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Chapter 7

Hispanic.However,authoritativeparentingis

associatedwithacademicperformanceonly

inEuropeanAmericansand,toalesser

extent,Hispanic-Americans.Studiesalso

haveindicatedthatBaumrind’sstandard

conceptualizationofparentingstylesisnotas

meaningfulinsomecultures.Forexample,

themostsimilarstyletoEast-Asian-

Americanchildrearingistheauthoritarian

style,whichdoesnotcapturetheideaof

“training”whichismoreendorsedbyEast

Asians(Chao,1995;Ang&Goh,2006).

Parentsfromdifferentculturesdifferin

theirexpectationsofwhenchildrenshould

attaincertaincompetencies.Theyalsodiffer

inthesignificanceplacedoncompetencies.

Theveryheartoftheconceptofcultureis

theexpectationthatdifferentpeoplewill

holddifferentbeliefs,values,motives,and

behaviors.Allofthesefactorscreate

similaritiesanddifferencesinparentingas

well.Moreaboutculturaldifferencesis

presentedinchapter11.

Family Variations

Single-Parent Homes.With the high

divorce rate and the high numbers of

pregnancy outside of marriage,it is

important to look at the effects on

children raised in single-parent homes.

While many single parents do an

exceptional job of raising their children,

on a whole,children from single-parent

families do not fare as well as their

counterparts from intact families.

Research shows children from single-

parent homes are more likely than those

from two-parent homes to be suspended

from school,become delinquent,suffer

from abuse,take drugs,have repeated

chronic physical health conditions,and

mental health problems.(Weitoft,Hjern,

Haglund,& Rosén,2003;Amato,2005;

Bramlett & Blumberg,2007).Single-

parent families will be discussed further in

chapter 12.

Gay or lesbian parents.In both social

science and family therapy fields,the idea

of“gays,”“lesbians,”and“family”have,

until recently,been mutually exclusive

concepts.Estimates of the number of

children growing up in gay and lesbian

families vary widely—from 1 million to 6

million children.The question which begs

an answer is: what effect does growing up

in a gay or lesbian family have on the

children?While there is not unanimous

agreement,according to a growing body

of scientific research,children who grow

Parenting style is also greatly affected by

ethnic and cultural heritage.

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