The Child as Agent

Term Paper # 116533

Child, Youth Issues > Family Issues
Psychology

The Child as Agent

An exploration of the influence children have on their parents.

1,326 words () | 3 sources | MLA | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper questions whether a child is more influential toward one parent and relates that it is the mother who usually feels more liability when things go wrong with a child. The paper discusses how throughout the many stages of parenting, a child will act as an agent to the parents. The paper explains how this includes teaching parents new things, providing pleasure and contentment, affecting remarriage relationships and finally, leaving the parents with an overall sense of either accomplishment or failure.

From the Paper:

"It seems like a topic that has been beaten to death: How parents influence their children. Parents act as agents to their children. They are their moral compasses. The intricate and complex machine acting upon their children to learn attitudes and behaviors, to teach right from wrong, and to help them form values that will help them later in life when they are sent out into the world where they will become a significant member of society.
"We are constantly bombarded with information about how mothers can influence their daughter's eating habits, fathers can influence their son's interest in sports, both parents can influence the way a child feels about people who don't have the same skin color, the same religion, creed, and so on. Both mother and father are burdened with the great responsibility of influencing their children in positive ways, and trying to correct what they or society may have negatively influenced in the process of growing up."

Sample of Sources Used:

Ryff, Carolyn D. How the kids turn out. Psychology Today. Retrieved April 30, 2007from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19930101-000014.html
McElhany, Lori J. The relationship between marital quality and children in later liferemarriages: an exploratory study. Department of Human Development andFamily Studies, The University of Pennsylvania. February 1994.
Devor, G. M. Children as agents in socializing parents. The Family Coordinator, Vol.19, No. 3 (Jul., 1970), pp. 208-212. doi:10.2307/582020