PARENTING STYLES
Developmental psychologists have long been interested in how parents impact child development. However, finding actual cause-and-effect links between specific actions of parents and later behavior of children is very difficult. Some children raised in dramatically different environments can later grow up to have remarkably similar personalities. Conversely, children who share a home and are raised in the same environment can grow up to have astonishingly different personalities than one another.
Despite these challenges, researchers have uncovered convincing links between parenting styles and the effects these styles have on children. During the early 1960s, psychologist Diana Baumrind conducted a study on more than 100 preschool-age children (Baumrind, 1967). Using naturalistic observation, parental interviews and other research methods, she identified four important dimensions of parenting: * Disciplinary strategies * Warmth and nurturance * Communication styles * Expectations of maturity and control
Based on these dimensions, Baumrind suggested that the majority of parents display one of three different parenting styles. Further research by also suggested the addition of a fourth parenting style (Maccoby & Martin, 1983).
The Four Parenting Styles 1. Authoritarian Parenting
In this style of parenting, children are expected to follow the strict rules established by the parents. Failure to follow such rules usually results in punishment. Authoritarian parents fail to explain the reasoning behind these rules. If asked to explain, the parent might simply reply, "Because I said so." These parents have high demands, but are not responsive to their children. According to Baumrind, these parents "are obedience- and status-oriented, and expect their orders to be obeyed without explanation" (1991). 2. Authoritative Parenting
Like authoritarian parents, those with an authoritative parenting style establish rules and guidelines that their children are expected to follow. However, this parenting style is much more democratic. Authoritative parents are responsive to their children and willing to listen to questions. When children fail to meet the expectations, these parents are more nurturing and forgiving rather than punishing. Baumrind suggests that these parents "monitor and impart clear standards for their children’s conduct. They are assertive, but not intrusive and restrictive. Their disciplinary methods are supportive, rather than punitive. They want their children to be assertive as well as socially responsible, and self-regulated as well as cooperative" (1991). 3. Permissive Parenting
Permissive parents, sometimes referred to as indulgent parents, have very few demands to make of their children. These parents rarely discipline their children because they have relatively low expectations of maturity and self-control. According to Baumrind, permissive parents "are more responsive than they are demanding. They are nontraditional and lenient, do not require mature behavior, allow considerable self-regulation, and avoid confrontation" (1991). Permissive parents are generally nurturing and communicative with their children, often taking on the status of a friend more than that of a parent. 4. Uninvolved Parenting
An uninvolved parenting style is characterized by few demands, low responsiveness and little communication. While these parents fulfill the child's basic needs, they are generally detached from their child's life. In extreme cases, these parents may even reject or neglect the needs of their children.
The Impact of Parenting Styles
What effect do these parenting styles have on child development outcomes? In addition to Baumrind's initial study of 100 preschool children, researchers have conducted numerous other studies that have led to a number of conclusions about the impact of parenting styles on children.
Authoritarian parenting styles generally lead to children who are obedient and proficient, but they rank lower in happiness, social competence and self-esteem.
Authoritative parenting styles tend to result in children who are happy, capable and successful (Maccoby, 1992).
Permissive parenting often results in children who rank low in happiness and self-regulation. These children are more likely to experience problems with authority and tend to perform poorly in school.
Uninvolved parenting styles rank lowest across all life domains. These children tend to lack self-control, have low self-esteem and are less competent than their peers.
Why Do Parenting Styles Differ?
After learning about the impact of parenting styles on child development, you may wonder why all parents simply don't utilize an authoritative parenting style. After all, this parenting style is the most likely to produce happy, confident and capable children. What are some reasons why parenting styles might vary? Some potential causes of these differences include culture, personality, family size, parental background, socioeconomic status, educational level and religion.
Lifestyle Hazards to Avoid While Pregnant
Whether you're pregnant or are planning to conceive, now is the time to do a safety check on your social habits and home and work environment. Anything that could affect your well-being could affect your baby too, especially in the first trimester. However, don't become overly anxious. Instead, arm yourself with the facts so that you can avoid hazards, but also relax and enjoy your pregnancy.
The decision to have a baby may inspire you to review your social habits and, if necessary, make changes.
Alcohol consumption
Alcohol consumption You should stop drinking alcohol while trying to get pregnant and once you're pregnant according to the US Surgeon General. There is no known safe consumption level for pregnant women, so abstaining from drinking is the safest option. What isn't in doubt is the damage caused to the fetus by excessive alcohol intake. Continuous heavy drinking in pregnancy can lead to a condition known as fetal alcohol syndrome. The effects of this include retarded growth, facial and joint abnormalities, and heart problems.
If you drank in the weeks before you knew you were pregnant, try not to worry, but stop now. Many women also decide to give up alcohol while they're trying to conceive to optimize fertility.
Smoking
Ideally, you should stop smoking before you get pregnant. If you're still smoking once you conceive, try to stop right away. If your partner or friends smoke, ask them not to smoke in your home or anywhere near you. Inhaled cigarette smoke interferes with the supply of oxygen to the baby, which can lead to a low birthweight and increases the risk of stillbirth or the death of a baby in the first month of life.
Recreational drug use
In addition to damaging your own health, recreational drugs are not advised in pregnancy since some pose dangers for the fetus and others carry a range of possible hazards.
Heroin and cocaine are damaging both to a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. These drugs stunt fetal growth, affect the placenta, and can cause miscarriage or premature birth, as well as health problems in the newborn. Babies born to women who use heroin often show drug withdrawal symptoms. A report on ecstasy linked the use of this in pregnancy to a rise in birth defects, such as limb abnormalities. The specific effects on the fetus of amphetamines and LSD are unclear, but it's safest to avoid them.
The direct effects on the fetus of the active chemicals in marijuana are not clear, but smoking the drug involves the same risks as tobacco smoking.
Stress in Pregnancy
We know that extreme stress is bad for any living creature and that it can lead to disease and health degradation in our bodies. Pregnancy in itself is a stressful time on a woman's body. The normal physical and hormonal changes can be quite daunting for a first time mom. In this day and age we live in incredibly stressful times. We worry about things close to home like our finances, our relationships with those close to us as well as our safety and security as a nation.

Coupled with these, many women work for as long as possible during pregnancy to maximize their maternity leave after the baby is born. The reality is that excessive stress during pregnancy can have some severe consequences for the health of your unborn baby if you don't learn how to manage it.
It's already known that extreme stress during pregnancy can lead to increased risk of miscarriage in early pregnancy. In the later stages of pregnancy, extreme stress can lead to premature labour, premature birth and low birth-weight babies. The latest findings indicate that prenatal stress can also increase the risk of a baby being born with asthma or allergies.

Harvard Medical School in Boston recently presented their findings of a study done on a group of urban moms and their babies. They surveyed more than 387 mothers with a questionnaire about stress levels to assess the following areas of their lives:

* financial stress
* health and well-being
* relationships
* home environment
* community safety

The mothers' exposure to varying levels of dust mite allergens were measured in their homes. The effects on the foetus were measured by drawing cord blood from the babies at birth. Immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels were measured to determine how stress had influenced the development of a baby's immune system. Data was controlled to compensate for maternal age, race, smoking, education, history of allergy and asthma, the child's gender and the season of birth.

Babies born to mothers who are experiencing extreme stress levels had more immunoglobulin E (IgE) in their blood at birth than babies who are born to mothers with normal stress levels. Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is an immune system compound (antibody) that indicates an immune system response. This suggests that these babies would be more likely to have asthma or allergies because Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is an antibody involved in allergic and asthmatic reactions. Obviously this is not conclusive as there are many other factors that determine whether a child will be asthmatic or allergy prone but certainly elevated immunoglobulin E (IgE) is "suggestive" of an increased risk.

How Does Stress Affect Us?

It is thought that stress makes cells more permeable (weakens the body's cells) and so it becomes more susceptible to allergens and that even low levels of exposure to an allergen could trigger a reaction. Stress also suppresses the immune system thereby making us more susceptible to sickness as well as being less able to deal with allergens.

Suggested Ways To Minimize the Stress Response

So what's a pregnant mom to do? Here are a few common sense suggestions for the benefit of yourself and your unborn child:
* Stop Smoking
* Limit alcohol intake but preferably give it up completely
* Some form of light exercise is very beneficial to help the body deal with stress (yoga is particularly helpful)
* Eat a healthy diet with fresh vegetables and fruit to optimize your nutrient intake
* Avoid people who irritate you (easier said than done if you live with them)
* Get adequate rest (also easier said than done when a growing tummy is in the way)
* Deep breathing, visualization and meditation
Safe Lifting in Pregnancy
It may surprise you to know that the risk of heavy lifting in pregnancy is not injury to the baby but injury to the mother. Pregnancy hormones cause your ligaments to soften, which helps your pelvis widen to make room for childbirth. As a result of having softer ligaments, your joints may be less stable than usual and injury may be more likely.

Heavy lifting also can put stress on your back, leading to intermittent or ongoing back pain. Here are several ways to minimize the chances of hurting yourself while lifting something heavy.

Lift from your legs. Squat down and use your legs to bear much of the weight as you stand up.

Don't lean over. Bending over as you lift puts all the stress of the weight on your back.

Ask someone to help. Back pain in pregnancy is common enough without bringing it on yourself. This is no time to be proud; ask for help whenever possible--particularly if you already have been experiencing back pain.

Let your children climb up onto you. It may be impossible, especially if you have a toddler, to avoid lifting and carrying him periodically. No doubt there will be times when you need to immediately rescue him from an unsafe situation or when he just needs you to hold him. As much as possible, have your children climb up onto your lap for a snuggle instead of picking them up from the floor. Your back will thank you.

How much is too much?
Different physicians have different recommendations for how much you can safely lift. Again, these guidelines have to do with safeguarding you against back injury; the baby is protected in your uterus and won't get hurt if you lift heavy objects. If you are concerned about your back or have to do heavy lifting at your job, discuss weight limits with your practitioner.
Radiation and Pregnancy
Prenatal Radiation Exposure
The exposure of a fetus to radiation is referred to as prenatal radiation exposure. This can occur when the mother's abdomen is exposed to radiation from outside her body. Also, a pregnant woman who accidentally swallows or breathes in radioactive materials may absorb that substance into her bloodstream. From the mother's blood, radioactive materials may pass through the umbilical cord to the baby or concentrate in areas of the mother's body near the womb (such as the urinary bladder) and expose the fetus to radiation.
The possibility of severe health effects depends on the gestational age of the fetus at the time of exposure and the amount of radiation it is exposed to. Unborn babies are less sensitive during some stages of pregnancy than others. However, fetuses are particularly sensitive to radiation during their early development, between weeks 2 and 18 of pregnancy. The health consequences can be severe, even at radiation doses too low to make the mother sick. Such consequences can include stunted growth, deformities, abnormal brain function, or cancer that may develop sometime later in life. However, since the baby is shielded by the mother's abdomen, it is partially protected in the womb from radioactive sources outside the mother's body. Consequently, the radiation dose to the fetus is lower than the dose to the mother for most radiation exposure events.
Pregnant women should consult with their physicians if they have any concern about radiation exposure to their fetus.
Increased Cancer Risk
Radiation exposure before birth can increase a person's risk of getting cancer later in life.
Unborn babies are especially sensitive to the cancer-causing effects of radiation. However, the increased risks depend on the amount of radiation to which the baby was exposed and the amount of time that it was exposed. For example, if the radiation dose to the fetus was roughly equivalent to 500 chest x-rays at one time, the increase in lifetime cancer risk would be less than 2% (above the normal lifetime cancer risk of 40 to 50%).
Other Risks from Radiation Exposure
Health effects other than cancer from radiation exposure are not likely when the dose to the fetus is very low.
Most researchers agree that babies who receive a small dose of radiation (equal to 500 chest x-rays or less) at any time during pregnancy do not have an increased risk for birth defects. The only increased risk to these babies is a slightly higher chance of having cancer later in life (less than 2% higher than the normal expected cancer risk of 40 to 50%).
During the first 2 weeks of pregnancy, the radiation-related health effect of greatest concern is the death of the baby.
The fetus is made up of only a few cells during the first 2 weeks of pregnancy. Damage to one cell can cause the death of the embryo before the mother even knows that she is pregnant. Of the babies that survive, however, few will have birth defects related to the exposure, regardless of how much radiation they were exposed to.
Large radiation doses to the fetus during the more sensitive stages of development (between weeks 2 and 18 of pregnancy) can cause birth defects, especially to the brain.
When a fetus is exposed to large doses of radiation (above the dose received from 500 chest x-rays) during the more sensitive stages of development (especially between weeks 8 and 18 of pregnancy), the health consequences can be severe, especially to the brain. Fetuses in the 8- to 18-week stage of pregnancy exposed to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were found to have a high rate of brain damage that resulted in lower IQs and even severe mental retardation. They also suffered stunted growth (up to 4% shorter than average people) and an increased risk of other birth defects.
Between the 18th week of pregnancy and birth, radiation-induced health effects (besides cancer) are unlikely unless the fetus receives an extremely large dose of radiation.
In the 18- to 25-week stage of pregnancy, health consequences similar to those seen in the 8- to 17-week stage could occur, but only when the doses are extremely large (more than about 5,000 chest x-rays received at one time). At this dose level, the mother could be showing signs of acute radiation syndrome, which is sometimes known as radiation sickness.
After the 26th week of pregnancy, the radiation sensitivity of the fetus is similar to that of a newborn.
At the 26th week of pregnancy, the fetus is fully developed though not fully grown. Unborn babies exposed to radiation in the womb during this stage of pregnancy are no more sensitive to the effects of radiation than are newborns. This means that birth defects are not likely to occur, and only a slight increase in the risk of having cancer later in life is expected.
Importance of Mothering. Mothering refers to a mother's style of interaction with her child. A mother's early interaction style has been related to a variety of outcomes, including the development of the mother-infant relationship, children's prosocial behavior, and later behavioral problems. Specifically, mothers who were highly responsive and available to their children were more likely to have infants who developed more harmonious relationships with their mothers. Further, when mothers were more sensitive, their children were more empathic, more compliant with adults, and less likely to develop behavior problems (Sroufe & Fleeson, 1988).
Many researchers agree that infants' early interactions with their primary caregivers are foremost in determining the quality of the mother-infant relationship, or attachment bond. Sensitive mothering in the first year of life is thought to predict the quality of the mother-infant attachment. Mothers who are more sensitive and responsive in their interactions (i.e. mothers who notice infant signals and respond to them appropriately) will have infants who will eventually develop a more adaptive (secure) attachment relationship. On the other hand, mothers who are more insensitive, rejecting, underinvolved, or intrusive are more likely to have infants who develop an insecure bond. The mother-infant attachment relationship is thought to set the tone for all future relationships. Research has shown also that infants who develop a harmonious relationship with their mothers tend to be less dependent on their teachers, more competent with their peers, and more cooperative with adults as children (Sroufe & Fleeson, 1988).
Mothering also has been linked with children's prosocial and antisocial behavior. Specifically, the way mothers attempt to control their children has been associated with children's compliance, impulse control (i.e., not touching a forbidden object), and self-assertion. Mothers' use of suggestions and reasoning has been linked to higher compliance, whereas mothers' use of physical force, power-assertive behavior, or negative actions has been related to children's non-compliance and defiance (Crockenberg & Litman, 1990).
Although sensitive mothering is thought to predict the quality of the mother-infant relationship and children's later behavior, there are several important factors that contribute to the way mothers interact with their children. For example, maternal characteristics such as depression are related to less sensitive caregiving. Research indicates that depressed mothers showed less positive affect with their babies and were less responsive to their infants' cures (Downey & Coynew, 1990). Additionally, mothers' positive personality characteristics (e.g., extroversion, self-esteem) have been linked to more positive mothering (Fish, Stifter, & Belsky, 1993).
In addition, researchers have found a link between the way infants behave and mothering. Clearly, a mother's ability to respond to her infant is related to infant characteristics, as it is easier to respond sensitively to a baby who is easier to manage. There is evidence to suggest, for example, that mothers who rated their infants as more adaptable, approaching, and positive at 6 months provided more sensory and social stimulation to their infants at 6 and 12 months of age (Klein, 1984). On the other hand, maternal sensitivity is thought to impact infant behavior, specifically the infant's reactivity level. Sensitive mothers, for example, have infants whose crying is significantly reduced over time.
Further, sensitive mothering may be determined by family context, such as the marital relationship, the mother's social support network, or maternal employment. For example, mothers who were in more satisfied marriages and believed they had more supportive social networks were more responsive to their children (Fish, Stifter, & Belsky, 1993). Although there is considerable controversy regarding the impact of maternal employment on the mother-infant bond, there are few consistent findings regarding the link between maternal employment status and mothering style. Researchers have proposed that maternal attitudes (i.e., role satisfaction, separation anxiety) may contribute more to mothering than does employment status (Stifter, Coulehan, & Fish, 1993).
Recent research stresses the importance of considering the interactions among these variable to influence mothering. For instance, there is evidence that maternal employment interacts with mother characteristics to explain mothering. Consider an investigation by Stifter, Coulehan, and Fish (1993) that explored the interaction between maternal employment and separation anxiety in explaining maternal interaction style. The results of this work revealed no main effects for maternal employment status or separation anxiety. However, the researchers found that mothers who were highly anxious about separation from their children and employed outside of the home were more intrusive with their infants, and in turn, these children were more likely to be rated as having an insecure relationship with their mothers.
What’s a Father’s Role in Parenting?
Both the father and the mother, have their own distinct contributions to make in the development of a child. Father’s have a very important role in parenting. Make that important contribution in your’s child’s life, if you are not making it yet.
Although a mother plays a crucial role in her child’s life, the child’s requirements for his father is distinct and clear-cut. For a child, the father as well as the mother jointly make up the complete world of the child, put together with affection, safety and thoughtfulness.
For a father, it is vital to develop an attachment with the child even before its birth. Latest studies indicate that babies can distinguish and react to voices even in the womb. A father should attempt in making his affectionate voice as recognizable to the baby as his or her mother’s heartbeat.
Close attachment * It is vital for a father to develop a close attachment with his child by bathing him, feeding him and hugging him if the situation permits him to do so. * This non spoken, physical contact can strengthen a father-child association. * A father should listen to whatever a child wants to tell him. A father should allow his child to tell him everything about his activities. * The child should feel sufficiently comfortable with his or her father to communicate with him. * A father should make him understand that he is at all times eager to listen to him, even though a father devotes less time for him in comparison to his mother.
Father’s Relationship with his Child
It is imperative for a father to be tolerant towards his child. A father’s tolerance in addition to his thoughtful company will give a child a profound feeling of protection.
It is vital for a father to give adequate attention to the child’s study and connected activities. Fathers should make it a point to attend parent-teacher meetings and interact with his child’s teachers. A father’s presence not only makes a child satisfied but his father’s involvement will trigger his or her own interest in school.
A father should discipline his child when he thinks it is necessary. In any case, a father happens to be a person who should be given due respect. However, a father should not take recourse to needless resentment or hostility as this may instill a sense of fear in the child and he is less likely to be respectful to the father.
To preserve a feeling of stability and security in a child’s life, the father should never contradict what the mother says in the child’s presence. Any dispute can always be settled in private.
As a father, one should try to be an individual whom the child admires. A father should always be friendly in his attitude towards his child. An ideal father should not be disapproving but someone, whose decision he can have faith in, someone who is not commanding but whose ability a child can depend on.
Nothing can substitute the influence of a father over his child. Studies indicate that children profit from a beneficial rapport with a father. Numerous individuals may believe that fathers are simply replacement for mothers, but actually, what they give towards the development of their children is exceptional. Studies have revealed that, generally, fathers have an inimitable way of playing with their children, looking after as well as communicating with their children.