Emotional and Social Development in MIDDLE childhood

Self-concept in middle childhood

Becomes more refined and organized into general dispositions

Self-concept ages 8–11

Children evaluate themselves based on competencies rather than specific behaviors

Social comparison in middle childhood

Children compare themselves with peers; older children compare multiple individuals

Influences on self-concept

Cognitive development, feedback from others, perspective-taking, family and community support

Cultural differences in self-concept

Asian parents stress interdependence; Western parents emphasize independence and self-assertion

Self-esteem in middle childhood

Differentiates into academic, social, athletic, and physical appearance domains

High self-esteem outcomes

Linked to sociability, well-adjustment, and conscientiousness

Low self-esteem outcomes

Linked to anxiety, depression, and antisocial behavior

Cultural and media influences on self-esteem

TV raises self-esteem in European-American boys; lowers it in African-American children and European-American girls

Mexican-American self-esteem finding

Academic self-esteem most strongly predicts overall self-esteem

Parenting influences on self-esteem

Secure attachment and authoritative style boost self-esteem

Controlling parenting and self-esteem

Communicates inadequacy and lowers self-esteem

Indulgent parenting and self-esteem

Can create narcissism

Inflated praise

Lowers a child’s self-esteem

Encouraging realistic goals

Supports positive self-worth

Mastery-oriented attributions

Success due to ability that can improve with effort; growth mindset

Learned helplessness

Failure due to lack of ability; success credited to external factors; fixed mindset

Personal praise

Teaches that ability is fixed; leads to avoidance of challenge

Process praise

Teaches ability grows through effort and strategies

Stereotypes and attributions

Gender and SES stereotypes shape children’s mindsets

Cultural values and attributions

Influence adults’ messages about ability

Attribution retraining

Intervention teaching learned-helpless children to use effort and strategies to overcome failure

Self-conscious emotions in middle childhood

Pride and guilt tied to personal responsibility

Pride effects

Motivates greater challenge-seeking

Guilt effects

Prompts amends and self-improvement

Shame outcomes

Predicts adjustment problems

Emotional understanding in middle childhood

Children explain emotions using internal states

Mixed emotions

Children appreciate and interpret mixed or contradictory emotions

Supports for emotional understanding

Cognitive development, social experience, and empathy growth

Emotional self-regulation

Children flexibly use problem-centered and emotion-centered coping

Emotional self-efficacy

Feeling of being in control of emotional experience
Cultural influences on emotion – Hindu (emotional control), Buddhist (calmness), Western (self-expression)

Problem-centered coping

Appraising the situation and taking action to change it

Emotion-centered coping

Internal regulation of distress when little can be done

Flexible moral understanding

Considers intentions, context, and consequences

Recursive perspective-taking

Understanding reasons behind deception and others’ viewpoints

Moral vs social-conventional rules

Children clarify differences and understand purposes behind rules

Errors of knowledge vs immoral beliefs

Children distinguish accidental from intentional harm

Understanding individual rights

Children challenge adults in personal domains

Limits on individual choice

Older children balance personal rights with kindness and fairness

Cultural similarities in moral reasoning

Children globally use similar criteria for fairness

Higher principles

Children believe personal rights and welfare override authority or rules

In-group favoritism

Preference for one’s own group develops first

Out-group prejudice

Negative attitudes toward other groups develop later

Minority children and prejudice

Often show out-group favoritism

Factors promoting prejudice

Fixed personality beliefs, overly high self-esteem, segregated environments

Reducing prejudice

Intergroup contact, collaboration, diverse schools valuing fairness, viewing traits as changeable, volunteering, teaching about inequality

Peer groups

Groups with shared values, standards, and hierarchies; based on proximity and similarity

Peer culture

Shared vocabulary, dress, hangout places; may involve exclusion or relational aggression

Friendships in middle childhood

More complex and psychologically based

Trust in friendships

Defining feature of friendship quality

Friendship selectivity

Friendships become more selective

Friendship stability

High-quality friendships tend to be stable

Friendship effects

Depends on whether friends are prosocial or aggressive

Peer acceptance

Likability or social worth as judged by peers

Sociometric categories

Popular, rejected, controversial, neglected, average

Popular-prosocial children

Well-liked, admired, kind, and cooperative

Popular-antisocial children

Relationally aggressive; may mix aggression with prosocial behavior

Rejected-aggressive children

High conflict, aggression, impulsivity

Rejected-withdrawn children

Passive, socially awkward, anxious

Controversial children

Many positive and negative behaviors; not excluded

Neglected children

Usually well-adjusted but introverted

Rejected children outcomes

Need intervention; risk of long-term social problems

Peer victimization

Ongoing verbal, physical, or relational abuse

Victimization and cortisol

Linked to disrupted stress response

Bullies and victims

Both require intervention

Changing family structures

More single adults, later marriage, fewer children, more employment, more blended families

Nontraditional family statistic

30% of Canadians live outside the traditional nuclear family

Parent–child relationships

Well-being comes from supportive kin, community, and policies

Coregulation

Parents exercise general oversight while children take moment-to-moment responsibility

Sibling rivalry

Increases in middle childhood, often over paternal attention

Sibling support

Provides companionship, emotional support, and resilience

Sibling relationship effects

Good sibling relations predict better achievement and peer relations

Conduct problems and siblings

Predict worsening sibling relations over time

Only children

Similar personality and friendships to children with siblings

Only child advantages

Higher self-esteem, achievement, and education levels

Only child disadvantages

Slightly less accepted by peer groups

Never-married parent families

Higher financial hardship; more adjustment problems

Father involvement

Close relationships with nonresident fathers improve outcomes

Divorce immediate consequences

Instability, conflict, income drop, stress, disorganization

Divorce long-term consequences

Most adjust well after two years; boys and difficult children struggle more

Father involvement after divorce

Strong predictor of positive adjustment

Divorce mediation

Increases cooperation and lowers conflict

Parent education programs

Help parents resolve disputes

Joint custody

Both parents share major decisions

Child support

Reduces economic strain

Blended family definition

Parent, stepparent, and children forming a new family

Multiple marital transitions

Increase adjustment problems

Mother–stepfather families

Boys adjust faster; girls have more difficulty

Father–stepmother families

Less father–child contact; children often resist stepmothers; relationships improve over time if positive

Maternal employment benefits

Higher self-esteem, positive relations, less gender stereotyping, better grades, more paternal involvement

Negative effects of stressful employment

Less time, ineffective parenting

Self-care children

Alone after school

Self-care risks

Problems for younger children; require supervision before age 8–9

Factors supporting healthy self-care

Parental check-ins, chores, maturity, after-school programs

Fears in middle childhood

Dark, storms, supernatural beings, personal harm, academic failure, peer rejection

Phobias

Intense, unmanageable fears needing treatment

School refusal ages 5–7

Fear of separation from mother

School refusal ages 11–13

Fear of specific school situations

Stress & anxiety

Harsh environments increase risk

Effects of ethnic and political violence

Temporary danger usually manageable; chronic danger causes long-term problems