Discuss The Influence Of Parenting On Interpersonal Development

The influence of parenting on aspects of children’s social and emotional development.

Research suggests that in the early years of childhood, the child’s sole interpersonal relationships may be with their parents, and parents generally present their own set of cultural beliefs, values and attitudes to their children in a highly personalized and selective fashion. Yet even though parents’ own personalities, family backgrounds, attitudes, values, education, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, and gender influence the way they socialize their children, their role in this socialization process—ensuring that their child’s standards of behaviour, attitudes, skills, and motives conform as closely as possible to those regarded as desirable and

Socialisation however is a process of mutual shaping, with the behaviour of any single family member having effects on any other. ‘Families do not function in isolation they are affected by the larger physical, cultural, social and historical settings and events around them.’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The view of the family as an interdependent system that functions as a whole has two principle origins: the realisation by psychotherapists that to change the behaviour of a troubled child one must change the family system as well (Minuchin, 2002) and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system. This position is concerned both with the relationships between the child and the many nested systems within which she develops as well as with the relationships among these systems themselves, from the familiar microsystem to the larger social and cultural setting of the macrosystem (Bronfenbrenner & Morris,

Parent emotionality is crucial in the socialization process. When a parent is warm and loving, the child is likely to want to maintain the parent’s approval and to be distressed at any prospect of losing the parent’s love (Baumrind, 1991; Grusec & Davidov, 2007). If, on the other hand, a parent was to be cold and rejecting, the threat of withdrawal of love is unlikely to be an effective mechanism or socialisation. The goal of socialisation is the help the child to eventually control their own behaviour and choose socially responsible alternatives. Behavioural control involves setting reasonable rules and reasoning, and monitoring children’s activities. Moderate level of control would lead to the child being more likely to accept and internalise parents’ standards than when parent overly controlling or permissive (Holden & Hawk, 2003). Too much control and demandingness may limit children’s opportunities to make decisions for themselves or to make their needs known to their parents. Psychological control involves the use of emotion-directed tactics such as guilt or shame induction, withdrawal of love or affection, or ignoring or discounting a child’s feelings. Use of this type of control often leads to lower self-esteem, higher anxiety and, possibly, depression (Barber & Harmon, 2002). Ethnic and cultural differences must also be taken into account in studying the