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Clinical Professional in different contexts
Final assignment Part 1: Research Plan
Course code: 201600205
NAME & LAST NAME
Working group lecturer: --
Peer reviewer: --
May 26, 2022
Part 1 number of words: 1988
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a. Family composition and demographic characteristics
X is a 7-year-old girl who immigrated with her parents to the Netherlands from Aruba
since she was 5 years old. Her mother Y is a 29-year-old woman from Aruba. The father Z,
(29-years old) also from Aruba works a full-time job at a delivery agency. Y and Z separated
since X was 2 years old. X is the only child within this family. Both Y and Z co-parent X
since they were living in Aruba and now in The Netherlands. Karol lives mainly with her
mother on the weekdays in Utrecht and stays with her father in Rotterdam on the weekends.
Although Y has full parental custody of X, both parents raise X together while living
separately. Y and Z speaks Papiamento, English, Spanish and Dutch. The main language they
speak with X is Papiamento. Since moving to the Netherlands both parents had to adapt to the
culture and language of the Netherlands. Two impactful life events on the family were
moving to the Netherlands in 2020 and the passing of X's grandmother (Y's mother 4 years
ago).
b. Operationalisation of research themes
1. Developmental tasks and child-rearing tasks in the current stage of the family, and
potential areas of tension
Developmental and child-rearing tasks can be understood as tasks that are performed
during the transition of physical, cognitive, and socioemotional developments in a child's life
span (Chung, 2018). Similarly, developmental tasks provide a clear overview of the
milestones a child is to reach in accordance with her age-related peers. To assess the
developmental tasks and screen for possible developmental delays in physical, cognitive, and
socioemotional development, a combination of an observation in the home setting as well as
through the family questionnaire Gezinsvragenlijst (GVL), and Comprehensive General
Parenting Questionnaire (CGPQ) was administered. The GVL for children 4-18 years old
consists of 45 questions using 5 subscales (responsivity, communication, organization, and
social networks) with an overall satisfactory COTAN assessment. These subscale themes
help to assess the quality of development of the child as well as assess the quality of child-
rearing with. Parenting style have also shown to have a significant impact on the
development of children, both positive and negative (Sanvictores & Mendez, 2021). It has
been shown that culture influences parenting styles and as a result influences the child's
behavior (Sanvictores & Mendez, 2021).
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The questionnaires were filled in by both the mother and father to compare
similarities and differences in child-rearing tasks of the 7-year-old. Moreover, considering
that elements in a system are interdependent, the acquisition of information from both parents
allowed the investigator to reduce the bias (Nix et al., 1999) by combining different methods
of measurement (Holden & Miller, 1999). As cited from (Deal et al. (1989) "where there is
more agreement or similarity, the expectation is greater homeostasis within the system with
implications for promoting wellbeing among its members". To assess the developmental
milestones, a part of the Functional Emotional Observation Scale (FEAS) was used to guide
the observation. The FEAS has a good validity assessment by COTAN and measures the
social, emotional cognitive and communicative capabilities between the child and the parent-
figure.
2. Parenting and caregiving behaviour
The theme of parenting and caregiving behavior was conceptualized as the extent to
which parents help their children with everyday problems and show affection as well as
extent that supervision of children's activities and relationships, and coercive disciplinary
actions are implemented (Amato and Fowler,2002). To assess how the parenting and
caregiving behavior influence child adjustments the parenting styles are identified (Lee et al.,
2006). A parent who is authoritative blends warmth and support within a disciplinary
framework that accommodates the child's developmental needs according to (Brenner & Fox,
1999; Darling & Steinberg, 1993). According to the literature on the developmental
outcomes, authoritative parenting style may benefit the child's psychosocial well-being.
Parents with an indulgent or permissive parenting style remains responsive to the child but
fails to set proper disciplinary boundaries Baumrind (1971, 1991). With attention to the
family composition and coparenting, focus was set on the "interpersonal cooperation and
communication regarding child rearing between the parents" (Pires & Martins, 2021).
Frequent and positive communication between coparents has shown to have positive
outcomes in child adjustment and high conflict between parents may result in inconsistent
parenting styles" (Pires & Martins, 2021).
To measure the degree of parenting and caregiving behavior based on the parenting
style, the Comprehensive General Parenting Questionnaire (Sleddens et al., 2014) was
administered. The CGPQ measures the five key parenting constructs as identified in the
literature including Nurturance, Overprotection, Coercive control, Behavioral control, and
Structure. Although the CGPQ has not been assessed for its quality by the COTAN, this
