John W. Santrock

1. Children 11 Socioemotional Development in Early Childhood John W. Santrock

2. Socioemotional Development in Early Childhood • What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? • What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? • How Are Peer Relations, Play, and Television Involved in Young Children’s Development?

3. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? The Self • Initiative versus guilt • Third of Erikson’s eight stages • Initiative: enthusiasm for new activities; governed by conscience • Guilt: results when children’s efforts result in failure or criticism

4. Self-Understanding • Child’s representation of self; substance and content of child’s self-conceptions • Self-recognition begins about 18 months • Young children view self in physical terms • Active dimension is central part of the self

5. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Emotional Development • Self-conscious (evaluative) emotions • First appear at about 2½ years • Pride: successful outcome results in joy • Shame: individual interpretation of own failure results in attack on entire self • Guilt: results from judging efforts as failure • Heavily influenced by parents’ responses

6. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Young Children’s Understanding of Emotions • Ages 4 to 5: children show increased ability to reflect on emotions • Self-regulation of emotions continues • Parents have important role in helping • Emotional-coaching: nurtures, uses praise • Emotional-dismissal: ignores, denies

7. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Emotions and Peer Relations • Emotions have major role • Moody, negative children experience greater peer rejection • Emotionally positive children are popular • Children controlling emotional responses are more likely to show social competence

8. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Moral Development • Refers to rules and regulations about what people should do in interactions with other people • Piaget extensively researched children; two distinct stages of how children think about morality

9. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development

10. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Imminent Justice • Belief that if rule is broken, punishment will meted out immediately/automatically • Characteristic of heteronomous morality • Autonomous morality: realize punishment is not inevitable • Piaget: sophisticated thinking increases through give-and-take peer relations

11. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Moral Behavior • Behavioral view • reinforcement, punishment, and imitation • Social cognitive view • influenced by situation, self-control development • Psychoanalytic view • superego, identity with same-sex parent’s values • Empathy and positive feelings

12. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Gender • Social and psychological dimension of being female or male • Gender role: set of expectations of how females or males should think, act, or feel • Gender typing: process for acquiring thoughts, feelings, and behaviors considered appropriate for one’s gender in their culture

13. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Biological Influences on Gender • 46 chromosomes; 23rd pair • Sex hormones • Estrogens: influence female physical sex characteristics, help regulate menstrual cycle • Androgens: promote growth of male genitals and secondary characteristics; most important is testosterone

14. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Gender Problems • Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH): affects females, dislike typical-girl roles • Androgen-insensitive male: male with feminine body • Pelvic field defect: born with no penis • Genital loss and sex assignment

15. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? The Evolutionary Psychology View • Differing reproductive roles led to different evolutionary pressures • Males: multiple sexual partners for more offspring; dispositions for competition, violence, and risk-taking • Females: devote efforts to parenting and choose long-term mate who can provide

16. Social Influences • Social role theory • Gender differences caused by contrasting social roles of women and men • Less power, status, and pay for women • Women show more cooperation

17. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Social Influences • Psychoanalytic theory of gender • Preschool child sexually attracted to opposite-sex parent • At age 5 to 6, anxious feelings cause identification with same-sex parent • Unconsciously adopts same-sex parent’s characteristics

18. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Social Influences • Social cognitive theory of gender • Gender develops through observation and imitation, use of rewards and punishments • Parental preferences for firstborn male • Parental influences and behaviors

19. Social Influences • Gender and peer influences • Gender plays important role • Gender composition of groups: prefer same-sex groups by age 3, preference increases through age 12 • Group size: boys prefer organized group games, associate in larger groups

20. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Social Influences • Interaction in same-sex groups • Boys in groups engage in rough-and-tumble play, competition • Girls engage in collaborative discourse • More time in same-sex groups linked to more gender-stereotyped behavior

21. Same-Sex Mixed-Group 75 50 Percent of social playtime 25 4.5 years old 6.5 years old Developmental Changes in Percentage of Time Spent in Same-Sex and Mixed-Group Settings Fig. 11.4

22. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? School and Teacher Influences on Gender • Concerns of classroom gender biases • Girls • More compliant • Easily identify with and model teachers (majority are female)

23. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? School and Teacher Influences on Gender • Concerns of classroom gender biases • Boys: • Academic problems tend to be ignored • More learning problems • Receive more criticism • More likely stereotyped as having behavior problem

24. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? School and Media Influences on Gender • Portrayals of men and women on TV • Females less competent • Most prime time characters are male • Traditional roles reinforced • 1980s–1990s: increased network sensitivity • Media print: • Most advertising reflects traditional roles

25. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Cognitive Influences on Gender • Cognitive Developmental Theory • Gender-typed behavior occurs aftergender constancy is developed • Children prefer activities, objects, and attitudes consistent with this label

26. What Characterizes Young Children’s Socioemotional Development? Cognitive Influences on Gender • Gender Schema Theory • Children gradually develop schemas of what is gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate in their culture • Gender schema: organizes world in terms of female and male

27. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Parenting • Socialization influenced by • Parenting styles • Sibling relationships • Context of family structure

28. Classification of Parenting Styles Classification of Parenting Styles Accepting, responsive Rejecting, unresponsive Demanding, controlling Undemanding, uncontrolling

29. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Parenting Styles and Ethnicity • Asian American families • Training yields positive outcomes • Latino childrearing • Encourage development of family and self- identity; requires respect and obedience • African American families • Use of nonabusive physical punishment

30. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Punishment and Discipline • Corporal (physical) punishment • Spanking linked to antisocial behaviors • Strong emotional support of parents reduces link • Associated with immediate compliance or aggression and lower levels of morality • Reasons to avoid physical punishment use

31. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Child Abuse • Punishment sometimes leads to abuse • Types of child maltreatment • Physical • Child neglect • Sexual: fondling, penetration, exploitation • Emotional: psychological, verbal/mental

32. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? The Context of Abuse • Many factors cause child maltreatment; culture, family, and development • Regular diet of violence on television • Parents lacking sufficient resources or help • Context of family interactions • Parental history and beliefs

33. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Warning Signs of Abuse • Questionable pattern of injuries • Age-inappropriate sexual knowledge • Poor hygiene, food hoarding, stealing • Behavioral extremes

34. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Developmental Consequences of Abuse • Poor emotion regulation • Attachment and peer relation problems • School difficulties • Psychological problems • Anxiety, personality disorder, depression, suicide attempts, conduct disorder • Later risk of violence, substance abuse

35. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Coparenting • Lack of parental cooperation and warmth • Undermining, disconnection of one parent • Places children at risk for problems • Parental cooperation and warmth • Linked to prosocial behaviors in children and competence in peer relations

36. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Good Parenting • U.S. society: attitudes of parenting can be quick with little or no inconvenience • Nurture assumption: heredity and time with peers more important than time with parents • Good parenting takes time, no quick-fix

37. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Sibling Relationships and Birth Order • Sibling relationships • Can be both pleasant and aggressive • Siblings treat children different than parents • Extensive conflict linked to poor outcomes • Birth order affects sibling relationships

38. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Birth Order

39. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Working Parents • Many researchers find no detrimental effects of maternal employment • Greater risk of problems if: • Work stress spills into home • Mother works in child’s first year

40. 30 25 20 Percent of families with children under 18 15 10 5 0 USA Sweden Canada Germany UK Australia France Japan What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Single-Parent Families in Different Countries

41. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Divorced Families • More likely to show poorer adjustment • Multiple divorce poses greater risks • Socially mature, responsible children show fewer behavioral problems • Less-competent children have lower self-esteem, more behavior problems

42. 30 20 Percent of children showing serious emotional problems 10 0 Intact, never divorced Divorced Type of family Divorce and Children’s Emotional Problems 25% of children from divorced families show serious emotional problems compared to only 10% of children from intact, never divorced families Fig. 11.9

43. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Other Divorce Issues • Should parents stay or go? • Family processes matter in divorce • Factors affecting child’s adjustments • Personality and temperament • Gender and maturity • Custody and relocation • Socioeconomic status

44. What Roles Do Families Play in Young Children’s Development? Variations in Families • Cross-Cultural • Warm, controlling style most common • Ethnicity • Linked to family size, structure, education, income, composition, extended networks • Socioeconomic Status • Linked to parenting styles, approaches to education

45. How Are Peer Relations, Play, and Television Involved in Young Children’s Development? Peer Relations • Peers: • individuals near same age or maturity level • Help children learn reciprocity, fairness, justice • Negative influences possible

46. How Are Peer Relations, Play, and Television Involved in Young Children’s Development? Functions of Play • Play: pleasurable activity engaged in for its own sake • Functions • Health, tension release, master conflicts • Affiliation with peers • Cognitive development and exploration • Therapists and play therapy

47. How Are Peer Relations, Play, and Television Involved in Young Children’s Development? Parten’s Categories of Play Unoccupied Child not engaging in play as commonly understood; might stand in one spot Solitary Child plays alone, independently of others Onlooker Child watches other children play Parallel Child plays separately from others, but in manner that mimics their play Associative Play that involves social interaction with little or no organization Cooperative Play that involves social interaction in group with sense of organized activity

48. How Are Peer Relations, Play, and Television Involved in Young Children’s Development? Types of Play Sensorimotor Infants derive pleasure from exercising their sensorimotor schemes Practice Repetition of behavior when new skills are being learned Pretense/Symbolic Occurs when child transforms physical environment into symbol Social Involves social interactions with peers Games Activities engaged in for pleasure; include rules

49. How Are Peer Relations, Play, and Television Involved in Young Children’s Development? Television, Prosocial Behavior, and Aggression • Aggression • Prosocial behavior • Cognitive development • Achievement

50. 2.9 2.8 2.82 2.7 2.6 2.5 2.53 Mean high school overall GPA 2.48 2.4 2.37 2.3 2.2 2.1 2.0 Quartiles of child informative viewing at age 5 Educational TV Viewing and Boys’ GPA Amount and patterns of preschool TV viewing have a later impact on boys’ high school GPA Fig. 11.11