Child and Adolescent Development for EducatorsChapter 10

Family and Peer Relationships

by Karen Rochon and Karin Stringer

Purpose

• To investigate how family and peer relationships affect the growth and well-being of a child.

• To investigate differences in family and peer relationships between advantaged and disadvantaged children.

Section 1: The Child’s First Relationship:Adult-Infant Attachment

• Infant Cognitive Development and Attachment• Measurement of Attachment: The Strange Situation• Q-Sort Procedure• Measurement of Attachment in Older Children and

Adults• The Nature of Maternal Responsiveness• Attachment and Subsequent Social Relations

and Cognitive Interactions

The Child’s First Relationship: Adult –Infant Attachment

• Babies form strong emotional ties with their caregivers.

• Since Bowlby’s Book Attachment, first appeared the developmental course of infant-caregiver attachment has been studied extensively

• Adult humans are innately sensitive to the signals that babies emit.

• Babies are also innately disposed to emit signals and pay attention to adults.

(CAD pages 293-295)

Infant Cognitive Development and Attachment

• Secure adult-infant attachment– When primary caretakers are responsive the

development of secure adult-infant attachment occurs.

• Insecure adult-infant attachment– When primary caretakers are unresponsive the

development of insecure adult-infant attachment occurs.

(CAD page 295)

Measurement of Attachment

• The “Strange Situation”– When securely and insecurely attached infants

encountered strangers in the “Stranger Situation” experiment, researchers observed five different types of reactions during the reunion with their mother.

– The five types of reactions are: secure, avoidant, resistant/ambivalent, disorganized/disoriented, other.

(CAD page 295-297)

Q-Sort Procedure Measurement

• In the Q-Sort measurement, caregivers are asked to sort 90 statements that describe the characteristic of either a secure, avoidant, or resistant attachment of the child in piles from 9-1.– 9 is best description of the child– 1 is the least descriptive of the child

• The measure seems to be reliable with stable Q-sort ratings reported.

(CAD page 298)http://allpsych.com

Measurement of Attachment with Older Children and Attachments in Adults

• When the “strange situation” procedure was applied to older children measurement findings revealed in general, infants who are securely attached to their mothers are likely to become children who have secure relationships with their mothers.

• With the Adult Attachment Interview, women who value and reported secure attachments during their childhood tend to have securely attached infants compared to women whose interviews lacked secure attachment themes.

(CAD pages 298-300)

The Nature of Maternal Responsiveness

• Using a Q-sort instrument researches identified mothers who are responsive and unresponsive to their infants and are likely to foster secure attachment or insecure attachments to their infants.

(CAD page 300)

Attachment and Subsequent Social Relations and Cognitive Interactions

• Bowly contented that securely attached infants were more likely in later years to be well adjusted and sociable.

• Security in attachment predicts healthy interactions as parents and children tackle intellectual challenges, including reading with one another.

(CAD pages 300-304)

Questions to consider

• In the Q-Sort procedure, what are a few of the behaviors a responsive mother exhibits?

• In the Q-Sort procedure, what are a few of the behaviors an unresponsive mother exhibits.– (CAD pages 298)

• Does Infant Temperament Affect Attachment Security?– (CAD page 301)

Section 2: Family and Development After Infancy

• Parental Style• Specific Socialization Mechanisms: – Secure Base/Specific

Disciplinary/Teaching/Learning• Stress• Presence of Siblings

Parental Style

• Authoritative parenting-expect much from their children and reward their children for meeting expectations rather than punishing them for failing to meet expectations.

• Permissive parenting-allow children to make up their own minds about most daily events.

• Authoritarian parenting-demands strict obedience, using punishment frequently and threaten often.

• Uninvolved parenting-neglectful of their children.(CAD page 305-306)

Specific Socialization Mechanisms

• Secure Base-Research suggests that as children grow older the relationship between parents and their children are healthier when children can explore ideas in the world, confident of their parents’ help and support when it is needed.

(CAD page 306)

Specific Socialization Mechanisms continued…

• Specific Disciplinary/Teaching/Learning Mechanisms– Inductions-explaining to the child the potential

harm and consequence of the misdeed.– Differential reinforcement of other behaviors

(DRO)-reinforcing desired behavior.– Time-out-child is removed from the setting for a

set period of time.(CAD pages 306-308)

STRESS

• Some stress factors that affect parenting behaviors are divorce, financial difficulties, temperamentally difficult children and heavy workload.

(CAD pages 308-309)

www.nimh.nih.gov

Questions to Consider: The Presence of Siblings

• Are “only” children spoiled or disadvantaged compared to other children who have siblings?

• How does life change for a child when a new member of the family arrives?

• How do siblings interact with one another?• Do parents treat their children the same?

• CAD (pages 309-310)

Section 3: Beyond the Family: Peer Relationships

• Development of Peer Relations• Development of Social-Cognitive Abilities– Selman’s Theory of Social-Cognitive Development– Theory-of-Mind Research

• The Gender of Friends• Popular and Unpopular Children• Parental and Peer Pressures• Why Have Friends?: The Developmental Significance of

Friendship

Development of Peer Relations

• Peer interactions and friendships progress from infancy to adolescence.– As children get older peer interactions are more

complex and social.(CAD page 311-313)

Development of Social-Cognitive Abilities

• Selman’s Four stages of Theory of Social-Cognitive Development – Stage 0-Preschoolers have friends based on proximity (in

the room).– Stage 1-Children see their friends as their helpers.– Stage 2-Children are still self-centered, but there is some

reciprocity.– Stage 3-Children view friendships as enduring and

intimate.– Stage 4-Friends give and receive psychological support.(CAD pages 314-315)

Theory-of-Mind Research

• Insight into how other people’s minds work is essential knowledge for interacting and relating with other people.

• The ability to regulate one’s own emotions and that of others is dependant on children developing theories of mind.– Autistic children lack the knowledge of how other

people’s minds work with a result of not relating to others.

(CAD pages 315-316)

Gender of Friends

• Early childhood friends tend to be the same sex and age.

• Males– They engage in extensive relationships involving more

people with shorter one-on-one interactions.• Females– They engage in intensive relationships involving with fewer

people with increased length of interactions. By adolescence interactions between the two sexes begins.(CAD pages 317-318)

Popular and Unpopular Children

• Socially skilled children have greater academic achievement.

• Socially unskilled children are more likely to be rejected by their peers, possibly affecting academic achievement.

• However, the cause-and-effect is unclear.– Is the academics affected by social abilities, or is social

abilities affected by academics?(CAD 319-321)*see bar graph on next slide

Cause and Effect

www.heritage.org

Parental and Peer Pressures

• Dependent on the child’s personality, adolescent behavior is determined by the interaction between peers and parents.

(CAD pages 321-322)

www.thecoolspot.gov

Why Have Friends?: The Developmental Significance of Friendship

• Children model for each social competence.• They provide feedback to one another for

social do’s and don’ts.• Friendships provide opportunities to learn

how to manage and resolve conflicts.(CAD pages 322-324)

Section 4: How Does Daycare Affect Social and Academic Development?

• The Characteristics Determining the Quality of Daycare– Structure– Process

• Daycare Effects on Attachment and Cognitive Competence

• Daycare for School-Age Children

The Characteristics Determining the Quality of Daycare

• Structure– Setting-supports routine– Furnishings-relaxing and comfortable– Materials support learning activities for both fine and

gross motor skills– Space for free play and group activities– Healthy ratio of caregivers to children– Caregivers are educated in early childhood

development and education– A place where teachers can interact with parents

The Characteristics Determining the Quality of Daycare continued…

• Some significant daycare processes:– Caregiver greets on arrival and says “good-bye” to

children daily– A regular positive snack, meal, activity and rest schedule– Children are kept clean, diapered, and toileting is

uneventful– Tone is positive when lots of enriched dialogue is

exchanged between caregiver and child, including explaining to a child the reason for a rule

(CAD pages 324-326)

Daycare Effects on Attachment and Cognitive Competence

Preschool children Slight positive cognitive development for at risk

children dependent on the quality of daycare. Advantaged home environments outperforms

quality daycare for cognitive stimulation. School-age children

Lack of research to reach reliable conclusions.(CAD pages 326-330)

How Do Social Relationships Affect Academic Achievement?

• Parenting style– Inactive role in their child’s schooling

• Peers– Fewer than 5% of adolescents consider their crowd to

be oriented academically, which affects academic performance

• Part-time jobs– The more a student works the less the student is

involved with school, with underachieving results.(CAD pages 330-331)

Conclusion

• As an educator, we need to be cognitive of positive or negative family and peer relationships impact the social, emotional, cognitive and academic growth and well-being of a child.

References

• Pressley, Michael & McCormick, Christine B. (2007). Child and Adolescent Development for Educators. The Guilford Press.

• http://allpsych.com• www.nimh.nih.gov• www.heritage.org• www.thecoolspot.gov