The Child-Parent Relationship and Potential Problems

Children's physical and emotional status, as well as their social and cognitive development greatly depend on how their family operate. The rising incidence of behaviour problems among children demonstrates that some families are unable to cope with the increasing stresses they are experiencing.

Many characteristics of families have changed during the past 3 to 5 decades.

• In the UK, 40 per cent of live births were born outside marriage in 2001, compared to 12 per cent in 1980 and six per cent in 1960.¹
• The average age at marriage has increased and more children are born to women older than 30 years.
• In the last 30 years the percentage of children in 2-parent families in the USA decreased from 85% to 69%.² In Great Britain, there has been an increase in the proportion of dependent children living in lone parent families with 23 per cent of dependent children living in a lone parent family in 200, compared with 18 per cent in 1991. Couple families were relatively most frequent among Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi headed households.
• There has been a large increase in the rate of births to single women - from 5.3% in 1960 to 33.2% in 2000.
• The divorce rate has nearly doubled in the last 50 years.
• The percentage of women working has increased and there has been an increase in paternal involvement in childcare.³

• Social problems including withdrawal, loneliness, loss of confidence, school problems, learning disorders, anxiety and depression,^4,5 alcohol and drug abuse (particularly associated with mental illness), suicide or self-harming, theft and criminal behaviour
• Discipline problems including selfishness, defiance, unstable behaviour, recklessness, deceitfulness, violent behaviour, and disruptive behaviour
• Educational problems including disruptive behaviour, bullying, decreased learning ability and academic achievements

Prevalence

According to the Office for National Statistics¹:

• 10% of children in the UK face severe emotional or behavioural problems that burden their families
• 16% of children from single-parent families experience a mental health problem compared to 8% from two-parent families.
• Mental disorders are more common in step families (15% compared to 9%), large families, and in families where the parents cohabit (11% compared to 7% for married parents).

Parental Factors

• Family conflict and discord; lack of structure and discipline, disagreement about child rearing
• Parental control that is too tight
• Marital conflict, divorce or separation; most of the negative effects are caused by disruption of parenting. The parents' ability to cope with the changes may be reflected in the child's ability to cope.⁶
• Involvement of father; the emotional and social outcomes are significantly improved for children whose fathers play a visible and nurturing role in their upbringing. Father involvement is associated with positive cognitive, developmental, and sociobehavioral child outcomes such as improved weight gain in preterm infants, improved breastfeeding rates, higher receptive language skills, and higher academic achievement.³
• Maternal depression, including postpartum depression.⁷Young children of depressed mothers have an elevated risk of behavioural, developmental, and emotional problems
• Parental mental illness⁸
• Parental alcohol and substance abuse
• Re-marriage/ stepfamilies⁹

Social/ Environmental Factors

• Poverty; children in families of Social Class V are more likely to have a mental disorder than those in Social Class I families.¹⁰
• Neglect and/or abandonment; adopted children or children from foster homes
• Residential instability

Child Factors

• Chronically ill or disabled child¹¹
• Undiagnosed psychological or developmental problem e.g. ADHD, autism¹²
• Difficult temperament of child and clash in parenting style
• Fragile emotional temperament of child
• Peer pressures

Family Factors

• Large families
• Family stress; working parents, job dissatisfaction, fatigue, stress, and time, household chores
• Violence within the home
• Child sex abuse
• Trauma

Getting to the bottom of parent-child relationship problems can be difficult because there can be many different underlying issues.
The possible outcomes may also vary depending upon individual families, religion, culture, attitudes, ethnicity and resources available.

• Counselling; family counselling and therapy, parental education^13,14 and training¹⁵
• Self-help
• Referral
• Marriage guidance
• Social support
• Medication to treat specific health problems
• Police/Law enforcement
• Change schooling e.g. different school, boarding or private education
• Paediatric health care