Brief: Intergenerational Learning: A Review of the Literature

NCOFF Briefs summarize literature reviews and reports published by the National Center on Fathers and Families. The literature review that is summarized here was presented during the 1995-1996 NCOFF Fathers and Families Roundtable Series. This Series brought together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to examine issues surrounding the NCOFF Core Learnings and findings thought to be essential in working with fathers. This Brief describes the Intergenerational Issues literature review which was written by Vivian L. Gadsden of the University of Pennsylvania and Marcia Hall of Simmons College. NCOFF appreciates core funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and special project funding from the Ford and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundations.

Key Findings

• Most people base their parenting practices on the way they were raised, sometimes modeling and sometimes reacting against the techniques of their parents. However, the specific mechanism for intergenerational transmission and the actual effects of father involvement are difficult to determine.

   

• Grandparents, and often great-grandparents, are increasingly a source of support for families and may contribute to children's attitudes and beliefs as much as parents do.

   

• Parents affect adult children's attitudes and behaviors most clearly in the areas of religious practices and beliefs, political activism, and educational values, with some differential effects appearing in mothers' influence on daughters' activism and fathers' influence on sons' religious practices.

   

• There is still no clear-cut evidence about the effects of divorce on adult children, although increasingly studies associate divorce with a range of problems experienced by children in and out of school as well as single parenting in the next generation. The decline in a family's standard of living may explain many of the negative outcomes for children.

   

• Dysfunction in the family of origin seems to increase a person's propensity toward alcohol abuse. There is also evidence for a cycle of physical abuse which is generational and role-specific; men and fathers tend to be the ones who abuse, and women and mothers are abused.

   

• Most studies continue to rely on the comparative model in which family formation patterns of White, middle-class families are used as the norm; researchers try to determine how Black families "measure up" to White families.

  Recommendations for Research

   

• Researchers should examine the continuum of fathers' positive and negative impact.

   

• Researchers should increase the number and quality of studies that focus on intergenerational learning. However, researchers need to expand the subject and informant pool in order to understand how learning occurs in different populations and across social classes and emphasize strengths within ethnic families, particularly with respect to how they can be used to enhance support efforts.

   

• The increasing role of three- and four-generational families requires that researchers investigate how these multiple generations connect around children's development and what the long-term implications are for families. Researchers and practitioners must recognize the important role of grandparents as surrogate parents and thereby encourage public support and services that will facilitate their contributions to the healthy development of children.

   

• Although we should continue to examine the intergenerational effect of "healthy" homes, substantial work needs to focus on the negative consequences of living in a home in which there is abuse, alcoholism, or drug addiction and the differential effects of father involvement and absence.

  Recommendations for Practice

   

• Along with researchers, practitioners must construct effective ways to invite fathers into children's educational experiences and sustain their participation in the learning process.

  Programs can not focus only on the issues the fathers identify but must address also issues derived from their families of origin: that is, practices, beliefs, father presence and absence, and parenting.

  Programs should offer fathers useful approaches to working with their children and planning for future generations within their families.

  Recommendations for Policy

   

• Workplaces and government systems must overcome stereotypes that portray fathers primarily as breadwinners rather than caregivers, and actively promote paternal involvement through parenting education, flextime, parental leave, and other pro-family policies.

  Policymakers should build into grants incentives for grantees to include fathers during the course of the program and increase support for research and evaluation components that encourage researchers and practitioners to work collaboratively in the development and implementation of programs.

  Intergenerational Learning: A Review of the Literature

  Research on intergenerational learning in families includes a range of studies that focus on the transmission of beliefs and practices and the modeling of behaviors from generation to generation. Despite growing interest in intergenerational learning, research on the effects of father involvement on children's development represents but a small strand of work. In the absence of a critical core of research on fathers and intergenerational learning, the authors of the review focused on the broader issues of intergenerational, family, and life-course development. Most studies continue to rely on a comparative model in which White, middle-class family patterns are used as the norm.

  The review is divided into five sections summarizing the literature. The first section provides an overview of the issues that link intergenerationality and father involvement, including a brief discussion about fathers' perceptions of gender roles and their relationships with sons and daughters. The second section focuses on intergenerational and life-course issues that have emerged over the past 25 years, and the third section reviews some of the research that examines parental influences on children. Next, the authors describe some of the consequences of intergenerational learning within families described as "unhealthy." The fifth section addresses a subset of studies that focus on specific racial and ethnic groups. The authors conclude by commenting on some of the limitations of the research, reviewing critical issues from the previous sections, and offering recommendations for research and policy analyses.

  Intergenerationality and Fathers

  Research focuses on children and parents because of the important role that parents play in children's daily lives and in their subsequent well-being as adults. Both research and public discussions about fathers and their children tend to focus on the importance of fathers' relationships with sons. Studies that have included fathers typically have excluded their daughters. When research examines daughters, it is centered often on issues of gender identification or mending fractured and painful father-daughter relationships. During the 1960s and early 1970s, a large body of research emerged to suggest that fathers were more involved than mothers in reinforcing femininity in girls and masculinity in boys. Fathers stated explicitly that they felt more responsibility toward a male child than a female child. More recent work suggests that fathers consider their primary responsibility to be socializing their sons into the male world and protecting their daughters. The authors suggest that fathers who see their role as primarily the family provider may assign more importance to this aspect of their sons' future paternal responsibility, may consider it as outside the immediate concern of girls, or simply may feel unprepared to enter conversations about their personal experiences, expectations, and hopes with their daughters.

  References:

  Biller and Weiss, 1970; Gilbert et al., 1982; Johnson, 1963; Kristal, 1979; Lozoff, 1974; MacNabb, 1993; Walker and Thompson, 1983.

  Frameworks for Understanding Intergenerational Learning

  After identifying some of the major areas of intergenerational work on fathers, the authors of the review introduce frameworks and concepts used for understanding intergenerational learning. A traditional perspective on intergenerational learning asserts that parents are the principal agents of socialization in childhood, and that children learn their parents' beliefs, values, and attitudes through both direct teaching and indirect observation. This perspective assumes that childhood socialization is so powerful as to continue throughout adulthood. Research from the 1980s challenges this perspective by asserting that the similarities between children and parents may be as much a result of shared social and cultural statuses as of parents' socialization of children. Social statuses provide a comfortable context for beliefs to persist unchallenged because they cohere with or explain the life circumstances of individuals. A second challenge to the traditional perspective on intergenerational learning suggests that this learning can be bidirectional, as in the case of the Head Start program, in which a program designed for young children resulted in significant changes in parents' behavior as well.

  As another framework for understanding intergenerational learning, the authors discuss life-course approaches that examine the relationship between individual change and the timing of major life events, e.g., the onset of schooling. Family life-course frameworks emphasize the continuity and reciprocity of life experiences and suggest that families are units of individuals and that the events and episodes that affect individual family members also influence the unit and the course of family life.

  References:

  Acock, 1984; Elder, 1973, 1984; Gadsden, in press; Germain, 1994; Slaughter et al., 1987.

  Parent and Family Relationships

  The discussion of the impact of parents and families on intergenerational learning is divided into five general topics: (1) parenting and grandparenting, (2) relationships and intimacy, (3) educational, religious, and social behaviors and values, (4) family instability and divorce, and (5) status attainment.

  Parenting and Grandparenting. Children are likely to emulate the parenting behaviors to which they are exposed during their childhood. Generally, these are the behaviors of parents, but often they include grandparents. Many intergenerational studies have found that children who experience positive home environments tend to create similar environments for their children. Children who were exposed to corporal punishment appear to adopt less harsh parenting styles than their parents. For instance, grandparents in the Simons et al. (1991) study were more aggressive in parenting than the generation of parents actively engaged in childrearing. (Grandparents typically do not exact the same discipline on their grandchildren as they did on their own children.) Ijzendoorn (1992) suggests that little is known about the mechanism of intergenerational transmission of parenting and that it is difficult to ascertain how people specifically learn to parent.

  Intimacy. Children's experiences with their parents influence their perceptions about the quality of their intimate relationships and their mate choices. Fathers affect daughters' mate choices more than sons' choices. Fathers appear to play a key role in sex-role development for daughters and in the postures they assume in intimate relationships. Sons and daughters whose fathers were present and involved in the home report the greatest comfort around issues of sexuality.

  Attitudes and Beliefs. Relationships between parents and adult children appear strongest for mothers and daughters, with mothers having more influence on daughters' perceptions of gender roles. Parents seemingly affect adult children's attitudes and behaviors most often in religious practices and beliefs, political activism, and educational values, with some differential effects appearing in mothers' influence on daughters' activism and fathers' influence on sons' religious practices.

  Divorce and Marital Instability. Studies published through the 1960s and early 1970s found either no effect or little effect of living with a single parent. Since the 1980s, there has been an upsurge in studies that suggest that marital disruption has deleterious consequences for children. Despite inconsistency across studies, there is some agreement that parental divorce is associated with liberal attitudes toward divorce in adulthood. Much of the research since the 1980s makes reference to the impact of marital disruption on children's academic achievement, school experiences, psychosocial development, criminal behavior, and early parenting. Many of these effects are tied to the decline in the standard of living following divorce.

  Status Attainment. There are some data suggesting that there are intergenerational effects of poverty. More specifically, men who come from families with a history of welfare receipt are more likely to have low economic status themselves. The same negative relationship holds true for men who come from low-income, nonwelfare families. For women, there is some evidence that parents' level of college education indirectly shapes daughters' educational attainment and career choice.

  Negative Effects of Intergenerational Learning: "Unhealthy" Families

  The perpetuation of abuse over generations within a family is perhaps the most negative example of intergenerational continuity. Egeland et al. (1987) found that 70 percent of mothers abused as children abuse their own children. Victims who do not continue the cycle of abuse are those who are able to develop trust and intimacy by rising above the obstacles of an abusive childhood, at least in part through the support of loving partners and spouses and supportive networks in their adult lives. Despite differences in parenting practices across cultural and ethnic groups, large numbers of American families condone and use physical punishment in the rearing of their children, according to the National Family Violence Survey.

  Race and Ethnicity

  The issues of race, ethnicity, and class are among the least studied areas in intergenerational learning. There has been an historical bias in work on families and African Americans; in traditional studies, Black families are labeled often as different from the norm if not deviant. However, much of the work emerging in the 1960s and 1970s was developed around an alternative perspective that emphasized the strengths of African American families. Many of these studies aimed to respond to earlier work that described Black families as pathological. Several studies continued the focus on family strengths into the 1980s while exploring other directions for work in the field. More recent studies are attempts to advance the arguments in favor of the "strengths of Black families" and expand the perspective to include a variety of family types over time.

  References:

  Allen, 1985; Benson et al., 1992; Billingsley, 1968; Burton and Dilworth-Anderson, 1991; Duncan and Duncan, 1969; Egeland et al., 1987; Fry, 1993; Gadsden, 1995; Gutman, 1976; Hogan et al., 1990; Ijzendoorn, 1992; Jedlicka, 1984; Simons et al., 1991; Stack, 1974; Stack and Burton, 1993; Straus, 1991.

   

  References

  Acock, A. C. (1984). Parents and their children: The study of intergenerational influence. Sociology and Social Research, 68(2), 151-171.

  Allen, W. (1985). Race, income and family dynamics: A study of adolescent male socialization processes and outcomes. In M. Spencer, G. Brookins, & W. Allen (Eds.), Beginnings: The social and affective development of Black children, (pp. 273-292). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

  Benson, M.J., Larson, J., Wilson, S.M., & Demo, D.H. (1993). Family of origin influences on late adolescent romantic relationships. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 663-672.

  Biller, H. & Weiss, S. (1970). The father-daughter relationship and the personality development of the female. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 114, 79-82.

  Billingsley, A. (1968). Black families in White America. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

  Burton, L. M. & Dilworth-Anderson, P. (1991). The intergenerational family roles of aged Black Americans. Marriage and Family Review, 16, 311-330.

  Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Duncan, B. & Duncan, O. D. (1969). Family stability and occupational success. Social Problems, 16, 273-285.

  Egeland, B., Jacobvitz, D., & Papatola, K. (1987). Intergenerational continuity of abuse. In R. J. Gelles & J. B. Lancaster (Eds.), Child abuse and neglect: Biosocial dimensions, (pp. 255-276). New York: Aldine.

  Elder, G. H., Jr. (1974). Children of the Great Depression. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  Elder, G.H., Jr., Liker, J.K., & Cross, C. (1984). Parent-child behavior in the Great Depression: Life course and intergenerational influences. In P. B. Baltes & O. G. Brim, Jr. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior, (Vol. 6, pp. 109-158). New York: Academic Press.

  Fry, D. P. (1993). The intergenerational transmission of disciplinary practices and approaches to conflict. Human Organization, 52, 176-185.

  Gadsden, V.L. (In press). In our father's image, in our mother's heart: Life notes on families, race, and gender.

  Gadsden, V. L. (1995). Literacy and poverty: Intergenerational issues within African American families. In H. E. Fitzgerald, B. M. Lester, & B. Zuckerman (Eds.), Children of poverty: Research, health and policy issues, (pp. 85-118). New York: Garland Press.

  Germain, C. B. (1994). Emerging conceptions of family development over the life course. Families in Society, pp. 259-267.

  Gilbert, L., Hanson, G., & Davis, B. (1982). Perceptions of parental role responsibilities. Family Relations, 31, 261-269.

  Gutman, H. G. (1976). The Black family in slavery and freedom, 1750-1925. New York: Vintage Books.

  Herrenkohl, E. C., Herrenkohl, R. C., & Toedter, L. J. (1983). Perspectives on the intergenerational transmission of abuse. In D. Finkelhor, R. J. Gelles, G. T. Hotaling, & M. A. Straus (Eds.), The dark side of families: Current family research, (pp. 305-316). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

  Hogan, D. P., Hao, L. X., & Parish, W. L. (1990). Race, kin networks and assistance to mother-headed families. Social Forces, 68, 797-812.

  Ijzendoorn, M. H. V. (1992). Intergenerational transmission of parenting: A review of studies in nonclinical populations. Developmental Review, 12, 76-99.

  Jedlicka, D. (1984). Indirect parental influence on mate choice: A test of the psychoanalytic theory. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 46, 65-70.

  Johnson, M. M. (1963). Sex role learning in the nuclear family. Child Development, 34, 319-333.

  Johnson, M. M. (1982). Fathers and femininity in daughters: A review of the research. Sociology and Social Research: An International Journal, 67, 1-17.

  Kristal, J. L. (1979). The influence of the early father-daughter relationship on feminine sexual behavior. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas, Austin, TX.

  Lozoff, M. M. (1974). Fathers and autonomy in women. In R. B. Kundsin (Ed.), Women and success, (pp. 103-109). New York: Morrow.

  MacNabb, E. L. (1993). The fractured family: The second sex and its (dis)connected daughters. New York: P. Lang.

  Simons, R. L., Whitbeck, L. B., Conger, R. D., & Wu, C.-i. (1991). Intergenerational transmission of harsh parenting. Developmental Psychology, 27, 159-171.

  Stack, C. (1974). All our kin: Strategies for survival in the Black community. New York: Harper & Row.

  Stack, C. B. & Burton, L. M. (1993). Kinscripts. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 24, 157-170.

  Straus, M. A. (1991). Discipline and deviance: Physical punishment of children and violence and other crimes in adulthood. Social Problems, 38, 133-152.

  Walker, A. J. & Thompson, L. (1983). Intimacy and intergenerational aid and contact among mothers and daughters. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 45, 841-849.