Chapter 12 Social and Emotional Development in Middle Childhood

relational aggression

aggression that involves gossiping, spreading rumors, or social exclusion in order to damage a child's social relationships

Longitudinal studies of rejected children reveal a cycle of rejection and ____ that leads to externalizing and internalizing behavior problems.

aggression: Socially rejected children tend to show less prosocial and more aggressive and disruptive behavior.

growth mindset

belief that ability comes with effort and practice

According to surveys, births to single, unmarried mothers continue to be common in the United States, particularly among ____________.

black females: The largest percentage of children born to single mothers is found among black women (71.5 percent in 2013).

Allie understands that her friend is sad to move away but looking forward to living closer to her grandparents. Allie is most likely ______________.

in late middle childhood, about age 9 to 11: Children 9-11 recognize that individuals can feel two opposing emotions, such as Allie feeling both sad and happy about her move.

In the study by Blackwell et al. (2007), low-achieving math students showed an improvement in ________________ after eight weeks of lessons on having a growth mindset.

math grades: The experimental group showed an increase after the intervention began, suggesting that a growth mindset can have a powerful and continuing effect on school achievement.

A field study of children randomly assigned to have a video game in the home revealed that playing video games seems to lead to declines in all of the following except ________.

mathematics scores: Mathematics scores were not found to decline based on the amount of time children spend watching videos.

Young children tend to base their judgments of other people on concrete, observable behavior or appearances, whereas older children begin to focus on _________.

personality/psychological traits: Until about ages 7 to 8, children could be described as behaviorists—they focus on observable behaviors and external environmental circumstances. However, they become mini personality theorists in middle childhood, describing people in terms of psychological traits.

social comparison

process in which children compare themselves on dimensions of self-evaluation to other children

Children rated as high in social acceptance by their peers tend to have high levels of ____________ and low levels of ______________ in middle childhood.

prosocial behavior; aggressive behavior: Socially accepted children tend to be prosocial, meaning they are cooperative, helpful, friendly, and kind. They tend not to be disruptive of other children's activities and exhibit very little verbal, physical, or social/relational aggression.

Harming others socially by spreading rumors, gossiping, or excluding them from groups is termed ___________.

relational aggression: Relational aggression is an indirect form of aggression involving gossiping, spreading rumors, or excluding a child from a group, in an effort to damage a child's social relationships.

emotional display rules

rules within a particular society or social group about which emotions are appropriate to display

There is longitudinal evidence that children with more friends in middle childhood had higher levels of _______________ in early adulthood, controlling for earlier social competence and self-esteem.

self-esteem: In one study, those with more friends in middle childhood were more likely than those without friends to report high levels of self-esteem in early adulthood, controlling for earlier peer acceptance and social competence.

Children's self-rated academic competence, social competence, athletic competence, physical appearance, and behavioral conduct contribute in varying ways for different children to overall _________.

self-esteemSelf-esteem is an overall evaluation of one's worth as a person.

Children's self-evaluations become more realistic due to the process of ___________, in which they compare their skill levels to those of other children.

social comparison: Through social comparison children recognize strengths and weaknesses about themselves compared to other children.

One thing shared in common by teenage mothers and older mothers who decide to raise a child without a partner is that they benefit from ____________.

social support from extended family or friends: Single mothers who perceived themselves as getting more support from friends or family tended to report lower levels of stress.

When given simple enough stories, even preschoolers distinguish between moral rules and ____________, which refer(s) to rules, authority, and social customs.

social-conventional rules: When given simple enough stories, even preschoolers distinguish between social-conventional rules, which refer to rules, authority, and social customs, and moral rules, which refer to issues of fairness, harm, and individual rights.

Children who are rejected by their peers generally form two subgroups: a subgroup that is aggressive and a subgroup that is __________________.

socially withdrawn: Although the majority of rejected children are aggressive, a significant subgroup tends to be socially withdrawn.

All of the following are the most common areas of child behavior or emotional problems following a family divorce except___________.

taking sides with the father rather than the mother: Taking sides with the father rather than the mother is not one of the four most common areas of child behavior after a family divorce. Those main areas of child behavioral difficulty are: externalizing behavior problems, internalizing problems, lower academic achievement, and problems in social relationships with peers and parents (particularly fathers).

All of the following are features of the anti-bullying programs mentioned in the chapter except _____.

teaching children to fight back against bullies: Children were not taught how to fight back against bullies. The goal of the anti-bullying program in Norway was to change the school climate.

According to an observational study by Gottman where previously unacquainted children were observed in a home setting three times, children who became friends _____________.

tended to be better at exchanging relevant information: Gottman found that unacquainted children who became friends were better than non-friends at exchanging relevant information.

second-order false belief reasoning

the ability to understand that people may hold false beliefs about others' beliefs

Two factors relevant to the co-regulation process that can modify particular parenting influences on the child are the child's temperament and _________.

the child's perception of how supportive the parent is: Parents who are perceived as supportive tend to have children who are academically successful and socially competent in childhood and adolescence.

gatekeepers

the function of parents in opening (or closing off) environmental opportunities to the child

co-regulation

the process in which parent and child share control of the child's responsibilities and activities

What observation did you hear in the video that suggests that the play style of boys and girls is partly influenced by social context (e.g., the gender of their playmate)?

Boys played more quietly and nonaggressively with a girl cousin and more actively and aggressively with male friends.

Children's behavior has been observed to improve after ___________.

parents in a high-conflict relationship undergo divorce: One study found that children's behavior problems decreased when parents in a high-conflict relationship underwent divorce.

Sibling conflicts can serve as a positive influence on development under all of the following circumstances except __________________.

when parents use the conflicts as an opportunity to punish both siblings: Research does not support that using sibling conflict as an opportunity to punish both siblings serves as a positive influence on development.

Joshua, the boy who seemed most angry and uncooperative with the mother seems to have undergone a type of developmental cascade leading to poor school performance and getting arrested for delinquent behavior. Other than what was mentioned already, which of the following is likely to be the most important part of the developmental cascade?

Hanging out with delinquent peers, who encouraged bad behavior, after the move

Analyses of media time diaries indicate that children who engage in more video game play, computer game play, and television watching tend to __________________.

do less reading and studying: Children who engage in more video game play, computer game play, and TV watching tend to do less reading for pleasure and less studying with non-screen materials.

A trend with age in self-esteem is ________________.

a general decline in self-esteem as children attend elementary school followed by a rise later in middle childhood: There is a general decline in self-esteem as children attend elementary school. Later in middle childhood, general self-esteem rises again, as children adjust their personal goals toward areas in which they rate themselves more highly.

In addition to stresses associated with changes in the family's circumstances, one of the most important sources of problems for both boys and girls undergoing a family divorce is thought to be _________.

a reduction of warmth, support, and structure provided by the custodial parent: Researchers have shown that in the short-term, divorcing parents provide less warmth and affection and less consistent discipline, and some parents may shift from an authoritative parenting style to a more authoritarian or more permissive style.

Parents may contribute to a fixed mindset by telling children they are good at schoolwork, and teachers may do so by ________________.

emphasizing scores and grades: Teachers may inadvertently foster a fixed mindset by emphasizing scores and grades, which implies that something cannot be improved by trying harder.

During middle childhood, there is an increase in the expectation that friends will share their values and _____________________.

be loyal and stick up for them: During middle childhood (by the ages of 10 to 11) children start expecting friends to share many of their values, to be loyal, and to stick up for them.

fixed mindset

belief that one has a fixed amount of ability

The best outcomes in stepfamilies are observed on average for ___________.

boys in a mother/stepfather relationship with an authoritative stepfather: Boys may benefit from the presence of an authoritative stepfather and from a reduction of the cycle of misbehavior and coercion some of them established with the mother.

Kecia's mom takes her after school to dance classes and softball. The term for her mother's behavior is ____________________.

gatekeeping: Parents act as gatekeepers for children's opportunities by exercising choices of neighborhood, school, church or after-school activities.

distributive justice

how to distribute earnings based on fairness to all who have worked together

Although the most immediate goal of a bully is to achieve dominance over another child, the long-term goal of most bullies seems to be to _____.

increase their own social status among peers: Bullies tend to select victims they can dominate in front of other children, in keeping with current views that bullying is a way of increasing or maintaining social status.

sociometric ratings

technique in which peers name children they like and dislike

According to a study by Turiel (2008), children's ability to tell whether a character in a little story has violated moral rules (such as hitting another person) or social-conventional rules (such as interrupting the teacher in class) develops __________________ their ability to understand moral and social-conventional rules in real-life situations.

at about the same time as: In a study by Turiel, children were interviewed about hypothetical situations resembling the types of issues raised by the real-life events. Their reasoning was quite similar across real and hypothetical moral issues.

path analysis

an analysis of longitudinal data that allows researchers to infer whether a characteristic at time 1 influences behavior at time 2

What features of a friend that are common early in middle childhood were mentioned by Gracious, the girl from Botswana?

Physical appearance Having fun together

Based on your reading of the research and consideration of this family's experiences, what factor(s) other than the divorce itself might have increased stress on the two boys?

The fact that the father was unavailable to his sons for a period of time Moving neighborhoods The mother working two jobs, reducing her availability to her sons

Which of the following statements characterizes children raised by same-sex parents?

They develop in similar ways to children raised by heterosexual parents.: Research has consistently revealed that children raised by gay or lesbian parents develop in similar ways to children in heterosexual families. For example, in both types of families, authoritative parenting is the most effective parenting style.

socially rejected children

children with many "dislike" and few "like" ratings

socially accepted children

children with many "like" and few "dislike" ratings

When parent and child work together to manage the child's behavior and responsibilities, this is termed _________.

co-regulation: Co-regulation is the process in which parent and child share control of the child's responsibilities and activities.

Children's relationships with siblings are often characterized by a high degree of _________.

emotional intensity: In middle childhood, siblings generally spend more time together than they do with parents or peers, and their relationships are marked by a high degree of emotional intensity, which can be strongly positive, strongly negative, or vacillate between the two.

In middle childhood, children develop greater independence and flexibility in managing their emotions, a process known as _________.

emotional regulation: Older children can initiate strategies to manage their emotions on their own, and they can flexibly shift between thoughts or behaviors to manage emotions.

Researchers conducting the Fast Track intervention worked with high-risk children and achieved a long-term reduction of _________________ in grades 6 through 10.

externalizing problems: Follow-up interventions with children, parents, and teachers carried out in grades 6 through 10 showed a reduction in externalizing behavior such as aggression and conduct problems.

The finding that some children attribute their successes to ability and their failures to insufficient effort or an overly difficult task is thought to reflect an attitude toward achievement known as _________.

growth mindset: A growth mindset is the belief that ability comes with effort and practice.

Bullies have all of the following characteristics except ___________.

they low in social competence: Most bullies are not low in social competence or self-esteem. Bullies use both prosocial and aggressive strategies to achieve their goal of social dominance over other children.

A primary reason mentioned by both Gracious and Perla (from rural Mexico) for choosing girls as playmates over boys was _____.

they prefer the less active, less aggressive, and more cooperative play style of girls

Longitudinal studies comparing the later development of children from closely matched families who either divorce or remain intact indicate all of the following except ___________.

those who experienced divorce are more likely to be in jail: The majority of young adults who experience divorce are well-adjusted, and are not more likely to be in jail.

Although we did not discuss personality differences in relation to children's reactions to divorce, the reactions of the two boys may be due in part to the reactions of different personality types (discussed in Chapter 9) to the stresses of their lives post-divorce. Josh, the boy who did poorly in school and got arrested is likely to be ____________________________, whereas Robert, the boy who did well in school and who avoids friendships, is likely to be __________________________________.

undercontrolled; overcontrolled

According to one cross-sectional study of 3- to 10-year olds, two predictors of whether children apply stereotypes to different racial groups at age 6 are being able to group photos of people by race and ____________________.

understanding racial constancy: By age six children have a belief that one's race does not change from birth to adulthood, which is known as racial constancy, and they can group photos of people by race. LO 12.3: Describe changes in children's thinking about others in middle childhood.