Heredity and Conception Truth or Fiction?

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Chapter 13Middle ChildhoodSocial and Emotional
Development
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Middle Childhood Social and Emotional
DevelopmentTruth or Fiction?

• Childrens self-esteem tends to rise in middle
  childhood.
• Parents who are in conflict should stay together
  for the sake of the children.

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Middle Childhood Social and Emotional
DevelopmentTruth or Fiction?

• The daughters of employed women are more
  achievement-oriented and set themselves higher
  career goals than the daughters of unemployed
  women.
• In middle childhood, popular children tend to be
  attractive and relatively mature for their age.

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Middle Childhood Social and Emotional
DevelopmentTruth or Fiction?

• Teachers who have higher expectations of students
  may elicit greater achievements from them.
• Teachers are more likely to accept calling out in
  class from boys than girls.

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Middle Childhood Social and Emotional
DevelopmentTruth or Fiction?

• Some childrenlike some adultsblame themselves
  for all the problems in their lives whether they
  deserve the blame or not.
• It is better for children with school phobia to
  remain at home until the origins of the problem
  are uncovered and resolved.

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Theories of Social and Emotional Development in
Middle Childhood
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What Are Some Features of Social and Emotional
Development in Middle Childhood?

• Psychoanalytic Theory
• Freuds latency period
• Eriksons industry versus inferiority
• Social Cognitive Theory
• Depend less on external rewards and punishments
• Increase regulation of their behavior
• Cognitive-Developmental Theory
• Decrease in egocentrism
• Capacity to see the perspective of others

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What Is the Relationship Between Social Cognition
and Perspective Taking?

• Social cognition
• Development of knowledge about the world
• Understanding relationship between self and
  others
• Children progress through five levels of
  perspective taking

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How Does Self-Concept Develop in Middle Childhood?

• Focus on external (appearance) to internal
  characteristics
• Social relationships and group memberships are
  significant

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Lessons in Observation The Self-Concept

• When asked to describe themselves by telling
  three things about themselves, the responses of
  Todd and Christopher are very different from the
  response of Rachel, Stephanie, and Ricardo. How
  do each of these children describe themselves?
• Based on these self-descriptions, how old would
  you estimate the children to be? Why?

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Lessons in Observation The Self-Concept

• What evidence of social comparison is present in
  the response of the children in the video?
• How are social comparisons related to a childs
  self-esteem?

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Lessons in Observation The Self-Concept

• When do children begin to incorporate
  psychological traits into their
  self-descriptions?
• How does this relate to cognitive development?
• Do the children in the video show age-related
  differences in their descriptions of themselves?
• In what ways does self-concept typically change
  over the course of middle childhood?

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How Does Self-Esteem Develop in Middle Childhood?

• Competence and social acceptance contribute to
  self-esteem
• As children begin self appraisal, self-esteem
  initially declines
• Gender differences in self-esteem
• Girlshigher on reading and academics
• Boyshigher on math, physical ability and
  physical appearance
• Influences on self-esteem
• Parenting style
• Relationship to parents
• Social acceptance by peers

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What Is Learned Helplessness, and How Does It
Develop?

• Acquired belief one cannot obtain rewards
• Helpless child quits following failure
• Doubt ability and believe success is based on
  ability
• Sex and Learned Helplessness
• Girls feel more helpless in math and science than
  business

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The Family
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What Kinds of Influences Are Exerted by the
Family During Middle Childhood?

• Parent-Child Relationships
• Focus on school-related matters, chores, peer
  activities
• Coregulationtransfer of control from parent to
  child
• View parents as main source of emotional support

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What Are the Effects of Having Lesbian or Gay
Parents?

• Research focus
• Psychological adjustment
• Comparable to children of heterosexual parents
• Sexual orientation
• Prefer toys, clothing and friends typical for
  their sex and age
• Generally heterosexual orientation

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What Are the Effects of Divorce on Children?

• Divorce impacts all aspects of family life
• Difficult to isolate effects of divorce
• Children of divorce
• Experience multiple sources of anxiety
• Experience greatest impact during first year
• Boys seem to have more difficulty adjusting
• Decline in quality of parenting and financial
  status
• Role of status of mother related to childs
  well-being

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Life in Stepfamilies

• No conclusive effects of living in stepfamilies
• Unique risks in stepfamilies
• Infanticide occurs 60 times more often in
  stepfamilies
• Slightly higher incidence of sexual abuse

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Should Parents Who Bicker Remain Together for the
Children?

• Parental conflict
• Linked to problems similar to divorce
• Adjustment problems
• Present in children of divorce
• May be greater in children living with parental
  conflict

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What Are the Effects of Maternal Employment on
Children?

• Greatest concern is lack of supervision
• No evidence of negative effects
• Some indication of positive effects
• Greater independence, responsibility and
  competence
• More flexible gender roles

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Peer Relationships
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What Is the Impact of Peers During Middle
Childhood?

• Socialization Influence
• Increasing importance of peers
• Exert pressure to conform
• Broaden children
• Difference relating to parents versus peers
• Some indication of positive effects
• Peers provide real-world practice

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What Are the Characteristics of Popular and
Rejected Children?

• Popular Children
• Tend to be attractive and mature for age
• Socially skilled
• Have higher self-esteem and success
• Rejected Children
• Show behavioral and learning problems
• Are aggressive and disruptive

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How Do Childrens Concepts of Friendship Develop?

• Early Middle Childhood
• Friendships based on proximity, shared activities
• 8- to 11-year olds
• Friends are nice to each other and trustworthy
• Pick friends similar in personality and behavior
• Tends to be segregated by sex
• Girls develop closer friendships

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The School
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What Are the Effects of School on Childrens
Social and Emotional Development?

• Entry into school
• School experience makes multiple demands on
  children
• School readiness is determined by
• Childs early life experiences
• Childs development and learning
• Reasonable expectations for students
• Poor health care and lack of support put students
  at risk

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What Are the Characteristics of a Good School?

• Effective schools have
• Energetic leadership
• Empowered teachers and students
• Orderly atmosphere
• Academic curriculum with frequent assessment
• High expectations for students
• Similar class size

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A Closer Look
BullyingAn Epidemic of Misbehavior and Fear
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The Influence of Teachers

• On student performance
• Teachers behavior
• Emotional climate of classroom
• Teacher expectations
• Expectations can become self-fulfilling
  prophesies
• Sexism in the classroom
• Girls are treated unequally by teachers, peers,
  tests, and curriculum

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Social and Emotional Problems
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What Are Conduct Disorders

• Conduct disorders
• Child consistently breaks rules or violates
  rights of others
• Emerge around age 8, more prevalent in boys
• Tend to endure
• Origins of conduct disorder
• Genetic component
• Inconsistent discipline, antisocial family
  members, deviant peers
• Treatment of conduct disorders
• Cognitive behavioral techniques involving parent
  training
• Teach children social, coping and problem-solving
  skills

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What Is Depression?

• Depressed children
• Show poor appetite, insomnia, difficulty
  concentrating
• Loss of self-esteem and interest in people and
  activities they enjoy
• Feel hopeless and show thoughts of suicide
• Origins of depression
• Low levels of social and academic competence
• Stressful life events and poor problem solving
• Attribute failures to internal, stable and global
  factors
• Treatment of depression
• Psychotherapy
• Antidepressants

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What Is Separation Anxiety Disorder?

• Persistent and excessive separation anxiety
• Inappropriate for developmental level
• Interferes with activities
• Children with SAD
• Cling to parents and may refuse to attend school

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What Are the Connections Between Separation
Anxiety Disorder, School Phobia, and School
Refusal?

• SAD may be expressed as school phobia
• School phobiafear of school or refusal to attend
• May occur outside of presence of SAD
• School refusal
• May occur for reasons other than fear or anxiety
• Treatments
• Get the child to attend school
• Cognitive-behavioral approaches
• Antidepressant medication

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Developing in a World of Diversity
Problems? No Problem. (For Some Children.)