Parenting Today
PAPER 2 (4-6 pages)
Prepare a short (4-6 pages) research paper that identifies several key issues related to the scenario you chose for your Lot in Life. Incorporate at least 8-10 scholarly, credible, and current references to support your ideas, drawing primarily from government and community agencies as well as scholarly journals and books. Include in-text citations and a reference list in APA format.
Your paper should have a cover sheet that lists your name, the BEHS 343 section number and the scenario you have chosen. Your paper should be double-spaced and use a standard font (e.g. Times New Roman, 12 pt). Be sure to include a reference list at the end of your Part 2 assignment.
Paste your Part 1 assignment in at the end of this research paper.
Assignment Format and Referencing Style
Use UMGC’s online Guide to Writing and Research for the format, especially for how to cite your references. You may also wish to consult guidelines for APA style. (Do not use footnotes at the bottom of the page; rather, following APA, list your references at the end of the paper.)
Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional use of another person’s words or ideas without giving credit to the author. Make sure you read chapter 5, Academic Integrity and Documentation, in the Guide to Writing and Research. The UMGC Undergraduate Catalog also contains a lengthy discussion on Academic Integrity and Academic Dishonesty. In cases of suspected plagiarism, the assignment in question will not be graded and the student may be reported to the Dean for sanction. Sanctions can include failing the assignment, failing the course, or in extreme cases, expulsion from the university.
Web Resources
As you use the Web for information, you should be aware of the fact that the Web has both good and bad information, as well as information that is biased. There are many online resources devoted to finding and evaluating information on the Web. A very detailed discussion of how to evaluate information can be found in the UMGC library website. Do not use Wikipedia as a source for your information.
Finally, sources that tend to have good information include the following: college or university department sites (be careful of student pages; some are very good, but some are not so good), professional organizations, governmental agencies, professional journals, and regularly published newspapers and magazines.
Sample Answer
Part 2
The chosen lots of life is the scenario where I am expecting my first baby and making consideration on the sleeping arrangements. The consideration is sharing a bed with the child and the spouse. The concept of the family bed, which refers to parents and children sharing a sleeping surface, is considered a major controversial topic in research on parenting. The topic not only invokes different strong opinions among spouses based on their backgrounds but also among health experts such as psychologists, doctors, and child development specialists. Those opposing bed-sharing highlights the significance of allowing the baby to sleep separately in a crib for developmental and safety concerns. The advocates of bed-sharing highlight the benefits of bed-sharing both to the mother and the child. The discussion part two will review the benefits and possible risks of bed-sharing based on current research findings.
Prevalence of bed-sharing varies across cultures, socioeconomic groups, and countries. In most non-Western cultures, contact between a mother and an infant during sleeping remains a norm. There are various reasons for bed-sharing, including cultural norms emphasizing the development of interdependence and closeness. Parents can also decide to bed share to cope with the sleep problems of a toddler. Beliefs that bed-sharing fulfills the emotional needs of the child and the parents may influence bed-sharing. Other families may practice bed sharing as an economic necessity as the practice is common among individuals in low socioeconomic status. The practice is also common among parents with lower education (Covington, Armstrong, & Black, 2019). The risk and safety of bed-sharing are dependent on the knowledge of parents on how to create a safe sleeping environment.
Historically, the mammalian pattern of mothers sleeping in direct proximity to their young ones has been followed by humans, with many cultures condoning the aspect of bedsharing and encouraging it. Among certain populations, such as in Tokyo, putting the baby in a nursery is considered cruel and cold. Bed-sharing ceased to be significant to the survival of an infant with the availability of permanent dwellings and cribs, resulting in a shift in cultural values that increased emphasis on bottle-feeding, individualism, and the sanctity of marriage (Mileva-Seitz, Bakermans-Kranenburg, Battaini, & Luijk, 2017). Bed-sharing began to be considered physically and psychologically harmful due to findings of growing research on the Sudden infant death syndrome as risks increases with bed-sharing.
Bed-sharing is associated with infant arousal and is linked to the negative impact on the quality of sleep of an infant (Straw & Jones, 2017). The infants sleep lighter and have shorter periods of deep sleep than infants sleeping alone in their cribs. Nighttime waking during infancy and lack of consolidated sleep is culturally termed as sleep problems. Across cultures opposing bed-sharing, the practice is thought to interfere with self-regulation, preventing or delaying sleep consolidation during nighttime, and encouraging sleep-related behavior. The practice is associated with blocking the development of appropriate sleep control and preventing appropriate sleep, and the practice is viewed as a primary ground for the development of certain sleep disorders relating to sleep maintenance and initiation (Mileva-Seitz, et al., 2017).
Bed-sharing is strong associated with SIDS, and the risks increase in the presence of factors such as smoking. Studies indicate that infants sharing a bed with parents that smoke increases the risk of death (Young & Shipstone, 2018). The risk is even higher for infants with low birth weight and those that were preterm. According to the data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020), an estimate of 3,500 infants lose their lives annually due to Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID), SIDS included. The rate of deaths has reduced after the release of safe sleep recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP term bed-sharing as dangerous to infants due to the risk of suffocation by an overlying adult. The risk increases with the involvement of multiple adults and having the couch as the sleeping surface. Other factors that increase the risk of SIDS include the use of drugs, medication, and the type of sleeping surfaces. Shared sleeping increases the risk of airway obstructions, overheating, head covering, and rebreathing, which are all risk factors for SIDS (Young & Shipstone, 2018). Incidences of unintentional suffocation also increase with bed-sharing. The adult bed is not usually designed to accommodate the infant hence exposes the infant to additional accidental and injuries and death resulting from entrapment, falls, and strangulation.
