Family Influences in Child Development Research Paper

Family Influences in Child Development - Research Paper Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that in order for children to develop balanced emotional health, families must be able to provide them with the right balance of discipline and love. Through the right balance of firmness and gentleness in parenting, a child is able to gain a positive attitude and is able to take better control of his life when he reaches adulthood. In my first interaction with my respondent, I noticed that despite his young age, he was pretty confident in answering my questions. In fact, he was more engaged than I expected. He warmed up with me fast enough, I think. He was friendly and confident, and I remembered at least one time when I thought, â€Å"Am I really talking to a 15-year old?† He sounded so much older and it felt that he was much older than he looked. These observations were pretty important to me because it indicated how well this child was developing. I wanted to know the social and interpersonal skills of my respondent before I starte d asking about how he was raised by his family. One thing to note about this respondent is that he was the youngest person in the family, his siblings were years older than him. It is perhaps because of the huge gap in their age that he does not typically get into conflict with his siblings. According to the respondent, his sisters usually give in during the conflict, or they bargain with him instead of arguing. The more mature siblings try to understand the younger brother because, well, he is younger and is immature. How the siblings were disciplined by the parents remain a mystery for my respondent, and I tend to think that this is because the parents have a different way of correcting the older children’s behavior. In the latter part of the interview, my respondent said that his parents never scold him in public, so it is very possible that his siblings are also reprimanded in private.