C&A Middle Childhood

Explanations for cultural differences in academic performance

According to international comparisons, instruction in the United States is less challenging, more focused on absorbing facts, and less focused on high-level reasoning and critical thinking than in other countries. Furthermore, countries with large socioeconomic inequalities (such as the United States) rank lower in achievement, in part because low-SES children tend to live in less favorable families and neighbor- hoods Furthermore, countries with large socioeconomic inequalities (such as the United States) rank lower in achievement, in part because low-SES children tend to live in less favorable families and neighbor- hoods

Self-concept

During the school years, children refine their self-concept, organizing their observations of behaviors and internal states into general dispositions. social comparisons—judgments of their appearance, abilities, and behavior in relation to those of others. Children also look to more people beyond the family for infor- mation about themselves as they enter a wider range of settings in school and community. And self-descriptions now include frequent reference to social groups: "I'm a Boy Scout, a paper boy, and a Prairie City soccer player," said Joey. As children move into adolescence, their sources of self-definition become more selective. Although parents and other adults remain influential, self-concept is increasingly vested in feedback from close friends

Industry vs. inferiority

Erikson believed that the combination of adult expectations and children's drive toward mastery sets the stage for the psychological conflflict of middle childhood: industry versus inferiority, which is resolved positively when experiences lead children to

Benefits of organized games and sports

For most children, joining community athletic teams is associated with increased self-esteem and social skills (Daniels & Leaper, 2006; Fletcher, Nickerson, & Wright, 2003). Among shy children, sports par- ticipation seems to play a protective role, fostering self-confidence and a decline in social anxiety, perhaps because it provides a sense of group belonging and a basis for communicating with peers (Findlay & Coplan, 2008). And children who view themselves as good at sports are more likely to continue playing on teams in adolescence, which predicts greater participation in sports and other physical fitness activities in early adult- hood (Kjønniksen, Anderssen, & Wold, 2009; Marsh et al., 2007).

Gender differences in development of gender-role identity

From third to sixth grade, boys tend to strengthen their identification with "masculine" personality traits, whereas girls' identification with "feminine" traits declines. Girls often describe themselves as having some "other-gender" characteristics (Serbin, Powlishta, & Gulko, 1993). And whereas boys usually stick to "masculine" pursuits, many girls experiment with a wider range of options—from cooking and sewing to sports and science projects—and more often consider traditionally male future work roles, such as firefighter or astronomer

Gender differences in gross motor skills

Girls have an edge in fine-motor skills of handwriting and drawing and in gross-motor capacities that depend on balance and agility, such as hopping and skipping (Haywood & Getchell, 2014). But boys out- perform girls on all other skills listed in Table 11.2, especially throwing and kicking.

Changing relationships with parents

In middle childhood, the amount of time children spend with parents declines dramatically. Children's growing independence means that parents must deal with new issues. Despite these new concerns, child rearing becomes easier for parents who established an authoritative style during the early years. Reasoning is more effective with school-age children because of their greater capacity for logical thinking and their increased respect for parents' expert knowledge (Collins, Madsen, & Susman-Stillman, 2002). And children of parents who engage in joint decision making when possible are more likely to listen to parents' perspectives in situations where compliance is vital

Obesity as a family disorder

Obese children are likely to have at least one obese parent, and identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to share the disorder. Parental feeding practices also contribute to childhood obesity. Overweight children are more likely to eat larger quantities of high-calorie sugary and fatty foods, perhaps because these foods are plentiful in the diets offffffered by their parents, who also tend to be overweight (Kit, Ogden, & Flegal, 2014). Frequent eating out—which increases parents' and children's consumption of high-calorie fast foods—is linked to over- weight. And it likely plays a major role in the consistent rela- tionship between mothers' employment hours and elevated BMI among school-age children (Morrissey, Dunifon, & Kalil, 2011). Demanding work schedules reduce the time parents have for healthy meal preparation.

Cognitive inhibition

Older children also flexibly adapt their attention to situational requirements. For example, when asked to sort cards with pictures that vary in both color and shape, children age 5 and older readily switch their basis of sorting from color to shape when asked to do so; younger children have difficulty (Brooks et al., 2003; Zelazo, Carlson, & Kesek, 2008). Notice how this task requires working memory to retain relevant sorting rules (color and shape), inhibition of the irrelevant rule, and cognitive flexibility in responding to a rule switch by updating working memory and inhibition accordingly.

Intelligence as measured by Stanford-Binet and Wechsler scales

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition, for individuals from age 2 to adulthood. In addition to general intelligence, it assesses five intellectual factors: general knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial process- ing, working memory, and basic information processing (such as speed of analyzing information). Each factor includes both a verbal mode and a nonverbal mode of testing, yielding 10 subtests in all he Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV) is the fourth edition of a widely used test for 6- through 16-year-olds. A downward extension of it, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-III), the WISC-IV has four broad intellectual factors: verbal reasoning, perceptual (or visual-spatial) reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. Each factor is made up of two or three subtests, yielding 10 separate scores in all. The WISC-IV was designed to downplay culture-dependent information, which is emphasized on only one factor (verbal reasoning).

Transitive inference

The concrete operational child can also seriate mentally, an ability called transitive inference. In a well-known transitive inference problem, Piaget showed children pairings of sticks of different colors. From observing that stick A is longer than stick B and that stick B is longer than stick C, children must infer that A is longer than C.

Benefits of physical education programs

These include greater physical strength, resistance to many illnesses (from colds and flu to cancer, diabetes, and heart disease), enhanced psychological well-being, and a longer life.

Class inclusion problem

This indicates that they are more aware of classification hierarchies and can focus on relations between a general category and two specific categories at the same time—on three relations at once. Children of this age are better able to inhibit their habitual strategy of perceptually comparing the two specific categories (blue flowers and yellow flowers) in favor of relating each specific category to its less-obvious general category (flowers) (Borst et al., 2013; Ni, 1998). School-age children's enhanced classification skills are evident in their enthusiasm for collecting treasured objects.

learned helplessness

attribute their failures, not their successes, to ability. When they succeed, they are likely to conclude that external factors, such as luck, are responsible. Unlike their mastery-oriented counterparts, they hold a fixed view of ability—that it cannot be improved by trying hard (Dweck & Molden, 2013). When a task is difficult, these children experience an anxious loss of control—in Erikson's terms, a pervasive sense of inferiority. They give up without really trying. obtaining positive and avoiding negative evaluations of their fragile sense of ability.

Metacognition

awareness of thought

Risk of death due to unintentional injuries

boys rising considerably above those for girls. Poverty and either rural or inner- city residence—factors associated with dangerous environments and reduced parental monitoring of children—are also linked to high injury rates

Secular trend

changes in body size from one generation to the next—have occurred in industrialized nations. children are taller and heavier than their parents and grandparents were as children.

social-constructivist classrooms

children participate in a wide range of challenging activities with teachers and peers, with whom they jointly construct understandings. As children appropriate (take for themselves) the knowledge and strategies generated through working together, they become competent, contributing members of their classroom community and advance in cognitive and social development

Characteristics of friendships

friendship has become a mutually agreed-on relationship in which children like each other's personal qualities and respond to one another's needs and desires. And once a friendship forms, trust becomes its defining feature. School-age children state that a good friendship is based on acts of kindness, signifying that each person can be counted on to support the other (Hartup & Abecassis, 2004). Consequently, older children regard violations of trust, such as not helping when others need help, breaking promises, and gossiping behind the other's back, as serious breaches of friendship. Peer acceptance refers to likability—the extent to which a child is viewed by a group of agemates, such as classmates, as a worthy social partner.

Piaget's concrete operational stage

from about 7 to 11 years. Compared with early childhood, thought is more logical, flexible, and organized.

organization

grouping related items together (for example, all state capitals in the same part of the country), an approach that greatly improves recall

Myopia

nearsightedness. By the end of the school years, it affects nearly 25 percent of children—a rate that rises to 60 percent by early adulthood

Asthma

one-third of childhood chronic illness and the most frequent cause of school absence and childhood hospitalization—is asthma, in which the bronchial tubes

Attribution

our common, everyday explanations for the causes of behavior.

Conservation

refers to the idea that certain physical characteristics of objects remain the same, even when their outward appearance changes. provides clear evidence of operations—mental actions that obey logical rules.

rehearsal

repeating the information to herself. Language proficiency predicts the emergence of rehearsal in the early grade school years, perhaps because a certain vocabulary size and ability to automatically name items is necessary for children to use the strategy

Theory of mind

set of beliefs about mental activities, becomes much more elaborate and refined. Unlike preschoolers, who view the mind as a passive container of information, older children regard it as an active, constructive agent that selects and transforms information. Consequently, they have a much better understanding of cognitive processes and the impact of psychological factors on performance. For example, with age, elementary school children become increasingly aware of effective memory strategies and why they work. And they gradually grasp relationships between mental activities—for example, that remembering is crucial for understanding and that understanding strengthens memory. Furthermore, school-age children's understanding of sources of knowledge expands. They are aware that people can extend their knowledge not only by directly observing events and talking to others but also by making mental inferences

inclusive classrooms

students with learning difficulties learn alongside typical students in the regular educational setting for part or all of the school day—a practice designed to prepare them for participation in society and to combat prejudices against individuals with disabilities.

Seriation

the ability to order items along a quantitative dimension, such as length or weight

Reversibility

the capacity to think through a series of steps and then mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point.

Stereotype threat

the fear of being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype—can trigger anxiety that interferes with performance. Mounting evidence confirms that stereotype threat undermines test taking in children and adults (McKown & Strambler, 2009). For example, researchers gave African-American, Hispanic- American, and Caucasian-American 6- to 10-year-olds verbal tasks. Some children were told that the tasks were "not a test." Others were told that they were "a test of how good children are at school problems"—a statement designed to induce stereotype threat in the ethnic minority children.

cognitive self-regulation

the process of continuously monitoring progress toward a goal, checking outcomes, and redirect- ing unsuccessful efforts. Why does cognitive self-regulation develop gradually? Monitoring learning outcomes is cognitively demanding, requiring constant evaluation of effort and progress. Throughout elementary and secondary school, self-regulation predicts academic success. Students who do well in school know when their learning is going well and when it is not. If they encounter obstacles, they take steps to address them—for example, organize the learning environment, review confusing material, or seek support from more expert adults or peers

traditional classroom

the teacher is the sole authority for knowledge, rules, and decision making and does most of the talking. Students are relatively passive—listening, responding when called on, and completing teacher-assigned tasks. Their progress is evaluated by how well they keep pace with a uniform set of standards for their grade.

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences

theory of multiple intelligences defines intelligence in terms of distinct sets of processing operations that permit individuals to engage in a wide range of culturally valued activities. Dismissing the idea of general intelligence, Gardner proposes at least eight independent intelligences Gardner's interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences include a set of skills for accurately perceiving, reasoning about, and regulating emotion that has become known as emotional intelligence. Among school-age children and adolescents, measures of emotional intelligence are positively associated with self-esteem, empathy, prosocial behavior, coopera- tion, leadership skills, and academic performance and negatively associated with internalizing and externalizing problems

Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence

triarchic theory of successful intelligence is made up of three broad, interacting intelli- gences: (1) analytical intelligence, or information-processing skills; (2) creative intelligence, the capacity to solve novel problems; and (3) practical intelligence, application of intellectual skills in everyday situations. Intelligent behavior involves balancing all three intelligences to achieve success in life according to one's personal goals and the requirements of one's cultural community.

Peer culture

typically involves a specialized vocabulary, dress code, and place to "hang out."

Neglected children

who are seldom mentioned, either positively or negatively

Rejected children

who get many negative votes (are disliked) Rejected children, especially, are anxious, unhappy, disruptive, and low in self-esteem. Both teachers and parents rate them as having a wide range of emotional and social problems. Peer rejection in middle childhood is also strongly associated with poor school performance, absenteeism, dropping out, substance use, depression, antisocial behavior, and delinquency in adolescence and with criminality in adulthood

Popular children

who get many positive votes (are well-liked)

Average children

who receive average numbers of positive and negative votes

Controversial children

who receive many votes, both positive and negative (are both liked and disliked)

Explanations for social class difference in intelligence Explanations for racial and ethnic differences in intelligence

African-American English is a com- plex, rule-governed dialect used by most African Americans in the United States (Craig & Washington, 2006). Nevertheless, it is often inac- curately viewed as a deficient form of standard American English rather than as different from it, and as a low-status dialect associated with poverty. The majority of African-American children entering school speak African-American English, though they vary greatly in the extent to which they use it. Greater users tend to come from low-SES families, who quickly learn that the language they bring from home is devalued in school, whereas standard American English is respected. Research also reveals that many ethnic minority parents without extensive education prefer a collaborative style of communication when completing tasks with children. They work together in a coordinated, fluid way, each focused on the same aspect of the problem. This pattern of adult-child engagement has been observed in Native-American, Canadian Inuit, Hispanic, and Guatemalan Mayan cultures Many researchers argue that IQ scores are affected by specific information acquired as part of majority-culture upbringing. Consistent with this view, low-SES African- American children often miss vocabulary words on intelligence tests that have alternative meanings in their cultural community—for example, interpreting the word frame as "phy- sique" or wrapping as "rapping," referring to the style of music Imagine trying to succeed at an activity when the pre- vailing attitude is that members of your group are incompetent. What might you be feeling? Stereotype threat—the fear of being judged on the basis of a negative stereotype—can trigger anxiety that interferes with performance. Mounting evidence confirms that stereotype threat undermines test taking in children and adults (McKown & Strambler, 2009). For example, researchers gave African-American, Hispanic- American, and Caucasian-American 6- to 10-year-olds verbal tasks. Some children were told that the tasks were "not a test." Others were told that they were "a test of how good children are at school problems"—a statement designed to induce stereotype threat in the ethnic minority children.

Consequences of divorce on children

Although divorce is stressful for children and increases their risk of adjustment problems, most adjust favorably (Greene et al., 2012; Lamb, 2012). How well children fare depends on many factors: the custodial parent's psychological health, the child's characteristics, and social supports within the family and surrounding community. Family conflict often rises in newly divorced households as par- ents try to settle disputes over children and possessions. Once one parent moves out, additional events threaten supportive interactions between parents and children. Mother-headed households typically experience a sharp drop in income. In the United States, 28 percent of divorced mothers with young children live in poverty and many more are low-income, getting less than the full amount of child support from the absent father or none at all (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). They often have to move to lower-cost housing, reducing supportive ties to neighbors and friends. The transition from marriage to divorce typically leads to high maternal stress, depression, and anxiety and to a disorganized family life. Declines in well-being are greatest for mothers of young children (Williams & Dunne-Bryant, 2006). "Meals and bedtimes were at all hours, the house didn't get cleaned, and I stopped taking Joey and Lizzie on weekend outings," said Rena. As children react with distress and anger to their less secure home lives, discipline may become harsh and inconsistent. Over time, contact with noncustodial fathers—and the quality of the father- child relationship—often decreases, particularly when parental conflict is high (Troilo & Coleman, 2012). Fathers who see their children only occasionally are inclined to be permis- sive and indulgent, making the mother's task of managing the child even more difficult. The more parents argue and fail to provide children with warmth, involvement, and con- sistent guidance, the poorer children's adjustment (Lamb, 2012). About 20 to 25 percent of children in divorced families display severe problems, compared with about 10 percent in nondivorced families Most children show improved adjustment by two years after divorce. Yet overall, chil- dren and adolescents of divorced parents continue to score slightly lower than children of continuously married parents in academic achievement, self-esteem, social competence, and emotional and behavioral adjustment (Lansford, 2009). Children with difficult temperaments are more likely to drop out of school, to be depressed, and to engage in antisocial behavior in adolescence. And divorce is linked to problems with adolescent sexuality and development of intimate ties. Young people who experienced parental divorce—especially more than once— display higher rates of early sexual activity and adolescent parenthood. Some experience other lasting difficulties—reduced educational attainment, troubled romantic relationships and marriages, divorce in adulthood, and unsatisfying parent-child relationships

Common fears and anxieties

Although fears of the dark, thunder and lightning, and supernatural beings persist into middle childhood, older children's anxieties are also directed toward new concerns. As children begin to understand the realities of the wider world, the possibility of personal harm (being robbed, stabbed, or shot) and media events (war and disasters) often trouble them. Other common worries include academic failure, separation from parents, parents' health, physical injuries, the possibility of dying, and peer rejection Although fears of the dark, thunder and lightning, and supernatural beings persist into middle childhood, older children's anxieties are also directed toward new concerns. As children begin to understand the realities of the wider world, the possibility of personal harm (being robbed, stabbed, or shot) and media events (war and disasters) often trouble them. Other common worries include academic failure, separation from parents, parents' health, physical injuries, the possibility of dying, and peer rejection Although fears of the dark, thunder and lightning, and supernatural beings persist into middle childhood, older children's anxieties are also directed toward new concerns. As children begin to understand the realities of the wider world, the possibility of personal harm (being robbed, stabbed, or shot) and media events (war and disasters) often trouble them. Other common worries include academic failure, separation from parents, parents' health, physical injuries, the possibility of dying, and peer rejection Some children with phobias and other anxieties develop school refusal—severe apprehension about attending school, often accompanied by physical complaints such as dizziness, nausea, stomachaches, and vomiting

Sensitive period for second language development

Although mastery must begin sometime in childhood for full development to occur, a precise age cutoff for a decline in second-language learning has not been established Children of bilingual parents who teach them both languages in infancy and early childhood separate the language systems early on and attain early language mile- stones according to a typical timetable (Hoff et al., 2012; Weikum et al., 2007). Preschoolers acquire normal native ability in the language of their surrounding community and good-to- native ability in the second language, depending on their exposure to it (Serratrice, 2013). When school-age children acquire a second language, they generally take 5 to 7 years to attain speaking and writing skills on a par with those of native-speaking agemates

Self-care children

An estimated 4.5 million 5- to 14-year-olds in the United States are self-care children, who regularly look after themselves for some period of time during after-school hours (Laughlin, 2013). Self-care increases with age and also with SES, perhaps because of the greater safety of higher- income neighborhoods. But when lower-SES parents lack alternatives to self- care, their children spend more hours on their own (Casper & Smith, 2002). The implications of self-care for development depend on children's maturity and the way they spend their time. Among younger school-age children, those who spend more hours alone have more adjustment diffi- culties (Vandell & Posner, 1999). As children become old enough to look after themselves, those who have a history of authoritative child rearing, are monitored by parental telephone calls, and have regular after-school chores appear responsible and well-adjusted. In contrast, children left to their own devices are more likely to bend to peer pressures and engage in antisocial behavior

Advances in perspective taking

As with self-understanding, gains in emotional understanding are supported by cognitive development and social experiences, especially adults' sensitivity to children's feelings and willingness to discuss emotions. Together, these factors contribute to a rise in empathy as well. As children move closer to adolescence, advances in recursive perspective taking permit an empathic response not just to people's immediate distress but also to their general life condition (Hoffman, 2000). As at early ages, emotional understanding and empathy are linked to favorable social relationships and prosocial behavior

nocturnal enuresis

At all ages, more boys than girls are affected. In the over- whelming majority of cases, the problem has biological roots. Heredity is a major contribut- ing factor: Parents with a history of bedwetting are far more likely to have a child with the problem, and identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to share it (von Gontard, Heron, & Joinson, 2011). Most often, enuresis is caused by a failure of muscular responses that inhibit urination or by a hormonal imbalance that permits too much urine to accumulate during the night. Some children also have difficulty awakening to the sensation of a full bladder (Becker, 2013). Punishing a school-age child for wetting is only likely to make matters worse.

Causes and consequences of obesity

Besides serious emotional and social difficulties, obese children are at risk for lifelong health problems. Symptoms that begin to appear in the early school years—high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, respiratory abnormalities, insulin resistance, and inflammatory reactions—are powerful predictors of heart disease, circulatory difficulties, type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, sleep and digestive disorders, many forms of cancer, and early death. Table 11.1 low SES- lack of knowledge about healthy diet; a tendency to buy high-fat, low-cost foods; neighborhoods that lack convenient access to affordable, healthy foods in grocery stores and restaurants; and family stress, which can prompt overeating. children who were undernourished in their early years are at risk for later excessive weight gain. Furthermore, some parents anxiously overfeed, interpret- ing almost all their child's discomforts as a desire for food— a practice common among immigrant parents and grandpar- ents who, as children themselves, survived deadly famines or periods of food deprivation due to poverty. Because of these experiences, obese children soon develop maladaptive eating habits. They are more responsive than normal-weight individuals to external stimuli associated with food—taste, sight, smell, time of day, and food-related words—and less responsive to internal hunger cues Another factor implicated in weight gain is insufficient sleep Overweight children are less physically active than their normal-weight peers. Inactivity is both cause and consequence of excessive weight gain. In school, obese children and adolescents are often socially isolated. They report more emotional, social, and school difficulties, including peer teasing, rejection, and consequent low self-esteem

Timing of growth spurt for boys and girls

Between ages 6 and 8, girls are slightly shorter and lighter than boys. By age 9, this trend reverses. approached the dramatic adolescent growth spurt, which occurs two years earlier in girls than in boys.

Compartmentalization of self-esteem

By age 6 to 7, children in diverse Western cultures have formed at least four broad self-evaluations: academic competence, social competence, physical/athletic competence, and physical appearance. Within these are more refined categories that become increasingly distinct with age. Furthermore, the capacity to view the self in terms of stable dispositions permits school-age children to combine their separate self-evaluations into a general psychological image of themselves—an overall sense of self-esteem

Second order false belief

By age 6 to 7, children were aware that people form beliefs about other people's beliefs and that these second-order beliefs can be wrong! Appreciation of second-order false belief enables children to pinpoint the reasons that another person arrived at a certain belief. Notice how it requires the ability to view a situation from at least two perspectives—that is, to reason simultaneously about what two or more people are thinking, a form of perspective taking called recursive thought. We think recursively when we make such statements as, "Lisa believes that Jason believes the letter is under his pillow, but that's not what Jason really believes; he knows the letter is in the desk."

Consequences of malnutrition

By middle childhood, the effects are apparent in delayed physical growth, impaired motor coordination, inattention, and low IQ. The negative impact of malnutrition on learning and behavior may intensify as children encounter new academic and social challenges at school.

Limitations of Piaget's theory

Children master concrete operational tasks step by step, not all at once. For example, they usually grasp conservation of number first, followed by length, liquid, and mass, and then weight. This continuum of acquisition (or gradual mastery) of logical concepts is another indication of the limitations of concrete operational thinking (Fischer & Bidell, 1991). Rather than coming up with general logical principles that they apply to all relevant situations, children seem to work out the logic of each problem separately.

educational self-fulfilling prophecies:

Children may adopt teachers' positive or negative views and start to live up to them. This effect is particularly strong when teachers emphasize competition and publicly compare children, regularly favoring the best students

Gender typing

Children's understanding of gender roles broadens in middle childhood, and their gender identities (views of themselves as relatively masculine or feminine) change as well.

Factors that promote coping and resiliency

Personal Easygoing, sociable temperament Above-average intelligence Favorable self-esteem Persistence in the face of challenge and pleasure in mastery Good emotional self-regulation and flexible coping strategies Family Warm, trusting relationship with at least one parent Authoritative child-rearing style Positive discipline, avoidance of coercive tactics Warm, supportive sibling relationships School Teachers who are warm, helpful, and stimulating; who encourage students to collaborate; and who emphasize effort and self-improvement Lessons in tolerance and respect and codes against bullying, which promote positive peer relationships and gratifying friendships Extracurricular activities,including sports and social service pursuits,that strengthen physical,cognitive,and social skills Community High-quality after-school programs that protect children's safety and offer stimulating, skill-building activities An adult—such as an extended-family member, teacher, or neighbor—who provides warmth and social support and is a positive coping model Stability of neighborhood residents and services—safe outdoor play areas, community centers, and religious organizations—that relieve parental stress and encourage families and neighbors to share leisure time Youth groups—scouting, clubs, religious youth groups, and other organized activities—that promote positive peer relationships and prosocial behavior

Self-Esteem

Recall that most preschoolers have extremely high self-esteem. But as children enter school and receive much more feedback about how well they perform compared with their peers, self-esteem differentiates and also adjusts to a more realistic level. Children attach greater importance to certain self-evaluations than to others. Although individual differences exist, during childhood and adolescence perceived physical appearance correlates more strongly with overall self-worth than does any other self-esteem factor An especially strong emphasis on social comparison in school may explain why Chinese and Japanese children, despite their higher academic achievement, score lower than U.S. children in self-esteem— a difference that widens with age And in an investigation of third-graders, being overweight was more strongly linked to negative body image for girls than boys (Shriver et al., 2013). By the end of middle childhood, girls feel less confident than boys about their physical appearance and athletic abilities. With respect to academic self-esteem, boys, again, are somewhat advantaged: Whereas girls score higher in language-arts self-esteem, boys have higher math and science self-esteem—even when children of equal skill levels are compared (Jacobs et al., 2002; Kurtz-Costes et al., 2008). At the same time, girls exceed boys in self-esteem dimensions of close friendship and social acceptance. Children whose parents use an authoritative child-rearing style (see Chapter 10) feel especially good about themselves (Lindsey et al, 2008; McKinney, Donnelly, & Renk, 2008). Warm, positive parenting lets children know that they are accepted as competent and worthwhile. And firm but appropriate expectations, backed up with explanations, help them evaluate their own behavior against reasonable standards. Controlling parents—those who too often help or make decisions for their child—com- communicate a sense of inadequacy to children. Having parents who are repeatedly disapproving and insulting is also linked to low self-esteem

Gender stereotypes

Research in many cultures reveals that stereotyping of personality traits increases steadily in middle childhood, becoming adultlike around age 11 (Best, 2001; Heyman & Legare, 2004). For example, children regard "tough," "aggressive," "rational," and "dominant" as masculine and "gentle," "affectionate," and "dependent" as feminine shortly after entering elementary school, school-age children figure out which academic subjects and skill areas are "masculine" and which are "feminine." They often regard reading, spelling, art, and music as more for girls and mathematics, athletics, and mechanical skills as more for boys gender-stereotype flexibility, or overlap in the characteristics of males and females. In a German study that followed children from ages 5 to 10, regardless of the degree of early gender-stereotype rigidity, flexibility increased dramatically from age 7 on

Cycle of abuse

Sexually abused children frequently display precocious sexual knowl- edge and behavior. In adolescence, abused young people often become promiscuous, increasing the risk of teenage pregnancy. As adults, they show elevated arrest rates for sex crimes (mostly against children) and prostitution. Furthermore, women who were sexually abused are likely to choose partners who abuse them and their children. As mothers, they often engage in irresponsible and coercive parenting, including child abuse and neglect

Rough-and-tumble play

friendly chasing and play-fighting is called rough-and-tumble play. It emerges in the preschool years and peaks in middle childhood, and children in many cultures engage in it with peers whom they like especially well

Advantages and disadvantages of maternal employment

When mothers enjoy their work and remain committed to parenting, children show favorable adjustment—higher self- esteem, more positive family and peer relations, less gender-stereotyped beliefs, and better grades in school. Girls, especially, profit from the image of female competence. Regardless of SES, daughters of employed mothers perceive women's roles as involving more freedom of choice and satisfaction and are more achievement- and career-oriented Employed mothers who value their par- enting role are more likely to use authoritative child rearing and coregulation. Also, chil- dren in dual-earner households devote more daily hours to doing homework under parental guidance and participate more in household chores. And maternal employment often leads fathers—especially those who believe in the importance of the paternal role and who feel successful at parenting—to take on greater child-rearing responsibilities, But when employment places heavy demands on parents' schedules or is stressful for other reasons, children are at risk for ineffective parenting (Strazdins et al., 2013). Working many hours, working a nonstandard sched- ule (such as night or weekend shifts), or experiencing a negative workplace atmosphere is associated with lower quality parenting, fewer joint parent- child activities, poorer cognitive development, and increased behavior problems throughout childhood and adolescence (Li et al., 2014; Strazdins et al., 2006). Negative consequences are magnified when low-SES mothers spend long days at low-paying, physically exhausting jobs—conditions linked to maternal depression and to harsh, inconsistent discipline

Changes in white matter and gray matter

White matter rises steadily throughout childhood and adolescence, especially in the prefrontal cortex (responsible for consciousness, impulse control, integration of information, and strategic thinking), in the parietal lobes (supporting spatial abilities), and in the corpus callosum (leading to more efficient communication between the two cortical hemispheres)

Sibling rivalry

Yet sibling rivalry tends to increase in middle childhood. As children participate in a wider range of activities, parents often compare siblings' traits and accomplishments. The child who gets less parental affection, more disapproval, or fewer material resources is likely to be resentful and show poorer adjustment To reduce rivalry, siblings often strive to be different from one another

Malocclusion

a condition in which the upper and lower teeth do not meet properly

Coregulation

a form of supervision in which they exercise general oversight while letting children take charge of moment-by-moment decision making (Maccoby, 1984). Coreg- ulation grows out of a warm, cooperative relationship between parent and child based on give- and-take and mutual respect. Parents must guide and monitor from a distance and effectively communicate expectations when they are with their children. And children must inform par- ents of their whereabouts, activities, and problems so parents can intervene when necessary

dominance hierarchy

a stable ordering of group members that predicts who will win when conflict arises. Observations of arguments, threats, and physical attacks between children reveal a consistent lineup of win- ners and losers that becomes increasingly stable in middle childhood and adolescence, espe- cially among boys. Once school-age children establish a dominance hierarchy, hostility is rare. Children seem to use play-fighting as a safe context to assess the strength of a peer before challenging that peer's dominance (Fry, 2014; Roseth et al., 2007). Rough-and-tumble play offers lessons in how to handle combative interactions with restraint.

Factors that influence intelligence

about half the differences in IQ among children can be traced to their genetic makeup. Findings consistently reveal that when young children are adopted into caring, stimulating homes, their IQs rise substantially compared with the IQs of nonadopted children who remain in economically deprived families

Dynamic assessment

an innovation consistent with Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, the adult introduces purposeful teaching into the testing situation to find out what the child can attain with social support Children's receptivity to teaching and their capacity to transfer what they have learned to novel problems add considerably to the prediction of future performance

Advances in spatial reasoning

cognitive maps—their mental representations of spaces, such as a class- room, school, or neighborhood. Preschoolers and young school-age children include landmarks on maps they draw of a single room, but their arrangement is not always accurate. They do better when asked to place stickers showing the location of furniture and people on a map of the room. Around age 9 , the maps children draw of large-scale spaces become better organized, showing land- marks along an organized route of travel. At the same time, children are able to give clear, well- organized instructions for getting from one place to another by using a "mental walk" strategy—imagining another person's movements along a route At the end of middle childhood, most children can form an accurate overall view of a large-scale space. And they readily draw and read maps, even when the orientation of the map and the space it represents do not match (Liben, 2009). Ten- to 12-year-olds also grasp the notion of scale—the proportional relation between a space and its map representation (Liben, 2006). And they appreciate that in interpreting map symbols, a mapmaker's assigned meaning supersedes physical resemblance—for example, that green dots (not red dots) may indicate where red fire trucks are located

peer groups

collectives that generate unique values and standards for behavior and a social structure of leaders and followers. Peer groups organize on the basis of proximity (being in the same classroom) and similarity in sex, ethnicity, academic achievement, popularity, and aggression

Elaboration

creating a relationship, or shared meaning, between two or more pieces of information that are not members of the same category. For example, to learn the words fish and pipe, you might generate the verbal statement or mental image, "The fish is smoking a pipe." This highly effective memory technique, which requires considerable effort and space in working memory, becomes increasingly common in adolescence and early adulthood

Mastery-oriented attribution style

crediting their successes to ability—a characteristic they can improve by trying hard and can count on when faced with new challenges. This incremental view of ability—that it can increase through effort—influences the way mastery-oriented children interpret negative events. They attribute failure to factors that can be changed and controlled, such as insufficient effort or a difficult task. So whether these children succeed or fail, they take an industrious, persistent approach to learning. learning goals—seeking information on how best to increase their ability through effort. Hence, their performance improves over time

constructivist classroom

encourages students to construct their own knowledge. Although constructivist approaches vary, many are grounded in Piaget's theory, which views children as active agents who reflect on and coordinate their own thoughts, rather than absorbing those of others. A glance inside a constructivist classroom reveals richly equipped learning centers, small groups and individuals solving self-chosen problems, and a teacher who guides and supports in response to children's needs. Students are evaluated by considering their progress in relation to their own prior development.

Decentration

focusing on several aspects of a problem and relating them, rather than centering on just one