Social Development Early and Middle Childhood Personality Self-esteem Divorce and Children Friendships

Personality Development:Erikson Early Childhood Initiative vs. Guilt  Play fosters initiative and develops a conscience that is not too strict.  Play develops new skills.  Negative outcome is guilt Middle Childhood Industry vs. Inferiority  Energy directed toward mastering knowledge and intellect  Inferiority in related to a feeling of incompetence

3 Emergence of Self-Esteem Self-esteem: Early Childhood  Sense of self-worth  Related to the emergence of self-conscious emotions  Preschoolers usually rate own ability high.  High self-esteem initiative  Criticism undermines self-esteem.

4 Development of Self-Esteem Middle Childhood Changes in Level of Self-Esteem  Drops in first years of elementary school.  More realistic self-appraisal  From fourth to sixth grade, self-esteem rises.

5 Development of Self-Esteem Hierarchically Structured  Contexts of evaluation: Classrooms, playgrounds, and peer groups  Age 6 to 7, three self-esteems—academic, social, and physical

6 Influences on Self-Esteem Children with high social self-esteem are better liked by peers.  Aggressive children are less liked Academic self-esteem predicts school achievement.  Early reading approaches in Whole Language stress success and reinforcing exploration of text and books Child-Rearing Practices  Authoritative child-rearing style leads to positive self- esteem  Authoritarian parenting leads to more negative self- esteem  Indulgent/Permissive parenting leads to poor self- regulation, non-compliance, poor respect for others

Developmental consequences of maltreatment Poor emotional regulation Attachment problems Problems in peer relations Difficulty adapting to school Other forms of problems such as depression, anxiety, and down the road, personality problems and delinquency

Moral Development Definition: Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding standards of right vs. wrong Heteronomous Morality, stage 1 age 4 to 7  Justice and rules are unchangable properties of the world (Kohlberg’s Preconventional Reasoning) Autonomous Morality, stage 2 age 10+  Rules and laws are created by people, person’s intent and consequences are important. Individuals abide by interal standards that still come from others (Kohlberg’s Conventional Reasoning)  Example: Which is worse, breaking 12 cups by accident or 1 cup while stealing a cookie? Kohlberg’s Postconventional Reasing  Morality internalised as rights and principles transcend law, e.g., speeding to get someone to the hospital.

Problems with Kohlberg Too much emphasis on thought and not behavior Cultural biases Family processes  Kohlberg thought it was unimportant, but in fact some parents teach moral behavior by stressing the impact of behavior on someone else’s feelings Too rule- and justice-based, may be gender-biased  Carol Gilligan has stressed caring behavior within relationships as a basis of moral behavior, something girls are known to do

Prosocial behavior and altruism Unselfish behavior that helps others Young children “share” for social play and imitation, not empathy They initially share things to “get their way” part of the time This requires “future-oriented thinking” as gratification needs to be delayed  E.g., do you want $10 today or $20 next week? Sharing, perspective-taking, recognising the emotions of others, and adult reinforcement is all important

Divorce and children: Purposes of a Custody and Access Assessment The purpose of a custody and access assessment is to assess children’s needs and make recommendations when birth parents can not agree on what is in the children’s best interests and well-being.  developmental, physical, medical, socio-emotional, and cognitive needs. Separation: Separation agreements, access, interim orders, Family Court Divorce: “Final” determination in Divorce decrees when all unresolved matters are determined, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia Parenting Capacity: Questions are child protection issues, initiated through Family and Children’s Services or through parents themselves, child may be in F&CS care, Family Court Over-riding principle is CPA’s Ethical Code Family Conflict is negative for children regardless of whether families are intact or not – there is no magic solution of “staying together for the sake of the children”

Definitions Custody: Legal guardianship. Includes physical care of the child and decision-making over education, religion, activities, and health care Access: Living/access arrangements. The opportunity to visit or have contact with the child. Federal statute suggests parents with access rights have access to information Federal and Provincial Acts are useful, such as the Divorce Act and Family and Children’s Services Act Over 90% of families create their own solutions, C&A Assessments are thus by definition in adversarial or complex cases

Societal bias: From “truechristian.com”

Nova Scotia Guidelines: Process of a C&A Assessment Files are current and exhaustive Multiple avenues of data collection Parents treated equally Data should address children’s best interests only Children’s wishes are assessed indirectly Location of meetings: Use judgment Avoid undue influence of lawyers and/or parents Consult with child protection services as appropriate Plans for feedback Offer NO opinion on someone not assessed

Justice Canada Data from Stats Can: Distribution of minor children for whom there was a custody order at divorce, according to the type of arrangement, Canada,

Stepfamilies Blended families Women have a harder time integrating than men Stepfathers can act distant and disengaged from stepchildren, act like “polite strangers” Complex blended families  Both parents bring children in, hardest on the children Simple stepfamilies  Only one parent brings children in

19 PEER RELATIONS Advances in Peer Sociability (Parten)  Nonsocial activity Unoccupied play, Onlooker play, and solitary play  Parallel play Plays near other children with similar materials  Mimics but does not interact.  Highest level Associative play  Engaged in separate activities, but interact  Both in sandbox, lending toys, but separate activities Cooperative play  Actions are directed toward a common goal  Building a town together, same activity

20 Friendships: Middle Childhood Like each other's personal qualities and respond to one another's needs Trust is the defining feature. Violations of trust are a serious breach. Same age, sex, ethnicity, and SES  Schools and neighborhoods can affect friendships.  Some social groups tend to be within gender such as “Sparks”, some do not, such as soccer

21 Peer Acceptance Assessed by self-reports of likeability and sociometric ratings of others Four types of response  Popular children Many positive votes  Rejected children Actively disliked  Controversial children Positive and negative votes  Neglected children Seldom chosen

22 Peer Acceptance Social behavior determines whether liked or rejected  Popular are sensitive, friendly, and cooperative  Rejected-aggressive are hostile, hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive  Rejected-withdrawn are passive and socially awkward, at risk for abuse by bullies  Controversial are hostile and disruptive, but engage in positive, prosocial acts  Neglected are well adjusted but shy

Bullying Defined as an intent to hurt, repeated action, no clear provocation, powere imbalance, and has negative impact on the victim Victims can be depressed, lose interest in schoolwork, and even avoid school Bullies are at risk to be abusive within later adult relationships, harrass others Intervention programs focus on identification of problem behavior, use school-wide rules against the behavior, form friendships with victims, and disseminate anti-bullying messages

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Gender Physical difference in size and strength, but only after puberty Males are more aggressive, but this is likely a socialisation effect  If aggression is defined as verbal assault, girls may be more aggressive: would you rather be pushed down or the subject of gossip? Males are supposed to be better at math, maybe due to visuo-spatial ability, but these differences are very small and overdramatised Education is correlated to androgyny Social constructions are very powerful

Television and children

What does television do? Takes away time from reading, social play, physical activity, creativity, expressive language Can expose children to ethnic and other stereotypes Gives false impression that “everything works out” Can portray violent role models  Behavior is modelled when consequences are not seen  Experiment was conducted in which cartoons had violence removed and children watched these for 11 days: Observed more violent acts in children whose cateeons were not changed than those with these edits.

Parallel Research on Violence in Videogames Anderson, B.A., & Bushman, B.J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: a meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12,  violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults.  Experimental and nonexperimental studies with males and females in laboratory and field settings support this conclusion.  Exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial behavior.

Trends in Education Private schooling School uniforms: Good or bad? Early identification of reading readiness prior to elementary registration Reduction of religious affiliations of schools (has this really happened?) Compensating for SES issues, such as breakfast and after-school programming Ethnic diversity/ appreciation vs. segregation