1) One major way that gender stereotyping influence the development in late childhood.
The development of sex stereotyping closes relates with the gender identity that is acquired at the late stage of childhood. Research on socio-psychological phenomenon has indicated that gender identity changes as the child experiences life and gets older. The development of sex-typing occurs during the late childhood and can play a significant role childhood development (Perry and Rachel, 2011). In late childhood gender stereotypes are acquired through observational learning and imitating how other people act, behave, think or feel. When children are above five years they can associate certain characters like being weak or brave within both men and women or they are able things meant for both genders.
a. Findings an experience from development as a child can confirm regarding the similarities / difference between boys and girls in middles late childhood
i. Physical- The ability of boys to jump, run, or balance tend to develop slightly faster than that of the girls. But, girl’s motor skills in writing or holding improve faster than the boys.
ii. Cognitive- One notable difference between boys and girls during the last childhood is that girls are most of the times slightly ahead of boys in early language communities like combining words, and using productive vocabulary. This difference tend to increase with age.
iii. Socio-emotional- When both girls and boys attain the age of five or six years they tend to be more associative and cooperative with other people and among themselves.
2) Peer Statuses
There are five types of peer statuses including popular children characterized by those with good social skills and display extensive care to other children. Those children are categorized as average are those in the middle of those people who like and dislike them while the neglected peers are not disliked, but most of the times they are forgotten because of their shy nature. Relatively, the rejected children are sometimes as ‘weird’ and they are rarely liked while the last group of controversial are either too much liked or disliked hence fall on both social spectrum ends.
a. A created scenario about a “rejected child”
A group of children were playing a game at recess. I noted that Luke wanted to play too, but after entering the game he dominated the game and tried to change the rules to the version that he liked better. When his playmates tried to protest, he bullied almost all of them.
i. Some of the characteristics that contributed to Luke being ‘Rejected’ include; using high aggression against their peers and due to such social skills they make less friends.
ii. Some of the interventions and training that could help rejected children include trying to help the child make a friend. One friend can make a significant difference and such can be achieved by pairing the rejected children with other particular children from a different peer status. However, pairing two rejected children can also be a good intervention as long as it is not with a neglected child. Besides, a rejected children can be trained to control their aggressiveness and help acquire better social skills.
3) Selecting a Topic
e. Ch. 13. What is Relational Aggression, how hurtful is it in the long-term, and what can be done to reduce it?
Relational aggression also referred to as covert aggression is the nonphysical aggression towards another person to bring them down socially, ruin their reputation or heighten one’s own status (Nelson and Crick, 2002). It is mostly used by peer groups or acquaintances to damage the relationship and status of victim. Although relational aggression is found in many human relationships, it is mostly observed in teenage girls where it becomes a covert bullying (Martin, 2009). This kind of social aggression is hurtful, especially in the long-term occurrence as it damages individuals’ well-being as people feel purposefully manipulated or taken for granted. To reduce relational aggression, it is significant for individual to be assertive and learn how to stand up for themselves while considering other people’s feeling to develop healthy relationships (Simmons, 2002). Besides, knowing personal values and exploring the important qualities in friendships and differentiate the healthy and toxic relationships (Taylor and Trice-Black, 2007). Strengthening self-esteem and developing coping skills allow someone to feel confident no matter what is said against them.
4) How Culture, Contextual, and Social constructions can affect the parenting styles in American and other countries.
Research shows that the environment that children are raised significantly influence their physical, intellectual, emotional, and social development due to different parenting styles. For instance, ethnicity, which is one of the social construct profoundly affects peoples’ lives and differentiate them based on their perceived cultural or physical differences (Sabates and Dex, 2012). The constructed differences can result in different forms of parenting and behaviors in children in the social context. However, in most countries what counts as proper raising for a child in one culture can be wrong to another. For example, in U.S giving children alcohol is considered as a child abuse, a custom that does not hold around the world, such as in Croatia where 30% of boys and 12% of girls in eight grade report boozing several times a week.
5) How poverty and ethnicity relate to undesirable child development outcomes
Poverty is considered as a risk that is known to negatively influence the child development and health. For example, extreme poverty is linked with several incidences that occur in children during childhood. Poverty can lead to high post and neonatal mortality rates, increased chances of injuries and sickness due to neglect and physical neglect experienced in low income families hence lowering the developmental chances in childhood (Aber et al. 2007). Besides, ethnicity creates social constructed influence that negatively affect childhood development or children’s behaviors.
References
Aber, J. L., Bennett, N. G., Conley, D. C., " Li, J. (2007). The effects of poverty on child health and development. Annual review of public health, 18(1), 463-483.
Martin, M. P. (2009). The Hurtful Relationship: A Longitudinal Study of Relational Aggression and Physical Health in Marriage.
Nelson, D. A., " Crick, N. R. (2002). Parental psychological control: Implications for childhood physical and relational aggression. Intrusive parenting: How psychological control affects children and adolescents, 161-189.
Perry, David G., and Rachel E. Pauletti. (2011). "Gender and adolescent development." Journal of Research on Adolescence 21.1, 61-74.
Sabates, R., " Dex, S. (2012). Multiple risk factors in young children’s development. London: Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education. 23. 2, 18-29.
Simmons, Rachel. (2002).Odd girl out: The hidden culture of aggression in girls. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
Taylor, J. V., " Trice-Black, S. (2007). Girls in real life situations: Group counseling activities for enhancing social and emotional development. Research Press.
