Paper Requirement

Module 4B Chapter 10 Socioemotional Development in Middle and Late Childhood

Learning Goals

Learning Goal 1: Discuss emotional and personality development in middle and late

childhood.

A. Describe the development of the self in middle and late childhood.

B. Discuss emotional development during middle and late childhood.

C. Define and evaluate moral development.

D. Explain gender stereotypes, roles, and differences.

Learning Goal 2: Describe developmental changes in parent-child relationships, parents as

managers, attachment, and stepfamilies.

A. Discuss the developmental changes that occur in parent-child relationships.

B. Explain how parents can serve as managers.

C. Discuss the development of the attachment process in middle and late childhood.

D. Describe what is known about stepfamilies.

Learning Goal 3: Identify changes in peer relationships in middle and late childhood.

A. Discuss the developmental changes that occur related to peers.

B. Describe the different types of peer status.

C. Define social cognition, and discuss its importance for relationships.

D. Discuss bullying, and its effects and strategies to reduce it.

E. Discuss the function of friendships.

Learning Goal 4: Characterize aspects of schooling in children’s development in middle and

late childhood.

A. Describe contemporary approaches to student learning.

B. Describe and discuss the influence of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and culture on

education.

Question

 What are children like socioemotionally between 8 to 12 years of age? Who are their friends, how do they act, how do they relate to their parents and families?

How Would You Deal With the Following:

 1. Your 9-year-old and your 11-year-old want to play video games all the time.  2. The fifth-grade math teacher sends a note home saying that your child rarely does his

homework and is easily distracted in class.

 3. Your 10-year-old daughter wants to know why you won’t let her wear makeup, nylons, and earrings. She says all her friends do.

 4. You find out that your sixth-grader has removed a couple of cans of beer from the refrigerator.

Chances are that each of you will have varying ways of dealing with these situations. The bottom line is

that as a parent, you serve the role of protecting your child’s best interests. Interestingly though, a lot of

parents of kids this age find it hard to put their foot down and exhibit some more permissive forms of

parenting. Others will dole out punishments disproportionate to the crime, so to speak (that was my

mom!)

The Self

Development of Self Understanding

 During middle and late childhood:  Defining one’s “self” shifts to using internal characteristics or personality traits. “I am

smart and I am popular”, “I am pretty good about not worrying most of the time. I used to lose my temper but I’m better about that now. I feel proud when I do well in school”. Also, recognizing the social aspects of the self increases. Girl scouts, Catholics, someone who has two close friends.

 Children recognize social aspects of the self. Distinguish themselves from others in comparative rather than absolute terms. No longer as likely to think about what they do or do not do, but more about what they can do in comparison to others.

 Social comparison increases. “I have an Xbox One but Bobby doesn’t!”

Understanding Others

 Children show an increase in perspective taking  Especially important for the development of prosocial or antisocial attitudes

and behavior

The Self

 Self Esteem: global evaluations of the self. Self-esteem has to do with global evaluations of the self. Also called self worth or self image. Self concept refers to domain specific evaluations of the self (academic, athletic, appearance). How would you describe your self esteem?

 Beliefs about self esteem do not always match reality  Most studies about self esteem are correlation (cannot determine causation)  Children with high self esteem

 Do not seem to perform better in school  Have greater initiative (can be positive or negative)  Are prone to both prosocial and antisocial actions

Four Ways to Improve Self Esteem

 Identify causes of low self esteem  Provide emotional support and social approval  Help child achieve  Help child cope

Self Efficacy: belief that one can master a situation and produce favorable outcomes

 Students with low self efficacy often avoid challenging activities

Self Regulation:

 Increased capacity for self-regulation in middle and late childhood  Linked to development advances in the prefrontal cortex

Industry vs. Inferiority (Erickson)

 Industry: children become interested in how things work  Inferiority: parents who see their children’s efforts as mischief may encourage

inferiority

 School is very important in the development of a sense of industry

Moral Development

Kohlberg’s Moral Dilemma Example

 Judy was a twelve-year-old girl. Her mother promised her that she could go to a special rock concert coming to their town if she saved up from baby-sitting and lunch money to buy a ticket to the concert. She managed to save up the fifteen dollars the ticket cost plus another five dollars. But then her mother changed her mind and told Judy that she had to spend the money on new clothes for school. Judy was disappointed and decided to go to the concert anyway. She bought a ticket and told her mother that she had only been able to save five dollars. That Saturday she went to the performance and told her mother that she was spending the day with a friend. A week passed without her mother finding out. Judy then told her older sister, Louise, that she had gone to the performance and had lied to her mother about it. Louise wonders whether to tell their mother what Judy did.

 1. Should Louise, the older sister, tell their mother that Judy lied about the money or should she keep quiet? Why or why not?

 2. In wondering whether to tell, Louise thinks of the fact that Judy is her sister. Should that make a difference in Louise's decision?

 3. Does telling have anything to do with being a good daughter? Why or why not?  4. Is the fact that Judy earned the money herself important in this situation? Why?  5. The mother promised Judy she could go to the concert if she earned the money. Is the

fact that the mother promised the most important thing in the situation?  6. Why in general should a promise be kept?  7. Is it important to keep a promise to someone you don't know well and probably won't

see again?  8. What do you think is the most important thing a mother should be concerned about in

her relationship to her daughter? Why is that the most important thing?  9. In general, what should be the authority of a mother over her daughter? Why?  10. What do you think is the most important thing a daughter should be concerned about

in her relationship to her mother? Why is that the most important thing?  11. In thinking back over the dilemma, what would you say is the most responsible thing for

Louise to do in this situation? Why?

Gender Gender Stereotypes – broad categories that reflect general impressions and beliefs about males

and females

 Children’s gender stereotyping increase from preschool through fifth grade  Boys stereotypes tend to be more rigid than girls

This could be an interesting exercise for you: Gender Stereotyping and Toys

 Make a list of toys aimed at children in:  Middle (6-8) childhood  Late (9-12) childhood  What gender stereotypes are being portrayed by the toys you listed?  How do parents contribute to gender role expectations based on the toys they

purchase for their child?

 Do toys become more or less gender stereotyped as kids age?

What stereotypes are being conveyed here?

Early Childhood Toy vs. Middle Childhood Toy

Notice that the toys for kids when they are very small are more gender-neutral? Puzzles, clay, balls, coloring books, etc… When the kids get older, the toys get more gender-specific (ie: GI Joe, Barbies, etc…)

Through the toys currently marketed, society conveys its expectation of boys as tough, competitive, aggressive, and powerful males, with transforming action figures, large trucks, numchucks, swords, and other fighting objects. In contrast, society presents an image of girls who take the more passive role, with toys focused on beauty accessories and domestication like vanity stands/kits, toy ovens and vacuums, and pretty dolls. In this way, the society begins to instill concepts of which values and behaviors are overtly male and overtly female based on the toy of choice.

In addition, toys facilitate the understanding of normative gender roles and stereotypes in childhood because they create a dividing line between girls and boys. With the division, girls receive the domestic toys such as play kitchens, baby dolls, and toy houses teaching them to be caring housewives. Boys receive the sports cars, action figures, transformers, and guns showing competition, aggression, domination, power, and male protection. These stereotypes portray the hegemonic society we live in proving men have dominance and power over women. Furthermore, if males are caught playing with any toys considered “female”, they are referred to as a wimp or a sissy by older children or their peers, no matter how wrong that may be. Girls, on the other hand, receive the insult of being referred to as a tomboy if they engage in more aggressive behavior or play with “male” toys. A reason this situation occurs or why individuals might think this way is, “because gender-typed expectations are so ingrained, parents are often unaware that they are treating their children in accordance with them” (Newman 111). Parents and guardians, who have developed their own impressions of gender roles, play an immensely influential role in conveying these expectations to their children, not only through their behavior, which children learn to imitate, but also through their choices of toys for their children, which are influenced by their own perceptions.

Article: “Toy buying can expose children to racial, gender stereotypes, research shows”

 Toy stores were explicitly divided into distinct boys’ and girls’ sections. Employee responsibilities also were organized according to traditional gender stereotypes, with women working in the doll and stuffed-animal sections, and men generally staffing the electronics departments.

 From: http://www.utexas.edu/news/2005/11/29/sociology/  What kinds of messages are being conveyed to children in these types of situations?

At least the Little Tykes company is trying to be inclusive and non gender-stereotypical. This is

as opposed to this Disney kitchenette set:

An ex-student brought this into our department one year. I found it online and thought it was a

nice commentary on the gender roles and stereotypes kids are subjected to.

Gender Physical Development

 Female brains are smaller but have more folds  Part of hypothalamus responsible for sexual behavior is larger in males  Corpus callosum is larger in females  Area of parietal lobe that aids visuospatial skills is larger in males  Areas of brain involved in emotional expression show more activity in females Cognitive Development

 Men tend to have better math and visuospatial skills, but differences are small  Females tend to perform better than males on reading and writings tasks Socioemotional Development

 Aggression:  Boys are more physically aggressive than girls

 Girls show more verbal aggression as boys  Girls engage in relational aggression more often than physical aggression

 Emotion:  Girls admit to feeling sadness, shame, and guilt; boys tend to deny that they

experience these emotions

 Males show less emotional self-regulation  Prosocial Behavior:  Females engage in more prosocial behavior than males

Gender Role Classification

 Masculinity and femininity used to be described as a continuum  This view challenged by the concept of androgyny (presence of positive masculine

and feminine traits in the same person)

 Androgynous individuals are more flexible, competent, and mentally healthy  Desirability depends on context

 Emotions:  Males are more likely to show anger to strangers and to turn anger into aggressive

behavior

 Females are more likely to discuss emotions in terms of relationships and are more likely to express fear and sadness

Parent-Child Relationships

 Parents spend less time with children during middle and late childhood. Parents may spend less than half as much time with their children aged 5-12 in caregiving, instruction, talking and playing as when the children were younger.

 Parents serve as gatekeepers and provide scaffolding as children learn to regulate their own lives

 Parents have a strong influence on child’s school achievement and extracurricular activities

 Parents use less physical forms of punishment as children age  Transfer of control from parent to child results in coregulation. Children’s cognitive

development has matured to point that parents can reason with children about resisting deviation and controlling their behavior.

Parents as Managers

 Parents manage children’s opportunities, monitor behavior, and initiate social contact  Mother are more likely than fathers to engage in managerial role (getting them into

karate, ballet, church groups, etc…)

 Important to maintain a structured and organized family environment

Stepfamilies

 Number of remarriages involving children has grown steadily in recent years  About half of all children from a divorced family will have a step-parent within

4 years

 Only 1/3 of stepfamily couples stay remarried. Remarried parents face unique tasks. The couple must define and strengthen their marriage and at the same time renegotiate the biological parent child relationships and establish stepparent-stepchild relationships and stepsibling relationships. Complex histories and multiple relationships make adjustment difficult in a step family.

 More than 75% of adolescents in established stepfamilies describe their relationships with stepparents as “close” or “very close”

 Children from simple stepfamilies (stepmother, stepfather) typically show better adjustment than those in complex (blended) stepfamilies

 Children in stepfamilies show more adjustment problems than children in non-divorced families. Similar problems to those in divorced families: academic problems and lower self-esteem. Most kids in stepfamilies do not have problems (only 25% in stepfamilies compared to 10% in intact families).

Friends

 Children’s friendships are typically characterized by similarity

 Six functions:  Companionship  Stimulation  Physical support  Ego support  Social comparison  Affection and intimacy

 Developmental advantages occur when children have socially skilled and supportive friends

Peers

 Popular Children:  Give out reinforcements  Listen carefully; maintain open lines of communication with peers  Are happy  Control their negative emotions  At like themselves  Show enthusiasm and concern for others  Are self confident without being conceited

 Neglected Children:  Engage in low rates of peer interaction  Often described as shy. Training programs for neglected children to help them attract

attention from their peers in positive ways and to hold that attention by asking questions, listening in a warm and friendly way, and by saying things about themselves that relate to the peers interests. They are taught to enter groups more effectively.

 Rejected Children:  Often have more serious social adjustment problems than neglected children  Often find that rejection increases aggressive behavior over time

 More impulsive  More emotionally reactive  Fewer social skills

How can rejected kids interact better with peers? Be taught to more accurately assess

whether the intentions of their peers are negative. Role playing, watch taped interactions and

discuss lessons learned.

Popular children are frequently nominated as a best friend and are rarely disliked by their

peers.

Average children receive an average number of both positive and negative nominations from

their peers.

Neglected children are infrequently nominated as a best friend but are not disliked by their

peers.

Rejected children are infrequently nominated as someone’s best friend and are actively

disliked by their peers.

Controversial children are frequently nominated both as someone’s best friend and as being

disliked.

Bullying

 Boys and younger middle school students are most likely to be affected

 Child victims often tend to:  Be lonely and have difficulty making friends  Be anxious, socially withdrawn, aggressive

 Child bullies often tend to:  Have low grades in school  Use alcohol and/or tobacco

 Outcomes of bullying:

 More likely to experience depression and attempt suicide  More health problems (headaches, dizziness, sleep problems, anxiety)

Reducing bullying:

 Mixed results from school-based interventions

Check out this video if you haven’t seen it yet. It is an excellent commentary about bullying in general:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW6CNTXqBCM

“News Anchor Responds to Critique About Her Weight”

Overt aggression is the type of aggression that most of us recognize, as it involves physical or

verbal behaviors that directly harm or threaten others (pushing, hitting, kicking, name-calling,

or verbal insults). Most research on aggression has focused on this type of aggression, and

researchers have found that males are more likely to engage in overt aggression (Crick, 1997). It

is linked with social-psychological adjustment. That is, engaging in overt aggression is

associated with externalizing behaviors (defiant behavior, delinquency, and impulsivity).

Relational aggression involves harming others through attempts to disrupt relationships (rumor

spreading, threatening to withdraw friendships, or excluding a particular person). Relational

aggression is more common amongst females than males. Relational aggression is linked with

internalizing behaviors (depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms).

Consistency with gender expectations impacts children’s social-psychological adjustment. Crick

found that a child was more likely to suffer maladjustment if he or she had engaged in gender

nonnormative aggression. That is, if a male engaged in more relational aggression or if females

engaged in more overt aggression, they are more likely to be rejected by peers and experience

higher levels of psychological maladjustment.

Research has found gender differences relative to the relationship between aggression and

peer relations (Rys & Bear, 1997). Peer rejection was more strongly associated with overt

aggression than with relational aggression for boys. For girls, the opposite was found: relational

aggression was more strongly associated with peer rejection.

Growing numbers of school students—boys and girls of all ages—are victimized by bullies. In a

recent survey, one-third of students in grades 6 through 10 said they were bullied in the past

year.

Victims of bullying are traumatized emotionally and somatically. Headaches, abdominal pain,

sleeping problems, and depression are the by-product of bullying.

Most of the young people who have engaged in mass murder at their schools have been victims

of merciless bullying. Bullies target kids who are different—too large or too small for their age;

too smart, or not smart enough. Bullies victimize children with disabilities and shy and

unpopular children.

Increasingly, school personnel are being trained in methods to recognize and halt bullying. One

important strategy to stop bullying involves teachers making sure that they themselves aren’t

being bullies. Ask your students if they ever felt that a teacher was singling them out for

negative comments or sarcasm. Children are even less likely to speak out about bullying

teachers than they are bullying peers. But one of the contributors to this Instructor’s Manual

reports being bullied so much by a fourth-grade teacher that she developed intense school

anxiety. Only when she got the nerve to report the teacher to her mother did her mother learn

that the teacher was a notorious bully.

Not only does bullying come from peers and teachers, there are all types of bullying, including:

Cyber bullying. Through email, instant messaging, Internet chat rooms, and electronic gadgets

like camera cell phones, cyber bullies forward and spread hurtful images and/or messages.

Bullies use this technology to harass victims at all hours, in wide circles, at warp speed.

Emotional bullying can be more subtle and can involve isolating or excluding a child from

activities (i.e., shunning the victim in the lunchroom or on school outings) or spreading rumors.

This kind of bullying is especially common among girls.

Physical bullying can accompany verbal bullying and involves things like kicking, hitting, biting,

pinching, hair pulling, or threats of physical harm.

Racist bullying preys on children through racial slurs, offensive gestures, or making jokes about

a child's cultural traditions.

Sexual bullying involves unwanted physical contact or sexually abusive or inappropriate

comments.

Verbal bullying usually involves name-calling, incessant mocking, and laughing at a child's

expense. (Kids Health for Parents)

Fortunately, as the sources section indicates, bullying is now recognized as a serious problem

that causes short- and long-term emotional, social, and physical consequences for perpetrators

and victims. Parents, teachers, administrators, and students must work together to stop

bullying in its tracks and address the causes of the bully’s aggression.

Schools

 Accountability:  Government and U.S. public are demanding increased accountability from schools

 Spread of state-mandated tests  Many states have identified objectives for students

 No Child Left Behind Legislation (2002):  Advocates argue that testing will:

 Improve student performance  Encourage teachers to spend more time teaching the subjects that are tested  Raise expectations for students  Identify poorly performing schools, teachers, and administrators  Improve confidence in schools

 No Child Left Behind Legislation (2002):  Critics argue that :

 Using a single test as the sole indicator of students’ progress presents a very narrow view of students’ skills

 Test do not measure creativity, motivation, persistence, flexible thinking, social skills

 Teachers spend too much class time “teaching to the test”

 Gifted students are neglected in favor of raising the achievement level of children who are not doing well

 Each state is allowed to set their own standard for passing tests

 Minority and low-SES students face more barriers to learning:  Parents may not set high educational standards  Parents may not know how to help children with schoolwork  Students may not have resources to pay for educational materials and expenses  Students often live in high-risk neighborhoods

 Most low-SES area schools tend to have:  Students with lower test scores, lower graduation rates, and lower

college-attendance rates

 Young teachers with less experience  Curriculum that encourages rote learning  Old and undesirable buildings  Fewer resources

 Ethnicity in Schools:  Almost one-third of all African American and Latino students attend schools in the 47

largest city school districts in the U.S., compared with only 5 percent of all White and 22 percent of all Asian-American students

 Many inner-city schools are still segregated, grossly underfunded, and do not provide adequate learning opportunities

 Segregation is still a problem outside of inner cities

 African American and Latino students are less likely than White or Asian American students to be in college prep programs, and are more likely to be in remedial or special education programs

 Asian American students take more advanced math and science courses than any other group

 African American students are twice as likely as Latinos, Native Americans, or Whites to be suspended from school

 Some experts believe that teachers accept a low level of performance from children of color

 Strategies for Improving Relationships Among Ethically Diverse Students:  Make a “jigsaw” classroom. Elliott Aronson placed kids from different cultural

backgrounds in a cooperative group in which they have to construct different parts of a project in order to reach a common goal.

 Encourage positive personal contacts with other students. Sharing one’s successes, worries, failures, coping strategies, interests, other personal information, helps others see people of different backgrounds as individuals and not as members of homogenous groups.

 Reduce bias  View the school and community as a team  Be a competent cultural mediator. Become emotionally intelligent by understanding

causes of one’s feelings, managing anger, listening to others, and being motivated to share and cooperate.

Here are some good websites that correspond with Ch 10

Emotions http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/child/middlechildhood.htm

Gender Equity for Mathematics and Science

http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/math/gender/03f-greene.html

http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/math/gender/02fennema.html

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

http://tigger.uic.edu/~lnucci/MoralEd/overview.html

Peers

http://www.education.com/reference/article/peer-relations-middle-childhood/

Trends in Education

http://nces.ed.gov/timss/

McGraw Hill Higher Education General Resources for Students and Faculty

http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/psychology/psychonline/general.html