Bullying Discussion 2

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Bullying is a prevalent issue during middle childhood. Watch The Power of One – School Video Sample (Transcript). Choose one of the situations presented: Diego, Timmy, or Kendra  Briefly describe the situation. Offer suggestions that can be put into place by the teacher, school, and the parents (at least one for each). Use the following sources to support your response:

  1. Bullies: What is Bullying
  2. Stopbullying
You must address what should be said to the child who is targeted and to the child exhibiting the bullying behavior. You must include what should not be said as well. Include at least one suggestion to be used in the classroom and one suggestion that can be reinforced at home.  


at least 250 words

use this resource for the chapters ive provided:



cite within answer, example: (Bojczyk, 2012)

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7 Purestock/SuperStock Cognitive and Emotional Outcomes: School-Aged Children Learning Objectives By the end of the chapter, you will be able to: • Describe the development of attitudes as well as the influence that family, peers, mass media, and school have on them. • Identify and define a school-aged child’s attributions and motives. • Understand a school-aged child’s development of self-esteem. • Understand the role of values with regard to beliefs and behaviors of a schoolaged child. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 1 8/17/12 2:59 PM Pre-Test CHAPTER 7 Introduction H ave you ever wondered why school-aged children favor one set of attitudes and beliefs over others? Some children may favor academics over sports, while other children prefer to spend their time playing sports and ignore their schoolwork. In this chapter, we will discuss how school-aged children form and alter these attitudes and beliefs based on different influences in their lives. At this age, children are readily influenced, and the messages they receive can and will impact their adult lives. Can you remember a time when you were motivated to achieve something that was very important to you? Was it related to school? Sports? Or something else? This chapter covers the various ways in which achievement motivation can be seen in school-aged children. As we have seen in previous chapters, children’s microsystems play an integral role in influencing children’s beliefs. Family members, peers, and the school community have the ability to affect children’s motivation levels, self-esteem levels, and overall outlook on others. Other forces also come into play as children grow. The media and other cultural influences begin to take more of a role in shaping children’s attitudes and beliefs. We will explore this as well as the role of self-esteem in school-aged children and the different influences on it. Pre-Test 1. Spatial thinking is characterized by a child’s ability to understand the sequences of events as they pertain to a logical order. True False 2. Family, peers, mass media, and the school system do not play a significant role in the development of attitudes and beliefs in school-aged children. True False 3. School-aged children who have high expectations of themselves have a tendency to stay with a task longer and end up performing better on that task than children who have low expectations of themselves. True False 4. Family plays a small role in the development of a school-aged child’s self-esteem. True False 5. Within the school-aged child’s exosystem reside the parental, peer, and teacher influences on value acquisition. True False boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 2 8/17/12 2:59 PM Section 7.1  Attitudes and Beliefs CHAPTER 7 Answers 1. False The answer can be found in Section 7.1. 2. False The answer can be found in Section 7.2. 3. True The answer can be found in Section 7.3. 4. False The answer can be found in Section 7.4. 5. False The answer can be found in Section 7.5. 7.1  Attitudes and Beliefs M iddle childhood (school-aged children), frequently defined as the period between ages 6 and 11 or 12 years, is filled with transitions in many domains, particularly in children’s cognitive abilities. They make a great deal of progress in this area, which in turn affects their attitudes and beliefs. The ways in which children’s attitudes and beliefs change as they grow have much to do with their microsystems, in addition to their mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. However, before discussing the influences on school-aged children’s attitudes and beliefs, we must examine their cognitive development. Cognitive Development According to Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (1952, 1964), children enter the stage of concrete operations around the age of 6 or 7 (see Section 2.3). Concrete operations is the stage in which children can use mental operations to solve concrete or actual problems. Children in the midst of concrete operations function at a much higher level in terms of their cognition than they did during the stage of preoperational thinking. As the name of this stage suggests, concrete operational thinking suffers from one important limitation. School-aged children are able to think in an organized and logical fashion only when dealing with concrete information that they have seen for themselves. Their thinking process works poorly with abstract ideas. This important limitation has profound implications with regard to their development of various attitudes and beliefs. The advances typically seen during this stage include spatial thinking, cause-and-effect, categorizing, inductive and deductive reasoning, and conservation (Piaget, 1952, 1964). (See Figure 7.1.) Spatial Thinking Spatial thinking is a child’s ability to analyze, engage in problem solving, and use pattern recognition involving objects and their spatial relationships (Pruden, Levine, & Huttenlocher, 2011). For example, at 7 years old, Hector is able to find his way home from school and can give his friend Lisa’s mom detailed instructions on how to get to his house. Hector has the spatial thinking ability to recognize the streets and landmarks that would bring him to his house. Hector’s parents (members of his microsystem) were able to cultivate Hector’s abilities in spatial thinking and ultimately increased his self-efficacy by allowing him to demonstrate his abilities to Lisa’s mom. By encouraging and teaching children to hone their skills in analyzing problems and recognizing spatial relationships, parents and others can help them develop more positive, confident attitudes. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 3 8/17/12 2:59 PM Section 7.1  Attitudes and Beliefs CHAPTER 7 Cause-and-Effect Thinking The next advancement in cognitive abilities during concrete operations occurs within the realm of cause-and-effect thinking, which is characterized by a child’s ability to understand the sequences of events as they pertain to a logical order. Having the ability to think problems through in a logical progression is important in influencing attitudes and beliefs. Children must be able to internally process the consequences of their actions based on what they perceive to be “right” or “wrong” and act accordingly. When children are working through this stage, members of their microsystems can talk them through this way of thinking in order to better prepare them for the future. Categorization Categorization is an ability that helps a child to think logically and is another advancement in this stage. As you may recall from Chapter 5, when children are younger, they are able to categorize objects using simple logic (see Section 5.1). However, a school-aged child is now able to group or categorize objects using higher-order thinking, such as through transitive inference, class inclusion, and seriation. Transitive inference is the ability to infer a relationship between two objects from the relationship between each of them and a third object, while class inclusion is defined as the ability to see the relationship between a whole and its individual parts. Seriation is the ability to order objects in a series according to one or more characteristics or dimensions such as length or color (Piaget, 1952, 1964). For example, 9-year-old Judy is playing with her 4-year-old sister, Molly. Judy wants to line up all of the crayons from lightest to darkest. Molly just wants to put the crayons into piles of the same colors. Judy says to her, “You are doing it wrong,” and Molly replies, “All of the oranges are together.” Judy has the ability to classify the orange crayons from lightest to darkest whereas Molly does not because she sees all of the orange crayons as being the same. Seriation is an important ability in terms of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. In the same way that Judy classified crayons in terms of their shades, children can learn that people can be classified in more ways than simply the color of their skin, gender, or a disability. This is where the attitudes and beliefs of members of children’s microsystems shape the way that children classify others, and in turn, shape their beliefs about these people. Hemera/Thinkstock The ability to categorize crayons by color will differ depending upon the age of the child. Reasoning Another developmental milestone reached during concrete operations is the use of reasoning, both inductive and deductive, as mentioned in Chapter 2 (see Section 2.3). For example, Tara, an 8-year-old, has a new Asian American classmate, Michio. Tara sees that Michio always gets good grades on his homework and tests, and can answer all boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 4 8/17/12 3:00 PM CHAPTER 7 Section 7.2  Development of Attitudes and Belief Systems the teacher’s questions, which she believes makes him very smart. One night before bedtime, Tara is watching Jeopardy with her parents and sees that an Asian American woman is answering almost all of the questions correctly. She and her parents agree that this woman is very smart. Tara uses inductive reasoning and now believes that all Asian Americans are smart. Tara then uses deductive reasoning to conclude that her neighbor Jeni, who is also Asian American, must be good at school, though Tara has never seen any of Jeni’s schoolwork. Parents and other members of children’s microsystems must be aware that this new cognitive development has the potential to cause children to generalize their attitudes and beliefs in ways that may be untrue. This is where racial and gender stereotypes can come into play, particularly because the cultural messages from children’s macrosystems may be persuading the children that these generalizations are true. Conservation Another advancement seen during concrete operations is conservation, which is the awareness that two objects that are equal according to a certain measure remain equal in the face of perceptual alteration so long as nothing has been added or taken away from either object (Piaget, 1952, 1964). For example, Liam (6 years old) and Andy (14 years old) are sitting at a table and Andy makes 2 rows of 5 pennies each. The top row has the pennies spread out along the table, whereas in the second row, the five pennies are touching each other. Andy asks Liam, “Which row has more pennies?” Liam replies, “They are the same.” Liam understands that even though the pennies are spread out differently and that the top row takes up more space, there is still the same number of pennies in each row. Liam has mastered conservation. Figure 7.1: Advances in cognitive development in Piaget’s concrete development stage Spatial Thinking Causeand-Effect Thinking Categorization Reasoning Conservation As children experience these stages of cognitive development, their attitudes and beliefs begin to take shape. 7.2  Development of Attitudes and Belief Systems V arious factors influence the development of attitudes and beliefs in school-aged children, including their family, peers, mass media, and their school community. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979, 1986) ecological model can be seen in various ways when examining where a school-aged child’s development of attitudes and beliefs stem from. The concepts of the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem can be explored to learn what influences children. The most obvious influence to examine is a child’s family, because they spend the most time with the child as he or she is growing up. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 5 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.2  Development of Attitudes and Belief Systems CHAPTER 7 The development of attitudes is influenced by a child’s age, cognitive development, and social experience (Van Ausdale & Feagin, 2001). Attitudes about diverse cultural groups sequentially develop in three stages (see Section 5.1). The last stage is especially pertinent in discussing attitude and belief development because it is during middle childhood that this phase occurs. Children during this third stage of cultural awareness become cognizant of the various ways in which people within their family’s microsystem interact with others throughout their community. That is, they begin to notice things such as discrimination, violence, and prejudice. Prejudice is defined as an attitude involving prejudgment and refers to the application of a BananaStock/Thinkstock previously formed judgment to some person, object, or situation. Culture and society tend to influence children’s prejudices, It can be either favorable or unfawhich can lead to ambivalent cultural identity. vorable and usually comes from categorizing or stereotyping. Did You Know? Did you know that there is a typical developmental sequence in how children become prejudiced? There are five steps in the process: 1. Awareness. The child notices and begins to understand differences. 2. Identification. The child labels and classifies people based upon physical characteristics. 3. Attitudes. The child develops feelings and thoughts regarding another person and the way he or she lives in society. 4. Preference. The child values or gives priority to a physical attribute, person, or lifestyle over others. 5. Prejudice. The child holds a preconceived and often hostile attitude toward another person, ethnic group, or lifestyle without knowing anything about it (York, 1992). Influences on Attitude and Belief Development Family members, peers, mass media, and the school system all play significant roles in the development of attitudes and beliefs in school-aged children. Members of children’s microsystems spend the most time with these children and therefore have the most influence on their socialization and development. The role parents play within the microsystem with regards to the attitudes of their children has been well documented. In fact, school-aged children’s attitudes toward academic achievement (Parsons, Adler, & Kaczala, 1982), obesity and food advertising (Yu, 2011), physical activity (Zecevic, Tremblay, boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 6 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.2  Development of Attitudes and Belief Systems CHAPTER 7 Lovsin, & Michel, 2010), physical risk taking during outdoor play (Little, Wyver, & Gibson, 2011), and even organ donation (Siebelink, Geerts, Albers, Roodbol, & van de Wiel, 2011) are influenced by their parents. Furthermore, a study by Sinclair, Dunn, and Lowery (2005) documented the extent to which school-aged children ultimately identified with their parents’ attitudes and beliefs about race. As an exemplar, Parsons, Adler, and Kaczala (1982) studied parental influence on children’s attitudes and beliefs regarding math achievement. Their study found that parents of sons rated their child higher in math achievement, and parents of daughters rated their child lower in math achievement. In addition, the boys rated themselves higher in math achievement than the girls even though there was no difference in math scores across gender. Parents of boys also thought it was more important for boys to learn advanced math than parents of girls, and parents of girls also rated that girls need to work harder at math, compared to the parents of boys who thought that math came more naturally. Peers have a tremendous influence on school-aged children’s attitudes and beliefs. Children spend hours together every day, and the attitudes and beliefs they have about each other and other groups significantly impact each other’s attitudes and beliefs. School-aged children have a tendency to compare their behavior with the behavior of their peers (Brown, 2010). They understand the differences between classmates within the in-group and the out-group and have a greater tendency to exhibit prejudicial opinions toward members of the outgroup. Because school-aged children are particularly sensitive to the influence of their peers, anyone who is seen as being “different” (for example, an individual from a culture other than the norm or an individual with a disability) is often excluded from the group (Brown, 2010; Gollnick & Chinn, 2008). Since peer influence increases over time, it is important for children to be part of a group that accepts them as equals (Kropej, Videmsek, & Pisot, 2008). Mass media is another outlet that affects a school-aged child’s attitudes and beliefs. In fact, the statistics show that the average school-age child spends nearly 45 hours a week engaged in some type of media. This is almost three times the amount of time spent with parents. The Internet and other types of media have been found to have adverse effects on children (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2008). Eighty percent of 173 studies exploring the effects of media consumption on children agree that heavy media exposure increases the risk of harm, including obesity, smoking, sex, drug and alcohol use, attention problems, and poor grades. In addition, 93% of those studies found that children with greater media exposure have sexual relations earlier (NIH, 2008). Because children are inundated with the same messages daily, for hours on end, it may not be a surprise that they would begin to change their attitudes and beliefs to reflect these messages that they see and hear on television, radio, and in print. Another type of media that affects a school-aged child’s attitudes and beliefs is video games. Video games are uniquely different from watching television or movies because they allow the child to become an active participant in the game’s script. Players benefit from engaging in acts of violence by beating an enemy and moving to the next level of the game. This inadvertently teaches children that the more aggressive they are, the more they will achieve. Video games have been found to increase aggressive behavior, because violent acts are continually repeated throughout the game (Gentile & Anderson, 2003). In addition, video games encourage players to identify with their favorite characters, which is referred boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 7 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.2  Development of Attitudes and Belief Systems CHAPTER 7 to as a “first person” game (Anderson & Dill, 2000). In this sense, a school-aged child is able to make decisions that ultimately affect the actions of the character he or she is “playing.” This first-person game playing can have a profound impact, because a player can exhibit “prime aggressive thoughts” after a limited amount of time playing the game (Bushman & Anderson, 2002). Players with previous experience playing aggressive video games are more likely to respond with increased levels of aggression when faced with confrontation. Although the influence of these various forms of media is particularly relevant given their prevalence in today’s society, one of the most influential factors associated with schoolaged children’s attitudes and beliefs is the school community itself. Think About It Have you ever been at a restaurant and noticed that a school-aged child is playing a handheld video game while the rest of his family is eating a meal and talking to each other? How do you think this affects his ability to socialize? If a parent constantly checked his or her phone at the table, would it be considered acceptable behavior? The influence of the school community on school-aged children can be seen in a variety of ways. For example, gender role stereotyping is perpetuated in schools. Schools that separate male and female activities (such as boys being required to take math and science classes and girls being required to take English classes) are inadvertently teaching children which activities are gender appropriate (Sadker & Sadker, 1994; Sadker & Zittleman, 2009). Further, teachers who project their gendertype expectations onto the boys and girls in their classrooms reinforce Blend Images/Corbis traditional gender role behaviors (Good & Brophy, 2007). This means Video games are different from watching television or that the boys in those classrooms movies because they allow children to become active acted in ways that demonstrated participants in the game’s script. more activity and aggression than the girls in those classrooms. In addition, a teacher who expected the girls to be passive and quiet had girls in their classroom who exhibited those types of behaviors as well. One of the most profound examples of how a teacher (and subsequently the school community itself) can influence a school-aged student’s attitudes and beliefs can be seen in Case Study 7.1, which is a true story. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 8 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.2  Development of Attitudes and Belief Systems CHAPTER 7 Case Study 7.1: A Class Divided Jane Elliot was a 3rd-grade teacher during the 1960s and 1970s. After days of watching news commentary in the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, she listened to White men sit around and discuss “those people” and “those communities.” It was then that Jane knew that she needed to try a new approach to teaching her young students about discrimination and its effects. She began her experiment in 1967. The following is an account of her 1970 experiment, which lasted 2 days. Day 1 Jane began by asking her class about National Brotherhood Week, what it means and whether there are people in America who aren’t treated like brothers. She then proposed an experiment to help the students understand what discrimination means. She suggested that over 2 days, the class would be split into blue-eyed and brown-eyed students and that on the first day, blue-eyed people would be better than brown-eyed people. She went on to tell the students that those who were better (the blue-eyed for day 1) would get extra recess, be able to drink right from the fountain, have seconds at lunch, and could play on the playground equipment. The other children had to use paper cups to drink from the fountain, couldn’t play with the better children, had to stay off the playground equipment, and had to wear collars around their necks to be easily identifiable. Throughout the rest of the day, both in and out of class, Jane pointed out how long brown-eyed students took to complete tasks, how ill-prepared they were, how they didn’t take things seriously, and how they were generally disruptive and ill-behaved. She enlisted the blue-eyed children to back her up and provide examples of these supposed behavior deficiencies. It was shocking to see how quickly and easily the blue-eyed children slipped into the roles of bully, informer, and bigot. One child suggested that Jane keep the yardstick close by so that she could deal with unruly brown-eyed kids. Some children called others “brown eyes” in a way that one child compared to the use of the n-word against African Americans. Day 2 On day 2, it was the brown-eyed children’s turn to become better than the blue-eyed children. All the privileges that accrued to the blue-eyed kids the day before were now the prerogative of the browneyed ones. Despite having been on the receiving end of discriminatory and nasty behavior because of their eye color only the day before, the brown-eyed children took to their roles as bigots and tormentors easily and cheerfully. When it was time for the brown-eyed children to do the daily flashcards with Jane, they improved their time by almost a minute over the day before. When Jane asked why the brown-eyed children were able to get through the flashcards so much faster, they told her it was because they didn’t have the collars on. On the afternoon of day 2, Jane explicitly led the students to the lesson of the experiment by asking whether eye or skin color should be a factor in how to decide whether someone is good or bad or if those things make a good or bad person. All of the children answered “no.” In fact, one blue-eyed child described his experience on day 2 like being a dog on a leash. Reflection Questions 1. Imagine that you were a child in that classroom. How would you have felt if the teacher turned against you because of the color of your eyes? 2. Have you ever been in a situation where you felt you were being discriminated against based upon a physical characteristic? How did that make you feel? boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 9 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.3  Attributions and Motives CHAPTER 7 Changing Attitudes About Diversity School-aged children’s attitudes toward diversity have received a great deal of attention within the scientific community. In fact, several studies have documented the ways in which a child’s attitude can be changed through the use of educational techniques. This can be particularly important because children spend a great deal of time in classroom settings, and teachers and their peers are important members of their micro- and mesosystems. One study found that the process of imagining an interaction with a physically disabled child can change the child’s attitude toward the other child (Cameron, Cameron, Turner, Holman-Nicolas, & Powell, 2011). Children who engaged in this “imagined contact” subsequently showed reduced bias and increased ratings of warmth and competence toward the disabled child. In addition, the imagined contact led to more positive intended friendship behavior toward the disabled child. If teachers are able to cultivate situations such as these, they can influence children’s reactions to students with disabilities. This type of interactional exercise can be used in other situations with students who are considered “different” to promote more acceptance and friendliness toward them. Additionally, short-term, quality intergenerational contact can impact a child’s attitude toward older adults (Hannon & Gueldner, 2008). Children who participated in a treatment (that changed attitudes through discussion, direct exposure, and increased knowledge regarding the elderly) had a more positive attitude toward older adults. Both inclusion in the intergenerational activities and time spent with related older adults are significant in explaining changes in the children’s attitudes toward older adults. The more exposure children have to others with disabilities, who are different ethnicities, or anyone else who is different from them, the more accepting they seem to be. This is important for members of children’s microsystems to know and to utilize while these school-aged children are developing attitudes and beliefs. If parents and teachers can promote more accepting attitudes toward others, children are more likely to adopt their attitudes and beliefs as well. As a result, they will become tolerant of differences and learn to celebrate diversity. 7.3  Attributions and Motives M otivation becomes much more of a self-centered activity—it becomes more individually tailored—when children become school-aged. By examining attribution and motivation in school-aged children, we will take a closer look at different types of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic), locus of control, learned helplessness, and self-efficacy to help understand why school-aged children act the way they do. Achievement Motivation Achievement motivation is often related to actual achievement behavior (Bandura, 1997; Wigfield, Eccles, Schiefele, Rosser, & Davis-Kean, 2006). However, it is important to note that a school-aged child’s motives to achieve may only be seen in one aspect of life, meaning that a boy may be motivated to do well in baseball and eventually make the all-star team, and at the same time fail many courses in school. Members of a child’s microsystem have the ability to influence achievement motivation. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 10 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.3  Attributions and Motives CHAPTER 7 Parenting practices influence achievement motivation. If parents set standards that are unrealistic (either too high or too low), it will affect their child’s motivation (Pomerantz, Grolnick, & Price, 2007). Low motivation can be caused by standards that are too easy or expectations that are too high. Both of these cause children to adopt a “why try?” type of attitude. Children with parents who set standards that are developmentally appropriate (not too high and not too low) tend to have high motivation to accomplish the task (Pomerantz et al., 2007). Additionally, children who show high achievement usually come from homes that include the developmentally appropriate timing of achievement demands (Wigfield et al., 2006). Further, high-achieving children come from homes where parents have high confidence in their child’s abilities, a supportive family environment, and highly motivated role models. School-aged children who have high expectations of themselves have a tendency to stay with a task longer and end up performing better on that task than children who have low expectations. In fact, children with high IQs and higher expectations of themselves in school receive higher grades compared to those children with high IQs but low expectations of themselves (Wigfield et al., 2006). It is important to realize that it is not only parents or home environment that affects children’s motivation but also other members of the microsystem. School environment is another important microsystem to study. Teachers play a big role in a school-aged child’s achievement motivation. When teachers are caring and supportive, and emphasize the learning process over performance outcomes, as well as provide feedback, children tend to be motivated to achieve and expect success (Daniels, Kalkman, & McCombs, 2001). For example, Nolan (age 9) has consistently been praised by his teachers, extended family, and parents for his intellect and curiosity. He earns the highest marks in school. As such, in his spare iStockphoto/Thinkstock time, Nolan can be found reading books that are above his grade Teachers play a big role in a school-aged child’s achievelevel, solving math problems in a ment motivation. workbook designed for older children, and working on scientific experiments that he has read about on the Internet. Nolan’s internal motivation, his parents, and his teachers play a large role in Nolan’s achievement motivation, which is evidenced by his spare-time activity. Locus of Control Research has found that those who have mostly been successful in their past experiences have a tendency to expect to succeed in the present and future as well. Likewise, those who have mostly failed in the past expect to fail in the future and the present (Skinner & boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 11 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.3  Attributions and Motives CHAPTER 7 Greene, 2008). This idea that individuals are responsible for their own fate leads us right into our discussion on locus of control. School-aged children who attribute their performance or behavior to an internal locus of control attribute the responsibility for behavior to themselves. For example, Katie, an 11-year-old, studies hard for her math test and earns an A. When her teacher asks how she did so well, Katie says, “I felt good the last time I got an A on my math test, so I wanted to study really hard to get another A. It feels just as good this time too.” In contrast, children who attribute their behavior to an external locus of control attribute responsibility for the behavior to something outside themselves. In the same situation, if Katie responds to her teacher and says, “I got lucky—the test was pretty easy,” she is exhibiting an external locus of control. Children’s orientation toward either an internal or external locus of control is related to a number of factors (Wigfield et al., 2006). In particular, having an internal locus of control is shown to be related to age, gender, and socioeconomic status. There appears to be an increase of school-aged children’s perceived internal locus of control around the age of 9. In addition, girls (as opposed to boys) and middle- and upper-class (as opposed lowerclass) children exhibit more of an internal locus of control orientation. School-aged children with an orientation toward an internal locus of control tend to do better academically than children who tend to attribute their performance to an external force (Patrick, Skinner, & Connell, 1993; Skinner & Greene, 2008). These factors are important for parents and teachers to know, since they have a direct influence on children’s beliefs in themselves. They must help students to become self-motivating and to see that their hard work has good affects rather than simply basing their successes on luck or fate. Learned Helplessness Gender differences in school-aged children’s learned helplessness have been well documented (Dweck & Bush, 1976; Dweck & Gillard, 1975). Girls are more likely to attribute a lack of ability in themselves when compared to boys even when both boys and girls displayed learned helplessness orientations (Dweck & Bush, 1976; Dweck & Gillard, 1975). On the other hand, boys attribute poor performance to not working hard enough. Teachers can play a role in their students’ perceptions due to the types of feedback they offer to their students. Boys who submit work that is not up to the teacher’s standards are often told that they did not put forth enough effort, whereas girls who submit poor work are told that they did not do it right even though they had tried (Dweck & Bush, 1976; Dweck & Gillard, 1975). Teachers must be fair in their critiques and comments to students, as they have the ability to influence how children feel about their present and future performance. Similar findings have been reported in more recent studies. When faced with failure (after success), school-aged girls are more likely to attribute a subsequent poor performance to their ability than school-aged boys are, even when both sexes are given the same previous praise based upon their ability (Corpus & Lepper, 2007). For example, Judy (a 9-yearold), is struggling with science, and her teacher asks her if she would like to stay after school and get some help from the science tutor. Judy tells her teacher that there is no use in wasting the tutor’s time and that she is just no good in science and never will be. Here, Judy is displaying signs of learned helplessness with regard to science achievement. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 12 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.3  Attributions and Motives CHAPTER 7 Due to previous attempts and subsequent failures to earn good grades in her science class, Judy now believes that she is incapable of achieving good grades and that no matter what she does, she will always be bad in science. The way that Judy’s teacher responds to her comments will affect whether Judy will continue to display signs of learned helplessness or if she can be empowered to try harder and improve her belief in her abilities. Self-Efficacy Self-efficacy (see Section 5.2) has been linked in school-aged children to the choice of tasks, effort and persistence, and achievement. Children’s conception of their own abilities tends to be more predictive of their achievement than their conceptions of what others believe their abilities are (Pomerantz & Saxon, 2001). Further, school-aged children’s conceptions about their own competence are based on whether the ability is considered stable over time. School-aged children who have high self-efficacy set challenging goals and use appropriate strategies to achieve them; they Exactostock/SuperStock try hard, persist despite difficulties, and seek help when necessary. Also, these children have a Self-efficacy has been linked to a variety of outcomes, tendency to embrace challenging including achievement. goals and are better at monitoring their time. For example, Rob (an 11-year-old) spends the majority of his free time perfecting his figure skating routines. Rob’s goal is to make the junior Olympic team in the coming year. He knows that he must sacrifice time with friends, going to church camp, and sleeping in on the weekends in order to achieve his goal. When asked why he makes these sacrifices, Rob replies, “Because I am really good at ice skating. I have won several state competitions, and I know that with my training, my parents’ constant encouragement, and my dedication, I will be the next Olympic-gold athlete.” Rob has positive self-efficacy with regard to his figure skating ability because of his performance record, vicarious learning through his trainer, verbal encouragement by his parents, and his emotional reaction that he is good at ice skating. On the other hand, students who have low self-efficacy tend to become frustrated and depressed, which can make the idea of success even more intangible (Maddux & Volkmann, 2010). In these situations, members of children’s microsystems, such as peers, can help. It was found that a solutions-focused approach group can help children with low self-efficacy to reach their goals, because they learn from each other and have the opportunity to share their feelings and support one another (Kvarme, Helseth, Sørum, LuthHansen, Haugland, & Natvig, 2010). boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 13 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.4  Self-Esteem CHAPTER 7 7.4  Self-Esteem A major determinate of self-esteem in school-aged children is the child’s view of his or her capacity to do productive work (Erikson, 1982). Erikson’s fourth stage of psychosocial development is industry vs. inferiority. In this stage, children must learn the productive skills that are important to their culture, or they will face feelings of inferiority (Erikson, 1982). This stage of psychosocial development directly relates to Bronfenbrenner’s (1979, 1989, 1993, 1995, 2005) macrosystem and the beliefs that are held to be important in children’s culture and society. Self-Esteem and the Microsystem Children’s microsystems have a great impact on their development as their family and peers directly influence children’s self-esteem (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1989, 1993, 1995, 2005). Each child’s microsystem will dictate the skills and competency level he or she must reach in order to feel industrious. For example, some cultures expect school-aged children to learn to hunt, fish, or farm rather than go to school to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, each child’s microsystem tells him or her something different. Children whose microsystems emphasize the importance of schoolwork will work hard at getting good grades in school. For example, 11-year-old Jeanne’s school emphasizes a wellrounded education. The school dictates that students do well in academics, but they must also participate in sports. Jeanne is currently in fifth grade. Although Jeanne is very good in school, she is not very good at playing sports. On most days, Jeanne enjoys going to school. However, on gym class days, Jeanne knows that teams will be picked. She pleads with her mother to allow her to stay home from school to avoid gym. She is always picked last, and as a result, her self-esteem plummets on those days. Children’s self-esteem can also be based on their peer microsystem. Children will measure their feelings of competence with regard to how well they engage in the behaviors that are looked on highly by peers. For example, if Jeanne’s friends are all good at sports, this would also affect her low self-esteem on gym days at school. The virtue or the strength that develops out of this stage of Erikson’s theory is competence. If a child feels inadequate in comparison to his or her peers, the child may retreat to the protective embrace that is shown by his or her family. The flip side of this is that if children become too industrial, they can begin to neglect social relationships and turn into workaholics as adults. For example, Justin, a 4th grader, is only 7 years old. He is exceptionally smart, as he has skipped two grades, loves school, and has high self-esteem. His parents have taught him that having a good education and being smart are important to succeed in life. However, Justin does not want to socialize with members of his class. He wants to go to school, learn all of the information, and then go home after school to his computer where he can surf the Internet and learn even more information. Though Justin’s parents value hard work, Justin’s teacher, Mr. Wilson, wants to promote balance in Justin’s life. As a member of the microsystem, Mr. Wilson wants to positively influence Justin, so he holds a conference with his parents, demonstrating the mesosystem influence. He tries to promote more balance and socialization in Justin’s life by discussing ways that Justin’s parents can help influence Justin to form boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 14 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.4  Self-Esteem CHAPTER 7 relationships with his peers who also value education by joining intellectually based clubs. This is an example of how parents and teachers have the ability to work together for a child’s best interest. A school-aged child’s family can play a significant role in developing and influencing self-esteem. Parents who are warm and accepting, provide reasonable expectations for mature behavior, and engage in positive problem solving with their child have children with higher self-esteem (Rudy & Grusec, 2006). Further, controlling parents, meaning those parents who help too often or make decisions for their child, communicate a sense of inadequacy to their child. Having parents who are repeatedly disproving or insulting is also linked to school-aged children’s low self-esteem (Kernis, 2002). Think About It Can you remember a time when you were in elementary school and you earned a good grade on a test or assignment? How did members of your microsystem react to this achievement? How did this affect your self-esteem? Peers become more important during this time, and schoolaged children whose peers like them are more likely to be welladjusted adolescents and are less likely to drop out of school or become delinquent (Cillessen & Mayeux, 2004). Children who participate in team sports are more likely to have higher selfesteem than children who participate in individual sports (Slutzky & Simpkins, 2009). It can be inferred that team sports Blend Images/SuperStock provide more opportunities to bond and to strengthen friendDuring the school-aged years, peers become an important ships than individual sports do, part of a child’s self-esteem. thereby increasing children’s selfesteem. Further, children’s ability to make friends during middle childhood has an effect on their self-esteem. One study showed that fifth graders who have no friends are more likely than their classmates to have lower self-esteem both in middle childhood and in young adulthood (Bagwell, Newcomb, & Bukowski, 1998). Self-esteem can be promoted within classrooms. Classrooms with more personalized displays (where teachers display children’s work or information about them) cultivate higher self-esteem in first graders (Maxwell & Chmielewski, 2008). Teacher and student interactions are important as well. Teachers who are actively involved with their students and who provide them with support increase students’ self-esteem both socially and boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 15 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.4  Self-Esteem CHAPTER 7 academically (Leflot, Onghena, & Colpin, 2010). These vital members of children’s microsystems have the ability to help students succeed simply by being supportive. This holds true for boys and girls. Another factor in children’s self-esteem is the media. Internet use, such as email and instant messaging, has been found to increase self-esteem in children around the age of 12 years old (Jackson, von Eye, Fitzgerald, Zhao, & Witt, 2010). Children now have the opportunity to stay in contact with their friends and family at almost all times due to the evolution of the Internet. This can be an important factor in self-esteem. However, it has also been found that video game playing is a negative influence on self-esteem (Jackson et al., 2010). Additionally, the cultural (macrosystem) messages that the media convey to children have the ability to increase or decrease their self-esteem. The media often shows children (and adults) what they should consider to be ideal—such as what qualities are considered beautiful, the possible careers that will show they are “successful,” and the appropriate ways to behave in different situations. If children do not live up to these ideas, their self-esteem may decrease. Self-Esteem and the Macrosystem In Chapter 1 we discussed how the macrosystem in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model shapes the socialization process (see Section 1.2). The macrosystem includes cultural beliefs and values. With the macrosystem, it is important to look at the influence of both gender and socioeconomic status on a child’s self-esteem. Parents play a role in shaping children’s emotion regulation even during middle childhood. The strategies that parents use are influenced by their cultural context. If parents are stressed themselves, they may have fewer resources available to devote to children’s problems. There are differences in cultural responses to school-aged girls’ and boys’ emotions. Analysis of questionnaires and observational methods to examine middleincome parents’ behaviors has suggested no differences in parents’ responses to boys’ versus girls’ general emotions (Lunkenheimer, Shields, & Cortina, 2007; Suveg, Zeman, Flannery-Schroeder, & Cassano, 2005; Wong, Diener, & Isabella, 2008). However, middleincome parents’ responses to specific emotions with questionnaires and observational methods reveal that parents are more likely to encourage girls’ emotions of fear and sadness and boys’ anger (Cassano, Perry-Parrish, & Zeman, 2007; Chaplin, Cole, & ZahnWaxler, 2005). This means that differences have been found when a specific emotion such as fear is targeted—which can influence a child’s self-esteem. Parents may have particular goals in mind for promoting a specific emotion more heavily with girls than boys and vice versa. For example, parents may be more likely to encourage girls to cry when they are upset whereas they would discourage that specific emotion in boys. Not only is it important to look at potential gender differences in the socialization of emotion in middle-income families; low-income families experience different stressors that have the potential to impact emotion socialization. It is imperative to consider the role of poverty in influencing self-esteem and to determine whether the gender differences found for mostly European American middle-income families also are found in families living in low-income environments (O’Neal & Magai, 2005). Families living in poverty are likely to experience considerable and enduring economic boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 16 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.4  Self-Esteem CHAPTER 7 and social stressors, such as inability to pay bills and adversity in meeting the family’s physical needs. Perhaps due to this increased stress, low-income parents are less responsive and more likely to punish than middle-income parents (Pinderhughes, Dodge, Bates, Pettit, & Zelli, 2000). For example, low-income parents may be more likely to ignore a child who is angry about something that happened at school because they are so focused on an immediate problem in the family system, such as unemployment. Similarly, lowincome parents may exhibit unique types of emotion socialization behaviors. For example, low-income parents may be too overwhelmed by stressors to focus on encouraging or supporting a child’s self-esteem. However, minimizing sadness may be adaptive for coping in inner-city environments (Chaplin, Casey, Sinha, & Mayes, 2010). Because children in these contexts are more likely to be exposed to anxiety-provoking conditions such as noise and violence, it works to their advantage to be less sensitive to these environmental stressors because they can tune out these distractions more easily and function despite the adverse conditions. Some evidence even suggests that youth living in aggressive environments even compensate biologically by producing less cortisol, which is the hormone produced in the body to help in responding to stressful situations (Saxbe, Margolin, Spies Shapiro, & Baucom, 2012). Despite the predominant patterns of parent socialization Corbis/SuperStock reported in low-income families, it is important to note that there is Socializing children to minimize sadness may be adaptive in considerable variation in parent- promoting resilience, especially for youth living in stressful ing quality and emotion social- environments. ization in low-income families (Chaplin et al., 2010). Supportive emotion socialization behaviors may contribute to resilience and high self-esteem in lowincome children. This means that when parents talk about children’s emotions openly, it promotes adaptive outcomes for the child. Discussion of emotion involves helping a child associate a label such as “anger” with specific behavioral and situational cues and talking about what it feels like to be angry. In other words, parents can assist children in understanding emotion by giving them a label for what they are feeling and learning the signs of that emotion. Did You Know? Did you know that gender roles for emotion also may differ depending on socioeconomic context? For example, females in low-income environments may be socialized to appear “tough” to protect themselves and may be less likely than females in middle-income environments to experience socialization pressure to express gentler emotions and to avoid anger (Eisenberg, 1999). Thus, socialization practices reflect adaptation depending on the child’s environment. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 17 8/17/12 3:00 PM CHAPTER 7 Section 7.5  Values 7.5  Values V alues—particularly for school-aged children—are influenced by various factors and are often reflective of the values held by their parents, teachers, religion, culture, and with increasingly more importance, their friends. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979, 1989, 1993, 1995, 2005) ecological model can be seen in multiple ways when examining how a school-aged child’s values develop. One can examine the different systems of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, specifically the child’s microsystem, exosystem, and macrosystem, to learn what influences the child’s values. In addition, the age, experiences, and cognitive development of the school-aged children ultimately impact the values that they come to hold. For example, as children undergo advancements in cognitive development, they are able to better interpret the behaviors and social interactions of others. By doing so, they are able to personally construct their own values for social interactions and behavior. Within the school-aged child’s microsystem reside the parental, peer, and teacher influences on value acquisition. For example, if a teacher stresses the importance of diligence, hard work, and persistence, her students may come to value these important character traits. In fact, this may actually be the school motto created by the school board—diligence, hard work, and persistence—which illustrates how the exosystem (referring to the settings in which children are not the active participants) ultimately impacts children’s microsystems, which in this case would be their teacher’s values in the classroom. When examining the macrosystem and its impact on a school-aged child’s values, we need to recall that the macrosystem refers to the society or subculture to which the schoolaged child belongs. On a basic level, this could be gender. It also can include particular reference to the belief system held by the culture in which the child lives. For example, Judy (a 7-year-old) has just started first grade at St. Cecilia’s Catholic School. Her friend Mindy has just started school at the Worth Public Elementary School. Judy is confused because she must go to church during the school day, but Mindy does not. Judy asks her teacher, Sister Mary Terese, why she has to go to church when it isn’t Sunday. Sister Mary Terese replies that because she is going to a Catholic school, she must subscribe to Catholic values, which means that she must attend church every day. Corbis/SuperStock The Pledge of Allegiance symbolizes America’s values as a country. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 18 There are values that entire societies are based upon. For example, the United States has the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which form the basis of our democratic society. These documents spell out the basic principles valued by Americans that dictate how a person should act and be treated. These 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 7.5  Values CHAPTER 7 values are passed on to school-aged children by their parents, within the public school systems, and through society. In fact, in some public schools, children recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, a symbol of this country and its values. Voices: The Value of Education Versus the Value of Sports Scott, age 11: Hi! My name is Scott, and I am in the 6th grade at Benjamin Franklin Middle School. I really love school! My favorite part of school is during math and sciences classes. I love them! I think it is so amazing all of the things that you can create when you are good at math and science. When I am not at school learning about math and science, I come home and read books about math and science. Everyone in my family loves math and science: my mom, my dad, and even my brother Erik loves it. Both my mom and dad are biochemists, and they get to do math and science all day long. They are so lucky. Right now my dad and I and my older brother are working on two different projects: a solar powered car and a real-life erupting volcano! During the last three summers, I went to a math camp for 2 weeks and then science camp for 2 weeks. I loved it. It was so cool being around other kids who like math and science as much as I do. This summer my mom and dad are bringing me and my brother to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or as my dad calls it, MIT. We are going to visit because my dad earned his Ph.D. there, and my brother was accepted there, and he is going to start in August. My mom does not want me to go to MIT. She says the best place to earn a degree in biochemistry is from Princeton. That is where she went, and she really wants me to go to that school, but I told her that I want to go to MIT just like Dad and Erik. My dad told me that if I work really hard at school and keep earning straight A’s I will be able to grow up and be a biochemist and earn my Ph.D. from MIT just like he did. I cannot wait! Joe, age 11: Hi! My name is Joe, and I am in the 6th grade at Benjamin Franklin Middle School. I like school sometimes, but I would rather be playing baseball than going to school every day. Baseball is not only a big part of my life; it is a big part of my family’s life. My two older brothers also play baseball, and my mom just signed my little brother up for baseball this year too. We play baseball in the summer and can play baseball all year long because we play for traveling teams too. The last 3 years after our regular season, I have made the all-star team, so that is even more time I get to play. I spend most of my time at baseball practice or at one of my baseball games, and if I am not at one of my games, I am at one of my brothers’ games or practices. My dad is the coach of my team, and he coaches one of my brothers’ teams too. We all love baseball in our house! Sometimes we don’t get home until really late, and I don’t do my homework. I used to feel bad about not being able to turn in my homework, but my dad said not to worry. He told me that major league baseball players don’t need to know how to use long division; they can just hire an accountant. I totally agree with my dad. I am going to be a major league baseball player one day and play for the Chicago White Sox! Reflection Questions 1. What values did your family pass down to you when you were in middle school? 2. What values did you gain from your peers when you were in middle school? 3. Are any of the values that were important to you when you were in middle school still important to you today? boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 19 8/17/12 3:00 PM Post-Test CHAPTER 7 Conclusion C hildren’s thinking during their school-aged years is marked by advances in spatial thinking, cause-and-effect thinking, transitive inference, and class inclusion. These advances allow school-aged children to think logically and in concrete terms, both of which contribute to their acquisition of various attitudes and beliefs. It is important to note that children at this age begin to show signs of prejudice; therefore, it is vital that communication and modeling be established in an effort to overcome this type of thinking. School-aged children’s attitudes and beliefs are influenced by their microsystems, which include their family, peers, mass media, and the school community. It is important for parents and teachers to be aware of the changes in school-aged children’s attributions, motives, and self-esteem. Collectively, this is the period of time in children’s lives when they begin to form the foundation for their beliefs regarding their abilities, talents, and pursuits. A child’s microsystem influences each of these components. Finally, it is important to note that school-aged children’s values are developed in concert with the values of their parents, peers, and school community. When children are young, families play the biggest role in children’s socialization and acquisition of attitudes and beliefs. However, as children age, their peers and school community become very important in shaping their outlooks on life. Each of these avenues offers the opportunity to provide appropriate guidance and support in a positively developing child. Post-Test 1. What term did Piaget use to describe the ability to see the relationship between a whole and its individual parts? a. class inclusion b. transitive inference c. understanding cause-and-effect d. seriation 2. Mr. Mose is teaching his first graders to treat all people equally by having them act out scenarios in class. This is an example of _____________. a. educational techniques b. orchestrated dialogues c. systematic inquiry d. technical listings 3. An individual’s perceived self-efficacy is related to ___________. (More than one answer can be correct.) a. effort b. choice of tasks c. persistence d. achievement 4. Children’s self-esteem can be impacted by which of the following elements in their microsystem? (More than one answer can be correct.) a. their peers b. the values of their culture boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 20 8/17/12 3:00 PM Key Ideas CHAPTER 7 c. their family d. their siblings 5. Marcie is in kindergarten. Her values are unlikely to reflect the values of _____________. a. her parents b. her teacher c. her friends d. her neighbors Answers 1. a. class inclusion The answer can be found in Section 7.1. 2. a. educational techniques The answer can be found in Section 7.2. 3. a. effort, b. choice of task, c. persistence, d. achievement The answer can be found in Section 7.3. 4. a. their peers, c. their family, d. their siblings The answer can be found in Section 7.4. 5. d. her neighbors The answer can be found in Section 7.5. Key Ideas • According to Piaget, children around the age of 6 enter the stage of concrete operations where they can use mental operations to solve concrete or actual problems. • Five advances are seen during the stage of concrete operations: spatial thinking, cause-and-effect, categorizing, inductive and deductive reasoning, and conservation. Two developmental milestones reached during concrete operations are the use of inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. • A child’s age, cognitive development, and social experiences influence development of attitudes. • When examining the familial, peer, mass media, and school’s influence on school-aged children’s attitudes and beliefs, remembering the different layers in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model is important. • Several studies have documented the ways in which the use of educational techniques can change a child’s attitude. • What motivates one person to do something may not motivate someone else. • School-aged children who have high expectations of themselves tend to stay with a task longer and end up performing better on that task than children who have low expectations of themselves. • School-aged children who attribute their performance or behavior to an internal locus of control credit the responsibility for the behavior to themselves, whereas school-aged children who attribute their behavior to an external locus of control give responsibility for the behavior to something outside themselves—external forces. • A major determinate of self-esteem is the child’s view of his or her capacity to do productive work. • Values—particularly for school-aged children—are influenced by a variety of factors and are often reflective of the values held by the children’s parents, teachers, religion, culture, and with increasingly more importance, their friends. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 21 8/17/12 3:00 PM Key Terms CHAPTER 7 Critical Thinking Questions 1. Provide an example of a school-aged child using one of the cognitive advances seen during the third stage of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, concrete operations. 2. Think of a time when you have witnessed a child in elementary school being prejudiced against another child. What did it look like? What was happening? 3. Using Bronfenbrenner’s concept of the microsystem, determine who had the biggest impact on your attitude development during your school-aged years. Was it your parents, a peer, a teacher, or someone else? Why did this particular person stand out? 4. Think back to when you were in elementary school and remember how much time you spent in front of the TV or video games. Did either of these have an impact on your attitudes or beliefs? How? 5. When it comes to the concept of achievement motivation, what was something that you were focused on? Was this motivation influenced by members of your microsystem? If so, how? 6. Taking Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model into account, who or what within your microsystem had the most influence on your self-esteem? 7. Give an example of when you displayed characteristics of being in Erikson’s fourth stage of psychosocial development (industry vs. inferiority). 8. Recall from your school-aged years a value that was important in your community (your macrosystem) that trickled down and had an impact within your microsystem. Key Terms categorization  A stage in cognitive development where a child has the ability to categorize items using higher-order thinking. cause-and-effect thinking  A child’s ability to understand the sequences of events as they pertain to a logical order. class inclusion  The ability to see the relationship between a whole and its individual parts. concrete operations  The third stage in Piaget’s cognitive development in which children (typically between ages 7 and 12) can use mental operations to solve concrete or actual problems. boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 22 conservation  A child’s awareness that two objects that are equal according to a certain measure remain equal in the face of perceptual alteration so long as nothing has been added to or taken away from either object. industry vs. inferiority  Erikson’s fourth stage of psychosocial development where children must learn the productive skills that are important to their culture or else face feelings of inferiority. prejudice  An attitude involving prejudgment; refers to the application of a previously formed judgment to some person, object, or situation. seriation  The ability to order objects in a series according to one or more dimensions. 8/17/12 3:00 PM CHAPTER 7 Web Resources spatial thinking  A child’s ability to analyze, engage in problem solving, and use pattern recognition involving objects and their spatial relationships. transitive inference  The ability to infer a relationship between two objects from the relationship between each of them and a third object. Web Resources This is a website that examines the extent to which media impacts a child’s self-image and how the same child sees others: http://www.childrennow.org/index.php/learn/media_messages_about_race_class_gender This program documents an exercise in discrimination based on eye color: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html This website discusses how media impact children in multiple facets of their life: http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html This is a website dedicated to school-aged children’s well-being: http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/connecting_with_your_school-age_child_ introductio.html This video asks teachers how they will contribute to a student’s sense of industry vs. inferiority: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAbuj5kZufo This website examines ways to influence a school-aged child’s self-esteem: http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/gradeschool/pages/HelpingYour-Child-Develop-A-Healthy-Sense-of-Self-Esteem.aspx This video takes a school-aged child through some of Piaget’s cognitive tasks from concrete operations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4lvQfhuNmg This website from the Anti-Defamation League gives ideas on how to talk with children about hatred and prejudice: http://www.adl.org/issue_education/hateprejudice/print.asp This website offers a quiz to learn about language and its effect on learned helplessness: http://www.chickmoorman.com/PAhelplessness.html This website and video examines a school-aged child’s social and emotional skills: http://www.healthyfuturesva.com/detail.aspx?id=347 boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 23 8/17/12 3:00 PM boj80120_07_c07_135-158.indd 24 8/17/12 3:00 PM 8 Comstock/Thinkstock Social and Behavioral Outcomes: School-Aged Children Learning Objectives By the end of the chapter, you will be able to: • Explain advances in self-regulation skills in school-aged children. • Describe milestones in moral development during the middle childhood period that affect children’s prosocial and antisocial behavior. • Explain gender stereotypes, especially as they relate to layers in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. • Explore childhood peer groups and how the microsystem, macrosystem, mesosystem, and chronosystem influence them. • Explain peer interactions in elementary school, especially as they relate to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 1 8/17/12 2:59 PM Pre-Test CHAPTER 8 Introduction I n Chapter 7, we discussed that the elementary school years are filled with cognitive and emotional transitions. In this chapter, we will explore the social and behavioral transitions in school-aged children. How do children deal with stress reactively and proactively and learn how to navigate diverse social contexts? More on this subject will be covered as we consider the nuances of emerging friendships. Once children enter elementary school, they are opened up to a new world of social contexts as they build their friendship networks and become involved in a variety of structured activities at school and in their communities. Why do children of this age tend to congregate in gender-segregated groups, and why do they become more selective in choosing friends? We also will apply Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model as it relates to shaping children’s peer groups. It is important to explore peer relations in middle childhood, because having a best friend in childhood is predictive of social competence later in adolescence. Not all peer relations in middle childhood are positive, however, and bullying is pervasive during this age. Bullying can take many forms, and we will discuss examples of the types of bullying that occur among school-aged children. We will also explore warnings signs of bullying and intervention programs to demonstrate what parents and teachers can do to identify bullying and help both bullies and their victims. Pre-Test 1. Collaboration has little impact on a child’s ability to solve problems. True False 2. Early antisocial behavior is often associated with deviant peer relations. True False 3. Children generally describe females in action-related terms and males in appearance-related terms. True False 4. Children who have secure relationships with their parents are likely to make friends more easily at school. True False 5. Babak is 10 years old, and most of his friends are girls. Babak’s choice of friends would tend to make him less popular with his male peers. True False boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 2 8/17/12 2:59 PM Section 8.1  Self-Regulation in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 Answers 1. False The answer can be found in Section 8.1. 2. True The answer can be found in Section 8.2. 3. False The answer can be found in Section 8.3. 4. True The answer can be found in Section 8.4. 5. True The answer can be found in Section 8.5. 8.1  Self-Regulation in Middle Childhood S elf-regulation is an important concept because it relates to how school-aged children solve problems. As we saw in Chapter 7 (Section 7.1), during this stage of childhood children have moved into a stage where they are able to solve problems logically. Children who are able to think through problems and the consequences of their actions are more likely to consider the feelings of others. Proactive Coping Self-regulation skills in school-aged children are critical because they are the root of proactive coping skills. Proactive coping is a mechanism that involves anticipating potential stressors, evaluating how to prevent them or reduce their impact, and planning a course of action to deal with a potential problem (Buckner, Mezzacappa, & Beardslee, 2009). Through proactive coping, children are able to reduce the number of stressors that they experience, which leads to better psychosocial adjustment. Let’s look at an example of proactive coping. Malachi was invited to a birthday party the same weekend his dad was planning to take him camping. On the one hand, he is excited about the party and seeing his friends. On the other hand, he knows his dad was really looking forward to spending time with him, which hasn’t happened a lot lately because his dad frequently travels for work. Malachi is experiencing stress because he wants to do both things. Although he understands he can’t be in two places at once, he doesn’t know which invitation to accept, so he turns to his mother for advice. Proactive coping in this situation involves thinking through the options and the consequences of his decision, and his mother provides scaffolding for him to sort through his options. She tells him to consider his alternatives: First, he could go ahead with his plans to camp with his dad but buy a gift for his friend and give it to him the day before the party. This way he can spend time with his dad without hurting his friend’s feelings. Next, she explains that he could go to the party and talk with his dad about choosing another weekend to go camping. This option would allow him to celebrate with his friend yet not hurt his dad’s feelings by making plans to spend time another weekend when he is free. If Malachi had accepted the birthday party invitation right away before talking with his parents about the situation, he would have experienced a greater dilemma. However, because he hasn’t made a commitment yet, he still has time to weigh his options before hurting anyone’s feelings. Malachi’s proactive coping skills are helping him come up with a solution before the situation becomes an unmanageable problem. boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 3 8/17/12 2:59 PM CHAPTER 8 Section 8.1  Self-Regulation in Middle Childhood Focused Coping Self-regulation skills may also be critical in effectively dealing with stressors after they have occurred. Two types of strategies for coping with stressful situations in a reactive manner are emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Guthrie, 1997). Emotion-focused coping is a strategy that involves the regulation or management of negative emotions such as fear and anger. In contrast, problem-focused coping is a strategy that involves goal-directed efforts that include behavioral and attention-regulation strategies that resolve the stressful situation. Michael Blann/Thinkstock Problem-focused coping is an effective strategy that entails identifying a solution to a problem, such as asking one’s grandfather for help, before it results in a potential conflict. For example, Helen broke her mother’s favorite vase in two pieces when she accidentally knocked it off the table. As an emotion-focused coping strategy, Helen counts to 10 to help her calm down before responding to the situation. Problem-focused coping in this situation involves coming up with the plan to fix or replace the vase. Helen decides to recruit her grandfather to help glue the vase back together. In this situation, Helen’s problemfocused coping motivates her to gather the resources necessary to resolve the problem before it escalates even further. Roles of Parents and Peers in Self-Regulation As is the case with self-regulation of toddlers (see Section 6.1), a child’s microsystem plays a pivotal role in helping the child continually develop self-regulation. Parents continue to be a major microsytem influence, but during this stage, peer relationships grow and begin to have more influence on a child. The period of transition from preschool to middle childhood is a point of change in the relations between positive and negative social behaviors (Hastings, Utendale, & Sullivan, 2007). These changes affect how children solve problems. In Chapter 7, we showed how Piaget believed that peer interaction helped lead to cognitive change (see Section 7.1). School-aged children who work collaboratively have been shown to have a greater ability to solve problems. Moreover, working collaboratively with their peers has been shown to facilitate lower-ability children’s problem-solving abilities—at times working with peers has greater results than working with a teacher or parent (Fawcett & Garton, 2005). The United States places a strong emphasis on competition. As a result, children in middle childhood in particular are encouraged by their parents and peers to participate in activities that enable them to gain confidence through competing in sports or other situations. These activities help children to learn how to perform under pressure and how to work boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 4 8/17/12 2:59 PM Section 8.2  Moral Development in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 together to achieve success. Children are positively reinforced when they win competitions, which in turn encourages them to continue in these pursuits throughout elementary school. If children are not successful in a particular activity, they may choose another domain or may be encouraged by peers in other groups to which they belong to participate in some other activity. 8.2  Moral Development in Middle Childhood C hildren who show signs of aggression at an early age are likely to continue these aggressive behaviors once they reach elementary school. Thus, early prosocial behavior protects against later antisocial behavior. Moral development is an important concept because it relates to the quality of relationships with peers. What factors are related to development of prosocial and antisocial behavior in schoolaged children? What can parents and teachers do to promote prosocial behaviors in middle childhood? These are some questions we will answer in the following sections. Prosocial Behavior The socialization of prosocial development progresses through the ongoing and dynamic interactions between children and their parents, siblings, peers, teachers, and culture. The give-and-take nature of social influence motivates the complex processes shaping social and emotional development in childhood (Kuczynski, 2003). Recall in Chapter 2 (see Section 2.3) we discussed various methods of socialization including the observation method. Parents, siblings, peers, and teachers foster children’s prosocial development in middle childhood by modeling concern for the needs of others through activities such as being caring, helping others in distress, and engaging in volunteer work. Children witness Jupiterimages/Thinkstock these prosocial activities, and they provide an example of how Interacting with peers who participate in charitable acts to interact with others in a kind models key prosocial behaviors such as sharing. manner. There is a strong cultural value placed on helping others in need, which also illustrates the role of the macrosystem in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model in shaping children’s prosocial behavior. The cognitive method of social development (see Section 2.3) is also important when shaping prosocial behavior because it can help children who may get “stuck” in one way of looking at a situation to consider other possibilities. The mesosystem of both parents and teachers can use inductive reasoning to inform children of norms and boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 5 8/17/12 2:59 PM Section 8.2  Moral Development in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 principles, to explain why rules are necessary, to highlight the needs of other children and adults, and to explain the effects of children’s actions. For example, classroom teachers frequently explain to children the rules of the classroom and why these rules are important for the safety and well-being of the entire class. Explaining the consequences of one’s actions also promotes children’s reasoning skills. When children misbehave, parents should explain why these actions are hurtful to others so children can understand the consequences of their behaviors. Antisocial Behavior Recent theoretical viewpoints about the development of antisocial behavior emphasize the importance of the age of onset of antisocial behavior (Kokko, Tremblay, Lacourse, Nagin, & Vitaro, 2006). Some children will manifest antisocial behavior early in life and are likely to follow a pathway of deviance, whereas other children will first show signs of deviance at a later age, such as during adolescence. A common example of deviant behavior in adolescence is shoplifting. Sometimes adolescents steal clothing or desirable objects to try to impress their friends even if they have the means to buy the item they are stealing. Also, some may try to steal just to see if they can get away with it. Factors for childhood-onset antisocial behavior may be intensified by a high-risk social environment (van Lier, Wanner, & Vitaro, 2007). These David Young-Wolff/Getty Images high-risk social environments reflect the role of different layers in Bronfenbrenner’s ecologiChildren with later onset of deviance are cal model. For example, having a parent who likely to manifest antisocial behaviors such has poor skills for coping with stress associated as shoplifting during adolescence. with child-rearing and affiliating with other deviant peers at school and in the neighborhood are examples of microsystems and mesosystems that shape pathways of antisocial behavior. Let’s look at an example of early-onset antisocial behavior. Ever since he was a baby, Austin had a difficult temperament. No matter what his mother or father tried to do to comfort him, he was fussy and didn’t like to be held. As a toddler he was hyperactive. He always tried to get into closets and cupboards, and noises in the environment easily distracted him. In preschool, Austin was diagnosed with attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He had a difficult time making friends, but the children he did associate with were very aggressive and often got into trouble for biting and hitting their peers. In elementary school, Austin continued his aggressive behavior. Austin was teased by other children because he was tutored after school, and he retaliated by hitting and stealing their belongings. Austin’s parents used harsh discipline strategies to control him. Even though his parents thought these techniques were calming him down, they actually were modeling the kind of behaviors they wanted Austin to stop at school. boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 6 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 8.3  Gender Role Development in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 It is important to note that although ADHD may be associated with a higher risk of antisocial behavior, this does not imply that all children with ADHD will demonstrate aggressive behavior. Austin’s story highlights the importance of parents in modeling ways to handle conflict. Although parents may think a particular strategy is effective, they actually may be promoting the behavior they are trying to eliminate. Girls are more likely to display adolescent-onset antisocial behavior as they begin to question authority and rebel, whereas boys are more likely to follow a childhood-onset pathway (Fergusson & Horwood, 2002). Why do these differences in genders exist? We will explore next this next. Think About It Stop and think back to your classroom experiences in elementary school or any experiences you have with children in the middle-childhood period. What examples of early aggressive behavior and deviance do you recall observing in your peers? How do these behaviors reflect the different layers in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model? 8.3  Gender Role Development in Middle Childhood I n Chapter 6, we discussed gender consistency (see Section 6.3), which is part of the final stage in Kohlberg’s theory (see Section 2.4). Only boys and girls in middle childhood can explain their answers in a way that demonstrates an understanding of constancy, such as boys always remain boys even if they grow long hair or wear jewelry. The belief that girls should have long hair and like to wear jewelry and boys should have short hair and play sports are examples of common gender stereotypes, and themes of masculine and feminine stereotypes have been discovered in children’s spontaneous descriptions of boys and girls (Miller, Lurye, Zosulus, & Ruble, 2009). For example, when asked what girls are like, children describe girls predominantly in appearance-related terms, such as dresses, jewelry, long hair, and makeup. In contrast, when asked what boys are like, children describe boys mostly in activityor behavior-related terms, including wrestling, rough-and-tumble play, and action fantasy play. boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 7 iStockphoto/Thinkstock When spontaneously asked to describe what boys are like, both boys’ and girls’ stereotypes reflect a portrayal of boys in terms of physical activity. 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 8.3  Gender Role Development in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 Gender stereotyping illustrates the role of three systems in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, the microsystem, exosystem, and macrosystem, in the socialization process. Almost all children become aware of gender stereotypes regardless of family (microsystem) attitudes or values, because the mass media (exosystem) exposes children to messages about gender. Further, the child’s cultural setting (macrosystem) contains implicit and explicit message about values. We will discuss each of these layers individually. Microsystem Influences on Gender Stereotypes Although different groups of the microsystem can influence a child’s gender stereotyping, it is the microsystem of the parents that seems to affect a child’s beliefs the most. How do parents communicate gender stereotype content to their children? Narratives, or the way parents talk to their children about personal experiences, can influence what children learn about gender. For example, analysis of low-income immigrant families showed that conversations with sons contained more action-based activities than conversations with daughters (Cristofaro & Tamis-LeMonda, 2008). In contrast, conversations with daughters included references to physical appearance more frequently than conversations with sons. Parents also may communicate gender differences between men and women in subtle ways such as how expectations of appropriate emotions are expressed. For example, parents may subtly hint that it’s acceptable for girls to be scared, but boys should not be scared. Others suggest that mothers and fathers differ in the types of activities they do with children, which may promote gender stereotypes such as caregiving for females and physical strength for males. Whereas fathers spend more time playing games and participating in sports with their children, especially boys, mothers spend time teaching their children and having conversations with them about their feelings (McHale, Crouter, & Whiteman, 2003). Differential parenting roles are also influenced by cultural values and expectations about what males and females are supposed to do while raising their children, which reflects the impact of the exosystem. Exosystem Influences on Gender Stereotypes Society at large also can influence children’s knowledge of and use of gender stereotypes, such as television and the media in general (Halim & Ruble, 2010). The mass media is part of the exosystem in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model (1979, 1989, 2005). Despite attempts at change over the past few decades, television programming still reflects stereotypic messages that teach and reinforce traditional gender roles. The media seldom portrays boys with feminine traits. For example, an analysis of school-aged children’s reading textbooks revealed that boys were depicted with stereotypically masculine traits (Evans & Davies, 2000). Further, examination of commercials directed at school-aged children demonstrated that boys and men were more likely than girls and women to be depicted in a major role, have active movement in an individual activity, and be in an occupational setting (Davis, 2003). For example, men were more likely to be depicted as participants in sporting activities or doing activities at work. boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 8 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 8.3  Gender Role Development in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 Think About It Stop and think about the content of some commercials you have seen recently on television. Describe the main characters of the commercial and the portrayals of men and women or boys and girls. How did the portrayals compare to gender stereotypes? In what ways were the attributes or actions of the characters consistent or inconsistent with gender stereotypes? Macrosystem Influences on Gender Stereotypes Another area that reflects macrosystem influences on gender stereotypes is children’s perceptions of gender status. Public regard refers to the awareness that other people may evaluate one’s group and hold it in high or low esteem, which reflects cultural values. The experience of being a member of a low-status group motivates changes in one’s identity that involve distancing oneself from the low-status group and/or associating more strongly with the high-status group. The “pink frilly dress” (PFD) phenomenon has been described as a striking trend in 3- and 4-year-old girls (Halim, Ruble, & Amodio, 2011). The PFD phenomenon reflects the observation that preschool-aged girls love to wear pink clothes and demand to wear a dress even when inconvenient and inappropriate, such as when the weather is cold. Despite its prevalence in early childhood, there is shift away from PFD and an emergence of tomboy behavior in middle childhood. Compared to preschoolers, school-aged girls show increasing interest in masculine activities and behaviors and may actively shun pink objects and female-typed activities. They may like to play more sports, wear pants, and play with maletyped toys (Paechter & Clark, 2007). For example, Terry is an 8-year-old girl. She used to play with dolls and wanted to wear pink outfits to school. When she was 6, she started to play soccer and became more interested in sports. Now she prefers to wear Barry Austin/Thinkstock jeans and shorts instead of pink dresses. In fact, she finds it awkward to wear dresses and skirts School-aged girls’ choice of activities and clothing may end up being in sharp contrast to behaviors of preschool girls who at all because it would interfere might prefer to wear frilly dresses. with the activities she wants to do at recess. The shift away from PFD and the emergence of “tomboyism” in middle childhood may be triggered by an emerging sense of public regard (Halim et al., 2011). School-aged girls may embrace masculine-typed behavior in order to improve their social standing as they become more aware of the differential status ascribed to males and females. Interestingly, boys in middle childhood tend to be more rigid in their stereotypic toy and activity preferences than girls (Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 9 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 8.4  Peer Group as Socialization Agent in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 Voices: Thoughts From the Playground: Children’s Gender Roles in Elementary School Mallory, age 8, student: I am a 3rd-grade student at Jefferson Elementary School and just celebrated my 8th birthday. I want to be the first female president someday. My favorite color is blue. I love to play sports at recess and have two best friends on the softball team. I used to wear dresses and skirts all the time when in preschool, but I told my mom not to buy them for me anymore. All of my friends wear jeans and pants to school now, and I wouldn’t be able to run around as easily while wearing a dress. Girls can do anything that boys can, and playing outside is more fun than playing with girls’ toys. There is no reason for me to play with dolls anymore. I would rather practice my swing so that I can move up in the line-up and maybe even be the leader-off batter one day. If I want to be in charge of the country one day, it is important for me to be strong and be a good role model for my teammates. Even when I get upset, I try to keep my cool on the field. A good leader must be able to deal with pressure. Brandon, age 9, student: I am a fourth-grade student at Washington Elementary School. My favorite color is red, and I want to be a pro football player someday. I love to watch Drew Brees, the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, on television. My dad was a good athlete when he was young and even won a football scholarship in college, but he didn’t make it to the NFL. However, he plays football with me and my brothers every day after school so we can practice. My dad tells me that I am fast and coordinated, which is a good skill to have if you want to be a quarterback like me. I play in the Pop Warner League just like my brother. The teachers at school don’t allow tackling on the playground, so we can’t do any scrimmaging at school. My friends and I practice running drills instead at recess so we can improve our speed. I always have been interested in sports and doing physical activities like climbing trees and wrestling. My mom is worried that I am going to get hurt playing football, just like my dad, but I am not afraid. When I get tackled, I always get back up and shake it off just like my heroes in the NFL. Reflection Questions Compare and contrast Mallory and Brandon’s behavior. Explain how their activities support or refute gender stereotypes. 1. What themes did you notice that relate to concept of public regard? 2. How do their behaviors reflect the influence of the different layers of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model? 8.4  Peer Group as Socialization Agent in Middle Childhood P eer relations in childhood, particularly during the elementary school years, are critical because being rejected during middle childhood is a precursor to other problems such as bullying and depression. Friendships take on a new level of complexity during middle childhood compared to friendships in preschool. For example, school-aged children become more selective in choosing friends and are more likely to be friends with peers who share common interests and values. Further, close friendships occur almost exclusively with peers of the same sex (Parker, Rubin, Erath, Wojslawowicz, & Buskirk, 2006). What factors influence the nature of school-aged children’s friendships? Application of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model as it relates to children’s peer groups in middle childhood, namely the microsystem, macrosystem, mesosystem, and chronosystem, provides key insights into the bioecological influences on the peer group. boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 10 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 8.4  Peer Group as Socialization Agent in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 Microsystem Influences on the Peer Group Parents are one example of microsystem influences on the peer group in middle childhood. Children who have positive and close relationships with their parents are more likely to engage in prosocial activities (Anderson, Sabatelli, & Kosutic, 2007), and children who are prosocial have an easier time making friends at school. Further, parents who are supportive of their children are also more likely to get them involved in activities at school (Wang & Eccles, 2012). Parents are not the only influences that expose children to new people and activities. Siblings are another example of microsystem influences. Depending on how close the children are in age, they may share some of the same friends. Older siblings may provide a gateway to peer interaction by introducing the younger children to other children in the neighborhood or at school who are similar in age. Siblings also introduce children to social norms and values by teaching them what behaviors are appropriate in particular settings. Macrosystem Influences on the Peer Group Peer interactions in middle childhood are likely to be shaped by cultural norms and values in their community and society at large, reflecting macrosystem influences as outlined in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. For example, Western societies like the United States place a strong value on social initiative, assertiveness, expressiveness, and competitiveness. Therefore, children who are shy or inhibited are likely to be viewed as lacking social competence, and the negative feedback that shy children may receive may create pressure to modify their behaviors (Chen, 2012). This example demonstrates the regulatory function of peers in shaping the process through which cultural values influence individual development. Children also play an active role through their participation in Digital Vision/Getty Images adopting existing cultures and constructing new cultures for In Western societies like the United States that place a high social evaluations and other activ- value on extroversion, peer groups are more likely to shun ities in the group. For example, shy children. children routinely form informal peer groups based on common interests such as academics, sports, or hobbies. These peer cultures formed by children provide an opportunity for group functioning along with guidance for children on how to evaluate their behavior and act in accordance with group norms (Chen, Chang, He, & Liu, 2005). The extent to which culture encourages children to maintain, adopt, and transform existing values in the society either promotes or weakens the active role of children in development. By emphasizing particular features of peer relationships, cultural beliefs and boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 11 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 8.4  Peer Group as Socialization Agent in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 values heighten children’s sensitivity to socially valued characteristics and influence peer interactions. Societal norms and values can shape the types of activities that children are encouraged to pursue in middle childhood. Mesosystem Influences on the Peer Group As children enter elementary school, they spend a significant amount of time in structured settings such as classrooms. They may also be part of youth organizations such as sports leagues and teams, or the Scouts. Structured youth activities are associated with positive youth development. Children living in communities with more opportunities to participate in structured activities have multiple contexts for building peer relations and developing social skills. These programs provide the context for children to build their strengths and competencies, and the encouragement to learn and explore, and the codes and rules associated with the organization convey expectations for caring, character building, and moral identity (Damon, 2004). Youth organizations illustrate the impact of the mesosystem in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model because of the linkage of multiple systems including home, school, neighborhood, and larger community. These programs illustrate the bidirectional influence on children’s development and the peer group. These organizations provide a venue for youth to interact and build friendships while working toward a common goal while also providScience Faction/SuperStock ing the opportunity for youth to influence their own developYouth organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America ment through building leaderpromote team-building skills as well as individual ship skills and even shaping their development, including respect and honesty. own communities through social change—for example, cleaning up neighborhood parks. The attributes of organizations that are highly predictive of positive outcomes for children include opportunities for planning and taking initiative and the availability of positive peer and adult role models (Ramey & Rose-Krasnor, 2012). Chronosystem Influences on the Peer Group Normative and non-normative life events reflect the role of the chronosystem in Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model (see Section 1.4). An example of a normative life event would be going to school, while an example of a non-normative life would be an unexpected life event, such as a child’s parents divorcing. boj80120_08_c08_159-182.indd 12 8/17/12 3:00 PM Section 8.5  Peer Group Interactions in Middle Childhood CHAPTER 8 Other non-normative events of the chronosystem that probably have the greatest impact on peer groups are sudden poverty or homelessness. The National Center on Family Homelessness reports that over 1.6 million children, or 1 in 45 children, were homeless each year in the United States between 2006 and 2010 (Bassuk, Murphy, Coupe, Kenney, & Beach, 2011). Some homeless families live in shelters for short periods, while others live in cars, public spaces, or remain doubled up with family or friends in an apartment or home. Chronic homelessness has numerous impacts on children in middle childhood, including school performance and peer relations. For example, children who are homeless may have to move frequently, so they are separated from their friends. Further, if they participated in an a...
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