Centre Staff
Media Mentions
Associate Professor Julie Fitness (28th August, 2008)
Dr Wayne Warburton (12 September 2008)
Name Associate Professor Julie Fitness
Associate Professor Julie Fitness was interviewed by Adele Horin. The article was for the Sydney Morning Herald 28/8/2008 on her research of Familial Favouritism and Rejection, which she presented at the Learning about Parenting Conference entitled Family Favourites and Black Sheep. (re-printed below) It was also printed in the Melbourne Age, Brisbane Times, WA today, The Independent Weekly SA, The Border Mail Albury and Canberra Times.
Associate Professor Fitness was also interviewed by ABC Radio nationally, 2UE Sydney, 2GB Sydney, 4BC Brisbane, Vega 95.3 Sydney and The Moring Show KBLJ Austin USA
Date 28 August 2008
Favouritism damages children
Odd one out ... extended families help to alleviate the isolation felt by "black sheep". Photo: Isobel Pegrum Adele Horin, August 28, 2008
Parents say they love their children equally. But new research shows most people can easily identify the family "favourite" as well as the "black sheep". The research, by Julie Fitness, associate professor of psychology at Macquarie University, shows 69 per cent of her sample of 70 could identify the family "favourite" and 80 per cent could identify the "black sheep". "Parents say they treat their children equally. But when you ask people they say 'Of course there was a favourite.' They take it for granted." Dr Fitness said the middle child was almost never considered the favourite. The favourites were usually the oldest or the youngest, or the only boy or girl in a family dominated by one sex; or the child who shared a parent's interests and outlook. "People say, 'Mum always liked her best because she looked like her or shared her interests," Dr Fitness said. "Or 'My father didn't take to me because I wasn't sporty like him.' "She said it was often easier for parents to like the child who was like them. They might love their children but not necessarily like all of them or relate well to different temperaments. Parents felt guilty and tried to disguise their preferences. "But children are incredibly sensitive to parental approval and disapproval," she said, "and compare themselves to their siblings, to variations in parental warmth and approval."She said adults who considered themselves the black sheep placed themselves on a continuum from feeling not loved or part of the family to being just a little bit different and getting the "raw end of the stick" more often than was fair.
For some black sheep the consequences could be lasting, serious and sad. "The family is the primary social unit and if you feel you are not accepted or loved by your parents where does that leave you in this tough world?" Dr Fitness said it could be tough for parents, too. But accepting a child's difference, and not blaming, was a start to understanding. And having involvement with an extended family was also beneficial. Those respondents who had most involvement with extended family were the least likely to say there had been a favourite or black sheep. "If you don't get on well with your mum or dad there might be an aunt down the road to take the pressure off the hothouse of the nuclear family," she said. The research will be presented at a conference held by the Children's Family Research Centre at Macquarie University starting today.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/08/27/1219516565439.html
Name Dr Wayne Warburton
Dr Wayne Warburton was interviewed by Adele Horin. The article was for the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH12/92008) on his research of Fathers and Domestic Violence entitled Parent gender, aggressive behavior and the development of maladaptive ways of thinking, which he presented at the Learning about Parenting Conference. (The most accessed story on SMH website for that morning.) The SMH article also appeared in The Financial Review, Melbourne Age, Brisbane Times, Canberra Times, WA Today and 174 Australian regional newspapers/news services. The article was also published on 31 overseas newspapers and websites from USA, Canada, New Zealand, India and Hong Kong. (article re- printed below).
Dr Warburton was also interviewed by ABC Newcastle and Hunter, 2.10 Friday 12.9.08; Carol Duncan, Syndicated to ABS Upper Hunter, ABC Sydney, 3.15 Friday 12.9.08; Richard Glover (Drive), Syndicated to ABC Central Coast, RadioLive New Zealand, 2.40 Monday 15.9.08, 2GB Sydney, 12/9/08 Jason Morrison and ABC Queensland, 3.50 Monday 15.9.08.
Date 12 September 2008
It’s all your mother’s fault, of course (print Title)
The sins of the mother (web Title)
When Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears ran amok, the public blamed their mothers. Their fathers - Lohan's had served time in jail and had addiction problems - escaped rebuke entirely. Now an Australian study provides some evidence that bad mothering has a worse effect on children than bad fathering. It shows that mothers who exhibit "toxic" behaviours - from being cold and indifferent to being abusive, manipulative or over-controlling - are far more likely to warp their children's outlook on life than fathers with similar behaviour. Wayne Warburton, a research fellow at Macquarie University's Children and Families Research Centre, said: "Mothers have a really powerful effect on the way their kids view the world and themselves, probably because kids spend more time with their mothers, especially in the crucial early years." Dr Warburton asked 441 university students to fill out detailed questionnaires on the parenting styles of their mothers and fathers, and on their own patterns of thinking. He asked them to recall 72 parenting behaviours, including "making a child feel ashamed", being unloving or rejecting, and frequently telling the child they were stupid or would fail. He also asked questions designed to uncover destructive thinking patterns in the students, such as being "clingy" out of a fear of being abandoned. He found young adults were two-thirds as likely to develop unhelpful patterns of thinking if the toxic parenting they had experienced came from their father rather than their mother. If a range of poor parenting behaviours existed, they tended to be found in the same parent, the study found. Just over 22 per cent of the mothers and 14 per cent of the fathers were classified as toxic. Dr Warburton said he was surprised that toxic mothers outnumbered toxic fathers. "When I first saw the figure I thought many of the people came from single-parent families but that wasn't true. I'm at a loss to explain it." He said while mothers had more influence on their children, it was surprising that fathers had two-thirds the effect of mothers, given their lower levels of contact. "Fathers still have a significant effect on the development of their kids' patterns of thinking."
This story was found at:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/parenting/toxic-mothers/2008/09/11/1220857740080.html