How does providing support for young families affect children’s well-being?

Dr Alison Parkes from the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow highlights findings from a recent study exploring the impact of support for parents on children’s well-being. 

Many parents with young children need extra help from time to time, in the form of financial aid, childcare or emotional support. Although it is well known that support can relieve parenting stress, it is less clear whether support for parents has a measurable impact on children’s well-being. Our study[i] of 2600 families living in Scotland found a link between the availability of support for mothers during the early years and children’s later mental wellbeing.

In order to be able to discount other possible explanations for the association found, the study controlled for a range of other factors related to both low levels of family support and poor child outcomes. Even after allowing for other factors such as family poverty and lone parenthood, we found lower levels of behavioural and emotional problems among school-age children whose mothers had been able to access support during their child’s early years.

The study examined mothers’ perceptions of the availability of support via two different channels: informal social support networks from friends and relatives, and support from health and social work professionals. There is universal provision of professional support for parents in the UK (for example, from health visitors and via GPs), as well as a range of support services targeted at vulnerable parents. Nonetheless, families often perceive barriers to service access and engagement. These only partly relate to low awareness or practical problems. Importantly, they also reflect parents’ perceptions that available support is inadequate to meet their needs, and fears about interference and stigma.

In exploring the ways in which support for mothers improved children’s wellbeing, the study found that professional support and social networks acted differently. Greater access to help from health and social work professionals was associated with more positive parenting, which in turn reduced the risk of children developing behavioural and emotional problems. Good social support from friends and relatives did not affect parenting so directly. However, the positive effects of social support on mothers’ greater economic security and mental wellbeing led in turn to more positive parenting, which then benefited children.

The study also looked at whether support helped to protect children’s wellbeing when families were under particular strain. Access to professional support channels had the strongest buffering effect. Among families with good access to professional support, the study found a weaker impact of less positive parenting on children’s emotional difficulties, when compared with families who found it difficult to access such help. A smaller buffering effect was found for social support. Here, the impact of family money problems on children’s emotional difficulties was weaker among families with strong social networks, compared with families who lacked this type of support. Collectively, our findings point to the value of professional services and social networks in strengthening children’s resilience to adversity. 

In conclusion, our study findings underline the importance of good social support networks for all families with young children, as well as the need to ensure good access to health and welfare services through building greater parental awareness and trust.

Further details can be found in the following open access publication (forthcoming): Alison Parkes and Helen Sweeting (2018) Indirect, and Buffering Effects of Support for Mothers on Children's Socioemotional Adjustment, Journal of Family Psychology


[i] This study used the Growing Up in Scotland first birth cohort, a nationally representative sample of families with children born between June 2004 and May 2005. For more information, see https://growingupinscotland.org.uk/

Now they are 7: what influences children's wellbeing?

The most recent findings from Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) explore the possible influences on children’s wellbeing and their behavioural and emotional difficulties. Lesley Kelly, GUS Dissemination Officer, outlines key findings.

GUS aims to find out about how the circumstances and experiences of children in Scotland are changing, and how early experiences influence later outcomes. The first group of children invited into the study are now 7 years old and for the first time they have answered questions themselves. This provides a really interesting aspect to the study as we find out about both mother and child perspectives.

This new research uses information collected from over 3,000 mothers and children, interviewed during 2012/13. Mothers were asked about their child’s emotional and behavioural difficulties using a behavioural screening tool called the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The children were asked about their life satisfaction using a series of questions including ‘do you feel your life is going well?’ and ‘do you wish your life was different?’ (adapted from the Huebner Student Life Satisfaction Scale). 

Researchers were interested in learning about the role of child and family characteristics , parenting behaviours, school experiences, friendships, leisure activities and the importance of materialistic attitudes, ie having ‘expensive things’ on both child mental health and well-being. The researchers measured for behavioural and emotional problems as reported by the mother and low sense of well-being as reported by the child.

The numbers

• This research suggests that 1 in 25 children in Scotland experience both mental health problems and low subjective well-being:
• 11% of children in the study were classed as having high levels of behavioural and emotional problems, while 25% reported low life satisfaction. 4% of children experienced both.
• 21% of children had low life satisfaction but no behavioural and emotional difficulties. 7% had a high level of difficulties but did not report low life satisfaction.
• Children with high levels of difficulties were more likely to report low well-being (39%) than those with normal levels (24%).

The factors

Children who had both child mental health problems and low life satisfaction were more likely to experience: greater conflict in the mother-child relationship; lower parental knowledge of the child’s activities or relationships when not at school; difficulties adjusting to the learning or social environment at primary school; and poorer quality friendships with other children.

 

Economic factors and some other aspects of family life (including family structure and the child’s leisure activities) were not clearly associated with either measure of social and emotional well-being, after allowing for other influences. Materialistic values (the importance of ‘expensive things’ to the child) were not associated with their life satisfaction.

 

The research also found that family ‘stressors’ such as mother’s experiencing poor health, family mental health/ substance use problems and low levels of warmth in the mother-child relationship were associated with child mental health difficulties but not the child’s sense of well-being. Conversely, experiencing a recent bereavement, illness or accident in the family, and less positive parenting (defined as less positive reinforcement of good behaviour and less involvement in the child’s activities) did appear to affect children’s life satisfaction, irrespective of whether they experienced behavioural and emotional difficulties.

 

The implications

This research supports the idea that social relationships, involving parents, teachers and friends, are of key importance for children’s well-being. A holistic approach, which recognises the different components of well-being and the range of influencing factors, should be adopted. Approaches to promoting social and emotional well-being could be developed for use in both family and school settings.

 

These findings help to identify which children are at risk of low well-being and might benefit from some targeted support. Parents and children could be offered better access to professional and advice and support services to improve parent-child relationships and to effectively manage behavioural problems. Given the importance of adjustment to the learning and social environment at school, greater attention to the transition to school may be required for some children. Children who experience difficulties making friends might also be helped by initiatives designed to help build relationships within and outwith school. Finally, support for children and families experiencing ill health and/or bereavement is crucial. Good practice in these areas should be extended so that every child can access the support they need for their emotional health and wellbeing.

 

The full report ‘Growing Up in Scotland: Family and school influences on children’s social and emotional well-being’ by Alison Parkes, Helen Sweeting and Daniel Wight is available from the GUS website www.growingupinscotland.org.uk.

 

GUS is funded by the Scottish Government and is carried out by ScotCen Social Research in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh and the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Glasgow. 

 

Contact Lesley by email 

How active are our children?

Walk past any school playground or park and you might think that our children look pretty active, but are they?

Findings from the Millennium Cohort Study published today show that only half of 7-year-olds across the UK achieve the current recommendation for physical activity (60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day).

This is the first time that a UK wide survey has used an objective measurement of activity (using accelerometers with 6,000 children) and as such is an important piece of new research.

The good news is that children in Scotland are the most active in the UK.  52.5% of children in Scotland met the recommended level, compared 51.7% in Wales, 50.9% in England and 43.4% in Northern Ireland.

The bad news is that the difference in activity levels between boys and girls (at UK level) is worryingly high. Just 37.8% of girls met the recommended level of physical activity, compared with 63.3% of boys. Clearly, gender differences in physical activity start young, but continue into adolescence and adulthood.

Findings from the Growing Up in Scotland study (GUS) highlight the factors associated with low activity levels and high levels of ‘screen time’ amongst six year olds. A report published last year found that the factors associated with low physical activity are: mother’s lower physical activity, a less warm mother-child relationship, mothers not being aware of the 60 minutes per day recommendation and not having a swimming pool nearby.

The factors associated with high ‘screen time’ are: mother’s high screen time, a TV in the child’s bedroom, fewer mother and child shared activities, fewer rules about behaviour, greater social deprivation and poor quality local green spaces.

The MCS researchers suggest that a comprehensive policy response is required to increase the time that children spend in more intense physical activity and to reduce the time spent being sedentary. This should include a focus on parents’ modelling of behaviour, as well as making sure that all children have safe places to play outside.

Link to BBC coverage

 

Is there something special about family meals?

More Scottish teenagers are overweight or obese than anywhere else in Europe (IASO data for 2012). This single statement points to an urgent need to improve children's diet. Recent research from Valeria Skafida at CRFR looks at the eating habits of toddlers under 5 years of age and asks if and why family meals promote better eating habits.

Research has shown that family meals are generally linked to positive nutritional outcomes, yet it remains unclear exactly what it is about them that are so beneficial. Using data from Growing Up in Scotland (www.growingupinscotland.org.uk) this research looked at the quality of children's diets to explore its relationships to families meal habits, how often family's ate together, meal enjoyment and different family characterstics.

The research found a number of factors which were significantly associated with healthier diets in toddlers, including:

• eating a main meal and limiting snacking
• having regular meal times
• eating the same food as parents
• eating in a dining space rather than in bedrooms or living rooms
• enjoying meal times as a 'time to talk to each other'
• being the first-born child

Interestingly, and contributing something new to our knowledge in this area, this research found that eating at the same time as parents or eating together as a family was not a significant indicator of a nutritious diet. Eating the same food as parents was the aspect most strongly linked to dietary quality in toddlers.

For more discussion about these findings please read our latest briefing: Is there something special about family meals? Exploring how family meal habits relate to young children's diets.

This research is part of ongoing postdoctoral reserach looking at the changing food habits of children in the context of family life. Please contact Valeria at valeria.skafida@ed.ac.uk.

We publish 6-8 research briefings every year. Read them all at: http://www.crfr.ac.uk/pubbriefings.html.

Children at aged 6: grandparents, school and weight

Virtually all children have at least one living grandparent and the majority have three for more grandparents alive, according to key findings from the annual Growing up in Scotland (GUS) report.

The Growing up in Scotland (GUS) reports look at life as a child in Scotland. This year the children are aged 6, and the report focusses on three areas: the involvement of grandparents, early experiences at primary school, and weight and physical activity.

 The 2012 findings include:

Grandparents

• 99% of children have at least one living grandparent and 80% have three or more of their grandparents alive
• A significant minority of children do not have a local grandparent at aged 3 (42%).
• Children in the highest income households (22%) were most likely to have no grandparents living locally, as compared to children in the lowest income households (8%).
• Local grandparents are more likely to be the maternal grandmother and grandfather.
• Maternal grandparents tend to be closer and have more contact with grandchildren than paternal grandparents.
• 64% parents of children whose mother were under 20 at the time of their birth stay overnight with their maternal grandparents at least once a month, compared with 12% amongst children whose mothers were 40 or over at birth (and 31% of all children).
• Reliance on grandparents increases markedly when children started school, with 67% of parents making use of grandparents for childcare. High income households are more likely to use grandparent care during term time (43%) and during holiday time (23%) - even when grandparents are not local, as compared to low income households (24% and 11% respectively).

Early experiences at school

• Nearly all parents felt their children had adjusted well to starting school, although some 22% felt that their child was happier with the way he or she learned things in pre-school.
• Children who attended pre-school at a private or partnership nursery were perceived to be more ready for school than children who did not attend a nursery, and generally boys were perceived to have more problems adjusting to school than girls.
• Virtually all parents had attended at least one parental involvement activity since their child had started school. The most common activity (86%) was visiting their child's classroom.. Just 5% had not participated in any activities or events.
• Family type was associated with higher parental involvement. Lone parents (23%) were slightly less likely to have attended four or more events than couple families (30%), and young mothers aged 20-29 years (30%) were less likely to attend four or more events than mothers aged 40 or older (46%).
• Most children (71%) receive homework everyday, and virtually all of these children (93%) said that they always completed it.
• 95% of parents were involved in helping their children with their homework, but many others were involved too, particularly grandparents (29%) and siblings (21%).

Obesity and activity

• Among GUS children, 22% were overweight (including obese) and 9% were obese.
• 15% of these children exercised for less than the recommended level of 60 minutes a day and 31% either watched television or been on the computer/games consule for 3+ hours on a typical weekday.
• Only 14% of mothers recognised their child as being overweight, although mother's were more likely to recognise their child was overweight if their child was a girl, the mother was overweight herself or if the child was obese.
• Factors which increased likelihood of the child being overweight or obese were:
• The mother being overweight or obese
• Frequent snacking on sweets or crisps at toddler age
• Skipping breakfast
• Not eating the main meal in a dining area of the home
• Low  parental supervision

More information about the study can be found at: http://www.growingupinscotland.org/.
The research findings can be downloaded from the Scottish Government website at:

Growing up in Scotland: The involvement of grandparents
Growing up in Scotland: Early Experiences of Primary School - the transition to school
Growing up in Scotland: Early Experiences of Primary School - parental involvement
Growing up in Scotland: Overweight, obesity and activity

Full reports are also available.

Is Scotland the best place to bring up children?

Parenting Across Scotland has published a new collection of essays about parenting in Scotland. Entitled 'Scotland: the best place in the world to bring up children', the publication puts forward proposals from leading researchers about how to make Scotland a world-leader in parenting. Two CRFR staff members contributed essays about their projects:

Parenting young children

Growing up in Scotland (GUS) is tracing the lives of thousands of children across Scotland from birth to the teenage years and beyond. This information can tell how  parents are parenting, what influences parenting and how parenting styles impact on children. Findings include:

• Home learning environment: Most parents of children under five are providing a good 'home learning environment: at age 22 months, 79% of children were read to every day, 58% sang songs  while 28% had the opportunity to paint or draw every day. However, children from less advantaged households were doing these activities less frequently. Children taking part in more activities scored higher on cognitive ability tests, even after other socio-demographic factors were taken into account.
• Discipline techniques: While one third of parents in Scotland had used smacking by the time their child was aged four, only 13% of parents agreed that it was a useful technique.
• Parenting support: A quarter of parents with a child under one said that they found it difficult to know who to ask for help or advice about being a parent. Young mums were more likely to say they did not like classes or groups.
• Parenting and children's health: A lack of parenting skills were associated with poorer health and health behaviours amongst children. In particular, high levels of parent-child conflict were associated with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

By Lesley Kelly, CRFR and Paul Bradshaw, ScotCen Social Research: Growing up in Scotland. 

Parenting teenagers: relationships and behaviour

Calls to helplines indicate that parents of teenagers often struggle and feel isolated, particularly with behaviour and relationship issues. The About Families project has highlighted a number of themes emerging from research about the key issues for parents of teenagers:

• Conflict: Conflict between parents and teens is not necessarily a bad thing and can play a useful role in teenagers' development. It is how often, with whom, and why conflict happens that is most important, along with how parents manage their own behaviour. Conflict with friends, which usually involves some attempt to limit the damage and preserve a friendship, can help teenagers to learn how to manage conflict and develop emtional responses.
• Communication and relationships: Teenagers who are communicated with and involved in family decisions are more competent in making decisions about their lives and less likely to engage in problem behaviour.
• Moving to independence: It is natural for parents to feel some anxiety as teenagers become more independent. However, problems can arise if this anxiety makes them act in a way which is instrusive or inhibits a teenager's exploration of new environments and relationships. Parents may manager better when they see becoming independent as a healthy part of adolescent development.
• Parent satisfaction: How happy parents feel about their parenting is linked to how they view the development of their teenagers.
• Parenting together: Parents agreeing about their approach to parenting is more important than who does what, or how much each is involved. Both parents of disabled teenagers are likely to be involved in all areas of their teenagers life.
• How much do parents about their teenagers?: There are differences between mothers and fathers in how they find out about their children's lives. Howevere, how much they know could be the result of what teenagers choose to tell them rather than what they try to find out. Ensuring a teenager feels comfortable about sharing information cold be more effective in deterring them from problem behaviour than trying to control their activities.
  Although some parents of disabled teenagers think that more detailed communication is necessary, generally the issues are thought to be the same, regardless of disability.

By Karen Mountney: About Families

Informing the Parenting Strategy

CRFR recently facilitated a meeting at the Scottish Government to help inform the development of the Parenting Strategy.

Through conversations with Scottish Government staff we saw an opportunity to highlight research from our Associate Director, Professor Claire Wallace of Aberdeen University and Associate Researcher Dr Jeni Harden, which we felt made an important contribution to our knowledge on parenting in Scotland. Professor Lynn Jamieson, a co-Director at CRFR also presented findings from Growing Up in Scotland, the national longitudinal study of children's experiences from across the country.

Prof Claire Wallace, University of Aberdeen

Work-Care Synergies Project

This project has provided a comparative analysis of parenting in Europe, looking at the quality of life for parents in different European countries and the strategies adopted by parents in managing work and care in different national contexts. The team has also developed a typology based on a policy analysis of work and care for families with young children in different European counties. The research ran from 2010-2011.

The project found that parenting policy varied across Europe. There was convergence in the progress of women's rights but women still do the majority of domestic chores. Men are contributing more, but the general trend across all countries was that men are more involved in childcare, not domestic chores. This results in a lot of pressure on women to manage professionally while also taking primary responsibility for the upkeep of the household and childcare. The project identified barriers facing men in getting time off work to look after children: both in terms of paternity policies and with colleagues not taking them seriously after taking the decision to focus more on parenting. There were five strategies that working families use to help with childcare that there shared by all countries included in the research: using flexible working arrangements where available, taking on shift work to share responsibility between both parents, relying on formal care and using informal care support from grandparents and others where possible.

For more information please contact Claire at claire.wallace@abdn.ac.uk

Dr Jeni Harden, University of Edinburgh

Work and Family Lives: The changing experiences of ‘young families’

This project explored how families achieve a work life balance over time, drawing on the changing experiences and perceptions of families with primary school-aged children. Both parents and children were involved in the research, providing their different perspectives, as well as exploring the processes of negotiation between parents and children in addressing issues raised. The project is a qualitative longitudinal study with fourteen families in Scotland, conducted between 2007 and 2010.

The project identified a number of themes relating to parental responsibility that impact on families ability to achieve a work-life balance:

• Parents faced competing demands on their time relating to their responsibilities as parents and employees. This is experienced through the difficulties of synchronising work and family life and results in a sense of harriedness, of feeling constantly busy, tired and stressed. Parents expressed feelings of guilt and anxiety about not being able to give 100% to either work or family.
• Challenges of keeping clear boundaries between work and home, particularly when parents are working from home or 'catching up' on work at home.
• Children do support parents by complying with routines, helping with chores, looking after themselves and younger siblings.
• Negotiating changes in responsibility for children as they get older, particularly when they move to secondary school
• Helping children to understand work as part of everyday life is often justified by financial gains.

For more information please contact Jeni at jeni.harden@ed.ac.uk


Growing Up in Scotland

Growing Up in Scotland is a major longitudinal research study following the lives of over 10,000 children across Scotland from infancy through to the teenage years. Parenting is one of a number of topics covered in the study, with the data able to tell us how parents in Scotland are parenting, what factors influence parenting and parenting practices, and how parenting affects childrens' outcomes. Some of the findings include:

• The support provided by grandparents should not be underestimated, with many grandparents involved in childcare or babysitting on a regular basis.
• Social support networks are very important in the lives of families with young children.
  
• Most mothers have contact with professionals, although young mothers, particularly lone mothers in low income groups are most wary of asking for help from professionals.
  
• Early parenting approaches and experiences have an impact on social, emotional and behavioural development at age 5.
• Children living in low-income households are doing home-learning activities like reading and singing less frequently, which impacts on cognitive development. They are also less likely to visit places like farms and museums.
  

For more information go to: www.growingupinscotland.org.uk

The National Parenting Strategy aims to highlight the value and importance of parenting, recognising the wide range of influences on growing children - mums, dads, grandparents and the wider family, foster, kinship and adoptive parents. The Government has asked partner organisations to engage with parents and others with a parenting role across Scotland, seeking their views of what would help them to be the best parents they can be for their children. They will then gather views from practitioners through the consultation on the Children's Services Bill, with a view to publishing the strategy later in 2012.

For more information please contact Clare.Collin@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

GUS inform Scottish Parliament enquiries

Findings from the Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) study were presented to the Scottish Parliament Finance Committee enquiries into preventative spending. GUS is a major longitudinal research project that tracks the lives of several groups of Scottish children through their early years and beyond. To date, over 15,000 children have been included in the study, which means that around one in 10 children born in Scotland in the specified years (2002-03; 2004-05 and 2010-11) have been included in the study.

GUS was invited to give evidence as part of the committee’s on-going consideration of preventative spending. The study is uniquely placed to provide understanding of the influence of children's early circumstances and experiences from a specifically Scottish perspective.

The transcript is available from: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28862.aspx?r=6901&mo

Child Poverty - What about welfare benefits and making work pay?

The key elements of welfare benefits and making work pay appear to be off the table in the discussion about how to eradicate child poverty in the UK. The Scottish Government in its recent consultation paper Tackling Child Poverty in Scotland: A Discussion Paper stated that these were reserved measures and outwith the scope of the Scottish Government. The UK Coalition Government's consultation to inform its child poverty strategy states that 'tackling poverty is not about moving people above an arbitrary income line'.

While the evidence shows that the causes of poverty and disadvantage for people are complex, we know that money does make a difference. We know that low incomes families in Scotland believe that government has a role in addressing low income but have mixed views over the success of government intervention and those of its agents (1). Parents living in deprived areas were more likely than other parents to report low access to services like childcare, health and leisure facilities. Parents living in deprived areas and/or in social housing were also most likely to be dissatisfied with their local facilities (1,2).

Dealing with debt, issues related to long-term unemployment and ensuring access to good services and advice will have a positive effect on families with children. Mothers on low incomes combining paid work and caring for their families sometimes continue working even though it doesn’t pay, suggesting that work itself is important for them. They identify support for the costs of childcare as important but not always sufficient and also suggest that governments need to tackle the problem of making work pay (3).

It is essential that discussion of social security and income are put back on the table for this debate.


(1) CRFR, McKendrick J, Cunningham-Burley S and Backett-Milburn K (2003) Life in low
income families in Scotland: Research report. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive.
(2)Growing Up in Scotland Topic Research Findings No.3/2009 ‘Parenting in
the Neighbourhood Context’ Edinburgh: Scottish Government.
(3) Backet- Milburn K, S Cunningham-Burley and D Kemmer (2001) Caring and providing: Lone
and partnered working mothers in Scotland. Edinburgh: Family Policy Studies Centre and
Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

To see the full CRFR response to Tackling Child Poverty in Scotland: A Discussion Paper see http://www.crfr.ac.uk/reports/Tackling%20child%20poverty.pdf

Parents, children and discipline - why the environment in which families live is still important

When CRFR launched a new research briefing this week - focussing on various aspects of parenting amongst families two and four year olds- the part that was picked up particularly by the press concerned smacking. The briefing was based on the Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) study, conducted by the Scottish Centre for Social Research, which involves annual interviews with parents of young children. (see www.growingupinscotland.org) .

The study showed that the majority of parents don’t believe that smacking does much good but by the time their child approached four, a third of them had been smacked. An earlier piece of Scottish government commissioned research explored parents attitudes to smacking in more detail demonstrating parents in Scotland often hold a range of views. (See Disciplining children: Research with parents in Scotland).

Smacking is sometimes seen as a necessary ‘last resort’, and many parents acknowledge that this reflects their weakness and need in the moment of anger, rather than a genuine attempt to discipline their child. Also those who think of smacking as sometimes useful, qualify this by referring to a very narrow age group, typically aged 3 to 8 years old. (See Brownlie and Anderson, writing in the journal Childhood vol 13, 2006, pages 479-498).

So it seems that most parents are either against or ambivalent about smacking. Might this ambivalence actually extend to other forms of disciplining – such as raising your voice and the now popular ‘naughty step’? Do these also sometimes reflect parents’ reactions to their child’s behaviour as much as the actual ‘naughty’ behaviour itself?
If disciplining children becomes simply expressing dominance – ‘do as I say or else’ - then that seems to be a more limited message than many parents would wish to be giving when bringing up their children.

Other research shows clearly that we have to acknowledge differences between families, particularly in terms of relative advantage and disadvantage. Although it seems that all parents say they have the same aim of wanting their children to become responsible for themselves and to behave decently towards others, the ways this might be achieved might differ. Parents’ views about children’s obedience to authority might mean that for some, getting children to ‘do as you’re told’ remains a fact of life – but in a context of disadvantage or even danger, this might be an understandable attempt to keep children safe. For others, particularly parents who are relatively privileged, the resources to help a child to ‘realise their potential’ might obviate the need for immediate obedience to a parental demand. (see Gillies, V. 2005 'Raising the "Meritocracy" Parenting and the Individualization of Social Class'. Sociology 39: 835-853)

Certainly parents will have different views about the need for children’s obedience to authority, with some being more authoritarian than others, but these have to be understood in the context of the very different lives and resources that families have.