Lifespan development [Fourth Australasian edition.] 9780730355076, 0730355071

Table of contents :
Intro
Lifespan development
Brief contents
Contents
About the authors
PART 1 Beginnings
1 Studying development
1.1 The nature of development
Multiple domains of development
Development from a lifespan perspective: voices across the lifespan
1.2 Why study development?
1.3 The life course in times past
Early precursors to developmental study
The emergence of modern developmental study
1.4 Perspectives on human development
Continuity within change
Lifelong growth
Changing meanings and vantage points
Developmental diversity
1.5 Methods of studying developmental psychology. Scientific methodsVariations in time frame
Variations in control: naturalistic and experimental studies
Variations in sample size
1.6 Ethical constraints on studying development
Strengths and limitations of developmental knowledge
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
REVIEW QUESTIONS
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
ESSAY QUESTION
WEBSITES
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2 Theories of development
2.1 The nature of developmental theories
What is a developmental theory?
How do developmental theories differ?
2.2 Psychodynamic developmental theories
Freudian theory. Eriksons psychosocial theoryOther psychodynamic approaches
Applications of psychodynamic developmental theories throughout the lifespan
2.3 Behavioural learning and social cognitive learning developmental theories
Behavioural learning theories
Social cognitive learning theory
Applications of learning theories throughout the lifespan
2.4 Cognitive developmental theories
Piagets cognitive theory
Neo-Piagetian approaches
Information-processing theory
Applications of cognitive developmental theories throughout the lifespan
Moral developmental theories. 2.5 Contextual developmental theoriesBronfenbrenner's bioecological systems theory
Vygotsky's sociocultural theory
Applications of contextual developmental theories throughout the lifespan
2.6 Adulthood and lifespan developmental theories
Normative-crisis model of development
Timing-of-events model
New directions: dynamic systems perspective
Developmental psychopathology
2.7 Developmental theories compared: implications for the student
SUMMARY
KEY TERMS
REVIEW QUESTIONS
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
APPLICATION QUESTION
ESSAY QUESTION
WEBSITES
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth3.1 Mechanisms of genetic transmission
The role of DNA
3.2 Individual genetic expression
Genotype and phenotype
Dominant and recessive genes
Transmission of multiple variations
Polygenic transmission
The determination of sex
3.3 Genetic abnormalities
Disorders due to abnormal chromosomes
Disorders due to abnormal genes
3.4 Genetic counselling and prenatal diagnosis
3.5 Relative influence of heredity and environment
Key concepts of behaviour genetics
Adoption and twin studies
3.6 Stages of prenatal development.

Citation preview

HOFFNUNG | HOFFNUNG | SEIFERT | HINE | PAUSÉ WARD | SIGNAL | SWABEY | YATES | BURTON SMITH

LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

FOURTH AUSTRALASIAN EDITION

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:09:30.

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved. Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:09:30.

Lifespan development FOURTH AUSTRALASIAN EDITION

Michele Hoffnung Robert J. Hoffnung Kelvin L. Seifert Alison Hine Cat Pause´ Lynn Ward Tania Signal Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

Karen Swabey Karen Yates Rosanne Burton Smith

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:09:39.

Fourth edition published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 42 McDougall Street, Milton Qld 4064 First edition published 2010 Second edition published 2013 Third edition published 2016 Typeset in 10/12pt Times LT Std © John Wiley & Sons, Australia, Ltd 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia. Reproduction and Communication for educational purposes The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of 10% of the pages of this work or — where this work is divided into chapters — one chapter, whichever is the greater, to be reproduced and/or communicated by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL). Reproduction and Communication for other purposes Except as permitted under the Act (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher. The authors and publisher would like to thank the copyright holders, organisations and individuals for the permission to reproduce copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace the ownership of copyright material. Information that will enable the publisher to rectify any error or omission in subsequent editions will be welcome. In such cases, please contact the Permissions Section of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. Cover image: © Blend Images / Getty Images Typeset in India by Aptara Printed in Singapore by C.O.S. Printers Pte Ltd

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:09:39.

BRIEF CONTENTS About the authors

xiii

PART 1: Beginnings

1

1. Studying development 2 2. Theories of development 43 3. Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 95 PART 2: The first two years of life

160

4. Physical and cognitive development in the first two years 161 5. Psychosocial development in the first two years 226 PART 3: Early childhood

275

6. Physical and cognitive development in early childhood 276 7. Psychosocial development in early childhood 342 PART 4: Middle childhood

402

8. Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 403 9. Psychosocial development in middle childhood 466 PART 5: Adolescence

524

10. Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 11. Psychosocial development in adolescence PART 6: Early adulthood

525

583

647

12. Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood 648 13. Psychosocial development in early adulthood 715 PART 7: Middle adulthood

779

14. Physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood 780 15. Psychosocial development in middle adulthood 851

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

PART 8: Late adulthood

921

16. Physical and cognitive development in late adulthood 922 17. Psychosocial development in late adulthood 998 PART 9: Endings

1062

18. Dying, death and bereavement

1063

Name index 1114 Subject index 1163

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:09:47.

BRIEF CONTENTS About the authors

xiii

PART 1: Beginnings

1

1. Studying development 2 2. Theories of development 43 3. Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 95 PART 2: The first two years of life

160

4. Physical and cognitive development in the first two years 161 5. Psychosocial development in the first two years 226 PART 3: Early childhood

275

6. Physical and cognitive development in early childhood 276 7. Psychosocial development in early childhood 342 PART 4: Middle childhood

402

8. Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 403 9. Psychosocial development in middle childhood 466 PART 5: Adolescence

524

10. Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 11. Psychosocial development in adolescence PART 6: Early adulthood

525

583

647

12. Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood 648 13. Psychosocial development in early adulthood 715 PART 7: Middle adulthood

779

14. Physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood 780 15. Psychosocial development in middle adulthood 851

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

PART 8: Late adulthood

921

16. Physical and cognitive development in late adulthood 922 17. Psychosocial development in late adulthood 998 PART 9: Endings

1062

18. Dying, death and bereavement

1063

Name index 1114 Subject index 1163

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:09:54.

CONTENTS About the authors

xiii

CHAPTER 2

Theories of development

PART 1

Beginnings

1

CHAPTER 1

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

Studying development

2

1.1 The nature of development 3 Multiple domains of development 4 Development from a lifespan perspective: voices across the lifespan 8 1.2 Why study development? 14 1.3 The life course in times past 15 Early precursors to developmental study 15 The emergence of modern developmental study 16 1.4 Perspectives on human development 17 Continuity within change 17 Lifelong growth 18 Changing meanings and vantage points 20 Developmental diversity 20 1.5 Methods of studying developmental psychology 23 Scientific methods 23 Variations in time frame 24 Variations in control: naturalistic and experimental studies 27 Variations in sample size 30 1.6 Ethical constraints on studying development 31 Strengths and limitations of developmental knowledge 33 Summary 34 Key terms 34 Review questions 36 Discussion questions 36 Application questions 36 Essay question 37 Websites 37 References 37 Acknowledgements 41

43

2.1 The nature of developmental theories 45 What is a developmental theory? 45 How do developmental theories differ? 46 2.2 Psychodynamic developmental theories 48 Freudian theory 48 Erikson’s psychosocial theory 50 Other psychodynamic approaches 55 Applications of psychodynamic developmental theories throughout the lifespan 57 2.3 Behavioural learning and social cognitive learning developmental theories 57 Behavioural learning theories 57 Social cognitive learning theory 61 Applications of learning theories throughout the lifespan 62 2.4 Cognitive developmental theories 63 Piaget’s cognitive theory 63 Neo-Piagetian approaches 65 Information-processing theory 66 Applications of cognitive developmental theories throughout the lifespan 68 Moral developmental theories 69 2.5 Contextual developmental theories 71 Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory 71 Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory 71 Applications of contextual developmental theories throughout the lifespan 74 2.6 Adulthood and lifespan developmental theories 76 Normative-crisis model of development 76 Timing-of-events model 78 New directions: dynamic systems perspective 80 Developmental psychopathology 81 2.7 Developmental theories compared: implications for the student 81 Summary 84 Key terms 85 Review questions 86 Discussion questions 87 Application question 87

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

Essay question 88 Websites 88 References 88 Acknowledgements 94 CHAPTER 3

Review questions 151 Discussion questions 151 Application question 152 Essay question 152 Websites 153 References 153 Acknowledgements 159

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Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development PART 2 and birth 95 The first two years of life 3.1 Mechanisms of genetic transmission 96 The role of DNA 96 3.2 Individual genetic expression 99 Genotype and phenotype 99 Dominant and recessive genes 100 Transmission of multiple variations 101 Polygenic transmission 101 The determination of sex 101 3.3 Genetic abnormalities 105 Disorders due to abnormal chromosomes 107 Disorders due to abnormal genes 109 3.4 Genetic counselling and prenatal diagnosis 111 3.5 Relative influence of heredity and environment 113 Key concepts of behaviour genetics 114 Adoption and twin studies 114 3.6 Stages of prenatal development 117 Conception 117 The germinal stage (first two weeks) 118 The embryonic stage (third through eighth weeks) 118 The foetal stage (ninth week to birth) 119 The experience of pregnancy 121 Decisions and issues 121 3.7 Prenatal influences on the child 125 Harmful substances, diseases and environmental hazards 125 Maternal age and physical characteristics 130 Domestic violence 131 Prenatal health care 133 3.8 Birth 135 Childbirth settings and methods 136 Problems during labour and birth 140 Birth and the family 143 Moments after birth 144 Looking forward 147 Summary 148 Key terms 150

160

CHAPTER 4

Physical and cognitive development in the first two years 161 Physical development 163 4.1 Appearance of the infant at birth 163 The Apgar Scale 164 Size and bodily proportions 164 4.2 Sleep, arousal and the nervous system 165 Sleep 166 Parental response to infant sleep and arousal 168 States of arousal 169 4.3 Visual and auditory acuity 169 4.4 Motor development 171 The first motor skills 172 Cultural and sex differences in motor development 174 Motor development screening tests and scales 176 4.5 Nutrition during the first two years 177 Infant feeding 178 Poor nutrition 179 Malnutrition 179 Overnutrition 180 4.6 Impairments in growth 181 Low-birth-weight and preterm infants 181 Nonorganic failure to thrive 184 Mortality 185 Cognitive development 188 4.7 Studying cognition and memory 188 Arousal and heart rates 188 Recognition and habituation 188 4.8 Perception and cognition 190 Visual thinking 190 Auditory thinking 193 Categorical thought — the reversal shift 194

CONTENTS

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

v

4.9 Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development 196 Stages of sensorimotor intelligence 196 Assessment of Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development 201 4.10 Behavioural learning 203 Classical conditioning 203 Operant conditioning 204 Imitation 205 4.11 Theories of language acquisition 207 Learning theory approaches 207 The nativist approach 208 Phonology 209 Semantics and first words 209 Influencing language acquisition 210 The end of infancy 214 Summary 214 Key terms 215 Review questions 217 Discussion questions 217 Application questions 217 Essay question 218 Websites 218 References 219 Acknowledgements 224 CHAPTER 5

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Psychosocial development in the first two years 226 5.1 Early social relationships 228 Transition to parenthood 228 Caregiver–infant synchrony 230 Social interactions with family members 231 Interactions with non-parental caregivers 234 Interactions with peers 235 5.2 Emotions and temperament 237 Emotions 238 Temperament and development 239 5.3 Attachment formation 242 Phases of attachment formation 244 Assessing attachment: the ‘strange situation’ 245 Consequences of different attachment patterns 248 Influences on attachment formation 248 Long-term and intergenerational effects of attachment 253 5.4 Toddlerhood and the emergence of autonomy 255

vi

Sources of autonomy 257 Development of self 258 Development of competence and self-esteem Looking back and looking forward 261 Summary 262 Key terms 263 Review questions 263 Discussion questions 264 Application questions 264 Essay question 264 Websites 265 References 265 Acknowledgements 274

259

PART 3

Early childhood

275

CHAPTER 6

Physical and cognitive development in early childhood 276 Physical development 278 6.1 Variations in physical development 278 6.2 Nutritional needs 280 6.3 Health and illness 283 Injury 285 6.4 Bowel and bladder control 291 6.5 Motor development 293 Gross motor skills 294 Fine motor skills 294 Variations in gross and fine motor development 296 Brain development myelination 298 Cognitive development 300 6.6 Thinking in early childhood 300 Piaget’s preoperational stage 301 Symbolic representations 302 Limitations in preoperational thought 303 Egocentrism and children’s theory of mind 307 Moral reasoning 309 Neo-Piagetian theories 309 6.7 Language acquisition in the preschool years 310 Word acquisition and semantic development 311 Grammatical development 313 Development of pragmatics 315 6.8 Theories of language acquisition 317

CONTENTS

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

6.9 Language development in deaf children 319 6.10 Childcare and early childhood education 321 Summary 327 Key terms 328 Review questions 330 Discussion questions 330 Application questions 330 Websites 331 References 332 Acknowledgements 341 CHAPTER 7

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Psychosocial development in early childhood 342 7.1 Relationships with parents 344 Parenting styles 345 Variations in parenting styles and practices 350 7.2 Relationships with siblings 352 Sibling influences 353 7.3 Peer relationships 355 Relationships with friends 356 Conceptions of friendship 356 7.4 Play 357 Types and levels of play 358 Theories of play 362 Parental and environmental influences on play 363 7.5 The development of prosocial and antisocial behaviour 365 Prosocial behaviour 365 Antisocial behaviour 368 Factors affecting the development of aggression 369 Helping aggressive children and their parents 373 7.6 Gender-role development 375 Biological theories 376 Learning theories 377 Cognitive theories 378 Androgyny 380 Looking back and looking forward 382 Summary 383 Key terms 385 Review questions 386 Discussion questions 386 Application questions 386 Essay question 388 Websites 388 References 389 Acknowledgements 401

PART 4

Middle childhood

402

CHAPTER 8

Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 403 Physical development 404 8.1 Trends and variations in height and weight 405 8.2 Health and illness 410 Indigenous children’s health 410 8.3 Motor development and sport 411 Physical and psychological effects of sport 413 Cognitive development 415 8.4 Piaget’s theory: concrete operations 415 Conservation 415 Classification 419 Seriation 419 Spatial reasoning 419 Implications of Piaget’s theory 420 8.5 Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory 421 8.6 Information processing and cognitive development 422 Development of attention 422 Memory development 426 8.7 Language development 428 Bilingualism and its effects 429 8.8 Defining and measuring intelligence 431 The psychometric approach 432 Biases in intelligence testing 433 Uses of intelligence tests 436 Information processing approaches 436 8.9 Moral development and moral disengagement 439 8.10 The influence of formal education on cognitive development 443 Participation structures and classroom discourse 443 Social biases that affect learning 444 The impact of assessment and evaluation of student learning 446 The changing child: physical, cognitive and social 449 Summary 449 Key terms 451 Review questions 452 Discussion questions 452

CONTENTS

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

vii

Application questions 452 Essay question 453 Websites 454 References 454 Acknowledgements 465 CHAPTER 9

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Psychosocial development in middle childhood 466 9.1 Psychosocial challenges of middle childhood 467 The challenge of knowing who you are 468 The challenge to achieve 468 The challenge of family relationships 468 The challenge of peers 468 The challenge of school 468 9.2 The sense of self 469 The development of self 469 9.3 The age of industry and achievement 471 Latency and the crisis of industry versus inferiority 471 Achievement motivation 473 9.4 Family relationships 477 The quality of parenting and family life 478 The changing nature of modern families 478 Divorce and its effects on children 480 The effects of parental employment on families 486 Non-parental sources of social support 490 9.5 Peer relationships 491 Why are peer relationships important? 491 The peer group 492 Peer group formation 497 Individual differences in peer status 498 Friendship 502 Looking back and looking forward 506 Summary 507 Key terms 508 Review questions 508 Discussion questions 509 Application questions 509 Essay question 510 Websites 510 References 511 Acknowledgements 522

viii

PART 5

Adolescence

524

CHAPTER 10

Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 525 Physical development 526 10.1 Adolescence and society 527 10.2 Body growth and physical changes during adolescence 527 10.3 Puberty 530 10.4 Variations in pubertal development 532 Psychological consequences of non-normative puberty 534 10.5 Health in adolescence 536 Adolescent nutrition 537 Eating disorders 539 Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) 542 Substance abuse 543 Cognitive development 549 10.6 Piaget’s theory: the stage of formal operations 549 Hypothetico-deductive reasoning 550 Propositional reasoning 551 Variations in the development of formal operations 551 The impact of formal operations on adolescent behaviour 552 10.7 Information-processing theories and adolescent cognitive development 553 10.8 The development of thinking skills during adolescence 555 Critical thinking 556 Decision making 558 10.9 Moral development 560 Elkind’s egocentrism 561 Kohlberg’s theory of moral development 563 Criticisms of cognitive–developmental theories of morality 565 Gilligan’s theory of moral development 566 Moral reasoning and moral behaviour during adolescence 567

CONTENTS

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

Summary 570 Key terms 572 Review questions 573 Discussion questions 573 Application questions 573 Essay question 575 Websites 575 References 575 Acknowledgements 582 CHAPTER 11

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Psychosocial development in adolescence 583 11.1 Identity development during adolescence 585 Erikson’s theory: the stage of identity versus role confusion 585 The process of identity formation 587 Individual differences in identity development: Marcia’s identity status model 588 Factors affecting identity development 591 11.2 Development of self during adolescence 594 Self-esteem 595 11.3 Family relationships during adolescence 598 Relationships with parents 599 11.4 Peer relationships during adolescence 607 Adolescent peer groups 608 Peer group conformity 611 Adolescent gangs 613 Bullying 614 Adolescent friendships 616 Romantic relationships during adolescence 618 11.5 Sexuality during adolescence 620 Transition to coitus 621 Sexual orientation 622 Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood 625 Looking back and looking forward 631 Summary 632 Key terms 633 Review questions 634 Discussion questions 634 Application questions 634 Essay question 636 Websites 636 References 636 Acknowledgements 646

PART 6

Early adulthood

647

CHAPTER 12

Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood 648 Physical development 649 12.1 Physical functioning 649 Growth in height and weight 650 Strength 651 Age-related changes 652 12.2 Health in early adulthood 653 Health behaviours 654 12.3 Stress 657 Stress and health 657 The experience of stress 658 12.4 Health-compromising behaviours 661 Health beliefs model 669 12.5 Sexuality and reproduction 671 The sexual response cycle 671 Sexual attitudes and behaviours 672 Lesbian/gay sexual preference 674 Common sexual dysfunctions 675 12.6 Infertility 676 Reproductive technologies 678 Cognitive development 679 12.7 Postformal thought 679 Critiques of formal operations 680 Is there a fifth stage? 681 12.8 Development of contextual thinking 683 Schaie’s stages of adult thinking 683 Contextual relativism 684 Adult moral reasoning 686 12.9 Post-secondary education 691 Who attends post-secondary education? 694 12.10 Work 695 Career stages 695 Gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status in the workplace 697 Growth and change 701 Summary 701 Key terms 702 Review questions 704

CONTENTS

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

ix

Discussion questions 704 Application questions 704 Essay question 704 Websites 705 References 705 Acknowledgements 714

Application questions 769 Essay question 769 Websites 769 References 769 Acknowledgements 777 PART 7

CHAPTER 13

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Psychosocial development in early adulthood 715 13.1 Theories of adult development 716 Timing of events: social clocks 717 Crisis theory: Erik Erikson’s intimacy versus isolation 719 Crisis theory: Vaillant and the Harvard ‘Grant study’ 721 Crisis theory: Levinson’s seasons of adult lives 724 Do men and women have the same ‘seasons’? 725 Relational–cultural theories of women’s development 727 13.2 Intimate relationships 728 Friendship 729 Love 734 Partner selection 737 13.3 Marriage, divorce and remarriage 739 Marriage types 739 Culture and marriage 741 Division of labour within the home 742 Marital satisfaction 746 Divorce 746 Remarriage 749 13.4 Other lifestyles 750 Singlehood 750 Cohabitation 751 13.5 Parenthood 754 Transition to parenthood 755 Single parenthood 758 Step-parent and blended families 759 Gay and lesbian families 760 Child free 762 Looking back and looking forward 765 Summary 766 Key terms 767 Review questions 768 Discussion questions 768

x

Middle adulthood

779

CHAPTER 14

Physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood 780 Physical development 782 14.1 Physical functioning 782 Strength 785 External and internal age-related changes 785 14.2 Health 788 Health and health-compromising behaviours 788 Health and inequality 791 Breast cancer 793 Prostate cancer 799 Mental health and wellbeing 802 14.3 Reproductive change and sexuality 802 Menopause 802 The male climacteric 806 Sexuality 807 Cognitive development 810 14.4 Intelligence 810 Does intelligence decline with age? 810 Schaie’s sequential studies 812 Fluid and crystallised intelligence 814 Neuroplasticity in middle age 817 14.5 Practical intelligence and expertise 818 Solving real-world problems 818 Becoming an expert 820 14.6 The adult learner 822 Returning to education and training 822 14.7 Work 825 Age and job satisfaction 828 Discrimination 829 Gender 830 Unemployment 832 Change and growth 835 Summary 835 Key terms 836

CONTENTS

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

Review questions 837 Discussion questions 837 Application questions 838 Essay question 838 Websites 838 References 839 Acknowledgements 850 CHAPTER 15

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Psychosocial development in middle adulthood 851 15.1 A multiplicity of images of middle age 852 Identity and perceptions of age 853 15.2 Crisis or no crisis? 854 Conceptual frameworks 854 Normative-crisis models 858 Personality 861 Normative personality change 862 15.3 Marriage, divorce and parenting 865 Long-term marriage 866 Cohabitation among midlife and older adults 868 The family life cycle 869 Delayed parenthood 875 Adolescent children 876 Young adult children 877 The empty nest 879 Multigenerational households 879 Midlife divorce 881 15.4 Extended family relationships 883 Grandparents 883 Ageing parents 890 Siblings 894 15.5 Bereavement 896 Mourning for parents 896 Bereavement and growth 897 Reactions to grief 898 15.6 Leisure 900 Looking back and looking forward 904 Summary 905 Key terms 906 Review questions 906 Discussion questions 907 Application questions 907 Essay question 907 Websites 907 References 907 Acknowledgements 919

PART 8

Late adulthood

921

CHAPTER 16

Physical and cognitive development in late adulthood 922 16.1 Ageing and ageism 924 Physical development 926 16.2 Longevity 926 Life expectancy 929 Theories of physical ageing 930 Mortality 931 16.3 Physical functioning in late adulthood 933 Slowing with age 933 Skin, bone and muscle changes 934 Cardiovascular system changes 936 Respiratory system changes 936 Sensory system changes 937 Changes in sexual functioning 940 16.4 Health behaviours in late adulthood 941 Diet 941 Exercise 942 Alcohol consumption 944 Medication use 945 16.5 Chronic illnesses 946 Cardiovascular disease 947 Cancer 948 Arthritis 949 Common symptoms in later years 950 16.6 Mental health and ageing 951 Elder suicide 954 Cognitive development 957 16.7 Wisdom and cognitive abilities 957 Cognitive mechanics 958 Cognitive pragmatics 959 Cognitive plasticity and training 961 16.8 The ageing brain 963 Brain changes 963 Multi-infarct dementia 965 Alzheimer’s disease 968 16.9 Work and retirement 972 What is retirement? 973 Wellbeing in retirement 976 Summary 978 Key terms 979

CONTENTS

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

xi

Review questions 980 Discussion questions 980 Application questions 980 Essay question 981 Websites 981 References 981 Acknowledgements 996

Discussion questions 1048 Application questions 1048 Essay question 1049 Websites 1049 References 1049 Acknowledgements 1061 PART 9

CHAPTER 17

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Psychosocial development in late adulthood 998 17.1 Personality development in late adulthood 999 Continuity and change in late life 1000 Integrity versus despair 1002 Optimal ageing 1002 17.2 Marriage and singlehood 1006 Spouses as caregivers 1008 Widowhood 1011 Dating and remarriage 1015 Older lesbians, gay men and transgender people 1017 Ever-single older adults 1019 17.3 Relationships with family and friends 1021 Siblings 1023 Adult grandchildren 1024 Friends 1025 Fictive kin 1026 Childlessness 1027 17.4 Problems of living: the housing continuum 1028 Independent living 1029 Assisted living 1031 Long-term care 1032 Control over living conditions 1033 17.5 Interests and activities 1034 Community involvement 1036 Religion and spirituality 1040 Looking back and looking forward 1045 Summary 1046 Key terms 1047 Review questions 1048

xii

Endings

1062

CHAPTER 18

Dying, death and bereavement 1063 18.1 Attitudes towards death 1065 Defining death 1066 18.2 Facing one’s own death 1067 Death acceptance 1068 The dying process 1074 Quality of death 1076 18.3 Caring for the dying 1080 Terminal care alternatives 1080 Euthanasia and assisted suicide 1086 18.4 Bereavement 1091 Grief 1091 Support groups 1096 Funeral and ritual practices 1096 Mourning 1098 Recovery 1101 Looking back 1103 Summary 1104 Key terms 1104 Review questions 1105 Discussion questions 1105 Application questions 1106 Essay question 1106 Websites 1106 References 1106 Acknowledgements 1113 Name index 1114 Subject index 1163

CONTENTS

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Michele Hoffnung Michele Hoffnung is Professor of Psychology at Quinnipiac University. She received her BA at Douglass College and her PhD at the University of Michigan. Her teaching has been in the areas of research methods, psychology of women, and adult development. She is editor of Roles Women Play: Readings Towards Women’s Liberation (1971) and author of What’s a Mother to Do? Conversations About Work and Family (1992) and numerous articles, essays, and book reviews.

Robert J Hoffnung Robert J Hoffnung is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of New Haven and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. Robert has taught about childhood, adolescence, and lifespan development; he has also done clinical work with children, adolescents, adults, and families. He received his BA at Lafayette College, his MA at the University of Iowa, and his PhD at the University of Cincinnati. He has published articles on educational, developmental, and mental health interventions with children, adolescents and families.

Kelvin L Seifert Kelvin L Seifert is Professor of Educational Administration, Foundations and Psychology at the University of Manitoba. He received his BA at Swarthmore College and his PhD at the University of Michigan. Kelvin’s teaching has focused both on teacher education and on the education of adult learners outside of school settings. His current research focuses on how teachers and other adults form communities online in order to develop their own learning. He is author of Educational Psychology (1991), Constructing a Psychology of Teaching and Learning (1999), and Contemporary Educational Psychology (2009), as well as articles and chapters about gender issues in teacher education and on the dynamics of online adult learning communities.

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

Alison Hine Alison Hine taught and supervised undergraduate and postgraduate students in the areas of developmental and educational psychology at Western Sydney University. She has received a top ten standing in the UniJobs Lecturer of the Year for Western Sydney University for two consecutive years, and was a national finalist in the awards in 2009. She holds a Masters degree in Educational and Developmental Psychology, and has worked extensively with leading international researchers in these fields. Alison has researched, published and presented at international and national conferences in the areas of mentoring, adult metacognition, gifted and talented, thinking skills, intelligence, and self-reflection strategies. In her career, Alison has had the privilege of meeting and dialoguing with B. F Skinner, Jerome Bruner, Howard Gardner, David Perkins and Robert Sternberg. Recently, Alison has researched and published in the areas of e-learning and metacognition, adult trust, self-efficacy and procrastination. She has researched in the area of first-year university student engagement and motivation and the emerging area of dance psychology, creativity, experiencing ‘flow’ and optimal performance. She enjoyed an active consultancy practice within these areas of interest, working with educators, administrators and business professionals. Alison also conducts workshops with parents and professionals in the areas of child and adolescent development, learning styles, motivation, intelligence, gifted and talented, and the development of thinking skills. Alison has 40 years of teaching experience and has taught extensively from preschool to tertiary education, specialising primarily in the areas of special education and gifted and talented. She recently retired but has been coaxed out of retirement to once again pursue her passion for teaching and learning at Western Sydney University.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

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xiii

Cat Pause´ Cat Paus´e is the lead editor of Queering Fat Embodiment (Ashgate). Her research focuses on the effects of fat stigma on the health and well-being of fat individuals and how fat activists resist the ‘fatpocalypse’. Her work appears in scholarly journals such as Human Development, Feminist Review, HERDSA, and Narrative Inquiries in Bioethics, as well as online in The Huffington Post and The Conversation, among others. She hosted Fat Studies: Reflective Intersections in 2012 and Fat Studies: Identity, Agency, Embodiment in 2016. Cat is also involved in sociable scholarship; her work is highlighted in her social media presence, Friend of Marilyn, on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, iTunes, and her blog.

Lynn Ward Lynn Ward received her PhD from the University of Adelaide in 1995, and is a senior lecturer in the University’s School of Psychology. Since 1990 she has taught undergraduate courses in developmental psychology, adult development and ageing, cognitive psychology, and statistics, and a postgraduate course on clinical geropsychology. Her research supervision has covered diverse developmental topics including cross-cultural ageing, capacity assessment, resilience in parents, help-seeking in rural communities, leadership development, and health habits in older adults. She was awarded a Barbara Kidman Fellowship at the University of Adelaide in 2014, a High Commendation in the Stephen Cole the Elder Prize for Excellence in Teaching from the University of Adelaide in 2003, and was a national finalist in the UniJobs Lecturer of the Year in 2009. Her teaching is informed by her research on resilience and successful ageing, emotional functioning in older adults, and factors that influence age-related changes in cognitive abilities.

Tania Signal Associate Professor Tania Signal received her PhD in Psychology from Waikato University in New Zealand. In 2003, she moved to Australia and took up a position at Central Queensland University teaching Biological Foundations of Psychology and Learning. Since then she has taught a range of courses including Intro to Human Development, Personality and Social Foundations of Psychology. Tania’s research interests fall within the area of human–animal studies with a particular focus on the role of animals within interpersonal violence and animals as facilitators of emotional and psychological development across the lifespan.

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Karen Swabey Karen Swabey is an Associate Professor in Health and Physical Education Pedagogy in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania and is the Dean and Head of School. Before entering the university sector in 1994, she had an extensive career in primary, secondary and senior secondary teaching and school leadership in Tasmania, in both state and independent schools. At the postgraduate level, Karen coordinates a number of units relating to coaching and mentoring and health and wellbeing, and also supervises a number of research higher degree students. Her areas of research interest are in social and emotional wellbeing and student preparedness for teacher education. Karen’s publication output includes book chapters, academic journal articles and peer-reviewed conference papers. She is also a Consulting Editor for the Australian Journal of Teacher Education, and reviews for a number of international journals.

Karen Yates Karen Yates is a lecturer with the College of Healthcare Sciences at James Cook University in Cairns. She is a registered nurse and registered midwife, with a strong interest and background in midwifery clinical care, education and maternity service provision. Karen teaches in both undergraduate and postgraduate nursing and midwifery programs, including coordinating a first-year nursing lifespan development subject with over 500 students enrolled across five campuses. She received her PhD in 2011 from James Cook University. Karen has a keen interest in nursing and midwifery education and the use of technology in

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teaching and learning. Her research interests include midwifery and new graduate nurse workforce issues, enhancing active learning for students enrolled across multiple campuses or in distance mode, and the use of technology and social media to enhance teaching and learning.

Rosanne Burton Smith

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Rosanne Burton Smith obtained her PhD in Psychology from the University of Tasmania and also holds a Masters degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Her professional work as a psychologist includes several years in Papua New Guinea, mainly in educational and occupational psychology, and later in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, working in the area of developmental disabilities. Her teaching and research interests include psychological assessment, developmental issues such as childhood anxiety and the effects of divorce on children and adolescents, children’s peer relationships, body image, dietary behaviour and gender differences. Rosanne has taught and supervised research at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the School of Psychology, University of Tasmania since 1989. Rosanne retired from teaching in 2007, but continues as an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Psychology, University of Tasmania.

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xv

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved. Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-05 21:10:03.

PART 1

BEGINNINGS

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One of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein, is reputed to have said ‘all that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for the development accorded the individual’. Development from infancy into childhood, childhood into adolescence, adolescence into adulthood, and throughout the adult years depicts how individuals change in some ways while remaining the same in others. Some changes may be small and fleeting, whereas others are profound and longlasting. We continue to grow, develop and change as we encounter new experiences, which serve as stimuli for greater understanding of ourselves and others. Change and constancy are the subjects of life and they are part of a larger interdisciplinary field known as developmental science which encompasses all changes we experience throughout the lifespan (Lerner, 2011). Among the constancies, some (such as your shoe size) matter little to personal identity, whereas others (such as your gender) matter a lot. The mix of change and constancy is the subject of this text and of the field known as lifespan development or developmental psychology. The study of lifespan development offers much insight into human nature — why we are what we are and how we became that way. Because describing development is a complex task, this text begins with three chapters that orient you to what lies ahead. The first two chapters explain the concept of development and describe some of the important tools of lifespan development and developmental psychology, namely the methods and theories that guide our understanding of the developmental changes that occur from conception through to old age. The third chapter describes the genetic basis of human life and the three major events that occur at the beginning of the lifespan: conception, prenatal development and birth. After completing these three chapters, you will be ready to begin exploring the main focus of lifespan development: people changing and growing throughout their lives.

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CHAPTER 1

Studying development LEARNING OUTCOMES

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 1.1 describe what is meant by the term ‘development’ 1.2 clarify the reasons why development is studied, and its importance for teachers, nurses, midwives, early childhood educators, social workers and psychologists 1.3 compare how society’s view of infancy, childhood and adolescence has changed over time 1.4 evaluate the general issues that are important in developmental psychology 1.5 explain how developmental psychologists study development 1.6 identify and explain the ethical considerations that should guide the study of development.

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OPENING SCENARIO

How many childhood memories can you recall? Do you remember your preschool years where playtime seemed endless? Can you remember your primary school years where friends were important? Can you categorise your memories into family, schools and friends? What percentage make up each group and why? When thinking back, each of us remembers different details of our life and development, but we all experience a paradoxical quality about personal memories: when comparing the past and the present, we feel as though we have changed, yet also stayed Change and continuity are both integral to the the same. As a schoolchild, perhaps you loved experience of life. spelling bees or contests. Now, as an adult, you This young girl’s love for the outdoors may be no longer participate in spelling contests and have motivated by a passion for nature that stays with her lost some of your childhood ability to figure out throughout her life. As an adult, she may choose an and remember truly unusual spellings. But perhaps outdoors job, and at an older age, she may enjoy you note, too, that you can still spell better than walks in her local neighbourhood with her partner and many adults of your age, and you seem to have friends. a general knack for handling verbal information of other kinds — perhaps computer languages — without getting mixed up. Imagine another example. As an adolescent you may have constantly wondered whether you would ever overcome shyness and be truly liked and respected by peers. As an adult, in contrast, you finally believe you have good, special friends, but maybe you also have to admit that it took effort to become sociable enough to acquire them. Continuity in the midst of change marks every human life. Sometimes changes seem more obvious than continuities, such as when a speechless infant becomes a talkative preschooler, or when a child reaches puberty and becomes an adolescent. At other times, continuities seem more obvious than changes, such as when a 60 year old still feels like a 10 year old whenever he visits his elderly parents. But close scrutiny of examples like these suggests both factors may be operating, even when one of them is partially hidden. The 60 year old feels like a child again, but, at the same time, feels different from that child. The 50-year-old professional who is now preoccupied with her job still cares deeply about her family. Although the adolescent has reached puberty they are still searching for a sense of identity. It takes both continuity and change to be fully human. We are linked to our past as part of our historical connectedness, but we are neither locked into it nor fully determined by it.

1.1 The nature of development Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

LEARNING OUTCOME 1.1 Describe what is meant by the term ‘development’.

The processes of continuity and change throughout the lifespan are called human development, a concept that explores both changes and constancies in physical growth, feelings and ways of thinking. As we will see in later chapters, a focus on change may be appropriate at certain points in a person’s life. A girl undergoing her first menstrual period, for example, may experience a number of important and sudden changes at the same time: her body begins looking different, she begins thinking of herself differently, and other people begin treating her differently. But at other times of life, continuity dominates over change. As a young adult settles into a job and family, life may seem rather stable from day to day, month to month, or even year to year. However, with the birth of a child, this stability can suddenly change and take on different dimensions. Lifespan development is the field of study that explores these patterns of stability, continuity, growth and change that occur throughout a person’s life, from birth to death. Although this CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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definition seems simplistic, we need to look deeper at the intricacies and complexities of human life to fully understand lifespan development. Both continuities and changes can take many forms. Changes can be relatively specific, such as when an infant takes their first unassisted step. Others can be rather general and unfold over a long time, such as when an older middle-aged adult gradually becomes more aware of their growing wisdom. The same can be said of continuities. Some last for only a short time compared to the decades-long span of life: a 12 year old who enjoys a certain style of rock music, for example, is likely to become a 16 year old who enjoys the same style of music; but not necessarily a 30 year old who does. Other continuities seemingly last a lifetime: an extroverted teenager — one who seeks and enjoys social companionship — is likely to still seek and enjoy companionship as a 40 year old and as an 80 year old. These examples may make the notion of lifespan development seem very broad, but note that not every change or continuity is truly ‘developmental’. Think about the impact of the weather. A sudden cold snap makes us behave differently: we put on warmer clothing and select indoor activities over outdoor ones. A continuous spell of cold weather, on the other hand, creates constancy in behaviour: we wear the same type of clothing for a period of time and engage in the same (indoor) set of activities repeatedly. In each case, our behaviour is triggered by relatively simple external events and has no lasting impact on other behaviours, feelings or thinking and so does not qualify as ‘development’. Conversely, sometimes aspects of development can occur, yet be overlooked or dismissed as something other than development. Personal identity or sense of self is an example. For each of us, our identity evolves and changes as we grow older and the changes affect our actions and feelings differently when they occur. So, our identity is undergoing patterns of growth, stability and change throughout our lives. Lifespan development researchers methodically apply scientific methods to develop theories about development, validate the accuracy of assumptions, and systematically investigate human development. A theory is a set of ordered, integrated statements that seek to explain, describe and predict human behaviour. Developmentalists are interested in how people grow and change, focusing on stability, continuity and consistency. They view development as a continuing process of growth, constancy and change.

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Multiple domains of development As we have seen, human development can take many forms. For convenience of discussion, this text distinguishes among three major types, or domains, of development: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial. The organisation of the text reflects this division by alternating chapters about physical and cognitive changes with chapters about psychosocial changes. The domain of physical development, or biological change, includes changes in the body itself and how a person uses their body. Some of these changes may be noticeable to a casual observer, such as the difference in how a person walks when they are two, twenty and eighty years of age. Others may be essentially invisible without extended observation or even medical investigation, such as the difference in the ability to hear between a 40-year-old man and his 75-year-old father. Like other forms of development, physical changes can span very long periods — years or even decades — or very short periods. For example, changes in height and weight occur rather rapidly during the early teenage years but extremely slowly during middle age. Cognitive development involves changes in methods and styles of thinking, language ability and language use, and strategies for remembering and recalling information. We tend to think of these abilities and skills as somewhat isolated within individuals; a person is said to ‘have’ a good memory, for example, as if he or she carries that skill around all the time and can display it anywhere with equal ease, no matter what the situation. As later chapters will discuss, these conceptions of cognitive development may be more convenient than accurate: memory, language and thinking are all heavily dependent on supports (and impediments) both from other people and from circumstances. A child 4

PART 1 Beginnings

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learns to read more easily, for example, if parents and teachers give lots of personal support for their efforts. In this sense, cognitive changes of reading ‘belong’ to the helpful adults as well as to the child who acquires them, and the changes are best understood as partially physical and social in nature, and not merely cognitive.

Changes happen in all domains at once — physical, cognitive and psychosocial. As this baby learns to walk, walking will become less of a goal as such and more of a means to other ends, as it is for this elderly man.

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Psychosocial development is about changes in feelings or emotions as well as changes in relations with other people. It includes interactions with family, peers, classmates and coworkers, but it also includes a person’s personal identity or sense of self. Because identity and social relationships evolve together, we often discuss them together in this text, and, as already pointed out, they also evolve in combination with physical and cognitive changes. A widower who forms satisfying friendships is apt to feel more competent than one who has difficulty doing so, and he is likely to stay healthier as well. Each domain — physical, cognitive and psychosocial — influences and relates to each of the others. The Multicultural view feature offers a cross-cultural perspective on parental acceptance and rejection, and shows how relationships can affect identity development. MULTICULTURAL VIEW

Cross-cultural parental acceptance and rejection Cross-cultural studies worldwide have confirmed the belief that children need acceptance — namely, love from parents and other attachment persons (Ali, Khaleque, & Rohner, 2015; Chyung & Lee, 2008; Khaleque, 2017; Khaleque & Rohner, 2002; Ripoll-Nunez & Alvarez, 2008; Rohner, 2014;

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5

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Rohner & Britner, 2002; Rohner, Khaleque, & Cournoyer, 2012; Rohner, Melendez, & KraimerRickaby, 2008). Regardless of age, gender or ethnicity, individuals report specific forms of psychological maladjustment. Perceiving themselves to be rejected, individuals are more inclined to develop depression, substance abuse, behaviour and mental health–related issues. Also, investigations have found that universally the perceptions of acceptance and rejection by adults and children Findings across cultures show that parental acceptance is strongly associated with high are organised around four aspects of behaviour: self-esteem, independence and emotional stability warmth/affection (coldness/lack of affection), hosin children throughout the lifespan. tility/aggression, indifference/neglect and undifferentiated rejection. Parents can vary across and within cultures in the way in which they are accepting or rejecting of their children, particularly when resettling and parenting in a different environment or context (Deng, 2016; Deng & Marlowe, 2013; Rohner, Khaleque, & Cournoyer, 2012). Parents can express acceptance verbally through praise, compliments and support, or non-verbally through hugging, approving glances and smiling. Like acceptance, parents can express rejection verbally (bullying or harsh criticism) or non-verbally (hitting, smacking, shaking or simply neglecting). Worldwide interest in this phenomenon had led to the development of the parental acceptance–rejection theory (PART). Parental acceptance–rejection theory (PART) is a socialisation theory that attempts to predict major psychological and environmental conditions whereby parents worldwide are likely to accept or reject their children (Rohner, 1980, 2014, 2016; Rohner, Khaleque, & Cournoyer, 2012; Rohner, Melendez, & Kraimer-Rickaby, 2008). This theory focuses mainly on the expressions, impact and origins of parental love. Parental acceptance and rejection were once considered polar opposites of a single dimension, and they are clearly related. However, like positive and negative affect, they can be measured independently and have somewhat independent effects. A parent who is often loving can also sometimes be harsh or even abusive (Pettit, 1997). However, in a recent study Tu, Gregson, Erath, and Pettit (2017) investigated whether parenting behaviours influenced adolescent adjustment to their peers and their peer status. The parenting behaviours studied included facilitating peer interactions, coaching on how to handle peer issues and suggesting strategies to adjust to peers. Results showed that parents facilitating in this way predicted enhanced friendship quality and lower levels of loneliness among adolescents with high peer acceptance but not among adolescents with low peer acceptance. In contrast, parental social coaching predicted better friendship quality among adolescents with low peer acceptance, but lower friendship quality among adolescents with high peer acceptance. This study concluded that not all forms of positive peer-related parenting are beneficial for all adolescents. In general, findings both within the West and across cultures show that parental acceptance is quite consistently associated with high self-esteem, independence and emotional stability, whereas the opposite is true of parental rejection (MacKinnon-Lewis, Starnes, Volling, & Johnson, 1997; Rohner & Britner, ˜ 2002; see also Caspi & Barrios, 2016; Erkman & Rohner, 2006; Munoz et al., 2017). One longitudinal study with a Western sample found that individuals who had a warm or affectionate parent are more likely, 35 years later, to have a long and happy marriage, children and close friendships in middle age (Franz, Carol, McClelland, David, & Weinberger, 1991; see also Waldinger & Schulz, 2016). A converging body of data suggests that parents (particularly mothers) who interact with their infants and preschoolers in ways that show mutual responsiveness and ‘connectedness’ tend to have children with better peer relationships, greater empathy for others and accelerated moral development (Clark & Ladd, 2000; Ferreira, Cadima, Matias, Vieira, Leal, & Matos, 2016; Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000). Conversely, multiple studies find that abused children and adults with childhood histories of abuse are more likely than their non-abused peers to view the world as a dangerous place, have poor self-esteem and have difficulty maintaining close relationships (see Bolger & Patterson, 2001; Bolger, Patterson, & Kupersmidt, 1998; Finkelhor, 1994; Gelinas, 1983; Jud, Fegert, & Finkelhor, 2016). A large cross-cultural study correlating parental acceptance–rejection with personality traits in children and adults demonstrated that these patterns are indeed universal (Khaleque, 2017; Rohner, 1975).

6

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Cultures in which parents were more rejecting (as rated from anthropological reports) produced children who were more hostile and dependent and adults who were less emotionally stable than cultures with more benign parenting practices.

Table 1.1 shows some major landmarks of development in each of the three domains. It also hints at some of the connections among specific developments, both between domains and within each single domain. Gender role awareness, for example, is noted as emerging in early childhood; it sets the stage for gender segregation in middle childhood and identity in adolescence. Retirement is noted as happening in late adulthood. Declines in health or physical strength often accompany this change in social circumstances. Development is a continual unfolding and integration of changes in all domains, beginning at birth. Changes in one domain often affect those in another domain. In addition to the examples from table 1.1, numerous other relationships exist between and within domains of development. We will discuss these relationships in later chapters. Meanwhile, to obtain a better concept of what development from a lifespan perspective means, consider a more extended, complete example. TABLE 1.1

Selected landmarks of development Domain Physical

Cognitive

Psychosocial

r Startle reflex r Grasping r Sucking

r Visual r Auditory r Tracking

r Cries r Soothes at feeding

r Walking r Standing r Reaching and grasping

r Language acquisition r Searches for lost objects

r Becomes attached to caregiver(s)

r r r r

r Vocabulary grows r Dramatic play

r Preferred playmates r Gender role awareness r Racial awareness

r Skilful running r Throwing r Special skills (e.g. riding a bicycle)

r Problem solving r Reading r Writing

r Friendships r Gender segregation

Adolescence (ages 12–18)

r Puberty r Growth spurt

r Some abstract thinking r Development of adultlike interests

r Interest in sexual relations (for most) r Dating (for some) r First job

Early adulthood (ages 20–40)

r Peak of fertility, strength and speed

r Development of postformal thought

r Finding a mate r Earning a living r Making a home

r Decline in fertility

r Expertise and practical intelligence

r Family changes r Death of parents

r Decline in physical strength

r Achievement of wisdom

r Retirement r Death of spouse/partner

Birth

Infancy (ages 0–2)

Early childhood (ages 2–5)

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Middle childhood (ages 6–12)

Middle adulthood (ages 40–60) Late adulthood (ages 60 and beyond)

Climbing stairs First throw of a ball Simple drawings Writing

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7

Development from a lifespan perspective: voices across the lifespan

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Throughout the lifespan, individuals are trying to make sense of what it means to become a child, adolescent or adult and how at each stage their development changes or remains constant. What particular developmental issues are they facing at each stage and how are they influenced by differing contexts of development? To understand these developmental changes, we interviewed individuals at different developmental periods and asked them what being a child, adolescent, parent or adult meant to them. Watch the video to hear their voices across the lifespan! The voices across the lifespan reveal several things about human development. The voices show that the domains of development unfold continuously across the lifespan and are influenced by differing contexts and environments, according to ages and stages. The voices of children, teenagers, adults and older adults depict the importance of unique, personal experiences when exploring human development. Some aspects of development may be unique to the individual, but other experiences can be understood as examples of human changes that are universal or nearly universal. From the point of view of lifespan development, these voices raise questions about continuity, change, developmental context and stages over time. To help organise thinking about the developmental questions expressed by these voices, developmental psychologists such as Bronfenbrenner, Baltes, and Ford and Lerner have investigated development from an ecological systems model, normative and non-normative development, and a dynamic systems perspective.

Developmental perspectives Developmental psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner has created a widely used framework for thinking about the multiple influences on individuals (Bronfenbrenner, 1989, 2005; Bronfenbrenner & Evans, 2000;

8

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Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Garbarino, 1992, 2014) to help organise thinking about developmental questions such as ‘What are some of the influences on human development?’ and ‘In making us who we are today, what do we owe to family, peers, societal values and attitudes?’ Bronfenbrenner’s framework depicts the individual as developing within a complex system of relationships and contexts — described as ecological systems — which are sets of people, settings, recurring events, cultural values and programs that are related to one another, have stability and influence the person over time. Table 1.2 and figure 1.1 illustrate Bronfenbrenner’s four ecological systems. TABLE 1.2 Ecological level Microsystem

Mesosystem

Exosystem

Macrosystem

Bronfenbrenner’s model of ecological system levels Issues affecting the individual

Definition

Examples

Situations in which the person has face-to-face contact with influential others. ‘A pattern of activities, social roles, interpersonal relationships experienced by the developing person in a given face to face setting with particular physical, social and symbolic features that invite, permit, more complex interaction.’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1994, p.1649)

Family, school, peer group, church, workplace

Relationships between microsystems; the connections between situations

Home–school, workplace–family, school–neighbourhood

Do settings respect each other?

Settings in which the person does not participate but in which significant decisions are made affecting the individuals who do interact directly with the person

Spouse’s place of employment, local school board, local government

Are decisions made with the interests of the person in mind?

‘Blueprints’ for defining and organising the institutional life of the society

Ideology, social policy, shared assumptions about human nature, the ‘social contract’

Are some groups valued at the expense of others (e.g. sexism, racism)?

Is the person regarded positively? Is the person accepted? Is the person reinforced for competent behaviour? Is the person exposed to enough diversity in roles and relationships? Is the person given an active role in reciprocal relationships?

Do settings present basic consistency in values?

How well do social supports for families balance stresses for parents?

Is there an individualistic or a collectivistic orientation?

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Is violence a norm? Source: Adapted from Garbarino (1992).

1. The microsystem refers to situations in which the person has face-to-face contact with influential others. 2. The mesosystem refers to the connections and relationships that exist between two or more microsystems and that influence the person because of their relationships. 3. The exosystem consists of settings in which the person does not participate but still experiences decisions and events that affect them indirectly.

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9

4. The macrosystem is the overarching institutions, practices and patterns of belief that characterise society as a whole and take the smaller micro-, meso- and exosystems into account. FIGURE 1.1

Bronfenbrenner’s four ecological settings for developmental change As shown here, Bronfenbrenner describes human development as a set of overlapping ecological systems. All of these systems operate together to influence what a person becomes as they grow and develop. In this sense, development is not exclusively ‘within’ the person but is also ‘within’ the person’s environment. The chronosystem, not included in the diagram, is part of the dynamic ever-changing environment of the individual that produces new conditions affecting development. The prefix ‘chrono’ means ‘time’. In this temporal dimension, life changes can be imposed on the individual or they can arise from within the individual. For example, as children grow and develop, they select, create and modify many of their own experiences and settings. Therefore, time has a prominent place in each of the levels of microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem.

Macrosystem Attitudes and ideologies of the culture Exosystem Extended family

Mesosystem Friends of family

Neighbours Microsystem Family Health services

Spouse’s workplace

Peers

PERSON

Church group

Mass media

School

Legal services Workplace

Social welfare services

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(e.g. social policy) Source: Adapted from Garbarino (1992).

Recently, Bronfenbrenner characterised his model as the bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). The bioecological model represents non-human interaction. The interaction is with objects and symbols, and the model has evolved as a theoretical system for the scientific study of human development over time. As Bronfenbrenner and Morris state, ‘the new model is not a paradigm shift, but rather represents a transition from a focus on the environment to a focus on proximal processes as engines of development . . . (process, person, context and time), and the dynamic, interactive relationships among them’ (Abstract, p. 1). 10

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Similarly to Bronfenbrenner, German-born psychologist Paul Baltes provides an important perspective through his emphasis on the nature of development and important historical influences on development. Baltes and Nesselroade (1979; Baltes, 2014) identified three influences that are determined by the interaction of biological and environmental factors. These three influences are normative age-graded, normative history-graded and non-normative (see figure 1.2). Normative age-graded influences have a strong relationship with chronological age. For example, the onset of puberty during adolescence is influenced by biological determinants, whereas beginning school at 5 or 6 years of age is an example of a normative age-graded influence with environmental, rather than biological, determinants. Normative history-graded influences are associated with historical time, such as plague and famine, which are examples of strong biological determinants of development. Historical events such as the introduction of television or changes in family size and composition have little biological determinants. Non-normative events do not occur in any normative age-graded or history-graded manner. The effects of brain damage after a car accident have strong biological determinants; however, the effects of divorce upon development have less strong biological determinants. FIGURE 1.2

Baltes’ model of normative and non-normative development

Basic determinants

Influences on development Normative age-graded

Biological Interaction

Interaction

Normative history-graded

Environmental Non-normative

Time

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Source: Baltes and Nesselroade (1979).

Two leading developmentalists, Ford and Lerner, present yet another perspective of development — the developmental systems perspective. Through this perspective, Ford and Lerner (1992; Lerner, 2015) investigate how an individual carries out transactions with their environment and how, through these transactions, their biological, psychological behavioural and environmental elements change or remain constant. Developmental systems theory attempts to understand how multiple elements interact and shape a person’s life. This theory played an important role in the shaping of developmentalists’ research agendas in the 1990s, and more recently in the 2000s. Through these perspectives in developmental psychology, researchers also acknowledge consistency and variability in development. The dynamic systems approach to studying and explaining lifespan development views the individual’s mind, body, physical and social worlds, and experiences as constantly in motion, creating an integrated system that is dynamic, constantly evolving and moving. The dynamic systems perspective actively reorganises and modifies the components of the system, responding to environmental and biological changes. The Focusing on feature looks at the critical disadvantages that Indigenous Australians today confront in relation to life expectancy, infant and child mortality, education, and employment.

CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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FOCUSING ON

Closing the gap for Indigenous Australians As the ultimate intergovernmental forum in Australia, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) — consisting of the prime minister, state and territory premiers, and chief ministers — aims to advance policy reforms that are of national significance. The role of COAG is to ensure that these reforms are implemented through coordinated action of all Australian governments and result in improvement in the lives of all Australians. In 2008, as part of the National Indigenous Reform Agreement, COAG released the Closing the gap in Indigenous disadvantage paper, identifying six aims to tackle the disadvantage that Indigenous Australians faced in education, employment, infant and child mortality, and life expectancy. These aims are to: r close the gap in life expectancy within a generation (by 2031) r halve the gap in mortality rates for Indigenous children under five by 2018 r ensure access to early childhood education for all Indigenous four year olds in remote communities by 2013 r halve the gap in reading, writing and numeracy achievements for children by 2018 r halve the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12 (or equivalent) attainment rates by 2020 r halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and other Australians by 2018 (COAG, p. 1). Building on the 2008 national apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, ‘Closing the gap’ pledges government expenditure that will improve opportunities for Indigenous Australians in key areas. Five areas have been targeted for development of programs and training of staff to implement and sustain these programs. Closing the gap in Indigenous health outcomes The National Partnership Agreement on closing the gap in Indigenous health outcomes, agreed by COAG in 2008, commits governments to around $1.6 billion of expenditure over four years. Key activities during 2010–11 included the rollout of smoking cessation and reduction programs, and training of workers to support these programs (COAG, 2014; Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014a, 2014b). Supporting Indigenous early childhood development The $564 million National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous early childhood development provides for early learning, support for Indigenous families, and improved health for mothers and their children. As part of the agreement, a network of 38 children and family centres is being established, offering integrated early childhood and parenting services. The first centre opened in April 2011, and all centres were established by 2014.

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Improving remote Indigenous housing The ten-year, $5.5 billion National Partnership Agreement on remote Indigenous housing was established to reform responsibilities between the Australian, state and territory governments in the provision of housing for Indigenous Australians living in remote communities, and to address overcrowding, homelessness, poor housing conditions and severe housing shortages in those communities. Investments in schooling The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan was endorsed by COAG in May 2011. The plan commits governments to a unified approach to closing the gap in education outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. It brings together mainstream education reforms, under COAG’s National Education Agreement, with a range of actions specific to improving outcomes for Indigenous students. The States and Territories have identified 900 focus schools under the action plan, where actions will make the greatest difference in progressing the targets for education. The plan reflects the commitment

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PART 1 Beginnings

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-04 18:32:11.

by governments to introduce substantial structural and innovative reforms in early childhood education and schooling.

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New remote service delivery model The $291 million National Partnership Agreement on remote service delivery aims to improve access to government services for Indigenous Australians, raise the standard and range of services being delivered in remote communities, improve governance and leadership, and increase economic and social partnership wherever possible. A single government interface, including a Government Business Manager and Indigenous Engagement officer, is now operating in 29 priority locations. These are supported by six regional operations centres, staffed by Commonwealth and state/territory officers. Boards of management are established in each jurisdiction, and community members are making an important contribution through the development and implementation of local implementation plans (Council of Australian Governments, 2014, pp. 1, 2). The state of play: Closing the Gap’s progress The 2008 national agreement between Australian governments, ‘Closing the Gap’, was proclaimed as a solution to resolve the health inequalities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and nonIndigenous Australians. The question now is ‘what outcomes have been achieved to date?’ In a 2013 paper entitled ‘Closing the Gap on Indigenous Disadvantage – An analysis of the provisions in the 2013–2014 budget’, Dr Lesley Russell, Senior Research Fellow in the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute at the Australian National University, states that ‘total government expenditure on Indigenous health has risen significantly since the commencement of the National Partnership Agreement (NPA) on Closing the Gap on Indigenous Health Outcomes and now represents about 5.1% of total government health expenditure’ (p. 5). It is important to note that at this time Indigenous Australians made up 2.6 per cent of the population. In 2016, it was demonstrated that there have been significant resources invested in the ‘Closing the Gap’ Australian Indigenous health initiative. This targeted outlay has led to substantial gains; for example, the gap in child mortality rates between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australians decreased 34 per cent between 1998–2014 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2015; Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2016). Improvement in mortality rates in Indigenous Australian children under five years old may be a result of improved access to ante- and postnatal care and increased parental education programs in Indigenous Australian communities. Success has been achieved in increasing the numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children accessing early childhood education, improving numeracy and literacy competency. More Indigenous Australian students are completing Year 12 education, which is currently on track to achieve Year 12 attainment rates by 2020. According to the 2016 Closing the Gap Prime Minister’s Report, employment rates for Indigenous Australians have declined. This is an area of significant concern; more will need to be done if this outcome is to be achieved by 2018 and the National Partnership Agreement upheld. Also, there has been limited progress in closing the gap in life expectancy between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation by 2031. One of the strengths of the COAG ‘Closing the Gap’ commitment is the recognition that a whole-ofgovernment approach is needed to deliver improvements in health inequalities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-indigenous Australians. However, as Angell, Eades, and Jan (2017) report, ‘barriers that prevent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians accessing appropriate health services include financial, cultural, geographic and health-literacy impediments to care. Policy interventions to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians need to recognise these barriers and assist in overcoming them’ (p. 4). Furthermore, they emphasise that ‘determining the most cost-effective means of delivering health services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians needs to be a priority for government to strengthen current efforts to ‘Close the Gap’ with a targeted and effective system of prevention with primary and population health care expenditure in particular’ (p. 5). Therefore, while there have been some gains in addressing the health inequalities between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous Australians, there has been limited or no progress in other areas. Attention has now turned to social determinants as one of the main barriers to indigenous health equity. A recognition of indigenous values and preferences will assist in prioritising interventions

CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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13

and policies so that resources to improve indigenous health are used effectively. What remains to be seen is whether the ‘Closing the Gap’ initiative will continue to remain a focus of government and health care providers, and if outcomes will be achieved by their target date.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Can you think of a program or project that would help achieve the outcomes of ‘Closing the Gap’? How could this project improve health and life expectancy for Indigenous Australians and New Zealanders? Can you identify aspects of the approaches of Bronfenbrenner, Baltes, and Ford and Lerner in improving health, education and life expectancy of Indigenous Australians and New Zealanders?

1.2 Why study development?

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LEARNING OUTCOME 1.2 Clarify the reasons why development is studied, and its importance for teachers, nurses, midwives, early childhood educators, social workers and psychologists.

Knowing about human development can help you in five major ways. First, it can give you realistic expectations about children, adolescents and adults. Developmental psychology tells you, for example, when infants usually begin talking and when schoolchildren tend to begin reasoning abstractly. It also describes a range of issues faced by parents and grandparents. Admittedly, developmental psychology often gives such information only as averages or generalities: when a ‘typical’ person acquires a particular skill, behaviour or emotion. Even so, the averages can help you know what to expect from specific individuals. Second, knowledge of development can help you respond appropriately to a person’s actual behaviour. If a preschool boy tells his mother that he wants to marry her, should she ignore his remark or make a point of correcting his misconception? If a father is worried about his elderly mother’s complaints about health, should he actively intervene in her medical decisions or learn to have faith in her ability to deal with them herself? Developmental psychology can help answer such questions by indicating the sources and significance of many patterns of human thought, feelings, behaviour and growth. Third, knowledge of development can help you recognise the wide range of normal behaviours, and indicate when departures from normal behaviours are truly significant. If a child talks very little by age two, should their parents and doctors be concerned? What if the child is still not talking much by age four? If a 50 year old reports feeling less ambitious at work than he did when he was younger, are his feelings unusual or typical? We can answer these questions more easily if we know both what usually happens and what can happen to people as they move through life. Developmental psychology will help by placing particular behaviours in a broader context, one that (like Bronfenbrenner’s framework pictured in figure 1.1 and Baltes’s normative influences on development) calls attention to the many simultaneous influences on every person’s life. As we will see in the chapters ahead, this perspective leads to the conclusion that the importance of any particular behaviour depends not just on the age of the person doing it, but also on the place of the behaviour in the overall life of the person. Fourth, studying development can help you understand yourself. Developmental psychology makes explicit the processes of psychological growth — processes that each of us may overlook in our personal, everyday lives. Even more importantly, it can help you make sense out of your own experiences, such as whether it really mattered that you reached puberty earlier (or later) than your friends did. Finally, studying development can make you a professional advocate for the needs and rights of people of all ages, whether young, old, or in between. By knowing in detail the capacities of people of diverse ages and backgrounds, you will be in a good position to persuade others of their importance and value. All of us, including most readers of this text, have a common stake in making our society a more humane place to live. 14

PART 1 Beginnings

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What do you hope to gain by studying developmental psychology (besides a degree!)? Take a minute to think about this question — maybe even jot down some notes about it. Then, share your ideas with two or three classmates. How do they differ?

1.3 The life course in times past LEARNING OUTCOME 1.3 Compare how society’s view of infancy, childhood and adolescence has changed over time.

Until just a few hundred years ago, children in Western society were not perceived as fully fledged members of society or even as genuine human beings (Ari`es, 1962). During medieval times, infants tended to be regarded rather like talented pets: at best interesting and even able to talk, but not creatures worth caring about deeply. Children graduated to adult status early in life, around age seven or eight, by taking on major, adultlike tasks for the community. At that time, children who today would be attending year 2 or 3 at school might have been caring for younger siblings, working in the fields, or apprenticed to a family to learn a trade. Because children took on adult responsibilities so soon, the period we call adolescence was also unknown. Teenagers assumed adult roles. Although these roles often included marriage and childrearing, most people in their teens lived with their original families, helping with household work and with caring for other people’s children until well into their twenties. Although this may all seem harsh by modern, middle-class standards, it was not necessarily bad in the context in which it occurred. Historians and sociologists have pointed out that children and youth did have to work, but they tended to do only tasks of which they were capable, and they earned modest respect (if not wealth) from the community because they made true economic contributions to it (Hareven, 1986, 2017; Sommerville, 1990, 2014) — an advantage modern children experience much less often. Adults at that time also showed more awareness of the profound differences among children in their formative, childhood experiences. The modern tendency to view all children as innocent and needing protection has also led, ironically, to much more uniform views about the nature of childhood and insensitivity to the impact of culture and economic class (Hendrick, 1997). The concept of childhood as a distinct period in a person’s life is a relatively new invention, at least as judged by how children have been portrayed in paintings over the centuries. Until the nineteenth century, painters generally depicted children as miniature adults, with adultlike clothing, facial expressions and bodily proportions. By the nineteenth century, though, childhood had come to be seen — and valued — as a unique time, one quite different from adulthood. Children were expected to wear special types of clothing and hairstyles and engage in their own kind of activities and pastimes.

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Early precursors to developmental study Why did awareness of childhood as a special time of life eventually emerge? Society was becoming less rural and more industrialised. During the eighteenth century, factory towns began attracting large numbers of workers, who often brought their children with them. ‘Atrocity stories’ became increasingly common: reports of young children in England becoming caught and disabled in factory machinery and of children being abandoned on the streets. Partly because of these changes, many people became more conscious of childhood and adolescence as unique periods of life — periods that influence later development. At the same time, they became concerned with arranging appropriate, helpful experiences for children. Without a doubt, the change in attitudes eventually led to many social practices that we today consider beneficial to children and youth. One positive gain was compulsory education, instituted because children needed to be prepared for the adult world, rather than simply to be immersed in it. Another was the CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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passage of laws against child labour, to protect children from the physical hardships of factory life and make it less tempting for them to go to work instead of to school. But these gains also had a dark side. Viewing children as innocent also contributed to increasing beliefs that children are incompetent, their activities are unimportant, and the people who care for children deserve less respect than other people. That is why, it was argued, children cannot do ‘real’ work and why they need education (Cannella, 1997; Cannella & Viruru, 2004). John Locke viewed children as born as a tabula rasa (Latin for ‘blank slate’) in 1690, arguing children were born with a potential that with the right guidance and experience could develop into reason. The view of the innocent child found its most influential voice in Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who, in 1762, published Emile, or On Education, (which was translated from French to English with an introduction by Allan Bloom in 1979) in which he argued children should be allowed to develop at their own pace in natural surroundings, shielded from a corrupt society and adult oppression. Rousseau believed children were born innocent and naturally good, only to be corrupted by society. In Emile, he argued for a child-centred philosophy, in which adults should be encouraging and receptive to the child’s needs. Viewing children as innocent contributed to the idea that children are essentially passive and lacking in opinions and goals worth respecting. It was thought adults had to supervise them in school and pass laws on their behalf (Glauser, 1997; Kitzinger, 1997). These were early signs of what later came to be called ageism, a prejudice against individuals based on their age, which eventually also affected social attitudes about adults as well — and especially older adults.

The emergence of modern developmental study

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During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the growing recognition of childhood led to new ways of studying children’s behaviour. One of these was the baby biography, a detailed diary of a particular child, usually the author’s own. One of the most famous English baby biographies was written and published by Charles Darwin (1877) and contained lengthy accounts of his son Doddy’s activities and accomplishments. The tradition of rich description continued in the twentieth century with Gesell, who observed children at precise ages doing specific things, such as building with blocks, jumping and hopping (Gesell, 1926). After studying more than five hundred children, Gesell generalised standards of normal development, or norms — behaviours typical of children at certain ages. Although the norms applied primarily to white, middle-class children and to specific situations and abilities, they gave a wider ranging picture of child development than was possible from baby biographies alone. The method of descriptive observation in developmental research has persisted into the present. An influential observer in this century has been Jean Piaget, who described many details of his own three children’s behaviour, as well as that of adolescents (Piaget, 1963). Others have provided sensitive commentary on adulthood, some (but not all) of it based on descriptive commentary; for example, Bernice Neugarten (1967, 1974, 1996) has studied the lives of middle-aged adults from a number of perspectives. Paul Baltes (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006) developed a descriptive theory of successful, optimal ageing focusing on selection, optimisation and compensation as part of old age which added significantly to developmental psychology in this area. These works have begun to answer questions about the nature of human development and the influences on it at different points in the lifespan. But they have created some new issues as well, issues that have become fundamental to current research and thinking in the field. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What are the merits and problems of descriptive study of human beings? One way to find out is for you and two or three classmates to make separate written observations of the same events. Visit a place with people in it (even your developmental psychology classroom), and separately write about what you see one particular person doing. Afterward, compare notes. How well do they agree, and when and how do they differ? Discuss why there are differences in your observations. Are these differences important in research? Why?

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PART 1 Beginnings

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1.4 Perspectives on human development LEARNING OUTCOME 1.4 Evaluate the general issues that are important in developmental psychology.

As we mentioned earlier, this text is about human development, and in particular about developmental psychology, the study of continuity and change from birth to death. As the term implies, developmental psychology is not confined to any one period of life, such as childhood, adolescence or adulthood (sometimes psychologists call these by more specific names like child psychology, the psychology of adolescence, or the psychology of adulthood). Developmental psychology has at its core a commitment to understanding how human beings think, feel and act at different ages. Development is committed to the systematic study of the human condition, a commitment that we will look at more closely in this chapter. There are four underlying foundations to the field of developmental study, which inform and direct this study in distinct ways. These are: 1. human continuity and change 2. the interplay between lifelong growth and (eventual) decline 3. lifespan changes at different ages and the acknowledgement of individual differences 4. noting and respecting the wide diversity among individuals and the sources of that diversity. These themes are summarised in table 1.3 and will feature repeatedly in the chapters ahead. TABLE 1.3

Perspectives on human development

Issue

Key question

Continuity within change

How do we account for underlying continuity in qualities, behaviours and skills in spite of apparent change?

Lifelong growth

What is the potential for growth — emotional, cognitive and physical?

Changing vantage points

How do key life events change in meaning as a result of changing roles and experiences?

Developmental diversity

What factors create differences in individuals’ development across their lifespan?

To understand these influential foundations, let us look briefly at each of them now.

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Continuity within change As developmental psychology explains, relates, compares and predicts development across the lifespan, it encounters many examples of discontinuity in people’s lives. Discontinuous development is a process in which development occurs in distinct stages or steps, with each step resulting in behaviour that is qualitatively (a change in kind or type; new characteristics that are different from those previously existing, e.g. changing from a caterpillar to a butterfly) different from the behaviour at earlier steps. Development is a series of reorganisations, with ways of responding to the environment emerging at specific times, in contrast to continuous development, which is gradual development wherein achievements at one level build quantitatively (a change in amount, a change in the number or degree of some pre-existing characteristic; e.g. an increase in height). A child who, at age two, protested bitterly over the slightest separation from their mother may now, at age 35, be very securely attached to their parents. The boy who, at age eight, enjoyed identifying and drawing flowers denies any interest in ‘sissy stuff’ at age 20; then, at age 60, he returns to these interests. The man who ‘had no time for his children’ in early middle age becomes, in his seventies, the most devoted grandfather in the neighbourhood. All these transformations have taken years, even decades, to occur. It is the lifespan perspective — the comparisons among widely differing periods of life — that makes change seem more frequent and obvious. Such changes would be less obvious if development were studied over shorter periods of time. The child who protests separation at age two is still likely to protest at age three, at least somewhat. The man with no time for children at CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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age 40 is still likely to have little time for them at age 45. Developmental theories that accept the concept of discontinuous development acknowledge that development takes place in stages, namely qualitative changes in development that are characteristic of specific periods of development. One challenge of developmental psychology is to identify the factors that underlie developmental changes that occur over the lifespan. In essence, the field looks for the continuities hidden within longterm changes. Developmental psychology asks, ‘How do we account for underlying continuity in qualities, behaviours and skills in spite of apparent change across the lifespan?’ Consider the 35 year old who protested over separation at age two but now enjoys a secure relationship with their parents. Is there an underlying continuity between their behaviour at two and their behaviour at 35? Perhaps a connection exists: when, as a two year old, they cried at their mother’s departure, maybe they were not just complaining about being ‘abandoned’ but also expressing the strength of their attachment. Perhaps their tantrums over separation even showed their commitment to the relationship, both to their mother and to themselves. The two year old’s protests actually may have reflected a high comfort level, rather than a low one, in their bond to their mother, showing their confidence that they would not be punished for expressing their opinion! Later, at 35, they are in a better position to express their strong attachment directly, particularly because they no longer feel that separations and reunions are completely out of their control. Across the three decades of their life, what was continuous was strong attachment; what was discontinuous or changeable was the way the attachment was expressed.

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Lifelong growth This theme of developmental psychology highlights the potential for growth at all ages, including not only childhood and adolescence but also adulthood and most of old age. Growth can occur in many areas of living, although it is not inevitable. For example, the psychologist William Damon has explored the development of moral goals in a series of research studies from infancy through to middle age (Damon, 1996, 2002, 2008, 2013). By ‘moral goals’ he refers to the formation of a sense of right and wrong, and the disposition to act on this sense. He points out that a moral sense is never formed completely, but deepens steadily throughout the lifespan, borrowing and incorporating ideas and commitments from all of a person’s previous experiences at each new age. During infancy and the early preschool years, moral goals depend heavily on a child’s ability to empathise (had actually felt what someone else feels) and sympathise (be aware of another’s feelings even though not experiencing the other’s feelings directly). Empathy and sympathy direct many actions of preschoolers; a three year old might, for example, hand a favourite teddy bear to a crying playmate. Damon found that during the primary school years, children use these capacities to develop moral concepts — ideas about equity and fairness. For example, a ten year old will have definite personal opinions about how to distribute a reward of chocolate to group members when they have worked on a common project. Yet their opinions at this age will not necessarily translate into actions consistent with their beliefs. They may privately believe that a group member who works harder deserves more chocolate as a reward; yet publicly they will settle for some other distribution of rewards, such as simply ‘paying’ everyone the same amount of chocolate regardless of their effort. There are various reasons for such inconsistencies between moral belief and action, but Damon points to one reason that applies particularly to children. Children have not yet linked their moral goals with other realms of living and thinking, or with their self-concepts or self-identities. So at this age it is possible to believe one thing about morality (e.g. ‘pay according to effort’) but do another (e.g. ‘pay equally to all’). The result is a morality that looks quite different in middle childhood than in infancy: a morality that includes words, but words that often do not match deeds. It is tempting to regard the change as a sort of hypocrisy, and therefore as a regression or step backward in development, which is a qualitative reorganisation of development and an example of discontinuous development. However, as Damon points out, childhood morality represents psychological growth, because it is an extension of the same empathetic and sympathetic abilities that originated and were used in earlier years. In developing verbal concepts 18

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of equity, children essentially put themselves in the place of other people and imagine how others feel, evidencing a change and growth in their lifelong moral development. In May 2013, Tom Krause, producer of the SBS Australia program The Observer Effect, reported on the Adam Goodes case that awakened a nation. The Sydney Swans star had just scored his third goal and as he ran past supporters in the stands, he heard a young girl in the front row yell out that he was an ‘ape’. Standing up against racism, Goodes was so upset that he disappeared into the sidelines and then finally into the dressing room without waiting to celebrate the Swans victory. As he said in a press conference following the incident: I am pretty gutted, to be honest. To win, the first of its kind in 13 years, to win by 47 points against Collingwood, to play such a pivotal role, it sort of means nothing. To come to the boundary line, to hear a 13-year-old girl call me an ape — and it’s not the first time on a footy field that I have been referred to as a monkey or an ape — it was shattering (Krause, 2013).

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The young girl was later evicted from the ground. She apologised to Goodes, saying she did not know calling an Indigenous player an ape was racial vilification. According to Krause, Adam Goodes showed his class by making an issue of the incident without criticising the teenager, and explained to her why it was so hurtful to him. Krause further outlines the importance for educators to explain what empathy means, and asking students to put themselves in the shoes of others to demonstrate the pain racism can cause (Krause, 2013). In 2014, Goodes went on to become Australian of the Year.

During adulthood, moral goals gradually become reconciled with self-identity — though only a minority does this completely (Colby & Damon, 1992; Malin, Liauw, & Damon, 2017). Who ‘I’ am is increasingly defined by what I believe to be right and wrong, or good and bad. Aligning my ‘self’ with moral ideas leads to stronger commitments to actions that embody these ideals. If I believe in a certain method of payment for group work, as in the chocolate example, I am likely to say so. At the CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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same time, the increasing sophistication of my thinking means I may also balance self-assertion against other moral commitments, such as not offending others unnecessarily. The result, in adulthood, is less ‘verbal hypocrisy’ than in childhood, but also less predictability and more diversity of both belief and action. These changes represent further moral growth, because the moral complexities of adulthood are still based on the abilities to empathise and sympathise — the abilities developed initially in infancy and the preschool years. From birth through to middle adulthood (and probably beyond), moral goals and moral thinking grow continuously, while also changing character: from an exclusive basis in intuitions (empathy and sympathy), to distinct verbal beliefs and to beliefs and actions partially reconciled.

Changing meanings and vantage points By nature, developmental psychology deals with key events and themes of life from a number of different lenses. Work, play, love, sex, death and the family — these and other universal experiences mean different things as a person ages, and mean different things depending on a person’s current roles and responsibilities. Parenthood takes on new forms and significance, for example, as children grow older; it means one thing to an expectant mother or a young father of an infant but something quite different to an elderly parent whose children have children of their own. Parenthood also looks quite different to a child in a family compared to the parents themselves or to other relatives. Many researchers and theorists also view development as plastic (Lemme, 2006; Stamps & Krishnan, 2017) at all ages, meaning development is flexible and there are opportunities for change. However, the plasticity of individuals varies; depending on experiences and the ability of individuals to adapt to change. An Australian psychologist illustrated the extent of such differences in perspective, using one type of work: everyday household chores (Goodnow, 1996; Goodnow & Lawrence, 2015). Most families, whatever their size and composition, work out understandings about which family member should do which chores. Whether or not the work is divided equally, the arrangement itself is supposed to be known and agreed on by all. Goodnow points out, however, that this ideal is rarely achieved fully. An ‘official’ division of household labour may really be understood or accepted only by the parents, or even just by one parent (most often the mother). Multiple, competing views of ‘who should do what’ are common. Other family members (such as children) may have their own ideas about how much housework they ought to do and about which particular jobs reasonably belong to each person. Furthermore, the multiple views are also likely to change over time. One reason is that children grow and therefore acquire new housekeeping skills, engage in activities that make new housekeeping demands (like hosting friends as they get older), or leave home altogether. The other reason is that parents also grow and change their own activities and obligations; for example, a parent may start working or get a divorce and the new conditions will alter their view of what housework needs doing and by whom. The result of these factors is twofold: in most families, conflict about housework is likely at least some of the time, and any conflict is likely to disappear eventually — being replaced by other disagreements about housework. It is still the same housework, but people’s views about ‘who does what’ change.

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Developmental diversity Developmental psychology searches for general trends and patterns that account for important changes during childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Developmental psychology, however, is also likely to note differences in patterns of development: differences created both by individual experiences and by social and cultural circumstances (Baltes, Lindenberger, & Staudinger, 2006; Baltes & Staudinger, 1996, 2000; Wink & Staudinger, 2016). Awareness of these differences forms the basis of the developmental understanding individuals develop in distinct contexts, namely, the unique combinations of genetic, environmental, social and cultural circumstances that influence individual diversity and result in different paths of change. An enduring developmental question involves the extent to which an individual’s development is a result of genetically determined nature or the result of nurture — including environmental influences 20

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and developmental experiences. In this context, nature refers to genetically inherited traits, abilities and capacities from parents and grandparents that are predetermined by the unfolding of genetic information. In contrast, nurture refers to the environmental influences that shape behaviour, as well as psychological experiences before and after birth. This age-old debate is known as the nature–nurture controversy. Although developmental theories emphasise the role of both nature and nurture throughout the course of development they tend to vary in their emphasis, as you will see throughout the following chapters in this text. For example, consider the following questions: ‘Do children acquire language because they are genetically predisposed to do so, or because parents teach them language and they model the language that they hear in their environment?’ ‘What do we owe to our genetic inheritance or environmental influences in regard to individual differences in height, weight, intelligence, personality or social skills? Is it nature or nurture?’

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Moodiness in the teenager years can be a result of genetic or environmental factors — or both.

Throughout this text, we will see that these are not just theoretical arguments; rather, they are arguments with practical implications and consequences. The crucial point is that joint influences of nature and nurture can be observed throughout the lifespan. The interaction of genetic and environmental factors is complex. Certain genetic traits not only have a direct influence on behaviour, but can also indirectly influence and shape an individual’s environment. For example, a teenager who is consistently moody, demanding and self-centred — traits that may be produced by genetic factors — may influence their environment by making their parents responsive to their moodiness so that they will give in to their demands. In turn, the parents’ responsiveness to their teenager’s genetically determined behaviour becomes an environmental influence on their ensuing behaviour. Furthermore, although our genetic inheritance orients us towards certain behaviours, those behaviours will not necessarily occur without the appropriate environment. Morange (2002, 2014) found that individuals with similar genetic backgrounds — for example, identical twins — may behave in different ways, whereas people with dissimilar genetic backgrounds can behave in a similar manner in certain areas. CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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Therefore, the question of how much of a given behaviour is due to nature and how much to nurture remains a challenging question. It is important to note that in struggling with this issue, developmental psychologists have moved from an either/or approach to a more subtle approach investigating the contributions of genetic, biological processes and environmental, experiential factors to development. From the readings in this text it will become evident that it is the joint action of nature and nurture that shapes an individual’s development. Consider the resilience of people who have endured catastrophes in Australia, New Zealand and Japan in recent years. Instead of focusing on individual deficit, the resilience approach focuses on individual and community strengths. Experiencing a catastrophe, trauma, risks and stresses may be a different experience and may hold variable significance — depending on a person’s circumstances. Diversity occurs not only within cultures and societies but also between cultural groups within a society. Cultural differences can influence the support for and expectations of a child in major ways. Greenfield (1995; Greenfield & Quiroz, 2013) demonstrated such influences in a research study involving routine parent–teacher conferences between Anglo American teachers and Hispanic mothers. Greenfield observed and analysed the conferences in terms of differences in personal and family values expressed or implied during the conferences. During the conferences, the Anglo American teachers uniformly sought to highlight the individual achievements of the child (‘Carmen is doing well with her spelling’). Many of the Hispanic mothers, however, preferred to direct the conversation towards how the child fitted into the family and the classroom group (‘Carmen is such a help to me, and so friendly’). The parents’ remarks reflected differences in general cultural values — the Anglo American parents valuing independence somewhat more, but the Hispanic parents (sometimes) valuing interdependence more. The result was frustration with the conference on the part of both teachers and parents and less effective support for the children in their efforts to succeed socially and academically. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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Think about the course of your own development. How have culture, religion and environmental influences shaped your view of development? To what extent has your development been influenced by nature and by nurture? Can you categorise these influences into nature or nurture or a combination of both?

Yet even among these parents and teachers, there were differences. Some parents and teachers adjusted to each other’s conversational priorities, regardless of ethnic background. This was fortunate, because chronic miscommunication among caregivers, and the less effective support resulting from it, can impair a child’s social and cognitive development in the long term. Other recent theorists see development as having extensive plasticity throughout the lifespan. In this context, plasticity is the openness of human development to change in response to influential experiences. As research has expanded, an interdisciplinary area called developmental cognitive neuroscience comprising psychology, biology, neuroscience and medicine has arisen. This area investigates changes in the brain, the cognitive processing of the individual and their behaviour patterns. Research in this area examines questions such as ‘what transformations take place in the adolescent brain that lead to increased “risk taking”?’ and ‘how do genetic makeup and experience influence the growth and organisation of the brain?’ (Moore, D’Mello, McGrath, & Stoodley, 2017; Poldrack, 2015; Romer, Reyna, & Satterthwaite, 2017; van den Bos & Eppinger, 2016). The relationship between changes in the brain, and social and emotional development are now being studied as part of the area known as developmental social neuroscience. Questions such as ‘how does social status shape a person’s perceptions and evaluation?’ (Mattan, Kubota, & Cloutier, 2017) and ‘how do social relationships influence resilience and vulnerability?’ (Decety & Yoder, 2017; Schibli, Wong, Hedayati, & D’Angiulli, 2017) are examples of research in this area.

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1.5 Methods of studying developmental psychology LEARNING OUTCOME 1.5 Explain how developmental psychologists study development.

As a field of study, developmental psychology bases its knowledge on systematic research, study, and investigation of continuity and change in human beings. The methods used are quite diverse, but all bear some relationship to scientific method, consisting of procedures to ensure objective observations and interpretations of observations, including the posing and answering of questions using carefully controlled techniques. As noted in this section, scientific method allows for considerable variety in how research studies might be conducted. In fact, it is more accurate to speak of many scientific methods rather than just one. Scientific method involves the systematic and orderly observation and collection of data.

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Scientific methods All scientific research studies have a number of qualities in common, whatever their specific topic. For various practical reasons, the qualities cannot always be realised perfectly, but they form ideals to which to aspire (Cherry, 1995; Gauch, 2003; Levine & Parkinson, 1994; Mak, Mak, & Mak, 2009). The procedures are as follows. 1. Formulating research questions. Research begins with questions. Sometimes these questions refer to previous studies, such as when a developmental psychologist asks, ‘Are Professor Deepthought’s studies of thinking consistent with studies of thinking from less developed countries?’ Other times they refer to issues important to society, such as ‘What factors keep elderly individuals from becoming depressed?’ This part of the research process is similar to the reflection and questioning often engaged in by parents, teachers, nurses, and other professionals concerned about human growth and development. 2. Stating questions as hypotheses. A hypothesis is a prediction, derived from a theory, that precisely expresses a research question permitting it to be tested. In making a hypothesis out of the question above, a psychologist needs to be more specific about the terms elderly and depressed. How old does a person really have to be to qualify as elderly? What exactly is meant by the term depressed? After the terms of the question are clarified, the hypothesis is usually stated as an assertion that can be tested (e.g. ‘A network of friends keeps elderly individuals from becoming depressed’), rather than as a question (e.g. ‘Does a network of friends keep elderly individuals from becoming depressed?’). 3. Testing the hypothesis. After phrasing a research question as a hypothesis, researchers can conduct an actual study about it. As the next section explains, researchers can do this in a number of ways. The choice of method usually depends on convenience, ethics, and scientific appropriateness. No research method is perfect, although some are better suited to particular research questions than others. 4. Interpreting and publicising the results. When conducting the study, psychologists have a responsibility to report its outcomes to participants and others by presenting their findings at conferences and publishing them in journal articles. Such reports should include interpretations or conclusions based on results and enough details to allow other psychologists to replicate (or repeat) the study; testing conclusions in different settings and contexts. In practice, the limits of time (at a conference presentation) or space (in a journal) can compromise this ideal. There is a wide range of ways to carry out these steps, each with its own strengths and limitations. Viewed broadly, studies can vary in time frame, the extent of intervention and control, and the sampling strategies used. These dimensions are often combined in various ways, depending on the questions the studies are investigating. Table 1.4 summarises the variety of possible methods. It is helpful in reviewing the explanations given in the sections that follow.

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TABLE 1.4

Methods of studying human development

Method

Purpose

Cross-sectional study

Observes persons of different ages at one point in time

Longitudinal study

Observes same group(s) of persons at different points in time

Naturalistic study

Observes persons in naturally occurring situations or circumstances

Experimental study

Observes persons where circumstances are carefully controlled

Correlational study

Observes tendency of two behaviours or qualities of a person to occur or vary together; measures this tendency statistically

Survey

Brief, structured interview or questionnaire about specific beliefs or behaviours of large numbers of persons

Interview

Face-to-face conversation used to gather complex information from individuals

Case study

Investigation of just one individual or a small number of individuals using a variety of sources of information

Ethnography

Observation of a culture or a particular social group. Through detailed field notes the researcher attempts to capture the culture’s unique values and social processes.

Variations in time frame In general, developmental psychologists can either compare people of different ages at one point in time (called a cross-sectional study) or compare the same people at different times as they get older (called a longitudinal study). A method that combines elements of both time frames is the sequential study. Each method has its advantages and problems.

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Cross-sectional study A cross-sectional study compares persons of different ages or age groups (cohorts) in relation to such psychological variables as emotional development, cognitive ability, parenting styles, self-esteem and relationships at a single point in time. One such study compared preschool children (age four) and early school-aged children (age six) on their ability to distinguish between real and apparent emotions (Joshi & MacLean, 1994). Half of the children lived in India, and the other half lived in Great Britain. All of the children listened to stories in which a character sometimes had to conceal their true feelings (such as when an uncle gives a child a toy that the child did not really want) and described both how the character really felt and how the character seemed to feel. The results shed light on how children distinguish sincerity from tactfulness. The older children were more sensitive to this distinction than the younger ones, but the Indian children (especially girls) were also more sensitive to it than the British children were. Cross-sectional studies are useful in describing age-related trends in a relatively short time frame, which is not only convenient but ensures that the findings are not obsolete and outdated by the time the study is completed. Although convenient, cross-sectional research does not provide information about individual differences, as comparisons are limited to age-group averages. In the previous ‘feelings’ cross-sectional example, we cannot state if individual differences exist in how British four year olds distinguish sincerity from tactfulness in relation to Indian four year olds. Cohort effects, namely experiences that are peculiar to a particular age cohort, may affect individuals in that age group differently. In the ‘feelings’ study, comparisons of the four year olds with the six- and seven year olds may not represent age-related changes, as these groups were born and reared in different environments and at different times.

Longitudinal study A longitudinal study observes the same participants periodically over a relatively long period. These studies permit researchers to look at sequences of change and individual consistency and inconsistency 24

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over time. Participants can be tested or observed at several different times over the period of the research, and changes observed as they get older. Often, longitudinal studies are the only way to obtain accurate information on the events and circumstances in the life of the participants — avoiding recall bias introduced by trying to retrospectively remember events that occurred earlier in the lifespan. Longitudinal studies may span a short time, such as a couple of months, or a longer time, such as a decade. Longitudinal studies have a number of disadvantages. They can be expensive and time consuming, taking many years to provide an answer to the research question. Also, some participants may drop out of the research, move away or die. An example of a longitudinal study is the Dunedin, New Zealand, Multidisciplinary Health and Development study, which followed a cohort of 1037 children since their birth in St. Mary’s Maternity Hospital in Dunedin between April 1972 to March 1973. The participants were first followed up at age three and then were assessed every two years up to age 15, then at ages 18, 21 and 26. The importance of this study is that it represents all socioeconomic levels of New Zealand society and can draw a number of crucial conclusions in relation to growing up in New Zealand. This study had a high follow-up rate and was innovative in its multidisciplinary nature, recording information on a wide range of issues. Not all human differences are related to age; being older does not necessarily mean that a person knows more in all areas, or has more of all possible skills. Some human skills, like computer skills, result from historical changes, causing younger individuals to be more competent than older persons in selected areas. Another example is knowledge of the metric system or mobile phone technologies which, because of recent curriculum changes and experiences, children often understand better than their parents. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies both have advantages and limitations. Cross-sectional studies can be completed more quickly, but they do not guarantee to show actual change within individuals. In Joshi and MacLean’s (1994) study of children’s knowledge of emotions, the fact older children were more knowledgeable did not ensure each individual child became more knowledgeable. It showed an average trend for the group. In certain individuals, knowledge of emotions may improve little as they get older, or even decrease, whereas other individuals may experience a huge leap in knowledge. Why individual development varies remains a question — and a pressing question — particularly for teachers, psychologists, nurses and counsellors. From the perspective of developmental psychology, a more serious limitation of cross-sectional studies is the inability to distinguish among cohorts, or groups of people born at the same time and therefore having undergone similar developmental experiences. For example, a cohort of children born in 1930 shared experiences of less education and less comprehensive health care than a cohort born in 1960. As a result of this difference, comparing their abilities and health cross-sectionally in the 1990s may make the older cohort (the ones born in 1930) appear less intellectually capable and less healthy. A crosssectional study may leave the impression differences in the cohorts reflect true developmental change, instead of the effects of being born earlier in the century. Cross-sectional studies always contain this ambiguity, especially when they compare groups that differ widely in age, as is common in studies of adulthood. Longitudinal studies do not eliminate the ambiguity created by historical changes in cohorts; however, they reveal more truly ‘developmental’ change — showing how particular individuals or groups actually change over time. This allows researchers to identify common patterns as well as individual differences in development. Longitudinal studies allow researchers to examine relationships between events and behaviours. But, in doing so, they pose a practical problem. By definition, longitudinal studies take months or even years to complete. During this time, some of the original participants may move away; investigators may become hopelessly bogged down with other work and fail to complete the original study; or government funding to support the work may disappear. A famous and groundbreaking longitudinal study is Michael Apted’s 7 UP series, which, in 1962, began documenting the lives of 14 English children, all aged seven, from a variety of educational and social backgrounds. These children were chosen to depict the range of socioeconomic backgrounds in Britain at that time. The research has investigated whether each child’s social class would predetermine CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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their future. Every seven years the children have been interviewed about their loves, attitudes, hopes, dreams and aspirations. The ‘children’ of 7 UP are now aged in their fifties. Michael Apted films new material every seven years from as many of the original 14 children who can participate. The documentary series has followed these children’s development into adulthood, with most of the original participants remaining in the study. 49 UP was released in 2005 (Apted, 2005) and 56 UP in 2012 (Wagner, 2016).

Sequential studies The dilemmas and ambiguities posed by time frames can be partially solved by sequential studies, which combine elements of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. In sequential research, at least two cohorts are observed longitudinally and comparisons are made both within each cohort across time and between the cohorts at particular points in time. This approach provides information about actual developmental changes within individuals, and about historical differences among cohorts that might create the impression of truly developmental changes. A good example of sequential research is the work by Schaie (1994, 2016), Schaie, Willis, and Caskie (2004) as well as Schaie and Willis (2015) studying changes in cognitive abilities of adults. By testing several successive cohorts of young adults and testing each cohort again at a later age, Schaie established that: many cognitive skills do not decline with age, particularly if they are used on a daily basis; earlier cohorts generally achieve lower scores than later cohorts in tests of cognitive abilities; and some individuals show more decline with age. None of these findings could have resulted from either a cross-sectional or a longitudinal study alone. Similarly, Baer (2002) investigated linear aspects of family cohesion using a cohort sequential design. Adolescents from Years 6–10 were surveyed and followed in three cohorts, to explore whether family cohesion decreased, increased or remained stable from early to middle adolescence. A questionnaire was given to these cohorts and each cohort responded to the questionnaire in longitudinal follow-ups during the next two years. Therefore, this study involved a sequential design, with similar cross-sectional or longitudinal studies, known as sequences, being conducted at varying times. This approach has several advantages: we can make both cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons, and if results are similar, we can be more confident about our results. Also, the design of the research is efficient, as we can investigate change in family cohesion throughout early to middle adolescence over time.

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Microgenetic designs These research designs are an adaptation of the longitudinal design, and involve an in-depth investigation of changes in specific behaviours while they are occurring. Researchers can capture the process of change and observe how change occurs within this microcosm. Microgenetic design has been found to be particularly useful when studying cognitive development. This is evident in the research of Siegler (2002, 2006), who studied the strategies children used to acquire and develop new knowledge in reading, science and mathematics. However, although microgenetic design has the advantage of recording the process of development, it does also have its difficulties. Researchers need to spend hours and hours analysing each participant’s behaviour many times to ascertain changes in their behaviour. This takes time, and requires matching of demands of the task to the capability of the participant. Apart from these challenges, a benefit of microgenetic designs is that they inform us about developmental processes as they occur. This can be readily applied to the educational environment, and we can observe development as it is occurring.

Ethnographic studies Many studies in cross-cultural research compare cultures and developmental contexts. This is known as the ethnographic method. Ethnography is a detailed description of a single culture or context based on extensive observation. Often, the researcher lives in the culture for several years in an attempt to understand the beliefs and values of the culture. Sometimes, researchers compare two cultures using ethnography. Cross-cultural research contributes significantly to the study of human development by 26

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identifying universal changes, predictable events or processes experienced by individuals in all cultures. It also produces findings that can be used to improve people’s lives. However, the findings cannot be generalised beyond the people and settings in which the research was conducted.

Variations in control: naturalistic and experimental studies Developmental studies also vary in how much they attempt to control the circumstances in which individuals are observed. When individuals are observed in naturally occurring settings, the studies are naturalistic; when circumstances are controlled tightly, the studies are experimental.

Naturalistic studies At one extreme, naturalistic studies purposely observe behaviour as it normally occurs in natural settings, such as at home, at school or in the workplace. Larson and Richards (1994a, 1994b; Larson, Moneta, Richards, & Wilson, 2002) used this strategy to explore the daily emotional lives of parents in their forties and fifties and their adolescent children. For several weeks, each member of the 55 families studied carried an electronic pager that beeped at random intervals to remind the person to report on their current moods and activities by telephoning a prearranged number. In every other respect, however, the family members engaged in their normal daily activities, for example, attending school, working or studying. The researchers discovered many interesting facts about individuals’ responses to family life. Being at home relieved stress for midlife fathers (‘then I can relax’), for example, but often created it for midlife mothers (‘home is my “second job”’). Teenage children felt far more hassled by small daily chores than their parents realised (‘They don’t notice it when we overdo the reminders about chores’).

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Experimental studies In contrast to naturalistic studies, experimental studies arrange circumstances so only one or two factors or influences vary at a time. For example, Wellman and Hickling (1994; Wellman, 2014) investigated how children understand the human mind: do they think of ‘the mind’ as the centre of a person, as adults do, or more as an impersonal switchboard, perhaps like a computer or the motor of a car? To study this question, the investigators designed an experiment in which children had to explain the meanings of metaphorical statements about the mind (e.g. ‘my mind wandered’ or ‘his mind played tricks on him’). Many conditions of the experiment were kept constant: all of the children were interviewed in the same room and by the same person, and were asked exactly the same questions. Children were selected from specific ages between 21/2 and 10 to allow investigators to infer when the children began believing in a personified view of the mind. So, what was the result? At 21/2 years of age, children had hazy notions of the mind as human or personified, but, by eight years of age, most children believed in a personified view of mind. Figure 1.3 depicts part of this trend. Because this study was an experiment, Wellman and Hickling held constant all the factors that might influence children’s responses to metaphorical notions except age — the factor they were studying. This deliberately varied factor is often called the independent variable (IV) — the variable that researchers expect to cause changes in another variable. The factor that varies as a result of the independent variable — in this case, the children’s success at interpreting metaphorical statements about the mind — is called the dependent variable (DV). This is the variable that the researcher expects to be influenced by the independent variable. Relationships that are cause and effect can be ascertained because the researcher can directly manipulate or control changes in the independent variable by exposing participants to the treatment condition. The experimental method also requires making decisions about the population, or group, that the study refers to. When every member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen for the study — independent of race, social class or education — the people selected comprise a random sample. If everyone in a population does not have an equal chance of being chosen, the sample is said to be biased.

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Literal understanding

Metaphorical understanding

Children’s understanding of human metaphors of mind In this experimental study, children were asked to explain statements that contained metaphorical expressions for the human mind (e.g. ‘my mind fell asleep’). The results suggested children begin understanding these expressions as metaphors sometime after their sixth birthday, but do not achieve full understanding until age ten.

Rated level of understanding of human metaphors

FIGURE 1.3

6 years

8 years

10 years

Age

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Source: Adapted from Wellman and Hickling (1994).

Investigators can never be sure they have avoided systematic bias in selecting individuals to study, but they can improve their chances of achieving objectivity by defining the population they are studying as carefully as possible and only selecting participants from this population. For example, when Wellman and Hickling studied children’s beliefs about the human mind, the population to which they limited their observations consisted only of children of a certain age range — 21/2 to 10 years — and they sampled children within this range at random. So, interpretations of their results apply only to this population of children. In later studies, they (or other investigators) could sample other populations, such as persons of other ages or specific ethnic backgrounds. Experimental studies incorporate a number of precautions to ensure that their findings have validity — meaning they accurately measure or observe the characteristics that they intended to measure. One way to improve validity is to observe not one but two sample groups, one an experimental or treatment group, and the other a control group. The experimental group receives the treatment, or intervention, related to the purposes of the experiment. The control group experiences conditions that are as similar as possible to the conditions of the experimental group, but without experiencing the crucial experimental treatment. Comparing the results for the two groups helps to explicitly establish the effects of the experimental treatment. Comparisons of experimental and control groups are widespread in developmental research, but especially for problems involving interventions to improve the welfare of people at risk for difficulties. One team of investigators used the strategy to study the impact of a program to develop literacy skills in preschoolers from families of low socioeconomic status; that is, families with low incomes and low levels of education (Whitehurst et al., 1994). The investigators used classrooms from Head Start, a nationwide early intervention program. They randomly assigned certain classrooms to an experimental group, which received the special literacy program. Other classrooms were randomly assigned to the control group, which received the usual Head Start program. At the end of one year, they tested all classrooms in both groups for improvements in literacy skills. As you might expect, the experimental group improved more than the control group; for example, children in the literacy program could identify more letters and their own names. What is especially important is that the control group also improved somewhat, just by growing older. So, the investigators were able to make allowances for this in evaluating the impact of the literacy program (Bierman, Nix, Domitrovich, Welsh, & Gest, 2015).

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Because of its logical organisation, the experimental method often gives clearer results than naturalistic studies. However, because people sometimes do not behave naturally in experimental situations, one criticism of the experimental method is that its results can be artificial. Naturalistic research does not face this particular problem, but it does run a greater risk of generating ambiguous results. Correlations

Whether naturalistic or experimental, most research studies look for correlations among variables. A correlation is a systematic relationship, or association, between two behaviours, responses or human characteristics. When the behaviours, responses or characteristics tend to change in the same direction, the relationship is called a positive correlation; when they tend to change in opposite directions, it is called a negative correlation. The ages of married spouses are a positive correlation: older husbands tend to have older wives (though not strictly so). The age of a child and the frequency of bed wetting is a negative correlation: the older the child, the less frequent the bed wetting (though again, not strictly so). When correlated factors can be expressed numerically, psychologists use a particular statistic, the correlation coefficient (abbreviated r), to indicate the degree of relationship between two behaviours or characteristics. The correlation coefficient is calculated in such a way that its value always falls between +1.00 and −1.00. The closer the value is to +1.00, the more positive the correlation; the closer the value is to −1.00, the more negative the correlation. Correlations near 0.00 indicate no systematic relationship between behaviours or characteristics, or an essentially random relationship. When you read or talk about correlations, it is important to remember correlations by themselves do not indicate whether one behaviour or characteristic causes another; they indicate only that some sort of association exists between the two. The distinction is illustrated in figure 1.4, which graphs the number of baby pictures taken versus the weight of the mother taking the photos. While the graph shows an inverse correlation (that is, heavier mothers take fewer pictures) this does not mean taking baby pictures is a good way to lose weight. In other words, there is no causal relation between the two. More likely, the correlation reflects the influence of a third factor that has an impact on both behaviours. Correlation is not causation

Number of infant photos taken per child

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FIGURE 1.4

More

Fewer Lighter

Heavier Mother’s weight

The number of pictures taken of an infant correlates (or varies) with the weight of the child’s mother, with heavier mothers taking fewer pictures. But this does not mean that gaining weight causes mothers to stop taking pictures or that taking pictures causes mothers to gain weight. It is more likely a third factor, such as the number of previous children to whom the mother has given birth, causes both factors CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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separately. Mothers tend to gain weight after each birth, but they also have less time to take pictures, as a result of additional children being in the house.

Variations in sample size In addition to the variations described so far, developmental studies vary in how many people they collect information about or observe. The size of the group studied is called the research sample. As a rule of thumb, smaller samples allow a researcher to learn more about the sample’s circumstances or (if appropriate) about their reasons for particular behaviours or thinking. Larger samples lose some of this advantage, but gain the ability to document the responses of a more complete range of participants.

Surveys At one extreme are large-scale surveys: specific, focused interviews of large numbers of people. Kao (1995; Liew, Lench, Kao, Yeh, & Kwok, 2014) used this method to examine patterns of school achievement among Asian youth. She was particularly interested in a common stereotype of Asian youngsters being ‘model students’ — the belief they always excel academically. Using interviews with about 1500 Asian students, parents and teachers, as well as with about 25 000 Caucasian counterparts, Kao compared family incomes, educational levels and ethnic backgrounds with academic achievement. She found the stereotype of the model student is rather misleading. Academic success varies substantially among particular Asian ethnic groups. It also depends more heavily on how much time and money parents invest in education for their children than on the educational, financial or ethnic backgrounds of the family. In these ways, the Asian students did not differ from their Caucasian counterparts. These conclusions seem especially persuasive because of the rather large sample of families on which they are based — an advantage of the survey method. But the method also has limitations. Survey questions tend to be ‘cut and dry’ to ensure responses can be compared among large numbers of respondents. They tend not to explore subtleties of thinking or the reasons people have for taking certain actions or holding certain beliefs. Did some of Kao’s Asian families invest more in education because their culture encourages them to do so, or because they anticipated discrimination due to their ethnic background and regarded education as insurance against the negative effects of such discrimination? To answer such questions, researchers need methods that invite respondents to comment more fully; for example, interviews and case studies.

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Interviews A research study that seeks complex or in-depth information may use interviews, or face-to-face directed conversations. Interviews afford the researcher a conversational style to probe the participant’s point of view, and can provide a large amount of information in a short space of time. Because they take time, interview studies usually focus on a smaller number of individuals than surveys do — perhaps several dozen or so. Gilligan and her colleagues used interviews to learn more about how teenage girls cope with the stresses of dealing with gender role expectations as they grow up under different conditions (Brown & Gilligan, 1992; Gilligan, Rogers, & Tolman, 2014; Taylor, Gilligan, & Sullivan, 1995). Some interviews involved girls who were attending a private girls’ boarding school and were from economically ‘well-off’ families; others involved girls who were attending a public high school in a racially mixed, lower income community. The interview format allowed Gilligan to explore the girls’ perspectives in depth and to find out when and how differences in their circumstances influenced their development as young women. As it turned out, economic and family supports did matter, but not always as Gilligan expected. A constant challenge for all girls was to find and remain true to their own perspective or ‘voice’ as Gilligan termed it. Doing so sometimes proved harder for ‘well-off’ girls than for lower income girls, though not necessarily.

Case studies When a study uses just one or a few individuals, it is called a case study. In general, a case study tries to pull together a wide variety of information, including interviews, test scores, questionnaires and 30

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observations about the individual case, and then present the information as a unified whole, emphasising relationships among specific behaviours, thoughts and attitudes in the individual. An example is a study by Jimenez, Garcia, and Pearson (1995) comparing the language skills and knowledge about reading of just three 11-year-old children: a proficiently bilingual Hispanic student; a proficiently monolingual Caucasian student; and a modestly bilingual Hispanic student. Each child was interviewed at length about their perceptions of their own skills with each language. Each was also invited to ‘think aloud’ while reading samples of text in each language (i.e. the child was told about their thoughts as they read along). Because of the time taken with each individual, the investigators were able to discover important subtleties about how each student read. For example, the proficient bilingual reader thought of each language as an aid to understanding the other language, whereas the less fluent bilingual reader simply believed their Spanish assisted their English. A case study can explore an aspect of human development, looking for new or unexpected connections among behaviours, needs or social relationships. This is the most common use of case studies. They can also confirm whether connections previously found in experimental studies actually occur in everyday, non-experimental situations, even when conditions are not carefully controlled. This second use resembles the naturalistic studies described earlier in this section. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Are some methods of developmental study inherently more effective than others? Try answering this question by organising a forum. Choose a successful developmental study (e.g. you may like to use one described in this chapter) and assign teams the responsibility of arguing the merits of some alternative method of studying the same question. In a second round of the discussion, each team can try to refute the arguments of any of the other teams. Remember, more than two viewpoints should be taken in the discussion.

1.6 Ethical constraints on studying development

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LEARNING OUTCOME 1.6 Identify and explain the ethical considerations that should guide the study of development.

Sometimes, ethical concerns influence the methods researchers can use to study a particular question about development. Take the question of punishments administered by parents: what punishment styles are most effective, and for what reasons? For ethical reasons, we may be unable to directly experiment with certain aspects of this problem. Observing parents actually scolding and reprimanding their children requires delicacy at best. At worst, if the punishment becomes severe or physical, ethics might require active intervention to protect the child from abuse. Instead, for ethically sensitive questions, we may have to satisfy ourselves with less direct but more acceptable methods of study. We can interview a variety of parents about the methods of punishment they use, or we can ask experts who work directly with families the methods they think parents typically use. Courageous families might allow us to observe their daily activities with the understanding we are interested in observing how they punish their children. Because they are volunteers, however, these few families may not represent other families very well. Generally, research about human beings faces at least three ethical issues: confidentiality, full disclosure of purposes, and respect for the individual’s freedom to participate (American Psychological Association, 2002, 2010, 2016). The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), a division of the Australian Government provide guidelines on the principles of ethical conduct in research in their publication National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007; updated May 2015). This publication examines the ethical issues of respect, risks and benefits of the research to the participants, CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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and informed consent of the participant. In developmental psychology, all of these issues are complicated when the subjects are naturally vulnerable; that is, when they are young, disabled or elderly. These three issues are now looked at in more depth. 1. Confidentiality. If researchers collect information that might damage individuals’ reputations or selfesteem, they should take care to protect the identities of the participants. Observing parents’ methods of managing their children might require this sort of confidentiality. Parents may not want others to know how much and how often they experience conflicts with their children. Similar concerns might influence research on teachers’ methods of classroom management or caregivers’ styles of caring for elderly people. In such cases, investigators should not divulge the identities of participants in a study without their consent, either during the conduct of the study or afterwards when the results are published. 2. Full disclosure of purposes. Participants in a study are entitled to know the true purposes of any research study in which they participate. Most of the time, investigators understand and follow this principle carefully. But, at times, it can be tempting to mislead participants. In studying professionals’ techniques for working with handicapped adults, researchers may suspect that stating this research purpose honestly will cause certain professionals, as well as the people under their care, to avoid participation. Investigators may suspect that telling the truth about the study will make the participants distort their behaviour, hiding their less desirable behaviours and conflicts. In this sort of study, it may appear as though intentional deception can produce more complete observations and, in this sense, make the research more ‘scientific’. But investigators would purchase this benefit at the cost of their long-term reputations with participants. Purposeful deception may sometimes be permissible, but only when no other method is possible and when participants are fully informed after the study of the deception and its reasons. 3. Respect for individuals’ freedom to participate. As much as possible, research studies should avoid pressuring individuals to participate. This may not be as simple as it first appears. Because psychologists have a relatively high status in society, some people may be reluctant to decline an invitation from them to participate in research. So, investigators may need to work tirelessly to assure some individuals’ participation is indeed voluntary. They cannot simply assume every potential participant automatically feels they can decline if they are approached. When all three principles are closely followed, they allow for what psychologists call informed consent: the people or groups being studied understand the nature of the research, believe their rights are being protected, and feel they can volunteer or refuse to participate without any repercussions. Informed consent forms a standard, or ideal, for research to aim for. It is a standard most studies do come close to achieving. As the preceding discussion indicates, consent that is completely informed may prove difficult to achieve in some cases. This is especially so for research on vulnerable populations — such as children, people with certain disabilities, elderly individuals and members of cultural groups who do not speak the native language(s). These people tend to depend on the goodwill and wisdom of others, including researchers, to explain the purposes of a study and keep their best interests in mind. For example, in studying a person who has a limited understanding of English, investigators may wonder whether the person understands the purpose of the study they are participating in, even after this purpose has been explained. Even if the person does understand, will they feel ‘free’ to participate or to decline being involved? Or does the person, as an individual, simply assume they must cooperate? In studying children, the developmental levels of the participants should influence the way investigators resolve ethical issues (Thompson, 1990, 2005). As a rule, children do not understand the purposes of a research project as well as adults, making it less crucial children are thoroughly informed, but more crucial children’s parents are informed. Also, children are more vulnerable to stressful research procedures such as experimentation with the possible effects of personal criticism. Also, older children and adults are prone to self-consciousness and are more likely to detect implied personal criticisms. So, investigators need to engage in sensitive questioning. Rather than asking a child or adolescent, ‘How often do you cry?’ 32

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(which implies personal criticism), an investigator may, for example, rephrase the question to ask, ‘What problems have you had because your parents are divorced?’ In Australia, state and territory governments are responsible for the administration and operation of child protection services. Legislative Acts in each state and territory govern the way child protection services are provided. The National Child Protection Clearinghouse provides information about the different types of legislation in each state. For example, all researchers in New South Wales must adhere to the Child Protection (Prohibited Employment) Act 1998 and the Commission for Children and Young People Act 1998. All researchers working directly with children must provide a declaration specifying that they are not a ‘prohibited person’ under the child protection legislation and from a criminal records check. Specific guidelines for researchers wishing to engage children in research from public schools are available from the Education Department in their state; whereas private and Catholic schools require researchers to consult with their Education Office and the school principal in a particular state. Approval from governing bodies and institutions must be sought before participants are recruited for the research. Wherever possible, the right to decide about whether to participate in a research study rests with the individual, providing they understand the nature of the study and feel they can decide not to be involved without suffering any repercussions. However, when a child speaks limited English, parents or other legal guardians share the ultimate right to decide whether the child should participate. In the case of infants or adults with little oral language ability, parents and guardians essentially take over the right to decide about participation. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Why do you think ethics has become a bigger concern for developmental researchers in the past two decades? Brainstorm as many ideas about this as you can. For example, have people, research projects or the conditions of modern life changed? Why is child protection so much more of a critical issue in research ethical considerations today than it was in the 1900s?

Strengths and limitations of developmental knowledge

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As this chapter demonstrates, developmental psychology is studied in particular ways and with certain limitations in mind. Because time is a major dimension of development, the impact it has should be approached thoughtfully. However, the very nature of time poses real problems for studying at least some major questions. Especially when studied across the lifespan, people may ‘take too long’ to develop relative to the time frame that is available to study them. Also, because developmental psychologists deal with people, they must treat participants with respect and abide by standards of decency and consider human needs. Finally, when dealing with vulnerable people, especially children, developmental psychologists must take care to ensure they determine the best interests of the participants involved in a study. Although these limitations may seem discouraging, developmental psychologists have accumulated considerable knowledge about people of all ages in recent decades and continue to do so, which is assuring!

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SUMMARY 1.1 Describe what is meant by the term ‘development’.

Lifespan development concerns continuities and changes in a person’s long-term growth, feelings and patterns of thinking. It occurs in the physical, cognitive and psychosocial domains. The domains of development interact in many ways, and individuals always develop as whole persons rather than in separate parts. 1.2 Clarify the reasons why development is studied, and its importance for teachers, nurses, midwives, early childhood educators, social workers and psychologists.

Studying development can help you develop appropriate expectations about human behaviour and its changes. It can help you respond appropriately to individuals’ behaviour and recognise cases in which unusual behaviours are a cause for concern. Studying development can also give you knowledge and an understanding of your past. 1.3 Compare how society’s view of infancy, childhood and adolescence has changed over time.

Until just a few hundred years ago, childhood and adolescence were not regarded as distinct periods of life. Social changes, including the Industrial Revolution, led to an awareness of children’s unique needs and vulnerability, but also contributed to modern (and mistaken) views of children being incompetent, passive and unimportant. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the first research studies of children consisted of baby biographies and structured observations of children at specific ages. 1.4 Evaluate the general issues that are important in developmental psychology.

Developmental psychology is not dissimilar to other forms of developmental study. However, it also has a distinctive emphasis on four themes: continuity within change; lifelong growth; changing meanings and vantage points; and diversity among individuals. 1.5 Explain how developmental psychologists study development.

Research about developmental psychology tries to follow scientific methods: formulating research questions, stating them as hypotheses, testing the hypotheses, and interpreting and publicising the results. Studies vary in the time frame (cross-sectional or longitudinal), in the extent of control of the context (naturalistic or experimental), and in sampling strategies (surveys, interviews or case studies). Crosssectional studies compare individuals of different ages at one point in time. Longitudinal studies observe human change directly by following the same individuals over relatively long periods of time. Naturalistic methods observe individuals in natural contexts as much as possible. Experimental methods try to control or hold constant extraneous conditions while varying only one or two specified variables. Surveys, interviews and case studies each sample different numbers of people and provide different levels of context in their information.

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1.6 Identify and explain the ethical considerations that should guide the study of development.

Ethical considerations guide how development can be studied, sometimes ruling out certain studies altogether. Generally, studies are guided by principles of confidentiality, full disclosure of purposes and respect for the individual’s freedom to participate. Research about children and vulnerable adults should strive for informed consent from participants and their parents or guardians. The specific ethical concerns in studying development depend on the age or developmental level of the individuals studied, as well as on the content of the study itself.

KEY TERMS case study A research study of a single individual or small group of individuals considered as a unit. cognitive development The area of human development concerned with cognition; it involves all psychological processes by which individuals learn, process information and think about their environment. 34

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cohort In developmental research, a group of subjects born at a particular time who experience particular historical events or conditions. control group In an experimental research study, the group of participants who experience conditions similar or identical to the experimental group, but without experiencing the experimental treatment. correlation An association between two variables in which changes in one variable tend to occur with changes in the other. The association does not necessarily imply a causal link between the variables. cross-sectional study A study that compares individuals of different ages at the same point in time. dependent variable (DV) A factor that is measured in an experiment and that depends on, or is controlled by, one or more independent variables. development Long-term constancies and changes that a person experiences throughout the lifespan from conception to death. domain A realm of psychological and developmental functioning. experimental group In an experimental research study, the group of participants who experience the experimental treatment while in other respects experiencing conditions similar or identical to those of the control group. experimental study A study in which circumstances are arranged so that just one or two factors or influences vary at a time. The researcher studies the effect that manipulating an independent variable has on a dependent variable. hypothesis A precise prediction based on a scientific theory; often capable of being tested in a scientific research study. independent variable (IV) A factor that an experimenter manipulates (varies) to determine its influence on the population being studied. informed consent An agreement to participate in a research study based on understanding the nature of the research, protection of human rights, and freedom to decline to participate at any time. interview A face-to-face, directed conversation used in a research study to gather detailed information. longitudinal study A study of the same individuals over a relatively long period of time, often months or years. naturalistic study A study in which behaviour is observed in its natural setting. norms Behaviours typical at certain ages and of certain groups; standards of normal development; age-related averages are calculated to represent typical development. physical development The area of human development concerned primarily with physical changes such as growth, motor skill development and basic aspects of perception. psychosocial development The area of human development concerned primarily with personality, social knowledge and skills, and emotions. random sample In research studies, a group of individuals from a population chosen such that each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected. sample Size of the group studied for research purposes. scientific method General procedures of study involving: (1) formulating the research question, (2) stating the question as a hypothesis, (3) testing the hypothesis and (4) interpreting and publicising the results. This approach uses empirical methodologies, such as observation, experimentation and testing to gain knowledge and understanding of developmental lifespan issues. sequential study Research in which at least two cohorts are compared, both with each other and at different times. survey A research study that samples specific knowledge or opinions of large numbers of individuals. validity The degree to which research findings measure or observe what is intended.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS 1 What is developmental psychology and what are some of the major influences on human development? 2 What are the key issues in the field of developmental psychology? 3 Describe and explain four research methods used to study development, discussing the strengths and

weaknesses of each. 4 Why is it necessary to include ethical considerations when conducting human development research,

particularly in relation to children and child protection?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1 To what extent does Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems model explain the nature–nurture

controversy? 2 In what way does each theoretical orientation regard the individual as an active contributor to their

own development? 3 How do culture, gender and age affect developmental psychology?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

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1 Test your understanding of research issues in developmental psychology by using the following

research concepts to complete the sentences: informed consent, naturalistic observation, hypothesis, cross-sectional design, validity, correlation coefficient, independent variable, longitudinal design. (a) A ___________________ is a prediction about behaviour derived directly from a theory. (b) A ___________________ examines relationships among variables and uses a number that describes how two variables are associated. (c) One approach to developmental psychology research is to conduct research in the field or natural environment and record the behaviour observed without intervention. This is called ___________________. (d) For research methods to have ___________________ they must accurately measure the characteristics that the researcher set out to measure. (e) In a ___________________ a group of participants are studied repeatedly at different ages over time. (f) The ___________________ is the variable anticipated by the researcher to cause changes in another variable. (g) The ethical principle of ___________________ is critical when research participants are children. (h) When groups of people differing in age are studied at the same point in time, a ___________________ would be the most efficient research method. 2 Test your understanding of developmental psychology concepts by using the following list of concepts to complete the sentences: knowledge of results, qualitative change, lifespan perspective, ethnography. (a) The view that development from conception to death should be studied from multidisciplinary perspectives is known as ___________________. (b) When a caterpillar changes into a butterfly, this is known as ___________________. (c) A detailed description of a single culture or context based on extensive observation is called ___________________. (d) Which ethical standards for research involve the right to a written summary of a study’s results?

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ESSAY QUESTION 1 Draw a map of your development so far in the lifespan. Take an aspect of your development from your

map and describe how it differs from a parent’s or grandparent’s similar development. Using influences, concepts of development and the nature–nurture controversy, analyse and explain this diversity and difference in development. What influences can you attribute to this diversity? How does this diversity relate to Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems model?

WEBSITES 1 Members of the Australian Psychological Society and New Zealand Psychologists Board

2

3

4

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5

are required to abide by principles of professional conduct, responsibilities and confidentiality which are set and monitored by the APS and NZPB in their Code of Ethics. This code safeguards the welfare of consumers of psychological services and the integrity of the profession: www.psychology.org.au/About-Us/What-we-do/ethics-and-practice-standards and www.psychologistsboard.org.nz/cms_show_download.php?id=237 The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet website aims to contribute to ‘closing the gap’ in health between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and other Australians. This is achieved by informing practice and policy in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health by making research and other knowledge readily accessible. The HealthInfoNet is a Level II Research Centre within Edith Cowan University (ECU), Western Australia: https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/learn/health-system/closing-the-gap New Zealand’s contemporary longitudinal study tracking the development of approximately 7000 New Zealand children from before birth until they are young adults. This study investigates what shapes children’s early development and how interventions might be targeted at the earliest opportunity to give every New Zealand child growing up in the 21st century the best start in life: www.growingup.co.nz/en.html The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) is the Australian government’s key research body in the area of family wellbeing. AIFS conducts original research to increase understanding of Australian families and the issues that affect them: https://aifs.gov.au The American Psychology Association Lifespan Development website provides a wealth of information on how developmental psychology studies humans across the lifespan. It investigates the understanding of developmental psychology, research in action and developmental psychology applied. It presents a range of resources for students, teachers, social workers and school counsellors. One of the website features is ‘Meet a developmental psychologist’: www.apa.org/action/science/developmental/index.aspx

REFERENCES Ali, S., Khaleque, A., & Rohner, R. P. (2015). Pancultural gender differences in the relation between perceived parental acceptance and psychological adjustment of children and adult offspring: A meta-analytic review of worldwide research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46(8), 1059–1080. American Psychological Association. (2016). Revision of Ethical Standard 3.04 of the “Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct” (2002, as amended 2010). The American Psychologist, 71(9), 900. Angell, B., Eades, S., & Jan, S. (2017). To Close the Gap we need to identify the best (and worst) buys in Indigenous health. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 41(3), 224–226. Apted, M. (2005). 49 UP (Video Recording). Granada Television International. New York, NY: Fox Lorber Home Video. CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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Ari`es, P. (1962). Centuries of childhood: A social history of family life (R. Baldick, Trans.). New York, NY: Vintage. Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. (2007). Updated May 2015. Retrieved from www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines-publications/e72 Australian Human Rights Commission. (2014a). Actions, not words, will help close the gap. Retrieved from www.humanrights .gov.au/news/stories/actions-not-words-will-help-close-gap Australian Human Rights Commission. (2014b). Close the gap: Indigenous health campaign. Retrieved from www .humanrights.gov.au/close-gap-indigenous-health-campaign Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance framework 2014 report: Detailed analyses. Canberra, Australia: Author. Baer, J. (2002). Is family cohesion a risk or protective factor during adolescent development? Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(3), 668–675. Baltes, P. B. (2014). Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 10). Psychology Press. Baltes, P. B., & Nesselroade, J. R. (1979). History and rationale of longitudinal research. In J. R. Nesselroade & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), Longitudinal research in the study of behavior and development (pp. 1–39). New York, NY: Academic Press. Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. M. (2006). Lifespan theory in developmental psychology. In R. M. Lerner & W. Damon (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 569–664). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Baltes, P. B., & Staudinger, U. M. (Eds.). (1996). Interactive minds: Lifespan perspectives on the social foundation of cognition. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Baltes, P. B., & Staudinger, U. M. (2000). Wisdom: A meta heuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. American Psychologist, 55(1), 122–126. Bierman, K. L., Nix, R. L., Domitrovich, C. E., Welsh, J. A., & Gest, S. D. (2015). The head start REDI project and school readiness. In A. J. Reynolds, A. J. Rolnick, & J. A. Temple (Eds.), Health and education in early childhood: Predictors, interventions, and policies (pp. 208–233). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bolger, K. E., & Patterson, C. J. (2001). Developmental pathways from child maltreatment to peer rejection. Child Development, 72(2), 549–568. Bolger, K. E., Patterson, C. J., & Kupersmidt, J. B. (1998). Peer relationships and self-esteem among children who have been maltreated. Child Development, 69, 1171–1197. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1989). Ecological systems theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development: Six theories of child development: Revised formulations and current issues (Vol. 6, pp. 187–249). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecological models of human development. In T. Husen & T. N. Postlethewaite (Eds.). International Encyclopedia of Education. (Vol. 3., 2nd ed., pp. 1643–1647). Oxford, England: Pergamon Press/Elsevier Science. Bronfenbrenner, U. (Ed.). (2005). Making human beings human. Bioecological perspectives on human development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bronfenbrenner, U., & Evans, G. W. (2000). Developmental science in the 21st century: Emerging theoretical models, research designs, and empirical findings. Social Development, 9(1), 115–125. Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology. Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., pp. 297–342). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Brown, L. M., & Gilligan, C. (1992). Meeting at the crossroads. New York, NY: Ballantine. Caspi, J., & Barrios, V. R. (2016). Destructive sibling aggression. The Wiley Handbook on the Psychology of Violence, 297–323. Cannella, G. (1997). Deconstructing early childhood education: Social justice and revolution. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishers. Cannella, G. S., & Viruru, R. (2004). Childhood and postcolonialization. New York: Routledge Falmer. Cherry, F. (1995). “Stubborn particulars” of social psychology: Essays on the research process. New York, NY: Routledge. Chyung, Y. J., & Lee, J. (2008). Intimate partner acceptance, remembered parental acceptance in childhood, and psychological adjustment among Korean college students in ongoing intimate relationships. Cross-Cultural Research, 42(1), 77–86. Clark, K. E., & Ladd, G. W. (2000). Connectedness and autonomy support in parent-child relationships: Links to children’s socioemotional orientation and peer relationships. Developmental Psychology, 36, 485–498. Colby, A., & Damon, W. (1992). Some do care: Contemporary lives of moral commitment. New York, NY: Free Press. Council of Australian Governments. (2014). Closing the gap in indigenous disadvantage. Retrieved from www.coag.gov.au/ closing_the_gap_in_indigenous_disadvantage Damon, W. (1996). The lifelong transformation of moral goals through social influence. In P. Baltes & U. Staudinger (Eds.), Interactive minds: Lifespan perspectives on social foundations of cognition (pp. 198–221). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Damon, W. (Ed). (2002). Bringing in a new era in character education. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. Damon, W. (2008). The path to purpose: Helping our children find the calling in life. New York, NY: The Free Press. Damon, W. (Ed.). (2013). Bringing in a new era in character education (No. 508). Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. Decety, J., & Yoder, K. J. (2017). The emerging social neuroscience of justice motivation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(1), 6–14.

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Deng, S. A. (2016, December 5–7). South Sudanese youth acculturation and intergenerational challenges (Vol. 5, p. 7). Paper presented at the 39th African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP) Conference. Deng, S., & Marlowe, J. (2013). Refugee resettlement and parenting in a different context. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 11(4), 416–430. Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. (2016). Closing the Gap Prime Minister’s Report 2016. Canberra, Australia: Author. Erkman, F., & Rohner, R. (2006). Youths’ perceptions of corporal punishment, parental acceptance, and psychological adjustment in a Turkish metropolis. Cross-Cultural Research, 40, 250–267. Ferreira, T., Cadima, J., Matias, M., Vieira, J. M., Leal, T., & Matos, P. M. (2016). Preschool children’s prosocial behavior: The role of mother–child, father–child and teacher–child relationships. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25(6), 1829–1839. Finkelhor, D. (1994). The international epidemiology of child sexual abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect, 18, 409–417. Ford, D. H., & Lerner, R. M. (1992). Developmental systems theory: An integrative approach. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Franz, C. E., McClelland, D. C., & Weinberger, J. (1991). Childhood antecedents of conventional social accomplishment in midlife adults: A 36-year prospective study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(4), 586–595. Garbarino, J. (1992). Children and families in the social environment (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Garbarino, J. (2014). I. The history of fatherhood research and perspectives on father involvement. Fatherhood: Research, Interventions, and Policies, 11. Gauch, J. (2003). Scientific method in practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gelinas, D. J. (1983). The persisting negative effects of incest. Psychiatry, 46, 312–332. Gesell, A. (1926). The mental growth of the preschool child (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Macmillan. Gilligan, C., Rogers, A. G., & Tolman, D. L. (2014). Women, girls & psychotherapy: Reframing resistance. Routledge. Glauser, B. (1997). Street children: Deconstructing a construct. In A. James & A. Prout (Eds.), Constructing and reconstructing childhood (2nd ed., pp. 145–164). Washington, DC: Falmer. Goodnow, J. J. (1996). Collaborative rules: How are people supposed to work with one another? In P. Baltes & U. Staudinger (Eds.), Interactive minds: Lifespan perspectives on social foundations of cognition (pp. 163–197). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Goodnow, J. J., & Lawrence, J. A. (2015). Children and cultural context. Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science, 4(10), 1–41. Greenfield, P. (1995, March 30). Independence and interdependence in school conferences between Anglo teachers and Hispanic parents. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development, Indianapolis, IN. Greenfield, P. M., & Quiroz, B. (2013). Context and culture in the socialization and development of personal achievement values: Comparing Latino immigrant families, European American families, and elementary school teachers. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 34(2), 108–118. Hareven, T. (1986). Historical changes in the family and the life course: Implications for child development. In A. Smuts & H. Hagen (Eds.), History and research in child development. Monographs of the Society for Research on Child Development, 50(4–5, Serial No. 211). Hareven, T. K., & Plakans, A. (Eds.). (2017). Family history at the crossroads: A “journal of family history” reader. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Hendrick, H. (1997). Constructions and reconstructions of British childhood: An interpretative survey, 1800 to the present. In A. James & A. Prout (Eds.), Constructing and reconstructing childhood (pp. 34–62). London: Falmer. Jimenez, R., Garcia, G., & Pearson, D. (1995). Three children, two languages, and strategic reading: Case studies in bilingual/monolingual reading. American Educational Research Journal, 32(1), 67–97. Joshi, M., & MacLean, M. (1994). Indian and English children’s understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotion. Child Development, 65, 1372–1384. Jud, A., Fegert, J. M., & Finkelhor, D. (2016). On the incidence and prevalence of child maltreatment: A research agenda. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 10(1), 17. Kao, G. (1995). Asian-Americans as model minorities? A look at their academic performance. American Journal of Education, 103, 121–159. Khaleque, A., & Rohner, R. P. (2002). Perceived parental acceptance-rejection and psychological adjustment: A meta-analysis of cross-cultural and intracultural studies. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(1), 54–64. Khaleque, A., & Rohner, R. P. (2012). Pancultural associations between perceived parental acceptance and psychological adjustment of children and adults: A meta-analytic review of worldwide research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43(5), 784–800. Khaleque, A. (2017). Perceived parental hostility and aggression, and children’s psychological maladjustment, and negative personality dispositions: A meta-analysis. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26(4), 977–988. Kitzinger, J. (1997). Who are you kidding? Children, power and the struggle against sexual abuse. In A. James & A. Prout (Eds.), Constructing and reconstructing childhood (pp. 165–189). London: Falmer.

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Kochanska, G., Murray, K. T., & Harlan, E. T. (2000). Effortful control in early childhood: Continuity and change, antecedents, and implications for social development. Developmental Psychology, 36, 220–232. Krause, T. (2013). Adam Goodes makes a point about racism. Gonzomeetsthepress. Retrieved from http://gonzomeetsthepress .com/2013/05/27/adam-goodes-makes-a-point-about-racism Larson, R. W., & Richards, M. H. (1994a). Divergent realities: The emotional lives of mothers, fathers and adolescents. New York, NY: Basic Books. Larson, R. W., & Richards, M. H. (1994b). Emergent realities. New York, NY: Basic Books. Larson, R. W., Moneta, G., Richards, M. H., & Wilson, S. (2002). Continuity, stability, and change in daily emotional experience across adolescence. Child Development, 73(4), 1151–1165. Lee, J., & Chyung, Y. J. (2014). Parental power–prestige and the effects of paternal versus maternal acceptance on the psychological adjustment of Korean children. Cross-Cultural Research, 48(3), 259–269. Lemme, B. H. (2006). Development in adulthood (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Lerner, R. M. (2011). Structure and process in relational, developmental systems theories: A commentary on contemporary changes in the understanding of developmental change across the life span. Human Development, 54(1), 34–43. Lerner, R. M. (2015). Promoting positive human development and social justice: Integrating theory, research and application in contemporary developmental science. International Journal of Psychology, 50(3), 165–173. Levine, G., & Parkinson, S. (1994). Experimental methods in psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Liew, J., Lench, H. C., Kao, G., Yeh, Y. C., & Kwok, O. M. (2014). Avoidance temperament and social-evaluative threat in college students’ math performance: A mediation model of math and test anxiety. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 27(6), 650–661. MacKinnon-Lewis, C., Starnes, R., Volling, B., & Johnson, S. (1997). Perceptions of parenting as predictors of boys’ sibling and peer relations. Developmental Psychology, 33, 1024–1031. Mak, D. K., Mak, A. T., & Mak, A. B. (2009). Solving everyday problems with the scientific method, thinking like a scientist. World Scientific Publishing Company. Malin, H., Liauw, I., & Damon, W. (2017). Purpose and character development in early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46(6), 1200–1215. Mattan, B. D., Kubota, J. T., & Cloutier, J. (2017). How social status shapes person perception and evaluation: A social neuroscience perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(3), 468–507. Moore, D. M., D’Mello, A. M., McGrath, L. M., & Stoodley, C. J. (2017). The developmental relationship between specific cognitive domains and grey matter in the cerebellum. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 24, 1–11. Morange, M. (2002). The misunderstood gene. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Morange, M. (2014). From genes to gene regulatory networks: The progressive historical construction of a genetic theory of development and evolution. Minelli and Pradeu (2014b), 174–182. Mu˜noz, J. M., Braza, P., Carreras, R., Braza, F., Azurmendi, A., Pascual-Sagastiz´abal, E., & S´anchez-Mart´ın, J. R. (2017). Daycare center attendance buffers the effects of maternal authoritarian parenting style on physical aggression in children. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 391. National Health and Medical Research Council. (2007; updated 2015). National statement on ethical conduct in human research. Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia. Neugarten, B. L. (1967). The awareness of middle age. In R. Owen (Ed.), Middle age. London: British Broadcasting Company. Neugarten, B. L. (1974). Age groups in American society and the rise of the young-old. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 415, 187–198. Neugarten, B. L. (1996). Family and community support systems, paper presented to Committee #7, White House Conference on Aging, Washington, DC, November 1981, In D. Neugarten (Ed.), Edited Papers of Bernice Neugarten (pp. 355–376). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pettit, G. S. (1997). The developmental course of violence and aggression: Mechanisms of family and peer influence. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 20, 283–299. Piaget, J. (1963). The origins of intelligence in children. New York, NY: Norton. Poldrack, R. A. (2015). Is ‘efficiency’ a useful concept in cognitive neuroscience? Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 11, 12–17. Ripoll-N´un˜ ez, K., & Alvarez, C. (2008). Perceived intimate partner acceptance, remembered parental acceptance, and psychological adjustment among Colombian and Puerto Rican youths and adults. Cross-Cultural Research, 42(1), 23–34. Rohner, R. (1975). Parental acceptance-rejection and personality development: A universalist approach to behavioral science. In R. W. Brislin, S. Bochner, & W. J. Lonner (Eds.), Cross-cultural perspectives on learning (pp. 251–269). New York, NY: Sage. Rohner, R. P. (1980). Worldwide tests of parental acceptance-rejection theory: An overview. Behavior Science Research, 15(1), 1–21. Rohner, R. P. (2014). Parental power and prestige moderate the relationship between perceived parental acceptance and offspring’s psychological adjustment: Introduction to the international father acceptance–rejection project. Cross-Cultural Research, 48(3), 197–213.

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Rohner, R. P. (2016). Introduction to interpersonal acceptance–rejection theory (IPARTheory) and evidence. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 6(1), 4. Rohner, R. P., & Britner, P. A. (2002). Worldwide mental health correlates of parental acceptance-rejection: Review of cross-cultural and intracultural evidence. Cross-Cultural Research: The Journal of Comparative Social Sciences, 36, 15–47. Rohner, R. P., Khaleque, A., & Cournoyer, D. E. (2012). Introduction to parental acceptance-rejection theory, methods, evidence, and implications. Retrieved from http://csiar.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/494/2014/02/INTRODUCTION-TOPARENTAL-ACCEPTANCE-3-27-12.pdf Rohner, R. P., Melendez, T., & Kraimer-Rickaby, L. (2008). Intimate partner acceptance, parental acceptance in childhood, and psychological adjustment among American adults in ongoing attachment relationships. Cross-Cultural Research, 42(1), 13–22. Romer, D., Reyna, V. F., & Satterthwaite, T. D. (2017). Beyond stereotypes of adolescent risk taking: Placing the adolescent brain in developmental context. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 27, 19–34. Russell, L. (2013). Closing the gap on indigenous disadvantage: An analysis of provisions in the 2013–14 Budget and implementation of the Indigenous Chronic Disease Package. Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9115 Schaie, K. W. (1994). The course of adult intellectual development. American Psychologist, 49, 304–313. Schaie, K. W. (2016). The longitudinal study of adult cognitive development. In Sternberg, R. J., Fiske, S. & Foss, D. (Eds). Scientists making a difference: One hundred eminent behavioral and brain scientists talk about their most important contributions, (p. 218). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Schaie, K. W., & Willis, S. L. (2015). History of cognitive aging research. Encyclopedia of Geropsychology, 1–19. Schaie, K. W., Willis, S. L., & Caskie, G. I. L. (2004). The Seattle longitudinal study: Relation between personality and cognition. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 11, 304–324. Schibli, K., Wong, K., Hedayati, N., & D’Angiulli, A. (2017). Attending, learning, and socioeconomic disadvantage: Developmental cognitive and social neuroscience of resilience and vulnerability. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1396(1), 19–38. Siegler, R. S. (2002). Microgenetic studies of self-explanation. In N. Granott & J. Parziale (Eds.), Microdevelopment: Transition processes in development and learning (pp. 31–58). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Siegler, R. S. (2006). Microgenetic analyses of learning. In D. Kuhn & R. Siegler (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 2. Cognition, perception and language (6th ed., pp. 464–510). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Sommerville, J. (1990). The rise and fall of childhood (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Vintage Books. Somerville, M. (2014). Entangled objects in the cultural politics of childhood and nation. Global Studies of Childhood, 4(3), 183–194. Stamps, J. A., & Krishnan, V. V. (2017). Individual differences in the potential and realized developmental plasticity of personality traits. The Development of Animal Personality, 9. Taylor, J., Gilligan, C., & Sullivan, A. (1995). Between voice and silence: Women and girls, race and relationship. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Thompson, D. F. (2005). Restoring responsibility: ethics in government, business, and healthcare (Vol. 575). Cambridge University Press. Thompson, R. A. (1990). On emotion and self-regulation. In R. A. Thompson (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (Vol. 36, pp. 383–483). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. Tu, K. M., Gregson, K. D., Erath, S. A., & Pettit, G. S. (2017). Custom-fit parenting: How low-and well-accepted young adolescents benefit from peer-related parenting. Parenting, 17(3), 157–176. van den Bos, W., & Eppinger, B. (2016). Developing developmental cognitive neuroscience: From agenda setting to hypothesis testing. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 138–144. Waldinger, R. J., & Schulz, M. S. (2016). The long reach of nurturing family environments: links with midlife emotion-regulatory styles and late-life security in intimate relationships. Psychological Science, 27(11), 1443–1450. Wagner, J. (2016). Updating the Up Series: 56 Up directed by Michael Apted and Paul Almond, edited by Kim Horton. Visual Studies, 31(1), 89–90. Wellman, H. M. (2014). Making minds: How theory of mind develops. Oxford University Press. Wellman, H., & Hickling, A. (1994). The mind’s “I”: Children’s conception of the mind as an active agent. Child Development, 65(6), 1564–1581. Whitehurst, G., Epstein, J., Angell, A., Payne, A., Crone, D., & Fischel, J. (1994). Outcomes of an emergent literacy intervention in Head Start. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86(4), 542–555. Wink, P., & Staudinger, U. M. (2016). Wisdom and psychosocial functioning in later life. Journal of Personality, 84(3), 306–318.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Photo: © Aleksandra Suzi / Shutterstock.com Photo: © NeoStudio1 / Shutterstock.com CHAPTER 1 Studying development

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Photo: © michaelheim / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Zurijeta / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Blend Images / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Paul Miller / AAP Image Photo: © Stefan Postles / Getty Images Australia Photo: © Lewis Tse Pui Lung / Shutterstock.com Figure 1.2: © Paul B Baltes Extract: © John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Extract: © Reprinted with permission. Tom Krause, freelance producer/blogger.

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CHAPTER 2

Theories of development LEARNING OUTCOMES

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 2.1 describe the various developmental theories and explain how they are beneficial 2.2 analyse how psychodynamic theories have influenced our thinking about development 2.3 examine how developmental theories based on learning theories have contributed to our understanding of developmental change 2.4 justify how cognitive developmental theories help us to understand changes in thinking and problem solving throughout the lifespan 2.5 describe how contextual approaches to development have broadened our view of developmental change 2.6 compare and contrast how adult developmental changes differ from child and adolescent developmental changes 2.7 evaluate how comparing and contrasting developmental theories assists us in understanding developmental change.

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-04 18:32:11.

OPENING SCENARIO

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Leanne at age thirteen had just completed Year 6 of primary school and had sat the Stanford Binet intelligence test for placement in high school. Leanne’s IQ was measured at 136 (gifted level), and she was offered a place at a local selective high school for gifted children. Leanne eagerly looked forward to her first day of her new school. The first few weeks of school seemed to progress smoothly to Leanne’s parents. Leanne appeared to have settled in, and when she came home from school, she announced that she had ‘so much work to do’ so she shut herself in her bedroom to study. Her mother, wanting Leanne to be top of the class as she always was in her primary school, would bring a dinner tray to her room so Leanne could continue her study uninterrupted. Parent–teacher night dawned after the first few months. Keen to see how Leanne was progressing, her parents attended and spoke to all the teachers. Most of the teachers commented that she’s bright enough, but now she’s at a selective high school, it’s a bit like a small fish in a big pond. Leanne was used to being top of her class in primary school because she was a gifted child; now she’s at a selective high school where they are all gifted and so she is not always at the top. Kay and Roy, Leanne’s parents asked Leanne if she was enjoying school. She said she was, but she also said that she needed to keep working hard if she was going to keep up with the class and fit in. Two months later, in tears and quite stressed, Leanne confronted her parents and begged them to send her to the local high school, because she didn’t fit in, she was falling behind in her grades and she was nowhere near the top of the class as she had been. Suddenly, Leanne had become moody, withdrawn and uncommunicative — even punching and fighting with her younger brother, which rarely occurred, aside from the friendly brother and sister scraps. After talking with the school principal and several of Leanne’s teachers, her parents decided to send her to the local high school. After a couple of weeks at the local high school, Leanne commented to her parents, ‘I love the school. I’m top of the class again. I can answer all the questions in all my classes and my grades have improved. I’m so happy’. Although Leanne’s attitude had changed, this was not long lasting. One day Leanne ran home from the bus, banged into the house, ran upstairs, shut herself in her room, refusing to come downstairs no matter how hard everyone pleaded with her. Outside the door, Kay could hear Leanne yelling, screaming and then crying, ‘Why did you send me to this new school? I’m just a nerd and a loser. I’m no good. Everyone hates me’. Eventually she confided to Kay she had overheard herself being called ‘nerd’, ‘loser’, ‘brownnoser’, ‘teacher’s pet’ and ‘goodie two shoes’. Her name even appeared on the school walls and, worse still, a rather unfortunate photo of her from school camp was posted on Facebook with accompanying captions of slag, nerd and loser. A couple of months later, Kay received a call from the principal saying that she was concerned about Leanne’s attitude and progress. Her grades were significantly falling, she was aggressive in class and was spending all her time with the goth group. Later that day, Kay was worried as Leanne had not come home from school. An hour later than usual the door opened and in walked Leanne with bright pink hair and tattoos. ‘I’ve joined the goths and this is what they wear. They don’t judge me, they are my friends.’

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How might the theories we will encounter in this chapter (and throughout this text) help us to understand the developmental changes we have seen in Leanne as she moves through middle childhood into adolescence and the high school years? What will she be like as a young adult, and beyond? In what ways will developmental theories help us — and Leanne and her family — better anticipate, develop and understand these changes? In this chapter, we explore the nature of developmental theories, with a special emphasis on their applications to the developmental changes that take place over the course of an individual’s lifespan.

2.1 The nature of developmental theories LEARNING OUTCOME 2.1 Describe the various developmental theories and explain how they are beneficial.

Whether they know it or not, most people — teachers, parents, grandparents, students and even children themselves — are guided by ‘informal theories’ of human development. While the preceding example focuses on adolescence, informal theories of development are used to understand younger children and adults, as this chapter will depict.

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What is a developmental theory? As we pointed out in the chapter on studying development, lifespan development refers to long-term changes and continuities that occur during a person’s lifetime and the patterns of those changes. Theories are useful because they help us organise and make sense of large amounts of sometimes conflicting information about development. For example, how do we decide what high school is best for adolescents and, furthermore, what type of high school is developmentally best? What about school and study for elderly adults? For that matter, how do we make developmental sense out of different approaches to parenting, family life or education at various points in the lifespan? In contrast to informal theories, the more formal developmental theories we will discuss in this chapter attempt to provide clear, logical and systematic frameworks for describing and understanding the events and experiences that make up developmental change and discovering the principles and mechanisms that underlie the process of change. A theory is a set of statements that are an orderly, integrated description, explanation and prediction of human behaviour in various developmental domains. Theories assist us to understand development by guiding and giving meaning to what is observed, so that we can knowledgeably nurture children’s development and improve their welfare and treatment. The continued existence of a theory, however, depends on scientific verification. All theories are testable using a set of research strategies approved by the research and scientific community. It is this verification of theories by research that enables theories to serve as a valuable basis for practical action. The field of lifespan development contains many theories, with different ideas about how individuals are similar and dissimilar and how they change across the lifespan. The study of development is complex and so provides no ultimate ‘truth’ because researchers and investigators do not always agree on what they see. Development involves different domains, which change within differing cultural contexts. Some developmental theories address just some of these domains while others address domains within a specific cultural context, which is why it is important to study and understand a variety of theories. Together they provide a framework to organise knowledge of development in different domains and across different cultural contexts. What qualities should a good theory ideally have? First, a theory should be internally consistent, meaning its different parts fit together in a logical way. Second, a theory should provide meaningful explanations of the actual developmental changes we are interested in, be they changes in children’s thinking with age or the long-term effects of divorce on children’s social adjustment. Third, a theory should be open to scientific evaluation so that it can be revised or discarded if new or conflicting evidence appears or if a better theory is proposed. Fourth, a theory should stimulate new thinking and research. CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 45

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Finally, a theory should provide guidance to parents, professionals and other interested individuals in their day-to-day work with children, adolescents and adults.

How do developmental theories differ? Although all developmental theories explore the human experience at various points across the lifespan, they also differ in some important ways. In this chapter, we look at how each theory addresses basic questions about human development: to what degree is a given developmental change due to maturation (nature), and to what degree is it due to experience (nurture)? Is development a continuous process or a series of discontinuous stages? Does the individual take an active or a passive role in their development? Finally, does the theory itself seek to explain a broadly defined or more narrowly focused aspect of development? Although there are numerous developmental theories most of them will address three basic issues. 1. Is the path of development a continuous process or a discontinuous process? 2. Does one path of development characterise all individuals or are there several possible paths and directions? 3. To what extent do genetic or environmental factors influence development across the lifespan?

Maturation or experience? Theories differ in the importance they assign to nature and nurture as causes of developmental change. Maturation refers to developmental changes that seem to be determined largely by biology because they occur in all individuals relatively independently of their particular experiences. Examples of maturational changes include growth in height and weight and increases in the muscle coordination involved in sitting up, walking and running. Examples of changes due to experience, or nurture, include increasing skill in playing cricket, basketball, or tennis, which clearly seems to be due mostly to formal and informal learning. But for many developmental changes, the relative contributions of maturation and experience are less clear. Talking is a good example. To what degree do all children learn to talk regardless of their particular learning experiences? How much does their talking depend on their particular experiences in the family, community and culture in which they grow up?

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Process or stage? Developmental theories also differ about whether developmental change is a continuous process, consisting of many small, incremental changes, or a discontinuous process, composed of a smaller number of distinct steps or stages. Theorists such as Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget assume developmental change occurs in distinct, discontinuous stages. All individuals follow the same sequence, or order. Each successive stage is qualitatively unique from all other stages, is increasingly complex, and integrates the developmental changes and accomplishments of earlier stages. Erikson’s theory, for example, assumes an infant must first master the crisis of trust versus mistrust; that is, they must come to trust their caregiver’s ability to meet their needs. Only then can they move on to tackle the crisis that defines the next stage, autonomy versus shame and doubt. Autonomy refers to a person’s capacity to be independent and self-directed in their activities. Similarly, mastery of the crisis of intimacy versus isolation during early adulthood prepares an individual for the crisis of generativity versus stagnation that occurs during middle adulthood. These and other stages of development proposed by Erikson are discussed later in the chapter.

Active or passive? Developmental theories also differ in their view of how actively individuals contribute to their own development. For instance, behavioural learning theorists believe developmental change is caused by events in the environment that stimulate individuals to respond, resulting in the learnt changes in behaviour that make up development. Theorists who are interested in how thinking and problem-solving abilities develop, such as Piaget, propose that such changes depend on the person’s active efforts to master new 46

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intellectual problems of increasing difficulty. Likewise, Erikson’s theory of identity development proposes that an individual’s personality and sense of identity are strongly influenced by their active efforts to master the psychological and social conflicts of everyday life.

Young children traditionally progress from practising cycling on a tricycle, or a bike with trainer wheels, to riding a bike unaided. To what extent do you think that maturity and experience will contribute to whether or not this young boy masters how to ride a bike?

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Broad or narrow? Developmental theories also differ in how broadly (or narrowly) they define the range of factors, circumstances and contexts that may influence development, in how many areas of developmental change they seek to explain, and in the number of specific developmental processes and mechanisms they propose. For example, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory emphasises the broad range of situations and contexts in which development occurs. These include the individual’s direct and indirect experiences with family, school, work and culture, all of which act together to create developmental change. However, these theories say little about the specific processes or mechanisms involved. On the other hand, social learning theories explain just a few specific issues, such as the development of gender roles and aggression, but describe several mechanisms — in this case, types of learning — that are involved. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Think back to the introductory case of Leanne. We witnessed many developmental changes in Leanne as she moved from middle childhood and primary school into adolescence and high school. Leanne’s developmental changes were as a result of maturation, experience, and active and passive changes. Many developmental theorists would view Leanne’s developmental changes as occurring in stages and

CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 47

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as both a continuous and discontinuous process. How might each of these developmental viewpoints, such as stage, maturation, experience, continuous, discontinuous or being active and passive influence Leanne’s parents’ viewpoints, the viewpoint of Leanne’s teachers and school principal, and the viewpoint of Leanne herself in relation to how each view her development? How might each of these viewpoints influence how Leanne’s parents respond to her development and how teachers and the school principal educate Leanne?

2.2 Psychodynamic developmental theories LEARNING OUTCOME 2.2 Analyse how psychodynamic theories have influenced our thinking about development.

Psychodynamic theorists believe development is an active, dynamic process that is influenced by both a person’s inborn biological drives and their conscious and unconscious social and emotional experiences. According to Sigmund Freud, a child’s development is thought to occur in a series of stages. At each stage, the child experiences unconscious conflicts that they must resolve to some degree before going on to the next stage. Other influential psychodynamic approaches, such as those of Erikson and object relations theorists, place less emphasis on biological drives and unconscious conflict. These theorists focus more on the development of a sense of identity as a result of important social, emotional and cultural experiences.

Freudian theory Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was the originator of psychoanalysis, the approach to understanding and treating psychological problems on which psychodynamic theory is based. The psychoanalytic theory proposed by Freud proposes that unconscious forces act to determine personality and behaviour as individuals resolve conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. Although Freud’s formal theory is considered outdated, his ideas, however, continue to influence our understanding of personality development. Freud has influenced such areas as early infant–caregiver attachment, diagnosis and treatment of childhood emotional disorders, adolescent identity formation, and the long-term consequences of divorce.

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The three-part structure of personality Freud described each individual’s personality as consisting of three hypothetical mental structures: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id, which is present at birth, is unconscious. It impulsively tries to satisfy a person’s inborn biological needs and desires by motivating behaviours that maximise pleasure and avoid discomfort with no regard for the realities involved. In this view, the newborn infant is ‘all id’, crying for food and comfort but having no idea of how to get them because they cannot distinguish between wishful fantasy and reality. The ego is the largely rational, conscious, problem-solving part of the personality. It is closely related to a person’s sense of self. The ego functions according to the reality principle, a process by which the infant learns to delay their desire for instant satisfaction and redirect it into more realistic and appropriate ways to meet their needs. This involves a shift of psychological energy from fantasy to the real parents and other caregivers who can meet the infant’s needs. Thus, a hungry infant shifts from imagining that the wish for food will satisfy their hunger to a more realistic focus on anticipating the appearance of their parent or other caregiver, who will feed them. An infant’s developing ego, or sense of self, is based on their internalised mental images of their relationships with these caregivers. The superego is the moral and ethical component of the personality. It develops at the end of early childhood. The superego includes the child’s emerging sense of conscience, or right and wrong, as well 48

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as the ego-ideal, an idealised sense of how they should behave. The superego acts as an internalised, all-knowing parent. It punishes the person for unacceptable sexual or aggressive thoughts, feelings and actions with guilt, and rewards them for fulfilment of parental standards with heightened self-esteem. The superego can sometimes be overly moralistic and unreasonable, but it provides the individual with standards by which to regulate their moral conduct and take pride in their accomplishments.

Stages of psychosexual development Freud believed development occurs through a series of psychosexual stages that are crucial for healthy personality development. Each stage focuses on a different area of the body that is a source of excitement and pleasure. At each stage, developmental changes result from conflicts among the id, ego and superego. These conflicts can threaten the person’s ego, or sense of self. Pressures from the id push the person to act impulsively to achieve immediate pleasure; pressures from the ego encourage them to act more realistically by delaying satisfaction until it can be attained; and pressures from the superego push them to meet standards of moral behaviour and achievement that may be overly strict or unrealistically high. Freud’s psychosexual stages and the developmental processes that occur are summarised in table 2.1.

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TABLE 2.1

Freud’s psychosexual stages and developmental processes

Psychosexual stage

Approximate age

Oral

Birth–1 year

The mouth is the focus of stimulation and interaction; feeding and weaning are central. Pleasure is derived by the infant from oral activities such as sucking and chewing. If the oral needs of the infant are not suitably met, the infant may develop habits such as thumb sucking, fingernail biting and pencil chewing in childhood and later in life smoking and overeating.

Anal

1–3 years

The anus is the focus of stimulation and interaction; elimination and toilet training are central. Toddlers and preschoolers take pleasure in holding and releasing urine and faeces.

Phallic

3–6 years

The genitals (penis, clitoris and vagina) are the focus of stimulation; gender role and moral development are central. As preschoolers gain pleasure from genital stimulation, Freud’s Oedipus complex for boys and Electra complex for girls are evident. Young children feel a sexual desire for the other-sex parent, and often hostility towards the same-sex parent. To avoid punishment and loss of parental love, children suppress these impulses and instead adopt the characteristics and values of the same-sex parent. The superego is developed and children begin to feel guilty when they disobey moral standards.

Latency

6–12 years

A period of suspended sexual activity; energies shift to physical, social and intellectual activities. The superego is developing further. Social values from adults and same-sex peers outside the family are acquired.

Genital

12–adulthood

The genitals are the focus of stimulation with the onset of puberty. With sexual impulses of the phallic stage re-emerging, mature sexual relationships develop and extend through adulthood.

Description

Developmental processes Development occurs through a series of psychosexual stages. In each stage, the child focuses on a different area of their body. How they invest their libido (sexual energy) in relationships with people and things reflects the concerns of the stage they are in. New areas of unconscious conflict among the three structures of personality — the id, ego and superego — also occur. Conflicting pressures from the id to impulsively achieve pleasure, from the ego to act realistically by delaying gratification, and from the superego to fulfil moralistic obligations and to achieve idealistic standards all threaten the ego.

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The ego protects itself by means of unconscious defence mechanisms, which keep these conflicts from awareness by distorting reality. Defence mechanisms are unconscious distortions of reality that keep conflicts from the ego’s (self’s) conscious awareness. One such defence mechanism is repression, in which unacceptable feelings and impulses are forced from memory and forgotten. Another is projection, in which a person’s conflict-producing feelings, such as feelings of aggression, are mistakenly attributed to another person. According to Freud, unresolved id–ego and superego–ego conflicts can lead to a fixation, or a blockage in development. Fixation can also result from parenting that is not appropriately responsive to a child’s needs. For example, overindulgence during the oral stage (see table 2.1) may result in excessive dependence on others later in life. However, infants who experience severe deprivation and frustration of their needs may later feel they have to exploit or manipulate others to meet their needs. In this view, an individual’s personality traits reflect the patterns typical of the stage at which a fixation occurred. Although Freud’s theory was the first to stress the influence of parent–child relationships on development, his perspective has been hotly debated. Critics argued Freud’s perspective overemphasised the influence of sexual feelings on an individual’s development and that, because it was based on a nineteenthcentury Victorian society, it did not apply to other cultures. Also, Freud did not directly study children and his approach cannot be tested empirically, as the main constructs of feelings, instincts and emotions are difficult to test using scientific investigation.

Erikson’s psychosocial theory Erik Erikson (1902–94) grew up in southern Germany. He studied psychoanalysis with Freud’s daughter, Anna, who strongly influenced his ideas about personality development. Erikson achieved his outstanding accomplishments as a teacher, scholar and therapist without the benefit of a university degree. In the 1930s, Erikson worked as a psychoanalyst with children. He accepted a research appointment at Yale Medical School and the Yale Institute of Human Relations, where he worked with an interdisciplinary team of psychologists, psychiatrists and anthropologists conducting field studies of the Sioux Indians in South Dakota. Erikson wrote: It would seem almost self-evident now how the concepts of ‘identity’ and ‘identity crisis’ emerged from my personal, clinical, and anthropological observations in the thirties and forties. I do not remember when I started to use these terms; they seemed naturally grounded in the experience of emigration, immigration, and Americanization . . . (pp. 26, 43).

Influenced by Erikson’s ground breaking research into identity and intimacy during adolescence and early adulthood, current research has focused on the association between his notions of identity and intimacy and the development of romantic relationships. The following Focusing on feature discusses the current research which examines the relationship between Erikson’s identity crisis, intimacy and romantic relationships. FOCUSING ON

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Love hurts — lessons from Erikson Erikson’s original hypothesis of whether identity precedes intimacy has been explored by Beyers and Seiffge-Krenke (2010) and more recently by Crocetti, Beyers, and C¸ok (2016), Luyckx, Seiffge-Krenke, Schwartz, Crocetti, and Klimstra (2014), and Seiffge-Krenke, (2016) in a longitudinal study of adolescents (aged 15) and emerging adults (aged 25) in relation to romantic development. They were able to demonstrate in their study that Erikson’s developmental ordering of identity followed by intimacy was also prevalent for adolescents and emerging adults in the twenty-first century. Similarly, this transition from identity to intimacy in emerging adults has also been found by Arnett (2000, 2004), Arnett and Galambos (2003), and Mayseless and Keren (2014). Researchers Beyers and Seiffge-Krenke (2010) found that identity

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achievement in emerging adults was higher in comparison to adolescent groups. In this study, 48 per cent of the emerging adults were engaged in quality, intimate partnerships, identified by enduring, intimate and well-balanced relationships. The remaining emerging adults were in long-term relationships that were of a superficial nature or in a merger relationship that was trying to compensate for anxiousness in the relationships, or were defined as isolated due to the absence of an enduring partnership. This study concluded that intimacy in emerging adulthood was related to gender and partnership, with ‘twenty five year old females displaying significantly higher levels of intimacy’ (p. 405).

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Erikson’s hypotheses about sequencing of identity and intimacy were further confirmed by other findings in our model . . . These findings are strong evidence for conceptualisations of romantic development in adolescence which state that the early phases of romantic involvement are important steps but the romantic partner is not yet in the focus and thus true intimacy has not yet developed. Apparently, earlier stages of romantic involvement lack the capacity of integration, which seems to progress as romantic relationships mature to a more enduring, intimate, or affection phase (p. 406).

In addition to the research of Beyers and Seiffge-Krenke (2010), Barry, Madsen, Nelson, Carroll, and Badger (2009) found that consistent with Erikson’s theory, achievement of an identity was positively related to four qualities of romantic relationships; namely, companionship, worth, affection and emotional support. In this study, few gender differences were found for the links between identity and the development of romantic relationships. Similarly, Sneed, Whitbourne, Schwartz, and Huang (2012) — in a longitudinal study spanning 34 years — found that the association between identity and intimacy in adulthood was also consistent with Erikson’s theory. Following from this conclusion, this study also found a noteworthy addition to the current research by finding a relationship between the development of identity and a romantic relationship in early adulthood and later identity and wellbeing in middle adulthood. A pivotal aspect of identity for Erikson was the ‘integrative capacity of the self’, which allows the individual to progress through the differing developmental stages. Support for this integrative capacity as a necessary precursor of intimacy in emerging adults’ partnerships was found in Beyers and Seiffge-Krenke’s study. This study illustrated that it was not global identity achievement but the integration of identity aspects with relationship aspects at age 24 that predicted intimacy. An interesting conclusion drawn from this research is that emerging adults ‘need to learn the skills to navigate through multiple intimate relationships and to integrate identity and relationship relevant information’ (p. 406). Consistent with Erikson’s theory, this study concluded that intimacy development in relation to romantic relationships follows, rather than precedes, identity development informing identity theory and intimacy development. Furthermore, Moore, Leung, Karnilowicz, and Lung (2012) found that when comparing two cultural groups (Australian and Chinese young adults), those participants who were more likely to have been involved in romantic relationships also displayed a more mature status of identity. Although relationship break-ups were common in this age bracket, particularly the Australian cohort, they were less common with those participants who had resolved their identity status. Interestingly, this study found that both cultural groups experienced more hurt in a relationship break-up if they evidenced a more mature identity status. Both Chinese and Australian young adults demonstrated that secure romantic relationships were related to mature identity status, positive relationships and greater resiliency in coping with break-up in a relationship.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

To what extent is Erikson’s identity and intimacy theory relevant to your own experiences? Reflecting on current research which has been influenced by Erikson’s theory, how has experience, time and place shaped your identity? How has the development of your identity influenced the development of intimacy and enduring romantic relationships?

In Erikson’s view, personality development is a psychosocial process, meaning internal psychological factors and external social factors are both very important. Through the development of a unique personality, Erikson proposed that social influences such as social skills and attitudes will contribute to our understanding of ourselves as members of society. Developmental changes occur throughout a person’s lifetime. They are influenced by three interrelated forces: 1. the individual’s biological and physical strengths and limitations 2. the person’s unique life circumstances and developmental history, including early family experiences and degree of success in resolving earlier developmental crises 3. the particular social, cultural and historical forces at work during the individual’s lifetime (e.g. racial prejudice, poverty, rapid technological change or war).

Psychosocial stages of development Influenced by his anthropological training — and refining and expanding Freud’s theory of stages — Erikson proposed that lifespan development occurs in a series of eight stages, beginning with infancy and ending with old age. Each stage is named for the particular psychosocial crisis, or challenge, individuals need to positively resolve at each stage to develop a fully functioning personality. Negative resolutions will determine maladaptive outcomes at each stage. For Erikson, a psychosocial crisis was a time of particular vulnerability that was linked to social relationships. Successful mastery of the psychosocial crisis at a particular stage results in a personality strength, or virtue, that will help the individual meet future developmental challenges (Conway & Holmes, 2004; Dunkel & Harbke, 2017; Erikson, 1982; Hoare, 2002; Malone, Liu, Vaillant, Rentz, & Waldinger, 2016; Marcia, 2002; Miller, 1993; Newman & Newman, 2011, 2017). Erikson saw the course of development as reversible. Events of later childhood could undo for better or worse some of the early personality foundations that had been built. Table 2.2 summarises Erikson’s stages and developmental processes.

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Stage 1: trust versus mistrust

The earliest basic trust is indicated by the infant’s capacity to sleep, eat and excrete in a comfortable and relaxed way. Parents who reliably ensure daily routines and are responsive to their infant’s needs provide the basis for a trusting, confident view of the world. Mistrust occurs when infants have to wait too long for comfort and are harshly handled, developing a sense of insecurity with their environment. The proper ratio, or balance, between trust and mistrust leads to the development of hope. Hope is the enduring belief that one’s wishes are attainable. Failure to develop such trust may seriously interfere with a child’s sense of security and compromise their ability to successfully master the challenges of the stages that follow. Stage 2: autonomy versus shame and doubt

This stage occurs during the toddler and preschool years. Autonomy refers to a child’s capacity to be independent and self-directed in their activities and ability to balance their own demands for self-control with demands for control from their parents and others. Shame involves a loss of self-respect due to a failure to meet one’s own standards and those of parents (Lewis, 1992, 2011). A successful outcome for this stage is the virtue of will, the capacity to freely make choices based on realistic knowledge of what is expected and what is possible. 52

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TABLE 2.2

Erikson’s psychosocial stages and developmental processes

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Psychosocial stage

Approximate age

Description (virtue attained)

Basic trust versus mistrust

Birth–18 months

Focus on oral–sensory activity; development of trusting relationships with caregivers and of self-trust (hope) and confidence. Mistrust occurs when infants are handled harshly and have to wait too long for comfort and for their basic needs to be met.

Autonomy versus shame and doubt

1–2 years

Focus on muscular–anal activity; development of control over bodily functions and activities (will). With the development of motor and mental skills, children wish to make choices and decisions for themselves. Autonomy can be fostered by parents by permitting reasonable free choice. It can also be fostered by parents not forcing or shaming the child — which will result in the child doubting themselves, their abilities and skills.

Initiative versus guilt

3–6 years

Focus on locomotor–genital activity; testing limits of self-assertion and purposefulness (purpose). Children are exploring and experimenting with the kind of person that they can become. They are developing initiative, a sense of responsibility and purpose. The demand by parents for too much self-control can lead to over-control, and the child can feel guilty for displaying their initiative.

Industry versus inferiority

7–11 years (latency period)

Focus on mastery, competence, and productivity (competence). With the advent of school, children develop the capacity to cooperate and work with others and are industrious in cognitive, physical and emotional ways. When children encounter negative experiences at school and at home with siblings and peers, feelings of incompetence can arise.

Identity versus role confusion

Teenage years (adolescence)

Focus on formation of identity and coherent self-concept (fidelity). Questions such as ‘Who am I?’, ‘Where am I going’ and ‘Where do I fit in?’ challenge the adolescent. Through searching for meaning and exploring vocational goals and self-values, the adolescent forms a personal identity. Confusion about identity, roles, responsibilities and adult values mark this psychosocial stage.

Intimacy versus isolation

20s and 30s (early adulthood)

Focus on achievement of an intimate relationship (love) and career direction. Some individuals experience difficulty in forming close relationships because of earlier disappointments, which leads to isolation.

Generativity versus stagnation

40s to 60s (middle adulthood)

Focus on fulfilment through creative, productive activity that contributes to future generations (care). Failure to achieve this results in an absence of meaningful accomplishment.

Ego integrity versus despair

60s on (old age)

Focus on belief in integrity of life, including successes and failures (wisdom). Individuals reflect on the kind of person they have been, if life has been worth living and if they have accomplished their goals. Dissatisfaction with life results in a fear of death.

Developmental processes Development of the ego, or sense of identity, occurs through a series of stages, each building on the preceding stages and focused on successfully resolving a new psychosocial crisis between two opposing ego qualities. No stage is fully resolved, and a more favourable resolution at earlier stages facilitates the achievement of later stages.

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Stage 3: initiative versus guilt

This stage occurs during the preschool years. Initiative combines autonomy with the ability to explore new activities and ideas and to purposefully pursue and achieve tasks and goals. Guilt involves self-criticism due to failure to fulfil parental expectations. This crisis often involves situations in which the child takes on more than they can physically or emotionally handle — including the powerful sexual and aggressive feelings children often act out in their make-believe play. If the child is treated respectfully and helped to formulate and pursue their goals without feeling guilty, they will develop the virtue of purpose in their life. Stage 4: industry versus inferiority

As a child leaves the protection of their family and enters the world of school, they develop the capacity to work and cooperate with others. In this stage, children come to believe in their ability to learn the basic intellectual and social skills required to be a full and productive member of society and to start and complete tasks successfully. The virtue of competence is the result. A failure to feel competent can lead to a sense of inferiority. The child who consistently fails in school is in danger of feeling alienated from society or of thoughtlessly conforming to gain acceptance from others. Stage 5: identity versus role confusion

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This stage coincides with the physical changes of puberty and the psychosocial changes of adolescence. Identity involves a reliable, integrated sense of who one is based on the many different roles one plays. Role confusion refers to a failure to achieve this integration of roles. During this stage, teenagers undergo re-evaluation of who they are in many areas of identity development, including the physical, sexual, intellectual, religious and career areas. Frequently conflicts from earlier stages resurface. A successful resolution of this crisis is the development of the virtue of fidelity, the ability to sustain loyalties to certain values despite inevitable conflicts and inconsistencies. Failure to resolve this crisis may lead to a premature choice of identity, a prolonged identity and role confusion, or choosing a permanently ‘negative’ identity that may be associated with delinquent and antisocial behaviour. The negative outcome of this stage is confusion about later adult roles. We take a closer look at identity development in a coming chapter on psychosocial development in adolescence. Erikson’s final three stages focus on development during adulthood.

According to Erikson, young adults must develop the ability to establish close, committed relationships with others and cope with the fear of losing their identity in the stage of intimacy versus isolation. In making a life commitment, young newlyweds achieve this goal.

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Stage 6: intimacy versus isolation

Successful resolution of this stage results in the virtue of being able to experience love. The young adult must develop the ability to establish close, committed relationships with others and cope with the fear of losing their identity and sense of self when developing such an intimate relationship. Some individuals experience difficulty in forming relationships due to earlier disappointments, remaining isolated and alienated. Stage 7: generativity versus stagnation

This stage occurs during middle adulthood. Successful resolution brings the virtue of care, or concern for others. Generativity is the feeling that one’s work, family life and other activities are both personally satisfying and socially meaningful in ways that contribute to future generations. Stagnation results when life no longer seems purposeful. Stage 8: ego integrity versus despair

This stage occurs during late adulthood. Successful resolution brings the virtue of wisdom. Ego integrity refers to the ability to look back on the strengths and weaknesses of one’s life with a sense of dignity, optimism and wisdom. It is in conflict with the despair resulting from health problems, economic difficulties, social isolation and lack of meaningful work experienced by many elderly persons in our society. According to Erikson, psychosocial conflicts are never fully resolved. Individuals achieve a more or less favourable ratio of trust to mistrust, industry to inferiority, ego integrity to despair and so on, depending on life experiences. So, conflicts from earlier stages may continue to affect later development. Crucial to his view of psychosocial development, Erikson postulated the epigenetic principle as underpinning the stages of psychosocial development. This principle states that we develop through a predetermined unfolding of our personalities in eight stages. It states ‘Anything that grows has a ground plan, and that out of this ground plan the parts arise, each part having its time of special ascendancy, until all the parts have arisen to form a functioning whole’ (Erikson, 1968). As Boeree (1997, p. 1) states ‘like the unfolding of a rose bud, each petal opens up at a certain time, in a certain order, which nature, through its genetics, has determined. If we interfere in the natural order of development by pulling a petal forward prematurely or out of order, we ruin the development of the entire flower.’

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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In his epigenetic principle, Erikson proposed that we develop though a predetermined unfolding of our personalities. Influenced by the epigenetic principle, each stage is to a certain extent determined by our success or lack of success in all the previous stages. How might these predetermined unfolding cultural, social and gender issues influence how an individual deals with each crisis throughout the lifespan? How has your own predetermined social and cultural background influenced your development? Compare your conclusions with those of several classmates.

Other psychodynamic approaches A number of psychodynamic theorists have sought to extend Freud’s basic insights about the importance of a child’s object relations. Object relations refer to the child’s relationships with the important people (called objects) in their environment and the process by which the objects’ qualities become a part of the child’s personality and mental life. Object relations theorists such as Mahler, Pine, and Bergman (1975, 2000), Bergman and Harpaz-Rotem (2004) and Stern (1985a, 1985b) have studied how personality development in children and adults is influenced by the mental representations they construct, based on their experiences and attachment relationships with the significant people in their lives CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 55

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(Barlow & Durand, 1995, 2006, 2014; Durand, 2001, 2007; Hamilton, 1989, 1990). We explore infant attachment in the chapter on psychosocial development in the first two years. For example, Mahler et al. (1975, 2000) proposed that during the first three years of life, children go through four phases in developing a psychological sense of self. A newborn infant begins life in an autistic phase, meaning they are self-absorbed and have little psychological awareness of the world around them. Next, during the symbiotic phase, the infant experiences themselves as completely connected with and dependent on their primary caregiver, rather than as a psychologically separate person. During the separation–individuation phase, infants begin to develop a separate sense of self. In the hatching subphase the infant responds differently to the significant, primary caregiver as opposed to others. Safe separation and disengagement from the primary caregiver begins to occur during the practising subphase. Disengagement is refined during the rapprochement subphase where the infant explores their world safely by leaving and then returning to the secure home base with their primary caregiver. Finally, during the object constancy phase, the infant achieves a more stable sense of self based on their increasing ability to form reliable mental representations of their primary caregivers (called objects) and their responses to them (Bergman & Harpaz-Rotem, 2004; Mahler et al., 1975; Pine, 2004; Silverman, 2005). The object relations view developed within the context of nuclear families focuses on a single significant caregiver, rather than in the context of extended family systems. In extended family systems, there are multiple mothering and fathering figures, in the form of various aunts, uncles and grandparents, who relate to the infant in early life. Table 2.3 summarises Mahler’s phases of development.

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TABLE 2.3

Mahler’s phases of development

Phase

Approximate age

Description

Autistic phase

Birth–2 months

Safe, sleeplike transition into the world

Symbiotic phase

2–6 months

Development of an emotionally charged mental image of the primary caregiver

Separation–individuation phase

6–24 months

Functions as a separate individual

Hatching subphase

6–10 months

Responds differently to primary caregivers versus others

Practising subphase

10–16 months

Safe separation and disengagement

Rapprochement subphase

16–24 months

Experiments more fully with leaving and returning to the safe home base of the caregiver

Object constancy phase

24–36 months and over

Maintains stable and reliable mental images of the primary caregivers

Stern (1985a, 1985b, 1990, 1995) and more recently, Gross, Stern, Brett, and Cassidy (2017) offer an alternative description of the development of the psychological self, based on detailed empirical studies of infant–parent interactions in both the laboratory and naturalistic settings. According to Stern, from birth onwards young infants display the capacity to coherently organise their experiences, through an emergent self where they regulate sleeping and eating, and actively participate in their interpersonal world to a significantly greater degree than Mahler proposed. Stern suggested that a core self, based on an infant’s awareness of being physically separate from others, emerges between two and six months of age. A subjective self, based on an organised mental representation of relationships with others, appears between 6 and 12 months. Finally, a sense of verbal self emerges between 12 and 18 months with the development of language and symbolic thought.

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Applications of psychodynamic developmental theories throughout the lifespan As we will see in the chapters on psychosocial development throughout this text, psychodynamic theories help us understand: r the formation of attachments, the strong and enduring emotional bonds that develop between an infant and their caregivers in an infant’s first year of life r the development of autonomy and self-control during infancy and toddlerhood r the development of intimate relationships during adolescence and adulthood. These theories alert us to the social and emotional importance of early childhood play (discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in early childhood) and help us deal with death, loss and grieving during middle childhood (discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in middle childhood), and with eating disorders, depression and delinquency during adolescence (discussed in the chapters on adolescence). Erikson’s psychosocial theory helps us see that resolving the crisis of identity versus role confusion, which is a major task of adolescence, has its origins in earlier experiences and continues through late adulthood, when the crisis of ego integrity versus despair must be negotiated. Object relations theories such as Mahler’s help us better understand the process of separation–individuation during the first three years and during adolescence as well, when Josselson (1980, 1988), and Josselson and Flum (2014) used similar ideas to describe how adolescents separate from their parents to form their own independent identities (discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in adolescence). Finally, Stern’s ‘internal working models’ further our understanding of how a parent’s distorted mental portrait of their child can contribute to abuse and how changes in these internal working models can help prevent abuse (discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in early childhood).

2.3 Behavioural learning and social cognitive learning developmental theories LEARNING OUTCOME 2.3 Examine how developmental theories based on learning theories have contributed to our understanding of developmental change.

Learning is generally defined as relatively permanent changes in the capacity to perform certain behaviours that result from experience. According to behavioural, social cognitive, cognitive and information processing theories, the learning experiences that occur over a person’s lifetime are the source of developmental change. So, changes in existing learning opportunities or the creation of new ones can modify the course of an individual’s development.

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Behavioural learning theories The behavioural learning theories of Pavlov (devised 1891–1900) and Skinner (devised 1930–1989) have provided key concepts for understanding how learning experiences influence development and for helping individuals learn new, desirable behaviours and alter or eliminate problematic behaviours.

Pavlov: classical conditioning Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) was a Russian scientist who developed his behavioural theory while studying digestion in dogs. In his well-known experiments, Pavlov rang a bell just before feeding a dog. Eventually, the dog salivated in anticipation of the food whenever it heard the bell, even if it received no food. Pavlov called this process classical conditioning. He named the salivation itself the conditioned response, the food stimulus the unconditioned stimulus, and the dog’s salivatory response the unconditioned response.

CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 57

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The last was so named because the connection between the food stimulus and the dog’s response was an inborn, unconditioned reflex, that is, an involuntary reaction similar to the eyeblink and kneejerk reflexes.

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Ivan Pavlov developed his behavioural theory of classical conditioning while studying the digestion habits of dogs. He established that by ringing a bell before feeding a dog, the dog would learn to associate the stimulus and to respond to it with an unconditioned reflex, producing saliva — or drool.

Through the processes involved in classical conditioning, reflexes that are present at birth may help infants to learn about and participate in the world around them. For example, conditioning of the sucking reflex, which allows newborn infants to suck reflexively in response to a touch on the lips, has been reported using a tone as the conditioned stimulus (Lipsitt & Kaye, 1964; Sullivan et al., 1991). Other stimuli, such as the sight of the bottle and the mother’s face, smile and voice, may also become conditioned stimuli for sucking and may elicit sucking responses even before the bottle touches the baby’s lips. Although even newborns’ behaviour may be classically conditioned, it cannot be reliably observed over a wide range of reflexes until about six months of age (Lipsitt, 1990). Figure 2.1 illustrates the process of classical conditioning. J. B. Watson was inspired by Ivan Pavlov’s studies of animal learning and became the first modern psychologist to investigate if classical conditioning could be applied to children’s behaviour. In a now classic experiment he taught an 11-month-old infant, Albert, to fear a soft white rat (a neutral stimulus). Watson presented the toy rat to Albert several times — paring each presentation with a sharp, loud sound which naturally scared the baby. At first, Albert reached out eagerly to touch the furry rat and then, frightened by the loud noises, began to cry and turn his head away at the sight of the white rat (Watson & Raynor, 1920). As Albert’s fear was so intense, researchers eventually challenged the ethics of such research. Watson concluded that the environment was a critical influence upon development and that adults could shape a child’s behaviour by controlling stimulus–response associations. As a result of his studies, Watson viewed development as a continuous process where associations increased with age. 58

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FIGURE 2.1

Illustration of classical conditioning In this example, the nipple in the baby’s mouth is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), which with no prior conditioning brings about, or elicits, the sucking reflex, an unconditioned response (UCR). (a) The nipple in the mouth elicits a sucking reflex; (b) the sight of a bottle is a neutral stimulus (NS) and has no effect; (c) once the sight of the bottle (neutral stimulus) is repeatedly paired with the nipple in the mouth (UCS), the sight of the bottle becomes a conditioned (learned) stimulus (CS), which now elicits sucking; (d) the conditioned response (CR).

Before conditioning

During conditioning

(a) Place a nipple in the baby’s mouth.

(c) Show baby the bottle and place its nipple in the baby’s mouth. Repeat a number of times.

Touch of nipple (UCS)

elicits

Sucking reflex (UCR)

(b) Show baby a bottle with a nipple.

Touch of nipple (UCS)

elicits

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No sucking

Sucking reflex (UCR)

(d) Show baby the bottle with nipple.

(paired with)

Sight of elicits bottle with nipple (CS)

Sight of elicits bottle with nipple (NS)

After conditioning

Sucking reflex (UCR)

Sight of elicits bottle with nipple (CS)

Sucking response (CR)

Interestingly, classical conditioning–based learning occurs constantly in our everyday life and often we are unaware of it. For example, when Melanie was aged five she ate some oysters and the following day she experienced nauseating stomach flu. Just smelling oysters or thinking about them makes Melanie feel nauseated even twenty years later. Classical conditioning–based learning involves emotions of fear, delight, anger and joy, to name a few. Karl is constantly bullied at school and so he learns to associate the school with fear. The smell of Chanel No. 5 perfume provokes a feeling of comfort and joy in 35-year-old Katherine as she remembers the childhood scent of this perfume on her mother. Graham, having been bitten by a dog when he was aged eight, now fears the sight of that particular dog breed fifty years later. CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 59

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Skinner: operant conditioning

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B. F. Skinner (1904–1991) is best known for his learning theory, which is also known as operant conditioning. This theory is based on a simple concept called reinforcement, the process by which the likelihood that a particular response will occur again increases when that response is followed by a certain stimulus. Positive reinforcement occurs when, following a particular response (a baby saying ‘da-da’), a rewarding stimulus (his father smiling and saying ‘Good boy!’) is given that strengthens the response and increases the likelihood that it will recur under similar circumstances. When potty training a toddler, parents often use a reward system of treats for the desirable behaviour. These behaviours include sitting on the potty, going to the bathroom on the potty or having dry pyjamas in the morning. The hope is that the toddler will continue to exhibit the desired behaviour because they want to earn the reward, until eventually the behaviour becomes a habit. Seven-year-old Gus has a chart on his wall of his household chores such as making his bed, getting dressed, brushing his teeth and taking his dishes to the sink. If he completes all his chores, he earns a sticker on his chore chart. Once he has four stickers, he is able to choose his favourite dessert. In a work context, this reinforcement style of learning is in place. Many companies offer incentives, such as raises and paid commissions to those employees who exhibit excellent performances or meet their sales targets.

This father is attempting to improve his daughter’s rollerblading skills. By encouraging her to stand up straight and keep her arms out for balance, he is modifying her existing behaviour. Eventually, she will be able to rollerblade more effectively, producing a desirable result. This process is known as shaping.

Negative reinforcement also strengthens a response and increases the chance of its recurrence, but does so by removing an undesirable or unpleasant stimulus following the occurrence of that response. Consider Sarah, a four year old who has been crying and misbehaving at the dinner table. By quietening down once she gets her parents’ attention, she may actually be negatively reinforcing (increasing) her parents’ attention-giving responses, by removing the unpleasant stimulus of crying and misbehaving. David arrives late to school more than three times in a week so he earns a detention and has to stay after 60

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school. Teachers and the school principal hope that serving time in detention will encourage David to come to school on time. The negative reinforcement of detention causes David to come to school on time as he doesn’t want to be punished with a detention again. Chelsea is often running late for work so she speeds in her car on her way to work to make up the time. One morning, she is pulled over by a police officer and is given a $250 speeding ticket. The negative consequence to her behaviour of speeding causes her to obey the speed limit since she never wants to get a speeding ticket again. If you have attended a slimming club or fitness club and earned ‘rewards’ for losing weight or improving fitness, fasted or given up foods for Lent or other religious festivals, trained your dog to offer a paw for a treat or owned a club card where you collect points for gifts or prizes, then you have experienced operant conditioning. Punishment weakens or suppresses a behavioural response by either adding an unpleasant stimulus or removing a pleasurable one following the response’s occurrence. Taking away television privileges or adding an extra chore following a child’s misbehaviour are both forms of punishment. Extinction refers to the disappearance of a response when a reinforcer that was maintaining the response is removed. Frequently, the best way to extinguish an undesirable response is to ignore it and reinforce an alternative, more desirable response. Shaping occurs when a child learns to perform new responses not already in their repertoire, or ‘collection’. This is achieved by starting with an existing response and then modifying, or shaping it, by reinforcing small changes that bring it closer and closer to the desired behaviour. Consider a dad who wishes to teach his seven-year-old daughter to hit a ball with a bat. Since she is capable of swinging a bat, careful encouragement (a good reinforcer) for better and better swings and eventually for actually making contact with the ball (which is itself a good reinforcer) will shape her bat-swinging behaviour into ball-hitting behaviour, a more enjoyable and useful response.

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Social cognitive learning theory Bandura (1991, 2001, 2006, 2016) proposes developmental change occurs largely through observational learning, or learning by observing others, which is also known as the social learning theory or social cognitive theory. Significant to observational learning or social cognitive learning is the role of modelling and imitation. Learning is reciprocally determined, meaning it is a result of interactions between the developing individual (including their behaviours, cognitive processes and physical capacities) and their physical and social environment. Recently, the importance of thinking about self and other individuals has influenced Bandura’s revisions of social learning theory. As a result, he now refers to it as social cognitive theory. Social cognitive learning takes two forms: imitation and modelling. In imitation, a child is directly reinforced for repeating or copying the actions of others. In modelling, the child learns the behaviours and personality traits of a parent or other model through vicarious (indirect) reinforcement. A child learns to behave in ways similar to those of a parent or other model by merely observing the model receive reinforcement for their actions. How influential the model is depends on a variety of factors, including the model’s relationship to the child, their personal characteristics, and how the child perceives them (Bandura, 1989a, 1989b, 2006; Miller, 1993). Children’s levels of cognitive development strongly influence their ability to observe, remember and later perform in ways similar to the models they have watched. In his theory, Bandura identified several factors that determine whether individuals learn from a model. r Characteristics of a model. Individuals are most likely to model high-status, powerful, competent individuals. r Characteristics of the observer. Individuals who lack status and power are most likely to model children or adolescents. r Consequences of the behaviour. The greater the value the observer places on the behaviour, the more likely it is that the behaviour will be modelled. CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 61

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Albert Bandura analysed the phases involved in observational learning, and proposed a four-step model of observational learning. As the learning and modelling of another’s behaviour involves mental activity, Bandura referred to this as social cognitive learning. The phases of observational learning are as follows. 1. Attend to the model — we need to attend to the behaviour of the model if we are to model, memorise and reproduce the behaviour. 2. Remember the characteristics of the behaviour and what is seen and heard if we are to reproduce it later. 3. Reproduce the memory or the behaviour of the model that was observed and imitated. 4. Reinforcement — receive reinforcement for accurate performance of the observed behaviour. The social cognitive learning approach has been useful in explaining gender development, the development of aggression, and the developmental impact of television and other media. It has also been useful for counsellors and therapists, who work with problems in the parent–child relationship and with children who are experiencing a variety of behavioural and adjustment difficulties in both outpatient and residential treatment settings. Social cognitive theory — in particular, observational learning — is a critical component of our daily learning processes. For example, baby Finn learns to make and understand facial expressions by watching his father blow bubbles, smile, coo and poke out his tongue to him in their play times. Jibraan, aged three, watches his older brother Neezam being punished for taking a cookie without asking. Jibraan learns to ask permission when he wants a cookie. Iman observes her university friend being punished for cheating in an exam so she learns not to cheat after having watched others being punished for cheating. Manel, aged 23, has a new job working as a barista in a restaurant. She learns the roles and expectations of a barista by observing and imitating more experienced baristas at work.

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Applications of learning theories throughout the lifespan The systematic study of child development began in earnest during the nineteenth century with a variety of disciplines contributing their own set of theoretical assumptions, research questions, methodologies and debates giving lifespan development its interdisciplinary nature. Learning theories have contributed to this understanding of development while also providing a critical basis for research and experimental techniques, which have assisted in enhancing our understanding of lifespan development. New ways of understanding lifespan development are emerging. As part of this understanding, learning theories constantly question, extend and enhance the discoveries of earlier theories. Learning theories have had a major impact on the practices with individuals across the lifespan and have acknowledged individuals contributions to their own development. Pavlov’s and Skinner’s behavioural learning theories have proved particularly useful in helping to understand development from infancy to adolescence. For example, classical conditioning has been used to teach infants to respond to different stimuli by sucking on a dummy. Operant conditioning and observational learning have guided the study of cognitive development during the first two years and have helped explain the development of autonomy in infancy and toddlerhood. Behaviour modification is a specific set of techniques that is based on operant conditioning and social cognitive learning used to eliminate undesired behaviours and increase desirable responses. It has been essential in helping school-aged children and their families deal with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Behaviour modification has been helpful in assisting adolescents with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. It has also been used to decrease undesired delinquent behaviour and to relieve a wide range of developmental problems such as persistent aggression, extreme fears and language delays (Heriot & Pritchard, 2004; Rabinovich, 2016; Wolpe & Plaud, 1997). Behaviour modification is also used in dealing with everyday issues, such as time management, nail biting and disruptive behaviour, as well as such common events as test taking and visits to the dentist (Conyers et al., 2004). Also, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) has become a popular treatment for bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and drug and 62

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alcohol problems (Kennerley, Kirk, & Westbrook, 2016). It is a trauma focus for children, adolescents and adults and is used for psychosis. Similarly, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of psychotherapy, commonly described as a form of cognitive-behaviour therapy or clinical behaviour analysis. It was developed in 1982 by Dr Steven Hayes whose work in a series of groundbreaking studies found that cognitive and social learning methods of therapy were not effective. Hayes’s pioneering research made early theoretical attempts to analyse cognitive therapy using behavioural techniques. His research extended a process-based behavioural approach by abstracting from traditional behaviour analysis. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy was first empirically tested by Dr Robert Zettle in 1985, and developed throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s (Hayes, 2016; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999). In 2007, Dr Zettle wrote on the effectiveness of ACT for the treatment of depression, which has become an invaluable resource for therapists. ACT teaches psychological skills known as ‘mindfulness’ to deal effectively with painful thoughts and feelings. It teaches acceptance of what is out of one’s personal control, and encourages a commitment to action that improves and enriches one’s life. The main aim of ACT is not to remove unpleasant feelings, but to accept what life presents, learn not to overreact to unpleasant feelings and avoid situations but move towards positive behaviour that agrees with the individual’s personal values. For these reasons ACT has been most effective in the treatment of trauma, in particular with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Both behavioural and social cognitive learning theories can help to explain how language is acquired during early childhood. Social cognitive learning theories help us to understand the role of vicarious (indirect) reinforcement and self-reinforcement in early childhood, and the limitations of using smacking and other forms of punishment during early childhood. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Monique has just turned five and has started kindergarten. Arriving home after an exhausting day at school, she is heard calling her younger brother Sam, a ‘dummy’, ‘dumb head’, ‘moron’ and ‘arsehole’. Sam begins to cry and Monique taunts ‘cry baby’, ‘sucker’ and ‘wimpy’. What behavioural theories might explain Monique’s behaviour? How might the parent use behavioural theories to deal with this behaviour? Do the behavioural theories discussed account for and explain all behaviours? Discuss your viewpoints.

2.4 Cognitive developmental theories LEARNING OUTCOME 2.4 Justify how cognitive developmental theories help us to understand changes in thinking and problem solving throughout the lifespan.

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In this section, we discuss three theoretical approaches to cognitive development: Piaget’s cognitive theory, neo-Piagetian theories, and information-processing theory. All of these theories share a strong focus on how thinking and problem-solving skills develop and how such cognitive activities contribute to the overall process of development.

Piaget’s cognitive theory Jean Piaget (1896–1980) was one of the most influential figures in developmental psychology. Just as Freud’s ideas radically changed thinking about human emotional development, Piaget’s ideas have changed our understanding of the development of human thinking and problem solving, or cognition.

Key principles of Piaget’s theory Piaget (1896–1980) believed thinking develops in a series of increasingly complex stages, each of which incorporates and revises those that precede it and is characterised by qualitatively different and distinct ways of thinking. According to Piaget, children actively construct knowledge as they explore, manipulate CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 63

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and act on their world. Table 2.4 summarises Piaget’s cognitive stages and developmental processes. We look at his theory in greater detail in the chapters on cognitive development in childhood and adolescence. TABLE 2.4

Piaget’s cognitive stages and developmental processes

Cognitive stage

Approximate age

Description

Sensorimotor

Birth–2 years

Coordination of sensory and motor activity; achievement of object permanence (understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight). Infants act on the world with their eyes, hands and ears and, as a result, they invent ways of solving sensorimotor problems — finding hidden toys, and putting objects into containers and then taking them out. Infants begin to develop their knowledge of the world through their senses.

Preoperational

2–7 years

Use of language and symbolic representation; egocentric view of the world, make-believe play. Thinking lacks logic.

Concrete operational

7–11 years

Solution of concrete problems through logical operations; objects are organised into hierarchies and classes and subclasses; thinking is not yet abstract.

Formal operational

11–adulthood

Systematic solution of actual and hypothetical problems using abstract symbols. Capacity for abstract, systematic thinking. Capable of deducing testable inferences.

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Developmental processes The earliest and most primitive patterns, or schemes, of thinking, problem solving, and constructing reality are inborn. As a result of both maturation and experience, thinking develops through a series of increasingly sophisticated stages, each incorporating the achievements in preceding stages. These changes occur through the processes of assimilation, in which new problems are solved using existing schemes, and accommodation, in which existing schemes are altered, modified or adapted to meet new challenges. Together, these processes create a state of cognitive balance, or equilibrium, in which the person’s thinking becomes increasingly stable, general, and harmoniously adapted and adjusted to their environment.

How does a person develop from one stage of thinking and problem solving to the next? Piaget believed three processes are involved: 1. direct learning 2. social transmission 3. maturation. Direct learning results when a person actively responds to and interprets new problems and experiences based on patterns of thought and action they already know. Piaget called these existing patterns schemes. A scheme or schemata is a systematic pattern of thoughts, actions and problem-solving strategies that helps the individual deal with a particular intellectual challenge or situation. It is a way of making sense of our world and experiences through an organised structure that changes with age. According to Piaget, an infant’s first understanding of the world is based on a limited number of innate schemes made up of simple patterns of unlearned reflexes that are active at birth, such as sucking, grasping and looking. These schemes rapidly change as the infant encounters new experiences through the complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process by which an infant interprets and responds to a new experience or situation in terms of an existing scheme. For example, a two-month-old baby who is presented with a bottle for the first time understands what is needed to suck from the bottle based on their existing sucking scheme for their mother’s breast. The infant has assimilated a new situation, sucking from a bottle, into their existing scheme for sucking. As children grow older, schemes involve increasingly complex mental processes.

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For example, a preschooler sees a truck but calls it a ‘car’ because the concept of car is already established in their thinking. In accommodation, a child changes, adjusts or modifies existing schemes, or ways of thinking, when faced with new ideas or situations in which the old schemes no longer work. Instead of calling a truck by the wrong name, the preschooler searches for a new name and begins to realise some four-wheeled objects are not cars. According to Piaget, development results from the interplay of assimilation and accommodation, a process that is called adaptation. Adaptation results when schemes are deepened or broadened by assimilation and stretched or modified by accommodation, through interaction with the environment. Piaget’s second explanation for development, social transmission, is the process through which one’s thinking is influenced by learning from social contact with and observation of others, rather than through direct experience. Piaget’s third explanation for developmental change, physical maturation, refers to the biologically determined changes in physical and neurological development that occur relatively independently of specific experiences. For example, a child must reach a certain minimal level of biological development to be able to name an object. Although research supports many of Piaget’s ideas, it has found a number of shortcomings. One problem is how to explain why, in many instances, children master tasks that are logically equivalent at very different points in their development. It is also difficult to explain why a child’s cognitive performances on two logically similar tasks are often very different. Researchers today think that children’s thinking takes place more gradually than Piaget believed (Bjorklund & Causey, 2017; Fischer & Bidell, 2006; Halford & Andrews, 2006; Halford, Wilson, Andrews, & Phillips, 2014). A third problem is that Piaget’s exclusive emphasis on the predetermined ‘logical’ aspects of children’s thinking often does not match the thought processes children appear to use and does not consider the information processing aspect of children’s cognition. This emphasis also largely ignores the social, emotional and cultural factors that influence the process (Case, 1992; Rogoff, 2014; Rogoff & Chavajay, 1995). Finally, Piaget’s theory fails to recognise cognitive development continues after adolescence.

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Neo-Piagetian approaches Neo-Piagetian theories are new or revised models of Piaget’s basic approach. For example, Case (1991a, 1991b, 1991c, 2013), Demetriou, Shayer, and Efklides (2016) and Tourmen (2016) propose cognitive development results from increases in the child’s mental space, that is, the maximum number of schemes the child can apply simultaneously at any given time. During early childhood, most cognitive structures are rather specific and concrete, such as drawing with a pencil, throwing a ball or counting a set of objects. As the structures guiding these actions become coordinated with one another, they form new, more efficient, higher-level cognitive structures, which in turn begin to be coordinated with other, similar structures. So, a child’s ability to use increasingly general cognitive structures enables them to think more abstractly. Different forms of the same logical problem may require different processing skills and capacities. As a result, a child’s performance on two logically similar tasks may differ significantly and mastery of each task may occur at very different points in their development. Kurt Fischer, another neo-Piagetian theorist, accepts Piaget’s basic idea of stages, but uses specific skills instead of schemes to describe the cognitive structures children use in particular problem-solving tasks or sets of tasks. The breadth of a skill is determined by both the level of maturation a child’s central nervous system has reached and the range of specific learning environments to which the child has been exposed (Dawson & Fischer, 1994; Fischer, Daniel, Immordino-Yang, Stern, Battro, & Koizumi, 2007; Fischer & Immordino-Yang, 2014). Thus, the type of support a child receives from parents, teachers and others in the environment plays an important role in skill acquisition. So, for example, a boy who is given chess lessons from a relative is more likely to develop good chess-playing abilities because of the support that he has received in developing his skills in this area. Fischer’s ‘breadth of skill’ idea has much in common with Vygotsky’s ‘zone of proximal development’, discussed later in this chapter.

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The type of support a child receives from their parents, grandparents and teachers, as well as from others in their environment, plays an important role in skill acquisition. By baking a cake with his father, this boy will be able to improve his understanding of the skills he can use in cooking.

Information-processing theory Another alternative to Piaget’s cognitive theory is information-processing theory, which focuses on the precise, detailed features or steps involved in mental activities (Seifert, 1993, 2014). Like a computer, the mind is viewed as having distinct parts that make unique contributions to thinking in a specific order.

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Key principles of information-processing theory According to Gagne’s information-processing model of human thinking, when a person tries to solve a problem, they first take in information from their environment through their senses. Information is seen to flow through an information processing system where it is coded, transformed and organised (Cepeda & Munakata, 2007; Chevalier, Martis, Curran, & Munakata, 2015; Munakata, 2006; Munakata et al., 2011). The information gained in this way is held briefly in the sensory register or sensory memory — the first memory store. The sensory register records information exactly as it receives it, but the information fades or disappears within a fraction of a second unless the person processes it further. Because the sensory register holds everything briefly, people have a chance to make sense of it and to organise it. Organisation is necessary. Since there is more information available in the sensory register than can possibly enter the next system, the short-term memory, people pay attention to certain information and look for patterns. The processes of attention and perception are critical at this stage. Attention is the ability to focus cognitive processes such as perception, thinking and memory on a particular task. It includes selective attention (i.e. what a person responds to attentively depends on their interests and individual needs) and attention span (i.e. the length of time a person can focus their attention on a particular object or task). Also concerned with the 66

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senses is perception, which involves the sensory input and the interpretations given by the mind. It is through perception that people develop meaningful experiences. Information to which a person pays special attention is transferred to short-term memory (STM), the second memory store. The STM can hold only limited amounts of information — in fact, only about seven pieces of it at any one time. After about 20 seconds, information in the STM is either forgotten, interfered with or lost. Information can be held in the STM for a longer period of time only if you do something with it. To prevent forgetting, most people rehearse the information mentally. As long as you focus on and repeat the information in the STM, it is available. Rehearsal is a control process that affects the flow of information through the information-processing system. The STM is limited by the length of time unrehearsed information can be retained and also by the number of items that can be held at one time. The STM is sometimes known as ‘working memory’ as it holds the information we are thinking about at any given moment. Information enters STM very quickly, but more time and effort are required to move information into long-term storage, known as long-term memory (LTM), the third memory store. The capacity of LTM is unlimited for all practical purposes. Once information is securely stored in the LTM, it remains there permanently, although accessing information from long-term memory can present some challenges. Memory strategies emerge during the preschool years and while not very successful during these early years, take a gigantic leap forward during the middle childhood years (Schneider, 2002; Schneider & Pressley, 2013), which we will see in subsequent chapters. The LTM involves the processes of recognition, recall and reconstruction, which are significant in enhancing memory to receive new information. Information can be organised, elaborated, retrieved and reconstructed from STM into LTM. Executive control processes of rehearsal, reconstruction, organisation and metacognition (thinking about our thinking, awareness of our thinking strategies) influence and control information in the sensory register, STM and LTM. These processes assist in reducing the difficulty and challenges of accessing information from LTM once it has been stored. Information can be saved permanently in LTM. However, permanently saving information in the long-term memory requires various cognitive strategies, such as rehearsing information repeatedly or organising it into familiar categories. Unlike STM, LTM has unlimited capacity for storage of new information. The problem comes in retrieving information, which requires remembering how it was stored in the first place. Figure 2.2 shows Gagne’s information-processing model of human thinking.

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Developmental changes in information processing As children grow older, they experience several cognitive changes that allow them to process information more efficiently and comprehensively. The most important developmental change in information processing is the acquisition of control processes. Control processes direct an individual’s attention towards particular input from the sensory register and guide the response to new information once it enters the STM. Usually control processes organise information in STM. Sometimes control processes also relate information in STM to previously learnt knowledge from LTM, such as when a teenager hears a song on the radio and notes its similarity to another song heard previously. As children grow older, they develop metacognition, an awareness and understanding of how thinking and learning work. Metacognition assists learning in a number of ways. First, it allows a person to assess how difficult a problem or learning task will be and to plan appropriate ways to approach it. More specifically, metacognition involves knowledge of self, knowledge of task variables, and knowledge of which information-processing strategies are effective in different situations (Flavell, Green, & Flavell, 1995, 2000; Flavell, Miller, & Miller, 2002; Forrest-Pressley, Mackinnon, & Waller, 1985; Moshman, 2017; Ozturk, 2017; Whitmarsh, Barendregt, Schoffelen, & Jensen, 2014). In addition to metacognition, children acquire many other kinds of knowledge. Some children gradually become comparative experts in particular areas, such as maths, sports or getting along with peers. Knowledge base refers to children’s current fund of knowledge and skills in various areas. A child’s knowledge base in one area makes acquiring further knowledge and skills in the same area easier, because the child CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 67

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can relate new information to prior information more meaningfully. Metacognition and an expanding knowledge base contribute to cognitive development throughout the lifespan. FIGURE 2.2

Gagne’s information-processing model Information from the environment first enters the sensory register. With the aid of control processes, it is then transferred to STM where it is either forgotten or processed further, and then to LTM where it is stored for future use. Executive control processes of mental strategies (attention, strategy selection, monitoring, expressions) REHEARSAL RECONSTRUCTION ORGANISATION METACOGNITION

Rehearsal

Elaboration and organisation

Receptors

Outside stimuli

Perceptive attention

Sensory register

Initial processing

Short-term memory (working memory)

Long-term memory

Retrieval and reconstruction Storage Recognition Recall

Sensory memory Decay

Decay and interference

Forgetting

Permanently lost

Permanently lost

Lost or unavailable

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Source: Gagne and Medsker, 1996, p. 45. From GAGNE. The Conditions of Learning, 1E. © 1996 Wadsworth, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions.

According to many information-processing theorists, changes in the knowledge base are not general, ‘stage-like’ transformations such as those proposed by Piaget (Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1989, 2014; Jung, Kim, & Reigeluth, 2016). Instead, they are specialised developments of expertise based on the gradual accumulation of specific information and skills related to a field, including information and skills related to how knowledge in the field is organised and learned efficiently. A very good chess player is an expert in chess but is not necessarily advanced in other activities or areas of knowledge. Their skill probably reflects long hours spent in one major activity: playing chess games. Each hour of play enables them to build a larger knowledge base about chess: memories of board patterns, moves and game strategies that worked in the past.

Applications of cognitive developmental theories throughout the lifespan Piaget’s cognitive theory and the more recent neo-Piagetian approaches have provided the central conceptual framework for understanding the development of thinking and problem solving throughout the lifespan. In a later chapter, for example, Piaget’s theory will explain sensorimotor development 68

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during the first two years and how cognitive theory can be used to foster thinking and intellectual development in infants. Cognitive theory will also help explain the development of symbolic thought and language among preschoolers (discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in early childhood) and how growth in thinking and problem-solving abilities affects relationships with peers in middle childhood (discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in middle childhood). In the chapter on cognitive development in adolescence, we will see how cognitive theory is used to design programs to foster critical thinking among adolescents; to better understand adolescent egocentrism, imaginary audience and personal fable; and to understand moral development and the ethics of care during adolescence. Cognitive developmental theories have been increasingly helpful in explaining intellectual functioning during early, middle and later adulthood. They have also been used to explore the question of whether cognitive development culminates in formal operational thinking, Piaget’s fourth and final stage, which captures the ability to define problems in new and often contradictory ways that develop during the adult years. Schaie’s (1994, 1996) (Schaie, Boron, & Willis, 2005; Schaie & O’Hanlon, 2013; Willis & Schaie, 2009) contextual theory suggests that at different periods of adulthood adults use their knowledge in different ways that depend on their changing patterns of commitments to work, family and community life. Additionally, during middle adulthood, crystallised intelligence (which includes learned cognitive processes and abilities such as vocabulary, general information and word fluency) improves with age, while fluid intelligence (the ability to process new information in novel situations) peaks during adolescence and decreases with age. In later adulthood, cognitive mechanics (intellectual problems in which culture-based knowledge and skills such as reading, writing, language comprehension and professional skills are primary) can help people in their seventies maintain and even improve their memory. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

To what extent is the cognitive development approach useful in working with clients in community services, welfare and counselling situations? Would this theoretical approach be of any use in a science education class, psychology counselling session, primary school education or group therapy session? Why or why not?

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Moral developmental theories The psychoanalytic, behaviourist, cognitive and information-processing approaches already discussed have influenced our understanding as to how young children develop ideas about morality. Questions such as ‘how do children develop an understanding of right and wrong’?, ‘Why do children behave the way they do?’, ‘How do children learn to be good?’ are explained by these approaches. Moral development is conceptualised as any changes in observed judgements, behaviours and emotions regarding perceived standards of right and wrong that occur in certain contexts across the lifespan. The behaviourist and psychoanalytic approaches to morality emphasise how children acquire standards of ‘good conduct’ from parents, culture, schooling, peer interaction and child-rearing practices. The cognitive-developmental perspective, on the other hand, views children as active thinkers. Preschool-aged children are capable of making moral judgements; determining what is right or wrong on the basis of ideas about justice and fairness (Gibbs, 2013; Helwig & Turiel, 2011, 2016). Preschoolers’ moral understanding exhibits an understanding of intentions. A person with bad intentions, such as deliberately frightening or hurting another is judged to be more deserving of punishment than a person with good intentions. Three and four year olds object when they see another person CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 69

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harming another (Helwig, Zelazo, & Wilson, 2001; Turiel & Nucci, 2017). Four year olds are aware that people can express an insincere intention. They are aware that when a person says, ‘I’ll come and help you put your blocks away’ while not intending to do so, is actually lying (Cheung, Siu, & Chen, 2015; Maas, 2008). Young children can also recognise moral imperatives and rules, and distinguish between right and wrong in the behaviour and words of other people. They also understand social conventions; showing courtesy such as saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, choice of friends, clothes and hairstyle, which will be discussed in later chapters. Therefore, moral development involves the cognitive component of moral reasoning, changes in moral or ethical behaviour and judgements about moral matters. The cognitive aspect of moral development has been studied extensively by Piaget in his momentous book, The Moral Judgement of the Child (1932). Piaget used moral dilemmas when studying the moral development of the young child, which he saw occurring in two stages as outlined in the chapter on cognitive development in early childhood. Influenced by Piaget, Elkind’s research built on Piaget’s concept of egocentrism as described in the chapter on cognitive development in adolescence. Furthermore, Lawrence Kohlberg (1958) extended Piaget’s work on moral development during the 1960s, using ethical dilemmas with adolescents and then adults to elicit moral reasoning throughout life. The most famous of these dilemmas is the Heinz dilemma. Kohlberg was interested in the way people reasoned about the Heinz dilemma, rather than the outcome, as this determined their moral reasoning maturity. From these dilemmas, Kohlberg identified three levels of moral reasoning; each with two stages of moral reasoning and understanding. Each of these six developmental stages are regarded by Kohlberg as more adequate at responding to the moral dilemma than the preceding stage. While working as a research assistant under Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan (1982) focused on the moral dilemmas and development of young girls and women. She criticised Kohlberg because he emphasised the justice perspective of moral reasoning, and ignored caring and responsibility. Gilligan proposed that men and women differ in their moral judgements; she argued that other theorists do not account for gender differences in morality. She emphasised that feminine morality involves an ‘ethic of care’ which is devalued by Kohlberg. A concern for others is a different, but no less valid, basis for moral judgement than a focus on impersonal rights, as can be seen by the discussion on Gilligan in the chapter on cognitive development in adolescence. Cognition, information processing and behaviour reinforce preschoolers’ development of moral understanding. However, social experiences are also vital in extending this comprehension. Disagreements with siblings and peers over rights, property and possessions permit young children to negotiate, compromise and work out their initial ideas about justice and fairness. Children also learn from positive parenting and how parents handle rules and moral transgressions (Turiel & Killen, 2010; Hitti, Mulvey, & Killen, 2017). Interested in how children’s social experiences influence their moral understanding, Robert Selman (Selman & Byrne, 1974) developed his role-taking theory, or social perspective–taking theory, to document children’s skills in understanding others’ feelings and perspectives as a result of a growing ability in cognitive and moral growth. Selman postulates that mature role–taking ability allows us to appreciate how our actions will affect others and how we can get along with others. His four stages of perspective taking are discussed in the chapter on cognitive development in early childhood. William Damon, influenced by Jean Piaget, captured attention through his book The Moral Child: Nurturing Children’s Natural Moral Growth (1990) where he investigated the social and moral development of children in real social situations. His research highlighted that children’s thinking and behaviour develop through relationships with family, peers, teachers and the larger social world. He was interested in the principles of distributive justice (revealed in the activities of sharing) in moral development. Damon found that moral emotions (such as empathy, shame and guilt) flourish, or may be smothered, within these relationships. Damon’s stages of distributive justice are further described in a later chapter.

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2.5 Contextual developmental theories LEARNING OUTCOME 2.5 Describe how contextual approaches to development have broadened our view of developmental change.

Contextual approaches view development as a process of reciprocal, patterned interactions between the individual and their physical and social environment.

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory A leading example of this approach is the ecological systems theory of Bronfenbrenner. As we saw in the chapter on studying development, bioecological systems theory proposes a person’s development is influenced by four interactive and overlapping contextual levels: 1. the microsystem — the innermost, first level of the environment; the face-to-face physical and social situations that directly affect the person (e.g. family, classroom and workplace). Interaction patterns in the individual’s immediate environment 2. the mesosystem — the second level of connections and relationships among the person’s microsystems 3. the exosystem — the third level, consisting of the settings or situations that indirectly influence the person (e.g. spouse’s place of employment, the local school board and the local government) 4. the macrosystem — the outermost level of values, beliefs and policies of society and culture that provide frameworks, or ‘blueprints’, for organising one’s life and indirectly influence the person through their effects on the exosystem, mesosystem and microsystem. Bronfenbrenner saw the environment as an ever-changing system — one which was not static, known as the chronosystem. Critical life events — such as the birth of a sibling, parental divorce and moving to a new community — will modify relationships between individuals and their environment. Therefore, time has a prominent place in each of the levels of microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem. This, in turn, will produce changes affecting development. In bioecological systems, theory development is neither controlled entirely by environmental events nor completely driven by individual dispositions. Rather, individuals are both the product and producer of their environments, forming a network of interrelated and interdependent effects. An excellent example of this interdependence can be seen in the article on resilience in children.

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Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory Another interesting example of contextual theory was developed by Vygotsky (1896–1934), who was born at the same time as Piaget but into a culture undergoing rapid social change (Marxist Russia). Vygotsky was interested in how changing historical and cultural contexts within which children’s activities occur influence their cognitive development. According to Vygotsky, higher mental functions grow out of the social interactions and dialogues that take place between an individual and parents, teachers and other representatives of the culture. Through these interactions, children and adults internalise increasingly mature and effective ways of thinking and problem solving. Some of these changes occur through discoveries that the child initiates on their own (Karpov & Haywood, 1998; Miller, 2002; Poehner, 2011; Poehner & Lantolf, 2013). Many developmental tasks occur in what Vygotsky called the zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development refers to the range of tasks that a child cannot yet accomplish without active assistance from adults and peers with greater knowledge, and the framework of support and assistance is called scaffolding (Blanck, 1990; Chaiklin, 2003; Lee, 2005; Rogoff, 1990; Wertsch, 1989). Scaffolding is provided by adults and more able peers, who provide support, assistance and facilitation of learning within the individual’s current level of performance. As the individual’s competence develops, support is gradually withdrawn, turning responsibility over to the individual. See the accompanying Multicultural view feature for a discussion of culture and cognitive development.

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MULTICULTURAL VIEW

Geert Hofstede and Cultural Dimensions Theory

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Between 1967 and 1973 Geert Hofstede conducted a worldwide survey of IBM employee values. Hofstede compared the answers of 116 000 IBM employees on the same attitude survey in 50 countries. From this data, he developed his cultural dimensions theory, which has become a worldwide framework for cross-cultural communication. Using a structure derived from factor analysis, the framework describes the influences of a society’s culture on the values of its members and explains how these values result in behaviour. Hofstede’s work established a major tradition in cross-cultural psychology and has inspired research on social beliefs in culture (Giles, Fortman, Honeycutt, & Ota, 2003); cross-cultural studies in lifespan development in relation to individualism and collectivism (Sotelo & Gimeno, 2003); personality and culture (Hofstede & McCrae, 2004); and culture and self-esteem (Schmitt & Allik, 2005). Results of Hofstede’s (1983, p. 55–64) original study depicted four primary dimensions of national crosscultural communication that determine organisational structure and employee motivation across cultures. These dimensions include the following. 1. Power distance index (PDI) determines the degree to which organisational members prefer autocratic, superior–subordinate relationships. Inequality and social differences in power and wealth are defined by this dimension. 2. Uncertainty avoidance (UAI) determines the extent to which organisational members avoid stresscreating situations in work relationships. This dimension explains the inescapable uncertainty about tomorrow. 3. Individualism versus collectivism (IDV) explores the relationship of the individual with others and groups. Individualism involves the integration of the individual into their immediate family, whereas collectivism describes the integrated relationships of extended families and others in the group. 4. Masculinity versus femininity (MAS) encompasses the problem of the division of humankind into two sexes and the roles appropriate to each of the sexes. In different cultures, both men and women display different values and attitudes, and therefore a gap exists between male and female values. These differences will influence goal fulfilment, task orientation versus person orientation and the extent to which assertiveness and self-reliance are promoted within the organisation, culture or group. Refer to Figure 2.3 to see how these dimensions connect with each other. The four dimensions outlined relate to the very fundamental problems facing any human society, and where different societies have found different answers. These dimensions are used to explain different ways of structuring organisations and cultures, different intentions of people within cultures and organisations, and different issues that people, cultures and organisations face within society. Years later, Hofstede added a fifth dimension. 1. Long-term Orientation Versus Short-term Orientation (LTO) associates the connection of the past with present as well as future challenges and actions. Traditions are honoured and kept. Societies with a high long-term orientation consider adaptation and pragmatic problem solving as a critical necessity, and they value persistence and the capacity for adaptation. However, a short-term orientation by society regards values as relating to the past and present, including respect for traditions and fulfilling social obligations. ‘Long-term orientation stands for a society in which wide differences in economic and social conditions are considered undesirable. Short-term orientation stands for meritocracy, differentiation according to abilities’ (Hofstede, 2010, p. 246). Recently, in 2010, Hofstede added a sixth dimension. 2. Indulgence Versus Restraint (IND) is a measure of happiness, the extent to which simple joys are fulfilled. Indulgence is defined as a society that ‘allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun. Its opposite pole, restraint, reflects a conviction that such gratification needs to be curbed and regulated by strict social norms’ (p. 281). Indulgent societies are seen to be in control of their life and emotions, whereas restrained societies believe other factors dictate their emotions and life. Hofstede’s popular model can be applied to lifespan development as it can be used to identify, define and understand cultural mores and social norms, which significantly influence development. For example, as morality, self-esteem, personality, ideals, beliefs and attitudes are derived from social norms and cultural expectations, Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions assists in understanding how and why culture and society influence these aspects of development.

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Vygotsky’s theory of sociocultural and cognitive development can be applied to this context, as his theory is largely ‘context specific’, meaning it must be understood in terms of the particular social, cultural and historical processes of people’s everyday experiences (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1985). Through his social cultural theory, Vygotsky focuses on how the values, beliefs, customs and skills of a social group — namely, their culture — is transmitted to the next generation. This transmission is based on social interaction and therefore social transmission of language, namely, cooperative dialogues between children, adults and knowledgeable others. It is through social interaction that individuals acquire the ways of thinking, problem solving and behaving that make up a particular culture. Vygotsky explains that individuals growing up in different societies, cultures and historical periods are likely to display differences in how they think and solve problems, and in how their cognitive development and problem solving occurs. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory interrelates with Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. As people engage in dialogue through social interaction to master culturally meaningful viewpoints, they engage in the six dimensions of cross-cultural communication. The communication between these viewpoints becomes a part of people’s thinking and problem solving. Children and adults alike internalise features of these dialogues, using language to guide their own thoughts and actions. Both Vygotsky and Hofstede see social interaction, cultural transmission and intercultural co-operation as important for survival, as Hofstede (2010) states: . . . every person carries within him or herself patterns of thinking, feeling, and potential acting that were learned throughout the person’s lifetime. Much of it was acquired in early childhood, because at that time a person is most susceptible to learning and assimilating. As soon as certain patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting have established themselves within a person’s mind, he or she must unlearn these patterns before being able to learn something different . . . The sources of one’s mental programs lie within the social environments in which one grew up and collected one’s life experiences. The programming starts within the family. It continues within the neighbourhood, at school, in youth groups, at the workplace, and in the living community . . . Culture is always a collective phenomenon, because it is at least partly shared with people who live or lived within the same social environment, which is where it was learned (pp. 4–6). FIGURE 2.3

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory

Power Distance Index (PDI)

Indulgence Versus Restraint (IND)

Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI)

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Cultural Dimensions Long-term Orientation Versus Short-term Orientation (LTO)

Individuality Versus Collectivism (IDV) Masculinity Versus Femininity (MAS)

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Richard Lerner’s contextual approach emphasises the dynamic interactive relationships between an individual’s development and changes in the contexts in which their development occurs (Lerner, 1996, 2005, 2013; Lerner et al., 2005). Developmental changes during adolescence are a good example. Adolescents, their families and the communities and societies in which they live experience systematic and successive developmental changes over time. Changes within one level of organisation, such as cognitive or psychosocial changes within the individual, influence and are influenced by developmental changes within other levels, such as changes in caregiving patterns or relationships between spouses within the familial level of organisation. According to Lerner, these reciprocal changes among levels of organisation are both the cause and the product of reciprocal changes within levels. For example, parents’ ‘styles’ of childrearing influence children’s personality and cognitive development; the child’s unique personality, cognitive style and the choices they make in turn affect parental behaviours and styles, and the quality of family life. Glen Elder (1998), a pioneer in the study of development over the life course, suggests education, work, and family create the social trajectories, or pathways, that guide individual development (Kim, Conger, Lorenz, & Elder, 2001; Meadows, Brown, & Elder, 2006). Cross-cultural research has demonstrated that different aspects of behaviour are emphasised differently in different cultures. Skills considered essential for success in a particular culture, such as basket weaving, will be encultured, and will guide that individual’s development. Important life transitions such as school entry, marriage, and the birth of a child give these social trajectories distinctive shape and meaning for each individual. Historical changes such as wars, economic depressions and technological innovations shape the social trajectories of family, education and work, which in turn influence individual development. Though individuals are able to select the paths they follow by asserting their human agency, or free will, these choices are not made in a social vacuum and depend on the opportunities and constraints of social structure and culture, which change over time (Coll et al., 1996; Coll & Szalacha, 2004; Elder, 1998; Hernandez, 1997; Hernandez, Denton, & Macartney, 2008).

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Applications of contextual developmental theories throughout the lifespan Contextual theories have become increasingly useful in understanding how individual development over the lifespan is influenced by, and interacts with, the changing life contexts in which development occurs. The section on voices across the lifespan and their multiple contexts of development in the chapter on studying development are an excellent illustration of how Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory helps us understand individual development. Ecological systems theory has been especially useful for understanding the multiple factors and contexts involved in divorce, teen parenthood and juvenile delinquency, as well as in designing programs to assist troubled adolescents and prevent those problems from occurring. Similarly, the future developmental changes that Leanne (the adolescent discussed at the beginning of this chapter) is likely to experience illustrate Elder’s ideas about social trajectories. For example, entry into Year 7, transitions to high school and university, entering the world of work, finding a lifelong partner, and having a child are all likely to be important steps in the pathways that will help give Leanne’s long-term development distinctive meaning and form. At the same time, political, economic and technological changes in society will influence Leanne’s family, education and work, which in turn will influence her behaviours and the particular directions her developmental choices take. Although Leanne will have considerable potential to assert her agency and freely choose the paths she will follow, such life choices will not be made in a social vacuum and will also depend on the opportunities and constraints that she encounters. Vygotsky’s sociocultural approach and his concept of zone of proximal development help us to understand the development of problem-solving skills and intelligence during middle childhood. Contextual cognitive approaches such as Schaie’s stages of adult thinking have highlighted how cognitive development is organised by external psychosocial contexts, including the demands of work and family, rather 74

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than by internal organising structures. As discussed earlier in this chapter, these theories focus on how adults use their knowledge at different periods of adulthood, for example, achieving specific personal goals in young adulthood.

Ethological theory Ethological theory has played an important role in studying how differences in temperament that are observable at birth contribute to development through childhood and adolescence. It has also contributed to the study of the important role attachment plays in the development of relationships from early infancy through the life course, a topic we noted in our earlier discussion of lifespan applications of psychodynamic theory.

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By staying close to her chicks, this mother hen is reducing the likelihood of her offspring imprinting on another animal, or a person, by mistake. Baby birds imprint soon after hatching as a means of staying close for feeding and safety.

The ethological approach attempts to apply the principles of evolutionary biology and ethology to behavioural and psychological characteristics (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991; Feldman, Weller, Leckman, Kuint, & Eidelman, 1999; Leckman, Feldman, Swain, Eicher, Thompson, & Mayes, 2004; Leckman & Mayes, 1998). This approach has its roots in ethology, the study of various animal species in their natural environments (Miller, 2002, 2010). Ethology emphasises the ways behaviours have survived and evolved in different developmental contexts through the process of natural selection and adaptation to ensure the survival of the species. Developmental ethologists are interested in how certain behavioural and psychological traits or predispositions that appear to be widely shared among human beings may have developed to help ensure the evolutionary survival of the human species. As a discipline, ethology CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 75

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began in the 1930s with the work of the European zoologists Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen, who investigated imprinting, natural selection for particular behavioural traits, readiness to learn particular behaviours and critical periods for learning. Lorenz and Tinbergen observed various animal species in their natural habitats — particularly observing behaviour patterns that promote survival. The classic pattern is known as imprinting, where baby birds such as geese will stay close to the mother to be fed and protected from danger. This is evident in the movie Fly Away Home, where Canadian geese imprint on the first person they see, a young girl, as they hatch from their eggs. Imprinting takes place during an early critical period of development. If the mother goose is absent during this critical time, the young goslings may imprint on an object resembling her salient features, as is shown in Fly Away Home. Ethological theory is characterised by a particular methodology that utilises careful observation and experimentation to determine immediate causes of behaviour. Developmental psychology embraced ethological principles because of its history of naturalistic observation of children and the examination of the biological basis of development. An underlying assumption of ethological theory is that just as human evolution has imposed certain constraints on our physical development, it may have influenced the range and nature of our behavioural development. Developmental ethologists also attempt to understand how individual differences in traits such as aggressiveness, shyness, competitiveness and altruism reciprocally interact with the social context to mutually influence development. One area of ethological interest has been the study of infant emotions and temperament, relatively enduring individual differences in infant responsiveness and self-regulation that appear to be present at birth (discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in the first two years). A second important application is the study of infant–caregiver attachment, the mutually reinforcing system of physical, social and emotional stimulation and support between infant and caregiver. This pattern of attachment behaviours has also been observed in other species and ethologists presume it has survival value for humans as well (e.g. Bowlby, 1988b, 2014). Attachment has importance throughout the lifespan — in childhood and early, middle and late adulthood. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Reflect on the different developmental contexts proposed by the theories discussed in this section. Reflect on three key events in your life. How did these three events affect you? Can you relate these three events to the developmental contexts theories? Which theories relate to your events? How and why do these relate?

2.6 Adulthood and lifespan developmental theories

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LEARNING OUTCOME 2.6 Compare and contrast how adult developmental changes differ from child and adolescent developmental changes.

In this section we look at two theoretical approaches that focus on development during adulthood and across the entire lifespan: the normative-crisis model (also called the stage-theory model) and the timingof-events model. As we will see, although these two models differ in important ways, they share the assumption that the process of individual developmental change continues throughout the life cycle.

Normative-crisis model of development The normative-crisis model of development assumes developmental change occurs in distinct stages, which individuals follow in the same sequence. Each successive stage is qualitatively unique from all other stages, is increasingly complex and more fully developed, and integrates the changes and accomplishments of earlier stages. This model generally presumes developmental stages are at least partly 76

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influenced by biologically driven maturational changes, and describes the normal status of people on particular characteristics at different age levels. Age-related averages are computed to represent typical development. This approach originated in the United States in the 1890s. It was pioneered by G. Stanley Hall, from Clark University, as he attempted to identify the normal characteristics of children. The normative crisis model (normative descriptive approach) dominated child development throughout the first half of the twentieth century, and has applications to education, paediatrics and childcare. Arnold Gesell, a student of Hall’s, established the Yale Clinic of Child Development, and continued to map a wide range of children’s normative characteristics — including their social, cognitive, physical and behavioural development. From the gathering of this data Gesell developed a maturational theory of development, which was seen to be intrinsically guided by genetic endowment and predetermined by a sequential unfolding of patterns and configurations. For Gesell, the most important issue for developmental psychology was to describe the normal or average characteristics of children at any given age (Gesell & Ilg, 1949). Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory, discussed earlier in this chapter, is a good example. r The crisis of intimacy versus isolation occurs during early adulthood. r The crisis of generativity versus stagnation occurs during middle adulthood. r The crisis of integrity versus despair occurs in late adulthood. Here, we will briefly look at two other normative-crisis views of adult development: Vaillant’s adaptive mechanism approach and Levinson’s seasons of adult lives approach. The normative-crisis lifespan model shares with psychodynamic theories a focus on the importance of impulses within the individual that lead to developmental change. Although the number and content of developmental periods or stages differ for each theory, each approach views a given developmental period as focused on an internally motivated crisis. For example, in Erikson’s theory, the crisis of early adulthood involves the need for intimacy to overcome isolation; in middle adulthood, it concerns the need to experience generativity rather than stagnation; and in late adulthood, the crisis involves the need for integrity to overcome the despair associated with the losses of old age and the awareness of one’s mortality.

Vaillant: styles of adult coping Based on a long-term, longitudinal study of a sample of 268 men, Vaillant concluded that development was a lifelong process, influenced mainly by relationships with others and by the adaptive mechanisms, or coping styles, that people use to deal with life events. Mature coping styles include sublimation (the redirecting of anxiety and unacceptable impulses towards acceptable goals) and altruism (the offering of help and support to others with no expectation of personal gain). According to Vaillant, the use of mature coping styles increases with age and is most likely to occur among individuals who have healthy brains and who have experienced long-term, loving relationships (Vaillant, 1977, 2000, 2002, 2004; Vaillant & Vaillant, 1990). Table 2.5 summarises Vaillant’s developmental periods.

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TABLE 2.5

Vaillant’s phases of adult development

Phase

Approximate age

Description

Age of establishment

20–30 years

Increasing autonomy from parents; marriage, parenthood, and establishing more intimate friendships

Career consolidation

20–40 years

Consolidating and strengthening marriage and career; devotion to hard work and career advancement

Midlife transition

40–50 years

Painful reassessment and reordering of the experiences of adolescence and young adulthood; heightened self-awareness and exploration of forgotten ‘inner self’ opening the way for achieving greater generativity

Midlife

50 years and older

Leaving behind compulsive involvement with occupational apprenticeships; becoming increasingly self-reflective, nurturant and expressive

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Levinson: seasons of adult lives Based on his biographical study of the lives of 40 men aged between 35 and 45 years from a variety of backgrounds, Levinson identified three eras, or ‘seasons’, in male adult life: 1. early adulthood 2. middle adulthood 3. late adulthood. During each era, a new ‘life structure’ is established that reflects the person’s significant relationships with others and the desires, values, commitment, energy and skills invested in them. The life structure evolves through a relatively orderly sequence during the adult years. Changes occur within each period, and each era brings transitions that provide an opportunity to reassess and improve on the preceding era (Agronin, 2014; Levinson, 1986). Table 2.6 presents Levinson’s three eras of adult development. TABLE 2.6

Levinson’s eras of adult development

Era

Phase

Description

Early adult transition (17–22 years)

Reassessing pre-adulthood and preparing for early adulthood

Early life structure (22–28 years)

Entering the adult world and building a first life structure. Novice phase: forming and living out the dream of adult accomplishment; forming mentor relationships; developing an occupation; forming love relationships, marriage and family

Age 30 transition (28–33 years)

Reassessing and improving early life structure; transition may be smooth or painful

Culminating life structure (33–40 years)

Settling down: building a second adult life structure. Establishing occupational goals and plans for achieving them; becoming one’s own person: achieving greater independence and self-sufficiency

Midlife transition (40–45 years)

Completing early adulthood and preparing for middle adulthood. Reappraising past progress towards achieving the dream; revising the dream and changing lifestyle around the themes of a new life structure. Midlife individuation through better resolving polarities of young/old, destruction/creation, masculine/ feminine, attachment/separateness

Early life structure (45–50 years)

Entering middle adulthood. Making and committing to new choices and building a life structure around them

Age 50 transition (50–55 years)

Assessing, modifying and improving the middle adulthood structure

Culminating life structure (55–60 years)

Completion of middle adulthood

Late adult transition (60–65 years)

Preparation for late adulthood

Childhood and adolescence (birth–17) Early adult era (17–45 years)

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Middle adult era (45–60 years)

Late adult era (60 years and older)

Timing-of-events model The timing-of-events model of development views life events as markers, or indicators, of developmental change. Life events may be normative or non-normative. Normative life events are transitions that follow an age-appropriate social timetable; individuals create an internalised social clock that tells them whether 78

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they are ‘on time’ in following that schedule (Neugarten, 1968a, 1968b; Neugarten & Neugarten, 1996). Normative life events include work, marriage and parenthood during early adulthood, career advancement in middle adulthood, and physical decline, retirement and widowhood during late adulthood. Many life events, however, are non-normative and less predictable. A non-normative life event occurs at any point in time in a person’s life and may include normative events that occur ‘off time’, such as marrying ‘late’, being widowed as a young adult, or returning to university in middle adulthood. Because of its focus on the importance of external contexts and conditions, the timing-of-events model has helped us to understand variations in adult development that are not adequately accounted for by the normativecrisis model and has drawn our attention to the developmental importance of social expectations and context in childhood and adolescence as well (Elder, 1998; Lerner, 1996, 2004; Lerner, Dowling, & Chaudhuri, 2005; Wickrama, Conger, Wallace, & Elder, 2003).

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The decision to return to university as a mature-age student is an example of a non-normative life event. These people’s decision is considered ‘off-time’ because it is not consistent with the normative trend towards completing formal studies earlier in life.

The timing-of-events model also reflects an awareness of two important ways in which the capabilities, life experiences and developmental changes of adulthood tend to differ from those of childhood and adolescence. First, the changes during the adult years appear to be less closely tied to the substantial and predictable physical and cognitive maturational changes that characterise childhood and adolescence; rather, they seem to be more closely linked to the major social and psychological conditions, events and experiences that adults encounter, many of which are considerably less predictable. Second, the physical, cognitive and psychosocial competencies of adults allow them to play a much more active and selfconscious role in directing their own development through the decisions and choices they make. For example, individual decisions about whom (and when) to marry, whether or not to have children, where to live, what type of work to do, and what social, political, religious and lifestyle commitments to pursue can all significantly affect development. CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 79

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New directions: dynamic systems perspective Recently, researchers have begun to recognise that children’s development is both consistent and variable, which has given rise to the dynamic systems approach to development. Dynamic systems theorists view the child’s mind and body, as well as their physical and social worlds, as forming an integrated system which guides the development and subsequent mastery of new skills. This system is seen as dynamic; that is, as one constantly in motion and moving, not static. A change in any part of the system, including social, physical and cognitive change, impacts on the integrated system and influences the individual–environment relationship. As a result, the child re-organises their behaviour to enable the components of the system to work together in a more complex, yet effective, manner (Fischer & Bidell, 2006; Thelen & Smith, 2006; van Geert, 2011). An example of the dynamic systems perspective is occurring when Melanie, an infant who is not yet crawling, wants to retrieve her ball. The ball has rolled off her play mat. First she tries reaching out with her hands, then her feet, to reach the ball. When she is not successful in these motor actions, Melanie tries rolling over to reach the ball. It also does not produce her desired outcome. Finally, she tries rolling over and over again until she manages to roll herself next to the ball. Here, she can easily reach it with her hands. Smiling at her achievement, Melanie hugs the ball tightly to herself. In this example, Melanie is motivated to modify her motor actions to fit a new situation, and the achievement of her goal depicts the emergence of more complex behaviours. Dynamic systems theorists acknowledge that there are wide individual differences in children’s skills as a result of the unique biological and social support provided to the child. Therefore, each dynamic system is different. This perspective explains why — when the same behaviour emerges at the same time and in similar form in most children (e.g. sitting up, crawling and walking) — there are still many different paths to the development of the same skills. This accounts for a range of individual differences. Research in dynamic systems theory depicts that researchers are analysing and tracking development in all its complexity in an effort to understand change. Figure 2.4 (Fischer & Bidell, 2006) shows an idealised constructive web. The strands in the figure represent potential skill domains, while the various directions of the strands are indicative of variations in developmental pathways and outcomes as skills develop in different contexts. FIGURE 2.4

Development as a constructive web

Development

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Domains Counsellor Father Mother

Source: Adapted from Fischer and Bidell (2006).

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Developmental psychopathology There has been a remarkable increase in research using a developmental psychopathology framework to investigate clinical diagnoses among youth in recent years. Developmental psychopathology studies the development of psychological disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, depression and psychopathy within a lifespan perspective (Cicchetti, 2016). The value of a developmental psychopathology perspective can be seen in research relating to ADHD (Steinberg & Drabick, 2015); autism spectrum disorder (Kaboski, McDonnell, & Valentino, 2017); anxiety disorders (Hannesq´ottir & Ollendick, 2017) and developmental trauma (van der Kolk, 2017). Developmental psychopathology highlights that the normativecrisis model of development is a useful comparison for determining whether youth behaviour is atypical or problematic. Three key questions guide developmental psychopathology. First, how are individuals similar to, and different from, each other in their healthy and maladaptive pathways of development? Second, what factors account for differences in psychological functioning over time? Third, what consequences do people’s histories of experiences, coping and adjustment have on their subsequent mental health?

2.7 Developmental theories compared: implications for the student

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LEARNING OUTCOME 2.7 Evaluate how comparing and contrasting developmental theories assists us in understanding developmental change.

We have reached the end of our review of several of the most important theories in developmental psychology. What conclusions might we draw? In what ways are these theories useful as we investigate lifespan development in the remainder of this text? As we suggested at the beginning of this chapter, theories are useful because they help us systematically organise and make sense of large amounts of information about lifespan development. Theories also stimulate new thinking and research, and guide parents, professionals and laypersons in their day-to-day involvements with children, adolescents and adults. Although each theory we have explored in this chapter has significantly developed and increased knowledge in its particular area of focus, no theory should be thought to provide a complete explanation of development. Taken together, the theories are complementary and can be used in conjunction with one another to provide a comprehensive view of lifespan development. Table 2.7 summarises the main features and key concepts of each theoretical approach discussed. Theories help us understand and actively participate in our own development. Theories can also broaden and deepen our understanding of ourselves, the factors influencing our development, and the choices we have. They can help us better understand how our family dynamics and relationships may have influenced our current personalities and our struggles with issues such as identity, intimacy, gender role and sexuality. However, uncritical reliance on theories poses several pitfalls. Because theories guide and direct our perceptions of and thinking about people, reliance on a given theory may lead us to focus on certain aspects of development, make certain assumptions, and draw conclusions about development that are consistent with the theory but not necessarily accurate. For example, reliance on Piaget’s cognitive approach may lead a teacher to underestimate the contributions of social and emotional factors to a child’s academic difficulties. Similarly, parents who tend to interpret their child’s irresponsible behaviour in terms of psychological conflict may overlook the fact that the same behaviour is frequently modelled and reinforced by the child’s older sibling. Finally, the emphasis many developmental theories place on shared or even universal developmental trends may underestimate the role of individual differences in life conditions, events and personal choices people face throughout their lives. As you read the chapters that follow, notice the theories are applied selectively based on the ages and developmental issues being discussed. We encourage you to refer back to this chapter whenever you have questions about the material and to make your own judgements about which theory (or theories) fits

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best. Finally, keep an eye on how your own theories of development change as you read the text and talk with your tutor and classmates. By the end of the course, you are likely to have a much clearer idea of your preferred theoretical orientation(s), as well as a much clearer perspective of what development is all about. TABLE 2.7

Developmental theories compared

Theoretical approach

Main focus

Key concepts

Basic assumptions

Freud

Personality (social, emotional); psychoanalytic

Id, ego, superego; psychosexual conflict; defence mechanisms

This broadly focused stage theory assumes a moderate role for maturation, a strong role for experience, and a moderately active developmental role for the individual.

Erikson

Personality (social, emotional, identity); psychosocial

Lifespan development; psychosocial crisis

This broadly focused stage theory assumes a weak to moderate role for maturation, a strong role for experience, and a highly active role for the individual.

Mahler

Personality (social, emotional self)

Birth of psychological self; separation–individuation

This narrowly focused stage theory assumes a strong role for maturation, a moderate role for experience, and a moderately active role for the developing individual.

Stern

Personality (interpersonal, cognitive, emotional, self)

Interpersonal sense of self; RIGs (representation of past interactions that have been generalised)

This moderately focused stage theory assumes a moderate role for maturation, a strong role for experience, and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Classical and operant conditioning; extinction; reinforcement; punishment

These narrowly focused, process-oriented theories assume a weak role for maturation, a strong role for experience, and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Learning behaviour, cognitive response patterns, social roles

Imitation, social learning, modelling, cognitive learning, reciprocal determinism, skills, capabilities

This moderately focused, process-oriented theory assumes a weak role for maturation, a strong role for experience, and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Piaget

Cognitive (thinking, problem solving)

Schemes, assimilation, accommodation, equilibrium, mental space, routinisation of schemes

This moderately focused stage theory assumes a strong role for maturation, a moderate role for experience, and a moderately active role for the developing individual.

Case; Fischer

Cognitive; problem-solving skills and capabilities

Skill acquisition; optimal level of performance, higher-level skills

These moderately focused, process-oriented theories assume a moderate role for both maturation and experience and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Psychodynamic

Behavioural learning Pavlov; Skinner

Learning specific, observable responses

Social cognitive learning Bandura

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Cognitive

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Theoretical approach

Main focus

Key concepts

Basic assumptions

Cognitive; steps and processes involved in the processing of information, problem solving and other mental abilities.

Sensory register, short-term memory (STM), long-term memory (LTM), metacognition, knowledge base, control processes

This narrowly focused, process-oriented theory assumes a strong role for maturation, a moderate role for experience, and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Ecological (Bronfenbrenner)

Contextual; interactive contextual influences

Ecological contexts; microsystem, exosystem, mesosystem, macrosystem

This broadly focused, process-oriented theory assumes a strong role for maturation, a moderate role for experience, and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Sociocultural (Vygotsky)

Contextual; cultural/historical influences

Dialogues; zone of proximal development

This moderately focused, process-oriented theory assumes a weak role for maturation, a strong role for experience, and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Contextual (Lerner; Elder)

Individual change within changing social and historical contexts

Multiple organisational levels of reciprocal, dynamic change; social trajectories (pathways)

These broadly focused, process-oriented theories assume a weak role for maturation, a strong role for experience, and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Ethological (Lorenz, Tinbergen)

Adaptation to biological and ethological contexts

Behavioural dispositions; evolutionary adaptations

These moderately focused, process-oriented theories assume a moderate role for maturation, a weak-to-moderate role for experience and a moderately active role for the developing individual.

Information processing

Contextual

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Adult and lifespan development Normative-crisis

Personality (social, behaviour, life structure, coping mechanisms)

Adult development; mature coping mechanisms (Vaillant); eras, transitions, and life structures (Levinson)

These moderately focused stage theories assume a weak role for maturation, a strong role for experience, and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Timing-ofevents

Personality (social, behaviour, life structure)

Adult development; normative and non-normative events; social clock

These broadly focused, process-oriented theories assume a weak role for maturation, a strong role for experience, and a highly active role for the developing individual.

Dynamic systems perspective (Thelen, Fischer)

Change is ongoing

Biological make-up, differences in individual skills

Stage-like transformations occur as individuals re-organise their behaviour so the system is working as a functioning whole.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Remember 13-year-old Leanne at the beginning of this chapter? Now that you have learned more about theories of development, which theory (or theories) do you think is most useful in understanding her situation and helping her adjust to social interactions and friendship patterns at high school? Why?

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SUMMARY 2.1 Describe the various developmental theories and explain how they are beneficial.

Theories are useful in organising and explaining the process of development and in stimulating and guiding developmental research, theory and practice. Theories differ in the degree to which they emphasise maturation versus experience, continuous versus stage-like development, the individual’s active versus passive participation, and the breadth of theoretical focus. 2.2 Analyse how psychodynamic theories have influenced our thinking about development.

Freud’s and Erikson’s theories see development as a dynamic process that occurs in a series of stages, each involving psychological conflicts that the developing person must resolve. According to Freud, personality development is energised by the conflicting functions of the id, ego and superego. Erikson’s theory outlines eight developmental stages that encompass the entire lifespan; by resolving the basic crisis of each stage — such as trust versus mistrust in infancy or intimacy versus isolation in young adulthood — the developing person attains what Erikson terms a virtue. So, for instance, the infant who resolves the trust/mistrust crisis attains the virtue of hope; the young adult who resolves the intimacy/isolation crisis attains love. Object relations approaches such as Mahler’s and Stern’s emphasise development as resulting from a child’s mental representations of early social and emotional relationships with parents and important others. Psychodynamic theories help us to understand the importance of attachment in intimate relationships throughout life and to conceptualise the process of identity formation in adolescence and adulthood, to name just two lifespan applications. 2.3 Examine how developmental theories based on learning theories have contributed to our understanding of developmental change.

Pavlov’s theory emphasises learning through classical conditioning as the main process through which developmental changes occur. Skinner’s operant conditioning theory emphasises the influence of reinforcement, punishment, extinction and shaping on developmental change. Bandura’s social cognitive theory emphasises reciprocal and interactional processes involving direct observational learning, modelling and vicarious reinforcement. Learning theories have applications across the lifespan, particularly in helping us to understand the influence of learning on development and helping individuals modify or eliminate problematic behaviours and learn new, desirable behaviours.

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2.4 Justify how cognitive developmental theories help us to understand changes in thinking and problem solving throughout the lifespan.

Piaget’s theory explains the underlying structures and processes involved in the development of children’s thinking and problem solving. Piaget suggested that thinking develops in a series of increasingly complex and sophisticated stages, each of which incorporates the achievements of those preceding it. The developing person achieves new ways of thinking and problem solving through the joint processes of assimilation (fitting a new scheme into an existing one) and accommodation (changing an existing scheme to meet the challenges of a new situation). Neo-Piagetian theorists Case and Fischer emphasise the role of mental space, skills acquisition, and information-processing capacity in cognitive development. Information-processing theory focuses on the steps involved in thinking. Information is stored in the sensory register, then in STM, and finally in LTM. As people grow older, they experience cognitive changes in control processes, metacognition and their knowledge bases. Cognitive theories help us to understand and foster intellectual development, problemsolving abilities and critical thinking skills throughout the lifespan. 2.5 Describe how contextual approaches to development have broadened our view of developmental change.

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory proposes that the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem form interactive and overlapping contexts for development. Vygotsky emphasises the 84

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contribution of history and culture to development, which takes place within a child’s zone of proximal development. Lerner’s contextual approach emphasises the dynamic, interactive, reciprocal relationships between individual development and changes in the contexts in which development occurs, such as education, work and family. Elder suggests education, work and family create the social trajectories, or pathways, that guide individual development. Ethological theory focuses on the developmental roles of behavioural dispositions and traits, such as temperament and attachment, that are thought to have evolutionary survival value for the human species. These theories are very useful in explaining how development throughout the life course interacts with and is influenced by the context in which the development occurs. 2.6 Compare and contrast how adult developmental changes differ from child and adolescent changes.

Normative-crisis theories focus on fairly predictable changes that occur over the lifespan, particularly during the adult years. Timing-of-events theory emphasises the role of both normative and non-normative transitions in an individual’s life course and how social expectations may be internalised in a ‘social clock’ against which we judge our own development. Dynamic systems theory views the child’s mind, body, physical and social worlds as a dynamic integrated system. A change in the system leads the child to modify and re-organise their behaviour so the various components of the system work together in a more complex and effective manner. 2.7 Evaluate how comparing and contrasting developmental theories assists us in understanding developmental change.

Although developmental theories differ in both focus and explanatory concepts, collectively they provide a fairly comprehensive view of the process of developmental change. By systematically organising what we already know about development and proposing explanations that can be tested through formal and informal observations, developmental theories can be useful for non-experts, as well as experts.

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KEY TERMS accommodation In Piaget’s theory, the process of modifying existing ideas or actions and skills to fit new experiences. adaptation Piaget’s term for the process by which development occurs; concepts are deepened or broadened by assimilation and stretched or modified by accommodation, through interaction with the environment. assimilation In Piaget’s theory, a method by which a person responds to new experiences by using existing concepts to interpret new ideas and experiences. attachment An intimate and enduring emotional relationship between two people, such as infant and caregiver, characterised by reciprocal affection and a periodic desire to maintain physical closeness. behaviour modification A body of techniques based on behaviourism for changing or eliminating specific behaviours. classical conditioning A form of learning in which an organism associates a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that leads to a reflexive response. Once the connections between the two stimuli are made, the new stimulus will produce the behaviour by itself. dynamic systems approach The view of the child’s mind, body, physical world and social environment as part of an integrated, dynamic system. Changes to any part of this system will lead to changes in the system as a whole. ego According to Freud, the rational, realistic part of the personality which coordinates impulses from the id with demands imposed by the superego and by society. id In Freud’s theory, the part of an individual’s personality that is present at birth; unconscious, impulsive and unrealistic; and that attempts to satisfy a person’s biological and emotional needs and desires by maximising pleasure and avoiding pain. CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 85

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information-processing theory Explanations of cognition that focus on the precise, detailed features or steps of mental activities. These theories often use computers as models for human thinking. long-term memory (LTM) The largest memory storage area of the information-processing system which permanently preserves our knowledge base through storing, managing and retrieving information for use at any later time. metacognition Knowledge and thinking about cognition; knowing how learning and memory operate in everyday situations, and how one can improve cognitive performance through the use of metacognitive strategies. normative-crisis model Explanations that view developmental change in terms of a series of distinct periods or stages influenced by physical and cognitive performance. object relations The child’s relationships with the important people (called objects) in their environment and the process by which their qualities become part of the child’s personality and mental life. observational learning The tendency of a child to imitate or model behaviour and attitudes of parents and other nurturant individuals. operant conditioning According to Skinner, a process of learning in which a person or an animal increases the frequency of a behaviour in response to repeated reinforcement of that behaviour. punishment According to Skinner, any stimulus that temporarily suppresses the response that it follows. reinforcement According to Skinner, any stimulus that increases the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated in similar circumstances. scheme According to Piaget, a specific structure or organised pattern of behaviour or thought that represents a group of ideas and events in a person’s experience. sensory register A component of the information-processing system where sights and sounds are immediately represented but only briefly stored. short-term memory (STM) The limited-capacity memory storage area of the information-processing system which stores information for only a short length of time, merely seconds, without rehearsal. social trajectory The pathway or direction that development takes over an individual’s life course, which is influenced by the school, work, family and other important social settings in which they participate. superego In Freud’s theory, the part of personality that acts as an all-knowing, internalised parent. It has two parts: the conscience, which enforces moral and social conventions by punishing violations with guilt, and the ego-ideal, which provides an idealised, internal set of standards for regulating and evaluating one’s thoughts, feelings and actions. theory A set of statements that are an orderly and integrated description, explanation and prediction of human behaviour in various developmental domains. A theory’s continued existence depends on scientific verification. All theories must be tested using a set of research strategies. timing-of-events model Explanations that view developmental change in terms of important life events such as marriage and parenthood that people are expected to complete according to a culturally determined timetable. zone of proximal development According to Vygotsky, the level of difficulty at which problems are too hard for children to solve alone but not too hard when given support from adults or more competent peers.

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1 Is the study of different theories of lifespan development justified? Why or why not? How would

knowledge of these theories assist parents and professionals in the workplace environment? 86

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2 There are many theories of lifespan development. Identify and define three basic issues that underlie

all theories. 3 In this question you will use a PMI to analyse the developmental theories discussed in this chap-

ter. The PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) tool was developed by Edward de Bono, the author of many books on thinking and memory strategies, to assist in focusing and expanding thinking in a structured way. Use of a PMI in this question will ensure you are looking at the developmental theories in a critical manner. Use the table that follows to construct a PMI and then use the PMI to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of five developmental theories. In the first column, write the name of the theory; in the Plus column note the positive aspects of the theory; in the Minus column, note the negative aspects of the theory; and in the Interesting column, write applications and interesting (but neither positive nor negative) aspects of the theory. Draw up a table similar to the one below. Developmental theory

Plus

Minus

Interesting

4 How do contextual development theories contribute to our understanding of developmental change? 5 Explain how each theoretical perspective regards children, adolescents and adults as active contributors

to their own development.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1 Discuss and explain how Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, Erikson’s psychosocial theory and Freud’s

psychodynamic theory account for cognitive, social and emotional development. 2 Describe an event that you observed in which feedback from a parent or teacher strengthened a child’s

self efficacy. What strategies did the parent use to strengthen the child’s self efficacy? How effective were these strategies? 3 Evaluate the claim that lifespan development theories are a sociocultural construction of childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Are these theories relevant to all cultural groups? Can these theories be used to explain development across cultures, such as Aboriginal Australians, Torres Strait Islanders, Asians, Pacific Islanders and M¯aori?

APPLICATION QUESTION Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

1 Test your understanding of theories of development by using the following concepts to complete the

sentences: behavioural, Erik Erikson, maturation, dynamic systems, Sigmund Freud, Carol Gilligan, psychodynamic, theory, Jean Piaget. (a) According to ___________________ a child’s development is thought to occur in a series of stages. At each stage, the child experiences unconscious conflicts that they must resolve to some degree before going on to the next stage. (b) A theorist who was interested in how thinking and problem-solving abilities develop and who proposed that such changes depend on the person’s active efforts to master new intellectual problems of increasing difficulty was ___________________. (c) A ___________________ is a set of statements that are an orderly, integrated description, explanation and prediction of human behaviour in various developmental domains. CHAPTER 2 Theories of development 87

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(d) Developmental changes that seem to be determined largely by biology because they occur in all individuals, relatively independently of their particular experiences, are known as ___________________. (e) ___________________ theory of identity development proposes that an individual’s personality and sense of identity are strongly influenced by their active efforts to master the psychological and social conflicts of everyday life. (f) Theorists who believe developmental change is caused by events in the environment that stimulate individuals to respond, resulting in the learned changes in behaviour that make up development, are known as ___________________ theories. (g) _______________focused on the moral dilemmas and development of young girls and women and examined the caring and responsibility aspects of moral development. (h) ___________________ theorists believe development is an active, dynamic process that is influenced by both a person’s inborn biological drives and their conscious and unconscious social and emotional experiences. (i) A theory that views new motor skills as reorganisations of previously mastered skills which lead to more effective ways of exploring and controlling the environment is known as the ___________________ theory.

ESSAY QUESTION 1 Considering the different theories discussed in this chapter, if you had to choose a theory that repre-

sents your view of lifespan development, would you choose a single theory or components of a variety of theories? Justify your choice in relation to lifespan development and developmental psychopathology. Explain what aspects of your chosen theory or theories make it more engaging than other theories, presenting an argument as to how your theory best explains lifespan development.

WEBSITES

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1 Peer-reviewed and open access journal Acta Psychopathologica, which produces high quality articles

on psychopathology to assist in improving outcomes for people suffering from mental health problems. The website explores the complexities and controversies along with the cutting-edge aspects of psychopathological dysfunctions and psychiatric diagnosis. It focuses on topics such as psychopathology of depression, adult psychopathology, child psychopathology and developmental psychopathology: www.imedpub.com/scholarly/developmental-psychopathology-journals-articles-ppts-list.php 2 The Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) is the official website for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT was developed from a theoretical and philosophical framework and is a psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies combined with commitment and behaviour change strategies. This website includes definitions, concepts, resources, books and videos regarding ACT: https://contextualscience.org/act 3 The Hofstede Centre promotes and coordinates research in an effort to develop further insight into Hofstede’s research. The website offers research articles, resources, courses, seminars and the latest additions to the Hofstede model: https://geert-hofstede.com/about-us.html

REFERENCES Agronin, M. E. (2014). From Cicero to Cohen: Developmental theories of aging, from antiquity to the present. The Gerontologist, 54(1), 30–39. Ainsworth, M. S., & Bowlby, J. (1991). An ethological approach to personality development. American Psychologist, 46, 333–341. 88

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Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-04 18:32:11.

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Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469. Arnett, J. J., & Galambos, N. L. (Eds.). (2003). New directions for child and adolescent development: Exploring cultural conceptions of the transition to adulthood. San Francsico, CA: Jossey-Bass. Barlow, D. H., & Durand, V. M. (1995). Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Barlow, D., & Durand, V. W. (2006). Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach. New York, NY: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. Barlow, D. H., & Durand, V. M. (2014). Abnormal psychology: An integrative approach (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth. Bandura, A. (1989a). Social cognitive theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development. Six theories of child development (Vol. 6, pp. 1–60). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Bandura, A. (1989b). Social cognitive theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development. 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Wickrama, K. A. S., Conger, R. D., Wallace, L. E., & Elder G. H. Jr. (2003). Linking early social risks to impaired physical health during the transition to adulthood. Journal of Health and Social behavior, 44(1), 61–74. Willis, S. L., & Schaie, K. W. (2009). Cognitive training and plasticity: Theoretical perspective and methodological consequences. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 27(5), 375–389. Wolpe, J., & Plaud, J. J. (1997). Pavlov’s contribution to behaviour therapy: The obvious and not so obvious. American Psychologist, 52, 966–972. Zettle, R. (2007). ACT for depression: A clinician’s guide to using acceptance and commitment therapy in treating depression. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Photo: © 5nizzaneva / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Ted Streshinsky / CORBIS / Corbis via Getty Images Photo: © Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Gladskikh Tatiana / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Fotokostic / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Jack Frog / Shutterstock Photo: © R. L. Webber / Shutterstock.com Photo: © SpeedKingz / Shutterstock.com Figure 2.2: © Reprinted with permission: Gagne, R. M., & Medsker, K. L. (1996). The conditions of learning, Training applications. American Society for Training and Development, by South-Western College Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. Extract: © Reproduced under STM Guidelines: Beyers, W., & Seiffge-Krenke, I. (2010). Does identity precede intimacy? Testing Erikson’s theory on romantic development in emerging adults of the 21st century. Journal of Adolescent Research, 25(3), 387–415.

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CHAPTER 3

Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth LEARNING OUTCOMES

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By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: 3.1 explain the role of inheritance in development 3.2 describe how genetic differences are usually transmitted from one generation to the next 3.3 understand how genetic abnormalities occur 3.4 consider the role of experts in helping parents discover and respond to potential genetic abnormalities 3.5 explain how heredity and environment jointly influence development 3.6 discuss the important developmental changes that occur during prenatal development 3.7 recognise the risks a mother and baby may face during pregnancy and the birth process, and how can they be minimised 3.8 describe what happens during the birth process, what difficulties may occur and how they are handled.

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OPENING SCENARIO

Newlyweds Gino and Maria were excited at the prospect of starting a family, so they decided to get some medical advice on how to prepare for a healthy baby. The couple, both of whom were from a Mediterranean background and had large families, told their doctor they wanted many children. Their doctor took particular note of this, and asked Gino and Maria for more background information. When the couple said they were from Sicily, their doctor advised them to look into their family history, as certain types of anaemia are more common in people from that area. Gino and Maria asked their families about their medical history of anaemia — none of their relatives had ever been diagnosed with this blood disorder. Reassured, they proceeded with family planning, and Maria soon fell pregnant. Fortunately, little Pietro was born healthy and well. Three years later, the couple decided to try again for another baby. This time, however, the doctors informed the parents that their newborn daughter had mild sickle-cell anaemia. Gino and Maria were stunned — how could their daughter have inherited a condition that neither they nor their parents or grandparents had? Just like red hair and blue eyes, some disorders can seem to ‘skip’ one generation, or a few. We inherit genes that determine eye colour, height and other physical characteristics from our biological parents, but we may look different to them, our siblings and our grandparents. Genes also affect more complex characteristics, such as athletic ability, intelligence and temperament, which can develop throughout the lifespan as they are influenced by our experiences and our environment. We begin this chapter by describing the basic biological processes involved in human reproduction and how genetic information from two parents is combined and conveyed to their children. Next, we discuss genetic abnormalities and how experts help parents understand their risks and choices. Then, we address an issue that psychologists have found especially important: the relationship between heredity and environment, and how both contribute to individual development over the lifespan. Finally, we describe ways to use knowledge of these relationships to benefit parents, their children and their children’s children.

3.1 Mechanisms of genetic transmission

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LEARNING OUTCOME 3.1 Explain the role of inheritance in development.

The process by which genetic information is combined and transmitted begins with gametes, the reproductive cells of a child’s parents. In the father, the gametes are produced in the testicles, and each is called a sperm cell. In the mother, they develop in the ovaries, and each is called an ovum, or egg cell. The sperm and egg cells contain genetic information in molecular structures called genes, which form threads called chromosomes. Thus, the chromosomes contain the genetic material the child will inherit from the parent. Each human sperm or egg cell contains 23 chromosomes. All other cells of the body contain 46 chromosomes and approximately 100 000 genes. A single chromosome may contain as many as 20 000 genes. Figure 3.1 shows a picture, or karyotype, of the chromosomes for a normal human male. Figure 3.2 illustrates the genetic structures involved.

The role of DNA The genes themselves are made of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the complex protein code of genetic information that directs the form and function of each body cell as it develops. It was in 1953 that James Watson, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, pioneered the discovery of DNA, later receiving 96

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the Nobel Prize. Their discovery showed that when an embryonic cell divides again and again to form one, then two, then four and eight cells, each cell holds all the genetic information required to make a human being. DNA shares this information at conception, when a sperm from the father penetrates an egg from the mother, releasing their chromosomes which join to form a new cell called a zygote. How exactly do these cells make copies of themselves? To accomplish this, reproductive cells, or gametes, divide by a process called meiosis. The process of meiosis halves the number of chromosomes normally present in body cells. Thus, uniting of the sperm and ovum at conception results in a cell called a zygote, which has 46 chromosomes. Meiosis ensures that genetic material is transmitted from one generation to the next. All of the other cells that make up a unique human being will develop from this original zygote through a simple division of their genes, chromosomes and other cellular parts by means of a process called mitosis. DNA is a double-stranded molecule, which has the appearance of a twisted ladder-like structure, with each rung of the ladder consisting of a pair of chemical substances, known as bases. It is this sequence of base pairs that provide genetic code instructions. Genes are segments of DNA existing along the length of the chromosome. DNA can duplicate itself through the process of mitosis. FIGURE 3.1

Chromosomes for the normal human male This karyotype depicts the 22 pairs of chromosomes and the two sex chromosomes for the normal human male. In females, the twenty-third pair of chromosomes consists of an XX instead of an XY pair.

FIGURE 3.2

Genetic structures

T G A C

The human body contains 100 trillion cells.

There is a nucleus inside each human cell (except red blood cells).

Each nucleus contains 46 chromosomes, arranged in 23 pairs.

One chromosome The chromosomes of every pair is are filled with from each parent. tightly coiled strands of DNA.

G CA T G CC G

A T

Genes are segments of DNA that contain instructions to make proteins — the building blocks of life.

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Mitosis is the process that ensures that the duplicate cell is identical in genetic make-up to the original cell. During mitosis the chromosomes copy themselves and, as a result, each new body cell contains the same number of chromosomes and the identical genetic information. It is a critical process that occurs in the normal cell replication process involved in growth and body maintenance. The replication of genetic material during cell multiplication and the transfer of genetic information during reproduction are central to understanding development and growth. Figure 3.3 depicts the process of mitosis.

FIGURE 3.3

The process of mitosis Mitotic cell division produces nearly all the cells of the body except the gametes. During mitosis, each chromosome replicates to form two chromosomes with identical genetic blueprints. As the cell divides, one member of each identical pair becomes a member of each daughter cell. In this manner, complete genetic endowment is replicated in nearly every cell of the body.

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Cell nucleus (shown with a single pair of chromosomes).

Chromosomes split and replicate to produce two identical replicas of each chromosome.

The replicas separate, and the cell divides.

Each daughter cell now has a pair of chromosomes that is identical to the original pair.

Unique individuals are created when two special cells, the sperm and egg cell (the gametes or sex cells) unite. Through the cell division process of meiosis, gametes are formed. Meiosis is a process of reduction and division, which halves the number of chromosomes normally present in body cells. It involves a number of steps. First, the chromosomes pair up and each one copies itself. Then, they break up into smaller pieces and randomly exchange segments of genetic material with one another. This is a process called ‘crossing over’ in which genetic material is exchanged between pairs of matching chromosomes, one from each parent. This shuffling creates new hereditary combinations and recombinations. It is in this process that genetic variability is further increased as each egg and sperm have more than eight million possible combinations of the 23 chromosomes pairs. Next, the new chromosome pairs divide to form two separate cells. Finally, the two new cells divide again. Each of the four new cells contains a unique set of genetic material in its 23 chromosomes, one-half the usual number of chromosomes carried by all other cells. This ensures that the new, single-cell zygote that forms during conception will contain the normal 46 chromosomes: 23 chromosomes from the egg and 23 from the sperm (i.e. half of each pair is contributed by each parent). Figure 3.4 illustrates the process of meiosis for sperm cells. The process for egg cells is the same.

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FIGURE 3.4

The process of meiosis for sperm cells As meiosis begins, DNA replicates. However, before the replicated arms split apart, one member of each pair of chromosomes moves to become part of each first-generation daughter cell. Once the first generation of daughter cells is established, the DNA copies itself, then splits as part of the second meiotic division. Thus, one copy of one member of the pair of chromosomes is contributed to each second-generation daughter cell. These two successive divisions produce four cells, each with 23 chromosomes.

A cell with two of the 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes is shown here.

In the first meiotic cell division one member of each homologous pair becomes a part of the first-generation daughter cell.

The second meiotic division proceeds after the first is completed; now the replicated chromosome acquired in the firstgeneration daughter cell splits apart.

Each of the four gametes produced by the two-step process now has acquired one member of the pair of homologous chromosomes.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Sometimes, a good way to check your understanding of rather complex material is to explain it to another person. Team up with a classmate and explain the roles of meiosis and mitosis to them in your own words. Then, ask your classmate to explain it back to you. What unanswered questions do you still have? You may find that drawing a diagram to explain your understanding is helpful. Why is an understanding of meiosis and mitosis important in understanding development?

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3.2 Individual genetic expression LEARNING OUTCOME 3.2 Describe how genetic differences are usually transmitted from one generation to the next.

How does the genetic information contained in our cells influence the development of our unique physical, intellectual, social and emotional characteristics? In the following section, we explore this question.

Genotype and phenotype Genotype refers to the specific genetic information a person inherits that has the potential to influence their observable physical or behavioural characteristics or traits, such as eye colour, height, intelligence CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 99

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or shyness. Phenotype refers to the physical and behavioural traits that can actually be observed; for example, blue eyes, a height of 165 centimetres, a certain intelligence test score or a certain level of shyness. A person’s phenotype is always the product of the interactions of that person’s genotype with the environmental influences that occur from the formation of the first cell at conception onward. In some cases, there is a close match between a person’s original genotype and the phenotype that results. For example, inheriting genes for blue eyes generally results in actually having blue eyes. In other cases, phenotype does not coincide so closely with genotype. Two newborn infants may have inherited the identical genotype for weight at the time of conception, but one may end up heavier (or lighter) than the other because of differences in prenatal nutrition and differences in diet and exercise during infancy and childhood. On the other hand, children with different genotypes for weight may end up the same weight (the same phenotype) — one through dieting and the other simply by eating whatever they wanted.

Dominant and recessive genes Genes are inherited in pairs; one from each parent. Some genes are dominant and others are recessive. A dominant gene will influence a child’s phenotype even if it is paired with a recessive gene. A recessive gene, however, must be paired with another recessive gene to be able to influence the phenotype. If it is paired with a dominant gene, its influence will be controlled or blocked. More than one thousand human characteristics appear to follow the dominant–recessive pattern of inheritance (McKusick, 2007). Table 3.1 lists a number of common dominant and recessive traits.

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TABLE 3.1

Some common dominant and recessive traits

Dominant trait

Recessive trait

Dominant trait

Recessive trait

Brown eyes

Grey, green, hazel or blue eyes

Short fingers

Fingers of normal length

Hazel or green eyes

Blue eyes

Double-fingers

Normally jointed fingers

Normal vision

Nearsightedness

Double-jointedness

Normal joints

Farsightedness

Normal vision

Type A blood

Type O blood

Normal colour vision

Red-green colour blindness

Type B blood

Type O blood

Brown or black hair

Blond hair

Rh positive blood

Rh negative blood

Non-red hair

Red hair

Normal blood clotting

Haemophilia

Curly or wavy hair

Straight hair

Normal red blood cells

Sickle-cell disease

Full head of hair

Baldheadedness

Normal protein metabolism

Phenylketonuria (PKU)

Normal hearing

Some forms of congenital deafness

Normal physiology

Tay-Sachs disease

Normally pigmented skin

Albino (completely white) skin

Huntington’s disease

Normal central nervous system functioning in adulthood

Facial dimples

No dimples

Immunity to poison ivy

Susceptibility to poison ivy

Thick lips

Thin lips

Many common traits show dominant or recessive patterns. Sometimes too, a pattern may be dominant with respect to one trait but recessive with respect to another.

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Eye colour is a good example. Suppose human eyes came in only two colours, blue and brown. Because blue eyes are a recessive trait and brown eyes are a dominant trait, a child’s eyes will be blue only if they have received the appropriate blue-producing gene from both parents. If they have received it from only one parent or from neither, they will end up with brown eyes.

Transmission of multiple variations The genes responsible for eye colour — and, in fact, for many other traits — often take on two or more alternative forms, called alleles. In addition to alleles for blue and brown, the gene responsible for eye colour occasionally takes on a third allele, which often leads to hazel or green eyes. A person who inherits two identical alleles for a particular trait is said to be homozygous for that trait. A person who inherits two different alleles for the trait is said to be heterozygous for that trait. In the case of eye colour, a heterozygous person (one brown and one blue/hazel/green allele) will therefore show the phenotype of the dominant allele and thus have brown eyes. Only a person who is homozygous will display the phenotype of one of the recessive alleles and have blue or hazel eyes. From a genetic standpoint, there are three times as many ways to have brown eyes as there are to have blue/green eyes. Figure 3.5 illustrates this example. Keep in mind, however, that although all of the patterns of inheritance for dominant and recessive traits are possible, each genotype will not necessarily occur in each family, since genes are inherited randomly. In figure 3.5 (example 1), for instance, although it is possible that the parents will have children with the eye colour genotypes of BB, Bb, bB or bb, all of their children may in reality be BB or bb. Thus, the increased probability of a particular genotype, such as Bb, does not mean that genotype will definitely be seen. In contrast, in the genetic transmission of a sex-linked trait, such as haemophilia (discussed shortly), all daughters in a given family are carriers and all sons are affected (see figure 3.7). Many genes have more than two alleles. As a result, the traits they govern can vary in more complex ways. For example, the four major human blood types are based on three alleles of the same gene. Two of these alleles, type A and type B, are dominant forms, and the O allele is recessive. Figure 3.6 illustrates how these three alleles for blood type can combine in six possible ways but produce only four blood types, A, B, O and AB. The AB blood type is an example of co-dominance, a situation in which the characteristics of both alleles are independently expressed in a new phenotype rather than one or the other being dominant, or as a mixture of the two. Because each blood type has a unique chemistry that allows it to mix only with certain other blood types, determining the compatible blood genotype is very important for people who receive blood transfusions.

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Polygenic transmission Unlike eye colour and blood type, which can vary in only a limited number of qualitatively distinct ways, the inheritance of most physical traits (including height, weight, hair and skin colour, and complex personality) and behavioural traits (such as intelligence, shyness, alcoholism and depression) do not fit the simple single-gene model just described. These traits are called polygenic, meaning they involve many genes, each with small effects, as well as environmental influences. Polygenic inheritance, still a relatively unknown area, involves a complex process whereby many genes determine the characteristic. Because polygenic phenotypes vary by small degrees, environment can influence them in relatively important ways. For example, an overweight person can become more slender through a change in diet, and a shy person can learn to be more outgoing. Such experiences matter less for traits that are simply transmitted by a single gene; for example, there is no way to change eye colour, even though you can cover your irises with tinted contact lenses.

The determination of sex Whether a person becomes male or female depends on events at conception. All ova, or egg cells, contain a single X chromosome, whereas a sperm cell may contain either an X or a Y. If a Y-bearing sperm CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 101

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happens to fertilise the egg, a male (XY) zygote develops; if the sperm is X-bearing, a female (XX) zygote develops. FIGURE 3.5

Genetic transmission of eye colour Example 1: Three out of four offspring will have brown eyes and one out of four will have blue eyes. Example 2: Two out of four offspring will have brown eyes and two out of four will have blue eyes.

Father: brown eyes (heterozygous)

Mother: brown eyes (heterozygous) B

b

BB (homozygous)

Bb (heterozygous)

Bb (heterozygous)

bb (homozygous)

B

b

Example 1: both parents heterozygous

Father: blue eyes (homozygous)

Mother: brown eyes (heterozygous) B

b

Bb (heterozygous)

bb (homozygous)

Bb (heterozygous)

bb (homozygous)

b

b

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Example 2: one parent heterozygous and one parent homozygous Key: B = gene for brown eyes, which is dominant for eye colour b = gene for blue eyes, which is recessive for eye colour

During the first several weeks following conception, both male and female embryos possess a set of bisexual gonadal, or sex, tissues, meaning they can develop either male or female sex structures. However, between the fourth and eighth weeks, gonadal tissue develops into testes or ovaries depending on the presence or absence of a small section of the Y chromosome, referred to as SRY (sex-determining region Y), which incorporates the testis-determining factor or TDF. Ova fertilised by a Y-bearing sperm have TDF and male embryos result (Sekido, 2010; Sloane, 2002).

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Inheritance of blood type In blood type inheritance, both A and B alleles are dominant and the O allele is recessive. Therefore, the possible blood types inherited are: Type A (AA or Ao) Type B (BB or Bo) Type AB Type O (oo)

Possible alleles from father

FIGURE 3.6

Possible alleles from mother A B o A

AA

AB

Ao

B

AB

BB

Bo

o

Ao

Bo

oo

More Y sperm than X sperm succeed in fertilising the ovum, resulting in about 30 per cent more male than female zygotes. By birth, however, male babies outnumber female babies by only about 6 per cent on average, and by age 35 women begin to outnumber men, suggesting that males may be more genetically vulnerable than females. Much of this vulnerability is related to sex-linked transmission. Females have two copies of the X chromosome, one from each parent, so if they inherit an affected recessive gene from one parent, the second unaffected gene is likely to counteract the effect of the recessive gene so the condition is not expressed. Males, however, only have one X chromosome, received from a carrier mother, so will always inherit the condition (Chial, 2008). As a result of this inheritance, genetic abnormalities on the single complete X chromosome are more likely to result in phenotypic abnormalities in males than in females. Table 3.2 lists a number of sex-linked recessive traits, abnormalities that are transmitted on the single complete X chromosome. TABLE 3.2

Sex-linked recessive traits

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Condition

Description

Colourblindness

Inability to distinguish certain colours, usually reds and greens

Haemophilia

Deficiency in substances that allow the blood to clot; also known as bleeder’s disease

Muscular dystrophy

Weakening and wasting away of muscles, beginning in childhood (Duchenne’s form)

Diabetes (two forms)

Inability to metabolise sugars properly because the body does not produce enough insulin

Anhidrotic ectodermal dysplasia

Lack of sweat glands and teeth

Night blindness (certain forms)

Inability to see in dark or very dim conditions

Deafness (certain forms)

Impaired hearing or total hearing loss

Atrophy of optic nerve

Gradual deterioration of vision and eventual blindness

All of the above traits are carried by the X chromosome, and all are recessive. As a result, they occur less often in females than in males.

One such trait is haemophilia, an inability of the blood to clot (due to lack of a clotting factor), and therefore to stop itself from flowing. Symptoms can be mild, such as prolonged oozing at injection sites, to severe haemorrhage that can be life-threatening (Mannucci & Franchini, 2014). Because the gene for haemophilia is located on the X chromosome, a female carrier is protected by having a normal gene on her second X chromosome. Each of her children will have a fifty–fifty chance of inheriting the abnormal CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 103

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gene. Daughters who get the gene will be carriers, like their mother, while sons will develop haemophilia because they lack a second X chromosome to counteract the gene’s effects. Figure 3.7 illustrates this effect.

Most physical traits result from the combined influences of gene pairs inherited from both parents. The degree of resemblance between a child and a given parent depends on the particular pattern of gene variations involved.

FIGURE 3.7

Inheritance of haemophilia, a sex-linked disorder In this example of the inheritance of haemophilia, the mother is a carrier of the disease. Each daughter has a 50 per cent chance of inheriting a pair of normal chromosomes (XX) and a 50 per cent chance of being a carrier (XX) like her mother. However, she will not be affected by the disorder because her second X chromosome protects her. Each son has a 50 per cent chance of being normal (XY) and a 50 per cent chance of inheriting the abnormal chromosome and being haemophilic (XY). This is because, as a male, his second chromosome is a Y which does not protect him from the disorder.

Normal father

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Carrier mother

104

X

X

X

XX Normal daughter (25%)

XX Carrier daughter (25%)

Y

XY Normal son (25%)

XY Haemophilic son (25%)

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Most human characteristics that have been studied follow the pattern of dominant–recessive and codominant inheritance and, in most instances, a gene that has been inherited influences development in the same manner whether it was contributed by the biological mother or father. However, geneticists have discovered a new mode of inheritance called genomic imprinting, in which genes are chemically marked, or imprinted, such that the member of the chromosome pair contributed by either the father or the mother is activated, regardless of its genetic make-up. Recent studies have shown that this imprinting can play an important part in development of social behaviour and metabolism, which are factors that are very responsive to environmental influences (Ferguson-Smith, 2011).

3.3 Genetic abnormalities LEARNING OUTCOME 3.3 Understand how genetic abnormalities occur.

Occasionally, genetic reproduction goes wrong. Sometimes too many or too few chromosomes transfer to a newly forming zygote. Sometimes the chromosomes transfer properly but carry particular defective genes that can affect a child physically or mentally, or both. Table 3.3 lists some common genetic abnormalities and the risk of their presence at birth.

TABLE 3.3

Risk of selected genetic disorders Risk of having a foetus with the disorder

Description

Overall

With one affected child

Down syndrome

Extra or translocated twenty-first chromosome. Symptoms include almond-shaped eyes, round head, stubby hands and feet, abnormalities of the heart and intestinal tract, facial deformities, and vulnerability to disease. Most children with Down syndrome live until middle adulthood, but about 14 per cent die by age one and 21 per cent die by age ten.

1/800

1–2%

Klinefelter syndrome (XXY)

At least one extra chromosome, usually an X. Affected individual is phenotypically male, but has small testes and is sterile.

1/800 men

No significant increase

Fragile X syndrome

The most common inherited form of intellectual impairment. Caused by an abnormal gene on the bottom end of the X chromosome. Causes spectrum of learning difficulties ranging from mild problems to severe intellectual impairment.

1/1200 male births 1/2000 female births

No significant increase

Turner syndrome (XO)

Affects only females born with a single X in the sex chromosome. Grow to be very short as adults, ‘webbed’ necks and ears set lower than usual; fail to develop secondary sexual characteristics; problems with spatial judgement, memory, and reasoning.

1/3000 women

No significant increase

Disorder

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Chromosomal

(continued)

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TABLE 3.3

(continued) Risk of having a foetus with the disorder

Description

Overall

With one affected child

Polydactyly

Extra fingers or toes. Fairly common. Correctable by surgery.

1/300–1/100

50%

Achondroplasia

Rare disorder of the skeleton; afflicted person has shorter than normal arms and legs.

1/2300

50%

Huntington’s disease

Usually first affects people in their 30s and 40s; gradual deterioration of the central nervous system, causing uncontrollable movements, mental deterioration, and death.

1/15 000–1/5000

50%

Cystic fibrosis

The most common genetic disease among Caucasian persons of Northern European descent. Abnormally thick mucus clogs the lungs, causing serious difficulties in breathing and digestion, delayed growth and sexual maturation, high vulnerability to infection, and shortened life expectancy.

1/2500 Caucasian persons (risk of being a carrier is 1/25)

25%

Sickle-cell anaemia

Abnormal, sickle-shaped red blood cells clog blood vessels, reducing blood supply and causing pain. May cause increased bacterial infections and degeneration of brain, kidneys, liver, heart, spleen and muscles. Shortened lifespan.

1/625 African Americans (risk of being a carrier is 1/10)

25%

Tay-Sachs disease

Found mostly in persons of Eastern European Jewish descent. Chemical imbalance of central nervous system. Symptoms first occur at six months of age, progressively causing severe intellectual impairment, blindness, seizures and death by third year due to lowered resistance to disease.

1/3600 Eastern European Jews (risk of being a carrier is 1/30–1/300)

25%

Lack of substance needed for blood clotting. Risk of life-threatening internal bleeding.

1/2500 male babies

50% for boy 0% for girl

Structural and/or electrical abnormalities of the heart. May respond to medication or corrective surgery performed after birth.

1/125

2–4%

Disorder Dominant gene

Recessive gene

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X-linked Haemophilia

Multifactorial Congenital heart disease

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Risk of having a foetus with the disorder

Disorder

Description

Overall

With one affected child

Neural tube defect

Tube enclosing the spine fails to close completely or normally. Brain may be absent or underdeveloped (anencephaly) or spinal cord and nerve bundles may be exposed. Death or severe intellectual impairment or other long-term problems for children who survive.

1–2/1000

2–5%

Cleft lip/cleft palate

Gap or space in lip or hole in roof of mouth. May cause difficulties in breathing, speech, hearing and eating. Corrective surgery at birth can repair most clefts.

1/1000–1/5000

2–4%

Source: Adapted from ACOG (1990, 2010); Diamond (1989); Geerts, Steyaert, and Fryns (2003); Hagerman (1996); Kliegman, Behrman, Jenson, and Stanton (2008); Moore and Persaud (2003); Selekman (1993); and Stratford (1994).

Disorders due to abnormal chromosomes Most of the time, inheriting one too many or one too few chromosomes proves fatal. In a few cases, however, children with an extra or a missing chromosome survive past birth and even live fairly normal lives. It is estimated that approximately 6 babies in every 1000 are born with a chromosomal alteration in Australia (NHMRC, 2007). One such example is Down syndrome. Persons with Down syndrome usually have three number 21 chromosomes instead of two.

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Down syndrome Down syndrome is also called trisomy 21 because it is generally caused by an extra twenty-first chromosome or the translocation, or transfer, of part of the twenty-first chromosome onto another chromosome. People with this disorder have almond-shaped eyes, round heads, and stubby hands and feet. Many also have abnormalities of the heart and intestinal tract, and facial deformities. They also show greater than usual vulnerability to a number of serious diseases, such as leukaemia. Most children with Down syndrome live until middle adulthood, but about 14 per cent die by age one and 21 per cent die by age ten. Although children with Down syndrome achieve many of the same developmental milestones as normal children, as they get older they fall developmentally further and further behind and never ‘catch-up’ with their peers. Children with Down syndrome have been shown to benefit from infant and preschool intervention programs with improvement in social, emotional and motor skills (Carr, 2002). By adulthood, most individuals with Down syndrome plateau at a moderately delayed level of cognitive functioning. They are able to learn and follow simple routines and hold routine jobs, but because they are easily confused by change and have difficulty in making important decisions, they usually cannot live independently and require some ongoing support from their families and community service programs, though increasingly they are being supported to be as independent as possible (Mahoney & Perales, 2011). Down syndrome is much more frequent in babies of mothers aged over 35 and of older fathers. As women grow older, they experience longer exposure to environmental hazards, such as chemicals and radiation, which may affect their ovaries. In addition, since a woman’s ova are formed before she is born, they are likely to undergo progressive deterioration with age (Baird & Sadovnick, 1987; Feinbloom & Forman, 1987; Halliday, Watson, Lumley, Danks, & Sheffield, 1995; Schonberg & Tift, 2007). Older fathers are at risk because their sperm cells have divided so many times that many opportunities for errors exist (Angier, 1994; De Souza, Alberman, & Morris, 2009; Dzurova & Pikhart, 2005). Figure 3.8 summarises the risk of having a Down syndrome baby for women of different ages. CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 107

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Children with Down syndrome require ongoing educational and social support.

FIGURE 3.8

Relationship between maternal age and incidence of Down syndrome As women get older, their chances of giving birth to a baby with Down syndrome increase. At maternal age 21, 1 in every 1500 babies is born with Down syndrome. At maternal age 39, 1 in 150 babies is born with the disorder. At maternal age 49, 1 in 10 babies is born with Down syndrome.

100 90

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Number of babies born with Down syndrome per 1000 births

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

108

15

20

25 30 35 40 Maternal age (years)

45

50

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Disorders due to abnormal genes Even when a zygote has the proper number of chromosomes, it may inherit specific genes that can create serious medical problems for the child after birth. In many cases, these problems prove lethal. In others, genetic diseases are at least manageable, if not fully curable. As table 3.3 shows, there are five main types of genetic disorders: chromosomal disorders, dominant gene disorders, recessive gene disorders, X-linked disorders, and multifactorial gene disorders.

Dominant gene disorders Dominant gene disorders require only one abnormal gene from either parent to affect a child. Figure 3.9 illustrates the inheritance of a dominant gene disorder. FIGURE 3.9

Inheritance of a dominant gene disorder When one parent has a dominant gene disorder, each child has a 50 per cent chance of inheriting the dominant abnormal gene for the disorder (D) and a 50 per cent chance of inheriting a pair of recessive genes (rr) and being unaffected.

Normal parent

Affected parent (has the disorder) D r

r

Dr Affected (25%)

rr Normal (25%)

r

Dr Affected (25%)

rr Normal (25%)

(50%)

(50%)

Huntington’s disease is a dominant gene disorder that results in a gradual deterioration of the central nervous system, causing uncontrollable movements and mental deterioration. The average onset of the disease is between thirty and fifty years of age, and it always proves fatal (Cummins, 2011). Researchers have recently identified specific sections of the human genome that are exclusively linked to Huntington’s disease. It is now possible to identify those who carry the gene for Huntington’s disease through genetic testing. There are a number of proposed theories of how the gene actually causes the disease, and further research is being conducted to determine this (along with possible treatments). It has taken an enormous amount of work for researchers to learn about critical problems in Huntington’s disease and how to cope with these problems (Cummins, 2011; Kingma, van Duijn, Timman, van der Mast, & Roos, 2008). In Australia, Huntington’s disease affects 6–7 people in every 100 000 (National Australian Huntington’s Disease Association, 2011).

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Recessive gene disorders Recessive gene disorders can occur when the foetus inherits a pair of recessive genes, one from each parent. Figure 3.10 illustrates the inheritance of a recessive gene disorder. Cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common genetic, life-threatening disorder in Australia and New Zealand. It is estimated that 1 in 25 people carry the gene for CF and about 1 in 2500 babies are born with CF (www.cysticfibrosis.org.au). Cystic fibrosis is a recessive condition associated with chromosome 7. Carriers of the condition are unaffected, and two carrier parents have a 25 per cent chance of having a child with CF each pregnancy. In CF, there is an abnormality of the mucous-secreting glands in many parts of the body, including the CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 109

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intestine, lungs and pancreas. This results in poor weight gain, repeated chest infections and abnormal stools due to the abnormally thick mucous clogging the affected organs. All newborn infants in Australia and New Zealand are screened for CF shortly after birth. People with CF undergo constant treatments and physiotherapy from birth. Lung failure is the major cause of death in CF. Improved treatments and technological advances such as lung transplants mean most people with CF live productive lives, though there is no known cure for the condition. The faulty gene has been identified, and research is being conducted to try and find ways of repairing or replacing the gene.

This baby with cystic fibrosis is being treated with respiratory physiotherapy.

FIGURE 3.10

Inheritance of a recessive gene disorder When both parents are carriers of a recessive gene disorder, each child faces the following possibilities: (1) a 25 per cent chance of inheriting the pair of recessive genes (rr) required to have the disorder; (2) a 25 per cent chance of inheriting a pair of dominant genes (DD) and being unaffected; or (3) a 50 per cent chance of inheriting one dominant and one recessive gene (Dr) and being a carrier like both parents.

Carrier father

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Carrier mother

110

D

r

D

DD (25%)

Dr (25%)

r

Dr (25%)

rr (25%)

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Multifactorial disorders

Multifactorial disorders result from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The incidence of these disorders varies widely in different parts of the world, largely because of the great differences in existing environmental conditions. For some conditions, a number of contributing factors have been identified. For example, in neural tube defects it is known that a deficiency in folate can contribute to an increased likelihood, as can chromosomal disorders such as trisomy 18 and exposure to some antiepileptic drugs (Lobo & Zhaurova, 2008). Table 3.3 described a number of these disorders. How do you think having a multifactorial disorder would affect someone’s life decisions, such as whether or not to have children?

3.4 Genetic counselling and prenatal diagnosis LEARNING OUTCOME 3.4 Consider the role of experts in helping parents discover and respond to potential genetic abnormalities.

Some genetic problems can be reduced or avoided with the help of genetic counselling. Genetic counselling is designed to assist couples in assessing their chances of giving birth to an infant with genetic disorders and to choose the most suitable course of action for them. Couples likely to benefit from counselling include those who may carry genetic disorders, know of relatives with genetic disorders, or belong to an ethnic group at risk for a particular disorder, such as African Americans, who are at risk for sickle-cell disease. More immediate signs of genetic risk include the birth of an infant with some genetic disorder or the spontaneous abortion of earlier pregnancies. Figure 3.11 presents guidelines for determining who should seek prenatal genetic counselling. FIGURE 3.11

Who should seek genetic counselling?

1. Couples who already have a child with some serious defect such as Down syndrome, spina bifida, congenital heart disease, limb malformation or intellectual impairment 2. Couples with a family history of a genetic disease or intellectual impairment 3. Couples who are blood relatives (first or second cousins) 4. African Americans, Ashkenazi Jews, Italians, Greeks and other high-risk ethnic groups 5. Women who have had a serious infection early in pregnancy (rubella or toxoplasmosis) or who have been infected with HIV 6. Women who have taken potentially harmful medications early in pregnancy or habitually use drugs or alcohol 7. Women who have had x-rays taken early in pregnancy 8. Women who have experienced two or more of the following: stillbirth, death of a newborn baby, miscarriage 9. Any woman 35 years or older

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Source: Adapted from Feinbloom and Forman (1987, p. 129), The Human Genetics Society of Australasia (HGSA, 2011), and Harper (2004).

Genetic counselling is called ‘a communication process’. Genetic counsellors use potential parents’ medical and genetic histories and tests to help couples estimate their chances of having a healthy baby and discuss alternatives from which a couple can choose. One obvious alternative is to avoid conception completely and, perhaps, to adopt a baby. A second is to take the risk in the hope of conceiving a healthy baby. Modern methods of prenatal diagnosis can now be used to detect genetic disorders after conception but before birth, allowing the parents the choice of terminating pregnancy during the first trimester if a serious problem is detected. In addition, medical intervention early in infancy may help repair damage caused by a genetic disorder, depending on its severity. Finally, pre-implantation diagnosis methods (a variety of methods to screen ova, or eggs, and early embryos before they are implanted into the uterus) CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 111

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have been developed as an alternative to prenatal screening, which can be used only after a pregnancy has been established. Most methods of pre-implantation diagnosis use in-vitro or ‘test tube’ fertilisation to identify the presence of recessive genes for hereditary and genetic conditions by selecting for fertilisation only those eggs that appear to be free of abnormalities. Proponents of this method believe it is a more suitable option for couples who are opposed to abortion or who may have difficulty deciding to terminate a pregnancy in which the foetus may be at risk. Some critics have questioned the accuracy of the method. Others are concerned that techniques designed solely to screen embryos based on carefully considered and ethically acceptable medical reasons will be used as a new form of eugenics to engineer ‘better babies’, based on beliefs or prejudices about which human qualities are desirable and which are not, thus limiting the gene pool on which human diversity depends (Crnic, 2009; Hubbard, 1993; Milunsky & Milunsky, 2009; Pappert, 1993; Uhlmann, Schuette, & Yashar, 2009). This is of particular concern to the disability community, who view these technologies as something designed to prevent the birth of people like them (Miller & Levine, 2013). Table 3.4 describes current diagnostic techniques to screen for genetic disorders. In addition, medical intervention early in infancy may help repair damage caused by a genetic disorder, depending on the severity. TABLE 3.4

Conditions that prenatal diagnosis can detect

Procedure

Timing

Conditions detected

Ultrasound

Throughout pregnancy

Pregnancy; multiple pregnancies; foetal growth and abnormalities such as limb defects; tubal (ectopic) pregnancy; atypical foetal position. Also used to guide amniocentesis, foetoscopy and chorionic villus sampling When used five or more times may increase the chances of low birth weight

Maternal serum:

9–13 weeks

Combined with nuchal translucency ultrasound measurement between 11 and 13 weeks. Chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome and trisomy 18.

Amniocentesis

14–18 weeks

Chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome; neurological disorders; gender of the baby

Chorionic villus sampling (CVS)

9–13 weeks

PAPP-A and Free 𝛽hCG

Small risk of miscarriage Tests for most of the same genetic disorders as amniocentesis, but is less sensitive to more subtle abnormalities Involves a slightly greater risk of miscarriage than amniocentesis. Also associated with a small risk of limb deformities which increases in risk the earlier the procedure is performed Foetoscopy

15–18 weeks

Used to confirm results from a prior prenatal test or to assess the severity of disability already identified

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Entails some risk of miscarriage Maternal serum: 15–18 weeks alpha-foetoprotein free 𝛽hCH, unconjugated estriol

Various problems, including neural tube defects and Down syndrome; positive first test is followed by additional testing, such as ultrasound and amniocentesis

Percutaneous umbilical blood sampling (PUBS)

Down syndrome, neural tube defects, Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell disease; gender of the foetus; foetal infections such as rubella, toxoplasmosis, or HIV

18–36 weeks

Source: Adapted from ACOG (2010); D’Alton and DeCherney (1993); Hahn and Chitty (2008); Moore and Persaud (2008); and Milunsky and Milunsky (2009); Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG, 2010).

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Nicole and Mark wish to use in-vitro fertilisation using Nicole’s ova and the sperm from an anonymous donor to overcome Mark’s infertility. Imagine you are a counsellor. What medical and ethical risks would you raise? As Nicole is 36 years of age and concerned about risks associated with her maternal age, what prenatal diagnosis might you recommend, and why?

Differences in cultural beliefs and expectations can affect who receives genetic counselling and the forms it takes. The accompanying Multicultural view feature discusses this issue. MULTICULTURAL VIEW

Cultural difference and genetic counselling

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In Australia, antenatal screening for foetal anomalies such as Down Syndrome is routinely offered to all pregnant women, not just those identified as high risk. However, there are large regional differences in the uptake of genetic health services. Remote Indigenous populations in the Northern Territory or Western Australia receive fewer screening tests. While some of this disparity may be accounted for by a lack of available services in remote regions, cultural differences may affect the communication between health care providers and Aboriginal families regarding screening (Wild et al., 2013). While the provision of genetic-screening services in Western societies is based on philosophies of autonomy, informed choice and empowerment, the application of these principles in Indigenous communities requires cultural sensitivity. Many Indigenous communities feel disempowered or distrustful of the medical system, with many continuing to feel the effect of the Stolen Generations, the result of a government policy lasting until the 1960s that encouraged Aboriginal Australian children to be forcibly removed from their families and raised by white families or in institutions. Medical use of Indigenous people’s genetic material also has a sensitive history: the Human Genome Project of 1994 was perceived to violate Indigenous communities’ ownership of their own genetic material. This project was also seen as breaking cultural taboos regarding the respect for human remains. Informed choice in genetic counselling with Indigenous families is also influenced by cultural differences regarding mathematics. Abstract Western concepts such as risk ratios or probabilities do not have direct equivalents in local cultural knowledge or language, which makes discussions on potential risks of foetal abnormalities difficult. Indigenous community workers can aid health care providers to deliver culturally appropriate services, such as engaging female elders to share information with younger women from the community. Culturally sensitive resources have been developed in consultation with Aboriginal women, including visual representations of the risk of foetal abnormalities.

3.5 Relative influence of heredity and environment LEARNING OUTCOME 3.5 Explain how heredity and environment jointly influence development.

Untangling the effects of heredity, or nature, from those of environment, or nurture, has become the special focus of behaviour genetics. Behaviour genetics is the scientific study of how genetic inheritance (genotype) and environmental experience jointly influence physical and behavioural development (phenotype). CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 113

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Key concepts of behaviour genetics Every characteristic of an organism is the result of the unique interaction between the organism’s genetic inheritance and the sequence of environments through which it has passed during its development. For some traits, variations in environment have minimal effect. Thus, once the genotype is known, the eventual form or phenotype of the organism is pretty well specified. For other traits, knowing the genetic makeup may be a poor predictor of the eventual phenotype. Only by specifying both the genotype and the environmental sequence can the character, or phenotype, of the organism be predicted.

Range of reaction Range of reaction refers to the range of possible phenotypes an individual with a particular genotype might exhibit in response to the specific sequence of environmental influences they experience (Gottlieb, Wahlsten, & Lickliter, 2006; Turkheimer & Gottesman, 1991). For example, if three infants start life with different genetic inheritances (genotypes) for intelligence — one low, one middle and one high — the different levels of intelligence they actually develop (phenotypes), as measured by intelligence quotient (IQ) tests, will depend on how well each child’s intellectual development is nurtured by their experiences from conception onward, including the conditions created by the child’s family, school and community. Thus, in an enriched environment, the child with low genetic endowment may achieve an IQ that is equal to (or even higher than) that of the child with a middle-range endowment who grows up in a restricted or below-average environment. Nevertheless, the first child cannot be expected to achieve an IQ score equal to that of children with high genetic endowment, because this is beyond the upper limit of that child’s range of reaction; that is, the highest level of intellectual functioning possible for that child. Figure 3.12 illustrates range of reaction for intelligence. Theorists such as Sternberg (1988) and Gardner (1997, 2006), however, believe intelligence consists of several different factors or dimensions, and thus range of reaction may differ according to which aspect of intelligence is being measured. We will look more closely at these theories when we examine cognitive development in middle childhood in a later chapter.

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Adoption and twin studies Adoption and twin studies have been employed by researchers over several decades as a means of investigating the heritability of cognitive and personality factors. Typically, standardised tests or inventories are administered to pairs of monozygotic twins (resulting from the splitting of a single fertilised egg and so these twins have identical genetic make-up) and dizygotic twins (the product of the independent fertilisation of two eggs by two sperm and so these twins share only half of their genes) to evaluate differences between them. Adoption leads to situations in which family members share the family environment but do not share a genetic background, or to situations in which genetically related individuals do not share a common family environment. Adoptive studies afford researchers the opportunity to investigate correlations in genetic and environmental relatedness between parents and their offspring, and between siblings. Adoption and twin studies are the only methods available to researchers to investigate the contributions of environmental and genetic factors to development. However, researchers acknowledge that there are problems associated with these methods. Hay (1985) emphasised that because adoption agencies tend to select adopting families based on similar educational and social background to the biological parents, a bias towards genetic background may confuse the interpretation of environmental contributions (see also van IJzendoorn, Juffer, & Poelhis, 2005; Verhulst, 2008). Whereas, DeFries, Plomin, and Fulker (1994) stress that adopted children are ‘wanted children’, they are often advantaged by positive environmental influences that can influence the interpretation of data. In recent years, researchers have begun to combine family, twin and adoption studies in an attempt to avoid misinterpretation and inconsistency (see also Arcus & Chambers, 2008; Bimmel, Juffer, van IJzendoorn, & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2003; Matteson, McGue, & Iacono, 2013; Stams, Juffer, & van IJzendoorn, 2002; Verissimo & Salvaterra, 2006). 114

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FIGURE 3.12

Range of reaction for intellectual performance Range of reaction refers to the range of possible phenotypes as a result of different environments interacting with a specific genotype. As this figure shows, while intellectual performance will be retarded or facilitated for all children depending on whether the environment is restricted, average or enriched, the range of potential intellectual performance in reaction to different environments will be limited by the child’s genetic inheritance for intelligence.

Child A

Child B

Child C

Reaction range

Intellectual performance (IQ)

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High

Average

Low

Restricted

Average

Enriched

Type of environment Source: Gottesman (1963), Turkheimer and Gottesman (1991), and Gottlieb et al. (2006).

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Adoption studies Adoption studies compare the degree of physical or behavioural similarity between adoptive children and members of their adoptive families (with whom the children are genetically dissimilar), with the degree of similarity the children share with members of their biological families (with whom the children share half of their genes). Studying differences in trait similarity between adoptive and biological relatives can help show how genetic differences influence adoptive children. For example, if the IQ scores of adopted children correlate more highly with the IQ scores of their biological families, it might be concluded that heredity — nature — has a strong contribution to intelligence. However, if the IQ scores of adoptive children are significantly higher (or lower) than those of their biological parents, strong influence of family circumstances and other environmental factors — nurture — might be indicated.

Twin studies Twin studies compare pairs of identical twins raised in the same family with pairs of fraternal twins (50 per cent shared genes) raised in the same family. Since identical twins have the exact same genetic make-up, greater similarity between identical twins than between fraternal twins on a trait such as intelligence probably would reflect the influence of heredity.

Twin adoption studies Twin adoption studies compare pairs of identical twins who are raised apart since birth in different environments. Twin adoption studies provide the most effective method for understanding the gene–environment relationship in humans. If we could study identical twins who inherit exactly the same genes but are raised in truly different family environments, we would be able to separate the relative contributions of heredity and environment. The problem is that it is difficult to find twins who are growing up in adoptive families. An additional problem is that adoptive families are most frequently chosen with the goal of offering twins similar socioeconomic, cultural and religious conditions and experiences, raising the question of how different their adoptive family environments really are.

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Linkage and association studies Linkage and association studies allow researchers to identify polymorphisms, certain segments of human DNA that are inherited together in a predictable pattern, as genetic markers for the genes near which they are located. Linkage studies seek to discover polymorphisms that are coinherited, or ‘linked’, with a particular trait in families unusually prone to that trait. This was the case in the discovery of a genetic marker for Huntington’s disease, and for fragile X syndrome, which were described earlier in this chapter. Association studies compare the relative frequency of polymorphisms in two populations, one with the trait and one without it (Carlstedt, 2009; Hagerman, 1996; Horgan, 1993). Genome-wide association studies measure DNA sequence variations across the genome to identify genetic risk factors for many diseases (Bush & Moore, 2012). From the moment of conception, a child becomes a biological entity. How do microscopic cells become people? In the following sections, we look at the events and processes that occur from conception through birth and how they may affect later development. We also look at certain risks and problems of prenatal development and of birth and their long-term impact on the child.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What is the relationship between genes and the environment? Explain the variety of ways that heredity and environment interact to influence complex genetic traits. Will we be able to explain the course of human development through an understanding of genetics alone?

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3.6 Stages of prenatal development LEARNING OUTCOME 3.6 Discuss the important developmental changes that occur during prenatal development.

Prenatal development begins with conception and continues through discrete periods, or stages. The first is the germinal stage, or period of the ovum, which occurs during the first two weeks of pregnancy; the second is the embryonic stage, which lasts from the third week to the eighth week; and the third is the foetal stage, which lasts from the eighth week until birth.

Conception Conception, which refers to the fertilisation of egg by sperm that results in a pregnancy, normally occurs when one of the approximately 300 million sperm contained in the semen that the father has ejaculated into the mother’s vagina during intercourse swims through the cervix (opening of the uterus) into the uterine tube and successfully binds to the surface of an oocyte, or egg, released from one of the mother’s ovaries and penetrates the oocyte (Baddock, 2010a). (See figure 3.14.) Some couples have difficulty conceiving through intercourse. In such cases, various technological alternatives exist to join sperm and an egg. Within a few hours of penetration of the oocyte, the walls of the sperm cell and the nucleus, or centre, of the egg cell both begin to disintegrate. In this process, as figure 3.13 shows, the sperm and the egg cells each release their chromosomes, which join to form a new cell called a zygote (Baddock, 2010a; Moore & Persaud, 2008; Wilcox et al., 1995).

FIGURE 3.13

Gametes and zygote Each gamete, whether sperm or ovum, contains 23 single chromosomes. (Two chromosomes are shown in each gamete here.) At fertilisation, sperm and ovum combine to form a zygote with 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs — 22 autosomes and 1 sex chromosome from each gamete (Baddock, 2010a). (Two pairs are shown here.) In each pair, one chromosome is from the mother and one is from the father.

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Sperm

Ovum Gametes

Fertilisation

Zygote

At this point, the zygote is still so small that hundreds of them could fit on the head of a pin. Yet it contains all of the necessary genetic information in its DNA molecules to develop into a unique human being.

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The germinal stage (first two weeks) The newly formed zygote now begins to divide and redivide to form a tiny sphere called a blastocyst, which looks something like a miniature mulberry. The blastocyst differentiates into three layers. The ectoderm (upper layer) later develops into the epidermis, or outer layer of skin, nails, teeth and hair, as well as the sensory organs and nervous system. The endoderm (lower layer) becomes the digestive system, liver, pancreas, salivary glands and respiratory system. The mesoderm (middle layer) develops somewhat later and becomes the dermis (inner layer of skin), muscles, skeleton, and circulatory and excretory systems. In a short time the placenta, umbilical cord, and amniotic sac (discussed shortly) also form from blastocyst cells. After a few more days — about one week after conception — implantation occurs. During implantation, the blastocyst buries itself like a seed in the wall of the uterus. The fully implanted blastocyst is now referred to as the embryo. Figure 3.14 illustrates the changes that occur during the germinal stage of prenatal development.

FIGURE 3.14

The germinal stage of prenatal development The sperm and ovum join to form a single-celled zygote, which then divides and redivides and becomes a multicelled blastocyst. The blastocyst buries, or implants, itself in the uterine wall. The fully implanted blastocyst is now called an embryo.

Implantation of the embryo

Fallopian tube

Ovum

Fallopian tube Ovary Ovary Zygote

Uterus

Embryo joined to uterine wall

Cervix

Vagina

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The embryonic stage (third through eighth weeks) Growth during the embryonic stage (and the foetal stage that follows) occurs in two patterns: a cephalocaudal (head-to-tail) pattern and a proximodistal (near-to-far, from the centre of the body outward) pattern. Thus, the head, blood vessels and heart — the most vital body parts and organs — begin to develop earlier than the arms, legs, hands and feet. These changes are shown in the upper portion of figure 3.15. At three weeks, the head, tail, brain and circulatory system begin to develop and the heart has begun beating. At four weeks, the embryo is little more than 2 centimetres long. The beginnings of a spinal cord, arms, and legs are evident, a small digestive system and a nervous system have developed, and the brain has become more differentiated (Harris, 1983; Nelson, Thomas, & de Haan, 2006). During week five, 118

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hands and lungs begin to form. During week six, the head grows larger, the brain becomes more fully developed, and hands, legs and feet become more fully formed. During week seven, muscles form and the cerebral cortex begins to develop. While these developments are taking place, a placenta forms between the mother and the embryo. The placenta is an area on the uterine wall through which the mother supplies oxygen and nutrients to the embryo and the embryo returns waste products from their bloodstream. In the placenta, thousands of tiny blood vessels from the two circulatory systems intermingle. Although many toxic chemicals and drugs in the mother’s system do not spread easily, others do. As we discuss later, seemingly harmless chemicals sometimes prove devastating to the child. The umbilical cord connects the embryo to the placenta. It consists of three large blood vessels, one to provide nutrients and two to carry waste products into the mother’s body. The cord enters the embryo at a place that becomes the baby’s belly button, or navel, after the cord is cut following birth. By the end of the eighth week, an amniotic sac has developed. The amniotic sac is a tough, spongy bag filled with salty fluid that completely surrounds the embryo and serves to protect it from sudden jolts and maintain a fairly stable temperature. The embryo floats gently in this environment until birth, protected even if its mother goes jogging, sits down suddenly or shovels heavy soil. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Significant development of major organs, systems and structures occur in this stage of development. What might be the result of adverse genetic or environmental influences at this stage of development?

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The foetal stage (ninth week to birth) At about eight weeks of gestation, the embryo develops its first bone cells, which marks the end of differentiation into the major structures. At this point, the embryo acquires a new name, the foetus, and begins the long process of developing relatively small features, such as fingers, fingernails, eyelids and eyebrows. Their smallness, however, belies their importance. For example, the eyes undergo their greatest growth during this stage of development. The foetus’s newly developing eyelids fuse shut at about 10 weeks and do not reopen until the eyes themselves are essentially complete, at around 16 to 20 weeks. The period of the foetus, from the ninth week to the end of pregnancy, is the longest period of prenatal development. During what is called the ‘growth and finishing phase’, the developing foetus increases rapidly in size, particularly during the ninth and twentieth weeks. In addition to the eyes, most other physical features become more human in proportion. The head becomes smaller relative to the rest of the body (even though it remains large by adult standards), partly because the foetus’s long bones, the ones supporting its limbs, begin growing significantly. Thus, its arms and legs look increasingly substantial. By 12 weeks, the foetus is about 7.5 centimetres long and able to respond reflexively to touch. By 16 weeks, it has grown to about 11.5 centimetres in length. If its palm is touched, it exhibits a grasp reflex by closing its fist; if the sole of its foot is touched, its toes spread (Babinski reflex); and if its lips are touched, it responds with a sucking reflex. In addition, the foetal heartbeat can now be heard through the wall of the uterus. Sometimes, prenatal development is divided into trimesters, meaning three equal time periods. At the completion of the third month, the first trimester is complete. Between the fourth and fifth months (16 to 20 weeks), the second trimester, hands and feet become fully developed, eyes can open and close, hearing is present, lungs become capable of breathing in and out, and nails, hair and sweat glands develop. Around sixteen to eighteen weeks, most pregnant women feel quickening, the movement of the foetus inside the womb. Foetal movements appear to increase from the eighteenth week on, until about 32 weeks, after which they plateau until birth (Malm, Lindgren, Rubertsson, Hildingsson, & Radestad, CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 119

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2014). A white, cheese-like substance called vernix protects the skin of the foetus from chapping; and white, downy hair, called languo develops over the entire body to assist the vernix in sticking to the skin. By the end of the second trimester, many organs are well developed, including the brain’s billions of neurons. However, cells which support and feed these neurons, called glial cells, continue to develop at a rapid rate throughout the remaining months of foetal development, as well as after birth. By the beginning of the seventh month, the third trimester, the foetus is about 30 to 35 centimetres long and weighs approximately 2 to 3 kilograms. The foetus is able to cry, breathe, swallow, digest, excrete, move about and suck its thumb. The reflexes mentioned earlier are fully developed. The foetus is said to have attained viability by the age of 32 to 34 weeks, meaning it could survive if born at this point. Access to a neonatal intensive care unit means that a foetus may be able to survive from as early as 22 weeks through to under 24 weeks; this is often associated with some neurological impairment (Baddock, 2010a). By the eighth month, the foetus weighs between 3 and 4 kilograms and has begun to develop a layer of body fat that will help it to regulate its body temperature after birth, and by nine months it has achieved its full birth weight. Towards the end of nine months, the average baby is about 3.4 kilograms and almost 50 centimetres long. Growth in size stops, although fat continues to be stored, heart rate increases, and internal organ systems become more efficient in preparation for birth and independent life outside the womb.

During the middle trimester of pregnancy, the foetus grows rapidly. By 16 weeks, the foetus looks quite human, but it still cannot survive outside the womb. Note that the umbilical cord in the picture is normal.

The developing foetus is also responsive to stimuli in the external environment, such as sound and vibration (DiPetro et al., 2002; Dirix, Nijhuis, Jongsma, & Hornstra 2009; Kisilevsky & Low, 1998; 120

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Kisilevsky, Muir, & Low, 1992; Saffran, Werker, & Werner, 2006). The mother’s speech and voice sounds become familiar, and the foetus can differentiate her voice from other voices (Krueger & Garvan, 2014).

The experience of pregnancy Caitlin is nearing the end of her pregnancy — just eight weeks to go! She has been careful to eat a good, balanced diet and has gained about 11 kilograms, which her doctor says is fine for her size and weight. Lately, her belly feels like a basketball, and she sometimes worries whether Dan, her husband, still finds her attractive and whether she will ever get her pre-pregnancy figure back. During the first two months of her pregnancy, Caitlin felt nauseous a lot of the time and found it hard to keep food down. She found that eating small amounts of food throughout the day (especially plain biscuits) helped, as did resting more frequently — which was hard to do, since she was still working full-time. Until recently, aside from getting tired more easily, Caitlin has felt pretty good. During the last few weeks, however, she has had some swelling in her legs and some back pain, and has had to go to the toilet more frequently because of the pressure of the baby on her bladder. Although she and Dan cannot wait for the baby to arrive, they are somewhat apprehensive about whether they are grown up enough to be parents and to take on the responsibilities of parenthood. Caitlin’s complaints are fairly typical of those associated with the hormonal and physiological changes of pregnancy. More than 50 per cent of pregnant women experience some degree of nausea during the first trimester, but this usually disappears by the twelfth week. Strategies for relieving nausea include eating small amounts of food frequently, increasing protein intake, eating dry biscuits or plain yoghurt, and resting more often during the day. Frequent urination is another symptom of early pregnancy and is due to hormonally induced softening of the pelvic muscles, which allows the enlarged uterus to press on the bladder. Other symptoms include fatigue, headaches, dizziness and fainting, constipation, leg cramps, heartburn, shortness of breath, swelling of legs, hands or face, varicose veins and backache (Baddock, 2010a; Davis, 1993; Massey, Rising, & Ickovics, 2006). In addition to the influence of hormonal changes, some of these symptoms are due to weight gain during pregnancy. Both a woman’s weight before pregnancy and her weight gain during pregnancy influence the baby’s birth weight. Current recommendations are that women of normal weight before pregnancy gain about 13 kilograms, women who are overweight about 9 kilograms, and women who are underweight about 15.5 kilograms, with the exact amount reflecting the woman’s height and pre-pregnancy weight. Where does the weight gain go? The increased size of the uterus, including the placenta, breast tissue, blood volume, body and amniotic fluid, and extra fat to prepare the woman to produce milk for breastfeeding all contribute to the additional weight (Leese, Jomeen, & Denton, 2012). Pregnancy is a powerful experience that can dramatically affect how both the mother and the father feel about themselves and each other. For most prospective parents, it raises the question, ‘Am I ready to be emotionally and economically responsible for this baby?’ Couples who are experiencing pregnancy together may wonder, ‘How will having a baby affect our relationship with each other?’

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Decisions and issues Prenatal development tends to follow a predictable path after conception. However, the road to conception itself can take some unexpected turns. People who want to conceive may find it difficult to do so. Others may want to carefully time conception or to avoid conception altogether. Still others may seek to end a pregnancy.

Infertility Emma and Luke had always wanted children, but decided to put off conceiving until they were both in their early thirties and had established successful careers. After almost two years of unsuccessful attempts at conception, they finally decided to go to a fertility clinic to get help in finding out what might be causing the problem and what could be done about it. CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 121

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Luke and Emma’s situation is not uncommon. Approximately 9 per cent of Australasian couples experience infertility — meaning they are unable to conceive or to carry a pregnancy to term after one year of unprotected intercourse (Macaldowie, Wang, Chambers, & Sullivan, 2013; Zegers-Hochschild et al., 2009). In about 80 to 90 per cent of couples receiving medical treatment, it is possible to discover a clear medical reason for their infertility (Brosens et al., 2004; Greil, 1993; Isaksson & Tiitinen, 2004). A growing number of new reproductive technologies are now available as alternatives to normal conception for couples who are infertile. The success rate of these technologies is dependent on a number of factors, such as maternal age, cause of infertility and method used. The overall cumulative rate of live births from these technologies in Australia and New Zealand in 2011 was 40 per cent (in women who had undertaken up to four cycles of treatment) (Macaldowie et al., 2013). (See table 3.5.) TABLE 3.5

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques

Technology

Description

Donor insemination

Used in cases where infertility is caused by problems in sperm quality or production. Sperm is donated from a man who is not the woman’s partner. In Australia in 2011, the pregnancy rate for this method was 14.3 per cent, with 11.5 per cent resulting in a live birth.

Controlled ovarian hyper-stimulation

Hormonal treatment that induces the development of multiple ova, or eggs, in each cycle to enable more to be retrieved for ART treatments

In vitro fertilisation (IVF)

Procedure where the ova and sperm are fertilised outside the body in laboratory conditions

Gamete intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT)

A form of ART where the mature eggs and sperm are placed directly into the uterine tubes for fertilisation to occur

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)

A single sperm is injected directly into an ovum to aid fertilisation.

Surrogacy

An arrangement where a woman agrees to carry a child for another person or couple. The ovum and sperm used to create the embryo may be from the intended parents or donated.

Source: Macaldowie et al. (2013).

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Contraception Family planning provides information and contraceptive methods to enable people to voluntarily regulate both the number and spacing of their children, which is regarded as the best way to reduce unwanted or unplanned pregnancies and to improve maternal and child health. Contraception refers to voluntary methods of preventing unintended pregnancy. Reversible methods of contraception include hormonal methods (oral contraceptives, long-acting injection or implant, emergency contraception [used after intercourse but before implantation]), barrier methods (diaphragm, cervical cap or condom), chemical methods (spermicide, foam or sponge), intrauterine devices (IUDs), periodic abstinence (natural family planning or rhythm method) and withdrawal (coitus interruptus, the removal of the penis from the vagina before ejaculation). More permanent and largely irreversible methods of contraception, which are also known as sterilisation, are tubal ligation for women and vasectomy for men (Calabretto, 2010; Trussell, 2004; Waldman, 1993; World Health Organization [WHO], 2004, 2008).

Abortion Social attitudes about abortion — termination of pregnancy before the embryo or foetus is capable of independent life — have varied significantly over time and from place to place. Ideas about the appropriateness of intervention by government, religious or medical authorities change. Fertility rates change too, and along with them so do attitudes towards women, foetuses and motherhood (Simonds, 1993; Simonds, 122

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Katz Rothman, & Meltzer Norman, 2007). Historically, abortion has been a universally relied-on method to terminate pregnancy. Today, an estimated 86 per cent of the approximately 44 million abortions that take place worldwide each year occur in poorer, developing countries. Approximately 56 per cent of these abortions are performed under unsafe and often illegal conditions. Every year, some 80 000 deaths result, 95 per cent of them among women living in less developed nations. Many more women die of miscarriages due to health problems or poor prenatal care. Only two members of the United Nations prohibit abortion to save the life of the mother; the remaining member countries permit abortion under certain conditions (Sedgh et al., 2012; WHO, 2011). (See tables 3.6 and 3.7.) TABLE 3.6

Death rates from safe and unsafe abortions in rich and poor nations Rich (developed) nations Number of abortions

Legal and safe abortions

5.7 million

Unsafe∗ abortions

360 000

Totals

6.1 million

Number of deaths

Poor (developing) nations Number of abortions

Number of deaths

16.6 million 90 (30/100 000)

21.2 million

46 800 (220/100 000)

37.8 million

∗ An abortion is unsafe if performed by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking the minimal medical standards. In poor, developing nations, 56 per cent of abortions are unsafe, compared to 6 per cent in rich, developed nations, resulting in 3.85 deaths per thousand versus .035 deaths per thousand in richer nations.

Source: Sedgh et al. (2012); WHO (2011).

TABLE 3.7

Conditions under which abortion is permitted or prohibited in United Nations member nations Percentage permitting abortion (%)

Circumstances

Percentage not permitting abortion (%)

To save the woman’s life

98

2

To preserve the woman’s physical health

67

33

To preserve the woman’s mental health

65

35

When the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest

49

51

When there is a possibility of foetal impairment

46

54

For economic or social reasons

34

66

Upon request

28

72

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Source: WHO (2011).

Common law rulings from the 1960s and 1970s permit abortion in Australia on medical, social and economic grounds, although legality generally differs from state to state. In Australia, it is a crime to ‘unlawfully’ administer any poison or noxious substance or to use any instrument or other means with intent to procure miscarriage. This crime may be committed by the pregnant woman herself or by the person performing the abortion. Each state and territory in Australia has separate laws governing the process of abortion, and in all states and territories except the Australian Capital Territory it is the subject of criminal law. Table 3.8 summarises the law in each state. Abortion is legal in New Zealand if two certifying consultants concur that continuation of the pregnancy will seriously harm the woman’s physical and mental health (Abortion Services in New Zealand, 2008). CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 123

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TABLE 3.8

Abortion law in Australian states and territories

State

Legal requirements

Queensland

A crime for women and doctors. It is legal when a doctor believes a woman’s physical and/or mental health is in serious danger.

New South Wales

A crime for women and doctors. It is legal when a doctor believes a woman’s physical and/or mental health is in serious danger. Economic and medical factors may also be taken into account.

Australian Capital Territory

Legal but must be provided by a medical doctor.

Victoria

Legal up to 24 weeks gestation. Legal after 24 weeks gestation if approved by two doctors.

South Australia

Legal if two doctors agree that a woman’s mental and/or physical health are in danger from the pregnancy or for serious foetal abnormality.

Tasmania

Lawful on request up to 16 weeks and legal beyond that if two doctors agree.

Western Australia

Legal up to 20 weeks gestation. Very restricted after 20 weeks.

Northern Territory

Legal up to 14 weeks, but must be provided with one doctor’s approval, and legal at 14–23 weeks when provided with two doctors’ approval. Not legal after 23 weeks unless performed to save a pregnant person’s life.

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Source: Children by Choice www.childrenbychoice.org.au/factsandfigures.

Over the past two decades, general support for the continued availability of abortion has remained at around 70 per cent, but this also varies with circumstances. People tend to see abortion as appropriate when the pregnancy endangers the woman’s life, when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, and when the foetus is seriously impaired. Support declines when the decision is based on more individual considerations, such as the woman’s financial inability to have any more children, unwillingness to marry the father, and conflicting work and educational plans. Support for abortion is correlated with more years of education, with a more liberal or moderate versus conservative political orientation, with knowing someone or being someone who has had an abortion, with being younger, and with being unmarried. Opposition is strongly tied to religious beliefs (Simonds, 1993; Simonds et al., 2007). Non-surgical (medical) abortion offers an alternative to surgery for women in the early weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone (known as RU486 or the ‘abortion pill’) is used up to approximately nine weeks, and is a low risk, non-invasive way to terminate a pregnancy. Access to this drug was illegal in Australia prior to 2006, and strictly controlled between 2006 and 2010. A young couple in Queensland was charged under the criminal code in 2009 with procuring an abortion after they requested relatives overseas send the drug. They were acquitted in 2010, but the resultant court case created much concern on the legal basis of abortion in Queensland (De Costa, 2012). In 2010, Marie Stopes International sexual health clinic (now Dr Marie) spokeswoman Jill Michelson stated that they had received advice that the drug would be legal for use in all states in Australia. In 2013, media reported that the drug was made available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, reducing the cost substantially and allowing greater access to medical termination of pregnancy for Australian women. Most clinics and medical offices that perform abortions provide education in small groups for their clients and offer individual counselling when requested, or when clinic staff identify a problem. Support in the procedure room may be provided by a counsellor, a specially trained aide, or a nurse. When possible, the pregnant woman is encouraged to make decisions with her partner, a supportive family member, or a friend, although the final decision is hers. The goals of pre-abortion counselling are to: 1. provide information to help the woman consider her options and enable her to make a decision free from pressure 2. explain any legal requirements in obtaining an abortion 124

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3. explain what the procedure entails, how long it will take, any risks and complications associated with the method, and any follow-up care required 4. provide contraceptive counselling to ensure the most appropriate and acceptable method is provided to the woman (WHO, 2011). WHAT DO YOU THINK?

How has what you have read so far in this chapter influenced your views about pregnancy?

3.7 Prenatal influences on the child LEARNING OUTCOME 3.7 Recognise the risks a mother and baby may face during pregnancy and the birth process, and how can they be minimised.

As we have noted, physical structures develop in a particular sequence and at fairly precise times. Psychologists and biologists sometimes call such regularity canalisation. Canalisation refers to the tendency of genes to narrowly direct or restrict growth and development of particular physical and behavioural characteristics to a single (or very few) phenotypic outcomes and to resist environmental factors that push development in other directions (McCall, 1981). Canalisation can be seen in infant perceptual and motor development, as all normal human babies eventually roll over, reach for objects, sit up, crawl and walk. Only extreme conditions will modify these behaviours or, in some cases, cause them not to appear. However, certain conditions can interfere with even the highly canalised processes of foetal development. These conditions are sometimes called risk factors. Risk factors increase the chance that the future baby will have medical problems but do not guarantee that these problems will actually appear. Risk factors include the mother’s biological characteristics, including age and physical condition, and exposure to diseases, drugs, chemicals, stress and other environmental hazards during pregnancy.

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Harmful substances, diseases and environmental hazards As the complex sequence of prenatal growth proceeds, the timing of the development of each new organ or body part is especially important. Critical period refers to a time-limited period during which certain developmental changes are highly vulnerable to disruption. This ‘window of opportunity’ is dictated by complex genetic codes in each cell and by the particular set of prenatal conditions that must be in place for each change to occur. If development is disturbed or blocked during a critical period, the changes that were scheduled to occur may be disrupted or prevented from occurring at all. Especially during the early weeks of its life, development of the embryo is particularly vulnerable to disruption if it is exposed (through the mother) to certain harmful substances called teratogens. A teratogen is any substance or other environmental influence that can interfere with or permanently damage an embryo’s growth. Named after an ancient Greek word, teras, meaning ‘monster-creating’, teratogens can result in serious physical malformations and even the death of the embryo. Teratogens are most harmful if exposure occurs during the critical period or sensitive period in which the particular physical change is developing. Teratogens include many medicinal and non-medicinal drugs; other chemicals; diseases (viruses and bacteria); and certain other harmful environmental influences, such as radiation. Teratogens can be contracted from a variety of sources, including from other individuals who have communicable diseases, from drugs, from ingesting foods that have been contaminated, and from exposure to chemicals, x-rays, and radioactivity in the workplace and in other environments. Figure 3.15 shows the critical periods in human development. Several factors influence a teratogen’s effects. The first is the timing of exposure. The nine months of pregnancy are generally divided into three trimesters, each lasting three months. Disruptions during the first trimester, when the critical periods for embryonic and foetal development occur, are most likely to CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 125

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result in spontaneous abortion or serious birth defects. During the third week, for example, teratogens can harm the basic structures of the heart and central nervous system that are just beginning to form. The effects of exposure in the second and third trimesters generally are less likely to be as severe. FIGURE 3.15

Timing and effects of teratogens during sensitive or critical periods This figure illustrates the sensitive or critical periods in human development. The blue band indicates highly sensitive or critical periods; the green band indicates stages that are less sensitive to disruption caused by teratogens. Note that each structure has a critical period during which its development may be disrupted. Note also that development proceeds from head to tail (cephalocaudal) and from the centre of the body outward (proximodistal).

1 2 3 Central Period of nervous dividing zygote, implantation and system bilaminar embryo

Heart

Embryonic period (in weeks) 4 5 6 Eye

Ear

Heart Eye

Arm Leg

7

8

Foetal period (in weeks) Full term 12 16 20–36 38 Brain

Palate Ear

External genitalia

Teeth

Central nervous system Heart Arms Eyes Legs Teeth Palate External genitalia Ear Period when major abnormality occurs

Period when minor defect or abnormality occurs

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Source: Reprinted from Before We Are Born: Basic Embryology and Birth Defects, 2nd ed., by K. L. Moore, p. 111, with permission of W. B. Saunders Company, © 1983.

The impact of a teratogen is also influenced by the intensity and duration of exposure. For example, the higher the dose (intensity) and the longer the exposure to a harmful drug, such as alcohol or cocaine, the greater the chance that the baby will be harmed and that the harm will be more severe than if the dose and the duration are less. The number of other harmful influences that are also present also makes a difference. The greater the number of harmful influences, the greater is the risk. Finally, the biogenetic vulnerability of mother and infant will influence a teratogen’s effects. Mothers and their infants will differ in the degree to which they will be affected by exposure to a particular type and level of teratogen. For example, whereas heavy and prolonged drinking is likely to affect almost all babies, very moderate drinking may cause considerable harm for one infant but no measurable harm for another.

Medicinal drugs Medical science has developed countless drugs with highly beneficial effects, from curing illness to relieving pain. Yet a medication with positive effects overall may negatively affect foetal development if taken

126

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during pregnancy. A drug called thalidomide is a dramatic example of how such damage can occur. It also illustrates the political, economic and social policy implications of new medical and scientific discoveries that affect human growth and development. Thalidomide was a seemingly harmless sedative that during the late 1950s and early 1960s was widely prescribed for calming nerves, promoting sleep, and reducing morning sickness and other forms of nausea during the early weeks of pregnancy. Although it was advertised as being completely safe, between 1958 and 1962 thousands of babies were born with birth defects that included missing, shortened, or misshapen arms and legs; deafness; severe facial deformities; seizure disorders; dwarfism; and brain damage (Moore & Persaud, 2008). The drug was taken off the market in 1961 (Chen, Doherty, & Hsu, 2010). In 1965, it was discovered to be an effective treatment for certain forms of leprosy and was later approved for use in treating leprosy and then multiple myeloma (Chen et al., 2010). In Brazil, one of the world’s largest producers of thalidomide, the drug is used to help treat the symptoms of leprosy, which afflicts almost 300 000 people in the country. This has led to a growing number of birth defects in babies born to mothers with leprosy, who have taken the drug because they are not aware of its effects (Paumgartten & Chahoud, 2006). Teratogenic drugs pose an even greater developmental risk in developing countries in South America, Africa and Asia, where drugs are less strictly regulated. Unfortunately, the damage done by toxic drugs or chemicals does not always show itself as obviously or as soon as in the case of thalidomide. For about 25 years following World War II, another drug, diethylstilbestrol (DES), was taken by between 3 and 6 million pregnant women with histories of spontaneous abortions to prevent miscarriages. The drug was especially useful during the early months, when miscarriages occur most often. At birth, the babies of women who took DES seemed perfectly normal and they remained so throughout childhood. As they became young adults, however, abnormal development of vaginal cells and structural abnormalities of the uterus were found in all female babies who had been exposed, and about one in one thousand eventually developed cancer of the vagina or of the cervix. The sons of DES mothers developed abnormalities in the structure of their reproductive organs and had a higher than usual rate of testicular cancer. Even the daughters who did not get cancer had significantly more problems than usual with their own pregnancies, including higher rates of spontaneous abortion and stillbirth as well as more minor problems, and they had them whether or not their families had histories of difficult births. As most of the individuals exposed to DES before birth are now reaching midlife, there is growing evidence of increased risk for autoimmune disorders — such as pernicious anaemia, myasthenia gravis (a nerve-muscle disorder), serious intestinal disorders and multiple sclerosis — as a result of DES damage to the immune system (Brody, 1993; Hammes & Laitman, 2003; Hoover et al., 2011; Linn et al., 1988; Palmer et al., 2001; Sato, 1993).

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Nonmedicinal drugs Not surprisingly, drugs such as heroin, cocaine, alcohol and tobacco also affect the foetus. Babies born to users of heroin, cocaine and methadone (a less addictive drug used to wean people away from heroin) are at risk of a variety of problems. These include prematurity, physical defects, breathing difficulties, low birth weight and possible death (Behnke, Eyler, Garvan, & Wobie, 2001; Moran, Madgula, Gilvarry, & Findlay, 2009). In addition, these babies are born drug addicted, where at birth they are feverish, irritable, have trouble sleeping and are difficult to calm down. During their first year they are often less attentive to their environment and display slow motor development. Some babies experience lasting difficulties as a result of prenatal ingestion of cocaine and heroin. Cocaine alters the production and functioning of neurons and the chemical balance in the foetus’s brain which can contribute to physical defects including eye, bone, kidney and heart deformities, seizures and severe growth retardation (Covington, Nordstrom-Klee, Ager, Sokol, & Delaney-Black, 2002). Studies such as Lester et al. (2003) report language, perceptual, motor, attention and memory problems in infancy that persist into the preschool years. Many babies born to mothers who consume alcohol during pregnancy display foetal alcohol effects, and the most severely affected babies exhibit a cluster of defects known as foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), at the extreme end of a range of conditions now termed foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) (Riley, Infante, & Warren, 2011). Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder refers to a set of symptoms that include lower CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 127

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birth weight, lack of responsiveness and arousability, and increased occurrences of heart and respiratory abnormalities in infants. The effects on the developing brain in these infants impacts on cognitive and behavioural functioning, and higher rates of learning disabilities are displayed. Longitudinal studies show that problems with vigilance, attention, short-term memory, law-breaking behaviour, alcohol and drug abuse, and mental health may be found in adolescents who experienced exposure to alcohol prenatally (Fryer, Crocker, & Mattson, 2008; Streissguth et al., 1995, 2004). Symptoms of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) include central nervous system damage and physical abnormalities of the heart, head, face and joints; intellectual impairment and/or behavioural problems, such as hyperactivity and poor impulse control; and impaired growth and/or failure to thrive. Babies of heavy drinkers, particularly in the last three months of pregnancy, are at much greater risk for these problems as alcohol interferes with production and migration of neurons in the neural tube. Research from brain imaging reveals reduced brain size, damage to brain structures and abnormalities in brain functioning (Spadoni, McGee, Fryer, & Riley, 2007). Even relatively moderate daily drinking during pregnancy — two nips of hard liquor, one glass of wine or two beers — is associated with an increase in these disorders. The chance of foetal alcohol effects in the infant of a mother who consumes more than four drinks daily is estimated to be about 33 per cent and about 10 per cent for a woman who consumes between two and four drinks per day. How much alcohol is safe during pregnancy is a common question. Mild drinking — less than one drink per day — can be associated with FASD-type facial features, reduced head size and body growth. Medical professionals and government bodies are now stating that no amount of alcohol is safe and that pregnant women should avoid it completely (Day et al., 2002; Jacobson, Jacobson, Sokol, Chiodo, & Corobana, 2004; Department of Health and Ageing, 2011).

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Maternal disease Exposure of a pregnant woman to certain viral, bacteriological and parasitic diseases can adversely affect their baby’s development. In addition, some diseases can be directly transmitted from mother to foetus, often with devastating consequences; these include syphilis and gonorrhoea. In pregnant women with an active syphilis infection that is untreated or inadequately treated, there is significant risk to the foetus. In 25 per cent of cases, the woman will suffer a second trimester miscarriage or stillbirth due to death of the foetus. A further 11 per cent of babies will die soon after birth at full term, 13 per cent will be born premature with low birth weight, and 20 per cent will be born with congenital syphilis. They will have symptoms such as anaemia, jaundice, rash, and enlarged liver and spleen (Blencowe, Cousens, Kamb, Berman, & Lawn, 2011). Infectious diseases such as measles, mumps, German measles (rubella) and chickenpox can lead to prenatal damage, especially during the sensitive embryonic period. Infants of mothers who became ill during that time show heart, genital, urinary and bone defects; mental retardation; deafness; and eye deformities. During the foetal period, infection is less harmful, but hearing loss, bone defects and low birth weight can still occur (Brown, 2006; Duszak, 2009). Bacterial and parasitic diseases — including toxoplasmosis, a common infection caused by a parasite found in many animals — can cause brain and eye damage if it strikes during the first trimester. During the second and third trimesters, infection is linked to mild visual and cognitive impairments (Jones et al., 2003). Also, HIV, which leads to paediatric HIV/AIDS, can also be directly transmitted from mother to foetus. Table 3.9 summarises the teratogenic effects of exposure to selected diseases and drugs during pregnancy.

Paediatric HIV/AIDS Without antiretroviral therapy (ART), one-third of infants who are born with or contract HIV shortly after birth will die before their first birthday, and half before their second birthday (United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund [UNICEF], 2013). Because HIV/AIDS has an incubation period of up to five years 128

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in adults, pregnant women may be unaware they have the virus or that it can be transmitted to their offspring. Most children infected perinatally show symptoms before age one, as AIDS progresses rapidly in infants. Usually by six months, infants show weight loss, diarrhoea and repeated respiratory illnesses. The virus can also cause brain damage, which can cause delayed mental and motor development (Devi, Shenbagvalli, Ramesh, & Rathinam, 2009). TABLE 3.9

Teratogens and their effects

Teratogen

Effects

Drugs Medicinal drugs Thalidomide

Birth defects such as missing, shortened or misshapen arms and legs; deafness; severe facial deformities; seizure disorders; dwarfism; brain damage; foetal/infant death

Diethylstilbestrol (DES)

Grown daughters: vaginal and cervical cancer; spontaneous abortions and stillbirth; autoimmune disorders such as pernicious anaemia, myasthenia gravis (a nerve-muscle disorder), intestinal disorder, multiple sclerosis Grown sons: abnormalities in reproductive organs, testicular cancer

Nonmedicinal drugs Heroin

Withdrawal symptoms, including vomiting, trembling, irritability, fever, disturbed sleep, an abnormally high-pitched cry; delayed social and motor development

Cocaine

Miscarriage or premature delivery, low birth weight, irritability, respiratory problems, genital and urinary tract deformities, heart defects, central nervous system problems

Alcohol

Foetal alcohol effects: lower birth weight, lack of responsiveness and arousability, heart rate and respiratory abnormalities; delayed cognitive development; learning disabilities Foetal alcohol syndrome: central nervous system damage, heart defects, small head, distortions of joints, abnormal facial features; intellectual impairment; behavioural disorders such as hyperactivity and poor impulse control; impaired growth and/or failure to thrive

Tobacco

Spontaneous abortion, prematurity, foetal/infant death, reduced birth weight, poorer postnatal adjustment

Maternal diseases Rubella

First trimester: blindness, deafness, heart defects, damage to central nervous system, intellectual impairment

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Second trimester: problems with hearing, vision, and language Syphilis and gonorrhoea

Foetal death, jaundice, anaemia, pneumonia, skin rash, bone inflammation, dental deformities, hearing difficulties, blindness

Genital herpes

Disease of skin and mucous membranes, blindness, brain damage, seizures, developmental delay

Cytomegalovirus

Jaundice, microcephaly (very small head), deafness, eye problems, increased risk for severe illness and infant death

HIV/AIDS

Abnormally small skull; facial deformities; immune system damage; enlarged lymph glands, liver and spleen; recurrent infections; poor growth; fever; brain disease; developmental delay; deteriorated motor skills

Toxoplasmosis

Spontaneous abortion, prematurity, low birth weight, enlarged liver and spleen, jaundice, anaemia, congenital defects, intellectual impairment, seizures, cerebral palsy, retinal disease, blindness

In 2016, there were an estimated 1.4 million pregnant women living with HIV. If they do not have any treatment, 15–45 per cent of their infants will acquire HIV — 5–10 per cent through transmission CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 129

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in the pregnancy, 10–20 per cent during the labour and birth, and 5–20 per cent through breastfeeding. The ‘Global Plan towards elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive’ aims to reduce HIV in children by 90 per cent and reduce mother to child transmission rates to 5 per cent by 2015 (UNICEF, 2013). Although the plan did not meet these goals, remarkable progress was achieved: new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa were reduced by 60 per cent. The progress achieved under the Global Plan forms the foundation of a new effort to stop pediatric AIDS, ‘Start Free Stay Free AIDS Free’ (UNICEF, 2016), which aims to reduce the number of children who are newly infected with HIV to fewer than 40 000 by 2018. There were 160 000 children newly diagnosed with HIV in 2016, but there has been a 47 per cent decrease in new infections since 2010 (UNICEF, 2016). Targeted programs that aim to increase the number of women being tested for HIV during pregnancy and early commencement of ART has contributed to reducing the mother to child transmission rates, and in 2012 coverage of ART in priority, high-risk countries reached 62 per cent. In high-income countries, mother to child transmission has virtually been eliminated due to better access to ART. ART has also contributed to a decline in death rates from AIDS by 30 per cent since 2005 (UNICEF, 2013).

Environmental hazards The majority of women in Australasia are employed outside the home, and most women who are employed when they become pregnant continue working throughout their pregnancies. Many of the environmental hazards to pregnant women and their babies are encountered in the workplace. These include: 1. physical hazards, such as noise, radiation, vibration, stressful physical activity and materials handling 2. biological hazards, such as viruses, fungi, spores and bacteria 3. chemical hazards, such as anaesthetic gases, pesticides, lead, mercury and organic solvents (Clarkson, Magos, & Myers, 2003) 4. radiation, such as that following the 1986 Chernobyl, Ukraine, nuclear power plant accident. The incidence of miscarriage and babies born with underdeveloped brains, delayed physical growth and deformities increased alarmingly (Bernhardt, 1990; Hoffmann, 2001; Schull, 2003). Avoidance of medical x-rays during pregnancy is advised. If thyroid, dental chest or any other x-ray is necessary, ensuring the use of an abdominal shield is a necessary measure of protection. A mother’s age and physical characteristics may also cause complications during pregnancy, as we will see in the next section.

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Maternal age and physical characteristics Healthy women over age 35 are not at significantly greater risk for any of these complications than younger women, although they are at greater risk for infertility and for having a child with Down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities. Increased prenatal screening and termination of pregnancy has meant that the prevalence of babies born with chromosomal disorders has stayed relatively stable despite an overall increase in older mothers (Loane et al., 2013). Complication rates increase particularly with older women aged 45–55; due to menopause and ageing reproductive organs, it is more difficult to conceive naturally (Usta & Nassar, 2008). Very young mothers, especially those in their early teens, are at significantly greater risk of having pre-term births, low-birth-weight infants, stillbirths or problems during birth (Shrim et al., 2011). This is partly because teenage mothers have not completed their own growth, so their bodies are unable to meet the extra nutritional demands of a developing foetus. Teenage mothers are more likely to have a low level of socioeconomic status and less likely to access adequate prenatal care (Mollborn & Dennis, 2012). In Australia, there were 8574 babies born to women aged 15–19 in 2015, accounting for 2.8 per cent of all births in that year — a decline from 4.1 per cent in 2005 (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2016). Teenage pregnancy has also been declining in the United States, with 22.3 births per 1000 women aged 15–19 in 2015, compared to 41.5 births per 1000 women in 2007 (Martin, Hamilton, Osterman, Driscoll, & Mathews, 2017). 130

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Teenage mothers are less likely to get adequate prenatal care or adapt to the demands of pregnancy.

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Pregnant teenagers are much less likely than pregnant adults to maintain nutritious diets and get adequate prenatal care during pregnancy, and are more likely to suffer complications and experience prolonged and difficult labour. Babies born to teenagers are more likely to be premature and suffer from low birth weight and its associated problems. They also have higher rates of neurological defects, higher mortality rates during their first year, and are more likely to encounter developmental problems during the preschool and school years (Mollborn & Dennis, 2012; Shrim et al., 2011). A number of programs aimed at reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy and assisting pregnant teenagers to be better prepared are employed in Australian schools and communities, but their efficacy in achieving these goals is unclear. Baby simulator dolls that cry when they need to be fed, rocked or changed are designed to teach teenagers how difficult it is to take care of a baby. An Australian study showed a higher rate of births in students who participated in baby simulation education programs in comparison to those who only received the standard health education curriculum (Brinkman et al., 2016). We look more closely at the causes and consequences of teenage pregnancy in the chapter on psychosocial development in adolescence. Risks to pregnancy also occur at home. In the next section we discuss one of the most disturbing of these risks: domestic violence.

Domestic violence Domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence, is defined as violent, abusive or intimidating behaviour within a current or former intimate relationship; it may be physical, verbal, psychological or sexual (Boursnell & Prosser, 2010; Van Parys, Verhamme, Temmerman, & Verstraelen, 2014). Domestic violence poses another serious hazard for pregnant women and their babies. Studies report that between 4 and 8 per cent of pregnant women experience domestic violence, with resulting increased risks and complications to both the mother’s physical and psychosocial health and the health of the foetus or newborn (Boursnell & Prosser, 2010; Hooker, Ward, & Verrinder, 2012), Mothers of low socioeconomic CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 131

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status, Indigenous mothers and women with disability or from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have higher rates of domestic violence (Hooker et al., 2012). The significance, implications and importance of antenatal screening are discussed in the following feature. FOCUSING ON

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Domestic violence in pregnancy During pregnancy, women are particularly vulnerable because of the changes in their physical, emotional, social and economic needs. Research suggests the risk of experiencing domestic violence increases during pregnancy: In Australia, 25 per cent of women who have experienced domestic violence indicated that this first occurred during pregnancy (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013). Domestic violence is recognised as a major public health issue throughout the world, and the World Health Organization has declared it a leading health concern and a cause of traumatic death for mothers and their babies (Cooper, 2013; Hooker et al., 2012). The cost of domestic violence is not just borne by the woman experiencing it, but also by her family and the wider community as a whole. In 2014–15, the Australian government estimated the cost of violence against women at $21.7 billion dollars annually (Pricewaterhouse Coopers, 2015) Women who are victims of domestic violence are more likely to use health care services and have other health issues related to the domestic violence. They are at increased risks of pregnancy complications, such as higher rates of miscarriage and stillbirth, premature labour and birth, low-birth-weight babies, placental abruption, foetal injury, and perinatal death. The increased rate of perinatal death (death of the foetus or baby just before or after birth) is usually related to complications of the birthing process as a result of the domestic violence, such as prematurity or placental abruption and bleeding. In addition to this, women experiencing domestic violence have higher levels of other physical and mental problems. Physical problems include headaches, gastrointestinal disorders (such as irritable bowel syndrome), sexually transmitted infections and chronic pain syndromes. The most common mental health problems include depression, anxiety, suicide attempts (or suicide), post-traumatic stress disorder and self-harming behaviours. The implications of these effects on the mental health of the woman also increase the likelihood that she will use tobacco, alcohol and illicit substances more than other women, and possibly delay seeking antenatal care in her pregnancy (Cooper, 2013; Gartland, Hemphill, Hegarty, & Brown, 2011; Hooker et al., 2012; Van Parys et al., 2014). About 80 per cent of women who experience domestic violence do not report this crime to the police (Phillips & Vandenbroek, 2014). They prefer to tell a friend, family member or doctor. Health care providers therefore have an important role in screening pregnant women for domestic violence in pregnancy; particularly as this is a time of more frequent contact between health care providers and women who may otherwise be kept isolated by domestic violence. Monitoring for signs of abuse and asking a series of standardised questions such as ‘Do you feel safe at home?’ is recommended in the medical guidelines for antenatal care and government policy in Australia and New Zealand. Screening could help early detection and referral to the appropriate services for counselling and support. It is important that screening is carried out in a safe and confidential manner, and that partners are not present when women are screened. Even if women refuse a referral at that time, screening can break the silence regarding the abuse, and increase a sense of support. This interaction can provide women with simple strategies and contact details for use at a later time if they choose to act. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, it is important that screening be conducted in a culturally sensitive manner, given the history of mistrust of police and health care providers in the context of child removal policies (Heenan, 2004). However, health care providers do not always feel comfortable asking women about domestic violence or they may feel unsure how to respond effectively if abuse is identified. Training and education programs about domestic violence may increase the confidence of doctors, nurses and midwives when they ask these important questions.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

If you were working in a health care setting and screening women for domestic violence, what do you think might be some of the barriers to asking these questions? What strategies could you use to help overcome these barriers?

Prenatal health care Adequate early prenatal care is critical to infant and maternal health, and mothers who begin prenatal care early in pregnancy have improved pregnancy and newborn outcomes, including decreased risk of low birth weight and preterm delivery. Many women lack knowledge about the signs of pregnancy and the need for adequate prenatal care (Maupin et al., 2004). The quality of prenatal care is strongly influenced by the woman’s life circumstances, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. It is critical that pregnant women are well informed about the effects of weight gain; the effects of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs; signs of pregnancy complication; the importance of regular rest, exercise and personal hygiene; preparation for labour and delivery and early care of the newborn; effective use of the health care system and planning for subsequent pregnancies to ensure quality prenatal care for both mother and developing child. Prenatal care is essential to ensure both maternal and prenatal health, and the percentage of low-birth-weight babies decreases the earlier prenatal care begins.

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Diet and nutrition A healthy diet during pregnancy ensures the health of both mother and baby. During the prenatal period, children are growing more rapidly than at any other time, so a nutritious diet with a gradual increase of calories will provide for both the mother’s and baby’s health. Prenatal malnutrition can cause critical damage to the central nervous system, especially during the third trimester. For mothers with poor diets, rates of prematurity and infant mortality are higher, birth weights are lower, and the risk of congenital malformations increases. The poorer the mother’s diet, the greater the loss in brain weight. In order for the brain to reach its full potential, the mother must have a diet high in all the basic nutrients. Nutritionally deprived infants are less responsive to environmental stimulation and are irritable when aroused. Research by Keenan et al. (2013) demonstrated clear links between nutrition in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes that could form the basis of nutritional interventions to prevent many common childhood behavioural problems. What constitutes a nutritious diet during pregnancy? Pregnant women should increase consumption of fruits, vegetables and calcium-rich foods, and strive to eat a balanced diet overall. Adequate magnesium and zinc in the diet decrease the risk of many prenatal and birth complications (Kontic-Vucinic, Sulovic, & Radunovic, 2006). However, the growth demands of the prenatal period will require more than just an increased quantity of food. Vitamin–mineral enrichment is just as crucial. Taking folic acid supplements early in pregnancy significantly reduces the risk of neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, and also reduces the risk of physical defects such as cleft lip and palate, urinary tract abnormalities and limb deformities. Also, taking folic acid supplements during the last ten weeks of pregnancy can significantly reduce the risk of premature birth and low birth weight (Elias & Gibbons, 2010; Goh & Koren, 2008). Research conducted by Brown and Pollitt (1996) in Guatemala found that when mothers of low socioeconomic status and their infants regularly received a nutritious food supplement called Atole (a hot soup made from maize), the rate of infant mortality decreased by 69 per cent compared to a similar group of mothers and infants receiving a less nutritious supplement called Fresco. The children who received Atole displayed significantly greater gains in motor skills, physical growth, and social and emotional development than those who received the Fresco supplement. A long-term study of adolescents and adults who had been exposed to Atole or Fresco both prenatally and for at least two years after birth found that CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 133

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children who had received Atole early in life performed significantly better on academic achievement and general intelligence tests (Brown & Pollitt, 1996).

Stress and health

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The babies of women who experience severe emotional stress during pregnancy are at risk for a wide variety of difficulties. Stress refers to chronic feelings of worry and anxiety. Women who experience severe and prolonged anxiety just before or during pregnancy are more likely to have medical complications and give birth to infants with abnormalities than women who do not. Emotional stress has been associated with greater incidence of spontaneous abortion, difficult labour, premature birth and low birth weight, newborn respiratory difficulties and physical deformities (Huizink, Mulder, & Buitelaar, 2004; Lazinski, Shea, & Steiner, 2008; Loomans et al., 2013; Norbeck & Tilden, 1983; Omer & Everly, 1988). Stress during the prenatal stage is also related to physical defects such as heart deformities and cleft lip and palate. Cardwell (2013) identified the importance of psychosocial stressors and their influence on pregnancy outcomes, and emphasised the importance of antenatal screening to identify potential stressors to help reduce stress-related pregnancy complications.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

How can maternal stress, poor nutrition and poor health affect the developing foetus and child? Remember the last time you were under stress, and list the changes that you were aware of in your body. How would these changes affect the prenatal and postnatal development of the developing child?

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3.8 Birth LEARNING OUTCOME 3.8 Describe what happens during the birth process, what difficulties may occur and how they are handled.

After 38 weeks in the womb, the foetus is considered to be ‘full term’, or ready for birth. At this point, it will weigh around 3.4 kilograms, but it can weigh as little as 2.3 kilograms or as much as 4.5 kilograms and still be physically normal. The foetus measures about 51 centimetres at this stage, almost one-third of its final height as an adult. During the final weeks, the womb becomes so crowded that the foetus assumes one position more or less permanently. This orientation is sometimes called foetal presentation. Foetal presentation (or orientation) refers to the body part of the foetus that is closest to the mother’s cervix. The most common foetal presentation, and the most desirable one for uncomplicated birthing, is head pointing downward (called a cephalic presentation). Two other presentations also occur: feet and/or rump first (breech presentation) or shoulders first (transverse presentation). These two orientations previously jeopardised an infant’s survival, but modern obstetric techniques have greatly reduced this risk. Most foetuses develop normally for the usual 38 to 40 weeks and face their birth relatively well prepared. When the labour process begins, it too usually proceeds normally. The uterus contracts rhythmically and automatically to force the baby downward through the vaginal canal (see figure 3.16). The contractions occur in a relatively predictable sequence of stages, and as long as the baby and mother are healthy and the mother’s pelvis is large enough, the baby is usually out within a matter of hours.

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Stages of labour It is common for the mother to experience ‘false labour’, or Braxton-Hicks contractions, in the last weeks of pregnancy as the uterus ‘practices’ contracting and relaxing in preparation for actual labour. These contractions do not open the cervix as real labour contractions do. Labour consists of three stages. The first stage of labour is the longest stage, lasting from the onset of regular painful contractions until the cervix (the opening of the uterus) is completely open, or dilated to 10 centimetres. It usually begins with relatively mild and irregular contractions of the uterus. As contractions become stronger, more regular and more frequent, dilation, or opening, of the cervix increases until there is enough room for the baby’s head to fit through. As it stretches and dilates, the cervix also becomes thinner, a process referred to as effacement. Towards the end of this first stage of labour, which may take from 8 to 24 hours for a first-time mother, a period of transition begins. The cervix approaches full dilation, contractions become more rapid, and the baby’s head begins to move into the birth canal. Although this period generally lasts for only a few minutes, it can be the most intense and challenging period because contractions become stronger and more deeply felt, lasting from 45 to 90 seconds each. Managing each contraction involves a great deal of concentration and energy; women typically use the period between contractions to catch their breath and prepare for the next contraction. During transition, a woman often experiences a variety of physical changes, including trembling, shaking, leg cramps, nausea, back and hip pain, burping and perspiring (Baddock, 2010b; McKay, 1993; Walsh, 2007). The second stage of labour begins at complete dilation of the cervix and continues until birth. Contractions continue but may be somewhat shorter, lasting 45 to 60 seconds. Although the baby now has only a short distance to move down the vagina to be born, the process can be slow, usually lasting between one and two hours for a first baby and less than half an hour for women who have previously given birth. Although dilation is complete, the reflexive urge to push the baby out by bearing down full strength usually develops towards the end of this stage for most women and often this urge becomes irresistible. How hard she pushes will depend on the strength of the contractions, which varies throughout labour. If a woman does not feel the urge to push, guidance from a partner or support person can help, particularly if she has an epidural block or other local anaesthetic that interferes with her bearing-down reflex.

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FIGURE 3.16

The process of birth (a) Before labour begins; (b) labour; (c) crowning; (d) emergence of the head

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

During the third stage of labour, which lasts between five and twenty minutes (if actively managed) or up to two hours (if physiological), the afterbirth, which consists of placenta and umbilical cord, is expelled. Contractions still occur but are much weaker, and the woman may have to push several times to birth the placenta. The medication oxytocin is frequently given to help the placenta to detach from the side of the uterus. Putting the baby to the mother’s breast also can help, because stimulation of the nipple naturally releases oxytocin (Baddock, 2010b; McKay, 1993; Walsh, 2007).

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Childbirth settings and methods Until the 1800s, births in Australasia generally took place in the woman’s home. Usually, it was attended by midwives, friends, neighbours and family members and was viewed as a natural process rather than as a medical procedure. The midwife was a woman experienced in pregnancy and childbirth who traditionally served as the primary caregiver during pregnancy, childbirth and the month or so following birth. During the 1800s, political and social factors and the emergence of medicine as a scientifically based and politically powerful profession led to the replacement of midwives by physicians as the chief birth attendants. In the 1900s, birth moved to the hospital, where it was increasingly treated as a medical rather than a naturally occurring community event (Bogdon, 1993; Steiger, 1993; Walsh, 2007). 136

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After all the hard work of labour, a baby! No matter how exhausted she may feel, a mother is usually glad to see her new child, especially once reassured that it is healthy.

These changes brought the benefits of modern medical technology to the birth process and resulted in decreased mortality rates for mothers and their babies, particularly in the case of high-risk pregnancies. However, they also shifted the birth process from being a natural event controlled by the pregnant woman, her family, her friends and the community to a medical event controlled by physicians. As a result, all babies and their mothers were exposed to the risks associated with hospital-based medical practices, including overreliance on medication and on procedures such as episiotomies and caesarean sections.

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Hospital births Almost 97 per cent of all births in Australia occur in hospitals under the supervision of a midwife and possibly a physician. In Australia, a midwife has the educational background, qualifications and preparation to practise midwifery and is registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Most midwives in Australia are also Registered Nurses who have additional qualifications in midwifery. More recently, direct-entry Bachelor of Midwifery degrees have been introduced where a nursing degree is not required. Working in partnership with the pregnant woman, the role of the midwife is to give support, care and advice during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period. The midwife can also conduct births as well as provide care for the newborn and infant. Care by the midwife includes preventative measures, the promotion of normal birth, detecting complications in both the mother and child, accessing medical care or other appropriate assistance when necessary, and carrying out emergency measures. Australian midwives also have a role in the health counselling and education of pregnant women, as well as the family and community in relation to preparation for parenthood, women’s health, sexual and reproductive health and childcare. Midwives are able to practice in most settings, including hospitals, clinics, health units, communities and the home (International Confederation of Midwives [ICM], 2011). CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 137

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Midwives play an important role in working with women giving birth in Australian hospitals.

In recent years, the maternity wards of many hospitals have modified their environments to be more comfortable and supportive of pregnant women and their families. A growing number of hospitals now have birthing rooms with more comfortable furniture, muted colours and lighting and soft music, and facilities for rooming in that allow mother and baby to stay together until both are ready to leave the hospital. Most hospitals now encourage a partner or support person to be present during the labour and birth (Steiger, 1993; Tracy et al., 2007).

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Non-hospital settings Birth centres are non-hospital facilities organised to provide family-centred maternity care for women who are judged to be at low risk for obstetrical complications (Rooks et al., 1989; Tracy et al., 2007). Birth centres provide care for low-risk women in a home-like environment seen to be a safer, intermediate option between giving birth in hospital or at home. They may be free-standing or attached to a hospital maternity unit. If women develop complications while in the birth centre, they are transferred to standard maternity care in a hospital. Birth centres usually provide midwife-led care and provide continuity of carer for the woman and her family throughout the pregnancy, labour and birth, and often for some time postnatally (Laws, Lim, Tracy, & Sullivan, 2009). Home birth is another alternative to hospital birth available for low-risk pregnancies. In a typical home birth, normal daily activities continue through the first stage of labour. When contractions increase, the midwife is called to monitor the labour. Backup arrangements with a doctor or hospital are generally in place, should they be needed, and women planning on home birth are carefully screened to minimise lastminute complications requiring hospital equipment or procedures. Some women prefer to give birth in a comfortable, familiar setting or to avoid what is perceived as a negative hospital experience. For Indigenous Australians, ‘birthing on country’ is considered culturally important for maintaining connection to their ancestral lands (Felton-Busch, 2009). However, objections regarding the safety of home births by the medical profession and difficulties accessing indemnity insurance have meant that the home birth 138

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rate in Australia is low, accounting for only 0.9 per cent of all births in 2010. In countries such as New Zealand, where home birth is publicly funded universally, the rate is about 11 per cent (Catling-Paull, Coddington, Foureur, & Homer, 2013).

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Prepared childbirth The majority of hospitals and non-hospital birth settings now offer programs to help women and their partners prepare for the physical and psychological experience of birth. These include preparatory visits to the hospital or birth facility, so pregnant women and their partners can become familiar with the physical setting and procedures. Various methods of prepared childbirth have been devised to help parents rehearse, or simulate, the actual sensations of labour well before the projected birth date. Although these methods differ in certain details, generally the underlying goal is to provide educational preparation for the physical and emotional components of the birth process and active involvement of the mother and father (or other partner). Typically, they encourage the mother to find a support person (often her spouse or a relative) to give her personal support during labour (Ferguson, Davis, & Browne, 2013; Lamaze, 1970; Livingston, 1993a, 1993b, 1993c; Taylor, 2002). The earliest proponent of prepared or ‘natural’ childbirth was Grantly Dick-Read, an English physician who believed that the pain women experience during childbirth is not natural but due to a combination of fear and tension caused by cultural ignorance of the birth process and by the isolation and lack of emotional and social support women receive during labour and in hospital birthing rooms (Livingston, 1993a). The Dick-Read method consisted of educating women about the physiology of labour and training them in progressive relaxation techniques to reduce tension, fatigue and pain. Dick-Read also encouraged obstetricians and nurses to be more patient and to rely less heavily on medication in the birth process. One of the most widely used approaches to follow Dick-Read was the Lamaze method, which originated in the Soviet Union; it was brought to France in the 1950s by Fernand Lamaze, the head of a maternity hospital. The Lamaze method, which consists of childbirth education, relaxation and breathing techniques, differs from the Dick-Read approach in that it strongly encourages the active participation of both mother and father (or labour partner) during the weeks preceding birth and during the birth itself (Livingston, 1993b; Walker, Visger, & Rossie, 2009). The Lamaze method encourages labour either without drugs or with minimal drugs and stresses the importance of birth as a shared emotional experience (Livingston, 1993b; Taylor, 2002; Walker et al., 2009). Another widely used method of natural childbirth was introduced by Bradley, an American obstetrician who modified Dick-Read’s technique. Bradley’s father-coached childbirth method stresses the importance of the father as comforter, supporter and caregiver before and during the birth. The Bradley method encourages birth as a normal natural process that accepts pain, and emphasises a mind–body connection to enhance relaxation through the use of normal, rhythmic breathing during contractions (Walker et al., 2009). Similarly, another method of natural childbirth that tries to minimise the trauma and stress experienced by a baby at birth is the Leboyer technique which was established by Dr Fredric Leboyer in the 1970s (1975). Leboyer believed that babies born in less stressful surroundings were more content. In this method, birth occurs in a quiet, dimly lit room and the baby’s head is not pulled but permitted to emerge naturally. Leboyer emphasised the importance of immediate bonding between mother and child where the baby is placed on the mother’s stomach soon after birth to permit ‘skin to skin’ contact. More recently, techniques or philosophies such as hypnobirthing have become more popular. Hypnobirthing focuses on positive expectations of labour and birth. Rather than teaching methods of coping with labour pain, it teaches deep relaxation, visualisation and self-hypnosis. The language of labour and birth is changed from the medical terms to more positive and empowering terms; for example, contractions are termed ‘surges’ (Walker et al., 2009).

Modern midwives and doulas Throughout human history and around the world, midwives have helped other women give birth. As we saw earlier, doctors largely replaced midwives in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but in CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 139

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recent years midwifery has been on the rise. Today, midwives in Australasia are educated and registered to give care and advice to women pre-conceptually, during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period; to conduct births; and to care for newborn infants. Midwives also provide counselling and education not only to women giving birth but also to the family and community, including prenatal education and preparation for parenthood, family planning and newborn care (ICM, 2011). The term doula, a Greek word that applies to a trained lay individual who cares for the new mother, especially when breastfeeding, after the baby is born. Like midwives, doulas have helped with the birth process around the world since the beginning of human history. Doulas do not directly assist with birthing babies, but may assist a mother and midwife in the process — by comforting the mother and promoting relaxation by rubbing her hands and back, and talking calmly to her. Depending on the culture, the role of doula may be filled by one or more relatives or friends or, at times, by a midwife. Research suggests that women who receive social and emotional support from doulas have shorter labours and fewer labour and birth complications and caesareans, and also appear better able to cope with the demands of motherhood (Gilbert, 1998; Hodnett, Gates, Hofmeyr, Sakala, & Weston, 2011; Raphael, 1993).

Medicinal pain relief during labour and birth Despite adequate psychological preparation, most mothers feel some pain during labour contractions. Under good conditions, many mothers can endure this pain until the baby is born, often with the aid of many non-drug forms of pain relief available, such as aromatherapy, massage, heat, water immersion and acupuncture. But if labour takes an unusually long time or a mother finds herself less prepared than she expected to be, pain-relieving drugs, such as narcotics or other sedatives, can make the experience bearable. But such medications must be used cautiously. Most pain relievers cross the placenta and so can seriously depress the foetus if they are given at the wrong time or in improper amounts. During the final stages of birth, two other forms of pain relief are available. Doctors may inject an analgesic and/or anaesthetic into the base of the woman’s spine. The two most common of these procedures are an epidural and a spinal. They allow the mother to remain awake and alert during the final stages of labour, but may prevent her from helping in the birthing process by reducing sensation to contractions and possibly masking urges to push. Nitrous oxide, which dentists commonly use, has also been used to take the edge off the pain of the peak contractions while allowing the mother to remain conscious. Giving a mother either a general or a local anaesthetic before birth removes all pain, but both mother and child may take a long time to recover from it. Mothers who receive general anaesthetics during labour stay in the hospital for more days after the birth, on average, than do mothers who receive other kinds of medication. It is important that women are well informed and consult with their health care professionals regarding potential side effects of various analgesics prior to giving birth. Table 3.10 lists the major types of medications used during labour and birth, their administration, and their effects (Braverman, 2011; Feinbloom & Forman, 1987; Simkin, 2001, pp. 239–248).

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Problems during labour and birth Interference with labour and birth can occur in three ways: through problems related to the uterus and its function; problems with the birth canal; or problems related to the baby itself, such as its position. These problems actually interconnect in various ways, but it is convenient to distinguish among them.

Uterus Sometimes, the uterus does not contract strongly enough to make labour progress to a birth. The problem can occur at the beginning of labour or develop midway through a labour that began quite normally, especially if the mother tires after hours of powerful contractions. In many cases, the doctor can strengthen the contractions by giving the mother an injection of the hormone oxytocin. Such induced or augmented labour must be monitored carefully so that the artificial contractions it stimulates do not harm both baby and mother by forcing the baby through the canal before the canal is ready.

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TABLE 3.10

Major medications during childbirth and their effects on the baby

Type

Administration

Effects on mother

Effects on baby

Narcotic analgesics

By injection (in controlled doses) during the first stage of labour to reduce pain

Reduces pain, causes some drowsiness and euphoria (sense of wellbeing and tranquility); women participate in labour and birth. May cause nausea and vomiting

May cause drowsiness and decreased responsiveness for first few hours after birth or longer; naloxone hydrochloride (Narcon) can be used to reverse these effects. May impact on breastfeeding

Spinal

By injection into spinal canal in controlled doses when cervix is fully dilated (beginning of second stage of labour); numbs sensory and motor nerves so that mother’s pelvic area and legs cannot move voluntarily

Mother can remain awake and aware during labour and birth; can be used for either vaginal or caesarean birth; is highly effective in eliminating pain

No negative effects reported

Epidural

By injection during active phase of first stage of labour to numb sensory nerves after their exit from spinal canal

Pain and sensations are generally reduced or eliminated; mother is awake; some voluntary movement is preserved, although it is less effective because a woman’s sense of position and tension are blocked by the medication

No negative effects reported

General anaesthesia

A combination of drugs given intravenously; is less commonly used than blocking agents

Easily administered, rapid onset of effect; anaesthetic of choice in emergencies in which time is critical and baby must be born quickly

Decreased alertness and responsiveness following birth

Local anaesthesia

Source: Braverman, 2011; Feinbloom & Forman (1987); Simkin (2001), pp. 239–248.

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Birth canal Sometimes, the placenta partially or completely covers the cervix and blocks the baby from moving down the birth canal during labour. This condition, called placenta previa, occurs in late pregnancy and causes bleeding when the cervix starts to open. If left untreated, it may leave the foetus somewhat undernourished, because it prevents sufficient blood from reaching it or may cause significant haemorrhage. Sometimes, it blocks a normal birth entirely so that the baby must be delivered by caesarean section (Thorogood & Donaldson, 2010).

Foetus/baby Usually a baby enters the birth canal head first, but occasionally one turns in the wrong direction during contractions. A breech presentation — with the bottom leading — is risky for the baby, as there is an increased risk of the cord coming before the baby, blocking its oxygen supply. In most cases, breech babies are either turned to the right position during pregnancy or early labour, or delivered surgically by caesarean section. CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 141

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A small but significant proportion of babies are simply too big to pass through the mother’s pelvis and vaginal canal, a problem sometimes called cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD) — literally a disproportion of the head and pelvis. If the mismatch is too severe and threatens the life of mother or child, the doctor may interrupt the labour and deliver the baby surgically.

Caesarean section Caesarean section, or C-section, is a procedure used in cases in which the baby cannot birth safely through the vagina and therefore has to be removed surgically. Techniques for this surgery have improved substantially in past decades. Many experts and parent advocates remain concerned that the rates of caesarean section are still too high and reflect medical practices that are not in the best interests of mothers and their babies, such as increased interventions in labour and birth or possible fear of litigation after complications (Catling-Paull, Johnston, Ryan, Foureur, & Homer, 2011). Both supporters and critics of caesarean birth agree there are a number of good reasons to select a caesarean birth as the safest way to deliver a baby. These include the problems of placenta previa and cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD) already noted, as well as prolapsed cord, which occurs when the umbilical cord cuts off the baby’s oxygen; unusual positions of the baby that make vaginal birth impossible; severe foetal distress that cannot be corrected; and active herpes — when the baby may be infected through vaginal birth. The convenience of the physician, a previous caesarean birth (currently the most common reason for doing the procedure), inactive herpes, and suspected cephalopelvic disproportion not confirmed by a period of strong, frequent contractions are all no longer considered valid reasons for a caesarean birth. Reasons for considering a vaginal birth after a previous caesarean section include less risk of surgical complications, shorter recovery time, and the opportunity for greater involvement of the mother in the birth process (Catling-Paull et al., 2011).

Foetal monitoring Most hospitals use electronic foetal monitoring to record uterine contractions and the foetal heart rate. Uterine contractions are externally measured by a pressure gauge strapped to the mother’s abdomen that electronically represents changes in the shape of the uterus on graph paper. Foetal heart rate can be picked up by an external ultrasound monitor placed on the abdomen over the uterus — or it can be picked up internally — by a wire leading through the vagina and onto the foetus’s scalp that records more subtle electrical changes in the foetus’s heart. Foetal monitoring is extremely helpful in high-risk, extenuating and emergency situations, but not indicated in low-risk labours.

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Childbearing with disability Having a baby presents challenges to all parents, but the challenges for men and women who have disability or chronic illness are even greater. Laura has suffered from multiple sclerosis since she was a teenager. Her wheelchair is her main mode of getting around, although she can walk for short distances with the aid of crutches. When Laura and her husband, Peter, who has no disability, decided to have a baby, they encountered many of these challenges. For example, they faced the widespread misconception that people with disability cannot be adequate parents. Paradoxically, they also found that many people expected them to be ‘super parents’, an ideal of parenthood that few others are expected to meet. They discovered a strong tendency to stereotype all people with disability as either heroes or victims. Many people seemed to focus on Laura’s disability rather than her ability, and thus denied her normalcy. Laura and Peter also found that the prenatal classes, clinics, hospital birth suites, and postnatal wards they visited were often poorly equipped to welcome individuals with disability. Laura had to negotiate narrow doorways, staircases, high-sided baths that were not wheelchair accessible, beds that could not be lowered, and baby cots and changing tables that could not be reached from her wheelchair. Laura’s disability impeded her mobility. However, Laura and Peter were able to experience the joys of childbirth and welcomed their son safely into the world.

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Potential parents with disabilities may also experience anxiety due to lack of information and support, and doubts about long-term effects of disability on their ability to meet the new challenges of being parents. Individuals who are deaf or blind may face additional barriers to getting the information they need (Blackford, Richardson, & Grieve, 2000; Campion, 1993; Shapiro, 1993; Smeltzer, 2007). Figure 3.17 lists ways professional caregivers can help parents with disabilities cope with these challenges. FIGURE 3.17

How professional caregivers can assist prospective parents with disability

r Provide accurate and appropriate family planning advice r Present a realistic picture of risks to prospective parents and their baby prior to conception and refer to

genetic counsellors or other specialists as needed

r Provide appropriate prenatal care and realistic advice about potential effects of pregnancy on the dis-

ability, and vice versa (including the effects of medication on the foetus or on the infant via breastfeeding)

r Provide information about appropriate prenatal exercise, options for labour positions, pain relief and r r r r

sources of non-medical support Help ensure accessibility of needed equipment and space in birth suites and postnatal wards Discuss childcare methods and adaptation of baby equipment as necessary Provide appropriate medical care as well as support and encouragement both in labour and postnatally Provide information about local and national self-help organisations for expectant parents with disabilities

Source: Adapted from Campion (1993) and Barber (2008).

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Birth and the family For most families, the arrival of a new baby brings many changes that take some time to adjust to. For first-time parents, learning to care for a new baby and rearranging family schedules to be able to provide the almost constant attention a newborn requires are very big challenges, to say the least. The arrival of a new baby can be particularly difficult for parents who lack the economic resources, knowledge, and social and emotional support that are so important in adjusting to the complicated demands of caring for a new baby. Having a baby with a low birth weight or other problems can be particularly distressing. Though it is unwise to generalise too broadly, adolescent parents, single parents and parents who are educationally and economically disadvantaged are more likely to find parenthood a challenge. Nevertheless, the great majority of births in Australasia occur without significant problems and to families whose economic, social and psychological resources enable them to become effective parents. For women (and their partners) who receive good preparation and support for the birth process and obtain adequate social and emotional support from family, friends and culture, birth is likely to be a very positive and welcome event. For parents who already have children, a newcomer to the family also creates stresses. Children naturally worry they will lose their special place in the family and the exclusive attention they enjoy once the newcomer arrives. Involving the child in the preparation for birth, for the period when the mother is in the hospital, and for the changes that will occur with the new arrival are all important ways to help a child adjust to the changes. Talking to the child about these things and listening carefully to their questions and concerns are particularly important. Especially with preschoolers, providing concrete information about birth, newborn babies and what they are like, and the specific changes that will occur in the family before and after the baby’s birth, can help allay their fears. After the new baby arrives home, parents can do a number of things to assist the adjustment process. Giving the older child lots of verbal reassurance helps, but concrete actions often speak louder than words. One strategy is to give the child an important role in the event by providing special activities, asking friends and family members to bring a gift for the child as well as for the new baby, and including

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the child in daily activities with the new infant. High priority should also be placed on continuing routine activities with the older child and ensuring that each parent spends lots of special time just with them (Walsh, 2007). How might the process of birth vary depending on a family’s circumstances, such as age, marital status, income, ethnicity and culture? Discuss these issues with your classmates.

Birth is a family event. Involving children in the preparation for birth can play an important role in helping them adjust to the changes.

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Moments after birth The first couple of hours after birth are filled with intense emotion as parents hold, touch and caress their newborn baby. Both fathers and mothers are overjoyed at their baby’s birth and display intense interest in their newborn (Rose, 2000). In the presence of the newborn, parental hormonal changes help foster parents’ sensitivity and involvement. Nearing the end of the pregnancy, mothers begin producing higher levels of the hormone oxytocin, causing the breasts to ‘let down milk’ and prompting the development of a heightened responsiveness to the baby (Russell, Douglas, & Ingram, 2001). Bonding, skin-to-skin comfort, the first breastfeed and baby-led attachment all contribute to the development of parental sensitivity, responsiveness and awareness of the newborn baby, making the relationship more dynamic. There has been much debate as to whether parents require close physical contact in the hours after birth for bonding. Current evidence suggests that the parent–infant relationship does not depend on a precise, early period of togetherness. Some parents report a sudden deep rush of feeling and emotion for their newborn baby; for others feelings can gradually emerge. Bonding with the newborn baby is a complex process depending on many factors, and not just on what happens during the sensitive period immediately following birth (Nugent, Petrauskas, & Brazelton, 2009); however, contact with the baby after birth may be one of several factors that assists in building a quality parent–child relationship.

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Skin-to-skin contact has been found to be therapeutic not only for low-birth-weight babies, but for most newborns. Soon after birth, the newborn is placed on the mother’s stomach or chest for that immediate skin-to-skin contact. Sometimes called ‘kangaroo care’, it has been found that resting on a parent’s chest helps to maintain body temperature, heart rate and oxygen levels in the blood; initiate breastfeeding; and increase the feeling of competence in parents (Moore, Anderson, Bergman, & Dowswell, 2012). The rhythmic sound of the parent’s heartbeat assists in calming the newborn and helps simulate the environment of the womb. Both mothers and fathers can participate in skin-to-skin contact. As well as skin-to-skin contact, research has shown that newborns, particularly premature infants, can benefit from massage therapy (Diego, Field, & Herdandez-Reif, 2005). In one study, premature babies were given either light or moderate massage three times per day for five days. Those babies who received moderate pressure massage gained significantly more weight on each of the days of therapy than the light massage group. Moderate pressure massage babies were found to be more relaxed and less aroused, which may have contributed to greater weight gain. Feeding practices soon after birth have varied considerably over time and across cultures. Breastfeeding is the most natural form of nutrition for newborns and infants. However, some mothers experience difficulties with breastfeeding, and so are unable to breastfeed for a variety of reasons despite trying their best. Research has shown numerous advantages of breast milk over formula, and major health authorities, such as World Health Organization, New Zealand Ministry of Health and the Australian government, have advocated for exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, where it is possible for both the mother and infant. Both the Australian and New Zealand governments are committed to protecting, promoting, supporting and monitoring breastfeeding throughout Australia and New Zealand. The Australian government has shown its ongoing commitment to the support of breastfeeding by updating the Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy for 2017 and beyond (Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council, 2017). Thus far, the Australian National Breastfeeding strategy has resulted in the development of clinical practice guidelines, education resources and a 24-hour, toll-free national hotline for breastfeeding support. Breastfeeding has received increased attention as a focus for improving public health, and it has increasingly been recognised as the optimal form of infant feeding (WHO, 2012). Research has provided evidence that breastfeeding increases a baby’s resistance to infection and disease, and is particularly suited to the growth and requirements of the infant (Marks, Rutihauser, Webb, & Picton, 2001). Apart from providing nutrition for the young baby, breastfeeding provides food, comfort and stimulation of a baby’s senses. Breastmilk boosts the baby’s immune system, and has a protective effect against many auto-immune disorders such as coeliac disease, asthma and allergies. The muscles of a baby’s lips, tongue and face are all toned and strengthened by breastfeeding, which prepares the baby for eating other foods and for speech development. In 2010, the Australian Department of Health and Ageing stated: Breastfeeding provides babies with the best start in life and is a key contributor to infant health. Australia’s dietary guidelines recommend exclusive breastfeeding of infants until six months of age, with the introduction of solid foods at around six months and continued breastfeeding until the age of 12 months — and beyond, if both mother and infant wish. Evidence shows that breastfeeding provides significant benefits to infants. Breastfed babies are less likely to suffer from conditions such as gastroenteritis, respiratory illness and otitis media. Breastfeeding also benefits a mother’s own health by promoting faster recovery from childbirth and reducing the risks of breast and ovarian cancers in later life. The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, funded by the Australian Government, provides the most recent and extensive national data on breastfeeding in Australia. Amongst the infant cohort in 2004, from a 92 per cent breastfeeding initiation rate, there was a sharp decline in both full and any breastfeeding with each month post birth. By one week old only 80 per cent of infants were fully breastfed with a steady decline each month. Only 56 per cent of infants were fully breastfed at three months and 14 per cent at six months. The rate of any breastfeeding at six months was 56 per cent.

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At their meeting on 13 November 2009, Australian Health Ministers endorsed the Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy 2010–2015. The aim of the Strategy is to contribute to improving the health, nutrition and wellbeing of infants and young children, and the health and wellbeing of mothers, by protecting, promoting, supporting and monitoring breastfeeding. The development of the Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy 2010–2015 was a key element of the Australian Government’s response to the 2007 Parliamentary Inquiry into the Health Benefits of Breastfeeding (Australian Health Ministers’ Conference, 2009; Department of Health and Ageing, 2010).

Research suggests the rates of breastfeeding in Australia have not changed significantly since the 2004 Longitudinal Study of Australian Children described above. The 2010 Australian National Infant Feeding Survey showed that although breastfeeding was initiated in 96 per cent of children, by three months of age only 39 per cent of infants were fully breastfed, and only 15 per cent of them are breastfed at five months of age (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011). Related to breastfeeding is baby-led attachment, where the baby, placed on the mother’s chest, starts to follow their instincts towards the mother’s breasts. Baby-led attachment is the term given to the process where the baby follows a pattern of instinctive behaviours to get to the breast, which often occurs for the first breastfeed. The Australian Breastfeeding Association and the New Zealand Breastfeeding Authority have endorsed baby-led attachment, and have issued useful information on how to engage in this practice. The experiences moments after birth can contribute to the development of a sensitive, responsive caring and aware relationship between parents and their newborn baby. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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How might the process of birth and the moments after birth vary depending on a family’s circumstances, such as age, marital status, income, ethnicity and culture? Discuss these issues with your classmates.

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LOOKING FORWARD Although we are just beginning our exploration of development over the lifespan, we will use the four main lifespan themes discussed in the chapter on studying development to review where we have been and where we are going.

Continuity within change On the one hand, the physical processes involved in genetic transmission, conception, prenatal development and birth involve enormous and rapid changes. In just nine months or so, genetic material provided by the parents at conception transforms itself into a zygote, an embryo, a foetus, and finally a newborn infant. Though the changes we have discussed are primarily physical, we will see shortly that the newborn is exquisitely prepared for the impressive cognitive and psychosocial changes that will follow. We will also see that the physical changes exhibit a high degree of continuity with the past. Because the complex processes involved in conception and prenatal development are highly canalised, they tend to work efficiently most of the time, ensuring that physical development proceeds according to longstanding patterns and norms. In addition, significant continuity is assured through each parent’s contribution of genetic material and associated characteristics to the unique genotype of the child. The continuities and changes that occur vividly illustrate the developmental themes of experience and process or stage discussed in the chapter on theories of development.

Lifelong growth Genetics, prenatal development and birth are an important part of the groundwork for lifelong growth. The amazing growth in complexity and size that occurs prenatally provides the lifelong basis for the equally amazing changes in the physical, cognitive and psychosocial domains that occur from birth onward. During infancy, childhood, adolescence and the adult years, elaboration and growth will occur in all three domains, although not necessarily at the same rates in each. Though physical and cognitive growth will be most rapid through adolescence, important changes in this domain will continue to affect growth throughout the lifespan. In the chapters that follow, we will discover that despite certain physical and cognitive declines in the adult years, many important areas of cognitive and psychosocial functioning continue to grow. Even at the earliest periods of development, we can see the importance of lifespan theoretical approaches for understanding development.

Changing meanings and vantage points

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During pregnancy and the months immediately following birth, the meanings of events are almost entirely in the minds of family members and other caregivers of the newborn. As a combination of maturation, experience and eventually awareness and self-determination lead the development of the infant through early, middle and later childhood, adolescence and adulthood, meanings and vantage points change substantially, not only for the developing child but also for parents, siblings and friends, who themselves are changing due to their own developmental experiences. The excitement of an infant’s first steps, first words or first friendship will give way to the excitement of the preschooler’s growing athletic, verbal and interpersonal skills. Similar changes will occur throughout the lifespan.

Developmental diversity As we have seen in this chapter, the unique genetic inheritance of each new human, beginning at conception, provides the earliest basis for the developmental diversity that will follow. Even identical twins who share the same genotype will show subtle differences based on different prenatal experiences, such as where each is located in the womb and how easy or difficult their birth is. Similarly, subtle differences in temperament may be present at birth and, although the times of their births will be similar, the order of their births is likely to contribute to diversity in their development. As physical, cognitive and psychosocial development progress through childhood, adolescence and adulthood, the opportunities for diversity continue to expand, aided to a significant degree by the expanding range of experiences that become CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 147

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available and by the capacity all individuals have to self-determine their own development through their own choices. Differences in families, culture, ethnicity, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, and other life circumstances also play an important role. If identical twins are raised under very different life circumstances, they will still display striking phenotypical commonalities due to their shared genotypes, yet they will also be strikingly different based on their different environments, experiences and personal choices.

SUMMARY 3.1 Explain the role of inheritance in development.

Central to our understanding of how development proceeds is a knowledge of the genetic contribution to the emergence of skills and abilities, which ensures an understanding of the nature-versus-nurture debate. Research and new evidence provides information on how inheritance and environment interact in development. Genetic research indicates some of the most interesting scientific discoveries to date. Genetics plays a major role in behaviour, and some of the most recent critical discoveries have related to genetic disorders including Down syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease and bipolar disorder. Genetic information is contained in a complex molecule called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Reproductive cells, or gametes, divide by a process called meiosis and recombine into a zygote at conception. Meiosis gives each gamete one-half of its normal number of chromosomes; conception brings the number of chromosomes to normal again and gives the new zygote an equal number of chromosomes from each parent. Other body cells produce new tissue through division of their genes, chromosomes and other cellular parts by means of a process called mitosis. 3.2 Describe how genetic differences are usually transmitted from one generation to the next.

A person’s genotype is the specific pattern of genetic information inherited in their chromosomes and genes at conception. A person’s phenotype is the physical and behavioural traits the person actually shows during their life. Phenotype is the product of the interactions of genotype with environment. Although most genes exist in duplicate, some, called dominant genes, may actually influence the phenotype if only one member of the pair occurs. Recessive genes do not influence the phenotype unless both members of the pair occur in a particular form. Many traits are polygenic, meaning they are transmitted through the combined action of several genes. Sex is determined by one particular pair of chromosomes, called the X and Y chromosomes, and a testis-determining factor (TDF) incorporated on the SRY on a small section of the Y chromosome. 3.3 Understand how genetic abnormalities occur.

Some genetic abnormalities, such as Down syndrome (trisomy 21), occur when an individual inherits too many or too few chromosomes. Others occur because particular genes are defective or abnormal even though the chromosomes are normal. Examples include Huntington’s disease, cystic fibrosis, and fragile X syndrome.

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3.4 Consider the role of experts in helping parents discover and respond to potential genetic abnormalities.

Genetic counselling can provide parents with information about how genetics influences the development of children and about the risks of transmitting genetic abnormalities from one generation to the next. Personal circumstances and cultural differences in beliefs and expectations must be considered in helping couples reach informed decisions about pregnancy. 3.5 Explain how heredity and environment jointly influence development.

According to behavioural geneticists, every characteristic of an organism is the result of the unique interaction between the genetic inheritance of the organism and the sequence of environments through which it has passed during its development. The concept of range of reaction describes the strength of genetic influence under different environmental conditions. Studies of identical twins and of adopted children 148

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suggest that heredity and environment operate jointly to influence developmental change. Linkage and association studies use repeated DNA segments called polymorphisms as genetic markers to locate abnormal genes. Neither biogenetic nor environmental determinism is likely to give us adequate understanding of human development, which is the product of genes, environment and individual choice. 3.6 Discuss the important developmental changes that occur during prenatal development.

Prenatal development begins with conception, in which a zygote is created by the union of a sperm cell from the father and an egg cell, or ovum, from the mother. It consists of discrete periods, or stages. The germinal stage occurs during the first two weeks following conception; the zygote forms a blastocyst, which differentiates into three distinct layers and then implants itself on the uterine wall to form the embryo. During the embryonic stage — weeks three through eight — the placenta and umbilical cord form and the basic organs and biological systems begin to develop. During the foetal stage — week nine until the end of pregnancy — all physical features complete their development. The experience of pregnancy includes dramatic changes in a woman’s physical functioning and appearance, as well as significant psychological changes as prospective parents anticipate the birth of the baby. Infertility is the inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term after one year of unprotected intercourse. Family planning allows people to decide on the number and spacing of their children. Methods of contraception, including hormones, condoms, intrauterine devices, periodic abstinence and withdrawal, allow families to voluntarily prevent unintended pregnancy. Abortion is used to terminate pregnancy. 3.7 Recognise the risks a mother and baby may face during pregnancy and the birth process, and how can they be minimised.

Although prenatal development is highly canalised, there are critical periods — particularly during the first trimester — when embryonic development is highly vulnerable or at risk for disruptions from teratogens, substances or other environmental influences, that can damage an embryo’s growth. Teratogenic effects depend on the timing, intensity and duration of exposure, the presence of other risks, and the biological vulnerability of baby and mother. Risk factors for prenatal development include both medicinal and non-medicinal drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, alcohol and tobacco; diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhoea and HIV/AIDS; physical and biological characteristics of the mother; and physical, biological and chemical environmental hazards. Domestic violence also increases risks to prenatal and postnatal development, as well as developmental risks to the mother. Adequate prenatal nutrition and health care for the mother and her developing baby are associated with successful pregnancy, a normal birth and healthy neonatal development.

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3.8 Describe what happens during the birth process, what difficulties may occur, and how they are handled.

Labour occurs in three distinct but overlapping stages. The first stage, during which uterine contractions increase in strength and regularity and the cervix dilates sufficiently to accommodate the child’s head, takes from 8 to 24 hours (for a first-time mother). The second stage, when the dilation of the cervix is complete and the birth itself takes place, lasts from 60 to 90 minutes. The third stage, during which the placenta is delivered, lasts only a few minutes. Nonhospital birth centres and home births are two alternatives to hospital-based births. Prepared childbirth is now widely used in both hospital and non-hospital birth settings to help women actively and comfortably meet the challenges of giving birth. Many babies are now birthed by midwives, who provide care to women during pregnancy, childbirth and the weeks following birth. Doulas do not birth babies, but help the mother during labour and birth, and with her newborn. Although pain-reducing medications can make the experience of childbirth more comfortable, they have been used more cautiously in recent years because of potentially adverse effects on the recovery of both infant and mother. Problems during labour and birth can include insufficient uterine contractions, and problems with or blockage of the birth canal if the baby’s physical position or large head prevents the completion of the journey through the birth canal. When vaginal birth is not feasible, the physician may perform a caesarean section to surgically deliver the baby. Childbearing and birth for parents with disability pose specific CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 149

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challenges that can be overcome by clarifying misconceptions and providing appropriate information, equipment, and social and emotional support. Learning to care for a new baby is a welcome challenge for most new parents, but it may be especially difficult for adolescent parents, single parents and parents who are educationally and economically disadvantaged.

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KEY TERMS adoption study A research method for studying the relative contributions of heredity and environment in which genetically related children reared apart are compared with genetically unrelated children reared together. allele One of several alternative forms of a gene. amniotic sac A tough, spongy bag filled with salty fluid that surrounds the embryo, protects it from sudden jolts, and helps to maintain a fairly stable temperature. canalisation The tendency of many developmental processes to unfold in highly predictable ways under a wide range of conditions. chromosome A threadlike, rod-shaped structure containing genetic information that is transmitted from parents to children; each human sperm or egg cell contains 23 chromosomes, and these determine a person’s inherited characteristics. conception The moment at which the male’s sperm cell penetrates the female’s egg cell (ovum), forming a zygote. critical period A specific time during development when development is particularly susceptible to an event or influence, either negative or positive. Certain types of stimuli are necessary for development to proceed normally. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) Long, double-stranded molecules that make up chromosomes. dominant gene In any paired set of genes, the gene with greater influence in determining physical characteristics that are physically visible or manifest. Down syndrome A congenital condition that causes mental disability. embryonic stage The stage in prenatal development that lasts from week 2 through to week 8. foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) A congenital condition exhibited by babies born to mothers who consumed too much alcohol during pregnancy. They do not arouse easily and tend to behave sluggishly in general; they also have distinctive facial characteristics. foetal presentation Refers to the body part of the foetus that is closest to the mother’s cervix; may be head first (cephalic), feet and rump first (breech), or shoulders first (transverse). foetal stage The stage in prenatal development that lasts from week 8 of pregnancy until birth. gene A molecular structure carried on chromosomes, containing genetic information; the basic unit of heredity. genomic imprinting A mode of inheritance in which genes are chemically marked so that the number of the chromosome pair contributed by either the father or the mother is activated, regardless of its genetic make-up. genotype The set of genetic traits inherited by an individual. germinal stage The stage in prenatal development that occurs during the first two weeks of pregnancy; characterised by rapid cell division. Also called the period of the ovum. meiosis The process of cell division through which gametes are formed and the number of chromosomes in each cell is halved. It is a process of reduction and division, which ensures that at fertilisation, when the egg and sperm unite, the fertilised ovum contains the normal 23 pairs of chromosomes.

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midwife The person, usually a woman, who is the primary caregiver to a woman during pregnancy, childbirth and the month or so following delivery. mitosis The process of cell duplication in which each new cell receives an exact copy of the original chromosomes and is identical in genetic make-up to the original. ovum The reproductive cell, or gamete of the female; the egg cell. phenotype The set of traits an individual actually displays during development; reflects the evolving product of genotype and experience. placenta An organ that delivers oxygen and nutrients from the mother to the foetus and carries away the foetus’s waste products, which the mother will excrete. prepared childbirth A method of childbirth in which parents have rehearsed or simulated labour and birth well before the actual delivery date. range of reaction The range of possible phenotypes that an individual with a particular genotype might exhibit in response to the particular sequence of environmental influences they experience. recessive gene In any paired set of genes, the gene that influences or determines physical characteristics only when no dominant gene is present. sex-linked recessive traits Recessive traits resulting from genes on the X chromosome sickle-cell disease A genetically transmitted condition in which a person’s red blood cells intermittently acquire a curved, sickle shape. The condition can, at times, clog circulation in the small blood vessels. sperm Male gametes, or reproductive cells; produced in the testicles. teratogen Any substance or other environmental influence ingested by the mother that can harm the developing embryo or foetus during the prenatal period. twin adoption studies Research that compares twins reared apart with unrelated persons reared together. twin study A research method for studying the relative contributions of heredity and environment in which the degree of similarity between genetically identical twins (developed from a single egg) is compared with the similarity between fraternal twins (developed from two eggs). umbilical cord Three large blood vessels that connect the embryo to the placenta, one to provide nutrients and two to remove waste products. zygote The single new cell formed when a sperm cell attaches itself to the surface of an ovum (egg cell).

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1 How does the prenatal environment influence the development of the baby and the health of the

mother? 2 Why is the embryonic phase of development often called the most ‘critical phase’ of prenatal devel-

opment and the foetal phase called the ‘step up and finishing phase’? 3 What are the effects of teratogens (environmental agents) on the developing embryo and foetus?

Identify examples to illustrate your viewpoint. Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

4 Explain why genetic counselling is called a ‘communication process’. Who should seek this form of

counselling and why? 5 Describe the features, advantages and disadvantages of different methods of childbirth.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1 Medical advances in childbirth have resulted in a lower mortality rate for mothers and babies,

but some women prefer so-called ‘natural’ childbirth or home births. Why might some people have this viewpoint, and what can be done to make hospital births and any necessary medical interventions a positive emotional experience for women and their families? CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 151

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2 We now have the ability to genetically test people for predisposition to certain diseases. What are

some of the positive and negative implications of knowing this information when the condition may not occur? 3 The science of epigenetics has shown the close relationship between what the embryo and/or foetus are exposed to while in-utero and health outcomes later in life. For example, babies born to mothers with poorly controlled diabetes have an increased risk of obesity and diabetes themselves in later life. How might our knowledge of genetics and environmental influences help to reduce these risks?

APPLICATION QUESTION 1 Test your understanding of genetics, prenatal development and birth by using the following concepts

to complete the sentences: mesoderm, implantation, fallopian tube, genotype, ectoderm, DNA, amniocentesis, blastocyst, recessive, endoderm. (a) _______________ is a double-stranded molecule shaped like a twisted ladder-like structure. (b) If a gene must appear on both chromosomes in a pair to be expressed, it is said to be _______________. (c) _______________ is a prenatal procedure in which a sample of amniotic fluid is withdrawn by a syringe. (d) _______________ signals the end of the germinal period of development. (e) Fertilisation usually takes place in the _______________. (f) The _______________ later becomes the embryo. (g) _______________ is the individual’s genetic inheritance and has the potential to influence the individual’s observable physical and behavioural characteristics or traits such as eye colour and height. (h) The _______________, _______________, and _______________, respectively, eventually become the nervous system and skin; the muscles, skeleton, circulatory system, and other internal organs; and the digestive system, lungs, urinary tract and glands.

ESSAY QUESTION

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1 The Human Genome Project (HGP), an ambitious international research program coordinated by

the United States Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, sought to decipher the chemical make-up of human genetic material (genome). Commenced in 1990 and joined by researchers from the United Kingdom later in the 1990s, this project was funded by the Wellcome Trust (UK). Over the project’s 13-year duration, additional contributions were made from Japan, France, Germany, China and others as researchers were able to map the sequence of all human DNA base pairs. Although the research is complete, analysis of the data will continue for many years. The main aim of the HGP was to identify and understand the genetic factors in human disease, which would provide pathways to develop innovative diagnostic treatment and prevention strategies. This study is important because it will become a new and profoundly powerful tool to help us to unravel the mysteries of how the human body grows and functions: A genome is all the DNA in an organism, including its genes. Genes carry information for making all the proteins required by all organisms. These proteins determine, among other things, how the organism looks, how well its body metabolizes food or fights infection, and sometimes even how it behaves. DNA is made up of four similar chemicals (called bases and abbreviated A, T, C, and G) that are repeated millions or billions of times throughout a genome. The human genome, for example, has 3 billion pairs of bases. The particular order of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs is extremely important. The order underlies all of life’s diversity, even dictating whether an organism is human or another species such as yeast, rice, or fruit 152

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fly, all of which have their own genomes and are themselves the focus of genome projects. Because all organisms are related through similarities in DNA sequences, insights gained from nonhuman genomes often lead to new knowledge about human biology. Knowledge about the effects of DNA variations among individuals can lead to revolutionary new ways to diagnose, treat, and someday prevent the thousands of disorders that affect us. Besides providing clues to understanding human biology, learning about nonhuman organisms’, DNA sequences can lead to an understanding of their natural capabilities that can be applied toward solving challenges in health care, agriculture, energy production, environmental remediation, and carbon sequestration (US Department of Energy, www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml).

A major goal of the project is to understand the estimated 4000 human disorders due to single genes, and those resulting from the interaction of multiple genes and the environment. The medical benefits of the project are astounding, as each gene is isolated, identified and examined, meaning that diseases are more easily diagnosed. Doctors will be able to identify at-risk patients sometimes even before the symptoms appear. Already, thousands of genes have been identified, including those involved in diseases such as cystic fibrosis; heart, digestive, eye, blood and nervous system abnormalities; and many forms of cancer (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2008). Genetic engineering or gene therapy can cure more diseases now that abnormal genes have been located and identified. In some instances, doctors no longer need to perform surgery, as they can solve problems by introducing healthy DNA (NIH, 2008). However, some controversies arose from the HGP such as the attempts of companies to patent particular genes and control who could profit or conduct research by using them. Genes patented included BRCA2, a gene associated with the development of breast cancer: in 2010, a US ruling invalidating this patent claim was the first gene patent infringement case (Cook-Deegan & Heaney, 2011). Write a well-reasoned and rationalised essay discussing and analysing some of the ethical, legal and social challenges presented by the Human Genome Project. Consider who should have access to personal genetic information, who owns the information, the psychological effects of genomic information, and whether at-risk couples and individuals be counselled.

WEBSITES 1 This website provides fun, interactive multimedia activities that are based on a range of genetics topics:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu 2 Twins Research Australia is the only Australian national twin research centre. It outlines new discov-

eries and insights drawn from researching twins: www.twins.org.au 3 This website funded by the Australian government provides information and resources for preg-

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nancy, birth, baby and child stages. There are useful resources as well: www.pregnancybirthbaby .org.au

REFERENCES Abortion Services in New Zealand. (2008). Retrieved March 11, 2009, from www.abortion.gen.nz American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (2010). 2010 publications. Retrieved from www.acog.org/About_ACOG/ ACOG_Departments/Research/2010_Publications Angier, N. (1994, May 17). Genetic mutations tied to father in most cases. The New York Times, 12. Arcus, D., & Chambers, P. (2008). Childhood risks associated with adoption. In T. P. Gullotta & G. M. Blau (Eds.), Family influences on childhood behavior and development (pp. 117–142). New York, NY: Routledge. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Births, Australia, 2015 (3301.0). Retrieved October 12, 2017, from www.abs.gov.au/ ausstats/[email protected]/mf/3301.0 Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2013). Personal Safety, Australia, 2012 (4906.0). Retrieved October 12, 2017, from www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/mf/4906.0

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Australian Health Ministers’ Conference. (2009). Australian national breastfeeding strategy 2010–2015. Canberra, Australia: Retrieved August 16, 2011, from www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/ 49F80E887F1E2257CA2576A10077F73F/$File/Breastfeeding_strat1015.pdf Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council (May 2017). Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy: 2017 and beyond (Fact Sheet No. 2). Retrieved October 12, 2017, from www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/ D94D40B034E00B29CA257BF0001CAB31/$File/20170526-%20Fact%20Sheet%202%20-%20Findings%20from %20stakeholder%20consultation.pdf Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2011). 2010 Australian National Infant Feeding Survey: Indicator Results. Retrieved October 12, 2017: www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/af2fe025-637e-4c09-ba03-33e69f49aba7/13632.pdf.aspx?inline=true Baddock, S. (2010a). The physiology of conception and pregnancy. In S. Pairman, S. Tracy, C. Thorogood, & J. 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Cardwell, M. S. (2013). Stress: Pregnancy considerations. Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey, 68(2), 119–129. Carlstedt, R. A. (2009). Handbook of integrative clinical psychology, psychiatry and behavioural medicine: Perspectives, practices and research. New York, NY: Springer. Carr, J. (2002). Down syndrome. In P. Howlin & O. Udwin (Eds.), Outcomes in neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders (pp. 169–197). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Catling-Paull, C., Johnston, R., Ryan, C., Foureur, M. J., & Homer, C. S. E. (2011). Non-clinical interventions that increase the uptake and success of vaginal birth after caesarean section: A systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 67(8), 1662–1676. Catling-Paull, C., Coddington, R. L., Foureur, M. J., & Homer, C. S. E. (2013). Publicly funded homebirth in Australia: A review of maternal and neonatal outcomes over 6 years. Medical Journal of Australia, 198(11), 616–620. Chen, M., Doherty, S. D., & Hsu, S. (2010). 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Cooper, T. M. (2013). Domestic violence and pregnancy: A literature review. International Journal of Childbirth Education, 28(3), 30–33. Covington, C. Y., Nordstrom-Klee, B., Ager, J., Sokol, R., & Delaney-Black, V. (2002). Birth to age 7 growth of children prenatally exposed to drugs: A prospective cohort study. Neurotoxicology and Tetratology, 24, 489–496. Crnic, M. (2009). Better babies: Social engineering for a better nations, a better world. Endeavour, 33, 12–17. Cummins, A. (2011). Huntington’s disease: Implications for practice. The Nurse Practitioner, 36(2), 41–47. D’Alton, M. E., & DeCherney, A. H. (1993). Prenatal diagnosis. New England Journal of Medicine, 32, 114–120. Davis, E. (1993). Common complaints of pregnancy. In B. K. Rothman (Ed.), The encyclopedia of childbearing. New York, NY: Henry Holt. Day, N. L., Leach, S. L., Richardson, G. A., Cornelius, M. D., Robles, N., & Larby, C. (2002). 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Halliday, J. L., Watson, L. F., Lumley, J., Danks, D. M., & Sheffield, L. S. (1995). New estimates of Down syndrome risks of chorionic villus sampling, amniocentesis, and live birth in women of advanced maternal age from a uniquely defined population. Prenatal Diagnosis, 15, 455–465. Hammes, B., & Laitman, C. J. (2003). DiethylstilbestroL (DES) update: Recommendations for the identification and management of DES-exposed individuals. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, 48, 19–29. Harper, P. (2004). Practical Genetic Counselling. London: Arnold. Harris, P. (1983). Infant cognition. In P. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology. (Vol. 4). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Heenan, M. (2004). Just “Keeping the Peace”: A Reluctance to Respond to Male Partner Sexual Violence. (ACCSA Issues No. 1). Melbourne: Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault, Australian Institute of Family Studies. Hodnett, E. D., Gates, S., Hofmeyr, G. J., Sakala, C., & Weston, J. (2011). 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Livingston, M. (1993c). Bradley method: Husband-coached childbirth. In B. K. Rothman (Ed.), The encyclopedia of childbearing. New York, NY: Henry Holt. Loane, M., Morris, J. K., Addor, M. C., Arriola, L., Budd, J., Doray, B., . . . & Dolk, H. (2013). Twenty-year trends in the prevalence of Down syndrome and other trisomies in Europe: Impact of maternal age and prenatal screening. European Journal of Human Genetics, 21(1), 27–33. Lobo, I., & Zhaurova, K. (2008). Birth defects: Causes and statistics. Nature Education, 1(1), 18–20. Loomans, E. M., van Dijk, A. E., Vrijkotte, T. G., van Eijsden, M., Stronks, K., Gemke, R. J., & van den Bergh, B. R. (2013). Psychosocial stress during pregnancy is related to adverse birth outcomes: Results from a large multi-ethnic community-based birth cohort. The European Journal of Public Health, 23(3), 485–491. Macaldowie, A., Wang, Y. A., Chambers, G. M., & Sullivan, E. A. (2013). Assisted reproductive technology in Australia and New Zealand 2011. Sydney, Australia: National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit, the University of New South Wales. Mahoney, G., & Perales, F. (2011). The role of parents of children with Down syndrome and other disabilities in early intervention. In J.-A. Rondal, J. Perera, & D. Spiker (Eds.), Neurocognitive rehabilitation of down syndrome. The early years (pp. 205–223). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Malm, M., Lindgre, H., Rubertsson, C., Hildingsson, I., & Radestad, I. (2014). Development of a tool to evaluate fetal movements in full-term pregnancy. Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, 5(1), 31–35. Mannucci, P. M., & Franchini, M. (2014). Haematology clinic: Haemophilia A. Haematology, 19(3), 181–182. Marks, G. C., Rutihauser, I. H. E., Webb, K., & Picton, P. (2001). Key Food and Nutrition Data for Australia 1990–1999. Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Food and Nutrition Monitoring Unit, Canberra. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Martin, J. A., Hamilton, B. E., Osterman, M. J. K., Driscoll, A. K., & Mathews, T. J. (2017). Births: Final data for 2015. National Vital Statistics Reports, 66(1). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Massey, Z., Rising, S. S., Ickovics, J. (2006). Centering Pregnancy group prenatal care: Promoting relationship-centered care. JOGNN, 35, 286–294. Matteson, L. K., McGue, M., & Iacono, W. G. (2013). Shared environmental influences on personality: A combined twin and adoption approach. Behaviour Genetics, 43(6), 497–504. Maupin, R., Lyman, R., Fatsis, J., Prystowiski, E., Nguyen, A., & Wright, C. (2004). Characteristics of women who deliver with no prenatal care. Journal of Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Medicine, 16, 45–50. McCall, R. (1981). Nature-nurture and the two realms of development: A proposed integration with respect to mental development. Child Development, 52, 1–12. McKay, S. (1993). Labor: Overview. In B. K. Rothman (Ed.), The encyclopedia of childbearing. 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Pappert, A. (1993). Preimplantation diagnosis. In B. K. Rothman (Ed.), The encyclopedia of childbearing. New York, NY: Henry Holt. Paumgartten, F., & Chahoud, I. (2006). Thalidomide embryopathy cases in Brazil after 1965. Reproductive Toxicology, 22(1), 1–2. Phillips, J., & Vandenbroek, P. (2014). Domestic, family and sexual violence in Australia – an overview of the issues (Research Report). Parliament of Australia parliamentary library. Retrieved October, 12, 2017, from www.aph.gov.au/About_ Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1415/ViolenceAust Pricewaterhouse Coopers, (2015). A high price to pay: The economic case for preventing violence against women. Retrieved October, 12, 2017, from www.pwc.com.au/publications/economic-case-preventing-violence-against-women.html Raphael, D. (1993). Doula. In B. K. Rothman (Ed.), The encyclopedia of childbearing. New York, NY: Henry Holt. Riley, E. P., Infante, M. A., & Warren, K. R. (2011). 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Uhlmann, W. R., Schuette, J. L., & Yashar, B. (2009). A guide to genetic counselling (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell. United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund. (2013). Towards an AIDS-free generation—Children and AIDS: Sixth Stocktaking Report, 2013. New York, NY: UNICEF. United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund. (2016). On the Fast-Track to an AIDS-Free Generation. Retrieved October, 12, 2017 from www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/GlobalPlan2016_en.pdf Usta, I. M., & Nassar, A. H. (2008). Advanced maternal age. Part 1; Obstetric complications. American Journal of Perinatology, 25, 521–534. van IJzendoorn, M. H., Juffer, F., & Poelhis, C. W. K. (2005). Adoption and cognitive development: A meta-analytic comparison of adopted and nonadopted children’s IQ and school performance. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 301–316. Van Parys, A., Verhamme, A., Temmerman, M., & Verstraelen, H. (2014). Intimate partner violence and pregnancy: A systematic review of nterventions. PLoS ONE, 9(1), e85084. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0085084 Verhulst, F. C. (2008). International adoption and mental health: Long-term behavioral outcome. In M. E. Garralda & J. P. Raynaud (Eds.), Culture and conflict in adolescent mental health (pp. 83–105). Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson. Verissimo, M., & Salvaterra, F. (2006). Maternal secure-base scripts and attachment security in an adopted sample. Attachment and Human Development, 8, 261–273. Waldman, S. (1993). Contraception: Defining terms. In B. K. Rothman (Ed.), The encyclopedia of childbearing. New York, NY: Henry Holt. Walker, D. S., Visger, J. M., & Rossie, D. (2009). Contemporary childbirth education models. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 54(6), 469–476. Walsh, D. (2007). Evidence-based care for normal labour and birth: a guide for midwives. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. Wilcox, A. J., Weinberg, C. R., & Baird, D. (1995). Timing of sexual intercourse in relation to ovulation: Effects on the probability of conception, survival of the pregnancy, and sex of the baby. New England Journal of Medicine, 333, 1517–1519. Wild, K., Maypilama, E. L., Kildea, S., Boyle, J., Barclay, L., & Rumbold, A. (2013). ‘Give us the full story’: Overcoming the challenges to achieving informed choice about fetal anomaly screening in Australian Aboriginal communities. Social Science & Medicine, 98, 351–360. World Health Organization. (2004; updated 2008). Selected practice recommendations for contraceptive use (2nd ed.). Geneva, Switzerland: Author, Retrieved from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2004/9241562846.pdf World Health Organization (WHO). (2011). Unsafe abortion: Global and regional estimates of the incidence of unsafe abortion and associated mortality in 2008 (6th ed). Geneva. World Health Organization (WHO). (2012). Breastfeeding—Exclusive breastfeeding. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. Retrieved from www.who.int/elena/titles/exclusive_breastfeeding/en

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Photo: © YanLev / Shutterstock.com Photo: © luanateutzi / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Rehan Qureshi / Shutterstock.com Photo: © DGLimages / Shutterstock.com Photo: © BSIP SA / Alamy Stock Photo Photo: © Amos Aikman / Newspix Photo: © Gelpi / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Juan Gaertner / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Photographee.eu / Shutterstock.com Photo: © wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock.com Photo: © SpeedKingz / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Arief Juwono / Shutterstock.com Photo: © ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com Photo: © MIA Studio / Shutterstock.com Figure 3.1: © CNRI / Science Photo Library Figure 3.15: © Reproduced under STM Guidelines: Source: Before We Are Born: Basic Embryology and Birth Defects, 2nd ed., by K. L. Moore, p. 111. Extract: © Used with permission. Australian Government Department of Health.

CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 159

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PART 2

THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF LIFE

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Views on infancy and toddlerhood — the period of development that spans the first two years of life — have evolved dramatically over time; particularly during the past century. At one point, the newborn was thought to be a passive, empty-headed organism that perceived nothing and did nothing. In 1690, John Locke, in his famous Essay concerning human understanding, proposed that the newborn comes into the world devoid of behaviours; accumulating all mental abilities and personality through learning and experience. In 1890, American psychologist William James stated the world must appear chaotic to a na¨ıve baby who ‘assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin and entrails all at once feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion’ (James, 1890, p. 488). These psychologists emphasised the helplessness of the newborn. New evidence has reversed these notions. In the past two decades scientists have developed sophisticated techniques and through careful observations of infant behaviour have found infants are active, skilled and capable individuals who display many complex skills as they search and explore the environment. Fervent debate continues over questions such as: What abilities are present at the beginning of infancy? Which functions and rhythms develop throughout infancy? Which functions result from babies’ interactions with their physical and social worlds? In this chapter we will explore the complex capabilities of the infant in the first two years of life.

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CHAPTER 4

Physical and cognitive development in the first two years LEARNING OUTCOMES

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By the end of this chapter, you should be able to: 4.1 describe what infants look like when they are first born 4.2 explain how infants’ sleep and wakefulness patterns change as they get older 4.3 review how infants’ senses operate at birth 4.4 summarise what motor skills evolve during infancy and what factors influence this development 4.5 name the nutritional needs of infants 4.6 list the factors that can impair growth during infancy 4.7 consider how infant cognition can be studied 4.8 compare the way infants and adults see and hear 4.9 explain the changes in thinking and learning during infancy 4.10 describe the roles that conditioning and imitation play in infants’ learning 4.11 define the phases that infants go through in acquiring language.

Hoffnung, M. (2018). Lifespan development, 4th australasian edition. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com Created from jcu on 2021-02-04 18:39:32.

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

OPENING SCENARIO

Marnie and Beth first met when they had their babies on the same day and were in the same hospital room. Marnie’s baby boy, James, was born two hours before Beth’s little girl, Lucy. They joined the same playgroup and have become firm friends. They meet over coffee to plan a combined first birthday party for James and Lucy, and begin reminiscing about how fast the year has gone and what their babies can now do. Although at 3.6 kilograms James was only 200 grams heavier than Lucy at birth, now that they are one, he is 12 kilograms and Lucy is 10.2 kilograms. It seems like such a long time ago that they were babies, and both mothers thought they would never get a full night’s sleep again. Lucy was breastfed on demand and did not sleep through the night until about six months, and in the early weeks liked to feed every two or three hours; whereas James was sleeping through the night at three months. Marnie and Beth laugh as they remember how Lucy never really crawled but scooted on her bottom while James crawled on all fours. Lucy has been walking by herself for four weeks, but James is still holding on to the furniture as he walks around and seems a little hesitant to let go. Lucy is now very chatty, saying her first words at nine months, and can say over twenty words; while James has only just started to say clear words, and uses fewer words than Lucy. At first, Marnie was concerned that James seemed to be taking longer to walk and vocalise than Lucy, but after visiting the Child Health Nurse she was reassured that his development was within the normal range. Both Marnie and Beth comment that it is amazing how much life has changed since the day they met, and what incredible differences there are in a baby of one year compared to what seemed such a helpless and dependent newborn. As Marnie and Beth can attest, during the first months of life a baby’s behaviours evolve rapidly. In this chapter, we trace some of these changes through the first two years of life. We begin by discussing young infants’ physical growth: what they look like; how they sleep, hear and see; and what behaviours they can already perform at birth. We also look at variations in growth and in infants’ nutritional needs in the first months of life. In the second part of the chapter we take a look at infants’ cognitive development. We explore infants’ perceptions and representations of their surroundings and how they learn from their world even before they learn to speak. Finally, we consider one of the most universal yet remarkable of all human accomplishments — the acquisition of language — and in particular, the individual differences apparent in language development as in the case of Lucy, who spoke her first words at nine months. Typically, most children say their first words at 12 months, as James did. As we will see, when compared to other parts of the lifespan, physical and cognitive development during infancy show more obvious growth and more discontinuity. Growth occurs more rapidly now than at any other time of life! Babies change daily, putting on weight, growing taller and stronger, and acquiring new skills. Growth, both physical and psychological, continues throughout life, but never in quite such an obvious way as in infancy. Sometime during adulthood, in fact, physical ageing may seem to reverse the trend towards growth. A man or a woman who gained several centimetres and kilograms in a year as an infant may actually shrink a little in height and weight in later years. The very speed of infant growth creates important discontinuities. This is one of the issues challenging developmentalists as to whether development is a continuous or discontinuous change. One developmental view sees development as continuous. Continuous development is the view that development is a cumulative process of gradually adding more of the same types of skills that were present to begin with. Changes in height, weight and length prior to adulthood will be continuous. Apart from physical development, some cognitive theorists also suggest that changes in an individual’s thinking capabilities are continuous, as gradual quantitative improvements develop, rather than entirely new cognitive processing capabilities. In comparison, other theorists view development as discontinuous. Discontinuous development is the view that new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times of

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development. From this perspective, theorists suggest our thinking changes in essential ways that are not just quantitative but rather qualitative. Throughout this chapter and ensuing chapters we will observe that many types of developmental change are continuous, while others are obviously discontinuous, as is depicted in the work of Flavell (1994) and Heimann (2003). Most developmentalists agree that taking an either/or position on the continuous–discontinuous issue is inappropriate. As James begins to pull himself into a standing position, stands, and proceeds to ‘cruise the furniture’ and grasp any available leg for assistance in his earliest attempts to walk, a sensitive period of development is witnessed. This is a time during development when an individual is optimally ready to acquire a particular behaviour or skill, but certain environmental experiences must occur for this to happen. To further develop the skill of walking at this sensitive time, James needs an environment where encouraging stimuli are available. Child developmental researchers are also acknowledging that children develop in unique and different environmental and genetic circumstances, which can influence the pace of development. These differing contexts of development result in different paths of physical, cognitive, social and emotional progress; which have led researchers to become more aware of the context and diversity of development. An Australian researcher, Hamilton (1981) discovered Aboriginal-Australian children reared in a traditional, remote Indigenous community developed head and neck muscle strength earlier than their non-Indigenous counterparts. This strength enabled these infants to sit without support at the age of two months and two weeks, compared to Anglo-Australian infants — who accomplish this milestone at approximately four to five months of age. Kearins (1986) found further evidence that the parental approach of Aboriginal mothers enhances infant head and neck strength and control. Kearins found Aboriginal mothers carried their infants without providing head and neck support, in contrast to Anglo-Australian mothers who provided support until the infant was approximately 18 to 20 weeks old. Ford and Szarkowicz (2007) observed similar results after conducting research on developmental milestones for 0 to 5 year olds growing up in the Tiwi islands in the Northern Territory. As Tiwi parents encourage independence in their children, physical milestones such as crawling and walking are actively encouraged and occur earlier for Tiwi infants than for Anglo-Australian infants. This finding was echoed by Byers, Kulitja, Lowell, and Kruske (2012) in their investigation of childrearing practices of Aboriginal children in Central Australia. Children were praised for developmental achievements such as walking, and were allowed the freedom to learn through their own experimentation. As we will see, babies also show diversity. Not every infant acquires language in the same sequence or with the same timing. Lucy was acquiring new words and talking voraciously at nine months, whereas her friend, James, was just starting to talk at 12 months. To parents, the language development of Lucy and James can seem worlds apart. But compared to the important developments of adulthood, infant developments are among the most predictable of the lifespan, both in timing and in nature. For example, it is possible to predict — within a few months — when most infants will take their first step or speak their first word. Such accurate predictions are rarely possible for adults.

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT As we saw in the last chapter, birth continues rather than initiates physical development. Most organs have already been working for weeks, or even months, prior to this event. The baby’s heart has been beating regularly, muscles have been contracting sporadically, and the liver has been making its major product, bile, which is necessary for normal digestion after birth. Even some behaviours, such as sucking and arm stretching, have already developed. Two physical functions, however, begin at birth: breathing and ingestion (the taking in of foods). These fundamental physical functions and organs such as the heart, stomach and lungs will last a lifetime.

4.1 Appearance of the infant at birth LEARNING OUTCOME 4.1 Describe what infants look like when they are first born.

When first emerging from the birth canal, the newborn infant (also called a neonate for the first four weeks of independent life) definitely does not resemble most people’s stereotypes of a beautiful baby. CHAPTER 4 Physical and cognitive development in the first two years 163

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Their skin often looks rather red. If born a bit early, the baby may also have a white, waxy substance called vernix on their skin, and their body may be covered with fine, downy hair called lanugo. In vaginal births, the baby’s head may be somewhat elongated or have a noticeable point on it. The shape comes from the pressure of the birth canal, which squeezes and moulds the skull for several hours during labour. Within a few days or weeks, the head fills out again to a more rounded shape, leaving gaps in the bones. The gaps are called fontanelles, or ‘soft spots’, although they are actually covered by a tough membrane that can withstand normal contact and pressure. The gaps eventually grow over, with the last one closed by the time the infant is about 18 months old.

The Apgar Scale The Apgar Scale (named after its originator, Dr Virginia Apgar) helps doctors and midwives to decide quickly whether a newborn needs immediate medical attention. The scale consists of ratings used to calculate the baby’s heart rate, breathing effort, muscle tone, skin colour and reflex irritability. A score of 0 to 2 is assigned to each of these five characteristics (Apgar, 1953). Babies are rated one minute after they emerge from the womb and again at five minutes. For each rating they can earn a maximum score of 2, for a possible total of 10, as table 4.1 shows. Most babies earn 9 or 10 points, at least by five minutes after birth. An Apgar score of 7–10 generally indicates the baby has coped well with the birth and is healthy. A score of 4–6 is less healthy, but usually responds well to immediate treatment from a doctor or midwife (Stables & Rankin, 2010). A baby with an Apgar score of 3 or below indicates that the infant is in serious danger and requires immediate resuscitation and emergency medical attention. Two Apgar ratings are performed, as some babies have difficulty adjusting to their new environment at first but adjust well several minutes after birth.

TABLE 4.1

The Apgar Scale

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Score Characteristic

0

1

2

Heart rate

Absent

Less than 100 beats per minute

More than 100 beats per minute

Efforts to breathe

Absent

Slow, irregular

Good; baby is crying

Muscle tone

Flaccid, limp

Weak, inactive

Strong, active motion

Skin colour

Body pale or blue

Body pink, extremities blue

Body and extremities pink

Reflex irritability

No response

Frown, grimace

Vigorous crying, coughing, sneezing

Note: Despite the differing skin tones across babies of different races, all newborns can be rated on the skin colour criterion, as the flow of oxygenated blood through the body tissues produces a pinkish glow. Source: Apgar (1953).

Size and bodily proportions A newborn baby weighs about 3.4 kilograms and measures about 51 centimetres lying down. Their length matches their adult size more closely than their weight does: their 51 centimetres represents more than one-quarter of their final height, whereas their 3.4 kilograms amounts to only a small percentage of their adult weight. Growth charts are used to show children’s height and weight gain over time in comparison 164

PART 2 The first two years of life

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to other children of the same age and sex. They indicate whether a child is developing proportionately and can indicate health problems. Growth charts are interpreted by doctors, paediatricians and Child Health Nurses in the context of the child’s overall wellbeing, environment and genetic background, and whether they are meeting other developmental milestones. On growth charts, percentiles — measurements that show where a child is compared to other children — are drawn in curved patterns. When a child’s height and weight measurement is plotted on the chart, it is evident which percentile lines those measurements land on. For example, girls’ weight percentiles vary from 2.5 kilograms at birth to 17 kilograms at 36 months of age. In contrast, boys’ weight percentiles vary from 2.75 kilograms at birth to 17.5 kilograms at 36 months. Girls’ length (height) varies from 45 centimetres at birth to 102 centimetres at 36 months. Boys’ length (height) varies from 45 centimetres at birth to 105 centimetres at 36 months. Percentile measurements on growth charts indicate the individual differences in infants and toddlers and show height and weight differences for healthy infants. Healthy infants and toddlers can come in all shapes and sizes. Babies’ proportions and general physical appearance may have psychological consequences by fostering attachments, or bonds, with the people who care for them (see the chapter on psychosocial development in the first two years). Such bonds promote feelings of security. The cuteness of infants’ faces in particular seems to help. Most babies have unusually large foreheads, small nose and mouth, eyes that are large and round, and chubby cheeks that are high and prominent — and these features are thought to activate the innate response of adults to care for infants (Caria et al., 2012). Among human parents and children, attachments may start with this sort of inherent attraction of parents to infants, though attachments deepen as additional personal experiences accumulate across the lifespan. It is also thought that this positive adult responsiveness to infants improves infant interaction with the adult and so enhances development. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What do you think attracts parents to their newborn children? How does this early attraction foster social relationships between the newborn infant and their parents?

4.2 Sleep, arousal and the nervous system

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LEARNING OUTCOME 4.2 Explain how infants’ sleep and wakefulness patterns change as they get older.

The central nervous system consists of the brain and nerve cells of the spinal cord, which together coordinate and control the perception of stimuli as well as motor responses of all kinds. The more complex aspects of this work are accomplished by the brain, which develops rapidly from just before birth until well beyond a child’s second birthday. A newborn brain is about 25 per cent of adult volume and by one year of age it has increased to about 72 per cent of the final adult weight. This rapid growth in infancy is seen as an important factor in later intelligence (Choe et al., 2013). Most of this increase results not from increasing numbers of nerve cells, or neurons, but from the development of a denser, or more fully packed, brain. This happens in two ways: (1) the neurons put out many new fibres that connect them with one another and (2) certain brain cells called glial cells activate myelination, the coating of neural fibres with an insulating fatty sheath called myelin, which speeds the efficiency of message transfer. One important function of the brain is to control infants’ states of sleep and wakefulness. The brain regulates the amount of stimulation infants experience — both externally and internally. Thus, periodic sleep helps infants to shut out external stimulation and thereby allows them to obtain general physical rest.

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Sleep In the first 2 months after birth, newborns sleep an average of 15 hours per day, although some sleep as little as 9 hours a day and others as much as 20 (Galland, Taylor, Elder, & Herbison, 2012). By age 6 months, babies average 13 hours of sleep per day, and by 24 months they average 12 hours. These hours still represent considerably more sleeping time than the 6–8 hours typical for adults. As figure 4.1 shows, newborns divide their sleeping time about equally between relatively active and quiet periods of sleep. The more active kind is named REM sleep, after the ‘rapid eye movements’, or twitchings, that usually accompany it. Researchers (Plaford, 2009; Roffwarg, Muzio, & Dement, 1966) believe REM sleep provides a way for the brain to stimulate itself, which is vital for growth of the central nervous system. This is important for infants who spend so much of their time sleeping and relatively little of their time in alert states. The quieter kind of sleep, non-REM sleep, is characterised by rhythmic, slower breathing in infants, and there is minimal movement of small or large muscles (Davis, Parker, & Montgomery, 2004). FIGURE 4.1

REM

Developmental changes in sleep requirements Sleep changes in nature as children grow from infancy to adulthood. Overall they sleep less, and the proportions of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep decreases during infancy and childhood. Non-REM

Awake 1.6 hours

8 hours 6.4 hours 8 hours

16 hours 8 hours

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Typical newborn sleep requirements

Typical adult sleep requirements

Unfortunately for parents, a baby’s extra sleep time does not usually include long, uninterrupted rest periods, even at night. In the first few months, it is more common for the baby to waken frequently — often every two or three hours — but somewhat unpredictably. Newborns’ less efficient sleep cycles are thought to be due to a lack of clear organisation between REM and non-REM cycles, and this is believed to lead to more easily interrupted sleep (Davis et al., 2004). In most cases, the irregularities pose no problem to an infant, though irregularities of neural activity may be related to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), or ‘cot death’, in a very small percentage of infants. SIDS is defined as ‘the sudden, unexpected death of an infant ISSN: 1836–9391. Sun, J., & Rao, N. (2017). Growing up in Chinese families and societies. In Early Childhood Education in Chinese Societies (pp. 11–29). The Netherlands: Springer. Susa, A. M., & Benedict, J. O. (1994). The effects of playground design on pretend play and divergent thinking. Environment and Behavior, 26, 560–579. Sylva, K., Roy, C., & Painter, M. (1980). Childwatching at playgroup and nursery school. London, UK: Grant McIntyre. Teti, D. (2001). Retrospect and prospect in the psychological study of sibling relationships. In J. P. McHale & W. S. Grolnick (Eds.), Retrospect and prospect in the psychological study of families. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Thompson, A., Hollis, C., & Richards, D. (2003). Authoritarian parenting attitudes as a risk for conduct problems. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 12(2), 84–91. Trautner, H. M., Ruble, D. N., Cyphers, L., Kirsten, B., Behrendt, R., & Hartmann, P. (2005). Rigidity and flexibility of gender stereotypes in childhood: Developmental or differential? Infant and Child Development, 14(4), 365–381. Tremblay, R. E. (2000). The development of aggressive behaviour during childhood: What have we learned in the past century? International Journal of Behavioural Development, 24, 129–141.

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(2001). Top ten challenges for understanding gender and aggression in children: Why can’t we all just get along?. Social development, 10(2), 248–266. van-der-Voort, T. H. A., & Valkenburg, P. M. (1994). Television’s impact on fantasy play: A review of research. Developmental Review, 14, 227–251. van Lier, P. A., Vitaro, F., Barker, E. D., Brendgen, M., Tremblay, R. E., & Boivin, M. (2012). Peer victimization, poor academic achievement, and the link between childhood externalizing and internalizing problems. Child Development, 83(5), 1775–1788. Vaughn, B. E., Colvin, T. N., Azria, M. R., Caya, L., & Krzysik, L. (2001). Dyadic analyses of friendship in a sample of preschool-age children attending Head Start: Correspondence between measures and implications for social competence. Child Development, 72, 862–878. Vaughn, B. E., & Santos, A. J. (2009). Structural descriptions of social transactions among young children: affiliation and dominance in preschool groups. In K. H. Rubin, W. M. 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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Photo: © Oa Chonhatai / Alamy Stock Photo Photo: © yongtick / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Asia Images Group / Shutterstock.com Photo: © sirtravelalot / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Pavel L Photo and Video / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Dragon Images / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Konstantin Yolshin / Shutterstock.com Photo: © pavla / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Gladskikh Tatiana / Shutterstock.com Extract: © New Zealand Government: www.skip.org.nz/supporting-parents/organising-communityaction/case-studies/refugee-parents-and-skip.html Extract: © Commonwealth of Australia (Australian Communications and Media Authority) 2017. Extract: © New York Times Extract: © Taylor and Francis Extract: © The African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific

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PART 4

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

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Development slows after the preschool years. Middle childhood — the phase from six to twelve years of age — is a time of consolidation, as well as for gaining new skills, such as skateboarding, and making new friends. Peers become more important than they were previously. The language rehearsal and make-believe play of early childhood pay off during middle childhood, with school-aged children able to think more logically and less intuitively than before. These new competencies, combined with the experience of attending school, allow children to make large advances in their knowledge and understanding of the world.

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CHAPTER 8

Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood LEARNING OUTCOMES

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 8.1 review the trends in height and weight that affect school-aged children 8.2 identify the kinds of illnesses that affect school-aged children and how children’s cultural background can affect their health 8.3 list the improvements in motor skills that children usually experience during the school years and explain how these improvements affect children’s involvement in sporting activity 8.4 identify the cognitive skills that children acquire during the school years, and examine the psychological and practical effects of these new skills 8.5 discuss how the social environment and interactions between adults and children influence cognitive development during the school years 8.6 describe how memory changes during middle childhood and assess how these changes affect thinking and learning 8.7 list the changes in language that emerge during middle childhood 8.8 explain what intelligence is and illustrate how it can be measured 8.9 identify and discuss how children’s social experiences influence their moral understanding, and explain the relationship between moral disengagement, bullying, empathy and prosocial behaviour 8.10 examine how school affects children’s cognitive development.

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OPENING SCENARIO

Heath and Tabitha are brother and sister. As an infant, Heath had started walking very early. He pulled himself upright by using furniture and he walked independently at nine months of age. He had always excelled in physical activities and was passionate about sports, particularly karate which he started when he was nine years old. Heath received a lot of encouragement from his father — although his mother was not so sure about karate and whether it was a positive activity for children to be involved in. ‘It’s really good fun, Mum’, said Heath. ‘It’s not about chopping or hurting people. It’s about self-defence, and it teaches you the right way to think.’ His mother learnt more about karate from Heath’s instructor and went to Heath’s trials, where he obtained different status belts. As Heath got older, she could see karate was improving not only his physical maturity, but also his thinking abilities and interpersonal skills. Compared to his friends, Heath seemed quite mature — judging by the way he spoke about the world and the people he knew. His younger sister Tabitha had been slower to start walking. She was never as physically adept as her brother. Not long after Heath joined the karate class, seven-year-old Tabitha asked if she could go along as well. Their mother reluctantly agreed. She didn’t think it was an appropriate sport for a young girl, though, and suspected Tabitha was only interested in karate because her brother had received more attention from their father after he progressed through different belts. Tabitha did well at karate, but because she was two years younger than Heath she did not make the same progress over an equivalent period of time. When Heath obtained his next belt, Tabitha was stuck two or three levels behind, and she stayed at single belt levels longer than Heath. This annoyed Tabitha intensely. Try as she might, she could never keep up with her brother’s progress. So, unlike to Heath, karate became a source of frustration for Tabitha. She did not get the sense of fulfilment from karate that her brother did. When she was nine years old, Tabitha gave up karate and followed other interests. She discovered she was very good at writing poetry and short stories — something her brother had no interest in. Heath went on to become the youngest black belt in his state and, as a teenager, he represented his country in the sport. The story of Heath and Tabitha and their involvement in karate illustrates features of development discussed in this chapter. One feature is the range of children’s development. Children grow and change at different rates and there are large individual differences in their physical and cognitive abilities — even in the case of siblings with a high degree of genetic similarity. Children can also give dissimilar meanings to the same activity. This results from the diverse ways that the physical, cognitive and social–emotional domains of development interact for different individuals — developments in one domain affecting development in others. In Heath’s case, mastering a physical skill was a source of self-esteem and helped his cognitive and social–emotional growth. For Tabitha, a comparative lack of physical mastery had the opposite effect, making her feel inadequate and frustrated. As Tabitha matured mentally, she was able to rationalise her difficulties. She also turned to other pursuits. These stimulated her cognitive growth and gave her a sense of achievement similar to the feeling of accomplishment her brother gained from a physical skill. These features of middle childhood are variations on two of the lifespan development themes in this text: developmental diversity and changing meanings and vantage points. As Heath and Tabitha’s experience shows, physical, cognitive and psychosocial developments occur simultaneously and influence one another intimately and in complex ways. However, we explore them separately for clarity and convenience of discussion.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT During middle childhood, physical growth slows. Physical skills are easier to learn than in early childhood: children’s bodies are larger and stronger because of increased muscular and skeletal development, 404

PART 4 Middle childhood

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and motor coordination has improved as a result of neural development. For example, when a school-aged child and a preschool child perform the same physical activity, such as throwing a ball, they experience different results. The older child is able to throw the ball further and their superior hand–eye coordination makes the throw more accurate. Children in the developed world generally enjoy good health during their school years. Australian and New Zealand children are relatively free from disease, compared to children in earlier decades. For example, prior to the advent of immunisation in the mid 1950s, many children succumbed to lifethreatening infectious diseases such as polio and diphtheria. However, for children in developing nations today, malnutrition and infectious diseases are still a fact of life. One of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals was to reduce child mortality by two thirds before 2015. Preventing 1.47 million deaths annually would close the gap between mortality statistics in the developed world and the developing world from a 78 per cent difference to a 48 per cent difference (Ezzati, 2007). Between 1990 and 2015, the global mortality rate for children under five declined by more than half, with deaths reduced from 90 to 43 per 1000 live births. Between 1990 and 2015, the global number of deaths in children under five declined from 12.7 million in 1990 to almost 6 million in 2015 (United Nations, 2015). In Western nations, a minority of children experience chronic health problems such as asthma, cancer, diabetes and arthritis. Some children show excessive motor activity and others have difficulties in learning specific academic skills. These problems possibly originate from subtle differences in how the nervous system operates and may be the result of stresses earlier in the developmental sequence. Increasingly, researchers are recognising that the milestones of normal development are based on optimal experiences from earlier periods of development. Inadequate parenting, neglect and abuse can profoundly affect neural development (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2006, 2017). In the sections that follow, we explore these ideas in greater detail. We begin by looking at normative trends and individual variations in physical growth during middle childhood. Then, we examine specific motor skills and athletic development, and their psychological effects on children. Finally, we will discuss health in the school years, with special reference to children who are overly active.

8.1 Trends and variations in height and weight

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LEARNING OUTCOME 8.1 Review the trends in height and weight that affect school-aged children.

During middle childhood, children increase in height from about 117 centimetres and 20 kilograms at age six to almost 152 centimetres and 36 kilograms by the time they are twelve, gaining on average 6 centimetres in height and 2.25 kilograms in weight per year (Engels, 1993; Lobstein & Jackson-Leach, 2016; Lobstein et al., 2015; Wang & Lobstein, 2006). Cephalocaudal and proximodistal development, discussed in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in the first two years, are less noticeable in middle childhood. Cephalocaudal development — the tendency for greater development at the head than lower down the body — is less obvious. Children develop longer torsos, compared with preschoolers’ short torsos and relatively large heads. Proximodistal development — the greater development at the body’s centre than its extremities — is also less marked. Greater development occurs at the extremities, giving school-age children longer limbs in relation to torso, than preschoolers. At this time, some children experience growing pains. These are actual but harmless muscle pains whose cause is still unknown. Frequently, the pain is experienced in the calf, behind the knees and in front of the thigh. During the early school years, children continue to grow at a steady, continuous rate, though more slowly than in early childhood and infancy. By the intermediate and later stages of this period, gains in weight and height accelerate as children move into puberty (see figure 8.1). Both grow at a similar steady rate, but girls usually experience growth spurts before boys do. Children of both sexes usually grow taller before they experience weight gain. There are wide cultural differences in height. For example, the average height of eight-year-old girls varies from 114 centimetres in South Korea to almost 130 centimetres in Russia. At certain ages within CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 405

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any one society, individual variations are even more dramatic. The shortest and tallest six year olds in Australia and New Zealand differ by only 5 to 8 centimetres on average, but the shortest and tallest 12 year olds may differ by more than 30 centimetres. These variations are normal and are both genetically and environmentally determined. Factors including parental stature, as well as diet and stress, may influence the height children achieve. FIGURE 8.1

Growth in (a) height and (b) weight from two to eighteen years of age

(b) 200

100

190

90

180

80

170

72

160

64

Weight (kg)

Height (cm)

(a)

150 140 130

48 40

120

32

110

24

100

16

90

8

80

0

2

4

6

8

10 12 14 Age (years)

16

18

Boys

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56

2

4

6

8

10 12 14 Age (years)

16

18

Girls

A very small minority of children have an abnormally small stature due to deficiencies in the production of human growth hormone (HGH). They achieve a height less than 1.5 metres by the end of middle childhood. Since 1985, many small-for-age children have been successfully treated with regular injections of somatropin (an artificial HGH). In a review of studies since 1966, Weise and Nahata (2004) concluded that there are modest benefits to final height achieved from somatropin administration, with no shortterm adverse side effects. However, the optimal age, dosage and duration of drug administration are still largely unknown. Despite the benefits of somatropin, its administration remains controversial, because it is given to children who are genetically short or who are slow in growing, even if they are not HGH deficient. Thus, appropriate patient selection remains an issue according to Weise and Nahata. Additionally, the long-term side effects of artificial HGH on the developing body are still largely unknown (Betts, 2000). Children with short stature are not necessarily suffering from a debilitating medical condition, but their height can be a social disadvantage in a culture that values tallness. It is debatable whether minors should be subjected to potentially dangerous or unproven medical treatments in order to fulfil cultural expectations. Increases in children’s weight during middle childhood are mainly due to hardening of the bones and enlarged musculature. Internal organs increase in size, but not as dramatically as the skeleto-muscular system does. The fat layer between the skin and the underlying muscle also contributes to body weight, but during middle childhood, the puppy fat of early childhood lessens in favour of muscle development. However, for some children, this is not so. When fat accumulation becomes excessive, children are described as overweight or obese. These terms are defined by the amount of additional weight an individual is carrying, comparative to ‘ideal weight’ measures based on norms for individuals of the same height, gender, body build and age. Overweight children are between the 85th and 94th percentiles in weight for age 406

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and obese children are at or above the 95th percentile in weight for their age. This means 95 per cent of children the same age would be expected to weigh less than an obese child. In a review of studies, Sabin and Kiess (2015), Sabin, Werther, and Kiess (2011), Jones et al. (2016), and Australian and New Zealand researchers Swinburn and Wood (2013) concluded that the weight gain of the majority of children with childhood obesity results principally from environmental factors, with a background genetic predisposition towards weight gain. These children tend to be tall for age, but achieve normal adult height. In contrast, children with an underlying genetic condition principally responsible for their obesity (e.g. Prader-Willi Syndrome) tend to be short for age (O’Dea, Chiang, & Peralta, 2014; Olds, Schranz, & Maher, 2017). In terms of the environmental causes of obesity in children, research confirms faulty eating patterns established early in life are a major factor. For example, parents may present children with excessive portions of food and insist on having ‘clean plates’ (i.e. plates with no food left on them) by the end of the meal. They might display anxiety over food consumption, provide food as a comfort for children’s distress and reward appropriate child behaviour with edible treats (Couch, Glanz, Zhou, Sallis, & Saelens, 2014; Millar et al., 2014; Robson et al., 2016; Sherry et al., 2004). As a result, obese children are less aware of, and less reliant on, internal signals of satiety (fullness) and tend to habitually overeat (Jansen et al., 2003; Temple, Giacomelli, Roemmich, & Epstein, 2007). Also, in some cases obese children are less active than their normal-weight peers. Hence, there is a diminished chance they will burn off excess kilojoules. Children who are engaged in sedentary activities, such as watching television or playing computer games, are more likely to snack. Obesity and inactivity tend to reinforce each other and exacerbate the problem of being overweight (Kit, Ogden, & Flegal, 2014). Childhood obesity (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2017) is a significant health concern as it is linked to adult obesity, which is a risk factor for serious adult disorders such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and cancer (Biro & Wien, 2010; Krebs & Jacobsen, 2003; Lakshman Elks, & Ong, 2012; Puhl & Latner, 2007). Moreover, obese children are at a greater risk than their normal-weight peers of developing childhood illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, which can appear in late childhood or adolescence. Tsiros et al. (2014, 2016) and Robinson (2017) researched musculoskeletal pain and function in obese children. They found that obesity in children was linked to increased lower limb musculoskeletal pain; whereas Schultz, Byrne, and Hills (2014) found that excess body weight as well as an unhealthy proportion of body fat had critical implications for musculoskeletal health, including movement, joint loading, balance, strength and muscle force. Obesity also has significant psychosocial risks, because of the negative sociocultural attitudes to fatness in Western society. Interestingly, in many Oceanic cultures, a large body size is seen as attractive and signals high status (for example, in the Fijian Islands). In a US study, researchers found children were more likely to assign negative attributes to obese children than to normal-weight children (Baxter, Collins, & Hill, 2016; Di Pasquale & Celsi, 2017; Musher-Eizenman, Holub, Barnhart Miller, Goldstein, & Edwards-Leeper, 2004; Penny & Haddock, 2007). Negative stereotyping of obese children has also been found among Australian children (Tiggeman & Ainsbury, 2000); with adverse attitudes found in children as young as three years of age (Thomas, Burton Smith, & Ball, 2007). Obese children are at risk of peer rejection and lowered self-esteem (Harrist et al., 2016; Klesges et al., 1992). The Australian government’s Department of Health (2017) observed that the 2007–2008 National Health Survey results indicated that 24.9 per cent of children aged 5–17 years were overweight or obese. These results revealed that 25.8 per cent of boys and 24.0 per cent of girls were in this category. This survey measured food intake, physical activity participation and physical measurements in an Australia-wide sample of 4487 children aged 2–17 years. In 2017, the National Health Survey: First Results recorded approximately one in four (27.4 per cent) children aged 5–17 years were overweight or obese, comprising 20.2 per cent overweight and 7.4 per cent obese (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] 2014–15). Therefore, there has been no change in the proportion of Australian children who were overweight or obese since 2011–12 (25.7 per cent). The proportion of children aged 5–17 years who were overweight or obese increased between 1995 and 2007–2008 (20.9 per cent and 24.7 per cent, respectively) and then remained stable to 2011–12 (25.7 per cent). CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 407

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There are large individual variations in height for both boys and girls of a similar age during middle childhood.

In contrast, New Zealand’s Ministry of Health reported in its annual National Health Survey that one in nine children aged 2–14 years (11 per cent) was obese. In New Zealand, the child obesity rate has not changed significantly since 2011–2012 (when it was 11 per cent). However, the obesity rate has increased since 2006–2007 (8 per cent). Adjusting for age and sex differences, Pacific children were nearly four times as likely and M¯aori children 1.6 times as likely to be obese than those children without Pacific or M¯aori backgrounds. Twenty per cent of children living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas were obese, compared with 4 per cent of obese children living in the least deprived areas of New Zealand. The causes of increases in the incidence of obesity and overweight are complex. Some studies have indicated the caloric intake of children has not changed to a great degree, but energy expenditure has changed markedly (e.g. Berg, 2004; Kit, Ogden, & Flegal, 2014). In other words, children are not eating significantly more food than in previous decades, but they are more sedentary than in the past. In this way, energy intake and energy expenditure are out of balance, with children consuming more kilojoules than they are burning through physical activity. There are several reasons for this phenomenon. These days, children are more likely to spend their leisure time in front of a television or playing computer games than participating in vigorous outdoor activities (Anderson & Butcher, 2006; Datar, 2017; Ross, Flynn, & Pate, 2016). Research has shown a clear link between the incidence of obesity and the hours children spend watching television (Adachi-Mejia et al., 2007; Gilbert-Diamond, Li, Adachi-Mejia, McClure, & Sargent, 2014; Robinson, 2001; Robinson & Matheson, 2015). Sport and physical education are also declining in schools as curricula are becoming more crowded. Because of parental concerns about child safety, children are more likely to be driven to school than to walk. These factors all contribute to children being less active. The type of food children consume has also been linked to the incidence of obesity. Takeaway foods and supermarket convenience foods that are high in saturated fats and sugars are replacing more balanced 408

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meals (incorporating vegetables, fruits and protein) prepared in the family kitchen. For parents who are leading busy lives and juggling work and domestic responsibilities, convenience foods are an attractive alternative. However, if these foods are used excessively, they may result in imbalanced family diets comprising too many empty kilojoules that are readily converted into fat. Additionally, media advertising actively promotes convenience foods to children (Jahns, Siega-Riz, & Popkin, 2001; Martijn, Pasch, & Roefs, 2016; Musher-Eizenman, Marx, & Taylor, 2015; Slee, 2001). Like obesity, dieting is a serious health issue for children, particularly among girls. In Western society, current cultural norms that emphasise extreme thinness are affecting females at younger and younger ages. Dieting is giving rise to nutritional intakes that are insufficient for growing bodies and brains. Even six year olds are expressing concerns about becoming fat (Berge, Hanson-Bradley, Tate, & Neumark-Sztainer, 2016; Harrison, Rowlinson, & Hill, 2016; Tatangelo, McCabe, Mellor, & Mealey, 2016). Forward (2007), Rice, Prichard, Tiggemann, and Slater (2016) and Symons et al. (2013) found prepubescent Australian girls showed levels of dissatisfaction with their bodies only marginally lower than those reported for young women, who are the key demographic for eating disorders. With regard to inadequate and excessive food intake, neither is suitable for children. It is paramount that children are encouraged to eat a healthy balanced diet. This is largely under the control of parents. Changing individual children’s eating patterns usually means the family has to change as well. This is because parents and siblings have a substantial influence on the type of food consumed in the home, as well as on children’s daily activities (Fildes et al., 2014; Larsen et al., 2015; Pittman & Kaufman, 1994). Figure 8.2 lists some additional guidelines for addressing weight issues in children.

FIGURE 8.2

Guidelines for responding to a child’s weight problem

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1. Make sure the child really needs to lose weight. Weighing only a little (10 per cent) more than average poses no medical risk and may cause few social problems in the long term for children. If children are teased about their weight, learning ways to cope with the teasing may be more effective than trying to lose weight, which runs the risk of escalating into an eating disorder. 2. Consult with a doctor or a trained nutritionist before starting the child on a dietary program. A diet should aim at stabilising weight or reducing it by about 450 grams per week at most. Diets should be nutritionally balanced and include healthy snacks. Crash or fad diets should be completely avoided. They are ineffective and can seriously jeopardise a child’s health. 3. Develop a program of exercise appropriate for the child. Start slowly and build up gradually. Try to incorporate activities the child enjoys that fit easily into their daily routine. 4. Seek support from the child’s family, teachers and others whom the child sees regularly. These people must show respect for the child’s efforts, offer encouragement and avoid tempting the child to break a diet or give up on exercise. Most of all, they should participate with the child in programs of activity or programs to control eating.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

In a 2014 study, Australian researchers Jongenelis, Byrne, and Pettigrew found that ‘body ideals and dieting behaviours are embedded in the lives of girls and boys (both healthy-weight and overweight/obese) at a very early age’ (pp. 299–300). Furthermore, Pettigrew, Jongenelis, Quester, Chapman, and Miller (2016) investigated parents’ attitudes to unhealthy foods and beverages. They were interested in examining how these attitudes influenced food provision behaviours and children’s diets. Discuss how you, the media, education and institutions associated with children can assist in addressing current body dissatisfaction, dieting, overeating and healthy weight gain in middle childhood girls and boys.

CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 409

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8.2 Health and illness

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LEARNING OUTCOME 8.2 Identify the kinds of illnesses that affect school-aged children and how children’s cultural background can affect their health.

Compared to 50 years ago, children in developed nations enjoy better health. They are significantly less likely to die during childhood or to experience serious illness. Over the past century, mortality — the proportion of persons who die at a given age — has declined for all age groups and especially for children. Between 1987 and 2007, the death rate for Australian children halved (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c). In 2015, children aged 5–9 years and 10–14 years had the lowest agespecific death rates (ASDR) in Australia. Male and female ASDRs were the same (ABS, 2015). The development of vaccines has eradicated or controlled many infectious diseases that killed or disabled children in earlier generations (e.g. measles, diphtheria, poliomyelitis and bacterial meningitis). Unfortunately, infectious diseases that are either eradicated or controlled in Western nations are continuing to affect many children living in developing nations. Children from developed societies are more likely to die from accidental injury than from serious illnesses. Children’s increasing independence and mobility during middle childhood make them more vulnerable to misadventure. For example, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death and injury in Western children (Bailar-Heath & Valley-Gray, 2010; Field & Behrman, 2002; World Health Organization [WHO], 2013). It is important parents reduce risks to children through appropriate use of safety equipment, including knee and elbow pads, seat belts and safety helmets. A small but substantial proportion of children in European countries, the United States, Australia and New Zealand are affected by life-threatening and disabling chronic diseases that do not have a bacterial or viral cause (e.g. diabetes, arthritis, asthma and childhood cancers such as leukaemia). One of the most common chronic conditions is asthma — more than 150 million children suffer from it worldwide (Doyle, 2000). In Australia, one in eight children is affected by the condition (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2007), with middle childhood the peak period for the incidence of asthma in both boys and girls (ABS, 2008). New Zealand has the highest rate of asthma in the world. Asthma is a constriction of the airways in the lungs that reduces the amount of oxygen supplied to the body. This causes wheezing and physical distress, as the child struggles to breathe. In severe cases, asthma can be life-threatening. Trends have shown the incidence of asthma has doubled since the 1980s, possibly due to a greater prevalence of environmental triggers for the condition, including atmospheric pollutants and cigarette smoke. Children with serious chronic illnesses often experience absences from school and general disruption to their lives as a consequence of their medical condition. They are also at risk of social–emotional and academic problems (Hoehn, Foxen-Craft, Pinder, Dahlquist, 2016; Le Blanc, Goldsmith, & Patel, 2003). As well, families can be put under a great deal of stress caring for a child with a chronic illness. For this reason, it is important that children and their families receive appropriate support. For example, in Australia organisations such as Camp Quality, Childhood Cancer Support and Make-A-Wish Australia provide care and encouragement for children with cancer and their families. The most common childhood diseases are acute illnesses. Unlike chronic illnesses, they have a definite onset and conclusion. Most acute childhood illnesses, such as influenza, develop from viruses that infect host tissue such as the nose or lungs. Despite popular belief, drugs cannot combat viral infections and viral illnesses must run their course, with natural immunity the best defence. Children are more susceptible to acute illnesses in the early school years as their immune system is still developing and they are exposed to more infections at school than at home.

Indigenous children’s health Aboriginal children in Australia have double the mortality rate of non-Indigenous children (ABS, 2007). Kinfu (2006), Bailie, Stevens, and McDonald (2014) and Melody et al. (2016) found that the most 410

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important contributor to Aboriginal child mortality was the quality of the child’s housing, and particularly the sanitary facilities. Poor sanitation in environments such as town camps and remote communities means that Aboriginal children are more at risk of serious and life-threatening infectious diseases than children of non-Aboriginal descent. Every year about 500 Aboriginal children from remote communities are admitted to the infectious diseases ward at the Royal Darwin Hospital (Bauert, Brown, Collins, & Martin, 2001). Hospitalisation occurs mainly because of diseases of the chest and throat (19 per cent), as well as middle ear infections (10 per cent) and eye infections (8 per cent) (ABS, 2007). Bacterial and viral infections of the middle ear are often triggered by a cold and if untreated can accumulate pus or fluid that causes deafness. The World Health Organization indicates that rates of middle ear infections greater than 4 per cent constitute a health emergency. In some Aboriginal communities, rates are as high as 50 per cent (Bauert et al., 2001; Jervis-Bardy, Sanchez, & Carney, 2014; Leach et al., 2016). Consequently, the prevalence of total or partial hearing loss connected to ear infections is three times higher among Indigenous than non-Indigenous Australian children, with one in ten Aboriginal children experiencing a serious hearing impairment (ABS, 2007, 2008). Moreover, the Northern Territory Strategic Results Project showed 79 per cent of children tested had hearing disability that could interfere with language development and schooling. A longitudinal study by the Menzies School of Health Research in Australia’s Northern Territory has indicated health-related data collected on Aboriginal children in remote areas does not necessarily apply to Aboriginal children in urban areas — so, statistics on Indigenous children need to be interpreted carefully (Mackerras et al., 2003; Sayers, Mackerras, & Singh, 2017). For example, the Menzies study showed remote Aboriginal children were shorter and lighter than urban Aboriginal children, with a lower body mass index and lower haemoglobin levels. They also had more visible infections than urban children, who were more similar to non-Indigenous Australian children in terms of these indicators. In 2007, the federal government instituted drastic measures to address Aboriginal child health and welfare issues in remote Indigenous communities, with a taskforce to improve child health and tackle neglect in the Northern Territory. Consistent with Kinfu’s (2006) findings outlined in the paragraph above, the 2007 task force made better housing a priority in addressing health-related issues. Indeed, from a review of the federal government’s 2007 intervention, Aboriginal people particularly welcomed improvements in housing (Commonwealth of Australia, 2008). Unless crowding and poor sanitation are progressively alleviated in remote communities, there is little chance of improving the future health of Aboriginal children.

8.3 Motor development and sport

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LEARNING OUTCOME 8.3 List the improvements in motor skills that children usually experience during the school years and explain how these improvements affect children’s involvement in sporting activity.

During middle childhood, improvements in fine motor coordination can be seen in children’s writing and drawing and in their ability to do needlework, build models and play musical instruments requiring complex fingering. Younger children are not capable of such fine motor movements, partly because of less efficient neural impulses. By middle childhood, there is greater myelinisation of the nerve cells, giving them more fatty insulation and hence better conductivity (Lecours, 1982). At age seven, most children are able to button their clothes and tie their own shoelaces, and at age eight they are able to use their left and right hands independently. As middle childhood progresses, the size of children’s writing decreases and legibility, spacing and uniformity of letters increase. By Year 3, children are generally able to transition from printing to cursive script, allowing writing to be produced more rapidly. By age 11 or 12, manual dexterity reaches a similar level to that seen in adulthood. Gross motor skills also continue to improve during middle childhood. School-aged children are able to master skills such as rollerblading, ball sports and bike riding, which as preschoolers they would have CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 411

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found very difficult or impossible. This ability is due to increased agility, flexibility and force in moving the limbs and body, as well as improved balance, information processing and reaction time (Haywood & Getchell, 2014; Kail, 2003). Sex differences in strength and gross motor skills during middle childhood are minimal, so up until puberty — when growth spurts result in wider differentials in body size and strength between boys and girls — children are able to take part in the same sports and physical activities in mixed-sex groups (Jurimae & Saar, 2003). Unlike preschool children, school-aged children put their gross motor skills to use in more complex physical activities. These include informally organised games such as hopscotch, skipping and tag, which help to develop balance, coordination and agility. These games involve rules and have meaning for schoolaged children because they can understand and abide by a game’s conventions. Such games contribute to children’s social–emotional and cognitive development, since children practise both competing and cooperating, and discover which rules work well and which do not. Australian and New Zealand youngsters have an advantage over many of their North American and European counterparts. The climate in both Australia and New Zealand is mild and allows for the pursuit of outdoor activities all year round, with obvious benefits to physical health and development. However, there is some evidence to suggest that in the developed world informal games are decreasing — with less opportunity for children to gather in parks and playgrounds. Even so, in terms of their contribution to children’s physical, cognitive and psychosocial development, school-based physical education, formal team sports such as hockey and individual sports such as gymnastics may provide some compensation for the decline in informal activities. What lasting physical and psychological effects do athletic experiences have on children? This question has not been studied as thoroughly for children as it has for adolescents and adults. The existing evidence is presented in the following section.

In addition to obvious physical benefits, early sport can encourage self-discipline, the motivation to reach new goals and a sense of self-esteem. However, some sporting activities may also result in injuries and destructive levels of competition.

412

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Physical and psychological effects of sport Children’s involvement in formal games such as hockey, football, cricket and netball promotes good health and gross motor development. But, there are downsides to childhood involvement in sport. The most obvious is the risk of physical injury — including bruises and sprains, as well as broken and dislocated bones. During middle childhood, the bones harden, but they still do not have the resistance of adult bones and are more susceptible to physical forces. Hence, children are more at risk of breakages. Australian research from the Monash University Accident Research Centre cites fractures as the most common school injury, with a significant proportion of injuries occurring while children are taking part in sports (Mitchell, Curtis, & Foster, 2017). Of primary school injuries, 13 per cent are sustained during sports activities, rising to 34 per cent by the time children reach high school. Falls are the most likely cause of sports-related injuries, followed by collision with other players and objects such as footballs (Clapperton, Cassell, & Wallace, 2003). Although these statistics show a substantial connection between participating in sports and sustaining an injury, the majority of sports-related injuries are not catastrophic. Therefore, the benefits of participation in sports for most children outweigh the risks involved. Reviewing research, Rowland (2000) and Patel, Soares, and Wells (2017) conclude that there is little evidence for physical harm to children’s developing bodies during middle childhood from their involvement in sports, including endurance sports such as distance running and swimming. Instead, children involved in regular sport tend to develop better physical endurance than less athletic children. This means their hearts and large muscles function more efficiently. As a result, they are able to undertake ordinary daily activities with less effort (Gerber et al., 2017). Additionally, the regular physical activity involved in sports is an important antidote to the epidemic of obesity that threatens the health of children in developed countries, including Australia (Cairney & Veldhuizen, 2017; Koning et al., 2016; Olds et al., 2004). Physically fit children are more likely to grow into fit adults who are still actively involved in exercise and benefit from a sense of health and wellbeing (Connor, 2003). As well as physical benefits, there are psychological benefits to participating in sport (Gill, Williams, & Reifsteck, 2017). Team and individual sports can develop achievement motivation (the desire to improve on previous performances) by providing standards against which children can assess their performance. Goals can be scored, distances measured and times clocked. Children’s performances can then be compared with their own previous achievements, with those of their peers, or against the results of champion individuals or teams. Whether this information encourages higher athletic achievement depends on how a child uses it and on the developmental level of the child. For example, during early childhood, a child may find each swimming session enjoyable and therefore approaches each performance as a unique event, rather than putting them in the context of previous performances. However, during the school years, children become more concerned with comparing themselves against standards, including peer performances. By middle childhood, children are able to differentiate athletic competence from other types of competence in developing their sense of self worth. Thus, school-aged children, unlike preschoolers, actively try to better previous sports performances and correct prior mistakes (Weiss, Bhalla, & Price, 2008). Moreover, demonstrating improvements in performance is something that happens in a social context (Horn, 2015). Jenkins (2008) maintains that children’s perceived physical competence, a key to their enjoyment of sports, is highly dependent on peer acceptance within the sporting situation. Similarly, Elbe et al. (2017) investigated the importance of enjoyment and social cohesion factors in relation to adherence to regular physical and sport activity in middle childhood. Team sports can promote cooperation in a group of individuals, allowing children to learn to subordinate their own personal performance goals to goals that work towards the team’s greater good. For example, football games are not won by a single player. Children who play this sport need to learn to pass the ball to other players if they want to maximise the chances of their team scoring goals and winning the game. By the same token, the failure to carry through with a crucial play can be stressful for children who might feel personally responsible if their team loses a game. Losing teams show a marked tendency to pinpoint blame by victimising individual members (McPherson et al., 2016; McPherson et al., 2017;

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Petlichkoff, 2004; Vella, Cliff, Magee, & Okely, 2015). So, coaches need to carefully monitor the group processes within a team and team members’ reactions to losing. As well, coaches should ensure that children do not spend all or most of a team game sitting on the bench as a substitute. This involves optimal manning of children’s sports teams, so that players and parents do not become de-motivated by having little or no time participating in the game (Harvey, Kirk, & O’Donovan, 2014). Hill and Green (2008) found that modifying Australian children’s soccer games so that all players had equal time playing was crucial to player retention and enjoyment, even at the risk of under-manning. These authors found that over-manning a team was more damaging to team morale and player motivation. During middle childhood, parents’ roles in supporting their children’s sporting activity are pivotal; including parental involvement level and attitude to sport. According to Partridge, Brustad, and Babkes Stellino (2008), Davies, Babkes Stellino, Nichols, and Coleman (2016) and Donkers, Martin, Paradis, and Anderson (2014) parents strongly influence children’s emotional response to sport, including enjoyment, stress and burnout. To avoid negative emotional responses, it is important children’s sports are not excessively adult-controlled and adult-oriented. Criticism and anger from adults over sporting performance can result in childhood anxiety and encourage early dropouts from sport (Marsh & Daigneault, 1999; Schwebel, Smith, & Smoll, 2016). As well, over-involvement by parents in their children’s sporting activities may be detrimental to children’s social–emotional development. Over-involved parents often live their sporting dreams through their children’s achievements, and can place excessive pressure on children to perform. In team sports, parental over-involvement is demonstrated by ‘sideline rage’ where parent spectators might even become engaged in altercations with child players, other parents or with team coaches and referees over game decisions and team plays (Elliott, 2015; Ross, Mallett, & Parkes, 2015). The effect of parental over-involvement on children’s participation in and enjoyment of both individual and team sports is detrimental. In a study of sideline rage in the United States, Goldstein and Iso-Ahola (2008) and Iso-Ahola (2013) found that a surprising 40 per cent of parents attending junior soccer games admitted to becoming angry and acting upon it in some way, such as yelling or going on to the field. Goldstein also found that such actions by parents had a far-reaching negative effect on their children and tended to demotivate children in terms of sporting involvement and achievement. In a pamphlet Stamp out sport rage — tips for parents published by the New South Wales Government, the effect of sideline rage on children is encapsulated in comments such as: ‘I don’t play anymore because mum used to yell too much. I got sick of it’ (New South Wales Sport and Recreation, 2006). Children who become demotivated in sport often turn to sedentary activities such as watching television and therefore miss out on important health benefits in the process. Schools as well as parents have an important role to play in maximising children’s involvement in sports and physical activities by providing appropriate encouragement. Highly competitive sports are unlikely to attract less physically fit children, so it is essential schools promote activities that are fun and achievable for children at different levels of physical competency. Table 8.1 summarises the benefits and the risks of sport in middle childhood.

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TABLE 8.1

Physical and psychological effects of childhood sport

Positive effects

Negative effects

414

Physical effects

Psychological effects

r Better physical fitness r Improved motor coordination

r Improved achievement motivation (e.g. bettering previous running times) r Support for teamwork (e.g. basketball)

r Sports-related injuries (e.g. knee injuries from football, back problems from gymnastics, shoulder pain from cricket)

r Competition can engender more concern with winning than with individual performance improvement r Excessive pressure from adults to practise, perform well and win

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Observe a game such as soccer, basketball, hockey or football with middle childhood children to identify if coaches and parents encourage skills and efforts during the game. To what extent are parents overly focused on winning? What are the behaviours of school-aged children and parents during the game? How do these behaviours influence children’s cognitive, social and emotional development?

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Cognitive development involves changes that occur in the nature and complexity of children’s thinking. For over 100 years, psychologists have developed theories to explain how children’s cognition expands. Two of the most prominent theorists who continue to influence educational practices today are Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Strategies for teaching and learning implemented in Australian and New Zealand primary schools owe a lot to the work of these two developmentalists. The following section describes their theories and how their ideas apply specifically to children during middle childhood. This section also deals with theoretical developments that have occurred as a result of expanding knowledge of the processes involved in cognition; for example, attention and memory. Language development is another important aspect of cognitive development during the school years. It is covered in this section, along with theories of intelligence and how these apply to the thoughts of school-aged children. Finally, this section addresses one of the most important contexts for cognitive development during middle childhood — the school.

8.4 Piaget’s theory: concrete operations LEARNING OUTCOME 8.4 Identify the cognitive skills that children acquire during the school years, and examine the psychological and practical effects of these new skills.

As we discussed in previous chapters, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget developed a comprehensive theory of cognitive development from birth to adolescence. According to this theory, children during middle childhood become skilled at concrete operations — mental activities focused on observable objects and events. The different manifestations of concrete operations are described in this section. In the early part of the twentieth century, Piaget invented the clinical method, involving ingenious tasks that demonstrated children’s cognitive development. These ‘mini-experiments’ or tasks, designed to discover how children’s thought changed with age, are described in this section. The implications of Piaget’s theory for education are also considered.

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Conservation When Maya was six and Pradesh was eight, several university students visited their school to complete a developmental psychology class project. Because Pradesh and Maya’s parents were interested in what they might learn about their children, they consented to them participating in the students’ project. At the school, the students presented Years 1, 2 and 3 children with two identical glasses. They asked the children to pour equal amounts of orange juice into the two glasses. Maya needed a little help with pouring the juice, while Pradesh poured accurately and independently and checked the glasses afterwards to make sure they showed exactly the same level. When the children were satisfied there were the same amounts of orange juice in each glass, a student took one of the glasses and poured all of the juice into a taller and thinner glass beaker. The other glass of juice was poured into a wide, shallow glass dish. The student then asked the children whether there was still the same amount of orange juice in the two containers or whether one had more orange juice than the other. The student also asked the children which container CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 415

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they would prefer to drink. Maya said she would prefer the tall thin beaker because it had more orange juice in it than the wide glass dish. When the student asked her why she thought this was so, she said the orange juice was ‘up higher than in the dish’. That evening, Pradesh was describing to his parents what had happened at school. ‘It was really stupid’, he complained. ‘The guy asked me whether one jar had more orange juice than the other. How dumb is that? Of course they both had the same amount. Just pouring them out wouldn’t change anything. But he just kept saying “Why? Why?” So I had to do all this explaining . . . ’ ‘What did you say?’ asked Pradesh’s father, who was interested to hear how Pradesh had explained the obvious to the university student. ‘I told him they just looked different and that if you poured them back into the glasses they would look the same again. But he still kept asking me why, so I had to think up some more reasons. I said one jar was tall but it was also thin and the other was wider but it was also shorter’, said Pradesh. Maya had been listening to her brother with a puzzled look on her face. ‘But Pradesh’, she insisted, ‘I chose the big tall one ’cos it really did have more!’ Pradesh told Maya she was being silly — of course the two jars had the same quantity of orange juice. But no amount of explaining by Pradesh would convince Maya her opinion was wrong. Their parents were amused by the juvenile argument, but also fascinated by the differences they could see in their children. Although they were only two years apart in age, their thought processes were markedly different. During middle childhood, children move from what Piaget called preoperational thought to concrete operational thought, encapsulated by the contrasting ways Pradesh and Maya responded to the conservation task presented by the university students. Conservation tasks are still used by researchers today and involve presenting the child with a situation of equivalence, such as the two identical glasses of orange juice. An irrelevant transformation is then made, which changes the appearance of the material, such as pouring the orange juice into two differently shaped containers. The child is asked whether the materials are still equivalent or whether one is greater than the other. The child is also asked the reasons for their answer. Based on the response given to the equivalence question and the reasoning behind it, children are categorised in terms of their stage of cognitive development as non-conserving, transitional or conserving. The university student who tested Maya classified her as non-conserving because of her firm belief there was more juice in the tall beaker than in the wide dish and the perception-based reason she gave (that the orange juice in one jar looked higher than the juice in the other). Pradesh was classified as conserving because he was not misled by the visual cues that fooled Maya. He was able to demonstrate an understanding that the irrelevant transformation did not alter the essential property of the orange juice in any way. In other words, he was able to conserve this property over and above the irrelevant transformation. The following year, another group of psychology students came to the school to administer the same conservation task. By this time, Maya was able to say the amounts of orange juice were identical, but she was unable to explain why. Her justification was simply, ‘Because they are’. Maya was classified as transitional because of her ability to recognise that the irrelevant transformation had not changed the amount of juice, but her reasoning had not consolidated to such an extent that she was able to explain it. Transitional children may also show fluctuating thought, alternating between non-conserving and conserving responses. The transition from preoperational thought to concrete operations is a gradual process that sometimes takes between one and two years (Flavell, 1963). Children who achieve conservation are said to be in the concrete operational stage of cognitive development, because they are able to apply operations (mental actions) involving logical reasoning to concrete (observable) situations. In his responses to the university students, Pradesh demonstrated the three essential properties of concrete operational thought — identity, reversibility and decentration (Meadows, 2017; Piaget, 1965; Wadsworth, 1996). Pradesh’s initial exasperated response demonstrates identity. He made it clear to his questioner he understood the orange juice had not changed at all in its properties because of the physical transformation. So, he recognised after pouring the juice that no juice had been added or subtracted from the original amounts in the glasses. Pradesh was able to explain that 416

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if the juice was poured back into the original glasses, it would look the same. This shows he was able to mentally reverse the irrelevant transformation that had been performed. When he was pressed by a university student for a stronger justification, Pradesh demonstrated decentration. He simultaneously considered the two dimensions of the containers the juice was poured in: their height and their width. In contrast, Maya did not demonstrate the hallmarks of operational thought. She could only consider one dimension at a time and concentrated on the different heights of the containers without considering their differing widths. This led her to believe the tall beaker had more orange juice than the flat dish. Also, she was unable to mentally reverse the irrelevant transformation and firmly believed the irrelevant transformation had indeed changed the amount of orange juice in the glasses. The conservation tasks can be applied to different observable properties of objects and materials. Pradesh and Maya were tested on the conservation of liquid amount. The students could also have tested them on conservation of other physical properties such as length, number, volume, weight, area and mass (also called continuous quantity). Some of these conservation tasks are illustrated in figure 8.3. All are essentially the same in the sense that an irrelevant transformation is made that changes the physical appearance of the objects or materials. The property investigated is varied by using different materials or objects, and the relevant property-related conservation question is asked; for example: ‘Are they the same length or is one pencil longer than the other?’, ‘Are there still the same number or does one line have more counters?’ The conservation tasks are not equal in difficulty for children, and so the conservations are achieved at different ages, creating a sequence of acquisition that Piaget called horizontal d´ecalage. At around age five or six, children achieve conservation of number. They do not conserve volume, a less visually apparent property, until approximately age 11 or 12. Piaget was concerned about the sequencing of children’s cognitive transformations. Later researchers focused on investigating the question of the age when these changes occur. This change in direction arose because of the individual differences that had been reliably found in children’s attaining of conservations. Also, cultural differences were consistently demonstrated. Cross-cultural research in the twentieth century suggested children in African, Papua New Guinean and South American tribal societies attain concrete operations at later ages than children who are members of Western, industrialised societies (Lloyd, 1972). For example, Marks Greenfield (1966) demonstrated the majority of unschooled ‘bush’ children from the Tiv tribal group in Senegal, West Africa, had still not attained the conservation of liquid amount by 13 years of age. Rawlinson (1974) demonstrated a similar delay in children from a remote part of the Southern Highlands province in Papua New Guinea. Only one-quarter of the children tested had attained the conservation of liquid amount by the end of primary school. A similar-aged sample of Tasmanian children showed 92 per cent attainment of the same type of conservation by Year 6. During the twentieth century, much research effort was directed towards uncovering the mechanisms involved in attaining the conservations at certain ages, and whether this was modifiable. Researchers argued that the age when conservations are achieved depends heavily on the amount of everyday rehearsal a child may have experienced (Light & Perrett-Clermont, 1989). Children in pre-industrial cultures may not have the same opportunities as Western children to undertake activities that relate to conservations (Dasen, 1977; Rawlinson, 1974). For example, Rawlinson observed children in her Papuan sample had little or no access to such opportunities. The few utensils found in their traditional highland villages were in constant use for cooking, and water was stored in huge lengths of bamboo. This situation contrasts markedly with the average Western home where children have access to kitchen cupboards and to water from an early age. Research including Wadsworth’s (1996) study showed practising conservation tasks — including physically reversing the irrelevant transformation and drawing children’s attention to the different dimensions — enhances the acquisition of conservation. Dasen et al. (1979), Dasen (1994, 2013) and de Lemos (1969, 2013) demonstrated conservation training of rural Aboriginal-Australian children resulted in a marked improvement in conservation attainment rates (by about three years). Without such training, about 40 per cent of rural Aboriginal-Australian children still had not attained conservation by the age of 14. With training, these children were much more similar to non-Aboriginal urban Australian CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 417

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children — most of whom had attained conservation by age eight. In a cross-cultural study on the ability of Aboriginal Australians to classify, De Lacey (1970) selected Aboriginal-Australian children who lived in an isolated, rural, mainly Aboriginal community as one sample. In another sample, De Lacey observed Aboriginal-Australian children who lived in much closer contact with Europeans and their technology. Interestingly, the two samples of European children were identified as high- and low-socioeconomic. Significant differences in performance were found between the two European and the two Aboriginal groups, especially on a test of multiple classification. However, a small sub-sample of very high-contact Aboriginals performed as well as white Australian children who lived in a similar environment. This research concluded that environmental differences between the four populations sampled had a major influence in the performance differences found. From this important research in the last century, it became apparent that biological maturation is not the only factor affecting the acquisition of different conservations. Environmental factors also play a crucial role, confirming Piaget’s assertions about how cognition develops.

FIGURE 8.3

Conservation tasks By presenting children with discrete tasks, Piaget demonstrated different conservations emerge at separate stages during middle childhood. Conservation tasks present different levels of difficulty and observability of the properties involved. The conserving child realises the amount of liquid or solid material remains constant and the length or number of objects remains unchanged, despite physical transformations that superficially alter their appearance.

Ask child

Usual answer (non-conserving)

Conservation of liquid amount

Do they still have the same amount or does one have more than the other?

Has more

Conservation of mass

Are they both the same amount or is one more than the other?

Original setup

Alter as shown

More

Conservation of number

Are there still the same number or does one row have more than the other?

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More

Conservation of length

Are they the same length or is one longer? Is longer

Conservation of length

418

Are they the same length or is one pencil longer?

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Is longer

Classification Concrete operations are not only expressed through different conservations; they are also seen in the way children classify objects. By the age of seven, children are able to think more flexibly about the way things can be grouped and are able to pass Piaget’s class inclusion problem, where two hierarchical ways of classifying a group of things are possible. For example, children are presented with a picture of four girls and eight boys. The child is asked, ‘Are there more boys or more children in this picture?’ Preoperational children only attend to one dimension of the problem — comparing boys to girls. They answer, ‘There are more boys’. A child who has attained concrete operations is able to recognise there is a superordinate category of children that includes both boys and girls. Through a reasoning process, the operational child realises the correct answer to the question is, ‘There are more children’. In terms of everyday knowledge, children who have attained concrete operations know a person can be both a parent and a teacher at the same time, rather than one or the other. They also understand some classifications are inclusive of others; for example, an animal can be both a dog and a pet.

Seriation Concrete operations are manifest in the ability to seriate — an ordinal understanding of properties such as size, length and weight. Seriation is an important precursor to the development of mathematical skills. Piaget’s classic seriation task involves nine or ten rods that are graduated in length. The rods are presented in a haphazard arrangement and the child is asked to put them in order from the smallest to the largest. Preoperational children below the age of seven may put the rods together in pairs or threes. But, usually, they are not able to make a graduated series of all the rods. Others may line the rods up, paying attention to one end of each rod but not to the other end — by levelling them at either the top or the bottom. Operational children typically level all the rods at one end so length comparisons can be made easily and then move the rods so they achieve a series graduated according to size. Children who have reached the stage of concrete operations understand each rod has to be larger than the one before it and smaller than the one that follows it. This thinking involves a double comparison that a younger child is not yet able to achieve. Another task related to seriation is Piaget’s transitivity task, which is carried out with rods of different lengths and different colours. Children are presented with Rod A, which is longer than Rod B. They are then presented with Rod C, which is shorter than Rod B. They are shown comparisons between Rods A and B, and between Rods B and C, and are required to make the inference Rod A must be longer than Rod C. Transitivity is generally more difficult for children than seriation; but researchers such as Wright and Dowker (2002) and Wright and Smailes (2015) have found that when seven- to eight-year-old children actively remember the two initial comparisons, they are more easily able to make the transitivity inference.

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Spatial reasoning Piaget designed a spatial task involving three model mountains of different heights presented to a child on a table. The mountains are identified by different colours and features — a cross on the summit of one, a house on the summit of another and snow on the summit of the third mountain. A doll is placed on the table opposite the child, who is asked to select the picture that shows the view of the mountains the doll sees. A preoperational child typically chooses the view they see, indicating an egocentric way of viewing the world. Children who have attained concrete operations can mentally place themselves in the doll’s position and choose the correct (inverse) mountain view. So, operational children show increased ability in perspective-taking that allows them to reason better spatially in everyday life. For example, by the age of about eight years, children can represent the spatial relations of their everyday surroundings. They can make simplified but accurate, maps and models representing familiar places, such as their homes, their classrooms or their local shopping centre. Mental representations of space — such as a child’s home, school or neighbourhood — often called cognitive maps, become more accurate for school-aged CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 419

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children. Being able to draw large-scale spaces requires development of perspective-taking skills, which typically occurs around ages 8–10. At this time, cognitive maps are seen to be more detailed and better organised, and children are able to give clear instructions for getting from one place to another. Children are able to orient and read a map (Liben, 2009, 2017). In addition, 10–12 year olds are able to understand scale and its representation on a map.

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Implications of Piaget’s theory Piaget’s ideas about how children’s cognitions develop have profoundly influenced the way children are educated, particularly during the primary school years (Elkind, 1994). Central to this influence is Piaget’s constructivist philosophy — the assumption that children develop their own concepts through active engagement with the environment. During middle childhood, this involves children being presented with concrete situations where they actively experiment, manipulating objects and materials and observing outcomes. Constructionist philosophy has profoundly influenced modern teaching methods, which are based on active learning instead of older methods such as rote learning, listening and recitation. For example, rather than simply sitting in a classroom listening to the teacher talk about different insects, children are taken on a field trip with butterfly nets to catch various insects. As the week progresses, children regularly observe the insects they have caught in a closed terrarium in the classroom. They make notes on what they have observed: the insects’ appearance and their behaviours such as eating and mobility. The children are then encouraged to discover the ways different insects are similar as well as the ways they are unalike. This can then be linked with book or computer-based learning. Piaget’s theories have also influenced the content of school curriculums, by giving curriculum developers and teachers clear guidelines about the most suitable subject matter and approaches for teaching and learning (Krahenbuhl, 2016; Waite-Stupiansky, 1997, 2017). For example, a thorough knowledge of concrete operations and the sequence of attaining conservations are vital for curriculum planners structuring learning within a science or a mathematics curriculum. Children in Year 3 would experience difficulty grasping problems involving volume and area — since most children do not conserve these properties until the age of 11 or 12. However, most children have attained classification skills and understand superordinate categories by early primary school. These abilities would therefore make a lesson involving the classification system that is generally applied to plants and animals understandable to Year 3 children, and it would therefore be suitable curriculum material. Concrete operations mean that children are able to think rationally about things as long as they have something to look at or manipulate while they are thinking about them. So, curriculum designers need to include such elements in making educational experiences meaningful for primary school children. For example, an eight year old who has no trouble with a transitivity task involving coloured rods would have more difficulty with a similar mathematical problem that was presented verbally, such as: ‘George is taller than Bill and Bill is taller than Sam. Who is taller — George or Sam?’ This transitivity task is abstracted beyond the tangible and observable and would present difficulties to the average child in the early and intermediate years of primary school. It is not until age 11 or 12 — when children are beginning to think abstractly — that such a problem might be handled with ease. In middle childhood, children need to be given tasks where they can apply their reasoning to situations. They also need to be able to manipulate and observe the results of their actions. If they can do this, they will be able to develop and consolidate their reasoning skills. Piaget emphasised the importance of children’s thought processes and what they allow children to accomplish. This approach is evident in Piaget’s clinical method, involving structured interviews and problem-solving tasks. Many educators believe such dialogues and tasks are superior for assessing students’ progress than are traditional classroom tests and assignments. These tend to emphasise rote knowledge taken out of context. (Babcock, 2013; Hill & Ruptic, 1994; Maddox, Forte, & Boozer, 2014; Odo, 2015). An emphasis on learning processes, rather than on products, is also a focus for neo-Piagetian theorists such as Case, who have melded information processing ideas with classical Piagetian theory. 420

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These theorists have advanced Piaget’s original ideas about how children learn and propose cognitive developmental stages that are more specific and accurate than Piaget’s original stages (Case, 2013; Case & Edelstein, 1993). WHAT DO YOU THINK?

To Piaget, the concrete operational stage was the decisive ‘turning point’ in a child’s cognitive development, since it signals the beginning of logical thought. Reflect on why logical thought is the decisive turning point in cognitive development. How could parents, educators and carers foster the development of logical thought in the concrete operational child?

8.5 Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

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LEARNING OUTCOME 8.5 Discuss how the social environment and interactions between adults and children influence cognitive development during the school years.

Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky theorised that cognitive development advances within children’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978, 1997). The ZPD refers to the level of difficulty at which children can almost, but not quite, solve a problem independently. They are able to solve the problem if they are actively assisted by an adult or a more competent peer. By using scaffolding — the guidance, support and assistance that takes place in an interactive context — the less competent learner acquires new knowledge and skills. Scaffolding consists of hints, reminders, questions and prompts to advance the learner along the road of self-discovery. The teacher, sibling, peer or parent, however, must desist from doing too much for the learner, so that the learner does not merely become a passive onlooker. For example, an eight-year-old boy is used to playing games on the family computer, but has not yet used the internet for obtaining information for a school project — something that is just beyond his present capabilities. Looking up information is in the boy’s zone of proximal development because of his previous experience and familiarity with the computer and the keyboard. With some guidance from his father, he can accomplish this task. His father asks him what his project is about. It is about early sailing ships that visited Australia in voyages of discovery. The father asks the boy if he had to pick just two or three words to describe his project to someone, what would they be? The boy gives the words ‘ships’, ‘discovery’ and ‘Australia’. The father explains that these are called key words, and that special programs called search engines use these words to find the correct information from thousands of electronic documents and websites that are available on the internet. The boy has control of the computer mouse and keyboard. The father guides his son to the relevant places on the computer screen where he can find search engines. He prompts his son by pointing to the screen, and where he can type in the key words for an internet search. When a list of documents is displayed, the father explains that these are just some of the hundreds of available documents and websites on the subject. He asks his son how he might decide which documents or websites to look at first. The boy looks at the myriad entries on the screen, puzzled. The father then points to the first listed item and asks the boy to read what it says. He then asks whether it looks like a good website or e-document to view in full. His son thinks it sounds okay, so the father tells the boy how to open it by mouse clicking. This example highlights the social and cultural context of interactional learning, known as the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky. Vygotsky’s central idea of shared knowledge, or shared cognition, is implicit in the concept of ZPD. Knowledge of how to use the internet exists in the parent and is transferred by interactions between two people (the parent and the child). Gradually, the knowledge is relocated as the developing child becomes more competent at the task. Knowledge of academic skills such as reading and mathematics also begins in a more skilled person (the teacher). Through interactions, the child is able to improve their understanding of these topics. CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 421

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Vygotsky’s idea that children learn through interactions with skilled persons and his concept of the ZPD have given rise to current educational practices in Australian and New Zealand classrooms. For example, cooperative learning is a technique commonly used in primary schools. It involves children being organised into small groups. Through active participation in problem-solving and interactions between group members, children solve problems while benefiting from the insights of others. According to Australian researchers Gillies and Boyle (2006, 2010), Gillies, (2014) and Gillies and Nichols (2015), this type of learning is most effective when some members of the group are more competent than others. Hence, teachers need to take group composition into account. Distributing the brightest or most capable children in the class among different groups is a good strategy. Teachers also need to make sure the problems they set are within the ZPD of the majority of group members. Reciprocal teaching is another educational strategy grounded in Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development. To promote reading comprehension, children are encouraged to skim passages, ask questions about them, make a summary and predict outcomes. Children are given the opportunity to play the role of the teacher in this activity, with teachers at first modelling the role of an expert. With the ZPD in mind, children are progressively given more control until they are able to properly take on the teaching role. Research into this technique has shown impressive increases in reading comprehension (Gajria & Jitendra, 2016; Sol´ıs, Scammacca, Barth, & Roberts, 2017; Takala, 2006). Social settings (such as the classroom and the home environment) can play a pivotal role in childhood learning. In these settings, adults or more competent peers can nurture and encourage individuals who show extra measures of talent, skill and knowledge. What is unique about Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective is the priority it gives to the impact of social interactions on individuals’ cognitive development (Bjorklund & Causey, 2017; Diaz & Berk, 2014; Salomon & Perkins, 1998). In contrast, Piaget’s theory of cognitive development tends to minimise the social aspects of learning in favour of children’s independent activities with materials whereby they discover different properties through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. In this way, Piaget’s theory pictures the child as a junior scientist experimenting independently in the laboratory of life. Vygotsky, on the other hand, portrays children as apprentice learners operating in a world full of supportive experts.

8.6 Information processing and cognitive development

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LEARNING OUTCOME 8.6 Describe how memory changes during middle childhood and assess how these changes affect thinking and learning.

Vygotsky considered the social context of learning vital to cognitive development, while Piaget described the cognitive changes of middle childhood in terms of broad qualitative transitions. An alternative but complementary way of understanding cognitive development is the information processing approach. It is a quantitative approach focusing on the specific abilities that contribute to cognitive development, including attention, memory, learning and problem-solving, as well as metacognition — how children think about their own thinking. Increases in these abilities are readily quantifiable through experiments that target individuals of different ages. This leads to an understanding of developmental progress in each of the domains of thinking (e.g. attention, memory and learning). So far, the domains have largely been investigated separately, but it is important to recognise how different abilities interact; for example, how increases in memory capacity that come with age contribute to a child developing their problemsolving skills. Two of the most important processes involved in cognitive development are now discussed: attention and memory.

Development of attention The environment presents children with an enormous amount of information at any moment in time. Attention is the ability to focus on particular environmental stimuli so information can be further processed, remembered and used in learning and problem solving. Without the attentional system, further 422

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information processing would be impossible. Children’s attentional capacity develops significantly during middle childhood. Selective attention improves over time, so children are better able to screen out irrelevant stimuli and can focus on stimuli relevant to the task at hand. In classic selective attention experiments, children are asked to remember the animals on cards with paired stimuli, consisting of an animal and an inanimate object. Older children are able to recall more animals. By age 11, the number of irrelevant stimuli remembered usually decreases. These results and others using different experimental designs indicate older children are better able to focus their attention on relevant stimuli. At the same time, older children are more successful at screening out irrelevant stimuli (Federico, Marotta, Martella, & Casagrande, 2017; Goldberg, Maurer, & Lewis, 2001; G´omez-P´erez & Oastrosky-Solis, 2006; Pozuelos, Paz-Alonso, Castillo, Fuentes, & Rueda, 2014; Ridderinkhof, van der Molen, Band, & Bashore, 1997; Tabibi & Pfeffer, 2007).

During middle childhood, children are also able to sustain their attention over longer periods of time. This is important for remembering and learning complex tasks and concepts. Children also become more efficient in the way they attend to stimuli. For example, the eye movements of young children indicate a fairly chaotic way of scanning visual stimuli. As children mature, their scanning becomes more economical and systematic (Coles, Sigman, & Chessel, 1977; Kramer, Gonzalez de Sather, & Cassavaugh, 2005; Wimmer, Maras, Robinson, & Thomas, 2016). Attention also becomes more flexible during middle childhood. Experiments done with Australian children using ambiguous drawings have shown an increasing ability for children to switch their attention back and forth from obvious cues in a drawing to more subtle cues (Watson, 1983). The increasing attentional capacity and its refinement during middle childhood are thought to be partly due to the maturation of the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is crucial to executive attentional functions (Dempster & Corkill, 1999; Husain & Kennard, 1997; Kane & Engle, 2002; Redick et al., 2016). During early childhood, the relative lack of development of the prefrontal cortex — which is responsible for inhibiting responses — limits children’s ability to screen out distracting stimuli, and therefore their attentional capacity is not as developed as it is later in middle childhood. However, older children are more able to stop their attention from straying to thoughts that are not relevant to the task at hand, an CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 423

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ability that makes information processing more efficient (Luna, Garver, Urban, Lazar, & Sweeney, 2004; Mullane, Lawrence, Corkum, Klein, & McLaughlin, 2016). Nonetheless, for a minority of children, the developments in attentional capacity outlined in this section do not occur. Many of these children are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Most children show overactivity and inattention some of the time. But only a few children exhibit extremely high activity levels and very low levels of sustained attention enough to warrant the diagnosis of ADHD. ADHD affects between 5 and 10 per cent of Australian children. Diagnosis usually occurs during middle childhood, with three times as many boys as girls affected by the disorder (Bierderman, 2005). It is thought ADHD is highly inheritable with several genes implicated that affect neural communication (Freitag, Rohde, Lempp, & Romanos, 2010; Quist & Kennedy, 2001; St Pourcain et al., 2017). Environmental factors such as prenatal exposure to illicit drugs, tobacco and alcohol are also believed to be contributory causes (Biederman, Martelon, Woodworth, Spencer, & Faraone, 2017; Milberger, Biederman, Faraone, Guite, & Tsuang, 1997). Two interrelated deficits underpin the behaviours seen in ADHD: impairments in the executive (mediating) functions of the brain’s frontal lobes; and impairments in inhibiting or delaying actions (Barkley, 2003, 2014; Pitzianti et al., 2017). Stimulant medication such as Ritalin (methylphenidate) suppresses many of the behaviours displayed by ADHD sufferers, possibly because it arouses activity in the frontal lobes, improving sustained attention and inhibiting impulses. If drug therapy is used, it should be accompanied by therapeutic programs and efforts to structure and simplify the child’s environment, so they are able to cope with a reduced demand on their impaired attentional system. When these strategies are followed, about 50 per cent of children diagnosed with ADHD outgrow the problem, although they often continue to feel restless and distractible as adults (Goldstein, 2011; Sibley et al., 2017; Weiss & Hechtman, 1993). FOCUSING ON

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The smartphone generation A research study by London optical specialists Lenstore has concluded that ‘Children are now better at using smartphones than swimming, tying their shoelaces and even telling the time’. Lenstore conducted a survey of over 2000 parents of children aged between 2 and 16 in the United Kingdom, and found that, overwhelmingly, children aged between 2 and 10 were more confident when using a tablet, smartphone or electronic device than tying their shoelaces, learning to swim, telling the time or reading. The study found that children between the ages of 8 and 10 spend an average of 9.8 hours a day on digital devices (Woollaston, 2014). This is in addition to watching an average of two hours of television a day. Lenstore state that spending so much time looking at digital screens can potentially have a damaging effect on children’s eyesight. The most common side-effect of using digital devices is termed digital eye strain, caused by children holding the devices improperly (such as too close to their eyes). Another potential cause of eye strain is the high-energy visible light (HEV) — exposure to HEV light, especially at night, can cause vision to deteriorate over time. Such exposure can also contribute to macular degeneration later in life (Sheridan, 2014). As part of the research, Lenstore surveyed 2000 parents of children aged between 2 and 16. Around 30 per cent of children under 4 in the UK now own a tablet, and 10 per cent regularly use a mobile phone. A third of the parents surveyed expressed concern about their children’s overuse of digital devices and reported poor sleep, behavioural problems and concern for future eyesight issues. Notably, in February

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2014, Athena Yenko (2014) reported similar results in Australia from an AVG Technologies poll. Similarly, the American College of Pediatricians reported in 2016 that: excessive exposure to screens (television, tablets, smartphones, computers and video game consoles), especially at early ages, has been associated with lower academic performance, increased sleep problems, obesity, behaviour problems, increased aggression, lower self-esteem, depression and increased high risk behaviours (p. 1).

Furthermore, the 2016 Australian longitudinal study of Australian Children (LSAC) conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS, 2017) learned that over 4000 children aged 4 and 5 spent 2.2 hours per day watching screens. By the time children are aged 12 to 13, the number increases to 3.3 hours whereas the recommended daily limit for screen activity for children is 2 hours. This study concluded that the current obesity crisis of early and middle childhood is partly due to more sedentary activity. The impact of this sedentary activity will not be seen until well into the future; nor will the impact of screen usage on the social wellbeing of these children be seen until later. Interestingly, this study also investigated children’s physical wellbeing and their enjoyment of physical activities, and it found a link between the children’s enjoyment of physical activities and less screen time. Commenting on the conclusions of this study, LSAC’S manager, Professor Ben Edwards said: while technology can unlock new skills and there is value in children using computers for gathering information and socialising, it may be time to have another look at how realistic these guidelines are. Some management of screen time is important so kids have a quality engagement with television, computers or games and they are not undertaking these activities at the expense of keeping fit and well. (p. 1)

Recent research in 2010–11 by the Australian ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation at Queensland University of Technology revealed that ‘Australian children are among the youngest and prolific users of the internet in the world, according to a new study that compared the experience of Australian children aged 9–16 to those of their European counterparts’ (ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, 2014). Researchers Professor Lelia Green, Professor John Hartley and Professor Catharine Lumby conducted the ‘AU Kids Online’ study as part of a 25-nation survey. It was the first Australian study to interview 400 children aged 9–16 and their parents or carers about their online experiences. A significant finding of the study was that, on average, Australian children under 8 years of age, when they began using the internet, were the youngest users in the study. Professor Lumby noted that the study ‘showed that Australian children and teenagers were not only using the internet to passively consume material — they were actively creating and sharing content, with almost half photos, videos or music’. She added:

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This study shows that now is the time for Australia to invest in supporting educational initiatives to keep our children safe online and able to explore the significant benefits of online learning and social networking (ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and innovation, 2014).

Several recent Australian studies have emanated from the broader studies that have been reported. The ‘Children Putting Their Best Footprint Forward’ project led by Dr Rachel Buchanan, Dr Erica Southgate and Dr Shamus Smith began in 2015, and their findings are still to be released. Influenced by previous Australian research conclusions that Australian children are among the most prolific users of the internet in the world, the aim of this project is to investigate children’s awareness of their digital footprint. A focus on how parents and teachers educate for a positive online presence will be a feature of this study. Stemming from this project Buchanan, Noble, Murray and Southgate presented a conference paper ‘Online all the time? How children understand their digital footprints’ in December 2015. This paper explored children’s digital knowledge. Likewise, in the first New Zealand study of its kind, McDonald-Brown, Laxman, and Hope (2016) investigated children’s online practices, and acknowledged the importance of children identifying problems and solutions associated with online practices. They concluded that a supportive environment that promotes confidence and competence will strengthen children’s ability to face the online challenges of the future.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Research completed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in April 2009 showed that nearly a third (31 per cent) of children aged 5–14 years had their own mobile phones (841 000 children). This proportion was much higher (76 per cent) for older children (aged 12–14 years), which has doubled since 2007. Discuss how you think the increase in using mobile smartphones and digital devices by primary school–aged children will affect their acquisition of life skills, reading, eyesight, behaviour, physical and cognitive development?

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Memory development There are two distinctive types of memory: short-term memory (sometimes called working memory) — where information is held only momentarily for about 20 or 30 seconds — and long-term memory — where information is stored for much longer periods. Information is first encoded in working memory, where an ‘executive processor’ prunes and manipulates information so it can be stored in long-term memory (Baddely, 1992; Gathercole & Baddeley, 2014; Swanson & Fung, 2016). Short-term memory improves significantly during middle childhood. For example, five and six year olds are able to immediately recall about four digits from a string of aurally presented digits. By age 11, children are able to remember about six digits; approaching the normal capacity of adults, which is about seven digits (Ang & Lee, 2010; Dempster, 1981; see figure 8.4). Recent research has attributed the increase in children’s short-term memory capacity to the expansion in the number of information ‘slots’ that can be accessed, as well as an increase in the ability to make meaningful groupings or ‘chunks’ of items, so that more information can be recalled overall (Cowan, 2014; Cowan et al., 2010). Long-term memory also improves during this period; for example, in the delayed recall of more complex, stored material such as the content of stories (Wolf, 1993). In retrieving this sort of information, children may employ constructive memory, which involves applying previously learnt knowledge to the task of recall. For example, in remembering a story, children delete information and insert other inferential material from their store of general knowledge. This recall of complex material is a process of approximation, and is not an exact replaying of it (like a tape recording). This relates to Brainerd and Reyna’s (2001, 2015) Fuzzy Trace Theory. Material may be stored more or less precisely as verbatim accounts or as imprecise ‘fuzzy traces’ or ‘gists’. Gist memory supposedly increases as children age and older children are less reliant on verbatim recall. Gist memory is an efficient way of information storage and retrieval as it consists of essential information pruned of distracting detail. Improvements in memory during middle childhood are thought to be due (partly at least) to the increased employment of mnemonic strategies — techniques for improving storage and retrieval of information. Perhaps the most basic of the strategies that enhances information storage is rehearsal, which involves the verbal repetition of new material such as word lists. Another is organisation, in which material is clustered into ‘chunks’ that make it easier to remember. An example of this is grouping the words in a word list according to classes, such as animals and plants. A third strategy is elaboration, which involves making connections between different elements to be remembered. For example, in order to remember to buy three items at the supermarket, an individual might construct a visual image of spreading butter on bread and adding jam. As middle childhood progresses, children more actively use the mnemonic strategies outlined (Coffman, Ornstein, McCall, & Curran, 2008; Langley, Coffman, & Ornstein, 2017). They experiment with different strategies to see which techniques work best for particular memory tasks, and use a greater variety of strategies that become more complex as they grow older (Coyle, 2001; Coyle & Bjorklund, 1997). This use and understanding of memory strategies is termed metamemory, which is an aspect of metacognition. From extensive research over several decades, it has become apparent that increases in metamemory are accompanied by improved memory performance, even in very young children (Balcomb 426

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& Gerken, 2008). Nonetheless, there are limitations in metamemory during early and middle childhood. These were previously ascribed to immaturity of the prefrontal cortex, the brain structure responsible for metamemory. However, researchers have recently established that non-physiological factors are also important in the development of metamemory. Ceci, Fitneva, and Williams (2010) established that the quality of the mental representation of an item also influences the activation of metamemory. In other words, the better represented an item is in memory by the number of attributes, how well the attributes are linked and how well they are integrated, the more efficient are metamemory processes. Additionally, Coffman et al. (2008) found how successfully children employ metamemory during the primary years depends greatly on the degree to which teachers encourage and support the use of mnemonic strategies. FIGURE 8.4

Developmental changes in short-term memory In the study represented here, children were asked to recall a series of digits shortly after hearing them. The points on the graph represent the average number of digits that subjects were able to recall and the bars represent the ranges of typical performance at each age. Recall of digits improves during middle childhood and almost reaches adult levels by age 12.

10 Digits recalled 9 Range of performance 8

Digit span

7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8 9 Age (years)

10

11

12

Adults

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Source: Adapted from Ang & Lee (2010) and Dempster (1981).

Domain-specific knowledge or expertise can also enhance remembering. In a classic experiment, Chi (1978) showed memory for the placement of chess pieces by child ‘experts’ (chess champions) far exceeded the memory performance of non-expert adults, despite the adults’ overall superior memory span. This effect has been replicated in other experiments with children’s superior memory for cartoons, sports and dinosaurs. Similarly, research by Kearins (1981) demonstrated tribal Aboriginal children had superior spatial memory to Anglo-Australian children, an effect traced to ‘expertise’ in navigating arid environments devoid of landmarks. The preceding material refers to one type of memory, known as recall memory. Another type of memory is recognition memory, where external cues or context are used to determine whether material has been seen or heard before. Recognition is generally easier than recall for individuals, including children during middle childhood, since recall involves remembering information in the absence of external cues that can prime memory. School-aged children perform less well than CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 427

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adults do in short-term recognition memory. However, like recall memory, recognition memory improves steadily during middle childhood, but is not fully developed at this time. In Cowan’s (1997) experiments, eight year olds were readily able to recognise digits from a set of three, whereas adults could manage recognition tasks involving comparisons with seven-digit strings. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Research has shown that memory capacity is highly correlated with general cognitive ability and is an excellent predictor for academic success. Given that memory improves significantly during middle childhood and can be further improved by training, in what ways can the memory skills of school-aged children be improved through training?

8.7 Language development

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LEARNING OUTCOME 8.7 List the changes in language that emerge during middle childhood.

During middle childhood, the different aspects of children’s oral language develop significantly. When school-aged children talk, their pronunciation and fluency set them apart from young children and they sound more like adults in their speech patterns. Phonology, the sound of their language, is more precise. By Year 1, the majority of children can pronounce words accurately. They have mastered most of the phonemes or units of sound in their native language. In English, some phonemes continue to challenge children during the early years of middle childhood, such as j, v, th and zh sounds; for example, zh is the third phoneme in the word exposure. In middle childhood, the mechanical aspects of language show advances over previous periods of development. The lexicon, an individual’s word knowledge or vocabulary, expands dramatically with a fourfold increase to about 40 000 words at the end of middle childhood. Literacy contributes significantly to this increase, because written language contains a more expansive and complex vocabulary than spoken language does (Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002). Understanding and correct use of syntax, or specific grammatical forms of a language, also progresses. School-aged children are more capable than preschool-aged children of mastering complex grammatical constructions, such as the passive voice (e.g. understanding ‘The bicycle was taken by John’ means the same as ‘John took the bicycle.’). As well, children begin to use and comprehend conditional sentences that involve if and when, such as ‘If you hold the bike, I can get on easily.’ This new comprehension of grammar can be seen in school-aged children’s appreciation of jokes and riddles such as, ‘Why did the tomato blush? Because he saw the salad dressing!’ When children laugh at this joke it shows an understanding the word dressing can be either a noun or a verb, an important grammatical construction. In the early years of middle childhood, children implicitly recognise language is governed by grammatical rules, but as middle childhood advances, these rules become more explicit (Belacchi, Benelli, & Dispaldro, 2013; Benelli, Belacchi, Gini, & Lucangeli, 2006). Advances can also be seen during middle childhood in language pragmatics (the knowledge of how, when and where to use language) as well as an appreciation of intonation (how the emphasis placed on spoken words can change the meaning of sentences). For example, older school-aged children can tell the difference between, ‘James gave Shaun his Transformers and his Game Boy’ and ‘James gave Shaun his Transformers and his Game Boy’. In the first statement, the emphasis gives the listener the idea something additional has been given to Shaun, over and above what was expected. In the second statement, the emphasis conveys a very different meaning — that Shaun was not the likely recipient for James’s toys. Another important aspect of pragmatics is conversational turn-taking, which is vital to successful communication. During the primary school years, children become better at waiting their turn to speak, and at picking up turn-taking cues (such as pauses) in conversations. Young children tend to interrupt and speak over each other, using disconnected ideas with little or no acknowledgement of 428

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what the other speaker has just said. In contrast, conversations between school-aged children flow more naturally, with ideas connected to what has been said by the previous interlocutor. In this way, school-aged children are approximating adult conversational skills.

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During the primary school years, children become better at waiting their turn to speak, and at picking up turn-taking cues in conversations.

A unique development in middle childhood is metalinguistic awareness. This occurs when children are able to think about their own language production, understand what words are, and explain what different words mean (Berko Gleason, 2005). These linguistic advances are connected to the conceptual advances seen in concrete operations. School-aged children are able to separate the meaning from the word itself and recognise they are separate entities, something younger children are unable to do. For example, a preschool child might think train is a longer word than automobile because the object the word describes — a train — is longer than a car. When shown these two words, an older child mentally separates the object from the word and recognises automobile has more letters, so is longer than the word train. During middle childhood, the use of metaphor becomes apparent for the first time. It is also grounded in the conceptual advances of concrete operations. Metaphor is the substitution of one set of words typically used to describe an object or event by another set of words that might not generally be used to conceptualise the object or event. For example, a school-aged child might use the term ‘ground-anger’ to describe an earthquake.

Bilingualism and its effects The majority of children around the world are able to speak two languages and are therefore termed bilingual (Brooks, 2017; Romaine, 1995). Bilingualism often comes about because of a cultural environment that supports and encourages the learning of more than one language. For example, in many CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 429

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non-English speaking countries, individuals are encouraged to learn English from an early age because of its worldwide use in many different spheres of life, including education, commerce, cultural expression and diplomacy. Also, the close proximity of many countries means that they may share the languages of their neighbours, so children may grow up with more than one language in their repertoire. Although English is the main language in New Zealand and Australia, bilingualism is also a common phenomenon. In New Zealand, a substantial proportion of the school population is of M¯aori or Pacific Islander descent, with children who speak English and M¯aori or Polynesian dialects. In Australia, about 23 per cent of the population was born overseas. Of the Australian-born population, 26 per cent have at least one parent who was born overseas. Australia’s strong immigrant background is one reason substantial proportions of the population are bilingual. Large increases in immigration have also been recorded; particularly from Asian countries (ABS, 2008). Not surprisingly, more than 200 different languages are spoken in Australia today — including more than 40 Indigenous languages. The most common foreign languages are Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek and Arabic. Children become bilingual in one of two ways: (1) they acquire two languages simultaneously, or (2) they acquire a second language after they have become proficient in another language. Children of bilingual parents are more likely to become bilingual by the first method. Children who become bilingual this way are called balanced bilinguals. These children attain native proficiency in both languages from a very early age (Genesee, 2001). Children who find themselves in another linguistic environment later in the developmental sequence (e.g. at school age) are more likely to become bilingual through the second method. Depending on age and the degree of immersion in the second language, these children may gain native proficiency in the second language. Meisel (2006) maintains native competence may be restricted to acquisition of the second language during early childhood, with a critical period below five years of age. Bilingualism has been shown to benefit children’s cognitive development. Bialystock and Martin (2004) found bilingual children were superior to monolingual children in tasks that required selective attention, while Hakuta and Diaz (1985) found they performed better than monolingual children at logical–analytical tasks. Bilingual children also display greater metalinguistic awareness (Bialystock, 2006, 2017; Calvo & Bialystok, 2014). These advantages are thought to stem from the fact bilingual children experience greater rehearsal in analysing the structure of two languages as opposed to one. Because they need to inhibit one language while speaking the other, they apparently gain greater control over their cognitive processes (Bialystock, 2001, 2017). These cognitive advantages apply primarily to balanced bilingual children — that is, those with equal skill in both languages. For unbalanced bilinguals — children with more skill in one language than in the other, the advantages are generally more muted. The limited evidence available suggests unbalanced bilingualism has mixed effects on children’s thinking skills, largely because of the interplay of social attitudes that surround language differences in society (Pease-Alvarez, 1993). For bilingual children, one language frequently carries more prestige than the other. In Australia, this preferential language tends to be English, not only because of its status as the nation’s official language and majority usage in schools, commerce and government, but also because of its association with power and success. These circumstances have the potential to create negative social attitudes or stereotypes about people who speak languages other than English (LOTE). Such attitudes may profoundly affect the use and maintenance of LOTE in children (Butler & Hakuta, 2006; Willenberg, 2015). Authorities in many English-speaking countries face a considerable challenge trying to find the most effective way to educate minority children whose first language is not English. In Australia, these children include immigrant children who have few or no English skills and Torres Strait Islander or Aboriginal children in remote areas of Australia who have primarily spoken Indigenous languages prior to starting school. One approach that can be used is language immersion. This occurs when children are taught solely in English. Research has found language immersion can be successful when two languages are equally socially valued; for example, French and English in bilingual countries such as Canada. Many English-speaking Canadian children of Anglo background have been included in immersion programs to learn the French language, while not having been exposed to French from a young age. These school 430

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programs have taught children the curriculum in French alone, and have resulted in proficiency in French, so that children have become bilingual as a result of their school experiences. Interestingly, although these children are not taught in their ‘native’ language of English, research has shown that their school achievement is equal to that of English-speaking children of Anglo background who are schooled entirely in English (Hansen, 2017; Turnbull, Hart, & Lapkin, 2003). If languages are not perceived to be of equal status — such as Indigenous languages and English — the situation may be very different. Negative attitudes towards languages other than English can reduce children’s school performance, making them less willing to actively use their first language and reducing their self-confidence about their linguistic skills in general. Also, teaching a child only in a language they have difficulty understanding has been shown to promote frustration, boredom and off-task behaviour (Crawford, 1997). Moreover, ethnic minority parents may fear the threat of ‘whitestreaming’ — the submersion of first or native language and culture in the dominant English language and culture (RubalLopez, 2010; Urrieta, 2010). In teaching minority children in English-speaking countries, bilingual education is the favoured approach. It involves developing similar language skills in both languages, rather than replacing the minority language with English (Hernandez, 1997). Bilingual education fosters new language skills in English, while promoting respect for a child’s original language and culture. Such programs are conducted partly in each language, depending on children’s current language skills. However, each language is not confined to specific lessons or times, with the two languages used throughout the school day. Research suggests developing children’s competencies in their first or native language promotes English skills as well as achievement in academic subjects (Bialystock, 2001, 2017). Children who are in the process of learning a second language, such as English, are also learning about a culture that may be at odds with their own culture of origin. So, learning a language is not just about acquiring specific linguistic skills; it takes place in a context of complex social and cultural factors that need to be taken into consideration in the education process. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

How can bilingual education encourage Indigenous and ethnic minority children’s cognitive and academic development?

8.8 Defining and measuring intelligence

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LEARNING OUTCOME 8.8 Explain what intelligence is and illustrate how it can be measured.

The cognitive changes discussed in this chapter, including concrete operational thinking, memory and language development, are all expressions of expanding intelligence. The term intelligence refers to environmental adaptability, or a general ability to learn from experience. Definitions of intelligence also refer to the ability to reason abstractly — especially using language — as well as the ability to integrate old and new knowledge. In recent years, ideas about intelligence have broadened to encompass skills and abilities not included in traditional conceptualisations of intelligence, such as social skills, musical ability and physical prowess. However, the traditional notion that intelligence involves reasoning and problemsolving still dominates intelligence theory and research. A practical outcome of this orientation can be seen in the development of standardised tests of intelligence that measure reasoning skills applied to both verbal and non-verbal problems. The various definitions associated with intelligence can be confusing. So, it is helpful to understand that diverse notions of intelligence can be seen in terms of different theoretical approaches. The oldest is the psychometric approach, which is based on the standardised, quantitative measurement of abilities thought to contribute to intelligence. More recently, alternative approaches to understanding the CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 431

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nature of intelligence have emerged. These include information processing theories of intelligence. These theories have not generated practical methods for assessing intelligence to the same extent as the earlier psychometric approach.

The psychometric approach The psychometric approach to intelligence has developed out of a need to assess and quantify individual differences in intelligence. In 1904, the French Ministry of Education needed a reliable way to identify children who would not cope with the normal curriculum in public schools — in short, children with an intellectual impairment. The Ministry employed Alfred Binet and his student Theophile Simon to devise such a method. This became the first standardised test of intelligence. Beginning with Binet and Simon’s (1905) intelligence test, the psychometric approach to intelligence is based on the idea of applying the same (standard) set of intellectual tasks to large numbers of people to reveal individual differences in performance, and therefore a large range of general ability indicative of intelligence. From this range, average performances or group-based norms can be developed. Norms are useful statistics because they make it possible to compare an individual with a referent group; for example, to compare an individual child’s performance to the aggregated performance of a large number of children of the same age and educational level. This approach assumes that an individual whose performance is above the average performance for their age group shows greater intelligence, while an individual with a below average performance exhibits less intelligence. The intelligence quotient (IQ) is routinely used to describe individual performances on tests of intelligence. It is a scale based on a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 that gives a comparative idea of general intellectual development. The average IQ is 100, with the majority of individuals (approximately 68 per cent) having scores between 85 and 115. The more the IQ deviates higher or lower than the mean, the fewer the people represented by the score. For example, less than 3 per cent of individuals are considered to have an IQ higher than 130 or lower than 70.

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Psychometric models of intelligence The intelligence tests used today, such as the Stanford Binet Fifth Edition (SB5) (Roid, 2003) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V) (Reynolds & Keith, 2017; Wechsler, 2016), are similar to those used by early test developers such as Binet. Modern intelligence tests still consist of a wide variety of intellectual tasks that range from identifying the missing parts of pictures to defining the meanings of words. This wide range of tasks is important. Theorists such as Spearman (1904) believed intelligence is made up of a number of specific abilities reflected in the different tasks of intelligence tests. Spearman reasoned that when results from different tasks are aggregated, an individual’s overall performance yields a measure of general ability — or g — that reflects intelligence. From Spearman’s theoretical work, a debate raged for many years during the twentieth century on the structure of intelligence. The central argument involved whether intelligence was accurately represented by general ability (g) or best conceptualised as a collection of diverse specific abilities. Historically, researchers have analysed the results of large numbers of people on intelligence tests such as the Stanford Binet in order to answer questions about the structure of intelligence. Thurstone (1938) maintained intelligence comprises entirely specific abilities that he termed primary mental abilities; with no general — or g — factor involved in intelligence. In contrast, the Burt and Vernon models of intelligence incorporate the g factor as well as specific abilities that, when aggregated, form group factors. For example, intelligence test tasks, such as defining the meanings of words and being able to give analogies, would contribute to a group factor called a verbal factor. Using these ideas, Burt (1949) and Vernon (1961) developed hierarchical models of intelligence, with general ability as a superordinate factor. This factor is then differentiated into several group factors, which in turn are divided into more numerous specific factors that reflect the abilities identified in the separate tasks of an intelligence test (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2009, 2018). In 1993, Carroll re-analysed the data of many earlier and dissenting intelligence theorists

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using a standard mode of analysis on 450 datasets. He concluded that most datasets yielded results that were highly reflective of hierarchical models of intelligence. To a large extent, Carroll’s (1993) exhaustive research has solved the conundrum of the g factor debate, and has lent support to contemporary intelligence tests, such as the SB5, which are based on hierarchical models of intelligence. During the 1960s, Cattell proposed a further variation on the structure of intelligence based on test results. He abandoned the earlier debates involving distinctions between general and specific factors, instead hypothesising there are two basic types of intelligence. According to Cattell (1963), fluid intelligence consists of mental abilities that are biologically based and are therefore relatively free from environmental influences, including culture. Cattell believed that fluid intelligence — being based on physiological efficiency — increases through childhood along with physical maturation before levelling off in adolescence. Crystallised intelligence consists of abilities that grow out of individuals’ experiences that are highly environmentally determined and influenced by factors such as culture. Crystallised abilities include word comprehension and general knowledge. Both these abilities are influenced by school experience and individuals’ home and cultural environments. Cattell theorised that crystallised abilities increase over the lifespan because of the continuous acquisition of information from the environment. Subsequent research has shown fluid intelligence declines in late adulthood and crystallised abilities expand throughout childhood and into middle adulthood — but also decline with ageing (albeit more slowly than fluid abilities do) (Kaufman, 2001, Kaufman & Kaufman, 2015). These results suggest the two types of intelligence conceptualised by Cattell are not exclusively influenced by physiological maturation (fluid intelligence) or environment (crystallised intelligence). Cattell’s ideas gave rise to culture-free tests, involving reasoning tasks requiring understanding and interpretation of abstract geometric shapes and figures. These were supposed to assess fluid intelligence, based on the elimination of any recognisable elements that might give respondents an advantage or disadvantage, depending on their past experiences. However, subsequent research has shown that, at best, these tests can be regarded as ‘culture reduced’ (Cole, 1999; Johnsen, 2017). There has been much controversy in the past about the structure of intelligence, but how are the psychometric models of intelligence applied today? The ideas of Binet, Spearman, Burt and Vernon are still current in the ways we think about intelligence, and these same ideas underpin the structure and interpretation of modern intelligence tests such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children or WISC (Wechsler, 2003, 2014). For example, children tested in Year 3 and then in Year 5 will show a superior WISC vocabulary score in Year 5, indicating that their vocabulary, as well as other specific abilities, expand with age. Does this mean that, when these increases in specific abilities are aggregated, children’s general intelligence or g also increases as they get older? The answer is no — because their performance is always compared to other individuals in their age group. So, a child with an IQ of 105 at age six is unlikely to achieve an IQ of 130 at age 11, even though they are able to pass many more of the items on an intelligence test at age 11. Their IQ tested at each year level is more likely to be quite similar over the period of childhood. Using intelligence tests based on psychometric models of intelligence, performance is always relative rather than absolute. This fact preserves one of the key assumptions about intelligence — it is a relatively stable human trait and does not change dramatically over time and under different circumstances. Even so, experience has shown that IQ can change dramatically in some circumstances; for example, if a child sustains a head injury that affects cognitive development or other processes (such as memory and attention) assessed by tests of intelligence. Also, educational enrichment programs instigated during the early years of schooling can result in significant increases in children’s measured IQ (Bitler, Hoynes, & Domina, 2014; Head Start Bureau, 2005). This phenomenon raises questions about what intelligence tests really measure.

Biases in intelligence testing Although they attempt to provide a measure of general ability or g, intelligence tests may be measuring factors other than children’s intelligence. Success on intelligence tests depends not only on ability, but

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also on a fairly narrow set of test-related behaviours. Children must be able to attend and concentrate for an extended period of time, sometimes up to two hours; and must be able to switch quickly between different types of tasks. So, the IQs of children with poor motivation or limited attention span may not reflect their true abilities. Also, timed test items require a trade-off between speed and accuracy. Different learning styles can affect overall performance — with slower and more careful children as well as impulsive children who fail to stop and think carefully about a problem both being disadvantaged. Moreover, the interactions between adult testers and the child test takers can influence performance. For example, experimental studies have shown warm or cold tester styles as well as social reinforcement can significantly affect children’s performance on intelligence tests, raising or lowering IQ by up to 15 points (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2009, 2018). Elements in the test can also affect performance. Intelligence tests rely heavily on crystallised abilities, such as language ability. In the WISC-V, for example, children have to be able to comprehend questions presented aurally (questions are heard by children) and must answer them orally. Children with language difficulties or delays might not do well on tests of intelligence. Also, many of the items in intelligence tests are related to school-based skills and, therefore, IQ shows substantial correlations with academic achievement. So, it is not surprising that interventions to improve school-based skills may also influence children’s IQ. In response to this limitation, Anastasi and Urbina (1997) have suggested calling intelligence tests measures of academic intelligence, or school ability. Intelligence test items emphasise convergent thinking, presenting problems that have specific answers that penalise divergent or creative thinkers. For example, a child who answers the question ‘What is Mars?’ with an imaginative response, such as ‘A chocolate bar’, is not given any credit that will contribute to their IQ score — even though the answer is technically correct and shows an unusual interpretation of the question. The Focusing on feature looks at the challenges of identifying and educating students at one extreme of general intelligence and specific abilities.

FOCUSING ON

Indigenous views of giftedness: cultural conceptions and interpretations In 2007, Robert Sternberg asserted that:

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Different cultures have different conceptions of what it means to be gifted. But in identifying children as gifted, we often use only our own conception, ignoring the cultural context in which the children grew up. Such identification is inadequate and fails to do justice to the richness of the world’s cultures. It also misses children who are gifted and may identify as gifted children, those who are not (2007, p.16).

Sternberg also highlighted the critical need to understand the child’s home community and the community’s concept of giftedness when identifying gifted children. Investigating and accounting for the cultural dimensions of giftedness is a new concept in the research literature (Vialle & Gibson, 2007), and one that has often been overlooked. Dissimilarities in cultural interpretations and values of intelligence have been shown to exist throughout the world. Cultural conceptions of intelligence differ — Yang and Sternberg (1997) found that in Chinese culture, interpersonal and intrapersonal were considered important characteristics of intelligence. Ruzgis and Grigorenko (1994), on the other hand, discovered that African cultures valued skills that uphold secure and harmonious intergroup relations. However, Serpell 1974a,

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1974b, 1996; Serpell & Adamson-Holley, 2017) found that Zambian adults stressed that cooperativeness, obedience and social responsibilities were important components of intelligence. Similarly, Kenyan parents viewed family and social life as imperative to intelligent behaviour, as Super, Harkness, Barry, and Zeitlin (2011) discovered. A study by Grigorenko et al. (2004) of Inuit children in Alaska found that practical intellectual skills capable of adapting to daily environments were valued. Kay Gibson (1998) wrote in an article titled ‘A promising approach for identifying gifted Aboriginal students in Australia’ that we needed to understand how giftedness was explained and perceived by urban Aboriginal community members so that we could identify gifted Aboriginal students in a culturally relevant manner. Gibson found that attributes such as motivation, problem-solving ability, memory, reasoning and communication were emphasised in Aboriginal conceptions of giftedness. Cooper (2005) acknowledged that in Aboriginal Australian communities in Western Australia, one of the main characteristics of intelligence is the ability to belong to the group, engage in interaction with others and not strive for personal accomplishment. As a result, Aboriginal students often do not exhibit their abilities in a school setting due to cultural beliefs, standards and customs. Likewise, research by BevanBrown (2005, 2009, 2014) in New Zealand found that culturally specific abilities such as arts, crafts, music, ¯ cultural knowledge and traditions, storytelling, and Maori language are valued as attributes of giftedness. ¯ Scobie-Jennings (2013) highlights in her research that only small numbers of Maori children are being ¯ identified as gifted. The main barrier to identifying gifted Maori children is teacher expertise and knowledge, and the reluctance of children to be involved in gifted and talented programs due to peer pressure. Therefore, it is important to ensure that students are identified and developed in a culturally responsive ¯ environment that Maori conceptions of giftedness are included in gifted and talented policies, and that ¯ educators are trained to create culturally responsive environments. Identification of gifted Maori students can only be recognised if their specific cultural abilities are acknowledged, states Scobie-Jennings. Education that is culturally responsive can improve the learning outcomes for Aboriginal Australian ¯ and Maori gifted and talented students in Australia and New Zealand (Scobie-Jennings, 2013; Sternberg, 2010; Vialle & Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented, 2011; Vialle & Gibson, 2007). It is critical that schools and educators consult with communities regarding specific conceptions of giftedness, and characteristics and abilities that are culturally valued. Culturally appropriate and sensitive identification procedures will ensure successful identification of gifted and talented students. If educators know and understand the values of their communities and plan in partnership with their specific expectations and needs, appropriate learning environments and strategies for Indigenous students can be realised.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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‘If we wish to identify the gifted accurately . . . we should take into account the cultural contexts in which giftedness is socialised and nurtured’ (Sternberg, 2007, p. 165). Do you agree or disagree with Sternberg’s statement? Why? To what extent should culturally appropriate and sensitive identification strategies be employed for Indigenous gifted and talented children?

One of the major problems with intelligence tests is the fact their content generally assumes Anglo, middle socioeconomic status experiences in Western Europe and North America. Test items frequently demand knowledge children can gain only by thorough immersion in such a society. For example, an item asking children to describe the purpose of a hose assumes previous contact with a garden. This concept could be foreign to an Aboriginal child who lives in an arid environment in Australia’s outback. There are other, more subtle cultural assumptions in the administration of intelligence tests. An example is the inference that test situations are normative for participants (i.e. participants will be responsive to set test conditions). However, some ethnic groups and cultures do not value interactions that emphasise the abstract or general propositions common in classrooms and intellectual discussions. These ethnic CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 435

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groups and cultures regard this interactional style as inappropriate (Brice Heath, 2010). Furthermore, oneon-one contact with an adult stranger is extremely rare in some cultural groups. For example, Brice Heath observes how a deep-seated cultural respect for elders in Vietnamese immigrant families circumscribes talking with children over intellectual matters, and allowing them conversational time with adults. Children from such groups may find sitting alone in a room with an unfamiliar test administrator perplexing or frightening. They might respond adversely to test situations — with their results reflecting a perception that the situation is strange. This discrepancy in understanding could prevent a display of their true abilities. Indeed, research has shown cultural incompatibility between testers and test-takers can significantly depress IQ scores (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2009, 2018).

Uses of intelligence tests Children are often given individual tests of intelligence such as the WISC-IV in order to gain an idea of their specific and general abilities compared with children of the same age. Sometimes, the results of these tests are used to help determine whether children are intellectually gifted or if they can be diagnosed with an intellectual impairment. Psychometric markers based on the normative data, along with other information, help define these categories of children. Intellectual impairment may be diagnosed by an IQ of 70 or less, while intellectual giftedness is generally indicated by an IQ of 130 or more. The Focusing on feature looked at educational issues pertaining to Indigenous intellectually gifted and talented students. Identifying children in these categories, as well as those with intellectual impairment, using psychometric markers and culturally appropriate and sensitive strategies is often the first step in accessing special educational provisions for them. Analysis of the patterns of specific abilities shown on intelligence tests is sometimes used in the diagnosis of learning disabilities (i.e. if children of normal intelligence are experiencing unusual difficulties in developing reading, writing and mathematical skills).

Information processing approaches The psychometric approach to intelligence stresses the products of intelligence encapsulated in scores on intelligence tests. Later approaches to understanding intelligence and the development of skills and abilities have emphasised intellectual processes rather than products. In this way, the newer approaches broaden the nature and sources of intelligence. These newer perspectives overcome many of the shortcomings of the psychometric approach discussed previously. In information processing approaches, a higher proportion of children seem to qualify as intelligent. Nonetheless, the contemporary models of intelligence have not proven as fruitful as the older theories in generating practical methods of measuring intelligence.

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The triarchic theory of intelligence An approach that explicitly draws on principles of information processing theory is the triarchic theory of intelligence proposed by Sternberg (1994, 1997, 2005, 2008). This theory broadens the psychometric approach by incorporating recent ideas from research on how thinking occurs, the processes of thinking and the complexity of intelligent behaviour. Sternberg proposed three realms of cognition or, in his words, ‘sub-theories’ (hence the name triarchic) that contribute to general intelligence. The triarchic theory of intelligence identifies three different realms of thinking: componential, experiential and contextual. Philosophically, the theory owes much to information processing theory. The first sub-theory or realm of intelligence concerns the components of thinking (componential). These resemble the basic elements of the information processing model. Components include skills such as coding, representing and combining information, as well as higher-order skills such as planning and evaluating one’s own success in solving a problem or performing a cognitive task. Recently, this realm has also been referred to as analytical intelligence — applying strategies, processing information, engaging in self regulation and applying metacognitive knowledge. 436

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The second sub-theory or realm of intelligence concerns how individuals cope with their experiences (experiential) and how effectively they respond to novelty in solving new problems. This realm is also known as creative intelligence — being able to generate new solutions to problems. For example, a person is able to make a cake after following a recipe written in metric units (millilitres and grams), but might fail to produce anything edible if the same recipe is presented in imperial measurements (fluid ounces and pounds). Can the person adjust to the novel form of the task and solve it as quickly as he did with the familiar task? The third sub-theory or realm of intelligence concerns the context (contextual) of thinking. More recently known as practical intelligence, this involves being able to adapt, shape and select environments. People exhibit this form of intelligence in terms of the extent they can adapt to, alter or select environments relevant to and supportive of their abilities (Sternberg & Wagner, 1994). For example, a university student may diligently try to complete the course assignments as given (personally adapting to the environment of the course). If they receive an F mark, the student might reason this strategy does not work satisfactorily. In an effort to succeed in the course, the student then complains about the difficulty of the assignments to their lecturer — who may, in turn, make future assignments easier for students. If the simplified assignments still do not work for the learner, they decide to drop the course and enrol in another one. These behaviours show contextual intelligence, though not necessarily the kind of intelligence that would endear students to their lecturers. Table 8.2 summarises the three sub-theories or realms of cognition in Sternberg’s theory. These realms describe the processes of intelligence more effectively than is possible with the psychometric approaches to intelligence, which deal almost exclusively with the products of intelligence (i.e. test scores). Sternberg’s theory also suggests an explanation for why individuals appear intelligent in different ways. One person might be superior at the internal processing of information, another can adjust to new experiences quickly, and a third might have a knack for adapting, altering or selecting appropriate environments in which to work — like the fortunate student described above. The triarchic theory of intelligence highlights that practical forms of intelligence are critical for success in life. It also explains why cultures vary in the behaviours they regard as intelligent. In terms of Sternberg’s contextual component, psychometric tests could favour certain children and cultural groups more than others, since the environments of some families and cultures foster the learning of ‘test-like’ behaviours more than others. In his research, Sternberg has emphasised that mental tests can overlook and underestimate the intellectual strengths of some children, particularly ethnic minorities. The Focusing on feature looked at educational issues pertaining to Indigenous intellectually gifted and talented children, which is particularly relevant in light of Sternberg’s theory. TABLE 8.2

Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence

Realm of intelligence

Examples

Componential

Coding and representing information; planning and executing solutions to problems; applying strategies; engaging in self-regulation; acquiring metacognitive knowledge.

Analytical intelligence

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Experiential Creative intelligence Contextual Practical intelligence

Skill with novel problems and familiar problems in novel settings; skill at solving problems automatically as they become familiar; skill at generating new solutions to problems. Deliberate adaptation, alteration and selection of learning environments to facilitate problem solving.

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences Like Sternberg, Gardner (1993, 2000, 2017) believes information processing skills are the key to intelligent behaviour and, like Sternberg, he proposes that intelligence consists of several distinctive facets. CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 437

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However, Gardner has defined these types of intelligence in terms of distinctive ways of processing functions that reflect the influence of culture and society, which permits individuals to engage in a range of culturally diverse and valued activities. He argues that not one intelligence, but multiple intelligences, exist. Gardner contends that each intelligence has a biological basis, and different outcomes. We all possess these intelligences but differ in the degree and depth of these intelligences. Howard Gardner emphasises that learning opportunities and cultural values significantly affect the extent to which a child’s intellectual strengths are fulfilled. Gardner has identified eight multiple intelligences, which take the following forms. 1. Linguistic/language skill. A child with this talent speaks comfortably and fluently and learns new words and expressions easily. They also memorise verbal materials, such as poems, much more easily than other children do. They are sensitive to the functions of language. 2. Musical skill. A child with this ability not only plays one or more musical instruments but also sings and discerns subtle musical effects. Usually musical talent also includes a good sense of timing or rhythm, pitch, and musical expressiveness. 3. Logico-mathematical skill. A child with this skill organises objects and concepts well, detects numerical patterns and engages in complex logical reasoning. For example, using a computer comes easily to them, as does mathematics and often science. 4. Spatial skill. A child with this ability can accurately perceive the visual–spatial world. They know the streets of the neighbourhood better than most children their age do and, if they live in the country, they can find their way across large stretches of terrain without getting lost. 5. Bodily/kinaesthetic, skill. A child with this ability is sensitive to the internal sensations created by body movement and is able to use the body skilfully. As a result, they find dancing, gymnastics, sport and other activities requiring balance easy to learn. 6. Interpersonal skills. A child with strong interpersonal skills shows excellent understanding of others’ feelings, thoughts, intentions and motives. 7. Intrapersonal skills. A child with intrapersonal skills has a good understanding of their own feelings, thoughts and values. They are able to distinguish complex inner feelings and know their own strengths, weaknesses and intelligences. 8. Naturalistic skills. A child with this type of intelligence easily relates to and deals with information about the environment and the natural world. They can recognise and classify plants, animals and minerals. Gardner argues the intelligences in his theory are distinctive, rather than overlapping. First, some of them can be physically located within the brain. Certain language functions occur within particular, identifiable parts of the brain, as do kinaesthetic or balance functions. Second, the intelligences sometimes occur in a pure form. For example, some individuals with an intellectual impairment can play a musical instrument extremely well, even though their other abilities, including their language ability and reasoning skills, are very limited. Third, the intelligences involve particular core skills that clearly delineate them. For example, being musical requires a good sense of pitch, but this skill contributes little to the other intelligences. Like Sternberg’s ideas, the theory of multiple intelligences challenges traditional psychometric definitions of intelligence. However, within Gardner’s theory are types of intelligence that equate to the skills and abilities usually assessed by standardised intelligence tests; that is, language ability and logical skills. Many of the other intelligences outlined by Gardner are not so easy to measure, and developing ways of assessing them poses real problems. So, without reliable and valid ways of testing all of the intelligences Gardner proposed, it is difficult to test his theory. For example, the extent of coexistence of the intelligences and discontinuity of the intelligences within individuals needs to be looked at. Nonetheless, Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences identifies several intelligences not recognised by tests and IQ scores. For instance, Gardner’s interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences include abilities of understanding oneself, resilience, coping and effectively dealing with others — but without reliable ways to assess and quantify the different intelligences, the validation of Gardner’s theory remains elusive. 438

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Training children in flexibility and good balance or to show excellence at gymnastics is not a goal of most school curriculums. But, according to Gardner’s theory, it is an expression of one type of human intelligence — kinaesthetic ability.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Do you think that intelligence tests are culturally biased? Can you identify what evidence or observations influenced your opinions? In your opinion, what are the limitations of current intelligence tests in assessing the diversity of human intelligence, particularly in light of Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences?

8.9 Moral development and moral disengagement

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LEARNING OUTCOME 8.9 Identify and discuss how children’s social experiences influence their moral understanding, and explain the relationship between moral disengagement, bullying, empathy and prosocial behaviour.

In the chapter on theories of development, theorists Robert Selman (Selman, 1971, 1975; Selman & Byrne, 1974) and William Damon (1981) were introduced. They were interested in investigating the social and moral development of children in genuine social situations. In this section, we will explore these theories in greater depth and examine how children’s social experiences influence their moral understanding. Empathetic understanding is a feature of the cognitive-developmental approach. Research by Selman and Damon demonstrated that there are developmental levels in a child’s process to know how their own view of self and other relates to the view that is held by others. This is called social-perspective taking. Influenced by both Piaget and Kohlberg, Robert Selman developed his role-taking theory, or social perspective–taking theory, to document children’s skills in understanding others’ feelings and perspectives as a result of a growing ability in cognitive and moral growth. Selman suggests that mature role-taking ability permits us to understand how our actions will affect others and how we can get along with others. He conducted three studies to investigate role taking–ability progression. The first study (1971) used 60 middle-class children from ages four to six who were asked to explain their predictions about another CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 439

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child’s behaviour in a certain situation. The aim of this research was to explore the development of conceptual and perceptual role-taking. This study suggested four distinctive age-related levels of role-taking ability. In a second study, Selman and Byrne (1974) interviewed forty children, ages four, six, eight and ten, on two socio-moral dilemmas. Children were encouraged to discuss the perspectives of different characters in each dilemma. Similarly to previous studies, results showed that role-taking ability progressed through levels related to age. Selman’s third study (1975) used audiovisual filmstrips to study perspective taking in moral and interpersonal dilemmas. Children from aged four to young adults were asked to respond to the interpersonal dilemmas by answering questions that related to their conception of people’s motivations, personalities and self-awareness, and their conception of relationships between people (e.g. friendship and trust). Children’s responses were then analysed to identify four levels of social perspective–taking (see table 8.3). Interestingly, results depicted a stage progression of role-taking ability as a function of age development.

TABLE 8.3

Selman’s levels of social perspective–taking

Level

Description

Level 0 (3–6 years)

Children recognise that they can have different thoughts and feelings to others. They can separate these viewpoints (e.g. a child realises that another child may be sad despite their own happiness). In this level, children often confuse thoughts and feelings; they assume others will act and feel as they would in similar situations.

Egocentric social perspective–taking

Level 1 (4–9 years) Subjective social perspective–taking

Level 2 (7–12 years; overlaps with Level 3) Self-reflective social perspective–taking

Level 3 (10–12 years) Third-person social perspective–taking

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Level 4 (14–adult) Qualitative-systems level of social perspective–taking

Level 5 Symbolic interactional social perspective–taking

Children realise that perspectives can be different and they change according to the available information. They develop an awareness of others’ thoughts, feelings and intentions. They can experience difficulties in maintaining their own perspective and putting themselves in another person’s place while judging their actions. Children can view a situation from someone else’s perspective and can appreciate that the other person can reciprocate. They can see how another person’s viewpoint can interrelate with someone else’s. They recognise that their judgements and actions can be evaluated and scrutinised by others. However, at this level, a child focuses on a two-person perspective rather than a three-person perspective. Children develop the ability to look at a situation from the outside (e.g. ‘I know that you know that I know that you know’). They can see their own and others’ interactions and perspectives from a third-person perspective. They are aware of others’ thoughts, feelings and motivations, and realise this is mutual. They view other people in terms of stereotypical and psychological traits. Children realise that societal values, attitudes and beliefs influence perspectives. They are aware of the qualitative levels of others’ viewpoints (e.g. people can ‘know’ each other as acquaintances, friends, close friends, lovers). The quality of the relationship is related to the level of knowing the other’s psychological nature. At this level, there is a capacity for self-awareness. An awareness develops that the relationship between oneself and others may have multiple meanings, which are both factual and symbolic. A person’s social perspective–taking focuses on the interaction between people, and it can be used to analyse relationships.

Source: Adapted from Selman (1975).

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Selman is quick to point out that the levels of social perspective–taking are inferred from verbal responses to the dilemmas people face. It is the underlying structure of the responses that is critical. He suggests that the levels are best viewed as ‘idealisations’. A response rarely falls within a particular level; it is the child’s understanding of the social perspective–taking process that helps them understand the development of empathy. Selman also found social perspective–taking levels to be necessary for parallel developmental forms of moral reasoning and empathy. Similarly to Selman, William Damon (who was also influenced by Piaget) investigated the social and moral development of children in real social situations. Damon was interested in the principles of distributive justice (revealed in the activities of sharing) in moral development. Selman’s research and Damon (1975) also focused on the punitive and retributive aspects of justice. However, Damon’s main research interest lies in children’s justice conceptions related to sharing and the fair distribution of resources. From this research, Damon aimed to reveal the origins of morality in humans through an understanding of fairness, kindness and other prosocial concepts. His research examined the development of children’s thinking and behaviour in relation to family, peers, teachers and society in general. Damon’s stages of distributive justice were devised through an exploration of children’s responses to hypothetical dilemmas. Later, Damon (1975, 1979, 1981) extended these investigations to examine children’s social conduct during real-life peer group situations, which involved problems of fairness. In the initial 1975 study, Damon studied 50 middle- and upper middle-class male and female children, aged four, five, six, seven and eight, who were drawn from a Californian preschool and primary school. Children were given a positive-justice interview. The justice interview was an open-ended interview focusing on sharing. This included a sharing problem that was adapted from four dilemmas of the type used by Kohlberg. An example of one of the dilemmas is:

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All of these boys and girls are in the same class together. One day their teacher let them spend the whole afternoon making paintings and crayon drawings. The teacher thought that these pictures were so good that the class could sell them at the fair. They sold the pictures to their parents, and together the class made a whole lot of money. Now all the children gathered the next day and tried to decide how to split up the money. What do you think they should do with it? Why? Kathy says that the kids in the class who made the most pictures should get most of the money. Andy says the kids who made the best ones should get the most. What do you think? There were some lazy kids in the class who didn’t draw very much in comparison to the others. What about them? Jim says that the best-behaved kids should get more than the rest. Lisa says that the poor kids should get the money, because they don’t have much. Someone says that the teacher should get the money, because it was her idea to sell the pictures. What do you think? (Damon, 1975, p. 304).

The remaining three dilemmas further probed the issues raised in the sharing questions regarding this dilemma to ascertain children’s justice reasoning. The five justice tasks and four dilemmas were scored according to a scoring guide, which described characteristics of each of the six justice sub-stages. Results from this study suggest that logical and moral reasoning inform and support each other. Also, results established age-related sequences of developmental levels that identify children’s conceptions of positive justice (the sharing and fair distribution of resources) and authority (leadership and authority) that inform children’s social and moral interaction. In 1980, a longitudinal follow-up study of children from the original study aimed to more accurately expose the patterns of social-cognitive change through more detailed research of the participants. This study also investigated individual differences between children who showed different rates of progress over the course of the two-year study. Interviews were recorded on tape and scored according to positivejustice and authority scoring manuals prepared for earlier studies. From this research, Damon devised his groundbreaking distributive justice levels in table 8.4. Results of the two-year longitudinal study showed that virtually all children who changed their positivejustice reasoning did so by advancing along the sequence of levels described in table 8.4. The results

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support the notion that even stage-like development proceeds gradually and continuously, and that reasoning develops in an upward direction. TABLE 8.4

Damon’s levels of early-positive justice

Level

Description

Level 0-A

This level of positive-justice choices derive from the ‘wish’ that an act will occur. The reasons simply assert the wishes rather than attempting to justify them (e.g. ‘I should get it because I want to have it’).

Level 0-B

These positive-justice choices still reflect desires but they are now justified on the basis of external, observable realities such as size or other physical characteristics of people (e.g. ‘we should get the most because we are girls’). Such justifications are invoked in a fluctuating, after-the-fact manner, and are self-serving.

Level 1-A

These positive-justice choices derive from notions of strict equality in actions (i.e. that everyone should get the same). Equality is seen as preventing complaining, fighting, ‘fussing’ or other types of conflict.

Level 1-B

These positive-justice choices derive from a notion of reciprocity in actions (i.e. that people should be paid back in kind for doing good or bad things). Merit and what people deserve are emerging notions in this level.

Level 2-A

Ideas of moral relativity develop out of the understanding that different people can have different, yet equally valid, justifications for their claims to justice. Claims of those people with special needs (e.g. the poor) are weighed heavily. Choices try to prioritise competing claims to achieve a compromise.

Level 2-B

Considerations of equality and reciprocity inform this level of positive-justice choices, which take into account various people’s claims and the demands of the specific situation. Choices are firm and clear-cut; however, justifications reflect recognition that all people should be given their due (though, in many situations, this does not even out).

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Source: Adapted from Damon (1980, p. 1011).

Furthermore, Selman’s research and Damon’s research have influenced recent research on the latest concept of moral development, namely, moral disengagement. A catalyst to the moral disengagement concept is Albert Bandura (see the chapter on theories of development) who began conceptualising it over fifty years ago. Bandura examined specific contexts, practices and procedures that undermine moral thought and action. According to Bandura (2016), moral disengagement is the motivation to morally disengage us from our better selves and ethical conduct. It is the ability to commit acts of transgression without experiencing personal distress and guilt. Bandura states that individuals approve their harmful behaviour as serving a worthy cause. They absolve themselves of blame-displacing responsibility, they minimise or deny the harmful effects of their actions and blame others for bringing the suffering on themselves. Interestingly, Bandura’s theory of moral disengagement extends to the social-system level, unlike other theories of morality, which focus of the individual level. A study by Fitzpatrick and Bussey (2017) assessed moral disengagement within reciprocated, very best friendships. They found that close friends fostered school children and adolescent’s social bullying. Correspondingly, Brugman, Out, and Gibbs (2016) stated that fairness and justice were central to moral development. Their research found that fairness and empathy depend upon the development of social perspective–taking skills. In turn, social trust can be undermined by breaches of fairness or empathy, which can occur in early childhood. Results showed that these breaches may have long-term negative consequences, affect moral motivation and the development of social perspective–taking skills. Similarly, Haddock and Jimerson (2017) in their research on moral disengagement and bullying found a statistically significant correlation between moral disengagement and empathy. Their research confirms the relationship between moral disengagement, empathy, prosocial and victimising behaviour. 442

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8.10 The influence of formal education on cognitive development LEARNING OUTCOME 8.10 Examine how school affects children’s cognitive development.

Because it has such a profound impact on cognitive development, one of the most important experiences of middle childhood is attending school. The start of formal education coincides with the beginning of this period of development, and 12 years or so of schooling give children ongoing opportunities to develop different cognitive skills, particularly literacy — the key to adequate functioning in technological societies. Formal schooling is not universal. More than 101 million children across the world have no access to primary school education, and over half of these children are girls (UNICEF, 2010, 2011). In 2013, UNICEF reported that there are still 31 million girls of primary school age out of school. Of these, 17 million are expected never to enter school. There are 4 million fewer boys than girls out of school. The Millennium Development Goals target was for every child to complete a full course of primary education by 2015. The latest report (UNESCO, 2015) concludes the number of school-aged children who are not in primary school has dropped by 42 per cent; for girls, the rate has dropped by 47 per cent. However, despite this improvement, 58 million children of primary school age (6–11) are out of school worldwide. Unfortunately, if this trend continues, 15 million girls and 10 million boys will probably never set foot in a classroom. However, in developed countries such as Australia and New Zealand, compulsory education ensures all children have opportunities to benefit from formal schooling. Even so, for a variety of reasons, all children do not benefit equally from schooling in terms of their cognitive development. We will explore some of the reasons for such individual outcomes of education during middle childhood.

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Participation structures and classroom discourse Classrooms provide particular patterns and styles of discourse, or language interaction, that influence how, when, and with whom children can speak (Gee & Green, 1998). Recurring patterns of classroom interaction are sometimes call participation structures. They correspond — roughly — to common teaching strategies. However, participation structures include not only the teacher’s behaviour; they include the students’ behaviours as well. Table 8.5 lists several of the most common participation structures. Participation structures do not always work as intended, nor do they usually have the same effect on all students. One reason is students bring different expectations to a classroom about discourse language and work relationships. For example, a teacher politely asks students to work on a group project ‘Is everyone ready to start their group work?’ — what one student perceives as an indirect command to work, another may interpret as an opportunity to relax and do nothing. This type of situation can arise if the discourse a student has experienced at home differs significantly from the discourse typically used at school (Stubbs, 2002). In this example, the relaxing student could have been cajoled into doing chores at home with parental threats or even physical violence. So, the teacher’s relatively weak entreaty to engage in work in the classroom would have little impact. As Stubbs points out, discrepancies between styles of communication, which are often situationspecific, can lead to mutual misinterpretations by teachers and students. In the above example, the student misunderstands the teacher’s indirect command, and the teacher might then misinterpret the student’s lack of engagement as stubbornness or the result of deficiencies in ability. When dealing with minority groups of children and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, primary school teachers can improve student involvement and achievement by directly teaching classroom practices, rules and routines that might otherwise be poorly understood (Morine-Dershimer, 2006). Teachers’ classroom discourse is often heavily laced with control talk — patterns of speech that collectively remind students that the teacher has power over their behaviour and verbal comments. Even during indirect participation structures such as group discussions, teachers regularly do the following CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 443

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three things to remind students of their power and influence: (1) designate speakers by calling on one student rather than another; (2) declare when a comment is valuable or irrelevant (e.g. saying ‘That’s a good idea’ or ‘How can you relate that to what we were just talking about?’); and (3) change the topic or activity (e.g. saying ‘Stop work, everyone. Put away your story books and take out your maths sheets.’). TABLE 8.5 Structure

Common participation structures in classrooms Teacher’s behaviour

Students’ behaviour

Assumptions

r talk r tell ideas r answer questions

r listen r take notes r ask questions

r students think about what teacher says r students do not daydream

Discussion

r set topic or broad question

r say something relevant r take others’ comments into account

r know something about the topic before beginning class

Group work

r set general task r select group members

r work out details of solution to task

r do a fair share of the work r cooperate r compromise as needed

Lecture

Teachers’ talk has the ability to encourage and empower students to learn — providing opportunities for individual children to express ideas and ask questions — or to effectively silence students. For example, Blanton, Berenson, and Norwood (2001) found that changing teachers’ questions during mathematics lessons from ‘What answer did you get?’ to ‘How did you get your answer?’ changed pupil roles and teachers’ perceptions of pupils significantly. Students were less threatened by a perception of having to arrive at the correct answer, and more readily shared their method of solving the math problem. Teachers were more likely to see the students as knowledgeable co-participants in learning. It is also possible teachers’ talk will empower certain students at the expense of others. Inequity can occur when certain students are called on more than others, or if the ideas of certain students are declared irrelevant or inappropriate. Such inequities can occur as a result of social biases on the part of both teachers and other students. These inequities are explored in the following section.

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Social biases that affect learning Observations of classroom teaching show both teachers and other students sometimes respond to a student on the basis of gender, race or ethnic background in a pattern mimicking societal biases. During discussions and question-and-answer sessions, teachers tend to call on boys more regularly than they call on girls — possibly due to gender biases in perceptions of ability, or alternately as a method of preventing disruptions to lessons by boys (Morine-Dershimer, 2006). If such distinctions based on gender, race or ethnicity are noticed by students, they can create an impression that one group of students is more important than another, and also more worthy of public notice. Classmates can also exhibit group biases. For example, Australian research by Burton Smith and Alger (1999) showed the gender composition of groups significantly affects the problem-solving behaviours of primary school children. In Burton Smith and Alger’s study, girls in same-sex problem-solving groups showed high levels of cooperative behaviours conducive to problem solving, whereas girls in mixed-sex groups tended to be dominated by boys’ more assertive and off-task behaviours, with a consequent reduction in behaviours conducive to problem-solving. Boys in same-sex groups showed the least degree of cooperation, with behaviours tending to be mostly off-task and directed towards establishing dominance hierarchies. Despite these findings, biases that affect children’s school-based learning are not inevitable. Educational interventions have successfully trained teachers and even classmates to include all students 444

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equitably — regardless of gender, race, or ethnic background. Techniques include using a ‘talking stick’ or ‘round robin’, and rearranging the classroom seating patterns. Teacher responses that link different student contributions and stimulate deeper exploration are also powerful techniques in promoting full and equitable class participation in discussions (Morine-Dershimer, 2006). MULTICULTURAL VIEW

Girl Rising: educating girls to make a difference Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations. She has done this under the most dangerous circumstances, and through her heroic struggle has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education. Malala is the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Writing under a pseudonym, Ms Yousafzai had documented life in Swat valley under the harsh rule of the Pakistani Taliban, which took over in 2007. During the nearly three years that they ruled Swat, the Taliban forced closures of private schools as part of an edict banning girls’ education (Hodge & Cross, 2014).

On 9 October 2012, fifteen-year-old Malala was returning home on the school bus when two gunmen stopped the school bus and insisted that the students identify the campaigner for women’s education and rights. Firing three shots — one hitting Malala in the head and the other two injuring two other girls — the Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting because they viewed Malala’s writings as being against the Taliban’s aim to establish Islamic rule. Malala, left for dead, was flown to the United Kingdom for treatment. Her shooting ‘caused widespread public revulsion against the Taliban in Pakistan, and raised Ms Yousafzai to global prominence’ (Hodge & Cross, 2014). Following her recovery (and on her 16th birthday), Malala delivered an address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The UN declared it ‘Malala Day’. Malala has now become the advocate for Girl Rising, a worldwide social action campaign for girls’ education. The purpose of Girl Rising is to ‘make sure people everywhere are talking about girls’ education, that they understand its transformative power, recognise the barriers, and choose to get involved in order to make a difference’ (Girl Rising, 2014). Girl Rising uses storytelling, film and videos to change the way in which the world values a girl, and to show that educating girls can alter societies — as every girl has the right to an education to fulfill her potential. Today, 15 million girls will never get the chance to learn to read or write in primary school classrooms compared to about 10 million boys (UNESCO, 2016) classrooms, Girls are fighting to be educated. With their partners and worldwide support, Girl Rising is working to change this. Malala continues to be an inspiration through her passionate speeches and advocacy for girls’ education. ln 2016, she implored world leaders to guarantee all refugee children had access to a full 12-year education (Astor, 2016). In 2017, she was selected to be a United Nations messenger of peace, the highest honour bestowed by the UN chief on a world citizen. Malala will focus on promoting girls’ education universally (Associated Press).

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Go to the Girl Rising website (www.girlrising.com). In your opinion, why is the education of girls so critical? How could you assist this initiative?

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The impact of assessment and evaluation of student learning Accountability assessment involving national testing programs, has gained momentum in developed countries during the twenty-first century. Such large-scale assessments have arisen partly out of concerns about falling levels of literacy and numeracy, particularly in vulnerable populations and disadvantaged areas. The national normative data from these programs are generally converted into performance bands or categories used for individual student reporting, and, more controversially, for school-based report cards such as the federal government’s My School website in Australia (Ercikan, 2006). The National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), instigated in 2008, involves the annual testing of all Australian children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 using standardised achievement tests targeting numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation. National, state-based and school-based data are provided for comparative purposes. Comparison of individual children’s results with national minimal standards of literacy and numeracy identifies whether or not children are meeting significant educational outcomes. The 2017 NAPLAN (NAP) data shows that there has been some improvement across all year levels in most areas of literacy and numeracy since the introduction of these tests in 2008. Particularly encouraging, is that ninety percent of students nationally are meeting the minimum national standards. Nonetheless, how this normative data is used remains controversial, particularly school-based data available to parents of students and to the general public. Additionally, Popham (2003), Chudowsky and Pellegrino (2003), Miller (2014), Antoniou and James (2014) and Ercikan and Pellegrino (2017) question the efficacy of large-scale assessment in achieving the commonly stated aim of supporting student learning. A major obstacle is the limited knowledge available on the linkages between cognitive development and children’s performance on assessment tasks. With accountability assessment common in many countries, children in the early years of middle childhood are now experiencing for the first time formal assessment and evaluation of their progress in school learning. Large-scale assessments such as NAPLAN, as well as classroom-based evaluation by teachers, can have a positive or negative impact on students’ perceptions of themselves as learners, depending on how the results are communicated to students and how they are used. Thus, one of the most important aspects of assessment and evaluation is maintaining and promoting self-esteem (Ercikan, 2006). How assessment and evaluation influence children’s self-esteem and, consequently, their learning, depends to a large extent on the type of goals set for learning and how the child is evaluated against these benchmarks. Schools and teachers use some or all individualised, competitive and cooperative goals. Educational research has found each type of goal has a distinctive effect on students’ learning, their self-concept and their social relationships.

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Individualised goals With individualised goals, each student is judged on personal performance, regardless of what other individuals may achieve. Sometimes this kind of evaluation is called grading on an absolute standard, since the performance of each individual is compared to a fixed rather than a fluctuating benchmark (such as a class mean or average attainment based on other students’ aggregated performances). For example, students are expected to become fluent at reading a particular passage of text that is representative of a specific difficulty level. This approach to evaluation is common in the teaching of relatively structured subjects such as elementary arithmetic where standards can be defined clearly (e.g. being able to multiply two-digit numbers). Students need to reach the standard to show the appropriate achievement. Evaluations are usually reduced to a pass/fail criterion, although gradations of achievement can be used relative to the standard. Research on evaluation of students using individualised goals has found that it generally heightens students’ attention to mastering specific content and skills and makes them relatively indifferent to judging their overall abilities against those of other students — which can result in increased feelings of self-esteem when mastery is achieved (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). However, with individualised goal evaluations, students can become highly teacher-oriented for support and guidance, less interested in what they can teach one another, and less appreciative of one another’s diverse knowledge and skills 446

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(Berns, 2010). Individualised goals do not lend themselves equally well to all content or topics; for example, the performance of a sports team depends on coordination between individuals as much as it does on the skills of individual team members.

Competitive goals With competitive goals, students’ performances are assessed using an in-class comparison. Some individuals are judged to be better than others and children may perceive this as involving winners and losers. Competitive goals are common in school sports competitions (such as running races or football matches) in which only one person or team can win or take first place. Competitive goals are also implied when teachers display students’ academic scores or ranks for general inspection. Competitive goals make students concerned with how they perform relative to others, regardless of how well they perform in any absolute sense. Competitive goals also tend to make students think of their own abilities as externally fixed entities (‘you either have it or you don’t’), rather than as the result of personal effort and hard work. For both these reasons, competitive goals can interfere with sustained motivation to learn. Excessive or prolonged use of competitive goals in classes can eventually reduce engagement with activities that develop thinking skills. It can also lower the self-esteem of less successful class members and their sense of status among peers. Using the example of sports, every year about 35 per cent of children who are already involved in a sporting activity drop out of competitive sport, and the most common reason is a feeling of discouragement about losing (Petlichkoff, 2004).

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Cooperative goals With cooperative goals, the group’s overall performance is the key to success, with individuals sharing in rewards. Cooperative goals are commonly used in conjunction with group projects or presentations in primary school. For example, children are separated into small groups and asked to cooperate to find a solution for rescuing stranded wildlife, using a number of common household items. At the end of the exercise, the teacher does not comparatively evaluate the different groups’ solutions. Instead, the teacher may give each group individual feedback on how the processes in the group contributed to their solution and how different students’ ideas were elaborated and built upon in finding a workable solution. So, cooperative goals and group evaluations focus attention on helping other group members — and on accepting diversity among fellow students — with success judged against multiple criteria, rather than a single performance criterion. In line with Vygotsky’s principle of learning, cooperative goals also promote the belief learning and knowledge is a shared phenomenon, rather than something that exists only inside the heads of individuals (Salomon & Perkins, 1998). With cooperative goals, individuals learn from each other, students of lower abilities feel more motivated, and all students become more tolerant of differences in learning styles and abilities. Cooperative goals in evaluating learning have become increasingly common in primary education over the past 25 years. Research strongly suggests cooperative goals benefit students’ learning, motivation and social relationships more than either individualistic or competitive goals, particularly in multicultural classrooms and other diverse learning situations (Berns, 2010; Slavin, 1996, 2014, 2015). Even so, cooperative learning is not without its problems. If cooperative groups of students are not well supervised, they remain vulnerable to gender and ethnic biases. Teachers can actively use their authority to guide group processes; for example, by dampening boys’ more assertive styles and encouraging girls to contribute more actively. Cooperative learning is successful in projects that require diverse talents for successful completion (e.g. a project that needs an artist, a good writer and a good oral presenter) and where teachers organise groups containing members who can fill these roles. In a cooperative work group, some individuals may only focus on their own tasks and ignore helping and learning from others. Other individuals might take advantage of others’ hard work without contributing a share of the effort. Both of these problems can be alleviated by a careful monitoring of group processes and combining individualised and cooperative assessments.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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What grouping practices were used in your primary school days? Reflect on the impact these practices had on your motivation and achievement. What were the grouping practices for gifted students and children with special needs? Did these practices foster or undermine achievement and motivation?

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THE CHANGING CHILD: PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL The development examples given in this chapter point towards a greater truth: Neither physical nor cognitive development occurs in isolation from a child’s social experiences. Even a child’s height and weight influence acceptance by peers, as well as personal self-esteem. Thinking skills such as conservation or long-term memory are influenced not only by a child’s own efforts to make sense of their world, but also by learning experiences often provided by others. Language turns out to be more than an automatic acquisition of grammatical rules. It also involves learning how a child’s community prefers to communicate. Evidently, a child’s social surroundings — the people around them, both young and old — have a significant effect on development during middle childhood. In the next chapter, we look at these surroundings in more detail.

SUMMARY 8.1 Review the trends in height and weight that affect school-aged children.

Growth slows during middle childhood, but children still develop large individual differences in their relative height and weight by the end of this period. In the school years, weight can become a significant issue because of fears of social rejection and, in extreme cases, because of risk of health problems. For some children, especially girls, inappropriate dieting can also emerge during the latter years of middle childhood. 8.2 Identify the kinds of illnesses that affect school-aged children and how children’s cultural background can affect their health.

School-aged children in developed nations are less susceptible to infectious diseases compared to previous generations and to children in developing countries. A small percentage of children in developed nations suffer from significant chronic medical problems such as asthma. Most children contract acute illnesses such as influenza from time to time. Aboriginal-Australian children’s health is a serious issue in Australia, with Aboriginal children experiencing greater rates of infectious and serious chronic diseases than nonAboriginal children. 8.3 List the improvements in motor skills that children usually experience during the school years and explain how these improvements affect children’s involvement in sporting activity.

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Motor development during middle childhood can be seen in both fine and gross motor coordination, as well as in children’s increased strength compared to early childhood. These developments, plus burgeoning cognitive skills, allow children to benefit from involvement in sport. Team and individual sports expose children to the risk of physical injury — but also provide opportunities, with benefits including greater physical fitness as well as achievement motivation, a sense of teamwork and an appreciation for competition. 8.4 Identify the cognitive skills that children acquire during the school years, and examine the psychological and practical effects of these new skills.

School-aged children develop concrete operational thinking — reasoning focused on tangible objects and observable events. An important new skill is conservation — the understanding certain properties, such as mass and length, remain constant despite changes in appearance. Environment as well as maturation influence the age children attain conservations, as demonstrated by cultural differences in conservation and the results of training studies. Concrete operational children also acquire new skills in seriation, categorisation and spatial relations. Piaget’s ideas about cognitive development have influenced educators’ teaching strategies and the content of school curriculums.

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8.5 Discuss how the social environment and interactions between adults and children influence cognitive development during the school years.

Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky maintained children learn most effectively when they are presented with problems just beyond their present capabilities. Scaffolding is used to show them how to solve these problems by someone more competent or knowledgeable than themselves, for example a peer, older sibling, parent or teacher. These ideas have translated directly into popular contemporary teaching and learning strategies such as cooperative and reciprocal learning. 8.6 Describe how memory changes during middle childhood and how these changes affect thinking and learning.

Both attention and memory improve during middle childhood. Children are able to concentrate for longer and are more flexible in their attention. Short-term memory increases in scope, approximating adult capacity by the end of middle childhood. Long-term memory also increases as a result of more efficient memory strategies and increased understanding of how memory works (metamemory). Increases in both attention and memory capacities allow children to learn and retain new knowledge more efficiently. 8.7 List the changes in language that emerge during middle childhood.

School-aged children’s spoken language sounds very similar to adult speech, with mastery of the phonology of their native language during this period. There are also dramatic advances in children’s understanding of syntax (the grammatical construction of their language) as well as in pragmatics (the when, how and where of using language as an effective means of communication). Metalinguistic awareness is a development unique to middle childhood, whereby children are able to reflect on their own language production. Bilingual children with equal proficiency in both languages develop certain cognitive advantages over monolingual children, such as greater cognitive flexibility and metalinguistic awareness. However, controversies remain about what the best approach to teaching English to minority children is, especially those who speak Indigenous languages. Bilingual education (in which both languages are given equal prominence and the culture of the minority language is respected) is the preferred method, although there are arguments for language immersion in some circumstances. 8.8 Explain what intelligence is and illustrate how it can be measured.

Intelligence is a general ability to learn from or adapt to the environment. Traditionally, intelligence has been studied from the perspective of psychometric testing. Several different models of intelligence have evolved from the analysis of the test results of large numbers of individuals. More recent perspectives based on information processing theory have challenged the merits of the psychometric approach. Sternberg’s triarchic theory divides intelligence into components, experiences, and the context of thinking. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences identifies distinct cognitive capacities: language skill, musical skill, logical skill, spatial skill, kinaesthetic skill, naturalistic skill, and interpersonal/intrapersonal skills. From a practical viewpoint, the psychometric approach to intelligence has yielded more usable ways of measuring intelligence that are applicable in the education of children.

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8.9 Identify and discuss how children’s social experiences influence their moral understanding, and explain the relationship between moral disengagement, bullying, empathy and prosocial behaviour.

Children’s skills in understanding others’ feelings advance with the development of social perspective–taking skills. Interpersonal dilemmas concerning children’s conception of people (motivation, personality and self-awareness) and their conception of relationships between people (friendship, trust) identified six levels of perspective taking, as did children’s responses to dilemmas of distributive justice (sharing). Recently, the concept of moral disengagement from our better selves and ethical conduct has shown that the development of social perspective–taking skills and empathy can be undermined by breaches of these skills. Research on moral disengagement and bullying has found a statistically significant correlation between moral disengagement, empathy, prosocial and victimising behaviour.

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8.10 Examine how school affects children’s cognitive development.

School provides experience in particular patterns of language interaction called participation structures. The teacher’s language is marked by large amounts of control talk, comments or other linguistic markers that remind students of the power difference between students and teachers. Classroom interactions may also be marked by a gender bias; with teachers and students favouring boys’ comments over girls’. School is also a primary arena of assessment and evaluation for children, as well as a setting that provides experience with individual, competitive and cooperative goals.

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KEY TERMS accountability assessment The large-scale testing of students on a state or national level in order to meet agreed or legislated standards of student achievement in school. assessment and evaluation The effectiveness of teaching and learning assessment is measured by identifying the performance level of an individual or group. Evaluation is a systematic process of observing and measuring something for the purpose of judging it and of determining its ‘value’, merit and significance either by comparison to similar things, or to a set of standards. Evaluation is performed to determine the degree to which goals and objectives are attained. attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Excessive levels of activity and an inability to concentrate for normal periods of time. balanced bilinguals People who are equally fluent in two languages, rather than more fluent in one language than in the other. concrete operations Logical thinking about concrete or observable properties of objects and materials; characteristic of middle childhood. conservation A belief certain properties, such as quantity, remain constant despite changes in perceived features such as dimensions, position and shape. control talk A style or register of speech used by teachers to indicate their power over activities, discussion and the behaviour of students. discourse Extended verbal interaction. intelligence A general ability to learn from experience; the ability to reason abstractly. metalinguistic awareness The ability to attend to language as an object of thought rather than attending only to the content or ideas of a language. metamemory An individual’s knowledge about their own memory processes. mortality The proportion of persons who die at a given age; the rate of death. multiple intelligences According to Howard Gardner’s theory of intelligence, there are distinctive types of intelligence or ways of adapting to the environment. obese Significantly overweight. In childhood, obesity is being in the 95th percentile or above in weight for age; in adulthood, obesity is having a body mass index over 30. overweight In childhood, overweight is being between the 85th and 94th percentiles in weight for age; in adulthood, overweight is having a body mass index of 26 or over. participation structures Regular patterns of discourse or interaction in classrooms with unstated rules about how, when and to whom to speak. psychometric approach A view of intelligence based on identifying individual differences in ability through standardised test scores. recall memory Retrieval of information by using few or no external cues. recognition memory Retrieval of information by comparing an external stimulus or cue with pre-existing experiences or knowledge. triarchic theory of intelligence A view of intelligence as consisting of three components: (1) information processing skills (componential, also known as analytical intelligence), (2) the ability to deal with novelty (experiential, also known as creative intelligence), (3) adaptability (contextual, also known as practical intelligence). CHAPTER 8 Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 451

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REVIEW QUESTIONS 1 Describe how children’s height and weight change during middle childhood. How do extremes in

height and weight affect children’s development, including their social–emotional development? 2 What are the major cognitive developments that occur during middle childhood, as proposed by

Piaget’s theory? How can Vygotsky’s social interaction and scaffolding aid this development? 3 How do children’s attention and memory change during middle childhood? What mechanisms are

responsible for these changes? 4 What are the unique advances in language during middle childhood compared to early childhood

language developments? 5 Explain the different theoretical approaches to understanding intelligence. In what main ways do

theories differ in how they conceptualise intelligence and its growth during childhood?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1 Critically discuss this statement: ‘Obesity is the major threat to children’s health and development in

industrialised countries.’ 2 How might an understanding of Piaget’s theory of conservation and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

assist parents’, educators’, carers’ and social workers’ understanding of the cognitive development of the school-aged child? 3 Should children be required to learn a second language during the primary school years? If so, how should the second language be taught? 4 Analyse and discuss the statement: ‘Intelligence tests are culturally biased and give an unfair advantage to white, middle-class, English-speaking children’.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS 1 Test your understanding by matching the key concept to an applicable example. Note, there are several

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distracter terms in the list that do not apply to the examples. Some examples might also match with more than one term. Balanced bilingual Conservation of amount Conservation of number Cooperative goals Cooperative learning Gross motor skills Language immersion Mnemonic strategies Parental over-participation Pragmatics

Preoperational Reciprocal teaching Recognition memory Rehearsal Seriate Short-term memory Sideline rage Syntax Turn-taking Zone of proximal development

(a) Alison is upset because she thinks that Mum has given her brother more Smarties. Mum rectifies the situation by lining up the two piles of Smarties on the kitchen table so that each of her brother’s Smarties corresponds to each of Alison’s Smarties. (b) Joachim has recently migrated to Australia. He speaks both English and French fluently. Joachim’s mother explains to his primary school teacher that she comes from Lancashire, but Joachim’s father is a native of Toulouse. At home they speak both English and French. 452

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(c) Andy wants to phone his friend Jake about a homework problem. His father looks up Jake’s telephone number for him and calls it out to Andy, but Andy only manages to dial the first five numbers. Andy’s Dad tells him that a good way for Andy to remember telephone numbers is to put the numbers in groups of three and then say them over several times to himself. (d) Ms Kransky’s Year 3 class has undergone a revolution. She has organised the children into small groups of five or six, and has seated them together for all the academic work in her room. She has mixed the abilities in these groups, spreading the brighter children in the class among the different groups. She has set problem-solving tasks that are challenging but not impossible for most of the group members to solve. She encourages the brighter group members to support the less able members in finding solutions and evaluates each group’s performance according to the contributions all the members made to solutions. (e) James has recently begun playing soccer for his school team. His ball skills have improved a great deal over the past few months, and he is more accurate in kicking goals and passing. At first he enjoyed the matches against other primary schools, but recently the father of a new team member has started yelling at his own son during the game. This behaviour has made James very nervous and he is reluctant to go to matches or to training. (f) Kirsten’s mother was listening to her daughter and two school friends from her Year 1 class conversing about their recent class visit to a museum. She could not help but notice how much more sophisticated Kirsten was in talking to her friends. Just a year or so ago, Kirsten used to talk over the top of other people and her comments about things just seemed to come from nowhere. Now she and her friends seem to be talking ‘like little ladies’, waiting until one finished and making comments about what the last person said. (g) Seven-year-old Andy raced home from school one afternoon, excitedly saying to his Mum, ‘Look at what I can do!’ He collected some sticks and demonstrated he was able to arrange them in order from the shortest to the tallest one. In doing this, Andy is demonstrating his ability to express which concept from the above list. 2 Eleven-year-old Abdul has recently begun school in Australia. His parents are refugees from an African country and speak little English. Although his father was a professional man in his home country, his qualifications are not recognised in Australia. He has been trying to obtain work in his field, but has had to take on an unskilled job which is not well paid. Abdul is a very tall boy for his age and he is head and shoulders above the other children in his Year 6 class. This, in addition to his already exotic appearance, makes him stand out among his mainly Anglo-Australian classmates, and he seems lonely and isolated. Abdul’s teacher is unsure about how bright he is, but she suspects he might be gifted. Abdul prefers to spend school breaks working on highly complex mathematics problems. He does not seem to be interested in playing footy or interacting with the other boys in his year. (a) How should Abdul be assessed to establish whether he is a gifted or talented student? Are there any background factors that might affect the outcomes of any formal assessments of Abdul? (b) What could his teacher do to help Abdul to integrate better into the classroom and the playground? (c) If it is established that Abdul is gifted, how could Abdul’s abilities be maximised in his present classroom?

ESSAY QUESTION 1 Identify and discuss two developmental characteristics from the cognitive domain in middle childhood.

Analyse how relevant theory and research can assist with our understanding of these developmental characteristics. In your analysis, discuss how culture, education, social biases and classroom discourse impacts upon these characteristics.

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WEBSITES 1 The Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from the United Nations’ Millennium

2

3

4

5

Development Goals and Beyond program’s aims include halving extreme poverty, stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, and the target date was set for 2015. This website identifies and defines the eight millennium goals with fact sheets, goal development, resources, days of actions and how to participate: www.un.org/millenniumgoals Harvard University-hosted National Scientific Council on the Developing Child’s website is a multidisciplinary collaboration between various universities that promote methods to maximise successful learning, adaptive behaviour, and ensure all young children are mentally and physically healthy. There is a resource library, innovative practices and application of these practices: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/national-scientific-council-on-the-developing-child This website of the Australian Government’s Department of Health provides health-awareness information and disease prevention activities. It is for the general public and health professionals. There is access to a media centre, health profiles, details on ageing and aged care. It contains an excellent section on obesity in Australian children, adolescents and adults: www.health.gov.au/ internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-overview.htm; also, www.health.gov.au Australian Indigenous Health InfoNet; the Aboriginal Birth Cohort Study (ABC). ABC is a prospective, life course study of Aboriginal newborns that investigates the causes of non-communicable chronic diseases. The study focuses on early causes and preventative interventions. Now in its 26th year, it is the longest and largest study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. The health and wellbeing of 686 babies have been thoroughly checked from various stages of their lives, starting as newborns, children, adolescents and adults. These checks happen where they live. There is also general information regarding Australian Indigenous health and useful resources including research articles and health promotion: www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/key-resources/programsprojects?pid=2459 ‘Make Healthy Normal’, a 2015 initiative from the NSW state government provides advice for parents, children, families and Aboriginal peoples in the form of health-promotion programs, ‘healthy kids’ mini-site, physical activities, challenge goals, healthy food and physical activity coaching: www.makehealthynormal.nsw.gov.au/finding-new-normal/healthy-programs

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REFERENCES Adachi-Mejia, A. M., Longacre, M. R., Gibson, J. J., Beach, M. L., Titus-Ernstoff, L. T., & Dalton, M. A. (2007). Children with a TV in their bedroom at higher risk for being overweight. International Journal of Obesity, 31(4), 644–651. American College of Pediatricians (2016, November). The impact of media use and screen time on children, adolescents, and families [online]. Retrieved from www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/parenting-issues/the-impact-ofmedia-use-and-screen-time-on-children-adolescents-and-families Anastasi, A., & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Anderson, P., & Butcher, K. (2006). Childhood obesity: Trends and potential causes. The Future of Children, 16, 19–45. Ang, S. Y., & Lee, K. (2010). Exploring developmental differences in visual short-term memory and working memory. Developmental Psychology, 46, 279–285. Antoniou, P., & James, M. (2014). Exploring formative assessment in primary school classrooms: Developing a framework of actions and strategies. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 26(2), 153–176. ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. (2014). Media release: Aussie kids earliest internet users. Retrieved from www.cci.edu.au Associated Press (2017, April 17). UN chief selects education advocate Malala for top honour [CTV News]. Retrieved from www.ctvnews.ca/world/un-chief-selects-education-advocate-malala-for-top-honour-1.3360020 Astor, M. (2016). Malala Yousafzai urges schooling for all refugee children. San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved from www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-malala-yousafzai-urges-schooling-for-all-refugee-2016sep12-story.html 454

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Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2007). Health of children in Australia: A snapshot, 2004–05 (Cat. No. 4829.0.55.001). Canberra, Australia: Author. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health survey 2008 (Cat. No. 4714.0). Canberra: Author. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). Year book Australia, 2008 (Cat. No. 1301.0). Canberra: Author. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2010). Measures of Australia’s progress – Communication 2010. Retrieved from www.abs.gov.au/ ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/1370.0˜2010˜Chapter˜Children%20and%20mobile%20phones%20(4.8.5.3.2) Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2014–15). National health survey: First results, (2014–15). Retrieved from www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/CDA852A349B4CEE6CA257F150009FC53/$ File/national%20health%20survey%20first%20results,%202014-15.pdf Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2015). Deaths (2015). Retrieved from www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Previousproducts/ 3302.0Main%20Features42015?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3302.0&issue=2015&num=&view= Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2016). Australian children spending more time on screens. Media Release — 20 September 2016. Retrieved from https://aifs.gov.au/media-releases/australian-children-spending-more-time-screens Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2017). The longitudinal study of Australian children annual statistical report 2016. Retrieved from www.growingupinaustralia.gov.au/pubs/asr/2016/LSAC-ASR-2016-Book.pdf Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). (2017). Overweight and Obesity in Australia report. Retrieved from www.aihw.gov.au/reports-statistics/behaviours-risk-factors/overweight-obesity/overview Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2010a). Australia’s health. Retrieved April 6, 2011, from www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=6442468376 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2010b). Child protection Australia 2008–09. Child welfare series no. 47. Cat. no. CWS 35. Canberra: AIHW. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2010c). Making progress: The health, development and wellbeing of Australia’s children and young people: Early childhood. Retrieved November 18, 2010, from www.aihw.gov.au/publications/phe/mpthdawoacayp/mp-thdawoacayp-c02.pdf Babcock, K. (2013). The joys of student self-assessment. Journal of Border Educational Research, 3(1). Baddely, A. D. (1992). Working memory: The interface between memory and cognition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 4, 281–288. Bailar-Heath, M., & Valley-Gray, S. (2010). Accident prevention. In P. C. McCabe & S. R. Shaw (Eds.), Pediatric disorders: Current topics and interventions for educators (pp. 123–132). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bailie, R. S., Stevens, M., & McDonald, E. L. (2014). Impact of housing improvement and the socio-physical environment on the mental health of children’s carers: A cohort study in Australian Aboriginal communities. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 472. Balcomb, F. K., & Gerken, L. (2008). Three-year-old children can access their own memory to guide responses on a visual matching task. Developmental Science, 11, 750–760. Bandura, A. (2016). Moral disengagement: How people do harm and live with themselves. New York, NY: Worth. Barkley, R. A. (2003). Issues in the diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children. Brain and Development, 25, 77–83. Barkley, R. A. (Ed.). (2014). Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A handbook for diagnosis and treatment. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Baxter, S. L., Collins, S. C., & Hill, A. J. (2016). ‘Thin people . . . they’re healthy’: Young children’s understanding of body weight change. Pediatric Obesity, 11(5), 418–424. Belacchi, C., Benelli, B., & Dispaldro, M. (2013). Semantic representation and Verbal Working Memory: The impact of schematic knowledge on word recall in children at different age levels. BPA-Applied Psychology Bulletin (Bollettino di Psicologia Applicata), 61(268), 13–28. Benelli, B., Belacchi, C., Gini, G., & Lucangeli, D. (2006). “To define means to say what you know about things”: The development of definitional skills as metalinguistic acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 33, 71–97. Berg, E. Z. (2004). Gender and its effects on psychopathology. American Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 179. Berge, J. M., Hanson-Bradley, C., Tate, A., & Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2016). Do parents or siblings engage in more negative weight-based talk with children and what does it sound like? A mixed-methods study. Body Image, 18, 27–33. Berko Gleason, J. (2005). The development of language: An overview and preview. In J. Berko Gleason (Ed.), The development of language (6th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Berns, R. M. (2010). Child, family, school, community: Socialization and support. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning Inc. Betts, P. (2000). Which children should receive growth hormone treatment: Long term side effects possible with high doses. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 83, 177–178. Bevan-Brown, J. (2005). Providing a culturally responsive environment for gifted Maori learners. International Education Journal, 6(2), 150–155. Bevan-Brown, J. (2009). Identifying and providing for gifted and talented M¯aori students. Apex, 15(4), 6–20. Bevan-Brown, J. (2014). Guiding principles for the education of gifted M¯aori students and their possible relevance to gifted Indigenous students in Taiwan. Airiti library, 12(1), 1–24.

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Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and cognition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Bialystok, E., & Martin, M. M. (2004). Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: Evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science, 7(3), 325–339. Bialystok, E. (2006). Effect of bilingualism and computer video game experience on the Simon task. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie exp´erimentale, 60(1), 68–79. doi:10.1037/cjep2006008 Bialystok, E. (2017). The bilingual adaptation: How minds accommodate experience. Psychological Bulletin, 143(3), 233. Bierderman, J. (2005). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A selective overview. Biological Psychiatry, 57, 1215–1220. Biederman, J., Martelon, M., Woodworth, K. Y., Spencer, T. J., & Faraone, S. V. (2017). Is maternal smoking during pregnancy a risk factor for cigarette smoking in offspring? A longitudinal controlled study of ADHD children grown up. Journal of Attention Disorders, 21(12), 975–985. Binet, A., & Simon, T. (1905). New methods for the diagnosis of the intellectual level of subnormals. L’Annee Psychologique, 12, 191–244. Biro, F. M., & Wien, M. (2010). Childhood obesity and adult morbidities. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 91(5), 1499S–1505S. Bitler, M. P., Hoynes, H. W., & Domina, T. (2014). Experimental evidence on distributional effects of Head Start (working paper no. w20434). National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved October 25, 2017, from www.nber.org/papers/w20434 Bjorklund, D. F., & Causey, K. B. (2017). Children’s thinking: Cognitive development and individual differences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Blanton, M., Berenson, S., & Norwood, K. (2001). Using classroom discourse to understand a prospective mathematics teacher’s developing practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 227–242. Brainerd, C. J., & Reyna, V. F. (2001). Fuzzy-trace theory: Dual processes in memory, reasoning, and cognitive neuroscience. In H. W. Reese & R. Kail (Eds.), Advances in child development and behaviour (pp. 41–100). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Brainerd, C. J., & Reyna, V. F. (2015). Fuzzy-trace theory and lifespan cognitive development. Developmental Review, 38, 89–121. Brice Heath, S. (2010). Family literacy or comunity learning? Some critical questions on perspective. In K. L. Dunsome & D. Fisher, (Eds.), Bringing literacy home. (pp. 15–41). International Reading Association. Brooks, M. D. (2017). How and when did you learn your languages? Bilingual students’ linguistic experiences and literacy instruction. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(4), 383–393. Brugman, D., Out, C., & Gibbs, J. C. (2016). Fairness and trust in developmental psychology. In H. Kury, S., Redo, & E. Shea (2016). Women and children as victims and offenders: Background, prevention, reintegration (pp. 265–289). Switzerland: Springer. Buchanan, R., Noble, B., Murray, T., & Southgate, E. (2015) Online all the time? How children understand their digital footprints. Retrieved December 7, 2017, from www.researchgate.net/publication/314246374_Online_all_the_time_How_ children_understand_their_digital_footprints Burt, C. (1949). The structure of the mind: A review of the results of factor analysis. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 19, 176–199. Burton Smith, R., & Alger, J. (1999). The effects of gender and friendship on group problem solving in middle childhood. Paper presented at 34th annual conference of the Australian psychological society, 29th Sept.–3rd Oct. 1999, Hobart Tasmania, Australia. Butler, Y. G., & Hakuta, K. (2006). Bilingualism and second language acquisition. In T. J. Bhatia & W. C. Ritchie (Eds.), The handbook of bilingualism (pp. 114–145). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Cairney, J., & Veldhuizen, S. (2017). 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Chudowsky, N., & Pellegrino, J. W. (2003). Large-scale assessments that support learning: What will it take. Theory Into Practice, 42, 75–83. Clapperton, A., Cassell, E., & Wallace, A. M. (2003). Injury to children aged 5–15 years at school. Hazard, 53, Summer, 2003. Coffman, J. L., Ornstein, P. A., McCall, L. E., & Curran, P. J. (2008). Linking teachers’ memory-relevant language and the development of children’s memory skills. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1640–1654. Cole, M. (1999). The illusion of culture-free intelligence testing. Available from the University of California, San Diego, Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition. Retrieved August 11, 2008, from http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Paper/Cole/iq.html Coles, P., Sigman, M., & Chessel, K. (1977). Scanning strategies of children and adults. In G. Butterworth (Ed.), The child’s representation of the world. New York, NY: Plenum Press. Commonwealth of Australia. (2008). 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Di Pasquale, R., & Celsi, L. (2017). Stigmatization of overweight and obese peers among children. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 524. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00524 Donkers, J. L., Martin, L., Paradis, K. F., & Anderson, S. (2014). The social environment in children’s sport. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 45, 1–00. Doyle, R. (2000). Asthma worldwide. Scientific American, 282, 30. Elbe, A. M., Wikman, J. M., Zheng, M., Larsen, M. N., Nielsen, G., & Krustrup, P. (2017). The importance of cohesion and enjoyment for the fitness improvement of 8–10-year-old children participating in a team and individual sport school-based physical activity intervention. European Journal of Sport Science, 17(3), 343–350. Elkind, D. (1994). A sympathetic understanding of the child (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Elliott, S. (2015). Poor parental behaviour in youth sport: How can physical educators challenge this sociocultural construction? 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Selman, R. L. (1971). Taking another’s perspective: Role-taking development in early childhood. Child Development, 42(6), 1721–1734. doi:10.2307/1127580 Selman, R. L. (1975). Level of social perspective taking and the development of empathy in children: Speculations from a social-cognitive viewpoint. Journal of Moral Education, 5(1), 35–43. Selman, R. L., & Byrne, D. F. (1974, September). A structural-developmental analysis of levels of role taking in middle childhood. Child Development. 45(3), 803–806. Serpell, R. (1974a). Estimates of intelligence in a rural community of Eastern Zambia. Human Development Research Unit, University of Zambia. Serpell, R. (1974b). Aspects of intelligence in a developing country. African Social Research, 17, 578–596. Serpell, R. (1996). Cultural models of childhood in indigenous socialization and formal schooling in Zambia. In C. P. Hwang, M. E. Lamb, & I. E. Sigel (Eds.), Images of childhood (pp. 129–142). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Serpell, R., & Adamson-Holley, D. (2017). African socialization values and nonformal educational practices: Child development, parental beliefs, and educational innovation in rural Zambia. In T. Abebe & J. Waters (Eds.), Laboring and learning. Geographies of Children and Young People, 10, 19–43. Singapore: Springer. Sheridan, S. (2014). Opening our eyes to the damaging effects of digital devices. Retrieved from www.lenstore.co.uk/blog/technotoddlers-damaging-effects-digital-devices}sthash.lnJ7dNjd.dpuf Sherry, B., McDivitt, J., Birch, L. L., Cook, F. H., Sanders, S., Prish, J. L., . . . Scanlon, K. S. (2004). Attitudes, practices and concerns about child feeding and child weight status among socio economically diverse white, Hispanic, and African American mothers. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 104, 215–221. Shultz, S. P., Byrne, N. M., & Hills, A. P. (2014). Musculoskeletal function and obesity: Implications for physical activity. Current Obesity Reports, 1–6. Sibley, M. H., Swanson, J. M., Arnold, L. E., Hechtman, L. T., Owens, E. B., Stehli, A., & Jensen, P. S. (2017). Defining ADHD symptom persistence in adulthood: Optimizing sensitivity and specificity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(6), 655–662. Slavin, R. (1996). Research on cooperative learning and achievement: What we know, and what we need to know. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21, 43–69. Slavin, R. E. (2014). Cooperative learning and academic achievement: Why does groupwork work?. Anales de Psicolog´ıa/Annals of Psychology, 30(3), 785–791. Slavin, R. E. (2015). Cooperative learning in elementary schools. Education 3–13, 43(1), 5–14. Slee, P. T. (2001). Child, adolescent and family development (2nd ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press. Sol´ıs, M., Scammacca, N., Barth, A. E., & Roberts, G. J. (2017). Text-based vocabulary intervention training study: Supporting fourth graders with low reading comprehension and learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities–A Contemporary Journal, 15(1), 103–115. Spearman, C. (1904). General intelligence objectively determined and measured. American Journal of Psychology, 15, 201–293. Sternberg, R. J. (1994). Thinking and problem solving. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Thinking styles. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R. J. (2005). The theory of successful intelligence. Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 39(2), 189–202. Sternberg, R. J. (2007). Cultural concepts of giftedness. Roeper Review, 29(3), 160–165. Sternberg, R. J. (2008). Increasing fluid intelligence is possible after all. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(19), 6791–6792. Sternberg, R. J. (2010). Assessment of gifted students for identification purposes: New techniques for a new millennium. Learning and Individual Differences, 20(4), 327–336. Sternberg, R. J., & Wagner, R. (Eds.). (1994). Mind in context: Interactionist perspectives on human intelligence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. St Pourcain, B., Eaves, L., Evans, D. M., Stergiakouli, E., Fisher, S. E., Ring, S. M., & George, D. S. (2017). Trait-specific patterns of common genetic factors influence social-communication difficulties and adhd symptoms during child and adolescent development. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 27, S379–S380. Stubbs, M. (2002). Some basic soicolinguistic concepts. In L. Delpit & J. K. Dowdy (Eds.), The skin that we speak (p. 6385). New York, NY: The New Press. Super, C. M., Harkness, S., Barry, O., & Zeitlin, M. (2011). Think locally, act globally: Contributions of African research to child development. Child Development Perspectives, 5(2), 119–125. Swanson, H. L., & Fung, W. (2016). Working memory components and problem-solving accuracy: Are there multiple pathways? Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(8), 1153. Swinburn, B., & Wood, A. (2013). Progress on obesity prevention over 20 years in Australia and New Zealand. Obesity Reviews, 14(S2), 60–68. Symons, C., Polman, R., Moore, M., Borkoles, E., Eime, R., Harvey, J., . . . Payne, W. (2013). The relationship between body image, physical activity, perceived health, and behavioural regulation among Year 7 and Year 11 girls from metropolitan and rural Australia. Annals of Leisure Research, 16(2), 115–129.

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Tabibi, Z., & Pfeffer, K. (2007). Finding a safe place to cross the road: The effect of distractors and the role of attention in children’s identification of safe and dangerous road-crossing sites. Infant and Child Development, 16(2), 193–206. Takala, M. (2006). The effects of reciprocal teaching on reading comprehension in mainstream and special (SLI) education. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 50, 559–576. Tatangelo, G., McCabe, M., Mellor, D., & Mealey, A. (2016). A systematic review of body dissatisfaction and sociocultural messages related to the body among preschool children. Body Image, 18, 86–95. Temple, J. L., Giacomelli, A. M., Roemmich, J. N., & Epstein, L. H. (2007). Overweight children habituate slower than non-overweight children to food. Physiology & Behavior, 91(2), 250–254. Thomas, S., Burton Smith, R., & Ball, P. J. (2007). Implicit attitudes in very young children: An adaptation of the IAT. Current Research in Social Psychology, 13, 75–85. Thurstone, L. L. (1938). Primary mental abilities. Psychometric Monographs (Vol. 1). Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press. Tiggeman, M., & Ainsbury, T. (2000). Negative stereotyping of obesity in children: The role of controllability beliefs. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 1977–1993. Tsiros, M. D., Buckley, J. D., Howe, P. R., Walkley, J., Hills, A. P., & Coates, A. M. (2014). Musculoskeletal pain in obese compared with healthy-weight children. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 30(7), 583–588. Tsiros, M. D., Buckley, J. D., Olds, T., Howe, P. R., Hills, A. P., Walkley, J., & Shultz, S. P. (2016). Impaired physical function associated with childhood obesity: How should we intervene?. Childhood Obesity, 12(2), 126–134. Turnbull, M., Hart, D., & Lapkin, S. (2003). Grade 6 French immersion students’ performance on large-scale reading writing and mathematics tests: Building explanations. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 49, 6–23. UNESCO (2013). Education for All Global monitoring report. Fact sheet 2013 – Girls’ education – the facts. Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/gem-report/files/girls-factsheet-en.pdf UNESCO (2015). Fixing the broken promise of education for all – findings from the global initiative on out-of-school-children [A report by UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics]. Retrieved from http://allinschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Fixing-theBroken-Promise-of-Education-For-All-full-report.pdf UNESCO (2016). 263 million children and youth are out-of-school [A report by UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics]. Retrieved from http://uis.unesco.org/en/news/263-million-children-and-youth-are-out-school United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. (2010). Equal access to education. Retrieved April 14, 2011, from www.unicef.org/education/index_access.html United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. (2011). Basic education and gender equity. Retrieved from www.unicef.org/education/index_access.html United Nations. (2015). Millennium development goals and beyond 2015. Retrieved from www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ childhealth.shtml Urrieta, L. (2010). Whitestreaming: Why some Latinas/os fear bilingual education. In L. D. Soto & H. Kharem (Eds.), Teaching bilingual/bicultural children (pp. 47–56). New York, NY: Lang Publishing. Vella, S. A., Cliff, D. P., Magee, C. A., & Okely, A. D. (2015). Associations between sports participation and psychological difficulties during childhood: A two-year follow up. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 18(3), 304–309. Vernon, P. E. (1961). The structure of human abilities. London, UK: Methuen. Vialle, W. J., & Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted Talented. (2011). Giftedness from an indigenous perspective. Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented. Vialle, W. J., & Gibson, K. (2007). The Australian aboriginal view of giftedness. Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/ edupapers/616/ Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Vygotsky, L. (1997). Educational psychology. Boca Raton, FL: St. Lucie Press. Wadsworth, B. (1996). Piaget’s theory of cognitive and affective development: Foundations of constructivism (5th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman. Waite-Stupiansky, S. (1997). Building understanding together: A constructivist approach to early childhood education. Albany, NY: Delmar. Waite-Stupiansky, S. (2017). Jean Piaget’s constructivist theory of learning. In Cohen, L. E., & Waite-Stupiansky, S. (Eds.), Theories of Early Childhood Education: Developmental, Behaviorist, and Critical, 3–18. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Wang, Y., & Lobstein, T. I. M. (2006). Worldwide trends in childhood overweight and obesity. International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, 1(1), 11–25. Watson, A. (1983). Reading as a conceptual reasoning task: Towards a cognitive developmental theory of learning to read. Canberra, Australia: Education and Research Development Committee. Wechsler, D. (2003). WISC-IV: Wechsler intelligence scale for children (4th ed.). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation. Wechsler, D. (2016). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition: Australian and New Zealand Standardised Edition (WISC-V A&NZ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall. Weise, K. L., & Nahata, M. C. (2004). Growth hormone use in children with idiopathic short stature. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 38, 1460–1468.

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Weiss, M. R., Bhalla, J. A., & Price, M. S. (2008). Developing positive self-perceptions through youth sport participation. In O. Bar-Or & H. Hebestreit (Eds.), The encyclopaedia of sports medicine, Vol. X: The young athlete. Oxford: Blackwell Science, Ltd. Weiss, G., & Hechtman, L. (1993). Hyperactive children grown up (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Willenberg, I. (2015). Working with bilingual learners: An introduction. English in Australia, 50(1), 86. Wimmer, M. C., Maras, K. L., Robinson, E. J., & Thomas, C. (2016). The format of children’s mental images: Evidence from mental scanning. Cognition, 154, 49–54. Wolf, D. (1993). There and then, intangible and internal: Narratives in early childhood. In B. Spodek (Ed.), Handbook of research on the education of young children (pp. 42–56). New York, NY: Macmillan. Woollaston, V. (2014, September 9). Generation helpless: Children are now better at using smartphone than swimming, tying their shoelaces and even telling the time. Daily Mail. Retrieved from www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2749314/generationhelpless-children-better-using-smartphones-swimming-tying-shoelaces-telling-time.html Wright, B. C., & Dowker, A. D. (2002). The role of cues to differential absolute size in children’s transitive inferences. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 81, 249–275. Wright, B. C., & Smailes, J. (2015). Factors and processes in children’s transitive deductions. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 27(8), 967–978. World Health Organization (WHO). (2013). Global status report on road safety 2013: supporting a decade of action [online]. Retrieved from www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2013/en Yang, S. Y., & Sternberg, R. J. (1997). Taiwanese Chinese people’s conceptions of intelligence. Intelligence, 25(1), 21–36. Yenko, A. (2014, February 5). Kids learn using smartphone earlier than tying own shoe laces. International Business Times. Retrieved from http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/537349/20140205/smartphone-ipad-avg-technology.htm}.VDkdqBaRNlK

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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CHAPTER 9

Psychosocial development in middle childhood LEARNING OUTCOMES

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 9.1 describe the psychosocial challenges that children face during middle childhood 9.2 explain the important changes that occur in a child’s sense of self during middle childhood 9.3 define what is meant by achievement motivation, and explain what forms it takes 9.4 discuss how family changes such as divorce, single-parent and dual-income families affect children’s psychosocial development 9.5 identify and explain how peers contribute to development during middle childhood.

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OPENING SCENARIO

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Shakira is ten and a half years old. She is in Year 4 at her local primary school. She is always socialising with her girlfriends. Her time is spent talking to friends on her smartphone, using the Snapchat app to see the latest fashion trends and events, and keeping up to date with many overseas and interstate friends via Facebook. Shakira participates in the local dance school, swims competitively and attends a Girl Guide group. As she has one older brother, and a younger brother and sister, Shakira helps with the care of her younger siblings. Shakira particularly enjoys ‘mother–daughter’ chats. She is constantly asking her mother, ‘Do I look OK in this?’ or ‘Does my bum look too big in these jeans?’ After school, she discusses her likes and dislikes with her friends or her mother. She is keenly aware of her skills in dancing, swimming and schoolwork, and she proudly displays her medals and trophies for swimming and dance performances. Shakira’s parents have given her more responsibilities in caring for her younger siblings and doing jobs around the home. These responsibilities are pertinent to her developing skills and abilities. Sunny, her older brother, has started asking her advice on his fashion and dress sense. He also talks to her about music and movies that they both enjoy. Shakira is at the midpoint of the developmental period of middle childhood, when children become more aware of themselves as individuals and of their place in the social world. Middle childhood covers the primary school years, from about age six or seven through to about twelve, when children enter adolescence and attend high school. Middle childhood is a transitional period between early childhood (when rapid development takes place) and adolescence (when dramatic changes prepare an individual for the challenges of adulthood). So, middle childhood is a time of developmental consolidation, when children learn to deal with an increasingly complex social world. The social skills and interpersonal behaviours acquired in early childhood are practised, elaborated and perfected to provide a solid basis for the sometimes stressful changes that occur a few years later following puberty. Middle childhood is a period when children are increasingly involved outside the home, and have a greater capacity for independence and self-direction. From the beginning of school they are exposed to many different people, particularly to children of the same age and at the same developmental level as themselves, who are known as peers. The peer group provides an outlet for expressions of individuality away from the watchful eyes of adults. So, children’s behaviour with their peers might be quite different from their behaviour in class or at home with their parents and siblings. One of the most important psychosocial tasks during this period of development is self-regulation of behaviour. Peers are not as forgiving or as tolerant as family members, so in order to gain acceptance from their peer group, children must learn to control the strong emotions and impulses that typify early childhood, such as aggression, crying and a lack of tolerance. In learning self-regulation, children also begin to form a better idea of themselves and who they are, separate from their parents and other family members. They also develop an understanding of their own values. Hence, middle childhood is an important time for the development of self-concept, a sense of self that is separate from others. In this chapter, we explore the major psychosocial changes that occur during middle childhood and that provide the foundations for later changes during adolescence.

9.1 Psychosocial challenges of middle childhood LEARNING OUTCOME 9.1 Describe the psychosocial challenges that children face during middle childhood.

During the school years, children’s psychosocial development includes five major challenges: 1. the challenge of knowing who you are 2. the challenge to achieve CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 467

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3. the challenge of family relationships 4. the challenge of peers 5. the challenge of school. In the sections that follow, we summarise the nature of these challenges and discuss the first four in greater detail (see the chapter on physical and cognitive development in middle childhood for a discussion on school influences).

The challenge of knowing who you are Throughout middle childhood, children develop a deeper understanding of the kind of person they are and what makes them unique. They also acquire a more fully developed sense of self as a framework for organising and understanding their experiences. These ideas do not constitute a child’s ultimate, stable identity (this is developed during adolescence and adulthood), but throughout middle childhood children establish the groundwork for this subsequent, crucial development of self-knowledge. During this stage of the lifespan, children know things such as how popular they are and how well they are doing at sports or in school compared with their classmates. In contrast to the ideas of adolescents and adults, children’s ideas about the self are not highly complex, but are meaningful to the individual child.

The challenge to achieve Psychologists consider one of the major challenges of middle childhood to be the development of competence, self-confidence and a willingness to achieve to the best of one’s ability. Even in infancy, individuals are concerned with competence — for example, in how a baby strives to crawl and then to walk. But during middle childhood, this imperative is complicated by children’s growing awareness of other people’s opinions about their efforts.

The challenge of family relationships Several important aspects of contemporary family life, including roles and configurations in families, affect children’s psychosocial development. Changes in the traditional family structure are a result of evolving employment patterns and divorce. These changes raise questions of responsibilities within a family and what constitutes a family today in Western countries such as Australia and New Zealand. All too often, school-aged children have to share the challenge of holding their family together. Family relationships are still crucial in the lives of schoolchildren, as they were in early childhood, but in middle childhood, peers become increasingly important.

The challenge of peers

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Another challenge in middle childhood is establishing and maintaining relationships with peers — other children of about the same age. Peers are more important for school-aged children than for preschool children, and during middle childhood, most children spend a large proportion of their time in peerrelated activities.

The challenge of school During middle childhood, school is second only to the family in terms of influence on children’s social and emotional development. Interacting with a large number of different children and adults other than parents and being able to observe their behaviour gives children an opportunity to learn new social skills, values and beliefs, and to develop a fuller sense of self.

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9.2 The sense of self LEARNING OUTCOME 9.2 Explain the important changes that occur in a child’s sense of self during middle childhood.

A sense of self is the way an individual actively thinks about themselves as a person, as distinct or separate from other people. Only higher level primates including chimpanzees, gorillas and humans acquire a sense of self (Liebal, 2016; Ujhelyi, Merker, Buk, & Geissmann, 2000). A sense of self develops principally as a result of social interaction and the experiences individuals have with other ‘selves’; that is, other children and adults. Theorists such as Erikson (1950, 1968) and American sociologist Cooley (1902) were prominent in advancing ideas about how the self develops. Through his stage-based theory of psychosocial development, Erikson regarded the development of identity as one of the major psychosocial tasks, begun during childhood and continuing through the lifespan (see the chapter on psychosocial development in adolescence). Cooley, in earlier formulations about self, coined the term ‘the looking glass self’ arguing that the feedback individuals receive from other people creates, alters and maintains self-image. However, a child’s sense of self is not simply a reflection of other people’s opinions — there is an interaction between how children see themselves and how others see them. Children actively evaluate the feedback they receive from others and incorporate the different experiences they have, as well as cultural norms and social categories, into their sense of self. A sense of self is personal and individual, but also reflects various behavioural generalisations (called stereotypes) and depends on social contacts for its development (Harter, 2015; Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979). Sense of self is often termed self-concept, suggesting sense of self is a single idea. This is rather misleading. The sense of self is more of a complex theory about the self, built up over years with many different layers and interrelated ideas. According to Damon and Hart’s (1988) model of self understanding, a child’s self-concept is also dynamic rather than static. Children have ever-changing and evolving ideas about themselves as they get older and gain more world experience (Harter, 2006a, 2015; Plesa-Skwerer, Sullivan, Joffre, & Tager-Flusberg, 2004).

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The development of self Children begin to construct their sense of self in infancy, with rudimentary ideas of the self based on social categories. One of the earliest social categories children incorporate into their sense of self is their gender. By the end of their second year, most children know they are a girl or a boy. Preschool age children’s self-descriptions usually include their sex (‘I’m a boy’) and their age (‘I’m three’). These general labels provide the basis for later, more elaborate ideas of the self. However, during early childhood, such self-labelling lacks permanency. A young boy might correctly identify himself as a boy, but also firmly believe that when he grows up he will be a mother. A young girl may think she will become a boy if her hair is cut short. McConaghy’s much cited (1979) experiment with anatomically correct male and female jigsaw figures with an overlay of see-through gendered clothing indicated that an understanding of the genital basis of gender does not become firmly established until middle childhood. Prior to attaining conservation (see the chapter on physical and cognitive development in middle childhood), young children can be fooled by appearances and will use clothing as a signal for the gender of a subject, while ignoring obvious primary and secondary sexual characteristics. Social categories such as gender become consolidated during the period of self-constancy. This is a belief one’s identity remains permanently fixed, and this does not usually occur until the early school years. Along with gender, other social categories and labels become concrete, so the child believes these characteristics will not change. For example, during the period of self-constancy, a girl believes she will always be a female. Up to about age five, children base their ideas of self on observable features and their overt behavioural characteristics (Harter, 2006b, 2015; Rosenberg, 1979). If a preschool-age girl is asked ‘Who are you?’ they are likely to reply along the lines of, ‘I’m Sarah, I’m a girl, I have long hair and I like to play with dolls’. Around age eight, psychological traits are incorporated into children’s self-descriptions, such as CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 469

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‘I’m brave’, ‘I’m smart’, or ‘I’m a good girl’, all stated in absolute terms (Elliot, Dweck, & Yeager, 2017; Marsh & Ayotte, 2003). This suggests children see themselves as similar in all situations and circumstances, attesting to the constancy of identity at this stage of development. However, children will sometimes vacillate in their self-descriptions — describing themselves as dumb on one occasion and smart on another occasion. Neither of these statements is incorrect. At this stage of development, the child is unable to reconcile variations in self-characteristics over time and under different circumstances. During middle childhood, the sense of self becomes more complex and better organised, as children receive and understand multifaceted feedback from others and have more varied experiences. According to Harter (1999, 2006a, 2015) — one of the foremost theorists on the development of self — separate self-concepts such as academic, social–emotional and physical become differentiated from general selfconcepts as children get older. As childhood progresses, children are better able to deal with competing or conflicting elements in their self-perceptions. For example, when he is in Year 1, James loves playing football and identifies with being a footballer, incorporating this into his sense of self (physical selfconcept). As his experiences widen and he receives and understands more complex social feedback, James incorporates other elements into his self-concept. When he reaches Years 3 and 4, James finds he loves doing maths and is good at it. At age 10, James incorporates being a good mathematician into his sense of self (academic self-concept). These shifts in James’s self-concept reflect how a sense of self becomes more complex and multifaceted as childhood progresses. At the end of middle childhood, children are better able to integrate different traits and ideas about themselves. By age 10 or 12, children recognise they may be more or less smart in different situations or subjects, with their academic self-concept becoming differentiated into separate areas, such as maths and English (Arens et al., 2017; Marsh & Hau, 2004). Comparatively, the self-descriptions of older children are less global, less absolute, and are much more differentiated and conditional (Fischer, Shaver, & Carnochan, 1990). Eventually, these different facets of self-concept have to be reconciled and integrated. As childhood progresses into adolescence, individuals are better able to master this task, due to cognitive advances. The ability to evaluate the ‘fit’ of childhood ideas of self to the emerging adolescent identity is one of the tasks described by Erikson (1950, 1968) relating to stage 6 of psychosocial development, ‘identity versus role confusion’ (see the chapter on psychosocial development in adolescence). In middle childhood, children’s sense of self strongly reflects elements of social description and social comparison. At this age, children often refer to group membership in their self-descriptions. For instance, they may say, ‘I’m a member of the chess club at school’. Also, they no longer describe themselves in terms of absolutes, such as ‘I’m smart’. Children older than seven generally describe themselves relative to others; for example, ‘I’m smarter than most people in my class, but not everyone’ (Ruble, 1983). As well, there is recognition of the difference between the ideal and the real self in their descriptions (Harter, 2006b, 2015). Unlike preschool children, school-aged children are more realistic about their characteristics — especially their skills and abilities. This is probably due to the process of social comparison and an exposure to competitive situations with other children. As children develop, contact with peers and adults of the same sex helps them to consolidate and elaborate their gender identity, which is one of the most important aspects of self-identity. For example, a girl observes and models the behaviours of other females within her own cultural context, learning what it is to be a female in Christchurch, New Zealand, or in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In other aspects of the self, the culture in which the child grows up can have a profound influence on the development of a sense of self. In Western countries such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand, the self develops as a singular personal entity. However, in Asian cultures such as India, Japan and Nepal, researchers have recognised additional ‘selves’ that develop simultaneously with the personal self seen in Western countries; for example, a familial self that is defined almost exclusively in relation to the family and family values. Nonetheless, research at the University of New South Wales with Malaysian participants indicated that cross-cultural variations in self-concept do not represent categorical differences, but rather the differential importance of the various aspects of the self in diverse cultural groups (Bochner, 1994; Parkes, Bochner, & Schneider, 2001). 470

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According to research by Roland (1988), this girl may develop a familiar self that is defined almost exclusively in relation to the family and family values, and a spiritual self that is organised according to religious beliefs.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

To what extent should parents, teachers and carers promote self-esteem of children in middle childhood by telling them they’re ‘smart’, ‘wonderful’ or ‘very clever’? Do you think children are harmed if they do not feel good about everything they do? Why or why not?

9.3 The age of industry and achievement

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LEARNING OUTCOME 9.3 Define what is meant by achievement motivation, and explain what forms it takes.

As part of the overall lifespan, the period from six to twelve years is especially important to the achievement of competence. During the average school day, children spend many hours acquiring skills in reading, writing and maths. These hours also contribute to learning how to get along with teachers and with other children. Outside school, children often devote themselves to the slow mastery of skills that might not be on the school curriculum. One child may spend years learning to play chess; another may devote the same amount of time to perfecting how to paint war-gaming miniatures.

Latency and the crisis of industry versus inferiority Psychodynamic theories such as those proposed by Freud and Erikson explain the industriousness of middle childhood as a reaction to the relationships and feelings that typify early childhood. According to these theorists, preschool-age children feel envy, awe and competitiveness with respect to their parents. CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 471

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At first, children expect to be just like their parents. Inevitably, children are disappointed to learn merely wanting things does not make them reality. The gap between themselves and their parents remains huge in terms of skills, abilities and power. Freud emphasised the emotional hardship of preschoolers’ disappointment and the consequent repression of their magical wishes regarding their parents (Freud, 1923). A young child, he argued, cannot indefinitely continue to wish for success competing with his same-sex parent and intimacy with his opposite-sex parent, like his father or mother enjoys. These feelings are respectively termed the Electra and Oedipus conflicts, as they reflect ancient Greek myths with a similar theme. For example, Oedipus the King of Thebes unknowingly falls in love with and marries his own estranged mother. According to Freud, if the Oedipus and Electra conflicts persist too long, they have the potential to disrupt development and adjustment. The child eventually represses the feelings, pushing them completely out of awareness. This repression occurs at age six or seven, when children are beginning their education, and it continues until adolescence. Freud called this the latency period, meaning a child’s earlier unresolved feelings have gone underground and are waiting to resurface at the beginning of adolescence. During the latency period, the school-aged child focuses on building competencies and skills as a defence — an unconscious, self-protective behaviour against earlier romantic feelings towards their opposite-sex parent. Developing talents in sport, art and schoolwork also helps to distract the child from earlier disappointments in relation to competition with their same-sex parent, which according to Freud, linger on unconsciously. Erikson built his developmental theory using many of Freud’s ideas, but in relation to the latency period, he emphasised the positive functions of skill building over the defensive, negative functions outlined by Freud (Erikson, 1963, 1968, 1988; Erikson & Erikson, 1998). According to Erikson, children respond to their romantic feelings towards their parents not only by repressing them, but also by trying consciously to become more like their parents and more like adults in general. During this stage, children are developing a sense of competence when engaged in useful skills and tasks. Becoming competent helps children reach this goal in two ways. First, through identification, children can see themselves as being like their parents and thus capable of becoming genuine adults. Second, it helps them to gain this sort of recognition from other people. Erikson called this process the crisis of industry versus inferiority. A psychosocial crisis, according to Erikson, is a major developmental challenge during a period of development that needs to be resolved by the end of the period. It is a particular time of vulnerability linked to social relationships. Successful resolution of the psychosocial crisis results in a personality strength or virtue that will assist in meeting future developmental challenges. However, if the crisis is not positively resolved the outcome is that the individual will struggle with this issue later in life. It is important to note that Erikson also saw the course of this development as reversible, whereby later events in the lifespan could undo — for better or worse — these early personality foundations. Erikson defined the major task of middle childhood as industry — the need for effort, mastery, competence and achievement. With the arrival of school, children develop the capacity to cooperate and work with others. They are industrious cognitively, physically and socially. If they fail to achieve or encounter negative experiences at school or home with parents and siblings, feelings of incompetence arise and the child risks falling into an opposite state to industry called inferiority. This occurs when children lack a feeling of competence and belief in their own skills, and suffer from poor self-esteem. So Erikson believed that during middle childhood, children concern themselves mainly with the ability to do good work. Children who convince themselves and other people of this capacity develop relatively confident, positive concepts of themselves. Children who fail in this endeavour experience inferiority and a sense of inadequacy and incompetence. Children feel alienated and sometimes thoughtlessly conform to gain acceptance from others. According to Erikson, most children have experienced a mixture of self-confidence and fear of inferiority by the time they reach the end of middle childhood. Fortunately, self-confidence predominates in most cases. Successfully resolved, the crisis of industry versus inferiority gives school-aged children a more or less permanent motivation to achieve particular, definable standards of excellence. A child’s continuing 472

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sense they can achieve and that their industry will pay off is shaped by earlier successes and failures in school. For example, they are no longer happy just drawing pictures — they are also concerned with drawing pictures well. With persistence and support, children can reach higher standards of excellence in many activities, and most of the time they are pleased about doing so. In the time since Erikson’s early theoretical work, many psychologists have devoted attention to the processes that Erikson described. This body of literature encompasses the development of achievement motivation in school-aged children.

Achievement motivation Achievement motivation is the tendency to show initiative and persistence in attaining certain goals and increasing competence by successfully meeting standards of excellence. What matters most is the approach to a task rather than the importance of the task itself. For example, one individual can exhibit achievement motivation in washing and waxing the family car to a very high standard, while another individual can exhibit achievement motivation in preparing an excellent and comprehensive environmental master plan for the management of waste. As long as the individual strives towards a standard of excellence they perceive to be reasonable, they exhibit achievement motivation. Usually, motivation leads to increased competence compared to previous levels.

Differences in achievement motivation Two distinct kinds of achievement motivation are recognised by psychologists. Learning orientation relies on intrinsic motivation — motivation that comes from within the learner and relates directly to the task and its accomplishment. Learning orientation leads children to concentrate on learning as an end in itself. For example, children will practise a skill such as BMX racing to see whether they can do it or how well they can do it. The second type of motivation, performance orientation, involves extrinsic motivation. This motivation does not come from within the learner but from other individuals who see and evaluate them. In this type of motivation, children are trying to please or satisfy other people rather than themselves (Elliot, 2007; Elliot, Dweck, & Yeager, 2017; Gillen-O’Neel, Ruble, & Fuligni, 2011; Harter, 1981, 2015; Rodkin, Ryan, Jamison, & Wilson, 2013). For example, a boy might practise BMX racing to please his father, who wants him to excel in BMX competitions. Motivational orientations play an important role in children’s development. Higher levels of intrinsic motivation have been associated with an internal sense of control, feelings of enjoyment, and various mastery-related characteristics such as curiosity, creativity, exploration, persistence in completing tasks, and a preference for taking on challenges. Intrinsic motivation is also linked to higher academic performance and learning, feelings of academic competence, and perceptions of what contributes to academic success or failure (Fan & Williams, 2010; Gillen-O’Neel et al., 2011; Henderlong & Lepper, 1997; Lepper, Henderlong Corpus, & Iyengar, 2005; Mega, Ronconi, & De Beni, 2014).

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Achievement motivation in middle childhood At the beginning of this period, children express considerable optimism about their abilities. Kindergarten children invariably rank themselves at the top of their class in scholastic ability, even though they might be far from the class zenith in achievement. However, they can rank other children relatively more accurately (Stipek & Hoffman, 1980). This phenomenon reflects a learning orientation. When they begin formal education, most children have a very positive attitude towards school and educational achievement. The Starting School Research Project carried out by Australian researchers Perry, Dockett, and Howard (2001; Dockett, 2014; Dockett, Griebel, & Perry, 2017) found that the vast majority of kindergarten children they interviewed had an upbeat disposition towards school, with comments such as ‘I felt special. I did lots of new things, not like what I did in little school’ (p. 48, 2001). So, for young children starting school, achievement is something they apply themselves to spontaneously, apparently without the prompting of other people or contingent on their evaluations. Achievement motivation becomes more complicated as middle childhood progresses. Learning for the fun of it, which typifies the learning orientation, is modified by the fact that children in the later CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 473

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school years are being repeatedly evaluated by teachers and are knowingly compared to other children in the class. These factors may contribute to a less than enthusiastic attitude to school compared to the unequivocal positiveness of kindergarten children. So, during the next few years, children begin to understand having an ability depends, to some extent, on whether other people acknowledge it. This belief lies at the core of a performance orientation. It does not replace the earlier learning orientation but complements it. So, a child’s perception of how clever they are is influenced both by the extent teachers, parents, and friends say the child is clever and a personal realisation they have certain skills in reading or mathematics, regardless of what others say (Feld, Ruhland, & Gold, 1979). Swimming is a good example of how achievement motivation works at different developmental stages, particularly during middle childhood. Learning how to swim is something most Australian and New Zealand youngsters achieve. In infancy and during the preschool years, a child may be motivated to learn to swim if their parents simply take them to the pool or to the beach and allow them to experiment in the water. Many Australian and New Zealand babies and toddlers therefore learn to swim regardless of how enthusiastically their parents encourage them in the pool. In this way, they generally achieve the skill at a very young age. This reflects a learning orientation.

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As children grow older, they generally become less learning oriented and comparatively more performance oriented.

Most children who are taught to swim during their school years will be acutely aware of what other people think about their swimming ability and their efforts to learn to swim — especially how parents and friends feel. If their schoolmates are racing down the pool, they might feel embarrassed if they cannot swim. This scenario reflects a performance orientation overriding a learning orientation. The child’s motivation is primarily to overcome disapproval from peers who may, otherwise, make fun of their poor swimming ability. During middle childhood, the attitudes and opinions of other people become very important in achievement motivation. If a child’s family and friends hold very high athletic standards, even making adequate progress may not give the child a sense of achievement. The school-aged 474

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swimmer might be motivated to spend hours after school learning to perfect different strokes; just to impress other people. On the other hand, if the child’s parents and friends do not place a lot of value on swimming, the child might not work as hard in a learn-to-swim program. There is a well-established developmental trend of decreasing learning orientation as children grow older. For example, pursuit of learning goals, valuing of personal effort and school-based academic activities all show a progressive decline between middle childhood and adolescence. The reasons for this decline are unclear, but Lepper et al. (2005) and Garon-Carrier et al. (2016) conjecture that an increasingly heavier reliance on extrinsic rewards in the school system might be a factor, as well as the burgeoning importance of peers and social comparison as middle childhood progresses. Lepper et al. have, however, clarified whether there is a concomitant increase in performance orientation as the learning orientation declines with age. Their study of 797 children in Years 3 to 8 revealed the usual age-related decrease in learning orientation, but a relatively stable performance orientation across ages. These findings suggest that learning orientation and performance orientation are separate dimensions of achievement motivation, rather than opposite extremes of a single dimension as Harter (1981) originally proposed. Several different factors influence achievement motivation, including the learning environments in which children find themselves (Lepper et al., 2005; Masten & Coatsworth, 1998; Reynolds & Temple, 1998). Environments that provide optimal challenge, offer choice and provide feedback promoting competence and supporting children’s autonomous and independent behaviours are likely to facilitate the development of intrinsic motivation and learning orientation (Stipek & Seal, 2002). An example of this environment is a school classroom in which the teacher offers a range of challenges to different students appropriate to their unique abilities. The teacher provides positive and realistic feedback on what students achieve, and encourages students to work independently on projects that are of interest and capable of increasing student skills and understanding. By contrast, environments that strongly emphasise extrinsic rewards, deadlines and adult control tend to undermine intrinsic motivation and foster an extrinsic motivational orientation. An example of this type of environment is a classroom in which the teacher prescribes the same kind of work to all students, without reference to individual abilities or interests. The teacher has a star system and the students are allocated rewards according to the teacher’s personal standards and timetable. For example, they may be able to leave early for a break if they complete their work quickly and accurately. Ginsburg and Bronstein (1993) established family factors as important influences on achievement motivation, such as parental monitoring of homework, parental reactions to marks, and general family style. For example, heavy parental control, criticism, use of punishment and external rewards foster an extrinsic (performance) orientation, whereas parental encouragement of autonomous effort fosters a learning orientation. Building on this early research, Friedel, Cortina, Turner, and Midgley (2007), Gutman (2006) and Doctoroff and Arnold (2017) found that parents’ and children’s motivational goals and orientations are highly similar. If children perceive in their parents mastery goals that are aligned with a learning orientation, they are more likely to espouse mastery goals themselves, rather than performance goals that are associated with extrinsic reward. The exact mechanism for these findings is yet unclear, but Ryan and Deci’s (2002, 2017) self-determination theory proposes that children’s orientations are catalysed rather than caused by parental motivational styles. This suggests that multiple factors are involved and that the mechanism is complex rather than simple. Children exhibiting mastery goals pursue information on how to increase their ability though effort, ensuring that their performance improves over time (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007). Alternatively, children displaying learned helplessness attribute their failures rather than their successes to their ability. These children focus on attaining positive evaluations of their fragile ability, avoiding negative evaluations. Learned helplessness children fail to connect effort with success, and thereby do not develop the skills necessary for high achievement. They attribute success to external factors such as luck (Chan & Moore, 2006). Differing from mastery-oriented children, they consider ability is fixed and can’t be improved by effort and trying hard (Dweck, 2012; Haimovitz, & Dweck, 2017). CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 475

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Reflect on what factors influenced your primary school achievement motivation. How has your achievement motivation changed and developed over your lifespan? What messages from parents, peers, siblings or teachers have contributed to your current achievement motivation?

MULTICULTURAL VIEW

The effects of abuse, racism and violence on the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children In 2017, the Australian Government’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse investigated the failure of systems to protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It was directed to recommend how to significantly improve laws, policies and practices to both prevent and respond better to vulnerable children who were being sexually abused in institutions. The Royal Commission developed a comprehensive and inclusive research program based on eight themes to inform its findings and recommendations. The Royal Commission’s report ‘Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’ focuses on theme 1 ‘Why does Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child sexual abuse occur in institutions?’ and it concludes:

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the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle and the National Standards acknowledge the importance of connection to culture for children in out of home care, yet many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are still being placed outside of culture and have inadequate contact with their families . . . (Anderson et al., 2017, p. 43)

Therefore, when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are separated from their culture, they are more likely to lose the protection that secure attachments and a strong, positive social network can provide. Increasing the protective factors for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in and out of home care requires genuine adherence to the entire Aboriginal Child Placement Principle: prevention and partnership; participation and cultural connection; as well as adherence to the hierarchy of placement options, if institutionalisation is necessary. This report highlights some of the injustices perpetrated by authorities and institutions against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the past and the fear this engenders in these contemporary communities. This report also suggests that past and current racism has contributed to the risks Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children face in modern-day institutions. Therefore it may be important to investigate whether cultural revitalisation can help reduce the risk by challenging racist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stereotypes and educating non-Aboriginal people to acknowledge and value the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. A catalyst to the 2017 report was the 2014 report released by the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Western Australia. This report highlighted that ‘the developmental needs of children in their middle years appear to be relatively neglected in Australian policy and practice’ (2014). As a result of this report and an issues paper released in 2011, the Commissioner announced an online survey, which is part of a major consultation project with Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal children and young people across Western Australia. This survey enables these children to have a voice, ‘to discuss what is important to them, their hopes and dreams for the future, and what they need to help them do well’ (Gillespie, 2014). Face-to-face consultations conducted by 16 community organisations will also be held with young people throughout Western Australia. This innovative consultative process will involve a variety of fun activities linked to the interests and backgrounds of the participants. One of the activities, a rap song developed by artist Aaron ‘Lilstatix’ Burns and young Aboriginal people who attended the Geraldton Street Work consultation, eloquently depicts the hopes and dreams and needs of these children: ‘I stand tall with my colour . . . look for positive options, so I can make tracks in the sand’ (Burns, 2014).

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In October 2012, the Australian government echoed the 2011 issues report of the WA Commissioner for Children and Young People in an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in a report titled ‘A picture of Australian children 2012’. It found that: almost one-quarter of children are developmentally vulnerable at school entry, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and children in socioeconomic disadvantaged areas are likely to fare worse across a broad range of developmental indicators. (AIHW, 2012, p.1)

Furthermore, in 2011, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that ‘there were around 6700 reported victims of sexual assault among children with girls accounting for three-quarters of these victims’ (AIHW, 2012). Research has shown that abuse, sexual assault and violence can be harmful to children’s physical and psychological health, sense of self, security and safety, and can lead to suicide, depression, anxiety disorder, phobias, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder (Arboleda-Florez & Wade, 2001; Fergusson, Boden, & Horwood, 2008; Lee & Hoaken, 2007; Macmillan & Hagan, 2004; Rick & Douglas, 2007; Simon, Anderson, Thompson, Crosby, & Sacks, 2002). Additionally, current Australian research into the health and wellbeing of children and youth emphasises that racial discrimination is a determinant of racial and ethnic health inequalities, with strong associations to later adult health consequences (Priest et al., 2013). However, Priest, Perry, Ferdinand, Paradies, and Kelaher (2014), and Priest, Perry, Ferdinand, Kelaher, and Paradies (2017) acknowledge that there is a paucity of research in regard to the influence of racial discrimination on children, with research focusing mainly on experiences of discrimination rather than the current evidence that vicarious discrimination results in negative health outcomes and wellbeing of children. Vicarious discrimination is derived from indirect sources, such as hearing another individual’s experience of racism or observing family members experiencing discrimination. In one of the first international studies to address vicarious discrimination in middle childhood, Priest et al. aimed ‘to examine associations between experiences of both direct and vicarious racial discrimination, motivated fairness, racial/ethnic attitudes, and mental health outcomes among Australian primary and secondary school students’ (2014, p. 9). This study was one part of the LEAD (Localities Embracing and Accepting Diversity) program, which aims to improve health outcomes and wellbeing, minimise racial discrimination, and promote cultural diversity in Aboriginal and migrant communities. The study of 263 primary and secondary school students found that children and youth experiences of racism were significant, with half the participants experiencing one form of direct racism once a month and a quarter of participants facing one form of direct racism every day. Significantly, participants who reported direct experiences of racism also experienced depression and loneliness. Higher levels of direct racist experiences were found to be associated with less positive racial and ethnic attitudes. Associations between direct experiences of racism and adverse health and wellbeing outcomes were noteworthy findings. As a result, Priest et al. reported ‘a need for effective schoolbased interventions aimed at improving emotional wellbeing through reducing racial discrimination and promoting positive attitudes towards diversity’ (2014, p. 31).

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9.4 Family relationships LEARNING OUTCOME 9.4 Discuss how family changes such as divorce, single-parent and dual-income families affect children’s psychosocial development.

Family relationships that dominate infancy and early childhood continue to influence children’s development during middle childhood, although the influence of peers increases dramatically during this developmental phase. Parental influence differs from the influence of peers. Comparatively, parents possess superior experience and psychological maturity and greater material resources and power. In this section, we discuss how particular circumstances and characteristics of families affect family relationships and psychosocial development during middle childhood.

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The quality of parenting and family life During middle childhood, children understand more about their parents’ attitudes and motivations and the reasons for family rules. As a result of this, they become more capable of controlling their behaviour. This change has a major impact on the quality of relations between school-aged children and their parents. Unlike in earlier years, parents no longer need to closely monitor the everyday behaviour of their children. For example, Mum does not need to watch her daughter pour a drink of cordial and Dad does not need to remind his son to visit the toilet before they travel in the car. Children’s increasing cognitive capacities and social understanding make life easier for most parents in many ways, but parents still need to guide their children’s efforts in self-direction and self-care. For example, in early childhood parents routinely arrange for a child’s friends to come over to play, but during middle childhood, parents can simply use reminders to achieve the same objective: ‘If you want Tom to stay this weekend, you’d better phone him and make sure it’s OK with his parents’. In the preschool years, parents have to help their child put on each item of clothing, but in middle childhood they only need to remind children it is time to get ready for school. Sometimes, they might guide a child who chooses clothing that is unsuitable for a social occasion or the weather: ‘Tracey, it’s going to get cold later today. I think you should take your jumper to school’, or ‘Ben, I don’t think Mrs Wapstra would like you turning up to Heath’s party in that dirty old pair of jeans’. Of course, parenting style can differ widely, ranging from less directive to very controlling approaches, and it can affect the quality of parent–child interactions. Parental monitoring is now recognised by researchers as vital to the adjustment and social–emotional development of children during the period of middle childhood and beyond (Pettit, Keiley, Laird, Bates, & Dodge, 2007).

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The changing nature of modern families The nuclear family — the subject of many television sitcoms of the 1950s and 1960s — was upheld as a cultural ideal. This ideal family was generally made up of a father who worked and a mother who cared for two or three children full-time. In Australia, this stereotype was the norm in the years between the end of the Second World War and the early 1970s. During this period, very few women with children worked outside the home. For example, in 1954, only 29 per cent of all women were employed. Of these employed women, only 31 per cent were married, making the percentage of working mothers negligible (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 1998). In 2005, 61 per cent of Australian women and 60 per cent of New Zealand women who had children under 16 years were employed outside the home. These figures are very similar to the female employment mean of 61.5 per cent for all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan. In both Australia and New Zealand, the percentages of employed mothers is only marginally lower than the percentage of employed women in the childbearing age group (25–44 years), indicating motherhood is no longer a barrier to employment (OECD, 2007). In nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia, single-parent, blended and extended families were more common than is generally thought. These were a result of widowhood, desertion and remarriage (Bessant & Watts, 2002). Like the complex family structures of colonial times, contemporary Australian and New Zealand families depart dramatically from the post-war nuclear family stereotype (de Vaus & Gray, 2004). Decreases in marriage rates and increases in cohabitation and divorce rates in Australia have resulted in changing family structures and more children being born outside registered marriages during the past 20 years. Marriage, the traditional social institution for family formation, is now in decline (Jain, 2007). Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show national divorce rates have steadily increased over the past decade. Almost 50 per cent of all marriages now end in divorce (ABS, 2006a). However, official divorce statistics may poorly represent actual marriage breakdown, since many marriages end in permanent separation and do not proceed to divorce (Hewitt, Baxter, & Western, 2005). Approximately 25 per cent of Australian children experience parental separation by age 15 (de Vaus & Gray, 2004; de Vaus, Gray, Qu, & Stanton, 2017). Around two-thirds of divorced parents remarry, so most children of divorce will live in a blended family consisting of parent, step-parent, siblings and stepsiblings. 478

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During 2012–2013, 6 per cent of all couple families with dependent children in Australia were blended families, thus indicating a 7 per cent rise since 2009–2010 (ABS, 2015). FOCUSING ON

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Fostering resilience and coping skills in children Children in the twenty-first century face increased novel challenges, such as less familial connection, higher levels of family breakdown and loss of a sense of belonging. An overabundance of natural and man-made disasters in the last five years has contributed to the vulnerability of school-aged children. Consistent with the rise of positive psychology developed by Martin Seligman (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), there has been a shift from supporting children and youth in distress after an incident towards proactively developing wellbeing, coping skills and resilience to negative life events, enabling individuals and groups to flourish through positive relationships (Noble & McGrath, 2012). Noble and McGrath articulate six foundations that can be implemented to develop resilience: 1. develop social–emotional competencies that include prosocial values, social skills, resilience skills, skills for managing strong emotions and self management and self discipline skills 2. amplify positive emotions 3. build positive relationships 4. use strength-based approaches to build character and ability strengths 5. help young people achieve a sense of meaning and purpose 6. create an optimal learning environment (Noble & McGrath, 2014). In addition, Zimmer-Gembeck, Lees, and Skinner (2011) investigated the association between children’s social competence and their responses to controllable stressors. Three stressors — bullying, arguing with a parent and not being picked for a team sport — were shown to 230 children in Years 3–7, and the reactions were recorded. It was found that children who rated higher on social competence tended to cope by using problem solving, support seeking and finding ways to avoid the stressful event. Socially competent children tended to use more adaptive strategies to cope. However, interestingly, maladaptive strategies such as threat coping resulted in similar behaviours from socially competent and less socially competent children — specifically, trying to escape, seeking isolation, reacting with aggression and opposition, and becoming helpless. Furthermore, all emotions were associated with coping. Sadness and anger were associated more strongly with challenge and threat coping, while fear was only associated with threat coping. Therefore, children’s coping responses to stress are more fully understood when their emotional reactions of fear, sadness and anger are taken into account. Three recent programs to develop coping skills and resilience in children have become prominent in Australian research literature. ‘Get up. Stand up. Riding to resilience on a surfboard’ by Sunset Surfers is a program for disadvantaged urban children, including a significant proportion of Aboriginal children. Using the challenging activity of learning to surf, children’s negative beliefs and experiences regarding challenge are revised and reworked. In learning to surf, children experience a sense of mastery and personal control, in an encouraging and supportive environment (Morgan, 2010). ‘The Resilience Doughnut’ developed by Australian Lynn Worsley (2014, 2015) views resilience as continual development of personal competence, while negotiating available resources in the face of adversity. A bite of the doughnut reveals multiple pathways to resilience, which are dependent on the positive interaction of self-esteem (I am), self-efficacy (I can) and the awareness of resources (I have). Doughnut resilience and doughnut moments are built on strengths in seven contexts of existing relationships surrounding the child, such as parent, skill, family, education, peers, community and money. This program assists

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children in developing their personal resilience through a variety of pathways leading to a more resilient outcome. Similarly, the ‘FRIENDS Programs’ promote resilience in cross-cultural populations, and define resilience as being able to negotiate resources in the face of adversity as well as accepting positive life challenges (Barrett, Cooper, & Guajardo, 2014). This Australian social emotional skills program for 7–11 year olds is endorsed by the World Health Organization and identifies protective and risk factors related to emotional wellbeing. Using the FRIENDS acronym (feelings; remember to relax; inner, helpful thoughts; explore solutions and coping plans; now reward yourself; do it every day; stay strong inside), this program aims to prevent and treat anxiety and depression in children and youth.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Reflect on and evaluate the three programs above that aim to develop coping and resilience in children. Do you think these programs are effective ways of developing resilience and coping skills? Why or why not?

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Divorce and its effects on children Divorce can be especially traumatic during middle childhood, with family readjustments often affecting children deeply. School-aged children identify with and rely on their parents as role models to help them establish their own sense of who they are and how they should behave. At a time when children are becoming more independent of their home and family, divorce threatens the secure base they have come to rely on to help make increasing independence possible (Ainsworth et al., 1978; McIntosh, 2005; McIntosh, Wells, & Lee, 2016). Over the past few decades, substantial research has identified negative social and psychological consequences for children of divorce. Earlier research concentrated on cross-sectional analyses, comparing children of divorce on various parameters with children from intact families. Contemporary research takes a more complex approach to evaluating the effects, looking longitudinally at children’s adjustment before, during and after divorce (Amato, 2010, 2014; Amato & Anthony, 2014; Barber & Demo, 2005; Lansford, 2009). Hetherington and Kelly (2002) conducted 20-year follow-up studies of children of divorce that found about 20 per cent of children had significant maladjustment compared to 10 per cent of children in intact families. In Australia, McIntosh (2003) found that children of divorce were at twice the risk of problems, compared to children of intact families. Now, researchers recognise the importance of family transitions in child adjustment, understanding the dissolution of parental, romantic relationships has a cumulative, deleterious effect on children. According to Barber and Demo (2005) and Sohail and Shamama-tus-Sabah (2016) children in stable long-term parental situations are least at risk of negative effects, while those subject to instability and frequent changes are most at risk. Some of the earlier yet more influential work in this area was conducted during the 1970s and 1980s by Wallerstein and colleagues, who did 10-year longitudinal studies of children of divorce. These researchers found children in the early years of middle childhood (between six and eight years of age) at the time of a marital breakdown were particularly negatively affected. According to Wallerstein and Kelly (1976), children in this age group experience profound feelings of loss and mourning after divorce — feelings that resemble the grief reactions of children with a parent who has died. This age group also exhibited increased feelings of anxiety. These intense feelings of distress were evident for up to 12 months after the separation and impacted on all facets of the child’s life, including school performance and peer relations. In 10-year follow-ups, children who were between six and eight years old at the time of parental separation were significantly less well adjusted than children who were in their preschool years at the time of 480

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parental divorce or who were past middle childhood (Wallerstein, 1987; Wallerstein & Blakeslee, 1996). As adolescents, these children were still affected, expressing fear of disappointment in love relationships, having lowered expectations and being troubled by a sense of powerlessness (Weldon, 2016). Wallerstein’s research has given rise to several theories regarding age-related adjustment after parental divorce. The cumulative effect hypothesis maintains that the earlier parental separation occurs in a child’s life, the greater the impact on their development. This theory argues that young children experience greater long-term adjustment problems because they lack the capacity to mourn effectively. The critical stage hypothesis, a more psychoanalytical approach, predicts greater child maladjustment if parental separation occurs during the Oedipal phase of development. In contrast to these age-related models of adjustment, the regency hypothesis asserts all children regardless of age react adversely when parental separation occurs. Other variables such as the child’s pre-divorce achievements, the degree of hostility between the parents, and socioeconomic factors play a more important role in children’s post-divorce adjustment than their age at the time of parental separation (Phillips & Alcebo, 1986). As a result of these ideas, studies have been conducted to examine the variables that mediate children’s adjustment following parental separation (Barber & Demo, 2005; Beckmeyer, Coleman, & Ganong, 2014; Demo & Buehler, 2013). In particular, the impact of post-separation parenting arrangements on children’s adjustment has been extensively researched.

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Parenting arrangements The Australian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs made far-reaching legislative recommendations in 2003 regarding parenting of children by separated parents. The principal recommendation, adopted into Australian family law as the Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006, is the presumption of equally shared parental responsibility, which is rebutted only in the case of family violence and/or child abuse. The amendment does not mean that children must spend equal time with each parent, but emphasises instead that both parents have an equal role in decisionmaking about their child (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2007). Shared parental responsibility has replaced the principle of parental custody, in which children of divorce could be allocated to the care of one parent (sole custody). However, in December 2009, the Australian government evaluated the 2006 family law reforms to obtain more extensive evidence about the way the family law system operates in Australia. This report concluded that use of pre- and post-separation services had increased significantly. Since 2006, half of the parents families with serious relationship problems, but not separated, used services to assist in resolving these problems. This increase implies a cultural shift in the manner in which problems that affect family relationships are being dealt with. In an evaluation of the 2006 legislation, researchers found confusion amongst parents, especially fathers, who equated shared responsibility with shared care. Many were disappointed that the legislation did not mandate 50:50 ‘custody’ of children. Nonetheless, the legislative changes have resulted in more creative care solutions involving fathers in children’s everyday routines (Kaspiew et al., 2009). Although the current legislation ensures the opportunity for equal parental responsibility in the raising of children, actual shared care in reality may be more an ideal than a practical arrangement. Smyth and his colleagues at the Australian National University compared equal shared care with alternative parenting arrangements, and found the shared care arrangement is the least stable. After a period of three years only 50 per cent of the families that began with shared care were still persisting with this arrangement. Problems with shared care may include difficult logistics shuttling children from one household to another and expense in duplicating facilities and equipment for children. Where the arrangement has been successful, Smyth and his colleagues have found that the parents lived in close proximity, were each financially independent and had a philosophical commitment to equal shared care of their children (Smyth, Caruana, & Ferro, 2004; van der Heijden, Poortman, & van der Lippe, 2016). With a high rate of failure, however, Smyth is concerned that imposition of shared care arrangements on families by the Family Court might escalate family conflict, and recommends that parents view care arrangements in terms of the quality of the relationship and not the number of hours that children might spend with each parent (Noonan, 2008). CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 481

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Despite the changes in Australian legislation, most children with divorced parents spend the majority of their time in the household of one parent, and shared care arrangements only affect an increasing, but still very small, minority of children of divorce (Kaspiew et al., 2009). The parent who provides most of the day-to-day care for children (the residential parent) has the major responsibility of raising them. Parents with minor responsibility for their children (non-residential parents) do not face daily challenges. However, they report other problems, such as dissatisfaction with the amount of access they have to their children and feelings of being isolated from their children. Intermittent access may prevent non-residential parents from knowing their children intimately and being a part of their everyday lives. Non-residential parents can become increasingly reliant on special events when contacts do occur, such as visiting a theme park or a fete. So, children’s experiences with each parent can be highly different and difficult for children to reconcile. They might experience everyday life with one parent and associate fun activities with the other. According to Australian Family Law specialist Geoffrey Sinclair, one common solution to this dilemma is a regular ‘Wednesday to Monday’ arrangement for the non-residential parent, who can then be involved with the child’s schooling and a more normal daily routine than is found in weekend and holiday arrangements (Noonan, 2008). In Australia, about a third of children of divorced parents see their non-residential parent on a daily or weekly basis. However, a further quarter of children of divorce rarely or never see this parent (ABS, 2004). It has been found that up to a quarter of children whose parents are separated rarely or never see their fathers (ABS, 2011; Renda, 2013). While the total loss of contact with one parent must be a detrimental situation for most children, Amato and Gilbreth (1999) concluded from their meta-analysis that the amount of contact by the non-residential parents (usually the father) was unconnected to children’s wellbeing — a finding that has been replicated in Australia by Baxter, Qu, and Weston (2007). According to Amato and Gilbreth, the quality of the non-residential parent’s relationship with his or her children and the circumstances in which contact occurs are more important than the frequency of contact. For example, the non-residential parent’s closeness, advice, monitoring and appropriateness of child discipline were positively associated with better academic achievement and fewer behavioural problems. Furthermore, Adamsons and Johnson (2013), in an updated meta-analysis of Amato and Gilbreth’s (1999) study, found that nonmarital childbirths and non-resident father involvement had increased. Extending Amato and Gilbreth’s study, Adamsons and Johnson discovered that non-resident father involvement was most strongly associated with children’s social and emotional wellbeing, academic achievement, and behavioural adjustment. Children’s wellbeing was associated with multiple forms of father involvement, particularly in child-related activities and positive father–child relationships. Also vital for children’s wellbeing post divorce is managing conflict between residential and non-residential parents, particularly when children are caught in the middle of parental conflict. In a study of Australian children, Baxter et al. (2007) found a strong association between parental hostility and low emotional wellbeing in children. In view of these findings and the recent legislative changes in Australia, it appears shared responsibility for children needs to be carefully managed to minimise the harm divorce causes children. Parents’ efforts to reduce their own conflicts and to cooperate in providing the best parenting possible may be the most important factor in minimising the negative effects of divorce on children during the school years. The appropriate use of professional help is also important. It can assist parents to successfully work out post-divorce arrangements, resolve emotional conflicts more effectively and develop skills needed to sustain strong and supportive parent–child relationships. To this end, Australia’s Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Act 2006 mandated support and mediation services, which the 2009 evaluation found were used by about two-thirds of separating parents. There was a fairly high level of satisfaction with both pre- and post-separation services (Kaspiew et al., 2009). McIntosh, a leading Australian researcher into the effects of parental divorce on children, has produced an important resource for separating parents called Because it’s for the kids. Building a secure base for parenting after separation. This user-friendly booklet acknowledges the difficulties of separating parents who are often in emotional distress, but at the same time gives very clear messages based 482

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on sound research, as to how parents can minimise the negative impacts that separation and divorce can have on children. McIntosh stresses that it is not the reconfiguration of the family that is damaging to children of divorce, but ongoing parental conflict that often accompanies such transitions (McIntosh, 2007, 2014).

Effects of divorce on boys and girls Girls and boys respond differently to divorce. Boys often express their distress in externalising ways (becoming aggressive, wilful, and disobedient) while girls are internalising (becoming more worried about schoolwork and household chores). Wallerstein and colleagues’ early longitudinal studies indicated males show greater and more longterm post-divorce maladjustment than females in terms of psychological and social functioning. Males judged as ‘poorly adjusted’ numbered around 50 per cent, whereas only 25 per cent of female participants were in this category (Wallerstein, 1987). These findings were endorsed by later studies. Amato (2001, 2010), extending his 1991 meta-analysis of studies between 1950s and the 1980s (Amato & Keith, 1991) to include contemporary findings, found a persistent sex difference in the negative outcomes of divorce, with boys’ social adjustment following divorce significantly lower than that of girls. Nonetheless, Amato concludes that that sex differences in outcomes such as academic achievement, adjustment and personal wellbeing of the children of divorce are modest at best. Sheehan, Darlington, Noller, and Feeney (2004); Spigelman, Spigelman, and Englesson (1991); and Zaslow (1989) also found boys responded more negatively to parental divorce than girls, with greater levels of anxiety and hostility, particularly if the mother was the primary carer. This sex difference is in conflict with epidemiological research that has established females are more at risk than males of developing anxiety and that this gender bias is apparent as early as 9 to 12 years of age (Rapee, Schniering, & Hudson, 2009). According to the critical stage hypothesis, there is greater maladjustment in children who have less contact with their same-sex parent (Phillips & Alcebo, 1986). The general tendency for residential parents to be mothers might explain the greater degree of problematic behaviour in boys from broken homes. Boys lose access to their father — the parent they identify with more strongly. So, according to the critical stage hypothesis in households headed by mothers, girls tend to fare better than boys, showing greater resiliency. Daughters of divorced parents are not immune to detrimental outcomes of parental separation. As a result of reduced father contact, they may become overly preoccupied with their relationships with males. During their teen years, girls from separated families have more conflictive relationships with males. In the period following divorce, girls are at increased risk of sexual abuse from step-parents and their mothers’ dating partners (Spaccarelli, 1994; Wallerstein & Blakeslee, 1996). Research indicating girls from father-absent divorced families are involved in dating and sexual activities at an earlier age and are more likely to become pregnant as teenagers than girls from households where the father is present has been refuted to some extent. When other factors such as permissiveness, inept parenting, parental income and occupation are accounted for, these differences tend to disappear (Fine & Harvey, 2005; Tarroja, Balajadia-Alcala, & Catipon, 2017). Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

Parent–child relationships Relationships between parents and children frequently deteriorate during and after divorce. This issue is significant because parent–child relations are central to family functioning and are predictive of the immediate and long-term psychological and behavioural adjustments of children after parental separations (Cooney, 1994). Lindahl, Clements, and Markham (1997); Nicholson, Sanders, Halford, Phillips, and Whitton (2008); and Jensen, Lippold, Mills-Koonce, and Fosco (2017) have concluded the quality of both parent–child relationships and marital relationships is linked within families — with strong evidence showing the parent–child relationship is often disturbed in maritally distressed homes. Parents in distressed marriages can be less sensitive to their children’s needs and more likely to place their own emotional needs ahead of those of their children. This is seen in triangulation, when one parent CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 483

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enlists the child in a coalition against the other parent (Bowen, 1985; Demo & Buehler, 2013; Minuchin, 1974;). The increased closeness of a child to one parent in a triangulated family situation comes at a cost. It limits closeness to the other parent and exposes children to parental conflict and negative sentiment within the family (Kerig, 1995, 2014). In this sense, triangulation is highly detrimental to children’s psychological adjustment. Research has consistently illustrated that being ‘caught in the middle’ of parental conflicts is associated with distress and maladaptive behaviours in children (Amato & Cheadle, 2008; Baxter et al., 2007, 2011; Buchanan, Maccoby, & Dornbusch, 1991; Nikolas, Klump, & Burt, 2013; Rowen & Emery, 2014). Increasingly, researchers in this field are taking a more complex view of divorce and the effects parental conflict can have on children. Many children experience harmful and continuing parental conflict in intact families. Divorce can bring relief to such situations. However, studies have shown a large proportion of separating couples remain highly conflictual several years after they are divorced (Ahrons, 2004). As a response to conflict before, during and after parental separation, triangulation should be avoided. Parents should put their children’s interests ahead of their own needs, a clear message contained in McIntosh’s (2007, 2014) publication for separating parents. Figure 9.1 presents the Australian Psychological Society’s recommendations for promoting a secure environment for children before, during and after divorce, based on the weight of research evidence to date (Burke, McIntosh, & Gridley, 2007). Figure 9.2 contains suggestions for parents who are in continued conflict during or after divorce (McIntosh, 2007, 2014). FIGURE 9.1

The Australian Psychological Society’s recommendations for providing a secure environment for children during and after parental separation and divorce

Care arrangements for children r Provision of developmentally appropriate care and parenting arrangements following separation. Arrangements must be tailored around parental capacity to provide stable and emotionally available relationships, which take into account the developmental stage and needs of the child. r Care arrangements that minimise exposure of children to risk factors (especially high conflict), and which do not undermine attachment formation and security. r Sensitive interpretation of current legislation around shared parenting, rather than assuming shared care post-separation. Case-by-case consideration of appropriate arrangements tailored to the developmental needs of each child, and the parenting capacity of each parent. r Contra-indication of shared care in climates of high, ongoing, poorly managed conflict and poor parenting, particularly for children under 10. r Greater collaboration between the family law field and psychology; for example, by cross-representation at professional conferences, and joint working groups on appropriate care arrangements after separation.

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Resolving parental disputes and conflicts r Collaborative dispute resolution as a preferred forum for the mediation of parenting disputes. r Early intervention and prevention programs that ameliorate conflict and promote cooperative parenting. Professional education r Education of primary health care providers (and others) and legal representatives in key risk and protective factors for parents and children following separation, and education in appropriate referral pathways. Source: Adapted from Parenting after separation: A position statement prepared for The Australian Psychological Society (Burke et al., 2007).

Remarriage and blended families Most divorced parents remarry or become involved in another relationship, creating a blended family. Blended families bring together children from different families of origin, with one parent a step-parent

484

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and the other a birth parent. Relationships are often complex in blended families due to the previous attachments members bring to them. So, children in blended families may experience role ambiguity — having simultaneous and incompatible relationships. For example, being the biological child of one parent at the same time as being the stepchild of the other parent can bring about conflicting feelings and loyalties towards step-parents and biological parents, which are difficult for children to reconcile (Belcher, 2003; Nicholson et al., 2008).

FIGURE 9.2

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Suggestions for separating and divorcing parents to protect children from damaging parental conflict

Keep your conflict away from your children. Listen carefully to how they feel about things. Let them know you are trying to sort out differences. Explain that it’s not your children’s fault. Be positive about the other parent with the child (even when that isn’t easy). Don’t let your child play messenger between parents. Never allow your children to take sides against a parent. Try to stay out of court — negotiate, don’t litigate.

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Source: Adapted from Because it’s for the kids. Building a secure base for parenting after separation (McIntosh, 2005).

Adjusting to a blended family situation can be difficult for both step-parents and stepchildren. While younger children form attachments more easily with a step-parent and accept them in a parenting role, older children are less able to adapt to the transition of remarriage. Gender roles are also important in stepfamilies’ adjustment. Stepmothers and stepfathers appear to take different roles and forge distinctive relationships with stepchildren. Research suggests that it is more difficult for stepmothers than stepfathers to establish close relationships with stepchildren, because of the revered status of the biological mother in society and in the eyes of the child. For this reason, many stepmothers, although they might be expected to take on the role of substitute mother to their partner’s children, instead assume a mothering but not a mother role (Weaver & Coleman, 2010). They tend to think of themselves as a third parent rather than replacing the birth mother (Ganong & Coleman, 2017; Ganong, Coleman, & Jamison, 2011). In contrast, stepfathers are able to slip more easily into the role of surrogate parent. Research suggests that stepchildren tend to accumulate father figures rather than replace one father figure with another (Emmott & Mace, 2014; King, 2007; Vogt Yuan & Hamilton, 2006). Step-parent–stepchild relationships also depend on stepchildren’s attitudes and behaviour towards their birth parent’s new partner. There is great variability in how stepchildren respond to step-parent overtures, with some children showing receptiveness and others maintaining their distance despite the step-parent’s best efforts to bond with them (Baxter, Braithwaite, Bryant, & Wagner, 2004; Metts, Schrodt, & Braithwaite, 2017; Pylyser, Buysse, & Loeys, 2017). Research indicates that open and flexible communication between step-parents and stepchildren can go a long way towards establishing positive relationships. Authoritative rather than authoritarian parenting styles (see the chapter on psychosocial development in early childhood) are associated with positive step-parent–stepchild relations (Golish, 2003). Stepchildren particularly resent being disciplined by step-parents (Claxton-Oldfield, Garber, & Gillcrist, 2006; Valiquette-Tessier, Vandette, & Gosselin, 2016), so this role is often relegated to the birth parent. It would appear that the long-term development of step relationships depends heavily on the quality of communication established from the outset. Ganong et al. (2011, 2017) maintain from the few existing longitudinal studies that step relationships that begin positively tend to improve over time, while those which begin badly tend to worsen. Detailed below, in figure 9.3, are several questions to consider in the establishment of long-term harmonious relationships within stepfamilies.

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FIGURE 9.3

Thinking of forming a stepfamily?

r Legal: Are you clear about your legal position when you re-marry or re-partner? For example, have you r r

r

r

r

r

r r

thought about the responsibilities of a step-parent towards his or her stepchildren? What about the effect of re-marriage or re-partnering on a previously made will? Housing: How much space will you need? Would it be easier if you had a new start in a new home? Is that possible and would that be the best use of your finances? Finances: What are your costs going to be? How will re-marriage or re-partnering affect income from sources such as social security benefits or support from a former partner? How will you manage your finances so that no member of the new family will feel disadvantaged? How will you meet your commitment to the children of your previous marriage/relationship? Children: How will they be affected? Do they get on with the new step-parent and siblings? Will their order in the family be affected (e.g. no longer the oldest, or the only boy or girl, the littlest)? How will they feel about sharing a room? What if one of the new stepsiblings has special needs? Former partners: How do the former partners feel about the new arrangement? How will you ensure their parenting role is not reduced? How will you and your new partner take on being a step-parent? Have you talked about the issues that could arise? Parenting: Have you discussed your views about child rearing? Who will make the important decisions about your children? Will you allow your partner to discipline your children and be involved in important decisions? The new step-parent may not have any experience of being a parent, or may have much older or younger children — do they/you have realistic expectations? Can you anticipate clashes? How will you manage different expectations? What sort of step-parent do you want to be? How involved do you expect to be in the lives of your stepchildren? How open to the influence of the stepchildren’s other parent will you be? Extended families: Once you form a step family there are many grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins to take into account. They might be important to the children, even if you don’t want to see them — how will you manage their relationship with the children and your stepchildren? Special events and family rituals: Can you retain some of the rituals of your previous family and start new rituals for the new family? Who will be invited to family birthdays? How will Christmas be managed? Time alone as a new couple: Can you be flexible? You may think that every second weekend you and your new partner will be alone while the children spend time with their other parent, but this may not always work out — the other parent may be sick or away, one of the children may need to be home for quiet study time or a nearby sporting commitment. How would you and your partner react to this?

Source: Relationships Australia.

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The effects of parental employment on families Parental employment has a profound effect on family life. Employment is vital for the family’s economic survival and contributes to the family’s socioeconomic status, influencing many aspects of family life. However, employment also affects the amount of time parents have to contribute to family-related activities, especially if parents are employed full-time. Strong concern has been expressed about work pressures and the amount of time people now have to devote to their jobs; Australians are working longer hours than ever before (ABS, 2006b). In a 2007 survey of working parents of children under 15 in Australia, 82 per cent of respondents (either one or both partners in couple families) said they always or often felt rushed and under time pressure. Of these parents, 67 per cent of mothers and 49 per cent of fathers said this was due to trying to balance work and family responsibilities (ABS, 2009). Maintaining a balance between family and work can be difficult due to the long hours that many parents currently have to dedicate to their vocations. In nearly 60 per cent of the Australian parent couples surveyed, both partners reported putting in extra hours of work between 7.00 pm and 7.00 am — a time period normally allocated to family activities. Most of this extra work was unpaid and was being done to meet deadlines or 486

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simply to meet workloads. Employment can therefore make a big difference to the amount of time parents are able to devote to children and to family responsibilities. For example, in 2006, employed Australian parents were able to put much less time into childcare and family activities than parents who were not employed (ABS, 2006b). However, in 2010, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported: while it may seem as if Australians are working longer hours than ever, the average actual hours worked per employed person have decreased over the past 32 years. The average actual hours worked by full-time and part-time employed people have both increased (although average actual hours worked by full-time employed people have been decreasing since 2000). This total decrease, but component increase, can be attributed to the changing full-time to part-time composition of the workforce. (ABS, 2010a, p. 1)

The lack of flexible work practices, parental leave and carers’ leave provisions in the workplace can exacerbate this problem for working parents. However, in Australia, recent legislation — such as the Fair Work Act 2009, which ensures flexible work arrangements for parents; and the 2011 means-tested parental leave system — will go some way to alleviating the pressures that many working parents feel.

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Dual-income families In the period following the Second World War (until the 1960s) the majority of Australian families were supported by a father who was employed outside the home, and a mother who devoted herself to home duties and raising children (Bessant & Watts, 2002). Most families had a single income source and a fairly rigid gender-based division of labour. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, social and economic changes led to a new norm. Now, many families in Australia and other Western countries have two working parents or a single parent (male or female) who works outside the home. The home-based mother of school-aged children is the exception rather than the rule. Underlying the single-income household norm of the 1950s and 1960s was a belief mothers might harm the development and emotional adjustment of their children if they worked outside the home. However, contemporary research suggests maternal employment does not cause developmental harm. Studies of school-aged children of employed women indicate they are as well- or better-adjusted than children of women who do not work outside the home (Gottfried, Bathurst, & Gottfried, 1994; Hoffman, 2000; Moorehouse, 1991). In families with working mothers, children are often expected to help with household chores and to care for younger siblings. Such added duties increase a child’s sense of responsibility and overall contribution to the household. Increased diversity in maternal and paternal roles leads to children adopting less stereotypical attitudes towards masculine and feminine roles. Sons and daughters witness nurturant behaviour in their fathers and occupational competence in their mothers. As they approach adolescence, these children are likely to support women’s employment in general. Daughters of employed mothers also expect to work outside the home when they get older (Hoffman, 2000). Even in families with two parents working outside the home, mothers still do the majority of housework and childcare (Bezanson, 2006; Valiquette-Tessier, Vandette, & Gosselin, 2016). It is important that fathers share household chores and childcare responsibilities and also that employers provide support for working families with flexible working hours, job sharing and paid leave arrangements. With supports like these in place, positive child and family outcomes are more likely to occur. Without such supports, working mothers (in particular) can become overloaded and stressed. If employment places heavy demands on working mothers, it increases the likelihood of ineffective parenting, and school-aged children are therefore more at risk of poor personal adjustment. Mothers often compensate for any negative effects of their employment by organising more frequent shared activities and increasing ‘quality time’ with their children. For example, a mother might set aside time after work to read to young children, or to share a board game with older children. A high level of shared, mother–child activities serves as a buffer against the disruptive demands of full-time jobs. Children are likely to match or exceed their peers in school achievement and adjustment if there is an increase in shared CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 487

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mother–child activities (Gottfried et al., 1994; Moorehouse, 1991). Even so, part-time parental employment could be a better alternative during the school years, as it makes work and family role conflicts less likely (Fredriksen-Goldsen & Scharlach, 2001).

Families with working mothers are likely to result in less stereotypical role models of male and female behaviour.

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Parental unemployment When a parent loses their job, it can cause significant economic, social and psychological disruption in the family. This situation became a reality for many families after the global financial crisis led to a worldwide economic downturn in 2008, and its effects were felt in many countries for a number of years. Loss of income usually means parents and children have to make major lifestyle sacrifices, and parental stress as well as changes in parental roles often impact negatively upon children’s adjustment. Unemployed fathers have more of an impact than unemployed mothers, probably due to role expectations that include being the primary breadwinner in the family (Galinsky, Aumann, & Bond, 2009, 2013; Kalil & Ziol-Guest, 2008). Children who experience economic hardship in the family are vulnerable to a broad range of difficulties, including peer relations, psychological adjustment and academic performance. Stevens and Schaller (2011) and Schaller and Zerpa (2015) suggest there is a direct causal link between children’s academic difficulties and parental unemployment, with children significantly more likely to have to repeat a grade in school after parental job loss. The impact of unemployment-related hardships on children is significantly influenced by how severe they are, how long they last and how well parents mobilise resources to deal with adversity while continuing to provide good parenting for their children (Berti, & Pivetti, 2017; Bolger, Patterson, Thompson, & Kupersmidt, 1995; Neppl, Senia, & Donnellan, 2016).

Before- and after-school care It is generally acknowledged that children need adult supervision prior to age nine or ten (Atherton, Schofield, Sitka, Conger, & Robins, 2016; Galambos & Maggs, 1991). If both parents work, alternative 488

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supervision such as holiday care and before- and/or after-school care (BASC) needs to be found for children during the years of middle childhood. The percentage of Australian children in BASC doubled from 6 per cent in 1996 to 12 per cent in 2005 (ABS, 2007). Even so, due to a lack of organised programs or the unavailability of informal BASC, about 17 per cent of Australian children under 15 years of age spent many hours during school holidays and after school without adult supervision in 2003. This phenomenon is partly due to incongruity between holidays; school holidays last 11 to 12 weeks every year, while parents typically have only 4 weeks’ paid leave per year (Qu, 2003). Furthermore, Kecmanovic and Wilkins (2013) reported that 25 per cent of families with school-aged children mainly attended vacation care programs with a small percentage using family day care during the school holidays. In the absence of more recent research, Tippet (2011) conjectures that even more children are home alone for extended periods. In earlier decades, children regularly caring for themselves were called ‘latchkey children’ because of the key they carried to let themselves into an empty house. Latchkey children and their parents carried considerable social stigma. Nowadays, latchkey children are called self-care children, and research on the outcomes for them is mixed. Marshall et al. (1997), Hoffert and Sandberg (2001), Durlak and Weissberg (2007) and Granger (2008) report self-care children have higher levels of behavioural problems and depression as well as lower levels of self-esteem than other school-aged children. On the other hand, positive effects of being a self-care child include increased independence and self-reliance. According to Belle (1999; Belle & Benenson, 2014), being left home alone is sometimes a better alternative for children than staying with a professional carer or older siblings. In 2000, a German Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study found no significant differences in the scholastic performance between self-care children and those in supervised care.

During the school years, grandparents can provide invaluable sources of social support, companionship and learning for children.

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The negative and positive effects of being a self-care child vary according to the child’s age and maturity, how long they spend alone, how they occupy their time, and the type of parenting they are given. For children under ten, boredom, fear and antisocial behaviour are common problems. Parents who establish after-school procedures for self-care children, including strict limits on what the child may do, and who check them regularly by telephone tend to be rewarded with well-adjusted children. Parents who leave their children to their own devices are likely to experience problems connected to peer pressure, such as underage alcohol use, smoking and sexual experimentation (Riley & Steinberg, 2004; Vandell et al., 2006; Vandell, Larson, Mahoney, & Watts, 2015). The provision of affordable and accessible BASC programs can reduce the number of self-care children and the developmental risks to these children. In Australia, the percentage of children in BASC increased by a massive 33 per cent between 2002 and 2005, with 84 per cent of parents reporting that it was needed because of employment-related reasons (ABS, 2005). In response to the burgeoning need for affordable BASC and other types of childcare in Australia, the federal government introduced the Child Care Tax Rebate in 2005, allowing parents to claim out-of-pocket childcare expenses as a legitimate tax deduction. Such changes make BASC more economically feasible for many parents, reducing the number of self-care children, and consequently the risks to positive development that a lack of supervision imposes. For instance, Posner and Vandell (1994) and Wade (2015) compared the effects of formal after-school programs with three other arrangements (mother care, informal adult supervision, and selfcare) for a sample of low socioeconomic status Year 3 students from nine urban schools. These authors found attending after-school programs was associated with better marks and conduct in school and improved peer relations and emotional adjustment. Children who attended after-school programs were exposed to more learning opportunities, spent more time in enrichment lessons such as music and dance, and spent less time watching TV and in unstructured neighbourhood activities than children in other forms of care.

Non-parental sources of social support Parents are the most important role models for school-aged children. However, during middle childhood, most children establish sources of social support other than their parents. These sources include adult family friends, siblings, grandparents and other members of the extended family.

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Sibling support During middle childhood, brothers and sisters provide one another with companionship, friendship and social support. Because of their greater maturity, older brothers and sisters frequently serve as role models and mentors to younger siblings, helping them with peer problems and school work (Solmeyer, McHale, & Crouter, 2014; Tucker, McHale, & Crouter, 2001). Older sisters and brothers also help younger siblings assimilate family rules and provide challenges that may lead younger children to new learning experiences (Azmitia & Hesser, 1993; Howe, Della Porta, Recchia, & Ross, 2016). Edwards, Hadfield, and Mauthner (2005) interviewed British children aged 7 to 13 years about their siblings. The interviews revealed that siblings give each other a strong sense of belonging and a buffer against feeling alone. Older siblings were frequently portrayed as protectors and carers of younger brothers and sisters, but, in some cases, the roles were reversed when younger siblings saw their older brothers or sisters as immature. Edwards et al. identified another side to the nurturance coin — that older siblings often had power over their younger brothers and sisters, and younger siblings sometimes attracted this unwelcome authority. It is not surprising older brothers and sisters tend to develop relationships with younger siblings that combine dominance and nurturance — the two major elements of mentoring relationships. However, a survey conducted by Buhrmester and Furman (1990) with Year 3, 6, 9 and 12 students found that as children moved towards the end of middle childhood, relationships between siblings became less domineering and more egalitarian, and reported levels of intensity and conflict also decreased.

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Siblings tend to be less domineering and more nurturant in families in which children feel secure and parents get along well together (Brody, Stoneman, McCoy, & Forehand, 1992; Dunn, Slomkowski, & Beardsall, 1994). Brody et al. (1992) argue school-aged siblings are less likely to experience sibling conflict if: (1) their fathers treat them with equality and impartiality during problem-solving discussions, (2) the family is harmonious, even when discussing problems, and (3) their parents perceive family relationships to be close.

Other adults and social support Bryant (1985, 1994) interviewed children about their social support and found they seek adults other than their parents — especially grandparents — to talk with and confide in. Bryant found children’s sources of support increased broadly as they moved through middle childhood. This enabled them to manage internal and external stresses better. During the primary school years, children seemed happiest when they had a wider range of social supports and when this range emphasised informal rather than formal supports. As the preceding discussions imply, family members offer significant support in middle childhood. Peers also offer significant support to children. We explore this influence in the next section. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Think back to your primary school years. Can you identify the individuals in your life who offered you support both socially and emotionally? What characteristics of social and emotional support did these individuals display? To what extent has this support influenced your social and emotional development today?

9.5 Peer relationships

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LEARNING OUTCOME 9.5 Identify and explain how peers contribute to development during middle childhood.

What do psychologists and educators mean when they speak of peer relationships? In childhood, it is generally assumed peers are children of the same age. However, during adulthood, peers may be individuals of widely differing ages. So, the idea of a peer as someone of equal status rather than of similar age is a more appropriate definition across the lifespan. Children’s peers are individuals of about the same development level, which can be roughly equated to age. This is important, because equal status is difficult to achieve if one person is developmentally more advanced than another. Peer relationships can be seen as horizontal and symmetrical relationships that contrast with the vertical and complementary relationships between adults and children (Hartup, 1989; Laursen & Hartup, 2002). Prominent theorist Sullivan (1953) believed that, during childhood, peer relationships differ markedly from adult–child relationships. Adult–child relationships are based on unequal social power, knowledge and nurturance, with an important protective function. In this way, family relationships are typical vertical relationships. Because of the different developmental levels involved and the presence of family affiliations, both parent–child and sibling relationships involve power imbalances and a need for nurturance. In contrast, peer relationships are spontaneous, egalitarian and competitive, requiring children to actively support and maintain the relationship (Ladd, 2005; Ladd, Herald-Brown, & Kochel, 2009).

Why are peer relationships important? Peer relationships are vital for adequate social development and emotional adjustment, because they stimulate the development of skills and behaviours not possible in the vertical relationships evident in the family. In his book Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry, Sullivan (1953) argued peers create a sphere of influence separate from the child’s family realm. For example, a child might be raised in a family that CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 491

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is characteristically shy and reserved, an emotional bias Sullivan terms emotional warps. Peers provide a balance to such biases by introducing children to different ways of interacting. This grants children the opportunity to expand their social–emotional repertoire. Because peer relationships are egalitarian and competitive, they allow children to develop self-regulating behaviours that are vital for adapting to the adult world. By interacting with peers, children learn to control their emotions, interact and communicate with others on an equal footing, and develop the skills necessary for forming close personal relationships (Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003; Neal, Neal, & Cappella, 2014). Sullivan identified chumships — the close same-sex relationships that emerge during the juvenile period between the ages of about five and ten years. These relationships can have a protective function, providing closeness and support that might be lacking in children’s family relationships (Criss, Pettit, Bates, Dodge, & Lapp, 2002; Criss, Smith, Morris, Liu, & Hubbard, 2017). Children’s ‘chums’ also provide an important blueprint for intimate relationships in adolescence and adulthood. In his book The Origins of Intelligence, Piaget (1963) argued peers are important in promoting children’s development from egocentrism to a stage at which they were able to understand another person’s point of view, needs and feelings. This happens through the everyday conflicts and disputes young children experience in their social activities; for example, who will have the first turn playing with a new toy. In the process of settling such disputes, children inevitably experience other individuals’ wants and needs and this exposure assists their cognitive development. Such challenges are less likely to occur in families, which are typified by vertical relationships. Parents and siblings are more likely than a peer to give way to a young child’s demands. Despite the different contributions family and peer relationships make to child development, important connections exist between the dual developmental contexts. Bussey and Bandura (1999) and Parke et al. (2002) argue families and peer groups are interdependent in affecting children’s psychosocial development. For example, parents can heavily influence the timing, nature and frequency of peer activities by facilitating or limiting their children’s contact with peers. Rubin and his colleagues have observed parental choice of a preschool or day care centre can profoundly influence children’s early peer experiences (Rubin, Bukowski, & Bowker, 2015; Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998). Cochran, Larner, Riles, Gunnarson, and Henderson (1990) found a significant degree of overlap exists between the social networks of parents and children. Children’s networks are embedded — to a large extent — in parental networks. An example of this is children making friends with the children of their parents’ friends. Of course, the reverse situation can also occur, particularly during the school years (Thompson, 2014). Preschool and professional care settings provide a key source of early peer contact, with three and four year olds preferring the company of peers, even when adults are present. Affiliations made at preschool can be an important bridge in a child’s transition to school. As childhood progresses, children spend proportionately more time in settings outside the family including school, friends’ houses, club activities and sport. So, the influence of peers increases with age. During the primary school years, children become more selective about the children they interact with. They make active choices in their affiliations. This is in contrast to preschoolers, who are more likely to interact with anyone who is near them. This is known as propinquity.

The peer group During childhood, peer interactions largely occur in a group context. Peer groups help in the development of self-concept and provide a context for social activities and learning, either formally in a school classroom or informally at play. Peer groups give the individual a sense of belonging. Peer networks grow as a result of propinquity; for example, as a result of attending the same school, participating in the same sporting and social activities or living in the same neighbourhood. However, these affiliations are not just accidental collections of individuals thrown together by chance. Age, gender and ethnic background are important factors that influence the composition of children’s social networks.

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Age segregation Research in developed countries during the 1980s and 1990s provided strong evidence that, during childhood, peer networks consist primarily of age-mates, and include children of similar developmental status. For example, a study of New Zealand classrooms in the late 1980s by Smith and Inder (1990) found children’s nominated friends were generally of similar age. The preference for peers of a similar age or developmental level is known as age segregation in peer-relations literature. Recent cross-cultural research has revealed a different picture of age segregation. Rogoff, Morelli, and Chavajay (2010), and Coppens, Alcal´a, Mej´ıa-Arauz, and Rogoff (2014) found that Efe children from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mayan children from Guatemala were more likely to associate with both older and younger children, who were frequently related to them. Conversely, American children with a European background were more likely to associate with same-age children who were unrelated to them. Such research suggests a need to rethink age segregation as a universal phenomenon during middle childhood. The preference for age-mates in Western countries might result from the fact traditional preschool and primary school education is based on age and developmental stratification. As a result, age segregation could be interpreted as resulting from enforced propinquity (George & Hartmann, 1996). In contrast, classes are less self-contained during high school, so the proportion of friends from different age and class groupings increases (Cairns, Xie, & Leung, 1998; Nesdale, 2017). Outside of class, Ellis, Rogoff, and Cromer (1981) showed North American school-aged children spent between 25 and 50 per cent of their time interacting with children up to two years older or younger than themselves. Research like this presents a question. Do formal educational structures dictate the nature of children’s peer groups? In recent years, many Australian and New Zealand primary schools have offered classes consisting of children at two or even three different year levels, known variously as composite, multi-grade or multi-aged classes (Cornish, 2006). Composite classes may comprise students of varying ages, abilities or interests. A survey of Australian state schools carried out in 2002 found that 80 per cent of schools had at least some composite classes, with classes combining two grades being the most common type (Sydney Morning Herald, 2003). Key findings from research shows no particular grade structure as superior concluding that classroom organisation does not determine either educational advantage or disadvantage. Despite this composite grades still remain a source of controversy. Although this is generally done for pedagogical or administrative reasons, it also gives children increased opportunities to socialise across year levels, in class and in the playground. Australian research has shown a tendency towards ‘choosing up’ in composite classes — with children more likely to have friends at higher year levels than at lower year levels (Rawlinson, 1994). However, in 2017, the number of students in multi-age or composite classes in NSW schools has grown twice as fast as enrolments due to school preference and enrolment patterns (Sydney Morning Herald, 2017). Between 2015 and 2016, enrolments in composite classes increased by 4 per cent although there was 2 per cent growth in student numbers. A Department of Education spokesman from the NSW state government explained:

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multi-age [or composite classes] may be established because of the uneven pattern of enrolment in the school, because of the small size of the school or where it’s considered that mixing students of different ages is academically and socially advantageous. (Sydney Morning Herald, 2017, p. 1)

Multi-grade classes have certain advantages over homogeneous groupings of children according to age. Cooperation between children of different ages is more common, leading to enhanced concern and responsibility for others, termed collective ethics. Moreover, children in groupings that have greater age diversity have more positive attitudes towards helping others, particularly young children (Berry, 2000).

Gender segregation Children’s peer groups exhibit gender segregation, the preference for peers of the same sex and the consequent separation of the two sexes into distinctive groupings. In primary school playgrounds, gender segregation is readily apparent — most girls play exclusively with girls and most boys play exclusively CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 493

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with boys. Rarely are mixed-sex groups or pairs seen. Casual observations are supported by research. From early childhood onwards, individuals prefer same-sex activities and friends over opposite-sex activities and friends (Barbu, 2003; Fabes, Martin, & Hamish, 2004). Gender segregation is less pronounced during the preschool years and during adolescence, when mixedsex ‘gangs’ and romantic interest in the opposite sex emerge (Shrum & Cheek, 1987). Between Year 3 and Year 6, gender segregation reaches its peak, with boys and girls found almost exclusively in samesex peer groups (Maccoby, 2000). Burton Smith, Davidson, and Ball (2001) have also found a strong same-sex preference in Australian Year 3 to Year 6 children. However, children in this age group did not also strongly reject opposite-sex peers by saying that they would not play with them or have them as a friend. The degree of rejection of opposite-sex peers was not nearly as marked as the preference for same-sex peers whom children overwhelmingly chose as playmates and friends. From this research it appears gender segregation is more an expression of a unilateral preference for same-sex peers than a response stemming from the rejection of opposite-sex peers. For example, girls appear to prefer other girls as friends and playmates because they are girls, and not because girls are the only alternative playmates to boys, who might be rejected by girls. What is the reason for such strong gender-based segregation during the period of childhood? Maccoby (1990) believes incompatibility in boys’ and girls’ styles of interacting and their play activities precedes gender segregation. Segregation may be established during the preschool years by gender-based play preferences; for example, girls preferring to play with dolls and boys preferring to play with construction toys and model guns. So, because they tend to gravitate towards different play activities, boys and girls also gravitate towards same-gender play partners who are naturally more compatible. Research by Alexander and Hines (1994) provides support for Maccoby’s theory. Their research shows when children are given the choice of a playmate, they are more inclined to choose a mate based on style of play than because of gender. These authors found boys chose playmates with more masculine play styles (including girl playmates) and girls chose playmates with more feminine styles (even if they were boys).

Even in co-educational primary schools, children often play and socialise in same-sex groups.

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The same-sex peer groups that emerge during childhood differ markedly in structure and behaviour. Boys’ groups are larger and are more hierarchical, with an acknowledged leader and rigid rankings known as a dominance hierarchy (Eder & Hallinan, 1978). Boys higher up in the hierarchy can direct the actions of boys lower down. Positions in the hierarchy are established by social jostling, which involves boys attempting to improve or maintain their status (e.g. by scuffling over a toy or using confrontational language). Competition for positions sometimes involves physical aggression. Boys’ groups are inclusive — less popular members usually find a role and newcomers are generally accepted. In contrast, girls’ groups are smaller, less hierarchical and more exclusive, usually consisting of friendship dyads or affiliations of dyads that emphasise equality of status (Bagwell, Coie, Terry, & Lochman 2000; Benenson, Apostoleris, & Parnass, 1998; Gasparini, Sette, Baumgartner, Martin, & Fabes, 2015; Hartup, 1983; Thorne, 1986). Recent research has revealed a contrasting picture of gendered social networks. Lee et al. (2007) found primary school girls’ same-sex groups to be larger than those of boys. Nonetheless, this finding might be due to methodological differences with earlier studies. Lee et al. identified social networks using reciprocated friendships reported by boys and girls. The aggregated networks of friendship dyads reflect intimacy, closeness and trust, which are more typical of girls’ friendships. Therefore, girls appeared to have larger friendship networks than boys. A comprehensive review of extant studies by Rose and Rudolph (2006) concluded that boys’ social networks were indeed larger and included more members than did those of girls. Once established in early childhood by play preferences, gender segregation is consolidated during the preschool and early school years by the incompatible interaction styles described above (Braun & Davidson, 2017; Lam, McHale, & Crouter, 2014). Boys’ preference for rough-and-tumble play and hierarchical dominance is aversive to girls, whose style is more cooperative, egalitarian and less aggressive. Maccoby (1990) argues girls avoid choosing boys as playmates because their growing reliance on polite suggestion is increasingly ineffective at influencing boys. Progressively, girls withdraw from interactions with boys and socialise more and more in single-sex groups. Due to this process, the two gender groups are largely socialised in isolation from each other throughout childhood. As a result, Maccoby maintains females consolidate a style of interaction that may put them at a disadvantage in mixed-sex situations during adolescence and later in adulthood, with a restricted ability to influence male group members. Gender segregation is maintained and strengthens during middle to late childhood by a process Thorne (1986) calls border work. Border work involves children’s playful incursions into opposite-sex ‘territory’. Girls threaten to kiss intruding boys and boys chase interfering girls away from their groups. These behaviours are forms of intimidation used to maintain the gender-based integrity of groups. Boys are seen as non-group members by girls and vice-versa. Research in Australia by Burton Smith, Ball, and Davidson (1998) using children’s preferences for same- and opposite-sex friends has upheld this model as the most likely explanation for the maintenance and intensification of gender segregation during middle childhood. It appears children are afraid of rejection by their same-sex peers if they violate the gender barrier and same-sex group norms regarding the opposite sex. Even so, according to Thorne, border work provides an essential bridge during late childhood — providing a conduit for the emergence of mixedsex ‘gangs’ in adolescence. The earlier cross-sex incursions once rejected are now actively encouraged, and the leaders of same-sex adolescent groups are the first to establish cross-sex relationships, with other members following soon after (Dunphy, 1963). Gender segregation should not be viewed as a characteristic of children that only changes with age. In a study of more than 700 North American Year 3 and Year 4 students, Kovacs, Parker, and Hoffman (1996) found about 14 per cent of the children had one or more opposite-sex, reciprocal friendships — at an age when such friendships are not expected. This incidence contrasts with Burton Smith et al.’s (1998) Australian study carried out at about the same time. Less than 5 per cent of Australian children of a similar age to the North American sample had an opposite-sex friendship. Evidently, cultural factors may influence gender segregation and the age at which it breaks down. Research by Burton Smith and Leeson (1999a) found North American boys exhibited less pronounced gender segregation than similarly aged CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 495

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Australian boys. The researchers confirmed age was the strongest factor in the dissolution of the gender barrier — mixed-sex (co-educational) and single-sex schooling did not have a significant impact. While the gender makeup of the school environment does not greatly affect gender segregation, adult norms and expectations about gender stereotyping do have a significant influence. Greater gender flexibility in families and less gender stereotyping by parents have been associated with less rigid gender segregation in offspring (Maccoby, 1990; Moorehouse, 1991; Weisner & Wilson-Mitchell, 1990).

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Ethnic segregation Peer group segregation can also be seen in relation to race, religious beliefs and ethnicity (Cairns et al., 1998). Despite increasing ethnic diversity of schools in the United States (Sheets, 2004), American children still tend to socialise more readily in homogeneous ethnic peer groups and choose friends from the same ethnic group (Aboud, Mendelson, & Purdy, 2003; Lee, Howes, & Chamberlain, 2007). Even so, this form of segregation is not as strong as gender segregation (Aboud, Friedmann, & Smith, 2015; Aboud, Mendelson, & Purdy, 2003; Aydt & Corsaro, 2003; Martin & Fabes, 2001). Lee, Howes, and Chamberlain (2007) found that 92 per cent of primary school children’s social network groups included cross-ethnic peers, but only 11 per cent of groups included cross-sex peers. Furthermore, only 7 per cent of reciprocal friendships were cross-gender, while 59 per cent were cross-ethnic. The tendency to gravitate towards one’s own ethnic group begins in the preschool years (Fishbein & Imai, 1993), and strengthens through middle childhood, as children become more aware of in-group and out-group distinctions (Hallinan & Smith, 1989; Smith, 2017). This trend can be attributed to children’s increasing awareness of their social identity within the community. During adolescence, racial segregation does not diminish. In fact, it consolidates at this stage of development, while gender segregation disintegrates (see the chapter on psychosocial development in adolescence). Like gender segregation, ethnic segregation is influenced by different factors and can be modified. Hallinan and Teixeira (1987a, 1987b) and Hallinan and Williams (1989) found the degree of ethnic segregation in North American Year 4 through to Year 7 classrooms depends on the proportionality of the ethnic groups. Greater proportions of African-American students were associated with a greater likelihood of Anglo-American students choosing an African-American friend. However, greater proportions of Anglo-American students did not result in more African-American students choosing an Anglo-American friend. African-American students were still more likely to choose a friend from their own ethnic group. More recent research has shed further light on Hallinan and colleagues’ earlier findings regarding ethnic proportions in the classroom. Graham and Cohen (1997) investigated a primary school with equal numbers of African-American and Anglo-American students in Years 1 to 6. The authors found the African-American students had more same-race than cross-race friendships compared to Anglo-American students. So, despite equivalent availability of students of different ethnic backgrounds as potential friends, the African-American students showed the greater degree of ethnic segregation first detected by Hallinan and colleagues. From these studies it would appear that just being from a cultural minority affects the choice of same-race friends to a larger extent than does the availability of same-race or cross-race friends. Nonetheless, proportions of ethnic groupings in classrooms can be important, particularly in regard to peer rejection. Research has shown minority children are more likely to be socially excluded if they constitute a small proportion of the class or school population (Cairns et al., 1998). Most ethnic segregation studies have been carried out in the United States, where the racial integration of schools began in the 1950s. During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s American researchers were primarily interested in the degree of social integration between students who had previously been subjected to separate education. In contrast to the United States, there has been a dearth of research into ethnic segregation in Australian and New Zealand multicultural schools, so the degree of ethnic segregation is largely unknown. This is despite a similar history of racially segregated education. For example, in Australia segregated education for Aboriginal children existed up until the 1960s when Aboriginal schools were closed and State schools were made accessible to Aboriginal children. In 1989, the national 496

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educational policy ensconced equality of educational access into law (HREOC, 2001). Can ethnic segregation in schools be reduced? Active support, including the integration of multicultural activities in academic and extra-curricular programs, is needed in both the home and school to nurture cross-race and cross-ethnic relationships (Bojko, 1995). This has been the focus of many school-based interventions in the United States since schools were desegregated. For example, magnet schools that use specialised programs to attract students from different ethnic backgrounds have been successful in decreasing ethnic segregation over the long term (Rossell, 1988). Lee et al. (2007) maintain that classroom atmosphere and classroom organisation such as ability grouping have an important impact on ethnic integration. So, cooperative learning experiences that allow mixed groups of children to work as a team to achieve common academic goals can foster cross-racial acceptance and enhanced self-esteem, both in school and beyond the school context (Fletcher, Rollins, & Nickerson, 2004; Hashim, Bakar, Mamat, & Razali, 2016; Slavin, 1996).

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Peer group formation Peer group formation is primarily driven by propinquity and similarity. This is seen in the influence of demographic factors such as gender, age, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Research shows peer affiliations may also be based on behaviours such as aggression and academic effort, as well as similarities in physical maturation and attractiveness (Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003). The saying ‘birds of a feather flock together’ has relevance for children’s peer groups. Stevenson’s (1991) discovery of Japanese children’s peer group affiliations based on the car factory where their parents worked (Honda or Mazda), suggests that peer group formation is influenced by children’s perceptions of a wide variety of similarities and differences. Hallinan (1981) argues the search for similarity is based on the need for children to establish their identity and reduce the possibility of within-group conflict. This can be achieved by associating with peers who reflect a similar background and value system and have similar ideas. Similarities within peer groups give rise to group conformity — acceptance in peer groups involves individual children practising the norms and behaviours of the group. Non-conformists are quickly and decisively rejected. Kindermann’s (1993) research into Year 4 and Year 5 peer groups found peer groups shared many values. For example, children who were academically oriented were affiliated with likeminded peers, as were children who lacked academic motivation. As a result of shared values, peer groups can profoundly influence the behaviour of children. Peer groups have the potential to bring children into conflict with their own value system and parental norms. For example, to become a member of a certain peer group, a boy might be compelled to shun his personal friends if the group regards them as out-group individuals. Similarly, a girl might be required to adopt a style of clothing and a set of behaviours that are opposite to her parents’ expectations. In this way children learn different values from parents and peers that might be antithetical — parents may be teaching their children socially appropriate behaviours and values that relate to wider society, whereas peers might be teaching each other about values that are socially relevant to their age group (in other words what is considered to be ‘cool’). These are issues that often come to a head during adolescence when young people often rebel against parental norms and expectations as part of their push for independence (see the chapter on psychosocial development in adolescence). Nonetheless, the foundations for intergenerational conflict are established earlier in middle childhood, when the peer group asserts significant influence on the development of the child. As well as providing the basis for conflicts between parental value systems and peer values, peer groups can also be influential in reinforcing parent and teacher values. For example, peers can exert positive influences, such as promoting athletic and academic achievement and healthy behaviours including appropriate eating and avoidance of underage smoking and drinking. Australian researchers Paxton and Wertheim acknowledge the important role girls’ peer groups play in the avoidance of harmful dieting behaviours (Paxton, Schultz, Wertheim, & Muir, 1999). CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 497

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Individual differences in peer status As members of peer groups, children are exposed to acceptance and rejection by their peers. Using sociometric tests that indicate how children are viewed by other members of their peer group, researchers are able to study individual differences in peer status. Peer status can be measured by a variety of approaches. The most common approaches are sociometric nominations and ratings. According to Ladd, Herald, Slutsky, and Andrews (2004), both are valid and reliable methods for assessing children’s acceptance and rejection in classroom contexts. Sociometric nominations are one method of investigating children’s status with their peers, as well as the friendship patterns that exist in established groups. Educators use this technique to assist them in classroom seating arrangements or to identify children in their class who might be having social difficulties. Researchers have used nominations extensively in answering some important questions about children’s peer relationships, such as segregation issues, how well children with disabilities are socially integrated and the causes of peer rejection. Researchers have worked out sociometric classifications for children in groupings, such as school classes (Asher & Dodge, 1986; Avramidis, Strogilos, Aroni, & Kantaraki, 2017; Coie, Dodge, & Coppotelli, 1982; Newcomb & Bukowski, 1983). In any group, children are categorised by the proportion of positive and negative peer nominations as popular, rejected, neglected and controversial. As shown in figure 9.4, the majority of children experience average sociometric status, with fewer children in the extreme categories. Children in different categories are typified by different behaviours (see table 9.1). FIGURE 9.4

Simplified sociogram of a primary school class based on friendship choices

Billy Lauren Emma Cain Holly Tyler

Li Sam

Jack Daniel

Jelena

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Raj

There is a fundamental question about peer status. Why are some children popular while others are rejected? Over time, a great deal of research has been devoted to answering this question, with most studies published by American authors. The majority of these studies are correlation studies, revealing many factors related in a greater or lesser degree to peer status. Studies by Langlois and Stephan (1981) and Li (1985) have found children who are physically attractive tend to be more popular than unattractive children. However, because the findings are in the form of correlations, we should not assume physical features are the cause of peer acceptance or rejection. Disliked children may be perceived as physically 498

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unattractive as a result of their behaviour, rather than because their unattractiveness has caused a lack of peer acceptance. In 1966, McDavid and Harari found unattractive or odd names were associated with low peer status. A strange name might act as a focus for child victimisation, although a simple causative relationship cannot be assumed from these findings. Choosing an infamous name like Adolf or an unfortunate combination such as Clay Stone could indicate poor parental social reasoning, modelled in the home environment and reflected in the child’s social behaviours at school (Hartup, 1983). TABLE 9.1 Category

Sociometric classification of children %

Nominations received from peer group

Characteristics

Popular

7–13

Many positive, few or no negative

Pro-social, good at sport, academically bright, good sense of humour, fun to be with

Rejected

6–15

Many negative, few or no positive

Antisocial type — aggressive, disruptive; Withdrawn type — isolated and uninvolved

Neglected

7–18

Few or no negative or positive

Low levels of positive and negative behaviour, minimal peer impact

Controversial

3–7

Many negative and many positive

More aggressive than antisocial rejectees, but bright, sociable and show leadership qualities

52–67

No extreme nominations

Normal levels of all behaviours

Average

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Sources: Adapted from Newcomb, Bukowski, and Pattee (1993); Terry and Coie (1991); Bierman, Smoot, and Aumiller (1993); Cillessen, van Ijzendoom, van Lieshout, and Hartup (1992).

McDavid and Harari’s research was carried out some time ago, when people were less used to unusual names. Since then, stronger international migration has exposed contemporary school children, especially in multicultural Australia, to a large range of unfamiliar African, European and Asian names. As well, movie stars and pop singers are leading a current social trend for outlandish names. The UK Times Online’s 50 Craziest Celebrity Baby Names (2007) included kooky monikers such as Audio Science (actress Shannyn Sossamon’s son), Poppy Honey and Buddy Bear (chef Jamie Oliver’s daughter and son), Apple (the daughter of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and musician Chris Martin), Pilot Inspektor (Jason Lee’s son) and Shiloh Nouvel (the daughter of actress Angelina Jolie and actor Brad Pitt). Perhaps it is time to replicate McDavid and Harari’s research? Academic achievement is predictive of children’s peer status. Australian and US research has shown small but significant correlations between peer status and academic test results, with higher scores associated with greater peer acceptance (Dawes et al., 2019; Green, Forehand, Beck, & Vosk, 1980; Rawlinson, 1994). Morrison, Forness, and MacMillan (1983) argue this relationship might not be a direct one and that teacher’s perceptions of students’ abilities mediates the relationship between academic achievement and peer status. The congruence between a child’s academic characteristics and teacher values may enhance or detract from the child’s status in class. Clark (1990) tested this contention with Australian special school children, and found teachers’ perceptions of pupils’ dullness or brightness — in combination with peers’ perceptions — strongly mediated the achievement–peer status relationship. This finding suggests teachers’ influence on peers’ perceptions is important in determining school-based peer status. Buhs and Ladd (2001) also argue the negative correlation between academic achievement and peer rejection suggests peer rejection can undermine children’s efforts and motivation to succeed in school. For example, Buhs, Ladd, and Herald (2006), Buhs, Rudasill, Kalutskaya, and Griese (2015) and Ladd, Ettekal, and Kochenderfer-Ladd (2017) found that the extent to which children were rejected and victimised significantly predicted their disengagement from classroom activities. The factor most strongly associated with peer status is children’s skill at social problem-solving. This is called social competence. It is the most powerful predictor of peer acceptance, as well as the main focus CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 499

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of current theories of peer rejection. There is no universally agreed definition of social competence, as it is not a finite set of behaviours. Rather, it is a range of characteristics and skills that vary in relation to gender, age and cultural context. Social competence involves the individual using interpersonal abilities and knowledge that takes into account relations with others and promotes positive interactions. Social competence is not an absolute. It can vary according to culture. For example, obedience and deference to elders is a cultural value in many Asian societies, but these actions are not so highly valued by peer groups in Western countries such as Australia, Britain and the United States. With these differences, it is likely the social skills that correlate highly with peer status vary considerably between cultures. Chen, Rubin, and Sun’s (1992) examination of the social–behavioural correlates of Chinese and Canadian children’s peer status showed Chinese children’s peer acceptance was associated with shyness and sensitivity, in contrast to the Canadian sample whose peer acceptance was associated with outgoing, assertive behaviour. Australian studies echo the findings of North American and British research, linking interpersonal behaviours such as sociability and disruption/aggression most strongly with peer acceptance and rejection (Cowles, 1993; Rawlinson, 1994).

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Peer rejection Children classified as rejected are described by peers as unpleasant, disruptive and selfish, with few positive characteristics. These children exhibit socially inappropriate behaviour such as aggression, overactivity, inattention and immaturity and are likely to experience academic problems in school (Bierman et al., 1993; Crick, Casas, & Nelson, 2002; Dodge, Coie, & Lynam, 2006; Ladd, 2005; Ladd, Ettekal, and Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2017). Researchers have identified two categories of rejected children: (1) children who exhibit social withdrawal, and (2) children who exhibit aggressive antisocial behaviour (Bierman et al., 1993; Cillessen et al., 1992). Regardless of the type of behaviour rejected children exhibit, they are frequently excluded from peer activities. This is because they lack the social skills needed to successfully participate in peer groups. They are often blamed by peers for their own deviance and can develop a negative reputation that is difficult to change, exacerbating their rejected status (Coie, Dodge, Terry, & Wright, 1991; Masten & Coatsworth, 1998; Rudolph, Troop-Gordon, Monti, & Miernicki, 2014; Troop-Gordon & Asher, 2005). Children who are rejected by their peers are a concern for parents, psychologists, health professionals and educators. Rejected children are often avoided by their peers, and may be maltreated in a variety of ways (Buhs et al., 2006; Ladd, Ettekal, & Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2017). Because of such social exclusion, these children miss out on peer group experiences that are important for healthy psychosocial development. Longitudinal research has shown rejected children are prone to later maladjustment, criminality and social–emotional problems (Ollendick, Weist, Borden, & Greene, 1992; Wentzel & Muenks, 2016). In a study that followed children over a 12-year period, Bagwell, Newcomb, and Bukowski (1998) found rejected children who did not have a good friend at age ten experienced lower aspiration levels, participated less socially, and experienced greater depression and anxiety in adolescence and adulthood compared with accepted children who had a least one good friend. Laursen, Bukowski, Aunola, and Nurmi (2007) found that children with one close friend had fewer adjustment problems than those with no friends at all. So, even if they are experiencing general peer rejection, it is important rejected children have at least one firm friendship. However, George and Hartmann (1996) have found rejected children are less likely than popular children to have at least one reciprocal friend — someone who shares their view a mutual friendship exists. These researchers studied the friendship networks of Year 5 and Year 6 students in the United States; discovering rejected children were more likely to have an unreciprocated friendship in which the ‘friend’ did not share the view that a friendship existed. The unreciprocated friendship networks of rejected children contained more younger friends and fewer same-aged friends than the friendship networks of popular children. The reciprocal friendship networks of unpopular children were smaller, more evenly distributed both in and outside of the classroom, and contained fewer average and popular friends of the opposite sex than those of popular children. 500

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Rejected children may behave aggressively or selfishly without realising it. Ironically, since they tend to be excluded from groups, these children find few chances to learn new ways of relating.

Dodge and his colleagues have attempted to explain the genesis of peer rejection (Dodge et al., 2003). Antisocial behaviours such as aggression are central to their theories, but it is difficult to establish from existing correlation evidence whether such behaviours lead directly to peer rejection. Expectation effects may also be operating, and rejection by peers could in fact lead to antisocial behaviour in children. Rejected children are frequently the object of peer harassment (Veenstra, Lindenberg, Munniksma, & Dijkstra, 2010). Often rejected–aggressive children become bullies (Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2003), while rejected–withdrawn children become victimised (Pepler et al., 2006). Research by Cook et al. (2010) has shown that most bullies tend to be boys who use physical, verbal and relational aggressive strategies, whereas girls use verbal and relational hostility. Additionally, many primary school children use electronic devices as forms of bullying. Cyberbullying, a criminal offence, uses technology (such as instant messages, text messages, email and social networking) to bully an individual or group, resulting in social and psychological harm through shame, guilt, fear, loneliness and depression. Cyberbullying has increased rapidly among Australian primary school children to such an extent that the Australian government has commissioned research on the management of cyberbullying, and in 2011 initiated the ‘National Day of Action’, a crucial anti-bullying event where Australian schools unite against bullying and violence. The eighth event was held on 16 March 2018 (Australian Government, 2017). The Theory in practice discusses the latest research on cyberbullying in Australia. Early childhood studies of emerging peer status as well as experimental studies that examine children’s entry into new peer groups have helped to clarify the role of expectation effects (Coie & Kupersmidt, 1983). Despite such controversies, most researchers acknowledge that inadequacies in social competence are an important element in peer rejection, and much research has examined its role in the origins and CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 501

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genesis of peer rejection. Dodge (Crick & Dodge, 1994; Dodge, 1986; Dodge et al., 2003) proposed an information processing model of social competence that assists in understanding peer rejection (see table 9.2). How children solve social problems depends on the decisions they make at each step of the model. Failure is possible at any of the steps, leading to social difficulties. For example, many children fail at step 2 because of a misunderstanding of the other person’s motives. Rejected children tend to be less adept at understanding the causes of other people’s behaviour, and have more limited repertoires of social responses. One advantage of Dodge’s model is it allows researchers to pinpoint children’s difficulties and teach children the social skills necessary to improve their peer status. Controlled studies with Year 5 and Year 6 students using social skills training have shown significant increases in peer status after training (Coie & Krehbiel, 1984).

TABLE 9.2

Dodge’s information processing model of social competence. Problem: Simon has taken Hayden’s water wings without asking, and is swimming with them in the pool

Step

Action taken

Example

Step 1

Attend to and encode social cues

Hayden sees Simon having fun with his water wings in the pool. Simon is looking at him directly and grins broadly when Hayden shouts at him to give them back.

Step 2

Interpret cues

Hayden thinks Simon is trying to steal his water wings and he will never get them back.

Step 3

Construct or retrieve response

Hayden picks up a large rock and walks towards the pool.

Step 4

Evaluate efficacy and likely effect of response

Hayden thinks he must retrieve his water wings before they are gone forever. The best way to do this is to throw a rock at Simon. It will make him sink and then he will let go of the wings.

Step 5

Enactment of response

Hayden throws the rock at Simon’s head with all his strength.

Source: Adapted from Dodge (1986).

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Friendship Friendship is a mutual dyadic relationship that is voluntary, reciprocal and distinctive in quality from general peer group relationships. Friendships are embedded in larger peer contexts such as social networks. Parents and teachers are often able to recognise children who are friends, but friendships can be identified more accurately when children name each other as friends or best friends. So, researchers use techniques such as sociometric nominations to investigate childhood friendships. Unreciprocated or one-sided friendship nominations are generally not regarded as signifying a true child friendship. Observations of children’s behaviour are also used to identify friends. Compared to non-friends, friends engage more frequently in positive interactions, including conversations and cooperation. They also show more positive affect (Newcomb & Bagwell, 1996). Friendships during middle childhood are based on similarity of gender, age and physical appearance as well as psychological characteristics such as humour and play style (Bagwell & Schmidt, 2013; Gest, Graham-Bermann, & Hartup, 2001; Hartup & Abecassis, 2004). While researchers acknowledge general acceptance by the peer group is important for psychosocial development, Sullivan (1953) considered friendship to be vital. Hartup (1997), reviewing the literature on friendship almost half a century later, concluded the developmental implications of friendship are not dependent simply upon having friends, but rather on the quality of children’s friendships. Friendships differ in both positive qualities such as mutual support and negative qualities such as conflict, and children with mainly positive friendships are happier and have higher self-esteem and better achievement in school (Berndt, 2002). The social scaffolding that friendships provide can assist children in making

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normative transitions such as puberty and entering high school (Graber, Turner, & Madill, 2016; Ladd & Kochenderfer, 1996). Friendship is an important dimension of children’s peer relationships, separate from group acceptance. Each dimension makes distinct contributions to children’s adjustment and wellbeing. Success in the peer group is not predictive of success in friendships and vice versa (Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1997; Parker & Asher, 1993; Saldarriaga, Bukowski, & Greco, 2015). Gest et al.’s (2001) study found 39 per cent of rejected Year 2 and Year 3 children had at least one mutual friend in their class, and 31 per cent of popular children did not. In fact, friendship can compensate for a lack of general peer acceptance because it is a protective factor against the negative outcomes of peer rejection (George & Hartmann, 1996; Hodges, Boivin, Vitaro, & Bukowski, 1999; Saldarriaga, Bukowski, & Greco, 2015). Asher and Parker (1989) identified seven major functions of friendship that apply to developing children. According to these authors, friendship: r fosters social competence r gives ego support r provides emotional security r is a source of intimacy and affection r provides guidance and assistance r provides companionship and stimulation r is a basis for reliable alliance, especially in situations in which bullying might occur. Sex differences emerge in friendship functions and values in late childhood, when girls place more emphasis on intimacy than boys do and have a different quality of friendship than boys do (Asher, Parker, & Walker, 1996; Markovits, Benenson, & Dolensky, 2001; Parker & Asher, 1993). A review of largely North American studies by Rose and Rudolph (2006) reveals higher levels of closeness, affection and nurturance in girls’ friendships than in boys’ friendships. Rose and Rudolph report that these sex differences are accentuated as children move from middle childhood into adolescence. However, despite these well-established sex differences, it does not mean that boys experience less satisfaction in their friendships. Indeed, Rose and Rudolph conjecture that the provisions of boys’ friendships are under-studied, and that boys might gain more from larger peer group interactions than they do from close relationships. In Australian research by Burton Smith and Leeson (1999b), schoolgirls viewed same-sex friendships more positively and less negatively than Australian boys did. As well, girls reported higher levels of companionship, help, security and closeness from their same-sex friends. Boys found same-sex friendships more highly conflictive than girls did. Consequently, girls may achieve a higher level of interpersonal satisfaction from same-sex friendships than boys. Not only does friendship differ in quality between the sexes, it also varies over the developmental period of childhood. During the preschool years, young children’s friendships are based on shared interests and activities, and exchanges of possessions. Young children relate friendships to concrete behaviours; for example, playing together or being ‘nice’ to each other. By Year 2 or Year 3, children are better able to recognise and articulate the qualities of their friends and can hold these simultaneously (Hartup, 1997, 2006; Rawlins, 1992). Towards late childhood, equality and reciprocity are paramount in children’s friendships; by Year 5 and Year 6, intimacy, mutual support and loyalty become important and the shared activity that is the basis for earlier friendships diminishes.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What is the role of friendship in middle childhood? Why is developing solid friendships important in middle childhood? How can educators, parents, carers and social workers assist children to develop friendships?

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THEORY IN PRACTICE

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Cyberbullying research Katrina Newey is a cyberbullying researcher with a Masters degree in educational and developmental psychology. She tutors undergraduate psychology students at Western Sydney University (WSU), is a registered psychologist, and represents the Australian Psychological Society (APS) as secretary of the NSW College of Educational and Developmental Psychologists. Katrina obtained her PhD at WSU, researching developmental trajectories of cyberbullying and the associated risk factors for involvement. Today’s children and adolescents are faced with unprecedented challenges and cyber dangers not faced by earlier generations. The technology age has brought forth drastic changes in the ways children interact and communicate with each other, blurring the lines between the real and virtual realms (Li, Smith, & Cross, 2012). This generation of children has never known social life without access to the internet, mobile phones, tablets and computers. In 2009, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2010b) reported that 79 per cent of 5–14 year olds used the internet at home, and 31 per cent of children had access to their own mobile phone. Children and adolescents today have become known as the ‘digital natives’, and although there are undoubtedly many benefits to using technology, safety concerns have become increasingly evident (Griezel, Finger, Bodkin-Andrews, Craven, & Yeung, 2012; Smith et al., 2008). Some negative consequences associated with technology use include the ease of access to private and personal information, leading to increased vulnerability and cyber victimisation (Spitzberg & Hoobler, 2002). Children can now be victimised 24/7 in previously known safe havens, such as the family home. Such intentional harmful acts of cyberbullying have the potential to reach larger audiences anonymously — leaving a permanent digital footprint that can negatively affect a child’s psychological wellbeing and safety. Cyberbullying has been generally defined by researchers as a new type of bullying behaviour that intentionally uses any form of communication technology aggressively, signified by a power imbalance between the bully and victim to inflict psychological harm repetitively (Dooley, Pyzalski, & Cross, 2009; ˙ Smith et al., 2008). Although international research efforts have made significant progress in the area of traditional bullying research, much remains to be done to advance cyberbullying research. Most of my research work has been directed at developing a theoretically driven, multidimensional and psychometric sound instrument measuring cyberbullying behaviours: The Adolescent Virtual Behaviours InstrumentTarget, Bully and Bystander measure (AVBI-T/B/BS). The AVBI has been developed from Willard’s (2006) theoretical categorisation of cyberbullying behaviour, capturing eight distinct multi-dimensional factors. Developing a reliable measure can aid researchers’ and practitioners’ understanding of what cyberbullying is and frequency of incidence. A total of (N = 625) Australian high school students participated in completing the pilot questionnaire. The new AVBI instrument is designed to measure three distinct factors of victimisation and cyberbullying behaviour (flaming, identity theft and happy slapping), as well as two factors of bystander behaviours (flaming and happy slapping). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and tests of invariance revealed that the preliminary pilot results of this new measure support the reliability and validity of this new instrument. These results have contributed to advancing developmental research by addressing the gaps within the literature and, as a consequence, created a stronger framework to measure cyberbullying behaviour. The reliable results can inform evidence-based intervention to combat cyberbullying behaviours with youth. The primary purpose of my research is to inform and advance educational and developmental practice. I am currently aligned with the School of Engagement at UWS, providing cyberbullying education and resilience workshops to secondary and primary school children in Years 5 and 6 to prevent cyberbullying behaviours through psycho-education, and teaching children conflict resolution skills. This includes teaching children the different types of cyber behaviours, psychosocial risk factors associated with involvement, how to report an incident if being victimised, and building resilience. This is in line with the current research

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findings that children are increasingly accessing communication technologies at younger ages (Mishna, Saini, & Solomon, 2009).

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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How would you use results from the AVBI to combat cyberbullying behaviours with primary school children? How will the resilience workshops assist in decreasing the rising tide of cyberbullying and in building resilience?

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LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD Middle childhood is the time a child begins to recognise himself or herself as a unique individual who is separate and different from others. Relationships with peers, teachers and people outside the family play an increasingly important role in a school-aged child’s development. However, family relationships and the security they provide remain central to development during this period. Let us now briefly review how the contributions of family to children’s development illustrate the four lifespan development themes of this text.

Continuity over time In many ways, for children in middle childhood, the family is a continuation of the support network they experienced during early childhood and infancy. The cast of characters is much the same, and the basic relationships, assumptions and expectations that constitute the family’s culture are maintained. The parent–child relationships of middle childhood are fairly continuous with the parallel relationships of early childhood, and are predictive of parent–child relations during adolescence and early adulthood. In middle childhood, significant changes in the family and the family’s developmental role also occur. Families must adapt to the expanding world of middle childhood, including the important elements of school, community and peers in children’s lives. The micro-management of the toddler and preschool years gives way to remote control, with parental oversight and monitoring of children’s self-directed activities and dynamic negotiation and collaboration between parents and their children. For some families, relocation, divorce or remarriage may alter established patterns. This can significantly influence developmental trajectories in the short and longer term.

Lifelong growth The developmental changes experienced by family members both contribute to and are influenced by changes in the family unit. The psychosocial growth of school-aged children is partly dependent on the developmental changes that are also taking place in the adults who are their parents, as well as in their siblings. The family’s material and emotional support as well as its culture and values continue to be an influencing factor throughout preadolescence to adolescence, early adulthood and beyond.

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Changing meanings and viewpoints By talking with a child in kindergarten and another in Year 5 about their families, their differing viewpoints will become obvious. By Year 5, the child’s self-knowledge and ability to form and maintain relationships with peers and adults contribute to more complex and sophisticated views of family (compared to the views of younger children). In middle childhood and early adolescence, a fuller knowledge of one’s own family as well as comparisons with other families allow children to better understand their own parents, siblings and extended family. The profound developmental changes of adolescence contribute to accelerated identity consolidation, individuation and separation from parents, significantly altering the relationships between a teenager and his or her family. During adolescence, the meaning of family may differ greatly between family members. This process continues into early adulthood, when most individuals leave home to create new family units. During the adult years, the meaning of family and the vantage points it is viewed from continue to change, with grown-up children parenting their own children, caring for ageing parents and experiencing the joys and challenges of grandchildren.

Developmental diversity Although there are many commonalities in families and their developmental functions, families are actually quite diverse, with varying socioeconomic status, religious and cultural traditions. Families differ in the challenges they face, the type of work family members do, how they operate collectively, how they resolve disputes, how they celebrate joys, how they cope with misfortune, how they raise children and, ultimately, how they view the world. For example, a refugee family is likely to face the challenges of few economic resources and limited social support and needs to learn both a new language and cultural 506

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practices while maintaining the integrity of its own cultural traditions. Members of a refugee family are often in the process of coming to terms with traumatic events that have driven them away from their country of origin. They may experience discrimination and prejudice in their new home. Australia and New Zealand are countries that have been built on immigration — both ancient and modern. The many different cultural groups that make up these countries have contributed greatly to the diversity of families and the developmental opportunities they provide. Therefore, a refugee family coming to these countries is more likely to encounter a cultural environment that is more readily accepting of the cultural diversity they represent. The diverse personalities and developmental trajectories of family members also contribute to diversity, making every family unique. No two family members share exactly the same viewpoint; nor do they experience their family in exactly the same way. So, there is considerable diversity in the relationships between children and their families and in how a particular family affects a specific child. The developmental opportunities a family provides for a school-aged child depend partly on the individual and partly on the collective developmental trajectories of other family members.

SUMMARY 9.1 Describe the psychosocial challenges that children face during middle childhood.

During the school years, children face challenges concerning the development of an identity or a sense of self, achievement, family relationships, peer relationships and school. 9.2 Explain the important changes that occur in a child’s sense of self during middle childhood.

During middle childhood, children develop a more complex and better integrated sense of self, acquire a belief in self-constancy and in relatively permanent psychological traits, and learn to distinguish their thoughts and feelings from those of other people. 9.3 Define what is meant by achievement motivation, and explain what forms it takes.

According to psychodynamic theories, school children repress their earlier romantic attachments to their parents and focus instead on developing a sense of industry and achievement. During middle childhood, children shift their achievement orientation from an exclusive focus on learning, or a learning orientation, to a performance orientation that is influenced by other people’s responses to their achievements.

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9.4 Discuss how family changes such as divorce, single-parent and dual-income families affect children’s psychosocial development.

Many mothers now work outside the home, and their employment generally seems to have no negative effects on their children. Even so, maternal employment influences the division of household labour and children’s attitudes about gender roles. When parents are unemployed, families can experience significant stress. Providing good before- and/or after-school supervision (BASC) is a challenge for working parents. For children in unsupportive environments, formal BASC programs offer considerable benefits. Schoolchildren often find emotional support from adults other than parents, as well as from siblings and friends. Divorce has become more common in Australian and New Zealand families and it often creates stress for all family members, although girls and boys react differently to divorce. Blended families, which result from parents re-partnering, pose considerable challenges, but younger children form attachments with step-parents more easily than older children and adolescents do. 9.5 Identify and explain how peers contribute to development during middle childhood.

Piaget believed peers help children to overcome their egocentrism by challenging them to deal with perspectives other than their own. According to Sullivan, peers help children to develop democratic ways of interacting and also offer the first opportunities to form close relationships with individuals outside the family. CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 507

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Peers serve an important function, permitting voluntary relationships of equality among children. Peer groups tend to segregate according to age, gender, race and ethnicity, and behaviour in peer groups varies according to these factors. Popular children possess well-developed social skills while rejected children exhibit behaviours such as aggression and withdrawal. Peers exert pressure to conform on individual children and this pressure can have either positive or negative effects.

KEY TERMS achievement motivation Effort and persistence in attaining goals that enhance competence or judgements of competence. blended family A family created from a combination of stepchildren, stepparents and stepsiblings. collective ethics A concern for the welfare of others and the group to which one belongs, over and above concern for oneself. crisis of industry versus inferiority Erikson’s fourth crisis; in which children concern themselves with their capacity to do good work and develop confident, positive self-concepts or face feelings of inferiority. juvenile period Proposed by Sullivan, this is the period between the ages of about five and ten years when children show increasing interest in developing intense friendships or ‘chum’ relationships with peers of the same gender. latency period According to Freud, the stage of development between the phallic and genital stages. Sexual feelings and activities are on hold as the child struggles to resolve the Oedipal conflict. learning orientation Achievement motivation that comes from within the learner and involves satisfaction from mastery of the task. peers Individuals who are of approximately the same age and developmental level and share common attitudes and interests. performance orientation Achievement motivation stimulated by other individuals who may see and evaluate the learner. self-constancy The belief one’s identity remains permanently fixed. This is established sometime after the age of six, usually during the early school years. sense of self A structured way in which individuals think about themselves that helps them to organise and understand who they are based on the views of others, their own experiences and cultural categories such as gender and race.

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1 One of the major challenges for middle childhood is ‘knowing who you are’. Explain what is meant by Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

this challenge and how this relates to the development of a child’s ‘sense of self’ in middle childhood. 2 Outline the two types of achievement motivation and how these orientations contribute to children’s

3 4 5 6

skill acquisition during middle childhood. What factors are known to influence achievement motivation, and how do these influences affect children’s orientations to achievement? Describe the major negative effects parental divorce has on children’s psychosocial adjustment. In what ways do contemporary employment trends affect children’s psychosocial development? What are the major differences between peer and family relationships? Describe the factors that influence the formation of peer groups and how these factors shape children’s interpersonal behaviour with their peers.

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7 Describe the different sociometric types identified by researchers and the behaviours displayed by

children in the various sociometric categories. Identify the factors that may determine children’s peer status.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1 Describe the factors that influence the formation of peer groups and how these factors shape children’s

interpersonal behaviour with their peers during middle childhood. 2 In view of the detrimental effects of divorce on children, should separating parents stay together for

the sake of their children? 3 Should rejected children be actively identified by educators and psychologists? Discuss the advantages

and disadvantages of classifying children according to their status in the peer group.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS 1 Test your understanding of key concepts in this chapter by matching the correct terms from the list

below to an applicable example. Note: there are several distracter terms in the list that do not apply to the examples. Some examples might also match with more than one term.

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Achievement motivation Age segregation Border work Controversial children Critical stage hypothesis Gender segregation Learning orientation

Peer rejection Performance orientation Racial segregation Regency hypothesis Self-care children Self-constancy

(a) Christine and Stephen’s parents have recently separated. The children, aged six and eight, live with their mother and only see their father for a week during the school holidays. Their mother is very worried about Stephen’s antisocial behaviour — he seems to be taking the divorce a lot harder than his sister. (b) Jake is in Year 6. His teacher has real concerns about his aggression and underhanded sneakiness. She never sees him being openly cruel to other children, but she hears lots of complaints from the children in his class, particularly the girls. Jake is friends with several other disruptive boys. He seems to be the leader of his group. (c) Ross has recently become interested in tap dancing. His parents think this is a useless and ‘sissy’ way for Ross to spend his spare time, and have refused to pay for the tap dancing lessons he craves. Ross’s Dad insists he takes up cricket instead. Ross has spent most of his pocket money on tap dancing DVDs and spends hours in front of his bedroom mirror perfecting moves from the films. (d) Sam’s parents are very worried about some of the things their four year old is saying, such as wanting to become ‘a lady nurse in a white dress’ when he grows up. They have consulted a psychologist who has reassured them this is just a phase and Sam will grow out of it. (e) Lyn teaches a combined Year 5 and Year 6 class. During morning tea and lunchtime the girls are usually sitting on the seats in the quadrangle near their classroom talking in twos and threes, while the boys are out on the footy field kicking the ball or running around. One day on playground duty, Lyn sees one of the naughtier Year 5 boys from her class trying to put an earthworm down a Year 6 girl’s dress. The other two girls in the group grab him and try to kiss him. He quickly shakes himself free and runs back towards the footy field, wiping his face vigorously and saying ‘yuck’ over and over again. CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 509

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(f) Maria is nine years old. Her parents are new immigrants. Both of them have to work long hours at their restaurant in order to make ends meet. Maria is the oldest in a family of four children and her parents expect her to care for her younger siblings after school, as well as doing her homework. Usually, Maria’s mother and father do not get home until after 10.00 pm. 2 Because her father lost his job and the family had to sell their house, Bianca has recently moved to another suburb with her family. She has started at a new school midway through Year 4. Her new school’s reception tests showed she was behind in reading and maths, so Bianca has been enrolled in a single-level Year 3 class. Bianca is physically mature for her age and she is the oldest child in her class. She thinks the other girls in Year 3 play ‘baby’ games she is not interested in. In her old school, Bianca was a Year 4 girl in a combined Year 3 and 4 class, and her best friend Holly was also a Year 4 girl. In her new school, Bianca has tried to make friends with the Year 4 girls, but they usually exclude her from their groups and games, telling her to ‘get back to Year 3’. All the girls in Year 3 have already paired up with friends and are not keen to let Bianca join in to make a threesome. Bianca usually spends morning tea and lunchtime by herself. Her mother is getting worried about how withdrawn and unhappy Bianca has become since their move. She spends a lot of time alone in her room playing her favourite CDs. (a) Drawing on the knowledge that researchers have accumulated about children’s peer relationships during middle childhood, explain the factors that might have contributed to Bianca’s current situation. (b) What are the likely psychosocial outcomes if this situation continues into Year 4 and beyond? (c) What changes would need to be made in order to improve Bianca’s developmental outlook?

ESSAY QUESTION 1 ‘In middle childhood, friendship becomes more complex and psychologically based. Warm, gratifying

childhood friendships are related to many aspects of psychological health and competence. In middle childhood, sex differences in friendships emerge with girls’ friendships differing from boys’ friendships. Through these experiences, children experiment with and learn about the functioning of social groups.’ Analyse and discuss the functions of friendships in middle childhood and how these contribute to psychological wellbeing. Discuss the differences in male and female friendships, and explain how children learn about the functioning of social groups through these friendships.

WEBSITES

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1 The Resilience Doughnut focuses on improving a sense of hope and optimism in people so

they develop resilience in the face of adversity. Founder and clinical psychologist, Lyn Worsley, draws on research to build a simple and practical resilience tool called ‘the resilience doughnut’ that can be used by adults and children. The website lists training programs, resources, a calendar of events, public talks, and workshops for children, adolescents, parents and teachers: www.theresiliencedoughnut.com.au 2 Australian Institute of Family Studies is the Australian government’s key research body in the area of family wellbeing. This organisation conducts research to help understand the issues that are affecting Australian families. Its website includes publications, useful statistics and a worthwhile media centre: https://aifs.gov.au 3 New Zealand Ministry of Justice’s Family division’s website provides information on separation and divorce, care of children, family court and domestic violence for New Zealand families and their children: www.justice.govt.nz/family 510

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4 This Australian Parenting website has an excellent, informative section on the importance of friend-

ships; and helping children build friendships. It is especially for children who find it both hard to make friends, and to keep the balance between parents and friends. Evidence-based, up-todate information is available for parents and carers, general practitioners, teachers, social workers and psychologists about raising children. It addresses relevant topics for those with disabilities. Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander issues are also discussed: http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/ friendships_teenagers.html 5 Kids Helpline Australia is a free, private and confidential 24/7 phone and online counselling service for young people aged 5–25. It provides practical help, emotional support and someone to listen to specific issues. Counselling and mentoring, job training and employment and Indigenous programs are provided: https://kidshelpline.com.au 6 Kidsline New Zealand is New Zealand’s only 24/7 helpline for children and teens, and it’s managed by specially trained youth volunteers who will listen and support children to work out their options. The website contains information for children and parents, and provides a buddy system for children: www.kidsline.org.nz

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REFERENCES Aboud, F. E., Friedmann, J., & Smith, S. (2015). Direct and indirect friends in cross-ethnolinguistic peer relations. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 47(1), 68–79. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037590 Aboud, F. E., Mendelson, M. J., & Purdy, K. T. (2003). Cross-race peer relations and friendship quality. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27, 165–173. Adamsons, K., & Johnson, S. K. (2013). An updated and expanded meta-analysis of nonresident fathering and child well-being. Journal of Family Psychology, 27(4), 589–599. doi:10.1037/a0033786 Ahrons, C. R. (2004). We’re still family: What grown children have to say about their parents’ divorce. New York, NY: Harper Collins. Ainsworth, M. D., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Alexander, G. M., & Hines, M. (1994). Gender labels and play styles: Their relative contribution to children’s selection of playmates. Child Development, 65, 869–879. Amato, P. R. (2001). Children and divorce in the 1990s: An update of the Amato and Keith (1991) meta-analysis. Journal of Family Psychology, 15, 355–370. Amato, P. R. (2010). Research on divorce: Continuing trends and new developments. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), 650–666. Amato, P. R. (2014). The consequences of divorce for adults and children: An update. Drustvena Istrazivanja, 23(1), 5. Amato, P. R., & Anthony, C. J. (2014). Estimating the effects of parental divorce and death with fixed effects models. Journal of Marriage and Family, 76(2), 370–386. Amato, P. R., & Cheadle, J. E. (2008). Parental divorce marital conflict and children’s behaviour problems: A comparison of adopted and biological children. Social Forces, 86, 1139–1161. Amato, P. R., & Gilbreth, J. (1999). Nonresidential fathers and children’s well-being: A meta-analysis. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 557–573. Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 26–46. Anderson, P., Bamblett, M. Bessarab, D., Bromfield, L. Chan, S. Maddock, & Wright, M. (2017). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and child sexual abuse in institutional settings. A report prepared for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Sydney. Retrieved from www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/filelist/research_report_-_aboriginal_and_torres_strait_islander_children_and_child_sexual_abuse_in_institutional_contexts_-_ causes.pdf Arboleda-Florez, J., & Wade, T. J. (2001). Childhood and adult victimisation as risk factor for major depression. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 24(4.5), 357–70. Arens, A. K., Marsh, H. W., Pekrun, R., Lichtenfeld, S., Murayama, K., & vom Hofe, R. (2017). Math self-concept, grades, and achievement test scores: Long-term reciprocal effects across five waves and three achievement tracks. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(5), 621–634. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000163 CHAPTER 9 Psychosocial development in middle childhood 511

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Baxter, J., Qu, L., & Weston, R. (2011). Family structure, co-parental relationship quality, post-separation paternal involvement and children’s emotional wellbeing. Journal of Family Studies, 17(2): 86–109. Beckmeyer, J. J., Coleman, M., & Ganong, L. H. (2014). Postdivorce coparenting typologies and children’s adjustment. Family Relations, 63(4), 526–537. Belcher, J. R. (2003). Stepparenting: Creating and recreating families in America today. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 191, 837–838. Belle, D. (1999). The after school lives of children: Alone and with others while parents work. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Belle, D., & Benenson, J. (2014). Children’s social networks and well-being. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frones, & J. Korbin (Eds), Handbook of child well-being (pp. 1335–1363). The Netherlands: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9063-8_55 Benenson, J. F., Apostololeris, N. H., & Parnass, J. (1997). Age and sex differences in dyadic and group interaction. 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Phillips, R. T., & Alcebo, A. M. (1986). The effects of divorce on Black children and adolescents. American Journal of Social Psychiatry, 6, 69–73. Piaget, J. (1963). The origins of intelligence in children. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. Plesa-Skwerer, D., Sullivan, K., Joffre, K., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2004). Self concept in people with Williams syndrome and Praeder-Willi syndrome. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 25, 119–138. Posner, J. K., & Vandell, D. L. (1994). Low-income children’s after-school care: Are there beneficial effects of after-school programs? Child Development, 65, 440–456. Priest, N., Paradies, Y., Trenerry, B., Truong, M., Karlsen, S., & Kelly, Y. (2013). A systematic review of studies examining the relationship between reported racism and health and wellbeing for children and young people. Social Science & Medicine, 95, 115–127. Priest, N., Perry, R., Ferdinand, A., Paradies, Y., & Kelaher, M. (2014). Experiences of racism, racial/ethnic attitudes, motivated fairness and mental health outcomes among primary and secondary school students. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 1–16. Priest, N., Perry, R., Ferdinand, A., Kelaher, M., & Paradies, Y. (2017). Effects over time of self-reported direct and vicarious racial discrimination on depressive symptoms and loneliness among Australian school students. BMC Psychiatry, 17(1), 50. Pylyser, C., Buysse, A., & Loeys, T. (2017). Stepfamilies doing family: A meta-ethnography. Family Process. doi:10.1111/famp.12293 Qu, L. (2003). Family trends: Expectations of marriage among cohabiting couples. Retrieved from https://aifs.gov.au/institute/ info/charts/cohabitation/qu.pdf Rapee, R. M., Schniering, C. A., & Hudson, J. L. (2009). Anxiety disorders during childhood and adolescence: Origins and treatment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 5. Rawlins, W. K. (1992). Friendship matters: Communication, dialectics, and the life course. New York, NY: Aldine DeGruyter. Rawlinson, R. (1994, January 19–22). The determinants of peer acceptance and rejection in middle childhood. Paper presented at Children’s Peer Relations Conference, University of South Australia. Institute of Social Research. Relationships Australia (2017). Thinking of forming a stepfamily? [online advice advice sheet]. Retrieved January 4, 2018, from www.relationships.org.au/relationship-advice/relationship-advice-sheets/starting-a-new-relationship/thinking-of-forming-astep-family Renda, J. (2013). Is it just a matter of time? How relationships between children and their separated parents differ by care-time arrangements. In Australian Institute of Family Studies, The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children: Annual statistical report 2012. Melbourne: AIFS. Reynolds, A. J., & Temple, J. A. (1998). Extended early childhood intervention and school achievement: Age thirteen findings from the Chicago longitudinal study. Child Development, 69, 231–246. Rick, S., & Douglas, D. H. (2007). Neurobiological effects of childhood abuse. Journal of Nursing, 45(4), 47–54. Riley, D., & Steinberg, J. (2004). Four popular stereotypes about children in self-care: Implications for family life educators. Family Relations, 53, 95–101. Rodkin, P. C., Ryan, A. M., Jamison, R., & Wilson, T. (2013). Social goals, social behavior, and social status in middle childhood. Developmental Psychology, 49(6), 1139. Rogoff, B., Morelli, G. A., & Chavajay, P. (2010). Children’s integration in communities and segregation from people of differing ages. Psychological Science, 5, 431–440. Roland, A. (1988). In search of self in India and Japan: Toward a cross-cultural psychology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Rose, A. J., & Rudolph, K. D. (2006). A review of sex differences in peer relationship processes: Potential trade-offs for the emotional and behavioral development of girls and boys. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 98–131. Rosenberg, M. S. (1979). Conceiving the self. New York, NY: Basic Books. Rossell, C. H. (1988). How effective are voluntary plans with magnet schools? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 10, 325–342. Rowen, J., & Emery, R. (2014). Examining parental denigration behaviors of co-parents as reported by young adults and their association with parent–child closeness. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 3(3), 165. Rubin, K., Bukowski, W., & Parker, J. (1998). Peer interactions, relationships, and groups. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (5th ed., Vol. 3. pp. 621–700). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Rubin, K. H., Bukowski, W. M., & Bowker, J. C. (2015). Children in peer groups. Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science. 4(5), 1–48. doi:10.1002/9781118963418.childpsy405 Ruble, D. N. (1983). The development of social-comparison processes and their role in achievement-related self-socialization. In E. 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Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Saldarriaga, L. M., Bukowski, W. M., & Greco, C. (2015). Friendship and happiness: A bidirectional dynamic process. In M. Demir (Ed.), Friendship and happiness (pp. 59–78). The Netherlands: Springer. Schaller, J., & Zerpa, M. (2015). Short-run effects of parental job loss on child health (No. 21745). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction (Vol. 55, No. 1, p. 5). American Psychological Association. Sheehan, G., Darlington, Y., Noller, P., & Feeney, J. (2004). Children’s perceptions of their sibling relationships during parental separation and divorce. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 41(1–2), 69–94. Sheets, R. H. (2004). Preparation and development of teachers of color. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 17, 163–166. Shrum, W., & Cheek, N. (1987). Social structure during the school years: Onset of the degrouping process. American Sociological Review, 52, 218–223. Simon, T., Anderson, M., Thompson, M., Crosby, A., & Sacks, J. (2002). Assault victimization and suicidal ideation or behaviour within a national sample of US adults. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviour, 32(1), 42–50. Slavin, R. (1996). Research on cooperative learning and achievement: What we know, and what we need to know. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21, 43–69. Smith, A. B., & Inder, P. M. (1990). The relationship of classroom organisation to cross-age and cross-sex friendships. Educational Psychology, 10, 127–140. Smith, P. K., Mahdavi, J., Carvalho, M., Fisher, S., Russell, S., & Tippett, N. (2008). Cyberbullying: Its nature and impact in secondary school pupils. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(4), 376–385. Smith, S. (2017). Befriending the same differently: Ethnic, socioeconomic status, and gender differences in same-ethnic friendship. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1–23. Smyth, B., Caruana, C., & Ferro, A. (2004). Father-child contact after separation. Family Matters, 67, 20–27. Sohail, M., & Shamama-tus-Sabah, S. (2016). Comparative study of children’s adjustment in intact and single parent families. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 31(2), 495. Solmeyer, A. R., McHale, S. M., & Crouter, A. C. (2014). Longitudinal associations between sibling relationship qualities and risky behavior across adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 50(2), 600. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0033207 Spaccarelli, S. (1994). Stress, appraisal, and coping in child sexual abuse: A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 340–362. Spigelman, G., Spigelman, A., & Englesson, I. (1991). Hostility, aggression, and anxiety levels of divorce and nondivorce children as manifested in their responses to projective tests. Journal of Personality Assessment, 56, 438–452. Spitzberg, B. H., & Hoobler, G. (2002). Cyberstalking and the technologies of interpersonal terrorism. New Media & Society, 4(1), 71–92. Stevens, A. H., & Schaller, J. (2011). Short-run effects of parental job loss on children’s academic achievement. Economics of Education Review, 30, 289–299. Stevenson, H. W. (1991). The development of prosocial behaviour in large-scale collective societies: China and Japan. In R. A. Hinde & J. Groebel (Eds.), Cooperation and prosocial behaviour. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Stipek, D., & Hoffman, J. M. (1980). Children’s achievement-related expectancies as a function of academic performance histories and sex. Journal of Educational Psychology, 72, 861–865. Stipek, D., & Seal, K. (2002). Motivating minds: nurturing your child’s desire to learn. Our Children, 27, 7–8. Sullivan, H. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. Sydney Morning Herald. (2003, December). A class of their own. Retrieved March 12, 2009, from www.smh.com.au/ articles/2003/12/04/1070351719035.html Sydney Morning Herald, (2015, April 20). Many parents dislike composite classes but the evidence does not support their anxiety. Retrieved December 1, 2017 from www.smh.com.au/national/education/many-parents-dislike-composite-classes-but-theevidence-does-not-support-their-anxiety-20150413-1mk4g9.html Sydney Morning Herald, (2017, May 21). Composite classes on the rise as some schools go even further. Retrieved December 1, 2017 from www.smh.com.au/national/education/composite-classes-on-the-rise-as-some-schools-go-even-further-20170517gw6jdp.html Tarroja, M. C. H., Balajadia-Alcala, M. A., & Catipon, M. A. A. D. (2017). Children of Divorce. In C. A. Essau, S. S. LeBlanc, & T. H. Ollendick (Eds.) Emotion regulation and psychopathology in children and adolescents. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Terry, R., & Coie, J. (1991). A comparison of methods for defining sociometric status among children. Developmental Psychology, 27, 867–880. Thompson, R. A. (2014). Why are relationships important to children’s well-being?. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frones, & J. Korbin (Eds.), Handbook of child well-being (pp. 1917–1954). The Netherlands: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9063-8_170

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Thorne, B. (1986). Girls and boys together . . . but mostly apart: Gender arrangements in elementary schools. In W. Hartup & K. Rubin (Eds.), Relationships and development (pp. 167–184). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Tippet, G. (2011). Home all alone. How young is too young? The Age, April 10, 2011. Troop-Gordon, W., & Asher, S. R. (2005). Modifications in children’s goals when encountering obstacles to conflict resolution. Child Development, 76(3), 568–582. Tucker, C. J., McHale, S. M., & Crouter, A. C. (2001). Conditions of sibling support in adolescence. Journal of Family Psychology, 15, 254–271. Ujhelyi, M., Merker, B., Buk, P., & Geissmann, T. (2000). Observations on the behavior of gibbons (Hylobates leucogenys, H. gabriellae, and H. lar) in the presence of mirrors. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 114, 253–262. Valiquette-Tessier, S. C., Vandette, M. P., & Gosselin, J. (2016). Is family structure a cue for stereotyping? A systematic review of stereotypes and parenthood. Journal of Family Studies, 22(2), 162–181. van der Heijden, F., Poortman, A. R., & van der Lippe, T. (2016). Children’s postdivorce residence arrangements and parental experienced time pressure. Journal of Marriage and Family, 78(2), 468–481. Vandell, D. L., Larson, R. W., Mahoney, J. L., & Watts, T. W. (2015). Children’s organized activities. Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science. 4(8), 1–40. Vandell, D. L., Reisner, E. R., Pierce, K. M., Brown, B. B., Lee, D., Bolt, D., & Pechman, E. M. (2006). The study of promising after-school programs: Examination of longer term outcomes after two years of program experiences. Irvine, CA: University of California. Veenstra, R., Lindenberg, S., Munniksma, A., & Dijkstra, J. K. (2010). The complex relation between bullying, victimization, acceptance, and rejection: Giving special attention to status, affection, and sex differences. Child Development, 81(2), 480–486. Vogt Yuan, A. S., & Hamilton, H. A. (2006). Stepfather involvement and adolescent well-being. Journal of Family Issues, 27, 1191–1213. Wade, C. E. (2015). The longitudinal effects of after-school program experiences, quantity, and regulatable features on children’s social–emotional development. Children and Youth Services Review, 48, 70–79. Wallerstein, J. S. (1987). Children of divorce: Report of a ten-year follow-up of early latency-age children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 199–211. Wallerstein, J., & Blakeslee, S. (1996). Second chances: Men, women and children a decade after divorce. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Wallerstein, J. S., & Kelly, J. B. (1976). The effects of parental divorce: Experiences of the child in later latency. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 46, 256–269. Weaver, S. E., & Coleman, M. (2010). Caught in the middle: Mothers in stepfamilies. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27, 1–22. Weisner, T. S., & Wilson-Mitchell, J. E. (1990). Nonconventional family life-styles and sex typing in six-year-olds. Child Development, 61, 1915–1933. Weldon, A. (2016). Effects of timing of parental divorce on children’s romantic relationships in adulthood: A review. Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection. 26. Retrieved November, 29, 2017 from https://uknowledge.uky.edu/honprog/26 Wentzel, K. R., & Muenks, K. (2016). Peer influence on students’ motivation, academic achievement, and social behavior. In K. R. Wentzel & G. B. Ramani (Eds.), Handbook of social influences in school contexts: Social-emotional, motivation, and cognitive outcomes (pp.13–30). New York, NY: Routledge. Willard, N. E. (2006). Cyberbullying and cyberthreats. Office of Safe and DrugFree Schools (OSDFS) Retrieved November 27, 2014, from http://bcloud.marinschools.org/SafeSchools/Documents/BP-CyberBandT.pdf Worsley, L. (2014). Building resilience in three Australian high schools, using the resilience doughnut framework. In S. Prince-Embury & D. H. Saklofske (Eds.), Resilience interventions for youth in diverse populations (pp. 217–257). New York, NY: Springer. Worsley, L. (2015). The resilience doughnut: The secret of strong kids (Vol. 1). Australian eBook Publisher. Available at www.resiliancedoughnut.com.au Zaslow, M. J. (1989). Sex differences in children’s response to parental divorce: 2. Samples, variables, ages, and sources. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 59, 118–141. Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., Lees, D., & Skinner, E. A. (2011). Children’s emotions and coping with interpersonal stress as correlates of social competence. Australian Journal of Psychology, 63, 131–141.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com Photo: © anythings / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Suzanne Tucker / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com 522

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Photo: © gorillaimages / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Blend Images / Getty Images Photo: © Purestock / Alamy Stock Photo Photo: © Mila May / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Daisy Daisy / Shutterstock.com Figure 9.3: © Relationships Australia Extract: © Australian Bureau of Statistics Extract: © Katrina Newey

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PART 5

ADOLESCENCE

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Adolescence presents new and unique challenges and is a period of rapid and significant physical and cognitive development. Adolescents must come to terms with dramatic changes in their bodies as they mature sexually, and, for some teenagers, early or late puberty can make adolescence especially difficult. The emotional centres in teenagers’ brains are also maturing, and the need for increased stimulation brings with it significant threats to adolescents’ health and wellbeing in an environment that offers many novel and exciting experiences, which are also often risky. The transition to secondary education presents new intellectual challenges that test adolescents’ emerging skills in abstract thinking and, using their advanced cognitive ability, adolescents must formulate their own set of ethical principles to guide their behaviour. Parents become progressively less important in regulating adolescents’ behaviour as the transition to self-regulation and greater independence evolves during this period. In their push towards independence, adolescents begin a journey into autonomy that is usually not completed until sometime during adulthood. However, as emerging adults, adolescents must forge more equal relationships with their parents than was the case during childhood. Outside the family sphere, the challenge of maintaining positive peer relationships extends into opposite-sex relationships, including aspects of sexuality and romance. This time in an adolescent’s life can cause confusion and conflict, but these experiences can also be rewarding and fulfilling.

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CHAPTER 10

Physical and cognitive development in adolescence LEARNING OUTCOMES

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 10.1 explain the term adolescence and how it has become a developmental stage 10.2 describe the differences in body height, weight and shape between boys and girls during adolescence 10.3 define puberty and describe how it affects the bodies of boys and girls 10.4 explain how and when puberty occurs, and describe the effects of non-normative puberty development in girls and boys 10.5 identify the major health threats that adolescents face, and explain how they are more at risk than other age groups 10.6 demonstrate how Piaget conceptualises cognitive development during adolescence and explain what has been discovered since Piaget had these ideas 10.7 critique how information-processing theorists conceptualise cognitive development during adolescence 10.8 justify ways in which thinking skills can be developed and fostered during adolescence 10.9 provide a critique of how theorists conceptualise moral development.

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OPENING SCENARIO

In some cultures, the transition from childhood into adulthood is marked by a special event. For ¯ example, Maori boys receive a moko (tattoo) to indicate the onset of puberty; in Africa, a wide range of activities including singing, dancing and use of masks mark this stage in a person’s life. In remote Aboriginal Australian communities, many male Aboriginal teenagers are segregated from women’s society and are taught the secrets of ‘men’s business’. Similar initiations are carried out for pubescent females, where girls are also segregated and are acquainted with equally secret ‘women’s business’ (Orucu, 2006). The Jewish coming-of-age tradition is called bar mitzvah (for 13-year-old boys) and bat mitzvah (for 12-year-old girls), where they proclaim a commitment to their faith. After such events, depending on the culture, the social roles and expectations of the individual in tribal societies may change dramatically, with some communities treating the individuals as fully fledged adults within the community (Nunez & Pfeffer; 2016; Weisfield, 1997), whereas other communities use it to mark the time to guide the individual into the next stage of their life (Davis, 2011; Nunez & Pfeffer; 2016). For example, in Africa, sexual and gender identity is confirmed and the expectations are that individuals can now undertake adult activities. The Japanese tradition of Seijin no Hi, where 20 year olds wear traditional dress on the second Monday in January, is when the Japanese believe their youth are mature enough to contribute to society (Nunez & Pfeffer, 2016). In post-industrial societies, role changes happen more gradually over the period of adolescence, with different ages marking eligibility to undertake particular activities such as driving, drinking alcohol, having sex and leaving school. An example is the American tradition of turning ‘sweet 16’.

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT Abbey turned 14 on her last birthday. Over the long summer holidays, the changes in Abbey were almost breathtaking. Returning to school at a large private school for girls, her teachers notice that her appearance and behaviour have changed dramatically. Abbey’s height has increased 5 centimetres over the past 6 months, a fact that her mother comments on with both pride and dismay — as most of her clothing no longer fits her. Sometimes, Abbey feels awkward when her mother brags about her in her presence. She would prefer that these changes were unnoticeable to others. After all, she still feels she is the same person as she was last year, perhaps with the exception that she is a lot more interested in boys now. But despite still feeling like the Abbey of old, she notices that she is a little more clumsy now than she was a year or two ago, often dropping things while assisting her mother around the house. This new clumsiness worries Abbey, because she has always prided herself on her ability to be fairly inconspicuous. Now, going on 14, she is very aware of her body shape changing. Worst of all, she is embarrassed by the increased size of her breasts and the pimples that seem to break out on her face every week — they make her feel as if everyone is ‘staring’ at her. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Is adolescence, as a unique developmental stage, helpful to teenagers and their families? How is it helpful and how is it problematic? With no recognition of adolescence as a distinctive period of development, what might your teenage years have been like?

526

PART 5 Adolescence

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Abbey feels quite optimistic about the changes in her body as she feels more womanly and, at last, she has breasts like many of the other girls in her grade. However, going to the beach with her friends during summer, she felt very self-conscious, even though she was able to wear a bikini for the first time. She liked having a tanned body but the changes made her so aware of the body shapes of all of the other girls her age; something she had never thought about before. Due to being self-conscious, Abbey has focused on what her body looks like to the point that she is consumed by it. She often skips meals to ensure that she looks as good as she possibly can. ‘Being thin’ is the most important thing in the world to her. She always brushes her teeth in the morning, and brushes her hair 100 times to ensure that she is looking her best for school. So far, she has experienced no major illnesses or accidents, although lately she has been feeling tired and lethargic. She is currently not interested in anything except her looks, and this obsession is annoying her parents; so much so that they are beginning to wonder if Abbey has an eating disorder due to her new eating habits. Abbey has decided that if she takes up some exercise this may keep her parents quiet. While she is exercising, her tiredness and lethargy disappear and she doesn’t feel hungry so she is getting even thinner . . .

10.1 Adolescence and society LEARNING OUTCOME 10.1 Explain the term adolescence and how it has become a developmental stage.

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The period of development from about 12 to 18 years of age is known as adolescence. Adolescence was not recognised as a distinctive period of development until fairly recently (1890s), and it materialised with the advent of extended education. In the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century, it was usual for teenagers and even younger children to be engaged in full-time work, resulting in an abrupt transition from childhood to adult responsibilities. However, as education extended progressively into the teen years and youth did not assume adult responsibilities until their early twenties, a long period of transition emerged, leading more gradually from childhood into adulthood. A general picture of adolescence has been built up through years of group-based research on teenagers. However, for any individual, the behaviours exhibited during adolescence result from a combination of their personal qualities, their chronological age and the unique roles and responsibilities that they encounter within their particular culture and social environment. Thus, the culture they are born into and the surrounding environment, in addition to biologically driven processes, have a profound influence on the teenager’s journey into adulthood, which is essentially a biopsychosocial experience. In other words, the developments during adolescence are the result of interactions between biological, psychological and social–environmental factors. We discuss the physical and cognitive developments of adolescence in detail in this chapter, and in the next chapter we explore psychosocial development. First, we will examine the physical changes of adolescence and their effects on development.

10.2 Body growth and physical changes during adolescence LEARNING OUTCOME 10.2 Describe the differences in body height, weight and shape between boys and girls during adolescence.

One of the most noticeable physical changes that Abbey experienced is the adolescent growth spurt, a period when rapid increases in height and weight occur, and which is preceded and followed by years of comparatively little augmentation. The growth spurt occurs between ages 10 and 14 in girls and ages 12 and 16 in boys. During the three-year period of the growth spurt, girls gain on average about 28 centimetres in height and boys gain approximately 30 centimetres. These increases constitute about 17 per cent of total height (Abassi, 1998; Susman & Rogol, 2004). Although there is less overall gain in CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 527

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height during adolescence than in earlier developmental periods, there is significantly more irregularity in the pattern and rate of growth compared to earlier periods, when gains in height are much smoother. The maximum rate of growth occurs around age 12 for girls and about two years later for boys. In those years, many girls grow 8 centimetres in a single year and many boys grow more than 10 centimetres, as can be seen in figure 10.1 (Merenstein, Kaplan, & Rosenberg, 1997; Steinberg, 2007a). Indeed, over the summer holidays, Abbey, aged 13, exhibited this very rapid increase in height, so her teachers saw a very different young woman on her return to school. Because of the staggered nature of the growth spurt in boys and girls, many girls are taller than their same-aged male peers in early adolescence. Figure 10.1 shows that during the peak of their growth spurt at age 12, girls’ mean height increase is greater than boys’ height increase at this age by about 3 centimetres, and, on average, girls are several centimetres taller than their male counterparts. However, when boys reach the zenith of their growth spurt at age 14, girls’ growth rate is already in decline; so, on average, boys are taller than girls at this age. This height trend continues into late adolescence, with an average height at age 18 of 175 centimetres for boys and 163 centimetres for girls, with boys having longer legs than girls in relation to their bodies. In girls, full adult height is usually attained by age 16, and in boys by 17.5 years. FIGURE 10.1

Growth in (a) height and (b) weight from two to eighteen years During adolescence, young people reach their final adult size. On average, young men are significantly taller and heavier than young women, principally as a result of the time lag between boys’ and girls’ growth spurts.

(b) 200

100

190

90

180

80

170

72

160

64

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Height (cm)

(a)

150 140 130

48 40

120

32

110

24

100

16

90

8

80

0

2

4

6

8

10 12 14 Age (years)

16

18

Boys

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56

2

4

6

8

10 12 14 Age (years)

16

18

Girls

The adult height differential between males and females can be traced to the adolescent growth spurt. Both males and females gain approximately the same total height increase of 28 to 30 centimetres, but males experience about two years more preadolescent growing time compared to females, at a period when legs are lengthening at a faster rate. Thus, males start the growth spurt with an additional height advantage which is never lost. Weight also increases dramatically during adolescence, following a similar temporal trend as height increases (see figure 10.1), with 50 per cent of adult body weight being gained during this period (Rogol, Roemmich, & Clark, 2002). At the peak of the growth spurt, boys gain around 9 kilograms in a year, while girls gain about 8 kilograms. Weight increases are more strongly influenced by diet, exercise and 528

PART 5 Adolescence

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general lifestyle than are increases in height; therefore, changes in weight during adolescence are less predictable from earlier body size and growth patterns, and more predictable according to current dietary and exercise practices. The growth spurt and its concomitant increase in weight also results in changes in the shape of boys’ and girls’ bodies. Skeletal changes in boys mean that shoulder width increases relative to waist and hips, making male bodies look more v-shaped as they get older. The opposite occurs for girls, with increases in hip width relative to the waist — the result of the widening of hip and pelvic bones in preparation for bearing children. These changes give adolescent girls an hourglass shape (Wells, Treleaven, & Cole, 2007). As well, there are sex differences in the dispersal of body fat, accentuating the distinctive male and female shapes that emerge during adolescence. In a cross-sectional study of subcutaneous fat distribution using a sophisticated body scanner, New Zealand researchers found that distinctive sex differences in waist-to-hip ratio occurred during early adolescence, with girls accumulating more fat around the hips and buttocks, as well as having a greater proportion of body fat to muscle than boys. As adolescence proDuring early adolescence, girls are on average gresses, the sex differences in body fat distribution taller than same-aged boys. become wider, with the greatest divergence occurring This phenomenon is due to the growth spurt between late adolescence and early adulthood (Taylor, beginning earlier in girls than in boys. Grant, Williams, & Goulding, 2010). The growth spurt results in a pattern of physical development that is opposite to the proximodistal development that children’s bodies have followed since birth. The extremities develop more quickly than the torso does during adolescence. For example, males often experience a rapid enlargement of their feet, which are out of proportion to the rest of their body. Hands and noses also enlarge before the arms and the rest of the face follow. As well, the rapid elongation of the arms and legs may give adolescents a gawky appearance, leading to a feeling of awkwardness. The external bodily changes that are observed during adolescence are accompanied by internal changes that are just as dramatic. For example, the size of many of the internal organs increases, with the heart and lungs enlarging to a greater extent in boys than in girls. Additionally, the number of red blood corpuscles increases in boys, while in girls there is no increase. These differences contribute to the athletic differentials seen during adolescence, due to a greater capacity in boys for carrying oxygen to a larger musculature (Rogol et al., 2002). Nonetheless, the internal organs that undergo the most profound changes are the sex organs, which in turn bring about the secondary sexual characteristics that signal puberty, the sexual maturation of the body discussed in the following section. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

How did you feel about the changes in your height, weight and shape during adolescence? What concerns did you have with the changes? If you didn’t have any concerns, what concerns do you think some adolescents would have and why?

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10.3 Puberty

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LEARNING OUTCOME 10.3 Define puberty and describe how it affects the bodies of boys and girls.

The word puberty derives from a Latin word meaning ‘to grow hair’. Puberty is a series of physical changes culminating in the completion of sexual development and signalling reproductive maturity. The modifications occurring at puberty lead to the development of the sex organs that are directly involved in reproduction, and are therefore called primary sex characteristics. External changes in other organs are called secondary sex characteristics such as breast and beard development. These transformations are often used as a physical marker for the beginning of adolescence and make boys and girls appear more adult and more typically masculine or feminine. The primary and secondary pubertal changes are usually complete several years before the end of adolescence. In both sexes, puberty involves the release of the hormone gonadotrophin from the pituitary gland. Gonadotrophin stimulates the male sex glands, the testes, and the female sex glands, the ovaries, to produce sex hormones called androgens. Testosterone is the male sex hormone and oestrogen the female sex hormone. This androgen release results in much higher levels of sex hormones in the bloodstream than are found in childhood, and is responsible for the dramatic sexual development seen in puberty. Both male and female hormones are produced in each sex, but in differing proportions. So, from this common hormonal process, puberty is expressed somewhat differently in males and females. In girls, oestrogen secreted by the ovaries promotes the enlargement of the ovaries themselves, the uterus and the vagina, as well as the external parts of the sex organs, the labia and clitoris. Along with progesterone, oestrogen stimulates the production of ova and regulates the menstrual cycle. The appearance of the first menstrual period, called menarche, signals sexual maturity, usually around age 12 at the time girls’ growth spurt peaks. After menarche, there may be a phase in which girls are not yet fertile and are thus unable to become pregnant. During this time, the menstrual periods are scanty and irregular. Nevertheless, menarche occurs rather late in a girl’s sexual maturation, and is preceded by a number of secondary sexual changes brought about by increased oestrogen production. Breast buds appear at around age 10, the fine fuzz of immature pubic hair develops a little later at age 11 and the hips start to broaden. Underarm or axillary hair starts to grow between the ages of 12 and 13 years, and mature breasts with full-sized nipples and areola (the dark circle around the nipple) as well as mature pubic hair are established by age 14 or 15 (see figure 10.2). Girls’ voices deepen somewhat towards the end of puberty, so that they sound more adult-like. In boys, the increased production of the androgen testosterone brings about primary sex characteristics. It stimulates the penis and the scrotum to enlarge, starting at around age 12. Inside the scrotum lie the testes, which hold the seminal vesicles responsible for producing sperm. These also develop and begin to produce semen, the fluid that carries and nourishes the sperm. Along with the enlargement of the prostate gland that secretes and stores an alkaline fluid that also helps to sustain the sperm, the stage is set for the first ejaculation. This is called spermarche, which occurs at the height of the male growth spurt around age 13 to 14. Spermarche is the male equivalent of menarche and, like menarche, it signals sexual maturity. Ejaculations occur during masturbation, as nocturnal emissions or ‘wet dreams’ during sleep, and less frequently as spontaneous emissions during the waking hours. The first ejaculations contain few sperm but the sperm count increases progressively with age, making reproduction possible. Boys also experience unexpected erections during puberty. Along with the primary sex characteristics, increased testosterone production also stimulates the development of secondary sex characteristics that generally follow the initial enlargement of the penis and testes. Immature pubic hair begins to appear around age 12, followed by underarm and facial hair at about age 14. At this age, the voice begins to deepen as the larynx and vocal chords increase in size (see figure 10.2). In the course of this process, there are frequent fluctuations in vocal pitch, which some adolescents find embarrassing. During puberty, breast development occurs in boys, with the areola becoming darker and larger. In some boys, breast tissue develops significantly, but recedes as puberty progresses. Puberty is generally complete by about age 15, with adult-sized sex organs and mature pubic hair. 530

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FIGURE 10.2

Physical and sexual development during adolescence This graph shows the average timetable for emergence of primary and secondary sex characteristics superimposed on the adolescent growth curves for boys and girls. The timetables for the two sexes reveal differences between males and females in the emergence of sex characteristics, which also differ in relation to the peak of the growth spurt. Menarche appears late in relation to the growth spurt, whereas spermarche appears early.

Age (male) Underarm, facial Pubic hair appearing; hair appearing; voice deepening penis enlarging

Boys Girls

10

8

9

10

11

Penis adult size; mature pubic hair

First ejaculation

Testes enlarging 12

13

14

15

16

17

18 10

8

8

6

6

4

4

2

2

8

9

10

11

12

Breast Pubic hair bud appearing

13

Underarm hair appearing

14

15

16

17

Height increase (cm)

Height increase (cm)

Growth spurt peak

18

Mature Mature pubic hair breast

First menstruation

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Age (female)

Sex hormones are also primarily responsible for the development of male and female body shapes described in the previous section. These hormones mediate the accumulation, metabolism and distribution of adipose tissue in the body. Oestrogen facilitates the depositing of fatty tissue around the hips and buttocks, while testosterone encourages fat deposits in the abdominal region. Testosterone is also responsible for promoting muscle tissue growth. Higher levels of oestrogen than testosterone in pubescent girls explain their greater accumulation of fat around the hips and buttocks; and lower levels of testosterone are responsible for the overall higher fat to muscle ratio in females. The opposite hormonal pattern in boys explains their higher ratio of muscle to fat and male sex-typed distribution of fat, giving them a v-shaped torso (Wells, 2007).

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10.4 Variations in pubertal development

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LEARNING OUTCOME 10.4 Explain how and when puberty occurs, and describe the effects of non-normative puberty development in girls and boys.

The timetable for the emergence of the primary and secondary sex characteristics described in the previous section is based on average ages of large numbers of boys and girls. However, within any group, there can be wide individual differences in the age of puberty, from 9 to 17 years for girls’ menarche; and from 10 to nearly 14 years for boys’ spermarche. Thus, in a class of high school students of similar age, there might be individuals who have not even begun puberty while others are completing this developmental milestone. Variations in the age of onset of puberty have been found to approximate the normal curve. Within the large variations seen in populations of children, delayed puberty and precocious puberty are identified by an age of onset that is 2 to 2.5 standard deviations either above or below the mean age for puberty in any population (generally 13 years for girls, and 14 years for boys). On this basis, only about 2 per cent of children are considered to be significantly precocious, and a further 2 per cent significantly delayed, in attaining sexual maturity (Merck Serono Australia, 2012; Palmert & Boepple, 2001). For example, the presence of secondary sexual characteristics in seven-year-old girls is considered by clinicians to be precocious. Within the small number of children who experience such clinically defined early or delayed puberty, some are identified as having specific disease processes that have contributed to their condition; for example, endocrine pathology. However, according to Palmert and Boepple, no underlying pathology can be identified in the majority of cases. This data has been confirmed by Merck Serono Australia (2012) who are a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. The Hormones and Me booklet series provides detailed yet simply presented information on a range of common childhood endocrine disorders. As well as individual differences in the timing of puberty, ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic differences have been noted. For example, in many developing African nations, the average age of menarche for girls is between 14 and 16 years. Moreover, within these nations, significant age differences in puberty onset have been found in girls of different socioeconomic classes, with girls from economically advantaged backgrounds experiencing menarche up to eighteen months earlier than their poorer counterparts (Parent et al., 2003). Within developed nations, ethnic differences in puberty onset have been found. For example, African-American adolescents experience earlier menarche and spermarche than either Angloor Asian-American adolescents (Freedman et al., 2002; Sun et al., 2002). Secular trends have been long recognised in the onset of puberty, with an increasingly lower age observed in Europe and the United States between the late nineteenth century and 1970 (Ong, Ahmed, & Dunger, 2006). A continuation of this downward trend over the past 40 years has been more difficult to establish. In a review of the literature, Walvoord (2010) points out methodological difficulties that make comparisons across time and across studies problematic. For example, some studies have been less rigorous than others in definitively establishing puberty by palpation of breast tissue, and objectively measuring testicular development and blood hormone levels. More rigorous large-scale menarche studies have indicated that the age onset of puberty in fact increased for girls born in the late 1960s and 1970s, findings that have been replicated across different countries (Nichols et al., 2006). For example, New Zealand research revealed that girls were reaching menarche at 13 years and 4 months in the 1980s, a significantly later age than observed in New Zealand during the 1960s (Coope et al., 1984). This evidence suggests that the trend of decreasing age of puberty is not linear, and that the lower limits of puberty onset might have been reached (Delemarre-van de Waal, 2005). Both individual and group-based variations in the timing of puberty have been explained by genetic factors, with some researchers suggesting that puberty onset is largely biologically determined (e.g. Mustanski, Viken, Kaprio, Pulkkinen, & Rose, 2004). In terms of lifespan development, the timing of puberty is contained within a relatively narrow temporal window, suggesting a strong genetic blueprint for its emergence. As well, the genetic basis for puberty onset is demonstrated by menarche occurring in identical twins within a month or two of each other, whereas for fraternal twins there 532

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might be as much as twelve months’ difference in the timing of menarche (Palmert & Boepple, 2001). Nonetheless, recent research has revealed that environmental factors can also have a significant influence on the timing of puberty, and both individual and group-based variations may be explained to a large extent by nutritional status, which has been found to both accelerate and delay sexual maturation. Researchers have established that body weight and adiposity (the amount of body fat) have a profound effect on the onset of puberty, with undernutrition delaying puberty in both boys and girls, and obesity accelerating it (Anderson, Dallal, & Must, 2003; Mandel, Zimlichman, Mimouni, Grotto, & Kreiss, 2005; Susman, Dorn, & Schiefelbein, 2003). This finding may shed light on the racial, socioeconomic and ethnic differences observed in the timing of puberty, with an all-important factor of body size and adiposity mediating these broad group-based differences. As well, progressive improvements in nutritional status over the early decades of the twentieth century might explain much of the historical variation seen in the age of puberty onset, and its apparent plateau in the late twentieth century. It is now thought that menarche can only be sustained as long as body fat constitutes 17 per cent of body weight, and that a minimal body weight triggers menarche at the end of the adolescent growth spurt. Indirect evidence for this stance comes from the observation of amenorrhoea or absence of the menstrual period in girls who have lost a great deal of weight or who are chronically undernourished. Furthermore, direct evidence has come from endocrine studies, which suggest that the hormone leptin may act as a chemical indicator of the adequacy of fat storage in girls, sufficient to maintain pregnancy (Misra et al., 2004). Despite these recent advances in knowledge, the specific processes that govern the timing of puberty are not yet fully understood. It is clear, however, that they involve a complex interplay between biogenetic factors and environmental influences. It appears that the timing of puberty occurs within a genetically determined developmental window, and that the influence of adiposity and body mass is constrained by the genetic blueprint that ultimately governs the delimited age range in which puberty can occur. THEORY IN PRACTICE

Education and adolescent social and emotional wellbeing issues Helen Partridge is the coordinator of Social and Emotional Wellbeing, an undergraduate initial teacher education unit in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania.

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Interviewer: In your experience, what are the main social and emotional wellbeing issues that research shows are prevalent in adolescents? Helen: From an educator’s perspective the issues are antisocial behaviour, which may manifest itself in criminal behaviour; early uptake of substance use; and signs of certain mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression. The Hunter Institute of Mental Health in Newcastle has undertaken research in this area over a long period of time and has developed a number of resources to support teacher educators. Interviewer: How do these issues manifest themselves in adolescent school students? Helen: There are four main areas that can act as warning signs to teachers: 1. poor school engagement and learning 2. poor social and emotional competence 3. indications of emotional and behavioural problems 4. less capacity for problem solving and resilience.

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Each of these areas can be further delineated to specific activities that teachers may notice — for example, decline in academic performance, changes in behaviour at school and neglecting responsibilities. Interviewer: What can a teacher do if they are concerned that an adolescent is showing signs of poor social and emotional wellbeing? Helen: The Hunter Institute of Mental Health has developed the GRIP framework, which asks teachers to undertake the following activities when they are concerned: G — gather information R — respond by speaking to the student, their friends and parents, if necessary I — involve others such as the principal, counsellor, and so on P — promote wellbeing.

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Psychological consequences of non-normative puberty Since the 1940s, researchers have been interested in the psychological consequences for adolescents of both sexes who reach sexual maturity much earlier or much later than most of their same-aged peers. The Berkley Longitudinal Study initiated in the late 1940s found differential outcomes for boys and girls, with early-maturing boys having a more positive self-image and greater popularity than late-maturing boys (Jones, 1965). In contrast, very few differences were found between early- and late-maturing girls (Jones & Mussen, 1958). Since this early study, numerous investigations have provided a somewhat different picture of the psychological outcomes of non-normative contemporary sexual maturation — possibly the result of generational differences in social environments, as well as the secular trends in puberty onset — with puberty normally occurring at significantly younger ages in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries than it did in the 1940s and 1950s. For boys, the positive consequences of early maturation, including greater leadership and feelings of satisfaction with themselves, were clearly demonstrated in studies until the early 1990s. These studies suggested that early physical changes prompted peers, parents and teachers to treat early-maturing boys as adults sooner than their later-maturing peers, which, in turn, stimulated more confident and responsible behaviour. Such differences continued into early adulthood, with men who matured early still exhibiting greater responsibility and self-control (e.g. Livson & Peskin, 1981a, 1981b; Richards & Larson, 1993; Tobin-Richards, Boxer, & Petersen, 1983). However, current research does not paint such a positive picture of early male puberty in the twentyfirst century. Early maturing boys, especially those who experience puberty prior to Year 7, now exhibit less academic success, higher anxiety and greater hostility and depression, as well as more drug and alcohol problems and behavioural deviancy than their peers who mature normally (Blumenthal, LeenFeldner, Trainor, Babson, & Bunaciu, 2009; Ge, Brody, Conger, Simons, & Murray, 2002; Ge, Conger, & Elder, 2001; Graber, 2003; Wichstrom, 2001). Negative behavioural outcomes are possibly due to earlymaturing boys associating with older male peers and becoming involved in situations and activities that they still do not have the emotional or cognitive maturity to handle. These premature involvements can in turn lead to feelings of anxiety and depression, since boys who are outwardly mature might still be trying to master the psychological tasks of middle childhood while engaging in age-inappropriate adolescent activities (Ge et al., 2001). Nevertheless, research also suggests that such problems are relatively short-lived and that there are no lasting detrimental psychological effects for early maturing boys, for whom the longer-term positives of early maturation may counterbalance the negatives (Graber, Seeley, Brooks-Gunn, & Lewinsohn, 2004; Lynne, Graber, Nichols, Brooks-Gunn, & Botvin, 2007). Thus, it would appear that early maturation can provide opportunities for leadership and enhanced social status among peers, but it is how boys handle their physical advantages at this age that determines whether both short- and long-term outcomes are positive or negative.

534

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Late-maturing boys may suffer from lowered self-esteem due to physical disadvantage in sporting activities and social rejection by girls because of their immature appearance, as earlier research has indicated (e.g. Livson & Peskin, 1981a, 1981b; Tobin-Richards et al., 1983). However, more recent investigations have shown that such difficulties tend to be short-lived, and that late maturation might not pose the grave difficulties that early maturation does. For example, research by Kaltiala-Heino, Kosunen, and Rimpela (2003) indicates that late-maturing boys develop positive qualities, such as assertiveness and insight, possibly as a result of the challenges that are imposed by their asynchronous development. Late-maturing boys also feel less pressure to engage in non-normative peer activities, such as early sexual and substancerelated experimentation (Sigelman & Rider, 2009). Research over several decades has revealed an unequivocal picture of the outcomes for early maturation in girls that is far from positive. Studies from the 1970s onwards have indicated that early puberty in girls is linked to negative short- and long-term psychosocial outcomes (e.g. Graber et al., 2004; Silbereisen & Kracke, 1997; Simmons, Blyth, & McKinney, 1983). Some studies indicate that sexual precocity enhances opposite-sex popularity and therefore social status in early-maturing girls, but it may come at a cost in societies that view emerging sexuality in girls with some ambiguity (Petersen, 2000). Physical maturity can propel early-maturing girls into premature dating and untimely sexual experimentation with older males. Without the accompanying cognitive and emotional maturity, this behaviour can expose pubescent girls to sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancy. For example, in New Zealand, the Families Commission report (2011) on adolescent pregnancy and parenting found that:

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New Zealand has the second highest rate of adolescent childbirth in the OECD, and that Maori have a significantly higher rate of adolescent childbirth and parenthood than any of New Zealand’s other major ethnic groups (p. 1).

As well as problems with opposite-sex encounters, early-maturing girls are vulnerable to ridicule from their slower-developing same-sex peers, and thus early maturing girls might feel less satisfied with their bodies than their later-developing female classmates (Ge et al., 2001). Studies in recent decades have revealed greater vulnerability in early-maturing girls, including Australian girls, to problems such as eating disorders, underage smoking and drinking, depression and anxiety, as well as academic underachievement (Blumenthal et al., 2011; Kaltiala-Heino et al., 2003; Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2004; Stattin & Magnusson, 1990; van Jaarsveld, Fidler, Simon, & Wardle, 2007). Moreover, many of these problems are long-term ones, following early maturing girls into adulthood (Graber et al., 2004; Michaud, Suris, & Deppen, 2006). Thus, early-maturing girls appear to be at greater long- and short-term risk than early maturing boys, possibly because of the younger age that girls reach sexual maturity and the interaction of precocious behaviours with the specific cultural expectations that surround girls. Nonetheless, research has revealed that early-maturing girls who remain embedded in age-appropriate social groups and who have strong family ties and religious values are less vulnerable to the deleterious outcomes previously outlined (Stattin & Magnusson, 1990). Additionally, it should be noted that the cross-sectional research supporting the negative picture for early-maturing girls is correlative. Hence, many of the negative outcomes might in fact be the result of problematic home environments that not only precipitate externalising behaviours, but also trigger early puberty. Recent research and theoretical models suggest that stress related to suboptimal home environments may hasten hormonal changes that lead, in turn, to early puberty (e.g. Ellis, 2004; Tremblay & Frignon, 2005). Moreover, Walvoord (2010) points out that long-term outcomes for early maturing girls might be more positive than the short-term effects, with problems that do not necessarily persist into adulthood. The picture for late-maturing girls is more positive than for their early-maturing female peers. Like their male counterparts who mature later than average, they can suffer from lower peer status (Clarke-Stewart & Friedman, 1987). Nonetheless, due to their later maturation, they may display greater body esteem than early maturers, who have less opportunity during a shortened growth spurt to attain the tall, slender cultural ideal of Western countries (Williams & Currie, 2000). Although internalising problems (such as CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 535

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depression) appear to be more frequent in late-maturing girls, they do not appear to be as vulnerable to the externalising problems that pervade the development of early maturing girls (Ge, Kim, Brody, Conger, & Simons, 2003). WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Think about classmates you knew in high school who were late maturers. How did this seem to affect their development? Does it seem to match the findings described here? Contrast these individuals with early maturers. Which individuals seemed to be more strongly affected by their particular developmental timetable?

In conclusion, for both sexes, early maturation, and to a lesser extent, delayed maturation, can pose serious additional problems to children who are already dealing with the normative challenges of middle childhood. For example, they may receive spurious messages that their body and its maturity is of overriding importance, rather than their individual personality or other equally important aspects of their development. Thus, a normal social–emotional and cognitive development paired with precocious or even delayed physical development can have detrimental outcomes for individuals who are significantly ‘out of synch’ in terms of their maturation in different domains of development.

10.5 Health in adolescence

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LEARNING OUTCOME 10.5 Identify the major health threats that adolescents face, and explain how they are more at risk than other age groups.

Adolescence should be a time of optimal health. Teenagers have left behind the period of common childhood infectious diseases and are not yet subject to the systemic diseases and chronic conditions of adulthood brought on by ageing bodies and the cumulative effects of stress. Nevertheless, compared to both adults and children, adolescents are more likely to be involved in motor vehicle accidents, to engage in substance abuse and risky sexual behaviour, and to have an inadequate diet; all of which pose serious and significant threats to their current and future health. From the scenario at the beginning of this chapter, Abbey, at age 13, was risking harm to herself by being on the verge of an eating disorder due to her need for a ‘thin’ body. She was not yet sexually active and had not experimented with substances, but she was endangering her future health by poor daily living habits, including an inadequate intake of food and excessive exercise. So, even though adolescents like Abbey are less affected by the health problems that lead to death in children and adults, the death rate during adolescence is one of the highest for all age groups. Greater risk-taking behaviour during adolescence contributes significantly to this statistic, with a large proportion of adolescent deaths related to motor vehicle accidents, substance abuse and criminal activities (Steinberg, 2007a, 2007b). Recent research suggests that teenage risk-taking behaviour is related to specific neurological development during the period of adolescence (see the Focusing on feature later in the chapter). It is worthwhile noting the latest findings of neuroplasticity (or brain plasticity) which shows that many physical parts of the brain can be altered by the new habits of functioning (hence they are ‘plastic’) and this continues into adulthood (Rakic, 2002). Whenever something new is learned or memorised, neuroplasticity occurs; that is, the brain changes and adapts to an individual’s requirements (Michelon, 2008). As a transitional period, adolescence is a critical stage for the adoption of behaviours that will promote and secure positive health status in later periods of development. Thus, many of the conditions that cause poor health and premature death in adulthood have their roots in health-related behaviours and decisions taken in the adolescent years (Heaven, 1996; Viner, 2005). Several theoretical models have been put forward in an attempt to understand the acquisition of health-related behaviours, including Rosenstock’s 536

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(1966) health belief model, which has been one of the most influential theories contributing to understanding and predicting behaviours that influence the individual’s wellbeing. According to the health belief model, health-related behaviours are determined by four core health-related beliefs: perceived severity of a health condition; perceived personal vulnerability to the condition; perceived barriers to adopting a health-related behaviour that will prevent the condition; and perceived benefits of adopting the behaviour. Later modifications of the model include several mediating variables that affect the core beliefs, and thus the likelihood of individuals adopting health-related behaviours. These include demographic variables such as age and sex; psychosocial variables such as socioeconomic status and coping strategies; external cues prompting action such as communications from other people; self-efficacy (the individual’s level of perceived control); and level of motivation (the individual’s ability to stick with a health-related behaviour change) (Becker, Radius, & Rosenstock, 1978). For adolescents, their stage of development may be relatively problematic in terms of some of the elements involved in the health belief model. For example, perceived personal vulnerability to many health conditions is likely to be low, since adolescence is one of the healthiest times of life. So, behaviours such as smoking, which have a more severe impact on later health during adulthood or old age, tend to be difficult to change in adolescent populations. Heaven, a prominent researcher from the University of Wollongong, Australia, in his influential 1996 book on adolescent health, points out that teenagers’ perceived invulnerability is not much different from that experienced by adults. So a sense of invulnerability might not be the exclusive preserve of adolescence, and this aspect of the health belief model should be an important focus of health education for both adults and adolescents. Nonetheless, it is vital that positive health behaviours are encouraged early on, during adolescence rather than later in adulthood. This is because of the cumulative effect of poor health practices during earlier stages on health status at later stages of development. The juncture between adolescent behaviours and later health status has been the impetus for the largest, most comprehensive survey of adolescent health ever undertaken. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) has been tracking the health of 6500 American individuals who were in Years 7 to 12 in 1994 and are now in their early to late thirties. The study’s aim is to explore the factors influencing the health-related behaviours of adolescents and their outcomes in young adulthood, and to examine how the social contexts of family, peers, school and community influence adolescents’ health status and risky behaviours. The results from the successive waves of data collection have been used in over 3800 publications to date. Studies have focused on such topics as the influence of precocious development during adolescence on health outcomes in young adulthood (Aalsma, Tong, Wiehe, & Tu, 2010); how sexual relationships during adolescence affect sexual health in adulthood (Upchurch & Kusunoki, 2006); and the factors during adolescence that predict homelessness in adulthood (van den Bree et al., 2009).

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Adolescent nutrition Adolescent overweight and obesity are increasing health threats to teenagers. In 2003, Waters and Baur estimated that nearly one-quarter of Australian adolescents were overweight and obese, with 6 per cent in the obese category, having a body weight exceeding 20 per cent of normal body weight. These estimates were confirmed by the 2009–10 National Secondary Students’ Diet and Activity (NaSSDA) survey, the first truly national survey of its kind since 1985. NaSSDA involved collecting body measurements as well as physical activity and nutritional data for 12 000 adolescents in Years 8 to 11, from a representative sampling of 237 schools across Australia (Cancer Council of Australia and National Heart Foundation, 2011). In 2001, Baur reported a continuing and rapid rise of adolescent overweight and obesity in Australia, with similar trends in other developed nations. For example, between 1985 and 1995, the rate of overweight and obesity in Australian children and adolescents doubled. However, as discussed in the obesity and health section in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in early adulthood, rates have been stable since 1998. CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 537

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Overweight and obese adolescents are at risk of high blood pressure, respiratory disease, orthopaedic disorders and diabetes, and are highly likely to become obese adults (Blaine, Rodman, & Newman, 2007). Indeed, half of the adolescents who are obese go on to become obese adults, and the later in adolescence obesity persists the more likely is adult obesity (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2003). There can also be adverse psychosocial consequences for overweight and obese teenagers. At a time when physical appearance is of heightened importance, and when adolescents are already struggling to develop a comfortable and realistic view of their changing bodies, obesity can negatively influence both peer acceptance and self-esteem.

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These adolescents are eating junk food that consists largely of ‘empty’ calories, and lacks the balance of nutrients needed for adequate growth and development. Occasional fast food meals cause no harm, but if such meals regularly replace more nutritious foods, adolescents are at risk of becoming obese.

The causes of obesity at any age are complex, involving an interplay of genetic predisposition and environmental factors. In a position statement, the National Heart Foundation of Australia (2003) asserts that energy density in the diet and lack of exercise are the major determinants of obesity and overweight. Similarly, Waters and Baur (2003) maintain the overriding factor contributing to adolescent obesity and overweight appears to be an energy imbalance, stemming from the combination of a high kilojoule diet and a sedentary lifestyle among teenagers. During adolescence, teenagers’ intake of kilojoules increases dramatically in response to the demands of the growth spurt. However, many of these kilojoules may be supplied through overconsumption of energy-dense junk food, which is specifically targeted at teenage consumers. It replaces nutritious food when adolescents skip meals and snack instead on high-kilojoule substitutes (Videon & Manning, 2003). Easy access to junk food is an important factor in obesity and overweight among teenagers. Babey et al. (2008) found that individuals living in neighbourhoods where the number of fast food outlets and convenience stores outnumbered outlets offering healthier food choices were more likely to be obese, regardless of ethnicity or socioeconomic status. 538

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As well as the overconsumption of ‘empty calories’, surveys have shown that a lack of exercise is also common during adolescence. Physical activity such as involvement in organised sport declines according to age, especially in females due to body image concerns and peer teasing (Deforche, De Bourdeaudhuij, & Tanghe, 2006; Slater & Tiggeman, 2010b, 2011). Moreover, teenagers’ social habits predispose them to activities such as watching television and playing computer games, in preference to outdoor activities and sports. These are not as popular for many contemporary teenagers as sedentary activities (often described as ‘hanging out’). Thus, activities low in physical exercise have a high degree of peer-based social preference. In the scenario at the beginning of this chapter, the protagonist, Abbey, did not fall prey to the sedentary teenage lifestyle, as she was actively engaged in exercise; however, it was heading towards an excessive level. Therefore, it is important that adolescents are aware of the value of exercise but they also need to be educated about appropriate levels of activity for their age. It is also known that overweight adolescents and adults who engage in exercise are often generally healthier (both physically and mentally) than normal or underweight individuals who engage in little physical activity (see the chapter on physical and cognitive development in early adulthood for a discussion). Interventions to tackle obesity in Australia have been instigated through the National Strategy for Prevention of Overweight and Obesity. Australia is the first country in the world to instigate such a campaign. Launched in 1997, the strategy includes a broad range of approaches to tackle current energy imbalances, creating opportunities for increased physical activity in community environments through safe bike paths, pedestrian-friendly environments, and more public space available for recreational use. As well, the strategy promotes a nutritional environment that encourages wholesome food; for example, catering services in childcare centres, school canteens and commercial lunch bars, and takeaway food outlets that offer healthy food choices (Baur, 2001; Public Health Association of Australia, 2007). These interventions can be helpful in preventing obesity, but for already obese or overweight teenagers, individual programs of weight loss involving kilojoule restriction, exercise regimens and behavioural interventions to reach and maintain weight loss goals are usually needed (Lytle et al., 2004).

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Eating disorders During puberty, there are dramatic changes in the bodies of boys and girls and a concomitant increase in focus on physical appearance. The changes in girls’ bodies at puberty remove them further from the culturally valued mesomorphic ideal, a level of slimness which is more typical of middle childhood than of adolescence. Hence, research findings have traditionally indicated greater body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls than in boys of the same age, whose physiques, it is argued, are more in line with cultural ideals. However, many studies have measured body dissatisfaction in males using instruments that focus solely on areas of female body concern, such as the hips and buttocks, as well as the desire to be thinner. In contrast to adolescent girls’ desire to lose weight, adolescent boys often express a desire to gain weight, by increasing their muscle mass and the width of their shoulders (McVey, Tweed, & Blackmore, 2005; Waaddegaard & Petersen, 2001). Moreover, cultural norms for the male body are becoming much more muscular, and there is evidence of increasing sexual objectification of male bodies in the media (Frederick, Fessler, & Haselton 2005; Leit, Pope, & Gray, 2001; Pope, Olivardia, Borowiecki, & Cohane, 2001; Slater & Tiggemann, 2010a). So, with cultural changes in the way males view their bodies coupled with gender-appropriate measures of body dissatisfaction, recent studies have indicated similarity in adolescent girls’ and boys’ body dissatisfaction (e.g. Swami et al., 2010). Australian researcher Tiggemann and her colleagues have extensively studied the onset of body image and weight concerns in both sexes. Significant body image dissatisfaction is prevalent among primaryaged Australian girls and boys, being well established by nine years, and is maintained into adolescence (Clark & Tiggeman, 2006; Slater & Tiggemann, 2010a). Canadian research by McVey et al. (2005) echoes these findings, asserting that the onset of weight loss and muscle-gaining behaviours is about ten years in pre-adolescent boys and girls. Subsequently, during the adolescent years, disordered eating (involving preoccupation with weight, unhealthy dieting and obsessive kilojoule counting) becomes widespread CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 539

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among girls in particular, while increased steroid and laxative use has been observed in boys (McVey et al., 2005). Thus, the connection between body dissatisfaction and disordered eating is not restricted to girls alone. Dieting as a means of weight control during adolescence is pervasive in Western countries. Koskelainen, Sourander, and Helenius (2001) reported concern about weight and dieting were ‘extremely common’ among a large sample of Finnish Year 7 to Year 9 students, while over one-third of a sample of 12- to 13-year-old British girls reported dieting (Roberts, Maxwell, Bagnall, & Bilton, 2001). Waaddegaard and Petersen (2001) reported body dissatisfaction and a desire for dieting increased significantly with age between Year 8 and Year 12 in Danish adolescents. Furthermore, an American study of female college students indicated that the incidence of dieting as a weight reduction method was present in over 80 per cent of late adolescents and young adults (Malinauskas, Raedeke, Aeby, Smith, & Dallas, 2006). Paxton et al. (1991) established that the incidence of unhealthy dieting behaviour in Australian adolescents is similar to that of other Western countries. Thus, insufficient knowledge about dietary requirements and poor judgement may lead to inadequate nutrition for a majority of teenage girls, as well as an increasing proportion of teenage boys. This is at a time when teenagers’ bodies are rapidly developing, and it therefore poses a significant health threat to an unacceptably large proportion of adolescents. For some adolescents, unhealthy eating patterns can escalate into a fully fledged eating disorder. Eating disorders, however, are still more common in females, affecting about ten times as many females as males. Within the male population, gay and bisexual males are particularly vulnerable to eating disorders (Robb & Dadson, 2002). While females with eating disorders are typically concerned with losing weight, eatingdisordered males tend to strive for leaner but more muscular physiques. Consequently, as well as showing dietary restraint, they may exercise excessively and abuse steroids in the process. Four major types of eating disorders are recognised in the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association, 2013): anorexia nervosa; bulimia nervosa; binge eating; and pica, rumination and avoidant/restrictive food intake. Differential diagnosis of eating disorders using the DSM criteria has been problematic, with overlap between the major categories of anorexia and bulimia nervosa (Bulik, Sullivan, & Kendler, 2000; Keel, Haedt, & Elder, 2005; Williamson et al., 2002). DSM-5 (published in 2013) has included two additional disorders to overcome the diagnostic problems: binge eating; and pica, rumination and avoidant/restrictive food intake. The major symptom of anorexia nervosa is extreme weight loss of between 25 and 50 per cent of original body weight, through self-imposed starvation and strenuous exercise, so that the individual weighs less than 85 per cent of the normal weight for their age. Also present are an intense fear of gaining weight that does not decrease with weight loss, and severe disturbances in body image. Despite an emaciated appearance that is readily apparent to other people, individuals with anorexia are convinced they are fat. They also exhibit the physical symptoms associated with starvation including amenorrhoea (loss of menstrual periods) in females; brittle and discoloured nails; extreme sensitivity to cold; and the appearance of lanugo, dark downy hair that covers the body (Rome et al., 2003). If starvation continues, heart arrhythmia and permanent damage to the heart muscle can occur, along with bone loss and kidney failure. When an individual’s weight drops to 66 per cent of ideal weight, the condition becomes life-threatening, and hospitalisation with enforced feeding is necessary to avoid death. Only half of individuals with anorexia fully recover from the disorder, and about 6 per cent of sufferers die (Katzman, 2005). Bulimia nervosa is rarely fatal, but it can still be a considerable threat to health. It is characterised by binge eating, where excessive food intake occurs over a short period of time, usually involving high fat and sugary food. Bingeing is followed by purging, where individuals rid themselves of the excess kilojoules by forced vomiting or taking large doses of laxatives and diuretics. People with bulimia may also adhere to strict diets and may exercise excessively. Bulimia is diagnosed when binge–purge episodes occur at least twice weekly for three months or more. However, bulimia may be more difficult to detect than anorexia, because of the secretive nature of the binge–purge cycle and the fact that individuals are usually of normal weight for age. Nonetheless, deterioration in tooth enamel from the action of stomach 540

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acids is often a giveaway, as are calluses on the back of the fingers from contact with the teeth during enforced vomiting. The health threats in bulimia nervosa involve damage to the throat and stomach from frequent vomiting, as well as nutritional deficiencies and imbalances in the body’s electrolytes from the binge–purge cycle, which place individuals at increased risk of heart failure. Binge eating disorder is indicated by excessive eating in a short period of time, far more than an average person would eat in a similar timeframe. The individual also experiences feelings of lack of control, guilt, embarrassment or disgust, and often binge eats alone to hide the behaviour. Pica, rumination and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder replace the previously named category feeding disorder of infancy or early childhood. This category is more descriptive and has broadened to allow the inclusion of a number of associated disorders that couldn’t be classified. Significant physiological or psychosocial problems exist with this disorder. Accurate diagnosis is crucial for early identification and amelioration of the effects of eating disorders, which can be life threatening diseases. Anorexia nervosa typically begins in early adolescence, following an episode of dieting. It is often accompanied by a significant stressor, such as parental divorce (Lee, Lee, Pathy, & Chan, 2005). The incidence of anorexia nervosa has increased over the last ten years in developed nations, affecting about 1 in 100 females, with bulimia nervosa occurring in 4 in every 100 females; males are not immune to these disorders albeit the incidence percentages are lower (Eating Disorder HOPE, 2005–2018). Bulimia nervosa typically begins in late adolescence, and bingeing behaviour often occurs initially during a period of dieting. The National Institute of Mental Health (2017) estimates that 2.7 per cent of 13 to 17 year olds suffer from an eating disorder, and girls are two and a half times more likely than boys to have an eating disorder. The aetiology of eating disorders is still unclear, but the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (2014) states that the typical onset during adolescence is thought to be due to ‘genetic and personality vulnerabilities interact[ing] with social and environmental triggers’. Low self-esteem and low self-efficacy are considered to be crucial factors in the onset of eating disorders. For example, longitudinal studies such as that of Australian researchers Ricciardelli and McCabe (2004) have identified negative self-comparisons during primary school as important psychological precursors to eating disorders during adolescence. Thus, susceptible teenagers may be less satisfied and may feel more helpless and hopeless in regard to their achievements than adolescents who do not go on to develop an eating disorder. Biological susceptibility could also be involved, since the incidence of eating disorders in identical twins is greater than in fraternal twins (Bulik et al., 2000; Klump, Kay, & Strober, 2001). Increasingly, cultural pressures and wider social influences have been implicated in the development of eating disorders, with the ‘thin ideal’ imposing unhealthily slender norms through the media on adolescent girls during a period when average body size is actually increasing (Polivy, Herman, Mills, & Brock, 2003). Conventional approaches to the treatment of eating disorders include family therapy, individual psychotherapy and medication (Fairburn, 2005). Such People suffering from anorexia often have a distorted interventions are based on theoretical models that body image and view themselves as being treat eating disorders as a maladaptive strategy for overweight when that is simply not the case. CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 541

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coping with the challenges of adolescence and young adulthood (e.g. Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2004). These treatments seek to address the underlying causes of disordered eating. S¨odersten, a Swedish researcher, has developed an alternative approach to treating anorexia and bulimia, based on the assumption that many of the symptoms and psychopathology of eating disorders are in fact related to starvation, rather than being central to the disorder itself. S¨odersten and colleagues introduce in-patients to the Mandometer a computerised training system for eating, where the individual is given visual feedback on their rates of eating and feelings of satiety. The individual is encouraged to follow a prescribed on-screen linear ‘eating curve’ which is increased in successive stages. Sessions focusing on retraining in normal eating patterns and feelings of satiety are immediately followed by heating the body in a warm room, and restricting physical activity. This overcomes the tendency in starvation victims towards hypothermia and hyperactivity (Bergh, Brodin, Lindberg, & S¨odersten, 2002). Mandometer therapy is now used in Australia.

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Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) Adolescent sexual behaviour can impose a significant health risk to teenagers through a range of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Sexually transmitted infections are bacterial and viral infections that enter the body via the mucous membranes of the mouth and the sex organs following physical contact. Sexually transmitted infections include syphilis, gonorrhoea, genital lice, scabies, chlamydia, herpes, genital warts, trichomoniasis, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS. With the exception of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and genital herpes, STIs can be cured using antibiotics, antiparasitics and antiviral agents. Left untreated, many STIs result in infertility and several can involve life-threatening complications. For example, the human papilloma viruses (HPVs) responsible for genital warts are implicated in the later development of cervical cancer. Sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhoea cause pelvic inflammatory disease, which places women at risk for infertility and subsequent ectopic pregnancy. Untreated syphilis results in heart and neural damage, and premature death. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), is a viral infection involving the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which compromises the body’s immune system. Antiviral drugs that slow the progress and ameliorate the symptoms of AIDS are available, but the condition remains incurable and may result in premature death from pneumonia or other complications. Adolescents have the highest rates of STIs of any age group, with about 25 per cent of sexually active adolescents becoming infected with an STI in any one year. Moreover, the rates of STIs are increasing worldwide in adolescent and adult populations, with 498.9 million new cases of STIs appearing annually (WHO, 2012). Since females are more easily infected by males than the reverse, adolescent girls have the highest rates of gonorrhoea, genital herpes, chlamydia and pelvic inflammatory disease of any age group. These rates are only exceeded by adult prostitutes and gay men (Shafer & Moscicki, 1991). In Australia, chlamydia then gonorrhea are the most reported STIs contracted by teenagers (Department of Health, 2013). Other STIs include genital warts, trichomoniasis, HIV/AIDS, syphilis and hepatitis B. The reason for the high rates of STIs in adolescents is that this age group is more prone to sexual experimentation and risky sexual behaviours than other age groups. Risky sexual behaviour includes unprotected sexual activity without using barriers such as condoms, sexual activity involving multiple partners and sexual activity involving partners whose sexual history is not known. The only certain way to avoid STIs is to abstain totally from all mutual sexual behaviour. However, such a requirement is unrealistic. The strong sex drive of most adolescents makes abstinence difficult. Western society’s current permissive attitudes to adolescent sexuality, as well as the burgeoning cultural value put on sexual intimacy and expression as portrayed in the various media, promote sexual activity rather than abstinence. Practising ‘safer sex’ has therefore been widely promoted as a workable alternative to abstinence in many developed countries, including Australia and New Zealand. Recommended safer sex strategies include having only one sexual partner, knowing the partner’s sexual history, using barrier methods during penetrative sex, and engaging in non-penetrative sex as an alternative means of gratification.

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Male and female condoms are one of the better ways of reducing the risk of contracting an STI, but, for adolescents, condom use is declining in favour of birth control pills, which effectively avert pregnancy, but provide no protection against STIs. As well, embarrassment and deceit may prevent teenagers gaining an accurate idea of their partner’s sexual history and STI status. Like many adults, adolescents tend to view themselves as invulnerable to sexual infection, especially when they have been in a relatively long-term relationship (Tinsley, Lees, & Sumartojo, 2004). In accordance with the health belief model described earlier, this might militate against individuals adopting the recommended safer sex practices. Moreover, the very nature of teenage sexuality makes long-term and committed monogamous relationships difficult to achieve at a time typified by sexual experimentation and multiple sexual partnerships. Some sexual practices, such as manual mutual masturbation and superficial kissing, are safer than others, such as vaginal and anal sex, in that they significantly reduce but do not totally eliminate the risk of contracting STIs (AIDS.Gov, 2011; DeVita, Hellman, & Rosenberg, 1997). Adolescents therefore need to be aware that apart from auto-erotic behaviour such as self-masturbation, there is no such thing as sex that is totally safe. Most teenagers in industrialised nations receive sex education as a mandatory part of the school curriculum. Nonetheless, research in Australia and overseas has noted some deficiencies in this strategy aimed at reducing sexual health risks for adolescents. Sex education may not be effectively delivered by teachers who have little specialist knowledge, or it might not target the social issues around sex that are most pressing for today’s teenagers; concentrating instead on factual, biological information. Also, it may occur too late for high school students who are already engaged in sexual activities, particularly as the age of puberty has become progressively lower. Sex education now needs to be instigated during the primary school years in order to be effective. Despite widespread sex education, surveys have revealed confusion and ignorance about sexual matters, including sexual disease risk. For example, in Australia, Moore and Rosenthal (2006) discovered that basic sex education messages including important STI information have not been assimilated by many teenagers. Professor Rosenthal has therefore established an award-winning website, http://yoursexhealth.org, which gives factual information on a range of sexual health matters, and includes true stories and voice-over examples with photographs of young people to clearly illustrate various points in a format that is appealing to today’s teenagers. Nonetheless, even with extensive knowledge, the link between understanding STI risk and applying it to sexual behaviour is far from perfect. For example, even though teenagers fully comprehend that a condom is their best way of preventing STIs, they choose not use one because it is embarrassing, or they believe it is a signal that they do not trust their sexual partner, or they feel that it reduces sexual pleasure. Thus, interventions to improve adolescents’ sexual health need to take into consideration social and emotional factors as well as knowledge.

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Substance abuse Experimentation with psychoactive substances is widespread during adolescence. Psychoactive substances are naturally occurring or artificial materials that act on the nervous system, altering perceptions, mood and behaviour. They range from naturally occurring substances, such as alcohol, which is produced from the fermentation of plant sugars by yeasts, to designer drugs such as methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which are the result of complex pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. Psychoactive substances known as drugs are used therapeutically under medical supervision to ameliorate adverse physical conditions, such as the use of barbiturates as painkillers after operations. Medical supervision is important, since most drugs have side effects that can be detrimental to health and that are sometimes life-threatening. For instance, overdoses of barbiturates can depress respiration, resulting in death. Adolescents can self-administer psychoactive substances non-therapeutically, purely for their tropic effects, or the alteration in mood and perceptions that they produce. This is known as recreational drug use. Because of the physical and psychological harm that the side effects of unsupervised recreational drug CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 543

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use can do, some classes of psychoactive substances have been outlawed for recreational use. However, so-called ‘illegal’ drugs are also used therapeutically, such as heroin for pain relief in cancer patients, and cannabis (marijuana) for the alleviation of the symptoms of arthritis. It is therefore the usage rather than the drug itself that is illegal. Many teenagers experiment with different substances, constituting substance use, and in some individuals experimentation escalates into habitual or repeated usage known as substance abuse. Substance abuse differs from substance use when it occurs at a frequency, a time or in a situation that is considered inappropriate, according to societal norms. Binge drinking and public drunkenness are examples of substance abuse. When the individual loses control of the frequency, time, place and occasion of using substances, and obtaining and using the substance replaces many of their normal life activities, they are considered to be addicted. Addiction involves both physical and psychological dependency. Biochemical changes in the brain and highly unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, as well as a dependence on the substance to cope with negative emotional states, make it extremely difficult for the addicted individual to curb their use of the substance. Moreover, tolerance to the substance increases with prolonged use, requiring higher doses to maintain the same level of tropic effect and thus increasing the user’s exposure to negative side effects. In situations of abuse and addiction, the side effects of excessive or prolonged ingestion of psychoactive substances pose considerable short- and long-term health threats. For example, even short-term use of drugs such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy exposes the user to physical risk of accidents and violence while in a drug-induced state, and to increased risk of death due to overdose or drug contamination. As well as immediate health threats, in the longer term there are significant social, psychological and physical risks in drug addiction. For example, heroin-addicted teenagers might become involved in drug dealing, prostitution or violent criminal acts in order to support their drug habit. They are also at increased risk of drug contamination and overdose, as well as of contracting hepatitis or HIV/AIDS from sharing needles. Moreover, substance abuse and addiction during adolescence have detrimental effects on development, replacing adaptive coping strategies with maladaptive ones, so that the individual fails to meet the normal responsibilities of school, work, family and friends, which has long-term repercussion in adulthood. In Australia, the most commonly used psychoactive substances are alcohol and tobacco, with 90.7 per cent and 47.1 per cent of the population respectively ever having used these substances (Ross, 2007). The use of these substances is both socially and legally condoned in Australia for adult use, in contrast to cannabis, which is the only drug of illicit use whose prevalence approaches that of tobacco and alcohol, with 33.6 per cent lifetime prevalence. Figure 10.3 shows the prevalence of drug use by Australian adolescents in 2011, including tobacco, alcohol, and over-the-counter and illicit substances, according to different ages. These statistics indicate that for all adolescent age groups, analgesics, alcohol and tobacco were the most commonly used substances. Nearly 90 per cent of older adolescents aged 16 to 17 years had used alcohol at some stage, and nearly 40 per cent had tried cigarettes (White & Bariola, 2012). Cannabis was the most commonly used illicit drug, although the use of alcohol and tobacco is also legally restricted for adolescents in these age groups. By contrast, usage statistics for other drugs such as opiates, hallucinogens and cocaine show rates well under 10 per cent of the adolescent population. The statistics also suggest that experimentation with all substances increases with age (White & Williams, 2016). The prevalence rate of approximately 27 per cent for cannabis use in 16 and 17 year olds is concerning, with cannabis experimentation next in prevalence to trying cigarettes (see figure 10.3). The average age for first cannabis usage is currently around 14 years, with the average age showing a decreasing trend (Ross, 2007). This trend is deleterious, since the lower the age of first-time usage, the more likely is regular ongoing use, and the more strongly is cannabis use associated with negative educational outcomes. These include leaving school with no qualifications and non-progression to tertiary studies. A study of New Zealand adolescents by Fergusson, Lynskey, and Horwood (1996) found that early initiators of cannabis were three times more likely than later initiators to leave school prematurely. Increasing 544

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evidence is also connecting early and prolonged cannabis use to the development of psychosis in vulnerable individuals, as well as a link between cannabis use and anxiety disorders (Fergusson, Horwood, & Swain-Campbell, 2003; Verdoux, Gindre, Sorbara, Tournier, & Swendsen, 2003). Additionally, prolonged cannabis usage may have similar detrimental health effects to tobacco smoking (Copeland, Gerber, & Swift, 2006).

FIGURE 10.3

Percentage of students in three age groups who had ever used any licit or illicit substance, Australia 2014

100 12–13 years 90 14–15 years 80 16–17 years 70

Percent

60 50 40 30 20 10

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Source: White & Williams (2016, p. 108).

Prevalence for cannabis use in Australian 14 to 19 year olds declined from 45 per cent in 1998 to 25 per cent in 2004 (Ross, 2007). However, prevalence rates were similar in 2008, 2011 and 2014 (White & Williams, 2016). The use by teenagers of socially condoned drugs such as alcohol and tobacco has also shown an encouraging downward trend in most instances. For example, smoking declined in 12 to 15 year olds after 1996, and continued declining through the last survey in 2014. There was a similar drop for older adolescent smokers after 1999, and the smoking rates for teenagers in 2014 were the lowest compared to any other surveyed time since 1984. As well, risky drinking by 16 to 17 year olds has reduced, and was lower in 2014 than in 2011, 2005 and 2002 (White & Williams, 2016). However, the most worrying statistic occurred for both 12 to 13 years olds and 14 to 15 year olds who increased their alcohol consumption. Nonetheless, a significant proportion of Australian teenagers engage in regular alcohol ingestion or in binge drinking (Hayes, Smart, Toubourou, & Sanson, 2004). Binge drinking is defined as the consecutive ingestion of five or more standard drinks in less than two hours. Such alcohol abuse is an important threat to adolescent health through its association with accidental injury and death (Tillman, 1992), and with interpersonal violence and suicide (Hunt & Zakhari, 1995). Chronic alcohol use can lead to severe medium- and long-term health problems, including destruction of the liver and damage to the central nervous system. It also seriously disrupts the drinker’s ability to function effectively in school, at work and CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 545

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in personal relationships. Nonetheless, alcohol is socially valued as a sign of adulthood and independence. In addition, as a potent anxiety reducer and releaser of inhibitions, it continues to be a highly popular social lubricant among young adolescents, despite the legal drinking age in most Western countries of 18 years. Current statistics on underage drinking (e.g. Hayes et al., 2004a, 2004b) indicate that a legal age for drinking, whether it is 18 years or even older (e.g. 21 in the United States), does not seem to be a very effective deterrent to underage drinking. Without better policing of violations and greater responsibility by parents and other adults who may condone drinking or supply alcohol to minors, the presence of legislation is only part of the answer to this problem.

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Despite teenagers being aware of the health risks involved, cigarette smoking and drug taking is still attractive to some because it makes them feel more grownup and accepted by their friends.

Like alcohol, the use of tobacco products has also been widely promoted as a sign of adulthood, with early adolescents particularly prone to adopting smoking because of its spurious grown-up image. Experimentation quickly escalates to abuse, as nicotine, the psychoactive ingredient in tobacco, is a highly addictive substance. As few as ten cigarettes are needed to establish a physical and psychological dependency that is very difficult to break (Haberstick et al., 2007). Tobacco smoking that usually begins in the teenage years has serious short- to long-term health implications through coronary heart disease, respiratory illnesses and cancers. For instance, if the current cohort of Australian adolescent smokers, estimated at 200 000, continues to smoke, approximately 100 000 of them are expected to die from smoking-related diseases at some time during adulthood (Quit Victoria, 2008). Thus, tobacco smoking is one of the most damaging forms of substance abuse, significantly affecting the health of adolescents currently and in the longer term. Because of the serious and widespread health impacts of smoking, the Australian government instigated several primary prevention strategies during the late 1990s. The National Tobacco Campaign that began 546

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in 1997 featured media advertisements with the theme ‘every cigarette is doing you harm’. This was followed by taxation changes in 1999 that significantly increased the price of cigarettes. Between 1999 and 2002, smoking was banned in public places in several Australian states. Twelve to seventeen year olds surveyed during the period of The National Tobacco Campaign felt that the health messages applied to them personally, and that cigarette smoking was less desirable than previously (White & Hayman, 2004). Smoking prevalence in Australian teenagers decreased significantly between 1999 and 2002, attesting to the effects of primary prevention strategies. There is also evidence of a cohort effect in smoking, due to large-scale attitudinal shifts in adolescents regarding smoking. Smoking prevalence in 12- to 15-year-old Australians more than halved from 20 per cent in 1984 to 7 per cent in 2008; and from 30 per cent to 15 per cent in 16 to 17 year olds over this time (White & Smith, 2009). However, the latest data from 2014 (White & Williams, 2016) shows that while the rate for 12 to 13 year olds remains the same, rates for 14 to 15 year olds and 16 to 17 year olds show an increase that reflects the 1984 rates. The reasons behind this reversal are currently being investigated. Substance use is strongly influenced by family and peer factors. For example, patterns and levels of drinking, smoking and illicit drug use among adolescents are mirrored by very similar patterns of use among their family members. Peer pressure also significantly affects the type, quantity, frequency and circumstances of substance use in teenagers (Kawaguchi, 2004). For example, Ali, Amialchuk, and Dwyer’s (2011) study showed that if the proportion of friends and classmates using marijuana increased by ten per cent, then there was a five per cent increase in the likelihood of individual use of the substance. Another study examining drinking behaviour showed similar effects (Ali & Dwyer, 2010). These factors are increasingly taken into consideration in designing effective prevention programs for substance abuse in adolescence. Thus, many school-based secondary prevention programs go further than primary prevention strategies that have a wide target audience and are usually based on media campaigns or changes in legislation. Secondary prevention programs aim to train adolescents in important life skills that will assist them in developing the confidence to reject drugs. These programs feature risk assessment, decision making, self-directed behaviour change, conflict resolution and how to cope with anxiety in adaptive ways. Such programs are designed to increase knowledge and self-confidence, which will ‘immunise’ adolescents against substance abuse; as well as train them in specific techniques to resist peer pressure to experiment with substances (Hamburg, 1997; Lynch & Bonnie, 1994). However, for teenagers who are already addicted to various substances, primary and secondary preventive interventions are already too late. More intensive tertiary interventions are needed, and involve individually targeted treatments. In Australia during 2006 and 2007, 633 agencies delivered 147 325 closed treatment episodes, with 95 per cent of these treatments involving clients’ own drug issues. Of the treatment episodes, 17 598 were for clients aged 10 to 19 years, representing 12 per cent of the total treatment episodes in Australia. For these clients, the most common drug of concern was cannabis (47 per cent of treatment episodes) followed by alcohol (29 per cent of treatment episodes). Most treatment episodes for affected teenage clients involved some form of counselling, while a minority involved drug withdrawal management (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008).

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FOCUSING ON

Adolescent risk-taking: is education an effective intervention? Millions of dollars are spent worldwide on educational programs to address issues such as unhealthy eating, substance abuse, sexually transmitted disease and dangerous driving. These programs often target adolescents, who are a high-risk group for these health threats. Alongside these risky behaviours is an increase in social and emotional problems in adolescents. Laurence Steinberg, an expert on adolescent development from Temple University in Philadelphia, United States, argues that the dollars expended on educational programs to address such health threats may be money misspent. For example, didactic

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efforts targeting adolescents’ knowledge about the risks involved in unprotected sex, reckless driving and substance abuse typically show expected increases, but result in disappointingly few changes in actual risk-taking behaviour (Steinberg, 2004). The same can be said of social and emotional problems — a heightened awareness can occur through the use of educational programs, but little reduction in the problems is observed (Swabey et al., 2009). Steinberg (2007a, 2007b) has developed a theory to explain this phenomenon, based on cumulative research findings from brain and behavioural science. At the centre of his model are two interlocking brain systems — the social–emotional network and the cognitive control network. The social–emotional network is found in the internal brain regions including the amygdala, ventral striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex and superior temporal sulcus. It is highly sensitive to emotional and social stimuli and is implicated in rewarding behaviours (Monk et al., 2003). This system exhibits dramatic development during puberty and is affected by the hormonal changes that take place at this life stage. The cognitive control network is found in the external regions of the brain and consists of the lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices and the parts of the anterior cingulate cortex to which they are connected. This system is responsible for executive functions such as planning ahead and self-regulation. It develops gradually over an extended period of time through young adulthood and takes much longer to mature than the social–emotional network. Steinberg (2007a, 2007b) maintains that the asynchronous development of the social–emotional and cognitive networks is responsible for the heightened risk-taking behaviours frequently observed during adolescence. Risk-taking decisions necessitate competitive involvement of the two systems, with the cognitive control network responsible for overriding pleasure-seeking impulses that originate in the social–emotional network. For example, the thrill of driving at 150 kilometres per hour must be overcome by the logical conclusion that it could result in a very bad crash and that the sensation is not worth the risk. The anticipation of increased sexual pleasure by not using a condom must be overcome by the knowledge that it could expose both partners to sexually transmitted disease. According to Steinberg’s (2007a, 2007b) theory, the cognitive network with its more gradual developmental trajectory is still not sufficiently strong during adolescence to overcome the signals from the social–emotional network (such as when the social–emotional network is highly aroused — generally when strong emotions are experienced or when the individual is in a social situation with peers). When the individual is alone, or is not excited, the cognitive network generally prevails. However, it is not until adulthood that the cognitive network is sufficiently developed to overcome the impulses from the pleasure-seeking social–emotional network during periods of high excitement or under strong social influences. As the systems that govern social and emotional information and reward are so closely interconnected during adolescence, it might explain why so much risk-taking behaviour takes place in groups rather than when the individual is alone. Steinberg’s most recent work with colleagues (Botdorf, Rosenbaum, Patrianakos, Steinberg, & Chein, 2017) describes how risk-taking behaviour is predicted by individual differences in maintaining cognitive control over emotional impulses, but not non-emotional, response conflict. Steinberg argues that the increasing focus of educational programs on health threats is relatively ineffective in view of a biologically driven asynchrony in the neurological development of teenagers. Interventions that address these developmental issues might be more effective, such as legislation aimed at controlling the circumstances where adolescents’ pleasure seeking is most likely to overcome their good judgement. Examples of this are the Australian state and federal laws that limit the number of passengers less than 21 years of age allowed in cars during the provisional licence period, increasing access to contraception, and raising the price of cigarettes and ‘alco-pop’ drinks. Additionally, in relation to social and emotional problems, education programs are useful to raise awareness and should be included or continued in schools — but in order to change behaviour, more substantial community changes are required.

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

1. Do you believe social and emotional problems are on the rise in the adolescent population? If so, why? If not, why not? 2. How well does the asynchronous brain development outlined by Steinberg account for the risky behaviours observed during adolescence? Which other mechanisms might play a vital role?

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Teenagers like Abbey not only experience profound physical changes during adolescence — they also undergo a revolution in the way they are able to think. They show a type of logical thought allowing them to systematically manipulate a number of different factors simultaneously, which is not apparent in younger children’s modes of thinking. For example, using formal operational thought, teenagers are capable of weighing up the pros and cons of such issues as embarking on a sexual relationship, or whether or not to experiment with drugs. As well, teenagers are able to think abstractly, entertaining possibilities that are freed from the constraints of the here-and-now. For example, they are able to contemplate hypothetical situations, such as, ‘What if I had been born really poor or fabulously rich?’ or ‘What would happen to society if a nuclear war broke out?’ Unlike younger children, adolescents can imagine what these situations might be like even though they have not experienced them (Keating & Sasse, 1996). These new skills in speculative thought also stimulate adolescents to think critically about their own actions and feelings and to make more astute inferences about other people’s actions and feelings; for example, an adolescent may theorise, ‘Perhaps she said she didn’t want to go out with me because she’s grossed out by my pimples . . . ’ Psychologists have uniformly recognised these new cognitive capabilities but have tried to explain them in different ways. Two major theoretical viewpoints have emerged: the cognitive developmental viewpoint of Jean Piaget and the neo-Piagetians; and the more recent approach of information-processing theory, which analyses human thinking as a complex storage, retrieval and organising system for information, much like a computer. Both theories have been discussed in previous chapters and in relation to early and middle. Here, we focus on how they relate to adolescence.

10.6 Piaget’s theory: the stage of formal operations

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LEARNING OUTCOME 10.6 Demonstrate how Piaget conceptualises cognitive development during adolescence and explain what has been discovered since Piaget had these ideas.

According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, between the ages of about 12 and 15 years, cognition undergoes a qualitative transformation from concrete operational thought that typifies middle childhood, to a more abstract way of thinking called formal operational thought that typifies adolescence and adulthood. Concrete operational thought involves mental manipulations (operations) performed in observable situations or on actual objects. However, formal operational thought is characterised by ‘operations on operations’; in other words, the individual can perform mental manipulations using internal representations (thoughts) alone, and is not tied to observable situations and things. Like the conservation tasks of the concrete operations stage, Piaget and his colleague B¨arbel Inhelder developed a number of tasks to identify the different aspects of formal operational thought that sets it apart from earlier types of thinking. Piaget and Inhelder typified formal operational thought as hypothetico-deductive, propositional and combinatorial, relating to the different cognitive tasks they used, two of which are described below (Bond, 2004).

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Hypothetico-deductive reasoning Piaget found that around age 13, individuals are first able to make hypotheses from their own observations and can test them systematically. This ability, known as hypothetico-deductive reasoning, underpins the scientific method used in experiments in all branches of science. Inhelder and Piaget (1958) devised several tests of hypothetico-deductive reasoning, including the classic pendulum problem. This problem involves a frame from which different-sized weights are suspended using strings of different lengths, like a clock pendulum. There are usually four different weights and four different string lengths. The problem is to work out which factor is responsible for the speed at which the pendulum swings — string length, size of the weight, or the height from which the weight is dropped. In formal operations, individuals use a systematic approach to the problem and are able to arrive at the correct solution — the length of the string is the only variable affecting the rate of movement in the pendulum. However, to Piaget and Inhelder, the correct solution was less important than the method individuals used to arrive at the answer.

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Many teenagers are able to solve problems using the scientific method, reflecting one aspect of formal operational thought called hypothetico-deductive reasoning.

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning is demonstrated when an individual reasons that in order to determine which of the variables affects the speed of the pendulum swing, all other variables must be held constant while a single variable is tested. Adolescents who have attained formal operations arrive at this type of systematic reasoning. However, it is beyond the cognitive capabilities of younger children who usually try to vary both the weight and the string length simultaneously, which leads them to an indefinite conclusion. This approach is typical of a child who is still in the stage of concrete operations, and who finds it very difficult to deal systematically with multiple factors or dimensions in a problem. In formal operations, adolescents begin with the abstract possibilities, such as making hypotheses about what will cause the pendulum to swing faster, and then practically test these possibilities using a systematic method. 550

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By contrast, concrete operational children are tied to the here-and-now of the experiment, trying to make different combinations of the concrete elements work in order to solve the problem. However, they are unable to make the conceptual leap to the more abstract idea that one aspect should be tested at a time, while holding all the other aspects constant.

Propositional reasoning Another feature of individuals who have attained the stage of formal operations is their understanding of propositional reasoning. This type of reasoning involves making inferences from premises which are presented as true, so the concluding statement is also true. For example, the premise, ‘All men are mortal’, is presented along with the second premise, ‘Socrates is a man’, followed by the logical conclusion, ‘Therefore Socrates is mortal’. Thus, propositional reasoning uses abstract manipulations that are freed from the concrete, and may take on premises that are not factually true. For example, a premise might consist of, ‘Cats run faster than sports cars’. The second premise might be, ‘Sports cars run faster than family sedans’, with the logical conclusion that ‘Cats must therefore run faster than family sedans’. Within the system of formal logic, the conclusion would be recognised as valid from the premises, and this is understood by adolescents who have reached the stage of formal operations. However, given the same set of premises, a concrete operational child would insist on the concrete reality that cats cannot run as fast as a sports car, and would therefore judge the conclusion to be invalid (Pillow, 2002). This example illustrates the inability of concrete operational children to distinguish the factual content of the problem from the logic of the argument, an operation that older adolescents aged 15 to 18 years of age are able to do (Markovits & Vachon, 1989; Venet & Markovits, 2001).

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Variations in the development of formal operations According to Piaget, formal operational thought begins to develop in early adolescence and consolidates at about age 15, with full adult-like cognitive capabilities emerging as a result of the interaction of physical maturation and environmental experience. However, not all types of formal thinking emerge simultaneously, and so Piaget applied the notion of horizontal d´ecalage to the emergence of formal operations, just as he did to concrete operations. Horizontal d´ecalage refers to the sequential acquisition of concepts across different content areas within a single stage of cognitive development. For example, children at the stage of concrete operations are able to conserve quantity before weight, and weight before volume. Thus, Piaget recognised that concrete operational thought does not develop simultaneously for all the properties of material, with the conservation of some properties occurring before others. Bond (2010) has investigated horizontal d´ecalage in Piagetian tasks such as the pendulum task in longitudinal research with Australian secondary students. Using Rasch modelling, a statistical technique that yielded empirical evidence of developmental sequencing in these cognitive tasks, Bond confirmed Piaget and Inhelder’s general account of formal operational thought development, as well as identifying wide individual differences. Research into individual differences in formal operations has revealed that Piaget and Inhelder may have overestimated the cognitive abilities of adolescents from their experiments that exclusively involved middle-class Swiss samples during the 1950s and 1960s. Later studies showed that only about half of older adolescents and adults achieve complete formal operational thought, and some adults and adolescents never achieve this type of thinking (e.g. Lakoff, 1994; Sugarman, 1988). For instance, cross-cultural Piagetian research which flourished during the twentieth century revealed that in some non-Western societies, reasoning often does not extend into formal operational thought (Dasen, 1977). It appears that development of formal operations is heavily dependent on sociocultural context, including the degree to which the environment calls upon different types of thinking; and not purely on the processes of accommodation and assimilation proposed by Piaget (Cole, 2006; Greenfield, 2000). Later researchers argued that the ‘pure’ forms of reasoning accessed by Inhelder and Piaget’s (1955/1958) formal operational tasks might only apply in academic settings, and that everyday problem solving involves much less systematic reasoning (e.g. Bartsch, 1993). For example, in dealing with the CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 551

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issues involved in substance use, risky driving behaviour and sexual relationships, teenagers might not use the same systematic ways of thinking that are encouraged in the science classes they attend. Everyday issues may require applied reasoning that draws on life experience and social judgements, outside of ‘pure’ scientific method and logic. The solution of complex, socially based problems would probably not be arrived at using the same step-by-step systematic reasoning that would solve the pendulum problem, for example. In everyday problem solving, taking the circumstances surrounding a problem into account often leads to the ‘best’ or most mature solution, but it might not be a solution that is fully logical in a Piagetian sense. This more flexible and pragmatic approach to ambiguous problems demonstrates what some researchers have termed postformal thinking (Labouvie-Vief, 1986; Sinnot, 1998). As adolescents grow into young adults, postformal thought becomes more common. Thus, for older adolescents, the cognitive challenge consists of converting formal reasoning from a goal in itself into a tool used for broader purposes and tailored to the problems at hand (Myers, 1993).

The impact of formal operations on adolescent behaviour

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The development of formal operational thought impacts adolescents’ behaviour in a number of ways. During the period of concrete operations, children are relatively unquestioning of adult authority and the explanations that are given to them for family rules, such as bedtimes. However, formal operational thought enables teenagers to think more critically and flexibly about such things and to argue with their parents more skilfully than they could as children, often using multiple viewpoints. For instance, a teenager will come up with a multitude of ideas as to why it is not a good idea to go to bed at 10.00 pm.

The development of formal operational thought increases the critical thinking ability of adolescents.

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Formal operations lead to expansions in education and social relationships. Adolescents are able to better assimilate the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of their culture; and to understand philosophical and abstract topics at school. For example, unlike primary school children, high school students are able to undertake literary analysis and can understand abstract concepts in science that would not be possible using concrete operational thought. Formal operational thought also makes teenagers more skilful at cultivating friendships, potential dates and social contacts — since they are able to project themselves into future possibilities and can anticipate the consequences of various social strategies. Increased critical thinking can render adolescents acutely judgemental of adults and the perceived shortcomings of their systems, values and institutions. Thus, during adolescence, individuals are more likely to become involved in various political and social movements, and want to change society in ways that would make it better in their eyes. Indeed, Mao’s Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s in China and the rise of fascism in Europe during the 1930s were predicated on the political activism of youth. The current support being shown for far-right political parties in Europe and the Americas could be another area of increased involvement by late adolescents. Like the teenagers of previous generations who waved little red books or burned books in bonfires, feelings of injustice are keenly felt by today’s adolescents, as they try to reconcile their ideals with the realities of the way that the world works. In doing so, some adolescents overgeneralise their new-found logical skills (Leadbetter, 1991). They believe that all problems, including ambiguous problems, such as achieving world peace, can be solved by the proper application of rational principles and careful reasoning, with admonishments such as, ‘If only people would be reasonable . . . ’ This attitude can render teenagers idealistic in adults’ eyes, and might prevent them from appreciating the practical limits of logic (Bowers, 1995). Thus, adolescents may fail to notice that some problems, by nature, resist the application of general logic and may have situational, social and emotional aspects that do not lend themselves to straightforward solutions. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

How much and when do you actually use the type of formal operational thinking described by Piaget and Inhelder? How often and when do you use what researchers describe as postformal thinking? What do your answers imply about the place of formal thought in adolescents’ overall development?

10.7 Information-processing theories and adolescent cognitive development Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

LEARNING OUTCOME 10.7 Critique how information-processing theorists conceptualise cognitive development during adolescence.

As was described in the chapter on theories of development and the chapter on physical and cognitive development in middle childhood, information-processing theorists explain human cognition as a complex system of information storage and retrieval, analogous to computer hardware and software, with several distinctive processes, including attention, encoding, memory and thinking. Information processing approaches to cognitive development involve analysis of how developmental changes in underlying cognitive processes contribute to more sophisticated cognition as the individual matures, thus allowing an increase in cognitive outcomes, such as greater knowledge and improved skills. This development is seen as a continuous process. Thus, it differs from the Piagetian approach that assumes more abrupt, stage-like transformations in thinking. Nonetheless, the two approaches are similar in that they seek to understand the processes of cognitive development, and recognise that later advances are built upon a foundation of CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 553

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earlier cognitive achievements (Halford, 2004). Information-processing theory assumes several mechanisms underlying changes in cognition, with specific components undergoing considerable development during adolescence. These components and how they contribute to improved information processing are illustrated in figure 10.4, with the specific developments in each component or process explained as follows.

FIGURE 10.4

An information-processing model of cognitive development Similar components of information processing are involved in childhood and adolescent cognitive development, as illustrated in this diagram. However, during adolescence, significant developmental changes occur in several components, including increased capacity in short-term memory, more efficient control processes and a wider knowledge base stored in long-term memory, as well as metacognitive knowledge involving thinking strategies.

Control processes

Environmental stimuli (input)

Increased efficiency

Long-term memory (LTM)

Sensory register (SR)

Attention

Recognition

Short-term memory (STM)

Rehearsal Organisation

Increased size

Greater specific expertise

Meaningfulness Greater knowledge about problemsolving

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Response (output)

One of the most fundamental components of information processing is attention, which involves the individual’s capacity to focus their cognitive resources on the task at hand. It may be conceptualised as sustained attention, where the individual maintains attention over a prolonged period of time; selective attention, where the individual screens out irrelevant stimuli and focuses only on task-relevant stimuli; and divided attention, where the individual attends to more than one stimulus or set of stimuli simultaneously. During adolescence, increased attentional capacity over that demonstrated in childhood occurs; particularly in selective attention, with processing of task-irrelevant information decreasing as adolescence progresses (Davison, 1996). Divided attention also improves during adolescence, with teenagers having a greater capability of carrying out two or more competing tasks simultaneously (Manis, Keating, & Morrison, 1980). This phenomenon might explainthe tendency of teenagers to do their homework in front of the television, or with loud pop music blasting from media players. Speed of information processing has been observed to increase significantly during adolescence. This is possibly the result of physiological changes in the brain, including the myelination of nerve fibres, which improves the conductivity of neurons. For example, Hale (1990) found that reaction time that reflects processing speed increased significantly from early adolescence to mid-adolescence, so the processing speed of 15 year olds matched that of young adults. Greater information processing speed is linked to better performance on cognitive tasks (Rodrigue, Kennedy, & Raz, 2005). 554

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Memory is a vital process that underlies cognitive development and undergoes considerable change in the adolescent years. Memory is generally divided into short-term or working memory, involving information retention for up to 30 seconds, and long-term memory, involving the relatively permanent storage of information. The different stages of the memory process, including encoding, storage and retrieval, are vital in remembering — and failure in any at any of these stages can result in forgetting (see figure 10.4). Significant increases in working memory have been recognised during adolescence (Luciana, Conklin, Hooper, & Yarger, 2005). This factor underlies the advances seen in adolescents’ abilities to process sequentially more complex and cumulative pieces of information. Adolescents are better able than children to hold larger numbers of informational ‘bits’ in working memory, while they simultaneously operate on them. Similar numbers of informational bits can easily overload younger children’s more limited working memories. For example, Year 1 children can remember three or four random digits, but high school students usually remember six or seven digits. When Year 1 children ask an adult how to spell a word, they can only hold two or three letters in their mind at a time, and the adult has to present them slowly and singly or in pairs; for example, ab . . . or . . . ig . . . in . . . al. By contrast, high school students can be presented with much longer strings of letters and still reconstruct the word accurately. Australian researcher Halford has developed cognitive complexity theory that relates to increasing processing capacity underlying the cognitive advances seen between childhood and adolescence. In 1993 Halford proposed that the number of concepts or ideas that can be processed in parallel increase in an orderly manner according to age. Unary relations involving a single idea or a concept can be processed in infancy, whereas binary relations involving two concepts such as comparing the size of two different objects are possible by the end of infancy and the beginning of early childhood. Ternary relations, such as Piaget’s transitivity task (see the chapter on physical and cognitive development in middle childood), require the information-processing capabilities of middle childhood, whereas problems involving four elements (quarternary relations) usually cannot be solved until adolescence has been reached. Thus, the processing capacity available at different ages limits the complexity of the task that can be mastered. Halford’s (1993) theory also recognises the role of cognitive strategies, which can improve the performance of cognitive tasks. Such strategies are perhaps the most important component of information processing that contributes to the cognitive developments seen in adolescence. Developing more sophisticated strategies for dealing with information involves metacognition — the ability to think about one’s own thought processes. This capability emerges in childhood, but only becomes fully operational in adolescence. Thus, teenagers are better able to understand their own thinking processes than children are, and readily know such things as the amount of time they will need to spend studying for an upcoming test, or the best approach for memorising material (Kuhn & Franklin, 2006). WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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How well do you think the information-processing approach explains the cognitive changes that occur during adolescence? Are there other aspects of human functioning that might also be important in the cognitive advances seen during adolescence?

10.8 The development of thinking skills during adolescence LEARNING OUTCOME 10.8 Justify ways in which thinking skills can be developed and fostered during adolescence.

Thinking — the mental manipulation of information — undergoes significant changes during adolescence, as witnessed in Piaget’s reasoning tasks. The attainment of formal operations allows a marked CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 555

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expansion in the thinking skills of adolescents, which are applied not only in the school setting but in non-academic, practical and social situations as well. Adolescence is a period characterised by increased problem-solving activity, as adolescents are faced with numerous challenges. They may be asked to respond to problems as distinctive as analysing the impact of the Napoleonic wars on the development of European political systems, to fixing the exhaust on the secondhand car they have bought, to working out how best to resolve a conflict with their best friend over liking the same boy in their class.

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Critical thinking One aspect of thinking during adolescence, critical thinking, has received particular attention from theorists and researchers. Critical thinking involves thinking reflectively and creatively; keeping one’s mind open to new possibilities and viewpoints; exploring the profound meanings of ideas and issues; and making personal commitments to beliefs, after deep reflection (Brooks & Brooks, 2001; Keating & Sasse, 1996). The cognitive processes that contribute to the development of critical thinking during adolescence include greater speed, automaticity and capacity for information processing, a greater knowledge base in wide-ranging knowledge domains, increased ability to combine different pieces of knowledge, and a greater number and usage of strategies and metacognitive abilities. The elements essential to critical thinking include King and Kitchener’s (1994) fundamentals. 1. Basic operations of reasoning. To think critically, a person must be able to apply logical argument, classify, deduce conclusions, and generalise from the specific to the universal and vice versa. 2. Domain-specific knowledge. In applying reasoning to a problem in a specific area, an individual first needs to understand certain facts or possess knowledge about the topic. For example, to evaluate a proposal for a fairer system of taxation, a student would need to understand the elements and operations of the existing tax system. 3. Metacognitive knowledge. Effective critical thinking requires metacognitive monitoring, with individuals evaluating when and if they fully understand a concept or a problem, knowing if they need more or new information, and predicting the degree of effort involved in gathering and learning new information. 4. Values, beliefs, and dispositions. Thinking critically means valuing fairness and objectivity. It means having confidence that thinking does lead to solutions. It also means having a persistent and reflective disposition when thinking. Research has found that secondary students understand these elements of critical thinking and increasingly see it as a legitimate goal in their schooling (Nicholls, Nelson, & Gleaves, 1995). From figure 10.5, it is apparent that memorisation as a strategy for learning is seen as less legitimate for students in the early secondary years, compared to primary school students. Indeed, secondary school students in Nicholls et al.’s (1995) study felt that critical thinking was more likely than memorisation to excite students about their studies, and would stimulate them more in peer-based learning. The greater value placed on critical thinking skills may be a function of both the cognitive development of adolescence and the more complex academic material and intellectual tasks that high school students must deal with. Early in adolescence, critical thinking is only beginning to emerge, and young teenagers often display a self-serving bias, where they are able to apply emerging logic and reasoning skills more easily to ideas that they have reservations about, than to those which they trust and initially favour (Klaczynski & Narasimham, 1998). Thus, at the beginning of this developmental period, adolescents have a less objective and open-minded approach to ideas than later in their teenage years. Critical thinking is a skill that must be learned and practised in order for it to develop, and is highly dependent on a solid base of more fundamental verbal and numerical skills established during childhood. Without a firm intellectual base, critical thinking is unlikely to develop during the high school years (Keating, 2004). Past studies have shown that fewer than 50 per cent of Year 11 students develop 556

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effective critical thinking skills (Klaczynski & Narasimham, 1998). Addressing this issue, high schools in Western industrialised nations such as Australia and New Zealand now place a high value on critical thinking, and educators are devising more school-based programs to foster the qualities needed for critical thinking. Indeed, the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (2011) lists critical and creative thinking as one of the seven general capabilities to be fostered by the Australian National Curriculum.

FIGURE 10.5

Students’ ratings of appropriateness of critical thinking as a goal of schooling Older students increasingly perceived critical thinking to be a more appropriate goal of schooling than did younger students, whereas the obverse was found for memorisation as a learning strategy and educational goal. These results are probably a reflection of the burgeoning cognitive skills of adolescents, and the more complex intellectual tasks of secondary school.

Very fair 5

Fairness of emphasising critical thinking

Rating of fairness

4

Fairness of emphasising individual memorisation

3

2

1 Very unfair 0

1–2

3–4 5–6 School year level

7–8

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Source: Adapted from Nicholls et al. (1995).

Programs vary in the thinking skills they emphasise and the degree to which they are integrated into the school curriculum, with some programs taught as a stand-alone subject — much like English or maths — drawing content from several subject areas. Alternatively, critical thinking is taught as part of a subject, such as English literature. Experts agree on several general principles that enhance the quality of critical thinking programs in schools. Firstly, critical thinking should be taught directly and explicitly, since it does not develop by osmosis (Keefe & Walberg, 1992). Without an understanding of critical thinking skills, students will experience difficulty in learning such skills from observing a teacher using them. Secondly, good stand-alone programs for teaching critical thinking offer plenty of practice in solving actual problems, since describing the elements of critical thinking alone does not turn students into skilful thinkers. To accommodate the need for extended practice, the most successful educational programs last at least a full academic year, and often extend thinking skills into other subjects to broaden the effects of the program. Thirdly, successful programs create an environment conducive to critical thinking. Teachers should model important critical thinking skills, by thinking aloud while they explain a solution to a problem. Teachers should also convey confidence in students’ thinking ability while stimulating open and constructive criticism of ideas. A useful technique is to reverse roles, inviting different students to act as a teacher or a constructive critic (Slavin, 1995). Most critical thinking programs tend to minimise traditional bookwork, in favour of active instruction that gives students on-the-spot feedback about the quality of their thinking processes. The role of information technology in the development of critical thinking has recently been recognised. For example, the Australian School Library Association states that ‘A national digital information CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 557

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literacy focus within the Australian National Curriculum will enable progressive development of individual skills to a higher level of thinking, creativity and innovation’ (Bonano, Wall, & Clarke, 2011, p. 4). At a practical level, widespread computer use in most secondary school subjects can also have a significant impact on the development of critical thinking skills. In a study of West Australian adolescents, McMahon (2009) found a significant correlation between the use of computer technology and the development of critical thinking skills in Year 9 students. Moreover, the greater their technological skill level, the greater was the degree of higher level thinking. McMahon conjectures that information technology expertise — including an understanding of Boolean logic, top-down approaches to solving problems and exploring data manipulation from novel dimensions — all impact general critical thinking skills that were manifest at a tertiary level in this study. McMahon found a positive and significant correlation between the length of use of computer technology from primary school onwards and critical thinking skills in Year 9. So, long-term access to computer technology and concomitant skills in finding information from a wide range of sources might also contribute to the attainment of critical thinking skills during adolescence. Following a comprehensive literature review, Carmichael and Farrell (2012) undertook a case study to review the development of critical thinking skills of university students using a website. It was concluded that success in developing critical thinking skills is dependent on the development levels of the students, as well as their experience and engagement with the technology. Critical thinking programs draw heavily on research findings and theories of cognitive development concerning the adolescent years. One important theoretic foundation for critical thinking programs is Piaget’s cognitive–developmental theory, with its focus on the development of logic and reasoning. Information-processing theory, with its focus on specific ways of organising ideas and coordinating new ideas with pre-existing ones, is also an important theoretical guide to designing such programs. Moreover, the social and cultural context of cognitive development in adolescence is vital in understanding how other people and social settings affect thinking during adolescence. For instance, in multicultural classrooms, such as those in many Australian and New Zealand secondary schools, cultural differences and misunderstandings can complicate teachers’ efforts to encourage critical thinking skills.

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Decision making Another type of thinking that is a particular focus for development during adolescence is decision making. As a transitional period between childhood and adolescence, the teenage years call for an increased level and frequency of decision making, including issues such as subject choices in school and whether to take on a part-time job, and the sort of employment to pursue; as well as many health-related decisions, including whether to experiment with drugs or reject them, and when or whether to embark on sexual relationships. Thus, decision-making ability can be vital to the future wellbeing and vocational success of many teenagers. A theory that is central to decision making is Tversky and Kahneman’s (1974) prospect theory, which deals with individuals’ assessments of risk in decision making. The theory proposes decision-making behaviour that is dependent upon the individual’s perceptions of the balance between potential risks and potential gains. These behaviours can be seen on many television game shows. For example, risk-aversive behaviour is demonstrated when a contestant opts to secure a more certain money prize which is a lower amount than a bigger prize that has less chance of being secured. On the other hand, a contestant might be confronted with a situation where they are certain to lose a particular prize amount and alternatively they are then offered a fifty–fifty chance of losing this same amount or even shorter odds (i.e. a greater chance) of losing a much larger amount. In such situations, people will often opt for a greater chance of losing the much larger amount rather than opting for less chance of losing the smaller amount. This is termed risk-seeking behaviour. Prospect theory is relevant to the period of adolescence, because it is a period of experimentation and hence risk-taking. This theory may therefore help to explain some of the risk-seeking behaviours seen in teenagers. 558

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Adolescent learner drivers often display greater improvements in cognitive driving skills than adult learner drivers, but the over-representation of young people in the road death toll suggests the skills are not translated to everyday driving.

One of the most important findings connected to the theory is that it is perceptions of risk that are most important in decision making, regardless of the actuality of the risk involved. Research has demonstrated that the actual risks of death and injury posed by natural causes (such as heart disease) tend to be underestimated, while those posed by unnatural causes (such as homicide) tend to be overestimated (Bernstein, 1996). Moreover, Tversky and Kahneman (1974) argue that recognition of risk-related cognitive biases of various kinds is crucial in understanding individuals’ decision-making processes. Biases due to retrievability of instances are relevant to risk-taking behaviour; for example, when personal perceptions of the probability of having a motor accident are increased by seeing an accident along the highway. Such biases may be employed to good effect in road safety training courses, where the salience of accidents is increased by having motor accident victims present their histories, or by taking participants to police compounds where wrecked vehicles are impounded. Despite the presence of cognitive biases that may spuriously influence decision making, rendering it less than objective, research has shown that decision-making competency increases with age over the period of adolescence. Teenagers are increasingly able to generate different options, to view them from different perspectives, to accurately predict outcomes, and to critically evaluate the credibility of different sources of information (Keating, 2004). However, decision making is generally easier when emotional arousal is low. The tendency for emotional intensity to be higher during the teenage years means that adolescent decision making is often clouded by feelings, and so is less open to rationality and thus more susceptible to the cognitive biases outlined by prospect theory (Dahl, 2004). As well, simply having the cognitive capability to make decisions does not necessarily mean that they will in fact be carried out. An example of this type of dissonance can be seen in driver training, when a considerable number of technical decisions — such as when to make a right-hand turn, whether to let another motorist have right of way and how far away to place the car from a motorist in front — have to be made in a short CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 559

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time period. Driver training courses often show course-specific improvements in adolescents’ cognitive driving skills that are frequently superior to the improvements made by adults. However, road tolls generally involve a disproportionate number of young drivers — attesting to a lack of translation of these skills to the everyday driving habits of adolescents. How adolescents manage decision making in actual driving situations and other decision-making settings needs further investigation (Fantino & StolarzFantino, 2005). WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Investigate how the Australian National Curriculum fosters critical thinking skills. Which particular areas of the curriculum have this as a goal? How successful do you think teachers will be in implementing these skills?

10.9 Moral development

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LEARNING OUTCOME 10.9 Provide a critique of how theorists conceptualise moral development.

Abbey was looking forward to the end-of-year school social. Boys from two nearby schools were officially invited to attend the social, and many of Abbey’s friends had already been invited by boys they knew. Abbey did not have a date for the evening. She did not really know any boys that well, apart from the friends her younger brother Nicholas brought home. But they were far too young — she would not even consider inviting one of her kid brother’s friends along and make herself a laughing stock. She thought it was better to go alone and just take her chance on finding a date on the night. Aside from looking forward to it, she was also feeling a bit apprehensive about the social. What if all her friends were with boys? Who would she hang out with? It could be really embarrassing. Her friend Maria was boasting about the boy that had invited her already — he was really good looking and was a very good single-sculls rower. Maria was already referring to James as her boyfriend. She told Abbey that they had been to the movies together a few times, and she often hung out with James and his friends on the weekends. Abbey’s mother dropped her off outside the door of the school hall where the social was being held. Abbey was feeling apprehensive, but then she spotted Maria waving to her from the far side of the hall. She crossed quickly to where Maria was standing, and there in front of her was one of the most handsome boys she had ever seen. He had the sort of athletic body she had always admired. Maria introduced her to James. Abbey and James had plenty to talk about, both being involved in exercise. During the evening James smiled at Abbey many times. Even when he was dancing with Maria, James kept glancing at Abbey in a manner that made her feel like she was the only person in the room. When he asked her to dance he got so close that her whole body felt electrified, and when he said goodnight after the social, he looked at her in a very meaningful way. Abbey hoped that Maria had not noticed. The next day Abbey received a telephone call. It was James. He wanted to meet with her alone at the local park. In making a decision regarding whether she should meet with James, Abbey had to consider her own desires and feelings, as well as her rights and responsibilities, what she understood as ethical standards, her own behavioural expectations and the relationship between herself and other people, including her best friend, Maria. The decision she would make and the justification she would find for her decision involves a cognitive process called moral reasoning. Moral reasoning is the process of applying reasoning to situations and decisions that involve right and wrong. Moral reasoning changes developmentally, giving rise to qualitatively distinctive responses depending on the age of the individual. Thus, children, adolescents and adults show different levels of moral development. Moral development not only involves the cognitive component of moral reasoning, but also changes in moral or ethical behaviour, and changing feelings about moral matters. Abbey was experiencing all of these aspects in the situation she was faced with.

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The cognitive component of moral development has been studied extensively, first by Piaget. In his landmark book The Moral Judgment of the Child (1932), Piaget concentrated on moral development in young children. The developmental stages identified by Piaget are described in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in early childhood. Elkind based his research on egocentrism on Piaget’s work, and then Kohlberg and Gilligan later extended Piaget’s original formulations about morality within a cognitive–developmental context to later stages of development, including adolescence. Elkind, Kohlberg and Gilligan’s work is now discussed in detail.

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Elkind’s egocentrism Elkind’s research built on the theory of Piaget. He completed extensive research in the areas of perceptual, cognitive, and social development. Self-absorption is fairly typical of adolescents. During the teenage years, young people seem preoccupied with their own thoughts, feelings and issues. Elkind (1978) labelled teenage self-absorption as adolescent egocentrism, and recognised two phenomena that help to explain the egocentric behaviours displayed during adolescence. The imaginary audience describes teenagers’ preoccupation with the reactions of others. In exercising their new-found perspective-taking ability, they often fail to differentiate between how they feel about themselves and how others feel about them, confusing the two points of view. The personal fable is a notion that the adolescent’s own life embodies a special story that is both heroic and completely unique (Elkind, 1985). Adolescents may believe that they are destined for fame and fortune by virtue of what they consider to be an unparalleled combination of personal charm and talent. This inflated opinion by adolescents of their own importance and spurious notions of their total and absolute uniqueness is often accompanied by an idea that no-one else can possibly understand them, particularly their parents (Elkind, 1994). The personal fable can lead to unrealistic ambitions and to inevitable failures that may plunge adolescents into the depths of despair. As well, when combined with sensation-seeking, the personal fable may give rise to beliefs of invincibility and, thus, risk-taking behaviours, such as unprotected sex, experimentation with drugs and dangerous driving (Greene et al., 2000). American psychologist Jean Twenge has recently expanded Elkind’s original notions about adolescent egocentrism, sounding social alarm bells in her bestselling book Generation Me (2006). Based on her research into self-esteem, depression and anxiety in late adolescents and young adults, Twenge found that generation Y was significantly higher in narcissistic traits than were baby boomers or generation X. The data were the responses of 16 000 United States college students to the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006 (Twenge, Konrath, Foster, Campbell, & Bushman, 2008). Based on these generational analyses, Twenge (2006) maintains that today’s youth have become unhealthily selffocused to the point of narcissism. Young people now hold dangerously unrealistic beliefs about their ‘specialness’, importance and uniqueness; and have developed a sense of entitlement that has little hope of fulfilment in the social and economic climate of today. In a follow-up volume with co-author W. Keith Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic (2009), Twenge expands her narcissism thesis to Western society in general, and to age groups other than adolescents and young adults. The authors claim that narcissism has risen alarmingly, based on contemporary surveys of 37 000 American college students. In support of this contention, Twenge and Campbell also cite sociological evidence of a quantum shift in Western society’s values to encompass the ‘me’ culture — a fivefold increase in plastic surgery in the last decade, the rise of Facebook and other self-promoting social media, the ubiquity of reality TV shows that promise instant public recognition, and the endorsement of celebrity cults with ‘famous-for-being-famous’ people achieving prominence that is no longer linked to any kind of achievement (such as the Kardashians and Paris Hilton). Individual examples of excessive self-absorption are also provided in The Narcissism Epidemic, such as a teenager wanting a major road blocked to traffic so that a marching band could precede her entrance on a red carpet to her sixteenth birthday party. Psychologists argue that a certain amount of narcissism is healthy and essential for personal development and vocational advancement (e.g. Boyd, 2010). However, certain narcissistic traits — such as

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unreasonable demands and expectations of others, lack of empathy, grandiosity, status-seeking, superficial and manipulative interpersonal styles, materialism, and avoidance of effort — all compromise individual adjustment and interpersonal relationships. At their extreme, narcissistic traits can manifest as a serious personality disorder. Twenge and Campbell provide evidence of a rising malaise in youth, with increased rates of anxiety and depression, as well as impoverished social relationships, linking this phenomenon to the concomitant rise in narcissism (Twenge, 2000; Twenge & Campbell 2001, 2008). Twenge and Campbell (2009) lay the blame for the increase in narcissism squarely at the feet of the selfesteem movement which began in the 1970s and burgeoned in the following decades. Concern over low self-esteem and its detrimental consequences spurred parents and educators to build children’s self-esteem with messages of their ‘specialness’, and to bestow rewards on them in the absence of any achievement. However, the authors argue that such a regime primes adolescents and young adults for disappointment and disillusionment, when their inflated expectations are inconsistent with the reality of everyday life challenges and failures. Thus, the self-esteem movement, according to Twenge and Campbell, has resulted in increased depression and anxiety — the detrimental outcomes that it originally sought to diminish. Twenge and Campbell’s thesis has not gone unchallenged. Reviewers of the The Narcissism Epidemic criticise its somewhat simplistic association between the self-esteem movement and today’s narcissism and accompanying social ills. For example, the increase in depression and anxiety in young people today is likely to be influenced by multiple factors at both individual and societal levels, not simply the result of a disappointed and over-inflated ego. Moreover, Trzesniewski, Donnellan, and Robins (2008) challenged Twenge, Konrath, Foster, Campbell, and Bushman’s (2008) findings with results that indicated no significant generational changes in narcissism between 1982 and 2008. Twenge and colleagues have responded by pointing out confounds in Trzesniewski et al.’s analysis. Re-analysing the data to correct for this anomaly, they have found persistent generational increases in narcissism (Twenge, 2010).

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Controversies aside, the question remains as to whether the demonstrated generational increases in narcissism are indeed a phenomenon of concern, indicating increasing psychopathology in today’s youth. Perhaps it should be viewed within the context of the developmental experience of ‘generation me’ — an experience that differs greatly from that of previous generations, who showed much lower levels of narcissism. Young people in the twenty-first century, unlike their parents and grandparents, have grown up with terrorism as a daily event, the AIDS epidemic, the global financial crisis, and increasing uncertainty about the future. In the face of such overwhelming challenges, perhaps an inward self-focus is understandable. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Twenge and Campbell’s findings focus on American adolescents and young adults. Do you think their concerns about adolescent narcissism should extend to Australian youth? Investigate Australian research in this area to evaluate the cross-cultural applicability of the assertions found in The Narcissism Epidemic.

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Kohlberg’s theory of moral development Lawrence Kohlberg, an American developmentalist, extended Piaget’s work on moral development during the 1960s, publishing his main opus Essays on Moral Development in 1984. Like Piaget, Kohlberg used ethical dilemmas to elicit moral reasoning. His 11 dilemmas were, however, standardised and targeted older individuals than Piaget’s damage and intentionality scenarios (see the chapter on physical and cognitive development in early childhood for details). Each dilemma consisted of a scenario in which the male protagonist had to make a choice between two values that were in conflict with each other: (1) a legalistic, societal requirement and (2) an individual, humanitarian requirement. The most famous of these is the ‘Heinz scenario’, in which the protagonist, faced with his wife’s imminent death from cancer, must choose between disobeying the law and stealing a life-saving drug from a chemist who has impossibly overpriced it, and keeping within the law and allowing his wife to die (Colby, Kohlberg, Gibbs, & Lieberman, 1983). In Kohlberg’s original study, 58 North American boys aged 10, 13 or 16 responded to the dilemmas, giving an indication of what the protagonist should do and, more importantly, their reasons for recommending this action. Using specified criteria, Kohlberg categorised the reasons the boys gave according to six ascending stages of moral development, reflecting moral reasoning that becomes increasingly more influenced by internal ethical standards and less by external authority. Thus, Kohlberg’s theory is an extension of Piaget’s original formulation of younger children’s stage-based moral reasoning, which also develops from more to less externally controlled formulations. However, Kohlberg’s model is a lifespan theory, extending Piaget’s model beyond childhood and into adolescence and adulthood. In Kohlberg’s theory, each consecutive pair of stages is assigned to a different level. Preconventional moral reasoning is characterised by an emphasis on external rewards and/or punishments, and shares one of the stages — heteronomous morality — with Piaget’s earlier theory. At the next level, conventional moral reasoning shows a greater degree of internalisation, but internalised standards still reflect the conventions of other people, such as family or wider society. The highest level is postconventional moral reasoning, which is guided entirely by an internalised personal moral code. The stages and levels of Kohlberg’s theory are illustrated in table 10.1. Like Piaget’s model, Kohlberg’s theory assumes stage unity; that is, the same level and stage of moral reasoning will be reflected in the moral reasoning applied to a range of moral dilemmas. Another assumption in both models is stage–sequence invariance; that is, individuals must progress through lower stages before reaching higher stages.

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TABLE 10.1

Kohlberg’s stages of moral judgement

Stage

Nature of stage

Preconventional level (emphasis on avoiding punishments and getting awards) Stage 1 Heteronomous morality; ethics of punishment and obedience

Good is what follows externally imposed rules and rewards and is whatever avoids punishment.

Stage 2 Instrumental purpose; ethics of exchange

Good is whatever is agreeable to the individual and to anyone who gives or receives favours.

Conventional level (emphasis on social rules) Stage 3 Interpersonal normative morality; ethics of peer opinion

Good is whatever pleases or helps others and brings approval from friends or peer group.

Stage 4 Social system orientation: conformity to social system; ethics of law and order

Good is whatever conforms to existing laws, customs and authorities; contributions for the good of society as a whole.

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Postconventional level (emphasis on moral principles) Stage 5 Social contract orientation; ethics of social contract and individual rights

Good depends upon consensus principles in the face of various individual values; common principles should be upheld for the ultimate welfare of society.

Stage 6 Ethics of self-chosen universal principles

Good is whatever is consistent with personal, general moral principles relating to universal justice and human rights that may be at odds with society’s laws.

The participants in Kohlberg’s original study were retested at intervals over the following 20 years, allowing Kohlberg and his colleagues to validate the stage-based sequencing of moral reasoning. Colby et al. (1983) found that the stages were indeed sequential and age-related. Preconventional stage 1 and 2 reasoning accounted for 80 per cent of the ten year olds’ responses, and decreased significantly with age. Stage 4 reasoning was completely absent from ten year olds’ responses to the moral dilemmas, and few boys exhibited stage 4 and 5 reasoning while still in their teens. Reasoning at stage 5 was also quite rare, even in adulthood, and did not emerge until at least the early twenties. Chronological age did not seem to affect developments in moral reasoning beyond adolescence, with 75 per cent of men aged 32 still reasoning at stage 3 or 4. The findings of this study are graphically illustrated in figure 10.6, tracking the proportion of individuals at different ages exhibiting stage 1 to stage 5 reasoning. The results of Colby et al.’s original validation study have since been confirmed by other studies (e.g. Jadack, Hyde, Moore, & Keller, 1995; Walker & Taylor, 1991). So few individuals were found to reason at stage 6 that it did not appear in Colby et al.’s (1983) longitudinal results, and it was omitted from the standardised scoring system that Kohlberg developed in later years to regularise the categorisation of individuals’ responses. This rather rarefied final stage of moral reasoning seems to be restricted to people who are formally trained in areas such as philosophy and ethics, and seldom features in the moral thinking of the general population. Nevertheless, stage 6 remains theoretically important in Kohlberg’s model, and perhaps typifies the moral development of ethically outstanding people, like Mahatma Ghandi, Hanan Ashrawi and Nelson Mandela. Shortly before his death, Kohlberg contemplated adding a seventh stage to his model, related to a cosmic perspective where individuals actually transcend morality, experiencing oneness with the universe and recognising the interconnectedness of everything.

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FIGURE 10.6

Longitudinal development of moral reasoning In a longitudinal follow-up study of Kohlberg’s original sample, Colby et al. (1983) confirmed that subjects showed consistent advances in moral reasoning with age. The graph lines show the proportion of the same group of male participants at successive ages from 10 to 36 who gave responses characteristic of each of Kohlberg’s six stages. With development, responses associated with the preconventional level (stages 1 and 2) declined, whereas responses associated with the conventional level (stages 3 and 4) increased. Few young adults moved to the postconventional level of moral reasoning.

70 Stage 1

Percentage of individuals

60

Stage 2 Stage 3

50

Stage 4

40

Stage 5 30 20 10 0

10

12

14

16

18

20 22 24 Age (years)

26

28

30

32

34

36

Source: Adapted from Colby et al. (1983).

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Criticisms of cognitive–developmental theories of morality Kohlberg’s model is probably the foremost contemporary model of lifespan moral development, challenging social learning formulations (e.g. Bandura, 1991) and psychodynamic accounts (e.g. Freud, 1930). However, the theory is not without its critics. There are methodological issues as well as difficulties associated with the assumptions underlying Kohlberg’s theory, and by corollary, Piaget’s model on which it is based. Like Piaget’s developmental model, Kohlberg’s theory is built on data consisting of open-ended verbal explanations, categorised according to specific criteria. Later researchers, such as Rest (1999), maintained that the scoring procedures Kohlberg developed are insufficiently objective and consistent, despite some regularisation introduced by his Standard Issue Scoring (Colby & Kohlberg, 1987). As well, the content of Kohlberg’s hypothetical moral dilemmas have been criticised as too narrow — consistently pitching family issues against authority in a prohibitive way, whereby the protagonist is faced with law-breaking in order to fulfil family obligations. Thus, the scenarios are a contest between justice (legitimate individual rights) and formal laws, with their accompanying societal obligations. Many moral dilemmas are not of this type and more usually involve balancing of individual needs with those of other people (Bollerud, Christopherson, & Frank, 1990). For example, in the scenario at the beginning of this section, Abbey would have to consider her feelings of attraction to James and balance her individual emotional needs with the rights and the feelings of her friend Maria. Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas may be too abstracted from real-life dilemmas to elicit ecologically valid levels of moral reasoning. Researchers have found that self-generated moral dilemmas based on actual life experience are much wider in terms of content that Kohlberg’s rather narrow hypothetical dilemmas, which, in many ways, lack veracity (e.g. Lickona, 1991; Yussen, 1977). For instance, the dilemma faced CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 565

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by Abbey is a more likely scenario than the extremely fanciful situation that Kohlberg’s character Heinz hypothetically encountered. Research by Walker, deVries, and Trevethan (1987) that used real-life, selfgenerated moral dilemmas, but employed Kohlberg’s scoring system, yielded very different outcomes compared with a classical Kohlberg study. For instance, there was little differentiation between the moral reasoning of early adolescents compared to late adolescents, and these two age groups showed much less high-level moral reasoning than middle-aged and older adults. These findings contrast rather starkly with Kohlberg’s findings and the replications of his original study. As well as methodological issues, assumptions underlying Kohlberg’s model have also attracted criticism. Nucci and Turiel (1993) maintained that Kohlberg’s model fails to make a distinction between the domains of moral knowledge and social conventions. Social conventions refer to the arbitrary customs and agreements about acceptable behaviour in a particular culture, such as table manners and forms of greeting and dressing. Morality, however, refers to the weightier matters of right and wrong. Transgressions of morality include personal harm; for example, injuring somebody. Social transgressions are less serious; such as eating dinner with your fingers, which might be acceptable in Riyadh (the capital of Saudi Arabia), but not in New York. Both domains engender rules, but moral rules are inflexible and general. For example, most cultures have an equivalent moral rule to the Judeo-Christian commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’. By its more concrete nature, social convention tends to generate widespread agreement throughout society, whereas morality is more ambiguous. Yet Kohlberg’s six-stage theory glosses over these differences, by defining some stages in terms of social conventions and others in terms of morality. For example, stage 4 (social system orientation), refers to social conventions as well as to moral matters, but stage 5 (social contract orientation) refers solely to moral matters. Thus, according to Nucci and Turiel, inconsistencies in moral reasoning may arise because the theory does not fully distinguish between social conventions and morality.

Gilligan’s theory of moral development During the period of the Women’s Movement, research by American psychologist Gilligan (1977, 1982) and others challenged Kohlberg’s theory, suggesting that there is gender bias in the all-male protagonists of Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas and in his criteria favouring male-oriented responses. On these grounds, the researchers argued Kohlberg’s model does not apply equally to males and females. Gilligan (1977) maintained that females’ propensity to emphasise interpersonal concerns over justice and individual rights in their responses systematically placed them at lower levels of moral development than similarly aged males. Rather than revising Kohlberg’s methodology, Gilligan more radically proposed a totally different model of moral development, relating specifically to females’ moral reasoning, and containing three stages of moral development that were specifically focused on interpersonal care and concern (see table 10.2).

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TABLE 10.2

Gilligan’s stages of moral development

Stage

Features

Stage 1 Survival orientation

Egocentric concern for self, lack of awareness of others’ needs; ‘right’ action is what promotes emotional or physical survival.

Stage 2 Conventional care

Lack of distinction between what others want and what is right; ‘right’ action is whatever pleases others best.

Stage 3 Integrated care

Coordination or integration of needs of self and of others; ‘right’ action takes account of self as well as others.

Source: Gilligan (1982).

From table 10.2, during the first stage in Gilligan’s ethics of care model, females focus initially on what is best for them as individuals. Then, they make a transition from selfishness (e.g. from insisting 566

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that a friend plays their games) to responsibility. They begin to think about the benefits to others that their behaviour may have. The second stage is dominated by the assumption that the individual must sacrifice her own wishes in favour of others’ wishes or needs (e.g. believing they must play all of their friend’s games in order to be a good friend). Gradually, this changes from ‘sacrifice as goodness’ to a concentration on truth. This realisation leads to the third stage, typified by a morality of non-violence to all, including the self (e.g. a belief that both they and their friend should enjoy activities equally). In defence of her alternative theory, Gilligan argued that Kohlberg’s theory is too male-oriented to be relevant to women and girls, since it was initially developed using a sample of young males. She also argued its overriding justice perspective neglects an equally important and essentially ‘female’ moral dimension — the ethics of care perspective — which emphasises human interconnectedness and concern for others. Gilligan claimed the different patterns of socialisation in girls and boys orients them towards these radically different moral perspectives (Gordon, Benner, & Noddings, 1996; Taylor, Gilligan, & Sullivan, 1995). Thus, according to Gilligan, men view morality mainly in terms of justice and fairness, engendering rules and laws. Women, on the other hand, view morality in terms of responsibility and compassion towards individuals. Gilligan’s model has aroused much controversy and many investigations testing gender differences in moral reasoning. Research to date, however, has revealed a much more equivocal picture than Gilligan’s theoretical stance of two separate gendered systems of moral development suggests. Studies involving both real-life and hypothetical moral dilemmas have largely found that the themes of justice and caring appear in both male and female open-ended responses, attesting to a unified, rather than an exclusively male and an exclusively female, moral perspective (e.g. Walker, 1995). Moreover, the likelihood of males and females approaching a moral dilemma either from a justice- or care-based perspective has been found to depend, largely, on perceptions of the closeness of the relationship involved. A care-based perspective is more likely in both males and females when a close personal relationship is involved; and a justice orientation is more likely when there is greater social distance — for example, when the person is viewed as an out-group member (Ryan, David, & Reynolds, 2004). Thus, many critics have regarded Gilligan’s rejection of Kohlberg’s model as premature.

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Moral reasoning and moral behaviour during adolescence Kohlberg maintained it is not until adolescence that individuals become capable of developing a personal moral code that guides interpersonal behaviour. Kohlberg also claimed that the stage of moral reasoning achieved is a good predictor of moral behaviour, particularly at the higher levels of moral reasoning. Research has supported this assumption to some extent. For example, adolescents assessed at the higher stages of moral reasoning have been found to act more altruistically and prosocially, and less aggressively and antisocially, than do adolescents at lower stages of moral reasoning (Comunian & Gielen, 2000; Taylor & Walker, 1997). Nonetheless, the overall correlation between moral reasoning and moral behaviour is fairly modest. For example, highly prosocial teenagers who were active in community leadership and social programs were found to be undifferentiated in their levels of moral reasoning from teenagers who were socially disengaged and much less prosocial (Reimer, 2003). As well, students who reasoned at the postconventional level were still found to cheat in some research studies (e.g. Richards, Bear, Stewart, & Norman, 1992). Thus, research suggests that there is quite a gap between what adolescents say they believe and what they actually do in terms of moral behaviour. Unlike the artificial scenarios of Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas, real-life moral dilemmas like the one faced by Abbey often involve high levels of emotional intensity and personal relevance, as well as factors such as self-interest and risk perception involving the likelihood of being discovered for wrongdoing. It seems that the cognitive reasoning emphasised by Kohlberg’s and Piaget’s theories are not the total story in explaining why adolescents behave in the way they do with regard to right and wrong. In fact, moral behaviour may be much more situationally specific than consistently predictable from an overall level of moral reasoning. CHAPTER 10 Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 567

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MULTICULTURAL VIEW

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Is moral reasoning universal or culture-specific? Both Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s models are universal theories of moral development, assuming that the same invariant stage-based sequence of developmental steps in moral reasoning should apply equally to all individuals. Kohlberg developed his theory using the responses of well-educated North American middle-class boys, with the danger that the ensuing model reflected values that were too culturally narrow to sustain a general theory of moral development that could be applied worldwide. To test the universality of his theory, Kohlberg subsequently applied the same moral dilemmas he had used with his US sample to similarly aged boys in Mexico, Taiwan and Turkey. Some boys were middle-class city dwellers and others were rural residents from remote villages (Kohlberg, 1969). Happily, Kohlberg found that the non-American boys progressed through the same sequence of consecutive stages, but, rather disturbingly, did so at a significantly slower rate than his original sample. In Australia, Wimalasiri (2001) studied management students and found that ‘age, education, religious affiliation and religious commitment were found to have influenced moral judgement of the respondents’ (p. 1). This data revealed marked differences with US subjects. However, a study undertaken in New Zealand looking at moral reasoning and achievement motivation in sport purported that ‘an individual achievement goal orientation profile appeared to influence the level of moral reasoning used’ (Tod & Hodge, 2001). This latter research complemented previous research undertaken in the field. Did these results mean that the moral development of individuals within these cultures was somehow inherently inferior to that found in the United States and other similar Western industrialised nations? This conclusion would rest on an assumption the moral dilemma methodology that Kohlberg used to operationalise moral reasoning was equally valid in all cultural contexts, thus yielding a reliable set of findings that pointed to such a conclusion. However, in subsequent research, much of the cultural variation that has been found in moral reasoning has been attributed to a mismatch between Kohlberg’s culturebound methodology and the varying culture-specific aspects of moral value systems around the world. In 1987, Snarey reviewed 45 studies of Kohlberg’s stages in 27 countries, revealing support for the universal sequentiality of Kohlberg’s stages, at least to stage 4. However, the postconventional stages are culturally controversial. More recent studies have provided evidence that some cultures do not support this type of thinking. Village-based societies in developing nations may not afford individuals relevant experience that encourages thinking at a postconventional level, so individuals in these societies do not appear to ‘progress’ to these higher levels of moral reasoning. For example, in Papua New Guinea, the traditional wantok system with tribal allegiance and immediate payback for wrongdoing would affect these individuals’ responses to Kohlberg’s dilemmas — apparently arresting their moral reasoning at the lowest level of preconventional moral development, which is predicated on reward and punishment, or at the conventional level, which is based on social obligation (R. B. Rawlinson, personal communication, 2008). Thus, the results obtained for individuals in pre-industrial societies might result from the fact that Kohlberg’s postconventional stages reflect moral reasoning based on wider societal institutions, rather than on the relationships between individuals that are crucial to the functioning of village-based societies. Kohlberg’s dilemmas reflect core Western beliefs regarding self-definition — individual freedom and separateness from others (Fiske, 2002). This belief system contrasts markedly with many non-Western belief systems. The basic tenets of Islam hold that all people are responsible for one another. Thus Muslims are called upon to give to charity, assist immigrants and to feed the hungry (Islam Project, 2011). Confucian traditions widespread in Asian cultures similarly define the self in terms of interdependence on others and value collective benefit over individual rights. Collectivism does not simply extend to close relationships, but to more distant individuals such as one’s countrymen (Chen, Chen, & Xin, 2004). Buddhism rejects

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the Judeo-Christian idea of a permanent self and an unchanging soul. Instead, Buddhists regard karma — human actions of body, speech and mind — as the driving force behind the endless cycle of suffering and rebirth of each being. Karma is not the individual’s responsibility but an impersonal process, part of the makeup of the universe (Harvey, 1990). Individuals whose fundamental beliefs are congruent with such systems of thought would interpret Kohlberg’s dilemmas — which pit individual rights and freedoms against societal requirements — in a different way, compared to individuals with Western beliefs regarding the self in relation to others. For instance, a moral dilemma scenario that involves filial disobedience in order to reach an individual humanitarian moral goal would tend to be meaningless within a collectivist Confucian value system that esteems respect for elders and obedience by offspring to their parents. Thus, the standard Kohlbergian scoring system that has been developed with a cultural backdrop that values individualism over collectivist orientations would yield spurious results in terms of development in moral reasoning. In the sense that it has been developed within a specific cultural context, the Kohlberg model may therefore be quite culture-bound, espousing a specific type of morality that has arisen from the Judeo–Christian tradition, and which might not be appropriate to other cultures. Hence, Kohlberg’s model may only reflect relativities rather than absolutes, in terms of moral development. Consequently, the level of moral development achieved in various cultures using Kohlberg’s dilemmas and scoring system might be a function of sociocultural factors and not simply a function of the individual’s level of cognitive development in regard to moral matters.

During adolescence, individuals develop moral self-relevance — the extent to which a moral approach is part of the person’s self-concept (Reimer, 2003). The extent to which morality becomes integrated into self-concept may impact more significantly on the expression of moral behaviour in adolescents than their level of moral reasoning does (Walker, 2004). For example, North American teenagers who exhibited moral traits in their descriptions of themselves were also found to be very high in community service, but their levels of moral reasoning were similar to their peers who were not engaged in community service (Hart & Fegly, 1995). The mechanisms underlying moral self-relevance still await discovery, but close personal relationships that model prosocial behaviour may interact with moral reasoning to promote high levels of empathy, and thus motivate altruistic behaviour (Blasi, 1995; Reimer, 2003). The Multicultural view feature considers whether moral reasoning is universal or culture-specific. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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Using the information in table 10.2, postulate Abbey’s most likely response to her moral dilemma and the reason(s) she might give for her decision. Taking into consideration the reason(s) given, which of Gilligan’s stages would Abbey be at? Using Abbey’s moral dilemma, formulate model responses for each of Gilligan’s stages of moral development. Compare your answers with those of several classmates. What issues does this raise with regard to Gilligan’s method of measuring moral reasoning?

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SUMMARY 10.1 Explain the term adolescence and how it has become a developmental stage.

Adolescence, which begins around age 12 and lasts until about age 18, is a developmental transition between childhood and adulthood. The extension of education during the late nineteenth century and the abolition of child labour helped to create a period of transition between childhood and adulthood. 10.2 Describe the differences in body height, weight and shape between boys and girls during adolescence.

Adolescents experience significant increases in height and weight around the ages of 12 to 14 years, with boys a little later than girls in this regard. There are, however, large individual differences in the timing of the teenage growth spurt. The later initiation of the growth spurt in boys is responsible for enduring sex differences in adult height and weight. Body shape becomes differentiated in boys and girls by differential fat and muscle development, resulting in conformity to adult masculine and feminine body shapes. 10.3 Define puberty and describe how it affects the bodies of boys and girls.

Puberty consists of the changes in the sex organs and related parts of the body that signal sexual maturity and the ability to reproduce. Pubertal changes are stimulated by increased production of sex hormones (androgens), particularly testosterone and oestrogen. In boys, there is rapid growth of the penis and scrotum and production of fertile sperm; in girls, puberty is marked by menarche (the beginning of the menstrual cycle). Both sexes exhibit secondary sex characteristics during puberty; such as breast development in girls, beard development in boys and the growth of pubic hair in both sexes. 10.4 Explain how and when puberty occurs, and describe the effects of non-normative puberty development in girls and boys.

There are wide individual differences in the timing of puberty, as well as cultural differences and historical variations. Puberty occurs within a fairly narrow developmental window, suggesting a strong biogenetic factor, but environmental influences, particularly the proportion of body fat, may vary the timing of puberty significantly within this biogenetically determined window. For boys, the effects of non-normative early maturation tend to be negative, with greater susceptibility to behavioural and psychological problems in the short term. Late maturation for boys may have short-term, negative effects in peer relationships, but later maturing boys generally experience better long-term outcomes. Early maturation exposes girls to significant psychosocial and health risks, including inappropriate sexual relationships, STIs and teenage pregnancy, as well as externalising behaviours and adjustment difficulties, in the short term. Longer term outcomes, however, may be more positive. Late-maturing girls tend to be protected from early sexualisation and are generally better adjusted than early maturers.

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10.5 Identify the major health threats to adolescents and explain how they are more at risk than other age groups.

Adolescents are a high-risk group for injury and death due to risky behaviours and beliefs of invulnerability. Major health threats in adolescence include exposure to STIs; substance abuse including recreational drug use, drinking and smoking; and obesity and eating disorders. Adolescents are more vulnerable to these health threats because they are related to risk-taking behaviours, which are more prevalent during the adolescent years. A broad range of problems is common in adolescents experiencing social and emotional issues; for example, poor interpersonal problem solving and decision making; low self-esteem, self-concept and self-efficacy; and high levels of violent and antisocial behaviour. 10.6 Demonstrate how Piaget conceptualises cognitive development during adolescence and explain what has been discovered since Piaget had these ideas.

According to Piaget, the period of adolescence is characterised by the development of formal operational thought, whereby individuals are able to reason abstractly in the absence of observable situations and objects. Hypothetico-deductive reasoning and propositional thought are two aspects of formal operations that allow individuals to think in terms of scientific method and sequences of logical relations. 570

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Research has revealed wide individual differences in the development of formal operations during the adolescent years; it is more dependent on sociocultural context than Piaget originally supposed. As well, formal operational thought could well be confined to academic settings and may not be highly applicable to ambiguous real-world problems. Formal operational thought has a profound effect on adolescent behaviour, significantly expanding both their social and intellectual worlds, as well as engendering characteristics — such as idealism and political activism — that are predicated on logical analysis of society’s problems. 10.7 Critique how information-processing theorists conceptualise cognitive development during adolescence.

Information-processing theories recognise the significant improvements in many of the processes underlying the changes seen in thinking during adolescence. Short-term memory improves over that seen in childhood and long-term memory possesses a greater store of accumulated knowledge. Adolescents are able to use increased attentional capacities and are better equipped to divide their attention between stimuli and to screen out irrelevant stimuli than children. 10.8 Justify ways in which thinking skills can be developed and fostered during adolescence.

Formal operational thought allows the development of critical thinking skills involving open-minded, deep and reflective consideration of issues and concepts, with a subsequent commitment to certain beliefs. Critical thinking skills increase over the period of adolescence, but unless there is a solid foundation of fundamental intellectual skills in childhood, critical thinking is unlikely to develop. Teaching critical thinking is a common focus of many secondary schools that have developed reliable programs to foster and increase these skills. Secondary students, unlike primary school children, recognise the merits of critical thinking as a learning strategy over simple memorisation. Decision making is another crucial thinking skill in adolescence, which is a period characterised by problem solving of various kinds. Decision making utilises adolescents’ new abilities in perspective taking and entertaining different future possibilities, and competency generally increases with age. However, decision making may be compromised by the high emotional intensity common in adolescence. The relationship between the cognitive processes involved and the actual decisions made by teenagers needs further investigation.

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10.9 Provide a critique of how theorists conceptualise moral development.

Piaget’s original work with children led him to propose development in moral reasoning from more egocentric, externally controlled conceptualisations to less external and more flexible ideas involving an understanding of other people’s intentionality in wrongdoing. Kohlberg extended Piaget’s ideas into a lifespan model of moral development consisting of six stages of moral reasoning that progress from more to less externally controlled moral behaviour. Subsequent research has confirmed the sequential nature of Kohlberg’s stages, but his final two stages are controversial, since they are achieved by few people, and alternative, non-Western cultures may not support the type of moral thinking that these stages access. Gilligan challenged Kohlberg’s model as being too gender-specific, and developed her own threestage model based on the ethics of care — a feminine perspective. Subsequent research has revealed that both males and females use a Kohlberg ‘male’ justice perspective and a ‘female’ care perspective, depending on the degree of closeness they perceive in the relationships involved in moral dilemmas. This negates the existence of separate gendered systems of moral development. Regardless of the theory that is espoused, a fairly tentative link remains between the level of moral reasoning and ethical behaviour.

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KEY TERMS adolescence The stage of development between childhood and adulthood, from about 12 to 18 years of age. anorexia nervosa A potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterised by severe weight loss through dieting and exercise, unrealistic body image and physical symptoms associated with starvation. attention The capacity to focus cognitive resources on a task. binge drinking The consecutive ingestion of five or more standard drinks in less than two hours. bulimia nervosa An eating disorder characterised by cycles of binge eating huge quantities of high kilojoule food, followed by purging, using enforced vomiting and laxatives, with normal weight for age thus maintained. conventional moral reasoning Moral reasoning characterised by an emphasis on social exchanges and obligations. critical thinking Open, reflective and creative thinking about complex issues, often involving a commitment to a belief after deep consideration. ethics of care Moral principles based on human interconnectedness and mutual support. formal operational thought Thinking characterised by mental manipulations using internal representations alone. growth spurt A rapid change in height and weight that occurs at puberty and is preceded and followed by years of comparatively little increase. horizontal d´ecalage The sequential acquisition of concepts across different content areas within a single stage of cognitive development. hypothetico-deductive reasoning A logical form of thinking in which hypotheses are systematically tested using scientific method. menarche The first menstrual period signalling sexual maturity. moral development Age-related changes in the understanding of right and wrong, as well as in ethical feelings and moral behaviour. moral reasoning The ability to think logically about moral issues. moral self-relevance Integration of moral principles and attitudes into the self-concept. myelination Coverage of nerve fibres with fatty insulation, allowing them to conduct neural impulses more efficiently. oestrogen A female sex hormone, with high concentrations in females and low concentrations in males. postconventional moral reasoning Moral reasoning characterised by internalised moral principles. preconventional moral reasoning Moral reasoning characterised by an emphasis on external reward and punishment. primary sex characteristics Physical features of the organs directly related to sexual reproduction. propositional reasoning Thinking that involves making inferences from premises which are presented as true, so that the concluding statement is also true. psychoactive substances Substances that act on the nervous system, causing changes in mood and perceptions. puberty The period of early adolescence characterised by the attainment of full physical and sexual maturity. secondary sex characteristics Physical features of organs or body parts not related directly to sexual reproduction, such as breasts and pubic hair. sexually transmitted infections (STIs) Bacterial and viral infections that enter the body via the mucous membranes of the mouth and genitals through physical contact.

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social conventions Arbitrary customs and agreements about acceptable behaviour in a particular culture. spermarche First ejaculation in males, signalling sexual maturity. testosterone A male sex hormone, with high concentrations in males and low concentrations in females.

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1 Describe the sex differences in physical development that occur at puberty. Which mechanisms are

responsible for sex differences in body shape during adolescence? 2 Outline the common hormonal process that underlies the onset of puberty and how it is differentially 3 4 5 6

expressed in girls and boys. What are the factors that might account for the large differences seen in the age of puberty onset? Describe how Piaget viewed cognitive changes during adolescence. Explain how Twenge expanded Elkind’s concept of egocentrism. Outline Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1 In terms of positive developmental outcomes, is it better for an adolescent boy to be physically a

late developer rather than an early developer? What are the differences, in terms of developmental outcomes, for early- and late-developing girls? 2 ‘The information-processing approach to understanding the cognitive developments of adolescence is superior to Elkind’s approach.’ Discuss this statement. 3 Is Gilligan’s theory a better account of developments in moral thinking than Kohlberg’s theory? 4 How can schools most effectively foster critical thinking skills in adolescents?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS 1 Test your understanding of key concepts in this chapter by matching the correct terms from the list

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below to an applicable example. Note: There are several distracter terms in the list that do not apply to the examples. Some examples might also match with more than one term. Addiction Anorexia nervosa Binge drinking Bulimia nervosa Conventional care Conventional moral reasoning Critical thinking Growth spurt Integrated care Menarche Non-normative puberty Postconventional moral reasoning Preconventional moral reasoning

Primary interventions Primary sex characteristics Propositional reasoning Psychoactive substances Risk-seeking behaviour Secondary interventions Secondary sex characteristics Sexually transmitted infections Social conventions Spermarche Substance abuse Tertiary interventions

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(a) Tony, aged 17, is very worried. His body still looks like it did when he was 11 or 12. He is embarrassed when he has to undress in the school change rooms. All the other boys are so much bigger and taller than he is, and they have hair in places where he still has bare skin. His penis looks comparatively small and when the boys talk about ‘wet dreams’ and other more explicit sexual topics, Tony really feels out of it. (b) Georgia is very concerned about how she looks. For a long time she has been throwing up after meals and has been secretly giving her food to the family dog. As well, she exercises for about five hours every day and has been counting kilojoules. She has lost a great deal of weight, which she hides from her family by wearing many layers of clothing. But when she looks at her unclothed body in the mirror alone in her bedroom, all she sees is fat. (c) Luke started taking ecstasy at dance parties several years ago. Now he finds that he cannot really enjoy himself without this drug, and has begun to use it outside the dance scene. He feels flat and ordinary when he has not had ecstasy. His old friends seem to be drifting away and his grades are suffering. He has also started to drink heavily when he is out with his new friends, who all take ecstasy too. (d) Thirteen-year-old Amy and her friends like to go shoplifting at the local shopping centre. They dare each other to steal small items from stores and compete with each other as to who can carry off the most audacious theft. Amy and one of her friends have been caught. Before he calls the police, the exasperated store manager questions both girls as to why they are engaging in shoplifting. Amy says she is doing it for fun and she has to do it because it is what her friends are doing. She cannot be a friend and not do what they are doing. Her friend Stephanie adds cheerfully that it is not hurting the store because they have plenty of insurance to cover any losses. (e) The principal of a high school wants to help students to develop their ability to think, so that they will be better prepared for university studies. In a staff meeting she suggests to the teachers of the senior students that they instigate some special classes, including such activities as students reversing roles with the teacher when discussing controversial topics. She also wants the teachers to give students supportive feedback on the thoughts they share with the rest of the class, and encourages teachers to ‘think aloud’ to their classes so that students have an insight into the way that teachers are thinking about issues. (f) The state government is concerned about recent statistics involving substance abuse and the escalating costs to the health budget of treating young people who are drug-dependent. In cabinet one of the ministers suggests a media blitz with dire warnings about cannabis and other drugs, rather like the ‘grim reaper’ campaign carried out in previous years for HIV/AIDS. The minister in charge of education says that such campaigns are not very effective, and it is more important to give adolescents the skills they need to withstand the external pressures to take drugs. The spokesman for the health portfolio interjects, saying that what is urgently needed is more treatment programs for the hundreds of young people who are already in the grip of drug-taking. 2 Laura and Adam, aged 18 and 20, have a long-term sexual relationship. In recent months Laura has experienced a vaginal discharge she has not noticed before, and it feels very sore and uncomfortable when she and Adam make love. She has not mentioned anything to Adam, because she feels so embarrassed about her problem. After several weeks the soreness and discharge have not gone away, so she goes to her doctor who prescribes an anti-fungal medication for the trichomoniasis infection she has contracted. As a precaution, her doctor advises Laura to have an HIV test. Laura is devastated when it comes back positive. Adam is the first person she has slept with and she thought she would be safe in a committed relationship with someone she truly loves. (a) Describe the factors that are known about adolescent sexual behaviour that might have led to Laura’s situation. (b) How does Laura’s thinking in regard to her sexual relationship relate to the health belief model?

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ESSAY QUESTION 1 How does the health belief model account for adolescents’ increased susceptibility to substance abuse,

sexually transmitted diseases and eating disorders? Describe how an alternative theory, social cognitive theory, accounts for this phenomenon.

WEBSITES 1 The Raising Children Network website features evidence-based content as a resource for par-

ents, and it has a teens section that includes articles and videos on subjects such as body image: http://raisingchildren.net.au 2 The KidsHealth website provides information about health, behaviour, and development. It has a specific TeensHealth mini-site which has clearly described medical information without the jargon. All the material is regularly checked by medical professionals: http://kidshealth.org

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REFERENCES Aalsma, M. C., Tong, Y., Wiehe, S. E., & Tu, W. (2010). The impact of delinquency on young adult sexual risk behaviors and sexually transmitted infections. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46, 17–24. Abassi, V. (1998). Growth and normal puberty. Pediatrics, 102, 507–511. AIDS. Gov. (2011). Sexual risk factors. Retrieved July 28, 2011, from http://aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/prevention/reduce-yourrisk/sexual-risk-factors Ali, M. M., Amialchuk, A., & Dwyer, D. S. (2011). The social contagion effect of marijuana use among adolescents. PLoS One, 6. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3018468 Ali, M. M., & Dwyer, D. S. (2010). Social network effects in alcohol consumption among adolescents. Addictive Behavior, 35, 337–342. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association. Anderson, S. E., Dallal, G. E., & Must, A. (2003). Relative weight and race influence average age at menarche: Results from two nationally representative surveys of U.S. girls studied 25 years apart. Pediatrics, 111, 844–850. Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2011). The Australian curriculum information sheet: General Capabilities. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Information_Sheet_General_Capabilities_ file.pdf Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2008). Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2006–07: Report on the National Minimum Data Set (Cat. No. HSE 59). Canberra: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Babey, S. H., Diamant, A., Hastert, T. A., Goldstein, H., Flournoy, R., Banthia, R., . . . Treuhaft, S. (2008). Designed for disease: The link between local food environments and obesity and diabetes. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Policylink. Bandura, A. (1991). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In W. M. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Handbook of moral behavior and development (Vol. 1, pp. 45–104). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Bartsch, K. (1993). Adolescents’ theoretical thinking. In R. Lerner (Ed.), Early adolescence: Perspectives on research, policy, and intervention (pp. 143–159). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Baur, L. A. (2001). Obesity: Definitely a growing concern. Time to implement Australia’s strategy for preventing overweight and obesity. Medical Journal of Australia, 174, 553–554. Becker, M. H., Radius, S. M., & Rosenstock, I. M. (1978). Compliance with a medical regimen for asthma: A test of the health belief model. Public Health Reports, 93, 268–277. Bergh, C., Brodin, U., Lindberg, G., & S¨odersten, P. (2002). Randomized controlled trial of a treatment for anorexia and bulimia nervosa. PNAS, 99, 9486–9491. Bernstein, P. (1996). Against the gods: The remarkable story of risk. New York, NY: John Wiley Sons. Blaine, B. E., Rodman, J., & Newman, J. M. (2007). Weight loss treatment and psychological well-being: A review and meta-analysis. Journal of Health Psychology, 12, 66–82.

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Blasi, A. (1995). Moral understanding and the moral personality: The process of moral integration. In W. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Moral development: An introduction (pp. 229–253). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Blumenthal, H., Leen-Feldner, E. W., Babson, K. A., Gahr, J. L., Trainor, C. D., & Frala, J. L. (2011). Elevated social anxiety among early maturing girls. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1133–1140. Blumenthal, H., Leen-Feldner, E. W., Trainor, C. D., Babson, K. A., & Bunaciu, L. (2009). Interactive roles of pubertal timing and peer relations in predicting social anxiety symptoms among youth. Journal of Adolescent Health, 44, 401–403. Bollerud, K., Christopherson, S., & Frank, E. (1990). Girls’ sexual choices: Looking for what is right: The intersection of sexual and moral development. In C. Gilligan, N. Lyons, & T. Hanmer (Eds.), Making connections: The relational worlds of adolescent girls at Emma Willard School (pp. 274–285). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Bonano, K., Wall, J., & Clarke, M. (2011). Submission from the Australian School Library Association Inc. to the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety. Submission No 72. Zillemere, Queensland: Australian School Library Association Inc. Bond, T. G. (2004). Piaget and the pendulum. Science and Education, 13, 389–399. Bond, T. (2010). Comparing d´ecalage and development with cognitive developmental tests. Journal of Applied Measurement, 11, 158–171. Botdorf, M., Rosenbaum, G., Patrianakos, J., Steinberg, L., & Chein, J. (2017). Adolescent risk-taking is predicted by individual differences in cognitive control over emotional, but not non-emotional, response conflict. Cognition and Emotion, 31(5), 972–979. Bowers, R. (1995). Early adolescent social and emotional development: A constructivist perspective. In M. Wavering (Ed.), Educating young adolescents (pp. 79–110). New York, NY: Garland. Boyd, R. (2010). Narcissism — living without feelings. Perth, WA: Energetics Institute. Brooks, J. 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Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28, 246–255. Shafer, M. B., & Moscicki, A. (1991). Sexually transmitted diseases. In W. R. Hendee (Ed.), The health of adolescents: Understanding and facilitating biological, behavioral, and social development (pp. 211–249). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E. A. (2009). Lifespan human development. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Silbereisen, R. K., & Kracke, B. (1997). Self-reported maturational timing and adaptation in adolescence. In J. Schulenberg, J. L. Maggs, & K. Hurrelmann (Eds.), Health risks and developmental transitions during adolescence (pp. 85–109). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Simmons, R. G., Blyth, D. A., & McKinney, K. L. (1983). The social and psychological effects of puberty on white females. In J. Brooks-Gunn & A. C. Petersen (Eds.), Girls at puberty. New York, NY: Plenum Press. Sinnot, J.D. (1998). The development of logic in adulthood. New York, NY: Springer. Slater, A. E., & Tiggemann, M. (2010a). Body image and disordered eating in adolescent girls and boys: A test of objectification theory. Sex Roles, 63, 42–49. Slater, A. E., & Tiggemann, M. (2010b). ‘Uncool to do sport’: A focus group study of adolescent girls’ reasons for withdrawing from physical activity. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 11, 619–626. Slater, A., & Tiggeman, M. (2011). Gender differences in adolescent sport participation, teasing, self-objectification and body image concerns. Journal of Adolescence, 34, 455–463. Slavin, R. E. (1995). Cooperative learning (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Stattin, H., & Magnusson, D. (1990). Pubertal maturation in female development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Steinberg, L. (2004). Risk-taking in adolescence: What changes and why. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 1021, 51–58. Steinberg, L. (2007a). Adolescence (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Steinberg, L. (2007b). Risk taking in adolescence: New perspectives from brain and behavioral science. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 55–59. Sugarman, S. (1988). Piaget’s construction of the child’s reality. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Sun, S. S., Schubert, C. M., Chumlea, W. C., Roche, A. F., Kulin, H. E., Lee, P. A., . . . Ryan, A. S. (2002). National estimates of the timing of sexual maturation and racial differences among US children. Pediatrics, 110, 911–919.

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Susman, E., Dorn, L. D., & Schiefelbein, V. L. (2003). Puberty, sexuality and health. In I. B. Weiner (Ed.), Handbook of psychology (Vol. 6). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Susman, E., & Rogol, A. (2004). Puberty and psychological development. In R. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology. New York, NY: Wiley. Swabey, K. J., Bennett, J. A., Nicholson, K., Morse, D., McWhirter, E., & Harris, A. (2009). Social and emotional health programs: do they work? In T. F. Cuddihy & E. Brymer (Eds.), Creating active futures (pp. 167–174). Brisbane, Australia. Swami, V., Frederick, D. A., Aavik, T., Alcalay, L., Allik, J., Anderson, D., . . . Zivcic-Becirevic, I. (2010). The attractive female body weight and female body dissatisfaction in 26 countries across 10 world regions: Results of the International Body Project I. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 309–325. Taylor, J., Gilligan, C., & Sullivan, A. (1995). Between voice and silence: Women and girls, race and relationship. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Taylor, R. W., Grant, A. M., Williams, S. M., & Goulding, A. (2010). Sex differences in regional body fat distribution from preto postpuberty. Obesity, 18, 1410–1416. Taylor, J. H., & Walker, I. J. (1997). Moral climate and the development of moral reasoning: The effects of dyadic discussions between young offenders. Journal of Moral Education, 26, 21–43. Tillman, P. (1992). Adolescent alcoholism. Bethesda, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Tinsley, B., Lees, N., & Sumartojo, E. (2004). Child and adolescent HIV risk: Familial and cultural perspectives. Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 208–224. Tobin-Richards, M. H., Boxer, A. M., & Petersen, A. C. (1983). The psychological significance of pubertal change: Sex differences in perceptions of self during early adolescence. In J. Brooks-Gunn & A. C. Petersen (Eds.), Girls at puberty: Biological and psychological perspectives (pp. 127–154). New York, NY: Plenum. Tod, D., & Hodge, K. (2001). Moral reasoning and achievement motivation in sport: A qualitative inquiry. Journal of Sport Behavior, 24(3). Retrieved from www.biomedsearch.com/article/Moral-Reasoning-Achievement-Motivation-in/77384747.html Tremblay, L., & Frignon, J. Y. (2005). Precocious puberty in adolescent girls: A biomarker of later psychosocial adjustment problems. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 36, 73–94. Trzesniewski, K. H., Donnellan, M. B., & Robins, R. W. (2008). Do today’s young people really think they are so extraordinary? An examination of secular trends in narcissism and self-enhancement. Psychological Science, 19, 181–188. Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, New Series, 185, 1124–1131. Twenge, J. M. (2000). The age of anxiety: Birth cohort change in anxiety and neuroticism, 1952–1993. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 1007–1021. Twenge, J. M. (2006). Generation me: Why today’s young Americans are more confident, assertive, entitled — and more miserable than ever before. New York, NY: Free Press. Twenge, J. M. (2010). The ‘debate’ about increases in narcissism: More twists than a crime novel. Generation Me Weblog (2010, May 12). Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://genme.livejournal.com. Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2001). Age and birth cohort differences in self-esteem: A cross-temporal meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 321–344. Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2008). Increases in positive self-views among high school students: Birth-cohort changes in anticipated performance, self-satisfaction, self-liking and self-competence. Psychological Science, 19, 1082–1086. Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2009). The narcissism epidemic: Living in the age of entitlement. New York, NY: Free Press. Twenge, J. M., Konrath, S., Foster, J. D., Campbell, W. K., & Bushman, B. J. (2008). Egos inflating over time: A cross-temporal meta-analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality, 76, 875–902. Upchurch, D. M., & Kusunoki, Y. (2006). Adolescent sexual relationships and reproductive health outcomes: Theoretical and methodological challenges. In A. Crouter & A. Booth (Eds.), Romance and sex in adolescence and emerging adulthood: risks and opportunities. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. van den Bree, M. B. M., Shelton, K., Bonner, A., Moss, S., Thomas, H., & Taylor, P. J. (2009). A longitudinal population-based study of factors in adolescence predicting homelessness in young adulthood. Journal of Adolescent Health, 45, 571–578. van Jaarsveld, C. H., Fidler, J. A., Simon, A. E., & Wardle, J. (2007). Persistent impact of pubertal timing on trends in smoking, food choice, activity, and stress in adolescence. Psychosomatic Medicine, 69, 798–806. Venet, M., & Markovits, H. (2001). Understanding uncertainty with abstract conditional premises. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 47, 74–99. Verdoux, H., Gindre, C., Sorbara, F., Tournier, M., & Swendsen, J. D. (2003). Effects of cannabis and psychosis vulnerability in daily life: An experience sampling test study. Psychological Medicine, 33, 23–32. Videon, T. M., & Manning, C. K. (2003). Influences on adolescent eating patterns: The importance of family meals. Journal of Adolescent Health, 32, 365–373. Viner, R. (2005). Co-occurrence of adolescent health-risk behaviors and outcomes in adult life. Findings from a National Birth Cohort. Journal of Adolescent Health, 36, 98–99. Waaddegaard, M., & Petersen, T. (2001). Dieting and desire for weight loss among adolescents in Denmark: A questionnaire survey. European Eating Disorders Review, 10, 329–346.

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Walker, L. (1995). Sexism in Kohlberg’s moral psychology? In M. W. Kurtines & J. L. Gewirtz (Eds.), Moral development: An introduction (pp. 83–107). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Walker, L. J. (2004). Progress and prospects in the psychology of moral development. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50, 546–557. Walker, L. J., deVries, B., & Trevethan, S. D. (1987). Moral stages and moral orientation in real-life and hypothetical dilemmas. Child Development, 35, 842–858. Walker, L. J., & Taylor, J. H. (1991). Family interactions and the development of moral reasoning. Child Development, 62, 264–283. Walvoord, E. C. (2010). The timing of puberty: Is it changing? Does it matter? Journal of Adolescent Health, 47, 433–439. Waters, E. B., & Baur, L. A. (2003). Childhood obesity: Modernity’s scourge. Medical Journal of Australia, 178, 422–423. Weisfield, G. (1997). Puberty rites as clues to the nature of human adolescence. Cross Cultural Research, 31(1), 27–54. Wells, J. C. K. (2007). Sexual dimorphism of body composition. Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 21, 415–430. Wells, J. C. K., Treleaven, P., & Cole, T. J. (2007). BMI compared with 3-dimensional body shape: The UK National Sizing Survey. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85, 419–425. White, V., & Bariola, E. (2012), Australian secondary school students’ use of tobacco, alcohol, and over-the-counter and illicit substances in 2011 (p. 91.). Cancer Council Victoria. White, V., & Hayman, J. (2004). Smoking behaviours of Australian secondary school students in 2002. National Drug Strategy Monograph Series No. 54. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. White, V., & Smith, G. (2009). Australian secondary school students’ use of tobacco, alcohol, and over-the-counter and illicit substances in 2008. Victoria: Cancer Council. Retrieved July 29, 2011, from www.ancd.org.au/images/PDF/australian_ secondary_school%20_drugs_2008.pdf White, V., & Williams, T. (2016). Australian secondary school students’ use of tobacco, alcohol, and over-the-counter and illicit substances in 2014 [online report]. Melbourne: Cancer Council Victoria. Retrieved from www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov .au/internet/drugstrategy/Publishing.nsf/content/E9E2B337CF94143CCA25804B0005BEAA/%24File/National-report_ ASSAD_2014.pdf Wichstrom, L. (2001). The impact of pubertal timing on adolescents’ alcohol use. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 11, 131–150. Williams, J. M., & Currie, C. (2000). Self-esteem and physical development in early adolescence: Pubertal timing and body image. Journal of Early Adolescence, 20, 120–149. Williamson, D. A., Womble, L. G., Smeets, M. A. M., Netemeyer, R. G., Thaw, J. M., Kutlesic, V., & Gleaves, D. H. (2002). Latent structure of eating disorder symptoms: A factor analytic and taxometric investigation. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 412–418. Wimalasiri, J. S. (2001). Moral reasoning capacity of management students and practitioners. An empirical study in Australia. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16(8), 614–634. World Health Organization. (2012). Global incidence and prevalence of selected curable sexually transmitted infections—2008. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/75181/1/ 9789241503839_eng.pdf?ua=1 Yussen, S. (1977). Characteristics of moral dilemmas written by adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 13, 162–163.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Photo: © Bill Bachman / Alamy Stock Photo Photo: © goodluz / Shutterstock.com Photo: © monkeybusinessimages / Getty Images Photo: © Syda Productions / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Dan Pearson Photography / Alamy Stock Photo Photo: © Westend61 / Getty Images Photo: © ArtOfPhotos / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Kdonmuang / Shutterstock.com Photo: © paintings / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Hero Images / Getty Images Photo: © Pisannoah / Shutterstock.com Figure 10.3: © Cancer Council of Victoria Extract: © Helen Partridge

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CHAPTER 11

Psychosocial development in adolescence LEARNING OUTCOMES

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 11.1 define identity and describe the factors that influence the development of a personal identity during adolescence 11.2 explain how the sense of self develops during adolescence and describe how self-esteem is affected by adolescence 11.3 compare how parent–child relationships differ during childhood and adolescence, and discuss how intergenerational conflicts affect parent–child relationships during adolescence 11.4 discuss the importance of peer groups to adolescents, and how adverse and positive peer group experiences affect adolescent development 11.5 discuss the changes in sexual activities that occur during adolescence, and how sexual orientation and adolescent pregnancy can affect psychosocial development and adjustment.

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OPENING SCENARIO

As she neared her fifteenth birthday, Rebecca seemed different. She became less open and outgoing with her parents and was distinctly unfriendly to her younger brother, Daniel. She spent long hours in her bedroom listening to music. Rebecca’s mother ventured into her daughter’s messy room only rarely, since Rebecca seemed to resent any intrusion. On an infrequent visit when she needed to collect laundry, Rebecca’s mother spotted some telling photographs of her daughter kissing a boy. One photograph showed Rebecca, with her tongue protruding in a suggestive manner, stretched full-length on an unfamiliar sofa, staring boldly at the camera from under a muscular male body, bare to the waist, whose back was the only side visible to the camera. Rebecca’s mother was shocked. This was a hidden side of her daughter she had not suspected. But perhaps Rebecca’s mother should not have been surprised. Rebecca had changed so much over the past months, becoming more and more secretive, as well as argumentative, often about small things like being late for dinner, and spending all Saturday morning in bed. The interminable disagreements about household jobs that were left undone or half-done were getting her parents down. But now it appeared that Rebecca had a secret boyfriend. Rebecca’s parents decided not to pry, but to wait until Rebecca felt ready to tell them about this important new aspect of her life. Many of the developments of the adolescent period are dramatic, with a suddenness that is rarely seen in the more gradual and cumulative advances of early and middle childhood, making adjustment more difficult than in earlier periods. Rebecca’s parents were experiencing these changes in their daughter, who had transformed from a loving, open child who was helpful and considerate, to someone they felt was now a virtual stranger to them. Thus, the physical, intellectual and emotional changes of adolescence have the potential to create distress and crisis within the individual as well as conflict between the individual and those around them. Such changes in Rebecca were confronting for her parents and her younger sibling. These changes are indicative of adolescence, which has traditionally been seen as a difficult developmental period — a time of ‘storm and stress’. In line with this view, both Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud conceived adolescence as a period of intense psychosexual conflict and intrinsic developmental disturbance (Freud, 1969). However, contemporary research suggests that the ‘storm and stress’ view of adolescence is overstated, and that adolescence is not automatically a time of major upset in personality development or in relationships. Rates of psychological disturbance rise only marginally above the rates seen in middle childhood (Collins & Laursen, 2004; Costello & Angold, 1995; Steinberg & Silk, 2002). Most adolescents throughout the world, including Australia and New Zealand, adapt to the changes in themselves in a healthy manner. They cope with the changing demands and expectations of parents and society in a relatively smooth and tranquil way, displaying positive self-images and good emotional adjustment (e.g. Fa’alau, McCreaner, & Watson, 2005; Steinberg, 2001). Increasingly, adolescence is seen by contemporary theorists and researchers as a period of transition, rather than the fixed period of frustration and psychosocial angst of earlier theorists, such as Sigmund and Anne Freud. Adolescence is characterised by elements of the period of childhood that teenagers have recently left, and adulthood, the period they are about to enter. For the convenience of discussing different developments during a chronological period from about 12 years of age to around 18, adolescence is often divided into separate stages — early adolescence (11 or 12 to 13 years), middle or mid adolescence (14 to 16 years) and late adolescence (17 to 18 years) (Kroger, 2006a, 2007; Spano, 2004). Although these divisions may seem artificial in view of the continuous and cumulative nature of human development, they do serve as markers for important psychosocial transitions. Some authors now regard early and late adolescence as two very distinct periods of development, which are highly contrasting in terms of the individual’s psychosocial functioning. In this chapter, the theme of transition is emphasised in terms of these stages as we examine aspects of psychosocial development that are the particular focus of adolescence.

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Identity development is one of the major psychosocial tasks of adolescence, as is the transition from childhood asexuality to adolescent sexuality. For example, Rebecca’s insistence on maintaining the privacy of her own room is a reflection of developing a personal identity, separate from her family. This drive to establish oneself as an autonomous individual may also explain Rebecca’s new attitude towards her younger brother. Moreover, the photographs that her mother discovered were a clear indication that Rebecca had left behind the asexuality of childhood, and was embarking on the journey into the uncharted territory of romantic relationships and adolescent sexuality. Despite Rebecca’s apparent rejection of her family, for most teenagers, relationships with parents and siblings continue to be crucial contexts for psychosocial development during adolescence, as they were during childhood, but with peers emerging as an essential bridge to mature adult relationships. In this chapter, relationships with family and peers are examined in detail.

11.1 Identity development during adolescence

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LEARNING OUTCOME 11.1 Define identity and describe the factors that influence the development of a personal identity during adolescence.

During adolescence, identity issues become critical. At this stage of life, questions such as ‘Who am I?’, ‘Where am I going?’ and ‘Where do I belong?’ confront individuals for the first time. The reasons that identity issues arise during this period can be traced to several imperatives that virtually impel adolescents into a process of developing a personal identity. The cognitive changes involved in formal operational thinking described in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in adolescence give adolescents a new ability to critically consider their existence as a unique individual and what that individual stands for. Piaget and subsequent researchers recognised the profound changes in the thought processes that adolescents undergo, changes which set the stage for the process of developing an identity. For example, critical thinking skills that accompany formal operations allow adolescents to evaluate the world around them in new ways. This is an important process in attaining a personal identity. For example, when teenagers become interested and even highly involved in political and social movements, they are actively exploring an important aspect of identity: what they stand for ideologically (Adams, 1998; Schwartz, 2001). Adolescents’ recently acquired capacity for perspective-taking permits them to consider what ‘self’ means in relation to wider society and its values. In other words, teenagers become able to view things from multiple perspectives and take on other people’s point of view. This facilitates evaluation of themselves in relation to society’s norms and according to how others might see them. Sometimes this ability is taken to extremes. Elkind (1978, 1985) coined the term the imaginary audience to describe this situation. It involves an over-developed sense of being judged and evaluated by other people, something Elkind found to be common in adolescence. The imaginary audience might make teenagers hypersensitive to criticism and self-conscious in social situations. However, this new ability to think about how others might see oneself is a cognitive skill essential to developing a sense of selfhood. The testing of ideas about the self against external criteria is an important process in arriving at a realistic personal identity. As well as cognitive developments, the hormonal changes at puberty and the awakening of sexual interest also stimulate changes in ideas about the self, propelling adolescents into considering their roles and values in regard to intimate relationships, their sexuality and sexual orientation. Additionally, normative pressures within society provide an imperative for consideration of the self in relation to cultural expectations. These include vocational expectations, with the watershed of leaving compulsory education forcing the issue of forming a vocational identity.

Erikson’s theory: the stage of identity versus role confusion Erik Erikson’s (1950, 1968) theory of psychosocial development has guided much of the thinking and research into adolescent identity development over the past 50 years. Erikson’s ideas about identity were CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 585

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stimulated by his own youth, part of which was spent drifting around Europe trying to ‘find’ himself. Erikson was born to a young Jewish woman from Frankfurt, Germany. His father was an unnamed Danish man he never knew. Initially Erikson took the name Erik Homberger, the surname of the man his mother subsequently married. Later in life he changed his name to Erikson, literally meaning ‘son of Erik’ (Boeree, 2006). So Erikson’s interest in identity was of personal concern to him as well as a professional interest — his work as a psychotherapist in the United States, treating young people in psychiatric settings further developed his ideas about identity. Here, Erikson was particularly struck by adolescents who seemed to be mired in inertia: ‘moving in molasses’ (Erikson, 1968, p. 169). They had little purpose in life and no idea where they were going or who they were as a person. Erikson labelled this state identity diffusion, a state that carried considerable risk for the adolescent, who, ‘if faced with continuing identity diffusion, would rather be nobody, or somebody bad or indeed dead . . . than be not-quite somebody’ (Erikson, 1959, p. 63). Adolescents bemired in identity diffusion who are ‘not quite somebody’ drift aimlessly through life exhibiting role confusion, which forms a pivotal aspect of Erikson’s stage of psychosocial development relating to adolescence. Table 2.2 gives an overview of Erikson’s life stages, including the adolescent period. Like other life stages in Erikson’s theory, the adolescent period encapsulated in stage 5 is a turning point in development, and is presented as a dialectical dilemma. This is an overarching life problem with two opposing outcomes, which Erikson termed crisis. However, he distinguished the crises of his theory from catastrophic or traumatic crises, and saw them as a normative challenge through which personal growth and development occur. In stage 5 of Erikson’s theory, the adolescent must solve the normative crisis of identity versus role confusion (Erikson, 1963). The crisis is resolved when the adolescent achieves a reasonably comprehensive and coherent sense of self — an identity. In this state, the individual feels what Erikson termed ‘a unity of personality’ that is also recognised externally by other people as having ‘a consistency in time’ (Erikson, 1968, p. 13). If an identity is not established, the individual remains in a state of uncertainty as to who they are, rather like the young people Erikson observed during his clinical work who were in a state of identity diffusion. According to Erikson’s theory, the individual must at least address — and hopefully resolve — the crisis at a particular stage of psychosocial development, in order to successfully move on to the next developmental stage. In addressing each of the developmental tasks he outlined, Erikson stressed the importance of individuals striving for a sense of balance in terms of the different dialectical crises that are outlined in his theory. For example, in stage 1 — trust versus mistrust — the child should develop a healthy balance between the two opposite states, so that they have a basic confidence in other people, but are not so unconditionally trusting of others that they become gullible. Being pathologically mistrustful of other people, or on the other hand too trusting, involves an inadequate platform for the next developmental task: achieving a sense of autonomy. So, if the crisis of one stage is insufficiently addressed and if balance is not achieved, it provides a poor basis for tackling the tasks of the following stage. The development of an adequate personal identity during adolescence (stage 5) is therefore dependent on having successfully resolved the crises of previous stages — that is, the adolescent has developed a basic trust in other people (stage 1), autonomy and feelings of self-reliance have been developed (stage 2), initiative in actively exploring possibilities has been undertaken (stage 3), and industriousness and sense of achievement from their efforts has occurred (stage 4). Thus, the preliminary groundwork for identity formation begins in earlier psychosocial tasks, but the central task of identity formation is not fully undertaken until adolescence. As well as integrating the features of the individual’s previous stages of development, identity formation provides direction for future personal growth. If identity is successfully addressed and a coherent idea of self is established, it provides the basis for the resolution of stage 6, the intimacy versus isolation crisis of young adulthood. A clear and coherent sense of selfhood is necessary for achieving intimacy in friendships and love relationships; for tolerating the fear of losing one’s sense of self when intimacy becomes very intense; and for managing the loneliness and isolation when a relationship ends. Thus, Erikson believed that without a well-established personal identity, the individual can find it hard to risk 586

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themselves in close personal relationships, and may be unable to form a meaningful and long-term bond with a significant other, such as a marital relationship. The label ‘identity versus role confusion’ (stage 5) may give a misleading notion as to how Erikson viewed the dialectical dilemma of adolescence, as it could appear to suggest that the culmination of stage 5 is an achieved identity that is a definitive end point in this aspect of development. However, Erikson’s writings clearly indicate that although identity might be reasonably coherent by the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood, identity formation is in fact an ongoing, lifelong process: ‘[identity] . . . continues to reemerge in the crises of later years’ (Erikson, 1968, p. 13). In other words adolescents must achieve a balance between role confusion and identity, as they move through life and as their ideas about themselves change according to different circumstances. So rather than achieving a rigid identity that is set in concrete for the rest of their days, identity development is a continuing process that begins in adolescence and is perhaps never really fully achieved. Periods of crisis during the adult years potentially bring about further episodes of role confusion where identity is profoundly questioned. Therefore, it is in the dynamic balance between the two states where true personal growth lies. Research that occurred subsequent to Erikson’s work by investigators such as Kroger, Whitbourne and Marcia has confirmed the lifelong nature of identity development (e.g. Kroger et al., 2001; Kroger, 2001a, 2001b, 2006b, 2007; Marcia, 1980, 1987, 1993; Whitbourne, Zuschlag, Elliot, & Waterman, 1992; Whitbourne, 2005). Early research by Kroger (1989) found middle-aged adults in New Zealand were still pursuing the integration of some life aspects into their identities, particularly life aspects to do with intimate relationships after marriage breakdown. More recently, Kroger (2001b) has investigated identity development during late adulthood, focusing on the impact of loss on identity development and revision in old age. Despite an ongoing re-examination of some aspects of identity at later stages, a reasonable integration of the elements of identity during adolescence is still essential scaffolding for moving on to successive stages of psychosocial growth in early and later adulthood.

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The process of identity formation Erikson maintained that establishing a personal identity is the major developmental task of adolescence, one that is by no means an easy accomplishment for the individual. Identity is difficult to achieve, because, as adolescence progresses, it involves actively reconciling a number of inconsistent and alternative roles against a backdrop of ever-changing personal perspectives and social demands. Young people must examine in an ongoing way their beliefs about multiple aspects of life, including moral and religious values, political and social stances, gender role and sexual orientation, intimate relationships and parenthood, and ethnicity and vocation, integrating these separate elements into a coherent personal identity. These elements form the content of identity; in other words, the domains within which identity can be explored (Kroger, 2003, 2007). In exploring the domains of identity, adolescents experiment with different roles and activities, discovering what fits their personality and what does not. This process can be seen in young people joining different religious, political or social groups and experimenting with various romantic and sexual partners. Part-time work and study choices can give the adolescent important opportunities for testing contrasting vocational and social roles. In the process of experimentation, identity evaluation occurs. From their experiences, adolescents may place varying emphases and values on different domains of identity, seeking what is unique about themselves in comparison to other people; for instance, their parents. One adolescent might primarily self-identify by social and political activism, becoming a committed member of the Green Left in defiance of their parents’ political conservatism. Another adolescent might incorporate a balance of several domains into their identity, such as being a successful student, popular with peers and an active member of a religious group. In the long process of identity reconciliation, late adolescents focus on integrating the various aspects of identity, recognising the domains that have the greatest personal salience. As well, they are able to recognise the situational specificity of different aspects of their identity. For example, an 18 year old self-describes as ‘a party-animal’, yet at times might feel the superficiality of the party CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 587

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lifestyle, as well as a strong need to spend time alone — thinking about life — especially after a break-up with a current girlfriend. Thus, adolescents come to recognise different situations can elicit diverse aspects of a complex personality, and that their personal identity cannot be described in highly simplified terms.

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Many Australians and New Zealanders travel after finishing high school — reflective of a psychological moratorium that allows them to explore different roles and activities, an important part of identity formation.

Erikson recognised that the period of identity formation during adolescence is a period of psychological moratorium — a developmental suspension between the security and certainties of childhood and the unknowns of the adult world. So, rather than launch themselves wholeheartedly from childhood into the full responsibilities and roles of adulthood, teenagers take a form of developmental ‘time out’ — exploring different roles and activities important for identity formation. Psychological moratorium can be observed in many Australian and New Zealand teenagers taking a ‘gap year’ (‘overseas experience’ or ‘OS’ in New Zealand) after finishing Year 12 in order to explore various possibilities, including different jobs and social service roles. The gap year might involve travel and employment in different countries, allowing young people to explore possibilities that would not be available to them if they stayed at home or continued straight on with post-secondary education. This type of exploration is encouraged by foreign governments that extend youth working visas, making it easier for young people to secure overseas employment.

Individual differences in identity development: Marcia’s identity status model In order to investigate individual differences in identity development, early research by Marcia (1966) used semi-structured interviews to ask students aged 18 to 22 about central aspects of identity such as their occupational choices, religious beliefs and political values. With the aim of ascertaining individuals’ progress towards achieving identity, Marcia proposed four separate types of identity status 588

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that represent different levels of identity development and operationalise several elements in Erikson’s theory. Each status is conceptualised as the result of the interaction of two different criteria derived from Erikson’s theory: a process Marcia termed crisis, involving active exploration of identity alternatives; and an outcome Marcia called commitment, a psychological investment in a course of action (Marcia, 1980, 1987, 1993; Marcia, Waterman, Matteson, Archer, & Osofsky, 1993). The four status categories vary in relation to whether these elements are present or absent, and can be seen in figure 11.1. Marcia’s identity status model According to Marcia, individuals can be classified into four identity categories, each of which is called a ‘status’, and all of which are based on the presence or absence of an identity crisis, and whether or not a commitment to an occupational path and a set of values and beliefs has been made. Crisis

Present

Absent

Present

Identity achievement

Identity foreclosure

Absent

Identity moratorium

Identity diffusion

Commitment

FIGURE 11.1

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Source: Marcia (1980).

The foremost status in terms of identity development is called identity achievement, and is characterised by a period of crisis in which adolescents explore different alternatives in the various identity areas, before committing to a relatively coherent and consistent identity. This, in turn, serves to guide future choices in lifestyle, including vocational and relationship choices. The second of Marcia’s status types in terms of developmental sophistication is identity moratorium, which draws directly on Erikson’s idea of a ‘time out’ period, and is indicated when adolescents have begun a process of actively exploring different roles, but are yet to make commitments. In moratorium, adolescents have the opportunity to try out many different roles and responsibilities. Moratorium can also indicate a suspended process of identity formation through personality factors or life circumstances. In these cases, moratorium can become protracted, and it may constitute a difficult period when the individual avoids making commitments and may feel lost and confused. Marcia proposed two further status types, identity foreclosure and identity diffusion, which represent lower and more problematic levels of identity development. In identity foreclosure, the individual arrives at a committed identity without going through the process of exploration and resolution of the dialectical crisis. Typically, this occurs because an identity has been imposed on the individual, usually by an external authority, such as parents. Foreclosed individuals tend to come from authoritarian homes and follow vocational and other roles that are predetermined. Examples of foreclosure are an adolescent girl unquestioningly taking on a role in her family’s business, in place of exploring other vocational alternatives; or an adolescent boy entering a religious order to please his parents, prior to any exploration of other roles. Erikson pointed to the dangers of a lack of critical exploration of different roles in the pathological foreclosed identity offered by the Hitler Youth organisation in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, which recruited young adolescents as a precursor to military service and inculcated them with Nazi ideals. A contemporary example of this extreme type of pathological foreclosure is the disturbing involvement of many youths in terrorist organisations that enlist recruits for suicide bombings. CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 589

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Young people who show exceptional early abilities, such as proficiency at math, talent in sport or giftedness in the arts, are at risk of identity foreclosure. If the ability emerges during childhood, the individual might embark on a particular path long before any active exploration of different roles can be undertaken. An example of this is the grooming of young girls as Olympic gymnasts. When their short career and identification with the role of gymnast is over in late adolescence or early adulthood, these females can find themselves in a state of identity confusion as a result of not having explored any alternative roles. Thus, the foreclosed individual’s identity is typified by a lack of synthesis of the two aspects of commitment and crisis, with commitment often coming at an inappropriate time in development. The 2010 Hollywood movie Black Swan is a compelling exploration of premature commitment to an identity and life role. At the beginning of the film, the ballerina protagonist Nina — a young adult with exceptional talent — is dutifully fulfilling her excessively controlling mother’s own frustrated ambitions as a dancer (foreclosure). Later, Nina struggles against the rigidity imposed by both her professional and home life, trying to achieve a sense of self by exploring alternative roles and darker adult experiences (moratorium) — activities that her mother strenuously opposes. Nina’s fragile identity shatters under the onslaught of psychosis, an event that mirrors Erikson’s (1968) contention that serious role conflict and identity confusion can lead to psychotic episodes.

Identity diffusion is a type of identity status in which adolescents appear variously flighty, confused or apathetic. They have not taken the first steps in the identity formation process; thus, this status lacks both crisis and commitment. Marcia described the identity diffused adolescent as typically having a ‘party’ attitude to life, not taking normal responsibilities such as academic study seriously, and living life totally in the moment, as though there were no tomorrow. More seriously identity-diffused adolescents, such as those Erikson originally portrayed, are apathetic individuals who lack interest in people, activities and community, and may experience severe self-doubt, low self-esteem, anxiety and depression (Berzonsky & Kuk, 2000; Kroger, 2006a). 590

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Marcia’s status categories offer a useful avenue for applying and evaluating Erikson’s theoretical ideas, so research in the area has burgeoned in the decades since Marcia first operationalised Erikson’s theory. Research has shown that identity development takes many diverse paths, with varying patterns between individuals and across the domains of identity development (Kroger, 2001c; Meeus, 1996). Nonetheless, the majority of adolescents move from the less-developed types of status to the more-developed types, and not in the reverse direction. For example, a previously foreclosed individual, who has embarked upon a particular training course, simply because it is a family expectation, becomes dissatisfied with the role that has been imposed upon them earlier in adolescence and re-evaluates their decision midway through training. They would begin moratorium somewhat later than normal, actively exploring other vocational options, and, as a result, might decide to change to another course that better suits their interests. Identity diffused individuals could also begin the process of identity formation later in life, perhaps when barriers to role exploration have been removed. However, some studies have suggested that foreclosed and diffused identity statuses are much more stable in later adolescence than previously believed, so are less likely to undergo a moratorium-related change than earlier in adolescence (Berzonsky, 2003). Research indicates that during the high school years, diffusion and foreclosure are the most common identity status types, with individuals gradually progressing towards identity achievement over the course of adolescence and young adulthood. Thus, identity achievement is rarest among early adolescents but is more frequently found among older high school students, university students and young adults. However, in a review of longitudinal studies across the years of adolescence and young adulthood, Kroger (2004) found that fewer than half of young adults had reached identity achievement in tertiary education settings. Some studies indicated percentages of achieved identity as low as 13 per cent. Moreover, a recent metaanalysis of cross-sectional studies has shown that the mean proportions of achieved identity at 21 and 22 years were 25 and 33 per cent respectively, and that stabilisation of less mature statuses had occurred for over half of young adults (Kroger, Martinussen, & Marcia, 2010). Nonetheless, Fadjukoff, Pulkkinen, and Kokko’s (2005) results indicated a developmental trajectory towards achieved identity in most domains at some time during adulthood. These and Kroger’s findings challenge Erikson’s assertion of a reasonably coherent identity by the end of adolescence. Research suggests that the process is a much longer one for the majority of contemporary teenagers, perhaps stretching well into adulthood. This phenomenon might be due to the different life circumstances of adolescents and young adults in the twenty-first century, with many developmental milestones — such as completing education, finding employment, marrying and starting a family — happening at later ages than was the case in the mid twentieth century when Erikson was formulating his theory. Cramer (2004) found that life experiences — such work successes, family and marital experiences, involvement in community, and political activities — strongly predicted identity achievement. If these processes are temporally delayed, then it is not surprising that achieved identity is also delayed. Additionally, Lindberg (2008) completed three studies into gender intensification, a theory originally hypothesised by Hill and Lynch (1983). Study 1 found that, in opposition to Hill and Lynch’s hypothesis, between the ages of 11 and 15 girls reported greater femininity and equal levels of masculinity to boys of a similar age; neither became more feminine nor masculine over time. Study 2 found that feminine and masculine traits are more socially accepted when exhibited by that sex. Findings from study 3 indicated that early and late maturers, regardless of gender, experienced identity development similarly.

Factors affecting identity development Gender is a salient factor affecting identity development. For example, in a study of New Zealand adolescents, Kroger and Haslett (1991) found gender differences in the speed with which adolescent girls and boys progressed towards identity achievement. In particular, young women appeared to be more vulnerable to identity foreclosure. Nonetheless, in other studies, progression through the less developed identities towards the more developed identities has revealed no significant sex differences and few sex differences CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 591

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have been found in the distributions of males and females across the different identity status categories (Buckler, 2005; Kroger, 1997; Marcia et al., 1993; Phinney, Ferguson, & Tate, 1997). Although there are few observed sex differences in identity outcomes, there may be significant gender differences in the processes involved in achieving a firm identity. Erikson maintained males and females moved through stages 5 and 6 differently, with males establishing a firm identity prior to embarking on intimate relationships. However, he believed this progression was reversed for females, with identity achievement predicated on first establishing an intimate relationship. Feminist theorist Gilligan (1993) furthered this argument, insisting that women’s intimacy and identity are fused, with identity dependent at least partially on attachment to a significant other. The identity of men, on the other hand, is based on autonomy and achievement. Longitudinal research findings by Buckler (2005) have challenged Gilligan’s and Erikson’s stances regarding different male and female trajectories through stages 5 and 6. Buckler found that identity did not significantly predict intimacy in college-aged males. Instead, the reverse was the case, suggesting that identity in males is not necessarily a precursor to intimacy, as predicted by Erikson’s theory. Moreover, Buckler could find no compelling evidence of a fusion between intimacy and identity in college-aged females. These authors found that that levels of intimacy failed to predict identity a year later. However, gender per se investigated by Buckler might not be the most salient factor. Kroger (2003) argues that gender role differences rather than gender per se influence the salience of different identity domains for young men and women. For example, young women who endorse more traditional gender roles for themselves might emphasise domains concerning interpersonal relationships and social commitments in establishing an identity, whereas those who express greater androgyny are more likely to express their identity through Erikson’s familiar and supposedly ‘masculine’ domains of ideology and vocation. Peers play an important part in the establishment of personal identity during adolescence. Adolescents rely less on adults — such as parents — for information, and more on their friends and peer group for ideas about possible roles and activities in identity exploration. For example, Felsman and Blustein (1999) found that attachment to friends during adolescence correlated significantly with exploration of vocational options and progress towards choosing a career. The peer group is also a crucial reference group for social comparisons involving interpersonal relationships. For instance, Meeus, Oosterwegel, and Volleburgh (2002) demonstrated that the closeness of peer ties predicted the exploration of identity issues connected to relationships, with adolescents considering the characteristics they valued in close friends and romantic partners. Increasingly, the importance of the peer group and its relationship to personal identity is being recognised in the genesis of drug abuse and eating disorders during adolescence. If a teenager’s peer group is indulging in recreational drug use or unhealthy dieting, adolescents can be forced into identity-related decisions regarding personal values and behaviour. ‘Am I part of that scene? Do I identify with those guys and their activities and values?’ Paxton, Schutz, Wertheim, and Muir (1999) investigated the impact of friendship cliques on dieting behaviour in Australian teenage girls, and found significant connections between identification with peer group body image or dieting ‘norms’, and unhealthy eating Paxton et al.’s findings were confirmed in a later study of Spanish teenagers; Like Paxton et al., Cunha (2007) found a significant correlation between peers’ dieting values and individuals’ dieting behaviours. As witnessed by the central role of parental authority in foreclosure, parental factors can be crucial in identity formation. Foreclosed adolescents often possess very close ties with their parents and find it difficult to achieve a healthy separation that would otherwise allow exploration of identity issues. In contrast, adolescents who have a close parental bond that is accompanied by sufficient freedom and flexibility to explore their own ideas and values are most often found in the moratorium status and achievement status (Berzonsky, 2004). Identity diffusion is significantly associated with a lack of parental support, parental warmth and open communication styles (Reis & Youniss, 2004). Identity formation is significantly influenced by aspects of personality, although correlational research suggests that there are bidirectional relationships between personal characteristics and identity status. Numerous studies have shown that individual differences in identity development reflect reliable 592

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differences in personal characteristics and adjustment. Whether these are precursors to the development of a particular identity status or its outcomes is a moot point. Adolescents in the most developed status categories of identity achievement and moratorium tend to be the most psychologically healthy, showing higher achievement motivation, self-esteem and moral reasoning than individuals in the other status groups. Adolescents who are in moratorium are often described as lively, open-minded and androgynous in their attitudes, readily seeking intimacy (Kroger, 2006a, 2007; Marcia, 1994). Foreclosed adolescents are conforming and conventional, and are sometimes characterised as ‘rigidly happy’, rejecting information that might threaten their externally imposed roles (Berzonsky & Kuk, 2000; Frank, Pirsch, & Wright, 1990). Identity diffused adolescents are regarded as the least psychologically healthy individuals and are often highly anxious and exhibit lower scores on a number of measures of personal adjustment. They exhibit a sense of despondency about their future prospects, so are regarded as the most at-risk group for low self-esteem, delinquency, drug abuse and suicide (Archer & Waterman, 1990; Chandler, Lalonde, Sokol & Hallett, 2003; Shaffer, 2009). While there is some evidence to suggest that psychological problems, such as those previously described, interrupt the process of identity exploration and formation (e.g. Berzonsky & Kuk, 2000), there has been little research exploring the role negative physical states might play in identity development. Australian research using the EOMEIS investigated whether chronic illness and disability negatively impact identity development. Burton Smith, Hart, Woolley, and Burbury (2008) investigated the identity status of young people with type 2 diabetes and asthma compared to that of matched healthy peers. Illness-specific results were found, with more diabetic individuals in advanced identity status categories than healthy peers, as well as fewer asthmatics. These results indicate that particular diseaserelated contexts, such as controllability, restrictiveness and body image, interact with the processes of identity formation to promote or impede identity development. Using a similar methodology, Woolley (2007) investigated identity formation in Australian adolescents and young adults with acquired and developmental physical disabilities, and found mainly similarities in the proportions of individuals in the different identity status categories when they were compared to matched samples of healthy peers. From these two studies, it appears chronic illness and disability are not factors that necessarily impede identity development, but may be mediated through other processes in differentially affecting identity development. Societal factors that negatively influence identity achievement include poverty, unemployment, economic recession, political instability and war; all of which result in life circumstances that preclude the activities associated with moratorium. For example, adolescents living in poverty could be primarily concerned with day-to-day survival, immersed in a lifestyle in which opportunities for positive identity exploration are extremely limited compared to the lifestyles of more advantaged adolescents and young adults attending post-secondary education. Poverty can necessitate young people taking on a routine job as soon as they leave school in order to support their family. In war-torn parts of the world and regions where there is political instability and civil strife, young people often lack the opportunities to explore a variety of roles and life courses. Thus, for many adolescents around the world, moratorium is a luxury that they cannot afford. Moreover, in pre-industrial societies today, many adolescents simply take on the roles that are expected of them, constrained by unavailable options and the values of their community. For example, a youth in rural Africa unquestioningly follows his father into a subsistence farming lifestyle. Thus, for many of the world’s adolescents, Erikson’s foreclosure status is the accepted norm (Shaffer, 2009). Adolescents in Western countries who lack positive adult and peer role models, and who live in areas where gangs, drugs and violence are common and rates of school dropout and unemployment are high, are more likely to encounter difficulties in forming positive identities compared with adolescents growing up in more supportive life circumstances (Bat-Chava, Allen, Aber, & Seidman, 1997; McCloyd, 1998). Recent research by J-F, Gillies, Carroll, Swabey, Pullen, Fluck, and Yu (2014) into employment of prisoners following incarceration supports the findings above by indicating that positive identity formation is problematic when difficult life situations exist during adolescence and remain so into adulthood. With limited exposure to more positive possibilities, these adolescents are at risk of developing a CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 593

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type of foreclosure typified by a negative identity (Erikson, 1959). In the absence of the conditions that allow for the development of a more positive identity, an identity such as being a gang member, ‘bikie’ or terrorist can easily emerge, particularly if the adolescent identifies with charismatic figureheads, such as drug lords, gangland figures and the leaders of extremist organisations, who have become successful by criminal or antisocial means.

Cultural factors play an important role in identity development, and in multicultural societies like Australia and New Zealand, the assimilation of an ethnic identity can be a major developmental task for minority teenagers. The particular challenges of ethnic identity development are discussed in the Multicultural view feature at the end of the chapter. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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From your own experience of adolescence and early adulthood, can you relate to Erikson’s stage 5 (identity versus role confusion)? Explain.

11.2 Development of self during adolescence LEARNING OUTCOME 11.2 Explain how the sense of self develops during adolescence and describe how self-esteem is affected by adolescence.

During adolescence, the idea of self or self-concept becomes more complex and abstract, in line with formal operational thought. In middle childhood, children form disconnected, relatively separate impressions about themselves based on characteristics such as their athletic ability, popularity or capabilities as a student. These aspects of self are understood in concrete terms, and often include comparisons with 594

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others. For example, a nine-year-old boy might describe himself in terms of his achievements, saying, ‘I’m the best maths student in my class’. In adolescence, however, teenagers selectively accept or reject the many different aspects of self acquired during childhood, forming a more coherent and integrated sense of self which contains qualifiers. Thus, at age 15, the boy who saw himself as the best maths student is more likely to say ‘I’m good at maths, but I’m certainly not the best maths student that ever was!’ An adolescent’s increasing capacity for abstract thought plays a central role in the process of selfunderstanding; so, teenagers often define themselves in terms of their current ideology, such as ‘I’m an animal liberationist’ or I’m an environmentalist’. This type of self-description reflects the adolescent’s shift from childhood social comparison as a basis for self-concept, to a more internalised and absolute self-view based on abstract principles, values and moral stances (Damon & Hart, 1988; Harter, 1989; Harter & Monsour, 1992; Shapka & Keating, 2005). Unlike children who are at the concrete operational stage of cognitive development, adolescents are able to view themselves from different perspectives, and can distinguish their own self-view from the view that other people might have of them. This multiple perspective-taking in relation to self is consistent with formal operational thought, in which individuals are able to recognise several viewpoints on many issues. This new ability in perspective-taking forms the basis of adolescent egocentrism, and manifests itself in the personal fable and the imaginary audience (Elkind, 1978). Perspective-taking also allows teenagers to recognise, for the first time, inconsistencies in their own qualities and conflicts between various aspects of themselves, particularly when interacting with different people. Each of the many different role-related selves that adolescents experience — such as self with parents, self with friends, self as a classmate, and self with a girlfriend or boyfriend — contains qualities that seem to contradict one another. For example, adolescents might feel that they are outgoing with friends but shy with a romantic partner, or cheerful with friends and depressed with parents. Teenagers often interpret inconsistencies in self as the difference between their ‘true’ and ‘false’ selves. Harter, Marold, Whitesell, and Cobbs (1996) asked adolescents what they understood by ‘true’ and ‘false’ selves. Adolescents’ false selves included ‘being phony’, ‘putting on an act’, ‘expressing things you don’t really believe or feel’, or ‘changing yourself to be something that someone else wants you to be’; whereas their true selves included ‘the real me inside’, ‘my true feelings’, ‘what I really think and feel’, and ‘behaving the way I want to behave and not how someone else wants me to be’. Harter (2006a) regards the emergence of false selves as a normal experience, especially during the middle years of adolescence. It can be a result of social experimentation or as a response to different social circumstances, in which case it can contribute to a healthy development of self-concept. However, if projecting a false self is seen by the teenager as necessary to gain social approval, it might be a source of significant confusion and depression. For example, in Harter and her colleagues’ (1996) study, teenagers who engaged in false self-projection as a way to experiment with new roles reported more positive feelings about themselves, higher selfworth, greater hopefulness about the future, and more knowledge of their true selves than teenagers who engaged in false self-projection to please, impress or win the approval of parents and peers. Moreover, adolescents who reported high levels of positive support from parents and peers engaged in less false self-projections than those who experienced lower levels of support. According to Harter (2006a), most adolescents transcend these problems and emerge at the end of the period with a more sophisticated and coherent self-picture that is based on an accurate understanding of personal strengths and weaknesses.

Self-esteem Self-esteem, the evaluative aspect of self, undergoes considerable change during adolescence. Global self-esteem describes the overall view the individual has of their worth as a person and how satisfied they feel with themselves (Harter, 1999). Global self-esteem decreases significantly after a peak level is experienced in late childhood (Robins, Trzesniewski, Tracy, Gosling, & Potter, 2002). This decrease in general feelings of self-worth is thought to be associated with the transitions that occur during adolescence, including the onset of puberty and beginning high school. Daily hassles might increase, and the teacher

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support and closeness experienced in primary school often declines in the more impersonal environment of secondary schools (Seidman, Allen, Aber, Mitchell, & Feinman, 1994). High school also brings substantial academic challenges and significant realignments in friendship patterns and peer groups, both of which can negatively influence self-esteem. Dramatic changes in body shape and size associated with pubertal growth might lead to lower body satisfaction. This can impact global self-esteem significantly, since body esteem is a substantial contributor to overall feelings of self-worth during adolescence (Frost & McKelvie, 2004; Harter, 1999). The decrease in self-esteem at adolescence compared to childhood could also be due to more realistic self-appraisals that are brought about by cognitive advances. Parenting styles during adolescence are known to influence teenagers’ self-esteem either positively or negatively. Australian research from the Wollongong Longitudinal Study has linked authoritative parenting with higher self-esteem in adolescents, with benefits observed in Year 7 persisting through Year 10 (Heaven & Ciarrochi, 2008). These authors argue that children from authoritative homes are better at setting achievable goals, overcoming obstacles and finding successful paths to such goals, all of which help to boost self-esteem. Heaven and Ciarrochi have also found evidence that authoritarian parenting is linked to low self-esteem in Australian adolescents, suggesting that exacting standards and punitive parental reactions when children do not reach these standards have the effect of undermining self-esteem in adolescent children of authoritarian parents. Significant gender differences in global self-esteem emerge during adolescence, with girls experiencing lower self-esteem than boys. The gender difference in self-esteem is very small during childhood; but, with the onset of adolescence, differences in global self-esteem for boys and girls become much more substantial, with an effect size of .33 (Twenge & Campbell, 2001). This difference is associated with the pubertal decline in self-esteem. Girls’ global self-esteem declines twice as much as boys’ during this developmental period (Heaven & Ciarrochi, 2008; Kling, Hyde, Showers, & Buswell, 1999; Robins et al., 2002; Van Houtte, 2005) — a significant trend that has also been reported in cross-cultural research (Watkins, Dong, & Xia, 1997). Global self-esteem is made up of an aggregate of domain-specific measures, such as physical appearance self-esteem, relationship self-esteem and academic self-esteem. Gender differences vary substantially according to the domain of self-esteem. A meta-analysis by Gentile, Grabe, Dolan-Pascoe, and Wells (2009) examined self-esteem in 32 486 mainly child and adolescent participants in 115 studies between 1970 and 2005. The analysis revealed that adolescent males scored higher than females of the same age in self-esteem domains related to physical appearance and athletics, with small to moderate effect sizes. Adolescent females scored higher than same-aged males in the domains of behavioural conduct and morality/ethics, again showing small to moderate effect sizes. The largest gender differences for adolescents were found in the domains of athletics, physical appearance and morality/ethics. No significant gender differences were found in the domains of academics, social acceptance, family and affect. The authors concluded that domain-specific self-esteem is consistently correlated to performances in that area, with higher self-esteem predicting better performance and vice-versa. Interventions to improve self-esteem in vulnerable populations, such as teenage girls, need to target specific self-esteem domains rather than global self-esteem. For example, interventions for low self-esteem related to appearance in girls need to target appearance-related issues rather than global self-esteem, such as feeling good about the self in general. So, interventions that emphasise more objective self-appraisals involving realistic peer feedback rather than impossible media images can be a fruitful avenue. Several hypotheses have been put forward regarding the apparently more fragile global self-esteem in adolescent girls compared to their male counterparts. Some authors believe that the gender difference in self-esteem originates in girls’ greater concern with body image and higher body-image dissatisfaction (Allgood-Merten, Lewinsohn, & Hops, 1990; Clay, Vignoles, & Dittmar, 2005). In contrast, more recent research by van den Berg, Mond, Eisenberg, Ackard, and Neumark-Sztainer (2010) found that body dissatisfaction/self-esteem association was strong and significant in both boys and girls and did not differ significantly between genders, nor between the middle school and high school cohorts in either boys or girls. 596

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As well, body image makes a substantial contribution to global self-esteem, especially during adolescence and early adulthood (Frost & McKelvie, 2004). Several authors have postulated alternative explanations for gender differences in adolescents’ self-esteem, involving sex-role effects. Masculinity measures have been found to be positively related to global self-esteem in both males and females, whereas femininity scores have a much weaker correlation with self-esteem (Buckley & Carter, 2005; Mokgatlhe & Schoemen, 1998; Sharpe & Heppner, 1991). With men and boys on average demonstrating masculinity traits more strongly than women and girls do, it becomes apparent how gender differences in self-esteem might emerge. Another sex-role explanation involves a conflict between academic achievement and social success for adolescent girls, who may feel embattled as to whether they can be both academically successful and attractive to the opposite sex (e.g. Unger, 2001). This perception puts adolescent girls into a double bind, which, in turn, decreases their feelings of self-worth compared to boys, who experience comparatively less conflict in this regard. A further sex-role hypothesis cites the differential involvement of adolescent girls and boys in athletics as a source of the gender differences found in adolescents’ self-esteem, since athletic competence is a significant contributor to global self-esteem (Fox et al., 1994). The contribution of relationships to the observed gender differences in self-esteem has recently been explored as a possible reason for lower self-worth in adolescent girls. Thomas and Daubman (2001) examined the impact of friendship quality on US adolescents’ self-esteem and found that the negative aspects of opposite-sex friendships significantly predicted lower self-esteem for girls but not for boys. It appears that girls’ self-esteem is vulnerable to the negative impacts of boys’ interpersonal styles, whereas boys’ self-esteem is not similarly and negatively impacted by their opposite-sex peers, since girls have a more supportive interpersonal style than boys (Maccoby, 1990).

This boy is proud of his athletic ability while surfing. Sex differences in self-esteem have been linked to differential involvement in athletics by boys and girls.

Related research with Australian late adolescents and young adults has revealed that romantic relationships have a differential effect on young men’s and young women’s global self-esteem, with the presence CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 597

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of a romantic partner apparently boosting men’s self-esteem, while a romantic partnership did not have a significant effect on women’s self-esteem. With the ubiquity of romantic relationships during adolescence, this finding may further explain the gender differences found in self-esteem during this period, with boys benefiting from the presence of a girlfriend, but girls not experiencing the same sort of boost in self-worth from having a boyfriend (Rice & Burton Smith, 2008). Studies of global self-esteem and domain-based self-esteem indicate that gender differences during adolescence are generally fairly modest. Nonetheless, Kling et al. (1999) note that even a minor difference in self-esteem may initiate a cycle of lowered expectations and diminished effort in adolescent girls. Thomas and Daubman (2001) argue that in turn this can have negative consequences in educational and occupational choice, and later socioeconomic attainment. Thus, even small gender differences in self-esteem should not be ignored or trivialised. Self-esteem contributes significantly to psychological health (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2005; Heatherton & Wyland, 2003), with research evidence that high self-esteem is a crucial determinant of coping ability and a sense of wellbeing (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997). Conversely, low self-esteem is associated with loneliness, anxiety, depression and reduced life satisfaction (Chubb, Fertman, & Ross, 1997; Tomori & Rus-Makovac, 2000). Longitudinal research in New Zealand has indicated that low selfesteem during adolescence has negative outcomes in early adulthood, including poor physical and mental health, financial and employment difficulties, and criminality (Trzesniewski et al., 2006).

11.3 Family relationships during adolescence

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LEARNING OUTCOME 11.3 Compare how parent–child relationships differ during childhood and adolescence, and discuss how intergenerational conflicts affect parent–child relationships during adolescence.

Things were not going well for Rebecca and her family, and they came to a head over a party. Rebecca’s best friend Jessica had an older brother who was turning 18. Jessica was allowed to invite two friends to the party to keep her company. Jessica had asked Rebecca and another mutual school friend, Sarah. Rebecca delivered an ultimatum about the birthday party the day before. Her parents were taken aback by Rebecca’s assertiveness and how she laid down a gauntlet. ‘I’m going because Sarah is, and Jess really wants us to come’, said Rebecca. ‘Just hang on’, said Rebecca’s father, ‘We’d like to know a bit more about this party before Mum and I agree to you going. I take it there will be alcohol?’ ‘Dad, it’s a party. Of course there’ll be beer and stuff’. ‘And what about Jessica’s parents? Will they be there the whole time?’. ‘For sure’, said Rebecca, with her face showing a pained look because of the interrogation. ‘So, it’ll just be you 14 year olds plus two dozen or so 18 to 20 year olds?’ said her father. ‘And beer? I don’t like the sound of it.’ He turned to Rebecca’s mother, who had a worried look on her face. ‘What do you think?’ ‘Well’, said her mother, taking a deep breath, ‘I’ve met Jessica’s mother and she seems like a nice woman, but I don’t like the idea of the two age groups mixing, and the alcohol, that’s a worry’. ‘But Mu-uum’, Rebecca said in a carping voice, ‘Jess, Sarah and I’ll only be drinking Cokes. Geez, don’t you trust me?’ Rebecca’s father mused, ‘I’ve never met Jessica’s father, but I’ve spoken to her mother a couple of times at school functions. She seems like a fairly down-to-earth sort of person . . . I think I’ll give her a call . . . ’ The upshot of the negotiations was that Rebecca was allowed to attend the party until midnight. Her parents vetoed the sleepover that Rebecca had not even mentioned, but that Jessica’s mother had assumed they knew about. It was agreed that Rebecca’s father would collect her from Jessica’s place. Rebecca was sullen, muttering darkly about being ‘damned Cinderella’. Just before midnight the following day, Rebecca’s father pulled up at Jessica’s house. Several police cars were parked haphazardly in the road, with their blue and red lights casting an eerie glow over the scene. Rebecca’s father desperately looked for his daughter in what seemed like the aftermath of a fullscale riot, with scores of young people exiting the property in various states of inebriation. There was no sign of Jessica’s parents. Making his way through the ruined garden, Rebecca’s father eventually found his very drunk daughter lying under a bush, in the arms of a boy he had never seen before. Rebecca 598

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had been violently sick, and the remains of it were still on her clothing. The next day, when Rebecca emerged sheepishly into the kitchen in the early hours of the afternoon, her parents were at the dining table finishing lunch. ‘Sit down, Rebecca’ said her father gently. ‘Would you like some coffee? I think we have a few things to talk about . . . ’ Rebecca’s search for her own identity and autonomy profoundly affected her relationships, particularly with her parents. Her attempts to have a life apart from the life she shared with her family, such as her secret boyfriend, and her new coolness towards her younger brother, caused distress for all family members, and, perhaps most of all, for herself. Rebecca’s ties with her family seemed to be unravelling dramatically, such as on the night of the party, and as a result of small, but insidious changes to her behaviour and actions — such as non-compliance in keeping her room tidy, being continually late for meals, and failing to do jobs around the house. To her parents, Rebecca seemed far more interested in her friends than she was in maintaining the family relationships of old. During adolescence, parents, like Rebecca’s, must make room for their children’s increasing interest in peers and a new commitment to the life among equals that peers provide. Young teenagers’ efforts to become more physically and emotionally separate from their parents and closer to their friends can be stressful, such as the baptism of fire that Rebecca experienced during the party. Nonetheless, the problems and conflicts of this period are typically relatively minor ones. More serious ongoing problems of adolescence are more likely to occur in families in which the developmental needs of adolescents are not met by the teenagers’ parents than in families like Rebecca’s — with parents who take a concerned and active interest in their teenagers’ wellbeing (Steinberg, 2001). A major focus of contemporary research into family relationships is between parents and their teenage children. In this section, adolescents’ relationships with their parents are explored in detail.

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Relationships with parents Parent–child relationships during adolescence are a continuation of the relationships that are forged during childhood, and the quality of these relationships in adolescence is largely dependent on the foundations that are laid during childhood. Thus, any additional strains placed on parent–child relations during adolescence can exacerbate the problems of previous periods of development. On the other hand, these strains are alleviated to some extent by the continuing warmth that exists between parents and children, rather like an emotional bank account built up in the earlier years of development that is drawn upon during the often-taxing teenage years. Although parent–child warmth generally continues from childhood, communication undergoes changes, consistent with adolescents’ emerging ideas of self, including the different ‘selves’ experienced by teenagers in relation to parents and peers. Adolescents feel justified in keeping certain aspects of their lives private from their parents, like Rebecca’s secret boyfriend and her activities in her own domain, her bedroom. Thus, adolescents’ personal issues, such as how they spend their pocket money or engage with their latest romantic interest, are often regarded as ‘off limits’ to parents, while other information, such as school subject choices, might be more readily shared, especially with mothers (Smetana, Metzger, Gettman, & Campione-Barr, 2006). Even with significant changes in parent–child interactions and communications, parents remain an important source of social support for teenage children, and parents continue to have a large influence on their decisions, especially major ones like vocational choices (Needham & Austin, 2010; Steinberg, 2001; Steinberg & Silk, 2002). Nonetheless, parental influence and their role in directly regulating their children’s behaviour tend to decrease during adolescence. This is due in part to the increased degree of self-regulation seen during adolescence. In addition, it is important to note that children who identify as belonging to a sexual minority experience lower levels of parental support, and this affects their health (Needham & Austin, 2010). Self-regulation refers to the individual’s ability to monitor and direct their behaviour to meet environmental demands. As such it involves a bi-directional process where the environment is both acted upon and acts upon the individual (Gestsdottir & Lerner, 2008). It is also a process that undergoes CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 599

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developmental changes, with children showing an age-related increase in self-regulation. As they grow older, children are more able to comply with demands for appropriate behaviour and competent action, and are better able to inhibit impulses and to deal with frustration. These developments are linked to physiological changes in the brain, with the strengthening of neural connections — especially between the frontal lobes and other brain structures (Keating, 2004). Adolescence is a crucial period for the development of self-regulation, including emotional self-regulation. During this period of development, self-regulation of behaviour includes choosing between alternative courses of action, thinking before taking action and inhibiting impulsive and risky behaviours. However, the neural networks governing these activities are not fully mature until late adolescence (Steinberg, 2004), so parents need to continue to play an important role monitoring and protecting their adolescent children, as can be seen in the case of Rebecca and her parents.

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Achieving autonomy During adolescence, there is a shift in parents’ and children’s roles. In early and middle childhood, parents have a role that is typified by power and nurturance. Their primary goals are to protect their children from harm and to facilitate their development. By corollary, children have limited power and autonomy. As children develop, the asymmetrical relationship gradually changes in terms of power and influence, with children’s autonomy increasing with age. During adolescence, there is a marked shift in the asymmetrical parent–child relationship, due to burgeoning intellectual growth characterised by formal operational thought, hormonal changes and normative social pressures. Adolescents begin to think of their parents differently, replacing the all-powerful image of childhood authority and expertise with a more balanced idea of their parents as people with strengths as well as human weaknesses (Allen & Land, 1999; Arnett, 2004). Adolescents increasingly seek autonomy — their independence from parental constraints — with which they can gain a sense of control over their existence, making their own decisions regarding many aspects of life. Increasingly too, parents must release their control over their sons’ and daughters’ lives. Parents are usually more reluctant to cede personal control during early adolescence, a time when they perceive their children as more vulnerable, than in late adolescence, when they have attained greater experience of the world. Indeed, researchers have found sharp distinctions in autonomy between early and late adolescents, with older adolescents displaying greater autonomy in choice of friends; money management; employment; and activities outside the home, including peer and adult-oriented activities (Allen, Hauser, O’Connor, & Bell 2002; Dornbush, Erickson, Laird, & Wong, 2001). Parents are acutely aware of the dangers increased autonomy can bring, in a world full of opportunities for engaging in risk-taking behaviour, such as taking recreational drugs, driving fast cars and having unprotected sex. Therefore, letting go of the protective and nurturing roles of earlier periods of development can be a painful and anxiety-provoking process for parents. However, within a few short years, there is a dramatic change from a still asymmetrical state of affairs in early adolescence to a more balanced and equitable relationship between parents and their children by the end of adolescence. At the end point of the autonomy process, the parent–child relationship is ideally an egalitarian relationship (Adams & Laursen, 2001). It should resemble the close friendships between unrelated adults, with respect for individual freedoms and independence. This contrasts with the intense dependency-related attachments between parents and children during earlier stages of development. The process of achieving autonomy can be a difficult and complex one because of the lack of firm guidelines, particularly in modern industrial societies. Parents often have difficulty establishing norms against which they can judge the appropriateness of decisions to cede or not cede control to their children. Parents have often heard a cry like ‘But everyone’s allowed to!’ from teenage sons or daughters, such as Rebecca’s fervent reassurance that her friend Sarah was permitted to attend the party. There is a delicate balance between parental caution and protection of their offspring, and the adolescent need to feel grown up and to conform to the demands of the peer group. Thus, there are different perceptions by parents and children of the age at which certain freedoms should be allowed. Teenagers 600

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generally feel that milestones should occur at younger ages than do adults. Australian research showed that adolescents believed a range of milestones, such as dating and staying out late, should occur at younger ages than their parents believed, with the average age nominated by adolescents for various autonomy-related activities between one and three years earlier than the age nominated by their parents. For example Australian teenagers feel that the age at which they should be allowed to drink alcohol is 16.5 years, whereas their parents feel that it should be 18 years, the current legal age in Australia (Wilks & McPherson, 2002). Through a process of feedback, negotiation and argument, levels of autonomy are set in regard to issues such as curfews, dating and bedtimes. The process of negotiation can be seen in Rebecca’s dealings with her parents over the party. She saw it as a perfectly legitimate ‘fun’ activity, and believed she was fulfilling an important social obligation to her friend Jessica. However, her parents, in their protective role, saw beyond Rebecca’s immediate peer-based concerns to the wider issues of alcohol and the possible risks of such a mixed-aged gathering for their 14-year-old daughter. A compromise was reached with concessions on both sides: Rebecca’s agreement to come home by midnight and her parents’ agreement to let her attend the party. As adolescence progresses, parents gradually relinquish control in areas in which they feel their son or daughter can make reasonably mature decisions, while still keeping control in areas in which more mature decision making is still to be achieved (Collins & Steinberg, 2006). There are large individual differences in the development of autonomy in adolescence, resulting from an interaction between the degree of adolescent push for autonomy and the extent of parental inclination to cede control. The different parenting styles previously discussed in relation to parent–child relationships in early childhood are important in determining individual differences in autonomy (see the chapter on psychosocial development in early childhood). The non-authoritative styles are associated with more extreme parental attitudes to autonomy and to more problematic outcomes than authoritative parenting, in which parents exert firm, consistent and age-appropriate control over adolescent behaviour, while being responsive and respectful of their teenager’s thoughts and feelings (Vazsonyi, Hibbert, & Snider, 2003). For example, Rebecca’s parents demonstrated authoritative parenting in their negotiations with her over the party, recognising her peer-related and personal needs, and balancing them with their parental concerns — reaching a compromise based largely on an assurance by Jessica’s mother of adequate adult supervision. Thus, parent–adolescent relationships that reflect the secure emotional base of authoritative parenting are most likely to result in a mutually satisfactory exploration of autonomy for both parents and adolescent children (Allen, Hauser, Bell, & O’Conner, 1994). Moreover, the combination of parental warmth, support and flexible control in this type of parenting is associated with less antisocial and risk-taking behaviour during adolescence, such as substance abuse and aggression, which can be traced to an appropriate level of autonomy granting (Brookmeyer, Henrich, & Schwab-Stone, 2005; Gray & Steinberg, 1999). The laissez-faire attitudes of permissive and uninvolved parenting, in which few or no limits are set, can allow too much autonomy at an age at which the adolescent lacks the maturity to make wise decisions. Jessica’s parents displayed permissive parenting by not providing continuous supervision of the party, which quickly got out of hand when large numbers of gatecrashers arrived. The parental assumption that the young guests could adequately handle themselves unsupervised at the party was — sadly — wrong. The situation quickly escalated out of control. Such inappropriate autonomy granting is associated with antisocial and risky behaviour in adolescence (Goldstein, Davis-Kean, & Eccles, 2005). For example, Dishion, Nelson, and Bullock’s (2004) longitudinal study of 14-year-old adolescent American boys showed that uninvolved parenting and the degradation of family management in the early adolescent years significantly predicted deviant peer involvement, marijuana use and antisocial acts at age 18. At the other end of the autonomy spectrum is the extreme rigidity of authoritarian parenting, in which parents are reluctant to give even normative responsibilities and freedoms to their children until well beyond adolescence. Freud (1958) recognised particular danger in this situation. Adolescents too may be content to remain conveniently unchallenged by complying unquestioningly with family and parental CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 601

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requirements, and, in doing so, they fail to undergo the necessary experiences that lead to a mature adult personality. Psychologists have recognised a difference between behavioural control practised by authoritative parents and psychological control practised by authoritarian parents. Whereas behavioural control involves monitoring and regulating teenagers’ activities, psychological control involves intrusive and domineering interference with adolescents’ emerging sense of autonomy. One disturbing aspect of such control is clandestine testing of teenagers for sexual activities and drug-taking by parents, using kits commercially marketed for this purpose. Research has shown that teenagers subjected to such elevated levels of psychological control are more likely to be involved in antisocial acts and display higher levels of depression and anxiety (Pettit, Laird, Dodge, Bates, & Criss, 2001). On the other hand, parental monitoring, which involves knowing where teenagers are and what they are doing, creates an environment in which adolescents more readily disclose information about their activities and problems. For example, although Rebecca was reticent about disclosing some important aspects of her life, her parents wisely refrained from grilling her about her secret boyfriend, instead leaving the situation for an open-ended discussion at an appropriate time. In an attempt to unravel why effective monitoring is related to positive outcomes for teenagers, Keegan, Feeney, and Noller (2002) developed a multidimensional model of parental monitoring based on the responses of several hundred Australian adolescents and their parents. Analysis of the responses revealed that monitoring is a multidimensional construct influenced by several variables including the age of the adolescent and the gender of both the parent and the adolescent child.

Authoritarian parenting exerts harmful psychological control that is intrusive and negatively affects the quality of family relationships.

As well as individual differences, there are wider group-based differences in the process of gaining autonomy during adolescence. Normative ages for autonomy show significant gender differences. Fleming (2005a) found that age of achievement of autonomy in a number of key areas such as staying 602

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out at night, managing one’s own money and having a girlfriend or boyfriend was significantly lower for boys than girls, but only from the age of about 16 onwards. The two genders were highly similar in terms of the age of gaining autonomy in early adolescence (12–15 years). In a further study involving Portuguese teenagers, Fleming (2005b) discovered no significant gender differences in desire for autonomy between boys and girls. However, a watershed for autonomy between the genders at age 16 was apparent, where boys suddenly achieved greater levels of autonomy than girls did, mainly through disobedience to parental wishes. Adolescent girls of the same age were less likely to rebel, perhaps because of a wish to preserve emotional attachment to parents, or because of higher levels of enmeshment and separation anxiety. This is also explicable in terms of gender roles with differing parental attitudes to autonomy of daughters and sons, with sons being given more autonomy opportunities than daughters. Indeed, gender differences favouring boys’ autonomy at earlier ages are particularly pronounced in families in which more traditional gender roles are valued (Bumpus, Crouter, & McHale, 2001). In addition to gender differences, studies have indicated marked cultural differences in the achievement of autonomy. Teenagers from collectivistic cultures that stress the rights and welfare of the group over those of the individual may be less inclined to achieve autonomy, or achieve it at a later stage than adolescents from cultures in which individualism is stressed (Raeff, 2004). Zimmer-Gembeck and Collins (2003) maintain that autonomy achievement in different cultures tends to be a function of the relative strength of collectivist versus individualistic cultural norms, particularly for ethnic minority families. For example, in a study of Chinese-Australian and Chinese-American teenagers and their Anglo-Celtic counterparts, autonomy was greater in the Chinese-Australian adolescents, and was closer to the Anglo-Celtic Australian norms. In contrast, the American samples were further apart. It appears that the Chinese-American teenagers were more embedded in a large and closely knit Chinese community. By contrast, the Chinese-Australian adolescents and their families were more integrated into the mainstream community. Therefore, the closeness of the correspondence between the strength of cultural practices followed by families and the autonomy expectations of minority adolescents is more important than the absolute degree or age at which autonomy is achieved (Updegraff, McHale, Whiteman, Thayer, & Crouter, 2006).

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Parent–child conflict during adolescence As demonstrated in the previous section, adolescents often want more autonomy than parents are willing to allow, so many parent–child conflicts during this period are centred on the autonomy issue. In terms of responsibility, the flip side of autonomy, further ground for conflict can be found, with parents often expecting responsibility at younger ages than teenagers are apt to concede. A good example is taking domestic responsibility and helping parents with the everyday running of the household. Teenagers’ messy rooms and parents’ complaints of adolescent laziness are legendary, as witnessed by Rebecca’s parents’ efforts to get Rebecca to conform to regular mealtimes and bedtimes, and to fulfil household duties. Thus, there are often wide differences between parents and teenagers in terms of what each perceives as the appropriate age for both freedoms and responsibilities. This is a frequent stumbling block in adolescent–parent relations, giving rise to intergenerational conflict. Furthermore, much intergenerational conflict often lies in differing parental and adolescent views of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. What appears to an adolescent as a perfectly acceptable expression of one’s individuality and personal choice may be seen by parents as violating society’s norms or expectations. For instance, adolescents and their parents might hold very different views about having their bodies pierced in ten different places. From a series of longitudinal studies of teenagers and their parents in the United States, Hong Kong and China, Smetana (2005) concluded that the issues parents and their adolescent children disagree on tend to be social conventions, such as dress and behaviour; prudential matters, such as curfews; and practical concerns, such as chores and the smooth running of the household. These issues do not vary greatly across the adolescent years. Smetana asserts that intergenerational disagreements are rarely about fundamental moral values and beliefs that are key to interpersonal relationships, indicating that teenagers are not rejecting basic parental and family values. However, CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 603

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they do not necessarily share their parents’ often expressed concerns about social conventions, social regulation and parental authority. Instead teenagers’ arguments are more likely to be focused on peer group conventions and personal freedoms. Smetana, Daddis, and Chuang’s (2003) longitudinal study of middle-class African-American families identified conflicts are more likely to occur during early adolescence than in later adolescence. As well, conflict escalates compared with previous periods of development (Collins & Steinberg, 2006). Escalating conflict can be traced to adolescents’ push for autonomy and parental unwillingness, initially, to cede control. This push–pull process continues through the teenage years, but the conflict typical of early adolescence generally declines as teenagers reach late adolescence, at about 17 or 18 years. At this stage, parents cede more control as they perceive greater maturity in their offspring. The intensity and duration of conflict can be exacerbated by the increasing sophistication of adolescents’ thinking and their ability to argue. With formal operational skills, adolescents are cognitively on an equal footing with parents, and parents are forced to find equally logical arguments why their teenage offspring are not allowed to do certain things. Authoritarian admonishments from earlier developmental stages, such as ‘Because I said so’, no longer wash with teenagers. Rebecca made a forceful argument as to why she should be allowed to attend the party, clearly citing her social obligations to her friend, and, for good measure, adding the provocative challenge that her parents did not trust her. On the positive side, adolescents’ logical arguments can be compelling and sensible, and often this forces parents to accommodate their push towards independence. Arguments can, therefore, contribute to this essential developmental goal. Thus, conflicts frequently serve as a catalyst for further growth in teenagers’ social maturity and can lead to the narrowing of the gulf between parents and their almost grown children (Holmbeck & O’Donnell, 1991; Young & Michael, 2014). There are wide individual differences in the intergenerational conflict reported in families. Earlier psychodynamic views of high and ubiquitous levels of intergenerational conflict were based on findings from clinical samples that were generalised to the wider population. In contrast, large-scale studies involving representative samples (e.g. Rutter, 1980) have given rise to a contemporary model of harmonious — rather than conflicted — families during adolescence (Smetana, 2011). In fact, fewer than 10 per cent of families with adolescent children are characterised by severe and ongoing intergenerational conflict, involving serious issues such as drug abuse and criminal behaviour (Collins & Laursen, 2004). Table 11.1 outlines reasons for intergenerational conflict and presents strategies for reducing conflict. Despite a normative model of harmonious intergenerational relationships, the minority of families whose relationships are characterised more by strife than by harmony cannot be ignored. Research suggests that at least one in five families experiences significant intergenerational conflict, which often begin in earlier periods of development. Families with early maturing teenagers experience more conflict than families with normatively maturing or late-maturing adolescent children (Collins & Steinberg, 2006). Higher levels of parent–adolescent conflict are also more likely to occur in families coping with divorce, economic hardship and similar serious stressors (Flanagan, 1990; Hetherington, Bridges, & Insabella, 1998; Lerner & Steinberg, 2004; McLoyd, 1990; Smetana, Killen, & Turiel, 1991). As well as individual differences, there are broad cultural differences in intergenerational conflict. Traditional, pre-industrial cultures report less intergenerational conflict than do modern industrial societies (Nelson, Badger, & Woo, 2004). In post-industrial societies, the push for independence and individualism is seen as a normative value. This brings to the fore the need for negotiation and, therefore, the potential for conflict. Competing cultural norms may also contribute to intergenerational conflict. A review of literature by Kwak (2003) examined intergenerational relationships in both immigrant and non-immigrant families in a number of countries, including Australia. According to Kwak, immigrant parents and their adolescent children experience dissonant acculturation — with adolescents adjusting to the mainstream culture more quickly and easily than do their parents. This can give rise to significant degrees of intergenerational conflict in immigrant families, which is exacerbated in situations where a strong cultural network is absent. Where adolescents of immigrant families are surrounded by a wider ethnic community, intergenerational dissonance between the cultural values of parents and children is 604

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lessened, and consequently there is lower intergenerational conflict. Kwak asserts that the focus of much intergenerational conflict in immigrant families is on the question of autonomy versus embeddedness in the family. Non-immigrant families do not experience intergenerational conflict in this area to a similar degree, since their expectations of embeddedness are not as high. Intergenerational conflict also seems to be lessened in immigrant families by later autonomy-seeking by adolescents, compared to non-immigrant families.

TABLE 11.1

Reasons for intergenerational conflict and strategies for reducing it in families with adolescent children

Reason for intergenerational conflict

Parental strategies

Adolescent strategies

A lack of understanding of the viewpoint and challenges of a different age group

Recognise that young people face different challenges related to today’s society. Talk to adolescents about how they see the world.

Recognise that parents were once young too and faced different challenges. Talk to parents about how it was then and how it is now.

A lack of respect for a different age group

Recognise the achievements of the younger generation. Let adolescents know they are valued for their contribution to family and community.

Recognise the achievements of the older generation. Let parents know that they are appreciated for the contributions they have made to family and community.

Intolerance by parents of adolescents’ behaviour

Evaluate troubling behaviour and its effects on other people. Make an objective judgement — is it harmful and to whom? Talk constructively to adolescents about troubling behaviour and its effects on family. Listen to their points as well as making your own. Problem-solve and make behavioural contracts. Act on and review these regularly.

Evaluate troubling behaviour and its effects on other people. Make an objective judgement — is it harmful and to whom? Listen and share points of view with parents. Problem-solve and make behavioural contracts. Act on and review these regularly.

Resentment of parents’ power and restrictions by adolescents

Recognise how parental power affects adolescents’ behaviour and drive for autonomy. Examine reasons for restrictions and discuss them objectively with adolescents. Examine risks involved together with adolescents.

Recognise that restrictions have a protective function and show a caring parental attitude. Examine reasons for restrictions and discuss them with parents. Examine risks involved together with parents.

Intergenerational conflict occurs when there is resentment and a lack of understanding and respect between older and younger generations. This table shows some strategies based on mutual respect, empathy and awareness, which can be used to resolve conflict between adolescent children and their parents.

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Source: Adapted from Scout Pax (2007), One World One Promise: Gifts for Peace Planning Activities — Intergenerational Conflict.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

How did you go about achieving autonomy during adolescence? Were your experiences and concerns similar to those described? What were some of the arguments that you had with your parents during this period? You may wish to discuss some of these issues with your parents to gain some idea of their perspective.

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FOCUSING ON

Observing gender differences in a co-educational school Marion Archer, art teacher and outdoor education supervisor. Marion originally taught secondary art at a private girls’ school in one of Australia’s cities. We interviewed Marion to learn more about how a large influx of adolescent boys affected the classroom, and how the girls in the school reacted to the changes that boys brought, when the school moved from being a single-sex kindergarten-toYear 12 girls’ college to being a co-educational (co-ed) school. Marion’s recent work at another co-ed college in the area of supervising outdoor education and physical education has also given her the opportunity to observe girls and boys together. We were also interested in how the differences between adolescent boys and girls affected the learning and teaching in Marion’s current school. Interviewer: I’ve heard a lot of generalisations about boys — their boisterousness and how physically active they are. Did this aspect strike you in the transition from an all-girls’ school to a co-educational one? Marion: I noticed a big change in my Year 7 to 10 classes. For example, I often demonstrated art techniques on a very large and heavy rectangular table. When it was an all-girls school, the girls used to sit quietly on each side of the table taking it all in, with me at the head. Then during one of my first classes with boys in it as well, the table started to slowly rise from the floor. Interviewer: I guess it was the boys? Marion: It certainly was. I asked the boys why they found it necessary to do this during a lesson. Several of them said they had to find out if they were strong enough to lift the table. Interviewer: It sounded like the boys really needed to show off their muscular prowess, particularly in front of the girls? Marion: Oh yes, there was a lot of posturing. The boys had such a different style from the girls; they were so much more physical. Interviewer: What other changes did you notice in the school?

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Marion: With the boys coming in, the spaces in the school seemed too small. Boys need big areas to let off steam and to use up some of their energy. The outdoor areas in the school were fine for the girls when it was all girls, but there were no large open spaces where the boys could really run around. I think that because of this there was a lot of silly and destructive behaviour from the boys when they arrived from other schools. You’d find them climbing on the desks in the classroom seeing who could be the first to touch the light fittings, that sort of thing. For instance, there were a number of small holes in the plaster walls of my classroom. They had been there for many years with the girls and had never changed in size, but as soon as the boys came the holes got larger and larger until we had huge holes in the walls. I think that if there had been some bigger spaces in the school where the boys could have released some of their energy, there could have been less of this sort of behaviour. Interviewer: In your present role with physical education classes, how do their differences affect boys and girls when they are together? Marion: I like to see the girls doing some vigorous activity. For instance, we were playing a ball game one day in the gym, and some of the more adventurous girls were getting very involved in the game along with the boys. It was good to see how they dodged around and really went for the ball in a competitive way. But then they gradually started to drop out of the game and sat on the sidelines and just watched the boys. Interviewer: Why was that? Marion: With the boys in it, the game just got too rough for them. At this age I think girls are very protective of their breasts, as well as the rest of their bodies. They could really get hurt in these sorts of games with boys — the boys are so focused on the game and winning, they can be a bit careless.

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Interviewer: The boys always seem to be testing the limits? Marion: Yes, it seems that way. Unlike the girls, they are often trying to get a reaction out of you. One of my fellow art teachers recently told me how the boys in her classroom were always adding penises to their paintings. I guess they were looking for a ‘shock-horror’ reaction from her. Interviewer: At your present school, are the girls romantically interested in the boys and vice versa? Marion: There is some attraction between some boys and some girls, depending on how mature they are. Older boys seem to hold more attraction for the girls than their male classmates; that is, with regard to possible and actual relationships. On one of the annual Year 8 camps, all the kids seemed to have fun and it was a very new experience for most of them, living in tents, cooking outdoors and so on. We teachers had to be mindful of keeping boys and girls in their own areas in the latter part of the day. They all seemed to make the most of whatever/whoever was there, in the sense that they learned to enjoy and appreciate the inherent differences among themselves, so it all becomes a great bonding experience, but not in any overt sexual sense. It was all pretty innocent, but teachers have a real duty of care in these situations, since parents are not around.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

1. From Marion’s observations, how do the psychological changes in boys and girls that are brought on by puberty impact on how subjects like art and physical education are taught in a co-ed school? What factors might contribute to the different classroom behaviours of the boys and girls Marion observed? 2. How could the school environment, teaching approaches and class organisation have been modified to accommodate the contrasting behavioural styles of boys and girls in Marion’s original school? 3. How do Marion’s observations of boys and girls in Year 8 fit in with what is known from research on the development of romantic relationships during adolescence?

11.4 Peer relationships during adolescence

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LEARNING OUTCOME 11.4 Discuss the importance of peer groups to adolescents, and how adverse and positive peer group experiences affect adolescent development.

Parents and peers offer different kinds of social experiences which complement each other. Sometimes, a quiet evening at home watching TV with Mum and Dad will seem preferable to the cut and thrust of a peer outing, which can be stressful for teenagers, as well as fun. For example, a school dance brings with it the dreaded possibility of being a ‘wallflower’ — or having one’s advances towards the opposite sex rejected in public. At other times, adolescents seek out the much needed companionship of their age-mates and, as children enter adolescence, peer relationships become increasingly prominent in their lives. Studies have shown that as adolescence progresses, teenagers spend increasing proportions of their time outside the family circle. Much of this time is spent with peers. Reviewing more than 40 international studies, Larson (2001) found that teenagers enjoyed unrestricted (free) time of between four and eight hours per day and that this time included increased opportunities for adolescents to interact with peers. In earlier investigations of US adolescents, Larson and his colleagues (Larson, 1997; Larson, Richards, Moneta, Holmbeck, & Duckett, 1996) studied Years 5–12 students from Caucasian, working- and middleclass backgrounds who carried electronic beepers and provided reports on their activities and companions when contacted at random times over the course of a week. Figure 11.2 shows the amount of time adolescents spent with family decreased from 35 per cent of waking hours in Year 5 to just 14 per cent in Year 12. The increasing family disengagement was unrelated to levels of family conflict, but instead to CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 607

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attractions from outside the family, including peer activities (Smetana, 2011). In early adolescence, time spent alone at home replaced time with family, whereas for older adolescents, access to friends, having a car, and having a job all displaced family time. FIGURE 11.2

Age differences in time spent by adolescents with family members Between Year 5 and Year 12, the amount of time spent with various family members decreases. The greatest decrease is in time spent with the whole family group.

20 Combination of parents or parent(s) and sibling(s) Siblings only Extended family 15

Mother only

Waking hours (per cent)

Father only

10

5

0

5

6

7

8 Year in school

9

10

11

12

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Peers are developmentally important during adolescence, since they provide a vital bridge between the social roles experienced in the family and the social roles of the wider adult world. During adolescence, the peer group becomes a vital influence in teenagers becoming emotionally independent from parents. Increasingly, adolescents identify with their peer group, rather than with their family group, which is a normal part of the process of becoming autonomous. The intense emotional and psychological bonds to parents that are typical of childhood are broken and are refocused on peers. This constitutes a way station on the road to mature adult relationships. Thus, peers provide opportunities for adolescents’ selfexploration and their deeper understanding of other people, which are essential precursors to the intimate relationships that characterise adulthood.

Adolescent peer groups A groundbreaking participant–observer study of Sydney teenagers during the 1960s identified two basic types of adolescent group. Dunphy (1963) found that most adolescents belonged to a small, closely knit group of three to nine members, which he called a clique. At the same time, adolescents were also part of a wider organisation, which he labelled a crowd. The crowds identified by Dunphy were generally a loose amalgamation of two or more cliques, averaging a membership of 20 individuals. To become a member of a crowd, adolescents had to first belong to a clique. The adolescent peer group structures that Dunphy identified over 40 years ago have been confirmed in different countries and over successive generations 608

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of teenagers, and have become the basis for understanding the development of peer groups and peer relation transitions during adolescence and early adulthood (Brown, 2004; Smetana, Campione-Barr, & Metzger, 2006). The boundaries of cliques are quite rigid, and adolescents wishing to join have to conform to group values and activities, such as substance use or non-use, or academic effort/non-effort. Thus, the clique reflects similarity of background, interests and attitudes, and teenagers within a clique develop in-group identity, distinguishing themselves from other cliques or out-groups. Cliques are also characterised by close relationships, with friendships being the basis of some cliques. Alternatively, friendships grow out of cliques that are initially founded on other grouping characteristics; for example, the shared activities of a sport (Brown, 1989). The major activity within a clique is talking and generally ‘hanging out’, with cliques meeting during the school week as well as at weekends. The advantages of clique membership include the provision of security, a feeling of importance, and acquisition of socially acceptable behaviours, such as academic, social or athletic competence, which may be part of conforming to the clique’s norms. However, conformity can also suppress individuality and may promote negative values and behaviours, such as in-group snobbishness and intolerance of other groups and individuals. Involvement with a clique of antisocial peers is associated with various adolescent adjustment problems, including substance abuse, school dropout, antisocial behaviour and gang membership. Whether the clique is the cause of such behaviour is debatable, as the clique may have formed around a focus of antisocial behaviour. Kiesner, Dishion, and Poulin (2001) maintain that during childhood, aggressive and antisocial boys who are rejected by prosocial peers tend to gravitate towards each other in school and other social settings. Within these groupings, antisocial behaviour tends to be mutually reinforced. These groupings form a developmental pathway to gang membership in late adolescence. Crowds are larger, more impersonal groupings than cliques and, unlike cliques, are not necessarily involved in shared activities. Thus, some crowds are simply reputational in nature and provide a group identity for teenagers. An exhaustive review by Sussman, Pokhriel, Ashmore, and Brown (2007) of existing studies on adolescent identification worldwide has isolated five basic types of reputational crowds: elites, athletes, academics, deviants and others. These basic types of peer grouping often have different names according to diverse cultures; for example, ‘the nerds’, ‘the cool group’ and ‘the stoners’, representing various sets of behavioural norms with which individual adolescents might identify (Brown, 2004). Nonetheless, Sussman et al.’s (2007) research suggests that in affluent Western countries such groupings have a similar function and are predictive of certain behaviours. For example, identification with the deviant group is predictive of greater participation in drug-taking than is identification with either the athletic or academic group. Teenagers might not necessarily identify with a specific crowd, but their burgeoning cognitive abilities allow them to readily discriminate crowds according to their characteristics in more sophisticated ways than younger children do. Instead of differentiating school-based groups on the basis of shared activities, such as ‘the footballers’ or ‘the kids who play chess’, adolescents typically distinguish high school crowds by their common values or philosophies of life; for example, ‘goths’ who are arty types valuing individualistic expression, and ‘nerds’ who are married to their computers and who place little emphasis on social relationships (Sussman et al., 2007). The interactive crowds that Dunphy (1963) first identified usually gather on weekends at parties or at the local shopping centre. Crowds often adopt a uniform appearance that identifies them as a specific group, often involving markers such as similar footwear, clothing, tattoos and body piercings. Markers provide an obvious indication of like-minded individuals, assisting adolescents in negotiating socially within large secondary schools. Some adolescents even try out various identities in different groups (Cotterell, 1996). Thus, crowd membership provides opportunities to interact with individuals from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences, but it can also promote exclusiveness and may pose real or imagined threats to parental and teacher authority. The advent of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have extended the concept of cliques and crowds to virtual groupings that exist in cyberspace. Interestingly, social networking groups CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 609

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reflect the same kind of similarity that is found in the tangible cliques and crowds that Dunphy (1963) originally described. Facebook and Twitter users tend to interact with people who have similar interests to themselves, forming online groupings of virtual strangers that some users identify as their ‘tribe’. Moreover, there seems to be a two-way traffic between real-world friendship groups and those that are forged online. For example, many Facebook users interact with real-world friends online; and they often arrange to meet ‘in the flesh’ friends who they have initially contacted online. Thus, the effect of the internet has been to increase the size and accessibility of social networks beyond anything that young people have experienced in previous generations (Subrahmanyam & Smahel, 2011; Sydell, 2011). Access to digital media is changing how and who we interact with at an incredible pace, and it will be interesting to see what develops in this space in the future. The structure of the peer group changes dramatically once puberty has occurred. As discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in middle childhood, childhood peer groups are exclusively samesex, exhibiting strong gender segregation. At puberty, hormonal changes and societal pressures lead to opposite-sex interest and the weakening of gender segregation. Adolescents begin to view each other as possible romantic partners for the first time. In line with this breakdown of gender segregation, Dunphy (1963) found systematic developmental changes in the structure of cliques and crowds, which have been confirmed in later research (e.g. Smetana et al., 2006). At the earliest stage of clique and crowd development, around age 11 to 13, cliques are mostly unisex and isolated, with little or no coordination of cliques into a larger crowd. Clique members are only vaguely aware of opposite-sex cliques and generally express distaste for contact with them. At the second stage, boy and girl cliques become aware of each other and begin to socialise, but in fairly superficial ways. For example, at formal mixed-sex events, such as school dances and parties, young adolescents mainly socialise within their same-sex groups, making occasional contact with the opposite sex. By the third stage, high-status boys and girls, the leaders of same-sex cliques, band together to form a mixed-sex clique. In the fourth stage, the remaining members distribute themselves into various mixed-sex cliques that are loosely linked as a mixed-sex crowd. During the fifth and final stage in late adolescence, cliques and crowds disintegrate, as couples form and go their separate ways. At around 17 to 18 years, the couple replaces the group as the major focus for male–female interactions. Thus Brown and Klute (2003) found that the importance of belonging to a clique or crowd declined with age over the period of adolescence. Gender segregation and its breakdown in peer groups has been investigated in several countries, but self-segregation on the basis of race or ethnicity in adolescent peer groups has been largely investigated in US high schools. This is despite these countries having a similar history to the United States in terms of education systems that were officially segregated on racial grounds for over 100 years. For example, the dual system of education in New Zealand with separate M¯aori schools was disbanded as recently as 1968, echoing the desegregation of schools in the United States following the1954 landmark case of Brown vs Board of Education (Stephenson, 2006). Most US research into racial segregation in adolescence concerns relationships between the largest racial minority, African-American youth, and mainstream Anglo-American adolescents (and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic students). In the desegregated US schools, there is a reasonable amount of interracial contact and interaction during the elementary school years, but research has shown that by middle adolescence, racial segregation is striking. Adolescents of different racial groups rarely mix outside of formal school activities (DuBois & Hirsch, 1990). The Brown vs Board of Education case sought to increase the racial heterogeneity of US schools, but increases in heterogeneity have not automatically resulted in racial desegregation at a social level in many American high schools over the past 50 years. The reasons for the strengthening of racial segregation during adolescence are complex, and exist at a number of different levels. At an individual level theorists have argued that reasons for racial segregation may lie in the need to establish identity. Associating with one’s own ethnic or racial group reinforces adolescents’ ethnic identity. As well, associating with peers who are perceived as similar to oneself may increase the individual’s feelings of acceptance within a group, as well as increased peer understanding. So, racial self-segregation might not be a deliberate, conscious, racially based decision, but merely 610

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a tendency to gravitate towards individuals or groups who offer an increased a sense of comfort (Freeman, 1998). At a dyadic level, similarity of personal attributes and shared values is recognised as a powerful factor in friendship choice at all ages; hence, individuals of similar race or ethnicity are more attractive to each other than are those who are dissimilar on these dimensions. Heider’s (1946) balance theory predicts that a friend of a friend will also be a friend, since social networks avoid the strain of enmity from dissimilarity within their ranks. Therefore, if a friend is of the same race, then the extended network is also likely to be same-race. More recently, researchers have focused on structural reasons for racial segregation within schools. According to Allport’s (1954) contact theory, if the positional hierarchy in a school setting is correlated with race, then interracial friendship is unlikely. Therefore, racial segregation may be due to the over-representation of racial minority groups in lower-achieving classes in schools in which rigid academic tracking is practised. If classes are organised according to academic achievement and because achievement is related to ethnic and socioeconomic factors, these classes therefore tend to be racially homogeneous. In such schools, students usually spend little or no formal class time with students of other races. This provides limited opportunity for interracial interactions both inside and outside the classroom. Indeed, Moody (2001) found that when school administrators assign most minority students to non-academic tracks, the school itself becomes effectively segregated. In schools in which mixed ability classes are the norm and racial integration is actively supported, racial segregation is much less pronounced (Lucas & Behrends, 2002). Contact theory also predicts that cooperative interdependence between different racial groups in achieving a common goal promotes cross-race friendships. Moody (2001) found that in schools where extracurricular activities such as sports, drama, music and clubs were structured to be racially mixed, racial segregation was far less likely than in schools where these activities were organised along racial lines. Moody found that integrated extracurricular activities with strong school leadership in desegregation, were the single most powerful factors in encouraging cross-race friendships and harmonious ethnic relationships in American high schools. So, despite the important role that individual and dyadic factors play in racial segregation during adolescence, it is still possible to socially engineer the school environment to promote positive interracial relations. Regardless of their racial or gender makeup, peer status is important within adolescent peer groups. Sometimes called ‘popularity’, it can be a preoccupation of teenagers who may value it above academic success. Adolescent peer groups can be divided into individuals with different peer statuses, similar to those identified during childhood: popular, rejected, neglected and controversial, as discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in middle childhood. Popular adolescents are more involved in peer and extracurricular school activities, and disclose more about themselves. They show similar personal qualities related to the socially skilled behaviour that is associated with popularity during childhood. However, during adolescence, antisocial behaviour and popularity show a positive relationship that is generally absent during middle childhood. It is possible that antisocial behaviour is valued as a sign of independence from adult authority and that such individuals are viewed by peers as having a leadership role in this regard (Kiesner & Pastor, 2005). Indeed, Farmer, Estell, Bishop, O’Neal, and Cairns (2003) found that controversial boys who were aggressive but also socially skilled were likely to be leaders and influential in adolescent peer groups. By contrast, aggressive boys without social skills tended to be rejected by peers. Neglected and rejected adolescents engage in fewer peer activities, and have less contact with peers of the opposite sex (Becker & Luthar, 2007; Zettergren, 2003).

Peer group conformity Peer groups can exert powerful pressures to conform to in-group norms and values, giving rise to a popular belief in the generation gap, a perspective espousing a separate teen culture and total rejection of adult values. Movies of the 1950s such as James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause popularised this CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 611

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stereotype of teenager–adult relations. In groundbreaking research during the turbulent 1960s, Brittain (1963) found the stereotype of mindless conformity to peers typified by the generation gap to be a myth. Brittain established parents and peers both influence teenage behaviour, providing important sources of information and values for adolescents. However, adolescents seek different advice and information from parents and peers. Brittain found teenagers are more likely to seek guidance from parents in areas in which they perceive parents have some expertise; for example, in regard to educational decisions and career choices. However, in regard to fashion, music or movies, peer opinion and guidance is sought. Later research confirmed Brittain’s original findings. Carlson, Cooper, and Spradling (1991) and Grusec, Goodnow, and Cohen (1996) found that in matters of popular culture and social norms, teenagers agreed more with their peers than with their parents. Yet, in regard to the basic attitudes and values that guide long-term life choices, adolescents consistently rated parental advice more highly than that of their peers. Despite the general dispelling of the myth of the generation gap in the research literature, parents of adolescents may still be concerned that their children will be excessively influenced by peer pressure and that peer influence will replace their own guidance. In response to this concern, Steinberg and Levine (1990) made suggestions for parents to help adolescent children withstand negative peer pressure that might lead them into antisocial or self-destructive behaviours. Figure 11.3 lists these guidelines. FIGURE 11.3

Peer pressure: guidelines for parents

Helping adolescents deal with peer pressure r Build self-esteem by helping your adolescent discover her or his strengths and special talents. r Encourage independence and decision making within the family. r Talk about situations in which people have to choose among competing pressures and demands. r Encourage your adolescent to anticipate difficult situations and plan ahead. r Encourage your adolescent to form alliances with peers who share his or her values and your family’s values. r Know your adolescent’s friends. r Do not jump to hasty conclusions based on peers’ appearance, dress, language or interests. r Allow time for peer activities. r Remain close to your adolescent. When to be concerned r If your adolescent has no friends at all. r If your adolescent is secretive about her or his social life. r If your adolescent suddenly loses all interest in friends. r If all of your adolescent’s friends are much older than him or her.

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Source: Adapted from Steinberg & Levine (1990), pp. 183–187.

General conformity to peers does not automatically and dramatically increase during adolescence. Instead, there are more complex changes in adolescent conformity. Vulnerability to peer pressure varies according to an interaction between individual and environmental factors. Some teenagers are possibly more susceptible to peer pressure, simply because they have a personality that is easily influenced. Also, the social environment might give rise to greater susceptibility to peer influence; for example, if a teenager badly wants to be included in a particular peer group, they are more likely to strongly assimilate the values and ideas of the group. If parents do not approve of the group norms, adolescents can experience significant parent–peer cross-pressures. In this situation, the antithetical values of the peer group and those of the parents set up a conflict for the individual. Adolescents will often choose between parents and peers according to their greater dependency needs. This is in contrast to more mature decision making, in which the young person actively chooses the 612

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option that has been thoroughly thought out. Thus, teenagers may sacrifice developmentally important experiences with adults for the sake of peer relationships that appear to offer greater fulfilment of their immediate needs. If they do this, they are less likely to seek advice from their parents and are more likely to consult with friends about important issues. In some cases, they might orient towards peers so strongly that they are willing to forgo their parents’ rules, their schoolwork and even their own talents to ensure peer acceptance. Although parent–adolescent alienation and excessive peer orientation can have serious negative longterm implications, this is the exception rather than the rule (Arnett, 2004; Fuligni & Eccles, 1993). Nonetheless, conformity to peer pressure can be particularly disruptive during early adolescence. If, in particular, the family fails to serve as a constructive corrective force with parents acting as responsible (but not over-involved) caretakers, peer pressures have the potential to contribute to a prolonged period of identity diffusion, or to premature identity foreclosure; for example, adolescents may become a teenage parent, a drug addict or a gang member (Dishion, Reid, & Patterson, 1988; Kroger, 2006a; Patterson & Dishion, 1985).

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Adolescent gangs Groups of adolescents who share a collective identity characterised by antisocial and often criminal activities are found in different cultures all over the world, and are predominantly made up of adolescent and young adult males. Known as a gang, these groups are relatively stable collections of individuals with a clear leadership and hierarchical structure. Members may identify with each other using specific symbols, often claiming a territory that is defended against other groups or gangs. Youth gangs are generally the product of adverse economic conditions, providing protection for members as well as a means of social and economic advancement when legitimate paths to success are minimal. Thus, gangs are frequently involved in criminal activities such as drug dealing and theft (Winfree, Backstrom, & Mays, 1994). In August 2011, gangs were held responsible for the large-scale looting, arson and attacks on private citizens that occurred in several British cities over a number of days before the police were able to bring the rioting under control. Gang activities were apparently coordinated by using mobile telephones and social media. These gang activities provoked much soul-searching amongst British authorities with regard to the role that economic disadvantage and cultural alienation played in sparking the riots (Muehlenberg, 2011). Youth gangs are clearly identifiable in the larger cities of the United States, but their existence in Australia is more controversial. In the first in-depth examination of Australian youth gangs, White, Perrone Guerra, and Lampugnani (1999) interviewed street-frequenting youth from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds in Melbourne. A rather ambiguous picture emerged of the ethnic youth gangs that have been the subject of media reports. The respondents had some difficulty in distinguishing between adolescent groups with similar activities, appearance and ethnic identity, and ‘gangs’ per se. They acknowledged conflicts within and between different ethnic-based ‘gangs’, involving street fighting with weapons, and intergroup conflicts at school, called ‘school fights’. School fights and street fighting were often linked to racism. No mention was made of overt criminality within these groups, an essential element of overseas youth gangs. However, many of the ethnic youth interviewed by White et al. reported negative relationships with authority figures, such as police. Youth representing all of the ethnicities interviewed heavily criticised the media for exaggerating accounts of youth gangs, which they felt were based more on ethnic stereotypes than on reality. However, there are documented accounts of established ethnic gangs in Australia, including Cabramatta’s 5T Vietnamese gang, which had its heyday in the 1980s and whose membership was the offspring of refugees from the fall of the Republic of Vietnam. Other ethnic gangs include Aboriginal gangs known as The Evil Warriors and the Judas Priests, who apparently operate in Wadeye, Northern Territory, the Dlasthr (the last hour), an Assyrian criminal gang reputedly centred in Fairfield, Sydney, and the African Power and the Bloods and Crips gangs, comprising Sudanese youth based in the Melbourne suburbs of CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 613

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Collingwood and Carlton. The Sudanese gangs ostensibly mimic the infamous gangs of Los Angeles by taking similar names. Nonetheless, it is unclear whether these ethnic gangs are primarily youth gangs, or are adult criminal gangs (Anyuak Media, 2008; Lindsay, 2007). As well as minority ethnic gangs, there is evidence that mainstream Anglo-Celtic Australian gangs, such as the Bra Boys, also exist in Australian cities (Doherty, 2009). Gangs can provide the context in which adolescents most readily express antisocial behaviour, including acts of violence, arson, theft and vandalism. In such groups, the leader or leaders are often the most antisocial members and readily model aggressive behaviour. For example, a group of adolescents characterised as ‘a teenage gang’ was responsible for wreaking havoc at Merrylands High School, Sydney, in September 2008. The 15-year-old ringleader was apparently addicted to meth-amphetamines and was jailed for 17 months (Barrett, 2008). At-risk teenagers who are characterised by aggressive, acting-out behaviour can be attracted to gangs because their behavioural styles make them rejectees from more legitimate peer groups (Laird, Pettit, Dodge, & Bates, 2005). Within a gang, antisocial acts often become an entrenched pattern of personal behaviour that is instilled by group norms and mutual reinforcement by gang members; a process known as deviancy training. Adolescents who are vulnerable to antisocial and criminal activities appear to be of two types. The early onset type is typically an individual who shows negative temperamental characteristics from an early age, and might also have cognitive deficits, as well as difficulties in self-regulation. Coupled with inept parenting and particularly uninvolved parenting, these individuals develop persistent behavioural styles that are characterised by defiance and aggression. Academic failure and peer rejection at school precipitate associations with other similar individuals. Individuals who facilitate each other’s behaviour may coalesce later into a youth gang. The outlook for early onset types is poor and, with little likelihood of successful rehabilitation, many graduate into a lifelong career of criminality (Rutter, 2003). The late onset type typically begins exhibiting antisocial behaviour at puberty, generally arising from peer influences rather than lifelong patterns of antisocial behaviour. These individuals engage in petty crimes, such as shoplifting and vandalism, but the pattern of antisocial acts does not become permanent. Finding employment and stable close relationships in late adolescence or early adulthood generally means that these individuals abandon earlier antisocial forms of behaviour (Clingempeel & Henggeler, 2003).

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Bullying Bullying is the repeated victimisation of an individual by intentional physical or verbal abuse, exploitation and exclusion, within a context in which there is an imbalance of power (Olweus, 1995). Such behaviour is enjoyed by the perpetrator and instils a sense of being oppressed in the victim. It is considered to be a subset of aggressive behaviour as well as a relational problem, because power is exercised through aggression within a relationship (Murray-Harvey & Slee, 2007). Olweus, a Scandinavian researcher who pioneered the scientific study of bullying, has been examining the phenomenon for nearly 40 years. He estimates that around 10 per cent of children and adolescents between the ages of 7 and 16 years have experienced bullying at some time in their lives (Olweus, 1993, 1995). Rigby (2008), a prominent bullying researcher in Australia, calculates that around half of Australian children and adolescents have experienced bullying at some stage in their lives, and that 15 per cent of Australian children and adolescents are bullied on a weekly basis. Bullying is a feature of middle childhood and frequently occurs in the school context. With the increasing cognitive abilities and perspective-taking associated with adolescence, it might be expected that children ‘grow out’ of bullying. Nonetheless, it still persists during this period of development. Rigby’s (2008) Australian research shows an overall decrease in bullying with age — around 30 per cent of Year 4 children report regular bullying, whereas less than 10 per cent of Years 11 and 12 students report weekly bullying. However, there is a significant increase in bullying as young adolescents make the transition between primary school and high school — before the downward trend resumes (Rigby, 2008). 614

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During adolescence, bullying takes on new, more sophisticated forms, such as cyber-bullying. Here, information technology is used to perpetrate relational aggression, undermining another person’s relationships through insinuation, rumour spreading and friendship exploitation (Merrell, Buchanan, & Tran, 2006). Adolescents’ reputations are damaged when false rumours and electronically doctored photographs or compromising footage taken with mobile telephones are displayed on the web. Chat forums, social networking sites, mobile telephones and email can be used to target an individual with derogatory messages and unflattering images, as well as personal threats (Bamford, 2004; Campbell, 2005; Raskauskas & Stoltz, 2007). Campbell and Gardner (2005) found that 14 per cent of a sample of Brisbane adolescents reported having been victimised using technology such as the internet and mobile telephones, a percentage that is similar to other countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. Campbell (2005) reports that the incidence of cyber bullying is increasing worldwide as new technologies are adopted. There is also an age-related escalation in cyber bullying, with technologies more commonly used by adolescents than by younger children. Despite an increase in cyber bullying, Samara and Smith (2008) found that many high school anti-bullying policies in the UK still did not cover cyber bullying. Likewise, recommendations were made by Spears, Slee, Owens, and Johnson (2008) for a review of school anti-bullying policies in Australia.

Bullying can have a devastating effect on the victim’s wellbeing, including psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches and sleep problems, depression and loneliness (Fekkes, Pijpers, & VerlooveVanhorick, 2004; Rigby, 2001). In extreme cases, bullying has been linked to adolescent suicide. However, longitudinal research is needed to determine the effects of bullying. Correlational research, which is more common in the bullying literature, is limited by the effects being difficult to isolate from the possible causes. Rigby’s (1999) results from a three-year longitudinal study with secondary school students in Australia supported a causal link between bullying and low levels of wellbeing in adolescents. More information is becoming available about the effects of cyber bullying. Kowalski, CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 615

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Limber, and Agatston (2012) speculate that its impact might be more severe than face-to-face ‘schoolyard’ bullying, because the victim has no escape from what can be round-the-clock harassment, the ease with which misinformation can be spread to large numbers of people, and the effects of invasion of privacy. Mitchell (2004) gives an example of the shattering effect of changing room photographs of an overweight Canadian boy that were posted on the internet and were viewed worldwide. So, the audience that witnesses an individual’s humiliation can number in the millions. As well, the perpetrator(s) of cyber bullying can easily remain anonymous, increasing the victim’s feelings of helplessness (Bamford, 2004). Research, both in Australia and overseas, has pinpointed the characteristics of bullies and their victims. Anxious children and adolescents and those who are socially withdrawn are more likely to be the victims of bullies than more confident and assertive individuals — who may pose more of a challenge to the bully (Hanish & Guerra, 2004). Bullies have their own set of behavioural difficulties, including low marks in school, proneness to substance abuse and high levels of aggression and hostility. They exhibit a strong need for power, and often come from family environments that lack warmth and closeness (Bagwell & Coie, 2004; Berthold & Hoover, 2000). Gullone and Robertson (2008) have established links between animal abuse and bullying during adolescence, with approximately 20 per cent of their Australian sample aged 12–16 years reporting having engaged in both behaviours. Witnessing animal abuse is predictive of both animal abuse and bullying. Researchers have provided firm guidelines on how bullying can be tackled in schools (e.g. Olweus, 1993; Rigby, 2002; Smith & Shu, 2000). A comprehensive study of school-based preventive programs in many countries by Smith, Pepler, and Rigby (2004) has showed programs often involve a school policy on anti-bullying, inclusion of bullying-relevant material in the school curriculum, community awareness and involvement, increased monitoring of student behaviour, education of school staff in dealing effectively with bullying, and a school-based plan of how to deal with individual bullying cases. Smith et al. (2004) found reductions in bullying incidence resulting from most programs, but often reductions were quite modest. Cyber-bullying presents particular challenges for school-based preventative programs. Riverside Girls High School in Sydney’s northern suburbs instigated ‘cyber-citizenship’ as part of the school’s curriculum in 2008, aimed at Year 7 and 8 students, in an effort to curb cyber bullying (McDougall, 2008). As well as broad preventative programs, interventions in individual cases of bullying are generally needed in schools. These can range from traditional disciplinary approaches to methods where shared group responsibility for the problem actively involves the peers of both the bully and the victim. This approach is more effective, since it employs peer pressure and addresses the bystander phenomenon — wherein passive observation of bullying by non-involved peers permits the bullying to continue (Rigby 2010). Key factors in the success of anti-bullying programs lie in the thoroughness with which they are applied. Anti-bullying programs have also been shown to be more successful when they are introduced to younger age groups. Therefore, tackling bullying solely in high schools is less likely to result in successful reductions of bullying behaviour when it has become entrenched in the peer culture. Increasingly, research suggests that anti-bullying programs should ideally begin in the preschool years, and should target early education settings (Rigby, 2002).

Adolescent friendships As well as being part of a clique or a crowd, most adolescents have at least one or two close friendships. The number of close friends in adolescence is smaller than the friendship circle of middle childhood. Like younger children, adolescents still show a preference for same-sex friends, although the preference is weaker and opposite-sex friends are more common during adolescence than in childhood (Richards, Crowe, Larson, & Swarr, 1998). As in childhood, adolescent friends tend to share similarities, but in attitudes and values, rather than in interests and activities, as is typical in childhood friendships (Berndt & Murphy, 2002; Dishion, Andrews, & Crosby, 1995). 616

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During the teenage years, the basis of close friendships changes. When asked to define close friendships and how they are initiated and maintained, adolescents report that mutuality and intimacy are the most important factors, whereas school-aged children emphasise shared activities. Unlike the simpler mutuality between younger children that is based on cooperation, adolescent mutuality depends on the understanding that friends share at least some of one’s own attitudes, interests and inner experiences. Adolescent friends also appreciate each other’s uniqueness, often showing a fascination with the interests, life histories and personalities of their friends. Thus, teenagers exhibit a desire to understand their friends as individuals in their own right, and to be understood by them in the same way. Complementarity in friendships is also important during adolescence, involving relationships in which two people with different personal characteristics benefit mutually from opposite or dissimilar qualities. For example, one teenager who is good at mathematics helps her friend with maths homework, while the other who excels in IT reciprocates by helping her friend make a personal blog on the internet. Friendships that are based on complementarity rather than the readily recognised dimension of similarity are more common than might be expected. In a large-scale study of Dutch adolescents, Guroglu, van Lieshout, Haselager, and Scholte (2007) discovered that about half the friendship dyads they examined were characterised by complementarity of behavioural profiles, rather than similarity. Nonetheless, most highly or moderately prosocial individuals’ dyadic friendships were based on similarity rather than complementarity. Friendships based on complementarity were more likely to occur with individuals who displayed aggressive or withdrawn behaviours. For example, withdrawn individuals who were victimised often had a more prosocial friend who provided some protection from bullying. The single characteristic that most clearly epitomises adolescent same-sex friendships and distinguishes them from childhood friendships is intimacy. Intimacy is a psychological closeness involving mutual trust and self-disclosure — elements of friendship that increase over the period of adolescence (Hartup & Abecassis, 2004). Intimacy characterises adolescent girls’ friendships to a greater extent than adolescent boys’ friendships, which are based more on status and achievement. Whereas adolescent girls will often simply talk to their close friends, boys’ friendships are founded on mutual activities that involve more competition and conflict (Brendgen, Markiewicz, Doyle, & Bukowski, 2001). Research in Australia involving friendship quality in same-sex and opposite-sex friendships in Year 5 to Year 10 students revealed similar findings. Girls saw their girlfriends as providing more companionship, help, security and closeness than boys saw their male friends as providing. Boys, on the other hand, perceived greater conflict in their same-sex friendships than girls did (Burton Smith & Leeson, 1999). Adolescent girls tend to have one or two close friends, whereas adolescent boys often have many friends with whom they are less intimate. Adolescent boys are more likely to equate intimacy exclusively with heterosexual friendships, whereas girls of this age can be comfortably close with both male and female friends. The greater closeness in girls’ friendships can bring benefits, such as a feeling of psychological support, but it can also have a downside. By focusing on deep feelings, adolescent girls may be more at risk than boys of co-rumination, an excessive preoccupation with negative thoughts and feelings that are mutually reinforced. Therefore, adolescent girls may be placed at greater risk of anxiety and depression (Rose, 2002). Friendships for both boys and girls during adolescence are beneficial in a number of ways. First, friends are an important source of social and emotional support at stressful times; for example, during peer victimisation, when problems with parents are pressing or a romantic relationship has ended (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). Friends provide one another with social scaffolding that differs from the scaffolding nonfriends provide, giving them the freedom to share inner feelings of disappointment as well as happiness. This enables adolescents to better deal with emotional ups and downs. Thus, the capacity to form close, intimate friendships during adolescence is related to better overall social and emotional adjustment (Bauminger, Finzi-Dottan, Chason, & Har-Even, 2008; Buhrmester, 1990; Reid, Landesman, Treider, & Jaccard, 1989). Second, friends help to promote adolescents’ push towards autonomy, especially during early and middle adolescence. Friends provide knowledge of a world beyond the family, so teenagers learn that not every young person is required to be home by the same hour every night. Adolescents may CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 617

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use this knowledge in their arguments for greater freedom; for example, like Rebecca did when she presented the fact her friend Sarah was allowed to go to the birthday party. Third, friends help adolescents to define their sense of self through the processes of sharing feelings and beliefs and exploring new ideas and opinions. Through their friends, adolescents have a window into other family systems, learning some parents expect their children to do more household chores than their parents do, and other families hold different religious or political views to their own. This provides an important point of social comparison that contributes to the development of self-concept (Rawlins, 1992). As well as immediate beneficial effects on adolescents, the quality of friendships during adolescence appears to have long-term effects on development. Sullivan (1953) recognised the importance of close friendships during the adolescent years for functioning in adulthood. Sullivan’s ideas have been borne out by more recent research. Bagwell, Newcomb, and Bukowski (1998) conducted a 12-year longitudinal study of 30 individuals who had a stable, reciprocal best friend in Year 5 and 30 individuals who had been without a best friend. Those who had close friends as early adolescents experienced better adjustment in school and family relationships and had less difficulty with authority figures at later stages of development than those who did not. Friends can strongly influence development during adolescence by virtue of their characteristics, attitudes, values and behaviours, and through the quality of the friendship. Friendships based on mutual respect, trust, intimacy and prosocial behaviour are likely to help adolescents cope with developmental changes, as well as stressful situations that may arise within the family and at school. However, friendships that lack these qualities are likely to be less helpful and may even be destructive. For example, Guroglu et al. (2007) found that antisocial and aggressive adolescents who form friendship dyads are more at risk of delinquency and addictive behaviours than are adolescents who have no mutual friends. In pre-adolescence, antisocial individuals who are also bullies often have friends or followers who are less antisocial than themselves. These friends tend to be onlookers rather than being actively involved in bullying incidents, However, Guroglu et al. found that as adolescence progresses, there is increasing assimilation of onlooker friends, and, as a result of peer deviancy training, by mid-adolescence both members of the dyad are likely to be bullies.

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Romantic relationships during adolescence According to Dunphy’s (1963, 1969) model, heterosexual romantic relationships grow out of mixed-sex cliques and crowds during adolescence. These contexts play an important role in early romantic relationships, providing a heterosexual backdrop that allows adolescents to venture into opposite-sex relationships at their own pace, with the security of same-sex peers being present. Thus, membership of a mixed-sex clique or crowd increases the possibility of a romantic relationship developing from platonic opposite-sex relationships and propinquity with opposite-sex peers (Connolly, Furman, & Konarski, 2000). Romantic relationships during adolescence usually take place within the context of dating, an arrangement between two individuals to spend time together alone, doing a mutually enjoyable activity — such as going to a movie, visiting the beach or having a meal at a caf´e. Social trends indicate that dating is seen as ‘outdated’ by many of today’s teenagers, who, alternatively, advocate the casual sexual encounter of ‘hooking up’ (Stepp, 2007). However, according to Manning, Giordano, and Longmore (2006), dating is still the primary context for romantic relationships during adolescence. Dating grew out of earlier courtship rituals in Australia and other Western countries, in which young couples regularly had a chaperone (an accompanying older adult) on dates, and time spent together was a prelude to marriage. With the lengthy period of modern adolescence, and the fact dating often begins in the early teenage years, dating has become an end in itself, divorced from its earlier role in courtship. Thus, the functions of contemporary dating are partly recreational, being ‘fun’ activities in their own right, without necessarily any serious romantic involvement, especially in early adolescence. Dating is also expected within the peer context and is tied to peer status, often depending on who is dating whom. Despite its recreational and status functions, early adolescent dating is an important prelude to the deeper, 618

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more lasting and more serious romantic relationships that occur in late adolescence and early adulthood. Dating gives young teenagers the chance to explore intimacy within a close non-platonic relationship, and to become aware of their sexuality, as well as furthering their own sense of identity (Sanderson & Cantor, 1995).

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Romantic relationships during adolescence usually take place within the context of dating.

Dating in early adolescence tends to be superficial and not highly successful in promoting intimacy, which is more effectively pursued in same-sex platonic relationships during this period, especially for girls. Young adolescents are cautious about letting down their emotional guards and exposing themselves to possible hurt or embarrassment in early dating experiences. This emotional superficiality may exist even in the presence of sexual intimacy (Furman & Shaffer, 2003). Dating usually follows an understood set of rules known as a dating script. These cognitive templates often involve recognised gender roles within the dating relationship: boys take a proactive role, asking the girl out, paying for any expenses involved and initiating any intimacy. Girls, on the other hand, are reactive, showing appreciation for the boy’s facilitation of the date and responding to intimacy overtures, including possibly limiting them (Newman & Newman, 2009; Rose & Frieze, 1993). The dating script of early adolescence often includes the rule of girls not showing too much emotional involvement. This emotional blandness, while limiting premature intimacy, may in fact be detrimental to the development of true intimacy in later adolescent and adult relationships. However, despite the prescription of emotional blandness of the dating script, early romantic relationships are frequently characterised by very strong positive emotions that can have the effect of altering the reality of adolescents’ everyday experiences. Being ‘in love’ is common by the time mid-adolescence is reached, and it can be so strongly felt that it disrupts adolescents’ concentration on school work and deflects them from other relationships (Bouchey & Furman, 2003). Nonetheless, negative emotions, such as anxiety and jealousy, are commonly experienced in adolescent dating experiences — and the break-up of romantic relationships is CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 619

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often associated with the first episode of major depression experienced in adolescence (La Greca & Harrison, 2005). Group and individual differences are expressed in romantic relationships in several ways. Gender differences are not only expressed in terms of the dating script, they are also apparent in the motivations for dating relationships during adolescence. Girls more frequently express a need for romance, and boys more frequently express a need for physical attraction (Feiring, 1996; Underwood & Rosen, 2011). There are also age-related differences in the development of romantic relationships in adolescence, with wide differences in the ages at which dating and romantic relationships begin. Involvement in mixedsex cliques and crowds can precipitate dating earlier in adolescence, as does the early onset of puberty. Early adolescent relationships tend to be less enduring and are more superficial than relationships in later adolescence, in which there is usually greater intimacy, companionship and mutual support (Carver, Joyner, & Udry, 2003; Furman, 2002). Wide cultural differences in dating and romantic relationships are recognised, with the age at which dating first occurs varying according to cultural and religious beliefs. In some Asian cultures where marriages are arranged, the concept of dating is redundant and, therefore, entirely alien to the parents of teenagers. These parents consequently restrict the romantic opportunities of their offspring. Research in the United States has found Asian American adolescents begin dating at later ages than African-American and Anglo-American adolescents (Carver et al., 2003). Adolescents from more restrictive cultural backgrounds can experience cultural conflicts between parental norms and the normative pressures of the mainstream expressed in their peer groups, giving rise to ‘sneak dating’ as a solution. This is particularly prevalent among teenage Latino girls in the United States, whose parents impose strict limitations on romantic involvements in contrast to greater parental laxness with boys’ dating behaviour (Raffaelli & Ontai, 2001; Raffaelli, 2005). Romantic relationships for gay and lesbian adolescents can be particularly problematic. Early dating tends to be emotionally shallow and short-lived, due to fear of peer reprisals and rejection. Gay and lesbian adolescents might find it difficult to locate romantic partners in the mainstream culture of high schools, since many of their homosexual peers may still be waiting to ‘come out’ in terms of their sexual identity. Therefore, romantic relationships are more likely to be pursued outside of school and within the confines of gay and lesbian associations and support groups (Diamond, 2003; Savin-Williams, 2003). WHAT DO YOU THINK?

From your experience of adolescent peer groups, can you recognise any of the peer structures and developmental changes originally identified by Dunphy? Are these structures still current in the social lives of today’s adolescents? How has the digital world (e.g. the internet, smartphones and social networking) impacted the different aspects of peer relationships?

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11.5 Sexuality during adolescence LEARNING OUTCOME 11.5 Discuss the changes in sexual activities that occur during adolescence, and how sexual orientation and adolescent pregnancy can affect psychosocial development and adjustment.

Adolescence provides a transition between the asexuality of childhood and the sexuality of adulthood. Along with the maturation of the sex organs, there are increased sexual feelings or sex drive, prompted in both males and females by increased levels of adrenal androgens, which reach their peak level between the ages of 10 and 12 years. Despite the underlying hormonal processes, how the sex drive may be expressed behaviourally greatly depends on environmental variables, including social and cultural factors (Halpern, Udry, & Suchindran, 1997; LaFreniere, 2000).

620

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Transition to coitus The first and earliest expression of the sex drive is often in autoerotic activities or masturbation, which is when the genitals are stimulated manually. Masturbation in boys appears to be more common than in girls, with the majority of 15-year-old boys having practised it. From the early teen years, masturbation frequency declines for boys, but increases in girls (Hyde & DeLamater, 2011). General attitudes to masturbation have changed from the punitive and misguided views of earlier decades, with experts in sexual behaviour now regarding masturbation as a harmless activity that allows adolescents and older individuals to explore their sexuality. Nonetheless, masturbation can still be accompanied by feelings of guilt and shame for some individuals. The transition from autoerotic to mutually erotic activities during adolescence usually follows a progression from kissing through mutual manual stimulation of areas such as the breasts and genitals (‘petting’), to full sexual intercourse or coitus (O’Sullivan & Brooks-Gunn, 2007). The first coitus forms a significant sexual milestone along the road to adulthood, and the average age at which this occurs has steadily declined. By the end of adolescence, most individuals in Western countries have experienced coitus, with Year 11 being a watershed after which a majority of teenagers have become sexually active (Moore & Rosenthal, 2006; Newman & Newman, 2009). Adolescent girls today are participating to a greater degree in sexual activity than in previous generations, although boys engage in sexual activity at an earlier age than most girls. The majority of Australian youth become sexually active during their teenage years, with a small minority still virgins in their twenties (Noller, Feeney, & Peterson, 2001). Nevertheless, the worldwide HIV/AIDS epidemic may have resulted in a postponing and replacement of first coitus with oral sex, which is mistakenly regarded as a safer option as far as sexually transmissible infections (STIs) are concerned. It is also regarded by many adolescents as a more socially acceptable option than full coitus (Halpern-Felsher, Cornell, Kropp, & Tschann, 2005). Despite an overall lowering in the age of first coitus, there are still wide individual differences in the age of first intercourse for teenagers. In order to explain such variations, Udry and Billy (1987) proposed a three-factor model accounting for the variables that influence transition to coitus during adolescence. Motivation includes biological imperatives, physical maturity and internalised norms and attitudes. Social controls include parental, school and peer influences, while attractiveness includes both physical and social attractiveness. All these factors directly affect transition to coitus, except for social controls. According to Udry and Billy, these are mediated by internalised norms and attitudes. The factors may act differentially for boys and girls in predicting coital activity, with hormonal levels the strongest factor for boys, but absent (not a factor) for girls. Girls’ coital activity is most strongly predicted by various social controls (Katchadourian, 1990; Udry, Billy, Morris, Groff, & Raj, 1985). Subsequent research has highlighted the factors identified by Udry and Billy (1987). For example Marin, Kirby, Hudes, Coyle, and Gomez (2006) found that the influence of older peers is particularly powerful in girls’ transition to coitus. Parental factors are crucial, with divorce and single parenting, poor parental monitoring and disrupted communication between parents and children as predictors of early coitus in adolescence (e.g. Howard & Wang, 2004). Poor school performance and lowered educational aspirations have also been pinpointed as possible precipitators of early and frequent coitus in adolescence (Anaya, Cantwell, & Rothman-Borus, 2003). The effects of early first coitus on subsequent adjustment and mental health are controversial, with some authors claiming adverse outcomes including depression in later adolescence and early adulthood (e.g. Hallfors et al., 2004; Rector, Johnson, & Noyes, 2003); while other authors provide contrary evidence (e.g. Lehrer, Shrier, Gortmaker, & Buka, 2006). Large-scale longitudinal research by Jamieson and Wade (2011) concluded that no direct link exists between early first coitus in adolescents between 11 and 16 years and the development of depression in the ensuing eight years, during late adolescence or early adulthood. Instead, depressive symptomology and early coitus are linked to similar biopsychosocial factors that may precipitate both — a finding that echoes an earlier study by Meier (2007).

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First coitus occurs in a wide range of different contexts, ranging from planned to impulsive; as part of an ongoing romantic relationship, or an isolated coupling with a relative stranger; and from a voluntary act to one in which sexual coercion or violence is involved. This contextual variability might account for the inconsistency seen in adolescent reactions to first coitus, ranging from a frightening, disgusting or painful experience to one involving joy, ecstasy and great intimacy (Tolman, Spencer, Harmon, Rosen-Reynoso, & Streipe, 2004). There have been marked historical changes in societal attitudes to transition to coitus during adolescence. The stance of general prohibition and a social norm of abstinence until marriage were prevalent in Western countries up until the late 1950s. However, with the advent of the birth control pill permitting reliable contraception and the subsequent sexual revolution of the 1960s, there has been a general liberalisation, with a pervading present-day attitude of permissiveness with affection; in other words, intercourse is generally condoned within a loving or committed premarital relationship (Hyde & DeLamater, 2011). Historically, premarital sexual activity was seen as permissible for unmarried adolescent boys and forbidden for adolescent girls, who were expected to be virgins on their wedding day; a gender-based difference in attitude known as the double standard. Despite more liberal Western attitudes to current adolescent sexuality and the inroads of the Women’s Movement which promoted sexual equality, vestiges of these gender-based attitudes linger in countries like Australia and New Zealand. Parents who experienced the sexual revolution may still expect their sons to ‘sow their wild oats’ during adolescence, but see the same behaviour as less acceptable in their daughters, possibly because of the risk of unwanted pregnancy. These attitudes are reflected in gender differences in adolescent sexual activity, with boys more likely to be sexually active and at an early age than are girls (Newman & Newman, 2009). Internationally renowned Australian researcher into adolescent sexuality Doreen Rosenthal summed up the double standard in Australia: Although the old image of women as passive victims of male sexual urges no longer applies to most of today’s young women, there is still a strong belief that male sexuality is of a different order to that of females and to some extent is privileged. We have a long way to go before young people understand the power of gender beliefs and attitudes in setting a sexual agenda (University of Melbourne, 2008).

In many non-Western countries, the double standard is still strongly enforced. For example, in most Asian countries, North Africa and the Middle East, female conformity to the cultural expectation of virginity until marriage is generally upheld by strong societal sanctions (Johnson, Wadsworth, Wellings, Bradshaw, & Field, 1992; Peltzer & Pengpid, 2006).

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Sexual orientation Sexual orientation involves the gender of persons to whom an individual feels sexually attracted. It should not be confused with gender identity (the psychological sense of being masculine/man or feminine/woman) or gender role (the degree of masculinity or femininity that individuals feel in regard to themselves). Sexual orientation was once thought of as being dichotomous: that individuals were either attracted to people of the opposite sex to themselves (heterosexual) or to people of the same sex as themselves (homosexual). Research by Alfred Kinsey during the 1940s helped to reconceptualise sexual orientation as a continuum from exclusive heterosexuality to exclusive homosexuality (Kinsey, Pomeroy, & Martin, 1948). A significant minority of individuals now identify themselves according to their sexual orientation as lesbian (females attracted to females), gay (males attracted to males) or bisexual (being attracted to members of both sexes). It is unclear how many teenagers are predominantly heterosexual, as opposed to one of the minority sexual orientations described above. Reliable statistics on sexual orientation are difficult to obtain and depend on whether adolescents have established their orientation and have openly identified as one of the minority sexual orientations. In a large-scale US study of 38 000 adolescents in Years 7 to 12, 88.2 per cent described themselves as predominantly heterosexual, 1.1 per cent described themselves as 622

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predominantly homosexual or bisexual and 10.7 per cent were uncertain about their sexual orientation (Remafedi, Resnick, Blum, & Harris, 1992). Other studies have found that between 3 and 6 per cent of teenagers report they are lesbian or gay (Patterson, 1995). The Australian Research Centre in Health and Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University, Melbourne, carried out a large-scale representative survey of 20 000 adults in 2003, and found that 1.6 per cent of the men sampled disclosed as gay, 0.8 per cent of women identified themselves as lesbian, and 1.4 per cent of women and 0.9 per cent men self-described as bisexual (Australian Research Centre in Health and Society [ARCSHS], 2003). This is still the most comprehensive research study of this kind to date. A more recent Australian ‘pop survey’ of 17 000 Australians (The Great Australian Sex Census, 2013–14) provided the 2013–14 statistics in table 11.2. TABLE 11.2

Australian sexual preference 2013–14 Total

Male

Female

Heterosexual

75.0%

78.0%

68.5%

Homosexual

4.9%

5.8%

3.0%

Bisexual

9.1%

6.8%

14.1%

10.2%

8.5%

13.9%

0.8%

0.9%

0.5%

Bi-curious Did not answer

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Source: The Great Australian Sex Census (2013–14).

Adolescence is a period of development that is often pivotal in the establishment of sexual orientation. It is the time when individuals first have a clear idea of which sex they are attracted to, because of the triggering of sexual desire due to the hormonal changes of puberty, and the social opportunities that are available in the mixed-sex world of adolescence. Individuals may identify with a particular minority sexual orientation during adolescence through self-labelling as gay, lesbian or bisexual. The next step in this process, disclosure, is usually more prolonged than self-labelling, mainly because of the stigma that continues to be associated with minority sexual orientations (Patterson, 1995). Until relatively recently, homosexuality was regarded as a psychological abnormality to be treated and cured and, in many parts of the world, is yet to be decriminalised. So, while adolescents who identify with the majority sexual orientation do not feel the need to self-disclose as heterosexuals, disclosure of a minority sexual orientation can be an additional and often stressful event for gay, lesbian and bisexual adolescents. Typically, disclosure first occurs with close friends, then with family, frequently resulting in an increased sense of genuineness and self-determination. Australian research by Hillier, Turner, and Mitchell (2005), involving more than 1700 individuals aged between 14 and 21 years, revealed that disclosure usually occurred first with a close friend, followed by disclosure to mothers. Between 1998 and 2004, when the study was repeated, there was a significant increase in disclosure, reflecting more tolerant attitudes and greater support for same-sex attracted youth. In similar research carried out in the United States, Savin-Williams and Ream (2003) found that less than 4 per cent of the gay and lesbian teenagers whom they interviewed had experienced adverse parental reactions to their ‘coming out’, which generally occurred in late adolescence. However, disclosure can often arouse strong parental feelings of concern for their offspring, who may face homophobia in a mainstream world that is still prejudiced against minority sexual orientations. The task of achieving a personal identity can be difficult for non-heterosexual adolescents, who bear the added burdens of grappling with their difference and the anxieties and dangers involved in having a minority status in regard to their sexuality. Some gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers experience rejection by their families, schools and religious organisations — the very institutions that adolescents depend on for social support. For example, in 2004, 38 per cent of Australian gay, bisexual and lesbian adolescents CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 623

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and young adults reported unfair or abusive treatment on the basis of their sexual orientation and revealed that school was the main setting for such treatment. As well, many had been forced into painful choices between their religion and their sexual orientation, resulting in difficulties with identity formation (Hillier et al., 2005). In view of these findings, greater understanding and recognition is needed, with active support from family, school and community organisations, as well as anti-discrimination legislation. These conditions are vital in creating an environment that allows adolescents from minority sexual orientations to successfully master additional challenges to identity formation (Hershberger & D’Augelli, 1995). Minority status in terms of sexual identity can carry with it greater risks to health and wellbeing. Overseas research has revealed minority status is significantly associated with greater depression and higher suicide rates during adolescence (Lester, 2006). It appears the verbal abuse, stigmatisation and threats of physical attack that these young people often experience is a key factor in putting sexual-orientation minority youth at greater risk for mental health problems. In a 2004 Australian survey, 44 per cent of same-sex attracted youth reported having experienced verbal abuse and 16 per cent reported having experienced physical assault because of their sexual orientation. Abused Australian same-sex attracted youth fared significantly worse on all indicators of health and wellbeing than non-abused same-sex attracted youth in the study (Hillier et al., 2005).

Much research has been devoted to understanding the mechanisms underlying the development of sexual orientation. Experiences within the family have traditionally been considered an important contributor to this process. For example, opposite-gender behaviour in childhood appears to be strongly associated with non-heterosexual orientations in adolescence and adulthood for both sexes. However, a substantial proportion of gay and lesbian adults report no or few opposite-gender behaviours in childhood (Bailey & Zucker, 1995; Golombok & Tasker, 1996). In a unique longitudinal study examining the influence of social learning in the development of sexual orientation, Golombok and Tasker (1996) compared the sexual orientations of 21 adults raised by lesbian 624

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mothers with the sexual orientations of 21 adults raised by heterosexual single mothers. Although children from lesbian families were more likely to explore same-sex relationships, there was no significant difference between the number from each type of family who identified themselves as heterosexual or homosexual in adulthood. Such findings suggest that environmental factors and social learning mechanisms do not have a strong influence on the development of sexual orientation. In the absence of compelling evidence for social learning models of sexual orientation, researchers have looked instead at the contributions of biological and genetic predispositions to the development of sexual orientation (Byne, 1994; LeVay & Hamer, 1994; Patterson, 1995). Biogenetic factors are assumed to play an important role, since identical twins are more likely to share a homosexual orientation than are fraternal twins. Australian studies have identified the possible role of prenatal hormonal exposure that may modify brain structures involved in sexual attraction (Bailey, Dunne, & Martin, 2000). However, to date there is little definitive evidence of differences in brain structure that correlate with differences in sexual orientation. Thus, the origins of sexual orientation are still unclear, but it is assumed that complex biopsychosocial processes influence differential patterns of interpersonal attraction.

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Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood The Australian teenage birth rate of 11.9 births per thousand (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2017) compares favourably with that of other developed countries, with 67 births per thousand in the United States (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2006), Canada (11.1), is less than New Zealand (18.5) and less than England and Wales (14.5). Since 2009, this rate has decreased in Australia from 17 births per thousand to its current rate noted above. The Australian region with the highest teenage birth rate in 2009 was the Northern Territory, with an annual birth rate of 48 births per thousand, compared to just 10 per thousand in both the ACT and Victoria, the states with the lowest teenage birth rates. Most teenage births in 2009 were to mothers aged 18 and 19 years (69 per cent), while only 4 per cent were to adolescent girls under 15 years of age. Despite the comparatively modest teenage birth rate in Australia, there is still a substantial number of young mothers who are faced with one of the major milestones of adulthood during a crucial developmental period, when adult behaviours and responsibilities are still emerging. A teenage girl’s reaction to an unplanned pregnancy is influenced by a variety of factors, including her self-esteem, her feelings about school, her relationship with the baby’s father and with her parents, perceived family support for keeping the child, and how many of her peers have become parents (Faber, 1991; Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Chase-Lansdale, 1989). In Australia, many adolescent females who become pregnant opt for termination. The experience of an induced termination can be psychologically stressful for teenagers, depending on their feelings about the pregnancy and about abortion in general; the attitudes and support of parents, peers and sexual partners; and overall personal adjustment and life circumstances (Franz & Reardon, 1992; Hardy, 1991). Nowadays, increasing numbers of Australian teenage girls are deciding to give birth instead of terminating their pregnancies (Grayson, Hargreaves, & Sullivan, 2005). As well, there has been a dramatic drop in the number of young Australian mothers choosing adoption as a result of a teenage pregnancy, and, therefore, a concomitant increase in the number who decide to keep and raise their babies. Changes in societal attitudes towards births outside wedlock, as well as greater governmental support for single mothers, have made teenage parenting more viable than in previous generations (Women’s Health Queensland Wide, 2011).

Consequences of teenage parenthood Teenage parenthood carries with it significant risks, both for mothers and their babies. Because of less adequate prenatal care, teenage mothers experience more prenatal and birth complications than older mothers. The babies of teenage mothers are consequently more likely to be premature, have low birth weight and neurological defects, and are also more likely to die during their first year (Dell, 2001). For some children of teenage mothers, delays in cognitive development emerge during the preschool years, as well as behavioural problems including aggression and lack of impulse control. Moreover, where teenage CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 625

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parenthood intersects with economic disadvantage, children of adolescent parents are particularly at risk of academic failure and school drop-out (Whitman, Borkowski, Keogh, & Weed, 2001). In adolescence, sons born to teenage mothers have higher rates of school failure and incarceration, and daughters display earlier sexual activity and pregnancy than their peers born to older mothers (Brooks-Gunn, Schley, & Hardy, 2002; Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). Although children of teenage mothers are also at risk of becoming parents during adolescence, it is estimated that only about 25 per cent of the daughters and 10 per cent of the sons of teenage parents become teenage parents themselves (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011). Coley and Chase-Lansdale also note that the lower socioeconomic status experienced by the majority of teenage parents appears to be a more important predictor of their children’s functioning than maternal age at birth. As well, teenagers who give birth to children are more likely than their non-parent peers to come from disadvantaged backgrounds and to have adjustment problems and lower educational attainment. Having a child during the teenage years often exacerbates the already existing difficulties associated with economic disadvantage (Jaffee, 2002). Research has revealed a number of adverse outcomes for teenage parents, and teenage mothers in particular. In Australia, 60 per cent of teenage mothers do not have a current male partner and the majority bring up their child or children alone, a trend that is repeated in other industrialised nations (Child Trends, 2005; Queensland Health, 2004). Teenage mothers are less likely than their non-parent adolescent peers to complete their secondary education. They are also less likely to go on to higher education, to find a stable well-paying job, to enter a secure marriage and to achieve an average or above-average income in their lifetimes. Detrimental outcomes for teenage mothers are not simply the result of early parenting, but are also influenced by selection factors; for example, socioeconomic disadvantage that preceded the pregnancy. These factors, in combination with the stresses imposed by teenage parenthood, produce adverse life courses for teenage mothers (Luster & Haddow, 2005). Teenage fathers are less negatively affected, largely because they generally do not assume responsibility for raising their children (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998; Condon & Corkindale, 2002). Research on teenage fathers is scarce and has mainly originated in the United States. Teenage fathers are usually within two years in age of the mother (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2006) and generally stay in contact during the period prior to and following the birth, sometimes marrying, and often living with or continuing to date the mother (Bunting & McAuley, 2004). However, contact lessens as the child gets older. Some fathers provide financial support and may drop out of school to secure employment. Because of an emerging picture of adverse effects on teenage fathers, researchers have stressed the need to include them as well in any interventions for adolescent mothers and their children (Armstrong et al., 1999). When adolescent mothers have support from their family of origin, their peers and their partner, as well as adequate financial resources and educational opportunities, many of the adverse outcomes of teenage parenthood can be averted or at least diminished (Bunting & McAuley, 2004). Effective support programs for pregnant teenagers and teenage parents generally focus on providing prenatal and postnatal health care, economic support, childcare and parenting assistance, education, and job training. In Australia, support programs are often run in conjunction with, or by, schools, with an aim of keeping teenage parents in education and preventing early school drop-out, which can lead to lifelong disadvantage for both parents and children. For example, Brisbane’s Mable Park State High School and Sydney’s Plumpton High School run support programs for student parents. The Plumpton High School program was the subject of an ABC documentary, Plumpton High Babies. Family of origin plays a vital role in supporting teenage parents, especially mothers. Many younger teenage mothers continue to live with their family; for those who live independently, close contact with family is important. Luster, Bates, Vandenbelt, and Nievar (2004) contend that support from family members not only has a positive effect on mothers’ parenting, but there are also positive effects for the child, as a result of grandparents providing direct parenting of their grandchild. Grandparents are also important in modelling appropriate parenting behaviours to adolescent mothers, and teenagers with appropriate models tend to become better parents than mothers who lack intergenerational support. As well, the 626

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mother’s developmental experiences of being raised impacts on her own parenting. Luster and Haddow (2005) discovered adolescent mothers who were securely attached infants were more skilled as parents than mothers who were insecurely attached or rejected by their own parents.

Factors affecting the incidence of teenage pregnancy

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The great majority of teenage pregnancies are unintended and are the result of inadequate or nonexistent contraception, indicating that knowledge about reproduction and access to contraception are both essential factors in preventing unintended adolescent pregnancy. In a survey of more than 3000 Australian apprentices aged between 15 and 24 years, Grunseit (2004) found that 23 per cent of the sample reportedly had not used contraceptives the first time they had sex, an incidence that was similar for males and females, and which approximates the incidence in other developed countries. Moore and Rosenthal (2006) have identified a lack of basic sexual knowledge in Australian teenagers, which poses a significant barrier to contraceptive use. As well, adolescents may reject using contraceptives or use them irregularly, because using contraceptives implies intentionality and preparedness for sex, which can induce guilt feelings. Other barriers to contraceptive use include expense or unavailability when needed, perceived messiness and pleasure reduction and anxiety due to inexperience in their use. Feelings of fatalism and powerlessness can also be involved (Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998; Moore & Rosenthal, 2006). Some teenage pregnancies are intentional, rather than accidental, including the notorious ‘mass’ pregnancy involving 17 girls aged under 16 years at Gloucester High School, Massachusetts, which recorded four times the national rate of teenage pregnancies in June 2008. Girls at the school ostensibly expressed disappointment when their school pregnancy tests came back negative (Kingsbury, 2008). Planning a pregnancy during adolescence may be linked to an idealised image of pregnancy and parenting, with teenage mothers regarding pregnancy as a way to crystallise their identities. Motherhood seems to promise a secure adult role, apparently helping adolescents to escape aversive role confusion. Other explanations include a baby being a vector for unconditional love, which adolescents might feel is lacking in their lives (Queensland Health, 2004). Moreover, media portrayals of teenage motherhood have the effect of promoting the romanticisation of adolescent pregnancy, such as the popular MTV reality TV shows 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. Many researchers have looked beyond individual factors, such as a lack of sexual knowledge, and misguided motivations to find wider familial and societal factors implicated in teenage pregnancy risk. Adolescent girls who live in communities with high rates of poverty and who are raised by single parents with low levels of education are at higher risk of becoming pregnant. Life experiences associated with poverty, such as alienation at school, being surrounded by role models of single parenthood and unemployment, and lack of educational opportunities and stable career prospects, all tend to lower the perceived costs of early motherhood (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994; Coley & Chase-Lansdale, 1998). So, programs to prevent teenage pregnancy must be responsive to adolescents’ life contexts. For teenagers who are at high risk because of their life circumstances, programs that include medical care and contraceptive services, social services, family and educational support, as well as school-linked parenting education appear to be most effective (Hardy & Zabin, 1991). WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What do today’s adolescents think about adolescent sex, minority sexual orientations and teenage pregnancy? In what ways have attitudes changed since their parents and grandparents were young? Interview several people of different generations to gauge generational changes in attitudes. What generational changes do you detect? What are the upsides and downsides of these generational changes?

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MULTICULTURAL VIEW

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Adolescence and the development of ethnic identity An ethnic identity — the sense of belonging to a particular cultural group — comprises an important aspect of identity development (Erikson, 1968). The incorporation of this domain into personal identity is potentially less problematic for mainstream adolescents in multicultural societies, such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand, who effortlessly identify with mainstream culture. For example, in Australia adolescents of British descent may simply think of themselves as Australian and make no particular reference to their cultural roots in establishing their personal identity. However, adolescents from ethnic minority groups may face an additional challenge, having Thousands of Australians gathered to hear the historic apology of then prime minister Kevin Rudd on to establish a specific and distinctive ethnic 13 February 2008. identity that encompasses the culture of the country in which they or their parents or more distant forebears were born (Phinney & Alipuria, 1990; Phinney & Ong, 2007). In meeting this challenge, they must reconcile their ethnic values and beliefs with the beliefs and values of the mainstream culture that surrounds them. Therefore, many North American, Australian and New Zealand adolescents are faced with the question of the extent to which they identify with the mainstream culture or that of their ethnic minority group; for example, the Mexican, Sudanese, Italian, African-American or Islander community. Thus, ethnic identity has been conceptualised as varying along a continuum, ranging from an unexamined ethnic identity to a fully developed or achieved ethnic identity (Yasui, Dorham, & Dishion, 2004). Phinney (1996) maintains that adolescents progress through stages of ethnic identity development that are similar to Erikson’s and Marcia’s global models of personal identity development. So, forming an ethnic identity involves the same processes as forming a religious or political identity (Seaton, Scottham & Sellers, 2006). However, researchers have found that exploration of ethnic identity typically occurs later in adolescence than other identity domains — at a time when individuals are exposed to more diverse cultural experiences; for example, when they are at university (French, Seidman, Allen, & Aber, 2006). As well, the stages or status categories of ethnic identity do not necessarily coincide with developmental progress in other domains of identity; such as vocational identity. Societal attitudes and barriers can make this process problematic, and the extent to which adolescents develop an ethnic minority identity is influenced by the cultural views held by mainstream society. The traditional cultural assimilation model widely applied in earlier years in the United States, Australia and New Zealand dictated that minority culture identities be assimilated into the mainstream or majority culture. Previous policies in Australia relating to the Stolen Generation reflected this model, with Aboriginal children taken from their families and brought up isolated from their cultural roots in Anglo-Australian families or in institutions. Thus, the cultural assimilation model denigrates and devalues cultures other than the mainstream culture. Ethnic minority status, coupled with discriminatory attitudes and practices, such as those encapsulated by the cultural assimilation model, can impose an additional crisis on minority adolescents in the process of identity formation. Prejudice inherent in mainstream society may induce a state of identity foreclosure, with minority adolescents less prepared to explore their culturally devalued ethnicity (Markstrom-Adams & Adams, 1995; Romero & Roberts, 2003). Under such circumstances, it seems easier and more adaptive to identify completely with the mainstream culture. In these cases, adolescents deny their parents’ ethnic values, and avoid embarking on an exploration of ethnic roles and origins characterised by ethnic moratorium. Nonetheless, despite wider societal values, parental attitudes can be equally important in how much minority adolescents value and model ethnic minority culture, and therefore incorporate it into their

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personal identity. Research has found that the more parents teach their children the language, cultural practices, and history of their ethnic group, the more likely they are to develop a favourable ethnic identity as adolescents (Phinney, Romero, Nava, & Huang, 2001, Phinney & Ong, 2007). In recent years, political and social attitudes towards minority cultures have changed, with a recognition and accommodation of minority cultures in countries such as Australia and New Zealand. The pluralistic society model espouses diverse and equal cultures, preserving the ethnic heritage and identity of minority individuals as equal in importance to the mainstream culture, while the bicultural model maintains that individuals can exist within two cultures and can take on a dual identity (Phinney, 2003). These changing societal attitudes are having a significant impact on ethnic identity, with biculturalism increasingly adopted as an ethnic identity. For example, at the turn of the millennium, nearly seven million North Americans identified themselves as bicultural (Schmitt, 2001). Ethnic identity may not simply depend on facilitation by wider societal attitudes, particularly for aboriginal peoples. Here, resolving the clash of traditional and modern values is pivotal. For a number of Aboriginal adolescents in remote areas of Australia, identity achievement is still traditionally marked by a ceremony of pubertal initiation, in which individuals pass from childhood to full adult tribal status. For example, in the ‘Mandiwala’ initiation ceremony of the Yanyuwa people from Borroloola near the Gulf of Carpentaria, boys are taken from their mothers, secluded away from the settlement, and are initiated into the tribal secrets of the adult world (Orucu, 2006). Such ceremonies may also involve circumcision and ritualised death and rebirth, in which the former childhood identity is left behind and the new adult identity emerges (Ronald & Berndt, 1999). Through initiation, adolescents in traditional societies avoid the protracted dialectical crisis that Western adolescents undergo, with the brief but intense experiences of initiation imposing their tribal adult ‘self’ in a form of cultural foreclosure. Despite the imposition of a traditional tribal identity, assimilating their Aboriginality as an ethnic identity can be particularly difficult for Aboriginal adolescents. In the transitional societies found in remote areas of the Northern Territory of Australia, adolescents may find themselves suspended halfway between traditional belief systems and modern Western values, experiencing an inherent incompatibility between the values imposed by tribal elders and those instilled by the mainstream culture. This increases the risk of identity diffusion among transitional youth in such cultures, with a concurrent risk of antisocial activities and personal adjustment problems; for example, petrol sniffing is rife in some remote Aboriginal communities. The theme of the clash between traditional and mainstream identity and its aftermath are sensitively explored in the film Yolngu Boy, reviewed by Villella (2002), who describes the self-destructive death of one of the Aboriginal boys in the film as ‘a metaphor for an unreconciliation of past and present, a severed identity’. While a diffused cultural identity may be damaging to the adjustment of adolescents in cultural minorities, by the same token, an achieved ethnic identity is not essential to psychological wellbeing (Phinney, 1996). Many individuals from ethnic minorities might remain foreclosed, conforming unquestioningly and quite happily to the mainstream culture throughout their lives. This is often the case for children from other cultures who are adopted at an early age by parents from a mainstream culture. These individuals find questions relating to ethnic identity exploration quite strange. For example, South-East Asian adoptees may have no interest at all in finding their cultural roots or families of origin in their country of birth, simply because they identify completely with the mainstream Australian culture of their adoptive parents (DonnetJones, personal communication, 2008). Nonetheless, foreclosure into a mainstream ethnic identity has been a highly negative experience for many members of Australia’s Aboriginal Stolen Generation. Many of these individuals have suffered as a result of ongoing and unresolved ethnic identity issues. The Australian government acknowledged the pain, suffering and hurt of the Stolen Generation and their descendants in a formal apology delivered by then prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2008. Research has demonstrated that a well-integrated ethnic identity is associated with positive outcomes, such as resilience against discrimination, higher self-esteem and academic success (Lee, 2005; UmanaTaylor, 2004; Yasui et al., 2004). This research echoes the earlier findings of an Australian researcher, who found many well-adjusted adolescents — the children of first-generation European migrants — had successfully integrated a strong ethnic identity into the other aspects of their personal identity (Taft, 1985).

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I move: That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations — this blemished chapter in our nation’s history. The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry. We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

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Extract from Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples, 13 February 2008, Parliament of Australia

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LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD We have reached the end of our discussion of adolescence. How do the developmental issues of adolescence reflect the four lifespan themes discussed in the chapter on studying development? Changing relationships with parents are an important aspect of adolescent development. Here, we consider the four lifespan themes with this issue in mind.

Continuity within change The theme of continuity and change is very much in evidence during adolescence, which is essentially a transition to adulthood that involves fundamental changes. Nonetheless, continuity is also in evidence. Through earlier attachment that has developed during childhood, relationships with parents continue to grow, along with increasing separation from parents that occurs with the emergence of a more integrated and adult identity and a stronger sense of self. The striking changes in physical and cognitive capabilities and the psychosocial developments that emerge in adolescence affect the nature and quality of parent–teenager relationships; however, consistencies in temperament, cognitive style and beliefs about parenting ensure a degree of continuity in these relationships as well.

Lifelong growth Parent–teenager relationships reflect a process of lifelong growth in physical and cognitive competence and psychosocial complexity that are rooted in the earlier developmental experiences of both adolescents and their parents. The various styles of parenting first discussed in the chapter on psychosocial development in the first two years continue to be associated with positive and negative developmental outcomes during the teenage years, and an authoritative parenting style still benefits children as they become young adults and their parents begin to age. Effective parenting during infancy, childhood and adolescence reflects parents’ evolving ability to respectfully and appropriately respond to their children’s changing behaviour and attachment needs at different stages of development. Parental caregiving thus has the appropriate communication, degree of control, demand for maturity and level of nurturance for children at each period of development. Likewise, the capacity of children to participate more equally in a relationship with their parents grows with age and experience, continuing through adolescence into early adulthood, when many will become parents themselves, and thence into middle adulthood, when they may provide care for their own parents.

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Changing meanings and changing vantage points The meaning of the parent–child relationship undergoes significant changes as children and their parents move through the life cycle. During infancy and toddlerhood, children’s subjective experience is largely based on their attachments to and dependence on caregivers, who, in turn, experience strong attachment to their children and an intense sense of responsibility for all aspects of their wellbeing. Relationship meanings and vantage points of both children and parents undergo major developmental changes as the physical, cognitive and psychosocial capabilities of children unfold. Parents, while experiencing their own adult developmental changes, respond differentially, according to the changes in their developing child. In early primary school, children regard parents as all-knowing and all-powerful. They have limited ability in understanding the dynamics of parent–child relationships, and expect their parents to meet their needs and solve their problems. By late primary school, children’s capabilities, needs and expectations have changed significantly to reflect greater independence and autonomy, as well as an increased understanding of parent–child relationships and their own contributions to it. Further dramatic changes in meaning and vantage points occur during adolescence and continue into the early, middle and late adult years.

Developmental diversity Parents worldwide share a common goal of caring for their children in a manner that fosters their physical, cognitive and psychosocial development and wellbeing. However, the ways in which parents raise CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 631

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their children show great diversity, depending on their ethnic, racial, religious, gender and socioeconomic backgrounds. This diversity is also influenced by the beliefs, values, expectations and life circumstances of parents and their children, which may change over time. For example, relationships between teenagers and their parents today differ significantly from those of their parents’ or grandparents’ generation. The current information revolution may further influence the diversity of parent–child relationships with outcomes that are yet to be seen. All parent–child relationships have a great deal in common, but even with similar backgrounds and life circumstances, families follow diverse developmental courses, because parents and children interact with one another and their environments in unique ways.

SUMMARY 11.1 Define identity and describe the factors that influence the development of a personal identity during adolescence.

A key task of adolescence is successful resolution of Erikson’s psychosocial crisis of identity versus role confusion. Identity formation involves selectively integrating some aspects of earlier childhood identity and discarding others. Successful resolution of the identity crisis of adolescence depends on the opportunities to experiment with different social roles and activities. Individual differences in identity achievement are due to culture, gender roles, peer influences, parenting styles and life circumstances experienced by adolescents, which may increase or decrease opportunities for exploration. Marcia (1966) identified four identity status types: (1) identity achievement, (2) diffusion, (3) moratorium and (4) foreclosure. Adolescents tend to move from less developed to more developed status types, but in highly individual patterns. 11.2 Explain how the sense of self develops during adolescence and describe how self-esteem is affected by adolescence.

Self-concept is based on more abstract beliefs and values than the concrete and comparative ideas of self during childhood. Increased perspective-taking ability may reveal ‘true’ and ‘false’ selves in relation to interactions with different people, but this can reflect positive experimentation with different roles that contribute to self-concept. Self-esteem decreases significantly between childhood and mid-adolescence, and more dramatically for girls than for boys. This sex difference is probably anchored to sex-role differences, body image dissatisfaction in girls as well as boys, and the differential boost to self-worth that romantic relationships bring to adolescent boys and girls.

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11.3 Compare how parent–child relationships differ during childhood and adolescence, and discuss how intergenerational conflicts affect parent–child relationships during adolescence.

Parent–child relationships become less asymmetrical in terms of the balance of power during adolescence compared with childhood, as a result of adolescents’ push for autonomy. There are wide individual differences in the degree of autonomy achieved by adolescents, depending on parenting styles and cultural and gender-based norms and attitudes. Conflict between adolescents and their parents may arise over autonomy issues and everyday responsibilities, but rarely over basic beliefs and values. Intergenerational conflict lessens towards the end of adolescence and, for most parents and their adolescent children, is not damaging to their basic relationship, which generally remains warm and positive. 11.4 Discuss the importance of peer groups to adolescents, and how adverse and positive peer group experiences affect adolescent development.

During adolescence, close same-sex cliques of up to six peers gradually meld into mixed-sex cliques and larger, looser amalgamations of several cliques called crowds. Cliques and crowds provide the backdrop for new cross-sex interactions, including romantic relationships. Peer group conformity within cliques and crowds is not as strong as once thought, and adolescents seek out different kinds of advice and support from both parents and peers. Nonetheless, for a minority of adolescents, ineffective parenting and longstanding peer difficulties propel them towards peer group experiences in gangs. 632

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Gang membership introduces many of these adolescents to a criminal career, and may exacerbate the preexisting interpersonal difficulties that predispose adolescent males to gang membership. As well, bullying within the peer group can seriously affect the psychosocial development and adjustment of victims and bullies alike. Positive peer relationships include adolescent same-sex friendships that are high in intimacy and mutual support and are an essential bridge to successful romantic relationships, which may also begin during adolescence. Romantic relationships are generally pursued through dating, with prescribed roles and behaviours for boys and girls. Early dating relationships tend to be more superficial and less intimate and enduring than those in late adolescence. 11.5 Discuss the changes in sexual activities that occur during adolescence, and how sexual orientation and adolescent pregnancy can affect psychosocial development and adjustment.

During adolescence, most individuals experience their first sexual intercourse. The age when this occurs is becoming earlier, depending on gender, cultural constraints and peer influences. The double standard still exists in Western and non-Western societies, giving males greater licence for premarital sex than females. Sexual orientation is the gender context in which sexual attraction and activity occurs. Sexual orientation minority status — lesbian, gay or bisexual — may pose additional challenges to identity formation and sexual maturation during adolescence, with homophobia leading to adverse experiences that make ‘coming out’ a stressful experience for many youths. Teenage pregnancy and parenthood can pose significant developmental risks for both parents and children born to young parents. Unless adequate supports are in place, teenage mothers, in particular, run the risk of a lifelong trajectory of disadvantage. So, it is important that teenage parents complete their education and receive family and community support.

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KEY TERMS adolescent egocentrism The tendency of adolescents to perceive the thoughts, motives and actions of other people from their own perspective. autonomy An individual’s ability to govern and regulate their own thoughts, feelings and actions freely and responsibly while at the same time overcoming feelings of shame and doubt; independence and control over one’s life; the ability to make one’s own decisions. clique A small, closely knit adolescent peer group of around six members who share similar values, interests and activities, and exclude individuals who do not share these values, interests and activities. crisis A normative challenge through which personal growth and development occurs. crowd A large, loosely knit peer group averaging about twenty members, with a similarity in values or activities generally consisting of two to four cliques. dating script The understood rules of a dating arrangement including accepted gender roles. deviancy training A group-based learning process in which antisocial behaviour is modelled and reinforced, such as in adolescent gangs. double standard A gender-based difference in attitude, advocating sexual permissiveness for males but not females. gender identity The psychological sense of being male or female. gender role The degree of masculinity or femininity that an individual feels. generation gap A popular perception of a deep and fundamental divide between parental and adolescent children’s attitudes and world views. homophobia Fear, dread, hostility or prejudice directed towards gay and lesbian persons and the resulting mistreatment and discrimination. identity A comprehensive and coherent sense of self. identity achievement The attainment of a coherent sense of self after a period of exploration. identity diffusion A state where the individual has neither explored nor committed to an identity; failure to achieve a relatively coherent, integrated and stable identity.

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identity foreclosure Commitment to an identity without prior exploration. identity moratorium Active exploration of possible roles and different responsibilities without a commitment to a definite identity. imaginary audience A cognitive bias during adolescence whereby the individual feels that other people totally share their own concerns about appearance and behaviour, and subsequently act self-consciously as if in front of a critical audience. negative identity An identity emerging from foreclosure that is typified by antisocial values associated with membership of urban gangs and criminal or extremist organisations. personal fable Adolescents’ belief that their own lives embody a special story that is heroic and completely unique and that no-one else can understand them. propinquity Physical closeness, presence or proximity between individuals. psychological moratorium A period of developmental suspension between childhood security and adult responsibilities when young people experiment with different roles and experiences. role confusion A state of uncertainty in relation to personal identity. self-esteem The evaluative aspect of self; the individual’s feeling of self-worth; an individual’s belief they are an important, competent, powerful and worthwhile person who is valued and appreciated. sexual orientation The gender of persons to whom an individual feels sexually attracted; including straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.

REVIEW QUESTIONS 1 Describe the psychosocial challenges Erikson attributes to the stage of identity versus role confusion.

How did Marcia expand upon Erikson’s ideas and what contribution does his model make to the understanding of identity development during adolescence? 2 How are parent–child relationships typified during adolescence? Which factors influence adolescents’ degree of autonomy? 3 Describe the nature and role of friendships during adolescence. 4 How do romantic relationships differ between early and late adolescence?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1 ‘Adolescent peer groups make a negative contribution to teenagers’ social–emotional development.’

Critically evaluate this statement. 2 Discuss the pros and cons of the following statement: ‘Young adolescents should not be involved in

recreational drug use.’ 3 Should adults intervene in cases of schoolyard bullying of teenagers? 4 Information technology has transformed the peer experiences of today’s teenagers. Critically discuss Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

this statement.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS 1 Test your understanding of key concepts in this chapter by matching the correct terms from the list

below to an applicable example. Note: There are several distracter terms in the list that do not apply to the examples below. Some examples might also match with more than one term.

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Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

Adolescent egocentrism Autonomy Bullying Clique Crowd Dating script Deviancy training Double standard Gang Gender identity Generation gap

Homophobia Identity diffusion Identity foreclosure Identity moratorium Negative identity Parental monitoring Personal fable Propinquity Role confusion Self-esteem Sexual orientation

(a) Ben, aged 17, has recently auditioned for The Voice. He is certain that he will be chosen to appear and has great confidence in his stage presence and his personality. He believes that he has a unique style of singing that will take him right to the top. His friends are afraid that Ben is in for a big let-down — they have heard him sing, but no-one wants to tell him not to audition. (b) Elizabeth is in Year 12. Most of her friends are going on to university or are doing further training after they leave school. Elizabeth just wants to work in her family’s business, a corner grocery store. Her friends think she is wasting her ability — she regularly comes near the top of her class. But when they ask her about what she really wants to do, she just shrugs and says that she wants to please her father. (c) Michael is aged 15. He has recently ‘come out’ to his friends. Most of them are OK with this, but the word has got around the school. Many of the boys who used to be friendly are refusing to speak to him now and others are calling him nasty names in the schoolyard. Some of the girls who used to be his friends are looking at Michael in a funny way. While walking home alone, Michael was physically attacked by a group of senior students from his school. (d) Caitlin and William are both in Year 10. Caitlin was secretly hoping that William would ask her out, but felt she could not make the first move. She was really attracted to him and spent lots of time talking to him during lunch and at breaks, mainly about the school council they were both on. She tried to drop hints about how she felt about him, but it took a long time before the penny dropped. At last the long-awaited phone call came — it was William asking her to go out to a movie. (e) Luke is in his first year of teaching at a co-educational high school. During the year he has noticed how certain students ‘hang out’ together. One group seems to consist of the brightest and most academic students, another is mainly interested in and good at sport. Another group consists of kids who do not seem to fit in well and who spend most of their free time playing computer games. Another group is mainly male with a few ‘hangers on’ who are girls. Luke thinks members of this group are the troublemakers in the school. (f) Mr and Mrs Evans are extremely worried about 16-year-old Liam. He has begun to associate with a group of older boys, some of whom have already left school and are unemployed. He stays out until all hours, and will not tell his parents where he has been. Liam is becoming more and more difficult to talk to and swears at his parents if they question him about his activities. They feel that his new friends have far too much influence over him, most of which is bad. One of the older boys in the group already has a police record, and seems to be the ringleader. 2 Madison has just turned 14 and has a new boyfriend, Jordan, who is a year older than she is. Several weeks ago while her parents were out, she invited Jordan and some of her friends over to her house to watch DVDs. Someone found a bottle of whisky and dared everyone to have a drink. The bottle was passed around the group. Soon Madison was feeling very light-headed and a few drinks later she passed out. The next morning she woke up in her own bed. Her clothes were on the floor and CHAPTER 11 Psychosocial development in adolescence 635

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she had a vague and troubling memory of Jordan snuggling up against her bare back. She dismissed the thought until her period was late. She waited another month, but her period was still overdue. Madison bought a pregnancy test kit and found that her result was positive. She has just knocked on the school counsellor’s door. (a) How should the school counsellor deal with the situation? (b) What are the risks to psychosocial development and possible outcomes for Madison if she decides to go through with the pregnancy and to keep her baby? (c) How can Madison’s parents, Jordan and her school best support her if she decides to keep her baby and raise it herself?

ESSAY QUESTION 1 Explain the distinction between self-concept and self-esteem. What is known about the factors influ-

encing gender differences in self-esteem during adolescence?

WEBSITES 1 The Raising Children Network provides a resource for parents, providing evidence-based content from

pregnancy, to newborns, to teenagers: http://raisingchildren.net.au 2 The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) is an organisation that is committed

to improving the physical and psychosocial health and wellbeing of all adolescents through advocacy, clinical care, health promotion, health service delivery, professional development and research: www.adolescenthealth.org/Home.aspx

Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

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Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.

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Goldstein, S. E., Davis-Kean, P. E., & Eccles, J. S. (2005). Parent, peers, and problem behavior: A longitudinal investigation of the impact of relationship perceptions and characteristics on the development of adolescent problem behavior. Developmental Psychology, 41, 401–413. Golombok, S., & Tasker, F. (1996). Do parents influence the sexual orientation of their children? Findings from a longitudinal study of lesbian females. Developmental Psychology, 32, 3–11. Gray, M., & Steinberg, L. (1999). Unpacking authoritative parenting: Reassessing a multidimensional construct. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 574–587. Grayson, N., Hargreaves, J., & Sullivan, E. A. (2005). Use of routinely collected national data sets for reporting on induced abortion in Australia. Sydney: AIHW National Perinatal Statistics Unit (Serial No.17). Grunseit, A. C. (2004). Precautionary tales: Condom and contraceptive use among young Australian apprentices. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 6, 517–535. 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Steinberg, L. (2001). We know some things: Adolescent–parent relationships in retrospect and prospect. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 11, 1–19. Steinberg, L. (2004). Risk-taking in adolescence: What changes and why. Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 1021, 51–58. Steinberg, L. D., & Levine, A. D. (1990). You and your adolescent: A parent’s guide to development from 10 to 20. New York, NY: Harper & Row. Steinberg, L., & Silk, J. S. (2002). Parenting adolescents. In M. H. Borstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting (2nd ed., pp. 103–133). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Stephenson, M. (2006). Closing the doors on the Maori schools in New Zealand. Race Ethnicity and Education, 9, 307–324. Stepp, L. S. (2007). Unhooked: How young women pursue sex, delay love and lose at both. New York, NY: Riverhead Books. Subrahmanyam, K., & Smahel, D. (2011). Digital youth: The role of media in development. New York, NY: Springer. Sullivan, H. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York, NY: Norton. Sussman, S., Pokhriel, P., Ashmore, R. D., & Brown, B. B. (2007). Adolescent peer group identification and characteristics: A review of the literature. Addictive Behaviors, 32, 1602–1627. Sydell, L. (2011). Antisocial networks? We’re just as cliquey online. National Public Radio (February 3, 2011). Retrieved Sepbember 30, 2011, from www.npr.org/2011/02/03/133469245/anti-social-networks-were-just-as-cliquey-online Taft, R. (1985). The psychological study of adjustment and adaptation of immigrants in Australia. In N. T. Feather (Ed.), Australian psychology: Review of research. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin. The Great Australian Sex Census. (2013/14). Retrieved from http://www.sexcensus.com.au/Australia/General-Sexual-Orientation2013 Thomas, J. J., & Daubman, K. A. (2001). The relationship between friendship quality and self-esteem in adolescent girls and boys. Sex Roles, 45, 53–65. Tolman, D. L., Spencer, R., Harmon, T., Rosen-Reynoso, M., & Streipe, M. (2004). Getting close, staying cool: Early adolescent boys’ experiences with romantic relationships. In N. Way & J. Chu (Eds.), Adolescent boys: Exploring diverse cultures of boyhood. New York, NY: NYU Press. Tomori, M., & Rus-Makovec, M. (2000). Eating behavior, depression, and self-esteem in high school students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 26, 361–367. Trzesniewski, K. H., Brent Donnellan, M. B., Moffitt, T. E., Robins, R. W., Poulton, R., & Caspi, A. (2006). Low self-esteem during adolescence predicts poor health, criminal behavior, and limited economic prospects during adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 42, 282–290. Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2001). Age and birth cohort differences in self-esteem: A cross-temporal meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 321–344. Udry, J. R., & Billy, J. O. G. (1987). Initiation of coitus in early adolescence. American Sociological Review, 52, 841–855. Udry, J. R., Billy, J. O. G., Morris, N. M., Groff, T. R., & Raj, M. H. (1985). Serum androgenic hormones motivate sexual behavior in boys. Fertility and Sterility, 43, 90–94. Umana-Taylor, M. (2004). Ethnic identity and self-esteem: Examining the roles of social contexts. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 139–146. Underwood, M. K., & Rosen, L. H. (Eds.). (2011). Social development: Relationships in infancy, childhood, and adolescence. New York, NY: The Guilfrod Press. Unger, R. K. (2001). Handbook of the psychology of women and gender. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. University of Melbourne. (2008). Doreen Rosenthal on adolescent sexuality [The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 20 (10 December–4 February 2008)]. Updegraff, K. A., McHale, S. M., Whiteman, S. D., Thayer, S. M., & Crouter, A. C. (2006). The nature and correlates of Mexican-American adolescents’ time with parents and peers. Child Development, 77, 1470–1486. van den Berg, P. A., Mond, J., Eisenberg, M., Ackard, D., & Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2010). The link between body dissatisfaction and self-esteem in adolescents: Similarities across gender, age, weight status, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Journal of Adolescent Health, 47(3), 290–296. Van Houtte, M. (2005). Global self-esteem in technical/vocational versus general secondary school tracks: A matter of gender? Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 53, 753–761. Vazsonyi, A. T., Hibbert, J. R., & Snider, J. B. (2003). Exotic enterprise no more? Adolescent reports of family and parenting processes from youth in four countries. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13, 129–160. Villella, F. A. (2002). Yolngu boy. Retrieved June 20, 2008, from http://www.eniar.org/news/yolngu.html Watkins, D., Dong, Q., & Xia, Y. (1997). Age and gender differences in the self-esteem of Chinese children. The Journal of Social Psychology, 137, 374–379. Whitbourne, S. K. (2005). Adult development & aging: Biospsychosocial perspectives (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Wiley. Whitbourne, S. K., Zuschlag, M. K., Elliot, L. B., & Waterman, A. S. (1992). Psychosocial development in adulthood: A 22-year sequential study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(2), 260–271. White, R., Perrone, S., Guerra, C., & Lampugnani, R. (1999). Ethnic youth gangs in Australia — Do they exist? Overview report. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Multicultural Foundation.

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Whitman, T., Borkowski, J. G., Keogh, D., & Weed, K. (2001). Interwoven lives: Adolescent mothers and their children. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Wilks, R., & McPherson, M. (2002). Parent and adolescent perceptions of the granting of behavioural autonomy: A comparison after twelve years. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Psychology and Intellectual Disability Studies, RMIT University. Winfree, L. T., Backstrom, T. V., & Mays, G. L. (1994). Social learning theory, self-reported delinquency, and youth gangs. Youth and Society, 26, 147–177. Women’s Health Queensland Wide. (2011). Teenage Pregnancy. Retrieved October 2, 2011, from www.womhealth.org.au/studentfactsheets/teenagepregnancy.htm. Woolley, C. (2007). Body experience and identity development in young adults with a physical disability. Unpublished master’s thesis, School of Psychology University of Tasmania, Australia. Yasui, M., Dorham, C. L., & Dishion, T. Y. (2004). Ethnic identity and psychological adjustment: A validity analysis for European American and African American adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 19, 807–825. Young, N. D., & Michael, C. N. (Eds.). (2014). Betwixt and between: Understanding and meeting the social and emotional development needs of students during the middle school transition years. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Zettergren, P. (2003). School adjustment in adolescence for previously rejected, average and popular children. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 73, 207–221. Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., & Collins, W. A. (2003). Autonomy development during adolescence. In G. R. Adams & M. Berzonsky (Eds.), Blackwell Handbook of adolescence (pp. 175–204). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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PART 6

EARLY ADULTHOOD

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During childhood we look forward to adulthood as a time when we will be ‘grown up’ and take control of our lives; no longer will parents and teachers tell us what we can and cannot do. So, it can come as a shock that, although we have reached physical and reproductive maturity by early adulthood, we do not feel as grown up or ‘in control’ as we expected or would like. During early adulthood — from around 20 to 40 years of age — development continues, but some changes may be subtle, even unnoticeable, compared to others. Our physical and cognitive skills expand, while psychosocial concerns change more noticeably to include independent households, self-supporting work, intimate partnerships and parenthood. These complex roles and responsibilities call on all we have learned thus far, and compel us to new learning. There is no single point in time when adulthood arrives; rather, growth and learning continue, just as for the preceding years. In part six, we explore early adulthood, which brings a series of physical, cognitive and psychosocial developments. For example, the choice to become a parent is a significant psychosocial milestone, and may provoke concerns about fertility, as well as the physical and psychological demands of pregnancy, postpartum adjustment and childrearing. Changes in work, marriage and other relationships need to be navigated. Experiences at earlier stages of development may influence the choices and problems encountered during early adulthood which will, in turn, affect middle and late adulthood.

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CHAPTER 12

Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood LEARNING OUTCOMES

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 12.1 explain why adulthood is typically a time of physical wellbeing 12.2 explain how adopting health-seeking behaviours contributes to the quality and longevity of adult life 12.3 define stress and its relation to illness 12.4 explain why avoiding health-compromising behaviours contributes to the quality and longevity of adult life 12.5 identify the differences and similarities in sexual responses in males and females 12.6 discuss the treatments that are available for infertility 12.7 describe how adult thought differs from adolescent thought 12.8 explain why gender and context are important to adult moral development 12.9 explain how attending university contributes to cognitive development 12.10 identify the career stages that are typical during early adulthood, and how gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status have an impact on them.

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OPENING SCENARIO

Sloan, who is 33 years old, has recently accepted her longtime partner’s proposal of marriage. Mark proposed during their overseas trip after Sloan was promoted at work; it was a surprise and now they are excitedly planning their wedding. They have been living together for almost a decade since they graduated from university. Some family members felt that they have postponed getting married for too long. But Sloan and Mark wanted to wait until it was right for them. Shortly after graduation, their focus had been on establishing themselves in their jobs and reducing their student debt. Mark lived at his family home for a few years to save money, but when Sloan bought a house and asked him to move in, it felt like a natural, progressive step in their relationship. They struggled financially for several years, working out how to budget as a household while paying down their collective debt (which had grown considerably during their time at university). But Mark got a second job in the evenings, and Sloan became quite adept at making household items such as a cleaning solution and even her own bath luxury items by watching videos online. Now aged in their early thirties, they are more successful financially, although their budget is still tight and they haven’t saved enough in their rainy day fund to cover themselves if one of them were to lose their job or have a change in income. For this reason, they are planning a small wedding and don’t plan on having children until much later; much to the disappointment of their parents who are eager to have a grandchild to spoil. But Sloan and Mark have an idea of what their future will look like, and they are making slow but steady progress to achieve that dream. Early adulthood — generally the years between twenty and forty — is the time when we are expected to assume adult responsibilities and roles, including establishing an independent household, committing to a life partner, and becoming a parent. Most of these milestones are achieved in one’s twenties, although many are delaying marriage and children until much later in life than in decades past, or choosing not to marry or have children. Young people who find jobs and start families soon after high school enter the conventional adult world sooner than those who pursue tertiary education or spend time exploring their options. Becoming, and being, an adult is much less about a specific age one may reach, and more about the roles and responsibilities one may have. In this chapter, we focus on physical health and wellbeing in early adulthood, as well as cognitive development. First, we look at physical functioning and issues of health, stress, sexuality and infertility. Then, we look at cognitive aspects of early adulthood, including the contributions of university and work to cognitive development. In the next chapter, we focus on psychosocial development during early adulthood.

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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT Young adults are at the peak of their physical abilities. The heart, lungs and other body organs have reached maturity and are at their strongest by the mid-twenties. In fact, researchers use early adulthood as the baseline against which to measure declines in functioning during middle and late adulthood.

12.1 Physical functioning LEARNING OUTCOME 12.1 Explain why adulthood is typically a time of physical wellbeing.

Although signs of normal ageing do appear between the ages of 20 and 40, any decline in physical functioning is likely to be so gradual that it goes unnoticed. In this section, we consider three aspects of CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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physical functioning during early adulthood: (1) growth in height and weight, (2) strength and (3) agerelated changes in body systems. We then look at how genetic makeup, diet, exercise and stress affect these changes.

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Growth in height and weight Both males and females experience weight increases during early adulthood, as their bodies continue to fill out and the high activity levels of adolescence give way to more sedentary routines. Because contemporary industrial society emphasises being slim as an essential element of attractiveness, females are particularly attuned to weight and weight control. Recent generations of adults have been getting taller and heavier, as well as maturing earlier, compared to previous generations. These generational changes in height, weight and maturation reflect the secular trend observed over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Cole, 2000). As we discussed in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in early childhood, a variety of factors have contributed to the secular trend, including better nutrition, improved hygiene, healthier environmental conditions and interbreeding of genetically dissimilar individuals, which produces hybrid vigour. While such changes for Caucasian Australians are well documented, the evidence for a secular trend among Aboriginal Australians remains less clear (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2006d; Pretty, Henneberg, Lambert, & Prokopec, 1998). Many people reach their full height during adolescence, and virtually all reach it by their mid twenties. Skeletal development comes to an end during the twenties as the process of ossification changes the cartilage to bone. Although females tend to reach their maximum height and ossification of their cartilage finishes earlier than males, there is considerable variability in the time when growth is complete for both sexes, and both will achieve maximum bone mass by age thirty (Spirduso, 1995). The combination of exercise and good nutrition while bone mass is developing produces a reservoir of bone and calcium that can alleviate the bone loss associated with ageing in later stages of adulthood (Recker et al., 1992). Both males and females experience weight increases during early adulthood as their bodies continue to fill out in the later stages of physical maturation. Women’s breasts and hips and men’s shoulders and upper arms generally increase in size. For most, the high activity level of adolescence gives way to a more sedentary routine, usually as a consequence of study and work as adult roles are embraced (Caspersen, Pereira, & Curran, 2000). If men and women do not adjust their diets and monitor their activity levels, they gain weight. As we saw in our discussion of adolescence, normal body changes during puberty result in a higher proportion of body fat in females than in males. During the early twenties, the average body fat percentage is 15 per cent for males and 21 per cent for females. Children in their teens are overtaking their parents This increases to an average of 19 per cent body fat in height. for males and 25 per cent for females aged fifty and over. Most researchers believe the larger amounts of fat in females of normal weight are related to sex-specific reproductive functions. In addition to the physiological differences that account for the different proportions of body fat in males and females, social factors contribute to adult patterns of weight gain. Like most developed countries, contemporary Australian society emphasises physical attractiveness and being slim is an essential element of this, particularly for females. Models and movie stars are thinner than they were 50 years ago, 650

PART 6 Early adulthood

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at a time in human history when female bodies are larger than ever before. As a result, females are very attuned to weight and weight control, long before they reach adulthood (Abraham, 2003; Striegel-Moore, 1997). Women also continue to be more concerned about their weight than their male counterparts during the early adulthood years, despite recent evidence that many males will gain weight during this period (Hugo et al., 2006).

Strength

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Strength continues to increase after full height is reached. The muscular system gains in strength throughout the twenties and peaks in the early thirties. The middle and late twenties are the prime time for doing hard physical labour or playing strenuous sports. Mark, for example, typically runs six kilometres after his shift of nursing and still faces the evening full of energy. After the peak comes a slow but steady decline in strength — so slow that it has little impact on most people until they reach age forty or fifty. Professional dancers, athletes and others who depend on their physical skills for their livelihood are likely to feel such changes more acutely. They are likely to feel older sooner than people who count more on their intellectual or social skills for their self-esteem (Striegel-Moore, 1997). Individuals who are strong are likely to remain strong relative to their cohort, but younger adults will have the edge in activities that rely on strength after the peak during the thirties. Most young adults will notice a change only under unusual circumstances, such as chopping wood on a camping trip or moving heavy boxes, because under ordinary circumstances we do not use our full capacity. The declines of ageing primarily affect our organ reserve, the extra capacity each body organ has for responding to particularly intense or prolonged effort or unusually stressful events, such as running for a bus (Fries, 2000).

The muscular system gains strength throughout the twenties and peaks in the early thirties. This makes it the prime time for strenuous activities such as Crossfit, as these young people are doing.

CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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Age-related changes Appearance changes relatively little during early adulthood, although some people may notice a few creases in the face or a few grey hairs by their late twenties. These first visible signs of ageing reflect changes in skin elasticity and a reduction in the number of pigment-producing cells (Warren et al., 1991). Age-related changes occur in all body systems: cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous and sensory. In our twenties our body systems are at peak performance, after which gradual decline begins, proceeding at different rates for different systems.

Cardiovascular changes The cardiovascular system undergoes a steady decline in functioning throughout the adult years. The function of this system is to pump blood through the body in an efficient and continuous manner, to provide the cells with nutrients and oxygen and to rid them of waste products, both when the body is at rest and during exertion. In healthy individuals free of cardiac disease, the major age-related cardiovascular change is a gradual decrease in maximum heart rate, while resting and sub-maximal heart rate remain relatively unchanged (Spirduso, 1995). The maximum rate at which the heart can beat during heavy exertion decreases about five to ten beats each decade following peak capacity in the twenties (Tanaka, Monahan, & Seals, 2001).

Respiratory changes The respiratory system enriches the blood with oxygen and rids it of carbon dioxide by exchanging air from outside the body with air inside. Because pollutants are so pervasive in the modern environment, it is difficult for researchers to distinguish between normal ageing of the lungs and respiratory system and ageing due to damage caused by environmental factors, such as smoking and air pollution. Gradual decreases in respiratory efficiency start at about 25 years of age and will have decreased noticeably by 40 years of age. Maximum breathing capacity declines quickly compared to other body systems.

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Sensory system changes Peak central nervous system functioning characterises early adulthood. Although age-related changes in the central nervous system begin during this period, they are very gradual. Nerve conduction speed, or the time it takes to transmit nerve impulses, decreases less during early adulthood relative to other physiological functions. The senses vary in the degree of age-related changes during early adulthood. For example, visual acuity increases until the twenties or thirties and remains relatively constant to forty or fifty. From about age thirty, the eyes become progressively more farsighted as the lenses thicken and flatten, but most people usually do not notice changes in vision until middle adulthood, when they may need reading glasses for the first time (Ferrer-Blasco, Gonzalez-Meijome, & Montes-Mico, 2008; Whitbourne, 1985). Hearing peaks at age twenty, followed by a gradual loss, usually too small to be noticed by young adults. Taste and smell sensitivity remain constant during early adulthood, whereas sensitivity to touch continues to increase until 45 years of age. What do these physiological changes mean for most young adults? Typically, not much. This is the period of life when physical functioning is most stable; growth is virtually complete and decline is only beginning and is largely unseen. While in the early adult years, people feel young and strong; the slight physical changes usually do not concern them. However, as we will see next, these feelings of strength may make young adults less sensitive to their health habits than they should be. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Do you have more energy now than you did as a child or teenager? What about your mobility, your flexibility, or your stamina? Have you noticed a difference with these aspects in the last few years?

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PART 6 Early adulthood

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12.2 Health in early adulthood LEARNING OUTCOME 12.2 Explain how adopting health-seeking behaviours contributes to the quality and longevity of adult life.

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Most young adults are generally healthy and rate their health as very good or excellent (ABS, 2012b). Even if disease is present, the person may feel fine because the disease is likely to be in the early stages, possibly asymptomatic, and undiagnosed. For example, adolescents and young adults have sex with more different partners than do people in any other age group, which puts them at higher risk for contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Because the incubation period for full-blown acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) following HIV exposure may be as long as nine years, many infected people often feel fine. Similarly, young adults with poor health habits, such as smoking, are not yet likely to suffer from negative effects, although the damage is already going on in their bodies. A body system — such as the respiratory system in the case of a smoker — need not be working at its best for the person to still feel fine. Because of this, most young adults feel healthy and vigorous, regardless of genetic make-up, environmental factors, socioeconomic factors and health behaviours.

Though the primary benefit of regular aerobic exercise is to the cardiovascular system, its positive impact on health and wellbeing is far-reaching. This woman incorporates jogging into her routine by taking her dog along.

Many of the losses in functioning that people suffer as they age may not result from the normal ageing process, but from pathological ageing caused by illness, abnormality, genetic factors or exposure to unhealthy environments. Health-compromising behaviours that lead to illness, including smoking and physical inactivity, can also lead to pathological ageing (ABS, 2012b). In addition, because socioeconomic status determines the environment in which one lives, works and studies, it affects biological functions, which, in turn, influence health status (Adler et al., 1994). Different neighbourhoods present different levels of exposure to environmental hazards, such as toxic waste or other pollutants. High CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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socioeconomic status neighbourhoods are rarely near factories that emit various kinds of wastes. Socioeconomic status–linked environments also impose different levels of exposure to interpersonal aggression or violence. Different socialisation experiences influence attitudes, moods, cognitive development and health behaviours. Some neighbourhoods are safer to live in than others, and the benefits may be far-reaching. Concern for healthy ageing has encouraged people to adopt lifestyle choices and health-enhancing behaviours that set the stage for long-term health, while avoiding health-compromising behaviours.

Health behaviours In this section, we focus on three health behaviours that people engage in to maintain or improve their health: consuming a healthy diet, exercise and regulating stress; these are health-seeking behaviours. We also consider four health-compromising behaviours: eating disorders, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, and unsafe sex. While subsequent chapters point out that adopting health-seeking behaviours and avoiding health-compromising behaviours promote better health in any stage of adulthood, young adults are in the best situation to prevent illness from developing.

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Diet What we eat affects our health. Diet plays a major role in the development of cardiovascular disease and is increasingly being recognised as a significant contributor to the development of cancer. About 35 per cent of cancers are believed to be diet-related (Alexander & LaRosa, 1994; Parkin, Bray, Ferlay, & Pisani, 2005); for instance, high fat and low fibre intake is associated with the development of colon and rectal cancers. In addition, high salt intake is associated with hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and high fat and cholesterol intake with atherosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of the larger arteries due to the formation of plaques that reduce the flow of blood) and coronary heart disease (Taylor, 1998). All of these negative health effects are under the control of the person making food choices. A healthy diet is low in cholesterol, fats, calories and additives, and high in fibre, fruits and vegetables. Dietary guidelines for adults recommend that fruits, vegetables and grains make up the bulk of what we eat, with the rest supplied by a moderate amount of meat and dairy, and small amounts of fats and sugar. National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines recommend two servings of fruit and five serves of vegetables per day to optimise health and prevent illness (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013). Unfortunately, this is not the typical Australian diet, as many adults learned poor eating habits when they were children and adolescents. The National Health Survey reported that 49.8 per cent of Australians aged 18 and over met the guidelines for the recommended daily servings of fruit, and 7.0 per cent met the guidelines for vegetables. Older people were more likely to meet these guidelines than younger Australians, with 8.1 per cent of those aged 65–74 meeting both the fruit and vegetable guidelines, while only 3.2 per cent of those aged 18–24 met both. (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2015). Dietary change is difficult, even when an individual is at high risk for coronary heart disease (Taylor, 1998). Attitudes have an important effect on diet; people who feel able to change, have a high level of health consciousness, have an interest in exploring new foods, and are highly aware of the link between eating habits and illness are better able to establish good dietary habits (Hollis, Carmody, Connor, Fey, & Matarazzo, 1986). As we will see next, people can amplify the positive effects of a good diet by exercising.

Exercise Physical activity is associated with staying healthy (Spirduso, 1995; Vita, Terry, Herbert, & Fries, 1998). However, the early adult years are a time of considerable change which often affects physical activity levels. Studies have shown that adult activity levels are at their highest from 18 to 24 years of age but steadily decrease with age (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013a). Like their Australian counterparts, the activity levels of young adults in New Zealand have also been shown to decrease in early adulthood (Sinclair, 654

PART 6 Early adulthood

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Hamlin, & Steel, 2005). The decline occurs despite the well-documented and far-reaching positive effects of regular aerobic exercise, especially for high-intensity, long-duration and high-endurance activities, such as jogging, cycling and swimming. Young adults also participate in regular physical activity less often than those in middle adulthood (ABS, 2012b). Socioeconomic status (SES) and education play a role in physical activity as well, with individuals with more education and higher incomes reporting more physical activity than individuals without tertiary education, and those with lower socioeconomic status (ABS, 2013a). Regardless of gender, age, SES and education, most adults are not engaging in enough exercise to achieve recommended minimum standards. Optimal health requires exercise at 70 to 85 per cent of the maximum heart rate nonstop for at least 20 to 30 minutes three times a week. Moderate exercise will increase fitness and decrease the risk of early death for less fit individuals (Alexander & LaRosa, 1994). The primary benefit of exercise is to the cardiovascular system, as regular aerobic exercise counteracts the age-related decreases in cardiovascular functioning discussed earlier. People who exercise maintain higher levels of cardiac functioning and blood flow to key body systems than those who do not, which in turn improves overall health and resistance to disease. Exercise also reduces or controls hypertension and improves cholesterol levels. There are also other benefits to exercise. It improves endurance, builds or maintains muscle tone and strength, and increases flexibility. Exercise also seems to improve mood and self-esteem and reduce stress (Plante & Rodin, 1990). People who exercise tend to engage in fewer healthcompromising behaviours, including smoking, alcohol consumption and poor diet. Research indicates that engagement in physical activity is a much better predictor of morbidity and mortality than other believed risks, like weight. For example, Blair and Brodney (1999) have found that overweight individuals who engage in regular exercise are fitter and healthier than individuals of regular weight who do not engage in regular exercise.

Physical appearance is not always an accurate indicator of health and fitness, as demonstrated by people of all shapes and sizes who participate in fun runs.

CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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FOCUSING ON

Health at every size®

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It is often assumed that by knowing an individual’s weight, or body size, we are given information that allows us to predict their health status. Too often in Western cultures, individuals conflate what they weigh with how healthy they are (or are not). Research, however, does not support this commonly held belief. For example, Gaesser (2004) states that evidence for a link between weight and health outcomes is weak and often based on questionable methodologies. Weight, it is argued, is not a good predictor of morbidity or mortality. For a range of reasons related to health and wellbeing, young adults are at an ideal time in their lives to think critically about their health and to focus on ‘establishing lifelong, sustainable eating and exercise practices’ (Burgard, 2004, p. 44). The best strategies include exercise and dietary choices that include more from the recommended food groups, with a focus on making health-seeking choices, rather than weightloss-seeking choices. Evidence indicates that only five per cent of people who successfully lose weight will maintain the loss in the long term (Bacon & Aphramor, 2011). Despite the common perception that thin people are healthier than overweight people, this is not supported by scientific evidence. For example, both overweight and regular-weight people experience the health benefits from proper nutrition and regular exercise; and both experience the health risks from poor diets and sedentary lifestyles. Furthermore, slim people who do not gain weight easily (and consequently think they can ‘eat anything’) are particularly at risk due to being unaware of the amount of trans and saturated fats they are consuming, simply because there is no visible cue. According to PubMed, over 1105 studies have been published in the last 5 years that examine, or discuss, the obesity paradox — the phenomena of overweight and obese individuals having better health, and longer lives, than those in the ‘normal’ BMI category. Of course, this paradox only exists if one first assumes that being overweight is unhealthy. If we separated weight from health, how would that change our understanding? A new paradigm has been proposed to replace the existing weight-based model. Health at Every Size® (HAES) suggests that everybody, regardless of size, may engage in health-seeking behaviours, and rejects the use of body weight as a proxy for health. HAES advocates argue that health should be assessed in a holistic way, including fitness, activity, nutrient intake, stress, self-esteem, weight cycling, dieting, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Yet, most epidemiological studies rarely acknowledge or include any of these factors into studies that explore the relationship that exists between weight and morbidity and mortality. When studies do control for these factors, most of the increased disease risk associated with being ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’ disappears or is significantly reduced (Campos, Saguy, Ernsberger, Oliver, & Gaesser, 2006). Health at Every Size® is associated with improvements in physiological health measures, health behaviours and psychological outcomes (Bacon et al., 2002; Bacon, Stern, Van Loan, & Keim, 2005). Evidence demonstrates that a health-focused approach such as HAES achieves positive health outcomes more successfully than weightloss treatments without the unintended consequences of food and ¨ body preoccupation (Green & Buckroyd, 2008); repeated cycles of weightloss and regain (Pietilainen, Saarni, Kaprio, & Rissanen, 2012); reduced self-esteem (Polivy & Herman, 1999); and other health decrement (Montani, Viecelli, Prevot, & Dulloo, 2006). The HAES paradigm is more effective in improving health outcomes than traditional, weight-focused treatments (Bacon et al., 2005; Robison, Putnam, & McKibbin, 2007).

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

1. How does your weight influence your health-seeking behaviours? 2. If we moved the focus onto health, instead of weight, how might that change society? 3. How would adopting a HAES perspective alter the relationship you have with your body, and the way you eat and engage with movement?

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12.3 Stress LEARNING OUTCOME 12.3 Define stress and its relation to illness.

Stress, the arousal of the mind and body in response to demands made on them by unsettling conditions or experiences (stressors), is not unique to the early adult period. However, early adulthood is a time of life when the demands of establishing a career and starting a family are likely to bring new levels of stress. Unfortunately, many young adults ignore or deny stress as they do other health-related issues, relying on health-compromising behaviours to make them feel better. Tobacco, alcohol and drugs are used to reduce tension and anxiety and to improve mood, yet they are not very effective ways to cope with stress. Learning to identify and cope with stress at this stage of life can provide lifelong benefits. Stress can be eustress (positive stress), such as when you are chosen to give a speech for an award, or distress (negative stress), such as when your car will not start and you need to get to an exam or a job interview. What serves as a stressor for one person may not be a stressor for another person or for the same person at another time. Central to the definition of stress is the person’s appraisal of whether his or her personal resources are sufficient to meet the demands of the situation. Studies have consistently found that the level of stress is associated with a wide range of health problems. Stress affects all the systems of the body. Selye (1985) identified a pattern of physical response to stress that he called the general adaptation syndrome. This pattern has three stages: (1) alarm, (2) resistance and (3) exhaustion, as shown in figure 12.1. Confrontation with a stressor sets the stress response in motion. During the alarm stage, the body becomes mobilised to meet the threat. The sympathetic nervous system (which helps to control the heart) and the adrenal glands increase the production of hormones that bring on typical stress responses. Rapid heart rate, dilated pupils, shallow and quick breathing and higher blood pressure all result from increased blood supply to the heart, brain, liver and peripheral muscles. During the resistance stage, the body rallies to cope with the stressor. The adrenal glands produce hormones that attempt to keep the stressor as localised as possible, while still enabling the body to overcome it. If the energy of the system is depleted before the body has overcome the stressor, the exhaustion stage is reached and illness results. The syndrome appears to be irreversible and accumulates to constitute the signs of ageing. Wear and tear on the system brought about by repeated or prolonged stressors depletes the body’s resources and lays the groundwork for disease. FIGURE 12.1

General adaptation stressor syndrome Selye’s research showed that physical reactions to stressors include an initial alarm reaction, followed by resistance and then exhaustion. During the alarm reaction, the body’s resistance temporarily drops below normal as it absorbs a stressor’s initial impact. Resistance increases, then levels off in the resistance stage, but ultimately declines if the exhaustion stage is reached.

Level of resistance

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Normal Stressor

Alarm

Resistance

Exhaustion

Source: Adapted from Selye (1974).

Stress and health There is ample evidence that stress causes illness — but how? The answer is not simple. Stress can have a direct effect by increasing wear and tear on the physiological system and producing physiological CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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changes that lead to illness. Tight shoulders, trembling hands and fatigue are all signs of stress that, if untreated, can lead to conditions such as headaches, psoriasis, ulcers, skin rashes, colitis, gastritis, chronic lower back pain, vertigo (dizzy spells), high blood pressure and even heart attack (Markovitz, Matthews, Kannel, Cobb, & D’Agostino, 1993). For example, Bennet, Tennant, Piesse, Badcock, and Kellow (1998) found that stress accounted for 97 per cent of variance in inflammatory bowel disease symptoms in an Australian outpatient sample. Other studies have found that stress plays a part in immune dysregulation, which may facilitate viral and bacterial infections and cancer cell proliferation (Blalock, 1994; Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 1984). Some people have personalities or health conditions that predispose them to stress. For example, people with negative affectivity (depression, anger, hostility or anxiety) may be disease prone (Denollet, 1998; Friedman & Booth–Kewley, 1987; Miller, Smith, Turner, Guijarro, & Haller, 1996). Stress can also cause illness by influencing health behaviours. Smoking, eating poorly or drinking more in response to stress can lead to illness, as discussed earlier in this chapter (Criqui & Ringel, 1994; Taylor, 1998). Figure 12.2 shows the rates of high and very high stress amongst adults in the 25–34 and 35–44 age groups in Australia. FIGURE 12.2

Rates of high or very high psychological stress High or very high stress is experienced at a higher rate for females than for males.

22 20 Male Proportion of population (per cent)

18 Female 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

18–24

25–34

35–44

45–54

55–64

65–74

75 and over

Age group (years)

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Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (2015).

The experience of stress Psychological factors significantly contribute to a person’s experience of stress. So, the meaning a person attaches to an event determines the degree of stress they experience. Lazarus (1993) identified a two-step process — primary and secondary appraisal — that people go through when faced with a stressor. During primary appraisal, the person determines if the stressor is positive, neutral or negative. If it is a negative stressor, the individual assesses its potential for harm, threat or challenge. Harm refers to the present damage. If a police officer pulls you over and gives you a ticket for speeding, the harm might include the cost of the fine, the embarrassment in telling your parents or partner, and the distress of 658

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being late for work. Threat refers to future damage; for example, the increase in car insurance premiums, the difficulties that might arise from the additional points on your licence, and the history of being late for work. Challenge involves the potential to overcome and benefit from the event. In this case, the challenge lies in learning not to speed or getting up earlier so there is less motivation to speed. Secondary appraisal refers to the person’s assessment of whether they have sufficient coping resources to meet the harm, threat and challenge of the negative stressor. The experience of stress involves the balance between primary and secondary appraisal. High stress arises when harm and threat are high and coping ability is low. People tend to perceive negative, uncontrollable, ambiguous or overwhelming events as more stressful than positive, controllable, clear-cut or manageable ones. Planning a wedding requires time and energy that often taxes the resources of a busy family, but it is a positive event and unlikely to be reported as stressful. In contrast, planning a funeral typically involves less work, but is experienced as far more stressful. When faced with a negative event, feeling that it can be predicted, changed or stopped reduces the person’s experience of stress. Being able to predict and control allows the individual to adjust to the stressful event and reduces the physiological reactions to stress (Bandura, Cioffi, Taylor, & Brouillard, 1988). Ambiguous events increase stress because the person does not know how to react to them. Unlike with a clear-cut stressor, an individual must devote resources to figuring out the ambiguous stressor, rather than being able to confront it directly and effectively. Similarly, occupational stress often results from role ambiguity, or not knowing what the expectations are for job performance. Young adults face this kind of stress as they leave school and begin their careers. Longitudinal data from the Framingham Heart Study, one of the longest-running health studies in the United States, indicate that high job demands, in combination with lack of clarity of expectations and feedback from supervisors, lead to an increased risk of coronary heart disease (LaCroix & Haynes, 1987). Comparable findings have been reported for Australian public servants, in terms of health outcomes and the psychological effects of stress during organisational restructuring (Mak & Mueller, 2001). Likewise, in a New Zealand longitudinal study of a 1972–73 birth cohort, work stress, particularly in high-demand jobs, was found to precipitate depression and anxiety in previously healthy workers (Melchior et al., 2007). People who are ‘overloaded’ — who have more responsibilities than they can meet in the available time — are subject to more stress. On the other hand, having too few or no roles is also associated with poor health.

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Societal stress Societal stress is also related to illness. War and natural disasters, as well as geographical mobility that disrupts social ties, produce psychological distress. The term post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) describes the physical and psychological symptoms of a person who has been the victim of a highly stressful event, such as war or earthquake, which last long after the event is over (Ikin et al., 2007; Leor, Poole, & Kloner, 1996; Steinglass & Gerrity, 1990). In Australia, bushfires have been found to precipitate PTSD in the general community and to increase tobacco use in young adults (Gibbs et al., 2016). Recent terrorist events such as the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005 have also heightened awareness of trauma response at a national level (Guscott, Guscott, Malingambi, & Parker, 2007). Typical PTSD reactions include feelings of numbness, intrusive memories of the trauma, sleeping problems, difficulty in concentrating, and hypervigilance — or strong reactions to other stressful events. If untreated, PTSD can persist for decades with sometimes devastating effects for some individuals, in terms of health, relationships and economic stability. Lower socioeconomic status exposes individuals to more stress and associated health problems (Adler et al., 1994). Individuals with lower socioeconomic status and less power are more likely to encounter negative events that create stress, such as the loss of a job. They are likely to have fewer resources to cope with stressful events, such as savings to live on until they find a new job or friends who can give them temporary employment, leading to even greater stress. CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Try to make a list of the positive and negative stressors you are experiencing right now. What techniques do you use to manage your stress? If you aren’t able to identify at least three ways you manage stress, find some recommendations online.

MULTICULTURAL VIEW

Hauora: an indigenous perspective on health ¯ Bevan Erueti is a lecturer in health and physical education and Maori knowledge and cultural practices at Massey University, and is a qualified secondary school teacher. ¯ Hauora is the Maori model of health and wellbeing. It is a holistic model that encompasses four ¯ aspects of health and wellbeing: physical (Taha Tinana), mental (Taha Hinengaro), social (Taha Whanau) and spiritual (Taha Wairua). Emeritus Professor Sir Mason Durie is one of the most significant contributors to ¯ the revitalisation and development of Maori knowledge in Aotearoa New Zealand. His knighthood attests to his tireless efforts in the production of a massive body of literature that has provided a key pathway ¯ for Maori health and identity development. Durie first presented his concept of the Whare Tapa Wha (the ¯ four-sided house) of Hauora — a Maori perspective and holistic approach to health and total wellbeing — ¯ in 1984, and it has since become a widely accepted Maori definition of health (Durie, 1994; Glover, 2005). ¯ Durie (1998) states in his introduction of his book Whaiora, ‘Maori health development is essentially about ¯ Maori defining their own priorities for health and then weaving a course to realise [Maori] collective aspirations’ (p. 1). In that sense, the Whare Tapa Wha model of Hauora provides a macro-level conceptual base ¯ that actively engages with Maori beliefs, values and experiences (Durie, 1998; Glover, 2005). The Whare Tapa Wha model of Hauora is illustrated metaphorically as a wharenui (meeting house). Each of the four ‘walls’ of the wharenui represent a concept of Hauora, and each dimension of Hauora must be strong and balanced for optimal health. A brief description of each dimension follows. Taha Wairua (spiritual) Durie (1994, 1998) says that although Taha Wairua may encompass the ‘capacity to have faith . . . it is not synonymous with regular churchgoing . . . belief in God is one reflection of wairua’. A deeper understanding exposes that it involves the: Link between the human situation and the environment. Land, lakes, mountains, reefs have a spiritual significance . . . a lack of access to tribal lands . . . is regarded by tribal elders as a sure sign of poor health since the natural environment is considered integral to identity and fundamental to a sense of wellbeing. (p. 71)

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Durie (1994) also warns that ‘without a spiritual awareness and a mauri [spirit or vitality/life-force] an individual cannot be healthy’ (p. 71), signifying the importance of whenua [land] and the impact it has on ¯ Maori belief and value systems. Taha Hinengaro (mental) This dimension identifies the mental and emotional dimensions of health and wellbeing expressed through thoughts and feelings. It suggests that ‘emotional communication can often assume an importance which is as meaningful as an exchange of words and valued just as much’ (Durie, 1994, p. 72). Empirical observations derived from the fields of psychiatry and psychology support such an understanding, although they initially discounted indigenous modes of knowing to arrive at similar conclusions (Durie, 1994, 1998). Taha Tinana (physical) Implied as bodily health, it refers more to the sanctity of the human body (see Mead, 2003; Sachdev, ¯ 1989), and is governed by two imperative Maori concepts of respect — tapu and noa. For instance, the head is considered the most sacred part of the body, and activity should be avoided that would involve crawling under the open legs or ‘stepping over’ the heads of participants. The buttocks also have their

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¯ own particular tapu as identified in the disrespectful behaviour of resting or sitting on tables. Maori believe that a person should not place their buttocks where eating or any other act other than sitting takes place (McCreanor & Nairn, 2002; Mead, 2003). ¯ Taha Whanau (social) ¯ The word whanau is translated as family, and includes the maintenance and building of relationships, both in and outside the confinements of blood relatives and whakapapa (ancestry/genealogical lines). ¯ At the heart of the whanau concept is the notion of support that incorporates the human capacity to care and nurture in all of the aforementioned concepts — physically, emotionally and spiritually. As such, ¯ upholding the concept of whanau begins by allowing children (of any culture) to maintain their personal ¯ ¯ identity with whanau and their geographic locality or origin, as epitomised in Maori pepeha (oral introductions that describe an individual’s origin and tribal connection) and mihimihi (speech of greeting and/or tribute). The Whare Tapa Wha model of Hauora is an uncomplicated approach to health and wellbeing. As such, it has been extensively utilised in human development, social development and health sectors to provide ¯ culturally appropriate processes to raise the profile of Maori health and identity in Aotearoa New Zealand (Pitama, Robertson, Cram, Gillies, Huria, & Dallas-Katoa, 2007; Rochford, 2004).

12.4 Health-compromising behaviours

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LEARNING OUTCOME 12.4 Explain why avoiding health-compromising behaviours contributes to the quality and longevity of adult life.

Many young adults who include a healthy diet and regular exercise in their daily lives still engage in behaviours that put them at increased health risk. Smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, unsafe sex and eating disorders — all prevalent among adolescents, as we saw in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in adolescence — persist among some young adults as lingering adolescent egocentrism helps to maintain the personal fable of invincibility. Today’s early adult transition is marked by increasing variability compared to previous generations, with a concomitant rise in both opportunities and inequalities (Bynner, 2005). For the parents and grandparents of today’s young adults, and in many non-Western cultures, the transition to adulthood was socially defined by marriage and work, usually in the early twenties (Arnett, 2004). In individualistic societies such as Australia and New Zealand, the transition for young adults is usually achieved through residential and financial independence, and emotional and behavioural self-control (Arnett & Taber, 1994). For many young people, however, the pathway from adolescence to adulthood will be fraught with obstacles and uncertainty, and few will achieve adult milestones in the manner and time frame they expected. During these years, reasoning skills are still developing, identities are still forming, and young people are confronting the multitude of challenges that adulthood brings, as we shall see in the chapter in psychosocial development in early adulthood. They are faced with a vast array of choices, the consequences of which may not be immediately apparent to them. Advertisers and marketers have been quick to capitalise on the uncertainty of young people through the strategic use of media. For example, Canadian and North American reviews of alcohol advertising reveal that young adults are the second largest audience after underage youth in their exposure to alcohol advertisements (Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, 2008; Media Awareness Network, 2005). Further, in North America cigarette brands advertised in youth magazines are more likely to reflect those brands known to be popular among youth (King, Siegel, Celebucki, & Connolly, 1998). With the advent of the internet, marketing companies have dramatically extended their influence: in a study of adolescent internet use, 94 per cent of ‘Top 50’ sites included marketing material, and around one-third of sites included violent or highly sexualised material (Media Awareness Network, 2005). The growing reasoning ability of many young adults will enable them to recognise the commercial or inappropriate content of advertisers, but inevitably some CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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will not. Consequently, some young adults will make choices which may have long-term and serious consequences for their health and psychological wellbeing, as we shall see next.

Smoking Smoking is associated with an increased risk of premature death from a range of serious health problems, such as a variety of cancers, including lung cancer, as well as heart disease, stroke and respiratory illness (AIHW, 2011b). Since anti-smoking campaigns began in the 1980s, smoking rates among Australians have declined for all adult age groups, due to heightened awareness of health risks. Even so, rates have remained highest in the 25 to 34 age group, particularly for males (AIHW, 2011a). Smoking has declined among both males and females since 1991 (from 27 per cent to 16.9 per cent for males, and 22 per cent to 12.1 per cent for females) (ABS, 2015). Adults who are unemployed or underemployed, poorly educated or living on low incomes were more likely to smoke than Australians from higher socioeconomic status groups.

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Although smoking rates have declined in the last two decades, they are highest during early adulthood.

Evidence also indicates that many of these risk factors are the basis for continuities in smoking behaviour from adolescence through to early adulthood (Mun, Windle, & Schainker, 2008). This suggests that some of the habits adopted during the teen years may persist and perhaps become entrenched, during the early adulthood years when young people are attempting to navigate important milestones. Psychosocial factors may be at play as well. Teen smokers who demonstrate symptoms of depression and anxiety are more likely to continue smoking into young adulthood than teen smokers who do not have display symptoms of depression and anxiety (McKenzie, Olsson, Jorm, Romaniuk, & Patton, 2010). However, due to declining rates of smoking, cigarette company marketers have increased their spending on advertising campaigns targeted at young people. Recent evidence about use of the internet to target specific youth markets means that young people are increasingly enticed into behavioural choices that are not in their best interests (Belch & Belch, 2004; Holmes & Russell, 1999; Mun et al., 2008). Given that 662

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smoking begun in adolescence has demonstrated continuities into early adulthood, intervention before the adult years is vital. Although smoking rates have declined in the past two decades, they are highest during early adulthood and only begin to show marked decline from age 50 for both sexes (ABS, 2012a; AIHW, 2008). Figure 12.3 highlights this trend. FIGURE 12.3

Smoking rates for adults in young and middle adulthood Percentages are based on proportion of population who smoke daily.

New Zealand (2014–2015) 30

27

27

Proportion of population (per cent)

Proportion of population (per cent)

Australia (2013) 30

24 21 18 15 12 9 6 3

18–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65–74 75+ Age group (years) Male

24 21 18 15 12 9 6 3

18–24 25–29 30–39 40–49 50–59 60–69 70+ Age group (years)

Female

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Source: AIHW (2014); Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) (2016).

Smoking is responsible for more preventable illnesses and deaths than any other single healthcompromising behaviour. The organs most often affected involve the respiratory system, including the lungs, larynx, oral cavity and oesophagus. Epidemiological evidence indicates that it is also causally linked to a range of other cancers including the upper digestive tract, bladder, kidneys and pancreas. In addition, smoking is related to cardiovascular morbidity (illness) and mortality, increases the risk of emphysema, chronic bronchitis, peptic ulcers and cirrhosis of the liver, and aggravates the symptoms of allergies, diabetes and hypertension. In females, smoking increases the risk of osteoporosis and lowers the age of menopause (Taylor, 1998). Smoking does not only pose health risks to smokers. Passive smoking — the breathing in of secondhand smoke from other people’s cigarettes — increases the health risks to nonsmokers who are subjected to air contaminated by smokers. In adults, the effects may manifest as lung cancer or chronic lung disease, or increase the risk of heart disease. Children and spouses of smokers are at particular risk. Passive smoking has been linked to middle ear infections, bronchitis, asthma and other respiratory problems in children, as well as sudden infant death syndrome (ABS, 2008a). Given that most people will establish their families during the early adult years, it is no surprise that up to 37 per cent of children aged 10 to 14 years will live with a regular smoker. Reif, Dunn, Ogilvie, and Harris (1992) found that even dogs owned by smokers had a 50 per cent greater risk for lung cancer than dogs owned by nonsmokers. As we shall see later in the chapter, the ability of some young adults to make health-enhancing choices may occur later than for others because of variations in cognitive development.

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Although the negative health consequences of smoking are clear, smoking-related illnesses take years to develop. This delay in the onset of symptoms enables young, healthy people to deny or ignore the threat to their health. As we saw in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in adolescence, adolescents are more likely to smoke if their parents, older siblings, best friends, or peers smoke. Mounting evidence for a genetic component in smoking has been found within families, especially when combined with environmental factors that promote learned behaviour (Koopmans, Slutske, Heath, Neale, & Boomsma, 1999; Madden, Pedersen, Kaprio, Koskenvuo, & Martin, 2004). Cross-cultural studies, including studies of Australian twins, indicate both genetic and environmental factors in the initiation and persistence of smoking, which often begins in the adolescent years. In addition, smoking is inversely related to socioeconomic status: the lower the SES, the higher the rate of smoking (ABS, 2008a). It is also related to gender; evidence indicates that the cultural emphasis on being slim puts women at risk for smoking. Mullins, Borland, and Hill (1992) found that female smokers were more concerned about gaining weight if they quit smoking, compared to male smokers, with 25 per cent of females — twice the number of males — indicating weight gain as a disadvantage of quitting. Among developed nations, Australia is considered a leader in health promotion and education programs about smoking and smoking cessation. The effects of these programs can be seen in the declining rates of smoking discussed earlier. However, the same trends have not been seen for Aboriginal Australians, Torres Strait Islanders and New Zealand M¯aori. Smoking prevalence among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males and females is at 38.9 per cent (ABS, 2015). Similar patterns are found for M¯aori, with prevalence rates generally double the non-M¯aori rates with M¯aori males at 37.3 per cent and M¯aori females at 39.7 per cent (Ministry of Health, 2017b). In each case, smoking prevalence is two to four times higher for Indigenous peoples compared to non-Indigenous Australians and New Zealanders. The long-term health effects are likely to produce significant morbidity and mortality for these groups, compounded by lower awareness of smoking-related health problems and cessation programs. In a study by Mark, McLeod, Booker, and Ardler (2005), 59 per cent of Aboriginal health workers indicated that they currently smoke, and 75 per cent felt they needed more professional development to assist themselves and their communities with smoking cessation. They reported stress, socioeconomic factors and addiction as the principal barriers to smoking cessation among Indigenous Australians, but also felt they would be perceived as hypocritical if they initiated discussion with others about quitting. Thus, despite statistics for smoking-related health problems and poor life expectancy among Indigenous groups, there are also significant and persistent barriers to a solution. People who suffer from multiple addictions report that smoking is harder to stop than taking drugs or drinking alcohol (Kozlowski et al., 1989). Media campaigns have been effective in disseminating knowledge about the health risks caused by smoking, and legislation has been introduced in most states of Australia, such as the Smoke-free Environment Amendment Act 2004 (NSW) and the Smoking (Prohibition in Enclosed Public Places) Act 2003 (ACT). Smoking is now banned on domestic flights and in and near most public buildings. Such restrictions not only reduce the amount a smoker can smoke; they also protect people from passive smoke. These strategies have been instrumental in establishing an anti-smoking attitude in the general public. However, they have been less effective in preventing high school students from starting to smoke. Smoking prevention is particularly important because nicotine appears to serve as an entry level drug that makes one more likely to use other drugs in the future (Staton et al., 1999). WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Do you know anyone who has tried to stop smoking? Did the person succeed? What strategies did the person try to help them quit? What factors can make it more difficult for Indigenous Australians and New Zealanders to quit smoking?

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Alcohol and drug abuse Adolescents and young adults between 12 and 25 years of age are particularly vulnerable to chemical dependency; this is most often observed in their behaviour but actually occurs within the brain’s chemistry and neurocircuitry during this critical developmental period (Chambers, Taylor, & Potenza, 2003). Many will struggle with self-regulation of their impulses at this time and some will be susceptible to addiction. In a previous chapter we focused on the destructive effects of drugs; here, we concentrate on the effects of heavy drinking. Alcohol can affect health in many ways and is significant in view of evidence that risky levels of alcohol consumption have increased since 1995 for all age groups, especially for females (ABS, 2011b). Low lifetime risk alcohol consumption is defined in Australia as up to two standard drinks a day, while low immediate risk alcohol consumption is defined as no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2009). In New Zealand, low lifetime risk alcohol consumption is defined as three standard drinks for males and two for females, while low immediate risk alcohol consumption is defined as four standard drinks on a single occasion for women and five for men. (Ministry of Health, 2017a). These compare with US definitions that recommend only two standard drinks per day for males and one for females, although the amount of alcohol in a standard drink in the United States is measured differently to that in Australia and New Zealand. For example, the absolute amount of alcohol per millilitre in a US drink is comparable to Australian recommendations, or 10 grams of alcohol per 12.7 millilitres. Risky drinking, or binge drinking, defined as seven or more standard drinks consumed on any one occasion for males and five or more drinks for females, has become an increasingly serious form of drinking in Australia (ABS, 2011b). Alcohol abuse can damage nearly every organ and function of the body. It is second only to smoking as a cause of drug-related deaths and hospitalisations in Australia (AIHW, 2005). A high level of drinking increases the risk of oral, oesophageal and breast cancers, cirrhosis of the liver, stroke, heart and vascular disease, and the kilojoules in alcoholic beverages can contribute to obesity. It is linked to mental and behavioural disorders, especially for males, who have a prevalence rate almost five times higher than females, and which increased 39 per cent in the seven years to 2005 (ABS, 2006a). In both Australia and New Zealand, alcohol also contributes to death and disability due to motor vehicle accidents, violence, suicide and homicide (WHO, 2004). In contrast, light to moderate alcohol consumption may improve longevity by decreasing coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death for both men and women (Kloner & Rezkalla, 2007). However, alcohol abuse sharply reduces longevity (Criqui & Ringel, 1994). People with higher socioeconomic status consume alcohol more frequently, but in moderate amounts, which promotes better health (Adler et al., 1994). Alcohol abuse — not alcohol use — is a health-compromising behaviour. Alcohol consumption is considered the main cause of road fatalities and injury events in Australia, with incidence rates only slightly lower in New Zealand (Beanland, Fitzharris, Young, & Lenn´e, 2013; New Zealand Ministry of Health, 2007). Alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents are a significant cause of death and injury in young drivers, who are disproportionately represented in statistics for road fatalities. Despite accident statistics being higher for young drivers aged 18–25, studies indicate that high blood alcohol levels and driving under the influence of alcohol are not necessarily greater for younger adults compared to older groups (Smart et al., 2005). Thus, while alcohol may influence road-related deaths and injuries for younger adults, inexperience and other factors are also likely. Drinking also causes temporary and permanent cognitive impairments. For example, a drunk driver may have blurred vision, poor perception of speed, and slowed reaction times. Even one or two drinks a day may be too much for many people. As discussed in the chapter on genetics, prenatal development and birth, women who are trying to get pregnant, are pregnant, or are breastfeeding should not consume any alcohol because there are no ‘safe’ levels for the foetus and the infant. Heavier drinking greatly increases the risk of foetal alcohol syndrome in the infant. Even for nonpregnant women, the physiological costs of heavy drinking (more than two drinks a day) may be more severe than for men. Research indicates that females get more intoxicated than males do from the same amount of alcohol (Frezza et al., 1990). This is because they have more fatty tissue, which retains alcohol, CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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and less body water, which dilutes it, than males do and a less active stomach enzyme to break down the alcohol before it reaches the bloodstream.

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Heavy drinking is encouraged in the social settings often frequented by young adults, such as this pub. The illnesses related to such health-compromising behaviours take years to develop, enabling young and healthy people to deny or ignore the threat to their health.

Problem drinking and alcoholism are two behaviour patterns that can result from heavy drinking. Alcoholism is characterised by the inability to control one’s drinking, a high tolerance for alcohol, and withdrawal symptoms when drinking is stopped. Problem drinking does not produce those symptoms, but like alcoholism it creates social and medical problems. Problem drinkers and alcoholics are likely to consume large amounts of alcohol at times, often resulting in a loss of memory and violent outbursts. They often have family- and job-related problems. Sometimes, however, alcoholism and problem drinking are hard to recognise, because many afflicted individuals drink privately and quietly. In many cases of problem drinking, the behavioural pattern has been established in the adolescent years. When adolescent risk-takers lack the psychosocial resources for positive adjustment, their behavioural problems can extend into the adult years, leading to poor identity resolution and weak development of cognitive resources (Maggs, Frome, Eccels, & Barber, 1997). Risky drinking has significantly decreased in New Zealand since 2006/2007 among men, those aged 18–24 and M¯aori adults (New Zealand Ministry of Health, 2013). Risky drinking has also decreased in Australia since 2001, although this differs between age groups, with younger Australians reporting decreases in hazardous drinking and older Australians reporting increases. Risky drinking is more common in males than females in New Zealand, but not in Australia (AIHW, 2011b; New Zealand Ministry of Health, 2013). Despite pervasive public perception about Indigenous people being heavy drinkers, Indigenous Australians engage in risky drinking at levels similar to their non-Indigenous counterparts. 666

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Although drinking peaks at age 18–24, patterns of adult consumption among Indigenous Australians differ for older adults. For example, risky drinking is highest for Indigenous females in the 25–34 age group, compared to males where it is highest for those aged 35–44 (ABS, 2006a). As for smoking, early onset or frequent alcohol use puts adolescents at risk for later misuse and alcohol-related problems, indicating similar adolescent to adult continuities in alcohol consumption (Lubman, Hides, Y¨ucel, & Toumbourou, 2007). This is consistent with findings reported by Barnes, Welte, and Dintcheff (1992) who found that drinking at an early age and growing up with a father who was a heavy drinker were strong predictors of both later risky drinking and alcohol-related problems, especially for males.

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Unsafe sex In addition to posing direct health risks, the use of alcohol and other drugs facilitates the healthcompromising behaviour of unsafe sex (Staton et al., 1999). People who ordinarily would not engage in risky sexual activities may be less inhibited about doing so when under the influence of these substances (Desiderato & Crawford, 1995; Leigh & Stall, 1993). Given that one of the developmental tasks of early adulthood involves intimacy and relationships with others, young adults are frequently faced with choices about sex, and some will feel ill-equipped. They are under pressure to make appropriate sexual choices at a time when their cognitive skills are still developing and they may be experimenting with licit and illicit substances. Consequently, they may underestimate the level of risk to which they are exposed, or overestimate their ability to control what happens to them. Under such circumstances, the threat of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is undeniably heightened, and probably accounts for some of the recent rise in rates of STI infection. Although fear of an HIV/AIDS epidemic was the highest profile STI issue in the 1980s and 1990s, the incidence of other STIs, particularly chlamydia, genital herpes and gonorrhoea, increased considerably in both Australia and New Zealand (Commonwealth of Australia, 2005; Johnston, Fernando, & MacBrideStewart, 2005; Mindel & Kippax, 2005). Chlamydia can lead to infertility if left untreated, yet it is both preventable and curable. Sex without a barrier to protect against potentially infected blood, semen or vaginal fluids constitutes unsafe sex and creates risk for STIs and HIV infection. As we saw in a previous chapter, adolescents and young adults are at greater risk than other age groups because they have more sexual partners. The HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns of the 1990s significantly reduced the number of new HIV cases and the introduction of anti-retroviral medication reduced the number of cases progressing to full blown AIDS. Between 2012 and 2015, the number of new HIV diagnoses has remained stable in Australia (The Kirby Institute, 2016). However, in New Zealand the number of new HIV diagnoses has increased, with more people being diagnosed in 2016 than ever previously recorded (The New Zealand AIDS Foundation, 2017). These statistics indicate that, despite the effectiveness of public health campaigns promoting safe sex during the 1990s, the number of new cases has rebounded significantly. In New Zealand, the overall increase is predominantly seen in men who have sex with men, while heterosexual men and women show a decrease in diagnosis since 2006 (The New Zealand AIDS Foundation, 2017). Some diseases, including HIV and genital herpes, have no cure at this time. Although new drug combination therapy treatments provide some hope in managing HIV, they do not cure it. The best way to deal with STIs is to avoid getting them in the first place. For sexually active people, condoms provide the best protection from infection, although vaginal spermicides also reduce the risk of contracting STIs.

Eating disorders Though eating disorders typically begin between 14 and 20 years of age, they frequently continue into early adulthood. Individuals at highest risk are females between 18 and 25 years of age. Because contemporary young women typically diet, it is important that diagnoses of eating disorders are based on clinically significant symptoms and not simply on dieting or weight concern. It may be difficult for friends and family to determine whether a young person is simply dieting or has moved towards disordered eating. Symptoms of eating disorders include restrictive dieting, not eating when CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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hungry, and enjoyment of weight loss through illness. Harmful weight control behaviours are another distinct feature of eating disorders, such as induced vomiting and use of laxatives, and overeating or binge eating. Excessive exercise is another weight control strategy, usually accompanied by various forms of psychopathology, including depression, anxiety and somatisation (Brehm & Steffen, 1998; Penˆas-Lled´o, Vaz Leal, & Waller, 2002). Australian research indicates that dieting commonly precedes eating disorders in both sexes (Patton, Selzer, Coffey, Carlin, & Wolfe, 1999). Females in particular, are seven times more likely than males to develop an eating disorder, especially when there is a comorbid psychiatric condition, and more extreme dieting substantially increases the risk of developing a disorder. Eating disorders continue to be a significant concern because of their relatively poor prognosis, and especially because of the younger age of those affected. Treatment outcomes in recent decades have not been encouraging and mortality rates continue to be very high compared to all other psychological disorders (Steinhausen, 2002; Sullivan, 1995). In addition, research indicates that eating disturbance occurs across a wide spectrum of the population; no race, ethnic or socioeconomic group is more at risk than any other. One consistent factor, however, is that eating disorders appear to be primarily a ‘Western’ illness (Hoek, 2002). For example, in the United States, anorexia is most frequent among highly educated, affluent white females, and binge eating is more common among African American females (Striegel-Moore & Smolak, 1996). In Australia, risk factors for disordered eating are found across a range of ethnic groups, and strong acculturation effects have been observed for people who were born overseas. That is, longer time in Australia is associated with greater similarity to Australian-born females regarding weight-related values and behaviours (Ball & Kenardy, 2002). Similar findings have been reported for M¯aori females, who appear increasingly anglicised in their conceptions of thinness as being related to happiness and popularity (Moewaka Barnes & Borell, 2002). Individuals most at risk for eating disorders are athletes, especially elite athletes, obese individuals, individuals who were once overweight, and adults who were sexually abused as children (Kenardy & Ball, 1998; Striegel-Moore, 1997; Sundgot-Borgen & Torstveit, 2004). Other studies have reported possible genetic factors as precipitants to eating disorders, although it is unclear whether familial vulnerability relates directly to eating disorders or to the various forms of psychopathology that generally co-occur with eating disorders (Abraham, 2003; Fairburn & Harrison, 2003; Lilenfeld et al., 1998). Although success rates for traditional eating disorder treatments have been disappointing, research and clinical experience demonstrate that adding alternative methods, such as nutritional therapy and acupuncture, can improve long-term success (Ross, 1997). Recent evidence supporting early intervention approaches is also emerging, which indicates that phase-specific, early versus late stage illness, and treatment-specific factors may be important (Currin & Schmidt, 2005). For example, younger age at onset and longer duration of treatment follow-up are two factors associated with better outcomes (Steinhausen, 2002). Cognitive behaviour therapy has also been reported as the ‘most effective’ treatment, although few patients actually receive this treatment in practice (Fairburn & Harrison, 2003). Nevertheless, some of the medical complications may be irreversible, especially in children and young adolescents. For this reason, research now focuses heavily on prevention and early intervention strategies (Piran, 1997). THEORY IN PRACTICE

Living with disability George is a university student and a teacher’s assistant in a primary school. George: I’ve had my disability since I was a teenager, and it’s always impacted all aspects of my life. But with some adjustments, I’m able to do most of the things my peers do — I study at university, I work, I have friends and hobbies, and I like going out to the pub on the weekends. Interviewer: What was your reaction to your disability when it initially arose?

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George: Shock. Denial. Anger. Most of the stages of grief, I reckon. They kinda came and went, ya know, in no coherent order, and I didn’t just move through one stage, like denial, and then never have those feelings again, ya know? But eventually, I reached a point of acceptance. This is my life now. I can’t just wait until some new technology comes along, and I don’t like the idea that I need to be fixed, anyways. So I accept it for what it is, and that it may limit me from time to time. But that’s not me, that’s the environment. I don’t have a disability, I live in an environment that is disabled. Interviewer: How did your life change? George: Everything changed. All the things I knew how to do, I had to learn again in a new way. All my relationships became strained as we figured out how to fit in this new part of me, this disability. I found that there weren’t often solutions, or accommodations, in most public places. Whether on public transport, or in schools, I had to become my own advocate to ensure that I was able to access the services that I needed. That I am entitled to. Sometimes I get angry, and that can be hard for my friends and family to handle. At times, that anger has isolated me from my support systems. I’m at the age where I’m supposed to be having fun, doing stupid things, staying out all night — and I can do those things, sure, but not in the same way — or for the same duration, as my peers. This makes it harder to maintain relationships. Plus, I get that we are all also at that point where we are trying to figure out what we want to do with our lives. I think sometimes my friends think that my life goals must be really different from theirs because of my disability; like, it might mean that I don’t, or can’t, want to get married, have kids, a job, a house with a dog and stuff. Interviewer: How does your disability continue to affect you today? George: Because it is a visible disability, the biggest impact is how other people treat me. They usually either avoid me altogether or they try to make me inspirational; like, in living my life without apology or anger, I’m some source of inspiration — if I can do it, then anyone can. It’s crap, really. I’m not here to be your inspiration porn. I’m not here to make you feel better about your own life, or feel pity for mine. It also affects me in the classroom, at my job, in the grocery store. It absolutely frames every aspect of my life, and that’s just the way it is. And like I’ve already said, society isn’t really structured for people who are differently abled.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Are you aware of the resources available for students with disabilities on your campus or who may have a chronic illness? How might it alter your life if you found it difficult to concentrate for more than 10 minutes at a time? Or were unable to walk without the assistance of aids?

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Health beliefs model The health beliefs model is a social–cognitive theory widely used to explain people’s behaviour in relation to health and health risk (Becker, 1974; Rosenstock, 1974). It attempts to answer such questions as why people continue to smoke and engage in risky sexual behaviour despite being aware of the consequences. Whether a person engages in particular health behaviour depends on demographic factors, such as gender, age and class, as well as beliefs about health-related cues. According to the health beliefs model, health-related behaviour is linked to what people believe regarding the efficacy of certain actions to help avoid illness (Barclay et al., 2007). For a person to feel at risk, they must first believe they are susceptible to contracting an illness, and that the illness is of sufficient severity to warrant concern. Cues to action may vary — depending on whether the cue was external (e.g. from television advertising) or internal (e.g. becoming aware of symptoms related to a possible health concern). They must also hold beliefs about the usefulness of treatment and other actions to reduce the disease threat, and then weigh the benefits of treatment compliance against the cost or other barriers to change. When it comes to health behaviour, people can be very inconsistent. Research with the health beliefs model has shown that different elements will be more salient, depending on the health behaviour of interest (Curry & Emmons, 1994; Koikkalainen, Lappalainen, & Mykkanen, 1996). For example, AIDS CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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is the most feared STI because it is fatal, but other STIs — such as pelvic inflammatory disease and herpes — also present serious complications. Some STIs may cause low-grade inflammations in both males and females that lead to infertility (Morell, 1995), as discussed later in this chapter. Whether a young adult considers the consequence of unsafe sex, or forgets to use condoms when under the influence of alcohol or drugs can reveal important information about health beliefs. Some young people may underestimate their susceptibility or disease risk, or evaluate disease severity as low. As a result, their threat perception and outcome expectancies may lead to health-compromising behaviour with dire consequences. Younger age has been reported as a significant barrier to help-seeking and treatment compliance (Barclay et al., 2007; Deane, Wilson, & Russell, 2007). While health concerns such as alcohol and drug use, unsafe sex, and motor vehicle accidents are commonly associated with young adulthood, there are many other health concerns that can affect the developmental trajectory at this time. Early adulthood is a time of significant milestone achievement, and health challenges can affect people in unexpected ways, as George discovered in his story (see the Theory in practice feature). WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Discuss with your classmates your levels of health consciousness. Which health behaviours and which health-compromising behaviours do you regularly engage in? What are your health beliefs? What changes could you make to reduce your long-term health risks?

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Sexual violence Of the many traumatic events that can potentially affect people, including robbery, physical assault, the death of a close friend, or natural disaster, rape is the most likely to result in PTSD. Australian statistics indicate that 18 to 19.4 per cent of females and 4.5 per cent of males over the age of 15 have experienced at least one incident of sexual violence (ABS, 2013b). Similarly, studies in New Zealand indicate that between 23.8 per cent of adult females and 5.6 per cent of adult males report being victims of sexual violence at some stage in their lives (Ministry of Justice, 2015). Even many years after the rape, psychological evaluation indicates that victims are significantly more likely than non-victims to suffer from major depression, eating disorders, alcohol abuse and drug abuse (Koss, Heise, & Russo, 1994). Victims also report headaches, gastrointestinal disorders and gynaecological problems. Since adolescents and young adults between 13 and 24 years of age are at highest risk, rape constitutes a major long-term health concern. In the United States, females under 35 years of age fear rape more than they fear murder and limit their activities, such as by not going out alone at night, to prevent it (Rozee, 1996). In this way, rape functions to control women and contributes to their feeling of powerlessness. Less is known about the impact on male victims. Until recently, male victims were less likely to disclose their victimisation. Rape is categorised as stranger rape or acquaintance rape. Though most people believe stranger rape, a surprise attack by someone the victim does not know, is more common, in fact most cases are acquaintance rape, where the attacker is a friend, family member or romantic partner. Australian statistics indicate that 78 per cent of female sexual assault victims knew their attacker, which compares to only 47 per cent of male victims (ABS, 2006e). The psychological impact of acquaintance rape can be far worse than that of stranger rape, because the victim feels betrayed by someone they trusted and may doubt their ability to judge sexual partners wisely. In male victims, greater psychological distress is more likely to be associated with assault severity (Nada-Raja, Martin, & Langley, 2001). Sexual coercion has also been found to predict poorer psychological, physical and sexual health in Australian females (de Visser et al., 2007). For both males and 670

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females, the psychological, social and economic effects can be devastating; for example, studies have consistently found an association between sexual violence and homelessness and re-victimisation (Neame & Heenan, 2003). Some have argued the existence of a rape culture — a culture where sexual violence (mental, emotional, physical) is normative and victims of sexual violence (especially physical violence) are blamed for their own assaults (Maxwell, 2014). The normative nature of rape culture may be found in dominant culture ideologies, media images, societal institutions and social practices that ‘support and condone sexual abuse by normalising, trivialising, and eroticising male violence against women’ (Kacmarek & Geffre, 2013). Common aspects of rape culture include victim blaming; sexual objectification of women’s bodies; and trivialising rape through jokes, slang language and music. Consider the meme, ‘Oh you don’t want sex? Challenge accepted’, or movies where plots revolve around teenage boys’ quests for alcohol and/or parties to get girls drunk and have sex with them. Similarly, the media often focuses on victim blaming and the shame of destroying the ‘promising future’ of an accused rapist, rather than on the crime that took place. A rape culture is one in which girls and women are taught what precautions they should take to avoid being raped, rather than one in which boys and men are taught not to rape women. Sexual violence and rape can cause stress related to issues of sexual intimacy; sexual intimacy is itself a source of stress for young adults. As our discussion of STIs and HIV indicated, sexual activity can pose high risks for those who are in the process of establishing intimacy and not yet in steady relationships. Sexual functioning is the one area of physical development of which most young adults are very much aware. We turn to this subject next.

12.5 Sexuality and reproduction LEARNING OUTCOME 12.5 Identify the differences and similarities in sexual responses in males and females.

Early adulthood is a time of sexual and reproductive maturity. Although many of today’s adolescents are sexually active (as discussed in the last chapter), adult status brings a greater demand for sexual intimacy. Sexuality is one of the most important aspects of adult relationships. In this section we look at the physiology of the human sexual response, a survey of contemporary sexual behaviour, and common sexual problems. We then explore issues of reproduction, including infertility and reproductive technologies.

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The sexual response cycle For their landmark study, Masters and Johnson (1966) watched and measured men and women’s physiological responses in more than 10 000 episodes of sexual activity and made several important discoveries. First, they found that while sexual excitement can come from many different sources, such as touch, smell or fantasy, healthy individuals go through the same physiological process. Second, male and female sexual responses are much more similar than different. The researchers describe four physiological stages in the human sexual response cycle: (1) excitement, (2) plateau, (3) orgasm and (4) resolution. Other researchers have suggested the desire stage as an initial stage that precedes the other four (Kaplan, 1979; Zilbergeld & Ellison, 1980). Feelings or thoughts that awaken sexual interest and desire begin the sexual cycle. In the desire stage, both physiology and emotion contribute to sexual arousal. Desire, which is mainly an emotional state, leads to excitement. In the excitement stage, both males and females experience the first signs of physiological arousal called vasocongestion, when increased blood flow to the surface of the skin causes swelling of the pelvic region, a more rapid heartbeat and erection. The excitement phase can be rapid or it can be slow. Whether ardent and passionate or slow and gentle, the physiological process of building sexual arousal remains the same. When the changes of the excitement stage reach a high state of arousal and then level off, the plateau stage has been reached.

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Feelings or thoughts that awaken sexual interest constitute the desire stage that begins the sexual response cycle.

Young males often reach plateau very quickly, but as they approach forty they may find that sexual responsiveness is slower (Schiavi, Schreiner-Engel, Mandeli, Schanzer, & Cohen, 1990). They need more time and more direct stimulation to become fully erect. Females too vary in the time needed for arousal; variations occur among females and at different times for the same person, most likely due to hormones that regulate the sexual response (Motofei & Rowland, 2005). Since orgasm is the shortest part of the sexual response cycle, the slowing with age has the benefit of lengthening pleasure and providing women with more opportunity for orgasm (Brecher, 1984). Orgasm, the involuntary, rhythmic contractions in the muscles of the pelvis, releases the build-up of muscular tension and vasocongestion. A male typically has only one orgasm, whereas a female may have no orgasm, only one orgasm, or multiple orgasms. Whether single or multiple, orgasms for females typically result from direct clitoral stimulation, either oral or manual, rather than from the indirect stimulation provided by sexual intercourse alone. After orgasm, the body returns to its unaroused state. During this resolution stage, males have a refractory period during which orgasm is impossible. The refractory period varies from 30 minutes to several hours, and is shorter for younger males than for older males.

Sexual attitudes and behaviours In addition to physical aspects, sex involves psychosocial and cognitive aspects. Whereas Masters and Johnson (1966) studied the physiology of the sexual response, other investigators have focused on sexual attitudes and behaviours. A comprehensive and representative survey of 19 307 Australian adults was conducted in 2001–02 by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) to examine sexual attitudes and experiences (Australian Research Centre in Health and Society, 2003). Findings were published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health in a series of 672

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reports focusing on different aspects of sexual behaviour and attitudinal orientation. Results indicated cohort effects for a number of sex-related behaviours. For example, the age of first vaginal intercourse for males had decreased from 18 to 16 for those born 1941–1950 and 1981–1986, and from 19 to 16 for females. These figures for age at first intercourse compare to recent New Zealand data which cites a median age of 17 years for males and 16 years for females (New Zealand Ministry of Health, 2001). Comparable data for Indigenous Australians and New Zealanders has not been widely reported, although limited cross-sectional evidence indicates an earlier age of first intercourse for Indigenous Australians (Larkins et al., 2007). Contraceptive use has also changed considerably for both males and females, with less than 30 per cent using contraception at first intercourse in the 1950s to more than 90 per cent in the 2000s (ARCSHS, 2003; Rissel et al., 2003b). Similar findings have been reported for New Zealand (Clark, Robinson, Crengle, & Watson, 2006; Pool et al., 1999). These studies reveal the changing patterns of sexual behaviour, which reflect significant social change occurring at the same time. Attitudes to sex have also changed. For example, more than three-quarters of respondents to the ARCSHS survey agreed that premarital sex is acceptable, whereas religious and social beliefs of the early to mid twentieth century were thought to have restricted such behaviour (Rissel et al., 2003a). Recent findings from a large US study suggest other explanations. Among cohorts of North American women who turned 15 between 1954 and 1963, 82 per cent reported having premarital sex by age 30 (Finer, 2007). That is, age rather than marital status was more predictive of premarital sexual activity 50 years ago, and remains consistent in the present day. Given that young adults are marrying much later than occurred for previous generations, premarital sexual activity is now commonplace. The major difference is that attitudes appear to have changed since the 1950s, rather than actual behaviour. In contrast to some popularly held beliefs, the ARCSHS data also indicated that age was inversely associated with some attitudes. For example, for adults 20–29 years and above, there was a general trend of increasing agreement on some indicators of sexual liberalism, such as cunnilingus and fellatio being considered ‘still sex’, that sex was ‘important for wellbeing’, and that sex improves the ‘longer you know someone’ (Rissel et al., 2003a). Despite findings for sexual liberalism, both males and females were in close agreement about attitudes to affairs when in a committed relationship. In terms of non-coital practices, 65 per cent of males indicated that they masturbated compared to 35 per cent of females, while less than 5 per cent of the overall sample admitted to engaging in other practices, such as phone sex, sadomasochism, bondage and discipline (ARCSHS, 2003). Other findings included that unprotected sex occurred more frequently for heterosexual couples than for male homosexual couples, and that unprotected sex was substantially higher for heterosexual people with casual sex partners — 59 per cent compared to 12 per cent for homosexuals (ARCSHS, 2003). The statistics regarding unprotected sex are important, given the rising rate of STIs in Australia and New Zealand discussed earlier in this chapter. One surprising finding was the percentage of ARCSHS respondents who considered themselves homosexual. Kinsey et al. (1948) early studies of the sexual behaviour of North American males had suggested 10 per cent as the accepted ‘estimate’ of homosexuals in the male population. The majority of male respondents (97.4 per cent) to the Australian survey reported being heterosexual, compared to only 1.6 per cent as homosexual and less than 1 per cent as bisexual. Kinsey did not publish comparable figures for females, but of the ARCSHS women, 97.7 per cent identified themselves as heterosexual, less than 1 per cent as lesbian, and 1.4 per cent as bisexual (ARCSHS, 2003). Most were in a regular heterosexual relationship; that is, 85 per cent of males and 90 per cent of females. Of these, 5 per cent of males and 3 per cent of females reported having more than one partner at the same time during the previous 12 months, and both men and women reported some same-sex experience or same-sex attraction at some time in their lives (8.6 per cent of males and 15.1 per cent of females). Males in heterosexual relationships reported greater sexual pleasure than females, with 90 per cent of men experiencing pleasurable sexual activity compared to 79 per cent of women. Emotional satisfaction was also highest for males, with 88 per cent reporting high levels of emotional satisfaction compared to CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

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79 per cent of females. Similar statistics on sexual pleasure and emotional satisfaction for New Zealand have not been reported, although one study found 2.8 per cent of young adults classified themselves as homosexual or bisexual (Fergusson, Horwood, & Beautrais, 1999). The discrepancy between the Kinsey and ARCSHS figures may be due to several causes; for example, different sampling methods that either over-represented gay males in Kinsey’s sample or underrepresented them in the ARCSHS sample; different interviewing circumstances and styles allowing more gay males to be honest in the Kinsey study; and different criteria for being considered gay. These data highlight the difficulty of relying on self-report, because people can present themselves in whatever light they choose. They also call attention to the difficulty of defining homosexuality.

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Lesbian/gay sexual preference Several factors make it difficult to know how many gay and lesbian people there are. First, sexual preference is not set early in life and is not unchanging. While some males and females remember knowing between ages six and twelve that they were different from their heterosexual friends, others perceive themselves to have made a conscious choice to be gay or lesbian (Golden, 1994). Second, it is difficult to know how to define homosexuality. Does a single homosexual experience define you as gay? Does desire for a same-sex person, in the absence of homosexual behaviour, define you as gay? Or does self-identification as a homosexual define you as gay? Third, gay people are difficult to count, since — except in the privacy of their sexual relationships — they look and act just like everybody else. Fourth, homophobia — fear, dread, hostility or prejudice directed towards gay people and the resulting mistreatment and discrimination — discourages many gays and lesbians from making their sexual identities public. Homosexuality is further compounded by membership of ethnic minority groups. Gay men and lesbians from other ethnic groups face the multiple stressors of coping with racism from their own gay and lesbian communities, the dominant culture’s homophobia, and the homophobia of their own ethnic group (Greene, 1994). Since the ethnic community provides a protective buffer against racism, ‘coming out’ may have greater costs for ethnic minorities. Nevertheless, concerns about HIV/AIDS in the 1980s led to better estimates of the percentages of gays and lesbians in Australia (Smith, Rissel, Richters, Grulich, & de Visser, 2007). Among males, 1.6 per cent identified themselves as gay or homosexual and 0.9 per cent identified themselves as bisexual. Among females, 0.8 per cent identified themselves as lesbian or homosexual, and 1.4 per cent identified as bisexual. While these figures are small in absolute terms, homosexuality and bisexuality do not account for the 8.6 per cent of males and 15.1 per cent of females who exclusively reported same-sex attraction in the Smith et al. (2007) study. By implication, the findings suggest that many more males and females experience same-sex attraction, despite not having actually engaged in same-sex partnering. Similar statistics for New Zealand are less clear. As in Australia, the importance of including homosexuals in population census data only became apparent in New Zealand after the emergence of HIV/AIDS. However, current New Zealand estimates are expected to mirror those of international findings. Given health-related New Zealand studies that have linked homosexuality to higher rates of depression, suicide, substance use and victimisation, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation has emerged as a significant human rights issue. This has prompted the New Zealand government to begin examining the homosexual population more closely, although it may be some years before population-based information is available (SNZ, 2008). Most gay men and lesbians live in larger cities and the surrounding suburbs. Concentrating in these areas makes it easier to establish the social networks that facilitate friendships and finding sexual partners. Within these networks, gay men and lesbians are a varied group. They work in all occupational fields, participate in all religious traditions, come from all ethnic and racial groups, and have a full range of political outlooks (Bell & Weinberg, 1978; Bell, Weinberg, & Hammersmith, 1981). Depending on the study cited, between 40 and 60 per cent of gay men and between 45 and 80 per cent of lesbians are involved 674

PART 6 Early adulthood

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-04 18:44:18.

in close, steady, same-sex relationships (Peplau & Cochran, 1990); some are in heterosexual marriages, others are single and have casual encounters, and still others are abstinent. Some portray themselves as heterosexual, some are ‘out,’ and many are ‘out’ with some of their friends but not at work or in all social settings.

Common sexual dysfunctions Sexuality, as we have seen, includes physical, psychosocial and cognitive aspects. It depends on healthy body functioning, on feelings and attitudes conducive to arousal, and on thinking ahead about protection from disease and unwanted pregnancy. As with any behaviour that depends on integration of all of these domains, problems with sexual performance are not uncommon. A sexual dysfunction is an inability to function adequately in or enjoy sexual activities. Most couples have some sexual problems at some time in their relationship, but these are usually of a temporary nature (MacNeil & Byers, 1997).

Low sexual desire Low sexual desire is a common complaint of both males and females. It can stem from a variety of physical causes. Androgen (the sex hormone associated with sex drive) deficiencies, either those caused naturally or those caused by medications for nonsexual ailments, can lower sex drive in both sexes, as can a wide range of medical conditions. Although biological causes are important to consider, the majority of cases of low sexual desire are due to psychological factors. Preoccupation with problems of work or children, fear of sexual intimacy, anger or hostility towards one’s partner, low self-esteem or negative attitudes about sex are all examples of psychological causes of low sexual desire. However, Australian and New Zealand prevalence data are inconsistent. For example, one study reports low sexual desire for Australian males at 25 per cent, and females as high as 55 per cent (Richters, Grulich, de Visser, Smith, & Rissel, 2003). Another study (Nicolosi, Laumann, Glasser, Brock, King, & Gingell, 2006) reported only 11 per cent of Australian and 15 per cent of New Zealand males as having lack of interest in sex, compared to 23 per cent of Australian and 35 per cent of New Zealand women. Differences between the studies probably reflect sampling issues, as participants in the Nicolosi et al. study were aged 40 to 80 years; whereas participants in the Richters et al. (2003) study were aged 16 to 59 years.

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Female orgasmic problems If a sexually active woman has never experienced an orgasm, she is considered to have primary orgasmic dysfunction. Although the causes of this problem are little known, they are usually psychological rather than physiological, and some evidence links sexual problems to childhood sexual abuse (Mullen, Martin, Anderson, & Romans, 1994) or concerns about body image (Richters et al., 2003). A religious upbringing that is extremely negative about sex can have also an adverse impact on female orgasmic functioning (Kelly, Strassberg, & Kircher, 1990). In Australia, studies indicate that between 15 and 29 per cent of women may experience problems with orgasm (Nicolosi et al., 2006; Richters et al., 2003). Data for older females in New Zealand are similar — 28 per cent are reported to suffer from an inability to achieve orgasm (Nicolosi et al., 2006). Learning from an early age that one’s body is ‘dirty’ or that masturbation and sex are ‘bad’ can contribute to guilt about sexual feelings and sometimes lead to dysfunction of the orgasmic response. Sexual responsiveness requires shedding inhibitions, which is relatively difficult if the inhibitions are strong and deeply ingrained. Part of successful treatment for primary orgasmic dysfunction entails therapy designed to defuse negative attitudes about sex. More frequently, women are orgasmic, but they fail to have orgasms without direct clitoral stimulation. Manual or oral stimulation is more likely than intercourse alone to lead to orgasm. Inability to experience orgasm during intercourse is not considered a sexual dysfunction, but it does make many women (and their partners) unhappy and therefore is sometimes seen as a problem.

CHAPTER 12 Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-04 18:44:18.

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Male ejaculatory and erectile problems The most common male sexual dysfunction, premature ejaculation, exists when a male reaches orgasm with minimal sexual stimulation. Findings reported in the Australian Study of Health and Relationships indicate that 24 per cent of males believe they came to orgasm too quickly and 10 per cent had difficulty keeping an erection (Richters et al., 2003). For males over 40, the prevalence of early ejaculation has been reported as 16 per cent for Australian males and 29 per cent for New Zealanders, with similar rates for erectile difficulties; 16 and 25 per cent respectively (Nicolosi et al., 2006). The causes typically are psychological rather than physiological. Using a condom may help, because it reduces penile sensitivity. Fortunately, counselling helps many men learn to delay ejaculation. Most males are unable to get or keep an erection at some point due to illness, fatigue, stress or heavy alcohol consumption. This condition is considered an erectile dysfunction when a man is generally unable to get or keep a firm enough erection to have intercourse. The recent availability of Viagra (sildenafil), a drug that produces erections in males who suffer from erectile problems resulting from diabetes and some vascular disorders, has led many more men to seek help. Since erectile dysfunctions frequently cause feelings of shame, helplessness, anxiety and depression, the topic was taboo before help in the form of a pill became available (Berger, 1998). It is too soon to tell what percentage of males have true erectile dysfunction, because some men seeking the drug want to enhance sexual performance, even though they have no obvious impairment. Both causes and treatments of erectile problems vary widely. Physical causes such as alcohol or drug abuse, smoking, diabetes, vascular disease, sleep disorders, side effects from medications for medical problems (notably high blood pressure medication), or severe chronic illnesses play a role in about half the cases; psychosocial factors contribute to the other half. Depression is a common psychological cause, as is medication used to treat depression (Sarkar, Hiegel, Maswood, & Uphouse, 2008). Upsetting life events, such as losing a job or failing in a business venture, may threaten a man’s self-confidence and lead to erectile difficulties. As we saw with female primary orgasmic dysfunction, an upbringing that stresses strong negative attitudes about sex may cause erectile dysfunction in males; similarly, more information is becoming available about the experience of childhood sexual abuse of boys. Current difficulties in a relationship may set off the problem. Physically based erectile dysfunctions sometimes respond to medication or surgery, but in many cases couples are treated together in sex therapy.

12.6 Infertility

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LEARNING OUTCOME 12.6 Discuss the treatments that are available for infertility.

So far, we have discussed sexuality for the pleasures it can bring on its own terms, but, as we all know, sex is very much connected to developing intimacy, a key aspect of psychosocial development in early adulthood that we discuss in the chapter on psychosocial development in early adulthood. Establishment of intimacy during early adulthood frequently leads to the decision to start a family, while some couples such as Sloan and Mark discussed at the beginning of this chapter choose to wait until later to have children. About 60 per cent of couples conceive within six months of trying to get pregnant, and, for another 25 per cent of couples, conceiving takes between six and twelve months (Access, 2008). Infertility refers to a couple’s inability to conceive a pregnancy after one year of sexual relations without contraception. According to Smith, Rissel, Richters, Grulich, and de Visser (2003), an average of 15.5 per cent of Australian females report problems getting pregnant, with the highest percentage occurring for those aged 40 to 49. Of those reporting problems, 8.4 per cent have sought fertility treatment. These data are comparable to experiences reported by women in other developed countries, such as Britain (Smith et al., 2003) and the United States (Abma, Mosher, Peterson, & Piccinino, 1997). Many couples who face infertility eventually do conceive, but about 20 to 35 per cent of couples take over a year to conceive at some time in their reproductive lives (Queensland Fertility Group, 2008a).

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PART 6 Early adulthood

Hoffnung, Michele. Lifespan Development, 4th Australasian Edition, Wiley, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=5561263. Created from jcu on 2021-02-04 18:44:18.

In Australia and New Zealand, the rate of infertility in females increases at 26 years of age, from 10 per cent to almost double (Labett, 2006). Given that the median age for women giving birth to their first child is now 30 years of age in New Zealand (Statistics New Zealand, 2013a) and 31 in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016), infertility is likely to become an increasingly common concern for couples of reproductive age. As can be seen in figure 12.4, changes in the reproductive patterns of young adults have been substantial in recent decades. Delayed childbearing has meant that couples are trying to conceive at a time when they are more likely to be infertile. In addition, age trends for prima para (first baby) mothers are compounded by changing patterns of sexual behaviour and the increase in sexually transmitted diseases in this age group (DeLisle, 1997; Johnston et al., 2005; Mindel & Kippax, 2005). Other factors contributing to the overall increase in infertility include greater exposure to environmental pollution and toxic substances, as well as exposure to chemicals and physical stress on the job (Paul, 1997). FIGURE 12.4

Trends for prima para mothers 35 + years of age The age of first-time mothers increased in a relatively short period of time, with many women now waiting till their 30s to conceive. Delayed conception can lead to infertility for some couples.

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