Development In Middle Childhood Research Articles

School transition difficulty in Scotland and Ireland: a longitudinal perspective

ABSTRACT There is a large body of research exploring the difficulties young people experience on the transition to secondary education. However, there has been little comparative research yielding insights into how these experiences vary by institutional context. This article explores differences in school transition difficulties among young people in Scotland and Ireland using nationally representative longitudinal datasets – Growing Up in Ireland and Growing Up in Scotland. Despite generally making the transition with most or all of their friends, transition difficulties are greater on average in Scotland than in Ireland, perhaps reflecting the shorter duration of primary education in Scotland. In both systems, young people coming from households with lower levels of income and education experience greater difficulties and this gap is only partially accounted for by school experiences at primary and secondary level. An interesting feature is contrasting gender patterns in the two systems, with boys experiencing more difficulties in Scotland and girls more adjustment problems in Ireland. The male disadvantage in Scotland is partly explained by school experiences; the female disadvantage in Ireland is related to more negative attitudes to Maths at primary level than boys. Vocabulary development in middle childhood plays a stronger role in influencing ease of transition in Ireland, most likely because of the large number of (literacy-based) subjects students take on entry to secondary school. The article points to the potential for further comparative research on school transitions to better understand the dynamics in different contexts.

School segregation and social processes that shape early and middle childhood development

De facto school segregation, stemming from structural racism, has myriad consequences for children’s development. Extant research documents the implications of segregated schools for children’s academic resources and opportunities, but there is less attention on the social processes that unfold as a result of school segregation, particularly in early and middle childhood. Social processes–including ethnic-racial socialization, stereotyping and prejudice, and intergroup contact–are important mechanisms wherein school segregation affects academic and social development, thereby upholding a recursive cycle of structural racism. We synthesize cross-disciplinary theoretical and empirical research to propose a conceptual framework for how school segregation relates to social processes that shape early and middle childhood development. We conclude with reflections and future directions including prioritizing the social benefits and costs of desegregation for minoritized children, expanding research within an intersectional framework, accounting for structural inequities and injustice in child development research more broadly, and implications for education and learning.

Oxytocin and state attachment responses to secure base support after stress in middle childhood

ABSTRACT We tried to replicate the finding that receiving care increases children’s oxytocin and secure state attachment levels, and tested whether secure trait attachment moderates the oxytocin and state attachment response to care. 109 children (9-11 years old; M = 9.59; SD = 0.63; 34.9% boys) participated in a within-subject experiment. After stress induction (Trier Social Stress Test), children first remained alone and then received maternal secure base support. Salivary oxytocin was measured eight times. Secure trait and state attachment were measured with questionnaires, and Secure Base Script knowledge was assessed. Oxytocin levels increased after receiving secure base support from mother after having been alone. Secure state attachment changed less. Trait attachment and Secure Base Script knowledge did not moderate oxytocin or state attachment responses to support. This might mean that, regardless of the attachment history, in-the-moment positive attachment experiences might have a beneficial effect on trait attachment development in middle childhood.

How School-Based Wellbeing Interventions, Socioeconomic Status, and Gender Impact Anxiety Development in Middle Childhood

The current study examined whether delivering wellbeing interventions in schools impacted anxiety development in middle childhood. Schools have an important role to play in addressing children’s anxiety through daily practice in classrooms and by implementing specialist wellbeing interventions that support children’s coping. A nationally representative sample of Irish primary school children (N = 2313; 48.9% male) were surveyed when they were in second class (M age 8.09 years, SD = 0.39) and fourth class (M age 9.96 years, SD = 0.40) of primary school. Teachers reported on wellbeing interventions in schools. Key findings from moderation analyses suggest that family affluence and being female predicted a greater increase in anxiety development and that wellbeing interventions interacted with family affluence to reduce anxiety development for more affluent children. These findings can be used to strengthen the design and implementation of wellbeing interventions for a more efficacious approach to minimising children’s anxiety development.

Middle childhood development in personal values.

We aimed to investigate value change and stability longitudinally in middle childhood. Values are the aspect of personality defining one's aspirations. Research identifies meaningful values in middle childhood, yet we know little about the process of their development within individual. Children (N = 298; 53.7% girls, Mage = 7 years and 3 months, SD = 7.70 months, at the first time point) four times, annually. Rank-order stability increased with age and decreased with time-span. We found value hierarchy consistency, with value hierarchy similar to adolescents in the priority given to openness to change versus conservation values, and to adults in the priority given to self-transcendence values. Latent growth curve analyses indicated linear increase in openness to change, and curvilinear increase in self-transcendence values, and linear decrease in conservation and self-enhancement values, with some differences across ages. Value structure was better differentiated with age. Compatible values changed in similar, and conflicting values in opposite directions. This paper suggests that in middle childhood, children can already report stable values. Moreover, middle childhood is characterized by coherent change patterns, of increase in the importance of growth, and decrease in the focus on conflicting protection values.

The ‘wave-particle’ child: reconnecting the disconnect in the concept of latency

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to re-examine psychodynamic understanding of middle childhood towards a conceptual reformulation of this critical developmental stage. We believe such a reformulation is necessary in the light of contemporary psychoanalytic thought and developmental findings outside of the psychoanalytic field. This is intended as a preliminary stage in the direction of a recalibration of the technique and language of child analytic treatment to fit the particular psychological challenges and needs of middle childhood. Historically, middle childhood (or latency) has been regarded as a period of psychosexual dormancy and psychic rigidity. We review contemporary developmental findings and suggest a shift in emphasis in psychodynamic thinking towards the psychic growth, developmental challenges and emotional fragility that also characterise middle childhood. We propose that the psyche of the school-aged child is at once wave and particle, constantly growing and evolving and yet simultaneously stable and structured. We also emphasise the complexity of psychosocial development in middle childhood beyond the triangular, into what we term the polygonal psychic space. The familiar structured games of middle childhood – card games, ball games, board games and today’s console games – reflect this complex and paradoxical developmental picture, but the traditional child psychotherapy paradigm remains biased towards the toys and make-believe games of early childhood. Adaptation of technique and clinical theory to middle childhood is critical, particularly given the recent steep rise in referrals of school-aged children to mental health clinics across the globe, and the relatively high treatment drop-out rate commonly seen, especially in boys. We suggest the game-play typical of middle childhood offers a safe and developmentally appropriate medium of play, through which the child can express and explore their intrapsychic and interpsychic world in a psychotherapeutic setting.

Perceived motor competence in early childhood predicts perceived and actual motor competence in middle childhood.

The study aims were to (1) identify perceived motor competence (PMC) and actual motor competence (AMC) profiles in children at two time points (early and middle childhood) 3 years apart, (2) explore transitions between the profiles from T1 to T2, and (3) investigate how PMC-AMC profiles at T1 differ in their mean values for AMC and PMC variables at T2. PMC was assessed by the pictorial scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence for young children (PMSC). At T1, AMC was measured with Test of Gross Motor Development-third version (TGMD-3), and at T2, a shortened TGMD-3 was used. To identify the PMC-AMC profiles using latent profile analysis, the Mplus statistical package (version 8.7) was used. For aim 3, the Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars (BCH) method was used. There were 480 children (mean age 6.26 years, 51.9% boys) at T1, 647 children (mean age 8.76 years, 48.8% boys) at T2 (some children were too young to have the PMC assessment at T1), and 292 at both time points. For aim 1, three profiles were identified at each time point for each gender. Boys had two realistic profiles with medium and low levels of PMC-AMC, and an overestimation profile. Girls had a medium realistic profile, an overestimation, and an underestimation profile. The PMC-AMC profile in early childhood predicted the PMC-AMC profile (aim 2) and AMC and PMC variables (aim 3) in middle childhood, especially if a child had low PMC in early childhood. Children with low PMC in early childhood are at risk of low PMC and less AMC development in middle childhood.

Maternal cognitions and cognitive, behavior and emotional development in middle childhood

Maternal cognitions and cognitive, behavior and emotional development in middle childhood

Consistency of gender identity and preferences across time: An exploration among cisgender and transgender children.

While considerable research has examined gender development in middle childhood, little longitudinal work has been conducted at this time to indicate whether, for example, youth who show more or less gender conformity at one point continue to do so later. The present study investigated the consistency of gender identity and preferences for gender-stereotypical toys, clothing, and same-gender peer preferences among groups of transgender youth (n = 158), their siblings (n = 79), and an unrelated group of cisgender youth (n = 128) from a mean age of 7.0 (range 3.0-10.9) to a mean age of 9.6 (range 5.1-12.0). Furthermore, 65.5% of the youth were girls, 69.7% were White, 72.8% grew up in households with an annual household income of $75,000 or more, and 89.9% of parents had a bachelor's degree or higher. Overall, we found a small-to-medium correlation over this 2.6-year span within each group, both across the composite of measures and most measures individually. Despite the moderate stability over time, we found a decrease in the composite and individual scores over this time span for girls and for transgender participants. Together these results suggested some stability in children's gender identity and preferences in middle childhood and that this was true regardless of whether the child's gender did or did not align with their sex assignment at birth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Fair sharing is just caring: Links between justice sensitivity and distributive behavior in middle childhood

Justice sensitivity (JS), the tendency to perceive and adversely respond to injustice, was related to prosocial behavior in different age groups and to distributive preferences in adults. To test influences of JS on sharing and distributive preferences, middle childhood as an important phase for moral development may be particularly interesting. We asked 1320 5- to 12-year-old children (M = 8.05 years, SD = 1.02; 51.2 % girls, 1.3 % transgender and gender-nonconforming) to read five vignettes that made salient the different principles of distributive justice (equality, merit, and need) and to distribute imaginary sweets between themselves and one described child (sharing) or between two described children (distributing). Children also rated their JS, and parents rated children’s theory of mind (ToM) abilities and empathy. More concerns for justice for the self (victim JS) predicted distributions following the merit principle and a preference for need over equality and merit when forced to choose among the three. Caring for justice for others (altruistic JS) predicted more sharing, equal distributions, less distributions according to the merit principle, and a preference for equal distributions over merit and need when forced to choose among the three. These associations prevailed when ToM and empathy were included as control variables. The findings underline the importance of justice-related personality traits, such as JS, for moral development in middle childhood.

Parental warmth predicts more child pro-social behaviour in children with better emotion regulation.

Parental warmth and child emotion regulation have each been implicated in the development of child pro-social behaviours; however, their interactive benefits remain unclear. In this multi-method, multi-cohort longitudinal study, we examined the effect of parental warmth on child pro-social behaviours at different levels of child emotion regulation. We collected data from 6- and 10-year-olds in Canada (NT1 =233; Mage =8.41; SD=2.08) and their parents. Parental warmth, child emotion regulation, and child pro-social behaviours were assessed via parent report. Children's baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; an indicator of cardiac regulatory capacity) was assessed as a correlate of emotion regulation. Child pro-social behaviours were assessed concurrently and 1year later. Results showed that higher parental warmth was related to higher concurrent prosocial behaviours and greater increases in prosocial behaviours over 1 year. These effects were strengthened for children with higher emotion regulation whether measured by parent report or RSA. We discuss implications for understanding pro-social development in middle childhood from a strengths-based perspective.

Changes in Character Virtues are Driven by Classroom Relationships: A Longitudinal Study of Elementary School Children

The purpose of this study is to understand the role of school relationships in shaping students’ character development in middle childhood. Students and teachers completed surveys on student–teacher relationships, peer relationships, social-emotional learning (SEL), parent-teacher communication, and character strengths of fairness, hope, bravery, teamwork, self-regulation, social responsibility, and prosocial leadership. Participants were 1881 Brazilian children in fourth or fifth grade across 288 classrooms and 60 schools. Data were analyzed using a multi-level model framework. Higher student–student relationships were associated with higher starting scores of character strengths paired with a stronger increase among classes whose relationships improved over time. Higher quality student–teacher relationships were associated with a larger increase in character strengths among boys. Teachers’ usage of SEL strategies, student–teacher relationships and student peer relationships were important predictors of both classroom baselines and the change in character strengths across time. Most of the existing literature on character strengths is based on older adolescent samples from affluent countries and with little Latin American representation. This study supports existing literature on the relevancy of character strengths in the educational context, but adds the importance of seeing it as a contextual and relational outcome.

Mothers' Experience of Social Change and Individualistic Parenting Goals Over Two Generations in Urban China.

During the past four decades, China has gone through rapid urbanization and modernization. As people adapt to dramatic sociodemographic shifts from rural communities to urban centers and as economic level rises, individualistic cultural values in China have increased. Meanwhile, parent and child behavior in early childhood has also evolved accordingly to match a more individualistic society. This mixed-method study investigated how social change in China may have impacted parenting goals and child development in middle childhood, as seen through the eyes of the current generation of mothers. Thirty mothers of fifth-grade elementary school students from Shenzhen, China were recruited and took part in semi-structured interviews. Participants answered questions and provided examples about their children’s life, their own childhood, and the perceived differences between the two generations. Participating mothers were also asked to rate which generation, themselves or their parents, cared more about the childrearing goals of academic competitiveness and socioemotional well-being. Using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, we expected and found an intergenerational increase in the perceived value mothers placed on individualistic traits: current mothers care more about their children’s academic competitiveness, personal happiness, and social adjustment, compared to their experience of their own mothers’ attitudes during their childhood a generation earlier. They also experience conflict between their children’s academic competitiveness and socioemotional well-being. As a function of both urbanization and increased economic means, children’s collectivistic family responsibilities for essential household chores have declined as the importance of schoolwork has increased.

Theory of mind at school: Academic outcomes and the influence of the school context

AbstractThe recent expansion of research on children's understanding of others' minds (or ‘theory of mind’, ToM) into middle childhood provides fresh opportunities to consider its origins and consequences. In this paper, we propose that, in addition to supporting children's social interactions, individual differences in ToM benefit academic achievement, in particular, reading comprehension and scientific reasoning. Furthermore, we argue that the school and classroom context can influence individual differences in ToM and its ongoing development in middle childhood. We suggest future directions for research to test these claims, which will provide a new perspective on the consequences of ToM and test the developmental continuity of socio‐cultural accounts of mindreading.

Developing Requests in Multilingual Classroom Interaction: A Case of Second Language Development in Middle Childhood

Abstract Much research has been conducted in adult second language learning through interaction, but knowledge about the child language learner has remained scarce. To address social language development in middle childhood, the article presents a longitudinal case study concerning a nine-year-old L1 Russian-speaking learner of Finnish. The data consist of 48 h of video-recorded lessons. By examining requests, the article demonstrates how a learner’s actions built on interaction, the affordances of the local context and embodiment, and access to multiple languages identifiable as Russian, English, and Finnish. The analysis focuses on the very beginning of language learning and the middle of the academic year. Through a detailed analysis of multimodal interaction, the study demonstrates the progress from simple language such as free-standing nouns and adjectives to more complex language in actions such as requests constructed as clauses by the focal learner. In addition, the analysis enhances understanding of the development of multilingual competence in interaction. Finally, the results indicate that learning a language is intertwined with embodied interactional competence and growth in linguistic repertoires.

Infant behavioral reactivity predicts change in amygdala volume 12 years later

The current study examined the link between temperamental reactivity in infancy and amygdala development in middle childhood. A sample (n = 291) of four-month-old infants was assessed for infant temperament, and two groups were identified: those exhibiting negative reactivity (n = 116) and those exhibiting positive reactivity (n = 106). At 10 and 12 years of age structural imaging was completed on a subset of these participants (n = 75). Results indicate that, between 10 and 12 years of age, left amygdala volume increased more slowly in those with negative compared to positive reactive temperament. These results provide novel evidence linking early temperament to distinct patterns of brain development over middle childhood.

Stable longitudinal associations of family income with children’s hippocampal volume and memory persist after controlling for polygenic scores of educational attainment

Despite common notion that the correlation of socioeconomic status with child cognitive performance may be driven by both environmentally– and genetically–mediated transactional pathways, there is a lack of longitudinal and genetically informed research that examines these postulated associations. The present study addresses whether family income predicts associative memory growth and hippocampal development in middle childhood and tests whether these associations persist when controlling for DNA–based polygenic scores of educational attainment. Participants were 142 6–to–7–year–old children, of which 127 returned when they were 8–to–9 years old. Longitudinal analyses indicated that the association of family income with children’s memory performance and hippocampal volume remained stable over this age range and did not predict change. On average, children from economically disadvantaged background showed lower memory performance and had a smaller hippocampal volume. There was no evidence to suggest that differences in memory performance were mediated by differences in hippocampal volume. Further exploratory results suggested that the relationship of income with hippocampal volume and memory in middle childhood is not primarily driven by genetic variance captured by polygenic scores of educational attainment, despite the fact that polygenic scores significantly predicted family income.

Low-income mothers' entry into postsecondary education during middle childhood: Effects on adolescents

This study tests whether young adolescents' achievement and behavior are associated with their mother's entry into post-secondary education (PSE) during their middle childhood years. It also examines five family processes that may link maternal PSE to development in middle childhood (income, home learning environment, mother's educational expectations for child, maternal presence, and family affective climate). The sample selects low-income families from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth of 1979. Propensity score weighting adjusts for mothers' self-selection into PSE. We find that adolescents whose mothers entered PSE in their middle childhood scored higher than their peers on math, but similarly on reading, behavior problems, delinquency, and substance use. There were no associations between mothers' PSE entry and the proposed mediators.

Executive function in the school context: The role of peer relationships

AbstractTheoretical accounts and experimental data on young children have shown that executive functions (EFs) are predicted by experiential factors. However, studies on school‐aged children are rare. The present study has addressed this gap using a short‐term cross‐lagged longitudinal design focusing on the relationship between working memory (WM), conflict inhibition (CI), and peer acceptance (PA) and rejection (PR) in middle childhood. 245 children, aged 8 to 12 years at Time 1 (M = 10.03 years, SD = 1.21 years), were tested three times over 1 year. SEM showed that (a) PA at Times 1 and 2 positively predicted WM at Times 2 and 3 and (b) PR at Time 1 negatively predicted CI at Time 2. Our findings are in line with the view that EFs are significantly affected by children's social life at school and are interpreted in light of the regulatory depletion model and of the socio‐constructivist models.Highlights We examine cross‐lagged associations between children's peer relationships and executive functions in the school context. Peer acceptance predicts working memory development and peer rejection predicts inhibition development in middle childhood. Executive functioning development is sensitive to children's social experiences with peers at school.

Peers Matter: Links Between Classmates’ and Individual Students’ Executive Functions in Elementary School

Students’ executive functions (EFs) are linked to school success. Although school-age children spend much of their time interacting with peers, few studies have explored how children’s classmates may promote EF development in elementary school. In this study, we test whether mean levels and variability in classmates’ EF skills are associated with growth in individual students’ accuracy and speed on EF tasks among third, fourth, and fifth graders (N = 806). We find that classmates’ speed, but not accuracy, on EF tasks is linked to significant improvements in individual students’ EFs over the school year. Classmates’ average EFs, as indexed by faster accurate responses on EF tasks, are associated with improvements in individual students’ speed on EF tasks. These results were robust to the inclusion of individual students’ general processing speed. In contrast, variability in classmates’ accuracy and speed on EF tasks was not associated with individual students’ EF growth. Our results highlight the role of peers and the school context for EF development in middle childhood.