essay about child rearing

Different Styles of Child Rearing Across the Globe Research Paper

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Although children have similar growth and development patterns, different parents across the world employ different parenting styles due to differences in cultural beliefs, values, and practices. Differences in cultural beliefs, values, and practices are responsible for cross-cultural differences in parenting styles that significantly influence how children grow and develop in various societal environments.

Across the globe, children usually receive parental care from parents, family members, friends, neighbors and caregivers, who have a significant impact on the lives of children. Given that family is the basic unity of society, parenting styles impose cultural factors of the society onto children.

Keller, Voelker, and Yovsi (2005) argue that, across the globe, parents have specified beliefs and practices of parenting based on ethno-theories that elucidate parenting, nature of children, and their development into mature adults (p.158). Hence, ethno-theories of parenting are responsible for different in styles of parenting across all cultures in the globe.

Thus, the existence of different races and ethnicities across the world implies that, parents employ different styles of parenting, or children experience varied styles of parenting according to cultural beliefs, values, and practices.

Problem Statement

Style of parenting is critical in determining growth and development of children. Given that parenting styles that parents employ in rearing their children particularly at their ages of early childhood have a significant impact on growth and development, it is critical for parents to employ appropriate parenting style.

Although children virtually undergo the same process of growth and development, parenting styles across the world are not similar because parents have different beliefs, values, and practices that depend on their cultural background. Therefore, it means that cultural beliefs, values, and practices considerably influence parenting styles and consequently determine growth and development of children in various cultures across the world.

Objective of the Study

The objective of the study is to establish if different parental styles exist in American society due to influences diverse cultural backgrounds of parents. Given that American society is truly cosmopolitan, the study seeks to establish if African, Israel, Russian, and French families that live in United States employ same parenting styles.

To achieve its objective, the study will explore the sizes of different families, in terms of numbers of children and existence of other members, in case of extended families. Moreover, the study will examine responsibility of parents, family members, and caregivers in rearing children during their childhood period.

To examine cultural, social, and economic aspects of the families, the study will examine the nature of the surrounding community, professions of parents, forms of recreational activities, stable diet of the family, and roles that children play in the family.

After gathering enough information regarding target families, the study will compare and contrast different cultural beliefs, values, and practices with the objective of establishing differences in parenting styles.

Hypothesis of the Study

The study hypothesizes that although families may be living in common society, cultural beliefs, values and practices attributed to different races and ethnicities significantly determine parenting styles that parents employ in rearing their kids.

Thus, since American society is cosmopolitan, different families employ different parenting styles that suit their respective cultural beliefs, values, and practices.

Scope of the Study

The study will examine parenting styles of four families that have different ethnicities and races.

Due to ethnical and racial differences, the study will explore different parameters within each family such as the number of children, professions of parents, nature of neighborhood community, presence of caregivers, and family lifestyles under which children are living.

Specifically, the study will explore how parents bring up their children in terms of the extent of breast feeding, common diets that family eat, toilet training, form of punishment, and favorite games that families encourage their children to play.

Given that parenting styles across ages vary, the study will examine parenting styles that parents employ in rearing children during their childhood ages.

Hence, the study will not examine parenting styles that parents employ in rearing children who are beyond childhood ages. Moreover, the study limits its studies to four families that have different races or ethnicities.

Importance of the Study

Establishment of different parental styles that exist in the American society is notable, for it gives a reflection of how different families across the globe utilize different parenting styles, in rearing their children during their childhood ages.

As children have common growth and development pattern, establishment of disparity in parenting style is essential because it will offer robust explanation regarding differential growth and development of children.

Since ethnicities and races make parents cherish unique beliefs, values, and practices concerning parenting, examination of parenting from a cultural perspective is imperative in understanding and enhancing principles of parenting among various cultures. Thus, the study will give an insight into existence of different parenting styles due to ethnical and racial differences in parenting beliefs, values, and practices.

Literature Review

Parenting style is particularly influential in childhood growth and development because it significantly influences how children mature into adults. Since parenting style is critical in rearing children, sociologists and psychologists have formulated numerous theories and parenting styles that parents can use in bringing up their children.

To understand the influence of society and family on growth and development of children, sociologists and psychologists have established that, cultural beliefs and practices play a considerable role in determining how children mature.

Currently, it is evident that when parents interact with their children during parenting, they impose cultural beliefs, practices, values, and behavior onto children, thus influencing how they grow and develop in a complex society that is cosmopolitan.

Tajima and Harachi (2010) argue that, ethnic culture has significance influence on parenting since beliefs and practices of child rearing emanate from cultural knowledge that people inherit from one generation and pass into another generation (p.213). Thus, cultural beliefs, values, and practices form the basis of child rearing in different families across the globe.

Despite the fact that there is acculturation due to migration of families and adaptation of new social environments, ethnical and racial beliefs, values, and practices take precedence. For instance, although the United States is a cosmopolitan society, beliefs, values, and practices that dominate parenting originate from ethnical and racial backgrounds of parents. In essence, parenting style depends more on racial and ethnical backgrounds of parents than on beliefs, values, and practices of a cosmopolitan society.

According to Kagitcibasi (2005), interdependence and relatedness are key elements in a family that determines relationships between parents and children (p.410). In a parenting model, three types of interactions exist within a family level. The first interaction is a conventional family where parenting depends on material and emotional satisfaction of children.

The second interaction involves relationships and interdependence of children and parents, while the third interaction entails psychological and material interdependence of consecutive generations. Hence, it means that cultural beliefs, values, and practices are central in determining family interactions and subsequently influence parenting.

Comparative studies indicate that parenting styles differ from one society to another due to the difference in ethnical or racial beliefs, values, and practices of parents. In cultural society, families operate under the influence of opposing forces of collectivism versus individualism and dependence versus independence amongst others forces that regulate how society and family function.

Resolution of opposing forces determines the orientation of the family to specified ethno-theories, which are applicable in parenting. According to Keller, Voelker, and Yovsi (2005), a study conducted to examine conception of parenting by Nso and German women indicates that Nso women prefer body stimulation and body contact, while German women favor face-to-face, as systems of parenting (p.173).

The difference in their styles of parenting emanate from the fact that Nso women have interdependent culture while German women have independence culture. This confirms that cultural backgrounds profoundly influence how parents employ parenting styles in rearing their children.

Many psychological theories hold that parents influence how their children grow and develop in a complex society with varied cultural forces. Ideally, parents act as a link between society and children in that children receive societal beliefs, values, and practices from their parents.

Application of parenting styles such as authoritarian, authoritative and permissive relies on racial and ethnical backgrounds of parents. Moreover, application of parenting style depends on individuals attributes, family and individuals experiences in parenting, behavior of a child and social context that family lives. Keshavarz and Baharudin (2009) argue that, since diverse cultural backgrounds influence parenting styles, cultural orientations of individualism and collectivism determine how parents response to societal beliefs, values, and practices in the process of acculturation (p.68).

Hence, collectivism cultures and individualism cultures have a different impact on parenting styles that parents use in rearing their children. Therefore, literature review has shown that different cultural beliefs, values, and practices influence how parents rear their children.

Introduction

Since the objective of the study is to determine if diverse cultural backgrounds are responsible for differences in parenting styles that parents employ in bringing up their children, the study will examine parenting styles in four families.

The four families emanate from various regions around the globe, and they have different racial and ethnical backgrounds. Thus, analysis of parenting styles in four families provides significant information that is essential in ascertaining influence of cultural background on parenting styles.

Research Design

The study is qualitative determination of parenting styles that families with different cultural backgrounds use in rearing their children during childhood ages.

To gather significant information regarding parenting styles among the four families, the study employs open questionnaires. Open questionnaires are advantageous because they give parents, who are the subjects of the study, freedom to provide ample information regarding their families.

To collect appropriate information, researchers will administer open questionnaires by interviewing parents from respective families and record relevant responses in questionnaires for further analysis.

Subjects of study emanate from four families with different racial and ethnical backgrounds, thus enabling researchers to collect variable data regarding parenting styles. Thus, researchers will collect data from each family by administering open questionnaires and recording appropriate data regarding parenting styles.

Sampling of Subjects

Since the study seeks to determine whether different cultural backgrounds are responsible for diverse parenting styles that parents utilize in rearing their children, the study selects four families with different ethnical and racial backgrounds.

Thus, first interviewee should be an American with French background as an ethnical or racial background. A French parent will provide information concerning parenting styles that French parents employ when rearing their children.

The second interviewee need to be a black American with South African background to provide parenting styles, which black Africans use in bringing up their kids.

Black American is essential in understanding how Africans rear their children during childhood. The third interviewee must be an American Jew with Israeli background.

An American Jew will provide parenting styles that Israeli families utilize in bringing up their children. Ultimately, the fourth interviewee should be an American with Russian background to provide parenting styles that Russian families employ in rearing their children.

Overall, the four interviewees will give an insight of how parenting styles vary across the world due to ethnical and racial backgrounds of parents.

Interview Questions

The researchers will administer open questionnaires containing the following questions:

• Age? Gender? Race? Nationality? Ethnicity?
• Do you have children? If yes, how many?
• How old are/is your children/child?
• After your child/children was/were born, did you experience depression or some extent of sadness or anger? Explain.
• Who lives in your home?
• What kind of work do the parents of the child/children do?
• Does either parent/guardian stay home with the child/children?
• Does/do your child/children attend daycare or school?
• Does/do your child/children get interaction outside of the mother/father figures?
• Is your child around other children his/her own age? If yes, how often?
• Do you live in a close-knit community? Explain.
• Do you live in a distant community? Explain.
• Did you breast-feed your child/children? If yes for how long? If yes, is that common in your community?
• What does your child’s/children’s diets consist of?
• At what age was your child toilet-trained?
• Do you allow your child/children to help you with daily activities? If child is not old enough, will you allow him/her to as he/she ages?
• Can you explain the sleeping arrangements of your child/children?
• Can you discuss what your child/children does/do for entertainment?
• Can you describe punishment in your household?
• When your child/children is/are sick, how do you react?

Data Collection and Processing

The researchers identified four parents who had different cultural backgrounds from across the globe and administered open questionnaires by interviewing them. The questionnaires have twenty questions that satisfactorily seek pertinent information about the families in that, when analyzed, it will give robust data that is critical to determining parenting styles, which parents employ in rearing their children.

To enhance the validity of the data, researchers approached the subjects and assured them that information they give would be confidential. Moreover, the researchers assured them that information is relevant for search purpose; hence, no need for them to offer their real identities in terms of names.

To interview them, researchers visited the subjects at their respective homes during the weekend when they had ample time for interviews.

Questionnaires administered showed that researchers interviewed two male and two female subjects from diverse ethnical and racial backgrounds across the globe.

The first subject is Mary, an American woman aged 38 years and having French background. Mary has Canadian nationality but currently lives in United States where she works. She has two children, 4-year-old son, and 8-month-old daughter. For more details, see her questionnaire at appendix A.

The second subject is David, an American man who is aged 40 years. David is a black African with cultural background of South of African. He has four children, 6 and 12 year-old sons and 2 and 8 year old daughters. David lives together with his family and grandmother. See his questionnaire at appendix B.

The third subject is Catherine, an American woman aged 32 years but having Israeli background. Catherine is a Jew with one child, a 2-year-old daughter. She lives in a nuclear family. Questionnaire three, in appendix C, gives more of her details.

The fourth subject is Smith, an American man who is aged 34 years with Russian background. Smith is an Asian with 2 children, a 5-year-old daughter, and 1 year-old son. He lives together with his family and his cousin sister. See appendix D for his questionnaire.

Data Analysis

Comparative analysis of questionnaires indicates that parenting styles that the subjects apply in rearing their children are different due to differences in their ethnical and racial backgrounds.

In the four families, there are differences in number of children that families have and existence of other relatives within the family. Kagitcibasi (2005) argues that, independence and autonomy of a child depends on family interactions (p.411). Therefore, it indicates that, interaction of children with other people differs from one family to another. While Mary and Catherine live in a nuclear family, Smith and David live in an extended family; thus, it means that children experience different parenting styles.

Moreover, Questionnaires indicate that parents train their children toileting at different ages. While Mary and David train their children at age of three years, Catherine trains her kid at two years while Smith trains his children at the age of four. Children in respective families eat different diets that differentially affect their growth and development. Moreover, different families have varied social economic activities that enable them to rear their children well.

All families seem to provide exceptional sleeping arrangements for their kids and offer them opportunity to play and interact effectively with neighbors. However, each family has its own worries concerning accessibility of medical services. While Mary and David do not worry when their children are sick, Catherine and Smith feel worried because they cannot access pediatrician quite easily.

Another difference in families is connectedness to community. While Catherine seems to live in isolation, Mary, David and Smith live a community where they associate with their neighbors. According to Tajima and Harachi (2010), cultural beliefs, duration of residence, socioeconomic status, and acculturation are determinants of parenting styles, which immigrants use in rearing their children (p.411). Hence, from questionnaires, it is evident that cultural background of Catherine favors individualism orientation while cultural backgrounds of Mary, David, and Smith favor collectivism orientation.

The study has demonstrated that cultural backgrounds of parents influence parenting styles that parents employ in bringing up their children. Since the study examinees parents who have ethnical or racial backgrounds such as French, African, Russian, and Israeli, analysis of information in questionnaires has indicated that, the families employed parenting styles, which suit their cultural beliefs, values, and practices.

Hence, the study confirms that although American society is cosmopolitan, different families use different parenting styles according to their cultural beliefs, values, and practices.

Kagitcibasi, C. (2005). Autonomy and Relatedness in Cultural Context. Implication for Self and Family. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36 (4), 403-422.

Keller, H., Voelker, S., & Yovsi, D. (2005). Conceptions of Parenting in Different Cultural Communities: The Case of West African Nso and Northern German Women. Social Development, 14 (1), 158-179.

Keshavarz, S., & Baharudin, R. (2009). Parenting Style in a Collectivist Culture of Malaysia. European Journal of Social Sciences, 10 (1), 66-73.

Tajima, E., & Harachi, T. (2010). Parenting Beliefs and Physical Discipline Practices Among South Asian Immigrants: Parenting in the Context of Cultural Adaptation to the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41 (2), 212-235.

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What Is Your Parenting Style, and Why Does It Matter?

From authoritarian to authoritative, permissive to neglectful, we're breaking down different types of parenting styles. Which one do you practice? 

Authoritarian Parenting

Permissive parenting, authoritative parenting, neglectful or uninvolved parenting, sub-types of parenting styles.

Your parenting style can affect everything from your child's self-esteem to their academic success. It's important to ensure your parenting style supports healthy growth and development because the way you interact with your child—and how you discipline them— will influence them for the rest of their life. 

Researchers have identified four main types of parenting styles that take a unique approach to raising children:

• Authoritarian
• Authoritative

People often want to know which parenting style they're using, and which one is the best overall. The truth is that there's no one right way to parent, but the general parenting style that most experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), recommend is an authoritative approach.

Read on to learn the difference between these four major parenting styles (there are also newer parenting styles that have gained traction, including free-range and conscious parenting ), with information about popular subtypes like helicopter parenting, free-range parenting, tiger parenting, and more.

Baumrind's Four Parenting Styles

In the 1960s, developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind described three distinct parenting styles—authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive—based on parental demands and responsiveness to children. A fourth style, neglectful, was added later based on work by other researchers.

Do any of these statements sound like you?

• You believe kids should be seen and not heard.
• When it comes to rules, you believe it's "my way or the highway."
• You don't take your child's feelings into consideration.
• You've uttered the words "because I said so" when a child questions the reasons behind a rule.

If any of those ring true, you might be an authoritarian parent. The authoritarian style of parenting focuses on strict rules, obedience, and discipline. These parents have high expectations, and they don't hesitate to punish when children don't follow their guidelines.

Authoritarian parents take over the decision-making power, rarely giving children any input in the matter. Similar to an army drill sergeant, authoritarian parents are not nurturing, lenient, or communicable. They make the rules and enforce the consequences with little regard for a child's opinion.

How authoritarian parenting affects children

When raised by an authoritarian parent, children are often well-behaved at home, but they may rebel when with classmates or friends. Kids may also struggle with the following:

• Social skills
• Indecisiveness and trouble thinking on their own
• Low self-esteem
• Poor judge of character
• Anger management and resentfulness
• Hostility and aggression

Some research also indicates that children whose parents were authoritarian reported more substance use and higher instances of depression.

• You set rules but rarely enforce them.
• You don't give out consequences very often.
• You think your child will learn best with little interference from you.
• You let your children do what they want—even if it's drinking soda at every meal.

If those statements sound familiar, you might practice permissive parenting . Permissive parents are lenient, only stepping in when there's a serious problem. They're quite forgiving and they adopt an attitude of "kids will be kids." Oftentimes they act more like friends than authoritative figures.

Permissive parents cater to their children's needs without giving out much discipline . When they do use consequences, they may not stick. For example, they'll give privileges back if a child begs, or they may allow a child to get out of time-out early if they promise to be good. Permissive parents are the total opposite of strict.

How permissive parenting affects children

Since they have a high standing in the household, children of permissive parents are accustomed to getting whatever they want. They may exhibit more behavioral problems as they don't appreciate authority and rules.

Other downsides of the permissive parenting style can include:

• Lack of responsibility
• Difficulty with decision-making
• Impulsiveness and aggressiveness
• Lack of independence and personal responsibility
• Anxiety and depression
• Academic struggles

Kids who are parented permissively often act entitled, egocentric, and selfish. These children might also fail to put effort into school, work, or social endeavors since they don't have to put in any effort at home.

Additionally, kids raised by permissive parents are at a higher risk for health problems, like obesity , because permissive parents struggle to limit unhealthy food intake or promote regular exercise or healthy sleep habits. They're more likely to have dental cavities because permissive parents often don't enforce good habits, like ensuring a child brushes their teeth.

The "Gold Standard" Parenting Style

Experts consider authoritative parenting to be the most developmentally healthy and effective parenting style. Research has found kids who have authoritative parents are most likely to become confident, responsible adults who feel comfortable self-advocating and expressing their opinions and feelings.

• You put a lot of effort into creating and maintaining a positive relationship with your child.
• You explain the reasons behind your rules.
• You set limits, enforce rules, and give consequences, but also consider your child's feelings. 
• You use positive discipline strategies such as praise and rewards.

If those statements sound familiar, you might practice authoritative parenting , which is considered to be the "gold standard" parenting style. Authoritative parents provide their children with rules and boundaries, but they also give them the freedom to make decisions.

With an authoritative parenting style, parents validate their children's feelings while also making it clear that the adults are ultimately in charge. They invest time and energy into preventing behavior problems before they start. They also use positive discipline strategies , like praise and reward systems, to reinforce positive behavior.

Authoritative parents view mistakes as a learning experience, and they have clear expectations for their children. They're nurturing and warm, yet they instill the importance of responsibility and discipline.

How authoritative parenting affects children

Children raised with authoritative parenting tend to be happy, confident, and successful. They're also more likely to make sound decisions and evaluate safety risks on their own. Authoritative parenting is linked to academic achievement, heightened self-esteem, and resiliency.

Kids with authoritative parents tend to have the following positive outcomes:

• Close, nurturing relationships with parents
• Tendency to be responsible and respectful
• Ability to manage their aggression
• High degrees of self-esteem, self-confidence , and self-regulation
• More likely to be happy and successful
• Ability to clearly express their emotions

Kids who are parented authoritatively can be trusted to make the right decision on their own, and they often set high expectations for themselves. These children may also perform well academically and socially, and they're less likely to misuse drugs or alcohol.

Do any of these statements sound familiar?

• You don't ask your child about school or homework.
• You rarely know where your child is or who they're with.
• You don't spend much time with your child.
• You don't have many rules and expectations.

If those statements sound familiar, you might be an uninvolved or neglectful parent. Essentially, neglectful parents ignore their children, who receive little guidance, nurturing, and parental attention. They don't set rules or expectations, and they tend to have minimal knowledge about what their children are doing.

Uninvolved parents expect children to raise themselves. They don't devote much time or energy to meeting children's basic needs. At times, uninvolved parents lack knowledge about child development—or they may believe that their child will do better without their oversight.

Uninvolved parents may be neglectful but it's not always intentional. A parent with mental health issues or substance abuse problems, for example, may not be able to care for a child's physical or emotional needs consistently.

How uninvolved parenting affects children

Without any guidance, structure, or parental involvement, children of neglectful parents often act out. Research has found that kids with uninvolved parents have the worst outcomes, and they're more likely to experience the following:

• Substance use
• Rebelliousness
• Delinquency (vandalism, assault, rape, petty theft)
• Lower cognitive and emotional empathy
• Diminished self-esteem

Children of uninvolved parents might, for example, get in trouble at school or with the law. In addition, they might hesitate to form bonds with other people and exhibit depression. Academic performance and social competence often suffer.

Getty Images / Shaw Photography Co.

Of course, there are plenty of parenting style subtypes, including the following

Free-range parenting

Helicopter parenting, snowplow parenting, lighthouse parenting, attachment parenting, tiger parenting.

Free-range parents give their children the independence of being less supervised or unsupervised in public. For a long time, parents who practiced this style were considered neglectful, and many thought they endangered their kids.

But more recently (and after much debate) states like Utah passed laws in favor of the hands-off parenting style. Specifically, Utah changed the definition of neglect so it doesn't include certain independent childhood activities like walking to school and playing outside. Proponents say it can instill amazing qualities like self-sufficiency and resilience.

If you're an overprotective parent who feels the need to control most aspects of your child's life, you likely fit the bill of a helicopter parent . Helicopter parents constantly intervene in their kid's life, and they obsess about successes and failures.

The risk-assessing tendencies of helicopter parents are often driven by fear and anxiety. Parents who intervene in this way can hinder a child's ability to learn integral life skills, confidence, and self-sufficiency. Research by the American Psychological Association found that kids who experience helicopter parenting are less likely to be able to manage their emotions and behavior.

Snowplow parents (also known as lawnmower or bulldozer parents) are willing to drop everything to fulfill their child's wants and demands, no matter how small. They essentially "plow down" anything standing in their child's way.

These types of parents often have good intentions and don't want their children to experience struggle. However, their habits don't provide a foundation for long-term happiness, and they can worsen a child's anxiety about failure. An extreme example of snowplow parenting involves the college admissions scandal , where numerous high-profile celebrity parents were convicted of bribing colleges to admit their children.

One of the more balanced methods of parenting, the lighthouse approach was coined by pediatrician and author Kenneth Ginsburg, MD. In his book, Raising Kids to Thrive: Balancing Love With Expectations and Protection With Trust, Dr. Ginsburg writes: "We should be like lighthouses for our children. Stable beacons of light on the shoreline from which they can measure themselves against."

The lighthouse parenting style involves finding the perfect balance between loving, protecting, communicating, and nurturing your child. Parents seek to guide and support their children, much like a lighthouse does.

Attachment parenting involves a nurturing and hands-on approach. These parents think that putting a child's needs first leads to independence and emotional stability. Parents who follow this style value physical closeness, bed-sharing and co-sleeping, extended breastfeeding , positive discipline, and other attachment-based approaches to raising children.

A study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found an association between sensitive-responsive parenting and children’s language skills. Specifically, kids of parents with higher levels of responsiveness and warmth had more than two times better language skills than children whose parents were less responsive. On the other hand, this parenting style is demanding and can sometimes feel out of balance when parents are less flexible in their approach.

Often displaying rigid and harsh characteristics, tiger parents expect obedience and success. This term gained mainstream attention due to Amy Chua's book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom , where she describes tiger parenting as an authoritarian method commonly used in Chinese culture.

Some research has found a correlation between tiger parenting and anxiety in children , possibly due to their parent's high demands and constant expectations for perfection.

Additional reporting by Amy Morin, LCSW  

Parenting and Boundary Setting: Pediatric Mental Health Minute Series . American Academy of Pediatrics .

Parenting Styles: A Closer Look at a Well-Known Concept .  J Child Fam Stud. 2019.

Psychosocial consequences of parenting .  IOSR J Hum Soc Sci . 2016.

Types of Parenting Styles and Effects On Children .  StatPearls  [Internet]. Updated 2022.

Role of parenting styles in adolescent substance use: results from a Swedish longitudinal cohort study . BMJ Open.  2016.

Authoritarian parenting and youth depression: Results from a national study .  Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community.  2016.

Role of Parenting Style in Children’s Behavioral Problems through the Transition from Preschool to Elementary School According to Gender in Japan . Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health . 2019.

Parenting Styles: A Closer Look at a Well-Known Concept .  J Child Fam Stud . 2019.

Consequences of parenting on adolescent outcomes .  Societies . 2014.

Psychosocial Consequences of Parenting . IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science . 2016.

Helicopter Parenting May Negatively Affect Children’s Emotional Well-Being, Behavior . American Psychological Association . 2018.

Investigations of College Admissions and Testing Bribery Scheme . United States Attorney's Office . Updated 2023.

Parenting Behavior and Child Language: A Meta-analysis . American Academy of Pediatrics . 2019.

The moderating effects of positive psychological strengths on the relationship between tiger parenting and child anxiety . Children and Youth Services Review . 2018.

Related Articles

Human Relations Area Files

Cultural information for education and research, a cross-cultural perspective on childhood.

What is a “normal” childhood? Childhood, child-rearing and care-giving are all areas of human development which are largely taken for granted from within a single culture. However, approaches to childhood and children vary greatly across countries and peoples around the world. Cross-cultural research using the eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology databases allows us to compare and contrast aspects of childhood between cultures.

Since the 1950s, cross-cultural researchers have studied cultural variation in the treatment of infants and children and have produced numerous publications on the possible causes and consequences of these variations. But the anthropology of childhood has recently gained more prominence in academia, perhaps aided by Professor David Lancy’s comparative books, The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings (2015), Anthropological Perspectives on Children as Helpers, Workers, Artisans, and Laborers (2017), and Raising Children: Surprising Insights from Other Cultures (2017). Using past and present examples from all regions of the world, in the first book, Lancy reveals alternate cultural notions of children who can be treated by parents and care-givers as innocent beings, annoying inconveniences, or commoditized possessions. The second book focuses on the importance of “helping” in early childhood that commonly transitions to work in middle childhood. The third book puts Western parenting into perspective by comparing parenting practices with those of other societies.

Lancy has captured parental fascination beyond academia by challenging much that is so familiar about childhood in Western society. As the author explains: “I’ve had some success at weakening the intellectual monopoly that western, middle class culture holds on ideas about child rearing and child development. A very thorough review of childhood—aided immeasurably by eHRAF— from the ethnographic archives has allowed me to offer a cross-cultural and distinctly different account of “normal” childhood.”

Normal or just WEIRD?

In so-called WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) societies, the responsibility is largely placed on parents or parental figures to not only nurture their children, but also teach them and guide their intellectual and social development from as early on in the lifespan as possible – including attempts to influence the fetus in utero (Lancy 2010: 80). This proactive and instructive approach, which can involve singing to a baby in the womb and providing educational toys with parental guidance throughout childhood, contrasts sharply with the approach to child development found in most non-WEIRD societies.

Ethnographic examples from the eHRAF World Cultures database effectively illustrate some of the ways that culture influences childhood development. While Western parents may be more familiar with the cultural notion that child-rearing demands a hands-on approach from caregivers until the child is self-sufficient, other cultures might leave children to explore freely as a form of self-education. They may be left to “find their own way” from a much younger age than Westerners are accustomed to. Furthermore, a child’s personhood status may be acknowledged earlier or later on in the life-cycle in some societies compared with others.

Among the Igbo of Nigeria, for instance, Basden (1966: 65) finds that “from the age of about three years, the Ibo child is reckoned as sufficiently advanced to be left more or less to its own devices. It begins to consort freely with children of its own age or company (otu) and to take its share in work and play.”

How children are treated can depend on cultural factors that include subsistence type, economic activity, family or community structure, and residence patterns. In some societies, infants are protected and insulated by parents for long periods; while in others, independence and resilience are expected from a young age and children are rarely excluded from adult activity; rather, they are readily integrated into the domestic economy.

For the Semai, a hunter-gatherer people from Malaysia, parents do not programmatically teach their children specific life or work skills as this would be coercive and detrimental to the child:

“Semai emphatically deny that they teach their children.  A  man might say, “We don’t worry about our children.  We don’t mess with them.  They grow up here in the jungle like animals.  We look after ourselves, they look after themselves.” (Dentan 1978: 98). Children tag along after adults, especially parents or grandparents, imitating their activities in ways that shade imperceptibly into helping out. … When no adults are around, children often play at adult activities by themselves (Dentan 1978: 126-127).

Similarly, parents do not expect to safeguard children from all the potential dangers of day-to-day life Unlike members of WEIRD society, daily adult activities, like handling sharp tools, are not off-limits to children. For the San (hunter-gatherers) in Southern Africa:

The relationship between children and adults is easygoing and unselfconscious. Adults do not believe that children should keep to themselves: be seen but not heard. The organization of work, leisure, and living space is such that there is no reason for confining children or excluding them from certain activities. Everyone lives on the flat surface of the ground; hence there is no need to protect children from falls or from becoming entrapped behind doors. With the exception of spears and poisoned arrows, adult tools do not constitute a hazard to children. Those weapons are simply kept hanging in trees or wedged on top of a hut, safely out of reach. When the men are making spear and arrow points, they do not attempt to exclude children … from the area (Draper 1976: 205-6).

Naturally, hunger-gatherer parents need to be more cautious and restrictive outside the settlement, where their children likely face danger from predators and the harsh environment. The two above examples from hunter-gatherer societies show some common traits; namely that the type of subsistence and resulting structure of society along with close proximity to extended family and other community members enable “teaching” to happen communally. The lines between work and play as children learn and grow are not especially clear and child behavior is not always monitored or corrected.

In societies where the division of labor is more rigid, however, we might alternatively note that children are expected to do their full share of grown-up work as soon as it is possible for them to contribute.

In pastoralist Kurdish society in Iraq, Hansen (1961: 49) finds that children play a role in the differentiation of labor, with jobs specifically designated for them: “The woman who makes the tea has nothing to do with serving it, and never moves from her position behind the samovar… As a rule it is children’s work. From the time they are able to balance across the floor with a tea glass and saucer in the one hand they take part in this ceremony.”

Similarly, Tongan children grow up in a horticulturalist society where they “begin to practice tasks before they are expected to be capable of doing them. Toddlers try to sweep up leaves, cut the grass with a machete, or peel vegetables and are usually allowed to handle the tools required for such tasks” (Lee 1996: 160).

Young girl from the Maniq tribe in southern Thailand. The Maniq are one of the few hunter-gatherer groups in Southeast Asia.” photo credit: Khaled Hakami (Anthropologist, University of Vienna), September 2014.

Other parents may intervene in more focused ways to shape their children’s development. For example, Caughey (1977: 42) explains how Chuuk parents in Micronesia intend to foster desirable character traits in their children:

This concern is partially reflected in the earliest socialization techniques, such as administering magical medicines to infants. For example, one secret concoction known as “bravery medicine” (sáfeyen pwara) is supposed to help produce this trait in a child’s character. An elder whose grandson had been treated with such medicine observed proudly that the two year old child did not “laugh a lot like a woman”, liked to play with a huge machete, and did not flinch when the medical expert experimentally jabbed knives at his face.

The image of a small child waving a machete may be commonplace in many societies and yet may cause extreme discomfort for those living in WEIRD societies. This contrast reveals how very different notions of “normal” childhood exist throughout the world. What is normal, ordinary, or extreme varies from place to place and culture to culture. Cross-cultural research supported with rich ethnographic context like that found in eHRAF World Cultures database not only enables us to discover differences between cultures, but, equally importantly, to find commonalities that may hold true universally across human populations.

Basden, George T. 1966. Among the Ibos of Nigeria: an account of the curious and interesting habits, customs and beliefs of a little known African people by one who has for many years lived amongst them on close and intimate terms. London: Cass. eHRAF World Cultures Database http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ff26-006 , accessed 05 Feb 2015.

Caughey, John. 1977. Fa’a’nakkar cultural values in a Micronesian society. Philadelphia: Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. eHRAF World Cultures Database http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=or19-026 , accessed 05 Feb 2015.

Dentan, Robert K. 1978. “Notes on childhood in nonviolent context: the Semai case”, in Ashley Montagu, Learning non-aggression. New York: OUP. pp. 94-143. eHRAF World Cultures Database http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=an06-016 , accessed 05 Feb 2015.

Draper, Patricia. 1976. “Social and economic constraints on child life among the !Kung” in Richard B. Lee and Irven DeVore, Kalahari hunter-gatherers: studies of the !Kung San and their neighbors. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. pp. 199-217. eHRAF World Cultures Database http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=fx10-049 , accessed 05 Feb 2015.

Hansen, Henny H. 1961. The Kurdish woman’s life: field research in a Muslim society, Iraq. Kobenhavn: Nationalmuseet. eHRAF World Cultures Database http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ma11-004 , accessed 07 Feb 2015.

Lancy, David. F. 2010. Learning ‘From Nobody’: The Limited Role of Teaching in Folk Models of Children’s Development.  Childhood in the Past  3: 79-106.

__2015. The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. 2nd Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

__ 2017. Anthropological Perspectives on Children as Helpers, Workers, Artisans, and Laborers. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.

__ 2017. Raising Children: Surprising Insights from Other Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lee, Helen M. 1996. Becoming Tongan: an ethnography of childhood. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. eHRAF World Cultures Database http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ou09-107 , accessed 06 Feb 2015.

Ember, C. and C. Cunnar. 2015. “Children’s Play and Work: The Relevance of Cross-Cultural Ethnographic Research for Archaeologists.” Childhood in the Past 8(2): 87-103. http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/1758571615Z.00000000031

Parenting Around the World: Child-Rearing Practices in Different Cultures

Parents often face a seemingly endless array of choices when it comes to child-rearing. From deciding whether or not to work, to selecting breast milk vs. formula, to implementing permissive or authoritative discipline, it can be difficult for parents to decide on the right course of action. Although it may feel like there is only one best way to raise a child, a survey of global parenting reveals that child-rearing practices in different cultures are actually quite diverse in form, and the influence culture plays is profound.

Parenting Across Cultures: A Global Perspective  

Child-rearing in different cultures can be as varied as the countries from which they come. Some practices can appear neglectful by American standards, while others just seem unusual.

Norwegian parents let their kids sleep in the freezing cold, NPR reports. The French don’t cater to “fussy eaters,” instead serving children the same meals they themselves eat. And in the Polynesian Islands, it’s not uncommon for “older” children (think toddler and preschool age) to take care of younger ones — even those who are not their siblings.

“Argentine parents let their kids stay up until all hours,” NPR says. “Japanese parents let 7-year-olds ride the subway by themselves; and Danish parents leave their kids sleeping in a stroller on the curb while they go inside to shop or eat.”

Sara Harkness, a professor of human development at the University of Connecticut, discovered a trait that appears unique to American parents: their belief in the importance of early age cognitive stimulation. Her study on cultural models and developmental agendas for early infancy concluded that American mothers were more likely to emphasize the importance of maintaining high levels of mental arousal and activity than their counterparts in other countries.

“The most salient themes for the American mothers were Stimulation of Development, and, relatedly, Cognitive Processing,” the study states. “Together, these two themes capture these mothers’ concern with getting their babies off to the best possible start in maximizing their potential as actively thinking persons, a concern underlined by popular promotion of the importance of early brain development.”

The study also included mothers from the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Korea. Mothers in these countries placed emphasis on markedly different practices than Americans, including self-regulation through a restful and regulated environment, attention to the baby’s physical and emotional needs, emotional closeness, and protecting and educating the child.

Notable Cultural Differences in Parenting: The Individual vs. the Collective

One of the most widely debated issues in parenting is whether and to what extent a child’s individuality should be nurtured. There are two fundamental patterns in child-rearing, individualistic and collectivist, explains communication expert Marcia Carteret on Dimensions of Culture . Individualistic cultures emphasize self-sufficiency, while collectivist ones emphasize the dependence of individuals on the group of which they are a part.

American parents embrace the former. “In study after study, cultural anthropologists have found that the overriding goal of American parents is to make a child independent and self-reliant,” Carteret says. “Babies are bundles of potential and a good parent is one who can uncover the latent abilities and talents in their child, encourage the good while discouraging the bad.”

Furthermore, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture published a report on the culture of American families. Out of the four types of parenting modes Americans tend to practice, just 20 percent belong to the mode most likely to emphasize tradition. The other 80 percent of parents were defined by factors unrelated to custom or conformity, such as an emphasis on personal freedom, a lack of a particular child-rearing agenda and the desire to raise children more materially successful than themselves.

Through this lens, the gap between parenting styles in America and many parts of the world gives more of the impression of a chasm. Collectivist cultures, by far the global norm, train children in dependent behaviors including obedience, calmness, politeness and respect toward others. Ultimately, these child-rearing practices emphasize feeling responsible for behavior and avoiding shaming both personally and for the family, clan or community.

Specifically, collectivist values can often be observed in many Asian-based cultures. The Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth, and Families explains that Chinese and Filipino traditions regard adhering to the status quo as paramount in importance.

Children raised with Chinese values are instilled with an obvious and accepted duty toward their family. As part of their child-raising technique, Chinese parents are also expected to teach their children the specific practice of how to live harmoniously with others. Therefore, individual emotional expression is considered harmful, as it is a threat to maintaining harmony. This in turn creates a culture of “saving face,” which leads to shame on the child if society’s expectations for propriety are breached.

Filipino families have a similar system. They adhere to concepts like hiya (referring to “shame” or “sense of propriety”) and pakikisama (getting along with others to create harmony, even if it conflicts with an individual’s personal desires). Again, if these principles are rejected or breached, intense shame is attached to the act.

Causes of Differentiation

Parents generally raise their children with the goal of molding them into effective adults. But the definition of an effective, productive member of society differs from culture to culture: How important is happiness? Financial stability? Family connectedness? Faith? Generally, “success” is defined by what ethics, mores and standards of life practice the culture in question possesses.

Children stay up until 10 p.m. in Spain and Argentina because of the strong emphasis those countries place on the domestic unit. Sending children to bed earlier would mean they couldn’t fully participate in family life, something that those societies consider particularly important.

Some African cultures, like those in Zambia and Malawi, treasure the passing down of unique cultural traditions, considering it the job of elders to continue this practice. The Kisii people of Kenya give weight to eye contact. They refuse to look their babies in the eye, believing it will cause them to grow up thinking they are in control of their caretakers.

For many cultures, a strong intergenerational family unit is critical to the success of a society. Children provide the social safety net for elderly parents. The United States, in contrast, places a premium on job success and individuality, which can mean children moving far away to pursue careers.

Indeed, societal philosophies and their influence on families can prove both substantial and, at the same time, enigmatic. It can be hard to understand just how significant an impact culture has on child-rearing because those norms are so embedded in what parents consider to be “normal” or “right” behavior. But knowing how culture ties people together, for better or for worse, can have a significant impact on raising well-adjusted children.

Cultural differences in parenting abound, and for marriage and family therapists, understanding cultural mores is even more important to effectively help clients with the complicated web of family and cultural dynamics. Touro University Worldwide offers a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy that gives students an understanding of how to embrace different cultures when treating clients. The fully online program allows students to maintain their personal and work schedules.

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How We Raise Our Daughters and Sons: Child-rearing and Gender Socialization in the Philippines

• Journal Article
• How We Raise Our Daughters…

Type of Content: Journal Article

Author: Ma. Emma Concepcion D. Liwag

Co-Author/s: Alma S. de la Cruz, Ma. Elizabeth J. Macapagal

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Name of Journal: Philippine Journal of Psychology

Number of Pages: 46

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The literature on Filipino child-rearing practices as they relate to gender socialization was surveyed in order to describe childrearing attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and practices from early childhood to late adolescence which demonstrate explicit and implicit differential socialization for sons and daughters. Findings from more than a hundred empirical and conceptual papers on Filipino child-rearing indicated that specific expectations of masculine and feminine behaviors were mirrored in the family in six socialization areas, including 1) parental preferences for children of one gender or another; 2) what parents expect of their daughters in contrast to what they expect of their sons, and consequently; 3) how parents raise their daughters in contrast to how they raise their sons; 4) how families invest their resources unequally upon daughters and sons; 5) the types of differential responsibility training given to daughters and sons; and 6) parental modeling as indicated by differences in the childrearing behaviors of mothers and fathers. The review affirmed the role of the family as the major site of gender socialization of Filipino children.

Link to Book (View/Download): https://www.pssc.org.ph/wp-content/pssc-archives/PhilippineJournalofPsychology/1998/04_HowWeRaiseOurDaughtersandSons_Child-RearingandGenderSocializationinthePhilippines.pdf

Link to Conference/Seminar: https://www.pssc.org.ph/wp-content/pssc-archives/PhilippineJournalofPsychology/1998/04_HowWeRaiseOurDaughtersandSons_Child-RearingandGenderSocializationinthePhilippines.pdf

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Child rearing in the "risk" society: on the discourse of rights and the "best interests of a child"

Affiliation.

• 1 Philosophy of Education, Ghent University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
• PMID: 20718118
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-5446.2010.00358.x

Due to a number of radical changes in society, the role of parents in the upbringing of their children has been redefined. In this essay, Paul Smeyers argues that "risk" thinking, and the technologization that goes with it in the context of child rearing, naturally leads to the rights discourse, but that thinking about the relation between parents and children in terms of rights confronts one with a number of insurmountable problems. The concept of the "best interests of a child" that is often invoked is, to say the least, not at all clear. Smeyers contends that while the discourse of rights is clearly important and relevant insofar as the relation between parents and the state are discussed, it impoverishes our understanding of relations of family members when used as an all-inclusive framework in that context. Therefore, he concludes that we must surpass the totalizing tendency of the transformation of the social realm into a system, of defining the relation between parents and children in technical terms, and of holding parents liable for their children's upbringing.

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What Is Developmental Psychology?

Conditions treated, training and certifications.

Developmental psychology is the study of how humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Developmental psychologists research the stages of physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development from the prenatal stage through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

This article covers developmental psychology, including the definition, types, life stages, and how to seek treatment when necessary.

seksan Mongkhonkhamsao / Getty Images

Defining Developmental Psychology

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), developmental psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on how human beings grow, change, adapt, and mature across various life stages. Developmental psychology is also known as human development or lifespan psychology.

In each of the life stages of developmental psychology, people generally meet certain physical, emotional, and social milestones. These are the major life stages, according to developmental psychologists:

• Prenatal development: Developmental psychologists are interested in diagnoses, such as Down syndrome, that might be noticed during the prenatal (before birth) stage. They also investigate how maternal behaviors (behaviors of the pregnant parent), such as nutrition and drug use, could affect the developing fetus.
• Early childhood: Developmental psychologists are interested in whether young children are meeting key milestones, such as walking, talking, and developing fine motor skills (coordination in the hands, fingers, and wrists). They might also be interested in a child’s attachment to their parents and other caregivers.
• Middle childhood: In this stage, children learn about the world and acquire knowledge through experimentation, questioning, and observation. They begin to develop logical and moral reasoning skills.
• Adolescence: Adolescence is a time of major strides in terms of personal development and identity formation. Teens and young adults might experiment with various identities, career choices, or areas of interest.
• Early adulthood: During early adulthood, most people are focused on preparing for the rest of their lives through a focus on education, career, and financial independence. Romantic relationships, marriage, family-building, setting down “roots,” and child-rearing are often a focus of this life stage.
• Middle adulthood: Middle-aged adults are often focused on helping the next generation, whether in their own family or their community. They are also often interested in the legacy they’ll leave behind.
• Older adulthood: In addition to physical health challenges, older people might face issues like dementia or cognitive decline (decline in thinking, remembering, and reasoning). Older adults also often need to reflect on their lives, tell their stories, and find meaning and peace within the aging process.

The Origins of Developmental Psychology

During its early development as a branch of psychology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, developmental psychology focused on infant and child development. As the field grew, so did its focus. Today, developmental psychologists focus on all stages of the human lifespan.  

Theories of Developmental Psychology

As developmental psychology grew over time, various researchers proposed theories about how to understand the process of human development. Depending on their training, a developmental psychologist might focus on a specific theory or approach within the field. 

These are a few of the major branches of developmental psychology.

Psychosocial Developmental Theory

Building on Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychosexual development , psychologist Erik Erikson proposed a lifespan theory that included eight stages of psychosocial development .

Each of the stages corresponds to both an age range and a core “crisis” (such as trust vs. mistrust in infancy) that must be resolved before someone can move on to the next.

Cognitive Developmental Theory

Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development focuses on how children and youth gradually become able to think logically and scientifically. Piaget proposed that cognition develops through four distinct stages of intellectual development, beginning at birth and ending at age 12.

Attachment Theory

Attachment theory , originally developed by psychoanalyst John Bowlby, establishes the importance of a supportive, steady, and loving caregiver in infant and child development. If a child doesn’t establish such a connection, or if they experience parental separation or loss, they might continue to struggle with healthy attachments as they get older.

Sociocultural Developmental Theory

While Bowlby considered the importance of the immediate family in child development, psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural developmental theory looks at the role of society. Cultural influences and beliefs can have a profound impact on how a person views their own identity and relates to others.

Developmental psychologists can help people address developmental issues in order to reach their full potential. 

Some of the conditions a developmental psychologist might treat include:

• Learning disabilities
• Intellectual disabilities
• Developmental delays
• Motor skill delays
• Issues with social and emotional development
• Auditory processing (hearing) disorder
• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
• Speech and language delays
• Mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, especially related to life stages

The training required to become a developmental psychologist is similar to that in other subfields of psychology. Most developmental psychologists start with an undergraduate degree in psychology or a related field, followed by a master’s degree and a doctoral degree (PhD). 

There are many master’s, graduate certificate, and PhD programs in developmental psychology in the United States. Some focus on a certain part of a person's lifespan, such as child and adolescent development. In addition to research and teaching, graduates may participate in a practicum or internship to pursue licensing as a therapist. 

When to Seek Treatment

If you're concerned that your child is facing a developmental delay, a developmental psychologist can assess them to ensure that they are meeting their milestones. It's best to seek an assessment, diagnosis, and treatment early, so intervention can begin as soon as possible.

Examples of when to see a developmental psychologist may include:

• An infant is struggling to bond with their parents.
• A toddler is missing milestones, such as walking or developing speech.
• A school-aged child is not progressing appropriately in reading or writing.
• An adolescent is facing challenges related to social and/or emotional development.

A developmental psychologist might perform physical and/or cognitive testing to diagnose your child or refer them to another specialist, including the following:

• Physical therapist (helps people improve movement and manage pain)
• Occupational therapist (helps people adjust to everyday activities after injury, illness, or disability)
• Speech-language pathologist (treats speech, language, and social and cognitive communication)
• Psychotherapist (uses talk therapy to treat mental health conditions)
• Neurologist (medical doctor who treats disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves)
• Psychiatrist (medical doctor specializing in mental health conditions)

A developmental psychologist will also likely ask you and your child questions about issues in areas of their life such as friends, behavior, or school performance.

In addition to working with infants and children, developmental psychologists can also help people at any stage of life. In particular, many older adults benefit from working with a developmental psychologist if they're experiencing symptoms of dementia, ill health, or cognitive decline.

Developmental psychology is the study of how human beings grow and change throughout their lives. Many developmental psychologists focus on the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development of infants, children, and adolescents. Others treat and assess people of all ages. 

Developmental psychologists can treat issues such as developmental delays, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, speech and language delays, motor skill delays, dementia, anxiety, depression, auditory processing disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and more. They also make referrals to other specialists, such as physical therapists, psychiatrists, and speech-language pathologists. 

American Psychological Association. Developmental psychology .

Maryville University. What is human development and why is it important ?

American Psychological Association. Developmental psychology studies human development across the lifespan .

Oklahoma State University Library.  Social development: Erikson’s eight psychosocial crises .

Oklahoma State University Library. Cognitive development: the theory of Jean Piaget .

University of Illinois Psychology Department Labs. Adult attachment theory and research .

Oklahoma State University Library. Social theories of learning .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Healthy habits: child development .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC's developmental milestones .

By Laura Dorwart Dr. Dorwart has a Ph.D. from UC San Diego and is a health journalist interested in mental health, pregnancy, and disability rights.

Senate Republicans block bill to expand child tax credit

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan bill Thursday on to expand the child tax credit and provide some tax breaks for businesses, all but sinking it for the rest of the year.

The vote was 48-44, with the vast majority of GOP senators voting against it. Democrats voted in favor, with the exception of two independents who caucus with Democrats: Sens. Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin. And just three Republicans voted for it: Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.

“This should be a no-brainer,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. “Right now, the only ones standing in the way are Senate Republicans. Everyone else, even House Republicans, are for this.” Before it failed, Schumer switched his vote to “no” to maintain his option to bring up the bill again.

“Today, because of Republicans, American families lost,” Schumer said after the vote.

The Senate GOP opposition to the bill, led by Mike Crapo of Idaho, the ranking member of the Finance Committee, who is aligned with party leadership. He told NBC News this week that the bill is inadequately funded and doesn’t have enough conditions on the child tax credit to win his vote.

On Thursday, Crapo called it a “senseless show vote” that Senate Republicans weren’t properly consulted on and said the generous provisions meant the bill “isn’t tax relief — it’s a subsidy.”

The vote on the bill, which would provide the most financial help to multi-child households, comes as Sen. JD Vance , R-Ohio, the GOP vice presidential nominee, faces criticism over past remarks disparaging “childless cat ladies” and questioning the character of women who choose not to have kids. Vance was scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Thursday and missed the vote. While he hasn’t said how he’d vote on the bill, Vance said the child tax credit is “a great thing, and I support expanding it.”

Responding to the criticism that he missed Thursday's vote, Vance argued: “I certainly think that unless we get a better president, there’s almost nothing that Congress can pass that is really going to improve the lives of the American people."

Asked about Vance’s labeling Democrats “anti-family,” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who negotiated the bill with House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., responded: “There’s a lot of weird stuff going on here.”

Democrats had cast the vote in part as a response to Vance, with Schumer predicting that most Republicans would vote against it even as they “say they care about families.” It was the last vote the Senate cast before leaving Washington for the August recess until Sept. 9. The House passed the child tax credit bill in January.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., adamantly opposed the bill.

“They’ve lost me on the pay-for,” Tillis said. “The child tax credit doesn’t have any of some of the basic requirements that we would want. It needs to go back in the oven and come out with our tax reform next year.”

Tillis distributed pamphlets at a Senate GOP lunch meeting Tuesday as he rallies colleagues to oppose the bipartisan measure. The document read: “WYDEN-SMITH IS NOT THE TAX DEAL WE ARE LOOKING FOR.”

Wyden and Smith negotiated the legislation, which passed the House 357-70. It would expand child tax credits, lift the $1,600 ceiling on refundability and adjust the benefits for inflation — it’s designed to primarily help multi-child households with low incomes. The bill also includes business tax breaks for research and development and small-business expensing, an enticement that helped garner GOP support in the House.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was a rare Republican who voted yes.

“As Republicans, we should be in favor of helping people who want to have families,” he said, adding that he doesn’t believe the GOP should be discussing women without children the way Vance did.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she's frustrated that Schumer hadn’t committed to allowing amendments.

“I just don’t think that we’re giving serious focus to when you bring it up as the last vote. I’m assuming it’s going to be the last vote before we go on break. So that’s frustrating,” she said.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a potential vice presidential candidate for Vice President Kamala Harris, went after Vance, calling his comments “obnoxious” and “just wrong,” ripping into Vance’s suggestion that parents should get more voting power than Americans without children.

“It doesn’t surprise me that he is not in favor [of] helping families that actually need help,” Kelly said. “I’d probably put him in the category with somebody like Donald Trump — trying to help out their billionaire friends and the wealthiest Americans, big corporations.”

Vance’s team responded aggressively.

“Before he started desperately trying out to be Kamala’s VP pick, little Mark Kelly sang a completely different tune about Senator Vance. He introduced legislation with him and said their work together would bring ‘ good-paying jobs ’ to every corner of every state,” Vance spokesperson William Martin told NBC News. “It will be enjoyable to watch this fraud get passed up for one of the half-rate Governors on Kamala’s shortlist.”

Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Julie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.

Kate Santaliz is an associate producer for NBC News’ Capitol Hill team.

Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.

Mother and son accused of soliciting donations for fake child death in Victorville

A Los Angeles County mother and son were cited by High Desert deputies after allegedly trying to solicit both sympathies and donations from passing motorists in Victorville with a fake story about a child's death.

The pair is accused of falsely claiming they were raising money for a child recently killed in a car crash, officials said.

The incident unfolded shortly after 12:30 p.m. Friday at Bear Valley Road and Highway 395, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

A 19-year-old man, a 45-year-old woman and a 17-year-old were seen soliciting donations while holding up a sign displaying a child's image and a written message.

"The man... held a sign that advertised the death of a child from a car accident," sheriff's officials said in a written statement .

It was determined that the man, his mother and the juvenile suspect had driven from their hometown of Pico Rivera to the High Desert to beg for money, the statement said. "The information, and pictures of the children being advertised was false information."

The two adults were cited for panhandling, officials said. Deputies seized the posters and the collected money as evidence.

More: 57 arrested during week of 'Operation Consequences' raids in the High Desert

"The Victorville Police Department would like to remind the public to use caution when giving money to panhandlers," the statement added.

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Schumer to release book sounding ‘alarm’ about antisemitism’s rise in us — as his party internally squabbles over israel.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will release a new book early next year that will delve into the rise of antisemitism in modern US society – as his party internally squabbles over Israel.

“Antisemitism in America: A Warning” is slated to hit bookshelves on Feb. 18, 2025, and “sounds the alarm about the troubling resurgence of antisemitism,” according to Grand Central Publishing.

“By placing antisemitism in its proper historical context, and drawing from Senator Schumer’s own life, the book informs Americans’ understanding of the causes of the recent swell of antisemitic rhetoric and violence in our country,” a book description reads.

“In very personal terms, it will engage with debates over the purpose and meaning of Israel, and help draw a line between legitimate criticism of its government and when criticism of Israel as a Jewish homeland verges into antisemitism,” it added.

Schumer (D-NY) is the highest elected Jewish official in the US. At times, he has used his bully pulpit to express deep concerns about antisemitism plaguing the country.

Last November, Schumer took to the Senate floor to deliver remarks about antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israeli civilians.

“Many of the people who express these sentiments in America aren’t Neo-Nazis or card-carrying Klan members or Islamic extremists,” Schumer bluntly admitted in the speech. “They’re in most cases people that most liberal Jewish Americans felt previously were their ideological fellow travelers.”

Democrats have reckoned with a bitter internal struggle over the Israel-Hamas conflict and factions of the party warring over whether to be more supportive of Israel or the Palestinians.

Schumer, 73, has seemingly sought to trot out some middle ground — lending support to Israel, but taking issue with its current leadership and approach to the war against Hamas.

In March, Schumer again took to the Senate floor and called for new elections in Israel in a scathing rebuke of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he derided as an “obstacle” to peace.

“Of course, the United States cannot dictate the outcome of an election, nor should we try,” he said at the time. “That is for the Israeli public to decide – a public that I believe understands better than anybody that Israel cannot hope to succeed as a pariah, opposed by the rest of the world.”

During Netayahu’s address at the joint meeting of Congress last month, Schumer appeared to give the prime minister the cold shoulder by not shaking hands with him.

Schumer’s upcoming book is meant to serve as a “warning” based on history about the consequences of allowing the “world’s oldest hatred” to go “unchecked.”

The Empire State Democrat previously released a book in 2007 alongside Daniel Squadron, titled, “Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time.”

In keeping with its name, the book outlined strategies to boost the middle class.

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Thai Court Ejects Prime Minister, as Old Guard Reasserts Power

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was considered a figurehead leader in a behind-the-scenes power struggle. He was ousted on ethics charges.

By Sui-Lee Wee

Reporting from Bangkok

Thailand’s Constitutional Court ousted Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office on Wednesday, throwing the country into fresh political turmoil just days after the court dissolved the country’s main opposition party.

In a 5-4 verdict, the court ruled that Mr. Srettha, who took office almost a year ago, violated ethics standards after he appointed to his cabinet a member previously convicted of attempted bribery.

Mr. Srettha was seen as a figurehead, closely allied with Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former prime minister who has long sought to influence the country’s politics even after he was ousted and exiled in a 2006 coup.

The court’s decision is likely to intensify the disillusionment of many Thais, who see the case as the latest proof of intervention by an unelected establishment that is quashing the people’s will. Last week, the same court ordered the disbandment of the Move Forward Party , a progressive party that won last year’s election but was blocked from forming a government.

The constant upheaval in politics has diminished the government’s ability to address pressing issues such as reviving the country’s ailing, tourism-dependent economy.

But this dismissal is unlikely to galvanize angry protests. Mr. Srettha, a mild-mannered 62-year-old billionaire tycoon, was not a popular leader. He was installed only because a military-backed Senate prevented Pita Limjaroenrat , Move Forward’s former leader, from becoming premier. During his short term in office, Mr. Srettha was criticized for traveling abroad frequently with few results to show for it. He has said those trips were necessary to stimulate tourism and foreign investment.

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