The psychological conflict of middle childhood which is resolved positively when children develop a sense of competence at useful skills and tasks.
(Berk, 2013, p.261).
Industry vs. Inferiority: Resolved positively. I believe my parents encouraging me to engage in music and performance as well as encouraging me to do well in school helped me to have a strong sense of self-confidence. I was also very lucky to have many wonderful teachers that helped to foster and develop my competence in all areas. When I left elementary school to jr. high I never felt overwhelmed or ill prepared.
Because my mother and father had an authoritative child-rearing style, throughout middle childhood I had a high self-esteem and felt good about myself. My parents always made sure to encourage me positively and were never over-controlling. During that time I remember believing that I could be anything I wanted to be (at the time that was a 3rd grade teacher). I don’t remember ever feeling down about myself, and I remember having an overall feeling that I could and would do well. I believe music and dance helped manage my positive self-esteem because they showed me things I could achieve (practice for a performance and do well). It was not until adolescence that my self-esteem fell.
In middle childhood, children begin to describe themselves in terms of psychological traits, compare their own characteristics with those of their peers, and speculate about eh causes of their strengths and weaknesses. These transformations in self-understanding have a major impact on self-esteem.
From middle-childhood on, individual difference in self-esteem become increasingly stable.
Self-esteem can be influence by sociocultural factors, child rearing, and personality.
Those who have high-self-esteem and motivation make mastery-oriented attributions, crediting their successes to ability, a characteristic they can improve through trying hard and can count on when facing new challenges. Any they attribute failure to factors that can be changed or controlled such as insufficient effort or a very difficult task
In contrast, those with a low-self-esteem develop learned helplessness and attribute their failures, not their successes to their ability. When they success, they conclude that external factors such as luck are responsible. Unlike their mastery-oriented counterparts they believe that ability is fixed and cannot be improved by trying hard.
(Berk, 2013, p.263).
My Development
Emotional Development
My Development
Greater self-awareness and social sensitivity support gains in emotional competence in middle childhood. Changes take place in experience of self-conscious emotions, emotional understanding, and self-regulation. During middle childhood empathy increases and children have the ability to understand “mixed emotions”. Additionally children in middle childhood are motivated by peer approval and self-esteem.
(Berk, 2013, p.263).
Emotional Development
My Development
Self-Esteem
Friendship & Peers
During middle childhood I believe that I would have been considered a popular-prosocial child. I performed well in school, and communicated with my peers in sensitive and friendly ways. I was typically best friends with someone who was more popular than me, but I also typically got along with more people and was less selective about who I did and did not talk to. Towards the end of middle childhood my best friend Emily was the most popular girl in my class, and my other best friend, Kenneth, was rejected and often not treated well by others because he was a “nerd”. As I became more self-conscious and need peer approval, my friendship with Kenneth dissipated during adolescent but returned in early adulthood.
Towards the end of middle childhood, in 7th grade, I started to become extremely self-conscious about the way I looked and was very motivated by my peers approval. During this time, it felt like the only reason I did things was for the approval of my friends and to see “cool”. Towards the end of middle childhood, I remember being increasingly aware of how my actions would be received by others (reading others emotions).
My
Development
In middle childhood, the society of peers becomes an increasingly important context for development. Peer contact, as we have seen, contributes to perspective taking and understand of self and others. These developments, in turn, enhance peer interaction
-Peer groups are organized based on proximity and similarity
-Children become more selective in their friendships in middle childhood and friendships become more stable
Peer acceptance: Refers to likability, the extent to which a child is viewed by a group of age mates, such as classmates, as a worthy social partner. This becomes a powerful predictor of current and future psychosocial development.
(Berk, 2013, p.267-271
Childhood Stressors
My Development
Fears and Anxieties: Although fears of the dark, thunder and lightning, and supernatural beings persist into middle childhood, older children’s anxieties are also directed toward new concerns. Most children handle fears constructively, and they decline with age but about 5 percent of school-age children develop and intense, unmanageable fear called a phobia.
Divorce: Young school-age children often blame themselves for a marital breakup and fear both parents may abandon them. Although older children have the cognitive maturity to understand that they are not responsible, they may react strongly declining in school performance and becoming unruly.
(Berk, 2013, p.274-275).
Fears and Anxieties: Many of my fears and anxieties were centered around my father’s diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis and the symptoms he exhibited. Throughout middle childhood I had gears of throwing up or getting sick much like my father was around this time. These fears and anxieties were managed through counseling which helped to ensure that this fear did not turn into a phobia.
Divorce: Although my parents were not divorced or separate, my father’s illness almost made it seem that way. As my father’s illness progressed, my mother ended up having to take on more parenting responsibilities. Just also young children blamed themselves for the divorce, I believe part of me blamed myself for my father’s illness. Although my grades didn’t decline, I believe as time went on, I started to become more emotionally detached so I didn’t suffer from further loss.
Middle Childhood
