ABSTRACT
External influences penetrate more deeply into family life as children age and come into contact with a wider social environment. School-age children have to navigate a more complex world than the one that sheltered them even the previous year. This chapter focuses on the expansion of the child’s world and how this may affect the dynamics of family interactions and child development; and introduces day care. Day care can help parents acquire skills by offering support, direct training, or simply by providing competent caretaking role models. School acts as both day care and educational institution and thus gives more personal freedom to parents and children. The chapter explores the role that the mass media, particularly television, plays in the parent-child relationship as well as in child development. It highlights the large gap that exists in the research literature on the effect of external influences, such as day care, the school system, and television, on the parent-child relationship.
