Chapter Thirteen

The School Years:

Psychosocial Development

• Increased Competence– and more responsible and independent

The Child’s Emotions and Concerns

• Freud: Latency– emotional drives quieter, psychosexual

needs repressed, unconscious conflicts submerged

• Erikson: Industry vs. Inferiority– children try to master skills valuable in

own culture• social worlds beyond family contribute to

sense of industry or inferiority

Theories of Development During Middle Childhood

• Social cognitive theory—the perspective that highlights how school-age children advance in learning, cognition, and culture, building on maturation and experience to become more articulate, insightful, and competent

Theories of Development During Middle Childhood, cont.

• Middle childhood is the time when children learn whatever skills they will need as adults

• Self-understanding comes at a price– lower self-esteem– greater self-criticism and self-consciousness

• Self-development affected by relationships with parents and peers

Understanding Self and Others

• Peer group—aggregate of individuals of roughly the same age and social status who play, work, or learn together

The Peer Group

• Peers become increasingly important– developmentalists believe that getting along with

peers is crucial during middle childhood– being rejected is a precursor for other problems– children depend on each other for

companionship, advice, self-validation– peer partners must learn to negotiate,

share, compromise, and defend each other and themselves

– certain amount of aggression, counter-aggression, and reconciliation expected

The Peer Group, cont.

• Developmentalists are troubled if children have no free time to spend with each other– child may have to come straight home

from school– child may be in after-school programs

due to parents work– children prefer to choose their own

activities with their own friends

The Peer Group, cont.

• Peer Group Subculture– special vocabulary, rules of behavior,

dress codes– an “in” group and an “out” group

Friendship

• Friendships become more important– forum for self disclosure Mutual

dependency– become more choosy in picking friends

• best friends likely to be same in sex, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status

– more intense, intimate, and demanding

Friendship, cont.

• Unpopular Children

– neglected children

• receive little attention, but not necessarily

disliked by peers

– aggressive-rejected—rejected by peers

because of confrontational behavior

– withdrawn-rejected—rejected by peers

because they are timid and anxious

– for rejected, situation can worsen over time

Friendship, cont.

• Bullying is universal

• Bullies are not necessarily

rejected, and victims are not

always odd in appearance or

background, although they are

always rejected

Bullies and Their Victims

• Bullying—repeated, systematic effort

to inflict harm

– physical attack, taunting, teasing, name

calling

• Bullying once thought to be a normal

part of children’s play with few long-

term consequences

Types of Bullying

• Bully-victims—bullies who are or have been victims of bullying; also called provocative victims, they are minority of victims– can be aggressive-rejected children

• Bullies and victims usually of same gender

Types of Bullying, cont.

• Boys vs. Girls

– male bullies

• above average in size

– female bullies

• above average in assertiveness

– victims tend to be less assertive and

physically weaker (boys) or shyer (girls)

Types of Bullying, cont.

• Studies show that bullying is

widespread and serious in all nations

– Norway, Britain, Japan, Italy, U.S.

• Bullying occurs in all cultures

– rural areas, suburbs, inner cities; well-to-do,

poor; all races and religions

– more where many adults are engaged in

violence

• Palestine, Ethiopia, South Africa

Bullying in Many Nations

Families and Children

• Nature vs. Nurture debate continues– particulars of family practice– shared environmental influences– nonshared environmental influences

Family Function

• How a family works to meet the needs of its members– provides food, clothing and shelter– encourages learning– develops self-esteem– nurtures friendships with peers– provides harmony and stability

Family Structure

• How a family is legally constructed and its members genetically constructed– nuclear family—two parents and their

biological children• still most common type

– one-parent family—one parent and his or her biological children

• Structure influences function– structure alone is not a total measure– genetic connection increases if families

live together

Connecting Structure and Function

• Well-to-do families can easily provide (which explains why family income strongly correlates with optimal child development)– better schools– more material things to help children feel

accepted accepted– bigger houses in safer neighborhoods– calmer home environment as parents need

not disagree over money

Family Income

• Well-educated wage earners raise more successful children than do large, multigenerational families on public assistance

Family Income, cont.

Harmony at Home

• Warmth or conflict that characterizes family interaction– children are handicapped if parents

verbally or physically abuse each other– parental alliance—cooperative

relationship, in which each parent supports the other’s parenting practices

• The Single-Parent Family- numbers have increased markedly over

past two decades- single parent is likely to work hard to fill

dual role of provider and caregiver- single parent tends to be younger (and

less mature?) than married parents

Harmony at Home, cont.

Harmony at Home, cont.

• Ethnic differences

• Outcome affected byincome, conflict at home, parental age and education, family support, number of children, social isolation, community support

• Problems of middle childhood are often exacerbated by long-standing problems- living with violent, emotionally disturbed,

drug-addicted, or imprisoned parent- living in decaying, violent, high-crime

community- growing up in a chronically poor household

• Children develop coping mechanisms

Coping with Problems

• Resilience

– dynamic process, not a stable trait– positive adaptation to stress– adversity must be significant

• Determining significance of stress– how many stressors?– how does the stress affect daily life?– how does child interpret the stress?

Resilience and the Assessment of Stress

• Daily routines are crucial• If child’s daily routines include the

following, stress is overwhelming– manage own daily care and school

attendance– contend directly with parent’s mental state– supervise and discipline younger siblings– keep friends away from house

The Impact of Stress

• Strong bond with loving parent can see children through many difficulties– supportive family

• Community influences can counteract negative effects– cultural differences in seeking support must

be respected– network of friends

• Child’s own attitude is crucial

Social Support

Religious Faith and Coping

• Powerful source of support

• School-age children develop their own theology

• How well children cope with the problems in their lives depends on the following:- nature of stresses they experience- strengths of their various competencies- social support they receive

. neighborhoods where everyone is seen as responsible for all children can improve behavior

Conclusion