This document discusses factors that influence parenting such as biology, culture, economics and family structure. It explores the challenges new parents may face in adjusting to a new baby and establishing parenting styles. Variations in parenting are discussed for single parents, fathers, adoptive parents, grandparents, foster parents and parents from diverse cultural and family backgrounds. The document emphasizes that responsive early childhood programs should provide support to families through parent education, family support services and home visiting programs.

1. CHAPTER 2:
Infants, Toddlers, and Their
Families
Infant and Toddler Development and Responsive
Program Planning: A Relationship-Based Approach
Third Edition
Donna S. Wittmer
Sandy Petersen
© 2014, 2010, 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

2. Our biology affects parenting

Long gestation

Difficult birth process

Dependency of the infant

Predictable responses of parents to
newborns
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3. Our culture affects parenting
Individualist
Collectivist
Individuals
Group

Independence
Cooperation

Competition
Interdependent

Production

Personal
responsibility

interests
Process
(rather than
production)
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4. Cultural questions in programs

Differences between parents and teachers
may be grounded in each person’s own
invisible cultural beliefs about babies.

Some cultural differences may not be
negotiated – spanking is never allowed in
child care.
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5. Variations in parenting
Early experiences
Daughters
of single mothers more likely to
become mothers outside of marriage
Sons
of unstable households w/ many
transitions are likely to become young fathers
not living with the mother
Early
attachment relationships
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6. Variations in parenting
Single parents’ other adult relationships
Emotional
and family
support for mother through friends
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7. Variations in parenting
Economics
Higher
income fathers are more involved
unless work pressures interfere
Flexible
work schedules
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8. Becoming a mother

“Natural progression and monumental
transition”

Universal and personal

Struggles:





Fatigue
Loss of identity
Marital dissatisfaction
Overly high standards for doing everything right
Depression
Implications for care teachers?
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9. Becoming a father

1 in 3 American children live without their
father

Father engagement: quantity and quality
of time, attachment, sensitivity

Mother’s positive attitude toward father

Parents’ positive relationship
Implications for care teachers?
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10. The imagined baby and the real
baby

Imagining ideal baby during pregnancy

Learning to know and accept the real baby
Implications for care teachers?
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11. Parenting styles

Indulgent or permissive

Authoritarian

Authoritative

Uninvolved
(Baumrind, 1991)
Implications for care teachers?
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12. Family structure
“Children’s optimal development seems to be
influenced more by the nature of the
relationships and family interactions within
the family unit than by the particular
structural form it takes”.
(Perrin, 2002, p. 341)
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13. Divorce
Unique issues for infants and toddlers

Sensitivity to tension, sadness, anger

Adjustment to day and night cycles

Need for predictability and regularity

Breastfeeding
Implications for care teachers?
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14. Same sex parents
“More than two decades of research has failed to
reveal important differences in the adjustment or
development of children or adolescents reared by
same-sex couples compared to those reared by
other-sex couples.
Results of the research suggest that qualities of
family relationships are more tightly linked with child
outcomes than is parental sexual orientation”
Patterson (2006) p.241
Implications for care teachers?
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15. Grandparents

May offer stable home

Parents may be present

Often no legal authority
Implications for care teachers?
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16. Adoptive parents

Age at adoption

Circumstances leading up to adoption

Difficulty of repeatedly establishing new
relationships for infants and toddlers
Implications for care teachers?
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17. Foster parents

Infants are 20% of children in foster care

May have experienced abuse, neglect, in
utero exposure to drugs or alcohol,
violence, sexual abuse

Premature, low birth weight

Serious health and developmental
problems
Implications for care teachers?
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18. Care and education programs
that support families

Parent education

Family support

Home-visiting

Parent Training and Information Centers

Parent to Parent
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