A Study on Multiple Influences on Parenting

부모역할행동에 미치는 복합적 영향들에 관한 고찰

This study has examined multiple influences of several variables on parenting behavior by looking into illustrative studies. This study provides support to the view that various factors influence parenting and that parenting behavior is multiply determined. Characteristics of parents, children and the context in which parent-child relations occur cause different childrearing patterns among parents. This study can be summarized as follows: 1) Parental behavior is influenced to a large degree by what the parent brings to the situation. In other words, characteristics of the parent including personality characteristics, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, level of maturity, values and childrearing beliefs contribute to individual differences in parenting. 2) The parent's relationship history influences the personality characteristics that the parent brings to his or her adult roles. To understand who the parent is today, we have to look at who the parent was, and what the parent was doing in the years prior to parenthood. That is, we need to see the life course of the individual before parenthood. 3) Contextual variables including the immediate context and the larger context have proved to influence parental behaviors. Characteristics of the immediate context such as the quality of marital rationship can influence the parent's psychological well-being and his or her behavior toward the childen while characteristics of the larger context such as the economic situation and the neighborhood can influence the level of stress experienced by the parent and cosequently how the parent relates to his or her child. 4) In order to understand the development of the parent-child relationship we need to look at the characteristics of the child. Children may elicit positive behaviors from their parents, or they may possess characteristics that the parents find aversive thus leading to difficulties in the relationship. Therefore, much depends on the fit beween the characteristics of the parents and characteristics of the child. By examining multiple contemporaneous influences on parenting, this study could deepen the understanding of why parents have different childrearing patterns, why some parents fail to meet their children's demands and why parents act in certain ways. What we ultimately hope is that as we learn more about parenting and the development of parent-child relationships, we will be better able to provide parents with the supports they need to achieve their parenting goals.