EXTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING THE CHILD - FAMILY, HOME, SIBLINGS
1. EXTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING THE CHILD -
Methods of Control
I. FAMILY, HOME, SIBLINGS
Methods of Control Effects
Consistency in rules Less likely to be
The Emotional Tone of the Family defiant/compliant
Lower rates of problem
Warm parents- caring, express affection, show enthusiasm behavior
for the child’s activities, put the child’s needs first, and Monitoring child’s Greater self esteem, greater
respond sensitively and empathetically to the child’s feelings activities sense of competence, more
altruistic, lower levels of
Higher Expectations
aggression
Effects
- Higher self esteem Punishments
- More securely-attached in the first two years of life
- More empathetic Communication Patterns
- More altruistic - Children whose parents talk to them frequently, in
complex sentences, and who are listened to in turn
- More responsive to others’ hurts or distress not only develop language more rapidly but also
have more positive and less conflicted relationships
- Do better in school with their parents.
- - Listening means something more than merely saying
“uh-huh” periodically when the child talks. It also
Hostile parents
means conveying to the child the sense that what he
Effects has to say is worth listening to.
- Suicidal thoughts - Open communication
- Higher risk of delinquency
- Declining school performance Parenting Styles
- Mental Problems Proposed by Diana Baumrind and was later expanded by
Eleanor Macoby and John Martin
-
Responsiveness- Responsive Parents are those who pick up
on the child’s signals appropriately and then react in sensitive Parenting Styles Effects to the Child
ways to the child’s needs. Authoritarian: high in control Low Self Esteem, Aggression,
and maturity demands but Bullying, Rebellion, Do less
low in nurturance and well in school
communication
Effects Permissive: high in Likely to be aggressive, May
nurturance but low in fall behind in school , Always
- Higher IQ scores maturity demands, control, think of themselves as the
and communication center of attention, spoiled
- More rapid cognitive development
Authoritative: high levels of High self-esteem, Self-
- More securely-attached control, nurturance, confident, Achievement-
maturity demands, and oriented, More independent
- More securely competent communication and more likely to comply
with parental requests, Show
- More compliant with adult requests altruistic behavior
2. Neglecting: low levels of More likely to become - Parents initiate conversations about emotions and
acceptance and control delinquent and engage in emotion provoking events more often with girls than
sexual activity in early with boys
adolescence, More impulsive
and antisocial, Less - Parents make different kinds of demands on boys
achievement oriented in
and girls (boys are given more autonomy; girls are
school
likely to be held to a higher standard of
accountability) leads to stronger standards of
Other Aspects of Family Dynamics behavior for girls in later development
Birth Order of the Child Differential Treatment of Siblings
Children’s relationships with their family may be affected by - The more differently parents treat siblings, the more
their place in the family sequence.
rivalry and hostility brothers and sisters are to one
First Borns another
- Parents have higher expectations for maturity in - Important ingredient in the child’s emerging internal
their first-born child model of self
- Parents are more responsive - Contributes greatly to variations in behavior among
children growing up in the same families
- Punished more because parents are simply less
skilled in using noncoercive forms of control with Less affection and warmth the more depressed,
their first born
worried, and anxious the child is
- Slightly higher IQ scores
Parents’ Characteristics
- More achievement-oriented
- Adults who are securely attached children who
- More self-confidence are securely attached
Later Borns
- Depressed parents- perceive their children as more
- Automatically the underdogs difficult and problematic; more critical of them
- More open to experience (because such openness Family Structure
makes helps them to find an unoccupiexd niche in
Two-Parent Families
the family)
- The greater the parents’ satisfaction with their
- More empathetic, imaginative, and independent-
marriage, the better able their children are to
minded
regulate feelings of sibling rivalry.
Gender of the Child
- Hostility in parents’ satisfaction with their
- Parents treat boys and girls differently, beginning in marriagehigher incidence of behavior problems in
infancy. children
- Parents sing more expressively to same-sex than Single-Parent Families
opposite sex infants
- Preschoolers whose mothers are single teenagers
- Mothers maintain more physical and visual contact display less advanced cognitive and social
with daughters than with sons development
- Parents regulate the activities of children (e.g. - High risk for dropout, teen parenthood, delinquency
Parents of quiet boys may push them to be more
Divorce
active) may develop a rejecting, disapproving
attitude toward their children
- One of the biggest fears for children is change
3. - Loss of attachment - STIMULATION
- Fear of abandonment Effects of Non Parental Care on Personality
- Arguments and tension between parents may make - Children in daycare are more sociable, more popular
children feel guilty, angry, and alone. and have better peer play skills than do those
primarily reared at home
- Declines in school performance, aggressive,
depressed - Bengt-Erik Andersson’s study in Sweden (1989,
1995) and in the United States (Scarr & Eisenberg,
1993)
Parent/s’ Migration- Children of overseas Filipino workers - Non parental care linked to heightened aggression
(OFWs) could be prone to emotional, behavioral and with peers and lower compliance with teachers
mental problems (Goldstein, Arnold, Rosenberg, Stowe & Ortiz, 2001;
Kim, 1997)
- Kindergarten children who spent more time ion
Parents’ Jobs childcare were more aggressive and less popular
with same age peers than those who were reared
-A mother’s employment affects the family system by
entirely at home (Bates, 1994)
changing the mother’s self image and increasing her
economic power, thereby changing the way she relates to the - QUALITY OF CARE at home or in the day care
family.
Ie. (Clarke-Stewart, 1994)
-A father’s unemployment increases authoritarian parenting
and reducing marital satisfaction. Both parent sbecpme less - Critical for the child’s level of aggression is
consistent in their behavior toward children, less affectionate whether the child spends the day time
and less effective in monitoring themdepression, hours in an organized, well structured
delinquency, and aggression among children situation or a messy, unstimulating one
- Day to day experiences play a great part on
the child’s later behavior
Routine jobs- home environment deteriorates (less
stimulating and less supportive Effects of Non Parental Care on Attachment
Intellectually flexible jobs- improvements in home - Researches show that majority of infants develop
environment secure attachments to their fathers even though
they away everyday to work
- (Belsky, 1985, 1992; Belsky & Rovine, 1988)
II. SCHOOL
o Slightly heightened risk of insecure
Other Factors Affecting the Child attachments among infants who entered
day care before their first birthday,
Non-Parental Care
compared to those cared for at home
- by grandparents, relatives, caregivers, day care through out their first year
centers
- (Clarke-Stewart, 1990; Roggman, Langlois, Hubbs-
- studies suggest that children show more positive Tait & Reiser-Danner, 1994; Sroufe, 1990)
effects when the mother is satisfied with her
o Daycare itself increases chances of an
situation (De Meis, Hock, & McBride, 1986;
insecure attachment
Greenberger & Goldberg, 1989)
o Problem was not daycare itself but poor
- center care provides the most cognitive enrichment
quality day care
Effects of Non Parental Care on Cognitive Development
o (Koren-Karie, 2001) mothers who prefer
- the more cognitively enriched the child’s daytime center-based care over other arrangements
experience was, the higher the child’s later cognitive tend to be more insecurely attached to
performance (Clarke-Stewart et al., 1994) their own parents
4. - To settle the dispute, 25 researchers at 14 Mass media denotes a section of the media specifically
universities—including the main protagonists in the designed to reach a very large audience such as the
dispute that Belsky generated—got together in 1991 population of a nation state. The term was coined in the
to design a very large study that would address all 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-
these questions (NICHD Early Child Care Research circulation newspapers and magazines.
Network, 1996a, 1997d)
Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both
o Results: material and immaterial, created by the application of mental
and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In this
-Daycare in itself unrelated to the security usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be
of the child’s attachment used to solve real-world problems.
-The poorer the quality care, the less secure Children and Media
attachment
Children are fascinated by the attractive media programmes.
-Combination of two poor conditions They are naturally inclined to accept whatever is offered to
(insensitive mothers and poor care) them. They are drawn to both the “little screen” and the “big
screen”. A child is open to every stimulus directed to its
Impact of Child Care intellectual powers, its imagination, its affectivity and
instincts. Moreover, the impressions received at this age
- Quality of alternative care is a critical factor
penetrate more deeply into the psychic world of the human
- Good quality = positive outcome person and condition, often in an enduring way.
- Inconsistent or poor quality care =
detrimental to the child
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF OBJECTIONS TO MASS MEDIA
The Impact of Schools
Children and Movies
- Children who attend school acquire complex
Early 1900s - Films were first introduced into American
concepts & information-processing strategies
society and were described not only as a form of
that their non-schooled peers do not develop
entertainment, but as “a means for education… a resource
- Skills acquired by schooled children inboth rural for religion, and a great new social force.”
& urban areas
*Early studies about children and the movies cataloged their
- Also affects the rate at which children move attendance and the type of pictures that appealed to them.
through Piaget’s concrete operational stage Concerns over movie content soon gave rise to calls for
censorship and for restricting the distribution of films that
- Unschooled children are less proficient at might “corrupt the morals of children or adults or incite to
generalizing a learned concept to some new crime.”*
setting (Schleimann, Carraher & Ceci, 1997)
By 1931, some 40 national religious and educational groups
Fitting in and Adapting to School had adopted resolutions calling for federal regulation of
motion pictures. The film industry responded by embarking
- “All other things being equal, children whose on a public relations campaign promising better pictures and
parents are involved in school do better than their admonishing parents to supervise their children's trips to the
peers.” (Steinberg, 1996) movie theater.
- The higher the parental involvement, the more the 1933 Payne Fund studies (12 volumes) - provided a detailed
children do well look at the effects of film on such diverse topics as sleep
patterns, knowledge about foreign cultures, attitudes about
- Parental involvement can improve the chances of a violence, and delinquent behavior.
less advantaged child, as can a particulary skill full
kindergarten or first-grade teacher (Pianta, - Concluded that a film would affect individual
Steinberg & Rollins, 1995) children differently depending on the child's age,
sex, predispositions, perceptions, social
environment, past experiences, and parental
influences.
III. MASS MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY
Children and Radio
5. 1920s - The introduction of broadcast radio in the 1920s; 1980 - Boys Town published an exhaustive review of nearly
carried promises of a vast potential to bring a variety of 3,000 studies of television's impact on children conducted
information and entertainment into homes, schools, and over the previous 25 years, concluding that television can
churches, ending isolation and unifying the nation. exert a powerful influence independent of the particular
content portrayed on the screen.
*Opponents feared that radio would undermine activities
such as reading and going to church, and they expressed *Some studies indicated that children who viewed more
concerns about advertising and poor program quality. cartoons and action-oriented programming were more
Newspapers reported parents' complaints about children impulsive and less analytic in their cognitive tempo and style
gulping their meals so as not to miss a favorite radio show (that is, how they processed information), whereas children
and waking with nightmares from listening to “lurid radio who viewed other types of programming improved their
bedtime stories.”* cognitive skills and academic performance.*
1930s and 1940s - Radio was attacked for its treatment of
crime and violence, particularly in children's programs, and
was charged with contributing to juvenile delinquency, New Media (i.e. computers, internet, video games, etc.)
providing youngsters with both method and inspiration for
criminal acts. Current debates surrounding the emergence of computer
technology and new media echo the promises and concerns
The earliest studies of radio once again examined children's of the past. In a recent survey of more than 1,000 parents in
listening habits and preferences. Later radio studies in the households with at least one working computer and at least
1940s examined a wide range of effects on children, including one child between ages 8 to 17, some 70% of parents said the
their emotional reactions, ability to distinguish between Internet is a place for children to discover “fascinating, useful
reality and fantasy, school performance, and responses to things,” while more than 75% were concerned that their
advertising as reflected by their product requests. These children might give out personal information or view sexually
studies revealed that the effects of media use could be explicit images on the Internet.
powerful, but that other factors, such as the child's
developmental level and family circumstances, could modify The debate has shifted away from effects on children's use of
the impact. time and preferences to issues of content. The interactive
nature of new media offers the potential for enhanced
Children and Television socialization and learning for children, but also heightens the
risk of exposure to inappropriate content. The promise of and
1948 - Television emerged as a mass medium. It is the most concerns with children's use of computer technology, rooted
popular medium in which the children are exposed. It has the in the history of media research, are explored further below.
ability to entertain and educate. Speculation about its impact
on other amusements, business, social life, education, health,
and society's institutions and values soon became a national
pastime. It was described as “the biggest classroom the world The Promise of New Media as an Agent of Socialization and
has ever seen.” Learning
*Opponents voiced concerns about how television might hurt In today's society, children are exposed to media from a very
radio, conversation, reading, and the patterns of family living young age. Studies of media effects on children must be
and result in the further vulgarization of American culture. grounded in an understanding of the dramatic development
Accusations that television was a prime mover in juvenile that occurs during childhood, encompassing phenomenal
misconduct and delinquency soon followed. Detractors to the biological, physiological, psychological, and social growth.
new technology charged that crime and violence were Research has shown that media—along with family, peers,
television's mainstays and children its victims.* and school—can be a major agent of socialization and
learning by about age 12 (when children have acquired the
1955 - Congress was holding hearings on the effects of major life skills of walking, talking, reading, caring for
televised crime and violence on juvenile delinquency, and by themselves, and understanding the world around them), but
the 1970s, several initiatives had been introduced to change that it is through a convergence of a child's developmental
the nature of children's programming and severely restrict level and preferences, media content, and surrounding
the amount and type of television advertising directed to circumstances that the effects of media unfold.
children. The research community responded with an
avalanche of studies examining the effects of program
content on children's attitudes, values, and behavior.
Positive Effects of Internet Usage on Child Development
Reaching a peak in the late 1970s, these studies most often
focused on evaluations of the relationship between televised Childhood is all about exploration. Through the interactive
violence and children's aggression. world of technology, our children are being shaped by their
exploration of computers and the Internet. The modern
6. computer and the Internet offer today’s children a powerful - Computers are intrinsically motivating for young
device that, if used appropriately, can enhance the children, and contribute to cognitive and social
development of the child’s physical, cognitive, and social development (National Association for the Education
skills. Children get interested because they can make things of Young Children [NAEYC], 1996).
happen with the Internet. The Internet is a powerful tool that
is revolutionizing our children’s learning, communication and - Computers can enhance children's self-concept and
play. improve their attitudes about learning (Sivin-Kachala
& Bialo, 1994).
- Children demonstrate increased levels of spoken
Media Use and Social Development communication and cooperation during computer
use (Clements, 1994; Haugland & Wright, 1997).
Social development is the process by which children develop
role-taking skills, learn to comprehend the motivations and - Children share leadership roles on the computer,
consequences of behaviors, and come to understand human and initiate interactions more frequently (Clements,
relationships in the social world. By the age of about seven, a 1994; Haugland & Wright, 1997).
child's interactions with family, peers, school, community
networks, and media all play an important role in the In the home setting, placement of the computer may play a
development of interpersonal skills and social competence. somewhat stronger role in determining with whom the child
uses technology. In a qualitative study of 70 families with
1933 - A landmark study examining the links between movies, home computers, more than half of the families placed the
delinquency, and crime was published. It concluded that computer in an individual's bedroom or study rather than in a
motion pictures could play an important role in developing common family area, which might indicate computer use
conceptions of life and transmitting patterns of conduct, but would be socially isolating.
that the nature and direction of the effects on children's
behavior were determined by two conditions:
1. The diversity and wide range of themes Media Use and Cognitive Development
depicted on the screen.
As children's interest, understanding, and use of media
2. The social environment, attitudes, and interests messages develops, so do their cognitive and logical thinking
of the boys and girls studied. abilities. Research on children's learning shows that the
extent of interactivity involved in an experience with media
Thirty years later, a similar conclusion was reached in a may affect the learning process. Interactivity is a natural
widely noted study on the effects of television—that the element of face-to-face conversation, but it is also an
relationship is always between a kind of television and a kind element of communication via media. Because new media
of child in a kind of situation. involves much greater potential for interactivity compared
with earlier media, it also holds more promise for enriched
*When children have unsatisfactory relationships with their learning experiences.
family members or peer groups, they are more likely to
retreat to television and to fantasize about what they see. Responsiveness and engagement are key elements of
Children who come to television full of aggression tend to interactivity, which has been defined as the exchange of ideas
seek out violence in television, and to remember and and thoughts that build on previous statements within a
resurrect the violence later in real life.* given context. In earlier media contexts (film, radio, and
television), one message is conveyed to many audience
Technology cannot and should not replace human interaction members. Yet even in these contexts, children—including
or relationships, or take the place of activities such as reading very young children—have been found to respond.
stories together or sharing conversations with children.
Properly used, however, computers and software can serve as Compared with new media, earlier media forms are quite
catalysts for social interaction and conversations related to limited in their responsiveness, however. Computers can be
children's work. programmed to respond to previous exchanges and give the
user more control over the context of the exchange. And in
Studies show that in the school environment, shared turn, children have been found to be more responsive to
computers often have been found to lead to group computers than to earlier media, such as television. Children
interaction and cooperation rather than social isolation. The are drawn to computer technology that enables—even
role of computers in fostering social relationships is further demands—more active engagement. Compared with more
supported by observations that children usually turn to each passive drill-and-practice software, more interactive software
other, rather than to an adult, for computing advice, even if has been found to result in a higher degree of skill mastery
an adult is available. and greater cooperation among users.
7. providing information regarding making bombs and weapons,
these sites work as an agent of human destruction. Lack of
Language Development awareness is the reason for most of the negative
consequences of the media in the post modern scientific
The variety of rich experiences that promote early literacy, scenario. And therefore we must make those people - who
including conversations with caring adults, storytelling, may be knowledgeable but unable to choose wisely - aware
drawing and painting, and pretend play, is critical in the of the morality in using media.
development of both oral and written language.
Negative Effects Of Television On Children
Technology has a place in this environment; language and
literacy development are major strengths of technology use Statistics show that children who spend 1500 hours a week
with young children through the opportunities and watching television get negative effects, in different aspects,
motivation it provides. While critics express concerns that such as physical, cognitive, emotional, and social. First of all,
computer use will inhibit language development and lead to children need to be physically well. They must exercise, as
social isolation, rather than isolating children, research shows walking, playing ball, and joining sports, but television is a
that: sedentary activity. If they spend long time in front of
television, and don't exercise their bodies, there will be
- Computer play encourages longer, more complex problems of obesity. They need healthy food too. Most of the
speech and the development of fluency (Davidson & children like eating junk food, such as candy bars, potato
Wright, 1994). chips, and all that kind of stuff while they watch television.
They don't like to eat healthy food like fruits, vegetables,
- Children tend to narrate what they are doing as they
milk, meat, chicken, fish, etc.
draw pictures or move objects and characters
around on the screen (Bredekamp & Rosegrant, Physical development. - Media exposure contributes to
1994). obesity and other nutrition-related disorders
(bulimia/anorexia, type II diabetes) through sedentary
- Young children interacting at computers engage in
behavior due to displacement of physical activity; through
high levels of spoken communication and
increased intake of nutritionally poor food due to advertising,
cooperation, such as turn-taking and peer
as well as food intake during media use; and through
collaboration. "Compared to more traditional
distorted body image as a consequence of exposure to
activities, such as puzzle assembly or block building,
idealized human images. Also increases risk for problems in
the computer elicits more social interaction and
visual development.
different types of interaction" (Clements, Nastasi, &
Swaminathan, 1993, p. 60). Neurodevelopment. Non-educational entertainment
content, especially violence, has a negative influence on
Physical Well-Being and Motor Development
cognitive development and academic achievement.
Fine and gross motor skills develop at varying rates, and
learning to write can be tedious and difficult as children Social development. Children who are consistently exposed
struggle to form letters. A word processor allows them to to pro-social media content early in their development are
compose and revise text without being distracted by the fine more likely to demonstrate pro-social behaviors and to select
motor aspects of letter formation (Davis & Shade, 1994). pro-social media content over the course of development.
Following ergonomic standards similar to those for adults can Subgroup depictions. Positive or negative portrayals of
help prevent muscular-skeletal injuries and vision problems. gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disabled
Computer use is and should be relatively brief at this age, and groups in the media are related to the formation of
limiting screen time and encouraging frequent breaks will stereotyped social expectations and moderate media
decrease the risks. influences on social and behavioral development, depending
on the degree to which the viewer can identify with the
Lack of exercise and obesity are serious problems that need portrayal.
to be addressed during both in-school and out-of-school
hours. Screen time (including TV, computer, and video
games) should be limited to a maximum of one to two hours
per day for young children (American Academy of Pediatrics,
2000; Healy, 1999). Vigorous physical activities and play *The Concerns with New Media and Exposure to
should be encouraged. Inappropriate Content
Negative Impact of Media Exposure to inappropriate content—advertising, sex, and
violence—are concerns that have been raised with each wave
Today thousands of websites exist with the intention of of new technology. With the advent of new media, however,
provoking terrorist tendencies in the mind of youth. By such concerns have been renewed and heightened because of
8. the level of interactivity possible when playing computer
games and using the communication features of the Internet.
Remedies focused on parents as the gatekeepers for
safeguarding children from potential harm may not be
sufficient.
As with previous waves of media technology, the challenge of
dealing with children's use of the Internet has been largely
left up to parents and children themselves, with little
community help. Monitoring, using filters, and looking for
safe and appropriate Web sites are all personal and private
solutions by which parents can ward off the potentially
harmful effects of their children's Internet use.
In sum, the introduction of computer technology into
children's lives parallels the introduction of previous waves of
new media technology throughout the past century, and
many lessons can be learned from the history of media
research about the effects of computers on children. But the
“interactivity” that is the hallmark of children's use of new
media enables both greatly enriched learning as well as
increased risk of harm. Thus, new computer technology also
brings a greater sense of urgency about the need to monitor
and improve the quality of media content.*
REFERENCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology
http://www.bvppune.org/pdf/chapter-six-mass-media-and-children.pdf
http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Negative-Effects-Televison-
Children/78521
http://www.verdick.org/child-development-and-the-internet/child-dev-pos
http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/research/workshops/Pages/report0
12004.aspx
(citations on and from:) http://www.nwrel.org/request/june01/child.html
Bee, H. (2004).The Developing Child. Boston : Pearson/Allyn and Bacon