Chapter+8+Families

=FAMILY PROCESSES=

[] Within chapter eight of Santrock's textbook Adolescence, the section Family Processes discusses how the impact of a parent's relationship to his or her child directly influences development of this child. In the article above, a very thorough analysis and review is provided in reference to the award winning film Black Swan. This article discusses the effects of a mother's own lost dreams and how she transfers those dreams onto her daughter, providing an enormous amount of pressure to be a superb ballet dancer. The article describes the mother as "...being thwarted by her unexpected [|pregnancy] with Nina (her daughter) and that Erica's emotional life had not progressed beyond that experience." This desire to achieve a lost dream as a successful dancer is then transferred onto her daughter, creating an enormous amount of pressure that impacts Nina's own self. The parent-adolescent relationship is significant in the fact that the mother has created a passion for dancing within her daughter but to such an extreme that it destroys her physically. The two definitions in the textbook, continuity and discontinuity, help to explain how Nina and Erika's relationship throughout early and late adolescence truly influenced one another. This is an interesting preview explaining the dynamics between a mother who tries to live vicriously through her daughter. The following statement from the article proves to be powerful in analyzing the impact a mother's overbearing parenting can have one a child. The article reads, "Regardless, the parent/child relationship dramatized in Black Swan illustrates the potential damage inflicted on both child and parent by the most destructive forces of favoritism that can be experienced in some parent/child relationships - a child robbed of psychological maturity and sentenced to a life of self-destructive expression in the interest of maintaining favorite child status." Although I have not seen the film yet, this dynamic created between a mother and daughter seems extreme which happems frequently within today's society and the expectations parents palce on their children to succeed. (KERRY)


 * The continuity view** (p.270) -- Parenting is important for the development of adolescents. A good relationship between parents and adolescents influences lives of adolescents later on. This topic reminds me of a book "Ugly Duckling". It is important for parents to have a strong relationship to their children. Sometimes, adolescents need some guidance from their parents. In the story, the ugly duckling feels excluded from the group. If the parent explained things to him,he would not have left the group. The chapter mentions that parent-child relationships provide development of all kinds of relationships in adolescents' lives. (Gik)

Socialization in the family unit is crucial in the development of teens/adolescents. Santrock goes on to discuss that "children were thought to be the product of their parents social techniques." In today's society, there is so much more technology then when our parents we going through adolescence. Today's socialization within the family unit would be considered reciprocal. Santrock defines **reciprocal socialization** (pg. 269) as the process by which children socialize their parents, just as parents socialize them. This concept reminded me of a short clip that I saw on SNL. Have you ever had a conversation with your mom over the lastest gossip about Linday Lohan or Brangleina? Well, this short clip may sound like a conversation that you've had with your mom. I know I've had a conversation like this once or twice. (Katie) media type="youtube" key="DiOMlcDihd4" height="289" width="397"

** Price of Prison for Children ** This article talks about the damage that can be caused later in life for a child who has an incarcerated parent. Studies show that children who have one or both parents in prison tend to have more arrests later on in life, behavior problems, relationship problems, school problems and substance abuse. These children are 2 ½ more times likely to end up in jail, when they are older, which is a growing concern because this increases our jail population and the cycle will continue when these kids grow up and have children. I was reminded of the reciprocal influences of family members in chapter 8 (Section 9672-Kindle) when it talks about how the direct behavior of the parent(s) can influence the teen and their decisions/behaviors. This seems to hold true when a parent makes bad decisions, especially since this could be a never ending cycle of destruction that manifests itself in future generations. **(LeAnn)** [] University of Wisconsin-Madison (2010, August 9). Price of prison for children. //ScienceDaily.// Retrieved March 7, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/08/100809142050.htm

=RELATIONSHIPS WITH PARENTS=

//**The Cat Ate My Gymsuit (1974) **//This is a book written by [|Paula Danziger] that describes the life of Marcy Lewis, an overweight thirteen year old freshman. The story follows Marcy as she battles with her self-image and how she is inspired by a controversial high school English teacher. One of the central themes of the book is Marcy's relationship with her parents. Her father is a verbally abusive, [|authoritarian parent]. He has strict rules for both of Marcy and her brother. His children are expected to obey him without question or explanation. Some of Marcy's insecurities stem from how her father treats her. She has difficulties relating to her peers and struggles to make new friends. Her response is similar to how Santrock descried the children of authoritarian parents on page 277. Towards the conclusion of the book, Marcy begins to separate her father's perception of who she is with her own perception of herself. In doing so, she begins to develop autonomy from her father. The reader is then left to wonder if Marcy will continue her positive self growth. //The Cat Ate My Gymsui//t is an inspiration story that paints a realistic portrait of the challenges faced by teens, particularly those with strained family relationships. Though it is now dated, the themes expressed by the author remain timeless. //(Interesting Aside: What social commentary could you make about the differences in the two covers?) // (Emily Grace)

Santrock’s descriptions of different parenting styles (p. 276-277) made me think of the movie Mean Girls and the contrasting parenting styles of Cady’s parents and Regina’s mother. In this film, I think that Cady’s parents fit into the Authoritative Parenting role because they encourage their daughter to be independent, but at the same time, they set rules for her. When she gets into trouble after becoming friends with the mean clique of girls at school, her parents are there to talk to her about what she did wrong and how she can improve her behavior in the future. Alternatively, Regina’s mom would be considered an Indulgent Parent because she allows Regina to do whatever she wants and does not place any restrictions on Regina. She is still highly involved in her daughter’s life, but rather than placing demands or controls on her, she tries to be Regina’s friend or the “cool mom” as seen in the clip below. This indulgent parenting has turned Regina into a girl who has no self-control, gets whatever she wants, has little regard for anyone else’s feelings and is unkind to everyone in her school, including her close group of friends. (Caitlin) media type="custom" key="8606182"

**Cameron Frye's Parents**
media type="youtube" key="rIqWSPUh2rY" height="390" width="480" Who is Cameron Frye? Cameron Frye is the best friend of lead character, Ferris Bueller in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986). Although Cameron's parents are never really shown in the movie, we learn a great deal about them and their parenting style through Cameron's behaviors and decisions. As demonstrated in this clip from the movie, Cameron experiences an exorbitant amount of anxiety. He seems incapable of making decisions for himself. He's almost crippled for fear of breaking his parents rules. Santrock (pg. 277) characterizes the children of parents that follow the authoritarian parenting style as being "socially incompetent." They too struggle to make decisions as they are almost immobilized by the fear of making the wrong decision. (Jason)

The regrettably cancelled sitcom Arrested Development was about an extremely dysfunctional family, the Bluths. The show aired for three seasons, and during that time, it showed examples of the four different types of parents that Santrock mentions (p. 277). Authoritarian - Lucille's relationship to her son Byron (a.k.a. Buster). Lucille basically treats Buster like a little kid, and as a result, Buster has the maturity of a little kid. She constantly gives him orders, and as a result he is fearful and also somewhat resentful of her. Authoritative - Michael Bluth is probably the only sane character on the show. He sets rules for his son but not without good reason. He's a single dad, a widower, and he genuinely cares about his son George Michael. Neglectful - The Funkes (pronounced Fune-kays), Tobias and Lindsay are like this to their daughter, Mae, a.k.a. Maeby. As a result, Maeby does whatever she wants and she eventually ends up becoming a film executive. As a teenager. Indulgent - Once Gob (pronounced Jobe) finds out that he has a teenage son, he is determined to make up for lost time and be a good father. Unfortunately, he isn't very smart, but he does give his son many things, including a couple of jobs.
 * Arrested Development**

=SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS=

==How Birth Order Affects Your Personality ==  By [|Joshua K. Hartshorne] | January 11, 2010 | [|56]

[] Since the late 1800's, this question has been debated: does your birth order affect your intelligence and/or personality? This link ties in to many of the concepts Santrock does on p. 298 of our classroom text __Adolescence__. There is new research, accdording to Joshua K. Hartstome, from the past three years that found our birth order does indeed affect our IQ and personality. Most reasearch up to this point has been debated in favor of each side: birth order has very little affect, or, birth order has a very great affect. Some reaseacrh states "family researchers have found that birth order has been overemphasized....when all of the factors that influence adolescent behavior are considered, birth order itself shows limited ability to predict adolescent behavior." (p. 298 Santrock). On the other hand, Hartshorne states "my colleagues and I have published evidence that birth order influences whom we choose as friends and spouses....people tend to resemble their spouses in terms of personality....if spouses correltate personality, and personality correlates with birth order, spouses should correlate on birth order." After reading both Hartshorne and our classroom text, there are a few things that are clear while studying this topic: the first born are more helpful people, and the last born have a higher tendancy of becoming overly dependent. It is the "later-borns" and the family size that have made the rearch more difficult in coming to conclusions. (John)



Hunger Games
Hunger Games is a novel set in the future on Earth. Earth has experienced its third world war and a few colonies remain under a corrupt government in what was formerly the United States. The main character is Katniss who comes from a broken family. Her father was killed by a landmine leaving her mother broken and her younger sister helpless. Every year an event takes place called the "hunger games" where a child representative from each district or colony must participate in a batlle to the death with other participants. The sister of Katniss is chosen from their district, but Katniss boldy steps in to take her place. Throughout the duration of the games she continually performs brave feats and acts more like an adult than the 14-year old that she is. This made me think of two concepts mentioned within this chapter on families. First, older siblings tend to take on the dominant role in sibling interactions. Additionally firstborns tent to be more adult-oriented, helpful, conforming, and self-controlled. (p. 292) Katniss demonstrated all of these qualities during the hunger games by contsantly looking out for her opponents and friends and by having motivation driven by worry for her sister and mother's safety and well-being. (Mary)

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Step Brothers
The movie Step Brothers is pretty much a goofball movie about two 30 something men who still live with their parents. They are pretty dysfunctional and codependent with their parents. But their parents marry each other and then things get worse. The new step brothers deal with a lot of boundary ambiguity - or handling new roles and rules in a blended family situation (Santrock P. 298) -- as their new family adapts. Though this is done in an absurd way with adults, they go through much of what a typical new blended family would deal with. There is a lot of fighting for their place in the power structure of the new family. There also is a lot of sibling rivalry and sabotage as they begin to adjust top their new life as a blend family. But the reason why I chose to relate this movie is because I have two brothers and growing up I dealt with many of the same fights and rivalries that are characterized in this movie. But also like this movie, when things get tough the brothers (much like my own) watch out for each other and are supportive to each other. If this movie had been made with age-appropriate actors in the roles of the step brothers it would have been much less funny and honestly just sad because I do believe many of the struggles of becoming one blended family are addressed in this movie. All of this said, if you haven't seen this movie, don't expect it to be some kind of insightful beacon into creating positive family environments. Its far from that. Its really just a goofball and often crass movie, but I think a lot of people can relate to the struggles and fights that occur in it. By making it over the top and done with adults it allows the audience to see the humor in things though. (Joel)

**Sibling Rivalry** [[image:http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/angry-siblings.jpg width="408" height="204" align="right"]]
The [|Kids Health] website shares an informative article about the role of siblings. It shares information about why kids fight and that it can even begin before the birth of the second child. Santrock points out in the text the sibling conflicts is common among siblings and that there can be favoritism amongst parents. “When favoritism of one sibling occurred, it was linked to lower self-esteem and sadness in the less-favored sibling.”(291). Kids health shares that one reason kids may fight is to seek parent attention. What I think was really helpful in this article, was the points made on why the siblings can fight and what to do when they do. (Melanie)

=THE CHANGING FAMILY=

=﻿Modern Family - Cameron and Mitchell=

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This show is a perfect go-to for all the different kinds of changing families in the 21st century. There is a mixed stepfamily, two gay men with an adopted daughter and what appears to be the minority, the traditional "nuclear" family of Mom and Dad with kids. The scene I picked shows the few overt benefits of gay couples as parents: affirmative action in the form of diversity in today's politically correct world. The punchline of the clip just adds some levity to this discussion of diversity. (BradH)

(Malinda) When I read the "Changing Family" section of chapter 8, there was a specific line that made me think about a television show that is now off the air; "When a divorced parents have a harmonious relationship and use authoritative parenting, the adjustment of adolescents is improved" (301). "The New Adventures of Old Christine" is about a divorced couple who often calls each other their best friends. The ex-husband marries a younger version of his ex-wife with the same name. It seems quirky and awkward, but the three of them make it work for the sake of the child. They are on the same page when it comes to their child, Richie, in every aspect. In this specific episode, Christine and Richard (the ex's) help Marly and Lindsay (rich snobby mothers of students in Richie's class) through their child births of their second children. It brings up memories of Ritchie's birth and a rekindling of romantic feelings, but they put it into perspective of where they are as a divorced couple and work it out in the end. [|The New Adventures of Old Christine]

[] Latchkey adolescents come home nearly every day to an empty house. The parents of these adolescents are working parents. This usually leaves them at home for three to four hours alone. They let themselves in and normally don’t see their parents from the time they leave for school in the morning until about 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. One study shows that when adolescents are unsupervised they tend to grow up quickly. Time without supervision also gives them an opportunity to experience drugs and alcohol and they generally have problems in school. As with all adolescents, parent should seek out ways to continue to supervise their children while they are away from home. In the book The Cat in the Hat, the Cat brings a bright and pleasant type of disorder where two young children are home alone on a rainy day while their mother is out. He brings along with him Thing One and Thing Two. The Cat and the two Things do all kinds of crazy things to entertain the children, with assorted outcomes. The children, Sally and her older brother in the end prove to be excellent latchkey children, detaining the Things and putting the Cat in check. He tidies up the house, leaving just before their mother comes home. (P. 299) Miranda