Lifespan: Chapter 10

Instead of specific behaviors, this child emphasizes competencies:

"smart in certain subjects like language arts and social studies" and "having good English skills."

four broad factors protect against maladjustment:

(1) the child's personal characteristics, including an easygoing temperament and a mastery-oriented approach to new situations; (2) a warm parental relationship; (3) an adult outside the immediate family who offers a support system; and (4) community resources, such as good schools, social services, and youth organizations and recreation centers.

blended or reconstituted family

About 60 percent of divorced parents remarry within a few years. Others cohabit, or share a sexual relationship and a resi- dence with a partner outside of marriage. Parent, stepparent, and children form a new family structure. For some children, this expanded family network is positive, bringing greater adult attention.

More than _________ of U.S. children live in divorced, single-parent households.

1/4

about ________ of US children live with one parent (usually their mother) and a mar- ried or cohabiting stepparent

10%

about __________of children in divorced families display severe problems, compared with about 10 percent in nondivorced families

20-25%

how do cultural values influence children's views about success and failure?

Asian parents and teachers are more likely than their American counterparts to view effort as key to success. Asian children, in turn, feel a stronger sense of obligation toward parents, internalizing their messages. Asians also attend more to failure than to success because failure indicates where corrective action is needed. Americans, in contrast, focus more on success because it enhances self-esteem.

. Of the estimated _________ of American marriages that end in divorce, ______ involve children

42-45%; half

About _________ cases in the United States were confirmed in the most recently reported year

61,000

In one study, researchers gave children a morally relevant second-order false-belief task:

A child, while helping her teacher clean up, accidentally throws out a bag containing a treasured cupcake belonging to a classmate who is out of the room. School-age chil- dren who reasoned accurately about the helper's belief about the bag's contents (trash) and the cupcake owner's belief about the cupcake's location (in a bag in the classroom) assigned less blame to the helper.

the extent to which children hold racial and ethnic biases varies, depending on the following personal and situational factors:

A fixed view of personality traits, Overly high self-esteem, A social world in which people are sorted into groups

why is academic self-esteem important?

Academic self-esteem predicts how important, useful, and enjoyable children judge school subjects to be, willingness to try hard, achievement, and eventual career choice

how can teachers encourage peers to alter their negative opinions?

Accepted children often selectively recall their negative acts while overlooking their positive ones. Consequently, even in the face of contrary evidence, rejected children's negative reputations tend to persist. Teachers' praise and expressions of liking can modify peer judgments

describe the situation of fathers paying child support.

All U.S. states have procedures for withholding wages from parents who fail to make these payments. Although child support is usually not enough to lift a single-parent family out of poverty, it can ease its burdens substantially. Noncustodial fathers who have generous visitation schedules and who often see their children are more likely to pay child support regularly

what happens when American parents boost their children's self-esteem too much?

American cultural values have increasingly emphasized a focus on the self that may lead parents to indulge children and boost their self-esteem too much. The self-esteem of U.S. youths has risen sharply in recent decades. Research, however, confirms that children do not benefit from compliments ("You're terrific") that have no basis in real accomplishment

why do Japanese and Chinese children score so low in self-esteem?

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. because their cultures value social harmony, Asian children tend to be reserved in positive self-judgments but generous in praise of others.

in what ways does sibling rivalry increase during 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.

how do notions of personal choice enhance children's moral understanding?

As early as age 6, children view freedom of speech and religion as individual rights, even if laws exist that deny those rights. And they regard laws that discriminate against individuals as wrong and worthy of violating. In justifying their responses, children appeal to personal privileges and, by the end of middle childhood, to the importance of individual rights for maintaining a fair society.

how do children adjust to a blended family that is a mother-stepfather relationship?

Boys tend to adjust quickly, welcoming a stepfather who is warm, who refrains from exerting his authority too quickly, and who offers relief from coercive cycles of mother-son interaction. Mothers' friction with sons also declines as a result of greater economic security, another adult to share household tasks, and an end to loneliness. Girls, however, often have difficulty with their custodial mother's remarriage. Stepfathers disrupt the close ties many girls have established with their mothers, and girls often react with sulky, resistant behavior

why is regular contact with both parents important for boys and girls development?

But only about one-third of children experience at least weekly visits. The more paternal contact and the warmer the father-child relationship, the less children react with defiance and aggression. For girls, a good father-child relationship protects against early sexual activity and unhappy romantic involvements. For boys, it seems to affect overall psychological well-being

To study school-age children's self-esteem, researchers ask them to indicate the extent to which statements such as "I'm good at reading" or "I'm usually the one chosen for games" are true of themselves. what are the results?

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.

divorce mediation

a series of meetings between divorcing adults and a trained professional aimed at reducing family conflict, including legal battles over property division and child custody.

recursive

Children must consider simultaneously the viewpoints of two or more people—the person who lies and the recipients of the lie.

how much does the amount of time children spend with their parents decline during middle childhood?

Children's growing independence means that parents must deal with new issues. how many chores to assign, how much allowance to give, whether their friends are good influences, and what to do about problems at school. there's the chal- lenge of keeping track of them when they're out—or even when they're home and I'm not there to see what's going on

why do both Chinese and Canadian schoolchildren consider lying about antisocial acts "very naughty?

Chinese children more often rate lying favorably when the intention is modesty, as when a student who has thoughtfully picked up litter from the playground says, "I didn't do it." Chinese children are more likely to favor lying to support the group at the expense of the individual. In contrast, Canadian children more often favor lying to support the individual at the expense of the group.

What factors account for these revisions in self-concept?

Cognitive development affects the changing structure of the self. School-age children can better coordinate several aspects of a situation in reasoning about their physical world. Similarly, in the social realm, they combine typical experiences and behaviors into stable psychological dispositions, blend positive and negative characteristics, and compare their own characteristics with those of many peers.

how is a child's performance is especially likely to be undermined by adult feedback?

Despite their higher achieve- ment, girls more often than boys attribute poor performance to lack of ability. When girls do not do well, they tend to receive messages from teachers and parents that their ability is at fault, and negative stereotypes (for example, that girls are weak at math) undermine their interest and effort.

what are some of the immediate consequences of divorce?

Family conflict often rises in newly divorced households as parents try to settle disputes over children and possessions. Mother-headed households typically experience a sharp drop in income. They often have to move to lower-cost housing, reducing supportive ties to neighbors and friends. high maternal stress, depression, and anxiety and to a disorganized family life. Declines in well-being are greatest for mothers of young children.

how do children's gender ID and behavior develop?

From third to sixth grade, boys tend to strengthen their iden- tification with "masculine" personality traits, whereas girls' identification with "feminine" traits declines. While still leaning toward the "feminine" side, girls are more androgynous than boys

why is it crucial for fathers willingness to share responsibilities in dual-earner households important?

If he helps little or not at all, the mother carries a double load, at home and at work, leading to fatigue, distress, and little time and energy for children. But their increased participation has resulted in a growing number of fathers who also report role overload. Employed parents need assistance from work settings and communities in their child-rearing roles. Part-time employment, flexible schedules, job sharing, on-site child care, and paid leave when children are ill help parents juggle the demands of work and child rearing. Because these policies enhance financial status and morale, they improve the way mothers feel and behave when they arrive home at the end of the working day.

emotion-centered coping

If problem solving does not work, children engage in this, which is internal, private, and aimed at controlling distress when little can be done about an outcome

what is an encouraging gender-stereotyped beliefs achievement that may be changing?

In several investigations carried out in Canada, France, and the United States, a majority of elementary and secondary students disagreed with the idea that math is a "masculine" subject. The overwhelming majority of these young people, however, continued to view language arts traditionally—as largely "feminine." And they still perceived girls as doing better in language arts than in math.

what are some characteristics of child abusers?

In the vast majority of cases, the abuser is male, often a parent or someone the parent knows well—a father, stepfather, live-in boyfriend, uncle, or older brother. Abusers make the child comply in a variety of distasteful ways, including deception, bribery, verbal intimidation, and physical force. They have great difficulty controlling their impulses and may suffer from psychological disorders, including alcohol and drug abuse. Often they pick out children who are unlikely to defend themselves or to be believed.

how does experiencing mixed emotions help children realize that people's expressions do not always reflect their true feelings?

It also fosters awareness of self-conscious emotions. Furthermore, children of this age can reconcile contradictory facial and situational cues in figuring out another's feelings. 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 lead to a rise in empathy as well.

how do children's attributions affect their goals?

Mastery-oriented children seek information on how best to increase their ability through effort. Hence, their performance improves over time. In contrast, learned-helpless children focus on obtaining positive and avoiding negative evaluations of their fragile sense of ability. Gradually, their ability ceases to predict how well they do. Because learned- helpless children fail to connect effort with success, they do not develop the metacognitive and self-regulatory skills necessary for high achievement

what interventions exist to improve the peer relations and psychological adjustments of rejected children?

Most involve coaching, modeling, and reinforcing positive social skills, such as how to initiate interaction with a peer, cooperate in play, and respond to another child with friendly emotion and approval. Several of these programs have produced lasting gains in social competence and peer acceptance. Combining social-skills training with other treatments increases its effectiveness. Still another approach focuses on training in perspective taking and in solving social problems.

Keeping Our Children Safe

New Zealand is the only country with a national, school-based prevention program targeting sexual abuse. children and adolescents learn that abusers are rarely strangers. Parent involvement ensures that home and school collaborate in teaching children self-protection skills.

how do different aged children adjust to the integration of a mother-stepfather blended family?

Older school-age children and adolescents of both sexes display more irresponsible, acting- out behavior than their peers not in stepfamilies. If parents are warmer and more involved with their biological children than with their stepchildren, older children are more likely to notice and challenge unfair treatment. And adolescents often view the new step- parent as a threat to their freedom, especially if they experienced little parental monitoring in the single-parent family.

what do programs like the 4Rs help reveal about children?

Programs like 4Rs recognize that resilience is not a pre- existing attribute but rather a capacity that develops, enabling children to use internal and external resources to cope with adversity

how does child-rearing become easier for parents who est. 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. And children of parents who engage in joint decision making where possible are more likely to listen to parents' perspectives in situations where compliance is vital

learned-helpless approach

Rejected-withdrawn children, in contrast, are likely to develop this to peer difficulties—concluding, after repeated rebuffs, that they will never be liked

what are some characteristics of those children who are victims of child abuse?

Reported cases of child sexual abuse are linked to poverty, marital instability, and resulting weakening of family ties. Children who live in homes with a constantly changing cast of characters—repeated marriages, separations, and new partners—are especially vulnerable.

according to research, what is an effective way to reduce prejudice through intergroup contact?

Research confirms that an effective way to reduce prejudice is through intergroup contact, in which racially and ethnically different children have equal status, work toward common goals, and become personally acquainted, and in which parents and teachers expect them to engage in such interaction. Children assigned to cooperative learning groups with peers of diverse backgrounds show low levels of prejudice in their expressions of likability and in their behavior. Long-term contact and collaboration among neighborhood, school, and community groups may be the best way to reduce prejudice. inducing children to view others' traits as changeable, by discussing with them the many possible influences on those traits, is helpful.

why is parental support for self-development continues to be vitally important?

School-age children with a history of elaborative parent-child conversations about past experiences construct rich, positive narratives about the self and therefore have more complex, favorable, and coherent self-concepts. Children also look to more people beyond the family for information about themselves as they enter a wider range of settings in school and community. As chil- dren move into adolescence, although parents and other adults remain influential, self-concept is increasingly vested in feedback from close friends

explain the link between peer acceptance and adjustment in children's characteristics combined with parenting.

School-age children with peer-relationship problems are more likely to have weak emotional self-regulation skills and to have experienced family stress due to low income and insensitive parenting, including coercive discipline.

Reading, Writing, Respect, and Resolution Program (4Rs Program)

Several highly effective school-based social and emotional learning programs promote children's resilience by increasing academic motivation, social competence, and supportive relationships. which provides ele- mentary school students with weekly lessons in emotional and social understanding and skills. Topics include managing anger, responding with empathy, being assertive, resolving social conflicts, and standing up against prejudice and bullying. High-quality children's literature, selected for relevance to program themes, complements each lesson. Discussion, writing, and role-playing of the stories deepen students' understanding.

how have divorce rates in the US proceeded within the past twenty years?

The United States has experienced a decline in divorce over the past twenty years, largely due to a rise in age at first marriage and a drop in marriage rates. However, this decrease largely applies to well-educated, financially secure families. Because educational and economic disadvantage increases family fragility, divorce rates are higher among African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans than among European Americans

what are some consequences from child abuse for the children?

The adjustment problems of child sexual abuse victims—including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, mistrust of adults, and anger and hostility—are often severe and can persist for years after the abusive episodes. Younger children frequently react with sleep difficulties, loss of appetite, and generalized fearfulness. Adolescents may run away and show suicidal reactions, eating disorders (including weight gain and obesity), substance abuse, and delinquency. persistent abuse accompanied by force, violence, and a close relationship to the perpetrator (incest) has a more severe impact. And sexual abuse, like physical abuse, is associated with CNS damage

what are different ways to prevent child abuse from happening?

The best way to reduce the suffering of victims is to prevent sexual abuse from continuing. Educational programs that teach children to recognize inappropriate sexual advances and identify sources of help reduce the risk of abuse.

what ends up happening with a more positive sibling relationship?

The more positive their relationship, the more siblings resolve disagreements constructively, provide help with family, academic, and peer challenges, and contribute to resilience in the face of major stressors, such as parental divorce

peer culture

The practices of these informal groups lead to this that typically involves a specialized vocabulary, dress code, and place to "hang out." As children develop these exclusive associations, the codes of dress and behavior that grow out of them become more broadly influential.

why are school-age children's friendships more selective?

Whereas preschoolers say they have lots of friends, by age 8 or 9, children name only a handful of good friends. Girls, who demand greater closeness than boys, are more exclusive in their friendships. In addition, children tend to select friends similar to themselves in age, sex, race, ethnicity, and SES.

emotional self-efficacy

a feel- ing of being in control of their emotional experience. This fosters a favorable self-image and an optimistic outlook, which further help children face emotional challenges.

coregulation

a form of supervision in which they exercise general oversight while letting children take charge of moment-by-moment decision making. grows out of a warm, cooperative relationship between parent and child based on give-and-take. supports and protects children while preparing them for adolescence, when they will make many important decisions themselves.

Erikson's sense of industry combines several developments of middle childhood:

a positive but realistic self-concept, pride in accomplishment, moral responsibility, and cooperative participation with agemates.

what happens when prejudice operates unintentionally and without awareness?

a study in which U.S. children and adults were shown pictures of computer-generated racially ambiguous faces displaying happy and angry expressions and asked to classify them by race. White participants more often categorized happy faces as white and angry faces as African American or Asian. These implicit biases were evident across all ages tested—as early as 3 or 4. In contrast, African-American participants did not show any racial biases in their responses.

phobia

about 5% of school-age children develop an intense, unmanageable fear. Children with inhibited temperaments are at high risk, displaying this five to six times as often as other children

what problems does divorce cause with adolescents?

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 show other lasting difficulties— reduced educational attainment, troubled romantic relationships and marriages, divorce in adulthood, and unsatisfying parent- child relationships

perspective-taking skills

an improved ability to infer what other people are thinking and to distinguish those viewpoints from one's own—are crucial for developing a self-concept based on personality traits.

A profile of low self-esteem in all areas is linked to:

anxiety, depression, and increasing antisocial behavior

School-age children with a strong sense of attachment security and whose parents use an ______________ feel especially good about themselves

authoritative child-rearing style

popular-prosocial children

both well-liked (socially preferred) and admired (high in perceived popularity). They combine academic and social competence, performing well in school and communicating with peers in friendly and cooperative ways.

what kind of parenting education and counseling is offered?

can help parents and children adapt to the complexities of blended families. Effective approaches encourage stepparents to move into their new roles gradually by first building a warm relationship with the child, which makes more active parenting possible. Counselors can offer couples guidance in effective coparenting to limit loyalty conflicts and provide consistency in child rearing. And tempering parents' unrealistic expectations for children's rapid adjustment. makes it easier for families to endure the transition and succeed.

learned helplessness

children who develop this attribute their failures, not their successes, to ability. When they succeed, they conclude that external factors, such as luck, are responsible. Unlike their mastery-oriented counterparts, they believe that ability is fixed and cannot be improved by trying hard

perceived popularity

children's judgments of whom most of their classmates admire. those classified as popular based on peer preferences (receive many "like most" ratings)

what do 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 difficulties.

peer groups

collectives that generate unique values and standards for behavior and a social structure of leaders and followers.

friendships

contribute to the development of trust and sensitivity. During the school years, friendship becomes more complex and psychologically based. 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.

mastery-oriented attributions

crediting their successes to ability—a characteristic they can improve through trying hard and can count on when faced with new challenges. And they attribute failure to factors. that can be changed or controlled, such as insufficient effort or a difficult task.

What social influences might lead self-esteem to be high for some children and low for others?

culture, gender, ethnicity, child-rearing practices

what happens with destructive sibling conflict?

destructive sibling conflict in middle childhood is associated with negative outcomes, including conflict-ridden peer relationships, anxiety, depressed mood, and later substance use and delinquency, even after other family relationship factors are controlled.

what are the older children's anxiety's directed toward?

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, physical injuries, separation from parents, parents' health, the possibility of dying, and peer rejection. As long as fears are not too intense, most children handle them constructively, using the more sophisticated emotional self- regulation strategies that develop in middle childhood.

consistent with the mixed peer opinion what do controversial children cause?

display a blend of positive and negative social behaviors. They are hostile and disruptive, but they also engage in positive, prosocial acts. Even though some peers dislike them, they have qualities that pro- tect them from social exclusion. They have many friends and are happy with their peer relationships. But like their popular-antisocial and rejected-aggressive counterparts, they often bully others and engage in calculated relational aggression to sustain their dominance

how do teachers stereotype different gender behaviors?

elementary school teachers tend to stereotype girls who display "feminine" behavior as diligent and compliant and boys who display "masculine" behavior as lazy and troublesome. These perceptions may contribute to boys' reduced academic engagement and lower school grades relative to girls'. At the same time, when teachers are presented with a boy and a girl who are equally successful at math, they tend to see the girl as having to work harder.

in-group favoritism

emerges first; children simply prefer their own group, generalizing from self to similar others

process praise

emphasizes behavior and effort ("You figured it out!").

attribution retraining

encourages learned-helpless children to believe that they can overcome failure by exerting more effort and using more effective strategies. Children are given tasks difficult enough that they will experience some failure, followed by repeated feedback that helps them revise their attributions

gender atypical children

especially those who report intense pressure to conform to gender roles, experience serious adjustment difficulties—withdrawal, sadness, disappointment, and anxiety

where do children seem to pick up mainstream beliefs?

from implicit messages in the media and elsewhere in their environments. Powerful sources include social contexts that present a world sorted into groups, such as racial and ethnic segregation in schools and communities.

As school-age children make social comparisons and characterize themselves in terms of stable dispositions, their gender identity expands to include the following self-evaluations, which greatly affect their adjustment:

gender typicality, gender contentedness, Felt pressure to conform to gender roles

rejected children

get many negative votes (are disliked). especially, are anxious, unhappy, disruptive, and low in self-esteem. excluded by peers as early as kinder- garten. Soon their classroom participation declines, their feelings of loneliness rise, their academic achievement falters, and they want to avoid school. display a wide range of negative social behaviors. Most have few friends, and some have none—a circumstance that predicts severe adjustment difficulties

popular children

get many positive votes (are well-liked)

stable maternal employment begun in early childhood is linked to....

higher achievement and fewer behavior problems in elementary school, especially for children of low-income mothers

Paternal involvement is associated in childhood and adolescence with:

higher achievement, more mature social behavior, and a flexible view of gender roles; and in adulthood with generally better mental health

A positive parent-child relationship is linked to...

improved emotional self-regulation in children, reducing the negative impact of stressful events.

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

peer victimization

in which certain children become targets of verbal and physical attacks or other forms of abuse.

out-group favoritism

in which they assign positive characteristics to the privi- leged white majority and negative characteristics to their own group.

popular anti-social children

include "tough" boys—athletically skilled but poor students who cause trouble and defy adult authority—and relationally aggressive boys and girls who enhance their own status by ignoring, excluding, and spreading rumors about other children. peers often view these youths as "cool," perhaps because of their athletic abilities and sophisticated but devious social skills.

gains in friendship support contribute to stability:

including compromise, sharing of thoughts and feelings, and prosocial behavior

mediation

increases out-of-court settlements, cooperation and involvement of both parents in child rearing, and parents' and children's feelings of well-being

social comparison

judgments of their appearance, abilities, and behavior in relation to those of others.

Children and adolescents in diverse cultures use similar criteria to reason about...

moral, social-conventional, and personal concerns

androgynous

more likely to describe themselves as having some "other gender" characteristics

how do children adjust to the remarriage of noncustodial fathers?

often leads to reduced contact with their biological children, especially when fathers remarry quickly, before they have established post divorce parent-child routines. When fathers have custody, children typically react negatively to remarriage. One reason is that children living with fathers often start out with more problems. In other instances, the father has custody because of a very close relationship with the child, and his remarriage disrupts this bond. Girls, especially, have a hard time getting along with their stepmothers, either because the remarriage threatens the girl's bond with her father or because she becomes entangled in loyalty conflicts between the two mother figures.

how do only children develop in comparison children with siblings?

only children are not spoiled, and in some respects, they are advantaged. U.S. children growing up in one-child and multi-child families do not differ in self-rated personality traits. only children are higher in self-esteem and achievement motivation, do better in school, and attain higher levels of education. only children tend to be less well-accepted in the peer group, perhaps because they have not had opportunities to learn effective conflict- resolution strategies through sibling interaction

attributions

our common, everyday explanations for the causes of behavior.

Unfortunately, many minority children show a reverse pattern:

out-group favoritism

out-group prejudice

requires a more challenging social comparison between in-group and out-group. But it does not take long for white children to acquire negative attitudes toward ethnic minority out-groups when such attitudes are encouraged by circumstances in their environments.

how do younger children react when their parents get divorced?

parents may abandon them. And although older children have the cognitive maturity to understand that they are not responsible for their parents' divorce, many react strongly, declining in school performance, becoming unruly, and escaping into undesirable peer activities, especially when family conflict is high and paren- tal supervision is low

These self-reports yield five general categories of peer acceptance:

popular children, rejected children, controversial children, neglected children, average children

George Herbert Mead

proposed that a well-organized psychological self emerges when children adopt a view of the self that resembles others' attitudes toward the child. ideas indicate that perspective-taking skills

average children

receive average numbers of positive and negative votes and account for about one-third of children in a typical elementary school classroom

controversial children

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

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. is a powerful predictor of psychological adjustment.

inferiority

reflected in the pessimism of children who lack confidence in their ability to do things well. This sense of inadequacy can develop when family life has not prepared children for school life or when teachers and peers destroy children's self-confidence with negative responses.

self-care children

regularly look after themselves for some period of time after school. increases with age and also with SES, perhaps because of the greater safety of higher-income neighborhoods.

As school-age children integrate social expectations into their self-concepts, what emotions come up?

self-conscious emotions of pride and guilt become clearly governed by personal responsibility. Children experience pride in a new accomplishment and guilt over a transgression, even when no adult is present. Also, children no longer report guilt for any mishap, as they did earlier, but only for intentional wrongdoing, such as ignoring responsibilities, cheating, or lying

gains in emotional development take place in experience of:

self-conscious emotions, emotional understanding, and emotional self-regulation.

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.

school refusal

severe apprehension about attending school, often accompanied by physical complaints such as dizziness, nausea, stomachaches, and vomiting. About one-third of children with do this are 5- to 7-year-olds for whom the real fear is maternal separation

rejected-aggressive children

show high rates of conflict, physical and relational aggression, and hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive behavior. They are usually deficient in perspective taking, misinterpreting the innocent behaviors of peers as hostile and blaming others for their social difficulties.

how do siblings reduce sibling rivalry?

siblings often strive to be different from one another. Parents can limit these effects by making an effort not to com- pare children, but some feedback about their competencies is inevitable. As siblings strive to win recognition for their own uniqueness, they shape important aspects of each other's development.

Because sexual abuse typically appears in the midst of other serious family problems,....

specialized trauma-focused therapy with both children and parents is usually needed

effective coparenting

sup- porting each other in their child-rearing roles, greatly improve their children's chances of growing up competent, stable, and happy. Caring extended-family members, teachers, siblings, and friends also reduce the likelihood that divorce will result in long-term difficulties

what does the evaluation of the 4Rs program in New York City reveal?

teachers implementing the intervention used more supportive instructional techniques, including making concepts relevant to students' everyday lives and providing feedback that acknowledges effort. And relative to controls, children who participated in 4Rs became less depressed, less aggressive, more attentive, and more socially competent. In unsafe neighborhoods, 4Rs transforms schools into places of safety and mutual respect, where learning can occur.

How well children fare depends on many factors:

the custodial parent's psychological health and financial resources, the child's characteristics, and social supports within the family and surrounding community.

gender contentedness

the degree to which the child feels comfortable with his or her gender assignment, which also promotes happiness.

children feeling pressure to conform to gender roles

the degree to which the child feels parents and peers disapprove of his or her gender-related traits. Because such pressure reduces the likelihood that children will explore options related to their interests and talents, children who feel strong gender-typed pressure are often distressed.

gender typicality

the degree to which the child feels similar to others of the same gender. Although children need not be highly gender-typed to view themselves as gender-typical, their psychological well-being depends, to some de

industry vs. inferiority

the psychological conflict of middle childhood which is resolved positively when children develop a sense of competence at useful skills and tasks

problem centered coping

they appraise the situation as changeable, identify the difficulty, and decide what to do about it.

controlling parents

those who too often help or make decisions for their child, often because their own sense of self-worth hinges on their child's performance—communicate a sense of inadequacy to children. Children subjected to such parenting need constant reassurance, and many rely heavily on peers to affirm their self-worth

how do children exclude their peers?

using relationally aggressive tactics, frequently oust no longer "respected" children

person praise

which emphasizes the child's traits ("You're so smart!")

joint custody

which grants parents equal say in important decisions about the child's upbringing, is becoming increasingly common. report little conflict—fortunately so, since the success of the arrangement depends on effective coparenting