White Paper – Research Methods and Society – Raising Children Essay

This study was conducted to determine the likelihood of a person that was raised in a negative environment to raise their children in the same environment. Based on sources ranging from, the American Academy of Pediatrics, internet blogging sites, state counseling service sites and a survey our group has designed and conducted, the results show that there is about a 50/50 chance that adults that endured a difficult childhood will fall into the same routine and raise their children as they were raised. Our future. That’s what every child is.

A person’s childhood environment has everything to do with the world’s future.The home we grow up in shapes who we are for life, good or bad. Every experience you have as a child affects you.

It is proven that if you grew up in a loving, nurturing environment you will most likely raise your children the same. But what if your childhood was just the opposite? What of you were raised in abuse? The experiences you endured where negative? Are you more likely to raise your children the same? Some will say it’s inevitable that the apple won’t fall far from the tree while others will argue that people can successfully live a life completely different from the one their upbringings dictated.Our group is on the hopeful side of the debate.

We believe that a person is an individual, and while the struggle, or battle as we see it, is a hard one, people have the power to change familial habits. Just because you grew up in a home filled with addiction and abuse does not mean you have to fill your own with the same. It does not mean that you will choose to force your innocent children into the same experiences.

You have a choice. Everyday people are given the choice to change the course of their future, to make their children’s future a better one.Yes we do have to face the fact that some will get lost in the negative world, not by choice, but because they really did get sucked in too deep and unfortunately sometimes society and individuals just can’t undo what has been done to them. But we believe that people are innately good, that our souls strive to feel good, to do good, to be good, to teach good.

Literature Review Sage Journals Online Unfavorable family conditions such as alcoholism or abuse tend to make children more susceptible to raising their own children the same. Women were shown to “nish school” and marry/reproduce at a young age.Those coming from a negative home environment have lower mortality rates.

Xomba. com – blog Five out of ten children would consider their childhood to be unfavorable. These “broken children” grow up and suffer in many aspects of their lives.

They suffer emotionally, physically and financially. Their self esteem, their personal relationships, and even their careers can be affected. People that have endured and continue to harbor all that hurt usually become anti- social. By feeling that the world is against them, or that they are just gods joke, they can create an illusion where they are comfortable and can not get hurt.American Academy of Pediatrics When most people parent their children they reflect on their own childhood memories, memories that are both positive and negative.

What were your relationships like with your parents? Who was a positive influence and why? What was negative and why? Do you want to use the same style as your parents or a different one and why? These thought may be conscious and deliberate or not. You might not even realize that your determining your approach to parenting based on your own childhood. Personality traits and the understanding of your own can go a long way when trying to raise your child the “right” way.State education, counseling services – recognizing and overcoming the effects of dysfunctional families When issues such as alcoholism, mental illness, and physical or mental abuse are present in a family they can affect the children long into adulthood.

It is commen for these adults to suffer from low self esteem, difficulties in relationships, and the inability to trust others. They often feel alone and helpless, and many deny their feelings and reality. There are many types of dysfunction in families. * under-function – kids have to fend for themselves independence issues – never letting a child be on their own or forcing your children to always be alone.

* Alcoholic parents – life tends to be unpredictable rules are often different from day to day. Children are at a much higher risk of developing alcoholism themselves. * Abuse, verbal/mental, physical, or sexual – verbal, either direct or in the form of humor. Physical abuse is any intentional infliction of a physical injury or mark such as a bruise. Sexual abuse is any physical or mental contact that must be kept secret.

All races, socioeconomic levels, education levels, and religious affiliations are all an equal playing ground for abuse. There are ways to overcome the negative effects of growing up in a harmful environment, such as getting help, learning to identify and express emotions, trusting others(when appropriate), and taking care of yourself and your children. Products of abuse can break the cycle. They can raise the bar and set a new standard for their own family and children. We did encounter a few methodological problems throughout the study. We did not have to time to get a complete compilation of data through other avenues of research.We would have liked to research related topics to get a better understanding of the problem. If we had more time to conduct the study we would have chosen to do a variety of collection methods.

We would have liked to have done some person to person interviews and an online poll. Some limitations in the information we collected through the survey were; the data sample was not large enough to get a correct estimation, “warm and loving” is very subjective, the questions asked were not forward enough because we did not want to offend people, we do not know if the questions were answered ruthfully because we knew all of the test subjects personally, and some of the questions were left unanswered.We would have liked to analyze and come to a conclusion on the question of age, race, sex, or education levels having any bearing on the results. We also questioned if growing up in a certain era had any effect on if a person was more likely to be abused and if so were they more likely to chose to raise their children differently.

Results People polled were from the ages of 15 to 72. Most fell into the 20 to 31 age bracket. 9% White, 28% African American, 13% Other 58% Female, 38% Male, 4% NA. It was easier to get females to answer the survey. This was an open ended question that we would have liked to explore further. It would have been better asked in an interview.

Almost all people surveyed were currently enrolled at the ITT. We found that more people are getting further education. Our survey concluded that a good upbringing did increase a persons chance of success. 95% stated that their parents taught them to respect others. Most surveyed said their parents were friendly to strangers.Compared to the rest of he surveys findings we thought that 11% was quite a high number for those that were standoffish.

We thought that maybe this is another example of how people may have been less then honest with their answers. How do your parents treat people they know? 40 13 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Do they go out of their way to be nice Do they keep to themselves How do your parents treat people they know? Results seem to fit with the general findings of the survey. We don’t feel that people were entirely honest with the answers on this question. We did have issues with these 2 questions.

We feel that the results are not beneficial to the study because they were not worded properly. We should have given verbal discipline, then verbal punishment as an option. One is positive disapline the other is negative abuse.

Again the results are inconclusive. Warm and loving is very subjective. Results show that there is a 50/50 chance of changing the patterns of discipline and punishment. Based on our research, we have come to the conclusion that the chances of a person who has grown up in a negative environment raising his/her children the same is about 50/50.When most people find out their going to be parents they automatically say “I know what I won’t do”. They already know what they didn’t like about their own parents parenting. But do they really know how to do something different? It takes work and patience and attention.

You may find yourself doing the things you despised the most, this may be actually good or very bad. The thing to do is remember that your child is seeing and hearing and probably has all the same feelings you once had. So if what you’re doing is the right thing to do, understand your child’s point of view and discuss it with them.If what you’re doing is wrong or damaging to your child stop, remember it was a learned behavior – so your child may just end up continuing the cycle, change your ways and move on. Children are for the most part resilient, as long as you don’t continue in your parents footsteps the incident wont have too much of a lasting effect. An important thing to remember is that you can not change how you grew up but you can change how your child grows up.

Rather then just transmitting bad family patterns, you can start new family traditions.Bibliography1. American Academy of Pediatrics, www. medem. com , Bantam 2009 2.