Influence of Parental Behaviors

Investigative Paper
Issue: What influences parental behaviors, and how does that affect their children?
1. Associate It. The influence of parental behaviors on their children is a concern that I’m sure many of us have thought about. Where does the parents influence come from? Parents have not been parents all their lives, so their influences had to start somewhere. One idea that might come to mind is the time that they lived in as children, and that their parents lived in as “parents.” Also, current situations tie into “past” experiences and upbringings that influence parents’ behaviors, such as: current financial situations, employment or unemployment, social status, motives, morals, ethics, culture, society in general. All these situations can also relate to the economy. What situation is the economy in at the current time—war, hardship, troublesome times, or enthusiastic, growing, developing, and succeeding?

2. Describe It. In order to describe my issue, I am going to talk about each individual word and how I perceive it. Influences are invisible. Influences are not always visible to the eye. They are hard to detect; or maybe not so much as hard to detect but not always obvious. Influences are the Great Depression of the 1920’s, the hoppin’ 50’s and 60’s, the hippie age of the 70’s, the 80’s rock ‘n’ roll, the 90’s pop and modern era, and the 2000 NEW MILLENIUM. Parents are the newest color of crayon in the box, because they are new to everything they do. It is a new experience and new beginnings to withstand. Children are an aurora of colors. They, as well as the parents, are new to everything they do. They watch, study, and learn about 90% of what they do from their parents. All of these concepts interconnect between each other.

3. Compare It. Parents’ influential behaviors can be compared to power relations. Take for instance the structure of a family in the 20’s. The man was the head of the household. He made the income for the family, worked all day (either at a farm or in the work place), expected dinner to be ready when he got home, he was waited on hand and foot, and did no cooking, cleaning, or any house work for that matter. The mother was the housewife. She did the cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children, and making sure all the needs of the family were met, besides the income. The children were to follow in their parents footsteps, be them boy or girl they would follow either their mother or father. This was a strict structure. Parents always had the upper hand and there was no questioning their authority. Today, there is more leniency with family structure, but it still holds the basic concept that parents hold the authority. The structure of the family can also be compared to any power related structure. Take for instance the teacher-student relationship. There is an expected role of the student and it is the teacher’s job to guide that student and let him or her know exactly what to do, what not to do, what is right, what is wrong; and the teacher has the major authority. Also, police-citizen relationships. All police hold higher authority than do the citizens. They are relied on to enforce the law and to protect communities and society. That relationship would also lead to others, such as the army, the navy, the air force, coast guard, etc. Government-society relationship is can too be compared to power relations and the structure of the family. The government makes, conducts, and enforces laws and society is to abide by them. All of these relationships are in consideration of the “family model.” A family is a group that functions properly together with love, support, protection, and understanding. All of the above relationships share this in common.

4. Apply It. Learning and investigating the psychological aspect of children’s parental influences, we can better understand how infants develop into toddlers, toddlers develop into children, children develop into teenagers, and teenagers develop into adults. We can figure out how at each stage of development, the person adjusts and adapts to new situations and figure out what influences their behaviors to their children (if and when they get to that point in their lives.)

5. Divide It. The psychological development of children can be divided into different sections. These sections include: physically, emotionally, socially, psychologically, intellectually, religiously, morally, and ethically. The influences of parental behavior can also be divided into several different sections. These sections include: employment, unemployment, social status, financial status, motives, morals, ethics, culture, the “cycle” of generation to generation of previous parents’ influences and upbringings.

6. Agree and Disagree with It. I agree that the way a parent behaves teaches a child how to behave a certain way, because a child grows through learning and their current influences are what motivates them to learn. If that child grows up adapted to an aggressive environment he or she will learn to be aggressive. If a child grows up in a respectful environment, he or she will learn respect. I disagree with the fact that some parents don’t understand where they learn their behaviors from. They don’t understand or realize that how they act around their children affects their attitude, beliefs, and therefore contributes and shows in their actions. Every move that a parent makes is carefully observed and studied by their children whether it is obvious or not. The same goes for the parent, whether or not they think their actions and behaviors are obvious, they are picked up on everyday by their children. And this cycle goes on and on and on for further and further generations to come.

7. Consider it as it is Right Now. The nature of parental behavior depends on the upbringing of each parent, individually, in the past, as well as the current situations each is involved in, lives with, and deals with. Right now parents are going through a minor recession, some may be working, some may not be, some may be working part time, financial situations are not flourishing, emotions could be running high, things seem overwhelming. All of these are considerations that could influence parental behaviors right now, because these are situations the economy are facing.

8. Consider it Over a Period of Time. In the past, parental behaviors and influences were different than they were today. This is because of different socio-economical time periods, different generations, and different values. Such as the children from the generation of the Great Depression or World War I were taught respect, conservation, and hard work. They were also taught in a time of hardship and vulnerability. They grew up in a time of struggle which ultimately made stronger personalities because times gradually got better after they had gotten through the worst of the worst. Socio-economical challenges are different in each time period and are subject to change at any given time. In turn they are also handled differently by each individual, therefore promoting change in the influences of parents on their children based on current situations as well as past.

9. Decide whether it is a Part of Something Bigger. I think every single small or large thing can always be linked to something bigger. Take for instance the power relationships that I previously discussed in topic #3. Mother/Father-children relationships can also be linked to student-teacher relationships, and that relationship can be linked to police-citizen relationships, and that can be linked to society-economy relationships. I think this entire subject matter can be linked to the economy in several ways. What is currently going on with the economy now is similar to what was going on with the economy a year or two or three years ago in the sense that everything that happens to the economy influences behaviors. Therefore resulting in influences in parental behaviors, which ultimately affect children.

10. Analyze It. Parental Influences and behaviors can be broken down into several different parts. First, the past that parents have lived in before previously becoming parents themselves. They use the guidelines that their parents taught to them to reflect upon their children. Also, current situations tie into past relations. For instance, the situations like financial status, employment, or unemployment can influence behavior positively if they are employed and financially stable; or it can influence behavior negatively if they are unemployed and financially unstable. Social status affects parental behavior and influences in the case that if a family is socially “well-off” (living the high life, fancy cars, big houses, very wealthy, etc.) their influence is going to teach their children that, that is how their life will more than likely always be. If a family is socially “not-so-well-off” (living not so wealthy, family, life, and financial struggles, etc.) their influences are going to teach their children that life is a constant struggle. Society in general also helps with parents’ contribution. The media’s influence on parents contributes to media on children. Global and economical situations also contribute to behaviors—including the current situation of their specific economy as well as the current situations of other’s economy and time frame that they live in as well. Motives, morals, and ethics like what interests each of the parents have, what is their work ethic, how they achieve goals, what is valuable to them, what is not valuable to them, and how they perceive certain situations—be them internal, external, or self struggles—all contribute to the influences of the way parents behave, which in turn contributes to the children’s perception of how to view, understand, and learn the world.

11. Synthesize It. If we apply these situations to a real life view, I don’t think that there is a scenario that could fix the parental influences that reflect their behavior to their children. Because so many variables, like the economy, other people, values, goals, motives, and so forth, it is difficult to control any of the variables that contribute to parental behaviors that contribute to children’s attitudes. If we had the perfect economy, perfect families, perfect morals, values, goals, motives, and social status, maybe we could have the perfect scenario. But without differences and with only perfectness, we cannot achieve improvement. There would be no room for challenges, there would only be monotony and nothing to differentiate any part of the world. Because everyone views things differently and not always on the same page that is why we have an issue with the influence of parental behaviors on children. Everyone is not going to agree with what is right and what is wrong because each individual person is his or her own. With that being said, possibly there is a happy medium that people could meet, but is unknown how to reach that happy medium because of the complexity of the issue.

12. Evaluate It. Parental influences on their children cannot necessarily be at control. Parents can control themselves in particularly to certain situations with their children, but ultimately it is into higher hands. One act or behavior is related to one issue and another to another issue and so on and so forth. It all contributes to a domino effect. Parental influences are both good and bad to their children, depending on how each is looked at. It is also valuable to both a family structure, a school structure, a community structure, a society structure, as well as the economy’s structure.

13. Elaborate on It. I think that with the understanding of knowing what is going on around you and paying attention to how it affects not only you personally, but others around you are important to influences on children. Children are learners and pick up on everything you say, do, even think and feel. Don’t underestimate. If parent’s take subject to positive influences in children’s lives it could help in the domino effect reversely to the economy.

14. Project and Predict. What would happen if there was no structure in relationships at all? I think that there would be complete chaos. Without structure, there are no rules. Without rules, there are no laws. Without laws, there is no enforcement. Without enforcement there can be no economy. Everything as everyone knows it would unravel and the issue of the influences of parental behaviors on children would not be a matter anymore.

15. Ask Why and Keep asking why. Why does it seem that the domino effect is important to many issues? With one decision comes a consequence. With one consequence comes a decision. With one influence, comes a learning outcome. And with a learning outcome, comes and influence. Why is learning what influences parental behaviors important to children? Why is learning what is important to children’s development important? How can we fix situations? When do questions stop forming?