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ECED40: FAMILY, SCHOOL, AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

MODULE 3: ECOLOGY OF PARENTING

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the Module, you should be able to:
1. investigate how families are changing and what we mean by the word ‘parent’;
2. discuss ways in which parents can be supported in their parenting role and the need for a
multidisciplinary approach;
3. give the importance of utilizing varied means of communicating for effective parent
involvement; and
4.consider the characteristics of effective communication.

CONTENT
A. Families Today
B. Demographic Perspective of Modern Families
C. Roles of Parents in Child’s Development

Brainstorming
“Children behave as well as they are treated.”
- Unknown
Guide Questions
1. Who is a parent? What is parenting?
2. How important are parents in the child’s development and education?
3. What factors affect a successful family relationship and what is the function of family
to the life of the children?
Abstraction
About Parenting
Parenting – the implementation of a series of decisions about the socialization of
children.
According to developmental psychologist, Jerome Kagan, PARENTING means
implementing a series of decisions about the socialization of your children – what you do
to enable them to become responsible, contributing members of society as well as you
do when they cry, are aggressive, lie, or do not do well in school (Woodward, 1975).
Whereas parenthood is universal, parenting is variable among different cultures
and groups within societies
Questions to ponder
 Is parenting a fad/trend/fashion or a fact?
 What parenting practices worked for you?
 What kinds of behavior did you engage in to manipulate your parents? Get
attention? Get revenge?
 What does politics have to do with child rearing?

Macrosystem Influences on Parenting

 Political Ideology
Political ideology refers to theories pertaining to government. It influences
parenting styles because children must be raised to function as citizens in society.

Table 1. Differences between Traditional and Modern Societies

Traditional Societies (Autocratic) Modern Societies (Democratic)
 Subscribe to an aristocratic  Subscribe to a democratic political
political ideology, or government by ideology.
the highest-ranking class of  A democracy is a society in which
individuals in society those ruled have power equal to
 Hereditary monarchs serve as those who rule; the principle is
head of state equality of rights.
 A society in which one person has  Relationship between people are
unlimited power over others based on consensus and
(autocracy) compromise.
 In an autocracy, relationships  The democratic modern family
 between people are understood in system considers the rights of all
terms of a pecking order. The members.
father is the authority who has
power over the mother and the
children; women and children have
few rights.

Parenting Practices are Influenced by the following:

 Religious influence.
 Generations ago, parenting decisions were easier to make because it was
assumed that one’s main purpose in life was to serve God by being faithful and
following the teachings of one’s religion.
 Belief in a hierarchical order of status and obedience to authority were valued.
 Children are constantly exhorted to overcome their base natures in order to
please God as this is still preached by some of the fundamentalist religious sects
around the world.
 National Influence.
 In some countries, one’s purpose in life was held to be to serve one’s
country – for example, France under Napoleon Bonaparte and in Germany
by Adolf Hitler. This still holds true in China.
 Parents and teachers are expected to agree with the country’s leaders
about what values and attitudes to instill in children.
 Cultural Influence.
 In high-context macro-cultures around the world, where interdependence is
valued, it is assumed that children are born and raised to serve the
purposes of the family. For example – In rural India, children are trained to
work at jobs considered of value to their particular family; children defer to
their elders and marriages are often arranged for the benefit of the family.
 Progressive Influence.
 In low-context macro-cultures, such as the United States, few children are
brought up to believe that their principal destiny is to serve their family,
their country, or God.
  Euro-American children are generally given the feeling that they are free to
set their own goals in life. Achievement and competition are valued.

 Socio-economic Status
How do socio-economic status affect child rearing?

Table 2. Differences between low socio-economic status and high economic

status in child rearing
Parents of low socio-economic status Parents of high economic status
 are likely to emphasize more  Are likely to emphasize more
obedience, respect, neatness, happiness, creativity, ambition,
cleanliness, and staying out of independence, curiosity, and
trouble; self-control;
 are likely to be more  Are like to be more democratic,
controlling, authoritarian, and using reason with their children
arbitrary in their discipline and and being receptive to their
are apt to use physical children’s opinions;
punishment;  Are likely to talk more to their
 are likely to use more short children, reason with them, and
directives and varying tones of use complex language.
voice to communicate with
children.

A major reason why parenting styles differ according to socio-economic

status is that families tend to adapt their interactional patterns to the level of
stress they are experiencing. All families experience stress, such as work
problems, health problems, and relationship problems. However, parents with low
incomes and other stressors related to poverty influence their well-being, the
tone of their marriage, and the quality of their relationship with their children
(Conger & Dogan, 2007; Cowan, Powell, & Cowan, 1998).

 Parental Occupation
What is the relationship between parental occupation and children’s behavior?
 Occupational role is a factor in socio-economic status. Sociologist Melvin
Kohn (1977, 1995, 2006) believes different social class occupations vary in the
level of control individuals have over resources, including means of production,
products and people.
 People who work in bureaucratic jobs, like those in a hospital, tend
to incorporate the value of following the rules in their parenting
styles.
 Middle-class occupations (such as teacher of office manager)
typically require the individual to handle ideas and symbols.
 Lower-class occupations (such as construction worker or janitor)
typically involve physical objects rather than symbols and do not
involve as many interpersonal skills.
 Middle-class jobs often demand more self-direction in the prioritizing
job activities and in the selection of methods to get the job do lower-
class jobs are more often routinized and subject to stricter
supervision.
 Culture and Religion
How do culture and religion affect parenting and child development?
The culture and religion in which one grows up have indirect effects on
parenting attitudes and consequent parenting styles (Greenfield, Suzuki &
Rothstein-Fisch, 2006; Park and Buriel, 2006; Rogoff, 2003).

Similarity in Parenting Across Different Cultures and Religions

A set of parenting goals was proposed by LeVine (1988, 2003):
1. Ensuring physical health and survival
2. Developing behavioral capacities for economic self-maintenance
3. Instilling behavioral capacities for maximizing cultural values, such
as morality, prestige, and achievement

Table 3. Differences between Collective and Individualistic Parenting

Orientations
Collectivistic Orientation Individualistic Orientation
Authority Role  Ascribed  Achieved
 Hierarchical  Egalitarian
 Relationships  Cooperative  Competitive
Communication  Indirect  Direct
 More emphasis  More emphasis on
on non-verbal verbal
(facial and body  Verbal (face-to-
language) face)
 Dependent on  Independent of
context context
Displays of Emotion  Outward (facial Open with all others or
and body) or just with intimate others
inward (personal
distance)
Discipline/Guidance  Obedience  Learn by doing
 Imitation  Instruction and
 Sense of reasoning
obligation  Sense of
independence
Skills Emphasis  Sharing  Decision making
 Helping  Individual
 Interaction with Achievement
people  Self-expression
 Group loyalty  Personal choice
and responsibility

Families Today
Family is a group of two or more people who live together. These people are related by
birth, marriage, or adoption.
The family serves many functions for its members. Families and society affect each
other in many ways. Society is strong when the families in it are strong. The functions that the
family provides are also the responsibilities of family life. Functions of the family are: love and
affection, security, protection, education, teaching values, economic support, procreation,
guidance, socialization, and recreation. Each person in a family has a special function to the
other family members. Members of dysfunctional families may have to work harder than others
do to meet certain needs.
The basic unit of society is the family. Families affect every level of society, but they
have the greatest impact on the community closest to them. When people, families, and society
work together and support each other, each is stronger.
Society can be seen at many levels:

Neighborhood City
Levels of
Society

Country State

Figure 1. Levels of society

Families are vital to the health of society. Parts of society affect families. You and your
family are linked to your community.
Laws that affect families influence family spending, affect education, and protect older
family members and children. There are laws for: Family Law • Taxes • Interest rates •
Unemployed people • Schools • Marriage • Divorce.
Businesses and families affect each other. When work affects workers, it can also have
an impact on others in the family. When employers create helpful family policies, both sides
gain.
The community offers many groups to help families. These are: Social Agencies,
Religious Groups, Schools, Police and the Courts, Parks
Families can find a wide array of groups and services in the community to help them with
their issues. Just as society works to help families, families have a responsibility to take an
active role. Society cannot do it all. Families must: Take Responsibility, Find their strengths. By
taking on more responsibility, families can take the pressure off society. When families help the
community, they help themselves.
 Interpersonal skills help people build strong families. You can use what you learn about
families in your life now and in the future. The family serves many functions for its members.
Families and society affect each other in numerous ways. Society is strong when the families in
it are strong. When families learn to use interpersonal skills, they can begin to get along better.
Learning communication skills will help families become stronger.
Families must have strong problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Families with good management skills will be able to handle finances and household
chores more easily.
Good conflict resolution helps families live together peacefully.

B. Demographic Perspective of Modern Families

What is modern family in sociology?

Modern family refers to a group of people living under one roof who drive to work
together; group of people related to each by DNA who live under the same roof. These
are people who live together with a committed bond, and who have formed an economic
base while raising children together.

Changes in the modern family

More married couples are choosing not to have children. The number of married
couples with children has decreased and is projected to continue to decrease. The
number of people living alone has increased. As well, the number of people living
together without being married has increased.
There were four major trends in modern family. These are identified as:
1. increased proportions of children living in single-parent families due to high rates
of divorce and increased childbearing outside of marriage;
2. increased proportions of adults in nontraditional living arrangements;
3. increased female labor force participation during all stages of the life cycle; and
4. decreased proportions of children and increased proportions of older people out of total
population due to declining mortality and fertility rates.

Family formation arises out of:

1) childbearing and childrearing roles,
2) the need for companionship and emotional support, and
 3) the opportunities for specialization and trade, and the economies of scale.

The costs of family living may include the potential for disagreement, conflict, loss of
privacy, and time and money. There were a number of reasons identified for not maintaining
traditional families consisting of a married couple with children. The trends were for later age at
marriage: 24.4 years in 1992 for women, increased cohabitation (almost 50% cohabiting prior to
first marriage in 1985-86), decreased number of married couple households, and increased
number of adults in non-family households. The divorce rate has risen over the past 100 years
with peaks in the 1970s; the reasons were identified as increased baby boomers and new
marriages, increased labor participation of women, and changes in gender roles. The
stabilization and slight decline in rates may be due to a natural leveling, the likelihood of greater
stability within new marriages, and the aging of the baby boomers. An anticipated increase in
divorce rates in the future was also justified. Remarriage rates varied by gender, age at
separation/divorce, presence of children, race/ethnicity, and education. Fertility remained stable
at 1.8 during the late 1970s and early 1980s and increased slightly to 2.0 in 1989. IN 1990,
there were 25% out-of-wedlock births compared to 5% in 1960. About 12% of births in 1989
were to teenagers. There has been an increase in female-headed households, the median
income of which in 1992 was $13,012, or 33% of married couple income.

List of Trends that Affect Families

 technology. The rising population of internet allows advancements.
 mobility. Families often lack close, support connections with relatives.
 aging population. Having to take care for both children and elders.
 workplace changes. Working world is changing rapidly.
 economic changes. Families struggle to make financial ends meet.

Recent Changes in Family Structure

1) The decline of traditional family.
One parent house-holds, cohabitation, same sex families, and voluntary childless
couples are increasingly common.
Family structures of some kind are found in every society. Pairing off into formal or
informal marital relationships originated in hunter-gatherer groups to forge networks of
cooperation beyond the immediate family. Intermarriage between groups, tribes, or clans was
often political or strategic and resulted in reciprocal obligations between the two groups
represented by the marital partners. Even so, marital dissolution was not a serious problem as
the obligations resting on marital longevity were not particularly high.

 One Parent Households

One recent trend illustrating the changing nature of families is the rise in prevalence of
single-parent families. While somewhat more common prior to the twentieth century due to
the more frequent deaths of spouses, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
the nuclear family became the societal norm in most Western nations. But what was the
prevailing norm for much of the twentieth century is no longer the actual norm, nor is it
perceived as such.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the change in the economic structure of the United States –-the
inability to support a nuclear family on a single wage–-had significant ramifications on family
life. Women and men began delaying the age of first marriage in order to invest in their
earning power before marriage by spending more time in school. The increased levels of
education among women, with women now earn more than 50% of bachelor’s degrees,
positioned women to survive economically without the support of a husband. By 1997, 40%
of births to unmarried American women were intentional and, despite a still prominent
gender gap in pay, women were able to survive as single mothers.

 Cohabitation
Cohabitation is an intimate relationship that includes a common living place and which exists
without the benefit of legal, cultural, or religious sanction. It can be seen as an alternative
form of marriage, in that, in practice, it is similar to marriage, but it does not receive the
same formal recognition by religions, governments, or cultures. The cohabiting population,
although inclusive of all ages, is mainly made up of those between the ages of 25 and 34. In
2005, the U.S. Census Bureau reported 4.85 million cohabiting couples, up more than
1,000% from 1960, when there were 439,000 such couples. More than half of couples in the
United States lived together, at least briefly, before walking down the aisle.

 Same-Sex Unions
While homosexuality has existed for thousands of years among human beings, formal
marriages between homosexual partners is a relatively recent phenomenon. As of 2009,
only two states in the United States recognized marriages between same-sex partners,
Massachusetts and Iowa, where same-sex marriage was formally allowed as of May 17,
2004 and April 2009, respectively. Three additional states allow same-sex civil unions, New
Jersey, Connecticut, and Vermont. Between May 2004 and December 2006, 7,341 same-
sex couples married in Massachusetts. Assuming the percentage of homosexuals in
Massachusetts is similar to that of the rest of the nation, the above number indicates that
16.7% of homosexuals in Massachusetts married during that time. Massachusetts is also
the state with the lowest divorce rate.

Same sex couples, while becoming increasingly more common, still only account for
about 1 percent of American households, according to 2010 Census data. About 0.5 percent
of American households were same-sex couples in 2000, so this number has doubled, and
it is expected to continuing increasing by the next Census data.

 Childfree Couples
Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are fertile
and do not intend to have children, women who have chosen sterilization, or women past
childbearing age who were fertile but chose not to have children. Individuals can also be
“temporarily childless” or do not currently have children but want children in the future. The
availability of reliable contraception along with support provided in old age by systems other
than traditional familial ones has made childlessness an option for some people in
developed countries. In most societies and for most of human history, choosing to be
childfree was both difficult and undesirable. To accomplish the goal of remaining childfree,
some individuals undergo medical sterilization or relinquish their children for adoption.

2) Change in Marriage Rate

Over the past three decades, marriage rates in the United States have increased for all
racial and ethnic groups.
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people, called spouses, that creates
kinship. The definition of marriage varies according to different cultures, but is usually an
institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are
acknowledged. Such a union is often formalized through a wedding ceremony.
Unmarried Mothers
 With the rise of single-parent households, unmarried mothers have become more
common in the United States.
3) The “Sandwich Generation” and Elder Care
Elderly care is the fulfillment of the special needs and requirements that are unique to
senior citizens. The Sandwich generation is a generation of people who care for their aging
parents while supporting their own children. According to the Pew Research Center, just over 1
of every 8 Americans aged 40 to 60 is both raising a child and caring for a parent, in addition to
between 7 to 10 million adults caring for their aging parents from a long distance.

Childless Couples
Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are
fertile and do not intend to have children.
Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are
fertile and do not intend to have children, women who have chosen sterilization, or women past
childbearing age who were fertile but chose not to have children. Individuals can also be
“temporarily childless” but want children in the future. The availability of reliable contraception
along with support provided in old age by systems other than traditional familial ones has made
childlessness an option for some people in developed countries. In most societies and for most
of human history, choosing to be childfree was both difficult and undesirable. To accomplish the
goal of remaining childfree, some individuals undergo medical sterilization or relinquish their
children for adoption.

4) Change in Household Size

Household models include the single family and blended family home, shared housing,
and group homes for people with special needs. Household models in Anglophone culture
include the single family and varieties of blended families, shared housing, and group homes for
people with support needs. Other models of living situations that may meet definitions of a
household include boarding houses, a house in multiple occupations in Great Britain, and a
single room occupancy in the United States.

5) Women in the Labor Force

Women in the workforce have faced barriers, though they have greater access to
education and employment in the contemporary era.
 Women have participated in the workforce for as long as men have, yet women have
been challenged by inequality in the workforce. Historically, women’s lack of access to higher
education effectively excluded them from the practice of well-paid and high-status occupations.
Access to higher education remains a significant barrier to women’s full participation in the
workforce in developing countries.

D. Role of Parents in Child’s Development

1. A parent as a caregiver and provider
As children develop from infants to teens to adults, they go through a series of
developmental stages that are important to all aspects of their personhood including
physical, intellectual, emotional and social. The proper role of the parent is to provide
encouragement, support, and access to activities that enable the child to master key
developmental tasks.

2. A parent is their child’s first teacher

The parent should remain their best teacher throughout life. Functioning as a
coach, the parent exposes a child to age-appropriate challenges to encourage
development as well as to experiences that allow the child to explore on their own and
learn from interacting with their environment.https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-
development/#gs.t3j7dp
3. Parents are the ones who brought the children in life, it is simply their marriage.
Parents are the ones who reproduce the human kind in a given society, as in this
way they contribute to the development of the human history. Parents or family as a
whole, are one of the direct holders of educational work. (Emerllahu, Dali, 1998)

The term PARENT should be comprehended as a set of notions such as:

 Firstly, their planning and decision to children birth and the overall nativity rate.
 Secondly, their care and contribution towards rising their children.
 Thirdly, the parents’ actions and activities towards an overall parental achievement of a
priori set goals.

Synthesis
 The family as a cell acts only with love and respect and it dominates the understanding,
affection, sacrifice and childcare. (Emerllahu, Dali, 2001) This way, it builds family environment,
in which we live, laugh, play and develop children (Claudia & Eberhard Muhlan, 2008). The
contemporary concept over their role and contribution in this regard, in a way rejects the so-
called single direction of influence of the parents over their children development, replacing it
with an intense interaction of three factors such as; the child, the parent and the wider social
environment. This interaction is constantly being seen as a mutual influence and process
moving from the parent to the child and the other way around, which as such triggers a variety
of factors which in one way or another may impact the children’s development and education, in
both, positive as well as negative sense.
The parents take a crucial stand, when it comes to their children’s development and
education as whole, as the parents themselves are the ones to take care on the overall children
physical and intellectual development, till the point they get independent and ready to face the
challenges of the society they live in. Parents are aware of the work on the development of
children, but at the same time they need pedagogical information on the right to education of
their children. (Mojsovsja Koteva Tatjana. 2006).

The Mother as an educator

Mother is the first and the best teacher- proverb
The family enables children protection in that suggestively that makes parents
responsible for their developing and to make their children grow into a total personality. (Good,
1988) The role of the woman or the mother as an educator represents a crucial resource to the
development of the individual identity, which from researchers is seen even as more important
as the very marital status of the parents and the occupation of the parents themselves.
The Father as an educator
The father in a family is a very important factor, concerning the organization of a nice
and appropriately functional development of a house hold, with a specific accent on the children.
Helping fathers be the ‘best fathers they can be’ is therefore of enormous importance to
children.
A god father must be a good parent and a good husband.
This person is extremely important factor in the organization of the family life as a
whole, which is the basic ground towards a happy and joyful family for all the members
of a respective family. Many young fathers want to do things better than how they have
 experienced in their lives. (Claudia&Eberhard Muhlan. 2008) His presence in the family
has a particular importance while it leads the family members, i.e. the children towards a
feeling of safety in their life reigning on the overall family members as a compact union
of members. In these circumstances of safety, the children are the ones who benefit
mostly. However, the so-called subjective experiencing of the parents by their
children varies in different ways and family models, and as such his relevance in a
family is much more different from the one that is performed by mothers. As a result of
the gender prejudices in terms of the duties to be performed in their family, especially
regarding their approach and contribution towards their children’s education, it turns out
that mothers are more prepared to undertake their role in their children’s education,
rather than their fathers. Fathers make a powerful difference in defining expectation and
challenging children to do their best. (Constantine, Tammy. 1999).

In order to have a successfully brought up and well-educated children in one

family, parents are crucial and they must be careful to some elements which play a key
role in raising, bringing up and educating their children.
Firstly, while the parent’s principal role in the family is the education and the bringing
up of their children, then the main obligation of their children is to study harder and properly. For
this aim, they need to be well instructed how to study, based upon rules and principles of an
appropriate learning and studying. This approach would open to them the doors of the world of
a behaviorist attitude towards the work, making possible for them to get to know better the
relevance of working as one of the main behaviorist elements of the human kind.
Secondly, the development of the child is in fact an overall child’s personality formation.
The parents as educators must be able to recognize the basic features of their child, interests,
temperament and especially the child’s emotional features regarding the child’s character.
Thirdly, the child’s personality formation has resulted to be constructed mostly based
upon child’s socialization in general. The socialization process as such, for sure nowadays
represents the most important one of all other processes involved in his formation as a child.
Thus, the child commences to socialize within a given society since the early stage of
his/her childhood at parents’ home, circled by parental atmosphere and the relationship
between family members in general. In this entourage, the child makes the first steps in the
society, manifesting the basic features of behavior, which as such are the fundaments of further
social development and integration of the child in a given society. (Lakinska, Divna, 2006).
REFERENCES
 Berns. R. (2013). Child, Family, School, Community: Socializing and
Support. United States: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1092391.pdf

 https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-sociology/chapter/recent-changes-
in-family-structure/

 https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/#gs.t3j7dp

 https://lparkerchs.weebly.com/uploads/5/9/9/2/59926311/ch1.pdf

SUSANA C. SAN PEDRO

Instructor