Life at 3
Behaviour
Key Findings on the triggers for Self Control problems
from Wave 1 and 2 of Growing Up in Australia,
The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children
Self-regulation and school
Other research has shown that a child who has problems with self-regulation can have a difficult time at school, socially and academically.
Stressful Life Event
- 8% of primary carers of children aged 2-3 years reported 4 or more serious life stress events in the previous year.
- For both cohorts, commonly reported stresses were the death of a relative or close friend and the serious illness, injury or assault of a close relative.
- There is more hostile parenting in families going through a crisis situation. More hostile parenting means there is more anger and rejection toward the child and more withdrawal from and rejection of the child.
Boys more vulnerable
- There was evidence of boys being more vulnerable to negative learning and behavioural outcomes, even in infancy, but more clearly in childhood. The greater vulnerability of boys in early childhood to difficulties, particularly in terms of social behaviour and learning, is a commonly found phenomenon (Halpern, 2000; Ruble & Martin, 1998).
Parenting style
- Previous research shows strong associations between parenting quality and child outcomes. Specifically, the lack of a warm, positive relationship with parents; insecure attachment; harsh, inflexible, rigid or inconsistent discipline practices; and inadequate supervision of and involvement with children, increase the risk that children will develop major behavioural and emotional problems, including conduct problems, substance abuse, antisocial behavior, and participation in delinquent activities (Coie, 1996; Loeber & Farrington, 1998; Patterson, 1982).
- The findings for the child cohort suggest that parental hostility is correlated with the probability of a child falling in the bottom 15% of the distribution on the overall Outcome Index. It showed strong and consistent effects across all three samples (all families, couple families and lone parent families).
The impact of Family Breakdown
- The highest risk candidates for self-control issues are the children in the study whose parents have split up.
- 5.3% of the couple parents of toddlers in Wave 1 had separated by Wave 2, while for the older kids this was 5.0%. The length of the relationship made a difference. For the 2-3 year olds, couples that had lived together for less than 2 years at the time of Wave 1 broke up in 17.7% of cases, while those who had lived together 2 to 5 years broke up in 7.8% of cases, and those together for longer than 5 years only broke up in 3.2% of cases. For the older cohort couples that have lived together for 5 years and under stood a 16.1% chance of splitting up, while for those that had been together between 5 and 10 years the chance was 4.9%, while for those together 10 years or more it was 4.2%
- By wave 2, 15% of the children were living apart from one parent (not deceased)
- In Australia, by ages 12-18 years between 21% and 27% of all children have lived some portion of their childhood years in a lone parent family (de Vaus & Gray, 2003). In the majority of these families (around 93%), children have a biological parent living elsewhere (de Vaus, 2004), who may or may not provide care for the child. Past research has shown that a substantial proportion of non-resident parents have little/no contact with their children, and that over time, the frequency of contact declines for many non-resident parents and their children (Smyth & Fehlberg, 2002). Frequency of contact also varies with the child’s age at the time of parental separation, the child’s current age and is greater for non-resident parents who live closer to their child’s home. Post-divorce parenting arrangements are also closely related to the post-divorce financial arrangements and the level of conflict that occurs between the separated parents (Smyth, Sheehan, & Fehlberg, 2001). Demographic differences abound in these arrangements.
- Only 80% of parents who no longer lived with the study child’s primary carer had contact with the study child, the remaining 20% of these parents in both samples were reported to have no current contact. A range of factors appeared to be related to regular contact and overnight care. These included factors associated with the nature of shared parenting (whether there was a formal shared care agreement and a set pattern to contact); geographical proximity; the extent to which the non-resident parent was meeting their agreed financial contributions to the child; and the nature of the relationship between separated parents.
- Levels of conflict between the primary carer and the child’s other parent, as reported by the primary carer, were generally quite low. Despite this, conflict showed clear patterns of association with several aspects of care arrangements, being higher for those with no set pattern of contact, those living further away from the study child, and those who had paid a lower proportion of their agreed child support. Those with the lowest level of primary carer-other parent conflict had the most frequent contact with the study child in both samples, while the highest levels of conflict were for those in the medium frequency categories for infants and those with low frequency contact for children.
- In terms of the geographical proximity of the other parent to the residence of the study child there was considerable variability, with 25% of them living within 5kms of the child’s home; 25% within 5-19kms; 19% within 20-49kms and the remainder (31%) living 50kms or more away.
