Who shapes the child ?
(research about how modeling and family conditions shape
child identity)
Anning Li
English 201
Professor Matyakubavo
4/28/2015
Children are the
future of our nation. When mass amount of people are getting older and retired,
young people are the one who takes responsibly to keep the society functioning.
With the great burden on children, they must be trained properly to ensure the
flourish future. But what exactly shape the new generation? The family factors
has direct relation with the child’s potential development since they mold them
through everyday activities. Family factors decided who the child are going to
be. Child are born naive and honest,they can not see the ambiguity of things
happened. For the most time, they will imitate or follow what they saw and
experienced. However, child are fast
learner and easy adopter, it is necessary to provide them positive modeling and
stable family conditions early in childhood in order to prevent juvenile
delinquency.
Providing
children a positive modeling is crucial because they can not distinguish
whether some thing is good or bad. Many parents often neglected that their own
behaviors is a reflect mirror to the child. They thought child will only be
educated well in school. The fact is that parent’s behavior also have great
impact on child. Growing up in a family where parent often misbehave, the child
has higher chances to act the same way. According to a popular debate of nature
VS nurture, “ when a identical twins are raised in two environments, their
behaviors will be different”(Sarah, M.S,2012). The debate explicitly means that
nurture are more important than nature when it comes to the behavior of child.
while the nature of child may reveal some physical traits of their parent,
nurture is the key component that decides the child’s identity. When two
identical child are exposed to different environment, their genetic inherent
plays a small role here. The debate proves that it is extremely important to
nurture children under positive modeling, and their parent’s behaviors should
be the primary.
Despite modeling
play an important rule on early childhood development , many parent are still
unaware of it. Cannolly (1993) and other researchers collected data from
participants, they were observed from age 9- 13 of a multidisciplinary
latitudinal study undertaken in Dunedin. As a result of the study, children who
have alcoholic parent at age 9, are more likely to misbehave as compare to
child with no or mild parent alcohol problem, and Children have poor
relationship with their parent as compares to children without alcoholic
parent. The research emphasis that parent’s behavior influence childhood
development. It also suggest that In a family with at least one alcoholic, the stability
within family structure was destroyed. When
the stability within a family are broken, child are the first victim.
A unstable
family structure may result in many outcomes. The absence of parent brings
behavioral problem within childhood. According to Edward Kruk, Ph.D. and associate professor of
social work at the University of British Columbia , a
child without father would behave in certain way to hide their insecurity. He
says “They have higher chance to develop a careless attitude with cocky swagger
and mean persona to hide the fact that they really wants a father”(Tiffany
Raiford, 2015). The behavior can lead to many serious outcomes. Based on New
York Times (2015), a man named Davis, was a juvenile murderer, sentenced for a
life term in jail without parole. It means Davis will never have chance to see
the outside world again.
All of his delinquency was forced by
his childhood deprivation. Davis described that he lived in a family with
careless mother and a absent father. He mentions how he survive by picking cans
and pumped gas for tips and shoplift. Until one day he fell in gangster
Disciples, he felt like home. he say “I
loved them, they protected me, they were my family,”(ERIK ECKHOLM 2015). In fact, Davis was just a normal kid who seek
for a safe harbor. He was not
born a bad kid, he was forced to do something in order to survive. Perhaps his
parent were present when he was child and provided a better condition for him,
he would not join the gang and become a murder. Davids suggests the failure of his family which make
him suffer from both emotional and physical pain. Davis, Instead of become a
child at an age should watch TV cartoon at home, stayed at maximum security
jail for 23 hour a day. Who is going to take responsibility for his misbehave?
Davis’ story tells us an incomplete family structure really make a mess within
a child’s life.
While a
broken home destroyed a childhood, child who live in a domestic violence family
would also develop deviant behaviors. The true victim of domestic violence is
their children. Although children are previously labeled as silent witness of
domestic violent, however this opinion has been topple off by more current
qualitative research. Lemmey, malecha, and Mcfarlane (2001) conduct a
descriptive research. They discovered that many children who observe violent
act against their mothers have greater behavioral problem than children who do
not observe such violent. The research argues domestic violence have worst
affect on child’s behavior among all kind of violence because the person use
violent is the one who provides protection for them, and the effects was worst
for girls. As result of domestic violence, there are two different types of
effect may form from witnessing it. “One is internalizing, and the other is
externalizing” (Lemmey, malecha, and Mcfarlane 2001). The internalizing often
involves in child’s emotional waves while externalizing causes delinquency and
aggression. Both internalizing and externalizing behavior expose child to a
risky future.
Even though we know parental behavior shape a child, it is
still difficult to figure out what exactly lead to delinquency because many
thing can be involved. In the modern society, where social hierarchy are
distinct, people who have more power stand above others. It is significant,
children who born in lower class and lack of material resources often surround
by negative environment. Studies
have shown the “majority of juvenile offenders come from families living in
poverty, the highest percent being people of color or minority groups”(Ray
E. Bilderaya 2015). They are isolated in small community with
limited social mobility. The neighborhood are most likely in same social class,
and they have little interact with higher ranked people as well. When one’s
social mobility are constrained, there are little or not progression in their
life.
Family
economic condition would also affect the quality of a childhood. David, Nicola,
and john(2004) observed 1,265 children ( 635 males, 630 females), found that
the child who live under poor economic condition or disadvantages have more
involvement in crime later. This argument was supported by strain theory (Merton 1957),
it explains the social hierarchy within our society may pressure people to
commit crime. The theory shows “Individuals in disadvantaged groups act in ways
that predispose them to engage in innovative, but deviant acts to redress these
strains(David, Nicola, John 2004 P.956).” In conclusion, that the
social-economic deprivation causes stress among young people. Based on the
strain theory, young people with poor family may think they are worthless and
inferior as compare to rich family child. Often times, those strains
predisposed them to delinquency. they act in deviant ways in order to reduce
the stress.
Many variety
forms of factors that affects childhood development. But what can be done to
prevent them from later delinquency? It is not doubt juvenile
violence has become a concern in the criminal justice field and there is
a vital need for rehabilitation programs for juvenile offenders. However,
rehabilitation programs are obviously insufficient for deviant behaviors. Ray E. Bilderaya (2005) argues that as
many as 69 % of juvenile delinquent parolees are rearrested for serious
crimes within six years of their release. It shows that delinquency have
further impact within one’s life, and It is embedded in their mind. It be must be done by two ways, one is remove it’s cause, and
second is control it’s effect. The cause of delinquency forms depend on many
variables. It can be defined in three main categories: Demographic, increased
population of juvenile and environmental factors.
However, it is hard
for anyone to control those three causes. One may argues, what can be done to
reduced the rate of delinquency? Ray
E. Bilderaya (2005) suggests that “Children need to be taught....early
in order to live... productive life. This includes discipline with
consistency. A parent must be willing to put .....produce a non-delinquent
child.” In short, in order to have non-delinquent child, parent must learn to
behave in front of their child, and provided them a good learning environment
earlier in childhood. Positive modeling, the complete family structure and
better economic condition are all we can do for the well being of child.
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