Families are not static; rather, they are dynamic and are continuously confronted by chal- lenges, changes, and opportunities (Parke & Buriel, 2006). Some families can develop coping styles to adapt to changes and r emain healthy and functional, but others may become victims of the consequences of change. Th ey may experience stress, dissolution, or an unanticipated lifestyle. Th ey are at risk for becoming unhealthy or dysfunctional.
Chronosystem infl uences aff ecting the health of families include political changes, such as changes in the law (for example, welfare to workfare); economic changes, such as certain jobs becoming obsolete (for example, telephone operators); and technological changes, such as computers completing tasks faster, enabling more work to be done and hence increasing performance standards.
Th e general chronosystem eff ect on families is stress. According to the American Psy- chological Association (APA, 2007a), nearly half of the Americans surveyed believe stress has increased in the last year. Change in itself is not good or bad; how we react to it de- termines its worth. Selye (1956) defi ned stress as “the nonspecifi c response of the body to any demand” (p. 54). Others have defi ned stress as any demand that exceeds a person’s ability to cope (Honig, 1986).
Physical stressors
■ include disease, overexertion, allergies, and abuse;
Sociocultural stressors
■ include crowding, traffi c, noise, bureaucracies, and crime;
Psychological stressors
■ include personal reactions to real or imagined threats and reac- tions to real or imagined pressure to achieve (Kuczen, 1987).
Th e APA (2007a) cited money and wor k issues as major str essors for 5 percent of Americans. Other major stressors were fulfi lling work and family responsibilities, housing costs, and the impact of stress on personal relationships.
How has societal change affected the socialization of children in families?
stress any demand that exceeds a person’s ability to cope
A bar mitzvah celebrates this 13-year-old boy’s studies of Jewish history, culture, and prayer.
Miro Vintoniv/Index Stock/PhotoLibrary
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Ecology of the Family 107
Stress is not new. In hunting-and-gathering societies, the fear of not fi nding food or shelter was a stressor. In agricultural societies, the unpredictability of the weather was a stressor. In industrial societies, working long hours was, and still is, a str essor.
In information societies, information overload and excessive choice are stressors. One must make decisions in areas in which one has little or no exper tise, and often facts and opinion are blurred. Children today face many of the same str essors of growing up that children a generation ago faced: separation anxiety, sibling rivalry, coping with school, peer pressure, being independent. However, children today also face stressors that were practically nonexistent a generation ago. Examples include the escalation of violence in families and communities, terr orism in the world (National Association of School Psychologists, 2001), and the bombardment of consumerism into homes, schools, extracurricular activities, and the media. Another stress is that family life has become fragmented. People are pressured by occupational and community demands for their time. Cellular phones, wir eless computers, and e-mail have all contributed to merging the boundaries between family and other commitments, thus jeopardizing time for family.
Sociopolitical Changes
Sociopolitical changes infl uencing family functioning include foreign policy regarding immigration and war, and domestic policy regarding security, privacy, and social services.
Immigration Policies
Newcomers to this country usually occupy the lower-income jobs, require English lan- guage training, and may need housing assistance, health car e, and other services until they adapt to American life. Children of immigrants have to accommodate to the culture of their parents as well as to that of their new country. Often they serve as “language and cultural brokers” for their non- or limited-English-speaking parents, assuming responsi- bility for translation and interpretation of transactions with U.S. society. How do parents maintain authority while depending on the child to transmit and r eceive information?
How does the child maintain respect and not cause the parents to lose face (Orellana, Dorner, & Pulido, 2003)?
Apparently, parents’ own limited cultural and language barriers to economic mobility infl uence the socialization of their children in that they stress educational success and specifi c occupational choice by using their own low status as a reference point. Evidence (Tseng, 2006) suggests that children of immigrants express higher educational, motiva- tional, and economic mobility aspirations than do peers fr om U.S.-born families, even after accounting for the generally lower economic status of immigrant families.
Foreign Policies
War in a foreign country obviously aff ects the functioning of military families when one parent is called to duty. Th ere have been documented increases in substance abuse, peo- ple seeking therapy, and individuals turning to spirituality for comfort (Kaslow, 2001).
Children who have experienced loss of a loved one may react with emotional detachment or a seeming lack of feeling by exhibiting regressive or immature behavior, by acting out or exploding, or by continually asking the same questions because they cannot under- stand what happened (National Association of School Psychologists, 2001). Terrorism in the homeland aff ects the functioning of society as a whole and consequent safety and security policies. For example, terrorism has aff ected travel rules, communication pro- cedures, and racial profi ling. Flexibility in travel has diminished, aff ecting family visits and vacations. Mail is subject to inspection for fear of biological warfare (anthrax, for ex- ample). Families who have cultural backgrounds similar to that of terrorists are subjected to more searching and interrogation in public places. Some children have been ostracized and treated cruelly.
What are the consequences for families of social and political changes?
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108 CHAPTER 3
Domestic Policies
Social services, such as government fi nancial assistance, have decreased. In 1996, the U.S.
Congress abolished the Aid to Families of Dependent Children program. Welfare reform has brought changes in family structure and functions (Sealander, 2003). Recognizing that most poor families are headed by single parents, lawmakers in 1996 emphasized the responsibility of both parents to support their children. In addition to strengthening the child support enforcement system, the law included provisions designed to decrease child- bearing outside of marriage and promote two-parent families (McLanahan & Carlson, 2002). What are the long-term consequences for parents, children, community support services, and society in general of these new welfare regulations, stronger paternity estab- lishment, and stricter child support enforcement?
Economic Changes
Economic changes infl uencing family functioning may involve job uncertainty because of company buyouts, downsizing, and layoff s; the cost of living, requiring both parents to be employed; and the erosion of employee benefi ts, such as health insurance (Gallay &
Flanagan, 2000).
Reduced levels of economic well-being have been found to increase parental stress, resulting in less aff ection toward children and less eff ective disciplinary interactions (Conger & Dogan, 2007). Children in such families were more likely to be reported by teachers as having behavior problems and negative social relations with peers (Mistry et al., 2002).
When both parents are employed, their family life may be at risk for fragmentation. Th e father works, the mother works, and the children go to child care or school, all requiring coordination. If working hours are staggered, the family may not eat together. Household tasks have to be done after work. If children have after-school activities, they have to be coordinated with the parents’ already busy schedules. Th en there are meetings—school, work, and community meetings. Hardly any time is left for family communication or shared leisure. Needless to say, this can cause stress. Children may feel rushed, tense, or out of control. And what happens when one parent is transferred to another city or state and the other parent’s job doesn’t allow for similar mobility? For single parents, the risk of fragmentation may be greater unless there is another supportive adult to assist with family functioning and buff er stress. Support and buff ering have been shown to enable parents to perform multiple roles that, if they enjoy them, can contribute to their emotional well- being (Barnett & Hyde, 2001).
Technological Changes
Technological developments in science, medicine, industry, agriculture, transportation, communication, media, electronics, and so on have contributed to improvement in peo- ple’s living standards—bettering health, widening opportunities for jobs and education, enhancing safety, cultivating effi ciency, expanding people’s access to information, and providing a wide choice of products.
Technological developments are associated with increased busyness, multitasking, distraction, confusion, and stress. For example, “Consumer technology is changing the way we live in time—collapsing, crunching, compressing it. Today technology is a self- perpetuating engine run by upgrades, add-ons, and refi lls” (Naisbitt, 2001, p. 31).
Digital technology is creating new styles of communication and interaction (Bucking- ham, 2006). Families are aff ected in that such technology provides endless opportunities for multidimensional use, for instantaneously accessing information, and for being per- petually connected (Montgomery, 2000), all the while creating a greater need for parents to supervise children’s activities. Media technology has also created new ways to market to children. Websites designed for children contain brightly colored graphics, sound eff ects,
What economic changes affect families and children?
What technological changes affect families and children?
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Ecology of the Family 109
music, and interactive games, beckoning children to buy the products that support them via pop-up and/or sound bite ads (Montgomery, 2001). Social networking, cell phones, and computer games all compete with family time, as well as impact children’s learning (Clay, 2009).