are effective may help policies which seek to further empower and enable parental involvement and choice for their children.


Parenting and the Child's World

Parenting and the Child's World

Author: John G. Borkowski

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2001-10-01

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 1135648506

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Stimulated by the publication of The Nurture Assumption by Judith Rich Harris, Parenting and the Child's World was conceived around the notion that there are multiple sources of influence on children's development, including parenting behavior, family resources, genetic and other biological factors, as well as social influences from peers, teachers, and the community at large. The text's 39 contributors search for when, where, and how parenting matters and the major antecedents and moderators of effective parenting. The chapters focus on the major conceptual issues and empirical approaches that underlie our understanding of the importance of parenting for child development in academic, socio-emotional, and risk-taking domains. Additional goals are to show how culture and parenting are interwoven, to chart future research directions, and to help parents and professionals understand the implications of major research findings.


Families, Risk, and Competence

Families, Risk, and Competence

Author: Michael Lewis

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-04

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 1317778812

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The problems of studying families arise from the difficulty in studying systems where there are multiple elements interacting with each other and with the child. How should this system be described? Still other problems relate to indirect effects; namely the influence of a particular dyad's interaction on the child when the child is not a member of the dyad. While all agree that the mother-father relationship has important bearing on the child's development, exactly how to study this--especially using observational techniques--remains a problem. While progress in studying the family has been slow, there is no question that an increase in interest in the family systems, as opposed to the mother-child relationship, is taking place. This has resulted in an increase in research on families and their effects. This volume, by leading figures in child development on families, attests to the growing sophistication of the conceptualization and measurement techniques for getting at family processes. The third in a series that aims to address topics relevant to the developmental problems and developmental disabilities of retardation, this volume is divided into two parts. Section 1 presents basic family processes and approaches for describing family dynamics. It deals with these issues from a broad perspective, including studying families at dinner, families in different cultural contexts, and the understanding of family in nonhuman primates. Section 2 looks at family processes in the service of studying families at-risk. The risk factors include poverty, malnutrition, and developmental delay and retardation. The study of family processes in these contexts provides data on family dynamics as well as how these dynamics impact on the children's developing competence. This volume will be informative for researchers, clinicians, and educators from a variety of disciplines and settings. The editors' aim is to bring a greater clarity to issues concerning the family life of children and highlight new research and possibilities for intervention.