Psihologia familiei eng.docx

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Mothering can occur only within the context of a relationship between a mother and a child.

Likewise, a child can survive to grow and develop only within the context of a caregiving

relationship. It is clear that the most significant period of mothering appears to be during the

early years while the child has the most dependency for care. The motherchild relationship

is an asymmetrical relationship during this period, in which the child needs more and gives

less than the mother.

At first it seems that it is the expectant nurturing aspect of mothering that is the most

important, as it has a direct impact on the childs well -being. However, we believe it is the

aspect of the mothers capacity to make an emotional connection with the infant that

determines survival and the childs developmental trajectory. This emotional connection is

the foundation on which the developmental trajectory will play out. Initially, the child needs

mothering that reflects hands-on care and her physical presence. Over time, and as maturation

progresses, these needs shift. The child no longer needs mothering to survive, the goal instead

becomes one of preparation for individuation or becoming a functional, responsible, socially

appropriate adultand this goal is met through the emotional connections made between the

mother and child.

The work we have done with mothers in Early Head Start programs has taught us strong

lessons about emotional connections for children. For mothers whose past traumatic events

were not resolved in their own psyche, Coltrane (1996, p. 175) made the following

observation:

In most families, husbands notice less about what needs to be done, wait to be asked to do

various chores and require explicit directions if they are to complete the tasks successfully . .

. most couples continue to characterize husbands contributions to housework or child care as

helping their wives.

To overcome these limitations and to provide a current estimate of the level of father

involvement, Yeung et al. (2001) used a national representative sample of children in two-

parent families in the United States in 1997. The sample included children aged 0 to 12 years

and therefore allowed an assessment of the nature of paternal involvement across different

developmental periods. Finally,because the data were collected in 1997, the study permitted a

comparison of father involvement in the 1960s, 1980s, and the late 1990s to determine if

there has been a historical shift in level of father involvement. These investigators confirmed

Plecks (1997) conclusion that there has been a gradual increase in the level of father

involvement over the past four decades.

These findings are consistent with the more general proposition that pregnancy and birth of a

first child, in particular, are occasions for a shift toward a more traditional division of roles(Cowanand Cowan, 1992). Of particular interest is the fact that this pattern held regardless of

whether the initial role division between husbands and wives was traditional or equalitarian

(Cowan and Cowan,1992). Cowan, Cowan, Coie, and Coie (1978, p. 20) observed that,

Despite the current rhetoric and ideology concerning equality of roles for men and women,

it seems that couples tend to adopt traditionally defined roles during times of stressful

transition such as around the birth of a first child.

The lower level of father involvement in caregiving and other forms of interaction does not

imply that fathers are less competent than mothers to care for infants and children.

Competence can be measured in a variety ofways: One approach is to measure the parents

sensitivity to infant cues in the feeding context. Success in caregiving, to a large degree,


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depends on the parents ability to correctlyread or interpret the infants behavior so that the

parents own behavior can be regulated to respond appropriately.

Qualitative Effects: Stylistic Differences in Mother and Father Interaction

Fathers participate less than mothers in caregiving but spend a greater percentage of the time

available for interaction in play activities than mothers do. In the United States, Kotelchuck

(1976) found that fathers spent a greater percentage of their time with their infants in play

(37.5%) than mothers did (25.8%), although in absolute terms mothers spent more time than

fathers in play with their children.

Becoming a father has an impact on a mans own psychological development and well-being.

As Parke (1981, p. 9) noted, the fatherchild relationship is a two-way process and children

influence their fathers just as fathers alter their childrens development. Three aspects of this

issue have been examined: (1) marital relationships, (2) work and occupational issues, and (3)

societal generativity(to borrow Snareys, 1993, phrase).

Impact on marital relationships. Perhaps most attention has been devoted to the impact of the

transition to parenthood on marriage. The general finding from a large number of studies is

that there is a decline in marital satisfaction, especially on the part of men, as a consequence

of the birth of a child (see Belsky and Pensky, 1988, for a review).

The psychological adjustments associated with the transition to fatherhood are clearly

evident in the longitudinal study by Cowan and Cowan (1985,1992). Their project followed

families from pregnancy until the children were 5 years of age. These investigators found that

fathers marital satisfaction showed a modest decrease from pregnancy to 6 months

postpartum, but a sharp decline between 6 and 18 months postpartum. In contrast, mothers

showed a much more linear decline, beginning in the postpartum period and continuingacross the first 2 years. In this same period of 18 months, 12.5% of the couples separated or

divorced; by the time the child was 5 years of age, this figure was up to 20%.

A variety of reasons has been suggested for this decline in mens marital satisfaction,

including (1) physical strain of childcare, (2) increased financial responsibilities, (3)

emotional demands of new familial responsibilities, (4) the restrictions of parenthood, and (5)

the redefinition of roles and role arrangements (Belsky and Isabella, 1985; Cowan and

Cowan, 1992; Snarey, 1993). However, as Cowan and Cowan (1992) found, there is little

support for the hypothesis that, as the number of negative changes increase, marital

satisfaction declines. In their study, they found little relation between declining marital

satisfaction and any single negative change. Perhaps a cumulative negative events model

(Rutter, 1987) holds, in which an increase in the numberregardless of qualityof negative

shifts is associated with shifts in marital satisfaction. However, several lines of evidence

suggest that discrepancies in expectations on the part of mothers and fathers concerning the

relative roles that each will play may be an important determinant of postpartum marital

satisfaction.

Cowan and Cowan (1987, 1992) found that when there was a larger discrepancy between the

wives expectations of their husbands involvement in infantcare and his level of actual

participation, there was a greater decline in wives marital satisfaction between late

pregnancy and 18 months postpartum. Belsky, Ward, and Levine (1986) found a similar


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decrease in marital satisfaction when mothers expectations about father involvement were

not met. Men showed a similar effect of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior.

McDermid, Huston, and McHale (1990) found greater negative impact of the onset of

parenthood when there was a discrepancy between spouses gender-role attitudes and the

division of household and childcare labor, and McBride (1989) found that traditional fatherswho held conservative gender-role attitudes, but were nonetheless involved in childcare,

reported higher levels of dissatisfaction.

Impact on occupational success. There are two perspectives on this issue. First, a short-term

perspective suggests that as fathers increase their involvement they perceive higher levels of

workfamily conflict (Baruch and Barnett, 1986). This workfamily stress is more likely to

be reported by fathers in dual-earner rather than in single-earner families (Volling and

Belsky, 1991).

Many fathers wish they had more time for family and more flexible job arrangements (Parke

and Brott, 1999), and although there are clear trends toward more family-friendly policies,

the workplace barriers remain formidable (Levine and Pittinsky, 1998; Parke and Brott,1999). Psychologys central developmental theoriesfrom Freud and his proteges at the

twentieth centurys and fields beginnings through Bowlby, Ainsworth, and attachment

theory at centurys endhave always viewed mother as the familys central figure and other

family figures as auxiliary.

This bias continues, despite the flurry of research documenting important and meaningful

contributions for fathers in childrens lives (Parke, in Vol. 3 of this Handbook).

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Psihologia familiei eng.docx