Psychological Impact on The Lives of Children

Requirement

Prepare a research proposal on "The psychological well-being of the children being impacted by the family structure and family processes".

Solution

Introduction

The proposed study is designed for assessing the influence of the family structure on the youth and to determine its psychological impact on the lives of children including the family processes that are believed to have the greatest impact on the psychological well-being of the children (Acock and Demo 1994, Brown, Susan L. 2004). The relationship between the family structure and family processes have been studied with the psychological impact on the children’s lives. The research study has hypothesised the family structure to influence the psychological well-being of the child, by affecting the family processes like parental conflict, parent-child relationship, characteristics of individuals like the psychological well-being of the father and mother and background variables like income. These studies used the reports by mothers on the psychological well-being of their child on the basis of one measure for well-being. Conger and Chao (1996) utilised a combination of reports of children and their mother for scaling the psychological well-being of the child. Therefore suggesting that the family processes and variables listed above are predicted to assess the impact of composition and structure of family on the psychological well-being of children. This research study will investigate the impact of family structure on the psychological well-being of child and the level of parental conflict on the basis of findings on reports of mothers and assess the quality of the relationship of the child with both parents in order to evaluate their psychological well-being.

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Background Information 

It has been estimated that the depressed mood might impact the performance abilities and social relations (Compas and Hammen 1994). Sound psychological well-being ensures high chances of future well-being of the adult as various depressive situations in the child’s life are like to be recurrent and highly chronic in the future course of life. (Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. 2001). Similarly, it has been examined by Gotlib et al. (2010) that the depressive moods are the indicator of the high probability of developing severe depressive disorders in adult phase. These factors will be considered throughout the study. 
Various researches have been conducted depicting that the children coming from intact families have the greatest level of psychological well-being (Amato, P. R. 2005; Conger and Chao 1996; Acock and Demo 1994; Burroughs, J. E., & Rindfleisch, A. 2002). The same researchers claimed that the children belonging from never-married families seem to possess high emotional well-being as compared to those from the step or divorced families. According to Amato, P. R. 2000, the children from divorced families are seen to possess the lowest level of emotional well-being. The differences in the psychological well-being of the children across the family structure are not clear. This has depicted the reduction in the impact of family composition and structure on the psychological well-being of the child (Hetherington 1989; Furstenberg 1991).

Family Structure

In intact families, the children have both their biological parents leading to higher parental involvement and fewer disagreements between parents and children. (Burroughs, J. E., & Rindfleisch, A. 2002; Amato, P. R. 2005). However, these families also experience parental conflict and emotional presence is not guaranteed due to the constant physical presence (Mackay, Ross 2005). In other words, more time together does not necessarily mean high-quality time together (Acock and Demo, 1994). 
In the case of divorced families, the parents go through intense conflict before the divorce (Emery, 1982; Mechanic and Hansell, 1989). A study by Oppawsky, J. (2000) depicted that the divorcing spouses engage in verbal fighting and even reported physical abuse. The study depicted that over 50% of the children reported the case of verbal fighting in their home during the divorce. The divorced parents are less likely to be affectionate as they are absorbed in their own problems and communicate poorly with their children (Kelly, J. B 2007). Riggio, H. R. (2004) and Acock and Demo (1994) depicted the lower level of child-parent interaction in the divorced families and suggested that these families are likely to engage in inept parenting where there are less monitoring, inconsistent and harsh punishment and more hostility towards the children. However, some researchers have suggested that the well-being of the child is not affected in case of diminished parental involvement. (Furstenberg & Nord, 1985; Clingempeel, & Segal, 1986).
In the case of never-married family structure, similar difficulties like the inconsistent discipline of children, lower levels of parental involvement, lower levels of psychological well-being are encountered but in a greater extent (McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. 2009, Nelson, S. K., Kushlev, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. 2014).
Finally, in the case of stepparents, their attitude and expectations decide the child-parent relationships. Some children are seen to welcome step parent whereas others are not. (Schrodt, P., et. al. 2006).  Acock and Demo (1994) in their research depicted that the psychological well-being of stepparents is comparatively higher when compared with the single mothers and divorced parents. In some cases, the stepfathers are likely to fill the parenting role. 

Family Processes

The family processes that are seen to impact the psychological well-being of the child are the parent-child relationship and parent’s relationship with each other (Ginsburg, K. R. 2007). The psychological well-being of the children is seen to be developed from the parental interaction. Role playing and interaction is the foundation of the psychological well-being of the children. (Ginsburg, K. R. 2007). Additionally, the fathers are seen to have a lower level of involvement as compared to the mother in all the family structure (McBride, B. A., Schoppe, S. J., & Rane, T. R. 2002; Carlson, M. J. 2006.). The low paternal involvement leads to making mother-child bond to be highly influential impacting the psychological well-being of the child.
Parental conflict is one of the critical factor impacting the psychological wellbeing of children (Amato, P. R., & Sobolewski, J. M. 2001, Brown, S. L. 2004). According to L. D., Scaramella, L. V., & Fagot, B. I. (2001) and Amato, P. R. (2000), martial happiness leads to higher level of psychological well-being for children. Conflicts are seen to impact children badly due to the reason that the children feel an intense urge of seeing their parents getting along (Buehler, C., & Gerard, J. M. 2002, Brown, S. L. 2004). Therefore, the parental conflicts are seen to put physical as well as emotional stress on children. All these factors and findings are highly associated with the child development as the psychological well-being of the children are highly impacted due to the family structure and various family processes.

Methods

The research paper is academic and applied in nature and reviews various literature reviews and case studies for analyzing and supporting the argument made in the paper along with the questionnaires conducted. The paper will stress the situational constraints that were present while shaping the inquiry along with emphasising on the numerical analysis of the collected data using questionnaires. 
The data used in the paper will be longitudinal, and the change in marital status during the course of the research paper will be collected every month enabling the information on the family structure to be accurate. The data is large as the total of four family structures (intact, divorced, single or never married and step) are included in the analysis with 20 cases on the respective family structure.
The central concept is to inculcate the child’s view along with taking reports from the mother regarding the family structure and family process for analysing the psychological well-being of the child. The parental conflict can be evaluated from the mothers’ reports and the relationship between the parents will be evaluated from the children’ reports. 
The research paper performs inductive and deductive analysis at different points of analysing the data. The inductive analysis is performed in the initial stage for discovering important patterns and themes by exploring various findings, literature reviews and care studies. Later on, the deductive analysis is performed for analysing the data collected.  
The paper uses idiographic approach and focuses on the individual. The quantitative data from individual family members is collected and then investigated using unstructured interviews and questionnaires

Sample

The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) will select a total of 80 families and conduct face-to-face interviews with the selected representative sample of over 220 men and women and their children. The interview will be conducted first, and then the children will be interviewed. Another interview will be scheduled after six months for assessing the current situation on the family structure and family process. Following the face-to-face interview, the respondents will be asked to fill out the questionnaires. All the children and their siblings will be interviewed and questions, however, more focus will be given to the older children. The fathers will not be interviewed, but the reports of mothers and children will conduct an analysis of the attitude and behaviour of the father.

Data collection technique

A plethora of questions will be asked by the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) for studying the research paper. The dependent variable is the psychological well-being of the children. A self-administered questionnaire will be given to the children over the age of nine, and the questionnaire will include a nine-item scale for evaluating the psychological well-being. The children will be presented with the questions that will reflect their emotions. The children will be asked how often they felt: sad, happy, tense, lonely bored, busy, tired, pressured and excited. The choices for responses will often be, never and sometimes.  
While interviewing the mother, various socioeconomic variables will be collected for analysing the situation with better vision. The total years of education, total household income, the level of psychological well-being and marital status will be asked. The residence of biological father, possibility of life in partner, marital status will be asked for categorising the families into the four family structure. The four family structures used in the study are intact families, divorced families, never-married families and stepfamilies.
Two separate scales will be used for measuring the maternal psychological well-being. The Pearlin Mastery Scale will be used for measuring the extent of control felt by the mother over their personal life. A response range of strongly agree and strongly disagree will be asked from the mothers. A total of six statements will be included in the questionnaire.
The second scale for evaluating the psychological well-being of the mothers will have twenty items for measuring the behaviour and feelings of the mothers. Some of the items included will be being restless, shaking the blues, feeling lonely and fearful, etc.
The analysis of the two selected family process namely, the quality of the parent-child relationship and the relationship between the partners, will be performed. For the first family process, the measures will be collected only from the cohabiting or the married women. Therefore, this information will be measured from women from intact marriage, remarriage and single mothers. The second family process will be assessed from the children’s reports asking questions on how close they are to their parents. The response choices will be ranging from extremely close to not at all. Further while interviewing the children, the question regarding the father being referred (biological, stepfather or somebody else) will be asked. On the basis of this response, the children will be asked to produce an essay on how they feel about their father-figure and how he is related to them.
Similarly, the children will be asked the same questions regarding their mothers and the mothers will be asked to report various stages and aspects of the life of the children. They will be asked regarding the quality of the child-mother relationship. The response choices provided will be ranging from excellent to not to close.

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Ethical consideration

For completing the research, suitable research guidelines ethics will be followed. While considering the ethical aspect of the research, considerable time will be provided to the respondents for depicting true views during the face-to-face interview and other questions. Primary and secondary data will be utilised for the study. The respondents will be asked for their consent, and appropriate permission will be taken for using the information and data provided by them. The identity of the respondents who are not willing to disclose their identity will not be exhibited. Further, the usage of secondary data will be acknowledged and cited appropriately. Therefore the ethical approach of the paper will be followed strictly.

Conclusion

The proposed paper will help in making the considerable contribution to the theoretical understanding of the family factors like family structure ad family processes as they impact the psychological well-being of the children and will help in providing needed information to the sociologists interested in this field.  The children are impacted greatly by the way their family behaves with them. The children are impacted greatly by the structure of their family and their relationship with their mother and father along with the relationship between mother and father equally, impacts the psychological well-being of the children. These students are seen to be academically weaker and are seen to develop depressive disorders in the later phase of life. Such children are more likely to be prone to recurrent and highly chronic depressive situation in the future course of life. The educational qualification, total household income, level of psychological well-being and marital status of the parents are equally important in maintaining the development of the children.
The proposed research paper will help in affording an understanding of how the various family structure will affect child's psychological well-being. Most importantly, it will be helpful in providing guidelines for identifying the children with low- psychological well-being and are at risk of developing depression which leads to emotional distress, low achievement and academic aspects.

References

  • Acock, Alan C and David H Demo. 1994. Family Diversity And Well-Being. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

  • Brown, Susan L. 2004. "Family Structure And Child Well-Being: The Significance Of Parental Cohabitation". Journal of Marriage and Family 66(2):351-367.

  • Fomby, P. and A. J. Cherlin. 2007. "Family Instability And Child Well-Being". American Sociological Review 72(2):181-204.

  • Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. 2001. “Optimism, pessimism, and psychological well-being”. Optimism and pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice, 1, 189-216.

  • Gotlib, I.H. and Joormann, J. 2010. “Cognition and depression: current status and future directions.” Annual review of clinical psychology, 6, p.285.

  • Amato, P. R. 2005. “The impact of family formation change on the cognitive, social, and emotional well-being of the next generation”. The future of children, 75-96.

  • Burroughs, J. E., & Rindfleisch, A. 2002. “Materialism and well-being: A conflicting values perspective”. Journal of Consumer research, 29(3), 348-370.

  • Amato, P. R. 2000. “The consequences of divorce for adults and children”. Journal of marriage and family, 62(4), 1269-1287.

  • Mackay, Ross. 2005. "The Impact Of Family Structure And Family Change On Child Outcomes: A Personal Reading Of The Research Literature". The Impact of Family Structure and Family change on Child Outcomes: A Personal Reading of the Research Literature. Retrieved November 29, 2016 (https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj24/24-impact-of-family-structure-and-family-change-on-child-outcome-p111-133.html).

  • Oppawsky, J. 2000. “Parental bickering, screaming, and fighting: Etiology of the most negative effects of divorce on children from the view of the children.” Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 32(3-4), 141-147.

  • Kelly, J. B. 2007. “Children's living arrangements following separation and divorce: Insights from empirical and clinical research.” Family process, 46(1), 35-52.

  • Riggio, H. R. 2004. “Parental marital conflict and divorce, parent?child relationships, social support, and relationship anxiety in young adulthood.” Personal Relationships, 11(1), 99-114.

  • McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. 2009. “Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps.” Harvard University Press.

  • Nelson, S. K., Kushlev, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. 2014. “The pains and pleasures of parenting: When, why, and how is parenthood associated with more or less well-being?” Psychological Bulletin, 140(3), 846.

  • Schrodt, P., Baxter, L. A., McBride, M. C., Braithwaite, D. O., & Fine, M. A. 2006. “The divorce decree, communication, and the structuration of coparenting relationships in stepfamilies”. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 23(5), 741-759.

  • Ginsburg, K. R. 2007. “The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds.” Pediatrics, 119(1), 182-191.

  • McBride, B. A., Schoppe, S. J., & Rane, T. R. 2002. “Child characteristics, parenting stress, and parental involvement: Fathers versus mothers.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(4), 998-1011.

  • Carlson, M. J. 2006. “Family structure, father involvement, and adolescent behavioral outcomes.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 68(1), 137-154.

  • Amato, P. R., & Sobolewski, J. M. 2001. “The effects of divorce and marital discord on adult children's psychological well-being.” American Sociological Review, 900-921.

  • Brown, S. L. 2004. “Family structure and child well?being: the significance of parental cohabitation.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 66(2), 351-367.

  • Buehler, C., & Gerard, J. M. 2002. “Marital conflict, ineffective parenting, and children's and adolescents' maladjustment.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(1), 78-92.

  • Leve, L. D., Scaramella, L. V., & Fagot, B. I. 2001. “Infant temperament, pleasure in parenting, and marital happiness in adoptive families.” Infant Mental Health Journal, 22(5), 545-558.

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