Childhood into adolescence

Write a 950-1150 word paper in which you describe changes that occur during middle childhood and adolescence concerning family and peer relationships and how they might influence future development.

Be sure to include the following items in your description:

  • Evaluate the effect of functional and dysfunctional family dynamics on development (e.g., family structure, function, and shared and non-shared environments).
  • Determine the positive and negative impact of peers and changes in peer relations from middle childhood to adolescence.
  • Examine additional pressures faced in adolescence compared to middle childhood.
  • Discuss the development of moral values from middle childhood into adolescence.

Include a minimum of two peer-reviewed sources.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines

Answer preview

The nature of relationships a child forms with those around them might change as they shift from their middle childhood to adolescent years. Even though the dynamics of these peer relationships might change, these relationships have a positive and negative impact on the children’s social and emotional development (Gross-Manos, 2014). Peer relationships provide children with a unique context within which they can learn a broad range of valuable emotional and social skills such as empathy, honesty, love, respect, and cooperation. These relationships can also have an adverse impact on a child’s social and emotional development, especially when peers start bullying, excluding, and ostracizing them.

[1259 Words]

Childhood into adolescence

Child Temperament and Development

Most of us have been raised to believe that our parents play the most important role in our lives. And, traditionally, developmental psychologists (e.g., Freud, Erikson) have placed a great deal of emphasis on the impact of parents. But what if parents are not as important as previously thought?

More recent theory and research has challenged this assumption by suggesting that individual characteristics (e.g., temperament) and forces outside the family (e.g., peers) are more important in shaping development. How does this new information challenge your previously held beliefs?

To prepare for the Assignment:

The Assignment (5–6 pages):

  • Summarize the research on the impact of temperament on development. This should include how it might shape our interactions with parents, peers, and in the school environment.
  • Summarize the research concerning the impact of parents. This should include the formation of secure/insecure attachments during infancy and the impact this may have on later development.
  • Summarize the impact of parenting styles and ongoing monitoring during middle childhood and adolescence on development.
  • Summarize the research on the impact of peers, including early play, friendships, and the negative side of peer interactions (e.g., rejection and bullying) on development.
  • Consider the arguments of Harris in Gladwell’s blog post, “Do Parents Matter?”
  • Consider the relative influence of all these factors in the prompt as you state your educated opinion of whether or not parents “matter.”

Requirements: 5 pages   |   .doc file

Answer preview

Parenting style has a significant impact on child development. Laukkanen et al. (2014) describe that parent who have raised different children realize that one parenting style does not fit all children since they are biologically different.  A mother’s parenting styles play a crucial role in controlling or exacerbating the child’s temperament. According to the research done by Laukkanen et al. (2014), it indicated that the child’s negative emotionality is associated with the child’s mother being highly controlling in terms of behavioral and psychological control; the child with low positivity is associated with low maternal affection. The child with a difficult temperament has been found to be exacerbated by negative, coercive, and highly controlling mothering. Hughes et al. (2005) highlight that the child with negative emotionality is linked with the mother who is strict, disciplinary parenting style, authoritative parenting style.

[1657 Words]

Child Temperament and Development