WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?
What helps some children thrive in a difficult
family, school, or neighborhood?
Should parents marry, risking divorce, or not
marry, and thus avoid divorce?
What can be done to stop a bully?
When would children lie to adults to protect
a friend?
JOE POLILLIO/GETTY IMAGES
The Nature of the Child
The child’s budding independence fosters growth, with
parental guidance still important even though the
specifics may change.
The Nature of the School-Age Children
Erikson’s insights: Industry versus
inferiority
• Characterized by tension between productivity
and incompetence
• Proposes children judge themselves as
competent or incompetent, productive or
useless, winners or losers
• Self-pride dependent on others’ view
The Nature of the Child
Freud: Latency
– Emotional drives are quiet and unconscious sexual
conflicts are submerged.
– Children acquire cognitive skills and assimilate cultural
values by expanding their world to include teachers,
neighbors, peers, club leaders, and coaches.
– Sexual energy is channeled into social concerns.
What would you list as signs of
psychosocial maturation over the
years of middle childhood?
The Nature of the Child
Self-concept
• Contains ideas about self that include
intelligence, personality, abilities, gender, and
ethnic background
• Gradually becomes more realistic, specific and
logical
• Is dependent on social comparison
Culture and Self-Esteem
Academic and social competence are
aided by realistic self-perception.
• Unrealistically high self-esteem
• Unrealistically low self-esteem
High self-esteem not universally valued.
• Australians, Chinese, Japanese
• Praise for process, not for person or static
qualities is most beneficial.
Resilience
Resilience
Involves capacity to adapt well to significant
adversity and to overcome serious stress
Suggests differential sensitivity
Important components
Resilience is dynamic.
Resilience is a positive adaptation to stress.
Adversity must be significant.
Dominant Ideas About Resilience, 1965-2012
1965: All children have the same needs for healthy development.
1975: All children are not the same. Some children are resilient, coping easily
with stressors that cause harm in other children.
1985: Factors beyond the family, both in the child (low birthweight, prenatal
alcohol exposure, aggressive temperament) and in the community (poverty,
violence), can harm children.
1995: No child is invincibly resilient. Risks are always harmful—if not in
education, then in emotions; if not immediately, then long term.
2005: Focus on strengths, not risks. Assets in child (intelligence, personality),
family (secure attachment, warmth), community (schools, after-school
programs), and nation (income support, health care) are crucial.
2012: Genes, family structures, and cultural practices can be either strengths
or weaknesses. Differential sensitivity means identical stressors can benefit one
child and harm another.
Dominant Ideas About Resilience, Today
2014
All children have the capacity to grow
despite many impediments, a phenomenon
called “ordinary magic.”
However multiple, accumulated stresses
make resilience difficult.
JOE POLILLIO/GETTY IMAGES
Cumulative Stress
Death and Disruption
Children are astonishingly resilient.
This girl is in a refugee camp in
Northern Syria in 2013, having fled
the civil war that killed thousands in
her community.
Repeated stress
Makes resilience difficult
Is more devastating than
isolated major stress
Includes such things as
frequent moves, changes in
caregivers, disruption of
schooling
Resilience and Stress: Coping
Coping measures reduce impact of
repeated stress.
Interpretation of family situation
Development of friends, activities, and skills
Participation in school success and after-school
activities
Involvement in community, church, and other
programs
Resilience and Stress: Coping
Social support and religious faith
Network of supportive relatives is a better buffer
than having only one close parent.
Grandparents, teachers, unrelated adults, peers,
and pets can lower stress.
Use of religion, which often provides support via
adults from the same faith group.
JONKMANNS/LAIF/REDUX
NAFTALI HILGER/LAIF/REDUX
Same Situation, Far Apart: Praying Hands
Differences are obvious between the Northern Indian girls
entering their Hindu school and the West African boy in a
Christian church, even in their clothes and hand positions.
But underlying similarities are more important. In every culture,
many 8-year-olds are more devout than their elders.
Families and
Children
Genes affect half or more of
the variance for almost every
trait.
•Influence of shared
environment (e.g., children
raised by the same parents in
the same home) shrinks with
age
•Effect of nonshared
environment (e.g., friends or
schools) increases
RADIUS IMAGES/MASTERFILE
Shared and nonshared
environments
Families and Children
Remember!
Children raised in the same households by the
same parents do not necessarily share the same
home environment.
Changes in the family affect every family member
differently, depending on age and/or gender.
Most parents respond to each of their children
differently.
Family Function and Family Structure
Family structure
Legal and genetic relationships among relatives living
in the same home; includes nuclear family, extended
family, stepfamily, and others
Family function
Way a family works to meet the needs of its member
Families provide basic material necessities, to
encourage learning, to help development of selfrespect, to nurture friendships, and to foster harmony
and stability.
Needs of Children in Middle Childhood
Families help children.
•Provide basic material necessities
•Encourage learning
•Help them develop self-respect
•Nurture friendships
•Foster harmony and stability
Continuity and Change
No family always functions perfectly.
Children worldwide fare better in families
than in other institutions.
School-agers value continuity and having
fathers at home.
Stability challenges occur in military families.
Diversity of Family Structures
Nuclear family
Consists of a father, a mother, and their biological
children under age 18
Tends to be wealthier, better educated, healthier,
more flexible, and less hostile
Contains biological and adoptive parents who are
ideally dedicated to their children
Diversity of Family Structures
Single-parent family
Consists of only one parent and his or her children under age
18
Have children who fare worse in school and in adult life than
most other children
Are often low-income and unstable, move more often and add
new adults more often in single-mother households
Involve more than half of all contemporary U.S. children who
will live in a single-parent family before they reach age 18
Diversity of Family Structures
Extended family
Family consisting of parents, their children, and other
relatives living in one household
This includes one in six U.S. families in 2010; particularly
common when children are small
Family structure less costly and more common in lowincome households
Polygamous family
Family consisting of one man, several wives, and the
biological children of the man and his wives
Rare and illegal in U.S.
Divorce
Divorce: Three facts
• U.S. leads world in rates of
divorce and remarriage.
• On average, children fare best,
emotionally and academically,
with married parents.
• On average, divorce impairs
children's academic
achievement and psychosocial
development for years, even
decades
Insight from scholars
• Marriage commitments need to
be made carefully, to minimize
the risk of divorce.
• Once married, couples need to
work to keep the relationship
strong.
• If divorce occurs, adults need to
minimize transitions and
maintain a child’s relationships
with both parents.
• In middle childhood, schools
can provide vital support for
children who are experiencing
family change.
Does this mean that everyone should marry before
they have a child, and then stay married?
The case for nuclear families is not as strong as it
appears. Some benefits are correlates, not causes.
• Correlation between child success and married
parents occurs partly because of who marries, not
because of the wedding.
• Income correlates with family structure.
Shared parenting is important in every nation
• Parental alliance
• Shared parenting
Connecting Family
Structure and
Function
Generally function best
Better educational, social,
cognitive, and behavioral
child outcomes
Selection effects and
parental alliance
Positive effects beyond
childhood
Some reported benefits are
correlates.
GREG ELMS/GETTY IMAGES
Two-parent families
DAVID MAXWELL/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
Connecting Family
Structure and Function
Adoptive and same-sex
parent families
Typically function well; often better
than average nuclear families
Vary tremendously in ability to meet
child needs
Stepfamilies
Some function well; positive
relationships more easily formed
with children under 2; more difficult
with teenagers
Solid parental alliance more difficult
to form
Child loyalty to parents often
undermined by disputes
Connecting Family
Structure and Function
Generally lower income,
more health problems, less
stability
Often involve grandchildren
with health or behavioral
problems who are less likely
to succeed in school
Receive fewer services for
children with special needs
DANNY GOLDFIELD
Grandparent family
(skipped-generation
family)
Connecting Family Structure and Function
Single-parent families
• On average, structure functions less well for
children
• Lower income and stability
• Stress from multiple roles
• Benefit from community support
• More common in U.S. than in many nations
Family Challenges
Two factors increase the likelihood of
dysfunction in every structure, ethnic
group, and nation.
• Low income or poverty
• High conflict
Family Challenges
Poverty: Family-stress model
Crucial question to ask about any risk factor is whether
or not it increases the stress on a family.
Adults' stressful reaction to poverty is crucial in
determining the effect on the children.
Effects of poverty are cumulative; low SES is
especially damaging during middle childhood.
Reaction to wealth may create externalizing and
internalizing problems in middle childhood.
Family Challenges
Conflict
Family conflict harms children, especially when
adults fight about child rearing.
Fights are more common in stepfamilies, divorced
families, and extended families.
Although genes have some effect, conflict itself
was the main influence on the child's well-being.
E.HANAZAKI PHOTOGRAPHY/FLICKR RF/GETTY IMAGES
No Toys
Boys in middle childhood are happiest
playing outside with equipment
designed for work. This wheelbarrow
is perfect, especially because at any
moment the pusher might tip it.
The Peer Group
Child culture
Particular habits, styles, and
values that reflect the set of
rules and rituals that
characterize children as
distinct from adult society
•
•
•
•
•
Fashion
Appearance
Peer culture
Attitudes
Independence from adults
Passed down to younger
children from slightly older
ones
Friendship and Social Acceptance
Friendship
•School-age children value personal friendship
more than peer acceptance.
•Friendships lead to psychosocial growth and
provide a buffer against psychopathology.
•Gender differences
– Girls talk more and share secrets.
– Boys play more active games.
Friendship and Social Acceptance
Older children
Demand more of their friends
Change friends less often
Become more upset when a friendship ends
Find it harder to make new friends
Seek friends who share their interests and values
Popular and Unpopular Children
Popular children in U.S.
Kind, trustworthy, cooperative
Athletic, cool, dominant, arrogant, aggressive
(around fifth grade)
Unpopular children in U.S.
Neglected
Aggressive-rejected
Withdrawn-rejected
Bullying
JRICHARD
HUTCHINGS/PHOTOEDIT—ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED
Bullies and Victims
Repeated, systematic efforts to
inflict harm through physical, verbal,
or social attack on a weaker person
Someone who attacks others and
who is attacked as well
Also called a provocative victim
because he or she does things that
elicit bullying, such as stealing a
bully's pencil
HENRY KING/GETTY IMAGES
Bully-victim
Types of Bullying
Physical (hitting, pinching, or kicking)
Verbal (teasing, taunting, or name-calling)
Relational (destroying peer acceptance and
friendship)
Cyberbullying (using electronic means to harm
another)
Causes and Consequences of Bullying
Causes
–Genetic predisposition or brain abnormality
–Parenting/caregiving environment
–Peers
Consequences
–Impaired social understanding, lower school
achievement, relationship difficulties
–Depression
Successful Efforts to Eliminate Bullying
The whole school must be involved, not just
the identified bullies.
Intervention is more effective in the earlier
grades.
Evaluation of results is critical.
Children's Moral Values
Many forces drive children’s growing
interest in moral issues.
Child culture
Personal experience
Empathy
Children show a variety of skills
Making moral judgments
Differentiating universal principles from
conventional norms
Children’s Moral Values
Kohlberg's levels of moral thought
Stages of morality stem from three levels of moral
reasoning with two stages at each level.
1. Preconventional moral reasoning: Emphasizes
rewards and punishments
2. Conventional moral reasoning: Emphasizes social
rules
3. Postconventional moral reasoning: Emphasizes
moral principles
Children’s Moral Values
Criticisms of Kohlberg
Pros
• Child use of intellectual abilities to justify moral
actions was correct.
Cons
• Culture and gender ignored.
• Differences between child and adult morality
not addressed.
What Children Value
Prosocial values among 6- to 11-year-olds
Caring for close family members
Cooperating with other children
Not hurting anyone intentionally
Adult Versus Peer Values
Protect your friends.
Do not tell adults what is happening.
Conform to peer standards of dress, talk, and
behavior
KIDSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
Not Victims
An outsider might worry that
these two boys would be
bullied, one because he is a
member of a minority group
in this New Jersey school,
and the other because he is
disabled.
But both are well liked for
the characteristics shown
here: friendliness and
willingness to help and be
helped.
Developing Moral Values
Throughout middle childhood, moral
judgment becomes more comprehensive.
Psychological and physical harm; intentions and
consequences taken into account
Peer effects on morality (Piaget)
Transition from advocating for retribution to
restitution between ages of 8 and 10 years
Benefits of Time and Talking
Conversation on a topic may stimulate a process of individual reflection
that triggers developmental advances. Raising moral issues, and letting
children discuss them, advances morality
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1. Introduction
2. Fact or Fiction?
3. The Peer Group
4. Families and Children
5. The Nature of the Child
6. Closing Thoughts
2
1
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Socioemotional Development
Fact or Fiction?
Fiction
Fact
1. School-age children typically are more self-critical
than they were when they were younger.
2. Children in a shared home environment tend
to react to family situations in a similar way.
3. Acceptance by their peer group is more important
to school-age children than having a few close friends.
4. Bullying during middle childhood seems
to be universal.
3
The Culture of Children
What are some factors that
shape a culture of children?
culture of children:
The particular habits, styles,
and values that reflect the
set of rules and rituals that
characterize children as
distinct from adult society.
Popular and
unpopular
children
Friendship and
social acceptance
Children learn how
to be a good friend.
aggressive-rejected
children are disliked
because they are
antagonistic and
confrontational.
Gender differences
persist in activities.
Boys and girls want
best friends.
Withdrawn-rejected
children are disliked
because they are
timid and anxious.
Friends chosen for
common interests,
values, backgrounds.
Culture of Children
Social awareness
Social cognition is the ability to
understand social interactions,
including the causes and consequences
of human behavior.
4
2
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Social Acceptance
Relationship between being
liked and being thought popular
friendship is a symmetrical,
one-to-one relationship.
Popularity is a group concern.
70
60
Does being popular relate to being
personally liked for girls in grade
school and middle school?
50
40
30
20
10
5
7
9
Grade
5
Children’s Moral Codes
How did 133 9-year-olds respond to a moral dilemma?
Repair Harm or Hurt the Transgressor?
Average Scores (Maximum 3) on
Broken Window Plus Two New Stories
Percent Who Chose to Repair Harm
Percent
Score
100
2.9
90
2.7
80
2.5
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
At first
An hour
later
Two weeks
later
Eight weeks
later
Source: Leman % Björnberg, 2010.
Source: Leman & Björnberg, 2010.
70
2.3
2.1
1.9
1.7
1.5
At first
An hour
later
Two weeks
later
Boy-boy
Mixed sex
Eight weeks
later
Girl-girl
No interaction
6
3
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Bullies and Victims
What are some possible
long-term consequences?
bullying: Repeated,
systematic efforts to inflict
harm through physical,
verbal, or social attack on
a weaker person.
bully-victim: Someone who
attacks others and who is
attacked as well.
Shared and Nonshared environment
What are some parent-driven and individual-driven
influences on siblings in a family?
Shared parent
influences
Nonshared individual
influences
moves
job changes
for parent(s)
divorce
family’s
socioeconomic status
age
genes
resilience
gender
school and afterschool
activities
neighborhood peers
8
4
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Family Function and Dysfunction
family function: The way a family works to meet the
needs of its members.
family structure: The legal and genetic relationships
among relatives living in the same home.
What do children age 6 to 11 need from their families?
Material necessities
Although children eat, dress, and sleep without help, families can furnish
food, clothing, and shelter
Learning
Families can support, encourage, and guide education
Self-respect
Because children become self-critical and socially aware, families can
provide opportunities for success
Peer relationships
Families can welcome friendships
Harmony and stability
Families can provide protective, predictable routines
9
Family Trouble
The Weight of Family Conflict
Low-income, high conflict
High-income, high conflict
Financial stress increases conflict
and vice versa, affecting family
function and structure
Parental pressure on the children
to excel causes stress in middle
childhood
The effects of poverty are cumulative
This may lead to children’s drug use,
delinquency, and poor academic
performance in high school
Low SES may be especially damaging
to children ages 6 to 11
10
5
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Psychoanalytic Theory
How do children ages 6 to 11 enact
the theories of Erikson and Freud?
Boys stink.
Girls stay
away!
11
Self-Concept
What factors affect how children perceive themselves in middle childhood?
Social comparison
The tendency to assess one’s abilities,
achievements, social status, and
other attributes by measuring them
against those of other people,
especially one’s peers.
6
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Coping and Overcoming
What are some accumulated stresses that children experience?
Stresses Experienced by New Orleans Children
as a Result of Hurricane Katrina
Had homes damaged in the storm
Had moved
Had been separated from a primary caregiver
Had transferred to a new school
Had lost a family member or friend
Had a parent who was unemployed
Had been separated from a pet
Percent
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Source: Survey data gathered by Howard J. Osofsky et al., of
Louisiana State University; reported in Viadero, 2007, p.7.
resilience: The capacity to adapt well to significant
adversity and to overcome serious stress.
13
Closing Thoughts
In what ways do children build
their social competence/skills
during middle childhood?
14
7
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8
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