6.7 Summary

Emotional Development

1. Learning to regulate and control emotions is crucial during early childhood. Emotional regulation is made possible by maturation of the brain, particularly of the prefrontal cortex, as well as by experiences with parents and peers.

2. In Erikson’s psychosocial theory, the crisis of initiative versus guilt occurs during early childhood. Children normally feel pride, sometimes mixed with feelings of guilt. Shame is also evident, particularly in some cultures.

3. Both externalizing and internalizing problems indicate impaired self-control. Some emotional problems that indicate psychopathology are first evident during these years, with boys more often manifesting externalizing behaviours and girls exhibiting internalizing behaviours.

Gender Development

4. Even 2-year-olds correctly use sex-specific labels. Young children become aware of gender differences in clothes, toys, playmates, and future careers.

5. Freud emphasized that children are attracted to the opposite-sex parent and eventually seek to identify, or align themselves, with the same-sex parent. Behaviourists hold that gender-related behaviours are learned through reinforcement and punishment (especially for males) and social modelling.

6. Cognitive theorists note that simplistic preoperational thinking leads to gender schemas and therefore stereotypes. Systems theory teaches that parents’ expectations and views will affect their children’s understanding of gender roles. Humanists stress the powerful need of all humans to belong to their group. Evolutionary theory contends that sex and gender differences are crucial for the survival and reproduction of the species.

7. All six theories of sex-role development are plausible. Deciding what gender patterns parents and caregivers should teach is determined by parenting/caregiving style and culture.

Play

8. All young children enjoy playing—preferably with other children of the same sex, who teach them lessons in social interaction that their parents do not.

9. Active play takes many forms, with rough-and-tumble play fostering social skills and sociodramatic play developing emotional regulation.

10. Children are prime consumers of many kinds of media. The problems that arise from media exposure include increased aggression and less creative play.

The Role of Caregivers

11. Baumrind identified four classic styles of parenting: authoritarian, permissive, authoritative, and rejecting-neglecting. Generally, children are more successful and happy when their parents express warmth and set guidelines, characteristic of authoritative parenting.

12. Child temperament and culture play a role in parenting style.

Moral Development

13. The sense of self and the social awareness of young children become the foundation for morality, influenced by both nature and nurture.

14. Children from a young age have an understanding of the difference between morality and social conventions.

15. Prosocial emotions lead to caring for others; antisocial behaviour includes instrumental, reactive, relational, and bullying aggression.

16. Parental punishment can have long-term consequences, with both corporal punishment and psychological control teaching lessons that few parents want their children to learn.

17. Time out or parents explaining the situation is more appropriate and associated with more positive outcomes.

Child Maltreatment

18. Child maltreatment includes ongoing abuse and neglect, usually by a child’s own parents. Physical abuse is the most obvious form of maltreatment, but neglect is more common and may be more harmful.

19. Health, learning, and social skills are all impeded by abuse and neglect, not only during childhood but also decades later.

20. Tertiary prevention may include placement of a child in foster care, such as kinship care. Permanency planning is needed: Frequent changes are harmful to children.