Browsing by Subject "parenting"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    By Default: How Mothers in Different-Sex Dual-Earner Couples Account for Inequalities in Pandemic Parenting
    (Sage, 2021) McCrory Calarco, Jessica; Meanwell, Emily; Anderson, Elizabeth M.; Knopf, Amelia S.; School of Nursing
    Mothers did a disproportionate share of the child care during the COVID-19 pandemic—an arrangement that negatively impacted their careers, relationships, and well-being. How did mothers account for these unequal roles? Through interviews and surveys with 55 mothers (and 14 fathers) in different-sex, prepandemic dual-earner couples, we found that mothers (and fathers) justified unequal parenting arrangements based on gendered structural and cultural conditions that made mothers’ disproportionate labor seem “practical” and “natural.” These justifications allowed couples to rely on mothers by default rather than through active negotiation. As a result, many mothers did not feel entitled to seek support with child care from fathers or nonparental caregivers and experienced guilt if they did so. These findings help explain why many mothers have not reentered the workforce, why fathers’ involvement at home waned as the pandemic progressed, and why the pandemic led to growing preferences for inegalitarian divisions of domestic and paid labor.
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    Learning Empathy: A Currere Reflection on Parenting, Medicine, and Education
    (2020-12) Liu, Laura B.; School of Education
    Empathy is a vital developmental skill and strategic pedagogical tool that entails having a generous regard toward fellow humans, whom we are willing to view with appreciation for their strengths and understanding for their weaknesses – and become part of one another’s relational support network (Brown, 2006). This was my mom’s gift as a person and as a professional: to see others for their strengths and welcome those strengths and that person into her life -- as a mom, doctor, and community member. I am grateful for these lessons in empathy, and aim to practice their applications across contexts and fields -- as a mom, educator, and researcher.
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    Parenting and Beyond: Common Neurocircuits Underlying Parental and Altruistic Caregiving
    (2012-04-01) Swain, James E.; Konrath, Sara H.; Brown, Stephanie L.; Finegood, Eric D.; Akce, Leyla B.; Dayton, Carolyn J.; Ho, S. Shaun
    Interpersonal relationships constitute the foundation on which human society is based. The infant–caregiver bond is the earliest and most influential of these relationships. Driven by evolutionary pressure for survival, parents feel compelled to provide care to their biological offspring. However, compassion for non-kin is also ubiquitous in human societies, motivating individuals to suppress their own self-interests to promote the well-being of non-kin members of the society. We argue that the process of early kinship-selective parental care provides the foundation for non-exclusive altruism via the activation of a general Caregiving System that regulates compassion in any of its forms. We propose a tripartite structure of this system that includes (1) the perception of need in another, (2) a caring motivational or feeling state, and (3) the delivery of a helping response to the individual in need. Findings from human and animal research point to specific neurobiological mechanisms including activation of the insula and the secretion of oxytocin that support the adaptive functioning of this Caregiving System.
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    The role of parental genotype in the intergenerational transmission of externalizing behavior: Evidence for genetic nurturance
    (Cambridge University Press, 2022-10-06) Kuo, Sally I-Chun; Poore, Holly E.; Barr, Peter B.; Chirico, Isabella S.; Aliev, Fazil; Bucholz, Kathleen K.; Chan, Grace; Kamarajan, Chella; Kramer, John R.; McCutcheon, Vivia V.; Plawecki, Martin H.; Dick, Danielle M.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    The purpose of this study was to examine possible pathways by which genetic risk associated with externalizing is transmitted in families. We used molecular data to disentangle the genetic and environmental pathways contributing to adolescent externalizing behavior in a sample of 1,111 adolescents (50% female; 719 European and 392 African ancestry) and their parents from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism. We found evidence for genetic nurture such that parental externalizing polygenic scores were associated with adolescent externalizing behavior, over and above the effect of adolescents’ own externalizing polygenic scores. Mediation analysis indicated that parental externalizing psychopathology partly explained the effect of parental genotype on children’s externalizing behavior. We also found evidence for evocative gene-environment correlation, whereby adolescent externalizing polygenic scores were associated with lower parent–child communication, less parent–child closeness, and lower parental knowledge, controlling for parental genotype. These effects were observed among participants of European ancestry but not African ancestry, likely due to the limited predictive power of polygenic scores across ancestral background. These results demonstrate that in addition to genetic transmission, genes influence offspring behavior through the influence of parental genotypes on their children’s environmental experiences, and the role of children’s genotypes in shaping parent–child relationships.
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    Who Cares for the Kids? Parenting and Caregiving in Disney Films
    (Sage, 2015-12) Holcomb, Jeanne; Latham, Kenzie; Fernandez-Baca, Daniel; Department of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    Disney is recognized as producing powerful cultural products that make major contributions to many forms of children’s media. While it has been suggested that mothers are marginalized in Disney films, there has been no extensive research exploring alternate caregivers, including other-parents. Given the minimal roles of mothers in Disney films and the cultural relevance of biological mothers as primary caregivers, we ask “who cares for the kids?” in these carefully crafted family films with adolescent protagonists. Utilizing a feminist approach, this study explores narrative subtexts surrounding parenting and caregiving by systematically examining feature-length, animated Disney films. A sample of 15 films was analyzed; the films were purposefully sampled using specific family-related criteria. Results reiterate that mothers are marginalized either through their absence or their relatively minor roles. However, fathers and other-parents are significant caregivers in the majority of the films. The use of created kinship was particularly striking.