Parents invest both material and emotional resources in bringing up their kids. Time spent and input put parents are crucial to the growth and well-being of children. It is through the interaction and spending time together that parents can transmit statuses such as economic and social to their children (Guryan et al., 2008). The purpose of this paper is to review the literature to establish children who spend more time with a parent are happier. In specific, this paper seeks to determine if children who spend quality time with parents record superior well-being.
The first section undertakes a critical review to establish if parents can enhance the well-being of children by spending quality time with them. By using the analytical review approach, this research paper would examine the purpose, research design, findings, and limitations of the peer-reviewed studies. The results of these studies would form the basis of this paper. The first section, therefore, scrutinizes research findings to establish the connection between parental quality time and children’s well-being. The second part explores how gender roles and education attainment influences parental time dedicated to kids. The final section provides the student’s ideas and opinion.
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The Well-being of Children
The parent-child relationship is beneficial to the well-being of the family members. Parenting who spend time with their children also record high satisfaction in terms of parenting. Spending with children increases their well-being because parents and their kids can communicate and build stronger relationships. Offer (2014) argues that family time is a chance for parents to evade the burdens of the work environment and refill or re-energize themselves. Spending time with kids is beneficial to parents because it lowers work-family dispute, and thus, translating to a child’s well-being. Parents can enhance the welfare of children by engaging in a range of outdoor activities and events such as visiting the parks and arranging for birthday parties. Lane (2011) illustrating the importance of localizing economies as a way of increasing family happiness. According to Lane (2011), families that spend time together are happier because of the increased connections. This means that parents who take children to school, do house chores together, watching TV together, and have meals, as a family are more likely to boost the well-being of their children (Lane, 2011).
Spending time with kids is vital to the well-being of children because it implies increased parental availability and supervision. Quality time not only promotes the health of children but also secures the relationship between parents and children. The objective of the study by Offer (2014) was to determine the time parents spend with their kids and establish how it varies based on the activity and the gender of the parents. By applying the experience sampling technique and data obtained from more than 500 families, Offer (2014) investigated if parents enjoy spending time with their children. The researcher also wanted to establish if a parent’s gender and activities influence emotional experience. The results of this study concluded that the aspects mentioned above are both beneficial to the parents and children’s well-being. In particular, Offer (2014) clarifies that passive and non-focused time increase children’s mental well-being. Moreover, parents also derive pleasure and satisfaction from the activities they engage in. However, the sample used by Offer (2014), which is purely from middle-class parents can limit the generalizability of the findings. There is a possibility that socio-economic status can influence the time and the connection between parents and kids. For instance, Guryan et al. (2008) illustrate that parents with higher education tend to dedicate quality time to their kids more. This implies that financial status can influence the amount of time a parent spends with children. Despite this limitation, there is strong evidence to conclude that parents who dedicate quality time boost the emotional well-being of their kids.
Moreover, recent findings suggest that increased informal contact between parents and children increases happiness. However, social and casual contact may vary from one country to another. The study by Akaed (2018) investigated how informational social interactions with relatives and family members influence happiness. The study used the International Social Survey Program data from 2007 to examine how different factors influence informal social interactions and defamilialization. The research established that an increased in informal social interactions boost the happiness levels of family members. On the other hand, the researcher found out that defamilialization can affect family happiness levels negatively. This research, therefore, concurs with the findings presented by Offer (2014). Moreover, the study by Akaed (2018) is useful because it uses several measures, such as informational social interactions and happiness. However, there is a need to use cohort studies to determine how defamilialization and social interactions influence satisfaction in families with time. Nevertheless, this study helps to establish that defamilialization can affect the relationship in families or with relatives negatively.
Equally, a 2013 newspaper report by The Time London illustrated the importance of parents spending more time with their children (Smyth, 2013). According to the newspaper report, parents who make time to share meals with families and restrict children from watching television often make their kids happy. Based on the findings by Health England, children tend to unhappy and anxious because of reduced exercise, binge-watching, and poor diet. Health experts have also established that there is a connection between social issues and mental health problems. Physical activity improves social behaviors and translates to higher self-esteem. Hence, parents who restrict their children from watching television help to boost their self-esteem and social and emotional well-being. Moreover, there is a secure connection between long hours of playing computer games or watching television and social issues among children. Health experts, therefore, suggest that parents should give children quality time and encourage them to swap video games with family discussions and exercise. However, some health experts argue that several factors contribute to children’s emotional and physical well-being. Some of these factors include the environment and family circumstances, such as social and financial. Nevertheless, parents can do simple things to improve the well-being of their children: spending time with them. Overall, this newspaper report illustrates that parents should dedicate time to their kids to help them deal with emotional and social issues.
However, in the 2015 Daily Mirror report, Gregory (2015) presents evidence to reveal that parents should not overly control their children. For instance, psychological control can result in adverse outcomes. Health experts argue that parents who are more caring but applying less mental control raise happy children. In other words, while parents should monitor and supervise their children, they should draw a line between caring and psychological control. Evidence suggests that parental care is an essential predictor of mental well-being in early and middle age. Moreover, paternal care has a considerable impact on overall well-being in adulthood. However, individuals whose guardians exercised significant emotional control in babyhood experience considerable lower emotional well-being in adulthood. According to this newspaper report, a cohort study involving over 5, 000 people since 1946 established that parenting had a long-term effect on mental wellbeing. Based on the findings of this study, parental influence or impact can continue to old age. According to Dr. Mai Stafford, parents who exhibit responsiveness and warmth contribute to better life satisfaction and greater emotional well-being among their children. These experiences or outcomes are influential in early, middle, and old age. In contrast, psychological control has a considerable connection with lower mental well-being and satisfaction in life. Some of the instances of emotional control include fostering dependence and infringing upon a child’s privacy. According to Dr. Stafford, parents should understand that they could provide their kids with a firm foundation, from which they can discover life. In general, responsiveness and warmth can enhance emotional and social development. On the other hand, psychological control hinders a child’s independence, leaving children unable to control their behavior. Therefore, this newspaper report concurs with the findings discussed above, that parents play a critical role in enhancing the well-being of their kids.
Gender Roles and Education
Studies also reveal that several factors such as gender, education, and financial resources can influence the time spent between guardians and kids. For instance, Renk et al. (2003) explore the connection between a parent’s gender and the time guardians dedicate to their children. More than 270 participants finished a questionnaire concerning time spent with their kids. The parents also completed a demographic survey. The findings of this survey established that sex or gender role do not predict the quality time spent by parents with children. However, the parent’s sex and income status predicted the level of responsibility parents showed and other child-related activities. Moreover, the sex of a parent, combine with femininity, helped to predict parental satisfaction in terms of responsibilities related to raising a child. The findings by Renk et al. (2003) are vital in exploring parental features in connection with the time parent dedicate to their kids and even the level of parental responsibility in relation to child-related activities. However, the study by Renk et al. (2003) has critical limitations. For instance, the sampling technique used places considerable constraints on external validity. In particular, the population of fathers and mother used is mainly middle class and educated. A random sampling technique, which can include participants from different educational backgrounds, socio-economic status, and family settings, would provide detailed insights in understanding how parents spend their time with children.
Gender roles or differences can influence the time parents can set aside for children. The findings presented by Offer (2014) reveal that mothers dedicate considerable tome to children in some child-related activities than fathers do. The above trend may illustrate the existing gender gap in overall childcare. Moreover, the findings help to demonstrate how mothers shoulder the major responsibility in childcare and strategies used by mothers to balance work and family. Mothers also tend to engage children in the absence of the father. Renk et al. (2003); however, clarify that the findings help to illustrate that both fathers and mothers still operate within the traditional responsibilities when it comes to childcare. Nevertheless, even though it appears that fathers and mothers are spending equal time with children, mothers perform the majority of child-related responsibilities. Moreover, mothers who perform the main activities related to child well-being and working outside their homes may experience high levels of stress. Therefore, there is a need for employers to offer helpful services to families, such as childcare programs, extended leave, and assistance programs focusing on stress reduction. Overall, fathers and mothers must examine their parenting responsibilities and come up with an effective division of labor to benefit their families.
Educational attainment is another factor that predicts the time parents dedicate to their kids. The aim of the study by Guryan et al. (2008) was to establish the amount of time set aside by parents to take care of their children. Based on the American Time Use Surveys, the researchers established parents with a high level of education dedicate more time to their kids. For instance, a mother with a university degree spends up to five hours weekly taking care of their children than mothers with less educational attainment. Moreover, from an economic point of view, educated parents tend to use more financial resources on their children. It appears that less-educated parents may be working in two or more jobs, spending most of their time away from families. However, the findings by Guryan et al. (2008) can only apply to specific regions such as the U.S.
Personal Synthesis
Evidence suggests that the time spent by parents with children influences the well-being of kids. I believe that family is the fundamental unit of emotional development. As Akaeda (2018) clarifies, families and relatives play a leading role in providing emotional protection. Therefore, families not only provide emotional support and well-being to children but also bring happiness to all members. While parental time with children is vital, several factors influence the time spent by parents with children. Some of these factors include finance, type of family, and culture. According to the 2015 Family Fun Magazine, factors such as money, family game, and dream vocation makes families happy. Money is just a facilitator. Parents should strive to spend more time with families to enhance the emotional well-being of their kids.
Conclusion
In conclusion, parents who spend more time with their kids serve a defining role in enhancing the emotional well-being of their kids. However, most of the studies reviewed have critical limitations in terms of generalizability. It appears that the findings explored above only apply to specific populations, such as educated and middle-income parents. In the future, there is a need to use a random sampling technique to establish how low-income parents dedicate time to their kids. A cohort study would be useful to explore how low-income families spend time with children across time.
References
Akaeda, N. (2018). Social contact with family and happiness: Does the association vary with Defamilialization? European Sociological Review , 34 (2), 157-168. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcx088
Close-Up Media, Inc (2015). Family Fun Magazine Reports Families Are Happier Today Than Previous Generations
Gregory, A. (2015). Children whose parents are less controlling lead happier lives says study; Study tracked 5,000 people since birth in 1946 and highlights how parenting can have long-term impact on wellbeing through to old age. Daily Mirror .
Guryan, J., Hurst, E., & Kearney, M. S. (2008). Parental education and parental time with children. https://doi.org/10.3386/w13993
Lane, R. (2011). Raising happy children in a new world. GreenHome . 24.
Offer, S. (2014). Time with children and employed parents’ emotional well-being. Social Science Research , 47 , 192-203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.05.003
Renk, K., Roberts, R., Roddenberry, A., Luick, M., Hillhouse, S., Meehan, C., ... & Phares, V. (2003). Mothers, fathers, gender role, and time parents spend with their children. Sex Roles , 48 (7-8), 305-315.
Smyth, C. (2013). More family meals and less TV 'make children happier.’ The Times (London, England).
