Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

FIGURE 8 
According to developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind (1971), four main 
parenting styles characterize child rearing.
temperament 
Basic, innate disposition.
authoritative parents 
Parents who are 
fi rm, set clear limits, reason with their 
children, and explain things to them.
uninvolved parents 
Parents who 
show little interest in their children 
and are emotionally detached.
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Module 37 
Infancy and Childhood 
403
PsychWork
CHILD PROTECTION CASEWORKER
Name: 
Jason Larson
Position: 
Child Protection Caseworker
Education: 
BS in Human Services, Montana 
State University
Children are among the most vulnerable members of society. 
When they face abuse or neglect, a child protective services 
agency intervenes, and a caseworker is assigned to advocate 
for the child. 
Jason Larson, a child protection caseworker with the Child 
and Family Services Division of the Montana Department of 
Public Health and Human Services, notes that every case is 
unique. “The age of the children, the physical condition of the 
parents or caretakers, the physical condition of the home, 
whether the alleged perpetrator is living in the home or has 
access to the child are all factors to be considered,” he said. 
“In addition, whether or not I can corroborate the information quickly enough to 
gauge whether or not a child can stay in the home or needs to be removed is impor-
tant as well,” he added. 
Larson, who has been a caseworker for the past 15 years, works in a remote area 
of Montana which provides its own set of challenges. “Living and serving the rural 
part of Montana I have to be very creative with the services we have, as we are very 
limited in a lot of small towns across Montana,” Larson noted. “As a result, we use 
many different approaches to protect children.” 
One of those approaches, according to Larson, is a process called Family Group 
Decision Making, meetings in which the parents and all the service providers are at 
one table discussing the children and the family’s situation. 
“Everyone goes around the room and explains their concerns, and once this is 
complete, a plan is made for them to follow,” he notes. “These meetings are very effec-
tive in assisting the family as a whole so that we can apply all the resources available.”
We also need to keep in mind that these fi ndings regarding child rearing styles 
apply primarily to U.S. society, which highly values children’s growing indepen-
dence and diminishing reliance on their parents. In contract, Japanese parents encour-
age dependence to promote the values of cooperation and community life. These 
differences in cultural values result in very different philosophies of child rearing. 
For example, Japanese mothers believe it is a punishment to make a young child 
sleep alone; thus, many children sleep next to their mothers throughout infancy and 
toddlerhood (Kawasaki et al., 1994; Dennis et al., 2002; Jones, 2007). 
In sum, a child’s upbringing results from the child-rearing philosophy parents 
hold, the specifi c practices they use, and the nature of their own and their child’s 
personalities. As is the case with other aspects of development, then, behavior is a 
function of a complex interaction of environmental and genetic factors.