Chapter 6 Section 3: Early Childhood Emotional and Social Regulation

Cultural Differences in Play

3-year-old children spent more time in play than in ay other activity The more work parents have to do, the earlier they involve children in work and the less time children have for play

Psychological Control

A disciplinary technique that involves threatening to withdraw love and support and that relies on a child's feelings of guilt and gratitude to the parents. Related negatively to anxious, withdrawn, and aggressive behavior as well as problems with peers Contrasts with cultural beliefs about the value of thinking and behaving independently

Emotional Self-Regulation

Ability to exercise control over one's emotions - Developing social relations often requires us to restrain our immediate impulses - Early childhood is a time when expectations for emotional self-regulation increases - From age 2-6, extremes of emotional expression such as temper tantrums, crying, and physical aggression decrease -- Development of the frontal cortex promotes this process -- Children learn strategies for regulating their emotions -- Some of the most effective strategies are leaving the situation, talking to themselves, redirecting their attention to a different activity, and seeking comfort from an attachment figure -- Effortful Control: Children focus their attention on managing their emotions Children vary in their success at achieving emotional regulation in early childhood: Undercontrol or Overcontrol Initiative vs. Guilt

Physical Aggression

Abundant evidence that physical aggression peaks in toddlerhood and early childhood Peaks at 24-42 months - the second year of toddlerhood and the first year of early childhood - then declines Individual differences remain stable across time Parents who are especially patient, sensitive, and involved can reduce high aggression in early childhood to moderate aggression by middle childhood When aggression is high at the end of early childhood, it is a strong predictor of later aggressive in adolescence and adulthood Instrumental and Hostile

Child Maltreatment

Abuse or neglect of children, including physical, emotional, or sexual abuse

Younger sibling's response to older siblings

Admire their older siblings and model their behavior after them, trying to learn to do what their older siblings can do Young children with older siblings possess more advanced theory of mind understanding than children who have no older siblings - As siblings argue, compete, and cooperate, they learn better how to understand the thinking of others and accept that others have a point of view that may be different than their own

Foster Care

Adults approved by the agency take over the care of the child - Children in here are at high risk for academic, social, and behavioral problems, especially if they experience multiple of these placements

Ambivalence

Aggressive and hostile behavior is common, but so is helping, sharing, and teaching Continues with age - Middle-childhood siblings care for and teach their younger siblings but also command and dominate them, and sometimes physically punish them

Margaret Mead

Anthropologist proposed a general scheme many decades ago that still applies well to how most of the world's children experience the social changes of childhood Classification of Childhood Stages: Lap Child, Knee Child, Yard Child

Sexual Abuse

Any kind of sexual contact with a minor

Discipline in Western Cultures

Approach to discipline in early childhood tends to emphasize the authoritative style of explaining the consequences of explaining the consequences of misbehavior and the reasons for discipline Parents also tend to use a lot of praise for compliant and obedient behavior, which is notable because the use of praise is very rare in other culture Discipline may involve taking away privileges or time out Parenting that uses shame and withdrawal has been described as psychological control Western Parent Researchers Recommendations

Filial Piety

Asian cultures have a tradition of this, meaning that children are expected to respect, obey, and revere their parents throughout life

Gender Differences in Play

Boys generally engage in high-activity, aggressive, competitive "rough and tumble" play in their groups Girls' play tend to be quieter, more cooperative, and more likely to involve fantasy and role play

Gender Differences in Peers

Boys tend to have other boys as their peers and friends, and the social world of girls is populated mostly by other females

moral reasoning

By age 3 or 4, children are capable of making moral judgments that involve considerations of justice and fairness By age 4, they understand the difference between telling the truth and lying, and they believe it is wrong to tell lies - Moral reasoning tends to be rigid at this age Moral judgments tend to be based more on fear of punishment

Gender Identity

By age 3-4, children associate a variety of things with either males or females, including toys, games, clothes, household items, occupations, and even colors

Physical Abuse

Child Risk Factors: Temperamentally difficult or if they are unusually aggressive or active and hence more difficult for parents to control Parent Risk Factors: Poverty, unemployment, and single motherhood, stepfathers, spouse abuse, parents who were abused themselves Destructive to young children - Impairs emotional and self-development, including self-regulation, empathy, and self-concept - Damaging to the development of friendships and social skills, because abused children find it difficult to trust others - Children are at risk for later emotional, social, and academic problems in adolescence and beyond

Lap Child

Children ages 0-2 to denote their near-constant dependence on the care and monitoring of others

Knee Child

Children ages 3-4 who spends time with other children, especially of the same gender

Yard Child

Children ages 5-6 who is given more scope to venture beyond the immediate family area and into the "yard", that is into a social world where parents are nearby but not always directly present

Gender Roles

Children at younger ages may be so insistent about maintaining these because they believe that changing external features like clothes or hairstyles could result in a change in gender

Emotional Understanding

Children become adept at understanding the sources of other people's expressed emotions By age 5, children are usually accurate in explaining the emotions of the situation and they are also adept at understanding how emotional states are the basis of subsequent actions

Helping Abused Children in Traditional Cultures

Children with abusive parents may go to live with relatives with whom they have a more positive relationship

Richard Shweder

Compared children, adolescents, and adults in US and India - Found that by about age 5, children already grasp the moral standards of their culture, and their views change little from childhood to adolescence to adulthood Similarities between cultures - At age 5, children in both countries have learned that it is wrong to take others' property or to inflict harm intentionally Differences between cultures - Young children in the United States view it as acceptable to eat beef, but young children in India view it as wrong - Young children in India view it as acceptable for more of a father's inheritance to go to his son than to his daughter, but young children in the United States view it as wrong

Violence

Content analyses have found that children's programs are even more violent than programs for adults Portrayed as funny about 2/3 of the time, and in most cases, the victims were not shown experiencing pain and the perpetrator of the violence was not punished TV ___________ increases children's aggression

Corporal Punishment among White Children in US

Correlation between physical punishment and a wide range of antisocial behavior in children Physical punishment in early childhood increases the likelihood of bullying and delinquency in adolescence and aggressive behavior in adulthood Physical punishment in early childhood increases children's compliance in the short run but damages their moral and mental health Physical punishment is likely to be combined with anger

Responsiveness

Degree to which parents are sensitive to their children's needs and express love, warmth, and concern for them

Demandingness

Degree to which parents set down rules and expectations for behavior and require their children to comply with them

Electronic Games

Depends on access to a computer, and computer access is much more variable across countries Boys play electronic games more than girls do, and the kinds of games they prefer differ, with boys preferring fighting and sports games Girls prefer adventure and learning games - Could be played on handheld devices and mobile phones

Siblings

Developing Countries: Breast-feeding often lasts at least two years, and breast-feeding acts as a natural contraceptive by suppressing the mother's ovulation Developed Countries: Parents often choose to space their children by 2-4 years Older ones response to younger ones: Jealousy and Ambivalence Younger sibling's response to older siblings

Empathy

Develops further in early childhood Children become better at perspective-taking, and being able to understand how others think and feel Promotes prosocial behavior, such as being generous or helpful Contributes to the moral understanding of principles such as avoiding harm and being fair, because children understand how their behavior would make another person feel children learn moral rules so early

Externalizing Problems

Difficulty with emotional regulation that involves expressing powerful feelings through uncontrolled physical or verbal outbursts, as by lashing out at other people or breaking things. More common among males

Internalizing Problems

Difficulty with emotional regulation that involves turning one's emotional distress inward, as by feeling excessively guilty, ashamed, or worthless. More common among females

Aggression

Encounter more competition for resources and this competition leads to conflict and aggression Types: Physical (Instrumental and Hostile) and Verbal (Relational) frequently a component of children's play in early and middle childhood, especially for boys

Nurse-Family Partnership

Expectant mothers who have many of the risk factors for abuse receive regular home visits by a trained nurse for two years. The nurse provides information and advice about how to manage crises

Western Parent Researchers Recommendations

Explaining the reason for discipline Being consistent so that the consequences will be predictable to the child Exercising discipline at the time of behavior so that the connection will be clear to the child If a parent's request to a young child is ignored or disobeyed, the parent counts a warning, and if the request is not obeyed by "three", the child is then put in time out, 1 minute for each year of their age

Neglect

Failure to meet children's basic needs of food, shelter, clothing, medical attention, and supervision

Play

From toddlerhood through early childhood, solitary play and parallel play decline somewhat while simple social play and cooperative pretend play increase Cooperative pretend play becomes more complex in the course of early childhood, as children's imaginations bloom and they become more creative and adept at using symbols Even at age 5 or 6, most children display a variety of types of play

Gender Schema

Gender-based cognitive structure for organizing and processing information, comprising expectations for males' and females' appearance and behavior As a result of gender socialization, children use gender schemas as a way of understanding and interpreting the world around them Gender is one of our most important schemas from early childhood onward - We have learned to categorize a wide range of activities and objects and personality characteristics as "female" or "male" Influence how we interpret the behavior of others and what to expect from them Children tend to believe that their own preferences are true for everyone in their gender Young children also tend to remember in ways that reflect their gender schemas

Jealousy

Great variability in how parents responded - Physical punishment in Africa - Trying to comfort and reassure the jealous child in US

Rules and Expectations of Moral Development

Greater awareness of the rule or expectation that evoked the approval or disapproval Young children are more capable at anticipating the potential consequences of their actions and avoiding behaviors that would be morally disapproved Young children do not inherently know the rules or expectations of their culture and must learn them, sometimes by unknowingly violating them and then observing the consequences in the responses of their parents and others

Educational TV

Have been developed that there are highly popular among young children - Sesame Street and other programs have shown impressive positive effects on young children's Programs to have other positive effects as well, such as promoting imaginative play Benefits: Academic skills and content is adapted to the culture in which the program is shown

Initiative vs. Guilt

In Erikson's lifespan theory, the early childhood stage in which the alternatives are learning to plan activities in a purposeful way, or being afflicted with excess guilt that undermines initiative Children need to learn emotional control but without being so tightly regulated that they feel excess guilt and their ability to initiate activities is undermined - Different cultures have different views of what the optimal level of emotional control is

TV Consumption

In early childhood, TV-viewing time per day varies from about 1.5 hours in Sweden and Germany to about 3 hours in Hungary, Turkey, and the United States African Americans are especially high in TV consumption, with rates of over 4 hours a day in childhood compared to about 3 hours a day in other American ethnic groups

Only Child

In the United States, about 20% of children have no siblings Their self-esteem, social maturity, and intelligence tends to be somewhat higher than children with siblings, perhaps because they have more interactions with adults Somewhat less successful in social relations with peers, because children with siblings gain peerlike practice in social relations Especially common in China - In 1978, the Chinese government instituted a "one-child policy", making it illegal for parents to have more than one child without special government approval - Demonstrate several advantages over children with siblings, including higher cognitive development, higher emotional security, and higher likeability - Show no deficits in social skills or peer acceptance - Girls have more opportunities in education than they did when they had to compete with brothers for family resources

Advertising

In the United States, the average child sees about 40,000 TV commercials each year Young children are especially susceptible to advertising - Most do not perceive a distinction between a program and an advertisement until about age 5 - Because most of the products children see advertised are unhealthy foods, concern has grown that TV advertising is one influence behind the growing international epidemic of obesity in children

Helping Abused Children in Western Cultures

It is more often the formal legal system that intervenes in cases of child abuse State agency can place the child in foster care Children to live in a group home staffed by the state agency that oversees child abuse and neglect cases - Usually a temporary alternative until the child can be placed in foster care or with relatives Nurse-Family Partnership

Gender Constancy

It is not until age 6 or 7 that children attain this, which is the understanding that maleness and femaleness are biological and cannot change

Discipline in Japanese Cultures

Japan provides an interesting example of a culture where shame and withdrawal of love is the core of discipline in early childhood Express disappointment and withdraw their love temporarily - The child feels shame, which is a powerful inducement not to disobey again Japanese children have low rates of behavioral problems, and high rates of academic achievement - They grow up to be Japanese adults who have low rates of crime Amae fits neatly into a larger system of beliefs about duty and obligations to others, especially to family

Familismo

Latino cultural belief that emphasizes the love, closeness, and mutual obligations among family members

Learn Morality Through Custom Complexes

Like people in many cultures, Indians believe that a woman's menstrual blood has potentially dangerous powers - By the end of early childhood, Indian children have learned not just that a menstruating women does not cook food or sleep with her husband but that it would be wrong for her to do so

Reasons Children Learn Moral Rules Early

Moral rules are taught explicitly - Parents often rely on religious institutions as sources of correct moral behavior Morality is taught through stories in both formal settings, like Sunday school, and informal settings, like the dinner table - Barbara Rogoff gives examples of storytelling as a moral instruction in a variety of cultures -- Among the Xhosa, it is usually the elders that tell the stories, but the stories have been told many times before, and even young children soon learn the stories and participate in the narrative

Father Gender Socialization

More insistent about conformity to gender roles than mothers are, especially for boys

Gender Socialization

Often adamant and rigid in their perceptions of maleness and femaleness Gender Constancy and Gender Roles Parents, Fathers and Peers

Moral Development

One sociomoral emotion that is especially important to moral development in early childhood is empathy Advances further as children gain a more detailed and complex understanding of the rules and expectations of their cultures Example of cultural learning of morality can be found in the research of Richard Shweder Immigrant children learning rules of expectations of the cultural groups they are engaged in - The rules for proper behavior at home are different from the rules at school Young children also learn morality through custom complexes Modeling Young children begin to display the rudiments of moral reasoning Teaching moral rules is a large part of parenting young children

Music

Over half of parents of young children report singing to or playing music for them each day On average, children ages 2-7 listen to music for about 45 minutes per day

Authoritative Parents

Parents who are high in demandingness and high in responsiveness Set clear rules and expectations for their children - Make clear what the consequences will be if their children do not comply, and they make those consequences stick if necessary Explain the reasons for their rules and expectations to their children, and they willingly engage in discussion with their children over issues of discipline, sometimes leading to negotiation and compromise. Parents are loving and warm toward their children, and they respond to what their children need and desire Associated with the most favorable outcomes - Children tend to be independent, self-assured, creative, and socially skilled Within American society, the authoritative style is mainly dominant among White, middle-class families

Authoritarian Parents

Parents who are high in demandingness and low in responsiveness - Expect their commands to be followed without dispute, or they would be punished - Show little in the way of love or warmth toward their children Leads to children who are less self-assured, less creative, and less socially adept Most American minority cultures, have been classified by researchers as this , but this is inaccurate - All minority cultures tend to emphasize obeying parental authority rather than encouraging explanation and negotiation

Disengaged Parents

Parents who are low in both demandingness and responsiveness - Require little of their children and rarely bother to correct their behavior - Express little in the way of love or concern for their children Leads to children who are impulsive, resulting in higher rates of behavior problems

Permissive Parents

Parents who are low in demandingness and high in responsiveness - Few clear expectations for their children's behavior, and they rarely discipline them - May see discipline and control as having the potential to damage their children's healthy tendencies for developing creativity and expressing themselves leads to children that are immature and lack self-control, leading to them having difficulty getting along with peers and teachers

Peers

Persons who share some aspect of their status in common, such as age) By this age, children are more capable of understanding and describing what a friendship entails By age 5 or 6, they also understand that friendship is characterized by mutual trust and support, and that a friend is someone you can rely on over time

Corporal Punishment

Physical punishment of children Common in most parts of the world Although most countries still allow parents to spank their young children, nearly all outlaw beatings and other harsh forms of physical punishment, which the historical record shows was quite common until about 100 years ago

Corporal Punishment in Traditional Cultures and African Americans

Physical punishment on young children did not prevent them from growing up well-behaved, productive, mentally healthy adults The use of physical punishment in early childhood is widespread - Mild in degree and is delivered not in an angry rage but calmly and sternly Physical punishment is often combined with parental warmth so that children understand their parents' behavior not as a frightening and threatening loss of parental control but as a practice intended to teach them right from wrong and the importance of obeying their parents

Hostile Aggression

Physical type of aggression that entails signs of anger and intent to inflict pain or harm on others

Instrumental Aggression

Physical type of aggression when a child wants something and uses aggressive behavior or words to get it

Parenting Styles

Practices that parents exhibit in relation to their children and their beliefs about those practices Originated in the United States and has involved mainly American children and their parents Described in two dimensions: Demandingness and Responsiveness Four types: Authoritative Parents, Authoritarian Parents, Permissive Parents, Disengaged Parents a cultural model rooted in the American majority cultures and does not apply well to most other cultures Other cultures have their own culturally based forms of warmth and control, but across cultures, warmth rarely takes the form of explanation and negotiation

Self-Socialization

Process by which people seek to maintain consistency between their gender schemas and their behavior Boys become quite insistent about doing things they regard as boy things and avoiding things that girls do; girls become equally intent on avoiding boy things and doing things they regard as appropriate for girls Children strive to conform to the gender expectations they perceive in the culture around them

Parenting In Other Cultures

Rarity of authoritative parenting style in non-Western cultures - In traditional cultures, parents expect that their authority will be obeyed, without question and without requiring an explanation -- The fact that they are parents and their children are children is viewed as sufficient justification for their authority Filial Piety and Familismo The dominant approach to parenting in a culture reflects certain things about the underlying cultural beliefs, such as the value of independence vs. interdependence and the status of parental authority over children

Peer Gender Socialization

Reinforce each other for gender-appropriate behavior reject peers who violate gender roles Boys who cry easily or who like to play with girls and engage in girls' games are likely to be ostracized by other boys

Emotional Abuse

Ridicule and humiliation as well as behavior causing emotional trauma

Beatrice Whiting and Carolyn Edwards

Studied children ages 2-10 in 12 different cultures in places around the world, including Africa, Asia, South America, and the US Found substantial worldwide in how cultures socialize young children and structure their social environments Gradual lessening of dependence on the mother and a gradual move into the social orbit of peers and older children - Knee children are expected to stop breast-feeding and to have less bodily contact with the mother -- Parents and older children expect knee children to be toilet trained, to have basic manners, and to perform minor chores -- Perceived as better able to understand and follow commands

Time Out

The child is required to sit still in a designated place for a brief period usually a few minutes, which has shown to be effective with young children who have behavioral problems

Social Skill Differences in Play

The more preschool experience children have, the more successful they are at taking part in social play Some children enjoy playing by themselves

Parent Gender Socialization

They continue to give their children the clothes and toys they believe are gender appropriate Express approval when their children behave in gender-appropriate ways and disapproval when their children violate gender expectations They also communicate indirectly, by approving or not contradicting their children's gender statements Provide models through their own behavior, language, and appearance, of how males and females are supposed to be different in their culture

Relational/Social Aggression

Type of aggression that involves damaging another person's reputation among peers through social exclusion and malicious gossip - Rises across childhood - As children become more adept at using words, they grow capable of applying their verbal abilities Children learn that adults regard physical aggression as unacceptable and as children become more capable of restraining their physically aggressive impulses Children become more capable of understanding the complexities of social and cognitive understanding, understanding that words could hurt more than a hit Slightly more common than physical aggression among girls but the difference is minor

Cultural Differences in Peers

Western countries: Mixed-age peer play groups are relatively rare Traditional cultures: Children often play in mixed-age groups that may include children in toddlerhood, early childhood, and middle childhood

Modeling

Young children tend to model their behavior after the behavior of others they observe Children are especially likely to model their behavior after another person if the other person's behavior is rewarded - More likely to model their behavior after adults who are warm and responsive or who are viewed as having authority

Reciprocal/Bidirectional Effects

in relations between two persons, the principle that each of them affects the other Children may evoke certain behaviors from their parents Parents have beliefs about what is best for their children, and they try to express those beliefs through their parenting behavior Parents' actual behavior is affected not only by what they believe is best but also by how their children behavior toward them and respond to their parenting

Overcontrol

trait of having excessive emotional self-regulation, which could lead to internalizing problems

Undercontrol

trait of having inadequate emotional self-regulation At risk for externalizing problems