Lifespan overheads, chapter 10: emotional and social development in middle childhood
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Chapter 10: Emotional and Social Development in
Middle Childhood
 Freud’s latency stage
Erikson’s theory: Industry vs. Inferiority
 Industry: developing competence at useful skills and
tasks
 Inferiority: if a child feels inadequate in his/her skills,
becomes pessimistic, has low self-confidence
Self-Development
 between 8 and 11, kids refine their ‘me-self” and
develop a sense of their dispositions and competencies
o less likely to define themselves in all-or-nothing
ways,
 around age 7 they start to make social comparisons
 between 8 and 15, self-concept becomes vested in
feedback from close friends
 Self-esteem: By age 6-7, kids have formed at least 3
separate self esteems - academic, social, and physical
Self-esteem takes on a hierarchical structure:
General Self-Esteem
Academic
Reading
Math
Social
Other
subjects
Physical
Peer
Parental
Physical Physical
relationships relationships ability
appearance
 self-esteem drops in first few years of school, reflecting
a more realistic self-appraisal than in early childhood.
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Self-esteem is influenced by parental child-rearing practices.
The authoritative approach is associated with kid with high
self-esteem.
 kids high in academic self-esteem make masteryoriented attributions: they believe success is due to
ability, and failure is due to factors that can be changed
and controlled
 kids who develop learned helplessness attribute their
failures to stable ability factors and their successes to
changeable external factors
o they have failed got make the association between
effort and success
o have parents who set very high standards while at
the same time believing that their child is not
capable
o if teachers are unsupportive, pupils are more likely
to see their success as being externally controlled
o girls more often receive messages from teachers
and parents that their ability is at fault when they
do not do well. They are more likely to be learnedhelpless
Emotional Development
Self-conscious emotions: pride and guilt become clearly
governed by personal responsibility
Emotional Understanding: now more likely to explain
emotion by referring to internal states than external events.
 one can feel more than one emotion at a time
 rise in empathy
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Emotional Self-regulation: by 10, most have an adaptive set
of strategies for managing emotion
Perspective-taking: Robert Selman (1976)
Stage
Age
Description
Level 0:
Undifferentiated
3-6
know that the self and others can
have different thoughts and feelings,
but often confuse them
Level 1: Socialinformational
4-9
understand that different perspectives
can occur because people have
access to different information
Level 2: Selfreflective
7-12
Can see their own behaviour,
thoughts, feelings, from another
person’s perspective; and recognize
that others can do the same
Level 3: Thirdparty
10-15
Can imagine how self and others are
viewed from the point of view of a
third, impartial party
Level 4: Societal
14adult
Understand that 3rd party perspective
taking can be influenced by systems
of larger societal values
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Moral Development
Justice: The development of the concept of distributive
justice proceeds in 3 steps:
1) equality (5-6): each person must get the same
amount
2) merit (6-7): extra rewards go to someone who has
worked especially hard
3) benevolence (around 8): special consideration
should be given to kids who are at a disadvantage
Peer Relations
Peer groups: kids display a strong desire to belong to a
group. The special customs of the group create a sense of
group identity.
 from grade 3 on, relational aggression rises among
girls, and overt hostility against the “outgroup” rises in
boys
Friendship: now seen as a mutually agreed-on
relationship based on personal qualities, responding to
one another’s needs, and trust
 by 8 or 9, have just a handful of friends, and often, just
one best friend
 tend to resemble each other in sex, race, ethnicity,
SES, personality, popularity, academic achievement
Lifespan overheads, chapter 10: emotional and social development in middle childhood
Peer acceptance:
1) popular kids
2) rejected kids
 rejected-aggressive
 rejected-withdrawn
3) controversial kids
4) neglected kids
Gender Typing
Gender-stereotyped beliefs:
 regard “tough”, “aggressive”, “rational”, and “dominant”
as masculine, and “gentle”, “sympathetic”, and
“dependent” as feminine
 regard reading, art, and music as feminine, and math,
athletics, and mechanical skills as for masculine
 boys feel more competent than girls at math, and girls
feel more competent than boys at reading, even when
they are of equal skill levels
 people judge boys’ violations of gender stereotypes
harshly
 Grades 3 to 6: boys strengthen their identification with
masculine traits; girls weaken their identification with
feminine traits as they experiment with “masculine”
activities like sports, science, etc.
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Family influences
Parent-child relationships
 child rearing gets easier for parents who established an
authoritative style early on
 coregulation: parents exercise general oversight while
permitting kids to be in charge of moment-by-moment
decision making
Siblings:
 sibling rivalry tends to increase in middle childhood,
especially when they are close in age & the same sex
 reduce this rivalry by striving to be different from one
another
 Birth order:
 oldest kids receive greater parental pressure for
mature behaviour (higher IQ scores and school
achievements)
 younger siblings tend to be more popular with
agemates
 Only children: just as well adjusted as other kids;
score higher in self esteem and achievement
motivation, do better in school, and attain higher levels
of education.
Divorce
 50% of American marriages end in divorce, and ¾ of
these involve children
o spend an average of 5 years in a single-parent
home
o 2/3 of divorced parents remarry. Half of these
marriages end in divorce as well!
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 immediate consequences: mother-headed
households experience a sharp drop in income.
o “minimal parenting”
o noncustodial dads tend to be indulgent and
permissive, making the mother’s job all the harder
o younger children blame themselves
o older kids may escape into undesirable peer
activities
o girls internalize their reactions or show
demanding, attention-getting behaviour
o in mother-custody families, boys have more
serious adjustment problems: a coercive motherson dynamic may develop
 long-term consequences: improved adjustment by 2
years after divorce.
o Girls: a rise in sexual activity at adolescence, in
teenage childbearing, and in risk of divorce in
adulthood
o contact with the noncustodial father is important.
For girls, it contributes to heterosexual
development, and for boys it affects overall
psychological well-being.
o Remaining in a stressed intact family is worse than
making the transition to a low-conflict, singleparent household
Lifespan overheads, chapter 10: emotional and social development in middle childhood
Remarriage:
 mother-stepfather families are the most frequent form of
blended family.
 Boys usually adjust quickly
 Girls adapt less favorably
 the older the kids are, the tougher the adjustment is
 father-stepmother families: reduced contact as the father
withdraws from his “previous” family. When fathers have
custody, kids typically react negatively to the remarriage.
 kids living with father often have more problems to
begin with
 girls have trouble getting along with their stepmother,
because she threatens her relationship with her father,
and/or she feels loyalty to her mother
Maternal Employment and Dual-Earner Families
 employed moms who value their parenting roles are
more likely to use authoritative child rearing.
 kids spend more time with their father  higher
achievement, mature social behaviour, a more flexible
view of gender roles
Child-care for school-aged kids
 kids who have a history of authoritative child rearing
and who are monitored at a distance by parental
telephone calls, and have regular after-school chores,
appear responsible and well-adjusted.
 kids left to their own devices are more likely to engage
in antisocial behaviour
 Before age 9-10, kids should not be left alone because
they are not yet competent to deal with emergencies
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Common problems of development
Fears and anxieties
 most kids handle their fears constructively
 about 20% develop an intense unmanageable anxiety
o e.g. school phobia: 1/3 are 5-7 year olds who are
really fearing separation from their mothers; the
rest are 11-13 years old, who find a particular
aspect of school frightening
Child sexual abuse: more common against girls.
Reported cases are highest in middle childhood.
 generally the abuser is a well-known male
 in most cases, the abuse is serious
 abusers have difficulty controlling their impulses, have
psychological disorders, are addicted to alcohol/drugs
 Consequences for kids: depression, low self-esteem,
mistrust of adults, anger and hostility can persist for
years after the abusive episodes.
o younger kids: sleeping problems, loss of appetite,
fearfulness
o display sexual knowledge and behaviour beyond
their years
o have learned that sexual overtures are acceptable
ways of getting attention and rewards
o tend to become promiscuous, have unhealthy
relationships
o choose partners who abuse them and their kids
o show poor parenting skills
Lifespan overheads, chapter 10: emotional and social development in middle childhood
Resilience in Middle childhood
3 broad factors can protect against maladjustment:
1)
personal characteristics (easy temperament, masteryoriented)
2)
a warm, well-organized family life
3)
an adult outside the immediate family who offers
support
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