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CHAPTER 10
Conclusion:
The Status of Basic Research
on MicIdle Childhood
W. Andrew Collins
Middle childhood encompasses a number of distinctive and important
transformations in human development. Considerable research now
exists to document this conclusion, and the chapters in this volume are
attempts to distill from the evidence salient characteristics of development
during these years and the major issues facing the future study of middle
childhood.
The research that the pane! examined in the course of its work is uneven
in quality and in the amount of information available from area to area. For
the most part, sociological and anthropological studies of middle childhood
are few in number. Consequently, additional information is needed on the
role of social and cultural structures and influences in middle childhood
experiences. The fields of education, medicine, and public health have
produced pertinent information, although largely from perspectives that are
incidentally concerned with the characteristics of this period of develop-
ment.
In psychology the amount of information available is relatively large but
varies across subareas of the field. Many studies of cognitive development
have involved children ages 6-12, but little research addresses the nature
of changes in middle childhood in the development of the self and self-
regulation. Peer relationships have received a moderate amount of attention,
but description of normal socialization practices within the family during
middle childhood has been relatively neglected. Considerable evidence has
398
OCR for page 399
CONCLUSION
399
now been accumulated on characteristic behavior problems of middle child-
hood, but many questions of etiology and the long-term outcomes of both
physical and psychological development still urgently need attention.
In all of the fields from which research findings were drawn, it was nec-
essary to reexamine literature traditionally organized under rubrics other
than middle childhood. Nevertheless, several distinctive qualities of children
ages of 6-12 emerged and are addressed in this chapter. Also noted here
are numerous developmental changes that occur during middle childhood
as well as individual and group differences that must be recognized as dis-
tinctive to the period. Finally, an attempt is made to characterize some
general considerations for the future study of children ages 6-12.
THE NATURE AND TASKS OF MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
Any division of human development into age periods is arbitrary from
the perspective of current knowledge about developmental change. Never-
theless, some features of middle childhood can be discemed that distinguish
it from the early childhood years. At the same time, significant continuities
with other age periods can be seen as well as considerable change during
middle childhood.
Three general themes emerged from the literature on middle childhood.
First, around age 6 or 7, children show skills and characteristic modes of
thought and behavior that contrast significantly with typical patterns before
age 5. Although no evidence was found that primary elements of functioning
emerge de nova in this period, new capacities clearly do emerge. Underlying
these contrasts with earlier periods appear to be processes of consolidation,
extension, and integration operating on social and personal knowledge,
skills, emotions, and modes of response and interaction that were present
in similar forms earlier. The concomitants of these changes can be seen in
areas ranging from the greater complexity of intellectual problem solving to
the capacity for beginning and maintaining intimate friendships.
Second, middle childhood is a time of marked changes in capacities and
typical behavior. These years cannot be considered a time of homogeneous
functioning, for they are a time during which major transformations in
abilities take place. In general, these developments also appear to reflect
processes of gradual consolidation and extension of abilities. The intellectual
shifts from early to middle childhood are continued, and by age 12 children
are capable of applying more flexible, abstract thinking capabilities to a
wider range of problems, including those involving the complexities of social
relationships. Greater self-regulation of activities and problem-solving skills
.
lo.
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400
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
also occur, and children acquire more extensive repertoires of skills for tasks
and more effective techniques for beginning and maintaining social rela-
tionships.
Third, although a description of these developmental changes glosses over
marked individual differences in the course and outcomes of middle child-
hood development, it also underscores the continuity of developmental
processes in this, as in other, life periods. It is not surprising, then, that
development in middle childhood appears to have considerable significance
for behavioral orientations, success, and adjustment in adolescence and
adulthood. An array of fairly recent evidence supports this conclusion. The
strongest indication so far of childhood predictors of adult status and psy'
chopathology comes from this period (see Chapters 6 and 9 of this volume).
Early childhood predictors have been much less powerful than measures
taken in middle childhood. Behavior disorders appear to become more re-
sistant to change in the course of middle childhood (Chapter 9~. Recent
research indicates that status as a rejected child also becomes increasingly
intransigent in middle childhood; the 5'year stability of rejection in so-
ciometric studies (a standard paradigm for assessing which children are pre-
ferred socially by other children) is greater if one starts it at grade 5 than
at grade 3. School achievement at grade 12 is more reliably predicted by
achievement at grade 3 than by achievement at grade I.
An issue of special significance, but considerable complexity, is whether
middle childhood is a time in which children's personalities, behavioral
pattems, and basic competencies become increasingly crystallized into forms
that are likely to persist into adolescence and adulthood. It is critically
important to understand both the nature and the sources of the consoli-
dations that occur in middle childhood and the implications of crystallizing
behavioral pattems.
At this point, many questions remain to be answered. One difficulty lies
in the problem of distinguishing increasing stability of behavior and ability
from increasing similarity of the measures that can be used for older children
and measures of adult characteristics. Similarity also increases between the
tasks and settings that are typical of 6- to 12-year-olds and those that adults
encounter. These problems make it difficult to sort out the causes of in-
creasing similarity between child and adult indicators during middle child-
hood. An adequate account for the Nature of the nature of changing implications
of events during middle childhood must include the possibility that the
causal direction of influences may change. For example, children's self-
concepts of ability affect their academic performance in grade 1, but the
pattern is reversed in older children (Entwisle and Hay~uk, 1982~. The
possibility of crystallization and a search for its causes are compelling goals
for future research. If additional support is found, the significance of de
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CONCLUSION
401
velopmental changes in the middle childhood years should become a topic
of critical importance.
In summary, although the middle childhood years clearly reflect the con-
tinuity of developmental processes, there are distinctive differences that
indicate the consolidation and integration of abilities and typical behavior
that set the period apart. The sections that follow describe the picture of
functioning and the tasks faced by children ages 6-12 that can be drawn
from the current literature.
Changing Qualities of Thought and the Growth of Knowledge
Ages 5-7 are universally recognized as a time of significant cognitive
changes (Chapters 1 and 8), and considerable research has been devoted to
the nature of these changes. At least three developmental transitions can
be identified.
First, there is a growing ability to deal systematically with abstract rep-
resentations of objects and events (Chapter 3~. The thought of children
younger than 5-7 characteristically involves limitations on the number of
objects that can be thought about at one time, and systematic or abstract
reasoning is relatively rare. Between ages 6 and 9, most children gain ca-
pacities that enable them to reason effectively about increasingly complex
problems and circumstances in both the physical and social worlds. Later
in the period, another transformation in cognitive abilities is marked by
increased abilities for generalizing across concrete instances and problem
solving and reasoning characterized by generating and testing hypotheses.
This shift to formal-operational thought, in Piaget's terms, has usually been
attributed to adolescence, but in Western cultures it typically appears be-
tween ages 10 and 12 (Chapter 3~. In both transitions, older children's
thoughts and problem-solving abilities incorporate elements of functioning
that were present in earlier periods but that are combined and integrated in
new ways in intellectual perfo~ance over the course of the school years.
Second, increasing capacities for planfu! organized behavior become ev-
ident. These "cognitive executive functions" (Sternberg and Powell, 1983)
include adopting a plan or goal for activities and subordinating knowledge
and actions in the service of the superordinate plan. The ability to monitor
one's own activities and mental processes also increases substantially in
middle childhood (Brown et al., 1983~. Thus, children ages 6-12 often
manifest more mature, independent organization of school tasks and other
tasks than do preschool children.
Third, and parallel to the first two dimensions of change, middle childhood
is a time of pronounced increase in both the opportunity and the capacity
for acquiring information and for using new knowledge in reasoning, think'
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402
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
ing, problem solving, and action. School is the main formal vehicle for the
transmission of knowledge both in academic content and in cultural norms
and values (Chapter 71. The general parameters of reaming tasks that are
effective for school-age children have been studied extensively (Minuchin
and Shapiro, 1983; Stemberg and Powell, 1983~.
In addition, knowledge in specific topic areas is increasingly being studied
in order to specify its role in reaming (e.g., Brown et al., 1983; Chi, 1978;
Resnick, 1983; Siegler, 1983~. We are now gaining valuable information
about the ways in which having or acquiring knowledge facilitates the in
tegration and more efficient use of cognitive skills. A major gap in our
knowledge, however, continues to be adequate understanding of the social
and motivational determinants of effective reaming. It is known that these
vary considerably among children, according to the degree of economic and
educational advantage, but a better understanding is needed of the ways in
which the diversity of elementary school pupils can be guaranteed the full
benefits of schooling (Chapters 3 and 7~.
Informal reaming about social systems and relationships and knowledge
of social conventions also increases dramatically in middle childhood (Chap'
ters 4, 6, and 81. For example, children ages 6-12 have appreciably greater
and more sophisticated knowledge about illness and health than do younger
children. Knowledge of behavioral norms and conventions for various set-
tings, recognition of the meaning of dysfunction in others, and an under'
standing of conception and death are all markedly greater in the middle
childhood period than before. Television is a major source of information
about social A, Ices, and behaviors at all ages te.g., Collins and
Korac, 1982; Comstock et al., 1980; Maccoby and Roberts, 1983), and
children ages 6- ~ 2, particularly preteen youngsters, spend more time viewing
iV than do either younger children or adolescents. Perhaps more significant
in middle childhood are increased opportunities to acquire social scripts and
concepts from increased exposure to more varied social models and settings.
To date, cognitive research on middle childhood has given us extensive
insights into the nature of fundamental changes in cognitive skills and the
contributions of knowledge to cognitive performance. Yet many unanswered
questions remain regarding cognitive growth and knowledge acquisition in
connection with salient aspects of the lives of 6- to 12-year-olds and the
implications for later behavior and adjustment. For example, what role does
knowledge acquisition in or out of school, formal or informal play in
the growth of specific competence and performance skills during middle
childhood? What characteristics of typical middle childhood environments
and experiences are major influences in the growth of knowledge and its
effective use? In the long term, what are the implications of learning and
~. _._ ___:_ 1 ~ 1 1 ~. .. .
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CONCLUSION
403
development of cognitive skills in this period for adult outcomes such as
vocational choice and success? These issues deserve high priority
research.
Different Functions of the Self
in future
Middle childhood is a time of signal achievements with regard to concepts
of self. Major advances occur in the stability and comprehensiveness of self'
knowledge, in refining one's understanding of the social world, and in de'
veloping standards and expectations for one's own behavior (Chapter 4~.
Whereas preschool-age children typically couch self-knowledge in terms of
concrete, objective attributes and actions, a transition occurs in middle
childhood toward descriptions of self that refer to abstract dispositional
qualities distinguishing oneself from other persons.
Increasing differentiation of self from others may be fundamental to the
consolidation of behavioral orientations during middle childhood. The years
from 6 to 12 are typically a time of widening social contacts and experiences,
with attendant pressures and opportunities for self-differentiation and self-
evaluation. Individuation and self-managed responsibilities appear to be
important in most cultures (Chapter S). In Western societies, however,
children face considerable cultural pressures toward individualism, whereas
the development of cooperation is given relative emphasis in many other
societies (Chapter 8~. Children between 6 and 12 in the United States must
come to conceive of themselves as distinct from the social system at the
same time that they are being socialized to it.
Several processes of developmental change as well as environmental pres-
sures contribute to the salience of self-definition during middle childhood.
The growth of cognitive concepts and knowledge of cultural norms and
expectations for performance are major influences. In addition, the wider
variety of social contexts and the changing relationships encountered by
school-age children stimulate comparisons between self and others and pro-
vide sources of evaluative feedback about skills and abilities. For example,
many Westem parents grant more autonomy to the child as a more respon-
sible self becomes apparent, and in turn the child's self-concept is altered
as a result of increasingly autonomous control over activities. Cross~cultural
evidence indicates that training for coregulation, rather than autonomous
self-regulation, is a central socialization goal in this period.
The years 6-12 are a time of social sensitivity in the formation of some
aspects of self~concept, such as academic self-concept (Chapters 4 and 7~.
For example, in the absence of special instructional interventions, school
achievement at grade 12 correlates highly with achievement measures taken
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404
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
after grade 3 but not before (Chapter 7~. Correlations between self-perceived
competence and achievement test scores increase from grade 3 to grade 6,
and there is also greater agreement between teacher ratings of competence
and self-perceived competence over this period. Self-perceptions may simply
become more realistic during these years, but the causal influence may
operate in the other direction as well. Labeling or categorization undoubtedly
plays a role, regardless of whether labels are generated by the self or by
others. The contributions of these variables to the crystallization of self-
concept have not yet been sorted, but they may offer significant clues about
the nature of emerging and more stabilized patterns of functioning between
the ages of 6 and 12.
Many processes of self-concept formation are still only partially under-
stood. More information is needed on the nature of self-knowledge con-
ceming motives and goals, skills and abilities, emotions, social roles, and
the interplay among various domains in which self-concepts are formed
(academic, physical, social). These aspects of the self underlie children's
abilities to manage their own activities and tasks effectively. They also appear
critical to effective social interactions and relationships, including those
within the family and the peer culture and to the allocation of effort and
choice of activities. The role of self-esteem, although the most frequently
studied dimension of self-concept, is still unclear. In particular, the origins
of self-esteem that are most significant for 6- to 12-year-olds and their
implications for development of individual children need further careful
research. The lack of objective criteria against which to calibrate self-esteem
is a major impediment to research on this topic.
Changes in Self-Management
~ ~ ~ ~· ~ ~O
Linked to changing concepts of self in middle childhood are greater ca-
oacities for self-control and self-regulation. Between ages 6 and 12, impul-
sivity decreases, capacities tor plantulness and other control processes emerge,
and skills necessary for regulating one's own behavior and interactions are
acquired. Knowledge of the self, emotions, and self-regulatory processes are
integral to these self-regulatory capacities, although the processes that link
them are not yet understood.
Increasing self regulation potentially affects many aspects of behavior in
~r ~t t
middle childhood. Peer group activities are less extensively supervised by
adults than they were in early childhood, and more autonomy and inde-
pendence are expected in tasks at school and at home. Children ages 6-12
are increasingly responsible for interacting with health care personnel and
for mastering and acting on information and instructions about medication,
specific health practices, and evolving life-style issues with implications for
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CONCLUSION
405
physical and mental well-being. The effect of increasing self-management
capabilities may be felt most keenly in the family. Parents' management and
control functions are altered when children approach middle childhood,
partly in response to the greater self-management skills they evidence (Chap-
ter S). Although parents do not relinquish control abruptly any more than
children abruptly become autonomous, children's self-management skills
probably do contribute to a gradual transition from parental regulation of
children's behavior to coregulation between child and parent to self-regu-
lation by the child. This transition in turn appears to lay the groundwork
for greater autonomy in adolescence and young adulthood.
Several questions deserve attention in the further study of the growth of
self-management skills in middle childhood. Self-management and the emer-
gence of coregulation between adults and children may be hastened by
developmental changes in cognitive functioning and self-concept, although
more information is needed to describe and account for them. For example,
are the various components of self-management equally important at all
ages? Perhaps as aclolescence approaches, some aspects of self-management
become more automated, and other tasks, such as reorganizing one's habits
to make self-regulation more appropriate to the tasks of adolescence, become
dominant. A developmental approach to self-regulation could be fruitfully
investigated in the 6- to 12-year-old population. Children's self-knowledge
of subjective states, such as motives, goals, emotions, and strategies relevant
to self-regulation, may be one avenue to better understanding of this aspect
of development.
In Chapter 4 of this volume, Markus and Nurius propose that further
research should focus on the social contexts and relationships from which
self-concept and capacities for self-regulation grow. For example, studies are
needed of changes in parental monitoring with age and the processes by
which control is gradually shifted to the child. Research on the contexts
that produce shifts in patterns of social regulation also need study. For
example, the school's role in management and control of children ages 6-
12 appears to have increased in the past two decades, relative to parents'
influence. The nature of this change, its impact, and the extent to which
it occurs evenly across social strata need to be determined. A source of clues
about relevant dimensions of variation in other social contexts may be the
differences that have been documented between Western and non-Western
cultures (Chapter 8~.
Changes in Social Contexts and Relationships
The proportion of time spent at home and with parents is altered in
middle childhood, so that 6- to 12-year-olds spend larger amounts of time
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406
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
in settings with other children alone than they did in early childhood. Time
with peers is spent in different kinds of social exchanges than typically occur
with adults. Children's own differentiations of the two types of relationships
are made mainly in terms of the greater extent to which equal-to-equal
exchanges are characteristic with peers (Chapter 6~. The impact of widening
social contexts is often discussed in the literature, but little information is
available on several basic questions. For example, what functions are shifted
to the peer group as the proportion of time with peers increases between 6
and 127 What are the implications for one system when disruption occurs
in the other'
Family and peer relationships themselves undergo transformation in mi3-
dle childhood. Compared with early childhood, family relationships are
characterized by decreased face~to-face interaction and control. Maccoby,
in Chapter 5 of this volume, refers to the necessity for more distal processes
of control, in which parental monitoring of children's own management of
their activities plays a large role. Discipline becomes less physical and less
restraint oriented and more directed toward developing intemal controls.
Children's own concepts of the parent-child relationship move toward no-
tions of mutual caring and responsibility, rather than focusing so extensively
on the child's dependency and parents' gratification of the child's needs
(Selman, 1980~.
Children select friends and associates and accord group status to others
on the basis of personal qualities at younger ages, but between 6 and 12
their notions about the qualities that are essential to successful peer rela-
tionships and the prerequisites for friendship become more sophisticated.
Qualities of individual peer relationships also change. Although the capacity
for seeking and forming relationships with others exists in very early child-
hood, the capacity for maintaining and extending intimate relationships
over time is not apparent until late middle childhood. By ages 10-12,
children become notably more skilled in using goal-directed planfu! strategies
to begin, maintain, and cooperate within peer relationships. To some degree
these patterns undoubtedly reflect the shift in late middle childhood to
forr~al-operational thought, although the growth of knowledge about social
conventions, interactions, and specific strategies must also play a role.
These dimensions of peer relationships are known to affect interactions
with peers in adolescence. More information is needed, however, on the
socializing consequences of close peer relationships during middle childhood
and the ways in which the nature and impact of these relationships change
as the child develops. In particular, emotional components of peer experi-
ences and peer influences need study. What, for example, is the implication
of anxiety in peer relationships for self-concept, self-esteem, harmonious
interactions with family, and success in school' The predictive status of poor
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CONCLUSION
407
peer relations for maladjustment in later life makes the study of peer rela-
tionships in middle childhood especially urgent and promising.
Characteristic Antecedents of Later Functioning
Much is now known about a variety of events in middle childhood that
have potential long-term implications for individual functioning. The most
powerful evidence comes from prospective longitudinal studies in which
deviant peer relations in middle childhood have been found to predict poor
mental health and psychosocial difficulties in adolescence and young adult-
hood (Chapter 6~. Attempts to predict--middle childhood outcomes from
experiences in early childhood have been less successful (e.g., Richman et
al., 1982~. Studies of adolescent psychopathology have often revealed roots
in middle childhood disorders (Chapter 91. Normative stresses and mundane
experiences alike, when they occur in middle childhood, have been shown
to have long-term effects. Elder's ( 1979) analysis of the Oakland and Berkeley
Growth Studies indicated that family economic deprivation in childhood
affects adult physical health, mental health, and patterning of life decisions
such as marriage, and career performance. Correlations are sizable between
school achievement and academic self-concept in middle childhood and
these same variables measured at grade 12 (Chapter 7~.
Most research linking middle childhood events to adult outcomes has
focused on psychopathology. Yet a number of interesting questions concern
how middle childhood experiences may contribute to a wider range of out-
comes. For example, what is the developmental impact of middle childhood
experiences on adult health, educational and career achievement, work
roles, and productivity' Methodologies recently applied to the study of psy-
chopathology might well be extended to the study of links between middle
childhood status and experiences and a variety of outcomes in later periods.
Among these are normative-epidemiological techniques (e.g., Rutter, 1982)
and multivariate-descriptive taxonomic paradigms (Chapter 9), which are
effective in identifying the constellation of characteristics that accurately
describe behaviors of interest at different ages. These approaches may lead
to additional research in which the operation of risk factors and the im-
munizing and protective conditions that counteract them can also be fruit-
fully investigated.
One still troublesome vacuum in our knowledge of middle childhood
conditions that have long-term implications concerns school reaming prob-
lems. The links between chronic reaming difficulties and later dysfunction
are strongly established, but progress in finding workable approaches to the
assessment and remediation of reaming difficulties has been slow. Several
promising approaches have been devised in recent years (Chapters 2 and
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408
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
9), including the application of normative-epidemiological research methods
(Chapter 9; Rutter et al., 1979~. Among other uses, these methods have
been applied to the creation of standardized teachers' assessments of pupil
behavior. Once such a data base is available, research can be undertaken
on differentiated patterns of learning difficulties. In some cases these may
be linked to psychopathological conditions that are largely environmentally
caused. In others, investigations of neurophysiological conditions may be
needed.
At present, however, neither biological science nor understanding of the
behavioral and other psychological processes involved in reaming are ad-
vanced enough to permit definitive conclusions about biological bases for
differences in reaming. In Chapter 2 of this volume, Shonkoff argues that
the applicability of research on biological correlates of cognitive functioning
to classrooms and intervention programs requires cooperative interdiscipli-
nary efforts between clinical medicine, education, and basic research. As
in the case of psychopathology, it is less likely that the answer lies in devising
nosological categories for the diagnosis and treatment of specific clinical
entities than in multivariate approaches incorporating notions of risk and
protective factors.
Normative development has dominated the research on middle childhood
to date in some areas, such as the study of cognitive abilities. In others, like
social and personality development, more attention has been given to in-
dividual differences and normative changes have been relatively neglected.
Both dimensions of variation must become integral to the study of middle
childhood development in the future. Individual children negotiate devel-
opmental sequences at different rates and along somewhat different trajec-
tories. These altemative paths partly reflect the operation of social structures
and other environmental constraints, which must be better specified in
connection with developmental studies (see section below on environmental
factors). Comparisons of cultures with regard to environmental features that
inoculate against, or mark the appearance of, troublesome behaviors in
middle childhood would be useful (Chapter 8~.
Several dimensions of individual differences in children ages 6-12 deserve
special attention in future research. Increased expectations for self-regulation
make issues of emotional development and expressiveness, coping capacities,
and the various components of self-management skills especially important
topics for study. Similarly, individual differences in the development of
behaviors relevant to both physical health and satisfactory adjustment to
peer and school social systems need special investigation. An appropriate
starting point for these investigations is the epidemiological evidence tying
adult behaviors and status to specific antecedents in childhood.
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CONCLUSION
411
required for optimal functioning. Thus, social competence was actually mea'
sured differently at each age studied; acceptable correlations were found
among the measures from one age to another for measures of putatively
similar behaviors but not for measures of behaviors that were assumed to be
functionally different.
Identifying functionally similar measures obviously requires careful psy-
chometric evaluation of the properties of tasks as well as their conceptual
appropriateness to the competencies under study. A specific difficulty is the
usual increase in literacy skills over this age range. Paper and pencil instru'
meets suitable for children ages 10-12 cannot be used with children 6-8.
The youngest children in this age range are the most difficult to include in
large-scale studies, yet changes in these earlier years may overshadow later
ones.
The potential value of identifying early indicators of later functioning
must be given increased attention in research on middle childhood. The
importance of this period of development cannot be fully understood without
better specification of the ways in which consolidation of personality and
skills between ages 6 and 12 is carried forward into other periods of life.
Although longitudinal research provides important information on the cle-
velopment of individuals, longitudinal methods are not strictly necessary for
analysis of developmental sequences per se. Scalogram analysis of perfor'
mance should be considered essential for concluding that a sequential pattern
has been identified in cross-sectional studies (Chapter 3~. More careful
attention to psychometric issues in the assessment of developmental patterns
is a major requirement for better information about the nature and course
of developmental change in the years 6-12. '
We now turn to three conceptual issues that must be given attention in
future research on middle childhood.
The Nature and the Role of the Environment
The complex issue of environmental influences and constraints on de-
velopment in middle childhood has repeatedly emerged in the panel's de-
liberations. Our review has convinced us that a view of middle childhood
development as a conjoint function of organismic change and sociocultural
demands, constraints, and options available to children in this period is
both feasible and essential to the advance of knowledge. However, the nature
and impact of environments are rarely specified in research on children ages
6-12.
A fully adequate analysis of relevant environmental supports and con'
straints in development is relatively rare in the study of children of any age.
Even anthropologists have only occasionally produced ethnographies focused
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412
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
on the lives of children in various cultures, and developmentalists have badly
neglected ecocultural pressures in their analyses of individual ontogeny and
socialization processes (Levine 1980; Ogbu 1981; Whiting and Whiting,
1975~. To date, most of our knowledge of development in children ages 6-
12 has been drawn from the capabilities and skills of children observed in
a restricted range of situations, such as laboratory experimental tasks and,
occasionally, self-reports of activities or observations of discrete units of
behavior in less constraining settings. Neither these settings nor more com-
mon environments have been as carefully analyzed as the behavior of children
within them, however.
A major difficulty is how to specify the characteristics of relevant envi-
ronments in studies of middle childhood. The most common view of en-
vironmental influences on development is the general notion of a local
"reaming environment" for socialization and intellectual stimulation. In
research, environmental features are varied one at a time, as in studies of
basic reaming processes, or are treated in an undifferentiated global fashion,
as when social class is used as a summary indicator for a constellation of
social, cultural, and economic variables.
A richer conceptual framework is needed to capture the nature of extemal
forces on the developing child, not only the immediate, ambient sources of
stimulation that impinge on children but also the culturally normative re-
sponses and the survival pressures that form the context for and give meaning
to stimulation. The concept of the ecocultural niche, which was adopted
by anthropologists to help account for dramatic cultural variations in non-
Westem societies, encompasses this broader view (Chapter 8~. The term
pertains to the cumulative historical, social, and economic structures and
experiences that give significance to mundane events as well as to pivotal
transitions in a child's life. Such factors as urban versus rural residence,
family and domestic group status, parental and nonparental child care ar-
rangements, tasks typically assigned to children, and the role of women in
the society have all been demonstrated to affect important dimensions of
childhood socialization in Westem and non-Westem cultures (Chapter 8~.
Environments of U.S. Children
Among the significant aspects of niche variation facing children in the
United States are those traditionally captured but not well specified by
ethnic, subcultural, and socioeconomic variables. Available demographic
data (see Chapter i) indicate that children ages 6-12 from different ethnic
backgrounds encounter environments that differ markedly in terms of family
OCR for page 413
CONCLUSION
413
constellation, economic advantage, and characteristics of home and com-
munity, among other features. Yet the pane} repeatedly noted the relative
rarity of studies of middle childhood development to which ethnic and
socioeconomic variations were integral. Evidence of group differences exists,
of course. Studies in education reveal dramatic differences in the adaptation
to school of children from different ethnic and subcultural and social-cIass
groups (Chapter 7~. In the relatively small number of studies on children's
lives outside school, children from different sociocultural backgrounds vary
in activity patterns ranging from exposure to television to characteristic
leisure-time social involvements. Children also experience different amounts
of contact with adults according to sociocultural background, and family
settings and parental behavior vary widely as a function of social class and
ethnic groups (Chapters 1 and 5~. For example, levels of interaction between
parents and their school-age children have been reported to be lower in
black than in white families (Chapter 5), a comparison that confounds
ethnicity and social class.
Although some characteristics of the variables themselves are clearly doc-
umented and some correlations with socialization outcomes and children's
adaptations to common cultural expectations have been examined, little is
known about the significance of ecocultural variations for either short- or
long-term outcomes. Models and approaches are needed that can be readily
applied to understanding the complex interplay between the developing chilc!
and the ecological contexts of development. While the pane! does not urge
extensive new research on social class and ethnic differences per se, we do
believe that much valuable information can come from studies in which
discrete dimensions of children's environments are more carefully and sys-
tematically examined in terms of their linkages to characteristic experiences
and their impacts on individual children. By this we mean giving attention
to the tasks created by these environmental variations for the child and the
differences in amount and frequency of contacts with adults, responsibilities
expected of the child, the availability of resources, and prevailing norms
and structures for the control and management of behavior. These aspects
of environments are only partially tapped by traditional measures of social
class and ethnicity (Chapter 8~.
Expectations Regarding Children as an Environmental Indicator
One potentially fruitti~! avenue is research on subjectively held expecta-
tions and cultural beliefs about the behavior of children ages 6-12. A focus
on expectations of both adults and children may be our most direct avenue
to understanding environmental characteristics and pressures. Recent re
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414
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
search in Australia by Goodnow et al. (in press) documents subcultural
variations in adults' expectations of younger children. American research
(Bugental et al., 1980; Holleran et al., in press) demonstrates the role of
adults' expectations in perceptions of and reactions to specific behaviors in
children.
A recent example highlights the potential informativeness of studies that
include assessments of adult expectations. Entwiste and Hay~uk (1982) ex-
amined parents' expectations for their children's school performance lon-
gitudinally in a multiwave design over a 3-year period from grade ~ to 3.
These measurement points encompassed a period from before children's
academic skills are ordinarily evaluated to a point at which a number of
report cards have been sent home. For both middle- and working-cIass
children, parents' expectations were strong influences on children's first
marks. After grade 1, the influence of working-cIass parents appearec! to be
considerably less than that of their middle-class counterparts. Absence rates
were correlated with working-cIass, but not middle-cIass, parents' expecta-
tions (Entwisle and Hay~uk, 19781. These examples of marked changes in
the nature and direction of influence of parental expectations during middle
childhood provide models that can be fruitfully extended to other questions.
Studies of the expectations normally held by adults in the United States for
the behavior and competences of children at different ages between 6 and 12,
including subcultural variations, and how these expectations are typically com-
municated to children and perceived by them may reveal a great deal about
the ecocultural niche constraints encountered by children in this age period.
The Child's View of En vironmen is
Research is also needed on children's views of common experiences. The
past two decades have seen a proliferation of studies on the development of
concepts of universal life events, such as conception, birth, and death (Shantz,
1983~. Additional studies are needed on children's concepts of common
features of their mundane environments that may be influential in sociali-
zation. For example, what are children's concepts of the legitimacy of au-
thority, tasks, responsibility for mundane activities, work, common social
practices, achievement, age grading, abnormality, and the like? Recent
research on children's understanding of rules and conventions is promising
in this regard (see Chapter 6), but further research is needed. Important
unanswered questions concern the impact of personal experiences on con-
cepts (e.g., the effect of chronic illness on concepts of disease) and how
concepts might be changed to facilitate adjustment. Most studies have fo-
cused on questions of children's cognitive competence rather than on the
functional significance of variations in pragmatic concepts, and knowledge
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CONCLUSION
415
has largely been drawn from studies of middIe-cIass children. Weisner (Chap'
ter 8) notes that information on cross-cultural variations is likely to be a
source of valuable clues to variables of special importance in the study of
school-age children's understanding of their circumstances and experiences.
Environmental Supports for Developmental Change
variation in stable, enduring cultural expectations and adaptations should
not be confused with the task and contextual variations in children's behavior
that are commonly observed in middle childhood and that pervade the
literature of other age periods as well. Task and contextual effects commonly
arise in assessments of children's competencies or abilities. In Chapter 3,
Fischer and Bullock subsume these findings under the category of support-
iveness of the environment. They note that characteristics of some tasks
and contexts do not permit successful performance, even when other tasks
of similar levels of formal difficulty can be solved. In research on development
the problem of task variation is sometimes no more than a problem of
sampling tasks adequately to assess the limitations of the child's competence.
But as Fischer and Bullock note, task characteristics can also be analyzed
for their implications about the role of environmental supports in the ac-
quisition of skill and the fostering of new levels of competence, as when an
adult provides aid that enables a child to complete a task successfully. In
such cases environmental supports may facilitate task completion at a higher
level on subsequent attempts. The relationship between transient task factors
such as these and more stable, enduring features of the ecocultural niche
need further investigation.
. ~
Nature, Functions, and Interrelationships of Social Systems
A focus on the role of the environment in development entails attention
to the social relationships and settings that impinge upon children. Both
the nature and the function of social systems and the ways in which they
are linked to one another are potentially significant factors in research on
children ages 6-12.
Social Contexts of Middle Childhood
The study of middle childhood has long included examination of family,
peer, and school influences, but societal changes and other factors continue
to make salient new issues about which information is needed. For example,
the dynamics and influences of family systems have increasingly been ret
ceiving more attention from researchers, but much of the information to
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416
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
date concerns families of preschool children. Specific problems of dealing
with 6- to 12-year-olds in different family structures would benefit from
further research. In two-parent families the role of fathers in children's
responses to the challenges of middle childhood is linked to a number of
interesting questions of self-concept and its effects, the intensification of
cross-sex interactions, and the reaming of work roles and life-style practices,
but pertinent information is scarce (Chapter 5~.
Similarly, the school social system in the late 1950s was alleged to have
extensive implications for school achievement and, by implication, for cog-
nitive development and self-concept formation in junior high and high
school (e.g., Coleman, 1961~. Still, we need to know what features of this
system are essential to effects on these potentially significant dimensions of
middle childhood experience and how the features operate to produce these
effects. Research by Rutter et al. ( 1979) on high schools provides a valuable
mode! for research on school systems involving 6- to 12-year-olds. Outside
school the peer system plays a central role in the socialization and emotional
lives of 6- to 12-year-olds. Questions concerning the nature of these ex-
periences and their impact on the child are central to an understanding of
middle childhood development, but at present information is sparse and
based on indirect assessment of peer influences.
An example of recent research on a developmental change experienced
by many children ages 6-12 indicates the importance of social-system in-
fluences. Large numbers of children experience the physical changes of
pubescence well before their thirteenth birthdays, and much research has
now been devoted to the general effects of timing of puberty on trajectories
of psychosocial development (Chapter 2~. The combination of factors faced
by a preteen child who experiences early physical maturation is now being
more carefully examined as well. Recent research on the effects of the shift
from elementary to junior high school at seventh grade demonstrates that
pubertal change, combined with social and achievement pressures from school
transitions, heightens the adjustment problems of individual children (Sim-
mons et al., 1979~. Research on early dating indicates the complex of social
norms and age-graded conventions that contribute to this social pattern for
an individual child. These studies compellingly document the interaction
between physical, social-structural, and individual factors in development
in the latter part of the 6-12 period for many children.
Interrelationships of Social Systems
The interrelationships of social systems and settings also determine pres-
sures on children and their responses to them. We now have fragmentary
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CONCLUSION
417
evidence that consistency between salient social contexts facilitates optimal
functioning of children. Most often in such studies the family is one of the
two settings involved. Parents' perceived encouragement and facilitation of
participation in out-of~schoo} organized activities combined as the single
most influential determinant of children's participation (Medrich et al.,
1982~. Especially in middle childhood, many children depend heavily on
parents for transportation, volunteer leadership, and often for knowledge of
opportunities. Questions on the relationship of out-of-school activities to
the school system are frequently acknowledged, but more information is
needed to determine the importance of consistency between these aspects
of children's lives.
Despite considerable evidence that disjunctions between family and other
settings are inimical to optimal development, the possibility remains that
consistency is not an important variable for all children and all situations.
In research on school environments, for example, the authority structure of
school settings was especially important for children from families that did
not emphasize participation in decision making. For other children, variation
in classroom organization and teacher's authority style made little difference
(Chapter 7~. It is possible, as cognitive-developmental theories imply, that
moderate inconsistency is sometimes developmentally beneficial. The nature
and optimal amount of inconsistency for 6- to 12-year-olds as well as the
areas of experience in which consistency and inconsistency are likely to
have differential effects are topics about which information is needed. For
example, how do children perceive discrepancies in family conventions and
expectations and those in other settings? Recent work on the understanding
of rules, conventions, and discrepancies between home and school rules
(e.g., Much and Shweder, 1978; Nucci and Nucci, 1982) is a useful begin-
ning that should be extended into understanding of other aspects of social
systems and structures.
Studies of family and peer influences, especially with regard to shifts in
relative influence between early childhood and adolescence, indicate a va-
riety of possible relationships among social systems. The possibility of re-
ciprocal influences has been raised by Youniss's (1980) recent suggestion
that children may bring to their families from their peer groups knowledge,
expectations, and behavioral tactics that enable their families to adjust to
demands of interaction with a rapidly maturing child. Hartup ~ 1979) recently
suggested that the family system serves a gating function for smooth, suc-
cessfut peer relationships. This function probably becomes increasingly im-
portant in middle childhood. In the future a stronger focus is needed on the
varied ways in which family, peers, and other social systems may influence
development between the ages of 6 and 12.
OCR for page 418
.
418
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
lnterrelatedness of Developmental Issues
Much of our knowledge about clevelopment reflects the long-standing
division of the research enterprise into domains of Functioning; hence, this
report is organized into chapters on cognition, the self, and specific aspects
of social experiences (family, peers, schools). Early in its deliberations,
however, the pane! concluded that an adequate understanding of middle
childhood development requires attention to possible interrelationships across
these arbitrary boundaries. A compelling example is the implications of
cognitive achievements for an emerging sense of self and self-regulatory
capacities. As is apparent in Chapters 3 and 4, cognitive and emotional
functioning are as integral to one another as they are to self and social
relationships. Our reviews of the literature on health, psychopathology, and
school affirm the importance of these interrelationships. Nevertheless, re-
search that incorporates these facets of human functioning simultaneously
is rare in general and almost nonexistent in the study of middle childhood.
For example, simple questions such as the possible influence of boys' height
or athletic prowess on self-esteem still need study, but such relationships
must be examined in light of other developmental dimensions (e.g., cog-
nitive capabilities) and the social matrix in which the child is embedded.
This deficiency is especially problematic for analyzing children's capacities
for coping with circumstances that ordinarily put them at risk for psycho-
pathology and other dysfunctional outcomes. Although we now have ex-
tensive knowledge of psychological problems of middle childhood and good
tools for learning more about such difficulties, more attention needs to be
given 'to the functioning of children who manage to avoid dysfunctional
outcomes. Such work will include, at a minimum, attention to cognitive,
social, and emotional components of coping (Garmezy, 1982~.
Aspects of middle childhood development about which information is
especially needed are emotional understanding and expression and its in-
terrelationships with other domains of functioning. At present, most infor-
mation about children ages 6-12 in this area pertains to their developing
knowledge of emotions and rules for emotional expression, but little is known
about the functions of emotional expressions and implications for social
relationships, coping, and self-concept. One area in which more information
is needed concerns the implications of the emotional character of children's
relationships with their teachers to socialization within the school system.
Much previous research indicates the importance of warmth and nurturance
to teacher-learner relationships of several different kinds, but the specific
nature of emotional linkages between salient other persons in middle child-
hood is not well understood. The effects of anxiety, both positive and
OCR for page 419
CONCLUSION
419
negative, and a better, more differentiated understanding of the implications
of self-esteem for family, peer, and school experiences are also important
topics for investigation. The topic of emotion is now experiencing a re-
surgence of interest in the social and behavioral sciences, and this renewed
attention should be beneficial to the study of emotional functioning in middle
childhood development.
CONCLUSION
The study of children ages 6-12 has yielded considerable information
about the processes of development. A number of significant questions re-
main, but the basic research now available is a promising foundation from
which new evidence can be generated. New methods will be required in
some areas, particularly in those of social relationships and competence, but
a number of the required methods for generating new knowledge about this
period are now in place.
The most urgent need at present is simply a conviction that the phenom-
ena of middle childhood warrant a commitment of scholarly energies and
resources. The pane! believes that they do. The pane! also believes that the
study of any given age period is likely to be most productive when it concerns
the distinctive tasks and qualities of the period within the general flow of
developmental changes. This approach is well established in the literature
on children ages 6-12, and the pane! urges its continuation. The complex-
ities of the task notwithstanding, the prospects and benefits of understanding
the nature and processes of development in the school years warrant serious
attention in the decades ahead. '
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.,
Representative terms from entire chapter:
children ages
