©2001 Allyn & Bacon
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Chapter 13: Emotional and Social Development in Middle Childhood
Erikson's stage of industry versus inferiority captures the school-age child's capacity for productive work and new feelings of competence and mastery. During middle childhood, psychological traits and social comparisons appear in children's self-concepts, and a hierarchically organized self-esteem emerges. Attribution research has identified adult communication styles that affect children's explanations for success and failure and, in turn, their academic self-esteem, motivation, and task performance. Self-conscious emotions become clearly governed by personal responsibility, and both emotional understanding and emotional self-regulation improve. Perspective taking undergoes major advances, and moral understanding expands.
By the end of middle childhood, children form peer groups. Friendships change, emphasizing mutual trust and assistance. Researchers have identified four categories of social acceptance: popular, rejected, controversial, and neglected children. Peer acceptance is a powerful predictor of current and future psychological adjustment. The antisocial behavior of rejected children leads to severe dislike by agemates. During the school years, boys' masculine gender identities strengthen, whereas girls' identities become more flexible. However, cultural values and practices can modify these trends.
In middle childhood, child rearing shifts toward coregulation. Parents exercise general oversight while granting children more decision-making power. Sibling rivalry tends to increase, and siblings often take steps to reduce it by striving to be different from one another. Only children are just as well developed as children with siblings, and they are advantaged in self-esteem and achievement motivation. Children of gay and lesbian parents are well adjusted, and the large majority are heterosexual. The situations of children in never-married, single-parent families can be improved through strengthening social support, education, and employment opportunities for parents.
Large numbers of American children experience the divorce and remarriage of their parents. Child, parent, and family characteristics influence how well they fare. Maternal employment can lead to many benefits for school-age children, although outcomes vary with the child's sex and SES, the demands of the mother's job, the father's participation in child rearing, and the availability of high quality after-school programs as an alternative to self-care.
Fears and anxieties change during middle childhood as children experience new demands in school and begin to understand the realities of the wider world. Child sexual abuse, a serious problem in the United States, has devastating consequences for children and is especially difficult to treat. Personal characteristics of children, a warm, well-organized home life, and social supports outside the family are related to children's ability to cope with stressful life conditions.
©2001 Allyn & Bacon |