Risk and Resiliency

Part 1:

Examine a societal issue impacting a family and discuss risks factors for this group as a whole and as individuals.

The session shall consider some circumstances that can explain the notion of resilience about risk. Through the study, we shall consider the way resilience can be manifested in common situations concerning ecological risk. Some of the risk factors that affect groups and individuals include poverty, lone parenthood as well as teenage childbearing.

Poverty

Poverty is one of the wide risks factors that affect families. Family poverty is linked to a wide range of adverse effects on children. Some of the influences transformed to children as a result of persisted poverty include reduced cognitive ability, conduct disorders, poor academic achievements as well as poor mental health (Jayakody, & A. Kalil, 2002). Poverty results in adverse effects on malnutrition that leads to interference with children's cognitive development. The situation affects individual children by delaying their readiness for learning when they enter school. The effects result to setting the entire family siblings on a trajectory of poorer academic achievement. The fate of poverty in a family leads to adverse effects on mental health, social adjustment and behavior on individual siblings. Poor parents, provide fewer opportunities for their children. Poor parents are less involved in their children's lives. They are more erratic in their use of discipline and monitor their children less. Poverty affects the quality of parenting. Poor quality of parenting leads to poor conduct of childhood performance. Poverty denies chances of building a better foundation on academic, behavior conduct, and social competence in adulthood.

Lone Parenthood

Families established as single parenthood poses high risks for parental wellbeing as well as children's adjustment. Children of single parents have poorer records in academic achievement. Children in single parent families display higher rates of psychological distress (Berger, 2012). The children have an increased likelihood of suffering from non-marital childbearing as compared to children in couple families. Single mothers have poorer mental health compared with their partnered peers. Single parents have difficult effects in the way they have the capacity to parent their children. Most of the single parent families have a knock-on effect on their children's development.

Teenage Childbearing

Teenagers involved in childbearing are associated with an array of negative effects for both the teenage mother and her child. Individual teenage pregnancy may lead to dropping out of schooling thus causing lower rates of school achievements (Berger, 2012). Teenagers who have encountered pregnancy are associated with depression as well as psychological distress. Teenage mothers are associated with depression due to persisted lack of employment. They may also encounter rapid-repeat childbearing. On the other hand, since teenage mothers have fewer parenting skills, they are less sensitive and responsive to their children. Their children may suffer since their parents may opt to use punitive discipline. They may as well display more physically intrusive behavior to their children. Teenage mothers may lead to higher rates of problems among children.

Part 2:

Using the same societal issue impacting a family in Part 1, please distinguish resiliency between individual family members and the family unit.

According to the report generated above the parents are significantly higher ranked on all forms of psychological distress such as posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety compared with other community norms. Children in the community norms are affected emotionally. They display behavioral problems on social matters (Jayakody, & A. Kalil, 2002). Pre and post changes scores revealed significant improvements across some measures for the parents. The number of parents with clinically meaningful impairments as a result of anxiety is increasing due to social problems such as family violence, pressure, and depression. According to the current nature of society, most of the family matters are unhealthy families who are functioning while both parents and children are under severe emotional pressure. Due to poor parenting children diagnosed with clinical impairment are as a result of family post-intervention, due to issues such as emotional symptoms (Goldstein, & Brooks, 2012).

Part 3:

Analyze resilience theory by explaining salient points of this theoretical construct.

Several theories have been put formulated to explain the linkage that exists between poverty and child outcomes. First theory involves the role of parental investments in children. Theory indicates that most of the poor families are linked with a high deficit in material resources such as lack of adequate nutritional care and inadequate cognitive stimulating materials, such as books. Such families also have limited or inadequate non-material resources such as poor education, lack of information and limited skills (Cowan, Cowan, & Schulz, 1996). Children associated with such families have the high likely hood of doing less well in life due to such deficits. The second theory explaining the link between poverty and children deals with the role of parental behaviors, attitudes, and expectations. It states that stress of constrained economic status diminishes parental mental health. As a result, it reduces parental ability to nurture, monitor as well as discipline their children effectively. Parents involved in such families have minimal expectations and hopes concerning their children's life. The notion of lack of bright future is transmitted to their children.

Some theories have been formulated to explain about lone parenting and relationship between families. The first theory is based on the role of economic deprivation within single parent caretakers. Substantial economic differences provide significant results demonstrated between single parent and two-parent families(Cowan, Cowan, & Schulz, 1996). The differences are characterized by the existence of differences that accounts for approximately half of the variation in child development between single-mother and couple families. The second theory is based on the power and importance of social implication on two parents. There are very high advantages in having two parents carrying out important parenting for various functions such as supervision as well as monitoring of children (Cowan, Cowan, & Schulz, 1996). The theory defines that children have the high likely hood of benefiting from the presence of a male role model as well as a female role model who have peaceful social ties.

Based on the teenage pregnancy issues, it is explained that a third theory is formulated which explains the role of stress in early child parenting. Caring for a child without assistance from a partner is becomes more stressful. However, when another parent especially an adult is there to share the work of bringing up the child, the rearing stress subsidizes. The theory explains that changes due to lack of better family arrangements that characterizes teenage parent may also affect single parenthood (Cowan, Cowan, & Schulz, 1996). Factors such as separation, abandonments, discrimination, divorce, and bereavement are associated with considerable stress. This is true, especially where a separation involves a high degree of conflict between the separating parents and a teenage mother. The stress of being abandoned, rejected, and discriminated from peers reduces the capacity of the teenage parent to offer good parenting. Changes in family structure such as through divorce or rejection among teenage parents contribute to changes in the children's place of residence and school. Such transformations lead to a cumulative negative impact on children.

Part 4:

For this final part, it is now necessary to differentiate interventions that can be utilized with individual family members, and the entire family with the purpose of increasing resiliency.

One of the fundamental foundation and building blocks of normal cognitive development is ensuring proper nutrition in the antenatal period, during infancy, and early childhood.

The second approach is aimed at boosting child outcomes through improving parenting behaviors. The most successful parenting program is referred to as Nurse Home Visitation Program (NHVP) (Cowan, Cowan, & Schulz, 1996). The main purpose of the program is improving pregnancy outcomes during early child health. The session also involves the personal development of mothers. Nurse Home Visitation Program is characterized by weekly visits for one month after registration and later scheduled visits for the remainder of the pregnancy. Later after the birth of the child, the mother and the young child are visited weekly during the first six weeks. Other frequent visits are scheduled age of 21 months and the once per month until the age of two. During visitation that lasts between 60 and 90 minutes, guidance and counseling issues are involved such including personal health, environmental health, maternal role, and lifestyle.

Other improvement includes engaging maternal father or if not possible engaging a non-residential. Maternal fathers and Non-resident fathers are engaged in the family to provide authoritative parenting and provide economic support. Their presence provides a role model to a child as well as making important contributions to the child lives (Campbell, Ramey, Pungello, Sparling & Miller-Johnson, 2002). Separating parents are encouraged to negotiate on active arrangements to ensure that the father remains as an active participant in lives of the children. Involving a father may serve as one of a protective factor for the children.

References

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood and adolescence. New York, N.Y: Worth Publishers.

Campbell, F.A., C.T. Ramey, E.P. Pungello, J. Sparling and S. Miller-Johnson (2002) "Early childhood education: young adult outcomes from the Abecedarian Project" Applied Developmental Science, 6(1):42-57.

Cowan, P. A., Cowan, C. P., & Schulz, M. S. (1996). Thinking about Risk and Resilience in Families.In E.M. Hetherington & E. Blechman (eds.), Stress, Coping, and Resiliency in Children and Families, Advances in Family Research, Vol. 5 (pp.1-38). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Goldstein, S., & Brooks, R. B. (2012). Handbook of resilience in children. New York: Springer.

Jayakody, R. and A. Kalil (2002) "Social fathering in low-income African-American families with preschool children" Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(2):504-16.

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