AskEssays.com - Discover essay samples

The Effects On Children When Both Parents Are Employed

4.9 of 5.0 (39 reviews)

Contains
884 words
Category
Social Issues

The Effects On Children When Both Parents Are Employed Page 1
The Effects On Children When Both Parents Are Employed Page 2
The above thumbnails are of reduced quality. To view the work in full quality, click download.

Socio-economic conditions in North America have contributed to the need for dual incomes for families. Economically, "the number of two parent families below the poverty line would increase to an estimated 78% if they were to become single income families ." Socially, it was the norm, in the past, for women to stay at home, taking care of the children and providing emotional support for the family. Presently, women feel that their traditional roles as child bearers and homemakers must be supplemented with a career outside the home. Recent studies reflect an increased trend towards the dual income family and projections are for this trend to continue. In 1961, 30% of married women were working; in 1978, 38% were employed; by 1981 50% were working and in 1995, 70% held paying positions outside the home. (Jarman and Howlett 95) In 1986, only 53% of all two parent families were dual wage families, but by 1996 nearly75% of all families were dual earning families. (Ramu 26) In light of the fact that the majority of two parent families in the 1990's have also become dual wage earning families, it is important to examine the effects of such a phenomenon on society in general and on child rearing in particular. Children acquire their goals, values and norms based on the way that they view or identify with their parents as well as from the quality and amount of care, love and guidance given to them by their parents. Parents who work present a different image to their children than parents who do not work. In addition, wage earners, including parents, must (in most cases), be absent from the home during the day. When considering these modifications to the family dynamics, there is a considerable basis for the opinion that the increaced household income outweigh the negative effects experienced by offspring in families were both parents are employed.
The working parent occupies an important exemplary role within the family. Working parents often command considerable respect from their children, because they demonstrate the worthy characteristics of industriousness, social compatibility, self reliance, maturity, intelligence and responsibility. Because children identify with their parents, the feedback from such positive influences tends to be positive as well because many of these positive characteristics are imparted upon them. A child who observes the competent coping abilities of a working parent learns in turn, how to cope with life's problems. At first this may translate into an improved sense of self-reliance and independence for the child as well as an improvement in the ability to be socially compatible. As the child grows, it can further render a child more emotionally mature and hence more competent in dealing with responsibility and task completion such as is needed for school work and extra curricular activities. A study corroborates these observations and therefore one can conclude that, in general, the working parent provides a very positive role model for the child in a family where both parents are employed. Attitudes of working parents pertaining to achievement, responsibility and independence affect both male and female offspring. There seems to be more beneficial effects felt by daughters of working women than by sons; however, this neither implies nor concludes that males do not receive some positive effects due to maternal employment. It was concluded that daughters of employed mothers tend to be more independent . This tendency may result from the fact that in the mother's absence, a daughter is often left to cope with caring for herself: This promotes her independence and self-reliance. At the same time, the daughter may also be left with the job of looking after a younger sibling, helping to promote her sense of responsibility. Significant too, is the fact that daughters of working mother's tend to be more decisive about their futures than sons. Further studies have demonstrated that a mother's employment status and occupation tends to be a good predictor of the outcome of the working mother's daughter, since daughters tend to follow in their mother's footsteps. Typically, working mothers held higher educational aspirations for their children and furthermore, most daughters tend to achieve higher grades in school. (Spitz 606) It is also important to note that both male and female children acquire more egalitarian sex role attitudes when both parents work. Boys with working mothers showed better social and personal skills than boys of non-working mothers.
The majority of the negative aspects of a dual-income family seem to be centered on the boys. Boys tend to do worse in school when their mothers worked . As well, boys whose mothers work tend to have strained relationships with their fathers due to their perceptive devaluation of their father's worth as an adequate bread-winner. One can conclude that males may be negatively affected when their mothers work with regards to achievement in independence and responsibility. Adequate child care is a necessity for parents who both work. It is often complicated to balance both the parent's and child's needs when using child care. However, it may be possible to satisfy the demands of both if forethought and prudence are applied. Many cultures worldwide realize that a child's nurturing can be acquired from a variety of sources including both adults and older children. Children can be as comfortable with grandparents, neighbors, professional child care attendants, and babysitters as they are with their own mothers. In fact, a variety of sources for ...

You are currently seeing 50% of this paper.

You're seeing 884 words of 1768.

Similar essays


Adolescence

Like many things that are grouped together in life, the connection between the members of the group does to become appearant until careful analysis and unbiasous judgement. If there is one there but one thing all these essays have in common it is the proccess of change and it's negative and positive long lasting impact it has on everyone. is a time...

190 reviews
Download
Violence in Sports

With the increase in society taking a stance against violence by many people, sports has become an area where some feel that the violent acts such as the hitting and fighting that occurs should be eliminated. You can not change something that has been around for so long because it would change the aspect of the game to something co...

115 reviews
Download
Alcoholics Anonymous

I attended the Stepping-Stone meeting of on a Saturday night at the St. Vincent?s Stress Center. The Stress Center is located at 8401 Harcourt Road, Indianapolis. The impression of this meeting that I got was that a bunch of people got together to tell their sob stories about drinking. Everyone sat outside the building smoking and...

62 reviews
Download
Peer Pressure Around Us

In all of society it is hard to stay away from the pressure of peer pressure. I think we all go through a period of peer pressure which affects our life in a major way. By looking at friends, family, and school I will show that peer pressure is a major part of our everyday life. In life friends are a major part of our decision and thoughts. When...

119 reviews
Download
Curfews

While driving home from work late one Tuesday night, he noticed the blare of a siren and the blinding lights in his rearview mirror. 'I was stopped and questioned five times, by five different police officers on my three-mile drive home,' said a 16-year-old from Monrovia, CA ('Do You Know Where Your Children Are?' 1). Sadly, Monrovia, CA. is not...

145 reviews
Download
Road Rage And Its Avoidance

He cut me off.' 'She wouldn't let me pass.' 'Nobody gives me the finger.' 'I would never had shot him if he hadn't rear-ended me.' 'He practically ran me off the road'what was I supposed to do?' These and many other frightening 'reasons' came from those who were associated with incidents that had resulted in injury or death on our roadways, b...

56 reviews
Download
Law An Overview

Law - An Overview Human nature consists of three basic components. These are to live, to propagate and to dominate. If Humanity was left without any other parameters, this natural state of existence would govern its behavior. Fortunately, there are parameters that exist. These parameters are law. The topic of this paper addresses th...

163 reviews
Download
Can Media Inspire Violent Crimes

One problem that many corporations ignore is the possibility that aggressive type people seek reinforcement for their own destructive acts, either against themselves or other people. Television violence, for instance, and the widespread public concern accompanying it have led to calls for strict controls on the depiction of v...

85 reviews
Download
Homosexual Marriage

Over time, marriage has been the solid base for procreation and child rearing, which is the foundation of family and social life. There is recognition that allowing polygamous or closely related couples into our marriage system would be dysfunctional in our society. Does this not apply to same-sex marriage as well? The social un...

114 reviews
Download
How Shavers Configure the Users? Femininity and Masculinity

Materialized Gender: Ellen van Oost The relation between gender and the material environment, the day-today objects that surround us, has recently enjoyed growing interest in the fields of cultural studies, gender studies, and social studies of technology (Horowitz and Mohun 1998; Rothschild 1999; Sparke 1996; Cockburn and Ormrod 1993; Cockburn...

128 reviews
Download
Let The Animals Go

The annual circus comes to town in hope of providing entertainment for family and friends. People gather from all over the community just to admire the stunts of both animals and humans. Animals, however, play more of an important role because their job is to perform unbelievable tricks that captivate the audience's attention. Spectators, especi...

204 reviews
Download
Women In Nationalist Movements

In the recent studies of women's emancipation from a male dominated society, the emergence of was evident. Nationalist movements gave women an outlet to begin their fight for freedom. In contrast to the hopes of women, nationalism wasn't able to help the growth of feminism. Once women began to join revolutions to help heighten their country's n...

186 reviews
Download
Written Speech on Teen Suicide

Imagine you?re standing atop a high bridge, you take a deep breath, say one last silent goodbye to your friends and family, and you leap to your death. By doing this, you?re making a permanent solution to a temporary problem. You may be solving your own personal problem, but imagine the pain, suffering, and anguish that your frie...

86 reviews
Download
Feminist Frontiers

Feminism is defined as an organized activity on behalf of women?s rights and interests. To me, this statement encompasses all women; regardless of race, class, ethnicity, sexual preference, age or religion. While I agree that these factors do influence and shape a woman?s individual experiences, I believe that women everywhere ar...

61 reviews
Download
Atsisiųsti šį darbą