Chapter 7: psychosocial development in early childhood Flashcards
Parent-Child Relationships
Individualistic cultures
Collectivist cultures
Individualistic cultures
– Parents left to their own devices
– Lack of guidelines can lead to stress, loneliness, indecisiveness, self-doubt
Collectivist cultures
– Parents have less autonomy
– More community and family support
Baumrind’s Parenting Styles (4)
Authoritarian
• Control and unquestioning obedience
Permissive
• Parents value self-expression and self-regulation
Authoritative
• Value child’s individuality, as well as restraint
Neglectful or Uninvolved (Maccoby & Martin)
• Parental needs are most important
Outcomes of parenting styles
Variations in Parenting Styles
- Parents not necessarily consistent in ‘types’
- Style varies according to:
- Specific circumstances
- Duration of parenting and birth order
- Changes and stresses in family
- Temperament of child
Inconsistencies between parents can lead to confusion or ‘playing one against the other’
Cultural Variations of parenting styles
Different parenting styles shown to have more positive outcomes in some cultures
• Chao (1994): Asian American families
• Acceptance of chiao shun (training) indicates appropriate respect of elders
African American and Hispanic
• More authoritarian parenting associated with positive outcomes
Child Neglect and Abuse
Neglect
• Deprivation of food, clothing, shelter, medical care
• Deprivation of psychological or emotional needs
Abuse
• Physical injury, sexual interference, psychological harm
- Long-term effects continue into adulthood
- Explanations draw on internal working models of parents
Who is Mandated to Report Abuse?
Relationships with Siblings
- Provide opportunities for socialisation
- Distinct from parent-child relationships
- Relationships affected by numerous factors including birth order and spacing and sex of siblings
- Firstborn children tend to be more adult- oriented, conforming, anxious
- Sibling rivalry may be evident in later years
The Only Child
Research
- Sometimes stereotyped as self-centred or spoilt
- Concern that development might be adversely affected by being sole focus of parental attention
• Research does not support stereotypes of only children being selfish, lonely, spoiled, or maladjusted.
• Research does suggest higher achievement in:
- Self-esteem
- Positive personality
- Achievement motivation
• Academic success
The Family Context
- Sibling relationships don’t occur in isolation – influenced by family context
- Negative behaviours linked to parent-child relationship and parents marital relationship
- Reduced hostility following the birth of younger sibling if parents prepare child for the new arrival and involve them in activities
- Sibling relationships during the pre-school years can set the scene for relationships later in life
Peer Relationships
- Children’s social worlds expand outside of family in the preschool years
- Enable development of social skills that may not necessarily be acquired from family relationships
- Peer relationships characterised by equality of power and competence
- Learn important skills such as sharing, conflict resolution and understanding of others’ thoughts
Conceptions of Friendship
- Friends spend more time playing with emotional expressiveness, reciprocity, and interdependence
- By 3-4 years, majority of children have 1-2 friends
- Early friendships typified by shared activities and the exchange of toys
- Lack qualities such as loyalty
• Growth in trust and mutual support as school age approaches
Saracho and Spodek (1998) define play as:
- Intrinsically, not extrinsically motivated
- Process-, not product-oriented
- Creative and non-literal
- Having implicit rules
- Spontaneous and self-initiated
- Free from major emotional distress
Parten’s Social Dimensions of Play
- unoccupied play
- solitary play
- onlooker play
- parallel play
- associative play
- cooperative play
Grusec and Lytton’s Cognitive Typology
- functional play
- constructive play
- pretend play
- games with rules
