What family structures do we distinguish?

The adult family members who have the greatest effects on the development of a child are the ones with whom they live together. They are in regular contact, they raise the children and support them financially. The term family structure refers to the number of people living in a household and the relationships between them.

What kind of general family structure changes have occurred in the US?

More and more children are living with one parent or with unmarried parents. In 2014, 46% of children lived with parents in their first marriage, compared to 73% in 1960. This is accompanied with a growth in the number of children living with a single parent. The family structure has major implications for the income. Almost half of the children living with a single parent live below the poverty line, compared to 14% of the children with two married parents. In addition, single parents often have less time for their child.

Also, the age at which women have their first child has increased. There are fewer teenage pregnancies. Getting children at a later age has clear advantages. Parents generally have more financial resources and are less likely to have a divorce within ten years. Often they are also more positive in their upbringing.

More and more children live with their grandparents. This has negative effects, because a long time has passed since they raised their own children. Families are also getting smaller due to the fact that women more often have work ambitions and because of improved and more accesable birth control. Family structures are also more and more fluid, partly because of divorce.

The number of teenage mothers has decreased in the recent years. Getting a child as an adolescent is associated with negative outcomes for both the mother and the child. It has consequences for the possibilities of the mother in terms of education, career and relationships with peers. They often have weak skills in terms of parenting. Children more often show disorganized attachment and problems such as weak impulse control and delays in cognitive development, and also a higher chance of delinquent behavior and early sexual activity. Young mothers who have knowledge about the development of a child and their upbringing raise children with fewer problems. The presence of the father can be beneficial for both the child and the mother.

What is the influence of having parents with the same sex on the development of a child?

The number of gay and lesbian parents has increased significantly in recent years. Children with parents of the same gender do not differ from children with parents of different genders in terms of adaptation, personality, relationships with peers and academic performance. Just like in families with heterosexual parents, adaptation of children with lesbian or gay parents depends on family dynamics, the parent-child relationship, the bond between the parents, support from the parents, regulated discipline and the degree of stress that parents experience in the parenting.

What is the influence of divorce on the development of a child?

Divorces cause all kinds of changes in the life of a child. For example, the parents experience stress and  possibly an increase of financial problems. Additionally, it could be that they move to a different environment, which brings a transition to a new house, a new school and new friends. While, in the meantime they also have to get used to the new family structure. This can have a direct effect on mental health. It can also have an indirect effect through less positive upbringing and disturbed family interactions. A divorce can also be positive, for example when there was a high level of conflict between the parents before. Although a divorce itself can also lead to conflicts.

Children of divorced parents run a greater risk to develop problems in the long and short term, such as depression, grief, lower self-esteem and less social responsibility and competence. Adolescents with divorced parents are more inclined to delinquency, alcohol and drug abuse, stopping school and having extramarital children. They are also more at risk of having a divorce themselves. Although the risks exist and a divorce is very painful, the children of divorced parents do not suffer significantly more than children whose parents are still together. The level of stress and parental conflict, the age of the child, the degree of contact with the unwarranted parent and the contribution of long-term characteristics are predictors of the extend of children's suffering from the divorce.

What is the influence of having stepparents on the development of a child?

The introduction of a stepparent in the life of a child can influence him or her in different ways. Remarrying can lead to less contact with the other parent. This can be stressful for a child and can lead to difficulties in adapting to the stepparent. Stepfathers often want their new family to flourish, but it often happens that they feel less attached to their stepchildren than fathers in intact families. Generally, a child over time will be just as close or even closer to the stepfather than to the real father. If the child also has a positive relationship with the real father, this predicts positive outcomes in adolescence. However, conflicts are more common in the stepfamily than in intact families. In general, stepmothers have more difficulty with stepchildren than stepfathers. For children in stepfamilies it is best when the relationships between the non-living in parent and the stepparent is supportive and the biological parents have a cordial relationship.

What are family dynamics?

How well the family meets the basic child-rearing functions, such as ensuring the suvival of the child, largely depends on family dynamics. This is the way in which family members interact with each other through different relationships. The family is a complex social unit, there is interdependence and mutual influence.

What different parenting styles do we distinguish?

Socialization is the process in which children learn values, norms, skills, knowledge and behaviors that are seen as appropriate in their current and future role in their culture. Two aspects of upbringing are especially important for the development of a child: discipline and the overall upbringing style.

Discipline is a set of strategies and behaviors parents use to teach their children how to behave appropriately. Discipline is effective if the child stops engaging in unwanted behavior and ideally wants to show desired behavior. Discipline is most effective when it leads to permanent changes in the behavior of a child, because the child has learned and accepted the desired behavior. This process is called internalization. If parents emphasize that for example hitting can hurt someone else, a child will understand why it is better not to show particular behavior, this is called other-oriented induction. Discipline techniques that place too much or too little psychological pressure on the child are not effective in promoting internalization. Punishment is a negative stimulus that follows behavior to reduce the likelihood of behavior in the future.

The parenting style is the constellation of behaviors and attitudes in parenting that determine the emotional climate of parent-child interactions. There are two dimensions of the parenting style that are especially important: (1) the degree of parental warmth, support and acceptance and (2) the degree of parental control and demandingness.

Baumrind identified four parenting styles:

• Authoritative parenting: the parents are very demanding, show a lot of support and set clear standards and limits. They allow their children a lot of autonomy within these limits and are attentive and responsive.
• Authoritarian parenting: the parents are cold, not responsive and demanding. They are very focused on control and do not tolerate contradiction.
• Permissive parenting: the parents are very focused on responsiveness and little on demandingness. The children do not have to behave appropriately or mature.
• Uninvolved parenting: the parents are not very demanding and not very responsive. The needs of the parents are first, and no limits are set. The parents do not offer support and no control of behavior.

The percentage of parents who beat their children has decreased. Research shows the following conclusions about spanking children: (1) spanking does not improve behavior, (2) it increases the risk of all kinds of negative outcomes, (3) spanking is linked to negative outcomes that are the same in different cultural groups.

What are the differences between fathers and mothers in parenting styles?

In general, mothers spend more time with their children than fathers. Mothers more often provide physical care and emotional support than fathers. However, the fathers are playing relatively more with their children. There are some cultural differences. In some countries, such as Sweden and India, fathers hardly play with their children. The extent to which fathers and mothers are involved in the upbringing and nature of interactions with children vary as a function of cultural practices and factors such as the amount of time parents are away from home.

What influence can children have on parenting?

Children influence the parenting they receive with their behavior and personality. How children behave with their parents depends on many factors. The most prominent are the genetic factors related to temperament. Some children are more reactive to the quality of parenting they receive than others. The bidirectionality of the parent-child interaction is the idea that parents and their children are mutually influenced by each other's characteristics and behavior.

How do brothers and sisters influence each other?

Brothers and sisters are each other's playmates and source of support, instruction, safety, help and care. However, they can also be each other's rivals, a source of irritation and mutual conflict. If the parents have a preference for on of the children, the sibling relationship will suffer a lot. Also, the child who is less preferenced experiences stress, depression and other problems with, for example adjusting, especially if the child has a bad relationship with the parents. Brothers and sisters can interact better if the relationship between the parents is good. The quality of the relationships between brothers and sisters therefore depends on how the parents interact with each other and the children and how others are treated in the family. Differences between families, emphasize that families are complex, dynamic social systems, with all members contributing to each other's functioning.

How does child abuse affect the child's development?

One of the greatest threats to a child's development is experiencing child abuse; that is to say (intentional) abuse or neglect that endangers the well-being of anyone under the age of 18. There are different types of child abuse:

• Neglect refers to the caregiver's failure to provide for a child's basic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision, which endangers the health and safety of the child.
• Physical abuse refers to any behavior that results in non-accidental physical injury to a child.
• Emotional abuse refers to a pattern of behavior on the part of the parent or caregiver that is dismissive, demeaning, repeatedly criticizing, or withholding love. Emotional abuse also occurs when the child is communicated to be worthless, unloved, or unwanted.
• Sexual abuse refers to sexual acts or sexual exploitation involving children.

Many victims of child abuse experience multiple forms of child abuse. We call this polyvictimization. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse.

What factors increased the risk of child abuse?

Research has shown several factors that increase the risk of child abuse:

• Parents lack knowledge of the child's needs and capabilities.
• Parents have a negative reaction to stress.
• The family has a low income.
• Inadequate housing and material resources.
• Social isolation.
• Parents have an alcohol or drug problem.
• A parent is a victim of abuse in his or her romantic relationship.
• Parents themselves have been victims of child abuse.

It is important to remember that these risk factors do not refer to causality. For example, there is a lot of resilience among parents who have been victims of child abuse: they will not abuse their child themselves.

What are the consequences of child abuse and how can we prevent it from happening?

Children who experience abuse are at an increased risk of developing cognitive deficits, displaying antisocial behavior, and mental health problems. Research has also shown that child abuse leads to long-term changes in brain structure and functioning. Fortunately, there is also a lot of resilience in children: some grow up to have a healthy and productive life.

Since child abuse is a serious problem with serious consequences, various interventions have been designed that aim to prevent child abuse. These interventions focus on the different layers of the ecological model:

1. Strengthen the family's economic situation.
2. Change social norms to stimulate positive parenting.
3. Provide good quality early childhood education.
4. Promote parenting skills.
5. Intervene in situations where child abuse has occurred or is imminent.

What is the effect of the socio-economic context on the development of children?

What is the influence of the cultural context on the development of children?

The views of parents about how the optimal development of a child looks and their decisions about how they behave towards their child and how to discipline their child, have a strong foundation in their culture. For example, a study shows that mothers reported high levels of positive discipline in all studied countries. Positive discipline and warm upbringing are preferred in different cultures. Differences were found between cultures in the use of certain discipline techniques and how often these are used. For example, mothers from Italy yell or scold more and mothers from Kenya use physical punishment more often. However, mothers are the same in teaching their children about good and bad behavior. Also, mothers show that they make the least use of not giving love. It seems that certain techniques are more effective in one culture than in the other culture.

What is the influence of the economic context on the development of children?

Parents with a high income spend about 2.5 times more money on a child per year than parents with a low income. These parents can buy things of better quality and have money for things like music lessons. Low-income parents often spend less time with and invest less money in their children, because they have multiple jobs or have to work at night to make ends meet. Children from poor families have lower school performance and more mental health problems, behavioral problems and health problems. Often, poorer families also live in poorer quality environments. However, if high-performing parents exert a lot of pressure on their children this can also have negative psychological effects.

Homelessness displays an increased risk of various things for children. Examples are a lack of adequate food and medical care. They also relocate more often, which leads to more absence at school, if they go to school at all. Also, more often they do show internal problems, such as depression and low self-esteem. Children who have a close relationship with their parents are better adapted. Particularly, homeless children who live alone are a risk group. Interventions require a multi-pronged approach, because there are often many different problems.

What is the influence of the work of the parents on the development of children?

The work environment of parents can give a sense of success and can provide a social network, both of which improve mental health and thus the quality of parenting. However, work can also cause stress. In the recent years, mothers often do work. Research about working mothers does not show consistent negative effects on the development of a child. However, research shows the negative effects of mothers who work night shifts. Children would show problems such as aggressive behavior and depressive symptoms. These mothers spend less time with their children.

Because nowadays many mothers work, they cannot stay at home to take care of the children. This has led to a need for a family leave policy. In the US however, this is not paid which means that this can only be used if families can afford reduced income. The mother can recover from the pregnancy in such a period and take care of the child.

What is the impact of childcare on the development of children?

Because many mothers work, many children are regularly sent to childcare. Research about the consequences of childcare show different results. A number of studies show that children in childcare do not differ in problem behavior with children being raised at home. However, the NICHD study shows that many hours a day in childcare or constantly changing caregivers in the first two years of life predicts lower social competence and not listening to adults. However, this does not apply to children from very poor families when the quality of childcare is good. The risk of problems is greater when the children are in large groups and the quality of childcare is low.

High-quality childcare stimulating the language development of children leads to a better cognitive and language development in the first three years of life.

There are minimum standards for childcare ensuring that the childcare is safe and encourages the development of a child. For example, maximum group sizes were determined for different age groups and child-caregiver ratios. In addition, formal training of the caregivers is important.