Introduction
Childhood is a time of rapid development and change. The family adjusts to these changes daily as the child develops physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally. Families pass through several separate developmental stages as children are growing up. Perhaps the best known is the eight-stage model outlined in 1948 in the Report of the Committee on the Dynamics of Family Interaction written by Evelyn Millis Duvall, secretary of the National Conference on Family Relations, and Reuben Hill, a sociologist at Iowa State College. This theory of family development focuses on group processes that resemble the aging and maturation of individuals. Briefly, those eight stages are the following:
•married couples (no children)
•childbearing families (oldest child aged birth to thirty months)
•families with preschool children (oldest child aged two and a half to six years)
•families with schoolchildren (oldest child aged six to thirteen years)
•families with teenagers (oldest child aged thirteen to twenty years)
•families launching young adults (beginning when the oldest child leaves home and ending when the youngest child leaves home)
•middle-aged parents (beginning with the “empty nest” and ending at the start of retirement)
•aging family members (beginning with the spouses’ retirements and ending at their deaths)
This eight-stage model was published in many textbooks for decades. It provided the base for many more stage models, some of which were created to correct what scholars called flaws in the original model. Although the number of stages varies widely, from two to twenty-four, these theories nevertheless present structures that must be dealt with. Early stage theories had structures that effectively issued rules about what constituted a family task in a particular stage and how it could be deemed accomplished. Complaints about such structures promoted new stage theories that had more flexible definitions and offered transition periods between stages. The most modern of the stage theories also provide for families going through stages out of order or repeating stages due to remarriage. Modern versions also combine family development stage theory with concepts from systems theory
to better reflect how change is processed in families. In surveying the diverse family forms in American society, it is hard to defend the use of traditional stage theories. After all, if a stage theory outlines normative stages, then a family that does not follow it might be labeled nonnormative or abnormal. Family development stage theories do give a common-sense lexicon for describing families. For example, protection, safety, and health are the typical concerns of the people living in the family with infants and toddlers. Using these terms quickly identifies what is on the family’s mind.
Contemporary Stages of Parenthood
In the early 1980s, Ellen Galinsky, the president and cofounder of Families and Work Institute, a Manhattan-based nonprofit organization that conducts research on the changing family, took a creative approach to stage theory. She looked at family life from the parent’s perspective and developed a six-stage model that described parent development. The image-making stage occurs during pregnancy, when parents form and reform images of the upcoming birth and the changes they anticipate. This is a period of preparation. In the nurturing stage, parents compare image and actual experience during the time from the baby’s birth to the toddler’s first use of the word “no” (about age eighteen to twenty-four months). This is a period of attachment and also of questioning. Parents may question their priorities and also how they spend their time. The authority stage occurs when the child is between two years and four to five years, when parents decide what kind of authority to be. This is a period of developing and setting rules, as well as enforcing them. The interpretive stage stretches from the child’s preschool years to the approach to adolescence; this stage has the task of interpretation. In this period, parents interpret their own self-concepts as well as their children’s. Parents also are concerned with interpreting the world to their children. The interdependent stage occurs during the child’s teen years, when families revisit some of the issues of the authority stage but find new solutions to them as parents form a new relationship with their almost-adult child. The final stage, the departure stage, is when children leave home and parents evaluate not just their offspring’s leave-taking but also the whole of their parenting experience. During each of these stages of parenthood, the child is developing emotionally, cognitively, socially, and physically.
Child Development Within Family Stages
Child development during the image-making stage of parenthood involves the development of the fetus in utero. This translates into the importance of good prenatal care for the mother.
During the nurturing stage of parenthood, from the child’s birth to eighteen to twenty-four months, families go through numerous transitions. Much of the infant’s day involves activities such as feeding, diapering, and holding. This is the time for parents or caregivers to provide opportunities for the infant to interact naturally with the environment. Parents need to respond to the infant’s interests and abilities and to create a healthy and challenging environment that will promote physical, mental, social, and emotional growth.
New research on infant brain development confirms the importance of loving and protecting children. An infant’s experiences during the first three years of life shape both learning and behavior. Everyday moments, such as feeding a child while lovingly gazing into his or her eyes, provide nourishment for the child’s brain as well as for the body. During the nurturing stage of family life, the interaction between parent and child stimulates brain growth and development.
In traditional family development theory, the preschool level is stage 3 or the authority stage of parenthood. Determined by the age of the oldest child, preschool refers to children two and a half to six years of age. A preschooler’s main developmental task is self-mastery. It is with high awareness that the preschooler experiments with expanding language and abilities. During this stage, parents’ growing awareness of power issues and their control of children result in the family working through developing and setting rules. Important parental tasks for this age include providing attention and security for the child, encouraging his or her development in all areas, meeting the preschooler’s needs, maintaining active involvement in all areas of the preschooler’s life, setting definite behavior boundaries for the child, and providing him or her with consistent responses and discipline. As a time of great change, the preschooler stage presents many new challenges for the family.
Parental attachment continues to build during these years, although secure children will explore on their own and utilize their parents as a safety net. Children will move away from their parents to explore for extended periods of time but will still watch the parent for encouragement and security. Passive experiences such as watching videos and television are not as stimulating for preschoolers as interactions with parents, caretakers, and positive age-appropriate peers. Interactive experiences that stimulate (without overwhelming) the brain will build neural connections. The growing preschooler needs exposure to new and novel experiences that are not frightening or overwhelming. Noises such as loud music, bass drum beats, or gunfire are negative experiences for the developing brain. Fear and lack of security create changes in brain chemistry that can affect the child’s temperament, behavior, and ability to learn social skills and to interpret social cues.
The interpretive stage stretches from children’s preschool years to their approach to adolescence. In this period, parents interpret their own self-concepts as well as those of their children. Parents also are concerned with interpreting the world to their children. The school-aged child’s life becomes group centered during this stage. Group influence is inevitable in modern society. Few families are so isolated that their children do not have contact with other youth. Group influence is usually positive. Although parents often worry about peer pressure having a negative effect on their children (mistakenly thinking that it is something that occurs only during adolescence), the positive side of the issue is peer support. As children develop friendships and form social groups, they learn lessons of loyalty, kindness, fairness, and cooperation.
The fifth stage of parenthood is the stage during the child’s teen years, when families revisit some of the issues of the authority stage but find new solutions as parents form a new relationship with their almost-adult child. The parent role shifts from leader to partner. Partnership does not imply increased time together, however. During the junior high and high school years, parents and teens spend less time together. For some parents, the drop in shared activity feels like rejection. For others, it is a relief. Still others report that they spend just as much time in family activity, but at arm’s length from their children. As teens seek to form an identity, they almost always look for ways to be separate from their families. Autonomy can be achieved by making decisions on their own. Privacy may entail what looks like secrecy to the family.
The teen is an individual who is in a transitional stage. This may mean that the parent’s role can become more that of a consultant or adviser. As direct caretaking is reduced, the parent also must make adjustment. Confusion may develop, however, when the teen occasionally demands a return to direct care.
When children leave home during the departure stage, parents evaluate not just their offspring’s leave-taking but also the whole of their parenting experience. For most families in this stage, the launch is of primary importance. It is the time when younger family members take on adult responsibilities, typically by moving, taking employment, or marrying. Going away to college may be a launching, either full or partial, and as a result some families consider the age of eighteen or nineteen to be the start of adulthood. By most standards, Americans consider a launch to be appropriate before young adults reach their mid-twenties.
Bibliography
Arnold, Catharine. Child Development and Learning, Two to Five Years: Georgia’s Story. Newbury Park: Sage, 1999. Print.
Berk, Laura E. Child Development. 9th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2013. Print.
Berman, Phyllis W., and Frank A. Pedersen, eds. Men's Transitions to Parenthood: Longitudinal Studies of Early Family Experience. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2014. Print.
Berns, Roberta. Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support. 8th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2013. Print.
Galinsky, Ellen. The Six Stages of Parenthood. Cambridge: Perseus, 1989. Print.
Keenan, Thomas. An Introduction to Child Development. 2nd ed. Newbury Park: Sage, 2010. Print.
Siegel, Daniel J. Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.
Sutherland, Peter A. Cognitive Development Today: Piaget and His Critics. Newbury Park: Sage, 1992. Print.
White, James A. Dynamics of Family Development: A Theoretical Perspective. New York: Guilford, 1991. Print.
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