After studying David White and Anna Woollett’s Families A context for Development I have began to understand how many different aspects there are to family life that affect the development of children and how they become part of their local community. White and Woollett state from Ingleby, D (1986) Development in social context that ‘ ‘The child’ and ‘the family’ remain two distinct units rather then being seen as interconnected and interrelated.’ This, I believe is a big problem associated with family relationships that people often separate the two and try to work on what are the problems each party have when standing alone, whereas in this book White and Woollett claim that they do not follow the same pattern of most textbooks focusing exclusively on children with references occasionally to both parents they take ‘the child in the family’ as their main area of study and research. (1992:2) This way of research and understanding is the solid foundation for the layout and concept’s brought to our attention throughout the book, however White and Woollett state that families vary considerably therefore to make generalizations is unjust so they analyse all different factors such as single parent families, step families, employment within the family and financial circumstances and how they effect parent-child relationships. (1992:3) The first key point covered in the book is what is seen as a ‘normal’ family, and how nowadays this setup is not as common, with children living with step parents/siblings or half siblings and sometimes in single parent families. White and Woollett are examining how these differences effect the way in which a family functions. Change happens all the time in families sometimes planned or when it is least expected, for example older children moving away from home or a sudden death in a family member. When such sudden changes occur research tends to be most interested in the transitions of family life at this particular time, when the family is moving from one state to another (Parke, 1988).
The relationship between parent and child is one thing constantly changing, from birth right through to teenage years, and the relationship between father and child is the one found to change the most throughout an infants life. Moss 1987, states that as children get older, at about 3 months, fathers become more involved and around 80 per cent of them will play with their children at least once everyday, and feeding is seen as the one activity fathers engage in on a frequent or daily basis. This closeness and relationship then develops and grows stronger through out the child’s life and is at it’s strongest when the child reaches the age of 6-7 as children become more tolerable and less likely to throw ‘temper tantrums,’ (Ross, 1982).
White and Woollett state that from Clarke-Stewart’s study, differing elements to parenting are apparent in the mother and father. The mother is seen to adopt the role of ‘caretaker’ and the father is associated more with playful behaviour and engaging in physical activities and games (2009; 67).
One thing which is seen more often in today’s society is a rising trend in divorce in Britain, (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/28/socialtrends). With divorces resulting in either step parent or single parent families, families that result in single parenting the effects on academic performance of the children involved is shown to suffer. The assumption that this is directly effected by the loss of a parent is false, another factor is children from single parent families tend to come from a lower socio-economic background and thus effecting their performance in school, because children with parents who are less well educated tend to underperform themselves. And if a child is under the age of 6 during The effects of family break-up are different for both sexes as girls are seen to manage better than boys in the short-term but become more disobedient and show signs of depression in the longer-term in comparison to girls of similar ages from non-divorced families, (Hetherington, 1988; Wallerstein 1988).
After reading Vicky Phares, Sherecce Fields and Dimitra Kamboukos’ journal, Fathers’ and Mothers’ Involvement with Their Adolescents, I have gained more knowledge in the field of parent-child relationships and how they function and the factors in which effect them in both positive and negative ways. The first key point studied in the journal is the divsion of the parental involvement which children being defined in at least three ways: direct interaction with children, being accessible to children but not interacting directly and finally responsibility for children, (Day and Lamb 2004; Lamb 1982; Pleck and Masciadrelli 2004).
Phares, Fields and Kamboukos state that it is a well known fact that mothers spend significantly more time than fathers with their children at a younger age (2009; 2). A mother is seen to take on the ‘managerial role’ within the family and the home, as they take on the responsibilities of the day-by-day conduct, and tasks such as feeding, changing and bathing, keeping up with home and school work and doctor and dentist appointments, (Parke 2000). This is in contrast with the role of the father being seen at the primary ‘playmate’ as most of their direct interaction with their children is spent participating in playful action, ( Lewis and Lamb 2003). Phares, Fields and Kamboukos conducted their own experiments to see if time spent with adolescents changes with a result of their age at weekends, compared to during the week. Mothers were shown to spend equal amounts of time in direct involvement as accessibility, over the weekend, regardless of the age of the child whereas fathers where shown to spend just as much time but engaging more with their younger children. But to my surprise it was shown that adolescents age has no effect what so ever on both parents involvement in the same activities on a weekday, (2009; 4).
With another experiment, taking into account the satisfaction with the division of labour within the house a general consensus was reached on both parents part that mothers satisfaction was with the responsibility of school work, discipline, daily care and fun activities, compared to fathers satisfaction in the areas of discipline and fun activities. Lower level of dissatisfaction with the division of labour within the household has a large effect on the level of interparental conflict between partners, causing problems in the home and is show to directly influence emotional and behavioural problems in adolescents.
Research has shown that as a child grows both their father and mother spend less and less time with them, (Hofferth; 2002). This is said to be true because as a child progresses through their adolescence they become more self-sufficient and their focus often shifts to activities out with the family, and time is spent engaging in socialising with friends and organisations or clubs, leaving little time for interaction with their parents, (Parke; 2002).
After studying both David White and Anna Woollett’s Families A context for Development and Vicky Phares, Sherecce Fields and Dimitra Kamboukos’ journal, Fathers’ and Mothers’ Involvement with Their Adolescents, I have learnt a great deal about family relationships and how there are similarities within all families relating to things such as gender and age. To my surprise these specific factors play more of a part in family functioning than I first thought. Perhaps it is to do with the fact I only have one sibling, of the same sex so I have never noticed a difference in the way our parents treat us, regarding our gender. More so with our age, but this I believe is more prominent because I am the eldest and I have to experience everything first.
Both of my sources covered similar areas when discussing the role of the mother and father within the domestic step-up, with White and Woollett referring to the mother as the ‘caretaker’ (2009; 67) and Phares, Fields and Kamboukos as being part of the ‘managerial role’ (Parke 2000), both sources refer to the father as being the one in charge of organising playful acivities. In my experience I believe this to be true, as when I was growing up my mum worked part time and on night shift to be available around the house to cater for my sister and I, and my dad went to work and at nights and weekends would participate in plenty of physical activities with us in order to give mum a break. This is seen as the most stereotypical format for an old fashioned family, where the mother stays home to look after the kids and the father is the primary ‘breadwinner’ of the household, although this may seem the case I believe it to be very successful way of bringing up the family and it has not altered my relationship in anyway differently with my mum than it does with my dad. I am very fortunate to have a very close and open relationship with both my parents, same is to be said for my younger sister. What was said in Phares, Fields and Kamboukos journal about the father-son relationship was stronger than the father-daughter relationship during adolescence (Youniss and Smollar 1985) I disagree with. It may again be because I only have one same sex sibling, that I do not have a brother to compare my relationship with my father with. I have a very strong relationship with my father and believe it would be the same regardless of my gender, because I believe it to be the people themselves that dictate the openness within a relationship and not their sex, however I have been proved to be wrong after reading through both extracts and finding them to have the same facts in both stating the opposite of what I believe.
This is only one of the many similarities between both extracts, showing to me that this is all reliable information, as is proved to be true on more than one occasion. Also with Phares, Fields and Kamboukos they have conducted some of their own experiments and research aiding their argument in reliable and primary information. When i selected my topic for my assignment I was researching into parent and child relationships and how a child’s circumstances when growing up can effect their behaviour and social skills in later life, However this soon evolved into not just the effects parent’s have on their children, but the effect the child has on their parent, and the effect they all have on one another in the community and how this in turn is the foundation for the relationships we all build with one another everyday.
If I was to take my research of this particular topic further I would look more into the specific relationships between father and daughter because this is where I seem to have a slight disagreement with the facts previously stated. To do this I would use the facility of cross-search within the library and make a similar approach to what I have done for this particular project but concentrate more on homing in on my desired topic. Devising my own studies, research and tests I believe would be a beneficial way of getting more answers and I think this would be the most likely road I would go down to per sue taking my topic further, and gaining my own primary information.
Bibliography
John Carvel (2008) The Guardian Newspaper. Available http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/28/socialtrends (01/12/2009).
Phares, V, Fields, S, and Kamboukos, D, (2009) Fathers’ and Mothers’ Involvement with Their Adolescents.
White, D and Woollett, A (1992) Families: A Context for Development. London: RouteledgeFalmer.
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