2.2 Parenting
Human beings are social creatures born with a biological need and predisposition to relate to others. Newborns turn to human voices, faces and eyes, allowing infants to learn about people and from people. People are contagious. Our early relationships with parents or other primary caregivers shape how we learn to cope and become competent. Responsive and sensitive nurturing sets the foundation for optimal development. As you watch the next video, think about how this busy mother manages the needs of her two young sons and her newborn baby.
What does this mother say and do to make all her children feel nurtured?
Why is this important?
How might her parenting style affect family relationships – among the children and between the children and their mother?
Parenting styles
Mothers and fathers greatly influence their children’s development. In the next clip Dr. Keating, from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, summarizes what many research studies reveal – parenting matters a lot and carries forward throughout our lives. He points to two important dimensions, warmth and responsiveness and setting limits or boundaries.
Almost fifty years ago, psychologist Dr. Diane Baumrind (1968) defined parenting skills along the same two dimensions that Keating outlines in the video. Responsiveness refers to parents’ ability to be attuned to a child and to respond to a child’s needs and signals. Establishing boundaries refers to the ability of parents to set and maintain limits that structure a child’s environment. Baumrind proposed that high and low levels of these two dimensions combine to describe four broad parenting styles. Each of these styles influences the overall development of children.
Interact | Parenting styles Not available in this preview
Have you seen parents that characterize any of these styles? Do you think these styles apply to people who work with young children (not just parents)? What kind of caregiver are you?
In the next video, Dr. Jean Clinton, clinical professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience at McMaster University, discusses how different parenting styles impact children, specifically brain development.
Clinton – parenting styles and brain development (2:42) Not available in this preview
It is important to keep several points in mind when considering these broad parenting styles:
- Parents may not fall neatly into one parenting style, however, most parents tend to demonstrate one style more than another.
- In families with two parents, each parent may demonstrate a different parenting style and they may or may not cooperate on an approach to parenting their children.
- Many of the studies in this area of research focused on white, middle class families and did not consider the influence of factors such as different ethnic/cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Attunement and attachment
Attunement describes how parents and other caregivers react to an infant’s signals. Well-attuned caregivers detect what their babies are feeling and reflect those emotions back in their facial expressions, voices and other behaviour. They read a baby’s signals and then respond to those signals. Think back to the first clip of the mother soothing her baby and how she reflected in her face and voice her baby’s emotions when her baby was becoming upset and then comforting her.
Attachment refers to the intimate emotional bonds infants develop with their parents and other primary caregivers. Individual interactions build attachment relationships. Secure attachment relationships between young children and their parents and caregivers are fundamental to helping children learn to cope. These secure attachment relationship help children cope with stress and regulate their emotions, behaviour and attention. Again, in the first clip, consider how the sensitive and responsive care the mother provided is helping her baby to feel safe and secure as well as support her early regulatory systems. The next video is an overview of attachment and stresses paying attention to the subtle signals of babies. As you view the video, notice how infants engage with their caregivers by using vocalizations, gestures, facial expressions and body movements. Brief exchanges gradually develop into longer chains of communication between the infant and caregiver. These verbal and non-verbal communications contribute to attuned interactions and attachment relationships.
View | Listening to baby (17:06) Not available in this preview
What examples of parent attunement (i.e., reading and responding to their babies’ signals) did you see? What about examples of babies reading and responding to their parents?
Challenge yourself and see how many key messages from the video you recall.
The booklet below was developed for First Nations and Metis parents and caregivers in Manitoba. It presents information for parents and caregivers on bonding, forming secure attachments with children, and connecting with extended family and community. Learn about some of the traditional practices used to develop attachment, and some of the impacts from residential schools, medical institutions and foster homes that had devastating effects on families developing relationships and attachment.
In the next video, Dr. Marlyn Bennett, director of the University of Manitoba’s Master of Social Work Program based in Indigenous Knowledges, defines kinship care and discusses the role of the extended family and wider community in caregiving.
How does Bennett’s definition of kinship care fit with your own experiences with family or the families you work with?
Parents and families have a strong and deep influence on children’s development. Research has identified both beneficial and detrimental parenting practices and their impact on children’s development. The next page presents research on childhood aggression, a topic that challenges most parents and caregivers.
