Emotional development in middle childhood: parental and peer influences

Emotional Development of Children in Middle Childhood

The emotional development and well-being of children in middle childhood depends on a number of factors that are related to biological as well as social aspects of the child's life. Freud contended that children in the middle childhood stage were in a latency phase of growth, in which sexuality was still a part of the unconscious and psychological development focused on the intellect, curiosity about oneself, others, and the world, and the improvement of social/cultural awareness. Erikson describes this stage as being characterized by a dichotomy of feelings, namely those expressed by industry vs. inferiority: the child in this stage is learning to master both thinking and acting skills, which gives them a sense of their own competency (industry); but if children are having trouble developing these skills, they may experience feelings of inferiority (Berk, 2014).

At the same time there is the tendency for self-esteem to develop in adolescence. Positive self-images are developed in children whose familial relations include parents who show involvement in the child's life, loving relations, and who are capable of erecting parameters, boundaries and restrictions, which help give the child direction and support. Peers are just as essential in this formation of the child's emotional well-being at this stage, as they reflect actions that the child will mirror and mimic as the child engages in social development. According to the CDC (2015), the best ways in which parents can help to provide a stable foundation for emotional development and well-being for children in this stage is to spend ample time with their children, talk to them, discuss their accomplishments, skills, their friends and whatever obstacles they may face or be facing. The key is to be emotionally connected to the child, which helps the child to foster a sense of anchoring and stability. Establishing goals for the children is also an important developmental process that gives the child an objective to strive toward and something to set focus on.

Issues like bullying can be negatively impactful on children during this stage and can lead to challenges of self-esteem, physicality, friendship, peer pressure, assertiveness, and insecurity/inferiority. Emotionally-adjusted children will also be supported by cognitive directives that allow children to seek out assistance if bullying is a problem or to face the challenge independently (as independence also becomes a variable in determining a child's actions at this time). The sense of self-worth that a child has is defined by the values instilled in the child at home by parents and family as well as by peers, with whom the child interacts. Emotional development is not something that is programmed but something which evolves over time and in which the child's sense of self is tested, refined, molded and shaped by experience and the child's response to the world around him/her.

Collins and Russell (1991) point out that both mother and father can have a different impact on the child's emotional development and well-being at this stage, as gender differences impart psychological and emotional elements that a developing child in the middle childhood stage requires for the maturation process. Likewise, Eccles (1999) observes that the main factors in influencing a child's self-confidence and ability to be engaged in activities at this stage are: cognition, expansion of the child's world (including more interaction with adults -- parents -- and peers), and social activity. These three factors help to leave impressions on the childhood that form the psychological, social and emotional make-up on the child during this phase.

Characterizing this phase of emotional development is the display of stronger as well as more complex emotions in the child; feelings of happiness may also be mingled with feelings of sadness, as complexity of experience and new depth of comprehension is reached by the child's cognitive function, which is in touch with the emotional function. Empathy, sympathy, reflection, awareness, pride, happiness, envy, anger -- all of these, and more, are emotions that are typically displayed and developed at this time. Additionally, there is a tendency for peer pressure to begin to assert itself in the child's life, as the child attempts to engage with others and fit in with the model of behavior; contrasts between the type of behavior demonstrated by peers and that advocated by parents and/or guardians can lead to a development of an emotionally conflicted child. This is why it is important for parents/guardians and peers to help establish behavioral patterns that are acceptable and that promote stability.