4.1 Chapter Reading Guide
Now it’s time to look more closely at the part of family life involving caregiving, including parenting, being parented, grandparenting, and other close relationships that include taking care of others. You will see some theoretical approaches that will help you understand family behaviors and trends. You’ll also look at the way public policy and other social structures influence these very intimate relationships. And you’ll learn about how to distinguish family form from family function.
The reading is designed to help you meet the following chapter objectives. You may also want to preview the key terms that follow. These terms will be bolded the first time they appear in the chapter. You can read the definitions here and also in the hyperlinks.
Chapter Learning Objectives
- Explain the importance of caregiving relationships using a family or parenting theory or perspective.
- Discuss the significance of attachment.
- Describe the demographic changes that affect parenting, grandparenting, and other caregiving relationships.
- Explain how public policies can affect family structures and parenting practices.
- Explain the significance of the U.S. role in the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Describe stigmas associated with parenting as well as with being childless or childfree.
- Explain the difference between family forms and family function.
- Analyze parenting and caregiving from an equity perspective.
Key Terms
- Attachment theory: the theory that the capacity to form emotional attachments to others is primarily developed during infancy and early childhood.
- Birth rate: the number of live births per 1,000 women in the total population.
- Caregiving: the act of providing support or watching over a person.
- Concerted cultivation: a parenting style that emphasizes adult-led enrichment programs for children.
- Dysfunction: behaviors that cause harm to self, others, or society.
- Ecological systems theory: a framework that looks at individuals within their environments.
- Family form: the structure of a family, including the members and their relationships to one another.
- Family function: the way a family’s members behave toward each other and within society.
- Fecundity rate: the reproductive rate for people who want to have biological children who are able to get pregnant and give birth.
- Fertility rate: the number of people in a specific age range who are able to give birth.
- Grandfamily: a family in which grandparents are the primary caregivers to their grandchildren; usually the parents are not present.
- Mortality rate: the rate of death for a particular group or in a particular area.
- Multigenerational families: more than two generations of a family living together.
- Natural growth: a parenting style that emphasizes child-led games and activities, often in multi-age groups from the same family or neighborhood.
- Nature and nurture: a discussion about the relationship between biological and environmental factors in a child’s development.
- Parenting styles: usually refers to Baumrind’s four styles of parenting, which include authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved.
Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Reading Guide
“Chapter Reading Guide” by Elizabeth B. Pearce. License: CC BY 4.0.