Human Development Final

4 ways exercise strengthens the brain

• A single workout increases serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine

• Hippocampus produces new brain cells, improves long term memory and attention

• Long term increases in good-mood neurotransmitters

• Protects against neurodegeneration

What are 2 tools you can use to calm anxiety, and 2 benefits of using them?

• Breath work: deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system

• Moving your body: immediate positive mood effects from neurochemicals, 10 minutes is enough

What % of time do U.S. children spend indoors?

Over 90%

What are the benefits of urban greening?

• Reduced aggression and crime in cities

• Reduced ADHD symptoms

• Promotes self discipline and academic achievement

• Promotes lifelong health, improves the immune system

What is the equigenic effect?

“Leveling”, the effect of something in the environment disrupting the usual relationship between economic disadvantage and poor outcomes. One of these is equitable access to nature.

Why does children’s screen time and parent’s screen time negatively impact child development?  What does screen time impede?

Child and parent screen time impedes the child’s emotional development. They experience more anger and frustration, which tends to be treated with even more screen time by the parents. They are left with no other emotional regulation tools in adulthood and rely on screen time for it. Additionally, parent’s phone use impacts their responsiveness, resulting in fewer serve-and-return interactions, which are essential for neurodevelopment and emotional regulation skills.

According to Jonathan Haidt’s book, the Anxious Generation, what has changed about childhood and how does it affect child development?

Haidt argues that play has been replaced with screen time. Children’s explorative system is being understimulated because they do not play outside or without parent supervision as much. Play is a major source of serve and return interactions, so the loss of play has removed a lot of serve and return, which limits the growth of neural pathways, secure attachment, and language/cognitive development.

What are Haidt’s recommendations for children’s smartphone use?

• No smartphones before high school

• No social media before 16

• Phone free schools

• More independence and free play

What are the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations for media use?

• Avoid media use under age 2 except for video chatting

• No more than 1 hour of high-quality programming per day for preschoolers

• Grade schoolers: don’t let media displace other important activities

• All ages: co-view media, watch it with kids, use it as a connection

• Avoid fast paced, violent, and stereotyping content

According to clinical psychologist Stephen Llardi, what specific aspects of modern society negatively affect mental health?

• More sedentary, we drive to get places

• Spend more time indoors, deprived of sunlight and nature’s benefits

• Bad nutrition

• Isolation

• Increased screen time

What are the 3 main contexts of development?

• Poverty

• Ethnicity/Race

• Gender/Sexuality

What is intersectionality?

Understanding how a combination of contexts can affect us and our development.

What is the “strengths perspective?”

Belief that any particular environment/culture will have things that create strengths and challenges, and that every individual group, family and community has strengths and resources we must assess and mobilize.

What are the practical effects of poverty in neighborhoods, schools, and family life?

• More likely to grow up in low income neighborhoods; More polluted, less safe, higher unemployment

• Schools have fewer resources, lower grad rates, low college rates, high peer conflict and delinquency

• Family life tends to value conformity, obedience, use physical punishment and authoritarian parenting

  • Less conversational parents, mental illness more common, family violence more common, less reading, more TV, more instability in location and household members

• Biggest factor predicting performance in school is SES

How does poverty affect child development?

• Emotional regulation is less developed, and our nervous system is sensitized by exposure to constant stress

• Higher physical stress (high blood pressure and stress hormones)

• More mental and physical health problems

• Lower achievement in school and in life

Institutional/structural bias

Inequities embedded in social, political, and economic systems

Cultural bias

Ideologies and beliefs embedded in the language, symbols, media and assumptions of larger society

Interpersonal bias

Individual experiences of bias or discrimination during everyday social interactions.

Can be implicit (unintentional and unconscious) or explicit (intentional and conscious)

Natal/biological sex

Biological, determined by genetics, reproductive organs based sex.

Gender

The socially constructed rules, behaviors and expressions associated with men, women, and gender diverse individuals.

Gender identity

An individual identification with particular gender roles

cisgender

Identity congruent with sex assigned at birth

transgender

Umbrella term for a person whose identity is incongruent with sex assigned at birth

non-binary

Umbrella term for many identities that are not “boy” or '“girl”

Gender fluid

Identity shifts over time

Gender non conformity

Role doesn’t fit with what society says my gender expression should be

Gender dysphoria

Clinically significant distress or impairment related to a marked incongruence between ones experienced/expressed gender and sex assigned at birth.

What are key events in gender identity development and corresponding ages?

• 12 months: gendered preference for types of play

• 18-24 months: able to label themselves as a boy or a girl

• 2 years: may be able to state dislike for their birth assigned gender

• 4-5 years: have a stable sense of gender identity

What are the predictors for the stability of transgender identity?

• Expressing an identity vs a social role. “I am a girl” vs “I want to do girl things”

• Kids are insistent, consistent, and persistent in expressing identity across contexts

  • Starts around 4 when kids become focused on gender

• Intensification of feeling in puberty

• Body dissatisfaction, tends to be focused on more body parts than that of a cis child, especially sexual body parts

What does scholarly research tell us about transgender wellbeing? 

• Gender transition is effective in treating dysphoria

  • Improved quality of life, relationship satisfaction, self esteem, confidence

  • Decreased anxiety, depression, suicidality

• Regrets in transition are rare and becoming rarer

• Those who can’t access treatment are more likley to suffer from depression, anxiety, illness, etc

What is the key factor that predicts the mental health and well-being of transgender youth?

Parental support is a massive predictor of wellbeing for trans youths, suicide attempts are more common among trans ppl rejected by their families

In what countries is a third gender legally recognized?

Australia, India, Pakistan, Germany, Nepal, Thailand, New Zealand

Risk factors for adolescent pregnancy

• Early menarche

• Poor academics

• Delinquency

• Substance abuse

• Depression

• Deviant peers

• Low SES homes and neighborhoods

• Low levels of parental warmth and monitoring

• Family members who were adolescent parents

Outcomes for adolescent mothers

• Less likely to achieve typical adulthood milestones on time

• Lack of resources (childcare, housing, financial support) associated with poor educational outcomes

• Low educational attainment

• Unstable marriage

• Financial dependence

• Residential dependence

• Single parenthood

• Poverty

• Low level, unsatisfying employment

Child outcomes in adolescent pregnancy

• Risk of preterm birth and low birth weight

• Negative developmental outcomes (conduct/emotional problems, cognitive/developmental delays, poor academic achievement)

What kind of sex education programs are most effective and what do they include?

Comprehensive sex-ed programs are most effective. They are medically accurate, developmentally appropriate, and k-12. They should cover all aspects of healthy sexual development and emphasize age appropriate dimensions of sexuality.

What is gender typing?

The process by which children attain gender role norms.

What biological factors influence gender development?

Evolution

• Behavior of the sexes adapted based on the challenges they faces. Men’s challenges required aggression and competition, women’s challenges required nurturing.

Hormonal differences

• Levels of testosterone are associated with aggression, active play, and less caregiving instinct.

Gender schema theory

Cognitive explanation of gender role development that emphasizes information processing and environmental influences. Says that children use their gender schema, the mental structure organizing gender-related information, as a guide for their attitudes and behavior. In this process, gender typing occurs.

Cognitive-developmental theory of gender development

Understanding of gender is constructed the same way their understanding of the world is, by interacting with people and things and thinking about experiences.

authoritative parenting

High warmth and high control, supportive and demanding

best outcomes for mental health, performance, and independence.

Circle of security, both exploration and care-seeking are supported

Authoritarian parenting

Low warmth and high control/demanding and unsupportive, rules tend to be arbitrary “Because I said so” but violations of rules strictly enforced, often with corporeal punishment.

Permissive parenting

High warmth and low control, supportive and undemanding, often results in unregulated children and low impulse control

Uninvolved/neglectful parenting

Low warmth and low control, not present emotionally or physically, no hands on the circle of security.

What is the difference between discipline and punishment?

Discipline focuses on teaching the child what they did wrong and how to improve behavior, while punishment aims to deter unwanted behavior through negative consequences.

What child outcomes are associated with authoritarian, permissive and authoritative parenting?

Authoritarian: Disorganized attachment, children tend to be withdrawn, anxious, angry, more prone to hostile reactions, more behavioral problems, less prosocial behavior

Permissive: Socioemotionally immature, worse self regulation and impulse control

Authoritative: Confidence, curiosity, high scores on tests of social skills, prosociality, executive function and academic achievement.

How does the Circle of Security (the need for autonomy and connection) change in adolescence and how does it stay the same?

There is an increased need to explore, but the care-seeking system remains the same.

What does research indicate about conflict with parents in adolescence?

80% of parents and adolescents say that their relationship is NOT full of confrict. There is a rise in conflict in early adolescence due to a rise in autonomy seeking, but it is not severe. Constant conflict in adolescence is likely a continuation of an insecure relationship.

What does the research show about the effects of growing up in a single-parent home?

The negative consequences of living in a single-parent home depend on the degree of stress in the household, the amount of time spent with the child, and the economic status.