Chapter 7: Parents and their School-Age Children Flashcards
Promoting School-Age Children’s Social-Emotional Development
What do parents often choose as the easiest years of childrearing? Why (3)?
7-11
- children master dozens of new skills
- children are able to learn quickly and think logically
- children live in a social world wherein most children think their parents are helpful, their teachers are fair, and their friends are loyal
Promoting School-Age Children’s Social-Emotional Development
What do school-age children experience in their broadening ventures in their neighbourhood and school? (5)
- greater vulnerability
- increasing competence
- ongoing friendships
- troubling rivalries
- deeper social understanding
Promoting School-Age Children’s Social-Emotional Development
What are elementary school children’s social-emotional development influenced by?
the degree to which their parents provide organized activities for them, and monitor their informal leisure activities
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What do school-age children judge themselves as?
competent or incompetent
productive or failing
based on their level of success in mastering the skills valued by their parents and other significant adults
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What do parents do to assist their children in their quest for competence? (4)
- encourage them to try out new things
- provide the materials and instruction needed to learn new skills
- pay attention to the progress they are making in developing competence in a particular area
- provide direct help when needed
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What are 2 of the most meaningful activities for the development of skills and competencies during the school-age years?
sports
hobbies
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What contributes to a child’s need for industry?
the discipline, self- direction, and sense of competence that come from working on a hobby or playing sports
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What contributes to self-esteem and later identity development?
investing the necessary time to become knowledgeable about, or skillful, in activities (hobbies, sports) helps define for children the ways in which they are unique
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What else can be beneficial for self-esteem?
increasing the frequency and quality of arts-based activities – ie. music, drama, or dance
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What are social skills? (3)
- competence to modify behaviour in accordance with the social context
- ability to engage in interactions with adults and peers
- ability to use verbal expression appropriately
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What does acquisition of social skills contribute to?
positive social and behavioural functioning
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
Why does modifying behaviour in accordance with social context involve a number of complexities?
as pointed out by Bronfenbrenner, the various systems in which the child is typically engaged become expanded during this developmental stage
another theoretical perspective to consider when contemplating the role of parents in the development of social skills is that the range of behaviours that are associated with social skills is culturally determined – reflect the culture of the child’s family and community
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What is the most significant type of parent-child interaction for supporting children’s self-esteem, as well as their positive interactions with others?
effective parent–child communication
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development – Co-regulation
What provides the foundation for parent-child co-regulation of behaviour as children enter elementary school?
self-regulation acquired during the preschool years
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development – Co-regulation
What is due to children’s advances in cognitive development?
children are prepared for a greater sharing of social power during middle childhood
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development – Co-regulation
What does parent–child co-regulation become a predominant aspect of?
appropriate child socialization during middle childhood developmental stage
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
What are some advantageous outcomes of parent-child co-regulation?
- contributes to early behaviour adjustment, which assists children in all their social relationships (including those with parents, siblings, and friends)
- associated with fewer behavior problems in school-age children
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
Example of Co-regulation
Charlie: “Mom, can I invite Miguel over for dinner?”
Mom: “Sure. Will you make sure he checks with his parents to be sure that it is okay.”
Charlie: “Okay, Mom.”
Parental Influences on Their Children’s Psychosocial Development
Should the entire parent-child relationship be co-regulated?
NO
essential that parents of school-age children continue to structure their children’s daily activities, monitor their whereabouts, require certain levels of responsible behavioUr, and step in to exercise more control when necessary
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships
What are some characteristics of children who are liked and accepted by their peers (popular)?
- more positive social traits
- better social problem-solving skills
- more constructive social behaviour
- better friendship relations
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Childrearing Patterns
What is authoritative parenting linked with?
- more positive relationships with their peers (compared to authoritarian, permissive, indulgent, or uninvolved)
- encouragement of children’s participation in decision making appears to provide them the experience needed to engage in thoughtful and responsible behaviours when interacting with their peers
- behavioural control of parents promotes ability to use self-regulation in social situations
- related to children’s behaviors that reflect empathy and altruism
- more positive social functioning with family members and peer
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Childrearing Patterns
What is authoritarian parenting linked with?
- less socially adept
- more at risk for behaviour problems
- social problems attributed to parents’ overly strict and often harsh use of discipline (physical, often supported by cultural beliefs)
- greater use of physical punishment was consistently associated with more aggression and anxiety in children
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Childrearing Patterns
What is permissive parenting linked with?
- more difficulties in peer relationships due to their typically immature behaviours
- often lack impulse control and show less social responsibility
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Childrearing Patterns
What is uninvolved parenting linked with?
- suffer socially
- experience problems in developing and sustaining friendships with other children because they low levels of affection and often endure high levels of criticism and hostility from their parents
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Attachment
What is one of the differences between parental attachment of preschool and school-age children?
from early to middle childhood, there is a steady decline in the utilization of attachment figures
however, child’s perceptions of parent availability do not change
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Attachment
Who do children typically turn to to meet attachment needs and companionship needs?
attachment – parents
companionship – peers
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Attachment
How does the awareness of parental availability play out in school-age children’s peer relationships?
- children’s perceptions of security from both parents were related to others’ appraisals of children’s social competence
- children with perceived security to fathers displayed lower levels of aggression
- parents continue to serve secure-base functions for school-age children with secure attachment
- children who view relationships with parents as less secure are more likely to select peers to fulfill attachment functions
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Context
What are the links between community and parental support?
as neighbourhood conditions worsen, parental emotional support is weakened
as surrounding environments become poorer and more dangerous, parents tend to rely more on physical discipline
negative effects of neighbourhood disadvantage are compounded also when there are high levels of parent-child conflict
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Context
What are the consequences of a highly negative social climate for children?
more internalizing and externalizing problems
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Context
What factors mediate adverse effects of parenting in at-risk communities?
- opportunities for community involvement contributes to fewer behaviour problems
- community social support contributes to more positive parenting behaviours and fewer behaviours problems among children
- high level of parental involvement is associated with fewer behaviour problems in all types of neighbourhoods – when parents encourage their children to express their opinions and take their children’s views into consideration, children exhibit lower levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviours
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Structure Leisure Activities
What types of activities are we considering here?
- sports
- music
- band
- dance
- drama
- crafts
- scouting
- church, synagogue or mosque activities
- recreational camps
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Structure Leisure Activities
What do these activities help children do?
achieve peer group status, while broadening their scope of learning
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Structure Leisure Activities
What does being involved in organized peer group activities do? (3)
- extends children’s peer group interactions beyond the classroom
- provides opportunities to interact with other children who share their interests
- creates chances to make and sustain positive peer relationships
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Structure Leisure Activities
What is a cultural advantage of participating in activities?
activities often provide opportunities for children to learn about cultural practices other than their own and develop friendships with children from a variety of cultural backgrounds
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Structure Leisure Activities
In what ways does participation in organized physical activity benefit children’s sense of well-being? (4)
- elevated self-confidence, more involvement with school
- fewer behaviour problems
- less likelihood of taking drugs
- decreased probability of engaging in risky behaviour
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Structure Leisure Activities
What does sports participation do for shy children?
plays a protective role
over time show a significant decrease in anxiety
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Structure Leisure Activities
Is sports activity related to depression?
depressive symptoms are higher for children not playing sports outside of school or otherwise engaged in activities that require high levels of physical activity
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Structure Leisure Activities
Describe differences in children’s involvement in adult-supervised activities.
middle-class parents arrange out-of-school activities to cultivate their children’s talents
working-class and poor parents leave the arrangement of leisure activities to the children themselves
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What is associated with lack of parental monitoring of informal leisure activities?
higher rates of problem behaviours, such as delinquency and the use of drugs and alcohol
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
Who does childhood bullying harm?
both bullies and victims
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
Do aggressive children have high or low perceptions of themselves?
high, or even inflated
typically overestimate their competencies in terms of their peer status, and academic and athletic domains
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
How do peer-identified bullies compare to children who are socially adjusted?
peer-identified bullies tend to be lower on depression, social anxiety, and loneliness
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
How do childhood bullies maintain their positive self-views?
blame and be aggressive to others instead of accepting personal responsibility for negative events
social feedback bullies receive from peers is more positive than negative
even though children usually do not like those who bully others, they are still likely to side with the bully partly to safeguard their social status, reputation, and physical safety
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What are non-behavioural characteristics that make some children more at risk for being victimized by childhood bullies?
any condition or characteristic that makes children stand out from their peers
ie. obesity, off-time pubertal maturation, disabilities
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What is a common way that victims of childhood bullies respond to bullying?
through avoidance behaviour (such as not going to school or refusing to go to certain places)
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What is common in families of children who become bullies or victims? (3)
interparental violence and harsh parenting – such parental behaviour creates an interpersonal model for relating with peers that is not conducive to the development of normative and harmonious peer relationships
poor quality of attachment
different family dynamics
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What does evidence suggest about the homes that childhood bullies come from?
- parents favour physical discipline
- parents are frequently hostile and rejecting
- parents have poor problem-solving skills
- parents are accepting of aggressive childhood behaviour
- parents teach their children to retaliate at the least provocation
- children are often made to do chores that are too difficult or dangerous
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What is a common home experience for both childhood bullies and childhood victims?
interparental violence
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
Parenting influences on the childhood victims of bullies have been found to be gender-related. What are some examples of this?
- maternal overprotection: associated with victimization of boys
- poor identification with mothers: linked to victimization of girls
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What does overprotective parenting of boys likely interfere with?
development of behaviours such as independence and assertion that are valued by male peers, and needed by boys to defend their position in the dominance hierarchy common to school-age peer groups
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What does low maternal identification and father alienation with girls do?
increases girls’ risk for becoming childhood victims
- parenting behaviour most predictive of girls’ victimization is perceived threat of rejection, which is experienced when girls’ mothers threaten to abandon them, send them away, or appear to stop loving them when they misbehave
- problems related to parental closeness – father-child relationship (girl victims experience more alienation from their fathers)
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What does bullying do?
sometimes allows children to achieve their immediate goal, but is a risk factor for future maladaptive behaviours
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What are school-age bullies at greater risk for?
becoming involved in in delinquency, crime, and alcohol abuse during their teenage years
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What are the damaging effects to school-age victims?
anxiety depression underachievement low self-esteem loneliness
effects are detrimental and persist over time
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
What is the 5-step strategy designed to prevent childhood bullying and victimization?
- monitor children’s activities and whereabouts
- develop and use rules and consequences
- reframe behaviours in positive instead of negative ways
- focus on children’s positive behaviours
- develop and use effective listening skills
Parental Influences on Children’s Social Relationships – Informal Leisure Activities
How should cyberbullying be handled by parents?
children need to be taught to:
- report negative messages to their parents or teachers
- not pass along negative messages to other children—“not repeat, just delete”
- set up blocks to messages from cyberbullies
- respect the rights and feelings of others in cyberspace
taking away cell phones or denying computer access might make it less likely that they will tell parents about future bullying incidents
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – Logical Reasoning
Preschoolers vs. School-Age Children
preschool: make judgements based on intuitive thinking, and are easily fooled by appearances
school-age: logical thinking
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – Logical Reasoning
When does logical thinking at this stage of development emerge?
emerges as egocentrism decreases, allowing them to decenter their attention
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – Logical Reasoning
What happens as children develop logical reasoning?
- able to take into account multiple aspects of a situation, which greatly enhances their problem-solving ability
- able to focus on present, past, and future events, and therefore capable of planning ahead and considering how current efforts relate to future accomplishments
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – Logical Reasoning
What is a favourable aspect of logical reasoning?
ability to classify, which helps school-age children put objects into more sophisticated categories than they were able to do during the preschool years
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – Logical Reasoning
What does logical thinking ability allow parents to do?
- use more complex speech, because children are able to understand metaphors, realize that some words have multiple meanings, and comprehend reverse-order sentences
- point out to them the ways in which their behaviours affect others, thereby promoting their development of empathy
- assist in development of ability to classify by supporting their interests in collections of various objects, and by making recommendations for categorization, ordering, and collecting that their children might not have considered
- support children’s ability to consider past, present, and future events by providing them with calendars and watches
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – Logical Reasoning
What is logical thinking?
decentreing concentration
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – Guided Participation
What did Vygotsky theorize?
parents and other adults shape children’s cognitive development by working closely with them as partners in the scaffolding of their learning
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – Guided Participation
What do parents do through guided participation?
parents lead their children toward greater understanding of the task at hand, while assisting them in the development of their own comprehension of the task
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – Guided Participation
What might guided participation include?
- remarks designed to motivate the child to solve the problem
- assisting the child in focusing attention on the important steps
- providing instruction
- encouraging the child’s interest and motivation
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
What is school-age children’s achievement related to?
parents’…
- childrearing patterns and attributions
- expectations of academic success
- ages when their children were born
- cultural values
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
What is children’s academic performance also affected by? (2)
- degree to which their parents involve them in extracurricular activities
- whether or not their family lives in poverty and/or are recent immigrant
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
What is authoritative parenting linked to?
higher levels of achievement for children
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
What is permissive parenting linked to?
low levels of achievement
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
What is authoritarian parenting linked to?
low levels of achievement
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
What is uninvolved parenting linked to?
low levels of achievement
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
In what ways do authoritative parents promote their children’s achievement?
- provide optimal challenges for their children, which encourages children’s independent and active problem solving
- recognizing their individual interests and unique personalities
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
How do parental attributions and aspirations act as salient predictors of children’s academic success?
high aspirations for children’s achievement are found across different ethnicities
however, within each group, parental education and ethnicity are associated with different levels of academic aspirations
Caucasian parents with lower levels of education had lower academic aspirations for their children in comparison to parents of other ethnicities of similar education
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
What is the link between extracurricular activities and academic achievement?
children who consistently participate in extracurricular activities obtain higher standardized test scores
when those activities involve aerobic exercise (ie. sports, dance) they tend to enhance children’s total academic achievement (math, reading)
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
What are some family risk factors that affect children’s academic achievement?
- minority status, low maternal education, and low family income – significant negative effects on reading, math, and vocabulary achievement in first grade
- long periods of elevated maternal depressive symptoms
- parental age (younger = negative)
- parental work schedule (night shift = negative)
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
How does culture influence children’s school achievement?
parental goals are embedded in cultural norms, and when parental goals are reflected in their children’s school environment, it is easier for these children to achieve
achievement expectations of ethnic minority parents need to be matched by culturally relevant school environments that support the cultural values of all children
when the basics of children’s culture are included in learning tasks and contexts, children improve in performance, engagement, and motivation
ie. when African American children are placed in learning environments that allow for the expression of communalism, their achievement levels improve
Promoting School-Age Children’s Cognitive Development – School Achievement
What creates challenge for minority children?
mainstream cultural norms
- problem is that academic success often is contingent on the acceptance of mainstream cultural values that are at times different from the values they learn at home and in their communities
- this reality creates a dynamic in which many ethnic minority children are consistently penalized for not expressing the values and behaviours promoted by the mainstream majority culture
- over time, this situation leads children to question their place in school (negative effect)
Promoting Motor Skills – Organized Sports
How do coaches affect motor skill development in sports?
most youth sports coaches are volunteers with little or no formal training in child development, and they cannot be expected to match the demands of the sport with a child’s readiness to participate
Promoting Motor Skills – Organized Sports
What are the recommendations to prevent sports injuries?
- have the child take at least 1 day off per week from a particular sport to allow the body to recover
- check to be sure that the child wears appropriate and properly fitting protective equipment such as pads (neck, shoulder, elbow, chest, knee, shin), helmets, mouthpieces, face guards, protective cups, and/or eyewear
- support the strengthening of muscles – conditioning exercises during practice strengthen the child’s muscles used in play
- understand that stretching exercises increase a child’s flexibility – stretching exercises before and after games or practice are beneficial for increasing flexibility, and should also be assimilated into a daily fitness routine
- take care that the child uses the proper technique, which should be reinforced during the playing season
- check to be sure that young athletes take breaks since rest periods during practice and games can reduce injuries and prevent heat illness
- ensure that children play safe by having and enforcing strict rules, ie. against headfirst sliding (baseball and softball) and spearing (football)
- if a child experiences pain, that child should stop the activity
- help children avoid heat injury by drinking plenty of fluids before, during, and after exercise or play – should also decrease or stop practices or competitions during high heat/humidity periods and wear light clothing
Promoting Motor Skills – Organized Sports
What is emphasized for parents to watch for?
sports-related emotional stress, which is related to the pressure to win
- young athletes should be judged instead on effort, sportsmanship, and hard work
- should be praised for trying hard and for improving their skills rather than being criticized for losing a game or competition
Promoting Motor Skills – Free Play or Child-Organized Physical Activities
Why do informal activities with parents, siblings, and friends provide numerous benefits?
- less competitive than organized sports
- better match for motor skills of school-age children (ie. parents might plan family activities that maximize the possibility of movement
Promoting Motor Skills – Free Play or Child-Organized Physical Activities
What can reduce serious injury and possible deaths of children?
coordinated efforts by parents, children, and a concerned community
Promoting Motor Skills – Free Play or Child-Organized Physical Activities
What kind of structural and educational measures should be put in place with the objective of improving child safety for riding bikes?
- parents should ensure that their children have driveway visibility along the routes where they walk or bike (ie. point out hazards)
- requirement to wear helmet
- let children know that they are concerned about their safety, and outline for them the safety precautions they should take when engaging in various activities
Promoting Motor Skills – Free Play or Child-Organized Physical Activities
Where do most injuries occur?
inside and around the home
ie. toys, structures
Promoting Motor Skills – Free Play or Child-Organized Physical Activities
What are the 3 major themes that revolves around the steps taken by parents in dangerous neighbourhoods to ensure child safety?
- monitoring children’s whereabouts
- educating their children regarding safety
- improving community life
Promoting Motor Skills – Free Play or Child-Organized Physical Activities
How do mothers in high-risk communities cope with community violence?
- keep child physically close
- provide constant supervision
- teach practical household safety skills
- restrict neighbourhood activity (ie. playgrounds)
- tell drug dealers to take their business elsewhere
Promoting Motor Skills – Free Play or Child-Organized Physical Activities
How do fathers in high-risk communities cope with community violence?
- emphasize need to be vigilant in monitoring their children’s whereabouts
- watch their children everywhere
- don’t allow children to play outside after dark
- need to know where their children are at all times in case violent incidents occurred so that they could quickly get their children’s out of harm’s ways
Benefits of Media
What do prosocial video games promote?
- increases helpful behaviour
- decreases hurtful behaviour
Challenges of Media
What are some of the negative outcomes of children and media?
- overall health is influenced by TV advertising for foods of poor nutritional value
- odds of drinking alcohol and using drugs are significantly higher for children watching 3+ hours daily of TV/video games compared to children whose daily watching is less than 2 hours
- less time spent with family
Challenges of Media
How does background TV affect parent-child interactions?
interactions decline when television programs are playing in the background
TV time also reduces the amount of time children spend in imaginative and social play
Challenges of Media – Violence
How does time spent watching violent content affect children?
- lower academic achievement
- higher levels of aggressive behaviour
- desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed
Challenges of Media – Internet
How does Internet access affect children?
higher levels of academic achievement result
low-income children who used Internet more had higher scores on standardized tests of reading achievement and higher grade point averages than children who used it less
Identify a number of ways in which parents promote the social-emotional development of their school-age children.
help achieve a sense of competence related to development of various skills – parents do this when they encourage and support their participation in sports and hobbies, and assist them in development of social skills that help them to engage in interactions with adults and peers
contribute to development of self-esteem primarily through effective parent–child communication
parent-child co-regulation – consists of sharing power with them
Describe the ways in which parents influence the social relationships of their
school-age children.
children of authoritative parents have more positive relationships with their peers than do children whose parents are authoritarian, permissive, indulgent, or uninvolved
secure attachment to both parents
communities they live – in communities with low incidence of crime and parents have social support, children have fewer challenges with social relationships
Specify the role of parents in school-age children’s cognitive development and academic achievement.
due to the logical thinking abilities of school-age children, parents can feel freer to use more complex speech with them
making the most of their children’s developing ability to decenter their attention, parents can point out to them the ways in which their behaviours affect others, thereby supporting their development of empathy
support ability to classify by promoting their interests in collections of various objects and by making recommendations for categorization, ordering, and collecting
capitalize on children’s ability to consider past, present, and future events by providing them with calendars and watches
Describe the benefits and challenges of media and other technology in school- age children’s lives.
children with smart phones and/or digital tablets, educational apps, and apps for prosocial games are advantageous
growing popularity of children’s participation in robotics teams, which acquaint children with the fields of electrical, electronic, and computer engineering
primary challenge related to use of media is high levels of daily screen time – screen time that exceeds 2 hours per day has been related to overweight problems, less time in imaginative and social play, and less time spent interacting with other family members
increasing problem of time children spend watching violent content on television and/or playing violent video games, both of which have been linked to negative outcomes
