DEP2004 Chapter 7

Chapter Seven
Expanding Social Horizons:
Socioemotional Development in Middle
Childhood
© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

7.1 Family Relationships: Learning
Objectives
• What is a systems approach to parenting?
• What are the primary dimensions of parenting? How
do they affect children’s development?
• What determines how siblings get along? How do
firstborn, later-born, and only children differ?
• How do divorce and remarriage affect children?
• What factors lead children to be maltreated?

The Family as a System
• The family as a system
– The family structure evolved as a way to protect and
nurture young children
– Theorists view families from a contextual perspective
and believe that families form a system of interacting
elements
– The family itself is embedded in other social systems
that can affect family dynamics, either directly or
indirectly

A Systems View of Families

Dimensions & Styles of Parenting
• Two general parenting dimensions
– Warm & responsive versus hostile & uninvolved
– Extreme control versus no control
• Psychological control
• Behavioral control
– Four parenting styles result from combining the two
dimensions and their two levels

Parenting Styles
• Authoritarian parenting: high control but low warmth
and responsiveness
• Authoritative parenting: greater control plus warm
and responsive
• Permissive parenting: low control but warm
• Uninvolved parenting: low control and low warmth

The Two Dimensions of Parental
Behavior

Variations Associated with Culture
and Socioeconomic Status
• Parenting styles vary across cultures
• European Americans: warm, exert moderate control,
and value individualism
• Asians and Latin Americans: value cooperation and
collaboration
• Low SES entails stress due to low income, lesser
education, and/or a need to protect children from
danger

Genetic Influences on Parenting
• Genetic Influences on Parenting
– Families and parenting are adaptations that evolved
to provide for children until they mature.
• Genes linked with effective parenting are more likely to
be passed on
• Behavioral genetics studies reveal environmental
influences on parental style

Parental Behavior
• Direct instruction: telling children what to do, when,
and explaining why
– Coaching: helping children master social and
emotional skills; explaining links between behavior
and emotions
• Modeling: learning by observing and imitating what
parents do and say
• Feedback through reinforcement: strengthening
desirable behaviors through rewards

Punishment
• Punishment can be effective
– Prompt, consistent, explained, within a good parent
child relationship
• Punishment has some serious drawbacks
– Suppressive, temporary effects, undesirable side
effects.
• Spanking is ineffective in getting children to comply
with parents
• Time-out

Influences of the Marital System
• Harmful effects of chronic parental conflict
– Jeopardizes children’s feelings of a stable family;
makes child feel anxious, frightened, and sad
– Diverts parents’ attention away from high-quality
parenting
• Unemployment or work stress can undermine
parenting skills
• Parents need to work as a team, with each
supporting the child in their unique ways

Children’s Contributions:
Reciprocal Influence
• Parents and children affect each other’s behavior
and family (dys)functioning
• Parenting styles differ with the child’s age, cognitive
development, and temperament
– Adolescents desire more autonomy and input into
decision-making
• Well-being flourishes as parents gradually relinquish
control
– Temperamentally active children may require greater
parental control

Siblings
• Birth of a sibling can result in the older child
withdrawing or regressing to childish behavior
• Sibling relationships are more harmonious
– In adolescence
– If same-sex
– When parents have a good relationship
– When parents are affectionate, caring, and
responsive to each other and all of their children

Adopted Children
• Of all U.S. children, 2–4% are adopted
– More children from other races and with special
needs are being adopted
• Most adopted children do quite well
• Some are more prone to conduct disorders and
school adjustment problems
– Likelier if child was older at adoption
– Related to pre-adoption care quality
• Open adoption is more common today

Impact of Birth Order
• Parents of firstborn children have high expectations,
are more affectionate, and are more strict
– Firstborns have higher IQ, and are more willing to
conform
• Only children
– Succeed more in school
– Aren’t “spoiled brats”

Divorce and Remarriage
• Divorce’s effect on children
– Depends on parents cooperating with each other,
especially about discipline
– Problems with school achievement, conduct,
adjustment, self-concept, and parent-child relations
– Likelier to experience negative marriage attitudes,
marital problems, and to divorce
– Less life satisfaction; more depression as adults

What Aspects of Children’s Lives
Are Affected by Divorce?
• Joint custody: both parents retain legal custody
– An option when parents get along
– In sole custody, children fare better with same-sex
parent
– Children benefit when fathers remain involved in
parenting

How Divorce Influences
Development
• Children fare best
– when neither parent experiences psychological
problems
– When parents get along with each other
– When parents stay involved
– When parents parent effectively
– Parental conflict especially affects emotionally
insecure children

Which Children Does Divorce
Most Affect?
• More harmful
– To temperamentally emotional children and those
who interpret events negatively
• Less harmful if parents:
– Explain divorce’s reasons to children
– Reassure them of love/involvement
– Don’t compete for the child, and don’t criticize ex
– Don’t ask children to mediate disputes

Blended Families
• Typical blended family is a mother, her children, and a
stepfather.
• Children can thrive in a blended family
– Children close to their mother and stepfather report being
well-adjusted
– Showing preference to children in a blended family can
lead to conflict and unhappiness.
• Strategies for stepfathers: be involved and avoid
encroaching on established relationships
• Strategies for stepmothers: be careful not to over- focus
on the new relationship
• Maintain time and affection with children

Parent-Child Relationships Gone
Awry: Child Maltreatment
• 700,000 U.S. children neglected or abused in some
way every year
– 75% neglect: inadequate food, clothing, or medical
care
– 17% physical abuse: assault leading to physical
injuries
– 8% sexual abuse: fondling, intercourse, or other
sexual behaviors
– 6% psychological abuse: ridicule, rejection, or
humiliation

Who Are the Abusing Parents?
• Maltreatment risk is highest when cultures condone
physical punishment, when parents lack effective
skills, and the child’s behavior is often aversive
• Spanking is common in the United States
– The United States has higher child maltreatment
rates than countries where physical punishment is
not condoned (in Europe, Asia)

Effects of Abuse on Children
• Even with no lasting physical damage, abused
children tend to:
• Have poor peer relationships
• Be disruptive at school; earn low grades and test
scores
• Have disturbed cognitive development
• Experience more depression
• Be more prone to abuse their children and to
consider or attempt suicide as adults

Resilience
• Protective factors
• Ego resilience: ability to respond adaptively and
resourcefully to new situations
– Buffers against abuse’s effects
• Children having positive representations of their
mothers (e.g., “kind,” “loving”)
– Buffers against effects of neglect, but not those of
abuse

Preventing Abuse & Maltreatment
• Reducing positive attitudes toward physical
punishment
• Reducing poverty and its stressful effects
• Maintaining social supports that advise parents and
provide opportunities to vent
• Increasing counseling and training in parenting skills
(e.g., for at-risk families due to child illness)

7.2 Peers: Learning Objectives
• What are the benefits of friendship?
• What are the important features of groups of
children and adolescents? How do these groups
influence individuals?
• Why are some children more popular than others?
What are the causes and consequences of being
rejected?
• Why are some effects of childhood aggression?
Why are some children chronic victims of
aggression?

Friendships
• Friendship: voluntary relationship of two people
involving mutual liking
– Preschoolers: choose based on common interests
and getting along well
– 8- to 11-year-olds: above, plus psychological
characteristics (e.g., trust, helpfulness)
– Adolescents: above, plus loyalty/intimacy
• Fear humiliation if friends are disloyal
• Intimacy especially crucial for girls

Who Are Friends?
• Friends tend to be similar in age, of same sex, and
from the same race or ethnic group
– Latter less true if children’s schools or
neighborhoods are ethnically diverse
– Cross-group friendships help majority group children
form more positive attitudes toward a minority
• Friends have similar interests, attitudes toward
school, recreational pursuits, future plans, and drug
use

Quality and Consequences of
Friendships
• Children benefit from good friendships
– Higher self-esteem
– Less likely to be lonely or depressed
– Act more prosocially
– Cope better with stresses
• Co-rumination: discussing personal problems
• Risks of friendships
– Reinforce each other’s aggressiveness and risky
behaviors

Groups
• Clique: small group of child or adolescent friends
similar in attitudes, sex, race, and age
• Crowd: larger mixed-sex group of older children
with similar attitudes and values
• Children of parents who are authoritative join crowds
endorsing adult behavioral standards
• Children of parents who are neglectful or permissive
join crowds disavowing these standards

Group Structure
• Dominance hierarchy: groups with a leader to
whom others defer
• Boys: physical power determines who leads
• Girls and older boys: having the best skills to fulfill
group’s purpose determines who leads
– Being outgoing and having good ideas qualifies one
to lead class projects
– Having camping experience qualifies one to lead at
summer camps

Peer Influence
• Peer pressure: pressure to conform to group norms
• Most powerful when:
– Youth are younger and socially anxious
– Peers are friends and/or of high status
– Behavioral standards are ambiguous
• Can have both positive and negative effects

Popularity and Rejection
• Popular: most classmates like child
– Positive or negative
• Rejected: most classmates dislike child
– Aggressive or withdrawn
• Controversial: classmates are divided; some like
and others dislike child
• Average: are liked and disliked by some classmates,
but with lower intensity than above categories
• Neglected: many classmates ignore the child

Causes and Consequences of
Rejection
• Compared to popular children’s parents, those of
rejected children:
– Are belligerent, combative, intimidating, and
aggressive during interpersonal conflict
– Inconsistently discipline children and are not loving or
warm when punishing them
– Ultimately have children who imitate the above
behaviors

Aggressive Children and Their
Victims
• Instrumental, hostile, and relational aggression
– Early childhood aggressiveness predicts adolescent
and adult aggression
• Chronic bullying victims have low self-esteem,
dislike school, and are often lonely, anxious, and
depressed
• Risks for being victimized include children either
being aggressive themselves or withdrawn and
submissive

7.3 Electronic Media: Learning
Objectives
• What is the impact of watching television on
children’s attitudes, behavior, and cognitive
development?
• How do children use computers at home?

Television
• Typical high school graduate has watched two
years’ worth of TV (20,000 hours)
• Children may learn gender stereotypes,
aggressiveness, and impulsivity from TV
• Little evidence of TV viewing affecting attention
span, ability to concentrate, or passive, uncreative,
and lazy thinking
• Watching positive programming (e.g., Sesame
Street) relates to better high school grades and time
spent reading

Video Games
• Boys play more than girls
• Can improve spatial skills, processing speed, and
executive functioning
• Can make children more aggressive
• 10% of youth get “hooked”

Social Media
• Teens spend 90 minutes daily on social media
• Feel more connected with friends
• Self-disclosure promotes high-quality friendships
• Helps form friend making skills
• Cyberbullying
– 10–40% of adolescents report bullying
– Tends to involve the same individuals as in offline
bullying

7.4 Understanding Others:
Learning Objectives
• As children develop, how do their descriptions of
others change?
• How does understanding of others’ thinking change
as children develop?
• When and why do children develop prejudice toward
others?

Describing Others
• Self- and other descriptions become progressively
richer, abstract, and psychological with cognitive
development
– Age 7: mostly concrete terms
– 10 or less: positive bias
– Age 10: acknowledge negative traits
– 16 years: traits integrated cohesively
• 4 to 5 years: can infer others’ psychological traits if
told behavioral examples (e.g., “selfish” if hearing a
child won’t share)

Understanding What Others Think
• Selman’s five stages of perspective taking:
– Undifferentiated (3–6 years old)
– Social-informational (4–9 years old)
– Self-reflective (7–12 years old)
– Third-person (10–15 years old)
– Societal (14 years to adult)
• Recursive thinking: understanding second-order
beliefs

Prejudice
• Negative view of others based on their membership
in a different group
• Younger children’s prejudice is:
– More an enhanced view of their group
– Perceiving other groups to simply “come up short”
(instead of having hostile feelings)
– Negative only when they think the other group
dislikes their group

Reducing Prejudice
• Contact with different groups is effective only when
children are:
– Of equal status
– Cooperating in pursuing common goals
– Hearing adults support not being prejudiced
– Educated about instances of prejudice
– Asked to consider fairness and how to handle the
situation while role-playing discriminatory situation

DEP2004 Chapter 7

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DEP2004 Chapter 7

Editor's Notes