Sacrificing parents on the altar of children's rights: Intergenerational struggles and rights in deportability

State actors arguing for the rights of undocumented children often attempt to strengthen children's deservingness by portraying their parents as bad parents who put their children at risk. Through ethnographic observations in Malmö, Sweden and Birmingham, UK, this article shows how such demonization of the parents by the state is not reflected in the everyday life experiences of undocumented families themselves. While the state views the parents as putting their children at risk by ‘hiding’ them, the parents view the state as putting their children at risk by trying to deport them. The article discusses how parents act as ‘humanitarian agents’ responsible for caring for the children when state support to the deserving, rights-bearing child is limited by the notion of the deportable migrant child. These parental practices of unrecognized emotional labour are analysed as motherwork. The interdependent character of family life in deportability is highlighted through how children take on parental responsibilities as well and how stress and knowledge about their irregular situation is shared across generations. To conclude, the article argues that if one neglects the intergenerational context of undocumented children's rights, one risks marginalising the human rights of both children as well as adults.     

The interplay between parental beliefs about children's emotions and parental stress impacts children's attachment security

This study investigated how parental beliefs about children's emotions and parental stress relate to children's feelings of security in the parent–child relationship. Models predicting direct effects of parental beliefs and parental stress, and moderating effects of parental stress on the relationship between parental beliefs and children's feelings of security were tested. Participants were 85 African American, European American, and Lumbee American Indian 4th and 5th grade children and one of their parents. Children reported their feelings of security in the parent–child relationship; parents independently reported on their beliefs and their stress. Parental stress moderated relationships between three of the four parental beliefs about the value of children's emotions and children's attachment security. When parent stress was low, parental beliefs accepting and valuing children's emotions were not related to children's feelings of security; when parent stress was high, however, parental beliefs accepting and valuing children's emotions were related to children's feelings of security. These findings highlight the importance of examining parental beliefs and stress together for children's attachment security. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Young Children's Descriptions of God: Influences of parents' and teachers' God concepts and religious denomination of schools

This study extends prior research on antecedents of individual differences in God concepts in early childhood by examining relations of parents' and teachers' God concepts and religious denomination of schools with children's God concepts. Participants were 165 preschoolers (mean age 63 months), 107 of their parents and 16 teachers. These subjects were distributed over eight elementary schools belonging to four different religious denominations, i.e. Catholic, Dutch Reformed, Orthodox Reformed and State schools. The God concepts of children, parents and teachers were measured using interviews and questionnaires. Results showed that both parents' and teachers' God concepts were predictive of children's God concepts, but each in a different way. Parents seem to influence the relational component of children's God concepts particularly. Teachers especially contribute to biblical content of children's God concepts. Religious denomination of schools had independent effects on children's God concepts, controlling for parental denomination.     

Buddhism as a value source in the course of new identity and lifestyle formation in the Czech Republic

This study is focused on cultural phenomena of contemporary Europe: the creation of a new religious identity without cultural precedent in European cultural history. It will concentrate on non-Asian Buddhist converts, who have adopted religious world views different from those of their ethnic heritage and the mainstream culture they live in and who use Buddhism as the value-source for their children's upbringing. The parents who, to a certain degree, master Buddhist practice and are attached to this particular religious culture, accumulate a specific religious capital which develops when there are higher levels of religious participation, knowledge and experience, including social networks. The aim of my study is to illustrate how accumulated religious capital and value models affect parental choice regarding children's education. How are these values transmitted within the families of different Buddhist streams? What is the role of the local Buddhist community in family life?     

Concepts of God and Germs: Social Mechanisms and Cognitive Heuristics

Previous research has shown that the more individuals view observable entities as animate, the more those entities are associated with having psychological and physiological experiences. This study examined the relationship between children's animistic and anthropomorphic reasoning for concepts of unobservable scientific (i.e., germ) and religious (i.e., God) entities. This study further explored how children's conceptions vary according to the social learning opportunities (i.e., discourse, rituals) parents reportedly create. Parent–child dyads with young children from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds participated. Three central findings emerged. First, children readily associated God with psychobiological characteristics but did not do so to the same extent for germs. Second, children applied more psychobiological properties to both entity types when they believed that the entity was animate. Third, engaging in rituals and discourse with parents was indirectly related to children's concepts of God but not related to their concepts of germs. Overall, this study presented support for a connection between children's animistic and anthropomorphic reasoning for unobservable entities, and an indirect effect of cultural input on this reasoning. The implications of these findings will be discussed.     

The intergenerational transmission of ethnic essentialism: how parents talk counts the most

The present study analyzed the role of parents as potential sources of children's essentialist beliefs about ethnicity. We tested 76 parent–child (5‐year‐olds) dyads of Jewish Israeli parents from three social groups, defined by the kindergartens children attended: national religious, secular, or Jewish‐Arab integrated. We assessed parents' and children's beliefs, and parents' usage of ethnic attitudinal and categorization markers in a book‐reading activity. Overall, national religious parents manifested the strongest ethnic essentialism and endorsement of anti‐negotiations with Palestinians, and were the most likely to express negative attitudes and mark ethnic categories in their conversations with their children. Moreover, regression analyses revealed that ethnic categorization in parents' speech was the most reliable predictor of children's ethnic essentialism. Ethnic essentialism is transmitted to children not via explicit communication of intergroup beliefs or attitudes, but rather via the sheer marking of categories in ways that resonate with children's own intuitive ways of conceptualizing the social world.     

Parental behaviour and children's creation of imaginary companions: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study examined whether parenting quality, parental behaviours and children's temperament at 6 months of age predicted children's creations of imaginary companions (ICs) at 44 months of age. At six months, parenting quality and parental behaviours were measured using the Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment, and the frequency of mental-state references made during mother–infant interactions was recorded. Temperament was assessed using the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire. Parents then completed questionnaires assessing whether their children had ICs at 44 months of age. The results revealed that only the approach characteristic of temperament marginally predicted children's IC status. Results of the parental measures showed that parents of children with ICs were more likely to attribute mental states to their child and to refrain from intruding in their child's behaviours than parents of children without ICs. The results indicated that parental behaviours are important for children's creation of ICs.     

Correspondence in parents' and children's concepts of god: Investigating the role of parental values,religious practices and executive functioning

This study examined the extent to which children's concepts of God correspond with their parents' concepts of God. It also examined how parent-context factors and children's executive functioning relate to parent–child conceptual similarity. Parent–child dyads from varied religious and racial backgrounds participated. Dyads had the greatest conceptual similarity concerning God's mind-dependent functions. Though correspondence between parents and children was lowest concerning God's body-dependent functions, dyads were more similar about those functions when parents engaged in more frequent religious practices with their child and thought God was important. Children's concepts of God were unrelated to religious practices, and parent–child conceptual similarity was unrelated to children's age and executive functioning. Simply put, variation among parents' anthropomorphic concepts of God drove variation in parent–child conceptual similarity. Overall, these findings suggest that embodied concepts of God may be most sensitive to cultural input and that socialization practices provide greater insight into parents' anthropomorphic concepts.     

The effects of early relational antecedents and other factors on the parental sensitivity of mothers and fathers

This study examines the effect of early relational antecedents (ERA, i.e. the quality of parenting parents recalled receiving as children), parenting stress, marital stress, socio‐economic factors and children's characteristics (gender and disability condition) on the parental sensitivity of mothers and fathers. The sample consisted of 116 mothers and 84 fathers of 117 eighteen month old children drawn from a larger longitudinal study on the adaptation of parents to a child with a disability. Thirty‐four children were diagnosed with Down syndrome (DS), 51 with a cleft lip and/or palate (CLP), and 32 were non‐disabled children. Multiple regression analyses reveal that mothers' sensitivity is best predicted by her level of education and family income, whereas fathers' sensitivity is best predicted by their ERA, marital stress, family income and the child's disability condition. Mothers with more education and a greater family income displayed a greater sensitivity to their children, as did fathers who perceive less marital stress, those with a greater family income and those who perceived their parents as less controlling. Also, fathers of children with DS displayed less sensitivity for their children than fathers of children with CLP or fathers of non‐disabled children. These results concord with many studies about the importance of socio‐economic factors, ERA, marital stress, parent's gender and children's factors in the understanding of parental sensitivity. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parent–child talk and children's memory for stressful events

The relationship between parents' styles of talking about past events with their children and children's recall of stressful events was explored. In this investigation, 2‐ to 5‐year‐old children's recall of injuries requiring hospital emergency room treatment was assessed within a few days of the injury and again 2 years later, along with the way their parents reminisced with them about the event. Correlational analyses showed that age and parental reminiscing style were consistently related to child memory; regression analyses showed that although age was most important, parents who were more elaborative had children who recalled more during their initial interview about the harder‐to‐remember hospital event. Thus, an elaborative parental style may help children's recall of even highly salient and stressful events. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental Guidance and Children's Executive Function: Working Memory and Planning as Moderators During Joint Problem‐Solving

Cognitive aspects of children's executive function (EF) were examined as moderators of the effectiveness of parental guidance on children's learning. Thirty‐two 5‐year‐old children and their parents were observed during joint problem‐solving. Forms of guidance geared towards cognitive assistance were coded as directive or elaborative, and children's responses were recorded. Children were then assessed on an independent version of the same task. A parent‐rated composite of working memory and planning was used as a measure of EF. Directive guidance by parents was associated with more child errors during the joint activity, whereas elaborative guidance was associated with better performance. Parent‐rated EF moderated the relation, such that the relation between elaborative guidance and better performance was only significant for children with low EF. During the independent task, EF again moderated the relation between parent guidance and children's performance, such that children with low EF did worse when parents had provided more directive guidance; for children with high EF, directive guidance was associated with better independent performance. These findings suggest that the extent to which children's performance relates to different forms of parents' guidance varies, and elaborative assistance may be more helpful for children with low EF. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Une intervention brève auprès de parents adoptants centrée sur la sensibilité parentale : effets sur le sentiment de compétence parentale et l’attachement de l’enfant

Adopted children seem to imply specific challenge for themselves and their adoptive parents regarding the recovery of their attachment representations. Based on the hypothesis relating parental sensitivity of adopting parents and children's attachment representations, this study aims to create an intervention based on parental sensitivity for adoptive French-speaking families. Nine adoptive families took par to this study whose children are between 2 and 11 years old. In this exploratory research, the recovery of the children's attachment representations and the moderation of parental self-efficacy were assessed. Our results highlighted the relevance of this intervention.     

Father Christmas: Just a story?

The present paper aims to discuss parental and professionals' views toward the Father Christmas story--who also known as Santa Claus (in America and many other countries), Saint Nicholas (in the Netherlands), Saint Basil the Great (in Greece)--and to explore the potential of the story for young children's spiritual growth. Stories are often told because of their entertaining nature, however, their value goes beyond entertainment. Stories allow individuals to express an emotion in a satisfying way, to harmonise their lives with reality and to come to terms with the world. Stories are often told to offer some explanation for existing phenomena or customs. The discussion in this paper is based on the findings of a study undertaken among parents of young children (phase one) and Early Years professionals (phase two) to investigate their attitudes and practices toward the Father Christmas story. The research findings have shown that parents tend to agree that the Father Christmas story conveys values with some kind of universal acceptance such as generosity, kindness and caring. Additionally parents themselves use the story to transmit social and personal values and to facilitate their children's ability to make sense of the self and the world. These elements and children's experience of excitement and the sense of magic, wonder and awe which the Father Christmas story generates were seen by parents as being extremely important. Early Years professionals acknowledge similar issues, but not so strongly as parents. Early Years professionals tend to place the Father Christmas story below curricular demands and in consequence show ambivalence about the place of the Father Christmas story in educational settings. The values of generosity, kindness and caring were more likely to be associated with the religious celebration of Christmas by Early Years professionals than with the Father Christmas story. These findings will be discussed in relation to their implications for practice in Early Years education settings.     

Parental meta-emotion structure predicts family and child outcomes

Abstract

Fifty-six families with a preschool child whose parents varied widely in parental marital satisfaction were studied at two time points: at time-I when the children were 5 years old and again at time-2 when the children were 8 years old. At time-1 each parent was separately interviewed about their “meta-emotion structure”, that is, their feelings about their own emotions, and their attitudes, and responses to their children's anger and sadness. Their behaviour during this interview was coded with a meta-emotion coding system. Two meta-emotion variables were studied for each parent, awareness of the parent's own sadness, and parental “coaching” of the child's anger. We termed the high end of these variables an “emotion coaching” (EC) meta-emotion structure. Meta-emotion structure was found to relate to time-1 marital and parent-child interaction. EC-type parents had marriages that were less hostile and they were less negative and more positive during parent-child interaction. Their children showed less evidence of physiological stress, greater ability to focus attention, and had less negative play with their best friends. At time-2 those children showed higher academic achievement in mathematics and reading had fewer behaviour problems, and were physically healthier than non-EC parents. The relations between child outcome and parental meta-emotion structure were not explained by social class variables, emotional expressiveness, or the greater happiness and stability of parents with an EC-type meta-emotion structure.     

Family Context and Five-Year-Old Children’s Attitudes Toward Literacy When They are Learning to Read

This study explored associations in the family context, conceptualized as comprising parent–child practices and parental expectations, and five-year-old children's attitudes toward literacy. A total of 94 children from four primary schools and their parents participated in the study. Each child completed an individually administered Literacy Attitude Scale that assessed her enjoyment in reading-related activities. Parents completed a questionnaire about aspects of their family context. The results revealed a high level of positive attitudes toward literacy by beginning readers, with no gender difference. Frequency of parent–child everyday interactions and parental expectations had significant relationships with children's attitude toward literacy. This study highlights the importance of looking beyond parent–child literacy activities when examining children's attitudes toward literacy.     

The effects of a school-based parental assistance plan on children's social sensitivity

Evidence from a previous study together with other studies of parental control styles suggest that helping parents teach their children might affect the role-taking skills or social sensitivity of their children. This study reported the results of a 30-week program during which parents from a Social Priority Area came into schools and were offered assistance in educating their children. Comparison of pre- and posttest scores on social sensitivity measures showed significant gains by these children as compared to a matched control group. This result suggested that if children's social sensitivity is related to parental control style then giving parents practical advice on their children's educational needs increases the likelihood of personal, as against positional, control style. Further work to directly test this hypothesis is suggested.     

Number Use at Home by Children and Their Parents and Its Relationship to Early Mathematical Performance

The purpose of this research was to measure the frequency and variety of number activities occurring in the homes of pre-school and kindergarten children and to determine if there was a relationship between those activities and the children's mathematical performance. In two studies, parents were interviewed over the telephone and asked how often their child or they and their child had engaged in each of 33 number-related activities over the last week. Both studies found considerable variability in the frequency and type of number activities that children participated in at home. There was a positive correlation between the frequency of number activities that parents reported for their children and parental participation in the same activities. In addition, in study 2, parental reports of children's number activities at home were predictive of children's performance on a standardized test of early mathematical ability.