CDEV 9

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Middle Childhood: Psychosocial Development

The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence

Kathleen Stassen Berger | Eleventh Edition

Chapter 13

WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?

What helps some children thrive in a difficult family, school, or neighborhood?

Should parents marry, risking divorce, or not marry, and thus avoid divorce?

What can be done to stop a bully?

Why would children lie to adults to protect a friend?

The Nature of the Child (part 1)

The middle childhood years are characterized by steady growth, brain maturation, and intellectual advances. Children become more capable and independent and social. Negotiation and compromise become important.

Self-Concept

Social comparison

Tendency to assess oneself against those of other people, especially peers

Contributes to development of realistic, culturally viable self value

Peer relationships

Crucial during middle childhood

Correlated with self-concept

Tendency to assess one’s abilities, achievements, social status, and other attributes by measuring them against those of other people, especially one’s peers

The Nature of the School-Age Children

Erikson’s insights:

Industry versus inferiority

Characterized by tension between productivity and incompetence

Proposes children judge themselves as competent or incompetent, productive or useless, winners or losers

Self-pride dependent on others’ view

The Nature of the Child (part 2)

Freud: Latency

Emotional drives are quiet, and unconscious sexual conflicts are submerged.

Children acquire cognitive skills and assimilate cultural values by expanding their world to include teachers, neighbors, peers, club leaders, and coaches.

Sexual energy is channeled into social concerns

The Nature of the Child (part 3)

Self-concept

Contains ideas about self that include intelligence, personality, abilities, gender, and ethnic background

Gradually becomes more realistic, specific, and logical

Is dependent on social comparison

Becomes less optimistic as influences from peer and society are incorporated.

Potential for psychological growth is evident in the advance a child makes in self-concept in middle childhood. However, advance is not automatic—family, culture, and social context affect advancement.

Is dependent on social comparison:

awareness of social prejudices and gender discrimination

increase in materialism

A Question

What would you list as signs of psychosocial maturation over the middle childhood years?

Children responsibly perform specific chores.

Children make decisions about a weekly allowance.

Children can tell time, and they have set times for various activities.

Children have homework, including some assignments over several days.

Children are less often punished than when they were younger.

Children try to conform to peers in clothes, language, and so on.

Children voice preferences about their after-school care, lessons, and activities.

Children are responsible for younger children, pets, and, in some places, work.

Children strive for independence from parents.

Of course, culture is crucial. For example, giving a child an allowance has been typical for middle-class families in developed nations since about 1960. It was rare, or completely absent, in earlier times and other places.

Resilience

Involves capacity to adapt well to significant adversity and to overcome serious stress

Suggests differential sensitivity

Important components

Resilience is dynamic.

Resilience is a positive adaptation to stress.

Adversity must be significant.

Resilience is dynamic. A person may be resilient at some periods but not at others.

Resilience is a positive adaptation to stress. If rejection by a parent leads a child to establish a closer relationship with another adult, that child is resilient.

Adversity must be significant. Resilient children overcome conditions that overwhelm many of their peers.

Accumulated stresses over time, including minor ones, are more devastating than an isolated major stress.

Dominant Ideas About Resilience, 1965–2017

1965: All children have same needs for healthy development.

1985: Factors beyond the family, both in the child and in the community, can harm children.

2005: Focus on strengths, not risks

2012: Genes, family structures, and cultural practices can be either strengths or weaknesses.

2015: Communities are responsible for child resilience.

See Table 13.2 for additional information

1965: All children have the same needs for healthy development.

1985: Factors beyond the family, both in the child (low birthweight, prenatal alcohol exposure, aggressive temperament) and in the community (poverty, violence), can harm children.

2005: Focus on strengths, not risks. Assets in child (intelligence, personality), family (secure attachment, warmth), community (schools, after-school programs), and nation (income support, health care) are crucial.

2012: Genes, family structures, and cultural practices can be either strengths or weaknesses. Differential sensitivity means identical stressors can benefit one child and harm another.

2015: Communities are responsible for child resilience. Not every child needs help, but every community needs to encourage healthy child development.

Dominant Ideas About Resilience—Today

2017

Resilience is seen more broadly as a characteristic of mothers and communities.

Some are quite resilient, which fosters resilience in children.

See Table 13.1 for additional information.

Current thinking about resilience, with insights from dynamic-systems theory, emphasizes that no one is impervious to past history or current context, and many suffer lifelong harm from early maltreatment. But some weather early storms and a few not only survive but come out stronger.

Sri Lanka children were exposed to war, a tsunami, poverty, deaths of relatives, and relocation.

Accumulated stresses increased pathology and decreased academic achievement

Sierra Leone child soldiers witnessed and often participated in murder, rape, and other traumas.

Recovery was more likely when children were in middle childhood when war occurred; when at least one caregiver survived; when community rejection did not occur; and when daily routine was restored.

U.S. homeless children living in temporary shelters showed delays in every measure of development.

Negative outcomes were buffered by supportive parent who provided affection, hope, and stable routines.

Cumulative Stress

Repeated stresses, daily hassles, and multiple traumatic experiences may challenge resilience.

Social context is crucial.

Family as protective buffer

Committed caregiver, especially mother

Daily routine

Repeated stress:

makes resilience difficult

is more devastating than isolated major stress

includes such things as frequent moves, changes in caregivers, disruption of schooling

Cognitive Coping (part 1)

Coping measures reduce impact of repeated stress.

Interpretation of family situation and other circumstances

Development of friends, activities, and skills

Participation in school success and after-school activities

Involvement in community, church, and other programs

Child’s interpretation of a family situation (poverty, divorce, etc.) impacts how that situation affects him or her.

Cognitive Coping (part 2)

Social support and religious faith

Network of supportive relatives is a better buffer than having only one close parent.

Grandparents, teachers, unrelated adults, peers, and pets can lower stress.

Use of religion, which often provides support via adults from the same faith group, has been found to be helpful.

Same Situation, Far Apart: Praying Hands

Differences, even in their clothes and hand positions, are obvious between the Northern Indian girls entering their Hindu school and the West African boy in a Christian church.

But underlying similarities are more important. In every culture, many 8-year-olds are more devout than their elders.

Cognitive Coping (part 3)

Parentification

Occurs when a child acts more like a parent than a child

Happens if the actual parents do not act as caregivers, making a child feel responsible for the entire family

Has effect related to child interpretation of what they do

Families and Children

Shared and nonshared environments

Genes affect half or more of the variance for almost every trait.

Influence of shared environment (e.g., children raised by the same parents in the same home) shrinks with age

Effect of nonshared environment (e.g., friends or schools) increases

Thinking about any family—even a happy, wealthy family like this one—makes it apparent that each child’s family experiences differ.

For instance, would you expect the 5-year-old boy to be treated the same way as his two older sisters?

And how about each child’s feelings toward the parents?

Even though the 12-year-olds are twins, one may favor her mother while the other favors her father.

Family Function and Family Structure

Family structure

Legal and genetic relationships among relatives living in the same home and includes nuclear family, extended family, stepfamily, and others

Family function

Way a family works to meet the needs of its members

Families provide basic material necessities to encourage learning, to help development of self-respect, to nurture friendships, and to foster harmony and stability.

Needs of Children in Middle Childhood

Families help children

Provide basic physical necessities

Encourage learning

Help development of self-respect

Nurture friendships

Foster harmony and stability

Continuity and Change

No family always functions perfectly

Children worldwide fare better in families than in other institutions

School-agers value continuity and having fathers at home

Stability challenges occur in military families

A VIEW FROM SCIENCE Effects of Genes and Environment

Children raised in the same households by the same parents do not necessarily share the same experiences or home environment.

Changes in the family affect every family member differently, depending on age and/or gender.

Most parents respond to each of their children differently.

Diversity of Family Structures (part 1)

Two-Parent Families

Nuclear family

Stepparent family

Adoptive family

Grandparents alone

Two same-sex parents

Single-Parent Families

Single mother-never married

Single mother-divorced, separated, widowed

Single father

Grandparent alone

See Table 13.3 for additional information.

Diversity of Family Structures (part 2)

More than two-adult families

Extended family

Polygamous family

These may also be included as two-parent or single-parent family categories.

See Table 13.3 for additional information.

Divorce (part 1)

How can these facts be interpreted?

United States leads world in rates of marriage, divorce, and remarriage.

Single, cohabiting, and stepparents sometimes provide good care for their children, but children usually do best living with married parents.

Divorce is a process, not a decree.

Custody disputes and outcomes frequently harm children.

Divorce (part 2)

Insight

Both marriage and personal freedom are idolized. This creates a cultural conflict.

A shrinking middle class impacts the ability to find jobs and support families. This creates a strain on marriages and families.

Some of the greatest effects of divorce come from frequent changes in residence, school, and family members.

Parenting style (e.g., discipline, too much or too little child responsibility, conflict, secrets)

Connecting Family Structure and Function (part 1)

Two-parent families

Generally function best

Better educational, social, cognitive, and behavioral child outcomes

Mate selection effects and parental alliance

Positive effects beyond childhood

Some reported benefits are correlates

Structure influences but does not determine function. Which structures make it more likely that the five family functions (necessities, learning, self-respect, friendship, harmony/stability) will occur?

Connecting Family Structure and Function (part 2)

Adoptive and same-sex parent families

Typically function well; often better than average nuclear families

Vary tremendously in ability to meet child needs

Stepfamilies

Some function well; positive relationships more easily formed with children under 2; more difficult with teenagers

Solid parental alliance more difficult to form

Child loyalty to parents often undermined by disputes

Connecting Family Structure and Function (part 3)

Grandparent family (skipped-generation family)

Generally lower income, more health problems, less stability

Often involve grandchildren with health or behavioral problems who are less likely to succeed in school

Receive fewer services for children with special needs

Connecting Family Structure and Function (part 4)

Single-parent families

On average, structure functions less well for children

Lower income and stability

Stress from multiple roles

Benefit from community support

More common in United States than in many nations

No type of two-parent family guarantees good functioning, but the fact that two adults are involved nudge it in the right direction.

Family Challenges (part 1)

Two factors increase the likelihood of dysfunction in every structure, ethnic group, and nation:

Low income or poverty

High conflict

Many families experience both: Financial stress increases conflict and vice versa.

Wealth and Poverty

Family income correlates with function and structure.

Low-SES contribute to increased family risk factors.

Any risk factor damages only if it increased parental stress and adult hostility (family-stress model)

Family Challenges (part 2)

Conflict

Family conflict harms children, especially when adults fight about child rearing.

Fights are more common in stepfamilies, divorced families, and extended families.

Although genes have some effect, conflict itself is the main influence on a child’s well-being.

The Peer Group

Child culture

Particular habits, styles, and values that reflect the set of rules and rituals that characterize children as distinct from adult society

Fashion

Appearance

Peer culture

Attitudes

Independence from adults

Passed down to younger children from slightly older ones

The culture of children is not always benign.

Boys in middle childhood are happiest playing outside with equipment designed for work. This wheelbarrow is perfect, especially because at any moment the pusher might tip it.

Friendship and Social Acceptance (part 1)

Friendships

In middle childhood, children value personal friendship more than peer acceptance.

Friendships lead to psychosocial growth and provide a buffer against psychopathology.

Gender differences:

Girls talk more and share secrets.

Boys play more active games.

Friendship and Social Acceptance (part 2)

Older children

Demand more of their friends

Change friends less often

Become more upset when a friendship ends

Find it harder to make new friends

Seek friends who share their interests and values

Popular and Unpopular Children

Popular children in the United States

Kind, trustworthy, cooperative

Athletic, cool, dominant, arrogant, aggressive (around fifth grade)

Unpopular children in the United States

Neglected

Aggressive-rejected

Withdrawn-rejected

Universally, children seek friends.

Culture and cohort affect popularity.

Neglected children:

neglected by peers, but not actively rejected

ignored, but not shunned

do not enjoy school; but psychologically unharmed

Aggressive-rejected children:

disliked by peers because of antagonistic, confrontational behavior

Withdrawn-rejected children:

disliked by peers because of their timid, withdrawn, and anxious behavior

Bullies and Victims

Bullying

Repeated, systematic efforts to inflict harm through physical, verbal, or social attack on a weaker person

Bully-victim

Someone who attacks others and who is attacked as well

Also called a provocative victim because he or she does things that elicit bullying, such as stealing a bully’s pencil

Types of Bullying

Physical (hitting, pinching, or kicking)

Verbal (teasing, taunting, or name-calling)

Relational (destroying peer acceptance and friendship)

Cyberbullying (using electronic means to harm another)

Causes and Consequences of Bullying

Causes

Genetic predisposition or brain abnormality

Parenting/caregiving environment

Age, peers

Consequences

Impaired social understanding, lower school achievement, relationship difficulties

Depression

Can Bullying Be Stopped?

The whole school community must be involved, not just the identified bullies.

Intervention is more effective in the earlier grades.

Evaluation of results is critical.

Research finds that children are better at stopping bullying than adults are, because bystanders are pivotal. Since bullies tend to be low on empathy, they need peers to teach them that their actions are not admired (many bullies believe people admire their aggression).

Children’s Moral Values (part 1)

Forces that drive emerging interest in moral issues include:

Child culture

Personal experience

Empathy

Children show a variety of skills in:

Making moral judgments

Differentiating universal principles from conventional norms

Becoming more socially perceptive

Children’s Moral Values (part 2)

Kohlberg’s levels of moral thought

Stages of morality stem from three levels of moral reasoning with two stages at each level

Preconventional moral reasoning: Emphasizes rewards and punishments

Conventional moral reasoning: Emphasizes social rules

Postconventional moral reasoning: Emphasizes moral principles

See Table 13.4 for additional information.

Kohlberg judged moral development not by the answers but by the reasons for the answers.

Children’s Moral Values (part 3)

Criticisms of Kohlberg

Pros

Child use of intellectual abilities to justify moral actions was correct.

Cons

Culture and gender differences are ignored.

Differences between child and adult morality are not addressed.

Kohlberg’s levels could be labeled personal (preconventional), communal (conventional), and worldwide (postconventional).

What Children Value

Prosocial values among 6- to 11-year-olds

Care for close family members

Cooperate with other children

Do not hurt anyone intentionally

Adult versus peer values

Protect your friends

Do not tell adults what is happening

Conform to peer standards of dress, talk, and behavior

As children become more aware of themselves and others in middle childhood, they realize that one person’s values may conflict with another’s. Concrete operational cognition, which gives children the ability to understand and use logic, propels them to think about morality and try to behave ethically.

Developing Moral Values

Throughout middle childhood, moral judgment becomes more comprehensive.

Psychological and physical harm, as well as intentions and consequences taken into account

Peer effects on morality (Piaget)

Transition from advocating for retribution to restitution between ages of 8 and 10 years

Benefits of Time and Talking

Conversation on a topic may stimulate a process of individual reflection that triggers developmental advances. Raising moral issues and letting children discuss them advances morality.

The graph on the left shows that most children, immediately after their initial punitive response, became even more likely to seek punishment rather than to repair damage. However, after some time and reflection, they affirmed the response Piaget considered more mature. The graph on the right indicates that children who had talked about the broken window example moved toward restorative justice even in examples they had not heard before, which was not true for those who had not talked about the first story.