Premium Essay

Middle Childhood and Adolescence

In:

Submitted By Stella45
Words 1432
Pages 6
Middle Childhood and Adolescence Paper
PSY/280
April 17, 2013
Rosita Rodriguez

Middle Childhood and Adolescence Paper
Childhood years can be one of the most wonderful times in life. These years can be full of fun. At this age of innocence a child is most impressionable by learning from their surrounding environment. The beginning of a child’s life can be broken down into different stages leading into an adult. In this paper the focus will be on the middle childhood and adolescence. The research will focus on evaluating the effect of functional and dysfunctional family dynamics on development such as family structure, function, and shared and non-shared environments. Examination of additional pressures that are faced in adolescence versus middle childhood, also the research will help to determine the positive and negative impact of peers and changes in peer relations from middle childhood to adolescence. The research will then discuss the development of moral values from middle childhood and adolescence.
“It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood. Long childhood makes a technical and mental virtuoso out of man, but it also leaves a life-long residue of emotional immaturity in him.”
— Erik Homburger Erikson (1902-1994)

Erik Erikson a theorist believes that our temperament traits are inborn. Other characteristics such as competency or inferiority can be learned according to the challenges or support an individual receives growing up. Erikson developed eight stages of life based upon the philosophy that the world gets bigger as we go along, and that failure is cumulative (Harder, 2012). The stages consist of infancy (birth-18 months), early childhood (18 months-3 years), play age (3 years-5 years), school age (6-12 years), adolescence (12-18 years), young adulthood (18-35 years), middle adulthood (35- 65 years),

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Middle Childhood and Adolescence

...Middle Childhood and Adolescence Louis Gibbs PSY/280 05/18/2012 Michael Johnson The introduction of middle childhood and adolescence, a crucial period of development, for the child and parent can become a time of uncertainty. The parenting styles of the parent makes a difference in the out-come of the child. All children need parents that care about them. The different parenting styles include; authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. In the best interest of the child’s development, parents have to make an evaluation of the parenting methods that work well with the personality of the child. During these years the child’s temperament also begins to have an effect in their lives. “A child’s temperament matters (Kagan & Fox, 2006). If they do not consider the personality of the child, authoritarian parents might terrorize children who are innately fearful or anxious, or permissive parents might watch their impulsive children flail out of control.”(Berger, 2010). Environmental circumstances also have a role in children’s development for example: a parent gaining or loosing employment. There will be many changes that take place for middle childhood and adolescent children. Middle Childhood For many people puberty is a time in their life that will not be forgotten. The ages from 7 to 11 are sometimes called the school years. “The...

Words: 1071 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Middle Childhood and Adolescence

...Middle Childhood and Adolescence Kierra Williams PSY/280 October 30, 2012 Mara Husband Middle Childhood and Adolescence Middle childhood is the period of life that occurs between the ages 7 and 11. During these times of children lives they are in school and are making many different friends, and their cognitive and physical skills are enhancing. On the other hand, middle childhood period normally introduce individuals into new sets of challenges; not only for the child but for the parents as well. After middle childhood comes the adolescence stage, this period of life children face drastic changes. This stage can range from as early as 8 years old to 18. This essay will describe changes that occur during middle childhood and adolescence concerning family and peer relationships, and how they might influence future development. Established and caring families are central components throughout middle childhood and adolescence developmental stage. The way a family works and cares for its member is called family function. The most vital family function is to provide a place of protection for each family member. Individuals of different age ranges have particular needs from their relatives. Berger’s (2010) study found the following: Children thrive if families function for them in five ways: 1. Provide basic necessities. Children aged 6 to 11 can eat, dress, wash, and sleep without help, but someone must provide food, clothing, and shelter. 2. Encourage learning. School-age...

Words: 1042 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Middle Childhood

...Middle Childhood and Adolescence Development Group Paper - Middle Childhood and Adolescence Development Social and moral growth fosters peer interaction in a positive climate. A child’s interaction and acceptance with peers rises during middle childhood. During middle age friendship is an important development. Friendship also fulfills needs of middle childhood such as communal, intimacy, companionship, and acceptance. Adolescent egocentrism is an adolescent thinking intensely about him or herself while wondering what others think about them (Berger, 2008). An adolescent will practice new thinking skills on his or herself, which helps with detachment. The adolescent child worries about how other’s perceive them, and thinks about their conflicting interests in school, close friends, family, and about their own future. All of this thinking of self, refection of experiences, and self-awareness is a distinct to adolescence and egocentrism. These changes for the young adolescent often bring rebellion, low motivation, drugs, alcohol, pregnancies, rocky emotions, and peer pressure. Life for the adolescent can be a conflicting demand of tug of war, filling the adolescent life with demands, mixed messages, and forcing a path of reliance on others and independence while creating stress and depression for the inexperienced adolescent to handle. Relationships in middle childhood and adolescence Peer relations are important aspect of human development. During middle childhood, children...

Words: 1584 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Developmental Stages

...During the physical developmental stages there are significant milestones that these school age children experience. By the beginning of middle childhood, children typically have acquired a leaner, more athletic appearance ("Cliff Notes", 2000-2012). All through the middle childhood weight gain and height is at a steady increase. During this developmental stage an individual will lose his or her baby teeth and their permanent teeth will come through. Depending on the individual a child can begin the early stages of puberty during this time. Physical development (early adolescence) The physical development of a child in the early adolescence stages can be a drastic change for an individual. The hormones of the early adolescence are at a rapid growth and are better developed throughout the years. As the level of hormones increase this causes acne to form as well as his or her height and weight will increase. Emotional Development (middle childhood) As children develop in age each individual child will react to various situations differently. During the middle childhood stage an individual’s emotional development goes through some drastic changes. To give an example of the transitions that he or she will face is the start of school that will allow them to come into contact with new teachers and also the opportunity to build friendships with other children. During this stage a child will gain a sense of responsibility as well as the feeling of being more independent...

Words: 969 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Middle Childhood

...Middle Childhood and Adolescence University of Phoenix Human Growth and Development Jeanette Merchant August 17, 2010 Middle Childhood and Adolescence Stable and supportive families are crucial during middle childhood and adolescence development stage. Supportive family members and friends improve social development. The major change that occurs from middle childhood to adolescence is emotional maturation. During middle childhood stage, children develop more independence from parents and family. They understand more and can differentiate between right and wrong. Children at this age give more attention to friendship and teamwork, but continue to be strongly influence by their parents’ judgment. Their also yearn for love and acceptation from family and friends. They have ability to experience and describe feelings and thoughts with parents and friends. Middle childhood is a time when children develop social relationships. The social skills learned through family and peers give them ability to participate in meaningful communication that later provide foundation for challenges as adolescence. This improves their relationship and encourages them to be successful in future. As children enter adolescence stage, they begin to spend more unsupervised time with friends and other peers than they had before. They spend less time with their parents and family members. Their distance themselves emotionally from parents. Adolescents are exploring different ideas...

Words: 722 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Psychology

...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Childhood to Adolescence Development ------------------------------------------------- Monica Rodriguez-Sosa ------------------------------------------------- University of Houston – Downtown Introduction As we age and grow in life, we constantly change in many different aspects. It is natural for humans to develop new ways of thinking, being, and feeling. At childhood, we might have show certain behaviors that we do not show in adolescence. Not only does our behavior change, but our physical appearance does too, along with our emotions. This paper will detail three changes that take place in each of the realms of cognitive, physical, and emotional growth from childhood to adolescence.   Early Childhood First, physical development of a child occurs at a slower rate than infancy. Boyd and Bee (2009) write that every year a child ages, they grow about two to three in height and about six pounds in weight (p. 177). Both authors also define the motor skills that children gain during childhood. For example, a child at age two can climb on furniture whereas a 6 year-old can walk on a line. As children age, they gain more muscle, giving them the ability to move around easier. Another example is brain growth. This kind of development can...

Words: 1407 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Childhood

...Childhood and Adolescence Paper Christina Williams PSY/280 July 13, 2015 R. Adinah Johnson Childhood and Adolescence Paper “Child development does not mean developing your child into the person you think they should be, but helping them develop into the best person they are meant to be” (Sorenson, 2005). Statistics say that in the stages in middle adolescence 30% of the child’s social life and interactions there are a great stage of peer pressure. These results were compared to the 10% that is experienced during the early childhood. They show that they are competent by demonstrating their behaviors in these peer groups. During the elementary years in school, children have to prove to others that they understand and that they are capable of handling the different situations they find themselves in. They must keep a certain criteria in order to have friends. The main concern during these peer groups is to be accepted and most of these concerns are experienced during middle childhood. Researchers have been focusing in the friendship among the children.  Friendship is one of the most important parts of the social group between early stages of childhood. Friends fill that special need we have inside and for a child’s development that is one of the most important parts. They fulfill the special needs and they help with communication, interaction, acceptance, companionship and social skills. Peer is more related to the social and popularity status and its acceptance...

Words: 1046 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Dasdasdasd

...HOLY CHILD JESUS COLEGE GUMACA,QUEZON Financial Status: Cause and Effect to the educational growth and development of children at Brgy. Tabing Dagat Gumaca,Quezon By; Ma. Angela C. Pelaez Reseach Paper in English IV Presented to: Mrs. Beatriz A. Apoli March 2015 Introduction: Financial matters are related to all aspects of personal and family life. Financial concerns and family relationships financial problem and substance abuse psychological aspects of financial hardship, in financial problems stress are just a few examples of research topics in personal finance. Research has shown the relationship between workplace productivity and poor financial behavior employers financial problems are one of the four problems in the workplace. Many of the children from now on are not attending our classes in school, because many of them are not supported of their parents. The others are not having enough money to pay the school contribution. Some children are not interested on going to school because they want to work every day forgetting that school is also important. The problems of student is being a working students. They not have enough time to rest and to study well because they are so very busy on their role. So the student who not attending our school is have not a quality knowledge. Significance of the Study: The Researcher has investigated financial matters and their impacts on personal and family life for years. Importance areas...

Words: 4424 - Pages: 18

Premium Essay

Adolescent Stages of Development

...Adolescent Stages of Development Adolescence is probably the most difficult period in life of every individual since it is a transitional stage between childhood and adulthood. In this period adolescents undergo significant changes in physiological, psychological and social aspects. Naturally, these changes produce a significant impact on their lifestyle, behaviour, psychology, etc. Traditionally, adolescence is considered to start at preteens, mostly from around 9-10 years of age till 19-20 years of age. Basically, adolescence may be divided into three main stages middle childhood (8-11), early adolescence (11-14), and middle adolescence (15-18) while the last years of adolescence may be characterised as the last years when individuals completely grew into adults. Adolescence is a time of great change for a child. It is a time where they begin to explore who they are as individuals and develop their own identities as they get closer into adulthood. Erik Erikson theorized that in adolescence “the main task is developing an identity” and that a healthy identity is developed when they try on alternate identities and reflect on these experiences (Pressley &ump; McCormick, 2007, p.147). Michael Nakkula says “identity is not the culmination of a key event or series of events, although key events can play an important role in the larger process. It is rather, the lived experience of an ongoing process-the process of integrating successes, failures, routines, habits, rituals,...

Words: 1510 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Adolescent Stages of Development

...Adolescent Stages of Development Adolescence is probably the most difficult period in life of every individual since it is a transitional stage between childhood and adulthood. In this period adolescents undergo significant changes in physiological, psychological and social aspects. Naturally, these changes produce a significant impact on their lifestyle, behaviour, psychology, etc. Traditionally, adolescence is considered to start at preteens, mostly from around 9-10 years of age till 19-20 years of age. Basically, adolescence may be divided into three main stages middle childhood (8-11), early adolescence (11-14), and middle adolescence (15-18) while the last years of adolescence may be characterised as the last years when individuals completely grew into adults. Adolescence is a time of great change for a child. It is a time where they begin to explore who they are as individuals and develop their own identities as they get closer into adulthood. Erik Erikson theorized that in adolescence “the main task is developing an identity” and that a healthy identity is developed when they try on alternate identities and reflect on these experiences (Pressley &ump; McCormick, 2007, p.147). Michael Nakkula says “identity is not the culmination of a key event or series of events, although key events can play an important role in the larger process. It is rather, the lived experience of an ongoing process-the process of integrating successes, failures, routines, habits, rituals,...

Words: 1510 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Childhood

...Infancy and Early Childhood Development Developmental Stages Essay Adolescence is probably the most difficult period in life of every individual since it is a transitional stage between childhood and adulthood. In this period adolescent undergo significant changes in physiological, psychological and social aspects. Naturally, these changes produce a significant impact on their lifestyle, behaviour, psychology, etc. Traditionally, adolescence is considered to start at preteens, i.e. from 9-10 years of age till 19-20 years of age. Basically, adolescence may be divided into three main stages middle childhood (8-11), early adolescence (11-14), and middle adolescence (15-18) while the last years of adolescence may be characterised as the last years when individuals completely grew into adults. Middle Childhood The first stage when children actually start to transform into adolescents begins at preteens and lasts until 11 years of age. This stage marks the start of a fast physical growth since at this stage uneven growth of bones, muscles, and organs starts that may result in certain awkward appearance. Some children, especially girls begin puberty at this age that creates certain difficulties for them, so they need access to information about sexuality appropriate for their age. On the cognitive level, some elements of childhood are combined with elements of adolescence. To put it more precisely, logical thinking starts to develop, though children are still have limited...

Words: 1281 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Phycology

...1-2 years, my growth slows down but stayed consistently growing approximately two to three inches each year and gains just over 5 pounds on average. * Early childhood: Figure out how to use preschool skills like cutting paper, coloring, writing my name. My brain started to form logic skills when it came of putting small puzzles together. * Middle Childhood: Understanding positive praises for things done correctly and understand discipline for things done incorrectly. * Adolescence: Physical changes occur which include hair growth all over the body, developments of breast and menstrual cycle began. Cognitive process * Prenatal: Developing preference for my mother’s voice * Newborn: Learning and remembering abilities to use symbols. Self-awareness increased a little. I used to watch and take in what I observed and then learn to act out what I saw being done and hear what people said. Started to recognize facial expressions with emotions. * Early Childhood: Use words to help remind where things go like my shoes go in the cubby, to not run in the house, to not touch a hot stove. Imagination came into play, learning to lace up shoes and figure out more in depth puzzles. * Middle Childhood: Starting to read words with what the picture of the words are. Started learning a new language. * Adolescence: My cognitive thought process was still very simple. Throughout this stage the soon to be an adult will be learning how to master the simpler problems before...

Words: 664 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Childhood Adolescence

...Middle Childhood and Adolescence Teenage years are times for developing maturity. At this stage, teens are usually excited because they are exploring several features in the environment. The youth struggle to identify themselves from other children as adulthood is the next big thing to them. Peer pressure in most cases supports individual development among adolescents. However, influence of significant others may not allow individual peer pressure to take effect in a teen’s life. Adolescence stage is characterized by immense influence of age-mates. It involves high levels of self-consciousness and self-centeredness. These two groups can be disturbed greatly by social pressures like drug use and abuse, sexuality and opposite sex relationships. When such pressures creep in the only remedy to these teens is normally close family guidance, which aims to mitigate stress and depressions (Jack W. Finney, 1998). There are several changes in children. Teens at this age attempt to fit into a specific social group. Peer relationships provide better social and moral climates in the society. Such climates will enable development of peer interactions within the society. The interactions lead to social support and friendships that play a vital role in middle childhood development. Adolescents develop significant relationships called peers. During these two stages significant friendships and even relationships developed normally last for very many years. Children aged four years or more usually...

Words: 999 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Characteristics of Child Development

...Characteristics of Developmental Periods There are five distinctive developmental periods that occurs; they are infancy which is from birth to 2years, early childhood which is 2years to six years. Then there is Middle Childhood which ranges from age six through ten, early adolescence to age ten to fourteen and finally late adolescence which lasts from age fourteen through eighteen. At birth even though the baby is dependent on his parents and caregivers he has ways that he communicate and seek comfort. The baby uses cries and other physical reflexes to get his caregiver to respond to him. The consistent response of the care giver whether it’s cuddling, feeding or changing the baby allows him to form an attachment. This feeling of security that the baby feels triggers the need for him to learn more about his surroundings. He will start by putting things in his mouth to test out taste, touching things to explore different textures even dropping things just to see what happens. As he becomes more curious his physical abilities will start developing which takes him from reaching to crawling then walking. This period of learning will prepare the now infant for early childhood. During early childhood the language and communication skills develop on a daily basis. This is a time of creative play and exploration of the world around them along with learning patterns and forming habits. The physical changes at this stage are quite noticeable because the child has...

Words: 670 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Annotated Bibliography

...Annotated Bibliography: Early Childhood 2 GLOVER, V., O'CONNOR, T. G., O'DONNELL, K., & CAPRON, L. (2014). How Prenatal Depression, Anxiety, and Stress May Affect Child Outcome. Zero To Three, 34(4), 22-28. There is good evidence that if a woman is depressed, anxious, or stressed while she is pregnant, then there is an increased risk that her child will have emotional, behavioral, or cognitive problems. Her own biology must cause these effects, but it is not known how. One important line of research suggests that the function of the placenta changes in response to maternal mood in ways that may allow more of the stress hormone cortisol and the neurotransmitter serotonin...

Words: 742 - Pages: 3