Lifespan Development (4th), Hoffnung

HOFFNUNG | HOFFNUNG | SEIFERT | HINE | PAUSÉ
WARD | SIGNAL | SWABEY | YATES | BURTON SMITH
LIFESPAN
DEVELOPMENT FOURTH AUSTRALASIAN EDITION
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 2020-07-27 22:52:44.
Lifespan
development
FOURTH AUSTRALASIAN EDITION
Michele Hoffnung
Robert J. Hoffnung
Kelvin L. Seifert
Alison Hine
Cat Pausé
Lynn Ward
Tania Signal
Karen Swabey
Karen Yates
Rosanne Burton Smith
Fourth edition published 2019 by
John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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 525

11. Psychosocial development in adolescence 583
PART 6: Early adulthood 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
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
CONTENTS
About the authors xiii CHAPTER 2
PART 1 Theories of development 43

2.1 The nature of developmental theories 45
Beginnings 1 What is a developmental theory? 45
How do developmental theories differ? 46
CHAPTER 1 2.2 Psychodynamic developmental theories 48
Studying development 2 Freudian theory 48
Erikson’s psychosocial theory 50
1.1 The nature of development 3
Other psychodynamic approaches 55
Multiple domains of development 4
Applications of psychodynamic developmental
Development from a lifespan perspective: voices
theories throughout the lifespan 57
across the lifespan 8
2.3 Behavioural learning and social cognitive
1.2 Why study development? 14
learning developmental theories 57
1.3 The life course in times past 15
Behavioural learning theories 57
Early precursors to developmental study 15
Social cognitive learning theory 61
The emergence of modern developmental
Applications of learning theories throughout
study 16
the lifespan 62
1.4 Perspectives on human development 17
2.4 Cognitive developmental theories 63
Continuity within change 17
Piaget’s cognitive theory 63
Lifelong growth 18
Neo-Piagetian approaches 65
Changing meanings and vantage points 20
Information-processing theory 66
Developmental diversity 20
Applications of cognitive developmental theories
1.5 Methods of studying developmental
throughout the lifespan 68
psychology 23
Moral developmental theories 69
Scientific methods 23
2.5 Contextual developmental theories 71
Variations in time frame 24
Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory 71
Variations in control: naturalistic and
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory 71
experimental studies 27
Applications of contextual developmental theories
Variations in sample size 30
throughout the lifespan 74
1.6 Ethical constraints on studying
2.6 Adulthood and lifespan developmental
development 31
theories 76
Strengths and limitations of developmental
Normative-crisis model of development 76
knowledge 33
Timing-of-events model 78
Summary 34
New directions: dynamic systems perspective 80
Key terms 34
Developmental psychopathology 81
Review questions 36
2.7 Developmental theories compared: implications
Discussion questions 36
for the student 81
Application questions 36
Summary 84
Essay question 37
Key terms 85
Websites 37
Review questions 86
References 37
Acknowledgements 41
Application question 87
Essay question 88 Review questions 151
Websites 88 Discussion questions 151
References 88 Application question 152
Acknowledgements 94 Essay question 152
Websites 153
CHAPTER 3 References 153
Acknowledgements 159
Biological foundations, genetics,
prenatal development PART 2
and birth 95 The first two years of life 160
3.1 Mechanisms of genetic transmission 96
The role of DNA 96
CHAPTER 4
3.2 Individual genetic expression 99
Genotype and phenotype 99 Physical and cognitive
Dominant and recessive genes 100 development in the first
Transmission of multiple variations 101
Polygenic transmission 101
two years 161
The determination of sex 101 Physical development 163
3.3 Genetic abnormalities 105 4.1 Appearance of the infant at birth 163
Disorders due to abnormal chromosomes 107 The Apgar Scale 164
Disorders due to abnormal genes 109 Size and bodily proportions 164
3.4 Genetic counselling and prenatal 4.2 Sleep, arousal and the nervous system 165
diagnosis 111 Sleep 166
3.5 Relative influence of heredity and Parental response to infant sleep and arousal 168
environment 113 States of arousal 169
Key concepts of behaviour genetics 114 4.3 Visual and auditory acuity 169
Adoption and twin studies 114 4.4 Motor development 171
3.6 Stages of prenatal development 117 The first motor skills 172
Conception 117 Cultural and sex differences in motor
The germinal stage (first two weeks) 118 development 174
The embryonic stage (third through eighth Motor development screening tests and
weeks) 118 scales 176
The foetal stage (ninth week to birth) 119 4.5 Nutrition during the first two years 177
The experience of pregnancy 121 Infant feeding 178
Decisions and issues 121 Poor nutrition 179
3.7 Prenatal influences on the child 125 Malnutrition 179
Harmful substances, diseases and Overnutrition 180
environmental hazards 125 4.6 Impairments in growth 181
Maternal age and physical characteristics 130 Low-birth-weight and preterm infants 181
Domestic violence 131 Nonorganic failure to thrive 184
Prenatal health care 133 Mortality 185
3.8 Birth 135 Cognitive development 188

Childbirth settings and methods 136 4.7 Studying cognition and memory 188
Problems during labour and birth 140 Arousal and heart rates 188
Birth and the family 143 Recognition and habituation 188
Moments after birth 144 4.8 Perception and cognition 190
Looking forward 147 Visual thinking 190
Summary 148 Auditory thinking 193
Key terms 150 Categorical thought — the reversal shift 194
CONTENTS v
4.9 Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive Sources of autonomy 257
development 196 Development of self 258
Stages of sensorimotor intelligence 196 Development of competence and self-esteem 259
Assessment of Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive Looking back and looking forward 261
development 201 Summary 262
4.10 Behavioural learning 203 Key terms 263
Classical conditioning 203 Review questions 263
Operant conditioning 204 Discussion questions 264
Imitation 205 Application questions 264
4.11 Theories of language acquisition 207 Essay question 264
Learning theory approaches 207 Websites 265
The nativist approach 208 References 265
Phonology 209 Acknowledgements 274
Semantics and first words 209
Influencing language acquisition 210 PART 3
The end of infancy 214
Summary 214 Early childhood 275
Key terms 215
Review questions 217 CHAPTER 6
Discussion questions 217 Physical and cognitive
Essay question 218
development in early
Websites 218 childhood 276
References 219 Physical development 278
Acknowledgements 224 6.1 Variations in physical development 278
6.2 Nutritional needs 280
CHAPTER 5 6.3 Health and illness 283
Injury 285
Psychosocial development 6.4 Bowel and bladder control 291
in the first two years 226 6.5 Motor development 293
5.1 Early social relationships 228 Gross motor skills 294
Transition to parenthood 228 Fine motor skills 294
Caregiver–infant synchrony 230 Variations in gross and fine motor
Social interactions with family members 231 development 296
Interactions with non-parental caregivers 234 Brain development myelination 298
Interactions with peers 235 Cognitive development 300
5.2 Emotions and temperament 237 6.6 Thinking in early childhood 300
Emotions 238 Piaget’s preoperational stage 301
Temperament and development 239 Symbolic representations 302
5.3 Attachment formation 242 Limitations in preoperational thought 303
Phases of attachment formation 244 Egocentrism and children’s theory of mind 307
Assessing attachment: the ‘strange situation’ 245 Moral reasoning 309

Consequences of different attachment Neo-Piagetian theories 309
patterns 248 6.7 Language acquisition in the preschool
Influences on attachment formation 248 years 310
Long-term and intergenerational effects Word acquisition and semantic development 311
of attachment 253 Grammatical development 313
5.4 Toddlerhood and the emergence Development of pragmatics 315
of autonomy 255 6.8 Theories of language acquisition 317
vi CONTENTS
6.9 Language development in deaf children 319 PART 4
6.10 Childcare and early childhood education 321
Summary 327 Middle childhood 402
Key terms 328
Review questions 330 CHAPTER 8
Discussion questions 330 Physical and cognitive
Websites 331
development in middle
References 332 childhood 403
Acknowledgements 341 Physical development 404
8.1 Trends and variations in height and weight 405
CHAPTER 7 8.2 Health and illness 410
Indigenous children’s health 410
Psychosocial development 8.3 Motor development and sport 411
in early childhood 342 Physical and psychological effects of sport 413
7.1 Relationships with parents 344 Cognitive development 415
Parenting styles 345 8.4 Piaget’s theory: concrete operations 415
Variations in parenting styles and practices 350 Conservation 415
7.2 Relationships with siblings 352 Classification 419
Sibling influences 353 Seriation 419
7.3 Peer relationships 355 Spatial reasoning 419
Relationships with friends 356 Implications of Piaget’s theory 420
Conceptions of friendship 356 8.5 Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory 421
7.4 Play 357 8.6 Information processing and cognitive
Types and levels of play 358 development 422
Theories of play 362 Development of attention 422
Parental and environmental influences on play 363 Memory development 426
7.5 The development of prosocial and 8.7 Language development 428
antisocial behaviour 365 Bilingualism and its effects 429
Prosocial behaviour 365 8.8 Defining and measuring intelligence 431
Antisocial behaviour 368 The psychometric approach 432
Factors affecting the development Biases in intelligence testing 433
of aggression 369 Uses of intelligence tests 436
Helping aggressive children and their parents 373 Information processing approaches 436
7.6 Gender-role development 375 8.9 Moral development and moral
Biological theories 376 disengagement 439
Learning theories 377 8.10 The influence of formal education on
Cognitive theories 378 cognitive development 443
Androgyny 380 Participation structures and classroom
Looking back and looking forward 382 discourse 443
Summary 383 Social biases that affect learning 444
Key terms 385 The impact of assessment and evaluation of

Review questions 386 student learning 446
Discussion questions 386 The changing child: physical, cognitive
Application questions 386 and social 449
Essay question 388 Summary 449
Websites 388 Key terms 451
References 389 Review questions 452
Acknowledgements 401 Discussion questions 452
CONTENTS vii
Application questions 452 PART 5
Essay question 453
Websites 454 Adolescence 524
References 454
Acknowledgements 465 CHAPTER 10
Physical and cognitive

CHAPTER 9
development in
Psychosocial development adolescence 525
in middle childhood 466 Physical development 526
9.1 Psychosocial challenges of middle 10.1 Adolescence and society 527
childhood 467 10.2 Body growth and physical changes during
The challenge of knowing who you are 468 adolescence 527
The challenge to achieve 468 10.3 Puberty 530
The challenge of family relationships 468 10.4 Variations in pubertal development 532
The challenge of peers 468 Psychological consequences of non-normative
The challenge of school 468 puberty 534
9.2 The sense of self 469 10.5 Health in adolescence 536
The development of self 469 Adolescent nutrition 537
9.3 The age of industry and achievement 471 Eating disorders 539
Latency and the crisis of industry versus Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) 542
inferiority 471 Substance abuse 543
Achievement motivation 473 Cognitive development 549
9.4 Family relationships 477 10.6 Piaget’s theory: the stage of formal
The quality of parenting and family life 478 operations 549
The changing nature of modern families 478 Hypothetico-deductive reasoning 550
Divorce and its effects on children 480 Propositional reasoning 551
The effects of parental employment Variations in the development of formal
on families 486 operations 551
Non-parental sources of social support 490 The impact of formal operations on adolescent
9.5 Peer relationships 491 behaviour 552
Why are peer relationships important? 491 10.7 Information-processing theories and
The peer group 492 adolescent cognitive development 553
Peer group formation 497 10.8 The development of thinking skills during
Individual differences in peer status 498 adolescence 555
Friendship 502 Critical thinking 556
Looking back and looking forward 506 Decision making 558
Summary 507 10.9 Moral development 560
Key terms 508 Elkind’s egocentrism 561
Review questions 508 Kohlberg’s theory of moral development 563
Discussion questions 509 Criticisms of cognitive–developmental theories
Application questions 509 of morality 565

Essay question 510 Gilligan’s theory of moral development 566
Websites 510 Moral reasoning and moral behaviour during
References 511 adolescence 567
viii CONTENTS
Summary 570 PART 6
Key terms 572
Review questions 573 Early adulthood 647
Application questions 573 CHAPTER 12
Essay question 575
Websites 575
References 575 development in early
Acknowledgements 582 adulthood 648
Physical development 649
CHAPTER 11 12.1 Physical functioning 649
Psychosocial development Growth in height and weight 650
Strength 651
in adolescence 583 Age-related changes 652
11.1 Identity development during adolescence 585 12.2 Health in early adulthood 653
Erikson’s theory: the stage of identity versus role Health behaviours 654
confusion 585 12.3 Stress 657
The process of identity formation 587 Stress and health 657
Individual differences in identity development: The experience of stress 658
Marcia’s identity status model 588 12.4 Health-compromising behaviours 661
Factors affecting identity development 591 Health beliefs model 669
11.2 Development of self during adolescence 594 12.5 Sexuality and reproduction 671
Self-esteem 595 The sexual response cycle 671
11.3 Family relationships during adolescence 598 Sexual attitudes and behaviours 672
Relationships with parents 599 Lesbian/gay sexual preference 674
11.4 Peer relationships during adolescence 607 Common sexual dysfunctions 675
Adolescent peer groups 608 12.6 Infertility 676
Peer group conformity 611 Reproductive technologies 678
Adolescent gangs 613 Cognitive development 679
Bullying 614 12.7 Postformal thought 679
Adolescent friendships 616 Critiques of formal operations 680
Romantic relationships during adolescence 618 Is there a fifth stage? 681
11.5 Sexuality during adolescence 620 12.8 Development of contextual thinking 683
Transition to coitus 621 Schaie’s stages of adult thinking 683
Sexual orientation 622 Contextual relativism 684
Adolescent pregnancy and parenthood 625 Adult moral reasoning 686
Looking back and looking forward 631 12.9 Post-secondary education 691
Summary 632 Who attends post-secondary education? 694
Key terms 633 12.10 Work 695
Review questions 634 Career stages 695
Discussion questions 634 Gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status
Application questions 634 in the workplace 697

Essay question 636 Growth and change 701
Websites 636 Summary 701
References 636 Key terms 702
Acknowledgements 646 Review questions 704
CONTENTS ix
Discussion questions 704 Application questions 769
Application questions 704 Essay question 769
Essay question 704 Websites 769
Websites 705 References 769
References 705 Acknowledgements 777
PART 7
CHAPTER 13
Middle adulthood 779
Psychosocial development
in early adulthood 715 CHAPTER 14
13.1 Theories of adult development 716 Physical and cognitive

Timing of events: social clocks 717 development in middle
Crisis theory: Erik Erikson’s intimacy versus
isolation 719 adulthood 780
Crisis theory: Vaillant and the Harvard Physical development 782
‘Grant study’ 721 14.1 Physical functioning 782
Crisis theory: Levinson’s seasons of adult Strength 785
lives 724 External and internal age-related changes 785
Do men and women have the same 14.2 Health 788
‘seasons’? 725 Health and health-compromising behaviours 788
Relational–cultural theories of women’s Health and inequality 791
development 727 Breast cancer 793
13.2 Intimate relationships 728 Prostate cancer 799
Friendship 729 Mental health and wellbeing 802
Love 734 14.3 Reproductive change and sexuality 802
Partner selection 737 Menopause 802
13.3 Marriage, divorce and remarriage 739 The male climacteric 806
Marriage types 739 Sexuality 807
Culture and marriage 741 Cognitive development 810
Division of labour within the home 742 14.4 Intelligence 810
Marital satisfaction 746 Does intelligence decline with age? 810
Divorce 746 Schaie’s sequential studies 812
Remarriage 749 Fluid and crystallised intelligence 814
13.4 Other lifestyles 750 Neuroplasticity in middle age 817
Singlehood 750 14.5 Practical intelligence and expertise 818
Cohabitation 751 Solving real-world problems 818
13.5 Parenthood 754 Becoming an expert 820
Transition to parenthood 755 14.6 The adult learner 822
Single parenthood 758 Returning to education and training 822
Step-parent and blended families 759 14.7 Work 825
Gay and lesbian families 760 Age and job satisfaction 828
Child free 762 Discrimination 829
Looking back and looking forward 765 Gender 830
Summary 766 Unemployment 832
Key terms 767 Change and growth 835
Review questions 768 Summary 835
Discussion questions 768 Key terms 836
x CONTENTS
Review questions 837 PART 8
Application questions 838 Late adulthood 921
Essay question 838
Websites 838 CHAPTER 16
References 839 Physical and cognitive
development in late
CHAPTER 15 adulthood 922
16.1 Ageing and ageism 924
Psychosocial development Physical development 926
in middle adulthood 851 16.2 Longevity 926
15.1 A multiplicity of images of middle age 852 Life expectancy 929
Identity and perceptions of age 853 Theories of physical ageing 930
15.2 Crisis or no crisis? 854 Mortality 931
Conceptual frameworks 854 16.3 Physical functioning in late adulthood 933
Normative-crisis models 858 Slowing with age 933
Personality 861 Skin, bone and muscle changes 934
Normative personality change 862 Cardiovascular system changes 936
15.3 Marriage, divorce and parenting 865 Respiratory system changes 936
Long-term marriage 866 Sensory system changes 937
Cohabitation among midlife and older adults 868 Changes in sexual functioning 940
The family life cycle 869 16.4 Health behaviours in late adulthood 941
Delayed parenthood 875 Diet 941
Adolescent children 876 Exercise 942
Young adult children 877 Alcohol consumption 944
The empty nest 879 Medication use 945
Multigenerational households 879 16.5 Chronic illnesses 946
Midlife divorce 881 Cardiovascular disease 947
15.4 Extended family relationships 883 Cancer 948
Grandparents 883 Arthritis 949
Ageing parents 890 Common symptoms in later years 950
Siblings 894 16.6 Mental health and ageing 951
15.5 Bereavement 896 Elder suicide 954
Mourning for parents 896 Cognitive development 957
Bereavement and growth 897 16.7 Wisdom and cognitive abilities 957
Reactions to grief 898 Cognitive mechanics 958
15.6 Leisure 900 Cognitive pragmatics 959
Looking back and looking forward 904 Cognitive plasticity and training 961
Summary 905 16.8 The ageing brain 963
Key terms 906 Brain changes 963
Review questions 906 Multi-infarct dementia 965

Discussion questions 907 Alzheimer’s disease 968
Application questions 907 16.9 Work and retirement 972
Essay question 907 What is retirement? 973
Websites 907 Wellbeing in retirement 976
References 907 Summary 978
Acknowledgements 919 Key terms 979
CONTENTS xi
Review questions 980 Discussion questions 1048
Discussion questions 980 Application questions 1048
Application questions 980 Essay question 1049
Essay question 981 Websites 1049
Websites 981 References 1049
References 981 Acknowledgements 1061
PART 9
CHAPTER 17
Endings 1062
in late adulthood 998 CHAPTER 18
17.1 Personality development in late Dying, death and
adulthood 999
Continuity and change in late life 1000
bereavement 1063
Integrity versus despair 1002 18.1 Attitudes towards death 1065
Optimal ageing 1002 Defining death 1066
17.2 Marriage and singlehood 1006 18.2 Facing one’s own death 1067
Spouses as caregivers 1008 Death acceptance 1068
Widowhood 1011 The dying process 1074
Dating and remarriage 1015 Quality of death 1076
Older lesbians, gay men and transgender 18.3 Caring for the dying 1080
people 1017 Terminal care alternatives 1080
Ever-single older adults 1019 Euthanasia and assisted suicide 1086
17.3 Relationships with family and friends 1021 18.4 Bereavement 1091
Siblings 1023 Grief 1091
Adult grandchildren 1024 Support groups 1096
Friends 1025 Funeral and ritual practices 1096
Fictive kin 1026 Mourning 1098
Childlessness 1027 Recovery 1101
17.4 Problems of living: the housing Looking back 1103
continuum 1028 Summary 1104
Independent living 1029 Key terms 1104
Assisted living 1031 Review questions 1105
Long-term care 1032 Discussion questions 1105
Control over living conditions 1033 Application questions 1106
17.5 Interests and activities 1034 Essay question 1106
Community involvement 1036 Websites 1106
Religion and spirituality 1040 References 1106
Looking back and looking forward 1045 Acknowledgements 1113
Summary 1046
Key terms 1047 Name index 1114

Subject index 1163
Review questions 1048
xii CONTENTS
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 meth-
ods, 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 child-
hood, 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 Univer-
sity 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.
Alison Hine
Alison Hine taught and supervised undergraduate and postgraduate students in the areas of developmen-
tal 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 psychol-
ogy, 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 develop-
ment, 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 educa-
tion, 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 xiii
Cat Pausé
Cat Pausé 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 ‘fatpoca-
lypse’. 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 developmen-
tal 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 commu-
nities, 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 teach-
ing 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 devel-
opment across the lifespan.
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 univer-
sity 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 Consult-
ing 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
xiv ABOUT THE AUTHORS
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
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 edu-
cational 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.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS xv
PART 1
BEGINNINGS
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 remain-
ing 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 encom-
passes 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 developmen-
tal 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, pre-
natal 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.
CHAPTER 1
Studying development
LEARNING OUTCOMES
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.
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 obvi-
ous 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 par-
ents. 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 differ-
ent 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

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 3
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, con-
tinuity and consistency. They view development as a continuing process of growth, constancy and
change.
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
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.
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;
Rohner & Britner, 2002; Rohner, Khaleque, &
Cournoyer, 2012; Rohner, Melendez, & Kraimer-
Rickaby, 2008). Regardless of age, gender or eth-
nicity, individuals report specific forms of psy-
chological maladjustment. Perceiving themselves
to be rejected, individuals are more inclined to
develop depression, substance abuse, behaviour
and mental health–related issues. Also, investiga-
tions 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), hos-
in children throughout the lifespan.
tility/aggression, indifference/neglect and undiffer-
entiated 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 smil-
ing. 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 bet-
ter 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 oppo-
site is true of parental rejection (MacKinnon-Lewis, Starnes, Volling, & Johnson, 1997; Rohner & Britner,
2002; see also Caspi & Barrios, 2016; Erkman & Rohner, 2006; Muñoz 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 chil-
dren and adults demonstrated that these patterns are indeed universal (Khaleque, 2017; Rohner, 1975).
6 PART 1 Beginnings
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

Birth r Startle reflex r Visual r Cries
r Grasping r Auditory r Soothes at feeding
r Sucking r Tracking
Infancy (ages 0–2) r Walking r Language acquisition r Becomes attached to

r Standing r Searches for lost caregiver(s)
r Reaching and grasping objects
Early childhood r Climbing stairs r Vocabulary grows r Preferred playmates

(ages 2–5) r First throw of a ball r Dramatic play r Gender role awareness
r Simple drawings r Racial awareness
r Writing
Middle childhood r Skilful running r Problem solving r Friendships

(ages 6–12) r Throwing r Reading r Gender segregation
r Special skills (e.g. r Writing
riding a bicycle)
Adolescence r Puberty r Some abstract thinking r Interest in sexual relations

(ages 12–18) r Growth spurt r Development of (for most)
adultlike interests r Dating (for some)
r First job
Early adulthood r Peak of fertility, r Development of r Finding a mate

(ages 20–40) strength and speed postformal thought r Earning a living
r Making a home
Middle adulthood r Decline in fertility r Expertise and practical r Family changes

(ages 40–60) intelligence r Death of parents
Late adulthood r Decline in physical r Achievement of r Retirement

(ages 60 and beyond) strength wisdom r Death of spouse/partner
Development from a lifespan perspective: voices
across the lifespan
Throughout the lifespan, individuals are trying to make sense of what it means to become a child, ado-
lescent 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 devel-
opmental 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 PART 1 Beginnings
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 Bronfenbrenner’s model of ecological system levels
Ecological Issues affecting the

level Definition Examples individual
Microsystem Situations in which the Family, school, peer Is the person regarded
person has face-to-face group, church, positively?
contact with influential workplace Is the person accepted?
others. ‘A pattern of
Is the person reinforced
activities, social roles,
for competent behaviour?
interpersonal relationships
experienced by the Is the person exposed to
developing person in a given enough diversity in roles
face to face setting with and relationships?
particular physical, social Is the person given an
and symbolic features that active role in reciprocal
invite, permit, more complex relationships?
interaction.’ (Bronfenbrenner,
1994, p.1649)
Mesosystem Relationships between Home–school, Do settings respect each
microsystems; the workplace–family, other?
connections between school–neighbourhood Do settings present basic
situations consistency in values?
Exosystem Settings in which the person Spouse’s place of Are decisions made with
does not participate but in employment, local the interests of the person
which significant decisions school board, local in mind?
are made affecting the government How well do social
individuals who do interact supports for families
directly with the person balance stresses for
parents?
Macrosystem ‘Blueprints’ for defining and Ideology, social policy, Are some groups valued
organising the institutional shared assumptions at the expense of others
life of the society about human nature, the (e.g. sexism, racism)?
‘social contract’ Is there an individualistic
or a collectivistic
orientation?
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.
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 Neighbours
family
Microsystem
Family School
Health
PERSON Peers
services
Spouse’s Legal
workplace services
Church
group Workplace
Mass Social welfare

media services
(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 PART 1 Beginnings
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 interac-
tion 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 rela-
tionship 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
Normative
Interaction history-graded
Environmental
Non-normative
Time
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.
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 sig-
nificance. 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.
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 hous-
ing 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
by governments to introduce substantial structural and innovative reforms in early childhood education
and schooling.
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 non-
Indigenous 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 gov-
ernment 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-of-
government 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
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?

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 expec-
tations 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.
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 mem-
bers of society or even as genuine human beings (Ariès, 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 childrear-
ing, 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.
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
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

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 accomplish-
ments. 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 develop-
ment, 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 chil-
dren’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?
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, developmen-
tal 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.
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 qual-
itatively (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. Develop-
ment 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
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 long-
term changes. Developmental psychology asks, ‘How do we account for underlying continuity in quali-
ties, 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 complain-
ing 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.
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 possi-
ble 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 reorgan-
isation 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
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).
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
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 dif-
ferent 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.
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
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?’
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 individ-
uals 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.
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 con-
tributions 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?
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 experi-
ences. 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 vulnerabil-
ity?’ (Decety & Yoder, 2017; Schibli, Wong, Hedayati, & D’Angiulli, 2017) are examples of research in
this area.
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 con-
trolled 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.
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 becom-
ing 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 ques-
tion 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 responsi-
bility 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 con-
clusions 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.
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.
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 sin-
cerity 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 dif-
ferences, 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
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 accu-
rate 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. Longitudi-
nal 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 cross-
sectional 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; how-
ever, 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 dif-
ferences 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
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 impres-
sion 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 individ-
uals 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.
Microgenetic designs
These research designs are an adaptation of the longitudinal design, and involve an in-depth investiga-
tion 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 read-
ing, 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
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 set-
tings, 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 for-
ties 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’).
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 vari-
able — 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.
FIGURE 1.3 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.
understanding
Metaphorical
Rated level of understanding
of human metaphors
understanding
Literal
6 years 8 years 10 years

Age
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. Com-
paring 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).
Because of its logical organisation, the experimental method often gives clearer results than naturalis-
tic 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 wet-
ting 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.
FIGURE 1.4 Correlation is not causation

Number of infant photos taken per child
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
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 appropri-
ate) 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 achieve-
ment among Asian youth. She was particularly interested in a common stereotype of Asian young-
sters 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 par-
ents 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 ques-
tions 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 ques-
tions, researchers need methods that invite respondents to comment more fully; for example, interviews
and case studies.
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
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 alter-
native 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

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,
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 self-
esteem, 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 par-
ticipation. 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 psychol-
ogists 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?’
(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

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 rela-
tive 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!
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 devel-
opment 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 ques-
tions, 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). Cross-
sectional 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. Natural-
istic 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.
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 alto-
gether. 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.
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.
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
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 charac-
teristics 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?
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 influ-
ences, 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
are required to abide by principles of professional conduct, responsibilities and confidential-
ity 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
2 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
3 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 oppor-
tunity to give every New Zealand child growing up in the 21st century the best start in life:
www.growingup.co.nz/en.html
4 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
5 The American Psychology Association Lifespan Development website provides a wealth of
information on how developmental psychology studies humans across the lifespan. It inves-
tigates the understanding of developmental psychology, research in action and developmen-
tal 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
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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CHAPTER 2
Theories of development
LEARNING OUTCOMES

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.
OPENING SCENARIO
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 set-
tled 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 con-
tinue 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 princi-
pal 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.’
How might the theories we will encounter in this chapter (and throughout this text) help us to under-
stand 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 spe-
cial 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.
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 infor-
mation 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 sci-
entific 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 differ-
ent 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 investiga-
tors 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
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?
Process or stage?
Developmental theories also differ about whether developmental change is a continuous process, consist-
ing 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 suc-
cessive 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 devel-
opment. 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
intellectual problems of increasing difficulty. Likewise, Erikson’s theory of identity development pro-
poses 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?
Broad or narrow?
Developmental theories also differ in how broadly (or narrowly) they define the range of factors, circum-
stances 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. How-
ever, 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
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 indi-
viduals 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 treat-
ment of childhood emotional disorders, adolescent identity formation, and the long-term consequences
of divorce.
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 bio-
logical 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 com-
fort 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
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.
TABLE 2.1 Freud’s psychosexual stages and developmental processes
Psychosexual Approximate
stage age Description
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.
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.
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 con-
flicts 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 block-
age 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 devel-
opment, 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 nineteenth-
century 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
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 Çok (2016), Luyckx, Seiffge-Krenke,
Schwartz, Crocetti, and Klimstra (2014), and Seiffge-Krenke, (2016) in a longitudinal study of adoles-
cents (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
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 relation-
ships, 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).
Erikson’s hypotheses about sequencing of identity and intimacy were further confirmed by other find-
ings in our model . . . These findings are strong evidence for conceptualisations of romantic develop-
ment 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 associ-
ation between identity and intimacy in adulthood
was also consistent with Erikson’s theory. Follow-
ing 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 adult-
hood 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.
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 per-
sonality, 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.
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.
TABLE 2.2 Erikson’s psychosocial stages and developmental processes
Psychosocial
stage Approximate age Description (virtue attained)
Basic trust versus Birth–18 months Focus on oral–sensory activity; development of trusting
mistrust 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 1–2 years Focus on muscular–anal activity; development of control over
shame and doubt 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 3–6 years Focus on locomotor–genital activity; testing limits of
guilt 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 7–11 years (latency Focus on mastery, competence, and productivity (competence).
inferiority period) 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 Teenage years Focus on formation of identity and coherent self-concept
confusion (adolescence) (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 20s and 30s (early Focus on achievement of an intimate relationship (love) and
isolation adulthood) career direction. Some individuals experience difficulty in
forming close relationships because of earlier disappointments,
which leads to isolation.
Generativity versus 40s to 60s (middle Focus on fulfilment through creative, productive activity that
stagnation adulthood) contributes to future generations (care). Failure to achieve this
results in an absence of meaningful accomplishment.
Ego integrity versus 60s on (old age) Focus on belief in integrity of life, including successes and
despair 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.
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.
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
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 cer-
tain 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 ‘nega-
tive’ 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.
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?
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 con-
struct, based on their experiences and attachment relationships with the significant people in their lives
(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 prac-
tising 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 signif-
icant 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.
TABLE 2.3 Mahler’s phases of development
Approximate
Phase 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 6–24 months Functions as a separate individual
phase
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 Maintains stable and reliable mental images of the primary
and over 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.
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 infor-
mation 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.
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.
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.
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 suck-
ing 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 condi-
tioned 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.
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 After conditioning
(a) Place a nipple in the (c) Show baby the bottle and
baby’s mouth. place its nipple in the baby’s
mouth. Repeat a number
of times.
Touch elicits Sucking Touch elicits Sucking

of nipple reflex of nipple reflex
(UCS) (UCR) (UCS) (UCR)
(b) Show baby a bottle (d) Show baby the bottle

(paired with)
with a nipple. with nipple.
Sight of elicits Sucking

bottle with reflex
nipple (CS) (UCR)
Sight of elicits Sight of elicits Sucking

No
bottle with bottle with response
sucking
nipple (NS) nipple (CS) (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 follow-
ing 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 asso-
ciate 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.
Skinner: operant conditioning
B. F. Skinner (1904–1991) is best known for his learning theory, which is also known as operant condi-
tioning. This theory is based on a simple concept called reinforcement, the process by which the like-
lihood 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
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.
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.
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 develop-
ment 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 chil-
dren 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.
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 obser-
vational 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 elim-
inate 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 mod-
ification 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 deal-
ing 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
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 stud-
ies 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 anal-
ysis. 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 con-
trol, 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 unpleas-
ant 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.
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
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.
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.
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 inde-
pendently 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 prob-
lem 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.
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.
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.
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
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 per-
manently, 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.
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 pro-
cessing 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 think-
ing 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. Knowl-
edge 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
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
Perceptive Elaboration Long-term

attention and memory
organisation
Outside stimuli
Initial
Receptors
Short-term
Sensory processing memory
register (working
memory) Retrieval and
reconstruction
Storage
Sensory Recognition
memory Recall
Decay Decay and interference Forgetting
Permanently lost Permanently lost Lost or unavailable

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
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 pro-
cesses 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?
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 inten-
tions, such as deliberately frightening or hurting another is judged to be more deserving of punish-
ment than a person with good intentions. Three and four year olds object when they see another person
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 distin-
guish 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 cogni-
tive 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 con-
cept 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. Disagree-
ments 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 devel-
opment 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.
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 pro-
vide 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.
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 activ-
ities 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 increas-
ingly 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.
MULTICULTURAL VIEW
Geert Hofstede and Cultural Dimensions Theory

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 cross-
cultural 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 stress-
creating 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 val-
ues. 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 organisa-
tions, 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 soci-
ety 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, dif-
ferentiation 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.
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 Uncertainty
Versus Avoidance
Restraint (IND) (UAI)
Cultural
Dimensions
Long-term
Orientation Individuality
Versus Versus
Short-term Collectivism
Orientation (IDV)
(LTO)
Masculinity
Versus
Femininity
(MAS)
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. Adoles-
cents, their families and the communities and societies in which they live experience systematic and suc-
cessive 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 childrea-
ring 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 indi-
vidual’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, edu-
cation 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).
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 delin-
quency, 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 life-
long 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 under-
stand 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 develop-
ment is organised by external psychosocial contexts, including the demands of work and family, rather
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.
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 nat-
ural 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
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 pat-
tern 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 etho-
logical 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 impor-
tant 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

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 timing-
of-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 accom-
plishments of earlier stages. This model generally presumes developmental stages are at least partly
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 norma-
tive 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 devel-
opment. 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 experi-
ence 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.
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
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
Childhood and
adolescence (birth–17)
Early adult era Early adult transition Reassessing pre-adulthood and preparing for early adulthood
(17–45 years) (17–22 years)
Early life structure Entering the adult world and building a first life structure. Novice
(22–28 years) 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 Reassessing and improving early life structure; transition may be
(28–33 years) smooth or painful
Culminating life structure Settling down: building a second adult life structure.
(33–40 years) Establishing occupational goals and plans for achieving them;
becoming one’s own person: achieving greater independence
and self-sufficiency
Midlife transition Completing early adulthood and preparing for middle adulthood.
(40–45 years) 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
Middle adult era Early life structure Entering middle adulthood. Making and committing to new
(45–60 years) (45–50 years) choices and building a life structure around them
Age 50 transition Assessing, modifying and improving the middle adulthood
(50–55 years) structure
Culminating life structure Completion of middle adulthood
(55–60 years)
Late adult era Late adult transition Preparation for late adulthood
(60 years and older) (60–65 years)
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
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 normative-
crisis 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).
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 self-
conscious 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.
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 com-
ponents 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
Domains
Counsellor Father Mother
Development
Source: Adapted from Fischer and Bidell (2006).
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 perspec-
tive can be seen in research relating to ADHD (Steinberg & Drabick, 2015); autism spectrum disorder
(Kaboski, McDonnell, & Valentino, 2017); anxiety disorders (Hannesqóttir & Ollendick, 2017) and devel-
opmental trauma (van der Kolk, 2017). Developmental psychopathology highlights that the normative-
crisis 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 simi-
lar 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
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 infor-
mation 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 explana-
tion 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 influ-
enced 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 con-
sistent 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 psy-
chological 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
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
Psychodynamic
Freud Personality (social, Id, ego, superego; This broadly focused stage theory
emotional); psychosexual conflict; assumes a moderate role for maturation,
psychoanalytic defence mechanisms a strong role for experience, and a
moderately active developmental role for
the individual.
Erikson Personality (social, Lifespan development; This broadly focused stage theory
emotional, identity); psychosocial crisis assumes a weak to moderate role for
psychosocial maturation, a strong role for experience,
and a highly active role for the individual.
Mahler Personality (social, Birth of psychological This narrowly focused stage theory
emotional self) self; assumes a strong role for maturation, a
separation–individuation moderate role for experience, and a
moderately active role for the developing
individual.
Stern Personality Interpersonal sense of This moderately focused stage theory
(interpersonal, self; RIGs (representation assumes a moderate role for maturation,
cognitive, emotional, of past interactions that a strong role for experience, and a highly
self) have been generalised) active role for the developing individual.
Behavioural learning
Pavlov; Skinner Learning specific, Classical and operant These narrowly focused,
observable responses conditioning; extinction; process-oriented theories assume a weak
reinforcement; role for maturation, a strong role for
punishment experience, and a highly active role for
the developing individual.
Social cognitive learning
Bandura Learning behaviour, Imitation, social learning, This moderately focused,
cognitive response modelling, cognitive process-oriented theory assumes a weak
patterns, social roles learning, reciprocal role for maturation, a strong role for
determinism, skills, experience, and a highly active role for
capabilities the developing individual.
Cognitive
Piaget Cognitive (thinking, Schemes, assimilation, This moderately focused stage theory
problem solving) accommodation, assumes a strong role for maturation, a
equilibrium, mental moderate role for experience, and a

space, routinisation of moderately active role for the developing
schemes individual.
Case; Fischer Cognitive; Skill acquisition; optimal These moderately focused,
problem-solving skills level of performance, process-oriented theories assume a
and capabilities higher-level skills moderate role for both maturation and
experience and a highly active role for the
developing individual.
Theoretical
approach Main focus Key concepts Basic assumptions
Information Cognitive; steps and Sensory register, This narrowly focused, process-oriented
processing processes involved in short-term memory theory assumes a strong role for
the processing of (STM), long-term maturation, a moderate role for
information, problem memory (LTM), experience, and a highly active role for
solving and other metacognition, the developing individual.
mental abilities. knowledge base, control
processes
Contextual
Ecological Contextual; interactive Ecological contexts; This broadly focused, process-oriented
(Bronfenbrenner) contextual influences microsystem, theory assumes a strong role for
exosystem, maturation, a moderate role for
mesosystem, experience, and a highly active role for
macrosystem the developing individual.
Sociocultural Contextual; Dialogues; zone of This moderately focused,
(Vygotsky) cultural/historical proximal development process-oriented theory assumes a weak
influences role for maturation, a strong role for
experience, and a highly active role for
the developing individual.
Contextual Individual change Multiple organisational These broadly focused, process-oriented
(Lerner; Elder) within changing social levels of reciprocal, theories assume a weak role for
and historical dynamic change; social maturation, a strong role for experience,
contexts trajectories (pathways) and a highly active role for the developing
individual.
Ethological Adaptation to Behavioural dispositions; These moderately focused,
(Lorenz, biological and evolutionary adaptations process-oriented theories assume a
Tinbergen) ethological contexts moderate role for maturation, a
weak-to-moderate role for experience
and a moderately active role for the
developing individual.
Adult and lifespan development
Normative-crisis Personality (social, Adult development; These moderately focused stage theories
behaviour, life mature coping assume a weak role for maturation, a
structure, coping mechanisms (Vaillant); strong role for experience, and a highly
mechanisms) eras, transitions, and life active role for the developing individual.
structures (Levinson)
Timing-of- Personality (social, Adult development; These broadly focused, process-oriented
events behaviour, life normative and theories assume a weak role for
structure) non-normative events; maturation, a strong role for experience,
social clock and a highly active role for the developing
individual.
Dynamic Change is ongoing Biological make-up, Stage-like transformations occur as
systems differences in individual individuals re-organise their behaviour so
perspective skills the system is working as a functioning

(Thelen, Fischer) 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?
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 guid-
ing 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, person-
ality 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 result-
ing 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, mod-
elling 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.
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 develop-
ing 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, problem-
solving abilities and critical thinking skills throughout the lifespan.
2.5 Describe how contextual approaches to development have broadened our view of
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory proposes that the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem
and macrosystem form interactive and overlapping contexts for development. Vygotsky emphasises the
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
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.
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.
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?
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 struc-
tured 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.
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 Māori?
APPLICATION QUESTION
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 pro-
posed 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, expla-
nation and prediction of human behaviour in various developmental domains.
(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 influ-
enced 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 psychopathol-
ogy. 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
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 psy-
chopathological 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
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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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.
CHAPTER 3
Biological foundations,
genetics, prenatal
development and birth
LEARNING OUTCOMES
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.
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 fami-
lies, 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 his-
tory, as certain types of anaemia are more com-
mon 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 bio-
logical 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 dis-
cuss 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 hered-
ity 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

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 repro-
ductive 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
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
G CA
A
C
T G
CC A
G T
The human There is a Each nucleus One chromosome The chromosomes Genes are segments
body contains nucleus inside contains 46 of every pair is are filled with of DNA that contain
100 trillion each human chromosomes, from each parent. tightly coiled instructions to make
cells. cell (except red arranged in strands of DNA. proteins — the
blood cells). 23 pairs. building blocks of life.
CHAPTER 3 Biological foundations, genetics, prenatal development and birth 97
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 pro-
cess 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.
Cell nucleus (shown Chromosomes split

with a single pair of and replicate to produce
chromosomes). two identical replicas
The replicas
of each chromosome.
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.
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
The second meiotic
becomes a part of
division proceeds after the
the first-generation
first is completed; now the Each of the four gametes
daughter cell.
replicated chromosome produced by the two-step
acquired in the first- process now has acquired
generation daughter cell one member of the pair of
splits apart. 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?
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
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.
TABLE 3.1 Some common dominant and recessive traits
Dominant trait Recessive trait Dominant trait Recessive trait

Brown eyes Grey, green, hazel or Short fingers Fingers of normal
blue eyes 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 Type B blood Type O blood
blindness
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 Phenylketonuria (PKU)
metabolism
Normal hearing Some forms of Normal physiology Tay-Sachs disease
congenital deafness
Normally pigmented Albino (completely Huntington’s disease Normal central
skin white) skin 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.
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 heterozy-
gous person (one brown and one blue/hazel/green allele) will therefore show the phenotype of the dom-
inant 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.
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
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.
Mother: brown eyes
(heterozygous)
B b
Father: brown eyes
B
(heterozygous)
BB Bb
(homozygous) (heterozygous)
b
Bb bb
(heterozygous) (homozygous)
Example 1: both parents heterozygous
Mother: brown eyes

(heterozygous)
B b
b
Father: blue eyes
(homozygous)
Bb bb
b
Bb bb
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. How-
ever, 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).
FIGURE 3.6 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 mother

A B o
Possible alleles from father

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
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
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.
Carrier mother
X X
XX XX
Normal Carrier
Normal father
X daughter daughter
(25%) (25%)
XY XY
Y Normal Haemophilic
son son
(25%) (25%)
Most human characteristics that have been studied follow the pattern of dominant–recessive and co-
dominant 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 defec-
tive 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
With one
Disorder Description Overall affected child
Chromosomal
Down syndrome Extra or translocated twenty-first 1/800 1–2%
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.
Klinefelter At least one extra chromosome, usually 1/800 men No significant
syndrome (XXY) an X. Affected individual is phenotypically increase
male, but has small testes and is sterile.
Fragile X The most common inherited form of 1/1200 male births No significant
syndrome intellectual impairment. Caused by an 1/2000 female births increase
abnormal gene on the bottom end of the
X chromosome. Causes spectrum of
learning difficulties ranging from mild
problems to severe intellectual
impairment.
Turner Affects only females born with a single X 1/3000 women No significant
syndrome (XO) in the sex chromosome. Grow to be very increase
short as adults, ‘webbed’ necks and ears
set lower than usual; fail to develop
secondary sexual characteristics;
problems with spatial judgement,
memory, and reasoning.
(continued)
TABLE 3.3 (continued)
With one
Dominant gene
Polydactyly Extra fingers or toes. Fairly 1/300–1/100 50%
common. Correctable by surgery.
Achondroplasia Rare disorder of the skeleton; 1/2300 50%
afflicted person has shorter than
normal arms and legs.
Huntington’s Usually first affects people in their 1/15 000–1/5000 50%
disease 30s and 40s; gradual deterioration
of the central nervous system,
causing uncontrollable movements,
mental deterioration, and death.
Recessive gene
Cystic fibrosis The most common genetic disease 1/2500 Caucasian 25%
among Caucasian persons of persons (risk of being
Northern European descent. a carrier is 1/25)
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.
Sickle-cell Abnormal, sickle-shaped red blood 1/625 African 25%
anaemia cells clog blood vessels, reducing Americans (risk of
blood supply and causing pain. May being a carrier is 1/10)
cause increased bacterial infections
and degeneration of brain, kidneys,
liver, heart, spleen and muscles.
Shortened lifespan.
Tay-Sachs Found mostly in persons of Eastern 1/3600 Eastern 25%
disease European Jewish descent. Chemical European Jews (risk
imbalance of central nervous of being a carrier is
system. Symptoms first occur at six 1/30–1/300)
months of age, progressively
causing severe intellectual
impairment, blindness, seizures and
death by third year due to lowered
resistance to disease.
X-linked
Haemophilia Lack of substance needed for blood 1/2500 male babies 50% for boy
clotting. Risk of life-threatening 0% for girl
internal bleeding.
Multifactorial
Congenital heart Structural and/or electrical 1/125 2–4%
disease abnormalities of the heart. May
respond to medication or corrective
surgery performed after birth.
With one
Neural tube Tube enclosing the spine fails to close 1–2/1000 2–5%
defect 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.
Cleft lip/cleft Gap or space in lip or hole in roof of 1/1000–1/5000 2–4%
palate mouth. May cause difficulties in
breathing, speech, hearing and eating.
Corrective surgery at birth can repair
most clefts.
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.
Down syndrome
Down syndrome is also called trisomy 21 because it is generally caused by an extra twenty-first chromo-
some 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 syn-
drome 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 interven-
tion 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.
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
80
Down syndrome per 1000 births
Number of babies born with
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Maternal age (years)
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.
Affected parent
(has the disorder)
D r
Dr rr
Affected Normal
Normal parent
r
(25%) (25%)
Dr rr
r Affected Normal
(25%) (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).
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
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 mother
D r
DD Dr
Carrier father
D (25%) (25%)
r Dr rr
(25%) (25%)
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 anti-
epileptic 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 coun-
selling 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 determin-
ing 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
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)
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 pres-
ence 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 eth-
ically 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; multiple pregnancies; foetal growth and
pregnancy 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
PAPP-A and Free 𝛽hCG 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
Small risk of miscarriage
Chorionic villus sampling 9–13 weeks Tests for most of the same genetic disorders as amniocentesis,
(CVS) 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
Entails some risk of miscarriage
Maternal serum: 15–18 weeks Various problems, including neural tube defects and Down
alpha-foetoprotein free syndrome; positive first test is followed by additional testing,
𝛽hCH, unconjugated estriol such as ultrasound and amniocentesis
Percutaneous umbilical 18–36 weeks Down syndrome, neural tube defects, Tay-Sachs disease, cystic
blood sampling (PUBS) fibrosis, sickle-cell disease; gender of the foetus; foetal
infections such as rubella, toxoplasmosis, or HIV
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).
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

In Australia, antenatal screening for foetal anoma-
lies such as Down Syndrome is routinely offered
to all pregnant women, not just those identified
as high risk. However, there are large regional dif-
ferences in the uptake of genetic health services.
Remote Indigenous populations in the Northern
Territory or Western Australia receive fewer screen-
ing 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 com-
munities 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 peo-
ple’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 West-
ern 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. Cul-
turally 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 inheri-
tance (genotype) and environmental experience jointly influence physical and behavioural development
(phenotype).
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 make-
up 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.
Adoption and twin studies

Adoption and twin studies have been employed by researchers over several decades as a means of investi-
gating 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 fertilisa-
tion 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 fam-
ily 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 fam-
ilies 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).
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
High
Intellectual performance (IQ)
Reaction range
Average
Low
Restricted Average Enriched
Type of environment
Source: Gottesman (1963), Turkheimer and Gottesman (1991), and Gottlieb et al. (2006).
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 differ-
ent 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 con-
tributions 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.
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?
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 con-
ceiving 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.
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.
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 implant-
ation, 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
The embryonic stage (third through eighth weeks)

Growth during the embryonic stage (and the foetal stage that follows) occurs in two patterns: a ceph-
alocaudal (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,
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?
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 differ-
entiation 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 foe-
tus 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,
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;
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 tis-
sue, 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?’
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.
Luke and Emma’s situation is not uncommon. Approximately 9 per cent of Australasian couples experi-
ence 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 con-
ception 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 Hormonal treatment that induces the development of multiple ova, or eggs, in each cycle to
hyper-stimulation enable more to be retrieved for ART treatments
In vitro fertilisation Procedure where the ova and sperm are fertilised outside the body in laboratory conditions
(IVF)
Gamete A form of ART where the mature eggs and sperm are placed directly into the uterine tubes
intra-fallopian for fertilisation to occur
transfer (GIFT)
Intracytoplasmic A single sperm is injected directly into an ovum to aid fertilisation.
sperm injection
(ICSI)
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).
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 meth-
ods 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 (spermi-
cide, 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 appropri-
ateness 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,
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 miscar-
riages 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 Poor (developing) nations
Number of Number of Number of Number of

abortions deaths abortions deaths
Legal and safe 5.7 million 16.6 million
abortions
Unsafe∗ 360 000 90 (30/100 000) 21.2 million 46 800
abortions (220/100 000)
Totals 6.1 million 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).
Conditions under which abortion is permitted or prohibited in United Nations

TABLE 3.7 member nations
Percentage Percentage not
permitting permitting
Circumstances abortion (%) 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
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).
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.
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
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. Psychol-
ogists 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 char-
acteristics 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 develop-
ment. 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 fac-
tors include the mother’s biological characteristics, including age and physical condition, and exposure
to diseases, drugs, chemicals, stress and other environmental hazards during pregnancy.
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
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).
Embryonic period (in weeks) Foetal period (in weeks) Full term
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 12 16 20–36 38
Period of Central Brain
dividing zygote, nervous
implantation and system Eye Ear Palate Ear
Heart
bilaminar embryo Eye
Arm
Heart Leg Teeth External genitalia
Central nervous system
Heart
Arms
Eyes
Legs
Teeth
Palate
External genitalia
Ear
Period when major abnormality occurs Period when minor defect or abnormality occurs
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 reliev-
ing pain. Yet a medication with positive effects overall may negatively affect foetal development if taken
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 pro-
ducers 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 lep-
rosy, 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).
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 neu-
rons 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
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).
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 miscar-
riage 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
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 Grown daughters: vaginal and cervical cancer; spontaneous abortions and stillbirth;
(DES) 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
Second trimester: problems with hearing, vision, and language
Syphilis and Foetal death, jaundice, anaemia, pneumonia, skin rash, bone inflammation, dental
gonorrhoea 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
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 num-
ber 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 envi-
ronmental 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.
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 preg-
nancy 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 par-
ticularly 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).
Teenage mothers are less likely to get adequate prenatal care or adapt to the demands of pregnancy.
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 new-
born (Boursnell & Prosser, 2010; Hooker, Ward, & Verrinder, 2012), Mothers of low socioeconomic
status, Indigenous mothers and women with disability or from culturally and linguistically diverse back-
grounds 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
Domestic violence in pregnancy

During pregnancy, women are particularly vul-
nerable 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; par-
ticularly 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.
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.
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 criti-
cal 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 con-
genital 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? Preg-
nant 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 quan-
tity 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 defor-
mities. 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 socioe-
conomic 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 develop-
ment 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
children who had received Atole early in life performed significantly better on academic achievement
and general intelligence tests (Brown & Pollitt, 1996).
Stress and health
The babies of women who experience severe emotional stress during pregnancy are at risk for a wide vari-
ety 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 preg-
nancy 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?
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 ori-
entation) 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 pre-
sentation) 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 pre-
pared. When the labour process begins, it too usually proceeds normally. The uterus contracts rhythmi-
cally 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.
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 con-
tractions 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. Contrac-
tions 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.
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).
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).
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 pregnan-
cies. 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.
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 prepa-
ration 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 mid-
wives 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).
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).
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 last-
minute 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 Indige-
nous 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
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).
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 phys-
ical 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 orig-
inated 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 with-
out 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. Hypno-
birthing 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
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 anal-
gesic 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).
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.
TABLE 3.10 Major medications during childbirth and their effects on the baby
Type Administration Effects on mother Effects on baby

Narcotic By injection (in controlled Reduces pain, causes May cause drowsiness
analgesics doses) during the first some drowsiness and and decreased
stage of labour to reduce euphoria (sense of responsiveness for first
pain wellbeing and tranquility); few hours after birth or
women participate in labour longer; naloxone
and birth. May cause hydrochloride (Narcon)
nausea and vomiting can be used to reverse
these effects. May
impact on breastfeeding
Local anaesthesia
Spinal By injection into spinal Mother can remain awake No negative effects
canal in controlled doses and aware during labour reported
when cervix is fully and birth; can be used for
dilated (beginning of either vaginal or caesarean
second stage of labour); birth; is highly effective in
numbs sensory and eliminating pain
motor nerves so that
mother’s pelvic area and
legs cannot move
voluntarily
Epidural By injection during active Pain and sensations are No negative effects
phase of first stage of generally reduced or reported
labour to numb sensory eliminated; mother is
nerves after their exit awake; some voluntary
from spinal canal movement is preserved,
although it is less effective
because a woman’s sense
of position and tension are
blocked by the medication
General A combination of drugs Easily administered, rapid Decreased alertness and
anaesthesia given intravenously; is onset of effect; anaesthetic responsiveness following
less commonly used of choice in emergencies in birth
than blocking agents which time is critical and
baby must be born quickly
Source: Braverman, 2011; Feinbloom & Forman (1987); Simkin (2001), pp. 239–248.
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 under-
nourished, 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.
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 substan-
tially 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 impos-
sible; 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.
Childbearing with disability
Having a baby presents challenges to all parents, but the challenges for men and women who have dis-
ability 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 peo-
ple 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.
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
sources of non-medical support
r Help ensure accessibility of needed equipment and space in birth suites and postnatal wards
r Discuss childcare methods and adaptation of baby equipment as necessary
r Provide appropriate medical care as well as support and encouragement both in labour and postnatally
r Provide information about local and national self-help organisations for expectant parents with
disabilities
Source: Adapted from Campion (1993) and Barber (2008).
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 natu-
rally 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
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.
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 com-
fort, 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.
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. Breastfeed-
ing 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 authori-
ties, 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 protect-
ing, promoting, supporting and monitoring breastfeeding throughout Australia and New Zealand. The
Australian government has shown its ongoing commitment to the support of breastfeeding by updat-
ing 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 pub-
lic 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 dis-
ease, 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 intro-
duction 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.
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, nutri-
tion 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?
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.
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.
On the one hand, the physical processes involved in genetic transmission, conception, prenatal develop-
ment 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 effi-
ciently 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. Dur-
ing 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 through-
out 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.
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 sub-
stantially, 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.
As we have seen in this chapter, the unique genetic inheritance of each new human, beginning at con-
ception, 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 psychoso-
cial 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
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 cir-
cumstances, 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). Repro-
ductive 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 num-
ber 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.
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 inter-
action 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
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 abnor-
mal 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 inter-
course. 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 ter-
atogens, 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 bio-
logical 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, gon-
orrhoea 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.
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 child-
birth 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
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 espe-
cially difficult for adolescent parents, single parents and parents who are educationally and economically
disadvantaged.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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, amnio-
centesis, 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
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
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 provid-
ing 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 infor-
mation, 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-
nancy, birth, baby and child stages. There are useful resources as well: www.pregnancybirthbaby
.org.au
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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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.
PART 2
THE FIRST TWO YEARS

OF LIFE
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 naı̈ve 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 sophis-
ticated 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 envi-
ronment.
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.
Hoffnung, M. (2018). Lifespan development, 4th australasian edition. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
CHAPTER 4

development in the first
two years
LEARNING OUTCOMES
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.
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 develop-

mental 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 devel-
opment, 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
162 PART 2 The first two years of life
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 devel-
opment 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 moth-
ers 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 sim-
ilar 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.
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
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
Score
Characteristic 0 1 2
Heart rate Absent Less than 100 beats More than 100 beats
per minute 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 Body and extremities
blue 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
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 chil-
dren — 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 per-
centiles 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 cen-
timetres 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

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.
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 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.
REM Non-REM Awake
1.6 hours
8 hours
6.4 hours
8 hours
16 hours
8 hours
Typical newborn Typical adult

sleep requirements 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 <1 year of age, with the onset of the fatal episode apparently occur-
ring during sleep, that remains unexplained after a thorough investigation’ (Abel & Tipene-Leach, 2013,
p. 2). A number of factors have been implicated in SIDS, and a variety of recommendations are made for
new parents to reduce this risk. The Focusing on feature discusses some of the issues of implementing
these recommendations from a cultural perspective.
FOCUSING ON
Developing culturally appropriate SIDS prevention strategies

Much of the current information that forms the
basis of recommendations to reduce the incidence
of SIDS stems from research carried out in New
Zealand in the late 1980s and early ’90s. This
research identified that almost 80 per cent of SIDS
cases could be related to four risk factors: prone
sleeping position (babies sleeping on their tummy),
mothers smoking, not breastfeeding, and parent
and infants sharing the same bed (Ball & Volpe,
2013). New Zealand still has the highest rate of
SIDS in the industrialised world, and of consid-
erable concern is the much higher rate in Māori
people — 4.5 times higher than non-Māori (Abel
& Tipene-Leach, 2013). These statistics are similar
in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in
Australia, with an incidence 3.8 times higher than
non-Indigenous infants. It is the leading cause of
preventable death in infants from one month to twelve months of age (Tipene-Leach et al., 2010).
Early recommendation to avoid bed-sharing — defined as a caregiver (usually the mother) and infant
sharing a bed for sleep — have not been well accepted by Māori women, where it is a common practice
and is culturally valued (Abel & Tipene-Leach, 2013). This is also the case in Aboriginal cultures where
advice given to Indigenous mothers by non-Indigenous health workers to not sleep with their infants was
met with incredulity, as this is a culturally accepted practice (Fetherston & Leach, 2012; Kruske, Belton,
Wardaguga, & Narjic, 2012). In addition to cultural reasons for bed-sharing, other reasons such as for
closeness, to facilitate breastfeeding, improved maternal sleep and bonding have been given by women.
Considerable research has shown that bed-sharing improves the rates of breastfeeding and the length
of time mothers breastfeed their infants, and it has also been shown to promote infant arousal, which is
thought to be protective against SIDS (Vennemann et al., 2012).
Conflicting messages about the benefits of bed-sharing (promoting breastfeeding, bonding and the
physiological regulatory responses in infants) versus the known risks (increased incidence of SIDS, espe-
cially in infants up to one month of age) have meant that recommendations to avoid bed-sharing are not
accepted in some groups. This is also compounded by the possibility that other lifestyle factors (such as
smoking, alcohol or sedating substances) and inappropriate sleep surfaces (such as sofas) increase the
risk considerably. Health professionals provide information based on available evidence to allow parents
to make informed decisions and minimise risk. Ball and Volpe (2013) have identified that when we attempt
to change parenting beliefs that are embedded in culture, we are challenging that cultural identity and
our attempts are likely to be ineffective and ignored. They suggest that if we can provide health promo-
tion messages that help support local cultural tradition, we are much more likely to empower mothers to
change their behaviours in a culturally safe way.
A program that has been designed in New Zealand to support the value of bed-sharing in Māori
culture is the wahakura (Abel & Tipene-Leach, 2013). This is a light bassinet-like object, woven from
New Zealand flax, that can be placed in the parent’s bed to support the cultural preference for bed-
sharing, and yet provide a safe sleeping environment for the baby. This strategy has been shown to have
a high level of acceptability in Māori culture and has been modified with the production of the pēpi-
pod, a less expensive device that is sustainable in long-term programs. The pēpi-pod is accompanied
by comprehensive resources for safe sleeping education, including recommendations from the Interna-
tional Society for the Study and Prevention of Perinatal and Infant Death (www.ispid.org/prevention.html).
This organisation advises to always place the baby on their back when they are to sleep, keep the
baby’s environment smoke free, and make the sleeping environment as safe as possible such as
avoiding overheating. Since 2014, more than 16 500 safe sleeping devices have been distributed to
Indigenous families in New Zealand. Similar programs have been introduced into Indigenous Australian
communities in Cape York in northern Queensland. During the six years after the introduction of safe
sleeping device-based programs in 2009, the post-perinatal infant mortality rate in New Zealand has
decreased by 29 per cent with the largest reductions in the Māori population (Mitchell, Cowan, & Tipene-
Leach, 2016).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Research information available to parents and carers on SIDS. As a start, try SIDS Australia
(www.sidsandkids.org), the ABS and SIDS New Zealand. Critically evaluate this information in relation
to its usefulness in informing parents and providing suggestions of worthwhile risk recommendations.
Parental response to infant sleep and arousal

The unpredictability of infants’ sleep can create
chronic sleep deprivation in many parents; as a group,
in fact, parents of infants and toddlers — along with
older teenagers — are among the most sleep-deprived
people in society (Coren, 1996). Obviously somebody
has to wake up during the night to calm or feed a
crying baby, whether it is convenient or not! Parents’
fatigue is aggravated by living arrangements common
in modern Western society. Unlike many non-Western
societies, where babies often sleep in the same bed
as the mother does, called co-sleeping or bed-sharing
(see the Focusing on feature), which is also a com-
mon practice for Indigenous mothers, infants in many
Western societies are often ‘stationed’ in an adjoining
room, or at least in a separate bed across the room —
an arrangement that makes assisting the baby more
disruptive. Research has shown that although infants
who co-sleep woke more than those that did not, they
were awake for much less time so the parents actually
got more sleep (Krouse et al., 2012). Furthermore,
many non-Western households may have a number of
adults or older relatives regarded as capable of calm-
ing a baby at night. In Western society, in contrast, a
household commonly has only two adults, or increas-
ingly just one. The scarcity of ‘qualified’ helpers

Infants spend more time sleeping than doing
places a disproportionate burden of night-time child- anything else.
care on parents, and eventually contributes to fatigue. Unfortunately their sleep may not all occur at night,
The cure for night-time fussiness eventually so chronic sleep deprivation can be a real problem for
depends on physical maturation, but parents can also some parents, particularly primary caregivers. If it can
influence their infant’s sleep patterns by facilitating be arranged, it sometimes helps to nap at the same
time as the baby, as these parents are doing.
the social cues that we learn to help us sleep, such as
consistent feed times and bed-time routines (Galland et al., 2012). The circadian rhythm, which is based
on light and dark cycles, is a primary regulator of sleep patterns. This rhythm is not fully established
at birth, so sleep tends to occur as easily in the daytime as night. At around two to three months, this
circadian rhythm emerges and encourages more night-time sleep, and can also be influenced by timing
of feeds and bed-time routines put in place by parents (Davis et al., 2004).
States of arousal
As table 4.2 shows, infants exhibit various states of arousal, from sleep to full wakefulness. As they get
older, their patterns of arousal begin to resemble those of older children (Diambra & Menna-Barreto,
2004; Ferber & Kryger, 1995). The largest share of time, even among older infants, goes to the most
completely relaxed and deepest form of sleep.
TABLE 4.2 States of arousal in infants
State Behaviour of infants

Non-REM sleep Complete rest; muscles relaxed; eyes closed and still; breathing regular and
relatively slow
REM sleep Occasional twitches, jerks, facial grimaces; irregular and intermittent eye
movements; breathing irregular and relatively rapid
Drowsiness Occasional movements, but fewer than in REM sleep; eyes open and close; glazed
look; breathing regular, but faster than in non-REM sleep
Alert inactivity Eyes open and scanning; body relatively still; rate of breathing similar to drowsiness,
but more irregular
Alert activity Eyes open, but not attending or scanning; frequent, diffuse bodily movements;
vocalisations; irregular breathing; skin flushed
Distress Whimpering or crying; vigorous or agitated movements; facial grimaces
pronounced; skin very flushed
Source: Ferber and Kryger (1995).
Obviously a fully alert state is a time when babies can learn from their surroundings, but it may not
be the only time. During REM sleep, infants’ heart and respiration rates speed up, suggesting that infants
may process stimulation and assimilate images even while asleep and ‘learn’ from those experiences.
As the brain is more active during some types of sleep, sleep is thought to play an important role in
development of both the brain and body (Davis et al., 2004).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
What functions does REM and non-REM sleep serve in a newborn baby? In a public setting, observe
how parents deal with the sleep of their infants and soothe their crying babies. What techniques did the
parents use to cope with infants sleep patterns and crying? Can sleep tell us anything about the health of
the newborn’s nervous system?
4.3 Visual and auditory acuity

LEARNING OUTCOME 4.3 Review how infants’ senses operate at birth.
Infants can see at birth, but they lack the clarity of focus or acuity (keenness or fineness of discrimi-
nation) characteristic of adults with good vision. Newborns are quite short-sighted at birth but undergo
quite marked changes in vision in the first two years of life. They have a limited ability to accommo-
date focal length, so this makes it difficult for them to focus on objects that are extremely close or too
far from the face (Blackburn, 2013). This accommodation ability improves in the first three months,
but as newborns they can see objects at a distance of up to one metre and attend best to objects about
20–25 centimetres from their eyes — about the distance between a mother’s breast and her face. Their
vision is better when tracking moving objects and scanning interesting sights, particularly human faces
(Blackburn, 2013).
Visual acuity improves steadily during infancy, reaching a level of about 20/50 at one year and close
to adult level of 20/20 by two years (Blackburn, 2013). During the first six months, scanning and track-
ing improve, as the infant is able to see more clearly. Research by Johnson, Slemmer, and Amso (2004)
showed that infants can anticipate with their eye movements what they expect to happen next in a series
of events. As a result, scanning enhances perception and, in turn, perception enhances scanning. Infants’
developing knowledge of objects and events promotes pattern perception, which is evident in their per-
ceptions of the human face and facial recognition.
The tendency of infants to search for and scan a patterned stimulus is evident in face perception. In
an interesting research project, Mondloch et al. (1999) found that newborns preferred to look at simple,
face-like stimuli with features arranged upright as in a natural face, instead of an unnatural face with
features arranged sideways or upside down. Newborns will tend to track a face-like pattern moving
across their visual field rather than track other stimuli (Bartrip, Morton, & de Schonen, 2001; Johnson,
1999). Infants are able to apply their tendency to search for patterns to face perception and recognition.
At approximately two months, infants can scan a stimulus, combine its elements into an organised
whole, and recognise and prefer their mothers’ facial features (Bartrip et al., 2001; Otsuka, 2014).
Infants have also shown their preference for a drawing of a human face over other stimuli (Dannemiller
& Stephens, 1988). Face perception continues to develop throughout the first six months of infancy, with
three-month-old infants able to make fine distinctions between the features of different faces (Morton,
1993). At five months, infants are able to perceive emotional expressions as they treat happy, surprised
faces differently to sad or fearful faces (Bornstein & Arterberry, 2003). Recent research by Southgate,
Csibra, Kaufman, and Johnson (2008) suggested that there is markedly different processing of objects
and faces in the infant brain. This research found that newborn infants responded preferentially to simple
face-like patterns — raising the possibility that the face-specific regions identified in the adult cortex are
functioning from birth. Face-to-face interaction between infants and caregivers contributes to refinements
in face perception. Infants who display disorders such as autism have shown delayed development
in their understanding and recognition of facial expressions (Dawson, Webb, Carver, Panagiotides, &
McPartland, 2004).
Auditory acuity refers to sensitivity to sounds. Most infants can hear at birth. The reaction of an infant
to any sudden loud noise near them, such as the noise created by dropping a large book on the floor,
demonstrates if they can hear. Such a sound produces a dramatic, startled reaction called a Moro reflex —
the neonate withdraws its limbs suddenly, throws its arms outward, arches its back and brings its arms
together as if it is going to hold something. The neonate may also clench its fists, shake all over and cry.
Infants prefer complex sounds (such as noises and voices) to pure tones (such as the sound of a flute) that
cause relatively little response from the infant. Complex noises containing many different sounds usually
produce a stronger reaction; for example, a bag of nails spilling on the floor tends to startle infants.
Newborns only a few days old can hear the difference between sound patterns, such as the difference
between an utterance of two syllables as opposed to three syllables, happy sounding speech as opposed
to negative and emotional speech, and tones arranged in ascending order rather than descending order
(Trehub, 2001). The sensory acuity of infants means parents may be partly right when they claim their
newborn child recognises them even from birth. What parents may be noticing is their newborn’s imme-
diate responsiveness to sights and sounds. As young as three days old, infants turn their eyes and head
in the general direction of a sound, such as the shaking of a rattle or the sound of their parents’ voices.
Adults are right to exclaim over it — by taking an interest in the environment, the child creates con-
ditions in which they can begin organising (or perceiving) sights and sounds, and attaching meanings
to them.
As we will see later in this chapter, certain kinds of lines, shapes and contours are especially interesting
to a young infant; as are certain kinds of sounds. For example, between four and seven months, infants
develop a sense of musical phrasing (Krumhansl & Jusczyk, 1990) — preferring Mozart minuets with
pauses between phrases to those with awkward breaks. Fortunately for the development of family ties,
parents are able to provide many of the most interesting sights and sounds with their own faces and voices.
In this way, attachments between parents and children are born. This attachment and responsiveness to
sound nurtures and supports the young infant’s exploration of their environment.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Research into young infants’ vision and hearing capabilities has advanced significantly in the last ten years.
How can parents and carers interpret this research in nurturing their young infant’s developing vision and
hearing abilities? What strategies could they use?
4.4 Motor development

LEARNING OUTCOME 4.4 Summarise what motor skills evolve during infancy and what factors influence
this development.
Infants begin life with numerous inborn reflexes, or automatic responses to specific stimuli. Table 4.3
summarises the most important ones. Reflexes are sometimes divided into three categories, namely prim-
itive (survival), postural and locomotor reflexes. A few reflexes, such as sucking, clearly help the baby to
adapt to the new life outside the womb. Others look more like evolutionary vestiges of behaviours that
may have helped earlier versions of Homo sapiens to cope; for example, the Moro or embracing reflex
is believed to have helped infants cling to their mothers at the sound of danger. Reflexes are the first
observable signs of newborn motor responses and serve as survival mechanisms for protection and the
seeking of food. A few reflexes that are present in the newborn, such as blinking, breathing, yawning and
swallowing, persist throughout a person’s life, but most reflexes disappear from the infant’s repertoire
during the first six months.
The relationship between postural reflexes — such as swimming, stepping, Moro and Babinski —
and later voluntary movements has sparked considerable debate in the research literature. According to
the dynamic systems theory of motor development, acquiring motor skills involves increasingly complex
systems of action. For example, kicking, rocking on all fours and reaching combine to become crawling.
Crawling, standing and stepping combine to become walking (Thelen, 1989). In several landmark studies,
Thelen provided evidence that early reflex movements provided the basis for later voluntary movement
(Thelen & Fisher, 1983).
Thelen (1995) argued that the disappearance of the stepping reflex prior to the emergence of voluntary
walking is a function of change in body structure rather than a loss of response. In a classic study
referred to as ‘The Case of the Disappearing Reflex’, Thelen investigated the stepping and kicking
behaviour of newborns. By varying the weight of the legs — making them heavier with small weights or
lighter by submersing them in water — she was able to make the ‘reflex’ disappear or reappear. Thelen
demonstrated that the disappearance of the ‘reflex’ was not due to a rapid increase in the newborn’s
leg fat relative to leg muscle mass, but rather due to cortical maturation. Hence, the legs physically lose
the ability to make the stepping movements. Strength is the determining factor rather than a loss of
the reflex.
Paediatricians test reflexes carefully in assessing the neurological functioning of the newborn. Reflexes
are critical diagnostic indicators during the early months of life, as they indicate neurological integrity.
Newborn reflexes that persist over many months may suggest damage to the nervous system, such as
cerebral palsy or other forms of developmental delay (Bergen & Woodin, 2011).
TABLE 4.3 Major reflexes in newborn infants
Reflex Description Development Significance

Survival reflexes
Breathing reflex Repetitive inhalation and Permanent, although Provides oxygen and
expiration becomes partly voluntary expels carbon dioxide
Rooting reflex Turning of cheek in Weakens and disappears Orients child to breast or
direction of touch by six months bottle
Sucking reflex Strong sucking motions Gradually comes under Allows child to drink
with throat, mouth, and voluntary control
tongue
Swallowing Swallowing motions in Permanent, although Allows child to take in food
reflex throat becomes partly voluntary and to avoid choking
Eyeblink reflex Closing eyes for an instant Permanent, although Protects eyes from objects
(‘blinking’) gradually becomes and bright light
voluntary
Pupillary reflex Changing size of pupils: Permanent Protects against bright
smaller in bright light and light and allows better
bigger in dim light vision in dim light
Primitive reflexes
Moro reflex In response to a loud Arm movements and Indicates normal
noise, child throws arms arching disappear by six development of nervous
outward, arches back, months, but startle system
then brings arms together reaction persists for life
as if to hold something
Grasping reflex Curling fingers around any Disappears by three Indicates normal
small object put in the months; voluntary development of nervous
child’s palm grasping appears by about system
six months
Tonic neck reflex When laid on back, head Disappears by two or Indicates normal
turns to side, arm and leg three months development of nervous
extend to same side, limbs system
on opposite side flex
Babinski reflex When bottom of foot Disappears eight to twelve Indicates normal
stroked, toes fan and then months development of nervous
curl system
Stepping reflex If held upright, infant lifts Disappears by eight Indicates normal
leg as if to step weeks, but later if development of nervous
practised system
Swimming If put in water, infant Disappears by four to six Indicates normal
moves arms and legs and months development of nervous
holds breath system
Source: ACOG (1990).
The first motor skills

Motor skills are voluntary movements of the body or parts of the body. They can be grouped conve-
niently according to the size of the muscles and body parts involved. Gross motor skills involve the large
muscles of the arms, legs and torso. Fine motor skills involve the small muscles located throughout the
body. Crawling, walking and jumping are examples of gross motor skills, and reaching and grasping are
examples of fine motor skills.
Viewed broadly, the sequence in which skills develop follows two general trends. The cephalocaudal
principle (‘head to tail’) refers to the fact that upper parts of the body become usable and skilful before
lower parts do. Babies learn to turn their heads before learning to move their feet intentionally, and they
learn to move their arms before they learn to move their legs. The proximodistal principle (‘near to far’,
from the centre of the body outward) refers to the fact that central parts of the body become skilful before
peripheral, or outlying, parts do. Babies learn to wave their entire arms before learning to wiggle their
wrists and fingers. The former movement occurs at the shoulder joint, near the centre of the body, and the
latter occurs at the periphery. However, some motor milestones deviate from these trends and we need to
think of motor skills as products of earlier attainments that contribute to new attainments, rather than as
unrelated attainments that follow a strict maturational timeline. Also, it is important to note that infants
acquire motor skills in highly individual ways. For example, we know that most babies crawl before they
stand and walk. However, some babies pull to a stand and walk before they crawl, while some roll on
their stomachs, pull to a stand and then walk, without crawling.
Studying infants from their first attempts at a skill until it becomes effortless, Galloway and Thelen
(2004) held toys with sounds alternately in front of infants’ hands and feet from the first time they showed
interest in the toy until they engaged in coordinated reaching and grasping of the toy. In a contradiction
of the cephalocaudal trend, infants first interacted with the toy with their feet as early as eight weeks
of age — a month or more before they reached with their hands. The interactions were shown to be
deliberate, rather than accidental, as infants explored the toys longer with their feet. Galloway and Thelen
continued to investigate why infants reached with their feet first, concluding it was because the hip joint
confines the legs from moving less freely than the shoulder confines the arms, so infants can more easily
control their leg movements. Hand-reaching required more practice than reaching with the foot. These
recent findings, which signal a new approach to the study of infant motor development, confirm that rather
than following a strict cephalocaudal pattern, the development of motor skills depends on the anatomy
of the body, the surrounding environment and the infant’s efforts in developing these skills.
From our discussions of the research and evidence of infant motor development, we can conclude that
this development results from complex interactions between nature and nurture. As dynamic systems
theory suggests, heredity initiates the broad outline, with the sequence and development of motor skills
resulting from interactions between the brain, the body, and the physical and social environment.
Gross motor development in the first year

Almost from birth, and before reflex behaviours disappear, babies master their bodies and the environment
in a new way. By age four weeks, most babies can lift their heads up when lying on their stomachs. From
two to five months, babies can roll from side to side and side to back. Babies can sit alone from five to
nine months. At six or seven months, many babies have become quite adept at using their limbs; they can
stick their feet up in the air and ‘bicycle’ with them while a parent struggles valiantly to fit a nappy on
the moving target. By age seven months, on average, babies become able to move around on their own.
At first, their methods are crude and slow; for example, a baby might simply pivot on their stomach to get
a better view of something interesting. Consistent movement in one direction develops soon afterwards,
although the movement does not always occur in the direction the baby intends! A desire to further explore
their environment leads to crawling from seven to eleven months. At ten months, the average baby can
stand erect, but only if an adult helps. By their first birthday, half of all babies can dispense with this
assistance and stand by themselves without toppling over immediately (Savelsbergh, 1993).
Reaching and grasping

Even newborn infants will make poorly coordinated swipes or swings, called pre-reaching, as they
attempt to grasp objects they can see immediately in front of them. Often they fail to grasp objects
successfully, making contact but failing to enclose them in their fingers, as they have not yet developed
the necessary shoulder and head control and eye gaze. This early, crude reaching disappears soon after
birth, only to reappear at about four or five months of age as two separate skills, reaching and grasping
(Pownall & Kingerlee, 1993; von Hofsten, 2004), evidencing the development of head and eye gaze con-
trol. These skills soon serve infants in many ways. With reaching and the modification of grasp, the ulnar
grasp — a clumsy grasping where the fingers close against the palm — develops. By the end of the
first year, the ulnar grasp is soon replaced with the pincer grasp, which uses the thumb and forefinger to
grasp, demonstrating the infant’s increasing ability to manipulate objects such as being able to pick up
sultanas or grass, turn knobs and open small containers.
Even before learning to walk, infants can reach for and handle small objects. With time and practice, they learn to
modify their grasping to fit the physical requirements of a variety of objects and circumstances. As a result, babies
already have useful grasping skills when locomotion finally begins, around their first birthday.
Walking
A reasonably predictable series of events leads to true walking in most children. Figure 4.2 describes
some of these milestones. By about 12 to 13 months, most children take their first independent steps.
Well before two years, they often can walk not only forward but also backward or even sideways. Some
two year olds can even walk upstairs on two feet instead of on all fours. Usually they use the wall or a
railing to do so. Usually, too, coming downstairs proves more difficult than going up; one solution is to
creep or crawl down backward, using all four limbs.
Cultural and sex differences in motor development

Differences in motor development exist among cultures and between the sexes, though they are not always
large or dramatic. Certain African cultures, for example, encourage early development of gross motor
skills by holding their babies upright and moving them vertically up and down (Lohaus et al., 2011).
These opportunities seem to stimulate toddlers in these societies to sit, stand and walk earlier and better
than Australian and New Zealand toddlers. Early walking, in turn, may prove especially valuable in these
societies, which do not rely heavily on cars, bicycles or other vehicles that make walking less important.
FIGURE 4.2 Milestones of motor development
Walking is a major physical achievement that usually occurs in the first year of life. Other physical
skills, such as rolling, sitting, crawling and pulling to a stand, usually develop prior to walking, as the
figure shows. Note, though, skills appear at different times for different individuals. Some skills may
even appear ‘out of sequence’ in some children.
Pull self up Walk well
Lift head to stand alone
Remain
sitting without
Roll from assistance Walk holding
stomach once up on to furniture
Birth 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
months
Pull up with Stand holding Walk
assistance on to furniture backward
Push chest Sit up without Stand well

up with arms assistance alone
Yet differences in motor skills do not always appear where we might expect. Observing Australian
Aboriginal children from Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Hamilton (1981) found that they were
advanced with regard to motor milestones such as raising the head, sitting and standing unsupported,
crawling and walking. Hamilton reported that this early development of motor milestones was due to
childrearing practices, which encouraged development of motor skills to lessen the burden placed on
caregiver’s activities. She found that mothers often propped eight-week-old infants in a sitting posi-
tion on their lap, thus freeing the mother’s hands for work. Early walking was also encouraged by
caregivers.
Similarly, Kearins (1986) noted early motor development in traditional Western Desert Aboriginal
Australians and in Perth-based urban Aboriginal preschool children as a result of mothers’ early car-
rying behaviour. Aboriginal mothers often carried their infants in a vertical position without much head
support, whereas Anglo Australian mothers carried their infants in a horizontal position providing head
support. This early carrying behaviour resulted in early strengthening of the neck muscles, which aided
in the development of earlier head control and unsupported sitting.
Culture aside, do boys and girls differ, on average, in motor development? The answer depends on
distinguishing what infants can do from what they typically do. While there is evidence to suggest that
there are sex differences in infant motor development, the evidence is inconsistent and inconclusive.
The assessment of sex differences in motor milestone attainment was carried out by the World Health
Organization (WHO) in a longitudinal study undertaken between 1997 and 2003 and was reported in a
WHO growth reference study in 2006. This study tested 8500 infants monthly from 4 months of age
until 12 months of age and, after this, until all milestones were reached or until the infant reached
24 months of age. Gross motor milestones, such as sitting without support, hands-and-knees crawling,
standing with assistance, walking with assistance, standing alone and walking alone were assessed in
five countries. While differences between countries were observed due to culture-specific behaviours,
no significant and consistent differences in milestone achievement ages were detected between boys
and girls.
Further, Malina, Bouchard, and Bar-Or (2004) measured sex differences in motor development using
the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (2006) and the Denver Developmental Screening Test during
the first two years of life and found that sex differences in motor development were not systematically
apparent. Investigating walking skills, they found that sex differences in walking were not consistent. An
Australian study by Piek, Gasson, Barrett, and Case (2002), while based on small participant numbers,
provided some exploratory evidence for gender differences in the emergence of intra-limb and inter-limb
coordination. Kicking movements of infants lying on a mat on the floor were recorded using reflec-
tive markers attached to the foot, hand and trunk (at the waist), and the rotational centres of the ankle,
knee, hip, shoulder, elbow and wrist of the infant’s body. Intra-limb correlation of the hip/ankle and
shoulder/wrist on the right side was more strongly correlated than the left at 18 weeks of age for girls
only. Sex differences were also noted when joints between rather than within limbs were examined. Piek
and her colleagues (Piek et al., 2002) found that girls had a tighter synchrony between the joints of the
two arms than boys. So, girl and boy babies tend to sit upright at about the same age and stand and walk
at about the same time.
How infants use their time is another matter. Almost as soon as they can move, boys show more activity
than girls do. The trend begins even before birth, when male foetuses move about in their mothers’
wombs more than female foetuses do (Moore & Persaud, 1998). After birth, the trend continues, with
girls spending more time using their emerging fine motor skills. Of course, the differences in use of time
may stem partly from parents’ encouragement (praise) for ‘gender-appropriate’ behaviours. Given the
young age of the children, though, and the fact activity actually precedes birth, part of the difference
must come from genetic endowment — an inborn tendency to be more (or less) active.
Whatever their source, it is important to note sex differences in infants’ motor development are only
averages and, in any case, rather slight. As groups, boys and girls are more alike than different, and
numerous individual boys are quieter than numerous individual girls despite ‘average’ behaviour. As a
practical matter, it is therefore more important for parents and teachers to respond to the qualities of the
individual children for whom they are responsible than to stereotypical ‘gender’ averages.
Motor development screening tests and scales

Just as the Apgar score assesses the newborn baby’s physical condition, there are a variety of instruments
that enable doctors, paediatricians, researchers and developmentalists to assess the physical and mile-
stone development of infants. Brazelton’s Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS), the most
widely used of these tests, evaluates the infant’s reflexes, responsiveness to physical and social stimuli
and changes in state (Brazelton & Nugent, 2011). As the NBAS has been used extensively around the
world, researchers have learnt about individual and cultural differences in newborn behaviour and how
childrearing practices can influence a baby’s reactions. The NBAS is also useful in helping parents get
to know their baby’s development and predicting development based on changes in scores.
A commonly used test for infants between one month and three-and-a-half years is the Bayley Scales of
Infant Development (Bayley, 1993), which measures primarily perceptual and motor responses. This scale
consists of two parts: mental abilities and motor abilities. The mental scale focuses on memory, senses,
perception and problem solving, and involves measurement of turning to a sound, looking for a fallen
object, and building a tower. The motor scale assesses fine and gross motor skills, such as grasping, sitting,
drinking and jumping. Some more clearly cognitive items are also included; such as items measuring
object permanence (see Piaget’s theory). The most recent version of the test, the Bayley-111 (2006)
includes items that address cognitive and language functions in addition to those that assess sensory and
motor skills. Table 4.4 shows the Bayley Scales of Infant Development.
Another test used in Australasian preschools is the Denver Developmental Screening Test, a widely
used assessment that measures motor skills and development of children up to six years of age. The
name ‘Denver’ reflects the fact that this screening test was created at the University of Colorado Medical
Center in Denver. The test underwent a major revision in 1992 due to concerns regarding specific test
items. The test comprises 125 items divided into four parts relating to social/personal aspects, fine motion
function, language and gross motor functions.
TABLE 4.4 Bayley Scales of Infant Development
Age range within which

Motor skill Average age achieved achieved by most infants
Holds head erect and steady when held upright 7 weeks 3 weeks to 4 months
When prone, elevates self by arms 2 months 3 weeks to 5 months
Rolls from side to back 2 months 3 weeks to 5 months
1
Rolls from back to side 4 months 2 to 7 months
2
Grasps cube 3 months 3 weeks 2 to 7 months
Sits alone, good coordination 7 months 5 to 9 months
Pulls to stand 8 months 5 to 12 months
Uses neat pincer grasp 9 months 7 to 10 months
Plays pat-a-cake 9 months 3 weeks 7 to 15 months
Stands alone 11 months 9 to 16 months
Walks alone 11 months 3 weeks 9 to 17 months
Source: Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID). Copyright © 1969 NCS Pearson, Inc. Reproduced with permission. All
rights reserved. ‘Bayley Scales of Infant Development’ is a trademark, in the US and/or other countries, of Pearson Education,
Inc. or its affiliates.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
If motor skills develop partly through learning, why not just deliberately teach infants to walk? What do
you think would be the result of doing so? Do similar considerations apply for certain other important
developments in infancy?
4.5 Nutrition during the first two years

LEARNING OUTCOME 4.5 Name the nutritional needs of infants.
As obvious as it sounds, physical developments in infancy depend on good nutrition throughout the
first two years. Like adults, babies need diets with appropriate amounts of protein, calories, and spe-
cific vitamins and minerals. However, for various reasons, infants do not always get all the nutrients they
need. Often poverty accounts for malnutrition — parents with good intentions may be unable to afford
the right foods. In other cases, conventional eating practices interfere; for example, despite relatively
expensive eating habits such as going to fast food restaurants, some families may fail to provide their
children with a balanced diet.
Compared with older children, infants eat less in overall or absolute amounts. A nourished young
baby in Australasia might drink somewhat less than one litre of liquid nourishment per day. This amount
definitely would not keep an older child or a young adult nourished, although it might prevent starving.
In proportion to their body weight, infants need to consume much more than older children or adults
do. For example, every day a 3-month-old baby should take in more than 56.8 millilitres of liquid per
450 grams of body weight, whereas an 18 year old needs only about one-third of this amount (Queen
& Lang, 1993). If adolescents or young adults drank in the same proportion to their body weights, they
would have to consume 6.6 litres of liquid per day. That is equivalent to 25 cups per day, or about one
cup every 45 minutes during waking hours!
In recent decades, increasing numbers of mothers in our society have chosen to breastfeed their babies as
recommended by health experts.
Infant feeding
Someone (usually parents) must provide for an infant’s comparatively large appetite. Whenever breast-
feeding is possible, health experts generally recommend human milk as the sole source of nutrition for at
least the first six months or so of most infants’ lives and as a major source for at least the next six months.
The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months and that women con-
tinue breastfeeding for two or more years with appropriate complementary foods (World Health Organi-
zation [WHO], 2009a).
Why is breastfeeding recommended? First, human milk seems to give young infants more protection
from diseases and other ailments. Second, human milk matches the nutritional needs of human infants
more closely than formula preparations do; in particular, it contains more iron, an important nutrient
for infants. Third, breastfeeding better develops the infant’s jaw and mouth muscles because it requires
stronger sucking motions than bottle feeding does and because it tends to satisfy infants’ intrinsic needs
for sucking better than a bottle does. Fourth, breastfeeding may encourage a healthy emotional relation-
ship between mother and infant, because it involves a lot of close physical snuggling.
In some cases, this recommendation proves difficult or impractical to follow, such as babies who need
intensive medical care immediately after birth and cannot be breastfed without special arrangements.
For a significant number of parents who choose not to breastfeed, partial or complete bottle-feeding
remains an option; for example, if mothers are taking strong medications that might be passed on to the
baby, or if job situations make breastfeeding difficult to do. However, while historically it may not have
been an option in the workplace, legislation in most states of Australia now prohibits employers from
discriminating against breastfeeding women, and many workplaces provide suitable areas for mothers
to breastfeed or express breast milk (Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission,
2010).
After about six months, infants may be introduced (gradually) to solid foods such as strained cereals
and strained fruits. As babies become tolerant of these new foods, parents may introduce others that
sometimes require a more mature digestive system, such as strained meats and cooked eggs. Overall, the
shift to solid foods often takes many months to complete (see table 4.5 for an outline of what a healthy
infant can eat and when). A baby needs to be monitored closely as their nutritional needs change. This
is because many solid foods lack the broad range of nutrients that breast milk and formula provide.
TABLE 4.5 The diet of a healthy infant — what is introduced and when?
Age in months Dietary requirements

Birth–6 Breast milk or baby formula
6 Puréed single-grain cereal, preferably iron-fortified
1
6 Water (preferable); diluted fruit juices ( cup serving per day)
2
6–8 Puréed vegetables or fruit
Finger foods (e.g. chopped banana and bits of dry cereal)
10–12 Puréed meats or poultry
Soft but chopped foods (such as lumpy potatoes)
Whole milk
24 Low-fat milk
Source: Adapted from WHO (2001b).
In Australia, an Indigenous child health and nutrition program in remote communities in the Northern
Territory, Keeping kids healthy makes a better world, is successfully developing a culturally appropriate
and sustainable community based nutrition program for 0- to 5-year-old children. Local community par-
ticipation and input into healthy food choices has ensured the success of this intervention, which has led
to better health outcomes for young children. In particular, the program has helped decrease the amount
of anaemia cases (in which blood is deficient in red blood cells) in Australia, because education is focused
on children’s nutritional needs (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2006).
Poor nutrition
Often Western diets fail to provide enough of three specific nutrients: vitamin A, vitamin C and iron.
Prolonged deficiencies of vitamins A and C seem to create deficits in motor ability and deficiency of iron
appears to lead to deficits in cognitive performance (Pollitt, 1995). For about 4 to 5 per cent of infants,
these nutritional deficiencies are serious and require immediate remedy. For another group of about the
same size, the nutritional deficiencies are less severe but are still a cause for concern.
Even when undernourished infants appear healthy and ‘bright’, they may be at risk for later develop-
mental problems as poorly nourished families often experience other serious deprivations, such as poor
sanitation, inadequate health care, and lack of educational opportunities. Under these conditions, it may
not take much to turn mild undernourishment into severe malnutrition and thus reduce cognitive and
motor performance to below satisfactory levels.
Malnutrition
In war-torn areas and developing countries in which food resources are severely limited, malnutrition
is widespread. In 2016, more than two thirds of all wasted children (who were too thin for their height
as a result of malnutrition) under five years of age lived in Asia, while more than one quarter lived
in Africa. The proportion of stunted children (who were too short for their age, typically as a result of
chronic malnutrition) is similarly high, with over half of the stunted children living in Asia and more than
one third of them living in Africa. While the global prevalence of stunted children has decreased from
32.7 per cent in 2000 to 22.9 per cent in 2016, progress is not considered fast enough to address this
problem (United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund [UNICEF], 2017a). In 2017, UNICEF stated that:
Nearly half of all deaths in children under 5 are attributable to undernutrition. This translates into the
unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives a year. Undernutrition puts children at greater risk of
dying from common infections, increases the frequency and severity of such infections, and contributes to
delayed recovery. In addition, the interaction between undernutrition and infection can create a potentially
lethal cycle of worsening illness and deteriorating nutritional status. Poor nutrition in the first 1000 days of
a child’s life can also lead to stunted growth, which is irreversible and associated with impaired cognitive
ability and reduced school and work performance. (UNICEF, 2017b).
Those severely affected suffer from two diseases, namely kwashiorkor and marasmus.
Some infants’ diets contain enough calories but not enough protein. Kwashiorkor can occur when
infants are weaned early on to low protein diets. This results in the infant’s body responding by breaking
down its own protein. Kwashiorkor is characterised by an enlarged belly, swelling feet, a rash appearing
on the skin and hair falling out.
When the calorie deficit of infants is severe, a disease called marasmus results. This disease is a wasted
condition of the body caused by a diet low in essential nutrients. Usually, marasmus appears in the first
12 months of an infant’s life. Often, the baby’s mother is too malnourished to produce enough breast
milk and bottle feeding is also inadequate. The starving baby becomes painfully thin, often suffering
from parasitic infections that lead to chronic diarrhoea. The baby is also in danger of dying. Children
with moderate to severe undernutrition have stunted growth and there are potentially significant issues
with ongoing quality of life (Walton & Allen, 2011). There are ongoing issues with impairment of both
cognitive and behavioural function with these children, including poorer academic achievement, impaired
fine motor skills and a significantly higher incidence of attention problems such as ADHD, which also
impacts on learning ability (Galler et al., 2012). There are also known physiological effects that have
long-lasting impacts on health, such as an increased susceptibility to accumulate fat, insulin resistance
(which can pre-dispose to diabetes) and high blood pressure. Some of these effects appear to be passed on
to the next generation as well, through epigenetics, as mentioned in an earlier chapter. These effects also
impact on the person’s socioeconomic status due to the effects on cognitive function, reducing capacity
for education and employment — which can then lead to ongoing poverty and health issues (Martins
et al., 2011).
Overnutrition
In affluent, calorie-loving Western societies, the problem is often not lack of food, but rather eating too
much calorie-rich, nutrient-poor food. Food manufacturers and fast-food restaurants have discovered that
foods sell better if they contain high amounts of fat, sugar and salt, and low amounts of fibre — all of
which are violations of well-established nutritional guidelines (Wootan & Liebman, 1998). The short-
term result during infancy can be overnutrition: too many calories, too many of the wrong nutrients
and not enough of other nutrients. The longer term result can be to establish food preferences that may
create health risks when the infant becomes a child and later an adult. A toddler who eats too much
ice cream and chips may be ‘cute’; an adult who does so experiences greater risk for heart problems,
type 2 diabetes, and certain forms of cancer (Crawford, Jeffrey, Ball, & Brug, 2010; Dyer & Rosenfeld,
2011). The problem of overnutrition appears to be worsening rather than improving: In Oceania, the
rate of overweight children under five nearly doubled between 2000 and 2016 (UNICEF, 2017a). Recent
dietary surveys in the United States showed that infants and toddlers were exceeding their required energy
requirements by 20–30 per cent (Paul et al., 2011). This survey also showed that children often were
eating inappropriate foods for their age — those that were high in energy, but low in nutrients. Often,
parents overfeed their infants and toddlers, interpreting their discomfort and frustrations as desires for
food. Other parents can be overcontrolling, restricting what their child eats for fear that they will gain
too much weight (Birch, Fisher, & Davison, 2003). In all these scenarios, parents fail to assist children
to regulate their food intake. Often, parents of overweight children use food as reinforcement for other
behaviours. This leads infants and toddlers to attach a special value to treats (Sherry et al., 2004).
Although overnutrition can increase an infant’s weight, weight itself is not a cause for medical concern
in infancy, as long as the baby is only moderately above (or below) the average. Infants born bigger or
heavier than usual tend to have diets relatively high in calories. They also tend to drink more milk (via
either breast or bottle) and other liquids than usual, and to shift earlier to solid foods. Recent research has
shown some clear relationships between early excess weight gain in infancy and ongoing problems with
obesity later in life (Gittner, Ludington-Hoe, & Haller, 2014; McCormick, Sarpong, Jordan, Ray, & Jain,
2010; Oddy, 2012). These weight problems are also linked to other health problems such as diabetes
and cardiovascular disease. It is theorised that ‘nutritional imprinting’ occurs at critical periods in our
development, with infancy being one of these. High caloric intake and rapid weight gain in early infancy
adversely affects metabolism and promotes acceleration in growth that can be lifelong (Oddy, 2012).
Overweight infants are more likely to become overweight children, adolescents and adults. Breastfeeding
is thought to offer some protection against obesity because it seems that it promotes greater self-regulation
in appetite that persists into later life, reducing the incidence of over eating (Gittner et al., 2014).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Imagine that you are a parent of a newborn baby (if you are already a parent, think back to your early
experiences of your child as a newborn). Would you encourage bottle or breastfeeding, and why? Which
practices would you avoid to prevent your child becoming overweight or obese?
4.6 Impairments in growth

LEARNING OUTCOME 4.6 List the factors that can impair growth during infancy.
Within broad limits, healthy infants grow at various rates and sizes, and most of the time the differences
are no cause for concern. But a small percentage do not grow as large as they should, beginning either
at birth or later during infancy. When a baby’s size or growth is well below normal, it is a major cause
for concern, both for the infant and for the infant’s parents. At the extreme, it can contribute to infant
mortality.
Low-birth-weight and preterm infants

Newborns are considered low birth weight infants if they are born weighing less than 2500 grams, or
2.5 kilograms. Data on Australia’s mothers and babies showed that in 2013, the rate of low-birth-weight
babies was around 6.5 per cent of the total births, a rate on par with the European Union average (Organ-
isation for Economic Co-Operation and Development [OECD], 2016). From 2009 to 2013, South Asia
has had the highest incidence of low birth weight at 28 per cent (UNICEF, 2016). Accurate estimates
of low birth weight is challenging, particularly in developing counties, since almost half of infants are
not weighed at birth. This condition can result from several factors. One of the most common causes is
malnourishment of the mother during pregnancy. But other harmful practices, such as smoking cigarettes,
drinking alcohol, or taking drugs, can also depress birth weight. Mothers from certain segments of the
population, such as teenagers and those from very low socioeconomic backgrounds, are especially likely
to give birth to low-birth-weight babies, most likely because of their own poor nourishment or their lack
of access to good prenatal care. But even mothers who are well nourished and well cared for sometimes
have infants who are smaller than is medically desirable. Multiple births (e.g. twins or triplets) usually
result in small babies, as do some illnesses or mishaps, such as a serious traffic accident that causes
damage to the placenta.
Babies born three weeks or more before the end of a 40-week pregnancy (and their due date), who
weigh less than 2500 grams and show other signs of prematurity, such as difficulty with sucking and
breathing, have been referred to as ‘premature’ or ‘preterm’ for many years. Birth weight is the best
available predictor of infant survival and healthy development. Being born early is the primary cause of
low-birth-weight infants.
Consequences for the infant

Most low-birth-weight infants go on to lead normal lives, despite facing many obstacles to healthy
development. To understand why some babies do better than others, researchers divide them into two
groups. Preterm infants are those born several weeks or more before their due date. Although small,
the weight of these babies may still be appropriate in relation to time spent in the uterus. In contrast,
because of delayed foetal growth, small-for-date or small-for-gestational-age infants weigh less than the
10th percentile of the average weight of infants of the same gestational age. Small-for-gestational-age
infants can be preterm, postterm or have suffered growth restriction while in the uterus (Volpi-Wise &
Waller, 2010).
If the degree of prematurity it not too great and weight at birth is not extremely low, the threat to
the wellbeing of the infant is minor. The main treatment may be to keep the infant in hospital to ensure
they gain weight. Of the two types of babies — preterm and small-for-gestational-age — preterm infants
usually have more serious problems. During their first year of life they are more likely to die, catch infec-
tions and show evidence of brain damage. Because their lungs have not had sufficient time to develop
completely, they experience problems taking in sufficient oxygen and may experience respiratory distress
syndrome (RDS). To deal with this problem, preterm infants are often placed in incubators — enclosures
in which temperature and oxygen are controlled — as preterm infants cannot yet regulate their own body
temperature effectively. Air is filtered before it enters the enclosure to help protect the baby from infec-
tion. The immature development of preterm infants makes them unusually sensitive to stimuli in their
environment. By the primary school years (middle childhood), preterm infants can exhibit lower intelli-
gence test scores (affecting school achievement), demonstrate behavioural problems and attention deficits
such as ADHD, have lower motor skill functions, and have difficulties playing with peers (Hutchinson,
DeLuca, Doyle, Roberts, & Anderson, 2013).
Many infants who weigh less than 1500 grams experience difficulties that they do not overcome, which
continue throughout the lifespan. These difficulties become stronger as birth weight decreases. Neurolog-
ical limitations often persist for the first two or three years of life, causing the premature baby to develop
specific motor skills later than other infants. Frequent illness, inattention, low intelligence test scores,
deficits in learning, inattention, and emotional and behavioural problems can persist into childhood and
adolescence (Hutchinson et al., 2013). For example, in many ways a four-month-old baby who is small
due to being born two months preterm resembles a two month old born at full term. Both infants have lived
11 months from conception. Unless they are extremely small, though, most low-birth-weight infants even-
tually develop into relatively normal preschool students (Goldson, 1992; Saigal et al., 2006). Researchers
Darlow, Horwood, Pere-Bracken, and Woodward (2013) interviewed a group of 22- to 23-year-old New
Zealanders who had been born very low birth weight (VLBW). They found individuals resembled normal-
birth-weight individuals in many ways, such as perceived quality of life and behavioural functioning. On
average, the VLBW adults were slightly lighter and shorter and there were lower rates of tertiary educa-
tion. Outcomes were influenced by the presence of disability related to prematurity.
Consequences for parents
Preterm infants are at increased risk of developmental and behavioural problems, and their parents are
at risk of psychological stresses that may lead to compromised parenting (Whittingham, Boyd, Sanders,
& Colditz, 2014). Due to the often significant medical problems in preterm infants, parents often have
less physical contact with their baby and may also have feelings of guilt, helplessness and fear about the
baby’s future — all of which also may impact on parenting (Evans, Whittingham, Sanders, Colditz, &
Boyd, 2014). In addition, preterm infants are more likely to be irritable, vocalise less and give cues that
are more difficult for the parents to interpret, which can also impact on parenting. Supporting parents
through interaction with the neonatal intensive care staff and being involved in daily cares assists in
developing healthy parenting behaviours, and so enhances secure attachment between the mother and
child (Evans et al., 2014). Most parents overcome these difficulties with parenting to develop good rela-
tionships with their infants. In some cases, such as mothers with mental illness or teenage mothers, there
is increased potential for attachment difficulties, and these mothers need additional support and interven-
tions to enhance their parenting.
Interventions for preterm Infants

As previously stated, preterm infants are often placed in incubators — enclosures in which temperature
and oxygen are controlled to help protect the newborn from infection. Doctors used to believe that stimu-
lation could be harmful for such fragile babies. However, now we know that certain kinds of stimulation
given in the right amounts can assist preterm infants develop. Preterm babies can be seen in some inten-
sive care units rocking in suspended hammocks, listening to soft music or the sounds of heartbeats, or
lying on waterbeds used to simulate the gentle motion of the mother’s uterus. It has been found that these
experiences result in more predictable sleep patterns, faster weight gain and greater alertness (Arnon
et al., 2006).
Also, touch has been found to be an important form of stimulation, releasing certain brain chemicals
that support physical growth and reducing the level of stress hormones, which helps with weight gain
(Massaro, Hammad, Jazzo, & Aly, 2009). When preterm infants were massaged gently several times a
day while in hospital, particularly in combination with gentle passive exercise, they gained weight faster,
were discharged earlier, and had improved behavioural and motor responses (Massaro et al., 2009).
Skin-to-skin or ‘kangaroo care’ contact (mentioned in the chapter on biological foundations, genetics,
prenatal development and birth) has also been identified as an intervention promoting the survival and
recovery of preterm infants. In kangaroo care, infants are placed in a vertical position on the mother’s
breasts or the father’s chest, but under the clothing so that the parent’s body functions like a human
incubator providing skin-to-skin contact. This has been found to stimulate oxygenation of the baby’s
body due to more regular and calmer breathing (resulting in deeper and more restful sleep), helps regulate
temperature, improves weight gain, and improves breastfeeding through hormonal stimulation on the
mother’s milk production. Babies also have fewer infections and seem to experience less pain (Bergman,
Carney, & Ludington-Hoe, 2010). Kangaroo care affords the baby gentle stimulation of the senses
through proximity to the parent’s body — hearing (through the parent’s voice), smell, touch (through
skin-to-skin contact) and vision (through being held close to the face in an upright position). In this way,
mothers and fathers feel more confident about caring for their fragile babies and are able to act more
sensitively, affectionately and in a caring manner so that they feel more attached to their preterm infant
(Dodd, 2005).
Nonorganic failure to thrive

Often, we do not think of love and emotional stimulation as necessary for the development of healthy
physical growth; however, they are as vital as food is to healthy development. An infant or a preschool
child who fails to grow at normal rates for no apparent medical reason suffers from a condition called
nonorganic failure to thrive. This is a growth disorder, which is usually present by 18 months of age
and historically was attributed to ‘a lack of parental love’. Australian researchers Bergman and Graham
(2005) describe failure to thrive as:
a term generally used to describe an infant or child whose current weight or rate of weight gain is signif-
icantly below that expected of similar children of the same sex, age and ethnicity . . . Failure to thrive is
a common problem, usually recognized within the first 1–2 years of life but may present at any time in
childhood. It is not a final diagnosis but a description of a physical state, therefore a cause must always
be sought (p. 1).
In some ways the condition resembles malnutrition, as babies’ bodies appear wasted and they exhibit
the behavioural characteristics of being withdrawn and apathetic. However, there is no apparent organic
or biological cause for the baby’s failure to thrive. Failure to thrive children and malnourished children
both develop motor and cognitive skills more slowly than usual; experience higher rates of school failure
and learning disabilities; are more likely to live in disadvantaged circumstances; and are more likely to
have parents who are enduring physical or emotional stress.
Although at one time professionals tended to attribute failure to thrive only to lack of nurturing and
love between parent and child, a more complex picture may be closer to the truth. Bergman and Graham
(2005) state that failure to thrive may have many causes, both physical and psychological, and depend
on both the child and the environment. Consider this pattern. An infant has a genetically quiet, slow-
to-respond temperament, making it more difficult for her mother to establish emotional contact. If the
mother is also experiencing a number of other stresses (low income, illness, or disapproval of the new
baby from others), the relationship between mother and infant is put at risk. A vicious cycle may develop
of poorly timed feedings and ineffective efforts to nurture the infant, who persistently resists the mother’s
love and even her food. Parents in this situation can often benefit from professional help and support in
learning new patterns of interacting with their babies.
Mortality
In the past several decades, health care systems around the world have substantially improved their ability
to keep infants alive. The infant mortality rate, or the proportion of babies who die during the first year
of life, has declined steadily during this century. Infant mortality is an index used around the world to
assess the overall health of a country’s children. The mortality rate refers to the number of deaths in the
first year of a child’s life per 1000 live births. The averages conceal wide differences within society, some
of which are listed in table 4.6. Families with very low incomes are about twice as likely to lose an infant
as are families with middle-level incomes (about 18–20 babies per 1000 versus 9 per 1000). Infants born
to families with lower incomes are much more likely to die than infants born to families with higher
incomes. A significant link between infant mortality and income inequality can be demonstrated across
almost all nations and is also impacted by how income is distributed across individual countries (Tacke
& Waldman, 2013).
TABLE 4.6 Infant mortality in selected nations
Nation Infant mortality (per 1000 live births) under 1 year of age
Mali 75
Afghanistan 66
Ethiopia 41
India 38
China 9
United States 6
Hungary 5
New Zealand 5
United Kingdom 4
France 4
Spain 4
Germany 4
Greece 4
Switzerland 3
Netherlands 3
Italy 3
Israel 3
Ireland 3
Australia 3
Germany 3
Denmark 3
Belgium 3
Austria 3
Sweden 3
Czech Republic 3
(continued)
TABLE 4.6 (continued)
Nation Infant mortality (per 1000 live births) under 1 year of age
Japan 2
Finland 2
Norway 2
Singapore 2
Iceland 2
Source: UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN-DESA Population Division (2015).
On average, infant mortality rates in Australia and New Zealand are two or three times lower than
those in many less developed countries. Even so, infant mortality in Australia and New Zealand actu-
ally is higher than in other developed nations, including Singapore, Japan, Finland, Norway, and Iceland
(UNICEF, 2015). In addition, the infant mortality rate of Indigenous Australians is almost double that of
the population overall (Phillips, Morrell, Taylor, & Daniels, 2014). Cross-cultural investigations of infant
mortality rates in European countries have given further clues about the reasons for the relatively high
Australian, New Zealand and US rates and have suggested ways to improve them. The research over-
whelmingly indicates parents need social supports as much as they need access to basic medical services
and knowledge. For example, most European countries provide pregnant mothers with free prenatal care
and protect women’s right to work during and after pregnancy. Pregnant women get special, generous sick
leave and at least four months of maternity leave with pay and are protected from doing dangerous or
exhausting work (such as night shifts). Policies such as these communicate support for pregnant mothers
and their spouses.
THEORY IN PRACTICE
Supporting breastfeeding mothers

Breastfeeding may be a natural way of provid-
ing nutrition to infants, but that doesn’t mean it
is always an easy process. Lactation consultants
are specially trained nurses or doctors who provide
support and education to women. Mary Mulcahy
is a Midwife and Lactation Consultant in a large
regional hospital in northern Australia. Mary first
trained as a registered nurse before becoming a
midwife and then a Lactation Consultant, a spe-
cialised role that supports and promotes breast-
feeding in a number of ways.
Interviewer: Mary, what made you become a

Lactation Consultant?
Mary: I was working as a midwife and felt it was so important to protect and promote breastfeeding that I
decided to focus on this aspect of care in the maternity setting.
Interviewer: Why is breastfeeding so important?
Mary: It has such beneficial effects for both the mother and the baby, and these effects are not just about
while the breastfeeding is happening — they can have lifelong benefits, which I guess fits with the focus of
this text, as it is all about the whole lifespan. Some of the known benefits for the mother are that she
decreases her likelihood of developing many conditions that can impact on her health throughout her
life, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and some cancers such as breast
and ovarian. Breastfeeding also reduces her risk of developing osteoporosis and helps attachment and
bonding with the baby. The benefits for the baby also can have lifelong effects. Babies who are breastfed
have lower incidences of allergies, ear infections and their risk of SIDS is also reduced. Like the mother
though, they also get lifelong benefits such as less chance of developing diabetes, high blood pressure
and other cardiovascular disease and becoming obese. All of these conditions have such an impact on
our health system today. We also know that the World Health Organization recognises the importance of
breastfeeding and recommends that women breastfeed for six months exclusively and then up to two years
if they are able.
Interviewer: So how did you become a Lactation Consultant?
Mary: You don’t need to be a midwife to be a Lactation Consultant; other professionals such as nurses and
doctors can also become Lactation Consultants. You need to have many clinical hours supporting breast-
feeding women, and then you complete an international exam. Lactation Consultants need to recertify every
five years and provide evidence they are maintaining their knowledge and skills. Lactation Consultants work
in a wide range of settings, such as hospitals, community health centres, doctor practices and midwifery
practices.
Interviewer: So what exactly does a Lactation Consultant do?
Mary: As I said, we protect, promote and support breastfeeding. I see women in the hospital with breast-
feeding problems, such as difficulty attaching the baby, engorgement, mastitis and pain while breastfeeding.
I might see a woman in the surgical ward who is breastfeeding and needs an operation. I can advise on what
drugs are safe to take while breastfeeding, provide information on how to express and store breast milk,
and how to maintain milk supply if the woman can’t breastfeed for a period of time. I also see women who
come back to the hospital as outpatients if they are having problems or provide advice over the telephone.
A big part of my role is also education. We offer education to our women while they are still pregnant so
they can prepare for breastfeeding, but I also provide education for the midwives, nurses and doctors. This
education is an important part of being able to gain Baby Friendly Health Initiative accreditation.
Interviewer: What is the Baby Friendly Health Initiative?
Mary: This is a joint project between UNICEF and WHO that was started in 1991 as a response to high
rates of mortality in young babies and children and low rates of breastfeeding. The initiative aims to give
all babies the best start in life by creating health care environments where breastfeeding is normal and
practices that support and promote breastfeeding are followed. It started as the Baby Friendly Hospital
Initiative but has expanded to include other community health facilities to support ongoing breastfeeding.
Facilities have to meet a number of strict criteria to gain the accreditation. This includes demonstrating
that they follow the WHO ten steps to successful breastfeeding and adhere to the International Code of
Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, developed by WHO. Facilities have to reapply for their accreditation
every three years. The hospital I work at was the first public hospital in Queensland to achieve accreditation
back in 2002 and has been accredited every three years since. This shows that the hospital is committed
to offering the highest standard of care and maintaining a breastfeeding supportive environment.
Lactation consultants must be aware of cultural influences and social norms regarding breastfeeding
in order to best support mothers. For example, some South-east Asian and African cultures withhold
breastmilk for the first 48 hours from birth due to a belief that colostrum (a form of milk with high levels of
fat, protein and antibodies with a yellow colour) is ‘dirty’ or ‘old’ milk (Legese, Demena, Mesfin, & Haile,
2015; Morse, Jehle, & Gamble 1990). Lactation consultants can provide education about the special
benefits of this initially-produced breastmilk. Women in Western countries may feel immense pressure to
breastfeed and view themselves as ‘failures’ if this process is difficult: Lactation consultants can therefore
provide vital emotional support by reassuring mothers that these experiences are normal and can be
managed.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
How do nutrition, socioeconomic status and environment contribute to physical development both early
and later in life? What can parents do to ensure the healthy physical development of their child?
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
While infants are growing physically, they are also thinking — noticing the world around them, organising
their impressions and even remembering their experiences. Although these activities are often called ‘cog-
nitive development’, ‘cognition’ or simply ‘thinking’, psychologists frequently classify them according
to their mental complexity. Attention is the ability to focus these cognitive processes such as perception,
memory and thinking on a particular task. Perception refers to the brain’s immediate or direct organisa-
tion and interpretation of sensations through the senses of vision, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.
Perceptual processes occur when an infant notices that a toy car is the same car no matter which way they
orient it. Through perception, infants develop meaningful experiences. Cognition is the more complex
process and refers to thinking and other mental activities. It includes reasoning, attention, memory, prob-
lem solving and the ability to represent objects and experiences. Infants engage in attention, perception
and cognition, even as newborns. As we will see, the distinction between them is often blurred, with each
process supporting and interacting with the other. What infants see and hear depends on what they think
and vice versa — just as for adults.
4.7 Studying cognition and memory

LEARNING OUTCOME 4.7 Consider how infant cognition can be studied.
How can we know whether an infant, who cannot even talk, is actually noticing sights and sounds, organ-
ising information about them and remembering them? Psychologists have developed two main strategies:
studying changes in infants’ heart rates and studying infants’ tendency to habituate to, or get used to,
novel stimuli.
Arousal and heart rates

One way to understand an infant’s cognition is to measure their heart rate with a small electronic stetho-
scope attached to their chest. The changes in heart rate are taken to signify variations in the baby’s arousal,
alertness and general contentment.
Psychologists who study infants make this assumption because among adults, heart rate varies reliably
with attention and arousal. Typically heart rate slows down, or decelerates, when adults notice or attend to
something interesting but not overly exciting, such as reading the newspaper. If adults attend to something
very stimulating, their heart rates speed up, or accelerate. For example, watching a nurse (Fox, Schmidt,
& Henderson, 2000) draw blood from your own arm often causes your heart rate to speed up. On the
whole, novel or attractive stimuli produce curiosity and a slower heart rate, whereas potentially dangerous
or aversive stimuli produce defensiveness, discomfort and a faster heart rate, at least among adults.
Very young infants, from one day old to a few months old, show similar changes, but we need to
take several precautions when we study their heart rates. For one thing, observations of infants’ attention
should be made when infants are awake and alert, and, as we already pointed out, newborn babies often
spend a lot of time being drowsy or asleep. For another, newborn and very young infants are much more
likely to respond to relatively gentle and persistent stimuli, such as a quiet, continuous sound or a soft
light that moves slowly or blinks repeatedly (Saffran, Werker, & Werner, 2006; Slater & Morrison, 1991).
Many stimuli that lead to deceleration in adults or older children lead to acceleration in infants. Many
one month olds show a faster heart rate at familiar sights, such as their mothers, even though the infants
may look as though they are just staring calmly into space. Despite these problems, however, studies of
heart rate have provided a useful way to measure infants’ attention, perception and memory.
Recognition and habituation

Although infants cannot describe what they remember, they often indicate recognition of particular
objects, people and activities. Familiar people, such as mothers, bring forth a special response in one
year olds, who may coo suddenly at the sight of them, stretch out their arms to them, and even crawl or
walk to them if they know how. Less familiar people, such as neighbours or the family doctor, tend not to
produce responses such as these and may even produce active distress, depending on the age of the infant.
Babies’ responses to the familiar and the unfamiliar offer infant psychologists a second way to under-
stand infant perception and conceptual thought. Psychologists study infants’ visual responses to repetitive
stimuli. Over a period of time, the infants look at the stimulus for less time, and this is believed to repre-
sent some degree of learning. This is characterised as or called habituation by psychologists (Colombo
et al., 2010). Heart rate, attention and respiration rate may all decline, indicating a loss of interest and
habituation. One habituation strategy repeatedly offers a baby a standard, or ‘study’ stimulus — a simple
picture to look at or a simple melody to hear. Like most adults, the baby attends to the study stimulus
carefully at first, but on subsequent occasions gradually pays less attention to it. As this happens, the baby
is said to be habituating to the stimulus. After the baby has become habituated, the investigators present
the original study stimulus along with a few other stimuli. If the baby really recognises the original, they
probably will attend to the others more because they are comparatively novel. Their heart rate will slow
down as well. Learning becomes more efficient with habituation as we are able to focus our attention on
new stimuli and make sense of this new information.
Habituation studies have shown that young babies recognise quite a lot of past experiences. One classic
habituation study found that four-month-old girls recognised a familiar visual pattern among three others
that differed from the original (McCall & Kagan, 1967). Another study found habituation in newborns
occurred when they ‘noticed’ when a light brush on their cheeks changed location, as revealed by changes
in their heart rates (Kisilevsky & Muir, 1984). Sometimes, too, recognition persists for very long periods.
Three-month-old infants can still recognise a picture or a toy two weeks after they first see it, as long
as the objects are presented in a familiar context the second time — a performance that matches adults’
recognition memory (Hayne, Rovee-Collier, & Borza, 1991; Richmond, Colombo, & Hayne, 2007).
Habituation is important not only because it provides a way to study infants’ learning and development
but also because it suggests that infants have memories well before they acquire language. One method
of studying infants’ habituation is to show them a visual pattern; for example, a photo of a baby which
the infant eventually habituates to and then recovers to a new one (such as a photo of a bald man). The
infant should appear to remember the first stimulus and perceive the second one as different and new.
This method of studying habituation is used with newborns and preterm babies.
Recovery, or novelty performance, assesses infants’ recent memory. With the passing of time, infants
have been found to shift from a novelty preference to a familiarity preference; in the previous research
they returned to looking at the familiar photo of the baby (Courage & Howe, 1998; Richmond et al.,
2007). Habituation studies demonstrate that infants detect and remember a wide range of stimuli from
the stimulating events in their environment. This indicates one type of memory — recognition — which
is the simplest form of memory, as all the baby has to do is indicate by looking, kicking or hitting out
whether a new stimulus is identical or similar to the previous one. Apart from the strengths of habituation
research, its conclusions are not clear cut, as it is uncertain what babies actually know about the stimuli
they are responding to. Also, habituation has interesting, though speculative, implications for parent–child
relationships. It suggests that young babies may begin recognising their parents quite quickly — perhaps
as quickly as habituation psychologists have observed in experiments. Parents may not simply be imag-
ining it when they become convinced that their baby responds differently or more fully to them than to
other adults; the child may really be doing so even at just a few weeks of age.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Talk to a parent (preferably of an infant) about when they felt sure of being recognised by their child. Do the
parent’s experiences suggest that infants do remember their parents? Do the child’s signs of recognition
apply only to their primary caregiver, or do they extend to other relatives? Discuss your findings with a
classmate.
4.8 Perception and cognition
LEARNING OUTCOME 4.8 Compare the way infants and adults see and hear.
It might seem as if infants should be better at perception than at cognition, since perception involves
more direct, automatic organisation of sensations and requires less cognitive maturity. This hypothesis
may indeed be true, but the evidence for it is surprisingly ambiguous. What is clear is that whatever
‘thinking’ (or cognition) infants do does not involve language to the extent that it does in children and
adults, simply because infants are only beginning to acquire language skills. If we are to see signs of
infant thinking, furthermore, we should look at those behaviours infants already show, such as directing
their eyes (and ears) or changing their heart rates. If we broaden our notion of cognition to include these
nonverbal signs of thinking, infants show not only perception of their world but cognition about it as
well. This is true even during their first year, before they understand or speak even a single word. In
some situations, even six-month-old infants seem to ‘reason’ and solve problems. To understand this, let
us look at the two most important senses — vision and hearing — and at how infants make use of both
perception and cognition of the world.
Visual thinking
Given children can see almost from birth, what do they notice? What do they perceive? Some of the
earliest research on this question prompted interest because it seemed to show infants, even those just six
weeks old, could discriminate between human faces and abstract patterns and that they looked at faces
longer than at either patterned disks or plain, unpatterned disks (Fantz, 1963; Hunnius & Geuze, 2004).
The researchers presented infants six weeks to six months old with various combinations of these stimuli,
side by side, and observed which object the babies spent the most time looking at. At all ages studied,
the infants showed a clear preference — they stared at a picture of a human face almost twice as long as
at any other stimulus picture. Young infants, it seemed, were inherently interested in people, particularly
faces.
Other studies of visual preferences have qualified this conclusion (Farroni, Csibra, Simion, & Johnson,
2002; Mondloch et al., 1999; Turati, Cassia, Simion, & Leo, 2006; Yonas, 1988). It is not the humanness
of faces infants enjoy looking at, but their interesting contours, complexity and curvature. Newborns are
particularly attracted to contours, or the edges of areas of light and dark. But such edges can be provided
either by the hairline of a parent’s head or by a properly constructed abstract drawing. When infants reach
age two or three months, their perceptual interest shifts to complexity and curvature. At this age, infants
look longer at a pattern of many small squares than at one containing just a few large squares. They also
look longer at curved lines than at straight ones. These qualities too are conveniently provided by human
faces, but not by faces alone (Kellman & Arterberry, 2006).
Object perception
A more complex form of perception — one that is a step closer to cognition — is object constancy, the
perception (or is it a ‘belief’?) that an object remains the same despite constant changes in the sensations
it sends to the eye. A baby’s favourite toy duck never casts exactly the same image on her retina from one
second to the next. The image continually varies depending on its distance and its orientation, or angle
of viewing. Somehow the baby must learn this kaleidoscope of images really refers to only one constant
duck. The duck is always the same but keeps looking different. Perception of an object’s shape as stable,
despite changes in the shape projected on the retina, is called shape constancy.
In general, research on infant perception suggests infants can perceive different surfaces as distinct and
different from backgrounds, even from birth (Johnson, 2011). Consider the development of size constancy,
the perception an object stays the same size even when viewed from different distances. In a typical study,
newborn babies are conditioned to suck on pacifiers at the sight of a cube of some specified size and
placed at some precise distance. During conditioning training, sucking at the sight of cubes of other sizes
or distances is deliberately not reinforced, so the sucking provides an indicator of the baby’s recognition
of an object of a particular size and at a given distance.
Young infants concentrate longer on certain shapes and contours, even when these are not part of a
human face.
Newborns are especially attracted to contours and to patches of light and dark. A few months later, they prefer
complex patterns over simpler ones and curved lines over straight ones. Such changes are one reason (among many)
that a baby’s interest in cot toys waxes and wanes over time.
Later, the conditioned infants are shown several cubes of different sizes and placed at different dis-
tances. The test cubes include one that casts an image exactly the size of the original but is in fact larger
and farther away. Typically, the babies are not fooled by this apparent identity of retinal images. They
prefer to look at the original cube regardless of its distance; that is, they suck on their pacifiers more
vigorously while looking at the original cube than while looking at any substitute. Apparently they know
when an object really is the same size and when it only looks the same size (Slater, 2001). Size and shape
constancy appear to be innate abilities that assist babies to detect a coherent world of objects.
Depth perception
Depth perception refers to a sense of how far away objects are or appear to be and the ability to judge the
distance of objects from each other and from ourselves. Infants begin acquiring this kind of perceptual
skill about as soon as they can focus on objects at different distances (around two or three months of age).
This conclusion is suggested by research developed out of the now classic experiment with the visual cliff
(Gibson & Walk, 1960). In its basic form, the visual cliff consists of a table covered with strong glass
that has a textured surface with coloured squares underneath it (such as that shown in the accompanying
photograph). Part of the textured surface contacts the glass directly, and another part is separated from
it by several centimetres. Visually, then, the setup resembles the edge of a table, but the glass provides
ample support for an infant, even in the dropped-off area. A baby who is placed on it will seem to float
in midair.
On this apparatus, even babies just two months old discriminate between the two sides of the visual
cliff. They find the deep side more interesting, as suggested by the extra time they take to study it. Young
babies show little fear of the deep side, judging either by their overt behaviour or by their heart rates,
which tend to decrease during their investigations of the cliff. This finding implies they are primarily
curious about the cliff, rather than fearful of it. Only babies who have begun crawling or creeping show
fear or wariness of the deep side, such as a baby approaching the top of the stairs.
However, babies old enough to crawl appeared to show significant fear of the visual cliff. Their heart
rates increase markedly and they will not crawl onto the deep side despite coaxing from a parent and the
solid support they feel from the glass. For many years, this behaviour was thought to represent fear of
the ‘drop off’, possibly because their ability to crawl allowed them to perceive distances more accurately.
Perhaps, too, it was thought infants old enough to crawl are also old enough to focus their eyes more
accurately on each side of the cliff, a physical skill that provides further perceptual information about
the difference in distance of the two sides (Adolph, 2000; Campos et al., 2000; Kermoian & Campos,
1988). More recent research suggests that rather than fear, the infants have developed a property known as
‘affordance’ where they learn from their experience as their ability to move improves with both crawling
and walking (Adolph, Kretch, & LoBue, 2014; Kretch & Adolph, 2013).
Infants’ behaviour on a visual cliff reflects both their knowledge and their feelings about depth.
Even babies too young to crawl or creep find the deep side of the cliff more interesting than the shallow side. But only
babies who have begun crawling or creeping show fear or wariness of the deep side.
Anticipation of visual events

Even closer to deliberate cognition than perception of contours, objects, and depth are infants’ anticipa-
tions of visual events that have not yet occurred. Signs of ‘looking forward’ to an interesting sight are
visible by observing an infant’s eye movements carefully. Infant psychologists have developed infrared
video cameras to assist with this task, as well as a modified form of the habituation procedure, called a
visual expectation paradigm. This is designed to elicit (or encourage) eye movements by the child. Typ-
ically, the infant sits in front of a large computer screen, which displays a series of interesting drawings
at different locations (usually simply to the left or right) on the screen. Meanwhile, a video camera films
the baby’s eye movements as they direct their gaze towards the drawings. By linking the camera with the
computer, it is possible to determine whether the child’s eyes change direction following the appearance
of a picture at a new location or actually precede or anticipate its appearance.
This procedure shows clearly infants as young as two months of age do not merely follow, but often
anticipate the locations of pictures — and in this sense develop expectations about the environment that
‘foresee the future’ (Canfield, Smith, Brezsnyak, & Snow, 1997). Their anticipations show a variety of
rule-governed qualities. For example, by one year of age, infants anticipate the location that portrays
numerical sequences — they look for the spot where one more of a set will be displayed rather than a spot
that will display some other number of items (Canfield & Smith, 1996). Their anticipations suggest infants
think about what they see (engage in cognition) rather than simply register what they see automatically
(engage in perception). For example, in the scanning of interesting visual patterns and contours mentioned
earlier, infants may be forming rudimentary generalisations, or rules, about what they see, such as where
to look to see another friendly smile.
All of this comes close to implying infants process visual information in the same ways adults do. But
do they? Later in this chapter, we will look at opposition to the notions of strong continuity from Jean
Piaget, whose ideas about developmental stages of thinking were discussed in the chapter on theories of
development and will be discussed again in later chapters. The research on infants’ visual expectations
does not necessarily point to full continuity between infants’ and adults’ visual processing. In general,
visual expectations become faster and more reliable as infants get older — most likely because, as Piaget
argued, they acquire more knowledge about objects and eventually learn to represent the objects mentally.
Research on visual expectations also shows individual differences among infants, with some anticipating
events faster, more reliably, and at earlier ages than others (Haith, Wass, & Adler, 1997). Even though
this research was done some time ago, more recent research supports these findings and demonstrates the
importance of what stimulus material, such as faces, is used in eliciting this information (Teubert et al.,
2012). So, in at least two ways, infants’ visual thinking resembles other forms of lifespan development:
(1) it shows continuity combined with change; and (2) it shows diversity in developmental patterns and
sequences.
Auditory thinking
Infants respond to sounds even as newborns. But what do they perceive from sounds? What sense do
they make of the sounds they hear? These questions are important, because infants’ ability to discriminate
among sounds makes a crucial difference in their acquisition of language, as discussed later in this chapter.
Localisation of sounds
Infants from birth can locate sounds, as suggested by the fact they orient their heads towards certain
noises, such as a rattle or their mother’s voice (Blackburn, 2013). But they often take much longer to
respond to sounds than older children or adults do. Instead of needing just a fraction of a second, as
adults do, before orienting towards (‘looking at’) a sound that occurs off to one side, full term infants
require an average of two to three seconds to react. Infants born one month preterm require even more
time to respond. These delays may explain why paediatricians and others previously believed newborn
infants could not hear — the sounds they offered to the babies, such as a single handclap, may not have
lasted long enough for the infants to respond.
Although infants can locate sounds, their skill at doing so is somewhat limited. They are more capable
of locating relatively high-pitched sounds, including higher pitch in the human voice, than registering
low-pitched sounds (Stables & Rankin, 2010). This fact has, at times, led experts to suggest infants have
a natural preference for female — that is, high-pitched — human voices. However, studies of voice
preferences have not consistently confirmed this possibility. This is possibly because newborns’ range of
special sensitivity lies well above the pitch of even female voices, and male and female voices are often
more similar in overall quality than gender stereotypes suggest. It is more accurate to say infants prefer
sounds in the middle range of pitches, which is the range most similar to human voices, whether male
or female. Infants display a sense of musical phrasing between four and seven months. By the end of the
first year, infants can recognise the same melody when it is played in different keys (Trehub, 2001).
Coordination of vision and hearing
The localisation of sounds suggests even very young babies coordinate what they see with what they
hear — they seem to use sound to direct their visual gaze. But is this what really happens? As reasonable
as this interpretation seems, the evidence suggests a more complicated story (Morrongiello, 1994). In their
first efforts at turning their heads, babies (aged one month and two months) act as though head turning is
more of a reflex than a search for something to see. The behaviour does not habituate, meaning a young
baby is just as likely to turn towards a sound after many presentations as after the first presentation. Also,
the behaviour occurs even in the dark, when there is no chance to actually see the source of a sound.
Only by age five to six months do these reflexive qualities change. By this age, babies habituate quickly
to repeated presentations and search only in the light — when there is something to see. So in these ways,
hearing and vision become coordinated, but it takes several months of learning for the change to occur.
Intermodal perception
Babies perceive information from a range of sensory systems in a consistent manner. For example, they
can attend to both the face and voice of a speaking person or to the sound and sight of a toy rattle. Inter-
modal perception refers to the way these different sensations are combined to form perception of unitary
events or objects. Intermodal perception combines information from more than one sensory system. For
example, we know that lip movements are closely coordinated to the sound of a voice and that the patter
of footsteps signals the approach of someone. Infants are able to relate what they have learnt about an
object using one sensory mode with what they have learnt about it using another. Intermodal perception is
crucial for perceptual development — as this variety of stimulation of the senses assists infants in selec-
tively attending to and making sense of their world. It also assists the development of language and social
processing and is vital for development and perceptual responsiveness. These perceptual skills continue
to grow throughout infancy.
Remember back to the first few days of life, when infants can turn in the general direction of a sound,
which suggests that infants expect sight and sound to go together. Research has shown that infants receive
input from different sensory systems in a unified way by detecting amodal sensory systems; that is, infor-
mation that is not specific to one modality but overlaps two or more sensory systems. For example, in the
case of attending to the face and voice of a speaking person, visual and auditory information is conveyed
simultaneously with rate, duration, rhythm and intensity of the voice and face. Infants can successfully
combine this information from more than one sense or mode, which significant research has demonstrated
(Bahrick, Hernandez-Reif, & Flom, 2005; Crassini & Broerse, 1980; Lickliter & Bahrick, 2000).
Categorical thought — the reversal shift

The coordination of visual and auditory perception makes possible forms of deliberate learning that are
definitely cognitive and not simply perceptual. One series of classic research studies used the sound of
human speech to reward nine-month-old infants for learning complex visual discriminations (Coldren &
Colombo, 1994). In the first part of the studies (which we will call phase 1), infants viewed pairs of
drawings on a computer screen. The images differed randomly in at least two dimensions at the same
time, such as shape and colour. The experimenters chose one of the dimensions (such as colour) and
reinforced one of the ‘values’ of that dimension (e.g. they chose red to be reinforced rather than blue). If
the baby looked at the correct value of the dimension (in this case, any one of the red shapes), they were
reinforced with a brief recording of adult speech. Otherwise they received no reinforcement. In essence,
the baby had to figure out the ‘correct’ figure to look at, but without being told. Figure 4.3 illustrates the
procedure for phase 1.

Under these conditions, all the nine-month-old infants learnt to look at the correct figures. So far the
experiment resembled a traditional example of operant conditioning, like the examples described in the
chapter on theories of development — a behaviour (or operant) was reinforced and therefore began hap-
pening more often. But the experimenters then introduced a second phase of the experiment that altered
this interpretation. In phase 2, they changed the rule required to earn a reinforcement. For some infants,
the rule underwent what the experimenters called a reversal shift. In a reversal shift, reinforcement still
occurred for the same underlying dimension, but took on a new ‘value’. For example, colour was still
rewarded regardless of shape, but it was now blue colour instead of red colour. For other infants, rein-
forcement underwent a nonreversal shift, meaning it became attached to an entirely new dimension. For
example, all triangles were now rewarded, regardless of colour. Figure 4.3 illustrates phase 2, a reversal
shift, and phase 2, a nonreversal shift.
FIGURE 4.3 Reversal shift and nonreversal shift compared

Throughout the experiments, the infant sees figures that differ according to at least two dimensions
at the same time. In this example, the dimensions are shape and colour. Each dimension takes on
one of two values.
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 2
Reversal shift Nonreversal shift
R R R
R R R
Here, the infant must In phase 2 with a reversal In phase 2 with a nonreversal
discriminate the dimension shift, the infant must still shift, the infant must
of colour. Red shapes are discriminate the same discriminate a new dimension
rewarded but blue are dimension, but a different in order to be rewarded — in
not — provided that the value of the dimension. this case the dimension of
child looks at the red ones. Colour is still rewarded, but shape. Triangles are now
now it is the colour blue rewarded, regardless of
R = rewarded instead of red. colour.
The subtle difference between a reversal and a nonreversal shift provided a way to test whether the
infants responded to phase 1 of the experiment in terms of the underlying dimensions of the problem or
responded simply in terms of the specific sensations they perceived. If they responded in terms of the
dimensions, a reversal shift should have proven easier for them during the second phase of the exper-
iment. In this case it would have been as if they had initially said to themselves, ‘This is a problem
about colour identification, and I just have to figure out which colour to identify’. When some of the
infants encountered a reversal shift, it simply confirmed their hypothesis, and they were left with the rel-
atively minor task of figuring out which colour had now become the rewarded colour. When other infants
encountered a nonreversal shift, however, they faced the more difficult task of determining not only which
new dimension was now being rewarded (‘Is it shape? Size?’) but also the specific expression of the
dimension. The reversal shift ought to have been easier, but the advantage should have occurred only if
the infants actually responded in terms of underlying dimensions. If they learnt as operant conditioning
theory predicts — by responding to the specific sensations presented to them, reversal and nonrever-
sal shifts should have proved equally challenging. In this case, it would be as though the infants were
oblivious to the underlying dimensions and were simply hunting for specific correct answers.
What actually happened? The reversal shift proved significantly easier for nine-month-old infants to
learn (Coldren & Colombo, 1994), suggesting the infants thought about this problem in terms of under-
lying, abstract categories. The result would not be remarkable if it occurred with older children or adults;
in fact, a long history of research about reversal and nonreversal shifts documents our tendency to solve
problems by seeking underlying cognitive structures to them (Gholson, 1994; Kendler & Kendler, 1962).
What makes the result important is the young age of the children participating. Cognition, in the sense of
deliberate reasoning, seems to be continuous even from infancy — rather than something that emerges
only later in age.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Why do you think intermodal stimulation is critical in developing infant’s understanding of their physical
and social worlds? Can you give some examples? How could parents assist in the development of their
infant’s intermodal perception abilities?
4.9 Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development

LEARNING OUTCOME 4.9 Explain the changes in thinking and learning during infancy.
The two preceding sections highlighted continuities between infants and adults’ cognitive abilities. Infants
can perceive object constancies, anticipate what they are about to see, locate sounds, and categorise cer-
tain experiences — all abilities they share with adults. Most of the research cited is framed by some
version of information-processing theory, the approach described in the chapter on theories of develop-
ment that emphasises the importance of organising specific input so it becomes more meaningful, such
as a computer is programmed to do.
However, infants obviously do not think ‘just like adults’. Comparatively, they use little or no language
to assist in solving problems. Often, infants appear ‘slow’ and error prone while figuring things out,
demonstrating they learn by trial and error learning. Infants’ skills are still limited and seem a world
away from the cognitive behaviours of older children or adults. Cognitive development explains how
infants progress from the limited and dissociated store of knowledge they possess at birth to the concept-
rich, well ordered store of knowledge we, as adults, possess. Cognition is the vehicle by which infants
become intellectually accomplished adults. How do they transform their developing infant skills into
the smooth expertise of an adult? The mental activity of attending, perceiving, remembering, reasoning,
planning and problem solving, known as ‘cognition’, results from the interaction of biological maturation
and cumulative experience. As infants get older, their toys tend to involve more complex motor skills —
as well as language and make-believe — and this assists cognitive development. These trends are reflected
in table 4.7. However, in order for experiences to make their mark on the infant they must first register
on the infant’s sensory receptors and then be transformed into the infant’s perceptions of the world. How
does this transformation begin?
Stages of sensorimotor intelligence

Jean Piaget, whose approach was described in the chapter on theories of development, offers one of the
most complete, comprehensive descriptions and explanations of cognitive development over the lifespan
(Piaget, 1963). Piaget stated that the ability to understand develops gradually as the child grows. Piaget
concluded cognitive development involves changes of growth in the amount of information as well as
differences in the manner of thinking. According to Piaget, infants begin life thinking in terms of sensory
perceptions and motor actions, by doing things to and with the objects around them. Piaget called this
activity sensorimotor intelligence. For Piaget, knowledge comes from action. Piaget conceived of knowl-
edge as a process. To know something means to act on that thing with the action being either physical
or mental or both. Knowledge is seen as a process or repertoire of actions, rather than as stored infor-
mation. Jean Piaget identified stages during infancy that mark significant developments in sensorimotor
intelligence, as summarised in table 4.7.
In general, the stages of infant cognition show two trends. First, infants show a trend towards symbolic
thinking. Instead of needing to handle a toy car to understand it, an infant becomes increasingly able to
visualise, mentally represent or think about a car without actually touching or seeing one. This ability
becomes very strong by the end of the first two years of life. In Piaget’s estimation, it helps mark the end
of infancy and the beginning of the next stage of preoperational thinking. Infants can work out solutions
with mental combinations rather than by trial and error, and they engage in symbolic play. Changes in
infants’ toys reflect this developmental trend, as is seen in table 4.7. Research (Lindsey & Colwell, 2003)
has shown that, because an infant’s perceptions and cognitions come from their experiences, infants reared
in a bland, restricted and nonresponsive environment are less likely to be intellectually competent than
infants reared in a diversified, responsive world.
TABLE 4.7 Selective features of infant cognition, according to Piaget
Stage Age in months Characteristics

1. Early reflexes Birth–1 A reliance on inborn reflexes to know the environment. Actions
are primarily based on reflexes as well as responses to sights,
sounds and grasping. Toys include mobiles and rattles.
2. Primary circular 1–4 Reflexes are accommodated or modified to fit new objects and
reactions experiences. Infants intentionally look and listen to sights and
sounds and coordinate their senses (e.g. sucking, grasping and
repeating actions focused on the infant’s own body).
3. Secondary circular 4–8 Repeated, learnt actions are focused on objects; actions are
reactions used as a means towards an end and repeated actions are
reinforcing (e.g. shaking a rattle and early signs of object
permanence). Toys include squeeze objects, plastic cups and
boxes with lids.
4. Coordination of 8–12 Deliberate combinations of previously acquired actions (or
secondary schemes schemes), infants imitate behaviour, e.g. blowing bubbles, using
events to obtain a goal and making the A-not-B error of
searching for a toy in one location (A), even after seeing it
moved to another location (B). Toys include pots and pans,
stuffed animals and soft balls.
5. Tertiary circular 12–18 Systematic application of previously acquired actions (or
reactions schemes); well-organised, intentional investigation of novel
objects — always overt. Solve problems through trial and error.
Toys include cloth and cardboard books.
6. Symbolic thought 18–24 Final, transitional stage of sensorimotor thought. First mental
representation of objects; true object permanence; deferred
imitation; can solve problems and establish solutions with
mental combinations. Engage in symbolic play. Toys include
fake telephones, 5–10 piece puzzles, cars, boats, trains, water
equipment, large dolls and picture books with simple words.
Source: Adapted from Piaget (1963).
Second, infants form cognitive structures that Piaget called schemes (or schemas or schemata). In rela-
tion to infants, schemes are psychological structures, or organised patterns of actions or concepts that
help the baby to make sense of and adapt to the environment. Schemes develop well before infants can
represent objects or events through language or motor skills. A newborn baby’s initial grasping motions
constitute an early scheme, as do their earliest sucking motions. Eventually, internal, mental concepts
and ideas develop out of such patterns of behaviour. Piaget later called cognitive structures and patterns
that develop in early and middle childhood operations or systems, which were mental representations that
obey logical roles (Miller, 1993; Rouselle, Palmers, & Noël, 2004).
Piaget argued sensorimotor intelligence develops by means of two complementary processes, assimi-
lation and accommodation. Assimilation consists of interpreting new experiences and incorporating this
knowledge into existing schemes. A baby who is used to sucking on a breast or bottle may use the same
action on whatever new, unfamiliar objects they encounter, such as a rubber ball or their own fist. They
are taking in and understanding events by matching the perceived features of these events or objects to
already existing schema. Accommodation consists of modifying existing schemes to fit new experiences.
After sucking on a number of new objects, an infant may modify this action to fit the nature of each new
object; they may chew on some new objects (their sweater) but not on others (a plastic cup). They have
altered and modified their existing schemes to incorporate new knowledge that does not exactly fit.
The interplay of assimilation and accommodation leads to new schemes and eventually to the infant’s
ability to symbolise objects and activities. Let’s see how Piaget believed this transition occurs.
Stage 1: early reflexes — using what you are born with (0–1 month)
According to Piaget, cognitive development begins with reflexes, those simple, inborn behaviours that
all normal babies can produce at birth. As it happens, the majority of such reflexes remain just that —
reflexes — for the individual’s entire life. For example, sneezing patterns and blinking responses look
nearly the same in adults as they do in infants. But a few are notable for their flexibility, chiefly sucking,
grasping, and looking. These behaviours resemble reflexes at birth, but they are modified in response to
experiences (such as sucking on the mother’s breast, on toys and on the child’s own hand). Babies suck
reflexively when their mouths are stimulated. They also respond to sights, sounds and objects in the exter-
nal environment. The infant modifies and elaborates on these reflexes (assimilates and accommodates)
as a result of experience. This behaviour becomes a more complex schema by the end of this stage. For
example, initially the infant will suck only when the mouth is stimulated. But, by the end of this stage, the
infant actively searches for the nipple/bottle even when the face is not stimulated. Reflexes give infants a
repertoire from which to develop more complex skills.
Stage 2: primary circular reactions — modifying what you are born with
(1–4 months)
After beginning to modify their early reflexes, the baby begins to build and differentiate action schemes
rapidly. In fact, within a month or so they sometimes repeat them endlessly for no apparent reason.
Because of its repetitive quality, Piaget calls this behaviour a circular reaction. Reflexive schemes incor-
porate experience. Babies intentionally look at and listen to sights and sounds around them. They begin
to coordinate their senses and use their eyes to direct grasping motions. The infant repeatedly engages in
behaviours because of the stimulation the action provides. For example, the infant will repeatedly suck
their thumb — not as a reflex but as an intention. The baby finds such behaviour rewarding and repeats
their actions. At this point, the circular reactions are called primary circular reactions, because they still
focus on the baby’s own body and movements. Waving an arm repeatedly constitutes a primary circular
reaction; so does kicking again and again.
During this period, the young infant practises their developing schemes widely and the behaviours
rapidly become less reflexive. The baby may shape their mouth differently for sucking their fist and for
sucking their blanket. In this sense they begin to recognise the objects around them and implicitly start to
remember previous experiences with each type of object. But this memory has an automatic, or object-
focused quality, unlike the large variety of more conscious memories children have later in life.
Stage 3: secondary circular reactions — making interesting sights last
(4–8 months)
As they practise their first schemes, young infants broaden their interests to include objects and events
immediately around them. For example, shaking their arm no longer captivates a baby’s attention for its
own sake when they have become too skilled at arm shaking for it to do so. Now, a behaviour such as this
becomes useful rather than interesting. At this stage, a baby may accidentally discover shaking their arm
will make a mobile spin over their head in their cot, create an interesting noise in a toy they happen to
be holding, or make parents smile with joy. In all these cases, shaking an arm becomes a means to other
ends. Once primitive means are discovered, a baby will repeat a useful procedure endlessly to sustain and
study the interesting results (e.g. consistently shaking a rattle).
To differentiate this new orientation from the earlier one, Piaget called such repetitions secondary
circular reactions or repetitions motivated by external objects and events. Secondary circular reactions
create two parallel changes in the child’s motor schemes. On the one hand, the infant uses exist-
ing schemes even more widely than before. They try to suck on more and more of the toys that
come their way. On the other hand, they begin to discover that schemes can be combined to produce
interesting results. They may happen to reach towards an object (one scheme) and discover doing so
makes it possible to grasp the object (another scheme). At first, the combination occurs accidentally,
but once it does occur, the baby can produce the new combination of schemes deliberately on future
occasions.
Stage 4: combined secondary circular reactions — deliberate combinations
of means and ends (8–12 months)
During this stage, instead of establishing connections among schemes by accident, the infant intentionally
chooses to use a scheme as a means towards an end. In stages 1 and 2, they may have developed separate
schemes for opening their mouth and for chewing food. In stage 3, they may have accidentally discovered
the first scheme is a means towards the other; that is, mouth opening is a means towards eating. Now,
the baby starts using this means–end connection purposefully. Infants use events to obtain a goal. They
will use one scheme (or behaviour pattern) to make another scheme possible. For example, the infant will
push one object aside to grasp another.
In this substage, retrieving hidden objects is evi-
dence infants are acquiring object permanence — a
belief objects exist separately from their own actions
and continue to exist even when they cannot see them.
By stage 4, infants will look for an object briefly, even
after it disappears. Naturally, their searching skills
leave something to be desired, so it helps if the hid-
den object is actually partly visible and within easy
reach. For example, a toy duck’s tail should stick out
from under a blanket if that is where the toy is hid-
den. The first signs of symbolic thought are present,
as the infant must have some idea of the toy duck if
they are going to bother searching for it. But aware-
ness of object permanence is not complete, because
infants make the A-not-B search error. This is when
an infant reaches for an object several times in a first
hiding place (A), sees it moved to a second place (B),
but will still search for it in the first hiding place (A).
As a result of this behaviour, Piaget concluded infants
do not have a clear image of the object as persisting
when hidden from view.
At this stage, too, the infant still lacks alternatives
to the single-purpose, fragmented schemes they have
developed so far. As they encounter the limitations
of these schemes, they gradually modify and expand

(or accommodate, as Piaget would say) their initial Playing peek-a-boo becomes popular with babies as
they approach their first birthday and acquire object
schemes that connected means with ends. The infant permanence.
may learn to open their mouth at the sight of some
foods but not others. They may also add other behaviours to the mouth-opening scheme, such as point-
ing to favourite foods (thereby turning the original scheme into a more general food-requesting scheme).
Also, the infant now imitates behaviour that is not ordinarily a part of their own actions. At this stage, the
imitations are only approximations and the precise behaviour is rarely imitated. As these accommodations
occur, the infant moves to the next stage of cognition.
Stage 5: tertiary circular reactions — active experimentation with objects
(12–18 months)
At stage 5, the infant deliberately varies the schemes for producing interesting results, or ends. Infants
begin to distinguish between themselves and the world. Previously, at stage 4, they could intentionally
combine schemes, but only one pair at a time and only if an appropriate situation for using the combi-
nation occurred. Now, in dealing with a new object, the baby runs through a repertoire of schemes in a
trial and error effort to learn about the object’s properties. Piaget called the variations tertiary circular
reactions, meaning third-level circular reactions, to distinguish them from the simpler forms of repetition
that dominate the earlier stages.
Piaget suggested infants developing the ability to experiment leads to more advanced understanding
of object permanence. Infants look in several locations to find a hidden toy — displaying an accurate
A–B search. Infants confidently display an awareness objects continue to exist in hidden locations even
after they have left the location.
However, these variations in behaviour are still organised largely by trial and error, rather than by
systematic plans. For example, if given a rubber ball, babies may try dropping it from different heights
onto different objects. The infant is also very much interested in novel objects and events. Their approach
is very much dominated by a sense of ‘let’s see what happens if . . . ’ But, regardless of how delighted
infants are with the results of variations in their behaviour, they will not think of varying the dropping
conditions carefully or experimentally. Such actions require planning and an ability to represent objects
and situations the infant has not developed yet.
Stage 6: the first symbols — representing objects and actions
(18–24 months)
At this stage, which is a transitional period between the sensorimotor and the preoperational stages, the
motor schemes the child previously explored and practised overtly begin to occur symbolically. For the
first time, the infant can begin to envision, or imagine, actions and their results without actually having
to try them out beforehand. Infants can now mentally represent objects or events which are not present.
They are able to solve problems through mental combinations, rather than by solving them with trial and
error. For example, to obtain an object in a closed matchbox, the infant mentally calculates the box must
be slid open and does so immediately. The infant does not shake, prod or squeeze the box in a trial and
error fashion, as they would have done at an earlier stage.
Consider a stage 6 child who wants a favourite toy barely out of reach on a high shelf. A small stool
they have played with numerous times is near the shelf. How will they get the toy? Earlier in infancy,
the infant might simply have stared and fussed, eventually either giving up or crying in protest. At this
later stage, behaviour is quite different. The infant may survey the situation, observe the stool and pause
briefly. Then, with a purposeful air, they might place the stool under the toy, climb up and retrieve the
toy. What is important here is the lack of false starts or, conversely, the presence of only a single, correct
attempt. The infant might succeed — even though they have never used the stool before to reach high-
placed objects. According to Piaget, trial and error is no longer the method of choice. Now, the infant
tries out solutions mentally to envision the results.
Skill with mental representations makes true object permanence possible. A child at the end of infancy
will search for a toy even after it has been fully hidden and even if it was hidden without them witnessing
the act of hiding. If a ball disappears behind a bookcase, they will go around the other side of the bookcase
to look for it. They will search appropriately, even though they cannot know in advance exactly where the
ball will turn up. In the ball-and-blanket situation described earlier, the child can now play more complex
games of hide-and-seek. They usually look under the blanket where the toy disappeared first. If they fail
to find it there, they may search under any and all other blankets and sometimes even under the table and
in the experimenter’s pockets. Relatively extensive search is made possible in part by the infant’s new
conviction toys and other objects have a permanent existence that is independent of their own activities
with them. In other words, they do not just disappear.
All of these behaviours depend on the infant’s ability to form and maintain representations (thoughts
or memories) of relevant experiences, which later become available for expression again. The infant is
also capable of deferred imitation — meaning they can reproduce an event that occurred earlier in the
day, or store it in their mind. As we will see, representational skill proves crucial in early childhood.
It contributes to children’s play, because play involves re-enactment of previous experiences and roles.
At this stage, infants engage in symbolic play. For example, a lettuce leaf on a plate now represents a
battleship at sea. Representational skill makes language development possible. The child must learn to use
words and expressions when they are appropriate and not only when they first hear them. Representational
skill also makes the notion of self-concept feasible. Eventually, the infant realises they have a (relatively)
permanent existence that is akin to the permanence of the things and people in their life (such as toys,
pet dogs and parents/guardians).
Assessment of Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development

Piaget’s theory has stimulated considerable study of infant cognition from the 1960s through to the present
day. While research has confirmed the main features of the theory, many studies suggest infants display a
variety of cognitive understandings earlier than Piaget expected. Research has shown the timing of object
permanence, deferred imitation and problem solving all occur sooner than Piaget thought. A limitation of
Piaget’s theory was that he relied on the physical abilities of grasping and manipulating, but we now know
there are other ways to assess infants’ understanding — such as visual attention, as previously discussed
(Moll & Tomasello, 2010). However, this does not contradict the order of development as suggested by
Piaget. Two main criticisms of the theory and a sample of the research they have inspired follow.
Motor versus cognitive limitations
As noted above, some infant psychologists question Piaget’s account because they believe his stages
confuse a child’s motor abilities with cognitive or thinking abilities (Meltzoff, Kuhl, & Moore, 1991;
Moore & Meltzoff, 2008). For example, object permanence implicitly depends on a child’s capacity to
conduct a manual search: to walk around the room, lift and inspect objects. Researchers have argued
younger infants may be deficient in classic object permanence, as they lack motor skills or at best use
them clumsily.
To test this possibility, psychologists have designed new tests of object permanence that require only a
visual search rather than motor coordination (Baillargeon, 1993, 2004). In one experiment, infants were
habituated to (repeatedly shown) the sight of a toy car sliding down an inclined track from the left and
then rolling off to the right, as shown in figure 4.4.
In the middle of this track was a small screen concealing the middle portion of the track and obstructing
a view of the car for part of its trip along the track. During habituation, the babies watched the car
slide down the ramp, behind the screen and out the other side. Between car trips, the screen was lifted
temporarily to show there was nothing behind it that might affect the car’s movements.
After the infants were used to seeing the setup and watching the car disappear and reappear predictably,
they were shown one of two test events. In the first event, the screen was lifted and a toy mouse was placed
directly behind the tracks. The screen was lowered, and the car made its usual run down the ramp and
out the right side of the screen. This was called the possible test event. The second test event was the
same, except the toy mouse was placed directly on the tracks. Then the screen was lowered. The car was
released; it disappeared behind the screen and, surprise, it reappeared out the right side of the screen
anyway, even though the mouse had been placed on the tracks. This was called the impossible test event.
In reality, the experimenters secretly removed the toy mouse before the car could hit it, using a hole
concealed in the back of the test apparatus.
Under these conditions, infants as young as three-and-a-half months looked significantly longer at the
impossible test event than at the possible test event. The most plausible interpretation is the impossible
event violated assumptions the infants made about the permanence of objects — they seemed to assume
the toy mouse should cause a collision, presumably because they believed it continued to exist behind the
screen, even when they could not see it. They also seemed to assume objects retain their usual physical
properties even when invisible (e.g. the car could not simply pass through the mouse because it was
hidden). Wang, Baillargeon, and Paterson (2005) emphasised that infants will look longer at unexpected
events which involve hidden objects. However, researchers tend to query what the looking preferences of
infants actually tell us about what they really know and understand.
FIGURE 4.4 Evidence of object permanence in infants

First, the infant becomes habituated to watching a car roll down a track, behind a screen, and out
the other side. In one test condition, a toy mouse is placed behind the tracks but is hidden while the
car rolls past. In the other test condition, the mouse is placed on the tracks but is secretly removed
after the screen is in place so that the car seems to roll through the mouse. Infants stare longer at
the second impossible event, suggesting they already believe in object permanence.
Habituation event: First, the child is shown an inclined track with a screen that can be raised and lowered.
She becomes habituated to watching a car roll down the track, behind the screen, and out the other side.
(a)
Test events
Possible event: In one test condition, a toy mouse is placed behind the tracks,
but is hidden while the car rolls past.
(b)
Impossible event: In the other test condition, the mouse is placed on the tracks, but is secretly
removed after the screen is in place, so that the car seems to roll through the mouse.
(c)
Source: Baillargeon (1991).
This evidence of early object permanence does not mean young infants are ready to reason about hid-
den objects in the ways older children or adults might do. If a preschool child experienced the experiment
described, they would very likely suspect a trick of some sort and consciously dwell on what this trick
might be. The three- or four-month-old infant has significant development to undergo before being capa-
ble of comprehending this level of thinking. By requiring manual search skills, Piaget’s tasks may have
delayed children from displaying their pre-existing object permanence until rudimentary reasoning skills
became established. This is why Piaget asserted full object permanence (part of stage 6 as described
earlier in the chapter) involves conscious problem solving, or a deliberate search for the object.
The effects of memory
Considerable evidence suggests memory affects infants’ performance at various cognitive tasks more
than Piaget realised. Imposing delays of only a few seconds when an infant searches for an object dimin-
ishes the success rate of younger infants substantially more than it lowers the success rate of older ones
(Baillargeon, 1993, 2004). This discrepancy may signal younger infants’ difficulties attending to and
retaining relevant cues about the object to be searched for. Younger infants seem to remember less of
what they are looking for.
These trends imply infants may have a notion of object permanence, but find it demanding remembering
the relevant facts needed to conduct an object search (such as where and when the infant last saw an object
and whether the object was actually moved). Infants may use memory when they can and supplement it
with Piagetian motor schemes whenever necessary (Bahrick, Gogate, & Ruiz, 2002; Case, 1992; Horst,
Oakes, & Madole, 2005). Even if an infant cannot recall where a toy is hidden, they can re-enact the
means they used to find it in the past. This multiple strategy resembles the way adults sometimes search
for a lost object — if they cannot recall where they left it, they may retrace their steps back to when they
saw it last (in essence, using an action scheme).
Motor skill and memory limitations can affect the appearance of competence in infants as well as in
adults. By establishing infants are susceptible to such limitations, the research strengthens the idea of
continuity in development (i.e. infants resemble adults) and weakens the idea of change (i.e. the notion
infants are somehow different from adults). It also suggests the belief in object permanence that Piaget
identified may have a different meaning for younger and older infants. For example, to a three or four
month old, an object might be perceived as anything that remains visible when tracked with the eyes;
whose movements meet reasonable expectations when tracked. In comparison, an 18 month old may
consider an object to be whatever becomes visible when sought with the hands or feet, which also meets
expectations to reappear after a reasonable physical search. We will see that later in life, the concept of
an object changes meanings again — sometimes even referring to thoughts rather than to things.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Between about eight and twelve months of age, many babies show distress at separations from their
primary caregiver. Some psychologists suggest the distress is a partial result of an infant’s developing
belief in object permanence. Do you think this might be true? How might you explain your position to a
new parent who is concerned about their baby’s distress?
4.10 Behavioural learning

LEARNING OUTCOME 4.10 Describe the roles that conditioning and imitation play in infants’ learning.
In addition to the cognitively oriented research described in the preceding sections, other research
on infant learning has attempted to identify specific behaviours of infants and assess the causes and
consequences of these behaviours.
This is the point of view of behaviourism, described in the chapter on theories of development as
well as earlier in this chapter (when we looked at heart rate and habituation studies). Framing infants’
behaviours as examples of conditioning and of imitation has helped improve understanding about how
they learn. Learning is a change in behaviour that results from experience. As we have seen, infants enter
the world with in-built capacities that enable them to learn. They learn through two basic behavioural
forms of learning: classical and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning
Innate, voluntary reflexes make classical conditioning learning possible for the infant. Classical
conditioning is a form of learning in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that leads to
a reflexive response. Once the baby’s nervous system makes the connection between the two stimuli, the
new stimulus will produce the behaviour by itself. First identified by Pavlov, this type of conditioning
has important implications for infants.
It helps them understand the events that usually occur in unison in their everyday world. As a result,
infants anticipate what will happen next as the environment becomes more predictable and ordered. The
main feature of classical conditioning is stimulus substitution. This occurs when a stimulus that does not
naturally elicit a particular response is paired with a stimulus that does evoke this set response. Presenting
the two stimuli together repeatedly results in the second stimulus taking on the properties of the first. In
effect, the second stimulus is substituted for the first. For example, a mother may gently stroke her baby’s
forehead each time she feeds it. Eventually, the mother begins to notice every time the baby’s forehead
is stroked, the baby also makes sucking movements and actions. The infant has been classically condi-
tioned. The infant has paired the neutral stimulus of forehead stroking with the unconditioned stimulus of
breast milk, leading to the unconditioned response of sucking. After repeated pairings, forehead stroking
becomes the conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response of sucking.
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which an organism acts or operates on the environment
through spontaneous, voluntary behaviour. The reinforcement they receive serves to increase the proba-
bility the behaviour will occur again. For example, when an infant participates in psychological research
using operant conditioning, they get a reward for performing some simple action or set of actions. By
turning their head, they may get to see an interesting toy or picture. In this case, the positive reinforcement
is viewing the interesting toy. Head turning becomes the learnt, or conditioned, behaviour. Such actions
tend to be performed more often than actions that are not reinforced.
Infants are quite capable of learning through operant conditioning. Infants will learn to blink more
frequently if doing so causes a pleasant voice to speak or a melody to play. One reason infants seem to
learn to breastfeed so easily is the strong reinforcement the behaviour brings — via the mother’s milk
and being held closely. An infant who learns to cry in a certain way that is likely to attract their parents’
immediate attention is displaying operant conditioning.
In the first few weeks, operant conditioning is limited to sucking and head turning — due to an infant’s
ability to control these behaviours. For example, a newborn may learn to suck on their hands for longer
periods of time; if doing so yields a tiny amount of sugar water delivered through a tube in the corners
of their mouths, the sweet liquid reinforces the sucking responses in newborn babies.
As infants grow and develop, operant conditioning includes more responses and stimuli. A six or nine
month old will babble for longer and more frequently if parents smile and express praise when they do
so. A 12 month old will learn to wave goodbye sooner and more frequently if this behaviour is reinforced
with praise or encouragement. A two year old may learn to scream at their older sibling when they want a
toy the older child has if this screaming has been inadvertently reinforced (e.g. if the action has previously
caused the older child to abandon the toy or summoned a parent who falsely assumed the older child was
responsible for the screaming).
Of course, these are primarily the immediate, short-term effects of reinforcement and they sometimes
differ from the long-term effects. An example parents might consider important involves crying. Will
picking up an infant to quiet them from crying actually reinforce this behaviour in the longer term?
Conditioning theory follows that it would, but most research on the impact of crying has found a fast,
sensitive response to crying actually leads to less crying (Evanoo, 2007; St. James-Roberts, Harris, &
Messer, 1993). Quieting a crying infant is not a reliable tactic in the short term though. It may take
several months for an infant to respond to being comforted as they cry. This delay can cause parents
concern about whether or not they are spoiling their child by responding to crying episodes.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
How do the processes of classical and operant conditioning demonstrate an infant’s learning capabilities?
As a behaviour management strategy, conditioning has been used as a means of teaching babies to
sleep. The question Can babies be taught to sleep? has been a well-researched and hotly debated issue
for several years. Conditioning, in the form of controlled crying, has become an essential parenting tool —
enabling many parents to survive the first few months of their baby’s life. Controlled crying (also known
as controlled comforting and sleep training) is a widely advocated approach of teaching babies to sleep
and settle on their own. It involves leaving the infant to cry for increasingly longer periods of time before
offering comfort.
This approach can polarise parents, researchers and developmental researchers. Australian research
(Hiscock & Wake, 2002) featured in the British Medical Journal has added to this debate. Community
child health researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s
Hospital identified 156 mothers of infants aged 6–12 months with severe sleep problems. In the interven-
tion group, mothers received advice on the use of controlled crying methods. Mothers were also given a
sleep management plan, as well as information about normal sleep patterns in infants and how to man-
age sleep problems. In contrast, mothers in the control group received the information on normal sleep
patterns, but did not receive advice on how to manage infant sleep problems; nor did they receive a sleep
plan. Findings from this research revealed that the intervention significantly reduced infant sleep problems
and symptoms of maternal depression over two months. Furthermore, the intervention was acceptable to
mothers, involved minimal family disruption, and reduced the need for mothers to seek alternative help
for their infant’s sleep. Further research was conducted to review children who received such sleep inter-
ventions five years later, and showed that there was no difference in those who received the interventions
and those who did not in terms of child mental health, sleep habits, or parent–child relationships. This
has been used to suggest behavioural sleep techniques may be used to manage the challenges of infant
sleep problems without lasting negative side effects (Price, Wake, Ukoumunne, & Hiscock, 2012).
In a position paper on controlled crying released in 2002 and revised in 2013, the Australian Associ-
ation for Infant Mental Health expressed concern, ‘the widely practised technique of controlled crying
is not consistent with infants’ and toddlers’ needs for optimal emotional and psychological health, and
may have unintended negative consequences’ (p. 1). In contrast, contributors (including the Parenting
Research Centre and Murdoch Children’s Institute Centre for Community Child Health) to Raising Chil-
dren Network website argue:
Controlled comforting has been found to be safe and effective. Babies whose parents have used controlled
comforting are more likely to sleep better in the short term. Some parents worry that controlled comforting
will hurt their relationship with their child. When this settling strategy is used appropriately, there’s no
evidence of harm (p. 1).
What do you think? What would you advise parents who were considering using controlled crying
with their newborn?
Imitation
A second key aspect of infant learning is imitation. Later, during early childhood, as make-believe play
demonstrates, preschool children obviously learn to imitate at some point in development. But exactly
how early do they learn this, and by what processes? Early research on these questions suggested infants
could engage in different kinds of imitation at different points during infancy (Piaget, 1962). Research
found infants imitated actions they could see themselves perform (e.g. in a mirror) sooner than those they
could only observe in a model. Widespread research from the past two decades confirms this hypothesis.
For example, imitating a hand gesture, such as waving, is easier than imitating an unusual face made by
an adult (Marshall & Meltzoff, 2014; Meltzoff & Decety, 2003; Meltzoff & Kuhl, 1994).
Despite their preference for visible actions, infants sometimes imitate actions that are relatively invis-
ible to themselves. One-week-old babies tend to stick out their tongues in an imitation of adults and
wiggle their fingers after seeing adults model this behaviour. However, distinguishing voluntary imita-
tion from general, automatic excitement remains a problem; as it does with other studies of very young
babies.
Imitation provides a rich source of learning for most children, even during infancy.
This toddler appears to be learning how to brush his teeth by copying his father. To be effective, though, imitation
requires symbolic thought, the development of motor skills and a recognised, suitable model.
One research study highlighted this ambiguity especially well. It showed babies pictures of human
faces depicting various emotions (Jones, 2006; Kaitz, Meschulach-Sarfaty, Auerbach, & Eidelman, 1988).
Although the babies responded with emotional facial expressions of their own, their expressions did not
match those in the pictures. In fact, the emotions on the babies’ faces were hard to classify at all; they
just looked ‘wrought up’ at the sight of expressive human faces. This view of imitation still remains
controversial.
Many researchers have hypothesised that regardless of how limited it is at birth, imitation may reflect
the baby’s need to communicate (Blasi & Bjorklund, 2003). Through imitation, infants explore their social
world, forming social relationships. The baby gazes into the adult’s eyes, the adult looks and smiles back
and then the infant looks and smiles. The behaviour of the adult and the baby reinforce each other and a
pleasurable interaction begins. It is this responsiveness and imitation that contributes to the development
of infant–caregiver attachment. An infant’s ability to imitate is an important foundation for social inter-
action later in life. Effective social interaction with others relies on the ability to react to other people in
an appropriate manner. An infant’s imitation of their parents’ behaviours and expressions aids in ensuring
infant–adult relationships get off to a good start.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Shift your focus from infants to mothers for a moment. How do you suppose mothers might become
conditioned to breastfeeding, either positively or negatively? Think about what is in it for them, as well as
what hassles breastfeeding can create. If possible, talk to a breastfeeding mother about her experiences.
4.11 Theories of language acquisition
LEARNING OUTCOME 4.11 Define the phases that infants go through in acquiring language.
Think back to Lucy, one of the infants described at the beginning of the chapter. When she was an
infant, her parents observed her language progress through several phases. At eight weeks, Lucy made
open-mouthed, cooing noises when she was feeling content. By four months, Lucy had added consonant
sounds to her vocalisations and had started producing complicated babbling noises. Lucy repeated sounds,
such as ‘da, da, da, da’ and ‘ma ma ma’. At six months, Lucy was saying several words including ‘dada’
(daddy), ‘mama’ (mummy), ‘Dana’ (for her uncle David) and ‘narna’ (banana). By nine months, Lucy
was an avid talker, developing her language skills early. Words such as ‘cheese’, ‘matches’ and ‘bird’
were now part of her vocabulary. She loved to have books read to her, and she would enthusiastically
point to objects and name them. She also loved to sing and dance. Lucy’s and James’s language devel-
opment demonstrates individual differences in language developmental milestones. Typically, language
development of a vocabulary of five to twenty words (chiefly composed of nouns and naming objects in
the infant’s surroundings) occurs at 15 to 18 months of age. However, Lucy developed this skill between
9 and 12 months of age.
As this example shows, language adds greatly to an infant’s ability to learn about new people, objects,
and events. It provides a way to express feelings more precisely. Language allows individuals to partici-
pate — through dialogue — more fully in their family and community. These benefits begin to appear
as soon as language begins to develop, which is usually around a child’s first birthday. Benefits increase
as the child gets older and develops better linguistic skills. In fact, some aspects of language continue to
improve well into adulthood. For example, vocabulary increases in size into middle age and beyond, as
do some of the more subtle nuances of language, such as when to say what, and to whom.
We often think of these skills simply as tact or diplomacy. But the major challenge — one that takes
considerable attention and energy for an infant — is acquiring language in the first place. Language
acquisition involves two processes. These are (1) mastering language structures (e.g. its sounds and
organisation); and (2) learning how language is used (e.g. its purposes and the conversational conventions
infants engage in simultaneously).
So, how do children acquire language? Since ancient times, scholars have bent their minds to this
question. During the twentieth century, several different theories of language acquisition were articulated,
with fierce debate surrounding whether or not language development was primarily due to biogenetic
predispositions or environmental influences. These different theories are presented in the next sections.
Learning theory approaches

In his book Verbal Behavior, published in 1957, the prominent US behaviourist B. F. Skinner maintained
that language acquisition could be fully explained using the behavioural principles that govern other
types of learning. Skinner claimed children learn to speak through operant conditioning, arguing word
production is a result of conditioned responses to real objects in the environment that are maintained
through contingent reinforcement. For example, on viewing a dog a child might produce certain sounds.
The child’s caregiver rewards these vocal noises by smiling or being attentive when the sounds approx-
imate the appropriate word ‘dog’. This, according to Skinner (1957), reinforces the child to vocalise in
increasingly correct ways.
Evidence for this theoretical stance is often cited in terms of a process that apparently underlies the
emergence of a child’s first word, which is frequently ‘dadda’. According to the behaviourist approach,
in the course of babbling, an infant may happen to say, ‘da-da-da-da’ — to which the proud father smiles
widely and cheerfully replies, ‘Wow! She said “dadda”!’ as he simultaneously cuddles his child. The
parental reaction reinforces the behaviour, so the infant says ‘da-da-da-da’ more frequently. After many
of these experiences, the parents begin to reinforce only closer approximations to ‘dadda’, leading the
child towards the linguistically and culturally acceptable version of the name (i.e. ‘Daddy’). The process
proposed by Skinner (1957) is an example of shaping. This is discussed in the chapter on theories of
development in connection with learning theory.
The nativist approach

During the 1950s, linguist Noam Chomsky directly challenged B. F. Skinner’s radical behaviourist
account of children’s acquisition of language. Chomsky (1959, 1994) argued Skinner’s (1957) theory
did not adequately account for the ease and speed children show in attaining language. Chomsky main-
tained that the intensive operant conditioning process outlined by Skinner could not produce the rapid
rate of word acquisition seen in young children. Imitation is also reliant on imperfect adult language
models. Children manage to produce correct grammatical forms, despite hearing incorrect, incomplete
and inexact versions of grammar in everyday speech. From Chomsky’s viewpoint, this poverty of content
in the speech most infants and preschoolers are exposed to provides an inadequate guide to learning the
grammatical structure of the language (Baker, 1995).
Arguing that behaviourist explanations provided a deficient account of language development, Chom-
sky presented an alternative biogenetic model, reasoning children’s acquisition of grammar must be
largely innate. Chomsky’s model is called a nativist approach, because it is based on nativism, a psy-
chological stance that argues for skills and abilities being ‘hard wired’ in the brain and being present at
birth.
In keeping with the nativist psychological approach, Chomsky proposed an innate language
acquisition device (LAD), involving specialised brain structures and mechanisms that facilitate the accu-
rate and rapid acquisition of language. LAD functions as a kind of inborn ‘road map for language’ that
is activated as soon as children hear speech. Chomsky also proposed a universal grammar — innate
and unconsciously held rules that allow children to easily assimilate the syntax of any human language
(Chomsky, 1994). He maintained children are ‘hard wired’ to easily assimilate any language they are
exposed to. According to the nativist viewpoint, LAD selects the appropriate syntactic categories of the
language children experience in everyday speech. With an inbuilt template to follow, instead of having to
construct their own language map, the LAD helps children navigate the maze-like structure of language
with relative ease.
As well, recent research has identified a gene that is linked to language production (Wade, 2001).
However, nativist theory has several limitations as an explanation of language development. In taking
a strongly biogenetic stance, the nativist approach downplays the role of the language environment in
language development. The Chomskian viewpoint acknowledges environmental factors, stating exposure
to language is essential in ‘kick-starting’ the LAD.
More recent theories of language development have taken a middle-ground stance, abandoning the
nature-versus-nurture battles of the Chomskian nativist and Skinnerian behaviourist models of language
development. Interactionist approaches — based on the idea that interactions between individuals are key
to producing meaning — combine the behaviourist and nativist approaches. Interactionists acknowledge
children are genetically predisposed to acquire language, but also that they need particular experiences
for language to develop. Interactionists maintain language is not entirely divorced from other cognitive
developments and that social interactions with other people are essential for the growth of language.
On the merit of the research so far, it is possible to deduce that language seems to mature through the
interaction between an active, thinking child and key people in linguistic experiences, such as parents,
siblings and peers (Dixon, 2004; Yang, 2006).
Language develops with rapid speed during infancy and early childhood. Infants’ linguistic accomplish-
ments raise a number of questions that are still being debated today, such as How are a vast vocabulary
and complex grammatical system acquired in such a short time? Infants learn the sounds of language
(its phonology); the words of language (its lexicon); the meanings of words (semantics); and the pur-
poses and ways words and sentences are used in conversation (pragmatics). They also piece together the
organisation of words into sentences and connected discourse (syntax).
Even though infants make progress in all of these areas, this chapter focuses on phonology, lexicon, and
semantics, because these are the key tasks of language acquisition in infancy. We will discuss pragmatics
and syntax in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in early childhood.
Phonology
Every language uses a finite number of phonemes, or sounds speakers of the language consider distinctive
that combine to make the words of the language. English has about 41 phonemes; other languages have
more or fewer than this number. In acquiring language, infants must be sensitive to phonemes and ignore
meaningless variations. Although the task may seem demanding, it actually proves surprisingly easy, even
for a baby — so easy, in fact, some language specialists propose human beings are born with the innate
ability to detect phonemic differences (Gervain & Mehler, 2010).
Although skill at producing phonemes takes longer to develop, it also seems to be biologically influ-
enced. Between four and eight months of age, infants begin babbling; that is, repeating consonant–vowel
combinations in long strings, such as ‘babababababa’ and ‘nananananana’, in increasingly complex ways.
They apparently do so for the reward of hearing themselves vocalise and to listen to their own babbling.
The importance of feedback from babbling has been demonstrated by research on the early vocal devel-
opment of congenitally deaf children. While deaf children have been shown to babble, the nature and
development of their babbling differs from that of children with normal hearing (Oller, 2000; Oller &
Eilers, 1988).
Is babbling motivated intrinsically? The most important evidence for this is the fact all physically
normal infants begin babbling at about the same age (about six months), regardless of the culture or
language they are exposed to. Interestingly, an observational study of deaf infants found babies babbling
with their hands. The infants could not babble orally, but they had been exposed to sign language and
were observed making repetitive hand gestures analogous to the oral babbling of hearing infants (Pettito
& Marentette, 1991; Schauwers et al., 2004).
Despite this finding, most research suggests parents and other members of an infant’s language com-
munity have a significant influence on the infant’s babbling. Although the study on deaf infants observed a
type of babbling, the fact the babbling was gestural rather than oral implies the infants’ language environ-
ment influenced the form of their babbling. Other research on deaf infants has confirmed this conclusion.
Contrary to a long-held belief, deaf infants do not babble orally in the same way hearing infants do.
Rather, they begin oral babbling some months later and even then babble only if they hear sound that is
amplified — for example, through a hearing aid (Marschark, 1993) or the hand motions and rhythmic pat-
terns of sign languages (Petitto, Holowka, Sergio, Levy, & Ostry, 2004). For babbling to develop, infants
need to be exposed to human speech. In hearing impaired infants, speech-like sounds are delayed and
in deaf infants they are absent (Oller, 2000). Babbling affords infants opportunities to experiment with
sound and meanings of language before they learn to speak in a conventional manner. Babbling continues
for between four and five months after infants begin to say their first words.
Semantics and first words

The semantics (or meanings) of a language, and of words in particular, are never mastered fully — even
by adults. To test this idea, scan any page of a large, unabridged dictionary and see how far you get before
encountering an unfamiliar word. Most people never learn even a majority of the words or terms in their
native language. This is because the meaning of a lot of words is derived from the world, rather than from
other words. Most of us simply do not live long enough to encounter all of these relationships with the
world.
What words do children use first? Generally, they prefer nominals — labels for objects, people and
events — more than other kinds of words, such as verbs or modifiers and can identify these as early as
6–9 months, even before they can say them (Bergelson & Swingley, 2012). Among nominals, they are
most likely to name things used frequently or that stand out in some way. So, the child’s own mother
or father may be named early — but not always as early as the parents expect. Dog may appear as an
early word more than sun or nappy, even though children probably experience the latter two objects more
frequently than they do dogs.
Other research has found that children place varying levels of emphasis on different language functions
in their first utterances (Bloom, 1993; Hart, 2004). Most children have a referential style, meaning their
first words refer to objects and objective events; for example, a car or a book. Others have an expressive
style, using words to express feelings and relationships; for example, hello, stop it, done, I want it and
goody! During the second year of life, infants with a referential style tend to make more rapid advances
in vocabulary and develop a more elaborate and precise use of syntax (or grammar). The differences seem
to be influenced by infants’ families, though not in a direct way.
Research has found that infants who develop secure attachments to their primary caregivers tend to
acquire more of a referential style of communicating than infants who have less secure attachments
(Meins, 1997). Why might this link occur? Infancy researchers have suggested it may have something to
do with the secure child being more prepared to explore their environment and having the confidence to
leave the proximity of parents and familiar surroundings to do so. As a result, the child encounters more
new objects and experiences, as well as more people who are somewhat unfamiliar with their language.
So, more than a less adventurous child, they have a need to acquire a larger vocabulary and a more varied
means of expression. These children eagerly imitate their parents’ naming of objects. This behaviour is
reinforced by their parents, which supports rapid vocabulary growth, as it assists children with remem-
bering new labels (Masur & Rodemaker, 1999; O’Neill, Bard, Kinnell, & Fluck, 2005). Between 18 and
24 months of age, children learn up to five or six new words a day (Carey, 1978; McMurray, 2007). This
is impressive! By age six, they have an extensive vocabulary including about 10 000 words.
How do children learn new words and build their vocabularies so quickly? As cognitive development
becomes more sophisticated, infants display an improved ability to categorise, retrieve words from mem-
ory, pronounce new words, imitate and become aware of others’ intentions. These all assist with rapid
vocabulary growth (Tomasello, 2003). Researchers have discovered children can connect a word with its
underlying concept after a brief experience with the word. This is a process known as fast mapping. This
process is very apparent in toddlers once they have mastered their first words (Junge, Kooijman, Hagoort,
& Cutler, 2012).
Influencing language acquisition

How do parents and other adults influence infant language development? This question has important
implications for parents and other caregivers of young children, and research has begun to provide some
answers to it.
Parental influences
Even when infants are very young, parents often talk to them as though they were adult partners in a
conversation (though not equally in all cultures). Consider this mother speaking to her three-month-old
child:
MOTHER: How is Kristi today? (pause) How are you? (pause) Good, you say? (pause) Are you feeling
good? (pause) I’m glad for that. (pause) Yes, I am. (pause) What would you like now? (pause) Your
dummy? (pause) Um? (pause) Is that what you want? (pause) Okay, here it is.
By asking questions in this conversation, the mother implies Kristi is capable of responding — even
though her infant is much too young to do so. Also, the mother leaves pauses for her baby’s hypothetical
responses. Observations of these kinds of pauses show they last about as long as pauses in conversations
between adults (Haslett, 1997). It is as though the mother were giving her baby a turn to speak, before
taking another turn herself. When her child remains silent, the mother even replies on her behalf. In all
these behaviours, the mother teaches something about taking turns in conversations and she expresses
faith the infant will eventually learn these conventions herself.
When infants finally begin speaking, parents continue the strategy. Parents’ ‘responsiveness’, how they
react to their infant’s communication attempts, promotes their communication skills (Tamis-LaMonda,
Kuchirko, & Song, 2014). Once infants in their second year start to produce words and simple sentences,
the parents modify their responses to increase vocabulary and sentence structure. In this way, parents
are using Vygotsky’s concept of scaffolding, where they use language a little bit beyond the ability of
the child, but close enough for them to build on their current language ability (Topping, Dekhinet, &
Zeedyk, 2013). These extra strategies help to teach a new lesson — namely, that words and sentences
communicate and language is more than interesting noises and babbling. By keeping ahead of the infant’s
own linguistic abilities, parents can stimulate the development of better language skills.
Infant-directed speech, or caregiver speech, means a dialect or a version of language characteristic
of parents talking with young children. This type of speech pattern used to be called motherese, as it was
incorrectly assumed it applied only to mothers. In addition to shorter sentences and simpler vocabulary,
infant-directed speech has several unique features. It tends to unfold more slowly than speech between
adults and to use a higher and more variable, or singsong, pitch (i.e. it contains unusually strong emphasis
on key words, as in ‘Give me your cup’). Parents speaking to infants also tend to repeat or paraphrase
themselves more than usual; for example, saying, ‘Give me the cup. The cup. Find the cup, and give it’.
This type of speech plays a vital role in language acquisition as it encourages early linguistic competence
(Werker et al., 2007).
Research clearly shows parents’ conversations with their babies are extremely important to the infants’
development. The Harvard Preschool Project, a longitudinal study conducted at Harvard University,
reviewed parent–infant contact in the home environment (White, 1993). At various intervals, the infants
were assessed for intelligence and social skills. When the assessments were evaluated against the home
observation findings, a result stood out. The most intellectually and socially competent infants had parents
who directed large amounts of language at them. The most competent babies were engaged in learning
about twice as much as the least competent infants in the study. The most competent infants also stimu-
lated interactions with their parents, primarily by procuring various kinds of help. Real world situations
such as pouring a glass of juice or placing the final block on a tower offered opportunities for parents to
talk with their infants; for example, to ask them, ‘Shall I put the block on top?’
MULTICULTURAL VIEW
Language development and culturally specific parenting styles

Parents use a variety of methods to interact and
communicate with their infants, including vocalis-
ing, gestures and facial expressions. They respond
to the same from their infant to communicate and
help gauge their baby’s needs. These interactions
are shaped by culture, and parents from all
backgrounds interact with their infants in ways
that signify culture-specific forms of development
(Tamis-LeMonda, Song, Leavell, Kahana-Kalman,
& Yoshikawa, 2012). Research has shown that

the style of parenting is often culturally specific,
and that different styles influence how language
develops in that culture (Keller, Borke, Chaudhary,
Lamm, & Kleis, 2010; Keller et al., 2009). In Constant close contact between caregiver and infant,
Western, industrialised countries, parents favour as between this mother and her child, may encourage
a distal parenting style, which emphasises the more nonverbal communication and result in an infant
development of autonomy and separateness. who fusses relatively little.
This style is characterised by extensive infant-directed vocalisation, repeating words that are the focus
of the infant’s attention, and face-to-face contact with the infant, particularly in the first three months.
Children who are spoken to directly (as in Western cultures) begin to talk by producing single words which
they then learn to combine into phrases. Proximal parenting, however, is characterised by close body con-
tact and bodily stimulation. Infants are carried by their mothers or other caregivers for a large part of the
day, and face-to-face contact and infant-directed vocalisations are considerably less than with distal par-
enting. Proximal parenting is common in traditional subsistence societies. However, even though children
receiving this proximal parenting style are less frequently addressed by their parents directly, they tend to
be held in such a way that they can see adults talking and any objects that are the focus of conversation.
They generally begin talking by memorising entire phrases, then developing an understanding of individual
words (Lieven, 1994). These differing styles of parenting then influence language development but suit
the cultural environment and prepare the child for appropriate communication styles within their culture.
There are cultural variations in the amount of vocalisations and gestures parents use with their infants
that also influence the child’s language development. For example, in Italy, children are exposed to a
high level of gestures during interactions. These children display a greater use of gestures compared to
American children, yet they have smaller vocabularies. In some cultures, there is a belief that babies cannot
understand the talk that is directed at them and that they learn language on their own. This is common
in some Kenyan and Papuan peoples and results in lower levels of talking and different forms of speech
than in Western societies (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2012). These beliefs are also thought to contribute to the
use of more gestures as a way of communicating with infants.
Influences of others
Language acquisition can also be supported by other adults who interact with infants extensively, such
as professional caregivers in childcare. Their responsiveness to infant communication also promotes lan-
guage development (Vallotton, 2009). For example, contingent dialogue — extending the child’s verbal
initiatives — can easily take place at a childcare centre. A toddler may name objects in the room, such
as ‘Book!’ or pictures displayed on the wall, such as ‘Cat!’ and the caregiver might extend these early
initiatives into longer dialogues; for example, ‘Yes, it’s a pretty cat. Do you like cats?’ Contextual dia-
logue, which consists of familiar language routines or rituals, can also occur in an infant care setting. A
caregiver and a child may engage in predictable exchanges while the infant prepares to go home each
day (e.g. the caregiver might say, ‘Have you found your coat? Now zip it up.’). To succeed, these dia-
logues must be simplified; that is, they should rely on infant-directed speech that takes the infant’s early
stage of language into account. Table 4.8 lists some additional ways caregivers can assist in language
development.
TABLE 4.8 Interactions that support language development
Interaction Purpose
Sitting on the floor with infant and reading books, Builds trust, models interesting activities using
telling stories, or singing songs language
Holding infant close, looking into infant’s face, Builds trust, models dialogue or conversation
smiling, and talking to infant

Responding to infant’s first words and gestures using Encourages dialogue and conversation, shows
caregiver’s own words and gestures respect for infant’s language initiatives
Offering simple choices to infant verbally (‘Do you Stimulates infant to attend to language; calls attention
want to paint or to play outside?’) to relationship between language and actions
Encouraging infant (especially if a toddler) to express Encourages child to practise language; demonstrates
desires and resolve differences using words (‘What power of verbal expression
do you want to do?’)
Late-talking children
Parents of late-talking children can be reassured that their language delay is not in itself a risk factor for
later behavioural and emotional problems. A recent Australian study, led by Associate Professor Andrew
Whitehouse, is the first of its kind to track language delay from two years of age through to late adoles-
cence. Dr Whitehouse stated that ‘when late-talking children “catch-up” to normal language milestones —
which is the case for the majority of children by school-age — the behavioural and emotional problems
are no longer apparent’ (Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, 2011).
The study from Perth’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research observed and tested 1387 children
from the original Raine study (Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort study), and found that 1245 children
achieved ‘normal’ language development by two years of age, while 142 were classed as late-talkers
(9.9 per cent). A Language Development Survey (completed by parents at 2 years of age) and a Child
Behaviour Checklist (completed at 2, 5, 8, 10, 14 and 17 years of age) formed the basis of the analysis. The
study, published in the prestigious journal Pediatrics, found that while the late-talkers had increased levels
of psychosocial, emotional and behavioural problems at age two, these problems tend not to continue at
later ages. Emotional and behavioural problems identified at two years tend to be a result of difficulties,
such as frustration of not being able to communicate. Dr Whitehouse stated that:
. . . having a child who is not talking as much as other children can be very distressing for parents. Our
findings suggest that parents should not be overly concerned that their late-talking toddler will have lan-
guage and psychological difficulties later in childhood. As there was good evidence that most late-talking
children will ‘catch-up’ to the language skills of other children. The best thing that parents can do is to
provide a rich language-learning environment for their children. This means getting down on the floor
and playing with their child, talking with them, reading to them, interacting with them at their level . . . By
two years of age, children will usually have a vocabulary of around 50 words and have begun combining
those words in two or three word sentences (Whitehouse, Robinson, & Zubrick, 2010).
However, Dr Whitehouse cautioned that if language problems do continue to persist in school-aged
children (which can occur in a minority of children), these children are at an increased risk of behavioural
difficulties, and parents should seek appropriate assistance. Currently, Dr Whitehouse and his team are
investigating a way to identify as early as possible the minority of late-talkers who do not ‘catch-up’ and
may continue to have life-long language difficulties. As Dr Whitehouse states, ‘the earlier the intervention
for these children, the better the outcome’ (Whitehouse et al., 2010).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Find out, if you can, the first words you said as an infant and the setting you were in when you said them.
Pool your results with classmates. Are there similarities in terms of what you said and where you said it?
THE END OF INFANCY
In this chapter we have witnessed the astonishing nature and pace of infants’ growth and development
during the first two years of life. In contrast to early notions of the newborn being a passive, empty-
headed organism that perceives nothing and does nothing, we have seen how an infant’s ability to process
and communicate information from multiple sensory sources and to utilise early experiences influences
the development of physical and cognitive skills. Infants’ thrilling gains in motor development emerge
as skills that eventually allow an infant to roll over, take their first steps and pick up blocks from the
floor. Ultimately, these skills form the basis of more complex behaviours, as infants sort through raw
data from their senses and transform it into meaningful information. This chapter has traced the pattern
of infant physical growth and the less obvious growth in the brain and nervous system, the regularity
of infants’ patterns and states, motor development, the development and use of reflexes, the role of
environmental influence and the importance of nutrition. Research has shown stimulating physical
surroundings and warm, responsive caregiving promotes active exploration of the environment, which
leads to the attainment of developmental milestones. By an infant’s second birthday, all primary motor
and sensory areas are well advanced. Infants are capable of walking, grasping objects, and directing
their attention towards particular people and activities. These physical skills facilitate certain cognitive
activities, such as searching for objects an infant knows exist, even though he cannot see them.
The language skills that develop at the same time contribute to the formation of social skills and rela-
tionships, as we will see in the next chapter. By age two a child knows, and can say, who their parents and
siblings are. They can also begin expressing their feelings about people verbally; for example, whether
or not they are happy or sad, angry or fearful, or like someone or not. This development is continual and
enables two year olds to integrate the information they receive from their own movements as well as from
the environment into complex patterns of behaviour. Learning also helps infants nurture relationships. In
the next chapter, we take a closer look at psychosocial progress in the first two years, which has a basis
in the physical and cognitive developments of infancy.
SUMMARY
4.1 Describe what infants look like when they are first born.
The average newborn has rather red-looking skin, is often covered with a waxy substance, and has a skull
rather compressed on the top. The health of newborns born in hospitals is assessed soon after delivery with
the Apgar Scale. At full term, the average newborn weighs about 3.4 kilograms. Regardless of cultural
background, the newborn’s bodily proportions make the infant look appealing to adults and may foster
the formation of attachments with adults.
4.2 Explain how infants’ sleep and wakefulness patterns change as they get older.
Infants sleep almost twice as much as adults do, but the amount of sleep they require gradually decreases
as they get older. Interruptions in their sleep contribute to fatigue in their parents.
4.3 Review how infants’ senses operate at birth.
At birth infants can see and hear, but with less accuracy or acuity than adults.
4.4 Summarise what motor skills evolve during infancy and what factors influence
this development.
Infants are born with a number of innate reflexes, but quickly develop certain motor skills during the first
year, including reaching, grasping, and walking. Motor skills develop differently, depending on cultural
background, biological sex, and social gender roles.
4.5 Name the nutritional needs of infants.
Infants need more protein and calories per kilogram of body weight than older children do. Compared to
formula and bottle feeding, breastfeeding has a number of practical and psychological advantages. After
weaning from breast or bottle, infants need a diet rich in protein and calories. Most Australasian families
can provide these requirements, but many cannot. A common problem in Western diets is overnutrition,
which can create health risks in the long term.
4.6 List the factors that can impair growth during infancy.
One of the most important impairments to early growth is low birth weight, because the condition leads
to difficulties with breathing, digestion and sleep, and impairs normal reflexes. The problems low-birth-
weight infants experience can sometimes put stress on relationships with parents, but not always. For
a variety of reasons, infants sometimes fail to thrive normally. Infant mortality has decreased in recent
years, but in Australasia it is still a concern.
4.7 Consider how infant cognition can be studied.
Infants’ arousal and attention can be studied by noting changes in their heart rates. Infants’ recognition
and memory of familiar things can be studied by observing their habituation to stimuli, or tendency to
attend to novel stimuli and ignore familiar ones.
4.8 Compare the way infants and adults see and hear.
Perception refers to the immediate organisation of sensations. Cognition refers to the processes by which
perceptions are organised — and it often happens deliberately. Studies of visual perception suggest infants
under six months of age perceive a variety of patterns, including those usually found on a human face.
Young infants, including newborns, show object constancy in visual perception, as well as visual antici-
pation of events. Infants also show sensitivity to depth, as indicated in the visual cliff experiments. Infants
can localise sounds to some extent at birth, but do not do so accurately until about six months of age.
Categorical thought can be demonstrated during infancy by using the reversal shift procedure.
4.9 Explain the changes in thinking and learning during infancy.
Piaget has proposed six stages of infant cognitive development in which infants’ schemes become less
egocentric and increasingly symbolic and organised. Research on Piaget’s six stages generally confirms
his original observations, but it also raises questions about the effects of motor skills and memory on
infants’ cognitive performance.
4.10 Describe the roles that conditioning and imitation play in infants’ learning.
Like older children and adults, infants can learn through behavioural conditioning and imitation.
Behavioural learning tends to be ambiguous in infants less than three months old because it is difficult to
distinguish true learning from general, automatic excitement.
4.11 Define the phases that infants go through in acquiring language.
Babbling begins around six months of age and becomes increasingly complex, until it disappears some-
time before the infant’s second birthday. Infants show important individual differences in their selection
of first words. Generally though, they use words for objects in their environment that are distinctive in
some way. Adults influence language acquisition mainly by modelling simplified utterances, recasting
their infants’ own utterances, and directing considerable language at the child as they grow. Professional
caregivers influence language acquisition in similar ways to parents, but they must also recognise the
potential effects of cultural gaps between them and the child.
KEY TERMS
accommodation In Piaget’s theory, the process of modifying existing ideas or actions and skills to fit
new experiences.
Apgar Scale A system of rating newborns’ health immediately following birth based on heart rate,
strength of breathing, muscle tone, colour and reflex irritability. Developed in the 1950s by
Dr Virginia Apgar, the name is also used as an acronym for appearance, pulse, grimace, activity,
respiration.
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.
attention The capacity to focus cognitive resources on a task.
babbling Infant vocalisations produced prior to acquiring language and without verbally meaningful
intent.
central nervous system The brain and nerve cells of the spinal cord.
cephalocaudal principle The tendency for organs, reflexes and skills to develop sooner at the top (or
head) of the body and later in areas further down the body; an organised pattern of physical growth
proceeding from head to tail.
circular reaction Piaget’s term for an action often repeated, apparently because it is self-reinforcing.
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.
cognition All processes by which humans acquire knowledge; methods for thinking or gaining
knowledge about the world.
contexts of development Theory considers how different paths of physical, cognitive, social and
emotional development can influence an individual’s development.
habituation The tendency to attend to novel stimuli and ignore familiar ones.
infant mortality rate The frequency with which infants die compared to the frequency with which
they live.
infant-directed speech The style or register of speech used by adults and older children when talking
with a one- or two-year-old infant.
language acquisition device (LAD) Specialised brain structures and mechanisms allowing rapid
acquisition of language.
low birth weight A birth weight of less than 2500 grams (2.5 kilograms).
motor skills Physical skills using the body or limbs, such as walking and drawing.
neonate A newborn. It is applicable to the first four weeks of independent life.
neurons Nerve cell bodies and their extensions or fibres.
non-REM sleep A relatively quiet, deep period of sleep.
nonorganic failure to thrive A growth condition in which an infant seems seriously delayed in
physical growth and is noticeably apathetic in behaviour. (Bergman & Graham, p. 132)
nonreversal shift Experimental procedure in which reinforcement shifts to discriminating a new
dimension of difference between objects (e.g. shape versus size).
object permanence According to Piaget, the belief people and things continue to exist even when one
cannot experience them directly or see them. This begins to develop further in stage 4 and has fully
developed by around age two.
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.
overnutrition A diet that contains too many calories and is therefore unbalanced.
perception The neural activity of combining sensations into meaningful patterns.
phonemes Sounds that combine with other sounds to form words.
proximodistal principle Organised pattern of growth that exhibits a near-to-far pattern of

development, from the centre of the body outward.
reflex An involuntary, unlearnt, automatic or naturally occurring response to a stimulus. The very first
movements or motions of an infant are reflexes.
REM sleep A relatively active period of sleep, named after the rapid eye movements that usually
accompany it.
reversal shift An experimental procedure in which reinforcement continues for discriminating a new
value of a dimension (e.g. large versus small), but the dimension itself (such as size) remains constant.
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.
semantics The purposes and meanings of a language.
sensitive period 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.
sensorimotor intelligence According to Piaget, thinking that occurs by way of sensory perceptions and
motor actions that is characteristic of infants.
shaping A conditioning procedure involving reinforcement of increasingly closer approximations to the
desired response.
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) The sudden, unexpected death of an infant <1 year of age,
with the onset of the fatal episode apparently occurring during sleep, that remains unexplained after a
thorough investigation.
universal grammar Innate linguistic knowledge allowing easy assimilation of any language.
visual cliff The classic laboratory setup of a ledge covered by a sheet of glass; used to test the
acquisition of depth perception. Young babies crawling on the glass discriminate between the two
sides of the ‘cliff’ by refusing to cross the deep side, instead preferring the shallow side, and so
demonstrating the ability to perceive depth.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1 Cite major milestones of gross and fine motor development during infancy. What factors can influence
the development of these motor skills?
2 In what ways are infants diverse and different? What are the implications of this for the workplace?
How do we deal with this diversity?
3 How do the processes of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, habituation and imitation
demonstrate the infant’s learning capabilities?
4 What physical, perceptual and cognitive capabilities does the neonate possess?
5 What are the fundamental features of Piaget’s sensorimotor stage of development?
1 Developmental researchers no longer view the neonate as a helpless, incompetent individual but as
a competent, developing human. What do you think are some of the implications of this change in
viewpoint for childrearing methods and childcare?
2 What is the role of nutrition in physical and cognitive development in infancy?
3 In Western society, using a TV, iPad or smartphone as a babysitter is increasingly common. What
developmental issues might arise if children spend more time watching TV or interacting with apps
than they do with peers or parents? Could there be any benefits?
1 Test your understanding of Piaget’s theory by identifying each of the following scenarios as an exam-
ple of symbolic representation, object permanence, accommodation or primary circular reactions.
(a) Two-year-old Nunu sees a train for the first time and shouts ‘Look Daddy . . . car!’ Her father
explains that the train, like a car, is another mode of transportation. Nunu incorporates the concept
of train into her vocabulary. What is this adaptation called?
(b) Sukran, before her second birthday, hands a bunch of pencils to her mother, saying, ‘Smell
flowers’. What Piagetian concept does Alison’s play illustrate?
(c) Tamiko’s father holds up her favourite rattle, places it under a cloth, and shows Tamiko his
empty hand. Ten-month-old Tamiko looks puzzled, begins to cry and fails to search for the rattle.
Tamiko finds the object-hiding task difficult. What concept has she not acquired yet?
(d) Amelio accidentally puts his hand in his mouth, finds it is a pleasant and interesting experience
and attempts to repeat the action. What behaviour is Amelio demonstrating?
2 Test your understanding of infant language development by identifying each of the following scenarios
as an example of one of the following types of speech important in development of language: infant-
directed speech, referential speech, contingent dialogue, babbling.
(a) When Anna talks to her eight-month-old son, Carl, she tends to use shorter sentences, simple
words and talks in a higher, sing-song pitch.
(b) When Shiri first started saying full words, these were words like book, dog, car and bottle.
(c) Elizabeth is caring for one-year-old Alice at her daycare centre. Alice says ‘ball’ when she sees
the ball on the floor. Elizabeth responds with ‘Yes, that is a red ball. Isn’t it big?’
(d) Zoe is six months old. She likes making lots of noise and vocalising when awake on her play mat.
She tends to repeat the same consonant and vowel sounds over and over, such as ‘dadadada’.
ESSAY QUESTION
1 Can you create a toy that sells? Imagine that you are a developmental psychologist appointed as a
consultant to the Ace Toy Company. Your mission is to provide a research-based rationale arguing
for the adoption and international promotion of a new toy aimed at either the neonatal or infancy
stages of development. You are allowed to create the toy yourself. But it is important you think
carefully about the type of toy you create. Recent market appraisals and research have found people
are no longer buying toys for fun. Rather, they are buying toys to stimulate, encourage and foster
infant development in a variety of areas. Your mission is to articulate the developmental benefits of
the new toy in a well-argued, well-rationalised essay. Your findings will be used in the advertising
and marketing campaign. The board will choose which toy to adopt and release to the public based
on your developmental rationale. Only toys that meet the strict market requirements will have a long
product life and will not be sold at discount prices. Remember, of course, children will only want
to play with a toy that is fun and tend to think of educational toys as boring — so make sure your
toy will be engaging and stimulating.
WEBSITES
1 This website allows you to see the world through a baby’s viewpoint. It displays how an infant’s vision
develops: www.visiondirect.co.uk/baby-sight-tool
2 This website, Kid Sense, provides comprehensive lists of those milestones that are reached as
a child develops. Developments outlines include motor skills, speech and sensory processing:
https://childdevelopment.com.au/areas-of-concern/what-is-child-development
3 Raising Children is the Australian parenting website. It has an interactive guide to language
development in children, and how to use the art of play to extend children’s language skills:
http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/grow_and_learn_together_child_development_guide.html
4 The Australian Breastfeeding Association; this website is aimed to support breastfeeding mothers,
and provides information such as breastfeeding education classes, online chat forums, tips on how to
return to work as a breastfeeding mother: www.breastfeeding.asn.au/default.htm
5 Using Flashplayer, this interactive model allows the viewer to see how changes in differ-
ent regions of the brain connect with particular milestones in development: www.nytimes.com/
interactive/2008/09/15/health/20080915-brain-development.html
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Photo: © phadungsak sawasdee / Shutterstock.com
Photo: © Soren Svendsen / Nordicphotos / Alamy Stock Photo
Photo: © Cultura Motion / Shutterstock.com
Photo: © Lopolo / Shutterstock.com
Photo: © David Muscroft / age fotostock / Alamy Stock Photo
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Figure 4.4: © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Table 4.4: © Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID). Copyright © 1969 NCS Pearson, Inc.
Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.
Table 4.6: © United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), ‘Levels &
Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2017, Estimates Developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for
Child Mortality Estimation’, United Nations Children’s Fund, New York, 2017
Extract: Reprinted with permission Dr Karen Yates and Mary Mulcahy
Extract: © American Society of Pediatrics
CHAPTER 5
Psychosocial
development in the
first two years
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the chapter, you should be able to:

5.1 describe the ways in which a newborn infant is capable of participating in the social world, and how
caregiver–infant synchrony further develops this sociability
5.2 list the emotional capabilities of infants and explain how differences in infants’ temperaments affect their
social development
5.3 explain the experiences that enable infants to develop secure emotional attachments with their
caregivers, and the consequences of different attachment patterns
5.4 outline why autonomy is so central to development during toddlerhood and how parenting qualities
contribute to its successful development.
OPENING SCENARIO
Jane and Louise were watching their children

playing together with friends at playgroup. Jane’s
daughter Mia and Louise’s son Tom shared a
birthday and were both about to turn two. They
commented on how outgoing Mia was, playing
with the other children and happily wandering off at
times to find new toys. Tom stayed close to Louise
and was quite distressed when she left to go to the
bathroom. On her return, Louise commented that
Tom had been a ‘difficult baby’ who cried quite a
lot and was often difficult to settle. This meant that
Louise had been extremely sleep deprived in the
early months after Tom’s birth, and she had devel-
oped postnatal depression for a period. She recalled being frustrated and short tempered at times with
Tom’s clinginess, and wondered if this had contributed to his temperament. By contrast, Jane felt Mia
was a very happy baby, easily settled and quite smiley. She wondered how the two children might change
temperaments as they grew older.
Jane watched with curiosity those changes in her daughter’s interactions with her surroundings as she
grew. Mia smiled at anyone who approached her from about six weeks and was very responsive to Jane.
Up until about nine months, Mia continued to be quite responsive to family and even strangers in the
supermarket if they paid her attention. At around ten months, Mia clearly preferred her mother to any
other adult and cried if she left the room, crawling after her. Jane was surprised that Mia started crying
when strangers approached her on the street, when previously she had laughed with them. By the time
she was almost two, Mia was walking and talking well, had begun toilet training, and could do many things
herself. She continued to be an active and happy child, but sometimes she became frustrated and upset
if she did not succeed at a task. Fortunately, talking to her and giving her just the right amount of helpful
guidance usually worked. Although she still demanded a good deal of attention from her mother, Mia now
rarely got upset when other family members cared for her. She also seemed quite happy to socialise with
almost all friendly visitors, even those she had never met before.
These changes in Mia’s behaviour illustrate some of the important psychosocial changes that occur
during infancy. From the moment of birth, infants differ in their temperament — their characteristic activ-
ity levels and stylistic patterns of responding to the people and events in their new environment. As we
will see, temperamental differences in infants and how they react to societal expectations and the tem-
peraments and hopes of their parents and family may influence development — not only in infancy but
throughout the lifespan. Louise’s perception of and responses to Tom’s temperament may have led to him
becoming less secure as a toddler than Mia. Although infants depend on their caregivers to meet their
needs, they are not passive. Infants become active, sophisticated observers and participants in their own
psychosocial development.
As an infant grows older, they form close and enduring emotional attachments with the important peo-
ple in their life and the quality of these emotional attachments are evident in the way they interact with
others. In a scene familiar to many parents, infants tend to cry when a strange nurse approaches them
in the doctor’s office, retreating to the security of their parents and warmly greeting them when they are
‘rescued’ from the nurse. Such secure attachment relationships, as seen between Mia and her mother
and other caregivers, are likely to provide an important basis for successful psychosocial development
throughout life. Psychosocial development is an aspect of development that explains how we acquire
attitudes and skills that encompass changes in our interactions with and understandings of one another,
as well as knowledge and an understanding of ourselves as members of society. Through this interac-
tion, individuals develop a unique personality — acquiring social attitudes and skills that will help them
become active, contributing members of society. According to renowned psychologist Erik Erikson (1963)
whose approach to personality development was outlined in the chapter on theories of development,
psychosocial development examines how individuals come to understand their own behaviour and the
meaning of others’ behaviour. Erikson’s psychosocial theory proposes that psychosocial development
CHAPTER 5 Psychosocial development in the first two years 227
occurs throughout people’s lives in eight distinct stages — the first of which occurs in infancy. In this
chapter, we will see how the security of attachment relationships in infancy are an important predictor
of relationships in middle childhood and adolescence, romantic relationships in adulthood, and the rela-
tionships individuals experience with their own children and grandchildren. A baby may participate in
relationships in subtle ways, such as attending closely to older brothers and sisters while they play. At
times, infants may express their emotional and attachment needs or feelings in ways that confound the
people around them; for example, they may refuse particular foods when a parent offers them, but take
them happily from a babysitter. These types of interactions form the basis of psychosocial development,
contributing to the emotional and personality development of the individual.
There are two major tasks of psychosocial development in infancy: the development of trust and
autonomy. Infants learn what to expect from the important people in their lives, such as whether the
infant will be soothed by a parent if they cry. Erikson (1963) postulated that infants’ early experiences,
such as whether their needs are met by caregivers, are responsible for shaping the first key aspect of
their personalities — whether they will be trustful or mistrustful, autonomous and independent or troubled
with doubt and shame. The conflicts of trust versus mistrust and autonomy versus shame and doubt,
which we examined in the chapter on theories of development, intertwine closely during infants’ first two
years, although many observers of children believe trust develops earlier than autonomy does (Erikson,
1963; Maccoby, 1980; Stern, 1985a).
In this chapter, we will first discuss the importance of emotions and temperament in infancy. Next, we
will explore the essential role of early social interactions and attachments in the development of a sense of
basic trust (versus mistrust) and in the achievement of autonomy (versus shame and doubt). We examine
the ways attachments are formed. Finally, we look at the emergence of self-knowledge and self-awareness
during later infancy and toddlerhood.
5.1 Early social relationships

LEARNING OUTCOME 5.1 Describe the ways in which a newborn infant is capable of participating in the
social world, and how caregiver–infant synchrony further develops this sociability.
Infants seem to have a natural tendency to be social participants. Not only does a newborn show a
preference for their mother’s voice shortly after birth; some evidence suggests their perception of
speech can be influenced by prenatal exposure to their mother’s speech (DeCasper, Lecanuet, Busnel,
& Granier-Deferre, 1994; DeCasper & Spence, 1986; Kisilevsky & Hains, 2011; Lecanuet, Manera, &
Jacquet, 2002). Immediately after birth, infants are capable of many social responses. For example, a
newborn will turn their head towards the sound of a human voice and actively search for its source —
pausing regularly in its sucking pattern for human voices but not for similar, nonhuman tones.
Transition to parenthood
Parent–child relationships begin before a child is born. Almost as soon as pregnancy is confirmed, parents
form images of what their child will be like and of how they, as parents, will respond and cope with this
new human presence (Galinsky, 1987; McHale et al., 2004; Moller, Hwang, & Wickberg, 2008). They
often experience both excitement and fear, with the precise mix depending on how much support they
are given for becoming parents as well as the history of support they experienced as children. Even after
a baby is born, these images can influence parents’ internal experiences and expectations regarding a
child, although this ‘mental portrait’ is now subject to continual revision based on the parents’ ongoing
interactions and experiences with their baby and the effect having a baby has on them (Ambert, 2013;
Anderson, 1996; Condon, Boyce, & Corkindale, 2004; Ferholt, 1991; Guedeney & Tereno, 2010; Stern,
1985a, 1985b, 1995).
As we will see in a later chapter’s discussion of psychosocial development in early adulthood, having
a child — particularly if it is the first child in a family — represents a major life transition accompanied
by personal, familial, social and, often, professional changes. The arrival of a baby results in dramatic
changes to a family’s dynamics and ways of interacting. A baby’s birth introduces a necessary adjustment
to the roles people play in a family: parents begin to build a relationship with their baby, and older
children must adjust to the presence of a new family member and build their own relationships with the
infant. For most parents, having a child leads them to feel more concern for the future — as the future
is embodied in their child. This shift away from self-centredness usually comes at an emotional cost.
Becoming a parent is seen as a significant life event affecting both mother and father. The birth may
influence their sense of self and relationship, which can be strongly influenced by their stress levels and
the availability of social support.
The transition to parenthood has undergone significant changes in the last century, with changes in
family structure, age of first parenthood, and varied pathways to parenthood through medical advances in
both contraception and assisted reproductive technologies (Moloney et al., 2012). To accommodate the
additional family tasks involved in caring for a new infant, the division of roles between parents tends
to change. Household responsibilities and work commitments change as a result of a new addition to
the family. Despite moves towards gender equality in employment, parenthood is still associated with
significantly less involvement in paid work for women, but increased involvement of fathers in childcare
tasks. Other factors apparent in the transition to parenthood for both parents are changes in relationships,
social isolation and sometimes psychological distress (Barry, Smith, Deutsch, & Perry-Jenkins, 2011;
Gibb, Fergusson, Horwood, & Boden, 2014; May & Fletcher, 2013).
To better understand these changes, Levy-Shiff (1994) studied marital adjustment in 102 couples from
diverse sociocultural backgrounds from pregnancy through the first eight months following the birth of
their first child. She found higher levels of paternal involvement with the baby — especially in care-
giving — was the most important factor in maintaining marital satisfaction for both spouses at a time
when opportunities to spend time together in leisure and sexual activities are greatly reduced due to the
demands of infant care. Levy-Schiff suggests during the transition to parenthood, men and women must
solve the internal and interpersonal dilemmas of reorganising their lives to adjust to the new demands
and responsibilities of childrearing.
Sharing childcare and household tasks plays a positive role in dealing with the transition to parenthood.
Fathers who are more involved in co-parenting (sharing childcare) and sharing housework demonstrate
they are not just partners, but also good friends committed to meeting their partners’ needs in ways that are
caring and fair. It is also likely such shared involvement increases a man’s empathy and appreciation for
his partner’s experience. Such participation reduces the guilt he may feel for failing to actively share these
new responsibilities. Interestingly, by freeing up their partner’s time and conveying a spirit of coopera-
tiveness, a man creates opportunities for more high-quality time with their partner — the lack of which
is a major cause of dissatisfaction for many new fathers (Barry et al., 2011; Belsky, Crnic, & Gable,
1995; Cabrera, Fagan, & Farrie, 2008; Levy-Shiff, 1994; Smyth, 2004; Vandell et al., 1997; Weston,
Gray, Qu, & Stanton, 2004). Higher levels of paternal involvement with a baby — especially in caregiv-
ing — have been shown to be the most important factor in maintaining marital satisfaction (Levy-Shiff,
1994).
The transition to parenthood is the start of a lifelong process that is neither simple nor automatic. Bonds
that grow and develop between parents, siblings, family, grandparents and others furnish the foundation
for the development of social relationships throughout the lifespan.
Caregiver–infant synchrony
Many studies report that through sensitive caregiving, responding consistently and promptly and hold-
ing infants tenderly and carefully, attachment security is developed (Baker & McGrath, 2011; van
IJzendoorn, Vereijken, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & Riksen-Walraven, 2004). Frequently the social interac-
tions between a parent (or caregiver) and an infant involve a pattern of close coordination and teamwork,
in which each waits for the other to finish before beginning to respond. This pattern of closely coor-
dinated interaction is called caregiver–infant synchrony — sensitively tuned responses to an infant’s
signals, which are appropriate, well timed and rhythmic. It is the matching by infant and caregiver of
emotional states. Recall the description of Mia at the beginning of this chapter. Even infants who are
only a few weeks old are able to maintain and break eye contact with their mothers at regular inter-
vals and to take turns with their mothers in making sounds and body movements. This matching of
behaviours creates a mutual attention and forms the framework for relationship and language develop-
ment, and the development of a capacity for empathy. An important component of this synchronous
relationship is contingency, where one behaviour increases the likelihood of another behaviour. For exam-
ple, eye contact between the mother and baby leads to the mother talking to the baby. The baby then
responds with a smile, which motivates the mother to continue talking to her baby (Baker & McGrath,
2011).
Until an infant is several months old, responsibility for coordinating this activity rests with the
caregiver. But after a few months, the baby becomes capable of initiating social interchanges and of
influencing the content and style of the caregiver’s behaviour. Some of this continuity is created by
the baby rather than by the mother. The smiles, gazes, and vocalisations of a friendly infant are hard
for a mother to resist and after several months of experience with such a baby, the mother becomes
especially responsive to her infant’s communications; reinforcing the baby’s sociable tendencies. During
the infant’s second year, the parent and the baby use gestures such as pointing, vocalising, and alternating
their gaze between objects and their partner to coordinate and sustain periods of joint attention and to
maintain each other’s interest. High levels of joint attention and reciprocal turn-taking in parent–infant
interaction, sometimes referred to as co-regulation, reflect sensitive parenting and help children to
become socially competent in relationships with family members and peers, as well as aiding in the
development of language and vocabulary — which, in turn, encourages responsiveness (Feldman, 2003;
Moore & Dunham, 1995; Raver, 1996; Tamis-LeMonda, Kuchirko, & Song, 2014).
As we will see, a good caregiver–infant temperament ‘fit’ and a well-developed capacity for
caregiver–infant synchrony both contribute to the establishment of high-quality caregiver–infant relation-
ships that serve as a basis for healthy development. Caregiver–infant relationships that lack the mutual
awareness and responsiveness that makes synchrony possible may reflect childrearing difficulties and
can place an infant at risk of developmental problems. For example, studies of the effect of maternal
depression and infant interaction have shown that the depression negatively impacts on the mother–infant
relationship and the infant’s wellbeing and development. Mothers who are depressed tend to delay
their responses to their baby and are less contingent (Poolaban, Aucott, Ross, Smith, & Helms, 2007;
Wilkinson & Mulcahy, 2010). This results in lower levels of attachment and the mother perceives her
relationship with her baby more negatively, making her feel less bonded with the baby. Thomas and
Chess (1977) proposed a goodness-of-fit model to describe the interactions between infant temperament
and environmental pressures. The goodness-of-fit model involves creating childrearing environments
that recognise a child’s unique temperament, while encouraging positive adaptive behaviours. If an
infant’s temperament interferes with learning or interacting with others, the childrearing environment can
gently and consistently counterbalance the infant’s maladaptive style. The goodness-of-fit model assists
in explaining why children that withdraw from new experiences and react negatively are at high risk
for later adjustment problems. Frequently, these children experience parenting and caregiving that fits
poorly with their dispositions (Calkins, 2002; Coplan, Bowker, & Cooper, 2003; Seifer et al., 2014; van
den Boom & Hoeksma, 1994). A good caregiver–infant temperament ‘fit’ and a well-developed capacity
for caregiver–infant synchrony both contribute to the establishment of high-quality caregiver–infant
relationships.
Social interactions with family members

Although infants may interact more with their mothers than with anyone else, they live in a network
of daily social relationships in which a number of other people contribute to their social lives. Urie
Bronfenbrenner has become a critical influence on our understanding of how contextual relationships
influence a child’s development. Through his original ecological systems theory, which has recently been
updated to the bioecological model, Bronfenbrenner accounts for the biological as well as environmental
influences upon the developing child. Bronfenbrenner views the child as developing within a complex
system of interrelationships that are affected by differing aspects of the surrounding environment and
biological dispositions (Bronfenbrenner & Evans, 2000). In his model, Bronfenbrenner conceives the
environment as being a series of nested structures that include:
r the microsystem — the home environment of parents and siblings
r the mesosystem — the neighbourhood play area as well as the childcare centre
r the exosystem — systems that affect the child’s experiences in immediate settings such as workplace
environments, community health services and extended family members
r the macrosystem — the outermost layer of the ecological systems model, composed of customs, laws
and the cultural values of the society.
Each network is seen as having an influential impact on development. Fathers belong to this network,
as do siblings and grandparents. How does an infant’s contact with these people compare to the contact
it has with its mother?
Father–infant interactions
As part of the Australian study Growing Up in Australia: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Chil-
dren, fathers were found to have become increasingly involved in the care of infants and young children,
spending around 10 hours per week on care-related tasks, as compared to around 19 hours for mothers
(Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2015). Increasingly, fathers assume the role of primary caregiver,
reversing the traditional expectations of fathers (Garbarino, 1993; Geiger, 1996; Hyman, 1995; Waller,
2002, 2009). As with mothers, fathers’ success at maintaining high levels of caregiver–infant synchrony is
related to the goodness of fit between their stress levels, personality characteristics, presence of depressive
symptoms, attitudes, expectations, and the characteristics and needs of their babies (Barry et al., 2011;
Bridges, Grolnick, & Connell, 1997; Lundy, 2002; Noppe, Noppe, & Hughes, 1991). In an interesting
naturalistic study of fathers’ interactions with their infants, Jain, Belsky, and Crnic (1996) observed four
groups of fathers: caregivers, playmates–teachers, disciplinarians and disengaged fathers. Caregivers and
playmate–teacher fathers were more educated, had more prestigious occupations, were better adjusted
emotionally, were more able to rely on others, and experienced fewer daily hassles than disciplinar-
ian and disengaged fathers. Importantly, these parenting styles may have differential impacts on infant
wellbeing: disengaged and remote father–infant interactions have been shown to predict tantrums and
aggression in childhood (Ramchandani, Domoney, Sethna, Psychogiou, Vlachos, & Murray, 2012), while
engagement in play and caregiving reduces the frequency of behavioural and psychological problems
(Sarkadi, Kristiansson, Oberklaid, & Bremberg, 2007).
Although mothers and fathers engage in similar forms of play with their infants, their styles differ.
Play episodes with fathers tend to have sharper peaks and valleys — higher states of excitement,
and more sudden and complete withdrawals by the baby. Fathers tend to engage in more ‘rough
and tumble’ play and talk less than mothers do; they mess around more and play ritual games such
as peek-a-boo with their offspring less. These differences in style also appear in middle childhood.
Such playful interactions may help prepare infants for future play with peers of both genders, but
also improve secure attachment between infants and fathers (Fletcher, StGeorge, & Freeman, 2013;
Grossmann et al., 2002; Parke, MacDonald, Beitel, & Bhavnagri, 1988; Roopnarine, Talukder, Jain, Joshi,
& Srivastave, 1990).
How do we explain these differences? There may be a biological basis for sex differences in parenting
styles — the neuropeptide oxytocin, associated with parent–infant bonding, is released following
affectionate, gentle contact in mothers, while fathers experience oxytocin release following exploratory
and stimulatory play (Feldman, Gordon, Schneiderman, Weisman, & Zagoory-Sharon, 2010). Past
experience with infants, the amount of time routinely spent with young children, demanding work
schedules, and fathers’ expectations about the stresses and responsibilities of parenting may all play a
role. When researchers compared fathers who served as primary, full-time caregivers against fathers who
took a more traditional secondary-caregiver role, they found differences in how the two groups played
with their infants. Primary-caregiver fathers acted very much like mothers — smiling and imitating their
babies’ facial expressions and vocalisations more than secondary-caregiver fathers did. However, all
of the fathers were quite physical when interacting with their infants (Geiger, 1996; Grossmann et al.,
2002; Noppe et al., 1991). These findings suggest cohort effects — developmental changes shared by
individuals growing up in a particular place or under a specific set of historical circumstances — may be
at work here. As successive generations of fathers assume greater involvement in the care of infants due
to changing societal and cultural conditions and expectations, differences in how fathers and mothers
interact with their babies will likely decrease.
Interactions with siblings
Most children in Australasia grow up with siblings — the Australian Study Growing up in Australia
found that from about 4 to 5 years of age through to 12 and 13 years of age, 90 per cent of children have
at least one sibling in their household (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2016). Freud commented
that the arrival of a younger sibling could be quite traumatic for the older child, and that this can disrupt
the relationship between the child and their parents (Volling, 2012). The time siblings spend together in
their early years is often greater than the time they spend with their parents.
In many cultures, children are cared for by siblings. From age one or two they are fed, comforted,
disciplined and played with by a sister or brother who may be only three or four years older (Teti, 1992).
Firstborn children are likely to monitor the interactions of their mother and the new baby very closely and
try to become directly involved. Children as young as 18 months of age attempt to help in the bathing,
feeding and dressing of their sibling. At times they also try to tip over the baby’s bath, spill things and
turn the kitchen upside down when they feel jealous of their mother’s attention to the new baby. Conflict
between siblings is most likely to occur when parents are perceived to give preferential treatment to one
child (Dunn, Slomkowski, & Beardsall, 1994; Stewart, Mobley, Van Tuyl, & Salvador, 1987; Volling,
2012).
In talking to their younger siblings, children make many of the same adjustments their parents
do, using much shorter sentences, repeating comments, and using lots of action-orientated techniques
(e.g. speaking to babies using parentese — an exaggerated vocal tone and gestures). In turn, infants tend
to respond to their siblings in much the same way they do to their parents. But they also quickly learn
the ways siblings differ from parents, particularly young siblings. Because younger children lack their
parents’ maturity and experience, they are less able to consistently focus on meeting the baby’s needs,
rather than their own. For example, a four-year-old boy who is playing with his eight-month-old sister
may not notice she is becoming overstimulated and tired and that she needs to have a break from playing.
On another occasion, he may become jealous of the attention she is getting — intentionally falling on her
while giving her a hug. If parents (and other caregivers) keep in mind the needs and capabilities of each
of their children and provide appropriate supervision, interactions with siblings are likely to benefit the
development of all of their children. Secure infant–mother attachment and warmth towards each child is
associated with positive relationships between siblings, while parental coldness is associated with sibling
conflicts (Volling & Belsky, 1992a).
These young girls are keen to help look after their newborn brother.
Grandparents
With today’s greater life expectancy, many children have an extended relationship with their grandparents,
with grandparents having the opportunity to play a significant role in the children’s growth and devel-
opment (Coall & Hertwig, 2010). This is especially true when grandparents live geographically close
to parents, are relatively young and in good health, and the family belongs to a cultural group that val-
ues the participation of extended family in raising children (Slomin, 1991). Additionally, with increased
maternal employment, grandparents tend to play an important role in providing daytime or after-school
care for young children (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2016). There is also a growing incidence
of grandparents taking on primary parenting roles for various reasons (Worrall, 2009). We will look at
the importance of grandparenting and the variety of grandparenting styles in the chapter on psychosocial
development in middle adulthood.
Interactions with non-parental caregivers

In recent years, caregiving has become increasingly important in the lives of preschool children. The
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2014) found that 48 per cent of children aged 0–12 years had
attended some form of childcare, and of those, 22 per cent had been looked after by grandparents. Most
parents use some form of childcare while they are at work, and this may be formal care, regulated
care (such as long day care or after-school care), or informal care (such as care by family or friends).
The ABS reported that the proportion of children who attended any form of childcare was higher in
one-parent families where the parent was employed (72 per cent) than in two-parent families where
both parents were employed (60 per cent) or two-parent families where one parent was employed
(27 per cent). In both single- and two-parent households, using formal childcare was as common as using
informal childcare. Across families, grandparents were the most common source of informal childcare.
Figure 5.1 displays the percentage of formal and informal care used in terms of age group for children
between 0–12 years.
FIGURE 5.1 Formal and informal childcare for children aged 0–12 years
Under 2
Age (years)
2–3
5–12
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
Percentage of children
Formal child care Informal child care
Source: ABS (2014).

The childcare arrangements parents actually make depend on the age of the child, their own preferences
(usually family-like settings) and the kinds of services available in the community. Data from the 2010
report of the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children (LSAC) (Australian Institute of Family Studies,
2011), which has conducted yearly analyses with the same 10 000 children since 2004, shows that having
young children has a greater effect on the employment patterns of mothers than fathers. Mothers with
young children are less likely to be employed, more likely to work shorter hours and are employed in
quite different types of jobs compared to fathers. The employment rate for mothers with the youngest
child being under 12 months old was 31.2 per cent. Among mothers with an infant, the employment rate
increased from 22.9 per cent for those with a three- to five-month-old child, to 30.9 per cent for those
with a six- to eight-month-old child, and to 39.5 per cent for those with a nine- to eleven-month-old
child. By contrast, among fathers with a youngest child less than a year old, the employment rate was
88.2 per cent. Single mothers had a much lower employment rate than mothers in relationships.
In addition to good physical facilities and developmentally appropriate programs, high-quality care for
infants is ensured by employing caregivers who are well trained and supervised, and responsive to the
physical, cognitive, social and emotional needs of infants and their families (Dalli et al., 2011; Scarr,
1998). For parents who are considering childcare for their infant, knowing what to look for in a centre
is extremely important. Figure 5.2 presents considerations for choosing infant care centres. The National
Quality Framework, which was implemented by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality
Authority (ACECQA), took effect in January 2012 and applies to family day care, after-school care and
long day care across Australia (Department of Education and Training, 2014). The aims of this framework
are to raise the quality of education and childcare across Australia, and include standards on child ratios,
qualification requirements, and a national assessment and rating process.
FIGURE 5.2 What are my childcare and early learning options?
r How many hours of care do I need? The whole day? Just mornings? Just afternoons? Just a few hours
a week? Or just occasionally, like when I have an appointment and need someone to look after my
children?
r Do I want my child cared for in a home environment or in a centre?
r What kind of qualifications and experience do staff members have?
r Does the service offer a preschool program?
r What learning and play opportunities do I want my child to have?
r What kind of routine will my child have?
r Do I want the service to provide lunch? Can I have a look at a sample meal plan?
r Does the centre provide nappies for children under the age of 2?
r What is the carer-to-child ratio?
r Can I claim childcare benefit and childcare rebate if I choose a certain childcare and learning service?
Source: Department of Education & Training, www.mychild.gov.au.
Similarly, the New Zealand Ministry of Education has established a set of guidelines for establishing
quality early childhood services, particularly endorsing the provision of positive guidance for children
within these services (Dalli, 2011; New Zealand Ministry of Education, 1998).
Interactions with peers

Young babies show considerable interest in other infants in much the same way they show interest in
their parents: by gazing, smiling and cooing. Sociability of this kind develops with peers at the same
time and at the same rate it does with parents. When given the choice, infants often prefer playing
with their peers to playing with their mothers. In play situations, infants more frequently look at and
follow their peers, and toddlers are more likely to talk with, imitate, and exchange toys with their peers
than with their mothers. Peers also support the autonomy of the toddler from the mother and offer the
toddler an alternative source of stimulation and comfort (Field, 1990; Katz, 2004; Legerstee, Anderson,
& Schaffer, 1998; Wittmer, 2012).
The sociability level of infants gradually increases with age and can be observed through overt
behaviours such as smiling, laughing and looking that develop into presenting and accepting toys and
then playing social games such as peek-a-boo. These social interactions between infants are important,
as they serve as the foundation for future social exchanges in which responses are elicited from others
and reactions to these responses are generated. These interactions also help the infant or toddler to
develop a sense of ‘self’ and that they are different from others (Eckerman & Peterman, 2001; Rubin,
Burgess, & Hastings, 2002; Wittmer, 2012). This cyclical process is known as reciprocal socialisation —
behaviours of infants invite continuing responses from parents and caregivers; in turn eliciting further
responses from infants. Gradually infants and parents learn to communicate their emotional states and to
interact with and respond to each other effectively. This is known as the mutual regulation model. Infants
learn new behaviours, skills and abilities through social interactions with other infants, which in turn
stimulate infant cognitive development. The benefits of infant social interactions have implications for
participation in childcare centres, which provide an opportunity to learn from peers in a group childcare
setting.
Parents, teachers and other adults play a major role in the development of relationships with peers
during toddlerhood — through their relationships with the toddler, direct instruction about social interac-
tions, and providing the toddler with appropriate opportunities to be with peers in extended family, play
group and day care situations (Fagot, 1997; Girard, Girolametto, Weitzman, & Greenberg, 2011; Howes,
Hamilton, & Matheson, 1994; Parke, Burks, Carson, Neville, & Boyum, 1994; Wittmer, 2012). Increasing
numbers of children of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background are now accessing childcare and
early learning services, and the Australian government recognises the high number of vulnerable children
in these groups. The Budget Based Funded (BBF) Programme provides additional funding to childcare
and early education services in rural, remote and Indigenous communities in recognition of the difficulty
of providing viable services in these areas (Department of Education and Training, 2014). Consultations
with Indigenous communities have identified the need to provide childcare services that are included
within broader early childhood services and which target the needs and experiences of the particular com-
munity. Not surprisingly, the quality of infant–parent attachment appears to be related to young children’s
behaviour with peers. For example, securely attached children have been found to receive more positive
contact from unfamiliar peers, to experience lower levels of child–friend aggression, to be better liked
by peers, and to have more positive friendships with peers compared with insecurely attached children
(Belsky & Cassidy, 1994; Cassidy, Kirsh, Scolton, & Parke, 1996; McElwain, Booth-LaForce, & Wu,
2011).
Toddlers in day care spend a significant proportion of their time interacting positively with other tod-
dlers. They are more likely to express positive feelings, play competently with peers and demonstrate
higher cognitive levels of play (Sims, Hutchins, & Taylor, 1997; van Hoogdalem, Singer, Wijngaards, &
Heesbeen, 2012). Repeated contact with a peer in a familiar setting with a familiar caregiver and minimal
adult interference appears to facilitate the development of peer friendship, (Katz, 2004). Peer relation-
ships during toddlerhood may promote the development of positive friendships later in childhood (Noller
et al., 2001; van Hoogdalem et al., 2012). An informative longitudinal study of the quality of children’s
relationships between infancy and nine years of age found children’s formation of close friendships as
toddlers predicted the positive ratings of their friendship quality as nine year olds (Howes, Hamilton, &
Philipsen, 1998).
In conclusion, although infants’ social interactions with their parents generally provide their most
important early social experiences, interactions with other family members, non-family caregivers, and
peers also contribute to their social development. To some extent, the degree to which parental supervi-
sion considers the needs of the infant and other children affects the quality and developmental impact of
infant experiences with siblings and peers.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
What advice would you give prospective parents about maternal employment and childcare arrangements
for infants? How do you think your own childcare arrangements will (or do) differ from those of your
parents?
THEORY IN PRACTICE
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perinatal social and emotional

wellbeing screening
The Centre of Perinatal Excellence has developed
perinatal health guidelines, which includes the
recommendation that all pregnant women should
have screening for psychosocial risk factors
(Austin, Highet, and the Expert Working Group,
2017). As previously noted (Wilkinson & Mulcahy,
2010), it is well recognised that the first months of
life are critical to the future health and wellbeing
of children, and that conditions such as anxiety
and depression can impact on parenting and
attachment. These influences on attachment
can have long-lasting effects on relationships
throughout life, and early screening and detection
allows implementation of interventions to reduce adverse effects on parents and the child.
Maternity care clinicians in north Queensland identified problems with the screening tools being used
with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. They felt that women in need of extra support or
who were at risk of mental health difficulties were not being accurately identified or referred to services
(Queensland Health, 2014). Of surveyed clinicians from around the state, 50 per cent of respondents
lacked confidence in undertaking screening tests on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Many
staff felt underprepared, and identified deficiencies in their knowledge to appropriately refer and interpret
screening from a cultural perspective. This resulted in the development of a learning package to help
support the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and their
families during the perinatal period and until two years after birth (Queensland Health, 2014).
The learning package was developed for use by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and
the clinicians they work with. In this relationship, the clinician provides supervision for the health worker
and the health worker provides cultural supervision for the clinician, harnessing the expertise of each.
The package aims to improve the health worker’s comfort and confidence in assessing the emotional and
social wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, as well as recognising the health worker’s
cultural and local expertise. The package provides information on culture and beliefs, social and emotional
wellbeing (both in general and specific to the perinatal period), the impact of perinatal disorders on the
family, details for screening and referral, and also elements of self care.
Other culturally appropriate initiatives to support the mental health of those Indigenous families expect-
ing a child include a digital screening and support program called ‘Baby coming – You ready?’ Developed
in consultation with Aboriginal mothers and fathers in Western Australia, this program is built on the cul-
turally specific strategy of involving the broader community in programs, given the role of family and other
community members in childrearing in Indigenous communities (Kotz, Munns, Marriott, & Marley, 2016).
Families who are about to have a child are invited to choose an illustration they identify with, which helps
identify any needed support or mental health issues. It is hoped that this method will improve attendance
at health appointments, and boost the social and emotional wellbeing of parents and infants. These two
programs are examples of a strategy developed to address an identified gap in care provision that can
directly impact parenting, attachment, and maternal and child wellbeing.
5.2 Emotions and temperament

LEARNING OUTCOME 5.2 List the emotional capabilities of infants and explain how differences in infants’
temperaments affect their social development.
The healthy cries of a newborn infant make it clear infants are capable of feeling and expressing their
emotions even at birth. During the first three months, infants spend about two hours crying during a
typical day. Healthy babies produce four types of cries — (1) the basic hunger cry, (2) the angry cry,
(3) the pain cry and (4) the fussy irregular cry — all of which provide caregivers with useful information
about their physiological states of discomfort (St. James-Roberts & Halil, 1991). Over time, as infants
gain better control, their crying serves to convey a wider range of messages to caregivers (Barr, 1995;
Green, Gustafson, & McGhie, 1998; Green, Irwin, & Gustafson, 2000; Keefe, Barbosa, Froese-Fretz,
Kotzer, & Lobo, 2005). In the following sections, we discuss the role of early emotions and tempera-
ment — the infant’s characteristic way of feeling and responding that depicts differences in self-regulation
and reactivity. Reactivity refers to variations among individuals in emotional arousal, motor activity and
attention. In contrast, self-regulation refers to strategies that modify and adjust reactivity.
Emotions
Though researchers have long recognised changes in infants’ crying, smiling, frustrations, and fear of
strangers and novel stimuli, there is now a growing appreciation of the range and complexity of infant
emotions (Campos, Frankel, & Camras, 2004; Frijda, 2000). While physiological aspects of emotion,
such as changes in heart rate, can be reliably measured, their relationships to specific emotions are not
always clear (Camras, Oster, Campos, & Bakeman, 2003; Camras, Sullivan, & Michel, 1993; Lewis,
2008; Oster, Hegley, & Nagel, 1992). One reason for this lack of specificity is that babies’ expectations
and understandings appear to play an important role in their emotional reactions. For example, an incon-
gruous stimulus, such as a mother’s face covered with a mask, will produce a fear response in some
situations but smiling and laughter in others.
While researchers still disagree about the earliest age particular emotions are present, they generally
agree most babies can reliably express basic joy and laughter by three or four months, fear by five to
eight months, and more complex emotions such as shame, embarrassment, guilt, envy and pride during
toddlerhood (Izard, 1994; Kochanska, Coy, Tjebkes, & Husarek, 1998; Lewis, 1992; Saarni, Campos,
Camras, & Witherington, 2006; Vaillant-Mollina & Bahrick, 2013; Weinberg & Tronick, 1994). Table 5.1
shows the approximate ages certain infant emotions appear.
TABLE 5.1 Development of infant emotions
Approximate age (months) Emotion

0–1 Social smile
3 Pleasure smile
3–4 Wariness
4–7 Joy, anger
4 Surprise
5–9 Fear
18 Shame
Sources: Izard (1994) and Lewis (1992).

Expressions of emotion play an important role in development, providing vital information to infants
and their caregivers about ongoing experiences and interactions. Caregivers interpret these emotional cues
and use them to guide their actions in helping to fulfil the infant’s needs. Very young infants appear to be
sensitive to the positive and negative emotions of their caregivers — they are quite capable of responding
to adult fears and anxieties. These responses are likely based on cues similar to those adults use, such as
slight variations in voice quality and touch, as well as variations in facial expression and body language.
As they get older, infants display these feelings with increasing frequency and predictability (Eisenberg
et al., 1995; Grossmann, Striano, & Friederici, 2007; Moses, Baldwin, Rosicky, & Tidball, 2001; Tronick,
1989; Vallotton, 2011).
Another important change in an infant’s emotional life during the first year is the baby’s growing ability
to regulate their own expressive behaviours and associated emotional states — especially negative ones.
These self-directed regulatory behaviours include looking away, self-comforting and self-stimulation.
They allow the infant to control their negative feelings by shifting their attention away from a disturbing
event or by substituting negative stimuli with positive stimuli. These behaviours allow the infant to
adjust their emotional state to a comfortable level at which they can successfully maintain interactivity
with their surroundings (Buss & Goldsmith, 1998; Eisenberg & Spinrad, 2004; Gianino & Tronick,
1988; Grolinck, Bridges, & Connell, 1996; Mumme, Bushnell, DiCorcia, & Lariviere, 2007; Thompson
& Goodvin, 2007). During the second year, increases in the capacity for emotional self-regulation also
reflect infants’ growing ability to respond to the feelings and needs of others through helping, sharing and
providing comfort (Hertenstein & Campos, 2004; Zahn-Waxler, Radere-Yanow, Wagner, & Chapman,
1992). Brownell (2007) proposed that modulation — or self-regulation — of behaviour develops over a
series of five successive phases. These phases are neurophysiological modulation (birth to 2–3 months),
sensorimotor modulation (3 months to 9 months and over), control (12 months to 18 months and over),
self-control (24 months and over), and self-regulation (36 months and over). In phase 1, the infant
becomes able to regulate its patterns and states of sleep, arousal and waking activity. During phase 2,
the sensorimotor schemes described by Piaget are used to regulate behaviour. During phase 3, the infant
intentionally controls and directs its behaviour and is aware of the social demands of others. During
phase 4, language and representational thinking allow increased behavioural self-control. During phase 5,
self-control becomes more conscious, purposeful, and flexible in response to the changing demands of the
situation (Kopp, 1982). As we will see in later chapters, emotional regulation continues to play an impor-
tant developmental role in childhood and adolescence (Caspi, Henry, McGee, Moffitt, & Silva, 1995;
Eisenberg et al., 1997).
Temperament and development

Some infants are described as energetic and cheerful, while others are described as calm and cautious,
and some are susceptible to angry outbursts and frequent crying, all of which can be referred to as
temperament. Temperament refers to the inborn traits that determine the child’s behavioural style, and
also the way they experience and interact with the world (Macedo et al., 2011). These reactions represent
consistent and enduring changes in the individual. Differences in primary reaction tendencies such as
sensitivity to visual or verbal stimulation, emotional responsiveness and sociability appear to be present
at birth. Babies’ reactions consist of attraction to pleasing stimulation and withdrawal from unpleasant
stimulation (Camras et al., 2003). However, researchers disagree on how much such differences are due
solely to genetic inheritance and how much they reflect prenatal influences and more subtle environmen-
tal experiences during and shortly after birth (Kagan et al., 1995; Kagan & Snidman, 1991; Macedo et al.,
2011; Rothbart, 1989; Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Parents certainly report differences in their newborn
infants’ temperaments. For example, the mother of baby Mia remembers that unlike her friend’s son,
Tom — who was a fussy and difficult baby to care for and comfort during his first few months — Mia was
a very easy baby. Interestingly, in an early Australian study, Daniel Freedman (1974) confirmed a link
between culture and temperament. He compared a group of Aboriginal and Anglo-Australian infants and
found marked differences in alertness, reflex reactions, responsiveness, mood quality and muscle tone.
In a now classic study of temperament, Thomas and Chess initiated the New York Longitudinal Study
in 1956, which investigated the development of temperament in 141 children from early infancy to adult-
hood. Thomas and Chess (1977, 1981) analysed parents’ reports of differences in their babies based on
nine behavioural dimensions:
1. activity level
2. rhythmicity (regularity of eating, sleeping and elimination)
3. approach–withdrawal to or from novel stimuli and situations
4. adaptability to new people and situations
5. emotional reactivity
6. responsiveness to stimulation
7. quality of mood (positive or negative)
8. distractibility
9. attention span.
The authors found three distinct patterns of temperament. Easy babies (40 per cent of the sample)
showed mostly positive moods, regular bodily functions, and good adaptation to new situations.
Difficult babies (10 per cent) displayed negative moods, irregular bodily functions, and high stress
in new situations. Slow-to-warm-up babies (15 per cent) resembled the difficult ones but were less
extreme — they were moody and relatively unadaptable — but did not react vigorously to new stimuli.
Finally, mixed-pattern babies (35 per cent) did not fall neatly into any of the first three groups, exhibiting
unique blended patterns from each of the three groups.
Infants vary in temperament from easy-going through to more difficult babies. These variations may affect
long-term development.
Because the original classification of temperaments was based solely on parents’ reports, which some-
times can be unreliable, more recent studies have used two additional measures of temperament: multiple
behaviour ratings (by paediatricians, nurses, teachers and other individuals familiar with the child) and
direct observation of the child. These studies have confirmed earlier findings of temperamental differ-
ences at birth (Plomin, 1989; Seifer, Sameroff, Barrett, & Krafechuk, 1994). Recent research (Eisenberg,
Spinrad, & Morris, 2002; Rothbart, 2003; Rothbart & Bates, 2006; Rothbart & Putnam, 2002) has identi-
fied three main types of temperament, namely (1) negative affectivity or emotionality, (2) self regulation
or effortful control and (3) positive effect or approach.
In Australia in 2013, a report was published on the Australian Temperament Project, a study
that followed the development of a large cohort of Victorian children from infancy until their late
twenties. The study commenced in 1983 with the recruitment of 2443 representative Australian families
in Melbourne with infants aged between four and eight months. This identified several important aspects
of temperament, including sociability (whether a child is shy or outgoing in new situations), reactivity
(how the child reacts to experiences) and persistence (how well a child can stay on task). Australian par-
ents, similar to North American parents in the study by Thomas and Chess, accurately rated their infant’s
temperament. However, Sanson et al. (1985), in an early report from the study, found some interesting dif-
ferences between the temperament patterns of North American and Australian infants. Australian infants
were less active, slept longer, moved less frequently when awake, were less regular in feeding, sleeping
and eliminating, and were not as adaptable as North American infants to novel situations.
Classifying babies by temperamental pattern has been helpful in predicting problems for children who
are difficult or slow to warm up, but not as useful for the majority of children whose temperaments are less
extreme. For example, newborn infants whose biological rhythms are irregular, who experience discom-
fort during feeding and elimination, and who do not communicate their needs clearly are often difficult
for their parents and are more likely to experience problems in developing close relationships with them.
This is particularly true when mothers have little or no help and emotional support from relatives and
friends in caring for their difficult babies, although parenting can improve when such emotional support
is made available (Kerr, Lambert, Stattin, & Klackenberg-Larsson, 1994; van den Boom & Hoeksma,
1994).
How stable are early differences in temperament? Predictions of later temperament based on temper-
amental differences among newborns are not very reliable, although predictions based on differences
observed towards the end of the first year are somewhat better (Carlson, Jacobvitz, & Sroufe, 1995;
Edwards et al., 2013; Gunnar, Proter, Wolf, Rigatuso, & Larson, 1995; Kagan & Snidman, 1991; Komsi
et al., 2006; Majdandžić & van den Boom, 2007; Rothbart & Ahadi, 1994). As part of the Australian
Temperament Project, Pedlow, Sanson, Prior, and Oberklaid (1993) identified maternally reported high
stability estimates of temperament from infancy to eight years. A New Zealand longitudinal study of
more than 800 male and female children from birth to 18 years depicted a remarkable degree of con-
tinuity in temperament over this section of the lifespan. In this study, Caspi and Silva (1995) found a
temperamental pattern evident in toddlers was similar to patterns they described at 18 years. It appeared
an individual’s pattern of interacting with others recreated the same conditions again and again. In most
cases, the degree to which an infant’s early temperamental style contributes to personality development
is likely to be influenced by how good a fit exists between their temperamental style and the attitudes,
expectations and responses of parents and other caregivers. For example, an infant who is very active
and demanding is more likely to maintain this temperament if these qualities are consistent with their
parents’ expectations and responses; as opposed to if their parents expect them to be more passive and
less demanding (Cole, Armstrong, & Pemberton, 2010; Rickman & Davidson, 1995).
In the past two decades, researchers have begun to think of temperamental differences in infancy more
broadly as early-appearing behavioural styles that may influence social and personality development and
psychological adjustment in childhood, adolescence and adulthood (Camras & Shuster, 2013; Caspi et al.,
2003; Caspi & Silva, 1995; Hartup & van Lieshout, 1995; Majdandžić & van den Boom, 2007; Newman,
Caspi, Moffitt, & Silva, 1997; Rothbart & Ahadi, 1994). For example, Denise Newman and her col-
leagues found temperamental differences observed in children at age three were linked to interpersonal
functioning in four important social contexts as young adults:

1. at work
2. at home
3. with a special romantic partner
4. in the wider social network.
Based on behavioural observations of each child in an individual testing session, children were divided
into five temperamental groups. Children who were judged to be temperamentally well adjusted, reserved
or confident at age three displayed a normal range of adjustment in all four social contexts as young
adults. Children who were temperamentally inhibited as three year olds had lower levels of social
support but normal adjustment in romantic relationships and at work as adults. Children who had been
temperamentally undercontrolled (who had difficulty regulating their emotional states) at age three
reported lower levels of adjustment and greater interpersonal conflict in all four social contexts as young
adults (Newman et al., 1997). Studies in both Australia and New Zealand have found that temperament
characteristics identified in early childhood remain stable in adult life. In an Australian longitudinal study,
Lewis (1993) found negative temperament of anger and distress at three months of age could predict poor
cognitive performance during the preschool years. In New Zealand, Caspi and Silva (1995) found toddlers
who lacked control tended to be sensation seekers and risk takers in later life.
The long-term developmental effects of temperamental traits such as shyness appear to be influenced
by many factors, including culture, gender, and historical period. Kerr and her colleagues compared the
results of a study of how childhood shyness among Swedish eight to ten year olds influenced the timing
of marriage, parenthood and career success at 35 years of age with the results of a similar longitudinal
study of American children conducted a generation earlier (Kerr, Lambert, & Bem, 1996). Both American
and Swedish men who were shy as children married and became fathers later than men who had no
history of childhood shyness. American men who had been shy as boys began stable careers later —
resulting in lower career achievement and less career stability by middle adulthood than men who were not
shy as children. However, for Swedish men, childhood shyness had no effect on educational attainment,
occupational stability or income during adulthood. Both American and Swedish women who had been
shy as young children married and became mothers at the same age as girls with no history of shyness.
Childhood shyness was associated with lower levels of educational achievement than non-shy peers for
Swedish women but not for American women. Further research is needed to determine the degree to
which these differences were due to culture, gender and the different historical periods in which the two
studies were conducted.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
What advice would you give to parents about how to respond to differences in their children’s tempera-
ments? What have you noticed about temperamental differences among members of your own family?
Can you relate these differences to any of the research discussed so far?
Recently, individual differences in shyness and sociability have been associated with arousal of
the amygdala (the inner brain structure that controls processing of emotional reactions and emotional
responses to events such as fear, anger and pleasure) and its contribution to varying temperaments. It has
been found that in shy, inhibited children, novel stimuli tend to excite the amygdala and its connections to
the sympathetic nervous system and the cerebral cortex, which prepares the body to act accordingly in the
face of threat; whereas in sociable uninhibited children, the same level of stimulating evokes mild neural
stimulation (Kagan & Fox, 2006). An interesting study by Schwartz, Wright, Shin, Kagan, and Rauch
(2003) involved adult participants who had been classified as inhibited at two years of age when viewing
photos of unfamiliar faces. These participants showed greater activity in the amygdala than adults who
had been identified as uninhibited as toddlers.
5.3 Attachment formation

LEARNING OUTCOME 5.3 Explain the experiences that enable infants to develop secure emotional
attachments with their caregivers, and the consequences of different attachment patterns.
Attachment refers to the strong and enduring emotional bond that develops between an infant and a
caregiver during the infant’s first year of life. These are caregivers who interact with the infant and, in
turn, who the infant turns to in times of stress when the need for closeness and comfort is apparent.
This relationship is characterised by reciprocal affection and a shared desire to maintain physical and
emotional closeness (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991; Main, 1995).
The concept of attachment has been most
strongly influenced by the ethological perspective
(see the chapter on theories of development) and,
to a lesser extent, by the psychoanalytic approach.
In the ethological view, the ties between infant
and caregiver develop from the activation of
a biologically based motivational system that
is an inherited adaptation of human evolution.
This system helped ensure survival by protecting
infants from environmental dangers. Because
the nature of the child–caregiver relationship is
widely viewed as being central to successful child
development, studies of attachment have come to
play an important role in developmental theory.
Another influence has been the work of theorists
who emphasise the importance of working
models, or internalised perceptions, feelings
and expectations regarding social and emotional
relationships with significant caregivers (Birin-
gen, 1990). Recall both Mahler and Stern (in the
chapter on theories of development) report infants
begin to develop mental images or representations
of their relationships with their primary caregiver
between two to four months. The psychoanalytic
approach characterised by the work of Freud
suggests the infant’s emotional ties with the
mother provide the foundation for ensuing rela-
tionships. Acknowledging Freud’s contributions, Harlow and Zimmerman’s research found baby monkeys
contemporary research extends the conception clung to a cloth surrogate mother, even though a wire
of the importance of attachment to long-term mesh surrogate mother provided food.
emotional development being based not only on
the infant’s early experiences but also on the ongoing relationship between the parent and the child.
Although attachment cannot be observed directly, it can be inferred from a number of commonly
observed infant behaviours that help establish and maintain physical and emotional closeness with care-
givers. Three of these behaviours — (1) crying, (2) cooing, and (3) babbling — are signalling behaviours;
four others — (1) smiling, (2) clinging, (3) non-nutritional sucking, and (4) following or gazing —
are approach behaviours. Although researchers do not agree as to whether these specific attachment
behaviours are biologically inherited, many believe the tendency to seek and maintain physical and emo-
tional closeness with caregivers is biologically determined and essential to infant survival in much the
same way food is.

Feeding is an important behaviour that allows mothers and infants to build close relationships. How-
ever, attachment does not depend on hunger satiation alone. A famous experiment conducted in the 1950s
by Harlow and Zimmerman (1959) depicted how rhesus monkeys reared from birth with cloth and wire
mesh ‘surrogate mothers’ clung to the cloth substitute, even though the wire mesh monkey held the bottle
and the monkeys had to climb on it to obtain food. Harlow and Zimmerman found baby monkeys spent
most of their time clinging to the cloth monkey — although they occasionally made expeditions across
to the wire monkey to feed. Through this classic research, Harlow and Zimmerman suggested the warm
cloth monkey provided contact comfort and demonstrated food alone was not the basis for attachment.
Like the rhesus monkeys, human infants can become attached to individuals who rarely feed them, such
as grandparents, aunts and uncles. Infants can also develop strong ties to objects such as blankets and
cuddly toys that have never played a role in feeding them.
Currently, most developmental psychologists believe attachment relationships develop over time as a
cumulative product of an infant’s repeated interactive experiences with their main caregivers during the
first year. Many psychologists concur that attachment involves a highly mutual and interactive partnership
between caregiver and child, both of whom have strong, although unequal, needs to achieve physical and
emotional closeness with each other. This view is influenced by recent discoveries about the interactive
nature of social relations between infants and their caregivers, and the degree of ‘sensitivity’ or respon-
siveness to the infant that the caregiver demonstrates (Belsky, 1996; Fraley, Roisman, Booth-LaForce,
Owen, & Holland, 2013; Waters & Cummings, 2000).
According to attachment theory, once attachment with the mother (or another primary caregiver) is
established, the infant uses them as a secure base from which to explore the environment. As the infant
gradually increases their distance from the mother, the attachment behavioural system and accompany-
ing feelings of fear and anxiety are more likely to be activated, and the infant begins to seek proximity
(closeness) to the caregiver once again. This pattern of behaviour is also activated when the infant encoun-
ters dangers such as strangers, darkness or animals approaching. The balance between activation of the
attachment system and activation of exploratory behaviours can vary with the particular context and the
developmental level of the child (Biringen, 1990; Thompson, 2006).
Phases of attachment formation

The ethological theory of attachment (comparative animal behaviour) was first applied by John Bowlby
in a series of classic studies. This theory acknowledges that the emotional ties of the infant to the
caregiver are a series of evolved responses that assist survival. Bowlby was influenced by Konrad
Lorenz, who observed the relationship between attachment behaviour and imprinting relative to ani-
mals. Lorenz saw the young of certain species attached to an animal they were exposed to during
an early, sensitive period in their lives. In turn, Bowlby observed this relationship with human infant
behaviour.
Bowlby believed attachments develop in a series of phases that are partly determined by cognitive
changes (described in the previous chapter) and partly determined by interactions that appear to develop
quite naturally between infants and their caregivers (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1991; Bowlby, 1969).
Figure 5.3 presents these four phases. Note that both separation anxiety, an infant’s disturbance at being
separated from their caregiver, and stranger anxiety, a wariness and avoidance of strangers, appear
near the beginning of phase 3. The achievement of object permanence (as discussed in the chapter on
theories of development) is thought to be an important basis for separation anxiety and attachment
development.
Stranger anxiety is exhibited by many infants between six and nine months of age and often continues
throughout the first year. It is thought to be tied to an infant’s increasing ability to recognise and distin-
guish between familiar and unfamiliar people and to actively make sense of their interpersonal world.
Whether or not a particular infant becomes wary of strangers and the strength of their reaction may vary
with their temperament, the familiarity of the setting, the friendliness of the stranger, the caregiver’s
reaction, and how accustomed the child is to meeting strangers (Dickstein & Parke, 1988; Mangelsdorf,
Shapiro, & Marxolf, 1995).
Separation anxiety, which generally appears between nine and twelve months, involves displays of fear,
clinging, crying and related distress when an infant’s parent or other caregiver leaves them. It appears to
be related to how well the infant is prepared for the parents’ departure and their past experiences with
separation. However, the responsiveness of the caregiver the infant is left with may be most important —
especially for infants who are temperamentally reactive to separation (Gunner, Larson, Hertsgaard,
Harris, & Bodersen, 1992; Thompson, 2006).
FIGURE 5.3 Four stages of attachment formation
Phase 1: Indiscriminate sociability (birth–2 months)

Responds actively with cries, smiles, coos and gazes to promote contact and affection from other people;
uses limited attachment behaviours less selectively than when older.
Phase 2: Attachments in the making (2–7 months)
Increasing preference for individuals most familiar and responsive to needs; preferences reinforce parents’
affection; accepts certain forms of attention and care from comparative strangers; tolerates temporary
separations from parents.
Phase 3: Specific, clear-cut attachments (7–24 months)
Preferences for specific people become much stronger due to ability to represent persons mentally
(Piaget’s fourth stage of sensorimotor development; see the chapter on physical and cognitive develop-
ment in early childhood); ability to crawl and walk enables toddler to seek proximity to and use caregiver
as a safe base for exploration; increasing verbal skills allow greater involvement with parents and others;
both separation anxiety — an infant’s disturbance at being separated from the caregiver — and stranger
anxiety — a wariness and avoidance of strangers — appear near the beginning of this phase.
Phase 4: Goal-coordinated partnerships (24 months and over)
By age two, increasing representational and memory skills for objects and events; growing ability to under-
stand parental feelings and points of view and to adjust their view accordingly; growing capacity to tolerate
short parental absences, delays and interruptions in parents’ undivided attention makes possible coopera-
tion with others to meet needs; changing abilities are related to secure attachment relationships grounded
in a sense of basic trust.
Source: Adapted from Bowlby (1969).
Assessing attachment: the ‘strange situation’

The most widely used method for evaluating the quality of attachment to a caregiver is called the strange
situation. Originally developed by Mary Ainsworth for infants who are old enough to crawl or walk, the
procedure consists of eight brief social episodes with different combinations of the infant, the mother
and an unfamiliar adult (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978a). This method has been replicated
many times over the decades to research the precursors and outcomes of the individual differences in
infant attachment (Cassidy, Jones, & Shaver, 2013). The infant is presented with a cumulative series of
stressful experiences: being in an unfamiliar place, meeting a stranger, and being separated from the
caregiver (see table 5.2).
Based on the infants’ patterns of behaviour in the strange situation, Ainsworth and her colleagues
identified three main groups. Most of the infants studied (approximately 65 to 70 per cent) displayed a
secure attachment pattern. When first alone with their mothers, they typically played happily. When the
stranger entered, they were somewhat wary but continued to play without becoming upset. But when they
were left alone with the stranger, they typically stopped playing and searched for or crawled after their
mothers; in some cases, they cried. When the mothers returned, the babies were clearly pleased to see
them and actively sought contact and interaction, staying closer to them and cuddling more than before.
When left alone with the stranger again, the infants were easily comforted; although they showed stronger
signs of distress, they quickly recovered from being upset by actively seeking contact with their mothers
on their return.
The second group of infants (about 10 per cent) were classified as displaying an anxious–resistant
attachment or ambivalent pattern. They showed some signs of anxiety and, even in the periods preced-
ing separation, stuck close to their mothers and explored only minimally. They were intensely upset by
separation. When reunited with their mothers, they actively sought close contact with them but at the
same time angrily resisted the mothers’ efforts to comfort them by hitting them and pushing them away.
They refused to be comforted by the stranger as well.
TABLE 5.2 Episodes in the strange situation
Observed attachment
Episode Duration Events behaviours
1 30 seconds Parent and infant enter the room with the
experimenter.
2 3 minutes Parent is seated; baby plays with toys and Parent as a secure base
explores the room.
3 3 minutes A stranger enters room, sits down and Reaction to unfamiliar
talks with parent. adult
4 3 minutes Parent leaves infant alone with stranger, Separation anxiety
who responds to the baby and offers
comfort if baby is upset.
5 3 minutes Parent returns, greets and comforts baby; Reaction to reunion
stranger leaves room.
6 3 minutes Parent leaves baby alone in room. Separation anxiety
7 3 minutes Stranger again enters the room and offers Reaction to being
comfort to the baby. comforted by a stranger
8 3 minutes Parent returns; stranger leaves; parent Reaction to reunion
greets and comforts baby and tries to
interest them in toys.
Source: Adapted from Ainsworth et al. (1978b).
The third group of infants (about 20 per cent) displayed an anxious–avoidant attachment pattern.
They initially showed little involvement with their mothers, treating them and the stranger in much the
same way. They rarely cried when separated and, when reunited, showed a mixed response of low-level
engagement with their mothers and a tendency to avoid them.
A fourth category, disorganised–disoriented attachment, has also been investigated. This pattern,
which was not included in earlier studies because coding procedures were not available, indicates the
greatest degree of insecurity. When reunited with their parent, these infants exhibit confused and con-
tradictory behaviours. They may be unresponsive and turn away when held, display ‘frozen’ postures
and cry out unexpectedly after being comforted (Lyons-Ruth & Block, 1996; Lyons-Ruth, Easterbrooks,
& Cibelli, 1996; Main & Solomon, 1990).
All four attachment patterns have been studied in many countries. In all cases, around 60 to 65 per cent
of the children are reported to be securely attached. Rates of insecure attachment are much more variable
(van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg, 1988). The Multicultural view feature discusses cultural differences in
applying attachment theory to Aboriginal parenting.
MULTICULTURAL VIEW
Attachment theory and Aboriginal parenting

Almost all infants become attached to their parents in some way. However, the patterns by which they do
so vary around the world, and even within Australia. In a paper about attachment in Aboriginal Australians,
Ryan (2011) describes a number of studies supporting the fact that Bowlby’s theory of attachment may
not be applicable in scenarios of Aboriginal parenting. This is particularly important in assessing child
safety cases, where inaccurate assessment can lead to the removal of children from parental care.
The need for children to develop an emotional bond, or attachment, with their caregiver is seen as a
universal aspect of childrearing that helps children grow into competent adults. Different cultures have
quite different ways of raising children, and
how this bond is achieved can also differ. Ryan
notes that the attachment theory developed by
Bowlby comes from mainstream Western thought,
and may not be as applicable in other cultures.
She compares some of the key hypotheses of
this theory in relation to Aboriginal childrearing
practices.
In attachment theory, the caregiver responds
promptly to the child’s distress and need for
security. However, in Aboriginal culture it is more
common for the caregivers to anticipate the child’s
needs and alleviate their expressions of distress.
In other words, the child is attended to before even
becoming distressed. A second element of attachment theory is that as a result of secure attachment, the
child develops social competence as a child and into adulthood. Competence in this instance is defined
through Western views, and is represented by the values of autonomy, ego resilience and persistence in
problem solving. Aboriginal people, however, value interdependence, group cohesion, spiritual connect-
edness, traditional links to the land and community loyalty. Bowlby’s theory also puts forward the premise
that the primary caregiver is used as a base for exploring the world by the securely attached child. In
Aboriginal culture, children younger than two years old are often carried more than being allowed to crawl
or walk, and are discouraged from exploration. This prevents them from demonstrating the Western con-
cept of secure attachment, as they have not had opportunity to extend exploration away from the caregiver.
Ryan (2011) proposes a different perspective of nurturing of children from an Aboriginal perspective.
The concept of kanyininpa, which in a Central Australian Aboriginal language means ‘holding, looking
after or nurturing’, differs from the Western attachment theory — there is expectation that the holding
relationship will change over time, so the child will not necessarily maintain the same attachment with a
primary caregiver as they get older. For example, as they get older, boys leave the holding relationship of
women and develop holding relationships provided by men that support and guide them into adulthood.
The concept of kanyininpa not only represents a form of attachment to caregivers in Aboriginal culture,
but also attachment to land, broader family (which, in Aboriginal culture, includes anyone who has shared
in the nurturing) and community.
This traditional form of nurturing gives Aboriginal people a strong code for how they live — not
only physically, but also socially and spiritually. Although kanyininpa is considered a traditional form of
attachment and caregiving, many studies have shown that differences in caregiving behaviour are still
demonstrated in modern Aboriginal communities, including in urban areas. This can lead to differing
responses between Aboriginal and Western children. For example, anticipating distress before it occurs
and discouraging exploratory behaviour in young children means that the demonstration of secure
attachment is not necessarily identical to that of children raised in Western cultures.
The relevance of Bowlby’s theory of attachment to Aboriginal Australian parenting methods has impli-
cations for the kinds of interventions that may be used. A commonly used parenting education program
based on attachment theory, the Circle of Security, focuses on the relationships between the mother and
infant, and does not take into account the other social relationships that may be instrumental in an infant’s
development. It has been recommended that such parenting support programs may be ineffective for
Indigenous families unless they are adapted to Indigenous cultural practices. Culturally specific strategies
include engaging the whole community and family in parenting methods, as well as focusing on a family’s
strengths (Mildon & Polimeni, 2012). For example, the Boomerang Coolamon Parenting Program, an adap-
tation of the Circle of Security for Indigenous families in south-west Sydney, taught parenting techniques
within cultural camps. This program allowed families to spend time together and develop supportive net-
works within their community.
Attachment seems to result from the combination of several influences, including cultural values, inborn
temperament, and the childrearing practices of the particular family. The developmental meaning of attach-
ment may vary too. What appears to be attachment failure for one child may be success for another,
depending on the circumstances.
Consequences of different attachment patterns
Secure attachment early in infancy benefits babies in several ways during their second year of life.
Securely attached toddlers tend to cooperate better with their parents than other babies do (Lickenbrock
et al., 2013; Londerville & Main, 1981). They comply better with rules such as ‘Don’t run in the living
room!’ and they are also more willing to learn new skills and try new activities their parents show them
(such as when a parent says, ‘Sit with me for a minute and see how I do this’). When faced with problems
too difficult for them to solve, securely attached toddlers are more likely to seek and accept help from
their parents. At age five, these children tend to adapt better than other children to changes in preschool
situations (Arend, Gove, & Sroufe, 1979; Matas, Arend, & Sroufe, 1978; Severn, 2010; Slade, 1987;
Thompson, 2000).
Less securely attached infants may not learn as well from their parents. Anxious–resistant infants often
respond with anger and resistance to their parents’ attempts to help or teach them. Such babies may at
times invest so much time and energy in conflicts they are unable to benefit from their parents’ experience
and to explore their environment. For example, a child who has been reunited with a previously absent
mother in a roomful of toys may use up a lot of time alternating between being angry at and snuggling
with their mother — instead of getting on with their play. Anxious–avoidant infants do not have this
particular problem, but because of their tendency to avoid interaction with their parents, they also miss
out on parental efforts to teach or help them and ultimately may discourage parents from even trying to
help (Hesse & Main, 2000).
The disorganised–disoriented attachment pattern is generally found in seriously disturbed caregiving
situations where interactions between mothers and their infants are inconsistent and out of tune with,
or inappropriately responsive to, the infant’s physical, social and emotional needs. Parents who display
disorganised–disoriented attachment behaviours may think of, and interact with, their infants inappropri-
ately. For instance, they may display role reversal — unrealistically expecting to be cared for by their
infant — or they may respond to their infant in overly intrusive, withdrawing or rejecting ways. An
infant’s attempts to communicate or modify this behaviour are often ignored or overridden, leading to
the disorganised–disoriented infant attachment behaviours noted earlier. Disorganised–disoriented infant
attachment behaviour increases with the severity of family risk factors and places infants at risk for future
problems such as aggression, conduct and anxiety disorders, and other developmental difficulties (Groh,
Roisman, van IJzendoorn, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & Fearon, 2012; Lyons-Ruth & Block, 1996; Lyons-
Ruth et al., 1996; Main & Solomon, 1990).
Differences in attachment appear to persist even into the preschool years. One study found children
rated as being securely attached at age one seemed more likely to seek attention in positive ways in
preschool at age four (Sroufe, Fox, & Pancake, 1983). When they needed help because of sickness or
injury, or just wanted to be friendly, these children found it easy to secure attention by approaching
their teachers fairly directly, and they seemed to enjoy receiving this attention. Anxious–avoidant or
anxious–resistant infants tended to grow into relatively dependent preschool children. They sought help
more frequently but seemed less satisfied with what they got. However, methods of seeking attention
differed between these two groups. Anxious–resistant children showed signs of chronic complaining or
whining, whereas anxious–avoidant children tended to approach their teachers very indirectly — literally
taking a zigzagging path to reach them. Having done so, they typically waited passively for the teachers
to notice them.
Attachment is not limited to the periods of infancy and early childhood. We will discuss the long-term
and intergenerational effects of attachment later in this chapter.
Influences on attachment formation

So far we have emphasised the general aspects of attachment. In this section, we discuss some of the
factors that appear to influence the quality of attachment between infants and their mothers, as well as
other important caregivers.
The role of the mother
A major determinant of individual differences in attachment is the quality of the infant–mother rela-
tionship during the child’s first year. A mother’s capacity to respond sensitively and appropriately to
her infant and to feel positively about them and their strengths and limitations appears to be more
important than the amount of contact or caregiving. Mothers of securely attached infants are more
responsive to their babies’ crying, more careful and tender in holding them, and more responsive to their
particular needs and feelings during both feeding and non-feeding interactions than are mothers of less
securely attached infants, whose response may be poor or inconsistent (Alhusen, Hayat, & Gross, 2013;
Bokhorst et al., 2003; Society for Research in Child Development, 2008; van IJzendoorn & de Wolff,
1997).
Differences in infant temperament are likely to affect the mother–infant relationship and the quality
of attachment. Infants with irritable temperaments tend to receive less maternal involvement, which in
turn may negatively influence the quality of attachment. However, with appropriate interventions, such
negative cycles may be interrupted.
In one study on the influence of temperament and mothering on attachment, van den Boom and
Hoeksma (1994) helped mothers to respond to temperamentally difficult six-month-old infants in more
sensitive and developmentally appropriate ways; adjusting their behaviours to the infants’ unique cues.
Mothers gained experience imitating their infants’ behaviours and repeating their own verbal expres-
sions. They also learnt to notice when their infants were gazing at them and when they were not, and
how to coordinate the pace and rhythm of their own behaviour with those of their infants. Mothers
who received such help were found to be significantly more responsive, stimulating, visually atten-
tive, and capable of regulating their infants’ behaviour than a similar group of mothers who did not
get assistance. Infants of these mothers had higher scores on sociability, self-soothing and explor-
ation. They also cried less often and were much more likely to be securely attached at 12 months
of age.
Being securely attached herself makes the mother more likely to have a child who is securely attached.
The quality of the mother–child relationship is influenced by the mother’s working models — her percep-
tions, expectations and assumptions about her infant, herself and their relationship. Past mother–infant
interactions, the mother’s memories of her own childhood, and similar factors may also play a sig-
nificant role in mother–child attachment relationships (Bokhorst et al., 2003; Bretherton, 1995; Stern,
1985b; van IJzendoorn & Bakermans-Kranenberg, 1997). A mother’s capacity to establish and main-
tain a secure attachment relationship with her infant is also influenced by her socioeconomic status,
which affects her ability to focus on her infant rather than on finding housing, food, work and other
necessities.
The role of the father
Although children are most likely to form strong attachment relationships with their mothers, who are
usually their primary caregivers, they may form equally strong attachments with their fathers. Studies of
father–infant attachment in Australasia and the United States suggest the processes involved are similar
and that fathers display the same range of attachment relationships mothers do. Most studies have found
no differences in most babies’ preferred attachment figures during their first two years (Lamb, 1997;
Lundy, 2003; van IJzendoorn et al., 2004; van IJzendoorn & de Wolff, 1997).
However, as we pointed out earlier in the chapter, fathers and mothers interact with their infants
differently. Fathers are generally more vigorous and physical, and less predictable in their interactions;
and mothers are quieter and more verbal (Ramchandani et al., 2013). Such differences in the quality of
mother–infant and father–infant attachment relationships are likely to reflect gender-related differences
in caregiving opportunities, experiences, and expectations, as well as gender-related differences in the
current division of childcare and other household responsibilities within the family (Akande, 1994;
Baxter & Smart, 2011; Ferketich & Mercer, 1995; Fletcher et al., 2013; Freeman & Newland, 2010;
Owen & Cox, 1997; Volling & Belsky, 1992b).
For example, Wong, Mangelsdorf, Brown, Neff, and Schoppe-Sullivan (2009) identified that although
the research indicates father involvement in attachment development is associated with favourable out-
comes, little research has been conducted directly with fathers. They proposed that fathers’ attitudes to
parenting, the quality of their partner relationship and their response to temperament would all impact
on attachment between the child and father. They found that fathers who perceived their parenting
role as important were more likely to have securely attached infants, particularly infants with difficult
temperaments. These infants, in particular, were shown to benefit from the value the fathers placed
on their parenting role, which meant fathers were also more likely to provide better responses to the
infants’ needs.
Interestingly, an early Australian study by Russell (1978) sought to investigate the involvement of
fathers in the day-to-day care of their children by interviewing fathers in shopping centres. The results
of this study indicated fathers who worked full-time in a broad range of occupations spent an average of
12 hours per week doing at-home caring activities, such as feeding, dressing, bathing, changing nappies
and playing with their children. In comparison, mothers — half of whom were stay-at-home carers and
half of whom worked full-time or part-time — spent an average of 33 hours per week in the same caring
activities. Using a new sample as well as similar studies conducted in America, Graeme Russell and
Alan Russell (1987) found little had changed and fathers spent less time on child caring tasks that their
partners. Similarly, New Zealand fathers were found to have little involvement in parenting in comparison
to mothers (Ritchie & Ritchie, 1978). In 1997, McGurk found full-time employed fathers remained less
involved in care activities than were full-time employed mothers. This trend has not shifted markedly over
time — as is evidenced by data collected by the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (Australian
Institute of Family Studies, 2015). These researchers found the average time fathers spent caring for
children per week was approximately 10 hours, as compared to around 19 hours for mothers. The study
conducted by Wong et al. (2009) found that fathers who worked longer hours were less likely to have
infants who were securely attached.
Overall, the better the psychological and social adjustment and life circumstances of the infant and
their parents, the greater the probability of a secure attachment. For example, fathers of secure infants
tend to be more extroverted and agreeable, to have more successful marriages, and to experience more
positive emotional spillover between work and family than fathers of insecure infants (Belsky, 1996;
Wong et al., 2009). Chronic marital conflict before and after the birth of a child can interfere with
sensitive, involved parenting and may predict insecurity in attachment relationships — particularly for
fathers. An infant’s ongoing exposure to parents who are upset and angry and the distress such exposure
causes may contribute to disorganised infant–caregiver attachment behaviour (Ahnert, Pinquart, & Lamb,
2006; Belsky, 1996; Diener, Mangelsdorf, McHale, & Frosch, 2002; Owen & Cox, 1997).
The effects of maternal employment
Derived from data collected by the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, the social policy research
paper by Baxter (2013), found 48.1 per cent of mothers with infants up to a year of age and 67.5 per
cent of mothers with a child aged up to five years were employed. In contrast, the employment rate for
fathers was 93 per cent. Higher employment rates existed for mothers with higher levels of education.
Single mothers had a much lower employment rate of 25 per cent than mothers in couples, 48 per cent
of which were employed. Rates of employment for both single and couple mothers increased with the
age of the youngest child; whereas employment rates for fathers remained unaffected. Length of mater-
nity leave may influence the quality of mother–infant interactions. Clark and her colleagues interviewed
and video-recorded employed mothers of four-month-old infants in their homes during feeding time.
They found shorter maternity leaves were associated with poorer mother–infant interactions. This was
especially true for mothers who reported more depressive symptoms or who perceived their infants had
more difficult temperaments. Compared to mothers who had longer leaves, these mothers expressed less
positive effect, sensitivity and responsiveness in interactions with their infants (Clark, Hyde, Essex, &
Klein, 1997).
Most infants of mothers in full- or part-time employment are securely attached, although full-time
employed mothers are more likely than part-time employed and non-employed mothers to have insecurely
attached infants (Belsky, 1988; Clarke-Stewart, 1989; Harrison & Ungerer, 2002; Hoffman, 1989). How-
ever, Huston and Rosenkrantz Aronson (2005) found that maternal time spent with the child, although it
is affected by employment demands, did not predict secure attachment. Rather, they hypothesised that the
content and quality of mother–infant interactions may be more important to the development of secure
attachment.
However, these results must be viewed with caution — since the effects of maternal employment on
the infant or young child are rarely direct. They are almost always based on a variety of family factors,
including SES (socioeconomic status) and cultural differences, the mother’s morale, the father’s attitude
towards his wife’s employment, the type of work and number of hours it demands, the mother’s educa-
tional level, the relationship between partners, the father’s role in the family, the availability and quality
of non-maternal care, and the mother’s and father’s feelings about separation from their child (Augustine,
2014; Bianchi, 2000; Silverstein, 1991).
Stifter and her colleagues compared mother–child interactions and attachment patterns in families
in which mothers returned to full- or part-time employment outside the home before infants were five
months old with the interactions and patterns of families in which mothers remained at home full-time.
The researchers found employment did not directly affect attachment. However, when employed, mothers
experienced high levels of separation anxiety as a result of the severe time constraints imposed on them
by their work schedules. They were also more likely to have infants who developed anxious–avoidant
attachments. Although they were as sensitive and responsive to their infants as working mothers who
were not anxious, highly anxious mothers were much more likely to be ‘out of synch’ and overcontrolling
when interacting with their infants (Stifter, Coulehan, & Fish, 1993).
The effects of childcare and multiple caregivers
The growing number of dual-income and single-parent families, and changing views about childrear-
ing and family life, has led to an increased interest in non-maternal childcare to supplement care given
within families. The effects of day care and other forms of non-maternal care on attachment in infants
and toddlers are difficult to evaluate, for many of the same reasons cited in the discussion on maternal
employment. The gender of the child, the child’s temperament, the mother and father’s feelings about
both day care and maternal employment, and the mother’s and father’s reasons for working all play a role.
Other factors include the type of childcare arrangement (day care centre, in-home day care, or relative),
the stability of the arrangement, the child’s age of entry, the quality of day care and the quality of the
child–caregiver relationship (Belsky, 2009; Belsky & Rovine, 1988; Scarr, 1998).
Some infant care researchers have found evidence that one year olds who attend centres for more than
20 hours per week tend to form less secure attachments to their parents, and yet other researchers have
not found this (Umemura & Jacobvitz, 2014). Others reported that negative attachment outcomes tend to
be associated with little or part-time, rather than full-time, infant care. Babies in infant care centres show
more social confidence than infants reared at home (Anderson, 1989; Bohlin, Hagekull, & Rydell, 2000;
Honig, 2002; Roggman, Langlois, Hubbs-Tait, & Rieser-Danner, 1994).
Poor or unstable childcare may increase developmental risks to an infant whose caregiving already
lacks sensitivity and responsiveness. So, the effects of childcare on attachment and the attachment rela-
tionship itself depend primarily on the nature of ongoing interactions between the mother and child and
on the family, neighbourhood and other contexts that either support or undermine the quality and relia-
bility of the mother–infant relationship (Belsky, 1996; Cowan, 1997; Harrison, Ungerer, Smith, Zubrick,
& Wise, 2009; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1997; Owen & Cox, 1997).
What about attachments to multiple caregivers? Though expectations based on infant–mother attach-
ment relationships may help guide an infant in forming new attachments, infants and non-maternal
caregivers are capable of establishing unique and independent relationships based more on their recip-
rocal exchanges and individual qualities than on a ‘model’ developed from mother–child interactions
(Zimmerman & McDonald, 1995). For example, the attachments infants form with childcare centre care-
givers appear to be no less secure than the attachments they form with parents. The two sets of attachments
are relatively independent of each other. So, even an infant who exhibited an insecure pattern of attach-
ment relationships with their family might still form secure attachments with other caregivers (Goosens
& van IJzendoorn, 1990).
There is also evidence that in a variety of other contexts, including extended families and communal
childrearing settings (such as the Israeli kibbutz, the Efe people of Zaire and the Aboriginal people of
Australia) secure relationships with multiple professional and non-professional caregivers are not only
possible but may even contribute to a child’s wellbeing — either by adding to a network of secure
attachments or compensating for their absence (Ryan, 2011; Sagi et al., 1994; Tronick, Morelli, & Ivey,
1992). In an Israeli kibbutz, infants and toddlers are raised in same-aged peer groups by community
childcare providers. Among the Aboriginal Australians, infants and toddlers experience a pattern of
relationships with multiple carers — with their mother, their father, other adults (both biologically
related and not) and children. In such cases, the extended family or community childrearing network
may be more predictive of attachment relationships than the mother–child relationship alone.
FOCUSING ON
Longitudinal studies of children in Australia and New Zealand

Footprints in Time: A longitudinal study of Indigenous children
In the 2003–04 federal budget, the Australian government announced a critical initiative to improve under-
standing and respond to the diversity of experiences and environments faced by Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander children, their families and commu-
nities. The budget initiated a longitudinal study of
Indigenous children known as ‘Footprints in Time’.
The aim of this study is to gain insight into how
a child’s early development can affect the man-
ner in which they develop and mature, and ascer-
tain the services, resources and programs that
can facilitate this development. The study com-
menced in 2008, and since then has continued to
collect data from approximately 1500 Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander families in Australia. The
study collects ongoing information on the chil-
dren’s physical and mental health, their social and
cognitive development, and significant events in
their lives. Data is also collected on their families
and communities and the services they use.
The most recently released report detailed data was that collected during 2012, which included infor-
mation on attendance at school, getting to school, using technology, nutrition, health conditions, family life
and culture (Department of Social Services, 2016). One of the factors investigated was the link between
psychosocial factors and school non-attendance, with a connection shown between illness, indicators of
disadvantage, financial stress and school non-attendance. Collection of this data and demonstration of
the effect on disadvantage on school attendance provides the government with evidence to support the
need to address these social issues.
Growing up in New Zealand: A longitudinal study of New Zealand children and their families
In 2004, the New Zealand government commissioned a longitudinal study of children and their families
(similar to Footprints in Time). Beginning in 2008, the aim is to collect data from families of over 6000 chil-
dren over a 21-year period, and to similarly provide evidence that can inform public policies and strategies
to optimise healthy development. Unlike the Footprints in Time study, this study collects data on children
of all ethnic groups in New Zealand, but the study design integrates Māori themes so that they can exam-
ine specific factors that contribute to Māori children and family wellbeing. The first report from this study,
released in 2010, detailed key influences on children and families during the prenatal period. The report
provides important information on parental factors such as employment, education and ethnicity, as well
as pregnancy behaviours that might impact on development (such as diet, physical activity, smoking or
alcohol use in pregnancy). The most recent report from this study (Morton et al., 2017) focuses on the
preschool years, and describes the children’s mental and physical health, social functioning, and early
childhood care and education. The report also takes parental factors into account such as housing sta-
bility, income and employment.
Both of these studies will provide extensive data over a long period of time to provide governments and
health policy makers with important information on childhood development, and the factors that positively
and negatively influence this development in all domains.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What arguments would you make to support the importance and influence of family, extended family and
community in the early years of life and when growing up? What other examples of family support policies
(e.g. health care) that fall short of what is needed for children’s healthy development can you think of?
What arguments would you make for culturally appropriate childcare services?
Long-term and intergenerational effects of attachment

The long-term and intergenerational effects of attachment have been of growing interest to developmental
researchers. Attachment patterns in infancy are predictive of attachment in childhood, adolescence and
adulthood, and the attachment relationships parents experience in their own childhoods are related to the
attachment relationships they develop with their own children (Hamilton, 2000; Main, 1995; Mickelson,
Kessler, & Shaver, 1997; Trinke & Bartholomew, 1997; van IJzendoorn & Bakermans-Kranenburg, 1997;
Weinfield, Whaley, & Egeland, 2004).
The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) has been used to evaluate the childhood attachment relation-
ships adults had with their own parents and other caregivers (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985; Hesse,
2008). Based on their responses, adults are classified into four main attachment patterns:
1. autonomous (secure)
2. dismissing (insecure)
3. preoccupied (insecure)
4. unresolved–disorganised.
Adults classified as autonomous are generally thoughtful, value attachment experiences and rela-
tionships, and provide balanced, non-contradictory descriptions of both their parents as loving during
childhood. If they experienced rejection or abuse during childhood, they have forgiven their parents for
the maltreatment. Adults classified as dismissing tend to deny the influence of attachment experiences
on their own development or their relationships with their own children. They may insist they cannot
remember their childhood experiences or can recall them only in contradictory or overly idealised ways.
Individuals classified as preoccupied are often still emotionally entangled in their early experiences
and relationships with their families and have difficulty explaining them in a clear and understandable
way. The unresolved–disorganised pattern is similar to the disorganised–disoriented type of attachment
described for infants. Table 5.3 describes each of the adult AAI attachment patterns and the matching
infant attachment pattern based on the strange situation.
TABLE 5.3 Patterns of adult and infant attachment
Adult or infant Attachment pattern Description of pattern

Infant Secure Displays positive effect, sharing when not distressed.
Adult Autonomous (secure) Gives coherent description of childhood relationship
experiences in which both positive and negative aspects of
relationships are acknowledged; relationships are valued and
important.
Infant Avoidant (insecure) Avoids caregiver despite high levels of internal distress;
suppresses attachment behaviours and focuses on external
environment.
Adult Dismissing (insecure) Fails to recall details of childhood relationships or minimises
the effects of negative experiences; relationships are not
valued or important.
Infant Resistant (insecure) Seeks closeness when distressed but resists caregiver
attempts to soothe while at the same time appealing for
soothing; behaves ambivalently about contact, both signalling
for it and rejecting it.
Adult Preoccupied (insecure) Describes childhood relationship experiences incoherently and
exhibits angry preoccupation or passive thought processes.

Infant Disorganised–disoriented Exhibits one or more strange or bizarre conflict behaviours,
directed towards caregiver, especially during stress; may have
another classification as an underlying pattern.
Adult Unresolved–disorganised Lacks resolution of mourning after a significant loss or severely
traumatic experience; description of these experiences is
incoherent, confused, or not emotionally integrated.
Source: Adapted from van IJzendoorn and Bakermans-Kranenburg (1997).
Van IJzendoorn (1995) analysed 18 studies of how well parents’ AAI attachment classifications
predicted their own infants’ attachment classifications in the strange situation. He found the security
of the parent’s own attachment classification predicted the security of the infant’s attachment in a
majority (approximately 75 per cent) of cases. In a later analysis of over 10 000 AAI classifications,
Bakermans-Kranenburg and van IJzendoorn (2009) found that in samples of non-clinical mothers (that
is, those without clinical problems, for whom the AAI was first developed), 58 per cent of mothers were
classified as securely attached, 23 per cent were classified as insecure–dismissing, and 19 per cent were
classified as insecure–preoccupied. They also found 18 per cent displayed some unresolved attachment,
mostly in the preoccupied group. Attachment patterns appear to be transmitted across the lifespan as well.
Benoit and Parker (1994) studied the transmission of attachment across three generations: (1) infants,
(2) mothers and (3) grandmothers. They found mothers’ AAI classifications during pregnancy predicted
infants’ strange situation classifications in approximately 68 per cent of the cases and grandmothers’
AAI classifications in 49 per cent of the cases.
What accounts for the long-term, intergenerational transmission of attachment? One important factor
is the caregiver’s sensitivity in reliably and appropriately responding to the baby’s signals (Barlow &
Durand, 1995; Hesse & Main, 2000). Another is living in families and communities that provide the
economic, social and emotional conditions that support and promote the working models and interactions
that are the basis for secure attachment and adequate parent–child relationships.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
What advice would you give new parents about the roles of fathers, maternal employment and childcare in
supporting secure attachment and optimal social–emotional development for their infants? What recom-
mendations would you give to politicians and other policy makers regarding infant and toddler childcare
programs for families with working and non-working mothers?
5.4 Toddlerhood and the emergence of autonomy

LEARNING OUTCOME 5.4 Outline why autonomy is so central to development during toddlerhood and how
parenting qualities contribute to its successful development.
By the second year of life, infants who have experienced sufficient caregiver–infant synchrony and
achieved relatively secure attachment relationships with their parents and other caregivers have developed
a sense of basic trust (versus mistrust) about the world. Due to warm, responsive care, infants develop
a sense of confidence and trust about the world. Mistrust occurs when infants are handled harshly and
have to wait too long for care, comfort and their basic needs to be met. According to Erikson (1963), by
resolving this crisis (a time of particular vulnerability linked to social relationships) in the first stage of
psychosocial development, an infant’s trusting view of the world leads to the development of hope — the
enduring belief that one’s wishes are attainable (see the overview of the eight stages in Erikson’s theory
of psychosocial development in the chapter on theories of development). Trust forms the first building
block of the infant’s social and emotional development. A child who is mistrustful of the environment
may exhibit only the emotions of fear, distress, anger or apathy.
Despite lingering anxieties about separations, the achievement of a basic sense of trust in caregiver
relationships enables toddlers to become increasingly interested in new people, places and experiences.
For example, an 18-month-old may no longer bother to smile at their mother while they play near her and
they may not need to return to her for reassurance as often as they used to. Parents may welcome these
changes as a move towards greater independence and at the same time experience a loss of intimacy they
may not be prepared for. This shift is both inevitable and developmentally important. For example, an
older infant can move about rather easily, so they can find more to explore without help from others. The
newfound abilities to crawl, climb and walk make them more interesting as a playmate for other children
and less dependent on their parents for their social life. Rapidly developing thinking and communication
skills also contribute to increased infant autonomy.
After their first birthday, infants begin to show increasing autonomy in their play and other activities, which sometimes
leads them into unsafe situations. However, they still need social as well as physical safety.
These competencies create new challenges for both toddlers and their families as, according to Erikson
(1963), a new developmental crisis emerges: the psychosocial crisis of autonomy versus shame and doubt.
Autonomy refers to a child’s capacity to be independent and self-directed in their activities and their
ability to balance their own demands for self-control with demands for control from their parents and
others. Shame involves both a loss of approval by people important to the child and a loss of self-respect
due to a failure to meet one’s own standards (Dix, Stewart, Gershoff, & Day, 2007; Kochanska, Murray, &
Harlan, 2000; Lewis, 1992). Toddlers must somehow make choices — an essential feature of autonomy —
in ways that cause no serious harm to themselves or others. With a new sense of independence, toddlers
attempt to assert themselves during this phase and, as a result, they frequently come into conflict. This
often leaves them with a sense of shame with respect to other people and doubt about their own abilities
to control their world and themselves. For example, toddlers may assert their autonomy by not eating
at mealtimes or by saying ‘no’ frequently. Erikson believes healthy autonomy is only established if the
toddler encounters a reasonable balance between freedom and control. Too much autonomy — as well
as too little — can be harmful.
Parents must learn to support their toddler’s efforts to be autonomous, but must do so without overes-
timating or understanding the toddler’s capabilities or the external dangers and internal fears they face. If
they are unable to provide such support and instead show their disapproval of failures by shaming their
toddler, a pattern of self-blame and doubt may develop. In such instances, the toddler is more likely to
be either painfully shy and unsure of themselves or overly demanding, self-critical, and relatively unable
to undertake new activities and experiences freely.
Parents also must help their young toddler master this crisis of autonomy by continually devising
situations in which their rapidly developing child can play independently and without undue fear of
interference; for example, by putting pots and pans within reach but hiding knives. Toddlers also need
social as well as physical safety. Ripping up a sister’s drawing or dumping dirt out of pot plants may not
have dangerous physical consequences, but it can have negative social effects. So, parents must help their
toddler learn how to avoid social perils by being selective about the toddler’s activities (Feigelman, 2007).
Sources of autonomy
Why should infants and toddlers voluntarily begin to exert self-control over their own behaviour? Devel-
opmental psychologists have suggested several possible answers to this question based on the various
theories outlined in the chapter on theories of development. Each has some plausibility, although none
are complete in themselves.
Identification
According to psychoanalytic theory, identification is the process by which children wish to become like
their parents and other important attachment figures in their lives. The intensity of a young child’s emo-
tional dependence on parents creates an intense desire to be like them, please them and guarantee their
love. This dependence also creates anger, because of the helplessness and fear of abandonment the infant
inevitably experiences during even brief periods of separation. Identification can also be motivated by the
unconscious desire to protect oneself from distress by being like the person who is the object of that anger.
Both mechanisms, of course, may operate at once, and either may function without the child’s knowledge.
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning stresses the importance of reinforcement for desirable behaviours. According to this
view, adults will tend to reinforce a child for more grown-up behaviours, such as independent exploration
(‘What did you find?’) and self-restraint (‘I’m glad you didn’t wet your pants’). Operant conditioning
resembles identification in assuming parents can motivate children, but it also assumes their influence
occurs gradually, with the child acquiring specific behaviours rather than whole personality patterns.
Observational learning
According to the theory of observational learning, the key to acquiring autonomy and self-control lies in
the child’s inherent tendency to observe and imitate parents and other caregivers. For example, if parents
act gently with the child’s baby sister, the child will come to do so as well (although their interpretation of
gently may occasionally be influenced by feelings of sibling rivalry). Similarly, if a young child observes
their mother taking pots and pans from the kitchen cabinet, it is a fair bet they will attempt to do the same.
In fact, much home ‘child-proofing’ is necessitated by a young child’s skill at observational learning.
The process of observational learning implies that autonomy and self-control are acquired in units —
or behavioural chunks — that are bigger than those described by operant conditioning but smaller than
those acquired in identification.
Social referencing: a common denominator

All three explanations of the development of autonomy have something in common: they involve social
referencing — the child’s sensitivity to the feelings of their parents and other adults, and their ability
to use these emotional cues and information to guide their own emotional responses and behaviours in
an uncertain situation (Baldwin & Moses, 1996; Mumme et al., 2007; Schmitow & Stenberg, 2013). For
example, infants and toddlers exhibit social referencing when they visit a strange place. Should they be
afraid of the new objects and people or not? How safe is it to be friendly and to explore? In the absence
of past experiences, they evaluate such situations based on their parents’ responses: if their parents are
relaxed and happy, they are likely to feel that way and if their parents are tense or anxious, the children
will probably feel this way too.
Even very young infants, sometimes as young as six months, use their caregivers and even strangers to
guide their responses — for example, by approaching and playing with unfamiliar toys if a nearby stranger
is smiling, and avoiding them if the person looks fearful (Klinnert, Emde, Butterfield, & Campos, 1986;
Schmitow & Stenberg, 2013; Stenberg, 2003; Striano & Rochat, 2000; Vaish & Striano, 2004).
Development of self
The sense of self that develops late in infancy shows up in everyday situations as well as in situa-
tions involving self-control. Its development appears to follow a sequence that begins with physical
self-recognition and self-awareness, followed by self-description and self-evaluation, and then by knowl-
edge of standards and emotional response to wrongdoing (Kochanska, Casey, & Fukumoto, 1995; Saarni
et al., 2006; Stipek, Gralinski, & Kopp, 1990).
Self-recognition and self-awareness
One interesting series of studies explored this phenomenon in infants aged 9 to 24 months by testing their
ability to recognise images of themselves in mirrors, on television and in still photographs (Asendorpf,
Warkentin, & Baudonniere, 1996; Rochat, 2003; Rochat & Striano, 2002). Because most of the infants
could not verbally indicate whether or not they recognised themselves, the researchers secretly marked
each infant’s nose with red rouge. When placed in front of a mirror, infants from 15 to 24 months of
age touched their bodies or faces more frequently than they did before they were marked. Infants around
15 to 18 months also began to imitate their marked images by making faces, sticking out their tongues,
or watching themselves disappear and reappear at the side of a mirror. These self-recognition behaviours
never occurred in infants younger than 15 months of age and increased from 75 per cent at 18 months to
100 per cent at 24 months. When presented with video-recorded images of themselves in which a stranger
sneaked up on them, infants as young as nine months displayed self-recognition based on contingent cues,
that is, connections between their own movements and the movements of the image they were viewing.
By approximately 15 months, infants were increasingly able to distinguish themselves from other infants
by using non-contingent cues such as facial and other physical features (Lewis, Brooks-Gunn, & Jaskir,
1985; Lewis & Ramsay, 2004; Rochat, 2010).
Self-description, self-evaluation and emotional response to wrongdoing
Between 19 and 30 months of age, children develop the cognitive competence and vocabulary to describe
and represent themselves in terms of physical characteristics such as size (little, big), type of hair (curly,
red) and eye colour. By the end of their second year, most children show an increasing appreciation of
the standards and expectations of others regarding their behaviour towards both people and things. For
example, a broken toy can trouble a child even if they did not break it; they may show it to an adult and
verbally express concern and a need for help (‘Broken!’ or ‘Daddy fix?’). A crack in the kitchen tiles
may now receive close scrutiny, even though several months earlier it went unnoticed and several months
later it may go unnoticed again. Language that implies knowledge of standards — evaluative vocabulary
such as bad, good, dirty, nice — appears as well (Bretherton, 1995). Such knowledge combines with
other behaviours to suggest the child is beginning to sense an identity for themselves. There is also rea-
son to believe verbal and non-verbal reactions of toddlers to flawed objects are associated with the early
development of a sense of morality. When faced with situations in which they believe they have been
responsible for a ‘mishap’ — such as breaking a toy, toddlers’ responses include acceptance of responsi-
bility, apologies, a focus on reparations (repairing the wrong) and distress (Kochanska et al., 1995, 2000).
By age two, children show satisfaction in initiating challenging activities or behaviours for themselves,
and they often smile at the results. A child builds a tower of blocks higher than usual and smiles broadly
the moment they complete it. Another makes a strange noise — for example, of a cat meowing — and
then smiles with pride. In each case, the child confronts a task that is somewhat difficult by their current
standards, but attempts it anyway. Their behaviour suggests an awareness of what competent performance
amounts to and of their own ability to succeed. This knowledge reflects part of their sense of self and
contributes to its further development.
Development of competence and self-esteem

From the beginning of infancy through to the end of toddlerhood, children achieve a growing sense of
basic trust, autonomy, competence and ultimately self-esteem. In fact, these developments go hand in
hand. Autonomy, as we discussed earlier, is made possible by a child’s secure and basically trustworthy
relationships with their primary caregivers. Competence — skill and capability — develops as a result
of the child’s natural curiosity and desire to explore the world and the pleasure they experience in suc-
cessfully mastering and controlling that world (Harter, 2003, 2006b; White, 1993). Much like the infant’s
need for proximity and attachment to caregivers, their motivation to explore and master the world is
thought to be relatively autonomous and independent of basic physiological needs for food, water, sleep
and freedom from pain.
Based on many years of observational study, White (1993) suggests a socially competent toddler is
likely to display capabilities in the following areas:
1. getting and holding the attention of adults in socially acceptable ways
2. using adults as resources after first determining that a task is too difficult
3. expressing affection and mild annoyance to adults
4. leading and following peers
5. expressing affection and mild annoyance to peers
6. competing with peers
7. showing pride in personal accomplishments
8. engaging in role play or make-believe activities.
What everyday rules for behaviour guide parents’ efforts to socialise their toddlers and preschool-age
children? To answer this question, Gralinski and Kopp (1993) observed and interviewed mothers and
their children in these age groups. They found for 15-month-old children, mothers’ rules and requests
centred on ensuring the children’s safety and, to a lesser extent, protecting the families’ possessions from
harm; respecting basic social niceties (‘Don’t bite’; ‘No kicking’); and learning to delay getting what
they wanted (versus getting it immediately). As children’s ages and cognitive sophistication increased, the
numbers and kinds of prohibitions and requests expanded from the original focus on child protection and
interpersonal issues to family routines, self-care and other concerns regarding the child’s independence.
By the time children were three, a new quality of rule emerged: ‘Do not scream in a restaurant, run around
naked in front of company, pretend to kill your brother, hang up the phone when someone is using it,
fight with children in school, or pick your nose.’
Not surprisingly, a toddler’s social competence is influenced by the nature of the parent–toddler
relationship. Positive parenting behaviour has been linked to the development of social competence in
children (Shinohara, Sugisawa, Tong, Tanaka, & Watanabe, 2012). Even though they do not spend more
time interacting with their children than mothers of less competent children, mothers of highly competent
children support and encourage their toddlers’ curiosity and desire to explore the world around them,
by providing a rich variety of interesting toys and experiences that are both safe and appropriate to the
children’s level of competence. They also play with their toddlers in ways that are responsive to the
children’s interests and needs and use language their toddlers can clearly understand.
Observations of mothers and their two-year-old children found toddlers’ capacity for both compliance
with parental directions and self-assertion was associated with authoritative parenting relationships (see
the chapter on psychosocial development in early childhood) consisting of a combination of control and
guidance and an appropriate sharing of power with warmth, sensitivity, responsiveness and child-centred
family management techniques. High levels of defiance and parent–toddler conflict were most likely to be
associated with more authoritarian, power–assertive control strategies. In situations in which the toddler
had said ‘no’ to the mother, maternal negative control was most likely to elicit defiance (Crockenberg &
Litman, 1990; Donovan, Leavitt, & Walsh, 2000; Grunzeweig, 2003; Spinrad et al., 2007; White, 1993).
Mothers of competent toddlers are also more likely to encourage their children to accomplish the tasks
they had initiated themselves by actively guiding them and praising them for achievements rather than
performing the tasks for them (White, 1993). As might be expected, this approach requires considerable
patience, the ability to tolerate the child’s frustration when things do not work out the first few times, and
a firm belief in the child’s need and potential to be an autonomous and competent person. Perhaps the
most important quality of these mothers is their ability to interact sensitively and appropriately with their
children and to experience pleasure and delight in these interactions (at least most of the time). The same
quality appears to be most important in the development of secure attachment relationships and continues
to be important throughout childhood.
Toddlers who grow up in supportive environments are likely to be better adjusted in their develop-
ment than children whose environments are less supportive. A natural outcome of such parenting is the
early emergence of a strong sense of self-esteem: a child’s feeling they are an important, competent,
powerful and worthwhile person whose efforts to be autonomous and take initiative are respected and
valued by those around them (Erikson, 1963; Harter, 1983, 2003, 2006a; Robins & Trzensniwski, 2005).
The development of self-esteem during infancy and toddlerhood is closely tied to the achievement of a
positive ratio of autonomy versus shame and doubt and initiative versus guilt during the developmental
crises that, according to Erikson, occur during this period (Erikson, 1963). As we will see, the childhood
experiences that follow infancy continue to make major contributions to this important aspect of identity.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
How do you think seeing a toddler develop competence and self-esteem would affect your feelings and
self-evaluation as a parent and caregiver? How might these feelings affect the child in turn? How do com-
pliance and non-compliance with maternal requests represent key milestones in the social development
of infants and toddlers?
LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD
Let us now look at how the lifespan themes outlined in the chapter on studying development apply to our
discussion of infancy. We will focus on attachment, which plays a central role in infancy and influences
development throughout the life cycle.
Attachment relationships begin in early infancy and are an important aspect of the parent–child rela-
tionships that are the foundation of psychosocial development. Although the ways in which parent–child
attachment is expressed change as a child moves from infancy to childhood and adolescence, and then
into adulthood, there is considerable continuity within these changes. This is reflected in the finding that a
child who is classified as being securely (or insecurely) attached in infancy and early childhood will very
likely continue to display that pattern as an adolescent, a parent and a grandparent. The internal mental
working models of both parent and child that are thought to organise and guide early infant–caregiver
interactions continue to do this, even though the particular forms of the interactions undergo develop-
mental change.
Lifelong growth
The physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth that occurs from infancy through to adulthood affects
how attachment is expressed in important ways. For example, how secure (or insecure) attachment is
displayed during adolescence is markedly different from the way it was displayed in early childhood
and the ways it will be manifested in romantic relationships during adulthood. These changes are also
a product of the striking growth in cognitive abilities achieved in adolescence and early adulthood. So,
a young person who attends boarding school in the country while their parents live in the city is able
to maintain their psychological sense of attachment even though most of their interactions are by email,
phone calls, holiday visits and, on rare occasions, by post.
The meaning of attachment to children and their parents changes significantly as they move through
the life cycle. For example, the meaning of attachment for a mother and her pre-teenage daughter will
differ significantly from that experienced during the daughter’s early childhood years, and will likely
change again when the pre-teen is a parent, and her mother is the parent of an adult child as well as
a grandmother. Remember, despite the changes in vantage points and meanings, it is also highly likely
all three generations — grandmother, mother and child — will share the same attachment classification,
reflecting the theme of continuity within change mentioned earlier.
The lifespan theme of diversity is reflected in the development of attachment in two ways. The first
and more obvious way is in the four attachment classifications that appear to describe the great major-
ity of children and parents who have been studied. As we have seen in this chapter, a secure pattern
of attachment for both infant and parent during the first two years is generally associated with much
more positive long-term developmental outcomes than is a disorganised pattern for the child and par-
ent. The second major source of developmental diversity in attachment relationships is the many factors,
in addition to a parent’s sensitivity and responsiveness, which affect the quality of attachment and the
overall parent–child relationship. An example of this is the differences in the frequency with which var-
ious attachment patterns are observed in different cultures and in different contexts within a particular
culture.
SUMMARY
5.1 Describe the ways a newborn infant is capable of participating in the social world, and how
caregiver–infant synchrony further develops this sociability.
Newborn infants have a natural tendency to actively participate in their social world. Caregiver–infant
synchrony refers to the closely orchestrated social and emotional interactions between an infant and their
caregiver and provides an important basis for the development of attachment relationships. The similar-
ities in the type and quality of an infant’s interactions with their mother and father are greater than the
differences. The effects of non-maternal care and maternal employment on infant and toddler develop-
ment depend on the specific circumstances, but generally do not appear to be negative. When given the
opportunity, infants engage in active social interactions with their siblings and peers and often prefer them
to their parents as playmates.
5.2 List the emotional capabilities of infants and explain how differences in infants’
temperaments affect their social development.
Infants appear to be capable of a complex range of emotional responses and are quite sensitive to the
feelings of their caregivers. They probably use cues similar to those that adults use, such as variations in
voice quality, smell, touch, facial expression and body language. Even at birth, infants exhibit differences
in temperament, patterns of physical and emotional responsiveness, and activity levels. These differences
both influence and are influenced by the feelings and responses of their caregivers.
5.3 Explain the experiences that enable infants to develop secure emotional attachments with
their caregivers, and the consequences of different attachment patterns.
Attachment, the tendency of young infants and their caregivers to seek and maintain physical and emo-
tional closeness with each other, is thought to provide an important basis for achieving secure and trusting
relationships during early infancy. Attachment develops in a series of phases from indiscriminate socia-
bility at birth to goal-coordinated partnerships at two years. The strange situation, in which the infant is
confronted with the stress of being in an unfamiliar place, meeting a stranger, and being separated from
their parent, has been used to study the development of attachment. Secure attachment is most likely to
develop when the caregiver responds sensitively and appropriately to the infant and the infant can use
the caregiver as a safe base for exploration. Insecurely attached infants tend to be less able than securely
attached infants to get help from parents and teachers when they need it or to accept it when it is offered.
Infants are equally capable of forming secure attachments to their mothers and to their fathers, and to
other caregivers as well, even though the mother is the primary caregiver in the majority of families. The
effects of both maternal employment and childcare on attachment depend largely on how the mother feels
about herself and her role as a parent and how the situation helps or hinders her ability to care for and
enjoy her baby. The quality of her experience and the quality and consistency of the childcare are also
important. Attachment patterns can be long term, often affecting three generations of parents and their
children.
5.4 Outline why autonomy is so central to development during toddlerhood and how parenting
qualities contribute to its successful development.
Sources of the growing autonomy that characterises the second year of infancy include identification,
operant conditioning, observational learning and social referencing. Toddlerhood also brings significant
increases in self-knowledge and self-awareness. These changes are reflected in the toddler’s increasing
awareness of adult standards, distress at behaviours modelled by unknown adults, and pride in their
accomplishments. Toddlers are strongly motivated to achieve greater competence through successfully
mastering and controlling the physical and social worlds around them. Competence is fostered by parents
who encourage their infant’s curiosity by providing opportunities that are challenging, safe, and appro-
priate to the child’s capabilities. Increased self-esteem in the infant is the natural outcome of supportive
parenting.
KEY TERMS
anxious–avoidant attachment An insecure bond between infant and caregiver in which the child rarely
cries when separated from the caregiver and tends to avoid or ignore the caregiver when reunited.
anxious–resistant attachment An insecure bond between infant and caregiver in which the child
shows signs of anxiety preceding separation, is intensely upset by separation, and seeks close contact
when reunited while at the same time resisting the caregiver’s efforts to comfort.
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.
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.
basic trust (versus mistrust) Children develop a sense of trust when their caregivers provide reliability
and affection. A lack of this leads to mistrust.
caregiver–infant synchrony Patterns of closely coordinated social and emotional interactions between
a caregiver and an infant.
competence An individual’s increased skill and capability in successfully exploring, mastering and
controlling the world around them.
disorganised–disoriented attachment This pattern indicates the greatest degree of insecurity between
infant and parent. When reunited with the parent, the infant exhibits confused and contradictory
behaviour, including unresponsiveness, turning away when held, frozen postures and unexpected cries
after being comforted.
secure attachment A healthy bond between infant and caregiver. The child is happy when the
caregiver is present, somewhat upset during the caregiver’s absence, and easily comforted upon the
caregiver’s return.
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.
social referencing The child’s sensitive awareness of how parents and other adults are feeling and their
ability to use these emotional cues as a basis for guiding their own emotional responses and actions.
Social referencing is important for the development of autonomy.
strange situation A widely used method for studying attachment that confronts the infant with a series
of controlled separations and reunions with a parent and a stranger.
temperament Individual differences in quality and intensity of emotional response and self-regulation
that are present at birth, are relatively stable and enduring over time and across situations, and are
influenced by the interaction of heredity, maturation and experience.
working models Internalised perceptions, feelings and expectations regarding social and emotional
relationships with significant caregivers based on experiences with those caregivers.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1 How does emotional development, including temperament, influence infants’ and toddlers’ cognitive
processing, social behaviour and physical health?
2 Why do many infants display stranger anxiety in the second half of their first year? What factors can
increase or decrease wariness of strangers?
3 What factors explain stability in attachment patterns for some young children and change for oth-
ers? To what extent are these factors involved in the link between attachment in infancy and later
development?
4 What is temperament and how is it measured?
5 Explain how parenting, interaction and temperament contribute to the development of emotional self-
regulation, independence and autonomy.
1 Discuss the concept of goodness of fit. How do infants develop a good fit with their temperament and
how does this encourage adaptive functioning?
2 Describe four factors that can have an impact on the transition to parenthood.
3 What are the implications of resolving the psychological crisis of autonomy versus shame and doubt
for a child’s sense of self? How can parents support their child’s development of autonomy?
1 Test your understanding of Ainsworth’s strange situation research by identifying each of the follow-
ing definitions as an example of anxious–avoidant attachment, secure attachment, strange situation or
anxious–resistant attachment.
(a) ___________________ A healthy bond between infant and caregiver. The child is happy when
the caregiver is present, upset during the caregiver’s absence, and easily comforted upon the care-
giver’s return.
(b) ___________________ An insecure bond between infant and caregiver in which the child shows
signs of anxiety preceding separation, is intensely upset by separation, and seeks close contact
when reunited, while at the same time resisting the caregiver’s efforts to comfort.
(c) ___________________ An insecure bond between infant and caregiver in which the child rarely
cries when separated from the caregiver and tends to avoid or ignore the caregiver when reunited.
(d) ___________________ A widely used method for studying attachment; confronts the infant with
a series of controlled separations and reunions with a parent and a stranger.
2 Test your understanding of Bowlby’s stages of attachment formation by linking each of the following
stages to the correct description: indiscriminate sociability; attachments in the making; specific, clear-
cut attachments; goal-coordinated partnerships.
(a) ___________________: preferences for specific people become stronger due to ability to represent
persons mentally.
(b) ___________________: responds actively with cries, smiles, coos and gazes to promote contact
and affection from others.
(c) ___________________: increasing representation and memory skills for objects and events, grow-
ing ability to understand parents’ feelings and points of view.
(d) ___________________: increasing preference for individuals most familiar and responsive to
needs.
ESSAY QUESTION
1 The original classification of temperament and attachment behaviour was based solely on parents’
reports of infant behaviour. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using parents’ reports and the
extent to which research and theory has changed this original classification. Evaluate the contribution
of research and theory to our current conceptions of attachment and temperament.
WEBSITES
1 The Circle of Security is an online resource offering parenting support, and is designed to help
parents foster secure attachments with children. Their website contains a number of animated
videos for parents highlighting these strategies. On this specific page, the video displays the
‘strange situation’ method to assess the attachment style in children: www.circleofsecurityinternational
.com/animations
2 The Infant Toddler Temperament Tool, developed by the Georgetown University Centre for Child
and Human Development, provides a short survey on parent and child temperament traits, as well as
suggestions for how to enhance the features of the goodness-of-fit model between a parent and their
child in terms of caregiving and play: www.ecmhc.org/temperament
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Photo: © A3pfamily / Shutterstock.com
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Photo: © Michael Pettigrew / Shutterstock.com
Figure 5.1: © Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2014, Childhood Education and Care, Australia,
June 2014, cat. no. 4402.0, ABS, Canberra.
Figure 5.2: © Reproduced with permission myChild.gov.au
PART 3
EARLY CHILDHOOD
The preschool years, the period between the ages of two to six years, are fuelled by constant curiosity,
activity and wonderment. Play flourishes during this time and underlies all aspects of development —
hence, these years are often referred to as the play years. Parents often feel early childhood is the most
gratifying time for themselves and their children. Compared to infants, preschool children are able to
participate more fully in family life, and are often more fun to be around than infants under two years of
age. As well, preschool children have not yet begun to create lives for themselves outside the family.
So, during early childhood, parents still have a great deal of involvement in the lives of their children
and have an important role in shaping their children’s development.
Children become more social during the period of early childhood and play a more important role in
each other’s lives than they did during infancy. This allows children to explore new social roles outside
the family. Children also acquire more complex motor skills such as riding a tricycle or climbing a
jungle gym during this time. In addition, new cognitive skills develop, including dramatic advances in
language. Preschool children express themselves much more precisely than they did in the toddler
years. Their world expands rapidly — a process that can be both exhilarating and exhausting for them,
as well as for their parents.
CHAPTER 6

childhood
LEARNING OUTCOMES

6.1 describe what constitutes normal physical growth during early childhood and explain how individual
variations affect development in different domains
6.2 identify the nutritional requirements needed for normal development during early childhood
6.3 list the major threats to children’s health in the preschool years and outline how poverty affects
children’s health
6.4 determine when children achieve bowel and bladder control, and discuss what influences the age at
which it is achieved
6.5 identify what motor skills children acquire during the preschool years and analyse what causes
variations in these skills
6.6 discuss the special features and strengths of preschoolers’ thinking
6.7 elaborate on how the language of preschool children develops, and compare and contrast how it differs
from that of older children
6.8 explain how children acquire language
6.9 examine how hearing impairment influences preschoolers’ language development
6.10 justify what constitutes effective early childhood education and evaluate its effect on the cognitive
development of preschoolers.
OPENING SCENARIO
As this poem by Robert Fulghum depicts, the

preschool stage is an exhilarating period of devel-
opment that prepares children for one of the most
influential events in their lives — formal schooling.
Most of what I really need
To know about how to live
And what to do and how to be
I learned in kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top
Of the graduate school mountain.
But there in the sandpile at Sunday school.
These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life.
Learn some and think some
And draw and paint and sing and dance
And play and work everyday some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world,
Watch out for traffic,
Hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up
And nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice
And even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup —
They all die.
So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
And the first word you learned —
The biggest word of all — LOOK
(Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten)

But the preschool years are not just a matter of waiting in the wings for the main act of childhood. They
are years of remarkable change. In this chapter, we look in detail at physical and cognitive development
during early childhood. We first consider physical development and some of the factors that influence
individual differences in children’s growth and in their physical health during this period. We track the
changes that occur in children’s fine and gross motor skills. Cognitive development focuses on the new
conceptual abilities acquired in three to six year olds and the vital development of language. Finally, we look
at the important influence of childcare and early childhood education on children’s cognitive development.
CHAPTER 6 Physical and cognitive development in early childhood 277
During the ages of about two to six, children undergo a range of physical changes. These include obvious
external changes, such as growth in height and weight; as well as internal changes to the brain, skeleton
and muscles.
6.1 Variations in physical development

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.1 Describe what constitutes normal physical growth during early childhood and
explain how individual variations affect development in different domains.
Physical growth in the preschool years is slower than the rapid growth rate seen in infancy. Increases
in height and weight are displayed in table 6.1 and figure 6.1. At the beginning of early childhood, an
average Australian or New Zealand three year old is around 95 centimetres tall. At the end of early
childhood, the average five year old measures approximately 109 centimetres. Children in Australia and
New Zealand weigh about 14 kilograms on average on their third birthday, but over 18 kilograms by their
sixth birthday (refer to table 6.1 note). As a result of cephalocaudal development and proximodistal
development, children’s proportions change during early childhood, becoming progressively more adult-
like, mainly as a result of lengthening arms and legs. Body fat, which decreases in proportion to total
body tissue, also contributes to a more slender and more mature body shape. Sometimes parents refer
to their children losing their ‘puppy fat’ during this period, as the preschooler abandons the pot-bellied
appearance of infancy and toddlerhood. The bowlegged, potbellied, top-heavy toddler has become a more
streamlined, longer legged, flat-tummied preschool child. Other, less obvious changes occur during these
years, including an increase in head circumference by about 2.5 centimetres, reflecting brain development
from 70 per cent of its adult size at age two, to about 90 per cent by age six. The skeleto-muscular system
becomes sturdier, with hardening of cartilage into bone and increases in muscle mass. Towards the end
of early childhood, children begin to lose their primary or ‘milk’ teeth and start to grow their permanent
teeth.
TABLE 6.1 Average height and weight during early childhood
Age (years) Height (cm) Weight (kg)

2 85.71 12.37
3 94.74 14.17
4 101.77 16.1
5 108.57 18.26
As a result of improvements in nutrition and health care, children in industrialised nations are more often taller on
average than in previous generations. Individual variations in height and weight can be quite large and are
influenced by both genetic and environmental factors.
Note: These figures are taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised growth charts and represent the
50th percentile for height and weight, averaged for boys and girls.
Australian and New Zealand children’s growth in terms of height and weight has been extrapolated from US data based on
large-scale surveys of children and adolescents at different ages by CDC. Growth charts based on local data are not available for
Australian and New Zealand children, so bodies such as the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group rely on US growth data.
While not ideal, this is done on the assumption that being developed nations with similar multicultural populations, growth rates
would be highly similar.
The growth statistics in table 6.1 and figure 6.1 are averages based on large samples of same-aged
children. However, these figures conceal individual differences in children’s growth, with children of
similar ages being capable of exhibiting wide variations.
278 PART 3 Early childhood
Much larger and much smaller children than the average are found at the extremes of the normal
distribution of height and weight for age. For example, 10 per cent of six year olds weigh 25 kilograms,
5–6 kilograms more than most of their same-aged friends. A further 10 per cent of children this age weigh
only 16 kilograms, around 5 kilograms less than the majority of children their age.
FIGURE 6.1 Growth in (a) height and (b) weight from two to eighteen years
Males Males
195 65
Females Females
185 60
175 55
165 50
155 45
Height (cm)
Weight (kg)
145 40
135 35
125 30
115 25
105 20
Males Males
95 15
Females Females
85 10
3 6 9 12 15 18 3 6 9 12 15 18
Age (years) Age (years)
(a) (b)
Note: These figures are taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised growth charts and represent the
average height and weight for age in boys and girls.
Individual differences in body size and shape are more obvious in early childhood than infancy and
toddlerhood. Large physical discrepancies among children have an impact on development. If a child is
significantly taller and heavier than their same-aged peers, they are generally stronger as well. Likewise, if
children’s motor coordination matches their maturity in physical size, they might also be skilled in terms
of the physical activities they are able to undertake. So, large size coupled with advanced coordination
could be a problem when the child interacts with same-aged children, particularly if rough-and-tumble
play is involved. Having a much smaller than normal body also impacts on children’s development. Small-
for-age children are at greater risk of play-related injury, and a smaller body size can make it difficult for
a child to master normative physical activities that involve strength and endurance. For example, when
they are asked to climb a steep set of stairs, a five year old with shorter than average legs would have to
resort to the earlier developmental strategy of taking the steps ‘one at a time’, rather than employing the
coordinated stair climbing most five year olds can manage.
Body size has effects beyond the physical. Larger preschool children often appear older than their
same-aged peers and may be treated more like school-aged children by adults, although they are not
psychologically ready for such challenges. So, adult expectations in the social–emotional and cogni-
tive realms might be out of synchrony with the child’s actual level of development. Children can suffer
psychologically from this type of dissonance. Smaller than normal body size may induce expectation
effects — with children treated as though they are younger than their actual age. Being ‘babied’ and
not being appropriately challenged can also have detrimental effects on social–emotional and cognitive
development; for example, smaller-size children who feel less self-confident and who find it difficult to
be accepted by their peers.
As well as individual differences, group-based differences are apparent in physical development during
early childhood. There are small sex differences in height and weight, with boys on average being slightly
larger than girls. For example, on average, four-year-old girls are 101.03 centimetres tall and weigh
15.88 kilograms, while boys of the same age are 102.51 centimetres tall and weigh 16.32 kilograms
(Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000; Department of Education and Training, Victoria,
2017; Department of Health, Victoria, 2014; Ministry of Health, New Zealand, 2015; National Centre for
Immunisation Research and Surveillance, 2014).
Girls tend to retain more body fat than boys, and boys are marginally more muscular than girls during
this period. Moreover, racial and ethnic differences are found in preschoolers’ body size (Eveleth &
Tanner, 1990; Freedman, Kettel Kahn, Serdula, Ogden, & Dietz, 2006; Guerrero et al. 2016; Twarog,
Politis, Woods, Daniel, & Sonneville, 2016).
Children from Asian societies, such as Chinese and Japanese children, tend to be shorter than Euro-
pean and Australian children, who in turn tend to be shorter than children from some African tribal
groups, such as the Maasai, Dinka and Tutsi. Shape differs among these groups as well. Asian chil-
dren develop short legs and arms relative to their torsos, and relatively broad hips. Aboriginal-Australian
children, like Maasai children, show an opposite trend, developing relatively long limbs and narrow
hips.
Within human groups, there are large individual size and shape differences. For parents as well as
professionals, individual differences are pre-eminent: the larger and smaller children in every racial,
socioeconomic and ethnic group — among both boys and girls and in every community — are of greater
interest and concern than any group-based differences are (Chen, Martin, & Matthews, 2006; Williams,
Priest, & Anderson, 2016). These crucial individual variations are determined by a combination of
genetic and environmental influences. Physical size and growth rate are influenced by heredity, with
children reflecting parental patterns of growth (Bogin, 2001; Bogin, Bragg, & Kuzawa, 2016). Human
growth hormone (HGH), which is released by the pituitary gland, also plays a critical role in regulating
growth. Growth rates and body size are also influenced by environmental factors, including nutrition,
which is discussed in detail in the following section.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Donna and Marcus are concerned about the physical growth and development of their three-year-old
daughter Lauren. They believe that she is small in stature for her age and wonder how this will impact on
her physical abilities. At a recent open day at the preschool they chat over coffee with Brian and Louise,
who express concern that their son Alex is much taller and bigger than the other preschool children.
Both groups of parents are concerned at how these differences in shape and size will not only affect the
preschool experiences of their children, but will impact on their overall development. As a professional
working in this area, what advice would you give to the parents of Lauren and Alex, and how would you
explain differences in the size and shape of preschool children?
6.2 Nutritional needs

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.2 Identify the nutritional requirements needed for normal development during
early childhood.
Preschool children need a balanced diet with sufficient kilojoules, protein, vitamins and minerals to
promote healthy physical growth and appropriate cognitive development. However, during early child-
hood, food intake lessens compared to the relative calorific intake for body weight during infancy. This
is because the rate of physical growth slows during early childhood. Preschoolers may vary consid-
erably in appetite from meal to meal. Research has shown children often make up for reduced food
intake at one meal with an increase in food eaten at the next meal, inadvertently balancing their kilo-
joule requirements (Fairbrother & Ellis, 2016; Hursti, 1999). So, parental anxiety about the amount
of food children are eating with admonitions to ‘eat up’ and ‘clean your plate’ might be unfounded,
and may encourage children to exceed their normal appetite; promoting inappropriate food intake and
early childhood obesity. Research by Bottom et al. (2008) and Chang and Neu (2015) has shown that
early childhood is a critical developmental window for later obesity. Current anthropometric measures
of 468 adolescents and retrospective data on their height and weight showed that from the age of two
years onward, the rate of weight increase is significantly associated with adolescent obesity. Recently,
Broskey et al. (2017) investigated weight gain in pregnancy, and the relationship between birth weight
and weight in early childhood. This positive relationship indicated a critical time to prevent childhood
obesity.
During the preschool years, children also become more selective in what they eat. This emerges as
an issue for some parents. A preschooler’s range of acceptable foods may become substantially nar-
rower than during the toddler years, so some parents worry about their child obtaining the nutrients they
need. However, Wright, Parkinson, Shipton, and Drewett (2007), and more recently Cardona et al. (2016)
and Fletcher, Wright, Jones, Parkinson, and Adamson (2017) concluded that restriction in the range of
foods eaten by young children was only weakly associated with poor growth. It seems that children
with restricted diets still eat sufficient quantities of food for adequate physical development. Nonethe-
less, different foods from each food group are essential for a balanced diet in all age groups, including
preschoolers.
Wardle, Sanderson, Leigh Gibson, and Rapoport (2001), and Gibson and Cook (2017) found the
proportion of young children having tried different foods and the proportion of children liking the food
were strongly related. Consequently, exposure to different foods is an important factor in promoting
balanced food intake in preschoolers. But parents need to introduce variety into children’s diets in a
positive way, with experts generally discouraging coercive comments, such as ‘Eat your vegetables or
we won’t be going to the circus on Saturday!’ Such remarks teach children to associate undesired foods
with unpleasant social experiences (Cooke, Higgins, & McCrann, 2017; Endres & Rockwell, 1993).
Offering incentives of dessert or sweets after meat and vegetables have been eaten can result in further
implicit devaluing of undesired nutritious foods, and an overvaluing of ‘empty calories’ in children’s
minds (Birch, Fisher, & Davidson, 2003). It is important parents introduce children to a variety of
foods in a relaxed way, so mealtimes do not turn into a battle of wills. Novel foods should be offered
repeatedly in a low-key manner, without insisting children eat the food (Andrien, 1994; Fuller, Keller,
Olson, Plymale, & Gottesman 2005). Parental modelling of enjoyment of new foods (Blissett, Bennett,
Fogel, Harris, & Higgs, 2016) can be helpful as children tend to imitate the food preferences of their
parents. Some parents have successfully introduced new food to their preschoolers by increasing the
food’s perceived value. If the introduced food is promoted as ‘special and just for the parents’, then the
child’s curiosity is aroused, and they might, as such, be more willing to try it.
At the other end of the nutritional spectrum is malnourishment, which affects a large proportion of the
world’s preschoolers. These children chronically lack the kilojoules, vitamins, minerals and protein essen-
tial for good health and normal physical and cognitive development. Protein–energy malnutrition (PEM)
is a pervasive problem in many of the developing nations of the world and in some sectors of developed
nations, such as low socioeconomic status, minority and indigenous groups. Marasmus, a severe
form of PEM seen in early childhood, is characterised by emaciation and wrinkled, aged-looking skin.
Kwashiokor, literally ‘the illness of the displaced child’, often occurs when a child is prematurely weaned
onto an inadequate solid diet after the arrival of a new baby. It is characterised by oedema, or swelling,
due to fluid retention, which gives the child a misleading appearance of fatness, especially around the
abdomen (Balint, 1998). Both kwashiorkor and marasmus can result in premature death, increased
risk of infectious disease and, in the longer term, cognitive deficits and poor academic achievement
(Galler, Ramsey, Morley, Archer, & Salt, 1990; Ibrahim, Zambruni, Melby, & Melby, 2017; Kar, Rao,
& Chandramouli, 2008).
The effects of malnutrition in early childhood have been shown to pervade all domains of development,
with severe outcomes in later years. In a definitive review of the psychological effects of malnutrition,
Brozek (1990) cites diminished exploratory behaviour, fewer social interactions, plus greater apathy,
negative affect, anxiousness and memory impairments in young malnourished children. Studies in the
review repeatedly found poorer academic performances in malnourished children, attributed to more
limited attention span and persistence, as well as greater distractibility. Paget Stanfield (1993) (Checkley,
Epstein, Gilman, Cabrera, & Black, 2003; Niehaus et al., 2002) looked at the long-term effects of
childhood malnutrition and found a reduced ability to deal with frustration and greater difficulty with
impulse control. As well, fearfulness and social withdrawal were greater in adolescents who had
experienced malnutrition in early childhood. According to Paget Stanfield, ‘Malnutrition’s main impact
on early human life is to deprive it of the means of learning and relating normally . . . ’ (p. 206). More
recently, a study by Walker, Chang, Powell, Simonoff, and Grantham-McGregor (2007) of stunted
children in several developing nations has reinforced the findings of earlier investigators. Walker et al.
(2007) report early childhood stunting occurs in 151 million children worldwide. Stunting is associated
with poor psychosocial outcomes in late adolescence. Compared to non-stunted individuals, adolescents
who experienced physical stunting prior to age two undergo significantly greater anxiety, depressive
symptoms and hyperactivity, and have lower self-esteem (Britto et al., 2017).
It is important that parents handle fussy eating behaviour exhibited by their children in positive ways. Use of coercive
comments, such as ‘Eat your macaroni or we won’t be going to the circus on Saturday!’, can have a detrimental effect
on children, encouraging them to associate undesired foods with unpleasant social experiences.
While the simple availability of more kilojoules and greater variety of food in many of the world’s
poorest nations would drastically reduce nutrition problems, it would not solve the issue of child
malnutrition. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, an adequate
supply of food:
. . . does not guarantee good nutrition and health . . . People also need an understanding of what constitutes
an appropriate diet for good health, and they must have the skills and motivation to make the best food
choice available to them (FAO press release, 22.11.05).
More recently, the Food and Agriculture Organization made this public statement:
The United Nations General Assembly today proclaimed a UN Decade of Action on Nutrition that will
run from 2016 to 2025. FAO welcomed the decision, calling it a major step towards mobilising action
around reducing hunger and improving nutrition around the world. (p. 1, FAO press release 5.4.16)
However, in many developing nations, less nutritious and ecologically unsuitable Western crops
have largely replaced more beneficial indigenous food crops. In response to this situation, Australian
agronomist B. R. French has catalogued the range of edible plants, along with their nutritional statistics,
for most countries of the world. This information is available digitally and in book form, such as The
Food Plants of the Solomon Islands (French, 2010a). French’s Learn Grow project aims to re-educate
people in the most nutritious crops to grow locally (French, 2010b).
Cultural practices and beliefs also play a large role in malnutrition in both developing and developed
nations. Parent education can be effective in modifying food-related beliefs and practices that are detri-
mental to young children’s development. For example, parents’ understanding of the need for a balanced
diet for children can modify food-related practices, improving children’s likelihood of having good health.
Educational strategies need to build on pre-existing knowledge of nutrition in both parents and children.
Educators should provide parents with the knowledge they need, while taking into consideration the cul-
ture and economic situation of the family, which can influence food preferences in major ways (Dieticians
Association of Australia, 2009, 2015). Certain foods often have cultural meanings and value beyond their
nutritional value, such as sweet potato for Melanesians, coconuts for Polynesians and rice for Japanese
(see Hamilton, 2003). Alternative foods recommended by educational programs for their nutritional ben-
efits might not be adopted if they are essentially foreign to a particular family or cultural group. In such
cases, it is better to aim at supplementing rather than replacing cultural food items in the diet. For exam-
ple, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, the problem of PEM in young children — created by a bulky
diet of sweet potato they cannot process efficiently — can be addressed by adding highly concentrated
energy sources such as oil or fat to the traditional diet.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Remember back to when you were a preschooler. Think back to your mealtime practices. How did your
parents promote healthy eating habits? Did they encourage you to try new foods? How successful were
they? What strategies should parents avoid when encouraging preschoolers to try new foods and engage
in healthy eating practices?
6.3 Health and illness

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.3 List the major threats to children’s health in the preschool years and outline how
poverty affects children’s health.
Preschoolers experience frequent acute infectious illnesses such as respiratory infections, ear infections
and stomach upsets. These typically strike a young child several times a year — three or four times as
often as adults and about twice as often as school-aged children (Engels, 1993). Young children’s immune
systems are not yet fully developed, and the preschool years bring children into contact with many
more individuals than before, accounting for the rise in infections experienced during early childhood.
For example, many preschoolers attend early education programs or group-based childcare. These learn-
ing environments expose them to colds and influenza in particular (Carville et al., 2007). The frequency
of such infections has given rise to the term ‘daycare syndrome’. Nonetheless, simple hygiene practices
such as frequent hand washing among both staff and children can reduce the rate of infection.
Major infectious diseases such as polio and diphtheria, which took the lives of young children or left
them with lifelong disabilities in previous generations, are now virtually unknown in industrialised coun-
tries. This is a result of widespread immunisation preventing the large pool of infection that still occurs
in many parts of the world. In a recent year, 8.1 million of the world’s children died before their fifth
birthday, with most of these deaths occurring in developing countries. Seventy per cent of these deaths
are due to infectious diseases, with 43 per cent due to pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and HIV/AIDS (The
United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund [UNICEF], 2010, 2017; World Health Organization [WHO],
2005, 2017). Unsafe water and contaminated food lead to diarrhoea, the cause of several million child
deaths each year (Prüss-Ustün, et al., 2014; Tharpar & Sanderson, 2004). Oral rehydration therapy has
saved many millions of lives since 1990. Health workers and parents are trained to give children a cheap
but effective solution of salt, boiled water and sugar that quickly reverses the life-threatening dehydration
young children with diarrhoea can experience.
The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) set a Millennium Developmental Goal
(MDG4) of reducing child mortality in children under five by two-thirds from 9.7 million in 1990 to a
target of 5 million in 2015. The current 2015 UNICEF report documents the MDG4 progress by stating
that some of the world’s poorest countries have made remarkable achievements. Working towards this
goal has been accelerating in recent years; millions of children under age five have been saved. The
outstanding decline in child mortality from this age group since 2000 has saved the lives of 48 million
children. Despite these significant gains, unfortunately, the MDG4 goal of reducing 60 per cent of child
mortality aged under five between 1990 and 2015 was not attained — even though 62 of 195 countries
met the goal; with 24 of these countries being low- and middle-income countries (UNICEF, 2015).
Table 6.2 illustrates world progress in reducing child mortality rate by Millennium Goal region, 1990
and 2015. In regions with high neonatal deaths, health interventions are addressing mother–child HIV
transmission, malaria prevention through insecticide-impregnated mosquito nets, and rehydration ther-
apy training (UNICEF, 2010c) as ‘most child deaths are caused by diseases that are readily preventable
or treatable with proven, cost–effective interventions’ (UNICEF, 2015, p. 8). Table 6.2 shows a marked
difference between developed and developing regions in child mortality rates, but despite the provision
of better child health care, the developed nations of the world still experience substantial child mortal-
ity in children under five. For every million children born, at least 6000 currently die before their fifth
birthday.
For a substantial proportion of preschool children in Australia and New Zealand, minor childhood
illnesses pose an increased health threat. In combination with malnourishment, they put children at risk of
additional illnesses. Poverty disproportionately affects the health of Aboriginal-Australian preschoolers,
who exhibit an increased rate of ear and respiratory infections compared to non-Aboriginal-Australian
children (Brewster & Morris, 2015; Carville et al., 2007; Jama-Alol, Moore, Jacoby, Bower, & Lehmann,
2014; Mackerras et al., 2003). Repeated ear infections are a serious threat to development because they
result in temporary hearing loss and in some cases permanent deafness. Children can experience delays
in cognitive development as a result of a reduced ability to hear.

Strategies to alleviate children’s health issues can focus either on individuals and their particular com-
munities or on systemic reorganisation of health care delivery. In terms of individually oriented strategies,
it is important to educate children and families about health and illness. For example, pamphlets can be
distributed in preschools or medical clinics, and public health nurses can make presentations in com-
munity clubs and church groups. The Focusing on feature later in this chapter looks at the particular
challenges of children living in rural and remote areas of Australia and the extent to which their devel-
opment is influenced by the tyrannies of distance and disadvantage. This feature investigates how these
challenges are being addressed at a systemic level.
TABLE 6.2 Global progress in reducing child mortality rate by Millennium Goal region, 1990 and 2015
MDG Decline
target (per cent)
Region 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2015 1990–2015 1990–2015 1990–2000 2000–2015
Developed regions 15 11 10 8 7 6 5 60 3.7 3.9 3.5
Developing regions 100 94 83 69 57 57 33 54 3.1 1.8 3.9
Northern Africa 73 57 44 35 28 24 24 67 4.4 5.0 4.1
Sub-Saharan Africa 180 172 154 127 101 83 60 54 3.1 1.6 4.1
Latin American and 54 42 32 25 24 18 18 67 4.4 5.2 3.9
the Caribbean
Caucasus and 73 74 63 49 39 32 24 56 3.3 1.4 4.6
Central Asia
Eastern Asia 53 46 37 24 16 11 18 79 6.3 3.7 8.1
Eastern Asia 27 33 30 19 16 14 9 49 2.7 –1.1 5.3
excluding China
Southern Asia 126 109 92 76 62 51 42 59 3.6 3.2 3.9
Southern Asia 126 109 93 79 68 59 42 53 3.0 3.0 3.1
excluding India
South-Eastern Asia 72 59 49 40 33 27 24 62 3.9 3.9 3.9
Western Asia 66 54 43 35 27 22 22 66 4.3 4.3 4.3
Oceania 74 70 67 64 57 51 25 32 1.5 1.1 1.9
World 91 85 76 63 52 43 30 53 3.0 1.8 3.9
Source: Adapted from UNICEF (2010, 2017).
Injury
Compared with infancy, the increases in size, strength and motor competence during the preschool years,
accompanied by the push for greater independence and autonomy, put young children at increased risk of
injury and even death. Accidents are the main cause of childhood mortality in the first four years of life
in industrialised nations, with traffic-related injuries, domestic accidents, burns and drowning the most
common causes of death (da Silva, da Silva Fontinele, de Oliveira, Bezerra, & da Rocha, 2017; Liller,
2007; Mack, Liller, Baldwin, & Sleet, 2015). If children do not die as a result of such injuries, they
can be significantly disabled by them. As well as physical development, cognitive and social–emotional
development may be negatively affected, because of the interconnections between the different domains
of development. For instance, a child who is paralysed through an accident may suffer cognitively as well,
because of reduced ability to explore the environment and take part in stimulating activities. Although
these injuries are often described as ‘accidental’, the correct term for them is ‘unintentional’ injuries,
as the word ‘accidental’ implies factors are involved that individuals have no control over. In fact, the
majority of ‘accidental’ injuries are preventable. This brings into focus some of the factors associated
with the risk of unintentional injuries during early childhood.
Child factors are important in assessing the risk of unintentional injury. Boys are one-and-a-half
times more likely than girls to sustain unintentional injuries, probably because of greater risk-taking
behaviour and more active and boisterous approaches to play (Bryant, 2017; Corso, Finkelstein,
Miller, Fiebelkorn, & Zaleshnja, 2006; Morrongiello, McArthur, & Spence, 2016; Ordonana, Caspi, &
Moffitt, 2008; Schwebel & Gaines, 2007). As well, ‘difficult’ child temperament is associated with greater
risk, with inattentive, irritable children more at risk than placid and easygoing children (Dal Santo,
Goodman, Glik, & Jackson, 2004). So-called ‘difficult’ children are more likely to make a fuss about
child restraints in vehicles and are less likely to accept adult guidance when crossing roads. Parental fac-
tors such as poverty and maternal employment outside the home are associated with greater risk of child-
hood mishap and injury, probably because of increased parental stress and less vigilance, as well as more
dangerous neighbourhoods experienced by low socioeconomic status families. Increasingly, the impor-
tance of parents’ beliefs about the preventability of injury are being recognised as a key risk factor for
unintentional child injury (Dal Santo et al., 2004; Dudani, Macpherson, & Tamim, 2010; Morrongiello &
Kiriakou, 2004; Nocera, Gjelsvik, Wing, & Amanullah, 2016; Nouhjah, Kalhori, & Saki, 2017; Schwebel
& Brezausek, 2007; Truba, 2016).
Being a ‘difficult’ child can increase the likelihood of unintentional childhood injury, as can engaging in greater
risk-taking behaviour.
What can parents do to reduce the risk of unintentional injury to their children in early childhood?
During the toddler years, parental vigilance is required at all times to keep ambulant infants out of peril.
At this stage, parents are able to pre-empt injuries and can quickly remove their children from danger.
But, because of the rapid physical growth during the preschool years, with average weights ranging from
14 to 20 kilograms, children become too heavy and unwieldy to carry out of danger. Also, less regular
and more distant supervision than in infancy and toddlerhood can contribute to preschool children finding
themselves in dangerous situations out of parental sight and hearing. For example, a mother might leave
her four year old to play in the yard while she does the vacuuming and, because she does not realise what
is occurring, the child is putting himself in danger by climbing an old, rotten tree. So, physical, cognitive
and motor developments lead to preschool children outgrowing constant supervision and physical inter-
ventions by parents to ensure their safety. As a result, parents must rely more on figurative rather than
literal handling of their offspring during the preschool years — negotiating and setting rules as well as
talking with and warning children of the possible dangers around them.
The prevention of unintentional injuries and death in early childhood can occur at different levels,
including family, community, state and national interventions. The primary responsibility for child safety
rests with the family and in particular with parents (Akturk & Erci, 2016). Teaching children rules about
safety is an important responsibility, but ensuring a safe home environment is an even more vital preven-
tive measure. Research by Schwebel et al. (2017) documents the risk of unintentional child poisoning,
identifies causes and provides prevention measures.
A safety inventory of the home is a proactive way of preventing injuries before they happen (Kendrick,
Barlow, Hampshire, Stewart-Brown, & Polnay, 2008; Mack, Liller, Baldwin, & Sleet, 2015; Scholtes,
Schröder-Bäck, MacKay, Vincenten, & Brand, 2017; Stewart, Clark, Gilliland, Miller, Edwards, Haidar,
& Merritt, 2016), as children become more independent and adventurous during the preschool years. For
example, while surveying the backyard, parents of an active four year old may decide a rotten tree is a
potential hazard before their child sees it as a challenge and tries to climb it. Rather than admonish their
child to ‘stay away from the tree’, they decide instead to have it safely removed by a tree surgeon. The
large cost involved is justified by the obvious risk the tree poses. Table 6.3 lists common child injuries,
correlating remedies and preventive actions that parents can take to ensure the wellbeing of preschoolers.
At a community level, local government and other community organisations that cater for young
children have a responsibility to ensure environmental hazards are minimised. For example, public
playgrounds have low impact ground cover under swings and jungle gyms, and childcare facilities have
childproof doors and gates leading out to traffic corridors (Kidsafe Australia, 2014, 2017). Community
organisations must tread a fine line between providing a sufficiently challenging environment for
preschoolers while ensuring appropriate levels of safety. However, concern about possible litigation
may result in council removal of appropriate play equipment from public areas. At a state or national
level, safety legislation has a preventive role above and beyond family and immediate community
responsibilities; for example, legislation involving car restraints and the fencing of swimming pools and
farm dams in Australia and New Zealand.
Not all injuries to young children are unintentional. Intentional injury to children is termed physi-
cal abuse, one of several types of child abuse. During early childhood, children are particularly sus-
ceptible to physical abuse from more developed individuals, including their parents, with boys more
likely to be the victims of physical abuse than girls (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW],
2017).
Warning signs of physical abuse of children involve suspicious injuries including burns, bone fractures
and extensive or intensive bruising. Injuries that are inflicted rather than unintentional are often difficult to
identify, but injury to the protected parts of the body such as the thighs, abdomen, buttocks, ears and neck
are often indicative of abuse, compared with injuries to less protected body areas such as the elbows, shins
and the knees that are more readily hurt through inadvertent falls and knocks. The shape of injuries may
also be suspicious; for example, circular burns typical of cigarettes, bite and choke marks, or elongated
‘loop-mark’ bruising that indicates flogging with a doubled cord (Ianelli, 2007). Sometimes children are
dressed by parents in inappropriate clothing, such as long sleeves and high necks in hot weather, in order
to conceal injuries. Suspicious child behaviours include persistent complaints of pain, fear responses
to physical contact and to adults, as well as extreme reactions such as aggression, passiveness and
withdrawal (Dubowitz & Bennett, 2007). Professionals such as doctors, nurses, teachers and social work-
ers need to be alert to such signs and, in all Australian states, certain professionals are required by law to
notify child protection authorities if child abuse is suspected. For example, in Victoria The Children and
Young Persons Act 1989 includes school principals, teachers, medical practitioners, registered nurses and
police officers as legally mandated notifiers. As well, in all Australian states, any member of the pub-
lic can provide a voluntary notification to child protection authorities with legal assurance of anonymity
(Better Health Victoria, 2010).
TABLE 6.3 Common sources, remedies and prevention of unintentional injuries in preschoolers
Injury Remedy Preventive action

Drowning Unless you are trained in water safety, Teach children to swim as early in life as
extend a stick or other device. Use heart possible; supervise children’s swim
massage and mouth-to-mouth breathing sessions closely; stay in shallow water.
when and as long as needed.
Choking on small If a child is still breathing, do not attempt to Do not allow children to put small objects in
objects remove object; see a doctor instead. If mouth; teach them to eat slowly, taking
breathing stops, firmly strike child twice on small bites; forbid vigorous play with
small of back. If this does not help, grab objects or food in mouth.
child from behind, put your fist just under
his or her ribs, and pull upward sharply
several times.
Cuts with serious Raise cut above level of heart; apply Remove sharp objects from play areas;
bleeding pressure with cloth or bandage; if insist on shoes wherever ground or floor
necessary, apply pressure to main arteries may contain sharp objects; supervise
of limbs. children’s use of knives.
Fractures Keep injured limb immobile; see a doctor. Discourage climbing and exploring in
dangerous places, such as trees and
construction sites; allow bicycles only in
safe areas.
Burns Pour cold water over burnt area; keep it Keep matches out of reach of children;
clean; then cover with sterile bandage. See keep children well away from fires and hot
a doctor if burn is extensive. stoves.
Poisons On skin or eye, flush with plenty of water; if Keep dangerous substances out of reach of
in stomach, phone poison control centre children; throw away poisons when no
doctor for instructions; induce vomiting longer needed. Keep syrup of ipecac in
only for selected substances. home to induce vomiting, but use only if
advised by doctor.
Animal bites Clean and cover with bandage; see a Train children when and how to approach
doctor. family pets; teach children caution in
approaching unfamiliar animals.
Insect bites Remove stinger, if possible; cover with Encourage children to recognise and avoid
paste of bicarbonate of soda (for bees) or a insects that sting, as well as their nests;
few drops of vinegar (for wasps and encourage children to keep calm in
hornets). presence of stinging insects.
Poisonous plants Remove affected clothing; wash affected Teach children to recognise toxic plants;
(e.g. nettles) skin with strong alkali soap as soon as avoid areas where poisonous plants grow.
possible. Remove poisonous plants from backyard.
Source: Adapted from O’Keefe (1998).

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW, 2017) recently reported that:
162,175 (or one in 33) children had an investigation, care and protection order and/or were placed
in out-of-home care (OOHC) (with 73% being repeat clients). Of these, more than 60,000 became
substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect in 2015–16. This figure is likely to underestimate the
true prevalence of child maltreatment in Australia, as abuse often goes undetected and many victims
never talk about their experiences (Mathews et al., 2016, p. 4).
Fortson, Klevens, Merrick, Gilbert, and Alexander (2016) explain that child abuse and neglect are
preventable. Economic security, access to adequate education (in particular, early education), housing,
employment, and high-quality childcare can assist outcomes for families and children which will con-
tribute to reducing the rates of child abuse and neglect. With a partner, discuss the strategies that could
be employed to reduce rates of child neglect and abuse. Discuss the ways in which the environment could
be modified to reduce the number of childhood injuries, and how parents could actively prevent common
childhood injuries.
FOCUSING ON
The health and development of children in rural and remote Australia:

developmental vulnerability
Following on from the Australian Institute of Family
Studies (2013a) report that ‘Australian children in
regional areas experience a “tyranny of distance”
from major cities, seen in somewhat poorer learn-
ing outcomes for children living in these areas’,
the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Centre
for Community Child Health recently reported on
the developmental vulnerability of these children
(Arefadib & Moore, 2017). This report found that:
Children living in rural and remote Australia
face inferior health and developmental out-
comes relative to their peers living in urban
areas. There are various co-existing factors
(known as the social determinants of health) which significantly contribute to such disparities, including
(but not limited to) socioeconomic status and race (p. 1).
Central to the poorer developmental status of children in rural and remote Australia is geographical isola-
tion (remoteness).
Children in rural and remote Australia are not only significantly more likely to face concurrent social,
economic and environmental conditions that are known to adversely impact health and development,
but they are also significantly more likely to experience lack of access to appropriate services, known
to mediate the impact of adversity in early childhood. Indigenous children face an even higher chance
of being exposed to these adverse conditions and are also significantly more likely than their non-
Indigenous counterparts to live in remote and rural areas. Consequently, Indigenous children continue
to experience adverse developmental outcomes at disproportionately higher rates (p. 1).
Interestingly, early childhood is the period of the greatest developmental plasticity where access to
early childhood health services, education and intervention is vitally important for positive health and
development. However, for children who live in these remote areas, levels of disadvantage increase due
to poor access to these services. The aim of the Arefadib and Moore report was to develop a systematic
approach towards improving access to health services and health outcomes for children living in rural and
remote Australia. The review achieved this aim by:
1. profiling the population characteristics of children in rural and remote Australia
2. identifying the current context and the developmental health needs, met and unmet, of vulnerable
children and families in rural and remote Australia
3. providing an evidence-based overview of what is causing the status quo, and what is most effective
in addressing these issues (p. 1).
Key findings from the review were as follows.
1. The Northern Territory (NT) has the greatest proportion of children living remotely (48.3 per cent),
while New South Wales (NSW) has the greatest number of children living remotely (360 743), fol-
lowed closely by Queensland (QLD) (352 700).
2. Most Indigenous children live in NSW (29.7 per cent); however, Indigenous children make up the
largest proportion of the population in QLD (37.5 per cent).
3. The NT has the largest proportion of Indigenous children living remotely (79.5 per cent), followed
by QLD (69.8 per cent) and NSW (57.2 per cent).
4. In 2015, children living in Very Remote areas in Australia were twice as likely as those living in Major
Cities to be developmentally vulnerable on one or more domain(s) (47.0 and 21.0 per cent) in their
first year of school. They were also three times more likely to be developmentally vulnerable on two
or more domains (31.8 and 10.2 per cent).
5. The proportion of children with at least one developmental vulnerability in their first year of school
has increased since 2012.
6. As of 2015, the NT has the highest proportion of vulnerability in both one or more and two or
more Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) domains (37.2 per cent and 23.1 per cent,
respectively); while NSW has the largest number of children who are vulnerable across both one or
more and two or more domains (18 378 and 8733, respectively) (p. 2).
This review concluded that children in rural and remote areas across Australia shared many common
characteristics. These included the following.
1. Experience of poverty is at disproportionately higher rates to children in metropolitan areas.
2. Children living in the most socially and economically disadvantaged areas are twice as likely as
those from the least disadvantaged areas to be developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains
in their first year of school.
3. Children in remote and rural areas are more likely to live in unemployed households, with single
parent families and mothers with low educational attainments.
4. Indigenous children in remote areas are more likely to live in one parent families compared to non-
Indigenous children. Indigenous employment rates are also influenced by remoteness.
5. Indigenous children account for 38 per cent of all children in remote areas, despite making up less
than 5 per cent of all children in Australia.
6. Indigenous children are almost eight times as likely to live in remote areas (2–3 per cent) as all
Australian children (3 per cent).
7. Children are more likely to be socially isolated 17 per cent of children (0–15 years of age) in major
cities across Australia face the greatest risk of social exclusion, the percentage increases by more
than double for children living in remote areas (46.5 per cent) and by more than four times for
children living in very remote areas (71.6 per cent).
8. Indigenous children and families are significantly more likely to experience social isolation than
non-Indigenous Australians (40 per and 22 per cent, respectively).
9. Children are more likely to be exposed to Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) and have contact
with child protection services.
10. Children are less likely to engage in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services.
(pp. 3–4).
The absence of a comprehensive, coordinated national approach that ensures giving rural and remote
children the best start in life is a grave omission. Furthermore, this report acknowledges the risk of devel-
opmental vulnerability and aims to give rural and remote children the best start in life by identifying areas
to maximise. These include the following.
1. Focus on prevention and identifying underlying causes that lead to families having problems.
2. Adopt a multilevel coordinated approach whereby interventions need to focus on child, family, social
networks, and wider community and societal factors. This will involve multiple levels of government,
as well as non-government services.
3. Service systems, such as health, education and disability need to be effectively integrated and
co-ordinated to address the multiple influences on children’s development.
4. Adopt a place-based approach to address complex problems by focusing on the collective social
and physical needs of a community in order to coordinate services more effectively.
5. Utilise co-design and co-production strategies to plan, manage, deliver and evaluate services, par-
ticularly with indigenous communities.
6. Adopt a model of progressive universalism based on universal services for all families. Additional
services will be provided to those with greater needs.
7. Explore alternative models of service offering training and on-line support to local staff.
8. Expand and support telehealth services by establishing a centre of excellence in rural service deliv-
ery and telehealth for children.
9. Collect and use up-to-date, accurate data.
10. Work with the new National Rural Health Commissioner to advocate for regional, rural and remote
health reform. The commissioner will represent the needs and rights of regional, rural and remote
Australia. (pp.17–19)
Finally, government departments responsible for the developmental outcomes of children must face the
challenge of significantly improving the health and wellbeing of children living in rural and remote areas and
the services that support them. The time is right with the new appointment of the National Rural Health
Commissioner to develop a national plan to address the particular needs of children living in rural and
remote Australia based on the key features identified in the above report.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The report discussed in the Focusing on feature concludes by stating that the development of policies and
the delivery of services need to cater to the different needs and strengths of children growing up in different
environmental contexts (pp. 17–19). How do you react to this conclusion? Do you agree or disagree with
it? Why? How can the conclusions of this report be realised in relation to children’s development, differing
environmental contexts, policies and the delivery of services? Discuss your views with a classmate.
6.4 Bowel and bladder control

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.4 Determine when children achieve bowel and bladder control, and discuss what
influences the age at which it is achieved.
Most children acquire control of their bladder during early childhood. Bladder control usually follows
bowel control, which normally occurs during toddlerhood. The majority of children have daytime bladder
control by the age of three years, although there are wide individual variations in the age of acquisition.
Commonly, daytime control precedes night-time control, which takes longer to achieve and is usually
attained some time during the preschool years.
Most cultures place a value on acquisition of bowel and bladder control. It is a culturally normative
activity involving appropriate disposal of human waste products that are unpleasant and can pose a health
threat to the social group. So, parents may instigate various forms of toilet training, rather than leaving
nature to take its course (Valsiner, 2000). Training is affected by social and cultural factors as well as
by children’s maturation. The notion of developmental readiness is important in Western, industrialised

nations. For example, parents are advised that starting toilet training before the child is ready to take this
step will result in little or no success. Typically, parents are told children are unlikely to reach a stage
of readiness prior to 18 months of age. This assertion is based on the early work of Brazelton (1962),
who advocated a child-oriented approach to toilet training. In line with Brazelton’s principle of child
readiness, parents are generally advised to delay toilet training until their child is at least 18 months of
age, and to avoid setting a specific age or date by which they expect their child to be toilet trained
(e.g. see the Parenting South Australia Parent Easy Guide to toilet training) (Government of South
Australia, 2015). However, early research by De Vries and De Vries (1977) has revealed that Digo
children of Tanzania and Kenya attain bladder control at four to five months of age, much earlier than in
most Western societies. Toilet training typically begins at two to three weeks after birth, with frequent and
repeated conditioning of urination day and night, with the baby held in a culturally appropriate urinating
position in an appropriate setting outside the family hut. According to Mersch (2010), such early toilet
training is contingent on close and constant physical contact between infant and caregiver — a cultural
norm that is generally not present in Western societies.
Culturally appropriate toilet training of children at later ages than Digo children can be seen in indus-
trialised nations such as Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Parents are advised to
remind children to urinate correctly, and to frequently seat children on a potty or toilet so bladder and
bowel evacuation are associated with a particular setting. Parents are also encouraged to reward children
with praise for their efforts. The Digo baby learns bladder control through classical conditioning of the
evacuation response, whereas the Western preschooler learns bowel and bladder control at a later age
through operant conditioning using social reward. But whether there is a specific maturational stage for
toilet training readiness is debatable. For example, the age at which toilet training is achieved has been
progressively increasing over the past six decades in Western nations. Toilet training commonly began
prior to 18 months in previous generations, but is currently not beginning until after 36 months of age
for many children (Bakker & Wyndaele, 2000; Goode, 1999; Hodges, Richards, Gorbachinsky, & Krane,
2014; Rugolotto, Sun, Ball, Boucke, & de Vries, 2007). Such statistics, plus the evidence from cross-
cultural studies, suggest bowel and bladder control are closely related to social and cultural attitudes and
the amount of effort parents are prepared to invest in the process of toilet training.
Culturally appropriate bowel and bladder training can be seen by the frequent placement of a Western child on a
device such as a potty or toilet early in life.
In a direct challenge to current child-oriented practices in toilet training, Rugolotto and her colleagues
(2007) advocate assisted infant toilet training, where Western infants as young as one month have begun
training and have achieved bowel control at five months, by their parents employing similar classical
conditioning techniques as those practiced by Digo parents (Sun & Rugolotto, 2004). Ruguletto and
colleagues maintain that assisted infant toilet training avoids some of the toileting problems that
are emerging with increasingly later training in industrialised nations, including constipation, stool
withholding and bedwetting. Moreover, these researchers argue such early toilet training avoids skin
irritation from prolonged contact with contaminated nappies, and reduces the expense of buying and
cleaning nappies for a prolonged period.
Nocturnal urine production is naturally reduced by an anti-diuretic hormone that is generated by the
body, but only after the age of two years. For this and other reasons, night-time bladder control usually
takes longer to achieve than daytime control. In some children, who are often deficient in the hormone,
it can still pose a problem well into the school years. Nocturnal enuresis or bedwetting affects about
50 per cent of three year olds and 20 per cent of six year olds (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
The acquisition of night-time bladder control depends largely on whether children are able to wake to
the stimulus of a full bladder, which is in turn affected by how deeply children sleep and how large their
bladders are. Anxiety and low self-esteem are also factors, and bedwetting can be a symptom of childhood
disturbance if it re-emerges after children have attained night-time bladder control. Parents can contribute
to a vicious cycle of bedwetting by reacting in a punitive fashion to bedwetting episodes. Bedwetting can
be treated using classical conditioning, with the child being woken by an alarm that is triggered by the
first trickle of urine, as well as using medications to reduce urine volume and muscle contractions in the
bladder (D’Alessandro, 2005).
Encopresis — non-normative bowel movements causing soiling — usually occurs after children have
achieved the milestone of bowel control during early childhood. It usually occurs as a result of chronic
constipation, making bowel movements painful and aversive. Children soon lose sensitivity to bowel full-
ness and the need to go to the toilet. Accidents occur when softer faeces leak around the faecal obstruction.
Encopresis is generally treated with stool softeners, enemas and bowel retraining (Oberklaid & Efron,
2004).
Achieving bowel and bladder control is one aspect of the significant advances children make during the
preschool years in controlling their bodies in general. It also reflects parents’ efforts in encouraging their
children’s physical autonomy. So, preschool children begin to focus more on what they actually want to
do with their bodies.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Erikson’s second stage of psychosocial development, autonomy versus shame and doubt, corresponds to
the physical development of muscular control during early childhood, particularly in the situation of toilet
training — namely, ‘holding on’ and ‘letting go’. The developing child is eagerly exploring their environ-
ment as they gain greater motor control and coordination. Experiencing delight in being able to do things
for themselves, children at this stage rapidly develop a sense of autonomy (Gibson, 2007, p. 78). Refer-
ring to Erikson’s autonomy versus shame and doubt stage, discuss how you would explain to parents,
professionals and carers the importance of developing a sense of autonomy in toilet training.
6.5 Motor development

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.5 Identify what motor skills children acquire during the preschool years and
analyse what causes variations in these skills.
Over the period of early childhood, children build on the basic skills they acquired in the infant and
toddler years, and become more skilled in both gross and fine motor movements. For example, two year
olds are able to walk fairly smoothly and rhythmically. By age three, this basic ambulatory skill has
diversified into running, skipping, jumping and hopping on one foot. Five year olds can walk backwards
as well as forwards, and can quickly change direction while running. As the preschool years progress,
children become more coordinated and their movements become effortless and more skilful. Actions that
require motor coordination, such as balancing on one foot, catching a ball and drawing a picture become
possible.
These changes are brought about by physical and neural advances as well as the opportunity to prac-
tise new skills, an important environmental determinant of motor development. Greater myelination of
neurons in the cerebellum allows for more efficient neural transmissions, which results in better balance
and improved coordination of both fine and gross movements. The changing proportions of the body also
assist in balance, as the centre of gravity moves from the upper part of the body down into the lower trunk.
As well, children’s bodies become progressively larger and stronger, and they are able to achieve physical
feats that were impossible at earlier ages, due to limitations in body size and muscle strength. Activity
levels increase so that in their waking hours, preschoolers seem to be perpetually in motion. Even so, this
constant practising is vitally important in consolidating and refining new motor skills throughout early
childhood (Craig, Kermis, & Digdon, 2001). Table 6.4 summarises the activities mastered at different
ages during early childhood.
TABLE 6.4 Milestones in motor development during early childhood
Approximate
age Gross motor skill Fine motor skill
2.5–3.5 years Walks competently; runs in straight Copies a circle; scribbles; can use
line; jumps in air with both feet eating utensils; stacks a few small
blocks
3.5–4.5 years Walking stride 80 per cent of adult; Copes with large buttons; copies
runs at one-third adult speed; throws simple shapes; makes simple
and catches large ball, but representational drawings
stiff-armed
4.5–5.5 years Balances on one foot; runs Uses scissors; draws people; copies
reasonable distances without falling; simple letters and numbers; builds
can swim for short distances complex structures with blocks
Note: The ages given above are approximate, and skills vary with the life experiences available to individual children and with
the situations in which the skills are displayed.
Source: Adapted from Kalverboer, Hopkins, and Geuze (1993).
Gross motor skills

Gross motor skills involve the large muscles of the body that move the arms and legs; for example, in
walking, throwing, climbing and jumping. Early preschoolers experiment with these actions as goals in
themselves, apparently for the sheer joy of mastery; for example, when three year olds run repeatedly
from one end of the yard to the other, accompanied by shrieks of delight. For older preschool children,
such actions are the means to other ends; for example, when five year olds convert simple running into
an interactive game of tag. As children’s balance improves, a realm of new physical activities opens to
them. Completely steady on their feet, older preschool children develop the ability to throw and catch
balls accurately, to ride tricycles and bicycles with trainer wheels, to swing on bars and to balance on
walls and beams.
Fine motor skills

Not all motor activities of young children involve strength, body balance and coordination of the large
muscle groups. The many activities that require the coordination of small muscles involving the hands
and arms are called fine motor skills and include tying shoelaces, hand washing, buttoning and zipping
clothing, using eating utensils, cutting with scissors and turning doorknobs.
Like gross motor abilities, fine motor skills exhibit obvious developmental sequences. Three year olds
are able to pick up very small objects between their thumb and forefinger, and unbutton their clothing
successfully. They can manipulate simple jigsaw puzzles and can accurately insert forms such as a square
and a triangle into a form board. They can build towers of small blocks. However, their movements are
sometimes imprecise: they may try to force the form board pieces into their recesses and they may fumble
with buttons. Their block towers can be rather irregular with pieces jutting out. By the age of four, fine
motor skills have developed considerably: children can now fold paper accurately into a triangle and build
higher block towers that are smooth and regular. By age five, children are no longer content with simple
block towers but make elaborate buildings out of blocks and their fine motor coordination has developed
to the extent they can accurately manipulate a pen or pencil.
Drawing and painting are important fine motor skills that develop markedly during the preschool years,
and much preschool activity is devoted to these skills. According to Wright (2008), young children’s
drawing is a dynamic activity, rather like role playing on paper. Children often actively discourse while
drawing and treat drawing rather like the making of a movie, including sound effects and devices such
as ‘whoosh’ marks to indicate objects moving at speed. From about two-and-a-half to four years of age,
children produce non-representational drawings, including scribbling and simple shapes such as circles
and squares. Non-representational scribbles serve a number of purposes, including sensory exploration
with the child experiencing the feel of paint brushes, pencils or felt-tip pens. Scribble drawings may also
express thoughts or feelings; for example, a three year old might describe their black and yellow scribbles
as ‘it angry’. Because early drawings can reveal aspects of social–emotional development, they are some-
times used therapeutically. Children might not have the language to express their feelings about issues
such as sexual abuse or wartime trauma. However, they may be able to vividly express their thoughts
through the medium of their artwork.
Drawing and painting is a skill that requires fine motor coordination and which develops through identifiable stages.
Children under three make random scribbles or daubs, which they later coordinate into patterns. At about age four
they refine line patterns to more realistically outline objects, which by age five become increasingly more recognisable.
While early preschool children are only capable of producing non-representational images, they show
a keen interest in representing people, objects and events in their paintings and drawings. Three year olds
often assign stories and representational meanings to their scribbles or blobs; one blob may be ‘mummy’
and a scribble may be ‘our house’. ‘Mummy’ might be ‘looking for me near the house’. So, children’s
representations of their ideas at this stage are limited by their comparatively rudimentary fine motor
skills. Children’s drawings reflect their current understanding of the world and so are also indicative of
their cognitive development.
By age four, children’s drawings generally begin to become representational, showing recognisable
objects. The breakthrough at this stage is the realisation that lines can be used to show the outlines
of three-dimensional objects and can represent them in a two-dimensional form. The motor skill
development of this period is accompanied by cognitive developments that allow children to draw
objects more realistically. Three- to four-year-old children show a particular interest in drawing human
figures. The earliest representations are known as ‘tadpole figures’ with the limbs growing from a
large head. This is a universal representation found in cultures all over the world (Matthews, 1999).
Nonetheless, Australian research by Cox (2002) with Western Desert Aboriginal children suggests that
young children’s representations of the human form are also influenced by cultural norms. For example,
Cox identified in Warlpiri children’s drawings a mixture of tadpole figures and traditional Warlpiri
U-shaped symbols that represent people.
As children grow, perceptual, motor and conceptual developments allow five and six year olds to rep-
resent more conventionally both human and animal forms with a differentiated head and body. The limbs
no longer ‘grow’ from the head. As children near school age, their pictures become more complex and
detailed, with different elements shown in relation to each other; for example, a person standing next to
a house in correct proportions. The described developments can be seen in figure 6.2, which shows the
drawings of a single child, Elizabeth, at different ages during early childhood.
Drawing during early childhood is a vital precursor to writing, which emerges at the end of this period
and is perfected during childhood. Initially, preschoolers do not make a distinction between letters and
drawings. Young children are often interested in writing their own names long before they fully under-
stand what letters mean. When given a template to copy, they may reverse letters, such as d and p, and
might include drawings in their name as well as letters (Levin & Buss, 2003). They understand the whole
configuration refers to themselves, rather like a picture that represents them in a global way (Wright,
2008). However, their cognitive development is not at a stage at which they understand each of the letters
represents a distinct sound or phoneme in their name. As children reach the end of early childhood and
are about to begin formal schooling, they start to understand the symbolic conventions of the written
word, with each letter representing a specific sound or phoneme.
Variations in gross and fine motor development

Minor sex differences are found in motor development during early childhood, with boys slightly
superior in activities which require muscle strength, such as throwing a ball. In contrast, girls are
marginally superior in activities that involve balance and motor coordination, such as skipping (Geary,
1998; Krombholz, 2006; Malina et al., 2004). Also, girls have more developed fine motor coordination
than boys do. Boys’ greater muscularity is responsible for their relative prowess in activities like ball
throwing, while girls’ greater overall physical maturity probably contributes to their superiority in
coordinated activities like skipping. The observed differences in motor skills may also be due to the
social roles boys and girls learn in early childhood (Malina et al., 2004). Preschool boys spend more time
than girls do in rough-and-tumble play, and girls spend more time in quiet activities such as drawing or
playing with stuffed animals. These differences in activity styles may nurture the different motor skills
seen in boys and girls through increased rehearsal and practice of sex-typed skills.
Cultural differences have also been found in motor development, with childrearing practices influ-
encing young children’s rate of motor development in contrasting societies (WHO Multicentre Growth
Reference Study Group, 2006). For example, Wu, Jeng, and Tsou (2006) attributed the slower rate of
motor development they found in Taiwanese infants compared to American norms to cultural differences
in childrearing practices. In contrast, as we read in the chapter on physical and cognitive development
in the first two years, Australian researcher Kearins (1986) found young Aboriginal-Australian children
from traditional Western Desert groups exhibited superior motor development, when compared with
similarly aged urban Aboriginal and Anglo Australian preschool children. Kearins also attributed this
difference to childrearing practices, specifically the early strengthening of children’s neck muscles by
the way tribal Aboriginal mothers held their children as babies, which promoted early crawling and
subsequent precocious gross motor development. At the same time, childrearing practices that restrict
infants’ movements can have the opposite effect, slowing subsequent motor development; for example,
the practice of placing infants in sandbags instead of nappies in Northern China (Mei, 1994).
FIGURE 6.2 Elizabeth’s drawings: the development of fine motor coordination
3 years, 2 months 3 years, 7 months 4 years
4 years, 2 months 5 years, 1 month
Cultural and sex differences in motor development are relatively small in magnitude and are based
on average performances between the sexes or between different cultural groups. However, within any
group there are much greater individual differences in motor development, with preschool children reach-
ing developmental milestones at widely different chronological ages. For example, some children can
already catch a ball skilfully at age three, while others are still dropping all of their catches. By age five,
some children can adeptly use scissors to cut out shapes for art projects, while others are still clumsy
and find scissors difficult to handle. Like other human differences, these variations probably result from
disparities in experience, motivation and biological endowment. For example, a child with a naturally tall
and muscular body has a better chance of mastering gross motor skills like climbing the bars of a jungle
gym, compared to a smaller child of the same age with shorter, chubbier limbs.
Environmental factors also play a role, including children’s opportunities for different physical activ-
ities and the extent to which the child’s family encourages or discourages them. Compared with a child
who lives on a farm, a child who resides in a city apartment may have limited opportunities to practise
gross motor skills like running and jumping. Anxious parents can dissuade young children from trying
normative physical activities due to a fear of injury. Without practice, motor skills will fail to be consol-
idated and refined.
Preferences for participating in gender-defined activities, such as rough-and-tumble play for boys, and quiet activities
for girls, can affect gross and fine motor development in the early years of life.
The exact balance of biogenetic and environmental factors in motor skill development is difficult to
determine in any individual child who is developing fairly normally. The experiences of children with
physical disabilities can be a way of evaluating the influence of non-normative maturation on gross and
fine motor skills. Children with cerebral palsy have impaired motor control abilities, resulting from dam-
aged connections between the motor cortex, in the outer layer of the brain, and brain structures such as
the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for balance, muscle coordination and movement. Neu-
ral damage can occur during pregnancy, at birth, or in the period after birth before three years of age.
Depending on the degree of damage, these children may not learn to walk or to perform many of the
fine motor skills of early childhood, despite optimal environmental factors, such as intensive training and
practice. This suggests biogenetic factors have an overarching influence on motor development. Even so,
the motor development of children with cerebral palsy is not solely determined by the degree to which
the nervous system is intact and functional. It is also partly determined by the child’s opportunities and
parental encouragement to learn new motor skills. The ultimate motor achievements of children with this
disability show the same amount of diversity as the achievements of peers without disabilities, and some
of this diversity is the result of education, not biology (Rosenbaum et al., 2002; Smith, 1998).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
How does brain development influence the rapid growth and development of gross and fine motor skills in
early childhood? To what extent does brain impairment influence development, fine and gross motor skill
achievements during the early childhood years? What advice could you offer parents who wish to support
their three-year-old daughter’s motor development?
Brain development myelination

The process of myelination also continues during early childhood and is the major cause of the increase
in a child’s brain size. Between the ages of two and six, the brain increases from 70 per cent of its adult
weight to 90 per cent. The myelin sheath, which is not completely formed until sometime after birth,
shows rapid growth and development during the early childhood years. Myelin is a layered, whitish, fatty
insulating tissue that ‘sheaths’ the nerve fibres (see figure 6.3). The myelin sheath aids in the rapid and
efficient transmission of impulses along the nerve cells. The process of myelination of the axons speeds
the rate at which messages are transmitted. During early childhood, it is this resulting efficiency of neural
transmission that is partly responsible for greater increases in muscular coordination, particularly gross
and fine motor skills, cognitive functioning, and a high energy need. Energy metabolism in the cerebral
cortex, as revealed by MRI evidence, reaches a peak around this age (Cabeza, Nyberg, & Park, 2005;
Cicchetti, 2015; Huttenlocher, 2002; Nelson, Thomas, & de Haan, 2006; Tsujimoto, 2008). Cognitive
capacities such as attention, memory, planning and organising behaviour advance markedly during the
preschool years (Bunge & Wright, 2007; Durston & Casey, 2006). Interestingly, for most children, the left
cerebral hemisphere is particularly active between the preschool years. This explains why language skills
increase at a rapid pace in early childhood, as they are typically accommodated in the left hemisphere
and support children’s developing executive cognitive functioning.
Connections between the cerebral cortex and cerebellum not only support thinking (Diamond, 2000),
but also contribute to rapid gains in motor coordination. By the end of the preschool years, children
can throw and catch a ball accurately, print letters of the alphabet, ride a tricycle and play games
such as hopscotch. The cerebral cortex and hippocampus develop quickly during the early childhood
years, establishing connections displayed through dramatic gains in memory and spatial understanding.
However, children with damage to the cerebellum typically display cognitive and motor deficits,
such as problems with memory, cognitive organisation and planning, and language (Lee & Bo, 2015;
Noterdaeme, Mildenberger, Minow, & Amorosa, 2002; Riva & Giorgi, 2000).
FIGURE 6.3 Anatomy of a typical neuron
Mitochondrion
Nucleus
Axon
Cell terminal
Myelin
body
sheath
Node of Synapse
Dendrite ranvier
Schwann
cell
Axon
Throughout the preschool years, the hippocampus and cerebral cortex continue to develop rapidly,
establishing connections with one another. The human brain is divided into two hemispheres — left and
right. Researchers continue to explore how some cognitive functions tend to be dominated by one side
or the other; that is, how they are lateralised. Increased right hippocampal lateralisation in children has
been shown to lead to superior performance in memory and patterning tasks (Hopf, Quraan, Cheung,
Taylor, Ryan, & Moses, 2013). Advancements in memory, spatial understanding and strategies to store
and retrieve information are indicative of this lateralisation. Adjacent to the hippocampus, the amygdala
regulates emotions, and processes emotional information and stimuli that evoke fear or indicate safety as
well (Gee et al., 2013; Tottenham, Hare, & Casey, 2009).
As well as advances in physical abilities, preschool children acquire new skills in thinking which define
their cognitive development. Much of the research on cognitive development owes its intellectual roots
to the theories of Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist who worked during the early years of the twenti-
eth century. Piaget spent a great deal of time observing his own young children as they grew, and from
observations of these and other children, Piaget formed his theory about children’s cognitions and how
they change with age. In this part of the chapter we describe the conclusions Piaget formed about the
way preschoolers think. For example, they confuse their own point of view with those of other peo-
ple; they experience difficulty in classifying objects and events logically; and they are easily misled by
appearances. During the 1960s and 1970s, many researchers investigated Piaget’s assumptions and found
preschool children were more cognitively astute than Piaget perceived them to be. These findings (which
are also described later in the chapter) have led to the modification of some of Piaget’s original ideas
about young children’s cognitive development. In later sections we examine one of the major cognitive
advances during early childhood — the acquisition of language. The impact of early childhood education
on children’s cognitive development will also be explored. But first, let us look at a typical three year old,
Beth.
6.6 Thinking in early childhood

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.6 Discuss the special features and strengths of preschoolers’ thinking.
Beth’s parents were often amused at the things she said and did. At age three, her favourite toy was a
bedraggled rabbit she had adopted after her older half-brother Joshua outgrew and abandoned it. Joshua
had named the toy ‘Thumper’, but Beth insisted on calling her rabbit ‘Jumper’, which she cutely pro-
nounced ‘Zumper’. Beth’s parents often heard her deep in conversation with Jumper, saying, ‘You naughty
Zumper, you eat all your vegies now, else you fade ‘way!’
Looking around the corner of the kitchen cupboards and into the lounge room, Beth’s mother could
see Jumper seated at a doll’s table with a plastic plate set in front of him, complete with knife, fork and
spoon (apparently Jumper was a left-handed rabbit). Beth had piled several small building blocks up on
Jumper’s plate, and was pushing one of them into the reluctant rabbit’s firmly closed mouth with a spoon.
Soon afterwards, on the way to preschool, Beth’s mother parked too close to a tree and scratched the side
of the family’s new car. Beth emphatically told her preschool teacher, ‘Naughty tree zumped out and hit
Mummy’s car’. She was still angry with the tree when her mother collected her later that day. She ran up
to it and gave it a sharp slap, hurting her hand in the process.
Later that day, their mother made lamingtons as a special treat for Joshua and Beth. The children were
at the kitchen table with a glass of milk and their afternoon snack on a small plate. Nine-year-old Joshua
carefully cut his lamington into four even pieces and spread them out on his plate. He wanted to prolong
the pleasure by eating each small piece in turn. Beth munched away contentedly on her lamington until
she saw Joshua’s plate and suddenly became very upset. She was convinced Joshua had more cake than
she did. Joshua patiently explained to Beth they had received equal amounts and he had just cut his
lamington into pieces. He even tried to put the small pieces back together so that they looked like the
original lamington. But despite her brother’s reassurances, Beth started sobbing and cried until her mother
performed the magic operation on her uneaten portion of lamington. Then, she happily ate her four tiny
fragments of cake.
Joshua was very good with his younger half-sister and would often play with her in the evenings.
Beth’s favourite game was hide-and-seek, but she would generally hide from her brother by curling up
on the sofa and covering her head with one of the cushions. There were the usual squeals of laughter
when Joshua circled the sofa muttering ‘Now where’s that Beth gone?’ Once, Joshua thought to make
things more interesting when it was his turn to hide and donned a rubber mask from the movie Shrek.
Beth ran away terrified after she found a horrible-looking creature hiding in Joshua’s bedroom cupboard.
She stopped screaming when Joshua removed the mask to reassure her it was really him, but as soon as
he put it on again she screamed even more loudly.
As Beth got older her questions increased in frequency until it seemed she was always asking ‘Why?’
At times her mother became exasperated responding to esoteric questions like, ‘Why does the sun shine?’,
‘What makes the clouds move?’ and ‘Is God angry when it thunders?’ Just before Beth turned four, she
was eagerly awaiting a special gift — a realistic toy kitten she had spotted at the shopping mall. She had
whispered to Santa this was what she wanted for Christmas. But every present she opened on Christmas
morning prompted a flood of tears — the kitten was not in any of her parcels. Her grandparents were
nonplussed and muttered something about ‘spoilt children these days . . . ’
Piaget’s preoperational stage

Beth, in the midst of what Jean Piaget called the preoperational stage of cognitive development, displays
actions and reactions that are the keys to understanding the ways of thinking that typify early childhood.
Although the older individuals in Beth’s family circle were often amused, exasperated and even disap-
pointed by Beth’s behaviour, they may have failed to realise Beth’s world and her interpretations of it
were as real to her as their more sophisticated understandings were to them.
The preoperational stage occurs between the ages of about two and seven years. It represents a period
of considerable development in children’s thinking when contrasted with the earlier sensorimotor stage
of development, which was discussed in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in the first
two years. The most significant change that occurs during the preoperational period is the superseding of
sensorimotor activities by symbolic representations. During the sensorimotor stage, children understand
the world around them primarily by coordinating sensory experiences, such as seeing, with physical activ-
ities, such as manipulating objects. However, from the age of about two years, children are increasingly
able to mentally represent their world in terms of symbols — the most important of which is language.
Children leave infancy behind with several important accomplishments, including an understanding of
the permanence of objects and the capacity to set and achieve simple goals — even if this means being
capable of emptying all of the pots and pans from the kitchen cupboards! At the end of infancy, children
also possess the vital knowledge that all of their senses, including sight, hearing and touch, are giving them
multifaceted feedback about the same single environment. For example, a toddler knows upon hearing
his mother in the next room, he will see her there if he walks through the door. During the preoperational
stage, these basic understandings are extended and transformed into more sophisticated ways of thinking.
Apart from becoming increasingly proficient at using symbols, children also extend their belief in object
permanence to include identities, or constancies, of many types. For example, a preschooler knows a
candle is still a candle even if it becomes shorter as it burns, and a plant on the windowsill remains
the same plant even though its appearance changes over the days and weeks as it grows. Preoperational
children also internalise many functional relationships, or variations in their environments that normally
occur together. For example, preschool children understand that the faster they walk, the sooner they will
arrive at their destination.
Although the preoperational period represents considerable cognitive advances, it is also characterised
by significant limitations in thinking when compared to the subsequent period, middle childhood. The
stage of cognitive development that encapsulates early childhood is called preoperational because
children are not yet capable of performing what Piaget termed operations, mental transformations
and manipulations that permit reasoning even in the absence of observable events and objects. This
does not normally occur until the time that children begin formal schooling. In fact, Piaget focused
more on the limitations in children’s thinking during the preoperational stage than on its advances and
accomplishments (Piaget, 1963; Wadsworth, 2003). The defining features of preoperational thought are
described in detail in the following sections.
Symbolic representations
A symbolic representation is cognition that allows one entity to stand for another. Preschoolers begin to
realise that each symbol — such as a symbol on a model, map, drawing or photograph — corresponds to
something specific in everyday life. Through symbolic representations, children begin to deal with their
world through substitutes for the real objects and physical manipulations that characterised the previ-
ous developmental period, the sensorimotor period. Most importantly, children develop language in the
preoperational period. This is the most efficient means by which children can mentally manipulate their
world without constant recourse to real objects, and its development signals a transformation in their
experience (Nelson, 2010). For example, during the preoperational period, children understand the word
‘train’ relates not only to the long vehicle they saw at the station, but also to drawings in their Thomas
the Tank Engine book, photos in a National Geographic magazine, and the model train they received on
their birthday. So, words are a replacement for real objects or representations of real objects such as pho-
tographs and pictures. Words as shorthand for actual entities and events are not only an economical way
of dealing with the world of people, actions and things — they also allow young children to experiment
with new ideas and ways of thinking, freed from the tyranny of the tangible. As the primary form of
symbolic representation, words are also vital for the development of human communication. They help
foster social relationships between growing children and other individuals.
Preschoolers’ play often reflects their growing abilities to represent objects and events symbolically.
Piaget argued language grows out of cognitive developments, with thought preceding language. He
reinforced this contention with evidence of the largely language-free sensorimotor advances in cognition,
which are the foundation for the development of symbolic representations during the preoperational
period. Piaget’s stance has fuelled much subsequent debate, with some theorists arguing against Piaget
and maintaining that language precedes thought. It is unclear whether we will ever have a definitive
answer to this question, but it is clear that language as a symbolic vehicle significantly enhances
the speed and efficiency of thought during the preoperational period compared to the sensorimotor
period.
The new ways of thinking during the preoperational period are often demonstrated in new ways of
playing. According to Piaget, symbolic or ‘pretend’ play is a way of practising and consolidating new-
found symbolic representational skills. To begin with, children’s symbolic play is quite rudimentary;
for example, a two-year-old child mimicking the actions of eating dinner from an empty plate. By age
three, pretend play becomes more elaborate, such as Beth’s recreation of a mealtime melodrama with her
toy rabbit. At about age four, children incorporate roles and characters into complex fantasy scenarios,
pretending to be other people, animals or imaginary creatures (Hernández Blasi, Bjorklund, & Ruiz Soler,
2017; Power, 2000; Rakoczy, Tomasello, & Striano, 2005). At this age, children also refine their ability
in using objects symbolically as replacements for other objects. For example, the sofa becomes a pirate
ship sailing over the green sea of lounge room carpet, and the kitchen table — covered with a draping
tablecloth — becomes an Indian teepee.
Limitations in preoperational thought

Symbolic representations constitute a dramatic advancement in children’s cognitive development.
However, there are still serious limitations to preschool children’s cognitions. Although preoperational
children are able to create efficient mental representations of their world, their mental representations
are imperfect compared with those of older individuals. There are several features of preoperational
children’s thought that illustrate the limitations in the way they understand people, things and events in
their everyday environment.
Conservation
Conservation refers to an understanding that the essential characteristics of things — such as quantity,
number, area or volume — does not change, despite changes in their outward superficial appearance.
Piaget maintained children under the age of five are unable to conserve, principally because they are
misled by the perceptual features of materials or objects and are thereby perception bound. By cutting up
his lamington, Joshua changed only its superficial appearance. However, this action led Beth to believe
the amount of lamington had actually changed. When Joshua explained to Beth what he had done to his
lamington, he showed he understood the essence of conservation: the irrelevant transformation of cutting
had not altered the amount of lamington in any way; nothing had been added or taken away, and therefore
the equivalent of the original lamington was still on his plate. Piaget called this fundamental understanding
identity. Beth, however, did not have the mental maturity to comprehend this, and was therefore not
content until her plate mimicked her brother’s plate: with four, albeit tiny, pieces of lamington on it.
Beth’s lamington tantrum is an example of what Piaget called centration. When Joshua cut his lamington
into four pieces, Beth thought Joshua’s lamington quota exceeded her own, simply because he had more
pieces than she did. Beth exhibited centration by focusing on only one aspect of the situation, the number
of lamington pieces, and neglecting the gross amount of lamington. When Joshua tried to placate Beth
by putting the cut-up lamington back together, he was exhibiting an understanding of reversibility in
thinking — the ability to undo an action mentally and go back to its beginning. Joshua was able to
visualise the quartered lamington back together — demonstrated when he re-assembled his lamington in
the hope that his sister would also see that it had not, in fact, changed. However, even with the evidence
in front of her, Beth was unable to mentally put the lamington back together, and persisted in seeing
four pieces of lamington. For the reasons of lack of reversibility and identity, coupled with a tendency to
centrate, three-year-old Beth revealed that she was still unable to conserve amount.
Piaget developed a number of tasks similar to the procedure Joshua executed on his lamington, as mini
experiments designed to test children’s conservation of distinctive properties of materials and objects. The
different conservation tasks are described in detail in the chapter on physical and cognitive development
in middle childhood. The conservation task in figure 6.4 tests whether children have achieved conservation
of liquid amount. First, the child is shown two tall glasses with exactly the same amount of water in each.
Sometimes the child is asked to check or adjust the levels until they are satisfied as to the equivalence
between the glasses. Then, the child watches the experimenter pour the water from one of the glasses
into a wide glass container, such as a dish. Naturally, the water line in the wide container will be lower
than it was in the tall one; changing the appearance of the water by an irrelevant transformation. Finally,
the child is asked, ‘Is there the same amount of water? Or does the glass have more water or less water?’
FIGURE 6.4 Conservation of liquid amount

Does a child believe the quantity of liquid remains constant (is ‘conserved’), despite changes in the
way it looks? The method illustrated here is often used to investigate children’s thinking.
First, you show a Then the child watches Finally, you ask the child, A child who lacks reversibility
preschool child two you pour the water from ‘Is there more water in (is non-conserving) in thinking
tall glasses with one of the glasses into the wide glass than in the about liquids says either
exactly the same a third, wide glass. (remaining) tall glass, ‘The tall glass has more’ or
amount of water or less, or just as much?’ ‘The wide glass has more.’
in each. She is fooled by its appearance.
Children under five years of age typically say the tall glass contains more water than the wide glass dish.
According to Piaget, the child attends to only one dimension — the height of the water — and concludes
there is more water in the tall glass than in the wide glass dish. Also, preoperational children are unable to
mentally reverse the irrelevant transformation they have just seen: they cannot imagine pouring the water
back into the glass to re-establish the equivalent levels. Moreover, the perceived difference in appearance
leads preoperational children to believe the amount of water changes as a result of its being poured.
In Piagetian terms, preoperational children fail to conserve. In other words, they do not understand the
constancy of the amount of liquid, despite its visible changes.
Piaget maintained that conservation does not become firmly established until the early school years
(Inhelder & Piaget, 1958). Later researchers tested this assumption by modifying Piaget’s classic conser-
vation tasks. For example, when Gelman (1972) minimised the linguistic demands of the liquid amount
conservation task and made it more structured, children as young as three years of age were able to
conserve. Gelman’s findings suggest that children’s responses to the conservation tasks are significantly
affected by the language used by experimenters — the answers children give differ according to how
they interpret such terms as ‘more’, ‘less’ and ‘same’. Also, numerous training studies over the years
have shown conservation responses can be elicited in preschoolers when young children’s attention is
drawn to the different dimensions of the glasses (e.g. Dasen, Ngini, & Lavalee, 1979; Gelman, 2003;
Goswami, 1996; Wadsworth, 2003; Watanabe, 2017a, 2017b). Social expectations were also found to
influence conserving responses. Elbers, Wiegersma, Brand, and Vroon (1991) claimed repetition of the
same conservation question after water was poured into the wide container led to children forming
the opinion the experimenter wanted them to alter their original answer — after all, why else would
the experimenter repeat themselves? According to Elbers et al. (1991) most children began the conserva-
tion task by agreeing the glasses held equal amounts of water, so the researchers reasoned that children
could presumably feel social pressure to give a different, non-conserving response after the transforma-
tion, against their own better judgement.
Number concepts
Many young preschoolers are able to count, but Piaget (1952) argued such counting is essentially a rote
activity and that preoperational children do not fully grasp how the conventional number system works.
To fully understand number concepts, a child must comprehend three ideas. The first is that a one-to-one
correspondence exists between items in a set and number names; the second is cardinality — the idea
the total number of items in a set corresponds to the last number named when the items are counted;
and the third is ordinality — the concept numbers always occur in a standard order (e.g. that two always
precedes three). Evidence for Piaget’s claim can be seen in preschoolers’ inability to conserve number.
For example, when two parallel rows of five buttons are presented, and one row is subsequently spread
out so the buttons are no longer in alignment, preoperational children believe the spread-out row contains
more buttons than the row that has not been touched. Piaget argued preoperational children fail to grasp
one or all of the three fundamental concepts underlying number, resulting in their inability to conserve
number.
Much subsequent research has tested Piaget’s (1952) assumptions about preoperational children’s grasp
of one-to-one correspondence, cardinality and ordinality. Later researchers concluded Piaget underesti-
mated the capabilities of preschool children in their understanding of numerical concepts. Gelman and
Meck (1983) examined preschool children’s counting in detail, and found they used the standard sequence
of numbers when counting different sets (ordinality); they used one word for each item and demonstrated
an item can be counted only once (one-to-one correspondence) and they were able to recognise the last
word used to label the final item in the set represents the total number in the set (cardinality). As well,
Gelman and Meck discovered preschoolers understand a set of objects can be counted in any order, and
that any set can be counted. With such evidence of much earlier number concepts than Piaget postulated,
some psychologists have argued children may have an innate understanding of number, or at least that
they can learn underlying notions of number from appropriate experiences during infancy (e.g. Case,
1998; Kirschner, 1997; Reid, 2016; Rouselle, Palmers, & Noël, 2004).
Appropriate experiences during early childhood help boys and girls to master different number concepts.
Classification skills
Classification refers to the grouping of things according to a specific standard or criterion. This ability
is essential in making sense of the complex physical and social environments humans inhabit (Murphy,
2002; Murphy, 2016). When preschool children are asked to group a set of objects, they generally
put them together figurally (according to their perceptual features) or thematically (according to their
relationships to each other). For example, when given an array of kitchen objects, children might group
all of the long things together. Alternatively, they may place a cup, a knife, a fork and a plate together
if they have seen these items used together during mealtimes. Sometimes, young preschool children
group things according to a story; for example, a doll, a toy stove and a model house might be grouped
together as ‘the doll goes into the house and then cooks dinner’.
Most children under the age of five are able to classify things in terms of basic level categories, in which
all of the objects share common perceptual features; for example, different types of chairs or shoes. How-
ever, Piaget believed preoperational children incapable of taxonomic categorisation. This skill involves
classifying things according to a superordinate class that might have members with dissimilar perceptual
features; for example, grouping a hammer, a chisel, a saw and a screwdriver under the conventional taxo-
nomic class of ‘tools’. Instead, preoperational children rely on thematic relations such as the table setting
example just described.
Researchers subsequently challenged Piaget’s assumption, arguing Piaget’s original classification tasks
were biased towards thematic groupings rather than taxonomic categorisation. Later experimental studies
established the task instructions are crucial in the type of classification children produce. For example,
Waxman and Namy (1997), and Ferguson and Waxman (2013) found when three year olds were given the
classical Piagetian instruction to ‘find the things that go together’, children tended to produce thematic
groupings. However, when they were handed an object and were asked ‘Can you find another one?’ the
majority of three year olds were able to sort taxonomically.
Animism and magical thinking
Piaget recognised a tendency of young children to apply the attributes of living things to inanimate
objects. For example, a child might be concerned about their teddy bear being hurt when it falls off the toy
shelf and may want to bandage its head to make it feel better. Piaget interpreted animism as an extreme
form of egocentric thought. Young preoperational children, being aware of their own bodily functions and
consciousness, oversimplify and generalise their knowledge to include objects that are clearly not capa-
ble of animate activities, thoughts or feelings. Beth exhibited animism in blaming the tree for causing the
damage to her mother’s car. She clearly believed the tree was capable of leaping out and hitting the car,
and punished the tree accordingly. Children’s books often contain examples of animism, with inanimate
objects showing appealing human qualities like bravery, such as Thomas in Thomas the Tank Engine.
Fairytales also contain examples of animism; for example, trees may show capabilities such as animal-
like movements or human-like malice. The presence of animism in stories written by adults for children
is a testament to the importance and appeal of this type of thought for young children. Also, books and
stories can reinforce the application of animism in the everyday experience of preschoolers like Beth.
Researchers now claim Piaget overestimated the degree of animism in preoperational children’s thought
(e.g. Gelman, 2002; Hickling & Wellman, 2001; Opfer, & Gelman, 2011). Studies in the decades follow-
ing Piaget’s original experiments revealed even young preschoolers establish a clear delineation between
the properties of inanimate things such as rocks and pieces of wood, and animate things such as dogs and
cats. In studies involving children’s understanding of the properties of inanimate objects and living things,
three- to four-year-old children have shown a clear ability to distinguish between living things and inan-
imate objects in terms of the ability to feel emotions, and other properties such as growth, sickness and
death (e.g. Backscheider, Shatz, & Gelman, 1993; Gelman, Spelke, & Meck, 1983). Gelman’s study of
self-generated movements in inanimate objects and living things demonstrated children as young as three
years recognised that an animal could scale a hill by itself, but an inanimate object like a bicycle could not.
This ability was even shown with pictures of unfamiliar animals (Gelman, 1990; Jipson & Gelman, 2007).
The difference between these later results and earlier ones obtained by Piaget — which led him to believe
preoperational children were generally animistic in their thinking — could be due to the specific methods
used, as well as to historical artefacts. Piaget relied primarily on a clinical method involving observation
and open-ended questions. In contrast, later Piagetian researchers used more experimentally based
methods with specific stimuli and empirical controls.
Modern children’s greater exposure to technology could also be a factor in the dissonance between con-
temporary theory and classical Piagetian views of children’s animism, which were based on experiments
Piaget and Inhelder carried out in the 1950s.
Preschoolers usually believe implicitly in mythical figures such as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy.
As well as exhibiting animistic thought, preschoolers often attribute events they cannot understand to
magic or to fantasy figures such as fairies. They may unswervingly believe in mythical entities such as
Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny. Beth showed evidence of such magical thinking in her
conviction Joshua had turned into an ogre. She was also firmly convinced that after telling the shopping
centre Santa she wanted the toy kitten for Christmas, it would be duly delivered to her. Her extreme disap-
pointment was evidence of firmly entrenched magical thinking, which Piaget termed intuitive thought. As
far as Beth was concerned, there was no need to tell her parents her secret wish; it was sufficient for Santa
to know her wish because she firmly believed that he was the source of special Christmas gifts. Magical
thinking declines after age four, as children’s understanding of the physical and social world increases.
For example, at the end of early childhood, children may realise the illusions created by a magician at
their birthday party are just clever tricks (Meyer, 2016; Subbotsky, 2004; Woolley & Cornelius, 2013;
Woolley & Cox, 2007; Woolley & Ghossainy, 2013).
Egocentrism and children’s theory of mind

Egocentrism refers to the tendency of a person to confuse his or her own point of view with that of
another person. This tendency can be seen in Beth’s attempts to play hide-and-seek with her brother.
Because she cannot see him from under the cushion, she believes he cannot see her. She is confusing her
point of view with his. Egocentrism involves the inability of young children to put themselves into another
person’s shoes; hence, they are unable to comprehend that other people have thoughts and feelings that
are separate from their own thoughts and feelings. Psychologists term this ability theory of mind —
the capacity to reflect on one’s own thoughts and to distinguish them from other people’s thoughts or
ideas.
On Christmas morning Beth was unable to see past her disappointment at not receiving the anticipated
toy kitten. An older child such as Joshua would have been capable of containing his angst and of showing
appreciation for what his grandparents had given him. However, Beth, at four years of age, did not have
the cognitive maturity to do this. She was incapable of placing herself in her grandparents’ shoes and
understanding their displeasure when she burst into tears. However, egocentrism, like Beth’s disappoint-
ment with her presents, does not imply wilful selfishness. The child does not intend to display self-centred
behaviour. Rather, their actions are a reflection of their limitations in thinking — they are only capable
of focusing on the self.
Piaget illustrated egocentrism by showing children a table with three distinctive model mountains. He
asked children how a doll would see the three mountains when it was placed at various positions around
the table. Different views of the mountains were shown to the child in pictorial form. In this task, pre-
operational children typically chose the view they personally observed, regardless of the doll’s different
orientations to the scene (Piaget & Inhelder, 1967). However, this task was subsequently criticised, as
it not only reflects children’s egocentrism, but their limited spatial abilities as well. Later researchers
such as Steiner (1987), Newcombe and Huttenlocher (1992), and Frick and Baumeler (2017) eliminated
the confounding spatial element from Piaget’s perspective-taking task. By including familiar objects, they
demonstrated young children are able to take the perspective of others — at least in straightforward phys-
ical perspective-taking. For example, when a card with a dog on one side and a cat on the other is held
up between the child and the experimenter, three-year-old children are able to reason the experimenter
would see one side; for example, the side showing the dog, at the same time they are viewing the cat
(Flavell, 1992).
Piaget had firm ideas about young children’s theory of mind, maintaining that prior to age eight, chil-
dren are incapable of reflecting on thought and are unable to make distinctions between mental and phys-
ical realities. For example, he believed that dreams or mental images are as real to children as physical
entities (Piaget, 1929). In subsequent research, developmentalists established that children’s theory of
mind is far from absent in young children, but develops gradually from the infant years, with a stage-like
transformation in thinking. In contrast to Piaget’s findings, Bartsch and Wellman (1989) established that
during infancy, children have a recognition of other people’s desires, while Flavell (1993) found that by
age three children can indeed distinguish between mental and physical entities. Furthermore, research
in oral communication suggested preoperational children are more capable of taking another person’s
perspective than Piaget originally theorised. For example, Shatz and Gelman (1973) discovered that four-
year-old children adjusted their speech according to their listener’s capabilities, such as simplifying their
speech when talking to a two year old. These young children also explained a drawing more clearly to a
listener who was blindfolded, apparently because the blindfold emphasised the listener’s need for more
complete information. Such groundbreaking studies demonstrated the beginnings of perspective-taking
during early childhood, which is further developed during middle childhood. School-aged children have
much better perspective-taking skills than preschoolers do, especially in complex social situations such
as the Christmas scenario involving Beth and her presents.
Ingenious experiments using situations where children’s responses demonstrate what they understand
about other people’s beliefs and desires have revealed much more about children’s theory of mind than
Piaget had suspected. Many experiments involve variations of Wimmer and Perner’s original (1983) false
belief task. For example, a child is shown into a room with two adults. While both adults are present,
Adult 1 puts an object into a drawer. Adult 2 then exits the room leaving the child alone with Adult 1.
Adult 1 then places the object in another place, hiding it under a piece of furniture so that it cannot be seen.
The child is then asked where Adult 2 will look for the object. Children under the age of about four years
typically say that Adult 2 will look for the object in the new place, under the piece of furniture. Such
responses show that children cannot distinguish between their own and others’ understanding of what
happened, and the fact that their own understanding is different from what the absent adult understands.
Age four to five seems to be a turning point in children’s theory of mind. On false belief tasks, about
half of four year olds answer that Adult 2 would look for the object in the original hiding place, the
drawer, recognising that Adult 2’s experience of the situation and beliefs are distinct from their own.
By age five, the majority of children ‘pass’ false belief tasks (Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001). Perner
(1991) saw this breakthrough as one of the most significant mental advances of early childhood, involv-
ing recognition of the relativity of belief and the distinctiveness of different minds. More recently, New
Zealand research has investigated the possible reasons for the developmental course taken by children’s
theory of mind, based on a central premise that age-related improvements in theory of mind are due
to greater memory capacity, selective attention and inhibitory response, which are all aspects of execu-
tive functioning. For example, Keenan (2000) found a significant connection between performances on
a task involving short-term memory and four to five year olds’ performances on a theory of mind task.
Similarly, verbal explanations of older preschoolers show evidence of explicit understanding, which can
predict performance on earlier implicit false belief tasks (San Juan & Astington, 2012, 2017).
Moral reasoning
Piaget observed children playing games involving rules. He asked them about anecdotal moral dilemmas
in which the degree of damage done by a protagonist varied with the level of the protagonist’s intention-
ality. Thus, he generated a model in which the child passes through two distinctive stages of development
in moral reasoning (Piaget, 1964). Very young children are at the amoral stage, and lack the cognitive
capacity to make judgements about right and wrong. Their behaviour is largely governed by older indi-
viduals, principally parents. From age four or five, the child enters the stage of heteronomous morality,
morality that is subject to external controls. This stage is typified by a one-sided view of morality where
children see rules as externally generated, and adults as all-powerful beings. At this stage children believe
in imminent justice, the idea that transgressions will evoke immediate punishment. As well, culpability
in a wrongful act is judged principally by the degree of damage that is done. By the time they are about
ten years old, children enter the stage of autonomous morality, where they are less preoccupied with
rigid rules established by authority figures such as parents and see rules as more flexible and changeable
according to circumstances. At this stage children are less egocentric in their moral reasoning and, with
better perspective-taking abilities, attribute culpability in wrongdoing more to a person’s intentions than to
the degree of damage that results from a wrongful act. As well, older children understand that punishment
for wrongful acts will not immediately ensue and that punishment depends on whether their wrongdoing
has been witnessed by someone, such as a parent. Piaget observed that children’s progression from het-
eronomous to autonomous morality was a gradual process, so he referred to them as ‘phases’ rather than
his more familiar cognitive developmental stages, involving abrupt qualitative transformations in thinking.
Subsequent research revealed that Piaget had underestimated preschool children’s moral reasoning, and
that children as young as three years are able to understand the intentions of others and to take them into
consideration in making moral judgements (e.g. Ball, Smetana, & Sturge-Apple, 2017; Zelazo, Helwig, &
Lau, 1996). This is a higher level process associated with the later stages of moral reasoning, suggesting
that the developmental process of internalising moral concepts begins earlier than Piaget claimed. Despite
a lower basal age for autonomous morality, researchers confirmed Piaget’s assumption of a temporal
progression from heteronomous morality to autonomous morality.
Neo-Piagetian theories
As the studies described in the previous sections suggest, preschoolers show considerable strengths in
using symbolic thought. They can take others’ perspectives to some extent. Preschool-aged children begin
to develop theory of mind, and if the conditions are conducive, they can distinguish between appearances
and reality. Many of Piaget’s observations based on Swiss children have been vindicated by subsequent
research in many countries. For example, young children do have trouble focusing on two aspects of an
object at once and so have difficulty with conservation tasks throughout most of the preschool stage.
Other Piagetian assumptions, however, have underestimated children’s ability, with more recent
research leading to new ways of thinking about children’s capacities. For example, despite Piaget’s claims,
preschool children do in fact have a partial understanding of number.
Many psychologists have sought to remain true to Piaget’s central commitment to a stage-based pro-
gression in development, but at the same time they have revised the content of those stages. This newer
view of cognitive stages is called neo-Piagetian theory, or neostructuralist theory, because of its roots
in the ideas of Piaget. As a result of focusing attention on more specific cognitive achievements, it has
also paid more attention to how, or by what processes, children acquire new cognitive skills.
Case (1998), a prominent neo-Piagetian, argued stages in cognitive development are much more
focused in content than the comprehensive ‘grand’ stages proposed by Piaget, such as the sensorimotor
stage and the preoperational stage of cognitive development. Research based on this premise has
identified stages in the development of specific skills, such as spatial representation, mathematical
ability and interpersonal awareness (Case, 1992; Ping & Goldin-Medow, 2008; Siegler & Svetina,
2006). Each of these skills appears to develop through predictable stages, but they do so independently
of the other domains. This finding suggests that Piaget’s assumption — that the general stages of
development he proposed affect different cognitive abilities similarly within different stages — needs
modification. As individuals, children appear to show unique patterns and timing of development across
many different areas of thinking (Halford & Andrews, 2006, 2014; Wozniak, 2014; Wozniak & Fischer,
1993).
From the neo-Piagetian perspective, cognitive development during early childhood is far from uniform
in how it unfolds. Instead, it has many components that can proceed at different rates; for example, differ-
ent aspects of thinking as well as perceptual and language developments. According to the neo-Piagetians,
it is important to understand each developmental component as a separate entity before combining the
components to obtain a well-rounded picture of young children and their cognitive development. So,
in the following section, we consider another major piece in the overall puzzle of children’s thinking:
language acquisition.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Gus, at three years old, understands that his tricycle isn’t alive, it can’t move on its own without him
pushing or pedalling it, and that it doesn’t have feelings. However, while at the beach late in the afternoon,
finishing the last sandcastle and watching the sun go down, Gus observed ‘The sun has had a busy day.
It’s very tired. It’s going to sleep’. How would you explain this distinct contradiction in Gus’s reasoning?
6.7 Language acquisition in the preschool years

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.7 Elaborate on how the language of preschool children develops, and compare
and contrast how it differs from that of older children.
Language is a way of communicating using symbols, which can be in the form of spoken words,
writing or signs. It is vital not only for human communication, but also for learning and passing on
knowledge between generations. Using language as a way of communicating involves both expressive
language (words, signs and gestures) and receptive language (understanding what is communicated).
Language is closely involved in the development of the cognitive skills described in the previous sec-
tions. Like other cognitive skills, it expands with remarkable rapidity during early childhood. However,
receptive language develops at a faster rate than expressive language; for example, preschool children
understand more words than they are able to produce.
During early childhood, children master the basic sounds, or phonology, that makes languages both
meaningful and distinctive. From the milestone first word that occurs at around 12 months of age,
preschoolers’ expressive vocabularies expand to about 14 000 words by the time they are six. There is
a vocabulary explosion after the age of about 18 months, representing an average acquisition rate of
about five to six new words per day (Carey, 1978; McMurray, 2007). Just as impressive is grammatical
development in early childhood. During the preschool years, expressive language becomes much more
complex, shifting from the simple two-word utterances of children approaching their second birthday,
to the complex sentences of five year olds that reflect the same grammatical structures school-aged
children and adults use. Children’s pragmatics, or social understanding of language and how it is used
as a communication device, also develops dramatically during early childhood. These different linguistic
achievements are dealt with in the following sections, as well as the important question of how language
is acquired, including the role parents and other caregivers play in language acquisition.
Word acquisition and semantic development

Expressive vocabulary expands fairly slowly between the time a child speaks its first recognisable word at
approximately 12 months of age, acquiring up to 70 words by about 18 months of age (Hamilton, Plunkett,
& Schafer, 2000). For many children, 18 months of age marks the beginning of a pivotal development
phase, with a subsequent explosive growth in vocabulary that continues into the period of early childhood.
Typically, nouns emerge in children’s expressive vocabularies before verbs do — and are more common in
children’s repertoires than verbs are — possibly because nouns make reference to things which are more
easily perceived (Bloom, 2000). In the process of acquiring new words, children exhibit overextensions.
These involve the labelling of novel objects and events with vocabulary the child has already mastered.
For example, the word ‘truck’ might be used to describe a variety of four-wheeled vehicles, ranging from
ride-on mowers to buses. Overextensions are evidence a child’s expressive language development lags
behind their receptive language, peaking around 18 months of age and diminishing fairly rapidly from
the time the child is two years old. Increased vocabulary availability is thought to be the main driver of
this phenomenon (Mayor & Plunkett, 2010). In the case of the truck example, the child comprehends the
similarity of diverse vehicles to the prototype ‘truck’. However, they have not accumulated the specialised
expressive vocabulary to be able to distinguish between them. Nonetheless, overextensions might also
be a perceptual phenomenon — not simply the result of children’s expressive limitations. Gogate and
Hollich (2010) view overextensions as an example of children’s invariance detection — a perceptual
bias whereby young children attend to stable patterns or regularities in the language environment, which
provides a platform for the building of later lingual competencies.
During the preschool years, advances in expressive language include an increasing understanding of the
phonology of the language children are learning. A phoneme is the fundamental sound unit of language,
and it is estimated 200 different phonemes are used worldwide. English speakers employ 45 phonemes,
so it is these sound units Australian and New Zealand children have to master (Pinker, 2007). Most
phonemes in Australian and New Zealand English sound similar, but there are subtle differences in the
way vowels are pronounced. For example, the sound represented by ‘i’ in words such as ‘dish’ and ‘six’
are pronounced in a blunter style in New Zealand than the sharper ‘i’ sound preferred in Australian
English. Even greater phonemic contrasts can be seen in American English, particularly the open ‘a’
sound in words such as ‘class’ and ‘past’. Putting together the phonemes correctly — according to cultural
conventions of pronunciation — is vital to children’s development in expressive language, influencing
the effectiveness of their oral communication. However, some single sounds and sound combinations
in English phonology are more difficult for young children to master, including ‘v’, ‘j’, ‘th’ and ‘zh’.
For example, the ‘j’ sound in ‘Jumper’ was difficult for three-year-old Beth, so she replaced it with the
easier ‘z’ sound she had heard and used herself for the pronunciation of her own name. By the end
of early childhood, such replacements become less common as children gradually master the phonemic
conventions of their native language.
A child’s social understanding of how language can be used as a communication device develops dramatically during
early childhood.
Growth in expressive vocabulary is an indicator of children’s advances in semantics or receptive lan-

guage — their understanding of new and unfamiliar words. Theorists have proposed a process called fast
mapping to account for the remarkable rate at which children grasp new word meanings during early
childhood; for example, from age three children demonstrate an ability to assimilate and comprehend
a new word after hearing it only once or twice. Fast mapping occurs through a number of processes,
including verbal constraints. These are general rules simplifying word learning, such as focusing on the
whole object and its overall shape, rather than its parts. For example, if a parent points to an unfamiliar
animal at the zoo and names it for the child, how do they know the word ‘orang-utan’ refers to the whole
animal and not its rear end (which is facing the child at that moment), or to what the animal might be
doing at the time, such as scratching its armpits? Markman (1989) argued young children are predisposed
to a whole-of-object bias that greatly simplifies new word learning. So, a child is likely to screen out the
multitude of possible interpretations for the word ‘orang-utan’ and deduce it refers to the entire animal.
A mutual exclusion process also assists in fast mapping. Children are more likely to apply new labels
to new objects or events than to apply them to already-named objects or events and, in doing so, extend
their comprehension to novel things (Cimpian & Markman, 2005; Hansen & Markman, 2009; Markman,
1992). Contextual cues constitute a further aid to fast mapping, with children using familiar words sur-
rounding a novel word to deduce its meaning. For example, when a child is told, ‘The marmoset drank
all the water’, they deduce a marmoset is a living creature, as it is described performing a familiar animal
activity — drinking water — in the sentence.
Children also use contextual cues to assign meaning to novel words by syntactic bootstrapping. Gram-
matical knowledge grows over the period of early childhood, and children are better able to analyse the
meaning of unfamiliar verbs by the way they are used in sentences; that is, according to whether or not
the verb has an object.
If there is an object in the sentence, it tells the child the verb is an action that affects another entity,
conveying valuable information about what the unfamiliar verb might mean. In the sentence ‘James struck
the boy’, the boy is the object of the unfamiliar verb ‘struck’. With an understanding of syntax — or the
rules of word order — the child can deduce that ‘struck’ involves something James did to the boy. So, there
is an intimate interaction between semantics (the meaning of language) and syntax (the grammatical rules
involving word order). Children’s ability to understand both semantics and syntax dramatically improves
during early childhood.
An interesting new theory accounting for children’s rapid word acquisition has been put forward by
McMurray (2007), which claims that specialised word-learning mechanisms such as syntactic bootstrap-
ping are not essential in explaining the remarkable explosion in vocabulary that occurs during late infancy
and early childhood. Using mathematical models and computer simulations of children learning language,
McMurray tested several models incorporating different learning conditions. He found that a sudden
vocabulary explosion occurred invariably after a gradual beginning and in a similar time frame. He con-
cluded that only two conditions are necessary in explaining this phenomenon — that words are learnt
in parallel and that words are of different difficulty, assuming there are more difficult words than easy
words.
Grammatical development
Grammar is a vital component of language, involving rules governing morphemes, which are the smallest
meaningful units of language. A morpheme can be a whole word such as ‘pig’ or a word part such as
‘sty’ as in ‘pigsty’. Grammar includes inflections, which are word prefixes and suffixes that carry mean-
ing. Some inflections include the ‘s’ that changes the word house into houses; the ‘re’ in redo that gives
the sense of something being executed a second time; the ‘ed’ in talked that relays the idea of the action
occurring in the past; and the ‘ing’ in going that gives the sense the activity is still in progress. Like
select words, these inflections are morphemes, because they are basic units that convey meaning. Intona-
tion is another aspect of grammar. It involves the tone or pitch of voice used in oral communication. In
English, a rising tone at the end of a sentence is a marker of a question, rather than a statement. Grammar
also includes syntax, the ordinal relationship between the different morphemes in a particular language.
The word order in English is different from the convention in German. For example, the word order, ‘I
am going to the shop’, is acceptable in English but the German equivalent, ‘I to the shop am going’,
is not.
Syntactic development
By the time a child is producing two-word utterances or duos at around eighteen months to two years
of age, syntactic rules come into play. However, because of the very simple sentences children produce,
their utterances do not conform to all of the syntactical rules adults have assimilated. Instead, children’s
earliest verbalisations tend to be organised according to meaning-oriented (semantic) relationships, such
as those listed in table 6.5. Often, the intended meanings are ambiguous and rely heavily on context and
intonation for correct interpretation. For example, ‘Eat choccie’ could mean several things: ‘I want to eat
a chocolate’; ‘I’m eating a chocolate’; ‘You eat the chocolate’; or even ‘I want to eat the chocolate, not
the vegetables’. This last interpretation would be conveyed by intonation such as ‘Eat choccie!’ in the
context of a child seated with a plate of boiled vegetables in front of them.
The reason for the ambiguity in two-word utterances is that they omit the indicators of syntactic rela-
tionships. A vital indicator is syntactic word order; for example, ‘The boy chased the girl’ has a dif-
ferent meaning to ‘The girl chased the boy’. Young children who speak in duos do not use word order
randomly, and their two-word sentences show a similar conformity to syntactic (ordinal) rules used by
more linguistically mature preschoolers, whose utterances are several words long. For example, none of
the noun–verb combinations in table 6.5 show an incorrect order, such as ‘Choccie eat’ or ‘Stair jump’.
However, other indicators of grammatical relationships, such as inflections, prepositions and conjunctions
are missing from the two-word utterances. This increases the ambiguity of the statements. Two-word
utterances are sometimes called telegraphic speech, because they sound similar to an old-fashioned tele-
gram. Only essential words were included in telegrams because the price was determined on a per-word
basis. Telegraphic speech is characteristic of children’s first efforts to combine words. However, it can
persist for a long time after preschool children begin using longer, more grammatical utterances. Beth’s
speech is still somewhat telegraphic — even though she is producing sentences that are several words
long, such as ‘Look Daddy, there kitty!’ and ‘Ab-ella you veree naughtee pussy cat!’ As children mature
linguistically, they add the necessary words and inflections to make their meaning clear; for example ‘s’
to indicate possession as in ‘Bobby’s choccie’; and use prepositions such as in and on to indicate position,
as in ‘jump on the stair’. So, as the mean length of a child’s utterances increases to three words and more,
the relationships between words become much more noticeable (Guasti, 2002).
TABLE 6.5 Semantic relations in two-word utterances
Relationship Example
Agent + action Baby cry
Action + object Eat choccie
Agent + object Bobby choccie
Action + locative (location) Jump stair
Object + locative Teddy bed
Possessor + possessed Mummy sandwich
Attribute + object Big dog
Demonstrative + object There Daddy
In three classic case studies, Brown (1973) organised two-word utterances around the eight possible semantic
relationships listed in the table. The meanings of the utterances were determined by the intended relationships
among the words. However, the intentions of the preschool speakers were often discernible only by observing the
context in which the utterances were made.
Source: Adapted from Brown (1973).
A specific set of syntactic rules is required to form a question. Young preschoolers will often rely on
intonation to convert a statement into a question such as ‘We go playground?’ At about age two, concrete
question words such as what, where and who become incorporated into children’s questioning forms.
These words are usually included at the beginning of statements, such as ‘Who we go see now?’ An
example of this type of simple question is when Beth asks her father, ‘Where birdie go?’ Children sub-
sequently begin using auxiliary verbs to form questions such as ‘What you are cooking?’ The final stage
involves the realisation the subject and verb order must be changed around to ask a question in the correct
syntactical form; for example, ‘What are you cooking?’ So, the child internalises the rule that the ques-
tion words automatically reverse the usual word order of declarative sentences, and recognises that they
must include an auxiliary verb such as ‘are’ or ‘did’. Eventually, Beth would be able to say ‘Where did
the birdie go?’ The progression of syntactical questioning forms suggests language acquisition involves
approximations and building successively on earlier forms of expression. Also, as children mature, the
initial concrete wh words that signal a question are succeeded by more complex and abstract question
words, such as how, why, when and which.
Negative expressions are governed by distinctive syntactic rules that set them apart from declarative
statements, such as ‘We went to the shop’, as well as questions, such as ‘Did we go to the shop?’ Children
express negativity early in their language development through both gesture and holographic speech,
including the emphatic ‘No!’ Employing this simple word gives children a measure of control over their
environment and conveys their needs, desires and goals to adults and other children, often in a very
powerful way. The first use of ‘no’ with other words occurs in telegraphic speech as a means of signalling
the non-existence of something. In declarative expressions such as ‘No choccie’, the child means there is
no chocolate available or left to eat. Later in early childhood, ‘no’ is used in conjunction with other words
to convey negativity. Children typically attach ‘no’ to the beginning of declarative sentences such as ‘No
go to shop’, meaning ‘I don’t want to go to the shop’ (possibly because they know their mother will
not be buying any chocolate). At the final stage of development, children use ‘no’ to express denial; for
example, ‘Choccie no dirty’, after the chocolate bar has fallen on the ground (Bloom, 1991). Furthermore,
children begin to embed the negative within the sentence, and later add the appropriate verb and the
correct negative form ‘not’, saying, ‘My choccie is not dirty’.
Development of inflections
In English, some grammatical rules have irregular exceptions; for example, pluralisation — the conver-
sion of a word to mean more than one — is indicated by adding the inflection ‘s’ or ‘es’ at the end of
a word. Book is pluralised by books, but a number of words are pluralised in other ways: foot becomes
feet, not foots; child becomes children not childs; and sheep can mean either one animal or several. The
inflection ‘d’ or ‘ed’ generally signals the past tense of a verb; for example, change becomes changed.
However, there are exceptions to this rule. For instance, go becomes went rather than goed; and hits
becomes hit rather than hitted. Researchers have found children may initially use the correct irregular
form such as feet and went, but later on change their utterances as they become more knowledgeable and
skilled in the application of the grammatical rules governing inflections. Thus, children incorrectly apply
the general rule to the irregular form. For example, they may say feets instead of feet, goed instead of
went, and hitted instead of hit (Guasti, 2002). However, as they mature, preschoolers then revert to the
original irregular forms they initially and correctly used (e.g. feet and went). So, a graph of preschoolers’
acquisition of grammatical rules involving inflections is often U-shaped. Such overregulation errors are
evidence children are actively learning and applying the principles of grammar and are not simply copy-
ing the more mature speech around them (Gleitman, Cassidy, Papafragou, Nappa, & Trueswell, 2005;
Marcus, 1996; Naigles & Swenson, 2007). After variable beginnings with many idiosyncratic speech
patterns shown by different children, certain aspects of syntax develop in universal and predictable ways.
The present progressive form ‘-ing’ occurs quite early in most children’s language; the regular plural
inflections ‘-s’ and ‘-es’ occur somewhat later; and articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ start even later (Marcus
et al., 1992).
Although children principally rely on rule-governed syntax to produce grammatically correct sentences,
they also learn a substantial proportion of language by rote. For example, the abundant grammatical
irregularities present in the English language can only be internalised by repeated practice, as there is no
standard system underpinning them. Also, many expressions in a language are idiomatic, meaning they
bear no logical relation to normal syntax or semantics. For example, the sentence, ‘How do you do?’
seems to beg the reply, ‘How do you do what?’ It is not a literal inquiry as to how a person might perform
a certain action, but needs to be understood as a general greeting and enquiry as to one’s wellbeing.
Furthermore, the sentence ‘How goes it?’ does not follow the usual rules of grammar, but has a clear
idiomatic meaning: ‘How are things going for you?’ Because phrases such as these violate the rules of
syntax and semantics, children must learn them as rule exceptions and as they occur in the surrounding
language.
Development of pragmatics
Language is primarily a means of communication with other individuals. As such, it involves an under-
standing of the cultural conventions associated with the everyday use of a particular language. Pragmatics
involves the comprehension of when, how, and where to use different language forms.
For example, young children may say ‘Gimme the ball’ to other preschoolers in the childcare centre
playground; but learn quickly that ‘Gimme some apple’ is not an acceptable way to address an adult when
requesting a snack from the teacher. Research has shown preschool children have some understanding
of polite forms. Early research by James (1978) found five year olds adjusted their speech according
to the status of the listener in an experiment involving dolls that represented adults and children of the
same age as themselves. In subsequent research, gender differences were found in the use of polite forms.
For example, Maccoby (1990) discovered that North American girls used polite forms more than North
American boys did; a result that was replicated in other US studies. However, in later research with Danish
children speaking to their friends during play, Ladegaard (2004) failed to replicate the North American
sex difference findings in Denmark. Ladegaard concluded that children’s understanding and use of polite
forms of address, while increasing with age, may be influenced by their particular sociocultural context.
So, the cultural emphasis placed on such forms is important. For example, Japanese children develop
polite forms much earlier than Western children do, because Japanese culture and language give greater
emphasis to politeness and recognition of status differences (Nakamura, 2001).
Preschool children become more aware of the reciprocal conventions of conversations, and they recognise the need to
take turns for conversations to work.
Pragmatics usage starts early in development, through the associations very young children make
between their one-word utterances and the context in which they are produced. For example, standing next
to the refrigerator and saying ‘Milk!’ ensures the child’s needs are explicit to an adult or an older child.
By 18 months of age, children begin to coordinate their two-word utterances with gestures that assist in
conveying meaning (Rutter & Durkin, 1987). As language capability develops in the areas of semantics
and syntax during early childhood, there are parallel developments in pragmatics. Early speech is quite
self-directed, but after age three, speech becomes more socially oriented, and is more regularly directed at
other people. Conversational skills increase with age. However, early in the preschool years, conversations
tend to take the form of collective monologues. Children understand the need for the important pragmatic
device of turn-taking for conversations to work, but their statements are essentially unconnected to what
the other person has just said. One child might be describing what they are doing with a set of blocks
while another child talks unilaterally about their dolls. At three years of age, children are more aware of
the reciprocal conventions of conversations. Communications become increasingly interactive, with more
shared content as well as novel information that builds on the other person’s previous comment (Hamo
& Blum-Kulka, 2007).
Children’s verbal pragmatics encompasses referential skills. These involve the ability to commu-
nicate information, thoughts, intentions and feelings accurately to another person, while taking the
circumstances and the characteristics of the listener into account. As early as four years of age, children
understand they need to modify their communication to fit in with the needs of the listener. For example,
Baldwin (1993) found preschoolers significantly simplified their speech and used more repetitions when
speaking to a younger child. As well, if a listener indicates they have misunderstood a preschooler’s
verbalisation; children of this age will readily restate or repeat the information (Ferrier, Dunham, &
Dunham, 2000; Pruden, Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, & Hennon, 2006).
Pragmatic listening skills are also apparent in the preschool years. In early childhood, children begin to
use non-verbal cues that indicate they are listening — such as gazing and nodding as well as vocalising
phrases such as ‘uh huh’ (Hamo & Blum-Kulka, 2007; Katz, 2004). These are important reinforcements
that keep conversations going. Preschoolers indicate they are unclear about what a person is saying to
them, by adjusting their facial expression. However, they are less likely than school-aged children to
act on this perception by interjecting and asking the speaker for clarification. This ability is not reliably
established until about age eight (Ackerman, 1993; John, Rowe, & Mervis, 2009).
6.8 Theories of language acquisition

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.8 Explain how children acquire language.
The process of shaping was discussed in the chapter on theories of development and the chapter on phys-
ical and cognitive development in the first two years in connection with learning theory. According to
the behaviourist approach, a similar conditioning process shapes correct grammar, but later in the devel-
opmental sequence. Parents reinforce correct grammatical forms and either ignore or criticise errors and
less mature utterances by preschoolers. According to this process, parents would be expected to respond
more positively to the sentence ‘I have three feet’, because it is grammatically correct, than to the sentence
‘I have two foots’, which is grammatically incorrect. In line with the principles of reinforcement, the child
would tend to use the grammatically correct version more often and would generalise the correct elements
of this sentence to other, similar utterances. However, parents rarely or never amend grammatically incor-
rect sentences like ‘I have two foots’. They are much more likely to rectify factually incorrect sentences
like ‘I have three feet’ (Brown & Hanlon, 1970; Cazden & Brown, 2014; Penner, 1987). Such analy-
sis of conversations between parents and children in the years following Skinner’s (1957) publication
of his theory found limited evidence supporting the behaviourist stance on how children acquire gram-
mar. Subsequent research indicated parents were substantially more likely to respond to incorrect juvenile
grammar with expansions — repeating the child’s utterance with the corrections inserted: ‘Of course you
have two feet! Look, let’s count them!’ Recasts are similar, but with a slightly different structure, such as
‘Daddy has two feet as well’. Rather than directly reinforcing children’s utterances by social or tangible
rewards, as postulated by Skinner (1957), later research (Bohannon & Stanowicz, 1988; Chouinard &
Clark, 2003) demonstrated that parents instead provide more precise and often expanded grammatical
models for children to follow. In support of this contention, Farrar (1992) demonstrated that exposure
to these models was associated with the production of increasingly correct grammatical forms in young
children.
Research during the 1980s and 1990s challenged the exacting behaviourist model of language acqui-
sition proposed by Skinner in the 1950s, so that behaviourist accounts of children’s language acquisition
were revised to involve social learning processes. According to theorists such as Bruner (1996), parents
are central to social learning models of language acquisition, providing supportive scaffolding for the
emerging language in their preschool children. For instance, parents frequently point to objects as they
name them, and repeat the new word so young children are certain which thing the new word refers to
(Waxman, Lynch, Casey, & Baer, 1997). They also speak in relatively short sentences to their children
and use concrete nouns more often than pronouns (Hoff-Ginsberg, 1997). To illustrate scaffolding, the
first parent would help a young child to understand language more than the second parent:
Parent 1: Take your shoes off. Then put your shoes in the cupboard. Then come and kiss mummy
goodnight.
Parent 2: After you take off your shoes and put them in the cupboard, come and kiss me goodnight.
The simplified grammar presented by the first parent is an example of child-directed speech. Child-
directed speech is a type of language scaffolding used intuitively by adults when they address young
children and by older children when they speak to a much younger child (Messer, 1994).
As outlined above, recasting and expansion of children’s utterances are another form of linguistic scaf-
folding that assist in language acquisition by highlighting different forms of expression. This process can
make children more aware of how they express their ideas in terms of structure and organisation, as
well as calling attention to their ideas. The social learning techniques for stimulating language develop-
ment that have already been described provide young preschoolers with a framework for language. This
framework encourages them to try new, unfamiliar language forms, while reinforcing the use of already-
mastered aspects of language. So, linguistic scaffolding is like the scaffolds used in building construction:
parents’ more advanced and stronger language frameworks provide a temporary structure within which
young children can build their own language structures. In order to continue in its support of emerging
language, the type and nature of scaffolding used by adults must change in response to the child’s con-
tinuing linguistic development, always building slightly beyond the child’s current independent language
abilities.
Social learning accounts of language acquisition involve social processes aside from linguistic scaffold-
ing, including imitation. Imitation does not imply children merely repeat everything they hear adults say.
Children may copy certain utterances immediately after hearing them, but their reproductions are often
discernibly different from the model they are apparently replicating. Sometimes, the imitation involves
the prototype sentence forms, but also contains new words. Alternatively, the child’s imitation may con-
tain the prototype words cast into new sentence forms. As well as immediate imitation, remembered
words and sentence forms can reappear at a later date, in children’s spontaneous speech. For example,
Beth’s mother was amused to hear her own mealtime pleas to Beth being repeated almost word-for-word
to ‘Zumper’, the toy rabbit. So, linguistic imitation can stimulate language development, by initiating
playful practice with new expressions. As in physical forms of play, children immersed in linguistic play
rehearse new skills, such as producing novel sentence structures and practising untested words. In doing
so, they consolidate their recently acquired knowledge. However, language play is less readily observed
than physical play, so its ubiquity is harder to judge (Messer, 1994).
Children are remarkably resilient in acquiring language in language-adverse conditions and envi-
ronments, a truth that supports the nativist approach. Also, research has shown young children infer
grammatical relationships, rather than simply copying other people’s speech. In Berko’s classic (1958)
‘wug’ experiment, the researcher showed young children pictures of imaginary creatures and actions with
nonsense words as names. For example, children were presented with a picture of a creature and were told,
‘Here is a wug’. Then they were shown a picture of two of the creatures and were told, ‘Here are two of
them. Here are two ——’. Children as young as two-and-a-half years of age completed the sentences with
the grammatically correct word ‘wugs’. Berko reasoned that because they could not possibly have heard
the term before, the children must have applied a general rule for forming plurals: adding the inflection ‘s’.
The children’s success in the experiment did not depend on copying any specific language experiences.
Instead, it was a result of inferring the underlying structure of grammatically correct forms. Berko also
theorised it was likely the grammatical rule operated unconsciously. Because the children were so young,
the rule may have been innate, rather than learnt. So, research carried out at around the same time that
Chomsky initially presented his theory produced empirical evidence for the existence of the language
acquisition device (LAD, discussed in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in the first
two years).
Strong evidence supporting the nativist approach to language acquisition was found in subsequent
research that was based on Berko’s early experiments and in deaf children’s spontaneous development
of signing systems with their own distinctive grammar. This occurs even when children’s parents are
unable to sign and therefore cannot provide models for their children’s signing (Goldin-Meadow, 2003).
Evidence from twin studies and neglected children indicates early experiences with language are crucial
in the development of the LAD. For example, the celebrated case of Genie is often cited in support of the
importance of early exposure to the language environment. Genie was an abused child who was locked
away and isolated from the age of about 20 months until discovered in 1970 at age 13. At this point Genie
had little or no language exposure, and failed to develop effective spoken language, even after intensive
training (Rymer, 1994). Nonetheless, Chomsky’s theory downplays environmental factors and emphasises
more strongly innate mechanisms, including the spontaneous production of correct grammatical forms
that are presumably from the LAD alone. Even so — as described earlier — the grammatical structures
children produce differ markedly from the perfect forms that should (theoretically) emanate from an
innate system of production. In reality, children build on earlier, imperfect grammatical structures with
successive approximations in producing mature forms of grammar. This evidence strongly suggests that
environmental factors, including imitation and parental modelling, play a role in the development of
children’s grammar (Goldberg, 2004).
The nativist theory provides a working model that accounts for a limited aspect of language: grammar.
It does not deal well with the development of other aspects of language, such as semantics and pragmatics,
which may rely more on social learning processes. Nativist theory also deals with receptive language and
neglects the acquisition of expressive language, which may heavily depend on environmental factors,
including imitation and parental modelling.
6.9 Language development in deaf children

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.9 Examine how hearing impairment influences preschoolers’ language
development.
Some children with hearing impairments do not exhibit spoken language. Instead, they develop expressive
language in the form of gestures. In the absence of spoken language, young deaf children have been
observed to spontaneously build personal gestural systems to express themselves. Goldin-Meadow (2003)
found children who used these personalised sign languages also utilised grammatical structures that were
different from those of the spoken language of their parents. Idiosyncratic or ‘home’ signing systems
are more likely to evolve in families where deaf children have hearing parents who are not proficient in
formal signing systems. These are standard signs used commonly by large populations of deaf individuals
and those with hearing impairments.

Formal signing systems are considered to be true languages, with all the necessary linguistic com-
ponents to be classed as such. The deaf community that uses sign languages maintains that their lan-
guage defines ‘Deaf’ as a unique culture, just as languages such as Hindi and Russian define other cul-
turally distinctive groups. For this reason Deaf is used as a proper noun, defining a group of people with
common characteristics, in the same way as ‘English’, ‘Muslim’ and ‘Australian’ distinguish nation or
culture. Adopting sign language as a first language involves also adopting certain social attitudes and
cultural values. This is because sign languages, just like other languages, carry with them distinguishing
cultural values and social norms. Young deaf children usually learn to communicate either by signing
or through oral methods, such as lip-reading. The type of communication they learn to use depends on
several factors, including children’s degree of hearing loss, parents’ hearing abilities, parents’ degree of
proficiency in signing, and family and community attitudes to using sign language. For example, deaf
children of deaf parents are more likely to learn to communicate from an early age using sign language
rather than lip-reading.
Formal sign languages promote communication through a standard system of handshapes. These are
movements and location of the hands in space, in conjunction with facial expressions and finger spelling,
in which words are spelled out using manual signals that correspond to the letters of the alphabet.
Many distinctive signing systems have emerged from deaf communities around the world. In Australia,
Australian Sign Language (Auslan) is widely used in the deaf community; New Zealand uses
New Zealand sign language (NZSL). British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL)
are also widely used in their countries of origin. Within any standard system of signing, there are varia-
tions in the signs that are used according to region, ethnicity, gender, and educational and family back-
ground (Lucas, Bayley, & Valli, 2003; Schembri, 2005).
A sign language is a distinctive visual language with inherent vocabularies and grammatical systems
that do not correspond to the spoken language of the majority culture. So, languages like Auslan and BSL
do not simply replace each English word and grammatical construction with a specific gesture. Instead,
sign languages are iconic — in other words each sign has visual similarities associated with its meaning.
For example, the Auslan sign house is made by hands tracing the shape of a roof and walls. This is very
different from spoken languages, in which the sounds of most words have no link to their meanings. So,
Auslan is different from signed English that is sometimes employed in schools for academic learning
(Schembri, 2005). Signed English is a nonverbal code for English words, in the same way that written
English is a written code for English words. However, signed English is too unwieldy to use in everyday
communication, unlike the gestural ‘shorthand’ of sign languages like Auslan.
Sign language has the same components as oral languages, including grammar, syntax and morphemes.
Each sign functions like a morpheme in sign language. Other sign-morphemes allow for grammatical
constructions, with gestural equivalents of inflections such as ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’ placing verbs in the con-
tinuous or past tense. Individual signs are linked ordinally according to syntactic rules, as is the case in
other languages such as English. Proficient deaf and hearing signers can use Auslan or BSL as quickly
and efficiently as people who are fluent in English.
Depending on social circumstances, infants and young children with hearing impairments may grow
up learning a sign language from their parents as their first language. Studies show these deaf children
experience the same progress and stages in sign language development hearing children do with spoken
language development. At around the age oral infants babble, deaf children also begin babbling with
their hands — making sign-like gestures that resemble the signs they see around them. At the age when
hearing children produce their first recognisable word, deaf children produce their first recognisable sign.
Deaf children experience a phase of one-word signing, similar to the holophrase or single-word stage
among hearing children at around the same age. However, they frequently use incorrect handshapes and
movements, paralleling young hearing children’s inability to pronounce all the sounds used in spoken
words (Marschark, 1993).
At about two years of age, deaf children begin to combine signs to make two-sign combinations such as
‘want milk’, similar to the telegraphic style of speech of hearing children. As with the speech of hearing
two year olds, deaf two year olds’ communication often omits important information. They might forget
gestures and do not necessarily follow the usual syntactical conventions of sign order (Bellugi, Van Hoek,
Lillo-Martin, & O’Grady, 1993). Signing vocabulary increases rapidly from about age two, comparable
to the word proliferation hearing children experience. Also, the kinds of signed words acquired parallel
the words hearing children acquire; for example, deaf preschoolers learn the signs for dynamic, moving
objects first. During the preschool years, signing children develop grammatical ability, learning how to
form questions as well as negatives, using headshakes and signs such as ‘not’ and ‘nothing’. As with
hearing children, most deaf children learn the basic grammar of their first language by age five (Emmorey,
2002).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Jan is the proud mother of non-identical twins, Madeleine and Jacob. At age four, Jacob was diagnosed
with a significant hearing impairment. As a professional, Jan seeks your advice as to how she should
assist the language development of her hearing-impaired and hearing twins. Based on your knowledge of
language development in early childhood and theories of language development (discussed in an earlier
chapter), what advice would you offer Jan?
6.10 Childcare and early childhood education

LEARNING OUTCOME 6.10 Justify what constitutes effective early childhood education and evaluate its
effect on the cognitive development of preschoolers.
Two-year-old Nathan attends family day care for six days a week in a regional centre in Tasmania, while
his mother does full-time shift work. Before her shifts start, she drops him at the home of Sally, his
caregiver. Sally also cares for her own two preschool-aged children and another baby during the day.
Three-year-old Dmitri goes to a large, commercial day care centre in a Queensland city three days a
week. He joins 20 other children who are the same age as himself in a separate unit and four trained
childcare workers look after the group. Two mornings a week, four-year-old Kasey attends a play centre
in a small rural town in New Zealand. Three parent volunteers provide supervision for about 15 children
aged between three and five years of age.
Like the children described in the previous paragraph, an increasing proportion of preschoolers in
Western countries such as Australia and New Zealand spend varying amounts of time in the care and
supervision of adults other than their parents. For example:
In 2012 nearly 85% of children in Australia attended a preschool program in either a stand-alone facility or
in a LDC (long day care) centre in the year before school. In 2013, there were 288 052 children aged 4–5
enrolled in a preschool program in Australia. Of all enrolled children, 83.2% were aged 4 and 16.8% were
aged 5. Of the total number of enrolled children, 55.0% were enrolled in a preschool service provider,
41.7% were enrolled in a preschool program within a LDC centre, and 3.3% of children were enrolled in
programs across more than 1 provider type (ABS, 2013) (AIHW, 2015, p. 11).
This trend is partly due to the increasing involvement of both parents from intact families in the paid
workforce, as well as the need for single parents of preschool children to work outside the home in order
to support their families (Cabrera & Tamis-LeMonda, 2014; Tamis-Le Monda & Cabrera, 2002). Apart
from the practical aspect of the care and safety of young children while their parents are engaged in
other activities, preschool experiences outside the family home are widely recognised as contributing to
cognitive and social–emotional development during early childhood. These benefits can be an additional
motive, or even the principal reason parents enrol their children in childcare and early education programs.
So, the demarcation between childcare and early childhood education is unclear. Most childcare facilities
provide some educational input, while educationally oriented early childhood programs also provide a
necessary childcare service for many parents.
Despite its ubiquity, childcare during the preschool years continues to be controversial, especially long
day care, where young children spend extended hours with carers other than their parents. The debate over
childcare involves the possibility of negative effects on children who are not in the care of their parents for
substantial proportions of the day or night. Popular media have alleged poorer behavioural outcomes for
children in day care and preschool programs than for children raised at home by their parents, including
poorer achievement in school and less prosocial behaviour (e.g. Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
2001). In order to properly evaluate outcomes for children in non-parental care, the US National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) began a longitudinal study of a large representative
sample of children in day care and preschool programs from 1991 to 2007. Funding for this study ceased
in 2009. As well, the NICHD has compiled related research from other sources on the outcomes of child
care with periodic media releases as to its findings (US National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development, 2008).
Research over many years indicated that children in day care outperform children who are reared in the
home environment on tests of intelligence, problem-solving, language development and number skills,
but only when the quality of care is high (Lamb & Anhert, 2006). Preschool programs that provide cog-
nitive activities for children, as well as language stimulation, have shown an association with such gains,
but facilities that only provide custodial care do not. In line with these earlier findings, Belsky (2009),
summarising the latest results of the NICHD longitudinal study, asserts that the most important child-
care factor accounting for individual variations in later cognitive, language and academic achievement is
the quality of care. In other words, high quality day care rather than quantitatively more day care expe-
rience predicted higher functioning in all these areas. Interestingly, the extensive longitudinal NICHD
data currently indicate that the positive cognitive effects of quality day care have largely dissipated by
Year 5.
In recent decades, researchers repeatedly demonstrated that low-quality childcare was associated with
detrimental social–emotional outcomes. For example, Howes and James (2002) found preschoolers
exposed to substandard childcare exhibited reduced social skills. Nonetheless, the latest NICHD data
have revealed that later externalising problem behaviours cannot be reliably linked to either the quality or
quantity of day care experienced by children in the preschool years. It appears that factors other than day
care are more important in determining their social–emotional adjustment (Belsky, 2009). The US find-
ings have recently been echoed by Australian results from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children
(Harrison et al., 2009; Harrison, 2011).
With a large range of facilities catering for preschool children in Australia and New Zealand, it is
important to recognise the objective markers of high-quality childcare facilities. Generally, high-quality
environments have indoor and outdoor areas that are enriched with a diversity of items, which stimulate
different types of play. The group size is usually less than 20 children, and carer-to-child ratios do not
exceed 1:6, so carers are able to give children individualised attention. Carers have appropriate train-
ing and, preferably, also have specialist qualifications in early childhood development and education.
Facilities are properly licensed, administered and monitored by government authorities (Bredekamp &
Copple, 1997).
Parents can use such objective markers when choosing childcare and early educational facilities
for their preschool children. They might also be influenced by the particular developmental or edu-
cational philosophy of the program. Childcare and early education programs are characterised by a
diversity of developmental perspectives. Some programs heavily rely on Piaget’s ideas about cognitive
development — especially the notion children construct knowledge by actively interacting with the
environment (Marlowe, 1998). As a basis for fostering preoperational skills, these programs provide
opportunities that stimulate preschool children to freely and independently explore the properties
of different materials, such as sand and water, and provide facilities for symbolic play. In contrast,
Montessori programs organise specific cognitive activities around carefully structured materials that
teachers guide children to use in particular ways (Cuffaro, 1991; Montessori, 1964). Evaluations of early
childhood programs suggest a wide range of philosophical approaches are equally effective in promoting
overall cognitive growth, although the choice of curriculum does seem to influence the pattern of skills
children acquire (Schweinhart, Barnes, & Weikart, 1993).
Whatever their philosophy, format or curriculum, three dynamics appear to underlie successful early
childhood programs. First, staff are competent judges of children’s educational needs, and are capable
of tailoring a curriculum to suit particular children. Second, staff view an early childhood curriculum
as an integrated whole rather than consisting of independent subject areas or skills. For instance, staff do
not regard teaching preschoolers a song as elementary training in music. Instead, they see this activity
as fostering diverse skills and abilities. These include language development, as well as motor skills,
which are involved in rhythm and keeping time, and social skills, which are involved in coordinating and
turn-taking with other members of a preschool choir. Third, successful early childhood programs involve
parents — as volunteers in the centre, as members of governing committees, in fundraising activities, or
in additional services that support families. For example, the famous US early education program Head
Start owes much of its effectiveness to parent involvement (Ames, 1997). In New Zealand, the Playcentre
movement is another case in point.
As well as being actively involved in their children’s early educational experiences, parents need to
be aware of developmentally appropriate practices in childcare facilities. These practices are ways of
assisting children’s learning that are consistent with their developmental needs and abilities. Table 6.6 lists
some of the principles and specific practices that parents could look for in facilities for young children
in countries such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
TABLE 6.6 Developmentally appropriate practices in preschool programs
Principle Examples
Caregivers provide ample space Program has access to outdoor space or gymnasium with climbing
for active play apparatus, tricycles and so on
Caregivers allow children choices Classroom has several learning centres: dramatic play (dress-up), block
in activities building, books and reading area, art area and so on
Caregivers provide long periods Transitions (e.g. from indoor to outdoor activities) are kept to a minimum;
of uninterrupted time activities tend to begin and end individually
Activities and materials are Books are gender- and culture-appropriate; relevant cultural holidays are
relevant to children’s experiences noted and celebrated through appropriate activities in class
Caregivers ensure the Climbing apparatus has soft mats underneath (if indoors) or soft sand
environment is safe and free of (if outdoors); furniture is sturdy; use of sharp objects (knives, scissors) is
hazards supervised carefully
Source: Adapted from Bredekamp and Copple (1997).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Since 1938, Early Childhood Australia has been the peak early childhood advocacy organisation, acting
in the interests of young children, their families and those in the early childhood field, with a vision that
‘Every young child is thriving and learning’ (Early Childhood Australia, p. 1). Discuss the extent to which
early childhood education provides for children’s physical, cognitive and language development. What are
some of the advantages and disadvantages of children attending early childhood centres?
However, cultural diversity might challenge general guidelines like those listed in table 6.6. For exam-
ple, cultures with a collectivist orientation, such as Asian cultures, value large-group activities in the
belief such activities develop commitment to the child’s community — in this case, the community of
the classroom. The time Japanese childcare centres devote to large-group activities would likely seem
excessive to preschool educators in Australia and the United States, but the development of individual
initiative is more highly valued in these countries (Kotloff, 1993). In Italy, early childhood programs
emphasise involvement of parents more heavily than most Australian and US programs. For example,
Italian mothers — but not fathers — are expected to extend social support to their children’s preschool
teachers. Italian programs also place children in permanent groups from their entrance at age three, until
they leave the program for public school at age six (Edwards, Gandini, & Furman, 1993).
Early childhood programs often serve children from differing cultural backgrounds, and encourage children to learn
about and respect cultural differences.
These examples suggest best practice in Australian and New Zealand early education should take cul-
tural differences and parental values regarding children’s development into account, and, specifically, to
consider the cultural norms and childrearing practices of Pacific Islander, Māori, Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander parents (Mallory & New, 1994). Programs in ethnically diverse communities can promote
multiculturalism by incorporating the relevant, central values and attitudes of cultural groups into daily
activities.
As the Multicultural view feature shows, engaging Indigenous families in early childhood settings has
become a key focus of early childhood in Australia and New Zealand. Educators who work with young
children should not only understand early childhood cognition; they also need to explore how it might
be understood and used by particular children and communities that have specific cognitive knowledge,
beliefs, ways of belonging, social relationships and values.
MULTICULTURAL VIEW
Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into

culturally appropriate education
Equity access to early childhood services, based on a belief of social inclusion and quality of service
provision (particularly for Indigenous families) is a focus of the Australian government. Early childhood
workers have identified three key barriers to Indigenous family participation in early childhood services,
namely transport difficulties, family embarrass-
ment or ‘shame’ and community division (Grace,
Bowes, & Elcombe, 2014; Grace & Trudgett,
2012, p. 1).
Embedding Indigenous perspectives in early
childhood education has also been echoed in the
Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Perspectives in Early Childhood (EATSIPEC) pro-
gram which commenced in Queensland in 2013
(Queensland Government, p. 1). A main focus of
this program is to ensure materials and programs
are culturally competent in their support and guid-
ance, particularly in using the knowledge frame-
works of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Working in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander families, communities and agencies is seen to be critical. The EATSIPEC program delivers inclu-
sive early childhood education programs to engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and chil-
dren. To ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives are included, a professional guide for
learning communities, access to statewide implementation support officers and cultural mentoring, a key
feature of the program, are undertaken.
Similarly, Miller (2013, 2016) discusses the importance of embedding Indigenous perspectives in early
childhood curricula, suggesting that innovative strategies for professional development are necessary to
support needed changes in pedagogy and disciplinary knowledge. Conversely, Hare (2013) argues that
Indigenous children learn best when cared for by Indigenous people in centre-based settings. Arguing
that ‘the pedagogies of intergenerational and experiential learning and spirituality are not only necessary
elements of Indigenous early childhood education programs’, Hare contends that these ‘programs are rep-
resentative of critical pedagogies that support how these young Indigenous children become literate, and
often bilingual’ (p. 1). Research by Leske, Sarmardin, Woods, and Thorpe (2015) reported that Indigenous
families preferred non-licensed over licensed early childhood programs. Non-licensed services were seen
to provide greater integration with family supports, tended to be more responsive to family circumstances
and had a stronger focus on relationship building.
Kidsmatter (2012, 2013; Littlefield, Cavanagh, Knapp, & O’Grady, 2017) is also focusing on engaging
Indigenous families in early childhood education through their ‘Bringing stronger Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander perspectives to Kidsmatter Early Childhood’ project, which aims to focus on Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander ways of being, doing and knowing (p. 1).
This project aims to encourage ‘connectedness and engagement at the cultural interface where Aborig-
inal and Torres Strait Islander and other ways of knowing meet’, and acknowledges that there is no single
approach to achieving social and emotional wellbeing (p. 1).
Likewise, Stock, Mares, and Robinson (2017), investigating the working relationship between ‘fly-in’
professionals and Aboriginal workers in the ‘Let’s Start’ parent–child program confirm the importance of
developing two-way positive relationships that draw on each other’s strengths. They found that working
cooperatively promotes effective programme implementation while incorporating new learning into prac-
tice. Most significantly, this type of relationship benefits local Aboriginal community members through
employment and development opportunities.
Engaging indigenous families in early childhood practices has been a central feature of New Zealand
early childhood education, as outlined in May (2012). According to May:
Te Whāriki enables the diverse early childhood services and centres, their teachers, families and chil-
dren, to “weave” their own curriculum pattern shaped by different cultural perspectives, the age of
children, the philosophy or structure of the program.
Te Whāriki (Blaiklock, 2018) includes the dual perspectives of both the Māori and Pākehā (non-Māori)
populations, including immigrants from the Pacific Islands and Asia (p. 1). A Māori partner on the project,
Tilly Reedy (1993) (Ngati Porou) considers Te Whāriki to be about self-determination, inclusion and the right
of all to choose. Gunn (2017) states that an anti-bias philosophy contributes to developing and planning a
curriculum that is inclusive. ‘Anti-bias philosophy requires a commitment in education settings to reason-
able, fair and sensitive attitudes and actions by people for people attitudes. It is my belief that such a view
of education is consistent with the aspirations of early childhood education in Aotearoa, New Zealand.’
(p.139). Te Whāriki has developed five strands based on the identified interests of infants, toddlers and
young children:
r emotional and physical wellbeing
r a feeling that they belong here
r opportunities to contribute
r skills and understanding for communicating through language and symbols
r an interest in exploring and making sense of their environment (pp. 4–5).
SUMMARY
6.1 Describe what constitutes normal physical growth during early childhood and explain how
individual variations affect development in different domains.
Between two and five years, growth slows compared to during infancy, and children take on more mature
bodily proportions. During the preschool period, large individual differences can be seen that potentially
affect motor, cognitive and social development. Gender and cultural differences that are based on genetic,
social and nutritional differences are also apparent.
6.2 Identify the nutritional requirements needed for normal development during early childhood.
Children need adequate balanced diets for sustained development in early childhood, but many of the
world’s children suffer from malnutrition. Children’s appetites often decrease during the preschool years
compared to during infancy, and children become more selective about what they eat.
6.3 List the major threats to children’s health in the preschool years and outline how poverty
affects children’s health.
Preschool children have an increased vulnerability to acute infection. However, infections tend to be
minor due to large-scale immunisation programs controlling life-threatening diseases, at least in Western
countries. On average, Aboriginal preschoolers are often more at risk of ill health because the reduced
economic resources of their families result in poorer nutrition and less access to medical services.
6.4 Determine when children achieve bowel and bladder control, and discuss what influences the
age at which it is achieved.
Most preschoolers have already achieved bowel control and most achieve daytime bladder control early
in the preschool period. Night-time bladder control tends to come later in the period. Bladder control
depends on several factors, including developmental readiness and the amount of time and effort parents
are prepared to put into toilet training.
6.5 Identify what motor skills children acquire during the preschool years and analyse what
causes variations in these skills.
Children refine fundamental gross motor skills such as walking and acquire new skills such as jumping,
throwing and catching during the preschool years. Fine motor skills such as drawing also emerge during
this period, progressing from non-representational to representational drawings. Slight gender and cultural
differences exist in motor skills, but larger individual differences in motor skill development are a result of
differential biological endowment and experience. Increased motor skills and greater independence mean
preschool children are vulnerable to unintentional injury. Parents need to take pre-emptive measures in
ensuring their safety. The process of myelination, which continues during early childhood, is the major
cause of the increase in a child’s brain size from 70 per cent of its adult weight to 90 per cent between
the ages of two to six. During the early childhood years, the myelin sheath shows rapid growth and
development. The myelin sheath aids in the rapid and efficient transmission of impulses along the nerve
cells. The process of myelination of the axons speeds the rate at which messages are transmitted. It is
this resulting efficiency of neural transmission that is partly responsible for greater increases in muscular
coordination, particularly gross and fine motor skills, cognitive functioning, and a high energy need during
early childhood.
6.6 Discuss the special features and strengths of preschoolers’ thinking.

According to Piaget, thinking in young children is preoperational, or characterised by limited skills in
reasoning; although symbolic representation, principally in the form of language, is firmly established.
Preoperational thinking is also characterised by egocentrism (limited capacity to reflect on one’s own
thoughts and to distinguish them from other people’s thoughts or ideas — essential in developing theory
of mind) and by magical thinking and animism (a belief inanimate objects have qualities such as feel-
ings). Piaget also assumed early childhood was typified by rudimentary skills in classification, and the
absence of numerical concepts. Piaget believed preoperational children are unable to conserve; that is, to
understand that the fundamental properties of materials and objects remain constant, despite superficial
changes in their appearance. As well, Piaget’s view of young children included heteronomous morality —
their inflexible one-sided view of right and wrong, dominated by authority figures. More recent research
has revealed Piaget underestimated the capacities of preschoolers, possibly because of the open-ended
questioning methods he used. Neo-Piagetian theorists agree with Piaget’s belief in stage-based develop-
ment, but take recent research on cognitive development into account and focus on changes in relatively
specific cognitive skills in their work.
6.7 Elaborate on how the language of preschool children develops, and compare and contrast how
it differs from that of older children.
During the preschool years, children’s word production increases dramatically, alongside their under-
standing of word meanings. They also gradually master the phonology or sound system of their native
language. Young children make major strides in acquiring the grammar of their native language.
Preschoolers’ first word combinations are governed more by semantics or meaning and omit many of
the grammatical conventions of adult speech. When grammar begins to emerge, along with longer utter-
ances, it is marked by errors of over-regulation, in which youngsters incorrectly apply the rules to irregular
grammatical forms.
6.8 Explain how children acquire language.
Learning theory accounts of language acquisition rely on mechanisms such as reinforcement, shaping
and modelling to explain how children acquire the syntax and semantics of their native language. The
nativist theory responds to inadequacies in behaviourist theories, maintaining the production of grammat-
ical sentences is largely innate and is governed by structures and mechanisms in the human brain. Neither
of these approaches is adequate in explaining the genesis of language in young children. Later theorists
have acknowledged social learning processes and predispositions in language acquisition both play a role
in language development during early childhood.
6.9 Examine how hearing impairment influences preschoolers’ language development.
Research has shown that deaf infants and preschoolers who are immersed in a signing environment
acquire expressive language at the same rate and in the same way hearing children do, although they
use a system of gestures rather than spoken words. Many sign languages have developed in deaf commu-
nities all over the world, and the decision to communicate by signing is partially determined by cultural
and social factors.
6.10 Justify what constitutes effective early childhood education and evaluate its effect on the
cognitive development of preschoolers.
Early childhood education and childcare programs take a variety of forms, with different educational and
developmental philosophies behind them. Despite this variability, key aspects of programs are associated
with positive cognitive and social development in young children. Three variables characterise successful
programs:
1. having staff oriented towards adapting the curriculum to individual children
2. taking an integrated view of the curriculum
3. significant involvement of parents in the program.
Cultural diversity challenges early childhood educators to identify teaching practices that are not only
developmentally appropriate, but also culturally appropriate.
KEY TERMS
Australian Sign Language (Auslan) The sign language used commonly in Australia.
autonomous morality Conceptualisation of right and wrong based on a less egocentric point of view,
including an understanding of the intentionality of other people in wrongdoing.
centration The tendency to focus on one aspect at the expense of others, associated with inability to
conserve.
cephalocaudal development Physical development that shows greater progress in areas of the body
that are closer to the spinal cord, and more gradual development at the body’s extremities. The head
develops ahead of the lower part of the body, known as head to tail growth.
child-directed speech Simplified speech patterns used by adults and older children when speaking to
young children and infants.
classification Grouping of objects according to a standard or criterion.
collective monologue Conversations where utterances are uncoordinated, not taking into consideration
what the last speaker has said.
conservation A belief certain properties, such as quantity, remain constant despite changes in
perceived features such as dimensions, position and shape.
developmentally appropriate practice Methods and goals of teaching considered optimal for young
children given current knowledge of child development.
egocentrism Inability to distinguish between one’s own point of view and that of another person.
expansions Repetition of an individual’s incorrect spoken phrase or sentence with corrections inserted
by the trainer.
fine motor skills Skills involving small, smooth movements of the hand and arm that involve precise
timing.
gross motor skills Skills involving the large muscles of the body that move the arms and legs; for
example, in walking, throwing, climbing and jumping.
heteronomous morality Understanding of right and wrong based on external authority.
identity A comprehensive and coherent sense of self.
imitation Reproduction of heard words, phrases or sentences, along with new additions and
modifications.
neo-Piagetian theory Stage-based accounts of development related to recent theories of cognition that
emphasise the structure or organisation of thinking.
New Zealand sign language (NZSL) The sign language commonly used in New Zealand.
pragmatics This involves the comprehension of when, how and where to use different language forms;
the social aspects of communication.
preoperational stage In Piaget’s theory, this stage of cognitive development is characterised by an
increase in symbolic thinking.
proximodistal development A pattern of organised physical growth that proceeds from the centre of
the body outwards.
recasts A type of expansion where a grammatical form different to the original is used.
reversibility Ability to mentally undo an action.
scaffolding Linguistic supports given by more competent speakers to language learners in order to
facilitate their language learning.
semantics The purposes and meanings of a language.
sign language A system of nonverbal gestures that functions as a true language and is used by many
people who are deaf or hearing impaired.
signed English A system of signs that represents spoken English, often used in schools.
symbolic representation Cognition that allows one entity to stand for another; a process of mental
representation that expresses symbolically through words, sounds, pictures or objects.
syntactic bootstrapping A process by which unfamiliar words are learnt through the grammatical
context in which they are found.
syntax Rules for ordering and relating the elements of a language.
telegraphic speech Early two-word utterances that serve the same communication function as longer
sentences that emerge at later stages of language acquisition.
theory of mind The capacity to reflect on one’s own thoughts, and to distinguish them from other
people’s thoughts or ideas.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1 What constitutes normal physical development in the preschool years? How can extreme variations in
physical development affect development in other domains?
2 How did Piaget typify preoperational thought? How have his assumptions been challenged?
3 How does young children’s language develop in the preschool years?
4 Describe the nutritional needs of preschoolers and why an adequate diet is important during these
years. What are the main threats to an adequate diet during early childhood and how can this be
rectified?
1 Discuss the importance of home, media, childcare and educational programs in preschoolers’ physical
and mental development.
2 The Sydney Morning Herald reporter Eryk Bagshaw wrote an article ‘UNICEF: Australian children
are falling behind in health, education’ in 2016. UNICEF’s report Fairness for Children revealed that
Australian children have poorer health and education outcomes than Latvia, Slovenia and Croatia.
Australia ranks 27th out of 35 in health-equality outcomes among OECD countries and 24th out of 37
in education-equality results. New Zealand ranks 31st out of 37 in education-equality results. Critically
discuss these findings and evaluate strategies for reducing the widening gap between children who
are ranked the lowest and those who are ranked in the middle according to this report. Identify how
Australia and New Zealand can better meet the needs of our most vulnerable children.
3 The incidence of early childhood injuries is increasing. How can early childhood injuries be prevented?
Cite factors that increase the risk of unintentional injury.
1 Test your understanding by matching the key concept 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.
Animism Encopresis Intuitive thought
Auslan Expansion Overextension
Autonomous morality Fine motor skills Overregulation
Centration Gross motor skills Pragmatics
Collective monologue Heteronomous morality Preoperational
Conservation Home signs Telegraphic speech

Egocentrism Inflection
(a) Three-year-old Ethan has just broken the biscuit barrel while helping himself to forbidden choco-
late biscuits. He is very scared about what his mother will do. He tells his mother it was not his
fault, because a big Tasmanian devil came into the kitchen and said it wanted something to eat.
But when he tried to get the biscuit barrel down, the devil jumped up and broke it.
(b) ‘No mummy, no go sleep’, states Louise emphatically when her mother tries to tuck her into bed
and kiss her goodnight.
(c) Four-year-old Cooper has recently begun preschool. The coordinator has noticed that he is unable
to keep up with most of the children his age. His running is uncoordinated and he is not able
to climb on some of the low equipment in the playroom. During sand and water play, Cooper
has trouble pouring sand or water from one container to another and his ‘drawings’ are still just
scribble. Quite often the children complain of a bad smell when playing near Cooper. Staff often
have to clean him up after an ‘accident’.
(d) James is an assistant at a New Zealand preschool that includes children with developmental dis-
abilities. One day he notices two of the children, Thomas and Charlotte, facing each other and
signing enthusiastically. Both children come from families in which both parents are deaf and the
children have been brought up using their parents’ sign language. They seem to be taking turns
in signing to each other, but Thomas is talking about his latest acquisition, some Transformers,
while Charlotte is signing just as animatedly about what she’s doing at the water table. Some of
the signs the children are using are unfamiliar to James, who is a fluent signer.
(e) Michelle, aged 4, pounds a ball of playdough into a flat pancake and then thinks she has more
clay. Michelle does not as yet understand.
2 Your friend has recently had a new baby. On a popular television show she recently saw how some
parents in the United States have successfully toilet trained their babies before their first birthday. She
seems keen to learn more about this and asks you for some advice.
(a) Would it be best to convince your friend to wait until her baby is at least 18 months of age? Use
research evidence to back up your recommendation.
(b) If she seems determined to try, what could you tell your friend about assisted infant toilet training
that might assist her in toilet training her baby?
WEBSITES
1 The Kids Research Institute is the research arm and website of The Children’s Hospital at
Westmead. Their main aim is to discover new ways to improve the health of children. The institute
includes laboratory science to understand disease processes in children, clinical research to develop
better diagnosis and treatment methods, and population health research to understand the impact of
disease in the broader community: www.kidsresearch.org.au/about-kids-research-institute
2 United Nations (Department of Economic and Social Affairs) Sustainable Development and Goals
Report 2017. This website includes key issues, news, a multimedia library, publications, videos
and working papers on child mortality, poverty, malnutrition, maternal mortality, and early child-
hood height and weight worldwide reports: www.un.org/development/desa/publications/sdg-report-
2017.html
3 The Kidsafe NSW website includes information about current news and events, resources and infor-
mation sheets to help keep children safe. Child safety is a significant issue and the aim of this website
is to assist in making Australia a safer place for children: www.kidsafensw.org
4 Raising.Children.net.au (the Australian Parenting website) is a website for parents that provides infor-
mation, videos, resources, articles, interactive tools and guides on children from conception to adult-
hood. A very useful section on disabilities with guides, fact sheets and resources is also a feature of
this website: http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/making_your_home_safe_for_your_child.html
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Extract: © “Credo” from ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN:
FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION RECONSIDERED, REVISED, & EXPANDED WITH
TWENTY-FIVE NEW ESSAYS by Robert Fulghum, copyright © 1986, 1988 by Robert L. Fulghum.
Used by permission of Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random
House LLC. All rights reserved.
Extract: © FAO (2016) UN General Assembly proclaims Decade of Action on Nutrition Retrieved
20 September 2017 from http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/408970/icode
Extract: © The Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital and the Murdoch
Children’s Research Institute.
Extract: © Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Used under CC Attribution 3.0 Australia.
CHAPTER 7
Psychosocial
childhood
LEARNING OUTCOMES

7.1 compare how different styles of parenting influence preschoolers’ development
7.2 explain how sibling relationships contribute to preschoolers’ development
7.3 outline how peer relationships affect young children
7.4 justify why play is so important to preschoolers’ development, and discuss how play changes as children
approach school age
7.5 identify the factors that contribute to the development of young children’s prosocial and antisocial
behaviour
7.6 discuss how different theoretical frameworks account for the development of gender roles and
gender-typed behaviour.
OPENING SCENARIO
‘Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Miley,

happy birthday to you!’ sang the excited two,
three and four year olds at Miley’s fourth birthday
party. Miley was thrilled. She had received what
she had always wanted for her birthday: a Bar-
bie campervan complete with cooking equipment,
knives, forks, spoons, plates and cups. These tiny
lifelike pieces her father had silently cursed as he
put them together in the early morning of her birth-
day. Grandparents, aunts and friends had given her
an assortment of Barbie dolls wearing all the lat-
est fashion from camping gear, to swimsuits and
formal attire. Earlier, Miley had elatedly unwrapped
two Ken dolls from her uncles in Canada. ‘Finally,’ said Miley, ‘I can play Barbie and Ken. I now have the
Barbies that I have always wanted’. Looking at her mother cheekily, she said ‘See! Other people gave
me Barbies when you wouldn’t ’cos you said they were too girlie!’ Her dad chimed in. ‘We gave you the
campervan with all the equipment’. ‘Yes,’ said Miley, with downcast eyes and a rueful smile. ‘ . . . thank you’.
Several months later, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, Miley was playing Barbies in the lounge room with
her neighbour, three-year-old Patrick. Miley’s mother, Alexis, was in the kitchen and suddenly heard Miley
yelling and screaming ‘I hate you . . . I hate you. Get out of my house! . . . Go to your own home! Get out, get
OUT!’ Alexis wondered what had gone wrong. Muttering to herself, ‘they were playing so nicely together’,
she ran into the lounge room to prevent any further arguments and fights occurring between Miley and
Patrick. She called out, ‘Miley, stop that yelling and screaming, and telling Patrick to go home. He is your
friend so treat him nicely’. She was shocked when she reached the lounge room to find Patrick quietly
playing with several Barbies, dressing and undressing them in one corner. Across the room, Miley was
playing in another corner with Barbie in one hand and Ken in the other. Miley stood up very provocatively
at the sight of her mother and stamped her feet, while staring defiantly at Alexis. Miley pointed her finger at
her mother and announced, ‘I am NOT talking to you, Mum, or Patrick! Barbie has just found out that Ken
has cheated on her and she is telling him that she hates him. To get out! Leave the house ’cos she doesn’t
want to live with a CHEAT!’ Stifling a smile, Alexis said that she was sorry to interrupt the situation between
Barbie and Ken; and that she should not have acted so hastily. She apologised to Miley for interrupting
her ‘game’.
An hour later, Patick’s father, Jake, came to pick him up. Upon walking into the lounge room and see-
ing both Miley and Patrick happily playing with Barbie and Ken, Jake rushed over to Patrick. Grabbing
the Barbies out of Patrick’s hands, Jake exclaimed, ‘Put those dolls down! My son doesn’t play with
dolls . . . they’re for girls. I don’t want you to grow up like a sissy. Boys don’t play with girls’ toys.’ Patrick
immediately rushed at his father, pulling the dolls off him and threw himself onto the floor crying. He
demanded, ‘Give me back my Barbies. I want to play Barbies with Miley. I like Barbies. It’s fun.’ Jake
sternly announced, ‘You are coming home with me now!’. He picked up Patrick, who was in a tantrum at
this stage. Jake wrestled the Barbies from Patrick’s grip, hastily said goodbye to Miley and Alexis, and
headed home muttering angrily about girls’ toys.
Patrick’s tantrum was not unusual preschooler behaviour. Emotional flooding is often seen in young chil-
dren who have not developed the self-control that is typical of older children. As preschoolers near school
age, outbursts become much less common. This improvement in behaviour is assisted by increasing self-
awareness and the regulating influence of older individuals in preschoolers’ lives — principally parents.
Preschoolers are surrounded by more mature individuals, and interact regularly with their parents, sib-
lings and other relatives, including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. As children’s social horizons
expand outside the home, family friends, playmates and acquaintances in the surrounding community
become another focus of preschoolers’ interactions.
During early childhood, the activities and events that occupy a child’s waking hours — such as Miley
and Patrick’s play sessions— increasingly involve social interactions with a wide range of other people.
These events are vital in nurturing social skills, and often involve play — which is sometimes regarded
CHAPTER 7 Psychosocial development in early childhood 343
as the ‘work’ of early childhood. The Barbie play date became an opportunity for imitative and interactive
play for both Miley and Patrick. Miley created a role for herself as Barbie, making useful suggestions
for camping trips with Patrick’s Barbies and giving relationship advice to Ken. So, as well as developing
cognitive and psychomotor skills, play during early childhood becomes increasingly interpersonally
oriented. Therefore, play is important in establishing the repertoire of social abilities and the unique
personality that a preschool-age child develops.
In this chapter, we explore how preschoolers develop the capacity to relate to others in empathic and
prosocial ways and learn to deal with conflict and aggression. We examine the conditions that foster or
undermine this development, including assessing the types of parenting offered during these years. We
discuss the serious problem of child abuse and neglect, including its causes, long-term consequences,
treatment and prevention. Finally, we explore the development of gender identity, an aspect of early child-
hood development that has a profound, lifelong impact.
During the preschool years, children are still firmly embedded in the family. Although their horizons
expand more than during the infancy years, much of their focus remains on their life and relationships at
home. For example, even though many preschool children experience long periods in childcare or early
education programs with other children of a similar age, their most important relationships are with their
parents and siblings. These primary relationships set the stage for social interactions and relationships
beyond the family sphere.
7.1 Relationships with parents

LEARNING OUTCOME 7.1 Compare how different styles of parenting influence preschoolers’ development.
The attachments between children and their parents and other caregivers discussed in the chapter on
psychosocial development in the first two years continue to play a central role in preschool children’s
social–emotional development. Ideally, parent–child relationships should be warm, respectful, empathic
and mutually responsive during early childhood, thus nurturing the psychosocial development of chil-
dren. Such relationships are emotionally fulfilling for both parents and children. For example, Kochanska
(1997; Kochanska, Brock, & Boldt, 2017; Kochanska & Kim, 2014) found that mothers who had a mutu-
ally responsive relationship with their preschool children — such as Miley’s mother — resorted much less
to parental power when influencing their children. Moreover, children of these mothers internalised mater-
nal rules and values better. Research by Oppenheim and colleagues has revealed that young children’s
internalised representations of their mothers play an important role in predicting children’s behaviour,
including their behaviour problems (Narayan, Cicchetti, Rogosch, & Toth, 2015; Sher-Censor & Yates,
2015; Solomonica-Levi, Yirmiya, Erel, Samet, & Oppenheim, 2001). Preschoolers who have more pos-
itive mental representations of their mothers — as revealed in the stories they make up about a mother
and her child — have fewer behaviour problems and less psychological distress than children who have
more negative mental representations (Oppenheim, Emde, & Warren, 1997; Stocker, 1994).
Young children’s relationships with their parents are complex. Their expanding ability to initiate verbal
and physical activity poses a frequent challenge to their parents, as shown in the Barbie and Ken doll
argument that Miley dramatised. From the actions and reactions of Miley’s mother, it is apparent parents
need to recognise young children’s considerable limitations — as well as their burgeoning abilities — by
guiding their behaviour and restraining their more immature impulses. Interventions ensure physical and
emotional wellbeing, as well as protecting children’s emerging self-esteem. As Patrick did by engaging
with Barbies, preschoolers often test the limits their parents impose, and are inconsistent in their ability
to understand and conform to parental wishes. They can also express a strong desire to control their
environment; for example, by refusing to eat certain foods, wear particular clothing or listen to the same
story being read twice.
Preschool children’s preference for greater autonomy and control of their environment needs to be bal-
anced by behavioural limits imposed by their parents. Such limits are outlined in family rules. Learning
family rules is a challenge for preschoolers, and making the rules is a challenge for parents. Although
there has been an increased interest in parenting programs in Australia since the 1990s — including
Parent Effectiveness Training (PET) (Gordon, 2006) and the Positive Parenting Program (Sanders, 1996;
Sanders, Kirby, Tellegen, & Day, 2014; Sanders, Turner, & McWilliam, 2016) — parenting is still
largely carried out with no formal training or preparation. For example, Australian researchers Wood and
Davidson (2003) report that only about 900 parents annually take part in PET programs throughout
Australia. More often than not, Australian and New Zealand parents rely heavily on the way that they
were parented in parenting their own children.
In individualistic cultures, such as mainstream Australian and New Zealand culture, parents must often
devise their own standards and methods for rearing children and may experience much confusion over
parenting practices. Wood and Davidson (2003) maintain that the contemporary parenting environment
and different views between generations on childrearing practices, as well as conflicting information from
family, friends and the media, provide a considerable challenge to the parents of the twenty-first century.
For example, parents are confronted daily with testing, open-ended questions, such as ‘What should I
be doing about temper tantrums?’, ‘How much soft drink is allowable?’ and, ‘What is a reasonable bed-
time?’ Parental dilemmas over behavioural standards can be exacerbated by the realisation other parents
have standards that differ from their own (Piotrowski, 1997). However, despite this realisation, the indi-
vidualistic approach to childrearing may explain Australians’ and New Zealanders’ reluctance to offer
advice to other parents, or to reprimand an unrelated misbehaving child. Although parents’ independence
in decision making allows them considerable power in shaping their children’s behaviour, the lack of
clear guidelines for parenting potentially creates considerable stress during early adulthood, as discussed
in the chapter on physical and cognitive development in early adulthood. So, in individualistic cultures,
parents can be plagued by feelings of loneliness, indecisiveness and self-doubt.
In contrast, parenting might be less stressful in collectivist, minority migrant cultures in Australia and
New Zealand, and in societies that encourage stronger, prolonged interdependence among kin and the
community, such as in Australian Aboriginal culture (Spencer, 2007). In Asian families, grandparents and
other relatives retain considerable influence in childrearing matters (Chao, 1994). In such cultures, par-
ents lose some decision-making authority to grandparents, in-laws and other extended family members,
but gain family and community support, as well as clear benchmarks for shaping children’s behaviour
through rule-setting. For example, in a collectivist community, parents will have the support of an array of
relatives and friends in deciding on an appropriate bedtime for their children. The members of this social
network will readily share their opinions and offer advice, making decisions less onerous and stressful for
the parents. Lee Esser (2007), studying Vietnamese families in Australia, found that young parents still
maintained very close ties with extended family, even after establishing their own household. Moreover,
despite living in contemporary Australian culture, they still adhered to traditional childrearing practices
based on respect for elders and the greater importance of family harmony over individual members’ con-
cerns. In contrast to Lee Esser’s findings, a study of Indian women from Goa living in New Zealand
found that some Goan women experienced a sense of freedom from the interference of elders by raising
their children in a more individualistic society. While they missed the support and nurture of the extended
family in childrearing, mothers also recognised some of the downsides of collectivist parenting practices
(De Souza, 2005).
Irrespective of culture, parents interact with their young children in a number of ways. In the next
section, different styles of parenting and the developmental impact of parenting styles are discussed.
Parenting styles
Baumrind (1971) developed a renowned typology of parenting styles, based on observations of the
interactions between North American preschool children and their parents and interviews on parents’
childrearing practices. As well as generating much subsequent research, the typology Baumrind
developed has become a template for childrearing practices. It still guides parenting in many Western
countries. Later researchers, most importantly Maccoby and Martin (1983), elaborated and extended
Baumrind’s original typology.
As a result of their collective work, four basic types of parenting are now widely recognised. The
categories are based on a combination of four determining factors:
1. control
2. clarity of communication
3. maturity demands
4. nurturance.
These factors differ in each of the styles. Table 7.1 compares the parenting styles, showing how they
differ in terms of control, clarity of communication, maturity and nurturance.
TABLE 7.1 Styles of parenting
Clarity of Maturity
Parenting style Control communication demands Nurturance
Authoritative High High High High
Authoritarian High Low High Low
Permissive Low Mixed Low High
Uninvolved Low Low Low Low
Authoritative parents display high levels of control, clarity of communication, demands for mature
behaviour, and nurturance. Authoritarian parents also show high levels of control and maturity demands,
but are low on clarity of communication and nurturance. Permissive parents are low on control and matu-
rity demands, high on nurturance, and inconsistent in how clearly they communicate with their children.
Uninvolved parents display low levels of all four dimensions.
Authoritative parenting
Parents who exert firm, consistent and age-appropriate control over their children’s behaviour and at
the same time are both responsive and respectful of their children’s thoughts and feelings exhibit an
authoritative parenting style. While firm, they are also flexible, allowing their children to participate
in decision making. They tend to use rewards rather than punishments, and explain behavioural rules
and expectations to their children. Parents who exhibit an authoritative style are child-centred in their
approach to parenting. They are warm, loving and emotionally supportive in their interactions with their
children.
Authoritative parents adjust their expectations to the needs of the child. They listen to children’s argu-
ments, although they may not change their minds. They use the techniques of persuasion and expla-
nation, as well as punishment. Authoritative parenting tries to balance the responsibility of the child
to conform to the needs and demands of others with the rights of the child to be respected and have
their own needs met. Often this type of parenting results in children who are more independent and self
reliant.
Miley’s mother showed many of these characteristics in her handling of Miley’s feet stamping
behaviour. Alexis was empathetic, nurturing and consistent in her response to Miley’s behaviour (both
before and during the feet stamping incident). She listened to Miley’s explanation and realised that Miley’s
behaviour was part of the ‘game’ that she was playing with Barbie and Ken. Respecting Miley’s rights,
Alexis apologised to her for interrupting the game. Miley’s mother also gave her a sense of auton-
omy in the situation, by permitting Miley to have her needs met and providing an appropriate role
model.
Preschoolers who experience authoritative parenting tend to be self-reliant and self-controlled and
are capable of socialising with their adult caregivers and peers (Amato & Fowler, 2002). Authoritative
parenting is also associated with higher self-esteem, internalised moral standards, psychosocial maturity,
autonomy and academic success. In a review of studies since the mid 1980s, Steinberg (2001) maintains
that young children who are parented authoritatively score more positively on all mental health indictors
than do children raised using other parental styles. Authoritative parenting in the early childhood years
also has positive outcomes for children’s later development, with the benefits of authoritative parenting
continuing into adolescence and beyond. In a retrospective study, Rothrauff, Cooney, and An (2009) found
that authoritative parenting styles were significantly associated with greater psychological wellbeing and
fewer depressive symptoms in middle to late adulthood. Thus, the effects of early authoritative parenting
are developmentally far-reaching (Smetana, 2017).
Authoritarian parenting
Parents exhibiting an authoritarian parenting style exert a high level of control over their children’s
behaviour, just as authoritative parents do. However, these styles differ in several important ways. Par-
ents with an authoritarian parenting style are inflexible and do not permit child participation in decision
making, tending to be undemocratic in their decisions regarding children’s behaviour. This style of par-
enting shows a high degree of concern for children and their behaviour, but it is not child-centred — with
parents seeing the appropriate development of their children as exclusively under adult control. Rules
are often absolute, being strictly imposed without exception, and are often enforced through threats and
punishments. Such parents rely heavily on their greater power and authority, with little sensitivity to chil-
dren’s thoughts and feelings. Parenting style is not warm, with a low threshold for disagreement and
disobedience. Parents do not clearly communicate the specific behaviours they require, they merely stip-
ulate adherence to rigid and generalised ‘rules’. Parents with an authoritarian parenting style may also
exhibit more subtle forms of psychological control — withdrawing affection or making it contingent on
the child’s compliance with their wishes. They can also undermine children’s autonomy, by deriding their
ideas and choices and by demanding excessively high standards of behaviour or performance that do not
align with the child’s developmental level.
In the Barbie doll game scenario, a parent or guardian with an authoritarian parenting style would
typically react punitively to the tantrum — possibly smacking their child, shouting at them or making
threats regarding later punishments, such as ‘Just you wait until we get home . . . ’ Such reactions instil
fear in the child. Such a parent might send their child to their room for the rest of the day without food and
also ban them from playing with girls’ toys on subsequent visits on the grounds of their having ‘broken
the rules’. They would not give the child a proper explanation, but might dismissively remark, ‘You don’t
know how to play at Miley’s house, so you are staying home’.
A parent exerting psychological control uses such comments as ‘I simply can’t take you anywhere
without you embarrassing me all the time. I’m so ashamed of you. You are not a child of mine’. The
parent might also refuse to speak to the child, ignoring them for a long time. When the child does behave
appropriately, such as helping to unpack the groceries, such a parent would not acknowledge the child’s
efforts. Instead, they would criticise any mistakes they made in the process. A likely retort might be, ‘Oh
for goodness sake — you’re so hopeless. Give it to me and let me put it away!’
By modelling disrespectful and insensitive behaviour, authoritarian parenting can reinforce similar
behaviour in children and lead to escalating cycles of negative reinforcement and coercion. More-
over, this style of parenting gives children little or no opportunity to learn more appropriate ways
of behaving, and seriously undermines their sense of self-worth and confidence in parental love. Not
surprisingly, studies have shown authoritarian parenting is associated with anxiety, withdrawal, low
self-esteem and a lack of sociability in children (Babore, Trumello, Candelori, Paciello, & Cerniglia,
2016; Caldera, 2013; Kircaali-Iftar, 2005; Neal & Frick-Horbury, 2001). Boys often react with hos-
tility to this style of parenting, while girls may become dependent and submissive (Hart, Newell,
& Olsen, 2003; Thompson, Hollis, & Richards, 2003). Extreme combinations of rigid and arbitrary
power assertion and insensitivity to a child’s thoughts and feelings can constitute a type of child abuse
now recognised officially as emotional abuse (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW],
2010).
Permissive parenting
Permissive parenting is typified by a low level of parental control, with parents reluctant to put limits
on their child’s behaviour. This might be due to a strongly held childrearing philosophy — that parents
do not have the right to control children’s natural propensities. Advocates of this philosophy argue a
high level of parental control can stifle a child’s development, reducing the likelihood of them becoming
free-spirited and creative. Permissive parenting can be a reaction to parents experiencing an authoritarian
style of parenting during their own childhood. Alternatively, parents who adopt this style might simply
be at a loss as to appropriately disciplining and controlling their child’s behaviour. Permissive parents are
typically warm and child-centred in their approach, but they give mixed messages about their expectations
of the child’s behaviour; making few or no demands on their children and setting inconsistent behavioural
limits. In this style of parenting, children are largely permitted to make their own decisions, even when
this is developmentally inappropriate.
In the Barbie doll game scenario, a parent or guardian with a permissive style would make little or
no attempt to control the child’s yelling and shouting unlike Miley’s mother, Alexis, who checked to see
what was happening. Such parents would feel compelled to follow the child wherever they went. This is
regardless of whether the child was involved in playing a game with other children or pursued their own
agenda. If Alexis had been employed a permissive style, she might have said to Miley, ‘Please come with
me, darling, and maybe we’ll find something nice for you . . . ’
Permissive parenting puts young children in control of their everyday behaviour and social learning
at a time when they are too developmentally immature to manage this responsibility effectively. Young
children actually need adult guidance and control. Unsurprisingly, research has shown a strong association
between permissive parenting and impulsiveness, disobedience and rebelliousness in children. Children
who are reared using this parenting style are often demanding and dependent on adults to meet their needs
(Baumrind, 1997). Later research by Querido, Warner, and Eyberg (2002; Zisser-Nathenson, Herschell,
& Eyberg, 2017) has confirmed Baumrind’s earlier assertion, finding that a permissive parenting style
accounted for significant variance in preschool children’s problem behaviours, including disruptiveness
and demanding behaviour.
Uninvolved parenting
Parents who exhibit an uninvolved parenting style show low levels of control, similar to parents who
adopt a permissive parenting style. However, they are emotionally detached from their offspring and
appear to prioritise their own concerns ahead of their responsibilities in raising their children (Hughes,
Power, Orlet Fisher, Mueller, & Nicklas, 2005; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Such parents show inconsis-
tency in setting behavioural limits and make few behavioural demands on their children. Severe levels of
uninvolved parenting constitute child neglect and may be associated with parental substance abuse and
psychiatric disturbances.
In the Barbie doll game scenario, like the parent with a permissive style, a parent with an uninvolved
style would not attempt to control the child’s shouting or other inappropriate behaviours. However, the
indulgent reactions of the permissive parent would be missing. The child would not be reprimanded and
could play with any toys that they liked. If they demanded a treat, they would most likely be ignored
while the parent socialised with other parents.
Children whose parents follow an uninvolved parenting style are at risk of severe maladjustment,
particularly if the pattern of parenting occurs from an early age. Children subjected to such parenting
show disrupted social–emotional development, poor self-control, social alienation, immaturity and low
self-esteem. They are sometimes described as withdrawn, low achieving loners (Olson & Gorall, 2006).
Extreme cases of uninvolved parenting may constitute criminal neglect of children.
MULTICULTURAL VIEW
Vietnamese-Australian parenting styles and early

childhood development
Diana Baumrind’s original study of a hundred
preschool children motivated researchers to
investigate the impact of parenting styles on
children. However, finding cause-and-effect
relationships between parenting styles and later
behaviour of children is difficult. Children raised
in different environments can grow up to have
similar personalities, whereas children who are
often raised in the same environment can have
markedly different personalities. Despite these
research challenges, researchers have discovered
links between parenting styles and the effects of
these styles on children. Researchers have also
established the influence of culture and environments on parenting styles.
Australian authors Nguyen, Chang, and Loh (2014) investigated the parenting practices and beliefs of
Vietnamese-Australian mothers (known as ‘tiger mothers’) and how they parented in the context of a new
culture. ‘Tiger mothers champion the use of a strict parenting philosophy that incorporates firm parental
control and high standards for excellence as a determinant of academic success’ (p. 48). Recorded inter-
views were employed by Nguyen et al. to address the research question ‘What are the parenting beliefs
and practices of Vietnamese-Australian mothers?’ Interestingly, participants explained their parenting
approach as a harmonious balance between East and West, whereby both Vietnamese and Australian
methods of parenting were adopted. Vietnamese parents living in Australia expressed the desire to build
closer connections with their children, as they felt that the traditional ways of parenting were at odds with
the social–cultural norms of their current environment.
. . . they describe an ongoing battle to find harmony in how best to parent their own children.
Participants had a strong sense of cultural identity and wanted to ensure that the essence of being
Vietnamese was taught . . . For many, being Vietnamese is reflected in the adherence to cultural
values and customs . . . Participants also spoke of the cultural learning through interaction with
elders . . . These active efforts to immerse children within cultural events were portrayed as an
important parenting duty: to appreciate the cultural and historical aspects of Vietnamese culture, and
to develop a Vietnamese identity (pp. 54–55).
Conclusions from this research depicted Vietnamese-Australian mothers’ parenting styles as involving a
cultural continuity, which included the development of a bicultural identity (particularly with male children).
Central to the maintenance of a bicultural identity was the retention of the Vietnamese language, which was
seen to be instrumental in preserving cultural identity and cohesiveness in the family and extended family.
Vietnamese-Australian mothers believed that their main responsibility as a parent was to guarantee that
their children were afforded the best opportunities for academic success based on the Confucian values
of honour and education as a vehicle for financial happiness and social mobility. Therefore, ‘educational
prowess’ is the central factor in childrearing styles, with Vietnamese and Chinese parents retaining promi-
nence in their child’s education — emphasising hard work, high academic achievement, strict discipline
and training (Fu & Markus, 2014; Sun & Rao, 2017).
The Vietnamese ‘cultural expectation of obedience and deference to elders’, known as filial piety, was
evident in the research findings through mothers expecting children to contribute to ‘material and emo-
tional comfort by bowing and honouring their parents through academic achievement’ (p. 60). Rules were
used by mothers as a form of behavioural control to ensure personal development through education and
training.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Reflecting on the parenting practices and beliefs of Vietnamese-Australian mothers (‘tiger mothers’),
discuss the importance of providing appropriate and empowering resources and interventions to enable
them to parent effectively in the context of a new culture.
Variations in parenting styles and practices

Baumrind’s (1971, 1996) typology with its subsequent refinement by Maccoby and Martin (1983) gives a
picture of parenting that is quite general, suggesting parenting styles are seen consistently and in a ‘pure’
form in most parents. However, it should be remembered Baumrind’s typology is based on the overall
observations of many parents. There are individual variations in parents’ application of these parenting
styles, as well as cultural variations in parenting styles and practices.
Individual variations in parenting styles and practices

There is evidence parents display different types of parenting on different occasions, rather than con-
sistently applying a single style of parenting in a range of circumstances (Eisenberg & Valiente, 2002;
Merz et al., 2016). For example, parents might have a predominantly authoritative parenting style, but at
times lapse into permissiveness or even display authoritarian-type reactions — such as slapping a child
when they are frightened by them running onto a busy road.
A number of factors can also influence parenting practices — including the duration of parenthood.
For example, predominantly authoritarian styles might mellow into more authoritative or even permissive
styles as children grow older and place fewer demands on parents. Birth order can also influence parenting
style, with first-time parents practising more authoritarian parenting than second- and third-time parents.
As well, assistance from older children in caring for younger siblings reduces the stresses of parenting
and so could influence styles of parenting. Other changes within a family, such as separation, divorce and
remarriage, as well as changes in employment, standard of living and health, may also influence parenting
styles. Parents who are under stress tend to be more rigid, arbitrary and authoritarian in rearing their
children than parents who are not stressed. Parenting style also varies according to child temperament.
For instance, a highly oppositional child might be more likely to elicit authoritarian parenting behaviours
than an easygoing child. With these guidelines in mind, Baumrind’s typology should be applied to parental
behaviours rather than to parents themselves. A permissive parent suggests a type of individual rather than
a type of behaviour. Research has shown that parents exhibit more than one style of parenting varying
according to circumstances (Eisenberg & Valiente, 2002; Merz, et al., 2016). They should therefore not
be labelled with a particular style of parenting.
Not only are there significant inconsistencies in the styles exhibited by one parent at different times,
but there are also variations between different parents of the same children. If there are extreme inconsis-
tencies in predominant parenting styles, such as between a father with a predominantly authoritarian style
and a mother with a mainly permissive style, this inconsistency may be accompanied by parental con-
flict regarding how to raise the children. In these situations, children can be confused about behavioural
expectations and might learn to play one parent off against the other.
Cultural variations in parenting styles and practices

Baumrind’s (1971) typology was initially developed in response to observations of North American chil-
dren and their families. Subsequent research using the typology with non-Western collectivist cultures
has raised questions about the cultural specificity of authoritative parenting, which is promoted as the
most developmentally advantageous way of raising children (Sorkhabi, 2005).
Chao’s (1994, 2001) studies on Asian-American parents and children revealed more authoritarian
behaviours than Anglo-American parents typically display. She termed these behaviours as chiao shun
or ‘training’, based on a Confucian principle that elders have a responsibility to tightly control and
discipline young children. When children accept chiao shun, they are showing appropriate respect to
their elders (Wu, Robinson, & Yang, 2002). These behaviours are associated with positive outcomes,
such as academic achievement, in Chinese children.
Research shows authoritarian parenting is recognised as a preferred childrearing style in Asian countries.
Authoritarian behaviours are associated with a Confucian principle — that elders have a responsibility to tightly
control and discipline young children. When children accept chiao shun (training), they are showing appropriate
respect to their elders.
Research shows Chinese parents, while showing greater directiveness towards their children, also dis-
play considerable warmth, similar to Western parents, and thus display a balance of both authoritative and
authoritarian styles (Schwalb, Nakawadza, Yamamato, & Hyun, 2004). However, when Chinese parents
exhibit harsh authoritarian parenting practices, there are similar negative outcomes for children that have
been found for non-Asian children (Nelson, Nelson, Hart, Yang, & Jin, 2005; Yu, Cheah, Hart, Sun, &
Olsen, 2015).
Other studies have identified variations in African-American and Hispanic parenting when compared
with authoritative parenting in Anglo Western cultures. These parenting practices also involve some ele-
ments found in authoritarian styles, yet they have positive outcomes for children in such cultural groups
(Cabrera & Garcia-Coll, 2004; Cabrera, Karberg, & Kuhns, 2017; Querido et al., 2002). Sorkhabi’s (2005)
review of studies on the applicability of Baumrind’s typology of parenting to collectivist cultures con-
cluded that the parenting styles have similar functions in different cultures. However, Sorkhabi stresses
that there is little evidence to suggest that authoritarian parenting is not detrimental to children’s devel-
opment in such cultures. More research is needed to identify both functional and dysfunctional parenting
practices in terms of child outcomes within non-Western cultures.
Cultural and individual variations in parenting practices highlight that Baumrind’s (1971) parent-
ing styles reflect average patterns, rather than describing the unique interactions and experiences that
characterise the relationship between any particular parent and child. As well, parenting styles alone do
not solely determine a child’s developmental course. Although parents are a predominant influence on
their children, other individuals both within and outside of the family contribute to psychosocial devel-
opment during early childhood in vital ways. Siblings also have an important role in the psychosocial
development of young children. These relationships are described in the following section.
In an attempt to assist Sudanese parents living in New Zealand to adopt positive parenting attitudes
in a new host country while appreciating the traditional and cultural practices of these parents, the New
Zealand Ministry of Social Development has developed the Strategies with Kids — Information for
Parents (S.K.I.P) program. S.K.I.P is a community-based program which aims to promote positive
parenting attitudes to empower newly arrived Sudanese parents living in New Zealand. The New Zealand
Government (2014) fact sheet on S.K.I.P states that:
parenting in this context can be a challenge as families try to navigate parenting expectations in the new
culture while maintaining their traditional parenting approaches . . . The programme philosophy was cen-
tred on the understanding that respect for both the New Zealand and the Sudanese cultures would create
an integration of ideas and styles of parenting to enhance the positive parenting strategies (p. 1).
In their article ‘Positive parenting: Integrating Sudanese traditions and New Zealand styles of parent-
ing’, Deng and Pienaar (2011) state that the parenting issues facing Sudanese families include:
changes to family power structures; a perceived lack of respect by children; challenges to parents’ disci-
plinary practices; changing roles for mothers and fathers; and a lack of support for solo parents. Parents
acknowledge that moving to a new country and culture has often led to their children losing their mother
tongues and cultural values. This S.K.I.P project offered a milieu in which parents could learn to cope with
stressful and challenging parenting and adaptation experiences, including social isolation, discrimination,
unemployment, and most importantly, the issues of intergenerational conflict that result from attempts to
adapt to a new culture (p. 162).
The relevance of this unique positive parenting program is that it acknowledged the resilience and
strengths of Sudanese parents, and assisted parents to integrate and blend their parenting styles in the
New Zealand cultural context. During the eighteen four-hour workshops, which were taught by commu-
nity leaders in languages participants could understand, parents were encouraged to share what they were
facing within their families as a way of learning positive discipline when parenting their children. Evalu-
ating the program, most parents thought that they had learnt a range of practical ideas from S.K.I.P. and
that they realised the importance of delivering the program in the Sudanese refugee community (p. 177).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
To what extent are Baumrind’s (1971) childrearing styles beneficial for understanding and explaining effec-
tive parenting across cultures? What is the impact of childrearing styles on children’s development in
relation to cultural variations in childrearing?
7.2 Relationships with siblings

LEARNING OUTCOME 7.2 Explain how sibling relationships contribute to preschoolers’ development.
Sibling relationships are important to children’s development. Siblings provide children with their most
frequent and reliable companionship, particularly during early childhood. They offer children their earliest
opportunities for socialisation with other individuals of a similar age to themselves, distinct from the
experiences that they have with parents. As well, the positive and negative features of sibling relationships
have been found to significantly predict future wellbeing, even after parental influence has been taken into
consideration (Murray-Close, Nelson, Ostrov, Casas, & Crick, 2016; Ostrov, Crick, & Stauffacher, 2006).
Most Australian and New Zealand children have at least one sibling. Although fertility rates are still
falling since a peak in the 1920s, the average number of births per woman in Australia in 2015 (the most
recent population data) was 1.81 babies per woman — a decrease in the 2012 average of 1.93 (Australian
Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2015). There are many possible sibling combinations, which increase in com-
plexity as family size increases. For example, a family including a younger sister and an older brother is
more straightforward in terms of reciprocal sibling relationships than one comprising of five older sis-
ters, two younger brothers and still younger twin sisters. With such complexities, it is difficult to make
definitive statements about sibling influences on the psychosocial development of any particular child.
However, considerable research has been done on establishing the general effects sibling relationships
can have on children’s development during early childhood. We will now look at this research.
Sibling influences
Sibling influences are affected by the interactions of several factors: including the number and age of
siblings, their birth order and the spacing of the family, as well as the sex of siblings (Eckstein et al.,
2010; Teti, 2001). Given the potential complexity of sibling relationships, particularly in larger families,
much of the research on sibling influences has focused on birth order — whether a child is a younger
sibling of an older sister or brother, or an older sibling of a younger sister or brother. As well, researchers
have looked at the experience of only children who have no siblings in comparison to children who have
at least one sibling.
Birth order
A number of firstborn children enjoy the experience of being an only child for several years. Studies have
shown that firstborn children — having been the sole recipient of parental attention and expectations for
some time — tend to be more adult-oriented, conforming and anxious than later-born children (Rodgers,
2000; Rodgers, 2014). However, with a predominance of two-child families in Australia and New
Zealand, most firstborns experience the advent of a sibling, often during their preschool years (ABS, 2010,
2014). Adjustment to the birth of a sibling by young firstborn children can be difficult, with studies show-
ing increased behavioural problems, such as demanding behaviour, clinging and emotional withdrawal
(Teti, 2001). The arrival of a younger sister or brother may threaten the security of attachment young chil-
dren have with their parents, and particularly with mothers, since the new baby displaces some of the care
and attention that was previously lavished exclusively on them. So, the sibling relationships that evolve
out of such situations can be negative — with sibling rivalry becoming a reality later in development,
as children compete for parental attention. Competitive and negative sibling relationships are associated
with continued discrepancies — as perceived by siblings — in parental treatment of different children
in the family (Dunn, 2007; Jensen & McHale, 2017; Kowal & Kramer, 1997; Kowal, Krull, & Kramer,
2006; McHale, Updegraff, Jackson-Newsom, Tucker, & Crouter, 2000; Tucker & Finkelhor, 2017).
Some preschoolers experience being the younger sibling of older school-age or adolescent brothers
and sisters. Preschoolers learn many social skills from older siblings, who provide important role models
for their young brothers and sisters and might act as substitute parents, relaying family expectations,
as well as helping them with self-care tasks (Acock, Bengston, Klein, & Dilworth-Anderson, 2005;
Hoff-Ginsberg & Krueger, 1991). Older siblings often challenge younger brothers and sisters in ways
that parents do not, sometimes resulting in sibling conflicts and intersibling hostility. Research has
shown that there are often high levels of aggression in these relationships, which is not surprising given
the fact that sibling relationships are close and involuntary in nature (Aguilar, O’Brien, August, Aoun, &
Hektner, 2001). Ostrov et al. (2006) found that older siblings’ aggression towards their younger preschool
sisters and brothers significantly predicted the younger siblings’ aggression directed at other children.
These researchers concluded that early childhood was a particularly salient period for sibling influences,
both positive and negative. Thus, both friendly and aggressive sibling interactions contribute to the
development of preschoolers’ behaviour towards people outside the family circle, as well as their
understandings of the feelings, intentions and needs of people other than themselves (Brown & Dunn,
1992; Dunn, 2007).
Sibling relationships are important to preschoolers’ social development.

The warm and supportive relationship between this preschooler and her older sister will help the younger child
to acquire family values and social skills, and may challenge her in ways her parents do not.
Only children
Not every child has a sibling. Because of the social opportunities siblings offer, some people believe
children growing up without brothers and sisters do not develop social skills as early, as well or as rapidly
as children with siblings do. Thus, singletons, or only children, are sometimes stereotyped as self-centred
and dependent ‘spoiled brats’, with accompanying concerns that their development is adversely affected
by being the sole focus of their parents’ attention (Herrera, Zajonc, Wieczorkowska, & Cichomiski, 2003).
China’s one-child policy instigated in 1979 has raised such concerns for a whole generation of children
who are growing up as singletons (Fong, 2004).
Interestingly, a review of research by Mancillas (2006) indicates only children rank equivalent to or
higher than children from two-child and larger families on most measures of interest, including self-
esteem, positive personality, achievement motivation and academic success. Moreover, cross-cultural
research upholds these findings in such countries as China and Korea (e.g. Doh & Falbo, 1999; Liu,
Lin, & Chen, 2010; Poston & Falbo, 1990). Because they do not have to share parental resources, only
children enjoy an advantage over children with siblings. Parents can be more responsive and attentive to a
singleton (Rosenberg & Hyde, 1993). It is plausible the greatest problem only children and their families
face is the prejudicial views others might form about them.
Family context of sibling relationships
Sibling relationships do not occur in isolation. Rather, they are influenced by the quality of parent–child
and marital relationships within the family (Dunn, 2007). An observational study of interactions between
pairs of three-and-a-half to eight-and-a-half-year-old siblings found negative behaviours of both older and
younger siblings were linked to negative aspects of the mother–child relationship and, for older siblings,
to negative aspects of the parents’ marital relationship (Erel, Margolin, & John, 1998). How siblings affect
a particular child’s social development is likely to depend on the degree to which parents recognise and
respond appropriately to the social needs of all of their children.
In a pivotal longitudinal observation study, Dunn and Kendrick (1982; Kojima, Irisawa, & Wakita,
2005) noted that initial hostility by young children, following the birth of a second child, is likely to grow
into a supportive and affectionate sibling relationship, depending on how parents handle the situation.
The researchers found positive outcomes were more probable if preschoolers did not experience a sharp
decline in maternal care and contact, and if children were psychologically prepared for the baby’s arrival.
Also, involving preschoolers in caretaking activities encouraged more positive sibling relationships. Other
studies have shown that most young children are naturally very interested in babies, speaking to their
baby brothers and sisters in similar ways to those of adult caregivers, and responding to their younger
siblings’ distress with appropriate caregiving behaviours. These natural propensities can be profitably
channelled into more positive sibling relationships (Dunn & Shatz, 1989; Garner, Jones, & Palmer, 1994;
Pike, Coldwell, & Dunn, 2005; Pike & Oliver, 2017).
Long-term implications
Sibling relationships during the preschool years can set the stage for relationships later in life. In a seven-
year longitudinal study, Dunn et al. (1994) followed the relationships of 39 sibling pairs, from preschool
through to middle childhood and early adolescence. The sibling pairs were studied at set points in time:
when the younger sibling was three years old, six years old, eight years old, and ten years old. Dunn and
her colleagues found considerable continuity in siblings’ affection, warmth, intimacy, and cooperation;
as well as continuity in the negative aspects of their relationships, such as competition, jealousy and
fighting, from early childhood through to early adolescence. Negative changes in sibling relationships
were often attributed to friendships the children formed outside the family during middle childhood.
However, the majority of children provided support for each other, especially when faced with problems
such as accidents and illnesses, difficulties with other children at school, and maternal ill health. Good
relationships between siblings also helped children who were experiencing the stress of parental conflict.
So, siblings continue to play an important role in childhood and adolescence, but become less important
in early adulthood. Even so, they regain importance in middle adulthood and late adulthood.
7.3 Peer relationships

LEARNING OUTCOME 7.3 Outline how peer relationships affect young children.
The previous section has demonstrated the profound effect that both parents and siblings can have on
children’s development during the preschool years. Preschoolers are affected by other relationships as
well, particularly relationships with peers. We now look at these relationships, including friendships, in
detail.
During the preschool years, children’s social worlds expand beyond family relationships to involve
peers — unrelated children who are at the same developmental level as themselves. Early peer relation-
ships come about through children’s involvement in early childhood education and childcare programs,
and socialisation with neighbourhood children and the children of their parents’ friends. These relation-
ships are important as they teach young children social skills they may not necessarily acquire from family
relationships (Rubin, Bukowski, & Bowker, 2015; Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). This is because
family relationships are asymmetrical, and are based on different developmental levels; for example,
between parents and children or between different aged siblings. For this reason, family relationships
are generally characterised by unequal power distribution, and often involve care and nurturing of one
member by another. In contrast, peer relations, involving children of a similar age and developmental
level, are characterised by equality in competence and power distribution (Gleason, 2002). Because of
this equality, children can learn important lessons of sharing, give-and-take and conflict resolution, as well
as the ability to understand others’ emotions and mental states (Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003). The
development of social competence during early childhood relies, to a significant extent, on the frequency
with which peer activity occurs.
During the preschool years, children begin to initiate their own peer contacts and receive play invi-
tations from peers. This trend increases during early childhood (Bhavnagri & Parke, 1991; Maguire &
Dunn, 1997). By age three, children begin to show preferences for playing and associating with some chil-
dren rather than others, and by age four are interacting in groups rather than dyads (Coplan & Arbeau,
2009; Coplan, Bullock, Archbell, & Bosacki, 2015). Increasingly as they age, young children prefer inter-
acting with a peer of the same sex. So, the foundations for childhood friendships are established in this
life stage.
Relationships with friends

Friends can be identified during early childhood by children’s behaviour towards certain peers. Friends
spend more time playing together, and these interactions are typified by greater emotional expressive-
ness — by children looking at each other, talking and laughing more than they do with non-friends and
by showing greater reciprocity and interdependence (Shin, Kim, Goetz, & Vaughn, 2014; Vaughn, Colvin,
Azria, Caya, & Krzysik, 2001). Also, friends try to avoid negativity and disagreements more than non-
friends (Kochenderfer-Ladd & Ladd, 2015; Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman, 1996).
By the age of three or four years, the majority of children have one or two friendships, which generally
evolve through situations that encourage physical proximity, such as neighbourhood play groups, day care
centres and preschool classrooms. Early childhood friendships are typified by shared activities and the
exchange of toys, as well as social comparisons, which highlight the friends’ similarities as well as their
differences. Studies over the past two decades have established that preschoolers’ friendships are fairly
stable, generally being maintained over the preschool year, and sometimes up to two years (Jugert, Noack,
& Rutland, 2013; Ladd, Herald, & Andrews, 2006; Rubin, Bukowski, & Bowker, 2015). However, due
to the nature of these relationships — being based predominantly around shared activities — preschool
children can end their friendships relatively easily, making preschool friendships more ephemeral than
friendships in middle childhood. For example, young children might end a friendship over disagreements
as trivial as different approaches to building a sandcastle, making a statement such as ‘You don’t build it
that way. I’m not your friend anymore’. However, preschoolers can just as easily reinstate the friendship
a short time later, if shared sandcastle activities are progressing more smoothly, stating, ‘It’s OK. I’ll be
your friend again’. As well, children typically view friendship as equivalent to momentary exchanges,
such as ‘Please give me some choccie. I’ll be your friend’.
So, in early childhood friendship lacks the enduring quality of loyalty that typifies friendships in later
childhood (Buhrmester, 1990; Hartup, 2006). But as preschool children approach school age, their friend-
ships are based less on momentary shared activities and more on mutual support, trust and enduring shared
interests, providing a solid basis for the continuity of friendship (Erwin, 2013; Hay, Payne, & Chadwick,
2004; Park, Lay, & Ramsay, 1993; Rawlins, 2017).
Conceptions of friendship
Young children form internal representations of peer and friendship relations in much the same way
they form internal representations of adult caregivers and attachments (Howes, 1996). In the minds of
younger preschoolers, a friend is someone who plays with you, shares their toys or likes you (Beazidou &
Botsoglou, 2016; Field, Miller, & Field, 1994). So, preschoolers understand some of the unique qualities
of friendship, but their ideas are highly concrete and lack the maturity of older school-age children and
adolescents. For example, in describing what a friend is, a preschooler might say ‘A friend lets you hold
his truck’ (Hartup & Abecassis, 2004).
As preschool children near school age, more permanent, personal qualities affect their conceptions
(Howes, 1996). The crucial features of a friend become more dispositional, such as ‘A friend is someone
who is kind to you’, and frequently relate to how the friend is likely to behave in the future. A friend is
still very much ‘someone you like’, but is also someone who is trustworthy, dependable and who admires
you. These ideas indicate older preschoolers know each other’s preferences better than before, and are
increasingly aware of how their friend thinks and feels about them.
Hartup and Abecassis (2004) and Rawlins (2017) maintain that the central qualities of reciprocity and
mutuality found in young children’s friendships render their ideas regarding friends essentially similar to
those of older children. For example, preschoolers describe reciprocity in terms of concrete exchanges
such as shared play and toy exchange, while older school-aged children speak of loyalty and trustworthi-
ness in their friendships. Thus, Hartup and Abecassis argue for continuity across different developmental
periods in the deeper meaning of friendship, despite the superficial discontinuities that appear in the
expression of friendship ideas.
7.4 Play
LEARNING OUTCOME 7.4 Justify why play is so important to preschoolers’ development, and discuss how
play changes as children approach school age.
Play is a universal phenomenon observed in children all over the world. It is an activity that dominates
the preschool years and makes a vital contribution to children’s development, with important implications
for social information processing, empathy, emotional regulation, conflict management, perspective taking
and skilled social interaction over the lifespan (Creasey, Jarvis, & Berk, 1998; Roskos, 2017; Wood &
Attfield, 2005). As we saw in the discussion of psychosocial development during infancy in an earlier
chapter, even very young infants actively interact with the objects and people in their environment. By
12 months of age, their play interactions with peers become more frequent, particularly if the interactions
involve toys. These developments continue into the period of early childhood.
Play may be defined as activities of a non-serious nature, which are highly individual, are engaged in
for pleasure and which may not be associated with reality. However, theorists and researchers have yet to
reach a consensus on defining play. Saracho and Spodek (1998) proposed a useful six-step approach for
defining play that focuses on the attitudes and dispositions of children. First, they argue play is intrinsi-
cally rather than extrinsically motivated. In other words, children spontaneously engage in play because
it is enjoyable and reinforcing in its own right; rather than being imposed by other people, or being use-
ful in achieving goals such as learning a skill. Second, they consider play to be process-oriented rather
than product-oriented. For instance, young children playing in a sandpit might not care a lot about how
realistic or architecturally aesthetic their sandcastle is. Instead, they are fully engaged in the process of
building the object, digging up sand and slapping it into shape using buckets of water. Third, Saracho
and Spodek argue play is creative and non-literal. Although play sometimes imitates activities children
see around them, their actions are not literal imitations of behaviours. For example, children who are
play-fighting look very different in demeanour and behaviour from children or adults engaged in serious
physical aggression — with smiles and laughter permeating play ‘battles’. Moreover, children playing
‘house’ often grossly exaggerate the maternal behaviours they observe in their own homes. So, chil-
dren engaged in play clearly communicate their behaviour is not a simple imitation, revealing it involves
elaboration and creative processes that transform it into something different. Fourth, play tends to be gov-
erned by implicit rules, which can only be discovered by observing the activity. For example in playing
‘house’, if a child deviates too much from the expected role, the other players are likely to intervene. For
example, they might say, ‘Hey, mothers don’t suck on baby bottles; only babies do!’ Fifth, according to
Saracho and Spodek, play is spontaneous and self-initiated, meaning children freely engage in it and it is
not evoked or controlled by other people. Finally, play is free from major emotional distress. Play does
not normally occur when a child is in a state of fear, uncertainty or another kind of significant stress.
Similarly, researchers such as Ailwood (2003), Almon (2003), Frost, Wortham, and Reifel (2008) and
Saracho (2017) also define play as highly individual, pleasurable and serving a number of physical,
emotional, psychosocial, conflict management and social interaction needs during the early childhood
years.
Types and levels of play

Researchers have been less concerned with a consensus in defining play, and are apparently more inter-
ested in identifying different types of play and detecting developmental sequences in their emergence. One
of the earliest researchers in this regard was Parten, who developed a typology of play from observations
she made of two- to five-year-old children. In this section, we will look at Parten’s (1932) typology, as
well as a later typology of play identified by Grusec and Lytton in 1988.
Parten’s (1932) typology

Parten (1932), in a series of classic studies of peer sociability among two to five year olds, observed
an increase with age in joint interactive play. Mildred Parten concluded that social development during
early childhood occurs in a sequence. She proposed children’s play could be distinguished according to
six different types of play that are differentiated according to levels of sociability. These different types
of play — unoccupied play, solitary play, onlooker play, parallel play, associative play and cooperative
play — emerge according to a developmental sequence. They are outlined in table 7.2.
TABLE 7.2 Parten’s categories of play
Type Description and examples

Unoccupied play The child wanders about, watching whatever is of momentary interest, but does not
become involved in any activity.
Solitary play The child plays alone with different toys or other objects and with no direct or indirect
awareness of or involvement with other children, even if nearby.
Onlooker play The child watches others play without actually entering into the activities; is clearly
involved with what is happening and usually is within speaking distance of the participants.
Parallel play Involves two or more children playing side by side in close proximity and with an
awareness of each other’s presence often with the same toys or enjoying a similar activity;
but do not share toys, talk or interact except in very minimal ways.
Associative play Children engage in a common activity and talk about it with each other, but do not assign
tasks or roles to particular individuals and are not very clear about their goals.
Cooperative play Children consciously form into groups to make something, attain a goal, or dramatise a
situation; one or two members organise and direct the activity, with children assuming
different roles and responsibilities.
Source: Adapted from Parten (1932).

Parten (1932) found parallel play accounted for almost 50 per cent of early childhood play activ-
ity, whereas solitary play occupied about 25 per cent, associative play 20 per cent, and cooperative and
unoccupied play less than 1 per cent of the total play observed. Parallel and solitary play was less com-
mon in older preschoolers, suggesting this type of play declines with age, whereas associative play and
cooperative play, which involve greater social participation, increase with age. In more recent research,
Wyver and Spence (1995) found associative play was the most common type of play exhibited by four-
to five-year-old Australian preschoolers in day care programs, followed by parallel play. Very low levels
of cooperative play were found in this age group, as was also noted by Stagnitti and Unsworth (2000)
and Kowalski, Wyver, Masselos, and De Lacey (2004). Thus, parallel and associative play do not simply
disappear from children’s play repertoires as they mature, but remain prominent playing styles even in
children approaching the school years (Coplan & Arbeau, 2009). Researchers now consider parallel play
to be an important bi-directional bridge between solitary and social play (Robinson, Anderson, Porter,
Hart, & Wouden-Miller, 2003). Nonetheless, research has shown that children with greater social experi-
ence through childcare and early education are more likely to engage in associative and cooperative play
than in parallel or solitary play during the preschool years (Dyer & Moneta, 2006; Sumsion, Grieshaber,
McArdle, & Shield, 2014).
Children progress from parallel play towards cooperative play through a recognisable developmental
sequence of substages which are not articulated in Parten’s broader typology. From simple social play, in
which children exchange toys or share building materials for separate projects; the same children progress
to display complementary and reciprocal play, such as jointly building a sandcastle. This is followed
by cooperative, social pretend play, such as children cooking a meal together on a toy stove. Finally,
complex social pretend play emerges, in which children take specific roles and coordinate their make-
believe scenarios with several peers, such as driver and passengers in a pretend bus (Goncu, Patt, &
Kouba, 2002; Veiga et al, 2017). The complex cooperative play that is witnessed in the closing years of
early childhood is in turn the precursor to the formal games of middle childhood, which are governed by
rules and roles.
Cooperative play promotes social skills to a greater extent than parallel play does, since there is little
or no peer interaction in parallel play. For example, children who spend more of their play time in coop-
erative play have greater overall social competence with their peers (Benenson, Apostololeris, & Parnass,
1997; Fung & Cheng, 2017; Howes & Matheson, 1992). On the other hand, high levels of solitary play
and unoccupied play during the preschool years have recently gained attention as markers for social fear
and shyness, and are associated with social incompetence and internalising problems (Coplan, Closson,
& Arbeau, 2007; Ooi, Nocita, Coplan, Zhu, & Rose-Krasnor, 2017).
Children who are capable of parallel play may play side by side with minimal interaction.
Later researchers have queried whether Parten’s categories form a developmental succession — since
the earlier types of play are not totally displaced by the later types of play; nor are they mutually exclusive.
For instance, children who have advanced sufficiently in socially oriented activities and have begun to
engage in cooperative play may still, at times, exhibit associative and solitary play patterns. It seems
the emergence and frequency of different types of play depends on the environmental demands and the
context of play, as well as on children’s level of social development. For example, children who are
capable of cooperative play and who are newcomers to a play group may engage in long periods of
onlooker behaviour; as an adaptive strategy for group entry (Lindsey & Colwell, 2003; 2013). Despite
some shortcomings, Parten’s distinctions continue to be useful to people who study young children.
Grusec and Lytton’s (1988) typology
In contrast to Parten’s (1932) social approach to classifying children’s play, Grusec and Lytton (1988)
developed an alternative typology of play based on cognitive rather than social criteria. Like Parten’s
typology, Grusec and Lytton’s four types of play develop sequentially, but parallel the major stages of
cognitive development (Piaget, 1962; Smilansky, 1968). Table 7.3 describes these different types of play.
TABLE 7.3 Types of play based on Grusec and Lytton’s typology
Type Description and examples

Functional play Simple, repetitive movements, sometimes with objects or own body. For example,
shovelling sand, pushing a toy, jumping up and down
Constructive play Manipulation of objects in order to construct something. For example, building with blocks
Pretend play Substitutes make-believe, imaginary and dramatic situations for real ones. For example,
playing ‘house’ or ‘Superman’
Games with rules Play is more formal and is governed by fixed rules. For example, hopscotch, hide-and-seek
Source: Adapted from Grusec and Lytton (1988).
Functional play
Functional play is most common during the sensorimotor period, and involves simple, repeated move-
ments such as splashing water or digging in a sandbox. It is carried out for the sheer pleasure of the
activity rather than to create something or to reach a specific goal. Because it requires no symbolic activ-
ity, functional play makes up more than 50 per cent of the play activity of older infants and toddlers,
with a peak age of two to three years. By kindergarten or Year 1, functional play has decreased to less
than 25 per cent of total play time. This shift occurs partly because some of the physical activities typical
of functional play become incorporated into more symbolic forms of play (Hetherington, Cox, & Cox,
1979; Sponseller & Jaworski, 1979).
Constructive play
Constructive play involves manipulation of physical objects, such as using building blocks to build a
tower or a bridge. This form of play is evident in preschoolers, with the peak age for its appearance
three to four years. It is not always clear at what point functional play ends and constructive play begins.
For example, a child first appears to be building a sand mountain, but then loses track of the goal and
ends up simply shovelling and throwing the sand for the fun of it. However, as children grow older, the
constructive elements of play become quite clear. Not only do children build sand mountains; they build
them in a certain shape and perhaps make a road leading up the mountain, before adding a toy car or two
for good measure.
Pretend play
Pretend play, also known as fantasy or dramatic play, dominates the preoperational period and substi-
tutes imaginary situations for real ones — such as in playing ‘house’ or ‘Spiderman’. The peak period
for this form of play is between six and seven years. However, pretend play emerges earlier than this,
with simple forms observed in toddlerhood — coinciding with the time the child is first able to men-
tally represent objects. For example, a child imitates washing their hands and face but without any soap
and water. During the preschool period, pretend play becomes more complex, with family roles such as
mother, father, baby and even a family pet. As well, character roles based on fictional figures, such as
Batman, Shrek and Superman, might be dramatised by preschool children. Pretend play increases in fre-
quency and complexity during the preschool and early school years, but declines later in middle childhood
(Dunn, 1985; Howes & Matheson, 1992; Kavanaugh & Engel, 1998). Berk, Mann, and Organ (2006) have
established a link between pretend play and children’s emotional health.
Pretend play is now recognised as an important vehicle for the development of social and emotional
self-regulation in young children. In fantasy scenarios, children are able to revisit emotionally arousing
experiences in a safe manner, and are able to play out different social roles in a secure environment.
Pretend play is also important for cognitive development, and is a good example of how new forms of
experience are assimilated into existing schemes of cognitive understanding. In addition to allowing the
child to practise and expand schemes they have acquired, pretend play contributes to the consolidation and
expansion of cognitive skills during early childhood (Piaget, 1962; Vygotsky, 1967). Singer and Singer
(2006) suggest that when it is nurtured by family members and others, early pretend play performs an
important role in the development of fantasy and make-believe in middle childhood, and constitutes a
vital antecedent to the development of adult consciousness (Russ, 2016).
Preschool children often dramatise character roles based on fictional figures.
Games with rules

Games with rules, such as Simon Says and hide-and-seek, first appear during the concrete operational
period, when children are five or six years old. It peaks in frequency towards the end of primary school
(Rubin & Krasnor, 1980). The rules for such games develop out of the more flexible, informal rules of
pretend play. Instead of continuing to negotiate roles and behaviours as they go along, young children
gradually learn to agree on rules before they start playing, and to stand by their agreements during a play
episode. Due to their greater formality, games with rules can become traditions that are handed from one
sibling to another, from older to younger playmates, and from generation to generation. For example,
hopscotch has been a popular children’s game in different cultures since the seventeenth century.
Theories of play
Prominent theorists such as Piaget, Freud, Vygotsky, Bandura and Erikson acknowledge play activities
make a major contribution to the development of young children’s social and emotional skills, as well
as to the development of their cognitions. The various theoretical approaches to play can be classified
as psychoanalytic, learning, ethological and cognitive, emphasising different aspects and developmental
outcomes of play. We will now look at these in more detail.
Psychoanalytic theory
Freud and Erikson’s psychoanalytic theories emphasise the social and emotional importance of play in
early childhood and, in particular, the importance of fantasy play. According to these theorists, play
gives children an opportunity to gain mastery over their anxieties and conflicts, by allowing them to
symbolically rearrange social situations so they feel they are in control. Following painful and upset-
ting experiences, such as separation due to a parent being hospitalised, children may exhibit repetition
compulsion — repeating the experience again and again in symbolic play. According to Erikson (1972),
such play not only dramatises the underlying problem, it presents a solution to it. By acting out the arrival
of the ambulance, and playing the role of doctor to a teddy bear who is successfully ‘treated’, the child
gains a feeling of control over the situation. This provides a resolution to their feelings of distress. So,
play provides an opportunity for catharsis — the release of upsetting feelings that cannot be expressed
otherwise — allowing children to gain increased power over their environment by rearranging it to suit
their own needs and abilities (Lewis, 1993). Such acting out is used therapeutically with children who
have been traumatised, using similar techniques to play therapy (Drewes, Carey, & Schaefer, 2003; Gil
& Drewes, 2015).
According to psychoanalytic theory, play allows a child to use fantasy to gain satisfaction for wishes
and desires which are impossible for them to fulfil due to limitations in their abilities and life situation.
For example, children act out jealousies involved in sibling rivalry by punishing an older brother and
sister who are symbolised by stuffed toys; or they play at obtaining things that are currently out of their
reach — such as having contact with an absentee parent.
Social learning theory
Social learning theorists such as Bandura (1989) view play as a means by which children progressively
learn adult skills and social roles, including gender roles. According to social learning theory, children add
to their behavioural repertoires through direct reinforcement (their experience of being directly rewarded
and punished for their actions), vicarious reinforcement (observations of adults and other children being
reinforced for their activities), and cognitive or self-reinforcement (the experience of setting a goal and
achieving it). Bandura maintains play is a major way in which children’s gender roles are established.
For example, children’s parents provide them with gender-typed playthings, such as construction toys
for boys and dolls for girls, and reinforce gender-stereotyped play by their reactions to it. According to
Bandura, fathers are particularly sensitive to culturally inappropriate cross-gender play patterns by their
sons, negatively reinforcing such patterns when they emerge; for example, reacting negatively if their
sons start to play with dolls as in the Barbie-doll game scenario at the beginning of the chapter. This is a
trend peers continue and extend. Gender-role development is discussed in more detail later in the chapter.
Ethological theory
Ethological theorists such as Pellegrini and Smith (1998) seek parallel developmental explanations for
human behaviours that are seen in the animal world. Many young mammals exhibit play-like behaviour
that is a precursor to adult survival behaviours. For example, young lion cubs can be seen engaging
in behaviour that looks very similar to human rough-and-tumble play, in which they learn important
skills such as how to catch and kill prey, but in a safe environment (Coplan & Arbeau, 2009). Similarly,
children’s physical activity play, vigorous physical activity that occurs in a playful context — including
running, climbing, chasing and play fighting — serves a variety of adaptive developmental functions, such
as advancing their motor coordination and giving them survival skills for later encounters with aggressive
peers in the school playground.
Like other mammals, physical activity play in humans begins in early infancy, peaks during child-
hood, declines during adolescence, and all but disappears by adulthood. It takes three different forms.
The first is rhythmic stereotypes, repetitive movements such as infants’ spontaneous rocking and kicking
behaviours, and repetitive physical ‘play’ interactions between parents and young children such as bounc-
ing, tossing or spinning that are thought to help infants improve their sensorimotor skills. A second form
of physical activity play, exercise play, emerges at the end of the first year. Exercise play includes chasing,
jumping, pushing and pulling, lifting, and climbing. It peaks in the preschool and early primary years,
and contributes to the development of physical strength, endurance and motor coordination. The third
form, rough-and-tumble play, includes vigorous behaviours such as wrestling, grappling, kicking, tum-
bling and chasing in a playfully aggressive way. Rough-and-tumble play increases through the preschool
years and peaks at around eight to ten years, just prior to adolescence. Researchers widely agree that
rough-and-tumble play provides a way for children, particularly boys, to assess their own physical
strength in comparison to their peers; to establish dominance status in peer groups; and to gain skills
in recognising and responding appropriately to the emotional states of others (Maccoby, 1998; Pellegrini,
2005; Vaughn & Santos, 2009; Vaughn et al., 2016).
Cognitive theory
Cognitive theorists such as Piaget and Vygotsky view play as a primary means for cognitive develop-
ment. Piaget (1962) recognised the importance of object-oriented play in children’s understanding of the
physical properties of things, and of symbolic play in the crucial realisation of the difference between
reality and make-believe at age three or four. According to Piaget, fantasy play bridges the gap between
children’s current understanding of the world and, later, more complex world views they are not yet able
to comprehend. In fantasy play, the usual limitations of both physical and social reality are temporarily
suspended, permitting freer and easier mental manipulations. So, Piaget reasoned children have a progres-
sively reduced need for pretend and make-believe play as they get older and develop a more competent
understanding of reality.
By contrast, Vygotsky (1978) viewed symbolic play as an opportunity for children to readily extend
themselves into competencies they do not have in reality. For example, children can be a fire chief or
a mother in fantasy play, acting out behaviours beyond their actual age and competencies. Children can
practise in areas they are not proficient in yet as part of pretend play; with their actions reflecting the
social skills and cognitive abilities they are striving to master through their normal development. For
example, in playing ‘house’, children realise their ideas about being a good parent, rehearsing what they
have observed in the home environment. So, according to Vygotsky, symbolic play is linked to social
competence as well as to cognitive development. Australian research establishing a link between the
degree of pretend play children engage in and their level of popularity, cooperativeness, friendliness and
patience thus supports this contention (Perry & Bussey, 1984).
Parental and environmental influences on play

Play is essentially a self-directed and spontaneous activity in which children impose their own struc-
ture on the environment. However, the composition of children’s play is heavily influenced by the range
of play opportunities that caregivers provide and the types of play they encourage. For example, a par-
ent who structures their child’s play, insisting it always needs to be a learning experience, restricts free
play opportunities and makes play stressful rather than rewarding. Also, as children’s lives are becoming
increasingly regimented as part of busy family schedules and structured enrichment activities are heavily
marketed to parents, some children are experiencing proportionally less time in free-play activities. These
activities are essential to cognitive, physical and social–emotional development. Moreover, the buffering
effect of free play on stress in young children is reduced by overscheduling (Ginsberg, 2007).
In dramatic play, children take on pretend roles, like the ‘construction worker’ in this photo.
Access to realistic props such as the hard hat and safety vest in the photograph encourage dramatic play, but
children will readily substitute other objects for what they need in their pretend play.
Parents are tempted to use the television and computer games as a babysitter, letting them do essential
household tasks. According to a review of the literature carried out by van-der-Voort and Valkenburg
(1994), extensive passive activities such as television viewing can reduce the amount of time available for
active play. Moreover, watching programs with high levels of violence has been associated with decreased
levels of fantasy play. However, Comstock and Scharrer (2007) promote the idea that television can in
fact increase fantasy play in young children, maintaining that young children spend about double the time
in play that they spend in television viewing.
A landmark study of British preschool settings by Sylva, Roy, and Painter (1980) established that a
balance between structured activities and free (unstructured) play is essential for the adequate develop-
ment of young children. Parents and other adults can encourage and support young children’s play by the
provision of time, ideas and materials that are suitable for the developmental level of the child.
In Western societies, the primary play context for increasing numbers of young children is no longer
the home, but instead a childcare centre or an early education program. Children enrolled in centres with
qualified staff, developmentally appropriate programs, and safe, well-designed, and well-equipped play
areas develop more complex forms of pretend play at earlier ages, engage in much less unoccupied and
solitary play, and interact more positively with adults than children in less adequate centres do (Howes
& Matheson, 1992; Susa & Benedict, 1994).
Even when time, space and toys are limited, most children find a way to play. They use common
household items such as pots and pans for object-oriented play, as well as outdoor items such as sticks,
rocks, sand, empty cans and pieces of plastic as props for their make-believe play. Even so, the range and
developmental appropriateness of children’s play activities is likely to be more restricted in less supportive
settings where there are very few materials available. For example, it would be more challenging for
children to engage in make-believe play about a hospital without having appropriate props. A safety vest
and a hard hat provide a ready stimulus for role-playing.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Four-year-old Hamish lives on a farm in a rural area. Nicky and Ben, Hamish’s parents, have read many
parenting magazines on the importance of play in the early years, and are wondering if they should drive
Hamish into the nearby town twice a week to participate in play activities at the local preschool. What
advice would you give to Nicky and Ben and why? Also, how could Nicky and Ben provide worthwhile
play activities for Hamish at home?
7.5 The development of prosocial and

antisocial behaviour
LEARNING OUTCOME 7.5 Identify the factors that contribute to the development of young children’s
prosocial and antisocial behaviour.
During the preschool years, children experience a diverse range of emotions, from anger to joy to intense
sadness. As they progress through early childhood, the outward expression of emotions in terms of
behaviours is increasingly under children’s control, but there are still frequently episodes where chil-
dren are overwhelmed by their emotions and this is expressed in their outward behaviour. An example of
this can be seen in the scenario at the beginning of this chapter, in which Miley, overcome by feelings of
frustration and anger at her mother not understanding her, reacted aggressively by stamping her foot.
Two broad types of behaviour seen in the early childhood years can set the scene for children’s long-
term development: (1) antisocial behaviour and (2) prosocial behaviour. These types of behaviour do not
exist in isolation; rather, they can have a profound impact on other people. Prosocial behaviour includes
selflessness, helpfulness, sharing and sympathy, which are valued in all societies and are the focus of many
of the world’s religions. Prosocial behaviour has positive effects on other people and promotes good social
relationships, while antisocial behaviour has the opposite effect. Antisocial behaviour is synonymous with
aggression and includes a wide range of behaviours that bring about harm or negative outcomes for other
people. In this section we examine the development of both types of behaviour during the period of early
childhood.
Prosocial behaviour
Prosocial behaviour (or altruistic behaviour) refers to positive social actions that are directed towards
other people rather than the self and that benefit others (Sprinrad & Eisenberg, 2009; 2017a). Hay and
Cook (2007) identify three strands of prosocial behaviour in early childhood: feeling for another (e.g.
friendliness, empathic concern); working with another (e.g. helping someone accomplish a task); and min-
istering to another (e.g. nurturing, comforting). Some prosocial behaviours are termed altruistic, meaning
they are solely aimed at supporting others with no expectation of reward. Even so, it can be argued few
acts of kindness are truly unselfish. Following this line of argument, altruistic acts can be motivated by
reciprocity (the expectation of favourable treatment in return), the possibility of a future reward, by a
wish for social recognition, and for relief of negative personal feelings such as guilt. Regardless of the
underlying motivations, many altruistic and prosocial behaviours emerge during early childhood. They
are demonstrated by preschoolers who share their snacks with other children who have none, who spon-
taneously help their teacher put away play equipment, and who try to comfort a child if they are crying.
Many developmentalists believe empathy — the ability to vicariously experience the emotions
of another person — plays a key role in the development of prosocial behaviour, including altruis-
tic behaviour (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006; Eisenberg, Spinrad, Taylor, & Liew, 2017). Some
researchers identify different aspects of empathy. Emotional empathy is the ability to experience the feel-
ings expressed by another individual. Behavioural empathy comprises attempts to assist another person
in distress. As well, a cognitive component has been identified, consisting of the ability to understand a
distressing situation, and to recognise the emotional state of another person. (Volbrecht, 2008). This cog-
nitive empathy is related to children’s theory of mind, discussed in the chapter on physical and cognitive
development in early childhood.
It is believed empathy develops quite early, with evidence babies and toddlers share the feelings of
people around them (Volbrecht, 2008). In an extensive experimental study of 584 twins aged 12 to
25 months, Volbrecht found that these young children responded to physical pain reactions simulated by
their primary caregiver, with facial expressions of concern and kissing the affected body part. However,
it is not until the preschool period that empathy can be effectively acted upon to bring about prosocial
behaviour. For example, young children confronted with another person’s emotional pain might simply
react with increasing personal distress. However, if the emotional sharing in empathy can be converted
into sympathy, involving feelings of concern for another person, prosocial and altruistic acts are more
likely to result. Indeed, Eisenberg and her colleagues have found that sympathy and not empathy is linked
significantly to prosocial actions, and experiencing sympathy makes pro-social behaviour more likely to
occur (Eisenberg, 2003). Hart, Burock, London, and Miraglia (2003) argue that empathy is not directly or
strongly linked to altruistic acts. This is because the emotional sharing involved in empathy may simply
lead to increasing personal distress in young children, rather than to concern for the other person. The
emotional bridge between empathy and sympathy appears then to be a key to helpful actions.
Individual differences in empathy and sympathy can be seen in early childhood. An early observational
study of children at a day care centre playground by Sawin (1979), found a crying child generated concern
in other children. While 50 per cent of nearby children displayed empathic responses, looking as though
they would cry themselves, only 20 per cent of the children displayed sympathetic, prosocial responses,
trying to console the child directly. The remaining children showed non-sympathetic responses, stand-
ing by and observing, or going to look for the teacher to intervene, as well as distinctly non-prosocial
responses, threatening revenge on the child who caused the upset. Later research confirmed Sawin’s ear-
lier findings, with young children in day care settings responding to crying with empathy and less often
with sympathetic behaviour (Howes & Farver, 1987; Lin & Grisham, 2017; Phinney, Feshbach, & Farer,
1986). However, a more recent study by Demetriou and Hay (2004) found 50 per cent of preschoolers
responded to distress in playmates by attempting to console them in some way. In a review of this and
other studies of sympathetic behaviour, Hay and Cook (2007) reveal that the rate of response to distress
by young children compares favourably to that observed in adults.
Individual differences in empathy are influenced by a number of factors. Volbrecht’s (2008) twin study
found that genetics more heavily influenced cognitive empathy (children’s perspective-taking ability and
their understanding of distress), while environmental factors were more influential for empathy-related
concern and helping behaviour in young children. Demetriou and Hay’s (2004) study suggests the degree
of familiarity with peers is a factor in converting the common empathic emotional responses seen in
preschoolers to acts of altruism. Other research has shown preschoolers’ temperament is another factor
that affects this process, with good emotional regulation, assertiveness and social skills more likely to
produce prosocial behaviour than the opposite characteristics (Bengtsson, 2005). Parenting also plays an
important role. Warm, emotionally expressive and sympathetic parenting with active instruction about
kindness increases the likeliness of eliciting high levels of sympathetic behaviour in young children
(Eisenberg, 2003; Lee, 2016; Michalik et al., 2007; Strayer & Roberts, 2004).
Prosocial behaviour is not limited to empathy and sympathetic responses when someone is in distress.
It also involves sharing, general helpfulness and fairness in interactions. Helpfulness is well established
by the time a child reaches the preschool years, and includes providing practical assistance to other chil-
dren and to adults (Eisenberg & Mussen, 1989; Hay & Cook, 2007; Radke-Yarrow & Zahn-Waxler,
1987). General helpfulness is a more common prosocial behaviour in four year olds than other proso-
cial behaviours, such as sharing and giving affection and praise, or reassuring and protecting (Bower
& Casas, 2016; Grusec, 1991). The motivations underlying general helpfulness undergo developmental
changes from early childhood. Younger children weigh the cost to self in carrying out helpful acts more
than older children do, and this factor is thought to influence age-related changes in prosocial behaviour.
A six-stage model explaining the changes in motivations for altruism proposes a gradual transforma-
tion from externalised, hedonistic, self-oriented reasons for helping others, to internalised, other-oriented
motivations (Hay & Cook, 2007).
Prosocial behaviours increase with age due to gains in cognitive functioning, social skills, and an
increase in socialisation skills (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998; Spinrad & Eisenberg, 2017b). However, wide
individual differences can be seen in the general prosocial behaviour of young children of a similar age.
These individual differences are partly the result of the interactions of a number of child factors, includ-
ing birth order, gender and child temperament. Some studies suggest girls are generally more prosocial
than boys (Eisenberg & Morris, 2004) and that firstborn children tend to be more prosocial than later-
born children, possibly because of the greater opportunity they have for assuming responsible roles in the
family.
There is considerable evidence that children’s temperament — their dispositional emotionality —
affects prosocial behaviour. Young children who are active, outgoing and emotionally expressive, or
easy children, tend to display higher levels of prosocial behaviour than difficult children or
slow-to-warm-up children, possibly because their temperament allows them to initiate and sustain peer
interaction. Comparatively, difficult and slow-to-warm-up children are more likely to avoid peer con-
tact (Farver & Branstetter, 1994). Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, and Reiser (2000) argue moderate levels of
emotional regulation are optimal for the fostering of prosocial behaviour. Very high levels may result in
children who are rigid and controlled, and show less socially skilled behaviour. Moreover, temperament
during the early childhood years is predictive of later prosocial behaviour. Prior and her colleagues, who
conducted the Australian Temperament Project between 1983 and 2000, showed emotional regulation is
the pre-eminent predictor of prosocial behaviour, with temperament data gathered when children were
five to six years old predicting 16 per cent of the variance in social competence in early adolescence
(Prior, Sanson, Smart, & Oberklaid, 2000).
Environmental factors also play an important role in the individual differences seen in children’s pro-
social behaviour. Most studies to date have examined parental influences on the development of prosocial
behaviour (Knafo & Plomin, 2006). Children whose parents provide opportunities for them to practise
prosocial behaviours and who provide appropriate behavioural models are more likely to develop these
behaviours (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998; Spinrad & Eisenberg, 2017b). For example, Ladd and Hart (1992)
found that children whose parents frequently arranged for them to play with peers displayed higher levels
of prosocial behaviour. Furthermore, the parenting styles children are subjected to may influence the
development of prosocial behaviour. Children whose parents have a predominately warm authoritative
parenting style engage in more prosocial, empathic and compassionate behaviour, and less antisocial
behaviour in various play settings than children whose parents have an authoritarian parenting style
(Clark & Ladd, 2000; Hart, DeWolf, Wozniak, & Burts, 1992; Michalik et al., 2007; Strayer & Roberts,
2004).
These environmental factors suggest the acquisition of prosocial behaviours can be maximised by
practical steps being taken by parents and teachers. Two techniques that have proven successful in
increasing such behaviour among preschoolers are (1) verbal approval and encouragement for being
empathic, respectful and helpful to others; and (2) arranging regular play opportunities that support and
encourage sharing, cooperation and helping.
Antisocial behaviour
Antisocial behaviour refers to intentional negative actions that are directed towards other people and
that harm others, such as stealing, lying, physical assault, damage to or destruction of property, verbal
abuse, shaming and undermining of others’ relationships and reputations. Such acts are synonymous
with aggression, which emerges at the end of infancy and develops in different forms throughout early
childhood (Little, Rodkin, & Hawley, 2013). These forms of aggression are now outlined.
Instrumental aggression consists of negative acts that are directed at another person in order to secure
something. For example, young preschoolers may push another child to get into a line for orange juice,
or might grab a toy they want from another child’s hands.
Hostile aggression differs from instrumental aggression in that its intent is not to gain something, but
to directly or indirectly harm or physically hurt another person or thing. Hostile aggression comes in three
varieties: (1) physical aggression, (2) verbal aggression and (3) relational aggression. Physical aggression
includes acts such as biting, hitting or kicking another person, using an instrument to physically harm
another person, and property destruction. Verbal aggression involves threats of physical harm, teasing and
name-calling. Relational aggression consists of undermining or damaging another person’s relationships
through insinuation, rumour spreading and friendship exploitation (Merrell, Buchanan, & Tran, 2006).
Early preschoolers display fairly high levels of instrumental aggression as a rudimentary method of
obtaining what they want. As the preschool years advance and children are better able to delay gratifi-
cation and inhibit impulsive actions, this type of aggression declines (Tremblay, 2000). However, there
is a concomitant increase in hostile aggression, with physically aggressive acts dominating young chil-
dren’s repertoires. Towards the end of early childhood physical aggression declines and verbal aggression
increases (Tremblay et al., 1999; Tremblay, Vitaro, & Côté, 2017).
Reactive aggression and proactive aggression are further ways of classifying aggression. Reactive
aggression most often involves physical harm or attack. It occurs as a result of being deprived of some-
thing, being hurt or feeling frustrated, and can be a defensive response in children who have a hostile
mind set. It is typified by rage, loss of control and disorganised lashing out at anything and everything
(Dodge, Coie, & Lynam, 2006; Hymel & Perren, 2015; van Lier, Vitaro, Barker, Brendgen, Tremblay,
& Boivin, 2012). Miley and Patrick’s tantrums when playing with Barbie dolls (at the beginning of the
chapter) is an example of reactive aggression. This type of aggression is the focus of the frustration-
aggression hypothesis, which predicts aggressive acts as a result of having one’s desires being thwarted
(Dodge, Coie, & Lynam, 2007; Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer, & Sears, 1939). In contrast to reactive
aggression that is spontaneous in nature, proactive aggression is aggression that involves premeditated
acts of meanness. Towards the end of early childhood, sex differences in aggression become apparent.
Boys demonstrate more physical aggression than girls do, and research indicates a small but significant
preference for verbal and relational aggression by girls (Page & Charteris, 2017; Underwood, Galen, &
Paquette, 2001). Tremblay (2008) maintains that despite decades of research, the mechanisms underlying
these sex differences are still unclear. Nonetheless, over the years, several theories have been promoted
to explain the development of sex differences in aggression. For example, Crick, Casas, and Mosher
(1997), Crick, Ostrov, Appleyard, Jansen, and Casas (2004), Crick et al. (2006), and Crick, Ostrov, and
Werner (2006) suggested the sex differences in aggression reflect sex-typed social goals. Boys are more
likely to use overt, physical forms of aggression that hinder the dominance goals of other boys. Girls
are more likely to use verbal, relational forms of aggression that hinder the social intimacy goals typical
of girls’ peer relationships (Murray-Close, Nelson, Ostrov, Casas, & Crick, 2016). Arnold, McWilliams,
and Harvey-Arnold (1998) used learning theory to explain sex differences in aggression, arguing that
parents and preschool teachers punish similar acts of physical aggression more strongly in girls than in
boys. These authors maintain that greater adult laxness towards boys’ aggressive behaviour leads to an
escalating cycle of coercion, which might well account for the different developmental trajectories of
boys and girls in regard to antisocial behaviour. More recently, Benenson, Nicholson, Waite, Roy, and
Simpson (2001) explained sex differences in aggression in terms of group dynamics. From early
childhood, boys play in larger, more boisterous and competitive groups than girls do, with girls prefer-
ring dyads or trios. Benenson et al. cite a strong positive correlation between group size and aggressive
behaviour, and because boys are more likely to socialise in large groups this factor is thought to give rise
to greater incidence of male physical aggression (Lussier, Corrado, & Tzoumakis, 2012).
The harmful effects of physical and verbal aggression have been acknowledged for a long time (Guerra,
Williams, & Sadek, 2011; Neilsen-Hewett & Bussey, 2017). More recently, relational aggression has
been recognised as particularly damaging, since, unlike physical aggression — which is over quickly —
relational aggression can continue for weeks and months at a time (Godleski, Kamper, Ostrov, Hart, &
Blakely-McClure, 2015; Nelson, Robinson, & Hart, 2005). According to Rigby, a prominent Australian
researcher into bullying, relational aggression may constitute a significant aspect of bullying in children
and, because it can continue for extended periods, is particularly harmful to children (Rigby, 2013, 2017).
Children who are frequent targets of relationally aggressive acts, and girls in particular, experience more
psychological distress, than their non-targeted peers. The effects of bullying are discussed in detail in the
chapter on psychosocial development in adolescence.
It is not just the victims of aggression who are harmed by the behaviour. Increasingly, research is finding
negative outcomes for the perpetrators. Longitudinal research by Crick, Ostrov, and Werner (2006) has
revealed that relationally aggressive boys and girls are at risk of future maladjustment, involving both
externalising and internalising behaviours. However, boys who exhibit relationally aggressive behaviour
are more at risk of maladjustment than are girls who exhibit the same behaviour. Crick et al. conjecture
that this is because gender atypical behaviour, such as relational aggressiveness in boys, is penalised more
severely than is gender typical behaviour.
Factors affecting the development of aggression

Aggression in some form is a regular part of development in early childhood. However, there are wide
individual differences in aggressive behaviour, with some children exhibiting extremely high levels of
aggression that are a threat to normal psychosocial development. In some children, elevated levels of early
childhood aggression persist into childhood and adolescence (Ehrenreich, Beron, & Underwood, 2016).
Highly aggressive preschoolers may later be diagnosed with conduct disorder, which includes age-
inappropriate aggressive behaviours such as theft, vandalism and assault (Michalska, Zeffiro, & Decety,
2016; Sterzer, Stadler, Krebs, Kleinschmidt, & Poustka, 2005). Because of its clinical significance and
social destructiveness, much research has been devoted to explaining why some children become more
aggressive than others, with a number of important factors contributing to the development of aggression.
These factors are now discussed.
Temperamental influences on aggression

Temperamental differences that are present at birth may make aggressive behaviour and parent–child
conflict more likely during early childhood, a finding that has been confirmed internationally (Cabrera,
Hofferth, & Hancock, 2014; Rubin et al., 2006; Rubin, Burgess, Dwyer, & Hastings, 2003; Yan &
Ansari, 2017). Babies who are less able to regulate their physical and emotional states and who are
high in emotional intensity are especially prone to overt expressions of anger and frustration in the form
of aggressive behaviour. In contrast, babies who more easily regulate these states are more likely to
cope constructively with feelings of anger and frustration. Consistent with this view, Eisenberg and her
colleagues found babies with especially ‘difficult’ temperaments at six months of age experienced sig-
nificantly more conflict with their mothers at age three than babies with less difficult temperaments did
(Eisenberg & Fabes, 1992; Eisenberg, Fabes, Nyman, Bernzweig, & Pinuelas, 1994; Eisenberg,
Hernández, & Spinrad, 2017; Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Valiente, 2016). As three year olds, these children
were more likely to be uncooperative, to ignore their parents’ disciplinary efforts, and to respond in
insulting and unpleasant ways. Their frustrated parents used a wide variety of methods in an attempt to
control them, including vetoing certain activities, threatening punishment and using physical restraint.
The ongoing interactions between these difficult children and their parents resulted in an escalating
cycle of aggression. Furthermore, a 15-year longitudinal study conducted by Caspi and his colleagues
found a relationship between early childhood temperament, including emotional instability, restlessness,
impulsiveness and negativism, and problems with aggression during middle childhood and adolescence
(Caspi et al., 1995).
Even so, many active or difficult babies do not become aggressive three year olds, and many aggres-
sive three year olds become well-socialised children and adolescents, emphasising the importance of
appropriate parenting, even for difficult children. Dodge, Greenberg, Malone, and the Conduct Problems
Prevention Research Group (2008) propose that conduct problems are more likely to arise when tem-
peramentally problematic preschoolers encounter parents who are unable or unwilling to appropriately
regulate and manage their children’s behaviour. Indeed, Stright, Gallagher, and Kelley (2008) found that
young children with difficult temperaments were more susceptible to different parenting styles than were
children with non-problematic temperaments, when social–emotional adjustment in first grade was the
outcome. Parenting styles are discussed in relation to the evolution of children’s aggression in the fol-
lowing section.
Parenting styles and aggression

Styles of parenting and the overall quality of the parent–child relationship can significantly influence the
type and level of children’s aggression during early childhood. There is evidence that permissive, unin-
volved and authoritarian parenting styles are associated with higher levels of aggression (Rubin et al.,
2003; Wolfradt, Hempel, & Miles, 2003; Yaffe, 2017). Early research by Hart, Ladd, and Burleson (1990)
and Putallaz (1987) established that these less effective parenting styles contribute significantly to aggres-
siveness in preschoolers. Later research has built upon these findings, but has examined finer effects
involving the gender of parents and children, and the influence of parenting styles on different types of
aggression. In a study of American preschoolers, Casas et al. (2006) established that authoritarian parent-
ing (such as impulsive and overly harsh use of discipline) and permissive parenting (involving low levels
of control) were both significantly associated with children’s relational aggression with peers. However,
paternal authoritarian parenting and maternal permissive parenting were important predictors for boys’
relational aggression, whereas the authoritarian styles of both parents predicted girls’ relational aggres-
sion. Girls’ and boys’ physical aggression was found to be unrelated to their fathers’ parenting style,
but was predicted by their mothers’ permissive parenting. This study shows that gender roles have an
important mediating effect in how parenting styles influence the development of different types of aggres-
sion, with parental modelling of gender-typed behaviours playing a possible role. In a study involving
Australian and American children, Russell, Hart, Robinson, and Olsen (2003) found a link between
fathers’ authoritarian parenting and child aggression in both American and Australian preschoolers — a
finding similar to that of Casas et al., and providing evidence for the universality of the linkages between
parenting style and child aggression.
From the findings regarding the less adaptive styles of parenting, it is apparent that children whose
parents are able to accept their children’s hostile–aggressive impulses and actions and who guide their
children’s efforts to discover non-hostile methods for resolving conflicts and asserting their needs are
more likely to learn to manage their aggression in adaptive ways. The childrearing orientation of such
parents closely corresponds to the authoritative parenting style, which is strongly associated with the
development of prosocial behaviour. As Tremblay (2008) points out, such parenting assists young children
to inhibit hostile reactions, which are natural responses during infancy, and have to be unlearned as
children mature through the preschool years.
Media influences on aggression

Television programs and movies as well as computer and video games that portray violence exert a
strong influence on young children. Over the years, numerous studies have been carried out on televi-
sion violence. The reviews of this body of work have concluded viewing televised violence can increase
hostile emotions, cognitions and aggressive behaviour (Anderson, 2004; Anderson & Bushman, 2001).
More recently violent computer and video games have added to the repertoire of media violence, and
research into children playing these games has reached similar conclusions (Anderson, 2004; Anderson
et al., 2003). Exposure to media violence removes inhibitions to violent behaviour in children already
prone to anger and aggression. It can even promote aggressive behaviour in typically non-aggressive chil-
dren (Bushman & Huesmann, 2001; Clarke & Kutz-Costes, 1997; Comstock & Scharrer, 2006; Ostrov,
Gentile, & Crick, 2006; Ostrov, Gentile, & Mullins, 2013). As well, prolonged exposure to vicarious vio-
lence habituates children to aggression in everyday life, so their tolerance of violence increases and they
are less aroused by acts of aggression (Anderson et al., 2003).
Early exposure to media violence can have long-term detrimental effects. Huesmann, Moise-Titus,
Podolski, and Eron (2003; Huesman et al., 2017), in a follow-up study of young adults who were first
surveyed as young children in the 1970s, found strong evidence of a link between childhood exposure
to television violence and later aggressive acts as young adults. The more that children identified with
television characters and the more they believed that televised violence was real, the stronger was the
association between exposure to televised violence and later aggressive and antisocial acts. These findings
also held up despite variations in children’s initial levels of aggression, different parenting styles, and
differing intellectual capacity and social status, signalling a robust linkage between media violence and
antisocial behaviour. Reviewing decades of studies, Bushman and Huesmann (2001) equate the strength of
linkage typically found between media violence and aggression with the linkage found between cigarette
smoking and lung cancer.
Of all age groups, children under six years of age show the strongest correlations between exposure
to media violence and aggressive behaviour (Bushman & Huesmann, 2001). Because of their stage of
cognitive and psychosocial development, preschoolers are less able to cope — both intellectually and
emotionally — with media violence than older children are. They often fail to understand the motives
of characters and the subtleties of plots in violent television dramas that are designed for much older
audiences, and have greater difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality. Also, young children identify
with aggressive characters more strongly, a factor that is related to increases in aggression (Huesmann
et al., 2003; Huesmann et al., 2017).
Adult programs on television contain a steady diet of violence, with many popular shows devoted to
murder and subsequent forensic investigations, such as CSI and Bones. Children including preschoolers
may be exposed to such violent and gruesome content due to laxness in adult supervision of television
viewing. In the United States, Gerbner and Morgan (2010) reported that children are exposed to
8000 media murders by the time they finish elementary school. Some television programs designed
specifically for children also contain aggressive acts, particularly animated material such as cartoons.
Playing violent video and computer games such as Duke Nukem and Doom has, according to Olsen
(2004), become a ‘routine activity’ for American youth. Exposure to such material poses similar
problems to those of television violence for young children and their parents (Anderson et al., 2003;
Emes, 1997; Roland & Gross, 1995). In Australia, there are legal standards for the content for children’s
programming. The Australian Children’s Television Standards state, ‘No program, advertisement or other
material broadcast . . . may . . . present images or events in a way which is unduly frightening or unduly
distressing to children’ (Australian Communications and Media Authority [ACMA], 2009, - Amended
and Varied, 2014, p. 16). New Zealand has a similar system of broadcasting codes and programming
restrictions. However, not all countries have such legal requirements. In the absence of government
regulation of television program content in the United States, new television sets must be equipped with
an electronic device that allows parents to block undesirable programs. So-called ‘lock boxes’ are also
available to cable subscribers (Federal Communications Commission, 2000, 2015). In contrast, Canada
has a broadcasting code that bans realistic violence in children’s programs and does not allow cartoons
with a violent central theme. Moreover, adult-rated programs cannot be screened until after 9.00 pm
(Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, 2003). Ironically, many Canadian children have access to the
unregulated television programming on US channels, so Canada also mandates electronic blocking.
Despite the presence of electronic devices and the knowledge that media regulations are in place,
parents cannot be lulled into a sense of complacency. Indeed, a survey of Australian parents showed
that only about half those interviewed were aware of important aspects of the Children’s Television
Standards. Parents need to be aware of the age-related suitability coding given to children’s television
programs, especially where young children are concerned (ACMA, 2016). More importantly, active
adult supervision and help in understanding television programs as well as other electronic media are
highly important for preschoolers. Nonetheless, many parents of young children use television, videos,
computers and handheld games to keep children passively occupied while they attend to other aspects of
their busy lives. The 2017 Australian Communications and Media Authority report ‘Children’s television
viewing and multi-screen behaviour — Analysis of 2005–16 OzTAM audience data and 2017 survey of
parents, carers and guardians’ found that watching television and other screen content formed a regular
part of children’s daily lives. The report states:
Almost all children aged 0–14 (96 per cent) watch TV programs, movies, videos or DVDs (“any screen
content”) at least daily. Programming made specifically for children forms a large part of their content
viewing, with 64 per cent of the total average viewing time spent watching children’s TV programs,
movies, videos or DVDs (“children’s programs”) — an average 6.7 of hours per week is spent viewing
children’s programs from an average total of 10.6 hours viewing per week for any screen content. (p. 1).
Interestingly, this report details that children’s use of multiple devices and platforms is now becoming
the norm thus indicating a significant change in television and screen watching. The report concludes:
On average, a child uses 3.2 devices and 2.9 different platforms to watch children’s programs. While the
TV set is the most frequently used device to view children’s programs, online services make up three of
the four top platforms most frequently used among children aged 0–14. Daily use is most frequent for
free video-on-demand (VOD) content through YouTube (27 per cent), with subscription services, such as
Netflix, and free-to-air TV catch-up services, such as iView, used daily by 14 per cent and 11 per cent of
children respectively. Live broadcast TV is the second most frequent platform used daily at 19 per cent.
Multi-tasking is also a feature of children’s viewing practices, with 55 per cent of children doing other
activities on another device while watching children’s programs. Multi-tasking increases with age, with
nearly three quarters of 10–14 year-olds doing other activities on another device while watching children’s
programs. Parents like being involved in choosing the content their children watch and the majority of
parents (83 per cent) have rules or restrictions in place relating to their child’s viewing. They find it
increasingly difficult to monitor or limit their children’s viewing as the number of devices and platforms
increase (p. 2).
Helping aggressive children and their parents

Children who have difficulty controlling their aggression experience considerable problems. They demon-
strate inappropriate aggression, which is often self-defeating; such as physical fights with individuals
who are stronger than they are and so result in physical and emotional harm. Their relationships with
both peers and adults suffer, and they may experience peer rejection as well as negative expectations
by adults, who tend to attribute malicious motives to aggressive children, typecasting them as ‘problem’
children (Bistrong, Bradshaw, & Morin, 2016; Monks, Ortega Ruiz, & Torrado Val, 2002). Moreover,
children who are overly aggressive can stimulate strong feelings of inadequacy, guilt, anger and loss
of control in their parents. This leads to an increased risk parents will respond in punitive ways, creating
a cycle of violence that needs to be stopped.
Practical guidelines for helping affected families have been developed from therapeutic interventions
with aggressive children and their parents.
r Intervention needs to occur early — before antisocial behaviour becomes too entrenched and diffi-
cult to change. Early childhood is an ideal time to begin interventions, before aggressive behaviour
escalates and becomes even more age-inappropriate and less amenable to intervention in later
childhood.
r Antisocial behaviour is not inherent in the child, but is a product of complex interactions within the
family. So, interventions need to be aimed at the family rather than at the aggressive child, helping all
family members learn more constructive ways of relating; and breaking the family’s cycle of violence.
The therapist observes the child’s interactions with siblings and parents to discover the consistent pat-
terns that trigger the aggression and to establish how each family member unintentionally reinforces
the patterns of problem behaviour in the child (Patterson & Fisher, 2002).
r Punitive, authoritarian parenting practices have often become entrenched as part of the family cycle of
violence. If this is the case, the therapist needs to teach parents authoritative methods of dealing with
children’s antisocial behaviour. Therapists may use methods based on social learning theory, such as
coaching, modelling and reinforcing more adaptive methods of child management, including time outs
and withdrawal of privileges. For example, the therapist describes and then demonstrates how to apply
a time out with one of the parents playing the role of the child, and then encourages parents to role play
the parental behaviour; with the therapist acting as the child (Forehand, Lafko, Parent, & Burt, 2014;
Patterson, 1982, 1985).
r It is not sufficient merely to extinguish antisocial behaviours — prosocial behaviours need to be encour-
aged at the same time. Positive behaviours displayed by the child should be reinforced through warmth,
affection and parental approval.

r Aggressive outbursts are most likely to occur in unstructured and ambiguous situations. Structure,
predictability and consistency of routine may be missing from the household and, if so, need to be
established. Parents should learn to regulate the home environment and to control situations in which
aggression can arise or escalate.
r Aggressive children often display a hostile bias — a tendency to distort information about potential
harm and to perceive themselves as being at risk when they are not — frequently misinterpreting
neutral behaviour from others as an aggressive act (Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 1994; Petersen, Bates,
Dodge, Lansford, & Pettit, 2015). Social problem-solving training can be helpful here. This technique
involves practice in perspective-taking and interpreting other individuals’ motives, emotional reactions
and behaviours (Izard, Trentacosta, King, & Mostow, 2004; Johnson, Finlon, & Izard, 2016).
r Aggressive children may have learnt that hostile acts are the only way of getting attention and hav-
ing their needs fulfilled. Assertiveness training may be instigated to help children meet their need for
attention in less destructive and more appropriate ways, by teaching the child the difference between
aggressive and assertive behaviour and its consequences (Kutner, 2011; Patterson, DeBaryshe, &
Ramsey, 1989).
r Aggression in children might be a symptom of poor marital adjustment. It may be necessary to address
marital problems, so interventions in reducing child aggression are more effective (Kazdin, 2017;
Kazdin & Whitley, 2003).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Would you recommend punishment for a four- or five-year-old misbehaving preschooler? Why or why not?
Reflect on what types of punishment you would recommend. What are some parenting practices that you
would commend to parents?
FOCUSING ON
Erikson’s psychosocial development theory: initiative versus guilt

Writing in 1950, Erik Erikson pronounced early
childhood as a time of energetic and dynamic
unfolding. Developing a sense of autonomy
during toddlerhood, children have a basis for
exploration, which in Erikson’s psychosocial
stages is referred to as stage 3: initiative versus
guilt. Within increased motor skills, balance and
coordination control over their bodies; increases in
cognitive understanding of their world; the devel-
opment of self; and a new emerging confidence,
preschoolers have a sense of purposefulness.
Exhibiting a desire to tackle new tasks, join in a
range of activities with peers and discern what
they can do to help adults, preschoolers engage
in tasks of initiative. Children assert control, power and initiative over the environment when exploring it.
Explorations rewarded with success lead to the development of a sense of purpose.
To Erikson, play is a means whereby preschool-aged children learn about themselves and their social
world. Through play, preschoolers can try new skills with little risk of failure or criticism, acting out family
scenes and occupations such as doctor, police officer, ambulance officer and nurse — thereby accom-
plishing tasks and facing challenges. As Erikson noted:
. . . you see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things
without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what’s wrong.
Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever’s in them rises to the surface in
free play (New York Times, 1994).
The negative outcome of early childhood, for Erikson, is when children may feel too much guilt and feel
ashamed of themselves because they have been threatened and criticised. When children’s imaginative
efforts are suppressed, they feel embarrassed and a sense of failure, which results in a sense of guilt. A
healthy balance between initiative and guilt is critical to ensure success and a sense of purpose.
Self understanding
The development of a sense of purpose leads to a growing self-awareness, whereby preschoolers focus
on the qualities that make the self unique — namely, the collection of attributes, attitudes, values and
abilities that define an individual. Preschoolers’ self concepts mainly involve observable characteristics,
such as their physical appearance (‘I’m big, tall and I’ve got muscles’), name, possessions (‘I made this big
Lego airport all by myself, see the controller here!’) and everyday behaviours (Harter, 2006; Harter, 2015).
By four years of age, preschoolers describe themselves in relation to emotions and attitudes (‘I don’t like
scary TV programs or movies’, ‘I’m a good girl, I do what I am told and I help Mummy’).
Goodvin, Meyer, Thompson, and Hayes (2008) found that a warm, sensitive parent–child relationship
fosters a positive self-concept whereby children securely attached to their mothers, described themselves
in positive terms and participated in more elaborate conversations about experienced events.
Emerging self-esteem
An aspect of self-concept that also emerges in early childhood is self-esteem — specifically, the judge-
ments that we make about our own worth and the feelings associated with these judgements. Marsh,
Ellis, and Craven (2002) demonstrated that preschoolers’ self-judgement involved making friends, learn-
ing things in school, treating others kindly and getting along with parents. Developing high self-esteem
during the preschool years contributes to preschoolers’ initiative during a period of mastering new skills.
Parents who patiently encourage their children to succeed assist in developing enthusiastic and highly
motivated children. Conversely, children of parents who overly criticise them in relation to their worth and
performance give up easily when faced with a challenge, and after failing express shame and despon-
dency (Kelley, Brownell, & Campbell, 2000). Parents and adults can develop children’s self-esteem by
adjusting their expectations to children’s abilities and capabilities, scaffolding children’s attempts at tasks,
and encouraging effort and improvement in children’s behaviour and accomplishments.
7.6 Gender-role development

LEARNING OUTCOME 7.6 Discuss how different theoretical frameworks account for the development of
gender roles and gender-typed behaviour.
During the preschool years, children develop a crucial aspect of the self: their gender identity and the
social roles that accompany being male and female in their particular culture or society. The term gender
refers to the socially constructed categories of feminine and masculine. In contrast, sex refers to the
biological categories of male and female. Gender infers the social and psychological ramifications of
being biologically male or female. So, gender roles consist of the societal expectations of behaviours
exhibited by males and females in a particular culture. Gender typing is the process by which children
acquire a set of behaviours that are consistent with the gender roles specific to their culture (Bigler &
Liben, 2006; Liben & Bigler, 2002). Gender roles are defined by the range of behaviours that are expected
of a particular gender group. Expected male and female behaviours are different from each other and
conform to gender stereotypes, which are generalised mental representations that differentiate gender
groups (Blakemore, 2003; Blakemore, Phillips, Sajid, Batool, & Long, 2014; Diekman & Eagly, 2000).
Often in Western societies, males are stereotypically viewed as aggressive, independent and confident.
Females are stereotypically regarded as emotionally expressive, nurturing and gentle. However, it should
be noted that these are gender stereotypes and the spectrum between overtly male and female genders
needs to be acknowledged and respected.
Research has shown the social behaviours of girls and boys in Western societies display reliable dif-
ferences from an early age. Boys exhibit higher levels of physical aggression, antisocial behaviours and
dominance in groups as well as more rough-and-tumble play and directive social communication. Girls
show less overall aggression, but greater verbal and relational aggression and more affiliative behaviours
and supportive social communication (Benenson et al., 2001; Bosacki & Moore, 2004; Crick et al.,
1997; Else-Quest, Hyde, Goldsmith, & Van Hulle, 2006; Loeber & Hay, 1997; Strough & Berg, 2000;
Underwood, 2003). The acquisition of gender roles and gender-typed social behaviours is explained by
distinctive theories. These theories can be differentiated on the basis of the origin of gender roles; that is,
whether a gender role is determined by biological, sex-based differences or is constructed through social
interactions. These theoretical accounts are now discussed in detail.
Biological theories
Evolutionary psychologists view gender roles and gender-typed behaviour as the result of genetically
based blueprints that have evolved over millions of years, in response to environmental demands and the
process of natural selection. Evolutionary theories contend modern gender roles, involving female nurtur-
ance and male aggression and competition, have their roots in prehistoric male–female role differences.
Because of their physical attributes, women are the childbearers and principal care-givers, while men are
the hunters and providers for the family. Males with more stereotypically male attributes, such as force-
fulness and competitiveness, would have been successful hunters and providers for the family. Through
natural selection, females would have been more likely to choose them as the fathers of their offspring.
Similarly, females with strong nurturing traits would have had more surviving offspring, making them
more attractive partners. So, in evolutionary theory, the traits contributing to gender roles were naturally
selected over the millennia. This theory argues these ancient roles are still played out by modern males
and females, despite the reality that modern technology makes some of the traditional aspects of gender
roles largely interchangeable (Buss, 2004, 2015).
Gender-role development is explained by some evolutionary psychologists in terms of Parental
Investment Theory. Reproduction for both sexes is a means of passing on genetic material. However,
in terms of time and energy investment, this is costly for females and relatively inexpensive for males.
Females gestate the foetus, give birth — a potentially hazardous event — and care for the child over an
extended period. Males simply implant their sperm. Because of this imbalance, a compromise has arisen
between females and males, with females ‘trading’ their reproductive capacity in exchange for male pro-
tection. This reinforces the gender roles of both sexes, and is also the basis for the sexually exclusive
relationships between males and females that are observed in all human cultures. By establishing exclu-
sive sexual rights, males can ensure offspring are theirs. In return for exclusivity, females exact the price
of protection from males (Ellis, 2006). This trend is not readily observable in modern society, but can
be seen in pre-industrial societies. For example, during the 1970s and 1980s, in a still largely polygy-
nous marriage system, males in highland Papua New Guinea had exclusive sexual rights over several
females. However, the multiple wives attached to one male expected him in turn to provide protection
to them and their children from enemy tribesmen who may have killed or abducted them (Rawlinson,
1974).
Other theorists espousing biological theories of gender-role development attribute the behavioural dif-
ferences in gender roles for boys and girls to hormonal influences. Male and female hormones produce
marked physiological differences and may profoundly influence sex-typed behaviour. Studies of chil-
dren exposed to unusual levels of sex hormones provide key evidence for these arguments (Lippa, 2005).
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) causes abnormally high levels of male hormones (androgens) in
young children who are biologically female, but who have male-looking genitals. Surgery is sometimes
used to correct the anomaly and these children are generally raised as females. However, studies have
shown CAH females show a greater interest in boys’ gendered activities such as rough-and-tumble play
and often dislike girls’ toys and gendered activities more than non-CAH female siblings do (Hall et al.,
2004). Moreover, genetic male children have sometimes been raised as females if their penis is missing
due to pelvic field defect (a congenital condition) or to accidental removal during circumcision. These
boys are exposed to normal levels of androgens and studies have shown their gender identity is per-
sistently male rather than female (Colapinto, 2000; Reiner, 2001). These studies suggest sex hormones
influence gender identity and gender-typed behaviour.
Biological theories of gender-role development give evidence of the underlying scaffolding of
gender-typed behaviours, but they do not completely account for gender-role development. For example,
in isolation, sex hormones are unlikely to inspire the diversity observed in children’s gender-typed
behaviour. Moreover, evolutionary accounts suggest individuals’ current behaviour is determined by
biological precedents locked in the distant evolutionary past. However, the current social environment
needs to be taken into consideration. This is why social learning theories are important.
Learning theories
Learning theories go beyond the scope of biological explanations for gender-role development. A central
tenet of learning theories is that gender roles and gender-type behaviours are learnt from interactions
between the individual and the environment. Such theories take the complexities of the social envi-
ronment into consideration in the acquisition of gender roles and gender-typed behaviours. Unlike the
biological factors related to gender-role development, the social–environmental factors that may influ-
ence gender-role development are not universal. This is because social environments over the world
vary, and gender-based behaviour and values that are the norm in one culture may not be prevalent in
another.
One prominent learning theory is Bussey and Bandura’s (1999) social learning theory, which main-
tains gender roles and behaviours are learnt through reinforcement of gender-appropriate behaviours,
modelling and children’s self-regulation of behaviours. According to social–cognitive theory, parents
reinforce boys and girls for behaviours and activities that are traditionally associated with their sex and
negatively reinforce them for gender-inappropriate behaviours. Girls may be admonished to behave like
‘little ladies’ and boys like ‘little men’ and their behaviour reinforced accordingly; for example, girls
for dancing and dressing up and boys for running and jumping (Endendijk et al., 2017; Leaper, 2002).
Numerous studies about the direct reinforcement of gender-appropriate behaviour show parents are more
likely to reward sons for being assertive, independent, physically active and emotionally inexpressive, and
daughters for being accommodating, dependent, physically passive and emotionally expressive (Fagot
& Hagan, 1991; Lytton & Romney, 1991). As well, observational studies of parents playing with their
preschool children reveal parents shape their children’s gender-stereotyped activities in preference to
opposite-gender activities. Boys are praised for playing with blocks more than with dolls, and vice versa
for girls. Moreover, direct negative reinforcement of gender-inappropriate behaviours and play patterns
has been observed, with boys being discouraged more strongly than girls for participating in opposite-
gender play. So, it is more acceptable for a girl to play with trucks than for a boy to play with dolls. Also,
fathers have been found to be more sensitive than mothers to children’s participation in gender-appropriate
behaviours. So, fathers are more concerned about their offspring indulging in play that is typical of the
other sex — particularly if this conduct involves a son playing with dolls (Wood, Desmarais, & Gugula,
2002). Parents also exert a strong influence over a child’s environment. From an early age, they dress
girl and boy children differently, choose sex-typed toys and decorate bedrooms according to the child’s
sex (Endendijk et al., 2017; Leaper, 1994). Studies of boys’ and girls’ bedrooms have revealed marked
differences in toys and décor (Nash & Fraleigh, 1993; Pomerleau, Bolduc, Malcuit, & Cossette, 1990;
Rheingold & Cook, 1975). These earlier studies have been revisited more recently by Nelson (2005) in
a gender-based comparison of Swedish three and five year olds’ toy collections. Nelson found a simi-
lar level of gender stereotyping in Swedish children’s toy collections as was found in earlier studies, and
similar levels to those found in other countries that were apparently more strongly gender-typed than Swe-
den. So, even for contemporary children in the most ‘liberated’ countries, opportunities for opposite-sex
activities is limited by environmental factors, which may indirectly reinforce stereotypical gender-typed
activities and behaviours.
Reinforcement of gender-appropriate behaviour by other children is a significant factor in the devel-
opment of gender roles (Blakemore, 2003; Martin & Fabes, 2001; Ruble et al., 2007), particularly if the
reinforcement is from a same-sex peer. From about age three, same-sex peers reciprocally reinforce each
other for gender-appropriate play, through praise, encouragement and imitation. They also negatively
reinforce gender-inappropriate play. For example, boys playing with dolls can elicit peer ridicule or even
physical attack. Reinforcement of gender-inappropriate play could be seen in the Barbie doll game sce-
nario described at the beginning of this chapter in terms of Jake’s reaction to his son Patrick playing
with Barbie. Gender-role enforcement in early childhood might even be more persuasive than adult rein-
forcement (Lott & Maluso, 2001). For example, studies have shown teachers’ reinforcements have less
influence than peers’ reinforcement in determining children’s persistence at gender-based activities. This
is true for both sexes (Fagot, 1982; Trautner et al., 2005).
Children interact almost exclusively in same-sex groups from early childhood to early adolescence.
This encourages gender-typed behaviour through reciprocal reinforcement and results in very different
and largely incompatible interactional styles that further distinguish the sexes (Konner, 2010; Maccoby,
2002). Martin and Fabes (2001) have found increased levels of same-sex interaction are associated with
higher levels of gender-typed behaviour and toy choice in both boys and girls of preschool age.
Overall, the influence of direct reinforcement of gender-typed behaviour is fairly modest (Maccoby
& Jacklin, 1974). Other social learning mechanisms apparently play a more powerful role. Modelling is
a central element in Bussey and Bandura’s (1999) social learning theory. It involves learning behaviour
by observing other people being reinforced for this behaviour. Adults (such as parents and teachers) as
well as siblings and peers may provide strong models for gender roles and gender-typed behaviours.
Research generally supports the influence of modelling on gender-role development (Rust, Golombok,
Hines, Johnston, Golding, & ALSPAC Study Team, 2000).
Wider societal models also play a role in modelling. The reinforcement of gender stereotypes through
television, video games, magazines, newspapers and children’s books provides an indirect model for
gender-typed behaviour. Commercials for child products appear to be particularly gender-stereotyped.
Also, television dramas portray women in traditional gender roles, typecasting them more often as victims
and stay-at-home carers than as decision makers (Nathanson, Wilson, McGee, & Sebastian, 2004; Shields
& Heinecken, 2002).
Although there is evidence for the effects of both reinforcement and modelling in the establishment
of gender-typed behaviours, the social–learning approach to gender-role development is limited by its
portrayal of children as passive recipients of gender-role influences. This approach does not take the
child’s own understanding of gender and the different developmental stages children pass through into
consideration; nor does it consider the role cognitive, social and emotional maturation might play in the
acquisition of gender roles. However, cognitive theories address some of these concerns. We will look at
these theories now.
Cognitive theories
In cognitive theories of gender-role development, children are active processors and seekers of gender-
based information, rather than passive recipients of gender-role influences (as they are in the social learn-
ing approach). Cognitive theorists argue children construct their gender roles by monitoring and selecting
from their environment, rather than merely absorbing sundry information. These theorists believe that to a
considerable extent, children self-socialise into their gender role — seeking information relevant to their
own traditional gender role and practising relevant behaviours.
Kohlberg (1966) proposed a three-stage cognitive–developmental theory of gender-role development,

which conforms to Piagetian cognitive developmental theory. During the first stage, gender labelling
(from 21/2 to 3 years), children learn to assign the labels ‘boy’, ‘girl’, ‘man’ and ‘woman’ to individuals
based on their appearance. However, they may incorrectly classify people and do not recognise that gender
is a permanent characteristic. For example, young children might not use the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’
correctly or might even believe they will become a member of the opposite sex when they are adults.
Importantly, most children acquire the ability to label themselves correctly as boys or girls during this
period. Research generally supports Kohlberg’s proposals for this developmental period. However, some
children develop gender identity early, before the age of two years and four months, and others do not
develop it until later. Early identifiers exhibit significantly more gender-stereotyped play, such as car play
for boys and doll play for girls, than do later identifiers (Banse, Gawronski, Rebetez, Gutt, & Bruce
Morton, 2010; Fagot, Leinbach, & O’Boyle, 1992; Granger, Hanish, Kornienko, & Bradley, 2017).
In Kohlberg’s second stage, gender stability (from 31/2 to 41/2 years), children become aware of
the permanency of gender but, like children at the preoperational stage of cognitive development, they
can be misled by appearances. For example, in experiments using anatomically correct dolls with trans-
parent clothing, children often ignore genital evidence in favour of outward appearance; for example,
believing a dress denotes a female (Fagot, 1985).
In Kohlberg’s third stage, gender constancy (from 41/2 to 7 years), children are no longer misled by
appearances. They regard gender as consistent across time and context, and understand male and female
genitalia determine a person’s biological sex. Most children have achieved a reliable sense of gender
constancy around age seven (Bem, 1989; Emmerich & Sheppard, 1982; Zmyj & Bischof-Köhler, 2015).
This stage is similar to Piaget’s stage of concrete operations, in which a child can conserve (discussed in
the chapters on physical cognitive development in early and middle childhood). According to Kohlberg’s
cognitive–developmental theory, children must achieve this kind of conservation before gender-typed
behaviour can develop. However, research shows children actively develop gendered behaviours well
before gender becomes a stable concept (Maccoby, 2002). So, the evidence for Kohlberg’s assumption —
that the attainment of gender conservation is responsible for the acquisition of gender-typed behaviours
and gender roles — is weak.
Martin and Halverson’s (1981, 1987) schematic processing theory closely follows Kohlberg’s ideas,
but maintains that the constancy of gender is not a prerequisite for gender-role internalisation. As soon
as children have acquired their own gender identity, they begin to build a gender-role schema — a
cognitive framework they can store gender-based information in (Martin, Andrews, England, Zosuls, &
Ruble, 2017; Martin & Dinella, 2001). Using their gender-role schema, children interpret the environ-
ment and choose their own patterns of behaviour, filtering information and opportunities according to an
internalised cognitive framework.
A child’s gender-role schema develops through a series of stages. First, preschool children learn
sex-based associations — such as ‘boys play with cars’ and ‘girls play with dolls’ — through social
experiences. Their early schemata are very simple. They are initially concerned about the gender appropri-
ateness of objects and play activities. For example, girls’ activities such as doll play are avoided by boys
(Blakemore, 2003; Blakemore, Phillips, Sajid, Batool, & Long, 2014; Halim, et al., 2011). From about
age four to six, children move to the second stage, in which they begin to develop more indirect and
complex associations for information relevant to their own sex, but not for the opposite sex. For example,
a boy who knows that boys like trucks and boys like cars is capable of inferring someone who likes
trucks will also like cars. Finally, by age eight, children move to the third stage, in which they have
learnt the associations relevant to the opposite sex. They have also mastered the gender concepts of
masculinity and femininity that link information within and among various content areas. So, by middle
childhood, children know the pattern of interests that are stereotypically associated with being masculine
(such as cars, action toys and football) and feminine (including dolls, dressing up and dancing) (Bem,
1987; Halim, et al., 2014; Halim & Ruble, 2010; Martin, Andrews, England, Zosuls, & Ruble, 2017;
Martin, Wood, & Little, 1990; Ruble, 1988).

The major problem with cognitive theories of gender-role development is that they minimise the influ-
ence of the social environment and, in particular, of culture. Also, such theories downplay the interactive
nature of social learning. Moreover, there are no clear and demonstrable links between gender-based cog-
nitions and sex-typed behaviours. For example, although boys and girls develop gender-role stereotypes
in a similar order and pace, boys are more resistant to opposite-gender activities. Girls follow an opposite
pattern — showing a preference for opposite-gender activities during middle childhood. So, gender-role
acquisition is not straightforward.
This boy and girl are freely engaged with each other playing at home. However, as they get older they will increasingly
socialise with their own sex and play will become more narrowly defined along gender lines. It is important to
acknowledge that some children not defined by their birth gender may socialise and play in relation to the gender
identity that evolves.
It is apparent each of the theoretical models assists with understanding the development of gender roles
and gender-typed behaviour. In order to provide a more adequate account of gender-role development,
biogenetic, social and cognitive processes must be taken into consideration in our understanding of its
complex processes. Emerging ideas of gender-role development will hopefully incorporate aspects of all
these major theoretical stances (Ahlqvist, Halim, Greulich, Lurye, & Ruble, 2013; Halim & Lindner,
2013; Halim et al., 2016; Halim, Bryant, & Zucker, 2016; Lippa, 2005, 2006).
Androgyny
During the 1970s, the women’s liberation movement challenged many of the traditional gender stereo-
types and gender roles in Western societies. As a result of this movement, an alternative gender concept
gained increasing acceptance: androgyny. Androgyny refers to a situation in which gender roles are
flexible, allowing males and females to behave in ways that freely integrate traditional gender-type
behaviours. In an androgynous orientation, females can be dominant (a traditionally masculine character-
istic) while being caring (a traditionally feminine characteristic). Similarly, males can be both sensitive (a
traditionally feminine characteristic) and assertive (a traditionally masculine characteristic).
Bem (1977) championed androgyny during this period and developed a measure to assess androgyny,
the renowned Bem Sex Role Inventory. Using the inventory, individuals can be classified according to
four gender orientations:
1. masculine
2. feminine
3. androgynous
4. undifferentiated.
Bem (1981, 1987), Lamke (1982a, 1982b), and Guastello and Guastello (2013) found many adolescent
and young adult males and females use both masculine and feminine characteristics to describe their own
personalities, and so are more androgynous in their orientation. Bem believes androgynous individuals
are less concerned about which activities are gender-appropriate or inappropriate and are more flexible
in their responses to various situations. She argues this makes them better adjusted than traditionally
masculine and feminine individuals. However, these orientations may be more or less adaptive, depending
on the environmental restrictions imposed by context and culture. For example, a feminine or androgynous
orientation might suit close relationships, while a masculine or androgynous orientation might suit a
workplace situation. Industrialised nations could provide a more receptive culture for androgyny than
traditional nations in which gender roles are sharply defined.
The long-term implications of androgyny are controversial. According to Stake (1997), androgyny
challenges the fundamental beliefs that individuals have about gender and has the potential to reduce
gender-role stereotyping and its detrimental developmental effects in early childhood and later in the
lifespan (such as the ‘glass ceiling’ for females). So, a positive consequence of efforts to minimise gender
differences is fairer treatment under the law and access to equal opportunity for males and females
(Hare-Mustin, 2017; Hare-Mustin & Marecek, 1988; Spears Brown, & Bigler, 2004). The idea of
androgyny also contributes to an understanding of sexual orientations that are not traditionally hetero-
sexual. However, a focus on gender differences can be useful in targeting the physical, cognitive and
social developmental opportunities appropriate to boys’ and girls’ different gender-related needs. In
many ways, the twenty-first century has brought with it a post-androgynous era, in which a predominant
view embraces the concept of gender-role transcendence, in which individuals are viewed primarily
as individuals rather than in terms of categories such as masculine, feminine or androgynous (Carver,
Egan, & Perry, 2004; Woodhill & Samuels, 2003, 2004).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Discuss how the social environment, media, language, communication, books and toys contribute to
children’s gender-stereotyped beliefs and affect gender typing during the early childhood years. What
suggestions would you make to offset these influences?
Let us explore how the lifespan themes outlined in the chapter on studying development apply to early
childhood. Our focus here is on friendship and its developmental importance throughout the life cycle.
Friendships emerge in toddlerhood and early childhood and continue to play an important developmental
role throughout middle childhood, adolescence and adulthood. An individual’s capacity to make friends,
the types of friends they choose, and the quality of friendships over the lifespan show considerable con-
tinuity, and having good friends is predictive of better adjustment and developmental wellbeing at every
age. This continuity seems to be due in part to temperamental characteristics such as shyness or outgoing-
ness, as well as to relationships and developmental opportunities inside and outside the family that stay
fairly constant. On the other hand, changes in family, school and neighbourhood environments, as well
as the major physical and cognitive changes that occur through middle childhood, adolescence and adult-
hood, facilitate significant changes in opportunities to make friends, the individuals chosen as friends,
and the nature of friendships. For example, moving to a new school creates new possibilities for friend-
ship experiences, the range of possible friends and the quality of friendships. The physical, cognitive and
psychosocial changes that occur from early childhood through adolescence and adulthood also expand
and alter the nature and meaning of friendship.
Lifelong growth
The ability to establish and maintain friendships, sophistication in thinking about the qualities of friend-
ship, and the breadth and complexity of friendship activities grow as physical, cognitive and psychosocial
skills expand. Although preschoolers do participate in initiating and maintaining new friendships, they
still largely depend on adults to arrange opportunities to be with the peers with whom friendships eventu-
ally develop. These capacities undergo major growth as individuals progress through middle childhood,
adolescence and young adulthood. Such growth also continues throughout middle and later adulthood,
when increases in wisdom and good judgement based on past experience replace physical and cognitive
skills and capacities as the main source of growth.
How individuals think about friendship and the role and meaning of friendship change as they move
through the life cycle. A preschooler thinks of friendship largely in terms of a partner with whom to
share enjoyable play activities, but older children, adolescents and adults attribute progressively deeper
meanings to their friendships, which include intimacy, trust and mutual understanding. Similarly, as indi-
viduals move through the life cycle, they become increasingly reliant on the friendships that they establish
outside of their immediate families for intimacy and social and material support.
The diversity of friendships is a product of differences in the opportunities and expectations associated
with gender, culture, socioeconomic status and family background, as well as individual differences in
personality, life experiences and personal choices. For example, in Western culture, friendships among
females tend to place greater emphasis on emotional intimacy, whereas friendships among males tend to
emphasise shared activities. However, differences in relationships with parents and siblings during early
and middle childhood, in school and neighbourhood settings during middle childhood and adolescence,
or in work and family settings during early and middle adulthood, can all contribute to developmental
diversity in an individual’s friendships.
SUMMARY
7.1 Compare how different styles of parenting influence preschoolers’ development.
In early childhood, a child’s relationships with parents and other family members are a central source of
psychosocial development. Parenting styles differ in their demands for maturity, control, and responsive-
ness to their children’s feelings and needs. Such variations are associated with differences in parent–child
relationships and developmental outcomes. Parents with an authoritative style display high levels of con-
trol, demands for maturity, and responsiveness to their children’s feelings and needs. Their children tend
to show greater self-reliance, self-control and achievement. Parents with an authoritarian style display
high levels of control and maturity demands, but low levels of responsiveness to their children’s feel-
ings and needs. Their children tend to be more distrustful and unhappy with themselves, and show lower
school achievement than children of authoritative parents. Parents with a permissive style display high
levels of responsiveness but very low levels of control and maturity demands. Their children tend to lack
self-reliance and self-control. Parents with an uninvolved style are detached and inconsistent. They dis-
play low levels of control, maturity demands and responsiveness. Their children tend to lack self-reliance
and self-control, and may be at risk for more severe social and emotional problems. Parents often use
mixtures of parenting styles and the preferred parenting style may change as children grow older and
under different circumstances.
7.2 Explain how sibling relationships contribute to preschoolers’ development.
Young children’s siblings make an important contribution to their social development during the preschool
years, providing them with companionship, support and role models, especially if they are older. Many
young firstborn children experience the advent of a younger sibling, which can set the scene for later sib-
ling rivalry. How parents handle this situation can contribute significantly to the development of positive
sibling relationships. Contrary to popular belief, only children are not socially or emotionally disadvan-
taged by their singleton status, and may show superior psychosocial development compared to children
from larger families.
7.3 Outline how peer relationships affect young children.
During the period of early childhood, children’s social worlds expand outside the family to include other
unrelated children of a similar developmental level. These relationships are important, allowing young
children to practise social skills that are less readily available within the family circle, such as give-
and-take and emotional regulation. From general peer relationships, children form their first friendships
during early childhood. However, these relationships tend to lack the stability and some of the emotional
characteristics of older children’s friendships, and depend largely on specific play activities. The quality of
children’s friendships develops over early childhood, with loyalty and shared interests and the promise of
future play activity becoming more important than momentary shared activities. Older preschool children
also begin to focus more on the personal qualities of their friends rather than on shared activities as a
basis of friendship.
7.4 Justify why play is so important to preschoolers’ development, and discuss how play changes
as children approach school age.
Play is the major activity of preschoolers. Psychoanalytic theory emphasises the mastery and wish ful-
filment functions of play, while learning theory stresses the acquisition of social skills and gender roles
through reinforcement and modelling. Ethological theory accentuates the evolutionary roots and adap-
tive developmental functions of physical play. Cognitive theory highlights the sequential development of
play, which generally parallels the major stages of cognitive development. It includes functional play,
constructive play, pretend play and play involving games with rules. Different types and levels of play
have been identified and these change as children develop. Parten identified six types of play based on
social criteria: unoccupied, solitary, onlooker, parallel, associative and cooperative play. These unfold in
a roughly sequential manner. Grusec and Lytton developed another typology of play that parallels the
stages of cognitive development. The setting is important to the development of play, and different types
of play can depend on the environment as well as adult facilitation and the provision of play materials.
7.5 Identify the factors that contribute to the development of young children’s prosocial and
antisocial behaviour.
Prosocial behaviour consists of behaviours directed at other people that result in positive outcomes and
promote social relationships. Altruistic acts are acts where no rewards are sought. They depend on empa-
thy — the ability to share and understand another person’s feelings. Very young children are capable of
displaying empathy. When empathy is converted to sympathy, prosocial acts are more likely to occur, but
these are rare during early childhood. Several factors can increase prosocial behaviour, including positive
temperament, as well as parenting styles and environments that nurture and support such behaviour. Anti-
social behaviour is the opposite of prosocial behaviour and is synonymous with aggression. Researchers
have identified several types of aggression which may vary over the developmental period in frequency
and between the sexes. As preschoolers grow older, verbal aggression replaces physical aggression and
overall aggression declines. Wide individual differences exist in aggressive behaviour and factors such as
child temperament, parenting styles and media violence can affect these behavioural tendencies.
Young children who display very high levels of aggressive behaviour are at developmental risk, and
may be diagnosed with conduct disorder later in childhood or adolescence. Early intervention for these
children is important. Therapists may work with family members to correct dysfunctions that contribute to
this behaviour, using techniques such as reinforcement, modelling and assertiveness training with parents,
siblings and the target child.
7.6 Discuss how different theoretical frameworks account for the development of gender roles
and gender-typed behaviour.
During early childhood, children acquire gender-typed behaviours, gender identity and an understanding
of gender roles specific to their culture and society. Several different theories provide contrasting explana-
tions for the acquisition of both gender roles and gender-typed behaviour. Biological theories emphasise
the role of hormones and evolution as precursors to gender-typed behaviour, while social learning theory
views reinforcement and modelling of gender-appropriate behaviour as the primary precursors. In con-
trast, cognitive–developmental theories focus on children’s developmental advances in understanding
gender as a precursor to these behaviours. However, no single theory justifies the origin of this important
aspect of self during early childhood. More recently, there has been increasing interest in androgyny —
the flexible adoption of both male and female gender-typed behaviours — and an emphasis on individ-
ual behavioural development which allows males and females to behave in ways that freely integrate
traditional gender-type behaviours. In this orientation, females can be dominant (a traditionally mascu-
line characteristic) while being caring (a traditionally feminine characteristic). Similarly, males can be
both sensitive (a traditionally feminine characteristic) and assertive (a traditionally masculine character-
istic). Bem developed a measure to assess androgyny, the renowned Bem Sex Role Inventory. Using the
inventory, individuals can be classified according to four gender orientations: masculine, feminine,
androgynous and undifferentiated. Bem believes androgynous individuals are less concerned about which
activities are gender-appropriate or inappropriate and are more flexible in their responses to various sit-
uations. These orientations may be more or less adaptive, depending on the environmental restrictions
imposed by context and culture. For example, a feminine or androgynous orientation might suit close
relationships, while a masculine or androgynous orientation might suit a workplace situation. The long-
term implications of androgyny are controversial as androgyny challenges the fundamental beliefs that
individuals have about gender and has the potential to reduce gender-role stereotyping and its detrimental
developmental effects in early childhood and later in the lifespan. However, a focus on gender differences
can be useful in targeting the physical, cognitive and social developmental opportunities appropriate to
boys’ and girls’ different gender-related needs.
KEY TERMS
aggression An intentional action with the purpose of harming another person or object.
androgyny A tendency to integrate both masculine and feminine behaviours into the behavioural
repertoire.
antisocial behaviour Intentional negative actions that are directed towards other people and that harm
others, such as stealing, lying, physical assault, damage to or destruction of property, verbal abuse,
shaming, and undermining of others’ relationships and reputations.
authoritarian parenting A style of childrearing characterised by a high degree of control and high
demands on children’s maturity and a low degree of clarity of communication and nurturance.
Authoritarian parents have very high expectations of children, show little responsiveness and provide
minimal feedback and nurturance.
authoritative parenting A style of childrearing characterised by a high degree of control, clarity of
communication, nurturance, and appropriate demands according to the child’s level of maturity.
Expectations are adjusted to the needs of the child, such as listening to children’s arguments,
although parents may not change their minds. They persuade and explain, as well as punish. The
child conforms to the needs and demands of others and the child’s rights are respected and have their
own needs met, which often leads to more independent and self-reliant children.
bullying When an individual is victimised for extended periods of time by one or more peers.
conduct disorder A psychological disorder usually appearing in childhood, and involving repeated
violations of social norms and the rights of other individuals.
constructive play A type of play that involves manipulation of physical objects to build or construct
something.
cycle of violence A predictable pattern of actions and reactions by more powerful and less powerful
individuals, leading through predictable phases to a violent outburst by the more powerful individual
against the less powerful individual.
difficult children Children with a temperament typified by moodiness, intense reactions and a high
need for attention.
easy children Children with a temperament typified by calmness and expressiveness, who are
outgoing, socially adept and learn behavioural rules easily.
empathy A sensitive awareness of the thoughts and feelings of another person.
functional play Play involving simple, repetitive movements.
games with rules Play involving relatively formal activities with fixed rules.
gender Socially constructed categories of feminine and masculine.
gender roles The societal expectations of behaviours exhibited by males and females in a particular
society. Also called sex roles.
gender stereotypes Generalised mental representations that differentiate one gender group from
another.
gender typing The process by which children acquire a set of gendered behaviours.
gender-role schema A cognitive framework that stores gender-based information.
gender-role transcendence People are viewed primarily as individuals, rather than in terms of
masculine, feminine or androgynous.

hostile aggression Aggressive actions that directly or indirectly harm other people or things through
physical assaults, damage to property, verbal threats, teasing and undermining relationships.
instrumental aggression Aggression that consists of negative acts that are directed at another person
in order to secure something.
peers Individuals who are of approximately the same age and developmental level and share common
attitudes and interests.
permissive parenting A style of parenting in which parents make relatively few demands on their
children but clearly communicate their warmth and interest and provide considerable care and
nurturance.
physical activity play Vigorous physical activity that occurs in a playful context.
play Spontaneous or planned physical or mental leisure activities that individuals or groups engage in
for enjoyment or amusement. Play has behavioural, social, and psychomotor rewards.
play therapy A form of psychotherapy that employs the power of play to help individuals, especially
children, resolve personal problems.
pretend play Play that substitutes imaginary situations for real ones. Also called fantasy or dramatic
play.
proactive aggression Hostile aggression that involves premeditated acts of meanness.
prosocial behaviour Positive social actions that are directed towards other people rather than the self
and that benefit others; such as sharing, reassuring, protecting, helping and cooperating, as well as
giving affection and praise.
psychological control Withdrawing affection or approval as punishment for misbehaviour; making
affection or approval contingent on behavioural compliance.
reactive aggression Physical aggression resulting from hurt, deprivation or frustration.
sex The biological categories of male and female.
slow-to-warm-up children Children with a temperament typified by shyness, cautiousness and
hesitancy in social situations.
uninvolved parenting A style of parenting in which parents avoid childrearing responsibilities, placing
more emphasis on their own needs.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1 Outline the four different styles of parenting.
2 Describe the characteristics and functions of friendships during early childhood.
3 How have Parten (1932), and Grusec and Lytton (1988) typified children’s play during the preschool
years? How do their approaches differ?
4 What are the main features of the development of prosocial, antisocial and aggressive behaviour in
early childhood?
1 Discuss the factors that influence children’s aggressive behaviour? Describe how children’s aggressive
behaviour can be managed.
2 Which theory or theories best account(s) for the development of play and its functions in early child-
hood?
3 ‘Young children in the twenty-first century should be brought up according to Bem’s ideas of
androgyny.’ Discuss this statement.
1 Test your understanding by matching the concept to an applicable example. Note, there are several
more than one term.
Authoritative parenting Physical activity play
Bullying Pretend play
Catharsis Proactive aggression
Cycle of violence Prosocial behaviour
Difficult children Psychological control
Empathy Reactive aggression
Gender constancy Relational aggression
Gender labelling Repetition compulsion
Gender typing Sibling rivalry
Hostile aggression Slow-to-warm-up children
Instrumental aggression Solitary play
Parallel play Sympathy
Peer relations Uninvolved parenting
Permissive parenting
(a) Four-year-old Yusef is worrying his teacher. At preschool he is very reluctant to join in with the
other children and stands on the sidelines watching what they are doing. He seems content to play
or do his own thing, sitting or standing next to other children, but not interacting with them. If
there is a new activity he seems fearful and is reluctant to try it. The teacher has spoken to his
mother, but she seems not to care. She simply says, ‘He’ll manage’. When she picks Yusef up
from preschool she greets him in a perfunctory way and then walks out of the building, expecting
him to follow her to the car.
(b) Enriko is two and a half years old. She amused her parents one day while at the beach. Pointing
to the female lifeguard who had very short hair covered with the usual Australian lifesaver’s cloth
skull cap, she remarked, ‘Look . . . Man with pretty hat!’
(c) Yoko and SuAnn have been together since they were babies. Their mothers are good friends and the
two little girls play together when their mothers visit. One day while their mothers were having
coffee and Yoko and SuAnn were playing in the yard, Yoko got her hand stuck in the swing.
She was screaming with pain, but the adults inside couldn’t hear her distress over the television
program they were watching. SuAnn burst into tears as well, but then she quickly hugged Yoko
and said, ‘Don’t worry Yoko, I’ll get Mummy to help’.
(d) Two-year-old Gracie, three-year-old Millie and three-and-a-half-year-old Heath are talking excit-
edly while putting on their tap shoes in readiness for Miss Mel’s morning tap class. Suddenly, the
friendly chatter turns into yelling, shouting and screaming. Millie has stomped on Gracie’s bare
foot with her tap shoe and remained there, yelling, ‘You can’t dance with us today ’cos you don’t
know the dance!’ Over the past few weeks, Miss Mel has noticed several occasions of aggressive
behaviour from Millie, such as pulling Heath’s hair, sneakily kicking both Heath’s and Gracie’s
legs, and punching and pushing Gracie and Heath. Miss Mel took Millie aside after class to speak
to her and organised a talk with her mother the following week.
(e) Liam has a new baby brother. His parents are determined that the two boys will grow to be friends,
so when they brought baby Benjamin home from the hospital, hidden in his carry cot was a spe-
cial toy for Liam. ‘Look Liam, Ben has brought you something!’ exclaimed his father. Liam just
grabbed the toy and, scowling at the new baby, ran outside to play with it. Later that day his father
found Liam in his bedroom. Liam had tied up his teddy bear and was trying to cut its head off
with a pair of scissors used for cutting paper. The next day his mother caught him doing the same
thing. After a week of this behaviour, his parents took the teddy bear away from Liam.
2 You are working as a therapist in a family centre. Samuel, an only child who will be starting school
next year, has been referred by his preschool coordinator. He has attended several preschools since
he was two and a half, but has been ‘expelled’ from all of them because of his antisocial behaviour.
The referral note states that he is restless and inattentive, and seems unable to concentrate on anything
for very long. He gets frustrated easily, screams with rage at small things and often hits out at other
children. As a result children at his current preschool tend to avoid him and he has no friends. You
interview his parents and find that his mother is extremely loving and even indulgent towards her son,
believing that he can do no wrong and that his problems are the fault of the preschool staff and other
children. Samuel’s father is the opposite — very judgemental of his son’s behaviour and physically
punitive towards Samuel when he misbehaves. From the interview, it appears to you that the parents
often disagree about their approach to Samuel, and even argue in front of him.
(a) What factors might be contributing to Samuel’s adjustment difficulties?
(b) What therapeutic interventions might be successful in helping this family to interact more
positively?
(c) What could the preschool staff and, later, Samuel’s reception class staff do to help?
ESSAY QUESTION
1 Discuss how different parenting and childrearing styles contribute to a preschooler’s self concept, self
esteem, emotional understanding and gender role development.
WEBSITES
1 The Triple P Positive Parenting Program is a worldwide research- and evidence-based
parenting program, which works effectively across cultures, socio-economic groups and different
family structures. It has a specific website for parents that includes practical strategies to help build
strong, healthy relationships, and prevent problems developing. The site’s news, events and videos
are designed for practitioners, parents, agencies, jurisdictions and governments: www.triplep.net/
glo-en/home
2 As a partner to the Australian Triple P website, this website particularly focuses on New Zealand
parents, children and teenagers: http://letslearn.co.nz/triple-p-positive-parenting-programme
3 The Secretariat of the National Aboriginal and Child Care (SNAICC) website’s motto is ‘Support-
ing carers to care for our children’. It is the national non-governmental organisation that supports
Indigenous young people and families to be empowered and in control of their circumstances. Fea-
tures include policy analysis, research, advocacy, training, resources, news and ways to collaborate:
www.supportingcarers.snaicc.org.au/caring-for-kids/child-rearing-practices
4 Strategies with Kids, Information for Parents (SKIP) is a New Zealand government initiative that
involves a nationwide network of individuals, community groups, government agencies, workplaces
and national NGOs. There are parenting tips, community support information that includes funding
opportunities, resources and a resource library, to promote positive family relationships and guide
children’s behaviour towards a nurturing exchange: www.skip.org.nz
5 The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) website lists information on Aus-
tralian television content, regulations, policies, advice for parents, legislation regarding child viewing,
resources and videos: www.acma.gov.au/Industry/Broadcast/Television/Australian-content/australian-
content-television
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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PART 4
MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
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.
CHAPTER 8

development in middle
childhood
LEARNING OUTCOMES

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.
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 dis-
cussed 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 devel-
opment 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 experi-
ence 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.
During middle childhood, physical growth slows. Physical skills are easier to learn than in early child-
hood: children’s bodies are larger and stronger because of increased muscular and skeletal development,
404 PART 4 Middle childhood
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 life-
threatening 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 devel-
oping 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

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
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
(a) (b)
200 100
190 90
180 80
170 72
160 64
Height (cm)
Weight (kg)
150 56
140 48
130 40
120 32
110 24
100 16
90 8
80 0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Boys Girls
A very small minority of children have an abnormally small stature due to deficiencies in the produc-
tion 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 short-
term 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. Addition-
ally, 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 sys-
tem 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. How-
ever, 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 car-
rying, 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
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 sur-
vey 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, compris-
ing 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).
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 Māori children 1.6 times as likely to be obese than those children with-
out Pacific or Māori 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
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
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.
8.2 Health and illness
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 age-
specific 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 dis-
abled 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 contin-
uing 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 acci-
dents 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 bacte-
rial 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 Statis-
tics [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
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 care-
fully (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 wel-
fare 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

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
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 school-
aged 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.
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 dis-
located 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 involve-
ment 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 devel-
oped 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 com-
pared 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, chil-
dren 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 compe-
tence 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). More-
over, 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 sub-
ordinate 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;
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 chil-
dren 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 enjoy-
ment, 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 perfor-
mance 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 indi-
vidual 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). Chil-
dren 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 pro-
viding 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 differ-
ent levels of physical competency. Table 8.1 summarises the benefits and the risks of sport in middle
childhood.
TABLE 8.1 Physical and psychological effects of childhood sport
Physical effects Psychological effects

Positive effects r Better physical fitness r Improved achievement motivation (e.g. bettering
r Improved motor coordination previous running times)
r Support for teamwork (e.g. basketball)
Negative effects r Sports-related injuries (e.g. knee r Competition can engender more concern with
injuries from football, back problems winning than with individual performance
from gymnastics, shoulder pain from improvement
cricket) r Excessive pressure from adults to practise,
perform well and win
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 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.
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
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 conserva-
tion 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 under-
standing 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 con-
serving 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
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 décalage.
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
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. Sig-
nificant 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 Aborigi-
nals 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. Envi-
ronmental 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.
Usual answer
Original setup Alter as shown Ask child (non-conserving)
Do they still have

Conservation the same amount
of liquid or does one have
amount more than the
other? Has more
Are they both

Conservation the same amount or
of mass is one more
than the other?
More
Are there still the

Conservation same number or does
of number one row have more
than the other?
More
Are they the same

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

Conservation
length or is one
of length Is longer
pencil 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.
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
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.
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 out-
comes. 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 regu-
larly 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 develop-
ers 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 con-
crete 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 super-
ordinate 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.
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 devel-
opment, 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

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 socio-
cultural 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.
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 organ-
ised 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 devel-
opment. 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; Solı́s, Scammacca, Barth, & Roberts, 2017; Takala, 2006).
Social settings (such as the classroom and the home environment) can play a pivotal role in child-
hood 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 develop-
ment (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

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 problem-
solving 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 pro-
cessed, remembered and used in learning and problem solving. Without the attentional system, further
information processing would be impossible. Children’s attentional capacity develops significantly dur-
ing 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; Gómez-Pérez & 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 econom-
ical and systematic (Coles, Sigman, & Chessel, 1977; Kramer, Gonzalez de Sather, & Cassavaugh, 2005;
Wimmer, Maras, Robinson, & Thomas, 2016). Attention also becomes more flexible during middle child-
hood. 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 func-
tions (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
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 commu-
nication (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, Bieder-
man, 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 inhibit-
ing 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 ther-
apy 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 sys-
tem. 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
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 poten-
tial 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
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 con-
soles), 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 con-
cluded 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 investi-
gated 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 Inno-
vation 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:
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. Stem-
ming 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 chil-
dren’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.
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. Dis-
cuss 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?
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 com-
plex, 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 infer-
ential 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 infor-
mation. 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 mat-
erial 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 spread-
ing 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
& 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
6
Digit span
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Adults
Age (years)
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 informa-
tion in the absence of external cues that can prime memory. School-aged children perform less well than
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 child-
hood 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

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 devel-
opment. 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 lan-
guage 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 chil-
dren 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
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.
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 typ-
ically 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 envi-
ronment that supports and encourages the learning of more than one language. For example, in many
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 expres-
sion 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 Māori or Pacific Islander descent,
with children who speak English and Māori 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 selec-
tive 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 bilin-
guals — 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 sta-
tus 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 neg-
ative 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
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 (Rubal-
Lopez, 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

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 envi-
ronmental 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 abil-
ities 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 problem-
solving 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 old-
est 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
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.
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 individ-
ual’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 intelli-
gence 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
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) exhaus-
tive 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 acqui-
sition 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 intel-
ligence). 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 intelli-
gence, 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 psy-
chometric 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, per-
formance 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 circum-
stances; 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
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. Dif-
ferent 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 intelli-
gence 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:
Different cultures have different concep-
tions of what it means to be gifted. But in
identifying children as gifted, we often use
only our own conception, ignoring the cul-
tural context in which the children grew up.
Such identification is inadequate and fails to
do justice to the richness of the world’s cul-
tures. 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,
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 stu-
dents 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 Bevan-
Brown (2005, 2009, 2014) in New Zealand found that culturally specific abilities such as arts, crafts, music,
cultural knowledge and traditions, storytelling, and Māori language are valued as attributes of giftedness.
Scobie-Jennings (2013) highlights in her research that only small numbers of Māori children are being
identified as gifted. The main barrier to identifying gifted Māori children is teacher expertise and knowl-
edge, 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 Māori conceptions of giftedness are included in gifted and talented policies, and that
educators are trained to create culturally responsive environments. Identification of gifted Māori 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 Māori 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 educa-
tors 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?
‘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 exam-
ple 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 empha-
sise the abstract or general propositions common in classrooms and intellectual discussions. These ethnic
groups and cultures regard this interactional style as inappropriate (Brice Heath, 2010). Furthermore, one-
on-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. Chil-
dren 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 abili-
ties. 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 diag-
nosed 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 tal-
ented 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 nor-
mal 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 short-
comings 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.
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, experi-
ential 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.
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 environ-
ments. 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 experi-
ences 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 high-
lights 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, psychomet-
ric 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 per-
taining 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
Analytical intelligence problems; applying strategies; engaging in self-regulation; acquiring
metacognitive knowledge.
Experiential Skill with novel problems and familiar problems in novel settings; skill at
Creative intelligence solving problems automatically as they become familiar; skill at generating
new solutions to problems.
Contextual Deliberate adaptation, alteration and selection of learning environments to
Practical intelligence facilitate problem solving.
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences

Like Sternberg, Gardner (1993, 2000, 2017) believes information processing skills are the key to intel-
ligent behaviour and, like Sternberg, he proposes that intelligence consists of several distinctive facets.
However, Gardner has defined these types of intelligence in terms of distinctive ways of processing func-
tions that reflect the influence of culture and society, which permits individuals to engage in a range of cul-
turally 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 numer-
ical 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, iden-
tifiable 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 reason-
ing 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 def-
initions 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 intel-
ligences 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 under-
standing 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.
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

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
child’s behaviour in a certain situation. The aim of this research was to explore the development of con-
ceptual 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 char-
acters 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
Egocentric social perspective–taking 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.
Level 1 (4–9 years) Children realise that perspectives can be different and they change
Subjective social perspective–taking 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.
Level 2 (7–12 years; overlaps with Children can view a situation from someone else’s perspective and
Level 3) can appreciate that the other person can reciprocate. They can see
Self-reflective social perspective–taking 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.
Level 3 (10–12 years) Children develop the ability to look at a situation from the outside
Third-person social perspective–taking (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.
Level 4 (14–adult) Children realise that societal values, attitudes and beliefs influence
Qualitative-systems level of social perspectives. They are aware of the qualitative levels of others’
perspective–taking 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.
Level 5 An awareness develops that the relationship between oneself and
Symbolic interactional social others may have multiple meanings, which are both factual and
perspective–taking 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).
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 distribu-
tion 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 soci-
ety 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 chil-
dren, 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 inter-
view 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:
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 positive-
justice 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 positive-
justice reasoning did so by advancing along the sequence of levels described in table 8.4. The results
support the notion that even stage-like development proceeds gradually and continuously, and that rea-
soning 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).
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 bully-
ing. 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 empa-
thy, 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 relation-
ship between moral disengagement, empathy, prosocial and victimising behaviour.
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.
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 situation-
specific, 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 stu-
dent 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 col-
lectively 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
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 Common participation structures in classrooms
Structure Teacher’s behaviour Students’ behaviour Assumptions

Lecture r talk r listen r students think about what
r tell ideas r take notes teacher says
r answer questions r ask questions r students do not daydream
Discussion r set topic or broad r say something relevant r know something about
question r take others’ comments the topic before beginning
into account class
Group work r set general task r work out details of r do a fair share of the work
r select group members solution to task r cooperate
r compromise as needed
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.
Social biases that affect learning

Observations of classroom teaching show both teachers and other students sometimes respond to a stu-
dent 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 prevent-
ing 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 reduc-
tion 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. Edu-
cational interventions have successfully trained teachers and even classmates to include all students
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 cir-
cumstances, 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.
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’ educa-
tion. 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 high-
est 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?
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 Assess-
ment 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 learn-
ing. 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.
Individualised goals
With individualised goals, each student is judged on personal performance, regardless of what other indi-
viduals 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. Evalua-
tions 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
(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 individ-
uals 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 stu-
dents 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).
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 moti-
vated, 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, coop-
erative 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.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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?
THE CHANGING CHILD: PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE
AND SOCIAL
The development examples given in this chapter point towards a greater truth: Neither physical nor cog-
nitive 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 acqui-
sition 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 signif-
icant 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 non-
Aboriginal 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.
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 bur-
geoning 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.
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 capa-
city 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. Stern-
berg’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.
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 (motiva-

tion, 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 distribu-
tive 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 under-
mined 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.
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 mark-
ers 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.
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).
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?
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’.
1 Test your understanding by matching the key concept to an applicable example. Note, there are several
more than one term.
Balanced bilingual Preoperational

Conservation of amount Reciprocal teaching
Conservation of number Recognition memory
Cooperative goals Rehearsal
Cooperative learning Seriate
Gross motor skills Short-term memory
Language immersion Sideline rage
Mnemonic strategies Syntax
Parental over-participation Turn-taking

Pragmatics 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.
(c) Andy wants to phone his friend Jake about a homework problem. His father looks up Jake’s tele-
phone 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 con-
versing 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 prob-
lems. 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.
WEBSITES
1 The Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from the United Nations’ Millennium
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
2 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 physi-
cally 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
3 This website of the Australian Government’s Department of Health provides health-awareness infor-
mation 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
4 Australian Indigenous Health InfoNet; the Aboriginal Birth Cohort Study (ABC). ABC is a prospec-
tive, 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 includ-
ing research articles and health promotion: www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/key-resources/programs-
projects?pid=2459
5 ‘Make Healthy Normal’, a 2015 initiative from the NSW state government provides advice for par-
ents, 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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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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CHAPTER 9
Psychosocial
development in
middle childhood
LEARNING OUTCOMES

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.
OPENING SCENARIO
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 school-
work, 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 psy-
chosocial 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
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 compe-
tence, 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 dur-
ing 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

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 peer-
related 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.
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 sep-
arate 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 prin-
cipally 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 psycho-
social tasks, begun during childhood and continuing through the lifespan (see the chapter on psycho-
social 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 opin-
ions — 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).
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 chil-
dren’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 con-
servation (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 consoli-
dated 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
‘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 self-
concepts 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 self-
concept). 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 chil-
dren 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 rela-
tive 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 com-
parison 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).
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

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.
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 repres-
sion 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
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 envi-
ronmental 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 perfor-
mance 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).
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
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 under-
stand 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 com-
plements 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.
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 can-
not 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 stan-
dards, even making adequate progress may not give the child a sense of achievement. The school-aged
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 promot-
ing 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 motiva-
tional 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 moti-
vation, 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 ori-
entation. 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). Alter-
natively, 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 neg-
ative 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).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Reflect on what factors influenced your primary school achievement motivation. How has your achieve-
ment 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 Com-
mission 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:
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 Aborigi-
nal 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 inves-
tigate 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).
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 discrimi-
nation, 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 Embrac-
ing 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 well-
being outcomes were noteworthy findings. As a result, Priest et al. reported ‘a need for effective school-
based interventions aimed at improving emotional wellbeing through reducing racial discrimination and
promoting positive attitudes towards diversity’ (2014, p. 31).
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 devel-
opment 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.
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).
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.
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
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 psy-
chology 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 con-
tinual 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 interac-
tion 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
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 chil-
dren. Do you think these programs are effective ways of developing resilience and coping skills? Why or
why not?
Divorce and its effects on children

Divorce can be especially traumatic during middle childhood, with family readjustments often affect-
ing 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 con-
sequences 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 separa-
tion were significantly less well adjusted than children who were in their preschool years at the time of
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 criti-
cal 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 hostil-
ity 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.
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 decision-
making 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 ser-
vices 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. Prob-
lems 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 inde-
pendent 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).
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 separat-
ing parents who are often in emotional distress, but at the same time gives very clear messages based
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 long-
term 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 devel-
oping 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 residen-
tial 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).
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
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 psy-
chological 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 continu-
ing 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, triangu-
lation 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 developmen-
tal 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 parent-
ing, 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.
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 protec-
tive 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
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 Suggestions for separating and divorcing parents to protect children from damaging parental conflict
1. Keep your conflict away from your children.

2. Listen carefully to how they feel about things.
3. Let them know you are trying to sort out differences.
4. Explain that it’s not your children’s fault.
5. Be positive about the other parent with the child (even when that isn’t easy).
6. Don’t let your child play messenger between parents.
7. Never allow your children to take sides against a parent.
8. Try to stay out of court — negotiate, don’t litigate.
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 step-
children 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.
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
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?
r 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?
r 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 commit-
ment to the children of your previous marriage/relationship?
r 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?
r 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?
r 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?
r 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?
r 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?
r 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.
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 activi-
ties, 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 ded-
icate 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 allo-
cated to family activities. Most of this extra work was unpaid and was being done to meet deadlines or
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.
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 eco-
nomic 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 house-
work 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 activ-
ities 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
mother–child activities (Gottfried et al., 1994; Moorehouse, 1991). Even so, part-time parental employ-
ment 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.
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. Unem-
ployed 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 difficul-
ties, 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 signifi-
cantly 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
supervision such as holiday care and before- and/or after-school care (BASC) needs to be found for chil-
dren 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 phe-
nomenon 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 car-
ried 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 prob-
lems 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. Accord-
ing 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 Inter-
national 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.
The negative and positive effects of being a self-care child vary according to the child’s age and matu-
rity, 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 self-
care) 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.
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 mod-
els 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 chil-
dren 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.
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 con-
flict 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 rela-
tionships 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

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
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, impor-
tant 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 devel-
opment. 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 experi-
ences (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 net-
works 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, chil-
dren 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 class-
room 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.
Age segregation
Research in developed countries during the 1980s and 1990s provided strong evidence that, during child-
hood, 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,
Alcalá, Mejı́a-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 adminis-
trative 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:
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
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 mixed-
sex ‘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 same-
sex 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 pref-
erences; 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.
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 lan-
guage). 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 consol-
idated 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 ‘terri-
tory’. 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 mixed-
sex ‘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
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).
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 chil-
dren 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 segrega-
tion 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 pro-
portions 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
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).
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 affili-
ations 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 chil-
dren’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 similar-
ities 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 like-
minded 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).
Individual differences in peer status
As members of peer groups, children are exposed to acceptance and rejection by their peers. Using socio-
metric 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 dif-
ficulties. 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 propor-
tion 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
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
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 unfor-
tunate 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 Sociometric classification of children
Nominations received
Category % from peer group Characteristics
Popular 7–13 Many positive, few or no Pro-social, good at sport, academically bright,
negative good sense of humour, fun to be with
Rejected 6–15 Many negative, few or no Antisocial type — aggressive, disruptive;
positive Withdrawn type — isolated and uninvolved
Neglected 7–18 Few or no negative or Low levels of positive and negative behaviour,
positive minimal peer impact
Controversial 3–7 Many negative and many More aggressive than antisocial rejectees, but
positive bright, sociable and show leadership qualities
Average 52–67 No extreme nominations Normal levels of all behaviours
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, espe-
cially 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 Sci-
ence (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 associ-
ated 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 sug-
gests 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 signifi-
cantly 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
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 con-
trast 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).
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.
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. Cyberbul-
lying, 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 man-
agement 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
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 diffi-
culties 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).
Dodge’s information processing model of social competence. Problem: Simon has taken
TABLE 9.2 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 Hayden thinks he must retrieve his water wings before they
of response 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).
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 net-
works. 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. Obser-
vations 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 similar-
ity 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 chil-
dren 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
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 accep-
tance. 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 chil-
dren. 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 differ-
ences 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 friend-
ships. 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 com-
panionship, 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?
THEORY IN PRACTICE
Cyberbullying research
Katrina Newey is a cyberbullying researcher with
a Masters degree in educational and developmen-
tal psychology. She tutors undergraduate psychol-
ogy students at Western Sydney University (WSU),
is a registered psychologist, and represents the
Australian Psychological Society (APS) as secre-
tary of the NSW College of Educational and Devel-
opmental 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 conse-
quences 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, Pyżalski, & 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 Instrument-
Target, 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 cyberbul-
lying 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 teach-
ing 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
findings that children are increasingly accessing communication technologies at younger ages (Mishna,
Saini, & Solomon, 2009).
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
How would you use results from the AVBI to combat cyberbullying behaviours with primary school chil-
dren? How will the resilience workshops assist in decreasing the rising tide of cyberbullying and in building
resilience?
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. Fam-
ilies 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, reloca-
tion, 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.
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 (com-
pared 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.
Although there are many commonalities in families and their developmental functions, families are actu-
ally 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
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 diver-
sity, 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 develop-
mental 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.
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 signifi-
cant 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 per-
spectives 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.
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
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
skill acquisition during middle childhood. What factors are known to influence achievement motiva-
tion, and how do these influences affect children’s orientations to achievement?
3 Describe the major negative effects parental divorce has on children’s psychosocial adjustment.
4 In what ways do contemporary employment trends affect children’s psychosocial development?
5 What are the major differences between peer and family relationships?
6 Describe the factors that influence the formation of peer groups and how these factors shape
children’s interpersonal behaviour with their peers.
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.
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.
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.
Achievement motivation Peer rejection
Age segregation Performance orientation
Border work Racial segregation
Controversial children Regency hypothesis
Critical stage hypothesis Self-care children
Gender segregation Self-constancy
Learning orientation
(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.
(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’ friend-
ships. 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
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 Wors-
ley, 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
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-to-
date information is available for parents and carers, general practitioners, teachers, social work-
ers 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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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Photo: © anythings / Shutterstock.com
Photo: © Suzanne Tucker / Shutterstock.com
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
PART 5
ADOLESCENCE
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 espe-
cially 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 edu-
cation 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 princi-
ples 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 com-
pleted 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.
CHAPTER 10

development in
adolescence
LEARNING OUTCOMES

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.
OPENING SCENARIO
In some cultures, the transition from childhood

into adulthood is marked by a special event. For
example, Māori 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 seg-
regated 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’.
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 appear-
ance 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
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.
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
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.
(a) (b)
200 100
190 90
180 80
170 72
160 64
Height (cm)
Weight (kg)
150 56
140 48
130 40
120 32
110 24
100 16
90 8
80 0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Boys 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
general lifestyle than are increases in height; there-
fore, changes in weight during adolescence are less
predictable from earlier body size and growth pat-
terns, 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 dis-
persal of body fat, accentuating the distinctive male
and female shapes that emerge during adolescence. In
a cross-sectional study of subcutaneous fat distribu-
tion 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 pro-
During 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 cor-
puscles 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 con-
cerns did you have with the changes? If you didn’t have any concerns, what concerns do you think some
adolescents would have and why?
10.3 Puberty
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 appear-
ance 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 estab-
lished 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 ado-
lescents 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.
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
Boys Pubic hair appearing; hair appearing;
Girls penis enlarging voice deepening
Testes First Penis adult size;
enlarging ejaculation mature pubic hair
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
10 10
Growth spurt
peak
8 8
Height increase (cm)
Height increase (cm)

6 6
4 4
2 2
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Breast Pubic hair Underarm Mature Mature

bud appearing hair appearing pubic hair breast
First menstruation
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 distribu-
tion 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 respon-
sible 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).
10.4 Variations in pubertal development
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 previ-
ous 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 signif-
icantly 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 differ-
ences 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 advan-
taged 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 Anglo-
or 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 diffi-
cult 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
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 influ-
ence 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 eth-
nic 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.
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 man-
ifest itself in criminal behaviour; early uptake of
substance use; and signs of certain mental ill-
nesses, 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.
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.
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 twenty-
first 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, Leen-
Feldner, 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 early-
maturing 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.
Late-maturing boys may suffer from lowered self-esteem due to physical disadvantage in sporting activ-
ities 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, pos-
sibly 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 substance-
related 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:
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
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 mid-
dle 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

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
(1966) health belief model, which has been one of the most influential theories contributing to understand-
ing 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 ele-
ments 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’ per-
ceived 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 pos-
itive 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 devel-
opment 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).
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.
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.
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 over-
weight 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.
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 pref-
erence. 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 men-
tally) 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).
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 ado-
lescent 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 (Freder-
ick, 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 primary-
aged 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 (involv-
ing preoccupation with weight, unhealthy dieting and obsessive kilojoule counting) becomes widespread
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. Koske-
lainen, 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). Waad-
degaard 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 develop-
ing, 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, eating-
disordered 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 Statis-
tical 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 origi-
nal 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 men-
strual 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 arrhyth-
mia 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
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 envi-
ronmental triggers’. Low self-esteem and low
self-efficacy are considered to be crucial factors in
the onset of eating disorders. For example, longitu-
dinal 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 disor-
ders during adolescence. Thus, susceptible teenagers
may be less satisfied and may feel more helpless and
hopeless in regard to their achievements than adoles-
cents 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 dis-
orders, 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 psy-
chotherapy 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.
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. Södersten, a Swedish
researcher, has developed an alternative approach to treating anorexia and bulimia, based on the assump-
tion that many of the symptoms and psychopathology of eating disorders are in fact related to starvation,
rather than being central to the disorder itself. Södersten and colleagues introduce in-patients to the Man-
dometer 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 restrict-
ing physical activity. This overcomes the tendency in starvation victims towards hypothermia and hyper-
activity (Bergh, Brodin, Lindberg, & Södersten, 2002). Mandometer therapy is now used in Australia.
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 geni-
tal 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 sub-
sequent 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.
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 cur-
riculum. 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 sex-
ual 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 knowl-
edge, 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.
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 methylene-
dioxymethamphetamine (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
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 indi-
viduals 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 consid-
ered 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. Biochemi-
cal 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 psycho-
active 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 contami-
nation. 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, alco-
hol 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 adoles-
cent 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 concern-
ing, 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 out-
comes. 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 initia-
tors of cannabis were three times more likely than later initiators to leave school prematurely. Increasing
evidence is also connecting early and prolonged cannabis use to the development of psychosis in vulner-
able 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
60
Percent
50
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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
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.
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. Exper-
imentation 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 depen-
dency 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, respira-
tory 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
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 fac-
tors 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 assess-
ment, 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 treat-
ment episodes for affected teenage clients involved some form of counselling, while a minority involved
drug withdrawal management (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008).
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
efforts targeting adolescents’ knowledge about
the risks involved in unprotected sex, reck-
less driving and substance abuse typically show
expected increases, but result in disappointingly
few changes in actual risk-taking behaviour (Stein-
berg, 2004). The same can be said of social
and emotional problems — a heightened aware-
ness 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 supe-
rior 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 devel-
opmental 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. Inter-
ventions 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.
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?
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 capa-
ble 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 hypotheti-
cal 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 sit-
uations 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

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 mid-
dle 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 charac-
terised 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 Bärbel 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).
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.
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 deter-

mine 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.
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).
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 simultane-
ously, and so Piaget applied the notion of horizontal décalage to the emergence of formal operations,
just as he did to concrete operations. Horizontal décalage 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 décalage in Piagetian tasks such as the pendulum task in longitudinal research with
Australian secondary students. Using Rasch modelling, a statistical technique that yielded empirical evi-
dence 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 adoles-
cents 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 soci-
eties, 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 accom-
modation 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
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. Every-
day 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 cogni-
tive 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

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 opera-
tional 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.
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 short-
comings 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 rea-
soning, 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
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 com-

plex system of information storage and retrieval, analogous to computer hardware and software, with
several distinctive processes, including attention, encoding, memory and thinking. Information process-
ing 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
earlier cognitive achievements (Halford, 2004). Information-processing theory assumes several mecha-
nisms 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 Increased efficiency
(input)
Long-term
memory
(LTM)
Short-term
Attention Rehearsal
Sensory memory
Greater
register (STM)
specific
(SR) Organisation
Recognition expertise
Increased
size Meaningfulness
Greater
knowledge
about problem-
solving
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 simulta-
neously. During adolescence, increased attentional capacity over that demonstrated in childhood occurs;
particularly in selective attention, with processing of task-irrelevant information decreasing as adoles-
cence 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).
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 infor-
mation 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 chil-
dren 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 work-
ing 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 pro-
cessing 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 per-
formance 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 sophis-
ticated 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 ado-
lescence. 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?
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 adoles-
cence, as witnessed in Piaget’s reasoning tasks. The attainment of formal operations allows a marked
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.
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 individ-
uals 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 infor-
mation.
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 develop-
ment 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, adoles-
cents 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 child-
hood. 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
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 criti-
cal 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
4 Fairness of emphasising
individual memorisation
Rating of fairness
Very
unfair 0
1–2 3–4 5–6 7–8
School year level
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 explic-
itly, 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 solv-
ing 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 pro-
grams 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 recog-
nised. For example, the Australian School Library Association states that ‘A national digital information
literacy focus within the Australian National Curriculum will enable progressive development of individ-
ual 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 signif-
icant 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 devel-
opment 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 under-
standing 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.
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.
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 demon-
strated 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 cogni-
tive 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
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 gen-
erally 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 & Stolarz-
Fantino, 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

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 reason-
ing 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 chang-
ing feelings about moral matters. Abbey was experiencing all of these aspects in the situation she was
faced with.
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.
Elkind’s egocentrism
Elkind’s research built on the theory of Piaget. He completed extensive research in the areas of per-
ceptual, 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 invincibil-
ity 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 self-
focused 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’ peo-
ple 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 devel-
opment and vocational advancement (e.g. Boyd, 2010). However, certain narcissistic traits — such as
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 self-
esteem 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).
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 uncer-
tainty 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.
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development

Lawrence Kohlberg, an American developmentalist, extended Piaget’s work on moral development dur-
ing 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 tar-
geted 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 ascend-
ing 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.
TABLE 10.1 Kohlberg’s stages of moral judgement
Stage Nature of stage

Preconventional level (emphasis on avoiding punishments and getting awards)
Stage 1 Good is what follows externally imposed rules and
Heteronomous morality; ethics of punishment rewards and is whatever avoids punishment.
and obedience
Stage 2 Good is whatever is agreeable to the individual and
Instrumental purpose; ethics of exchange to anyone who gives or receives favours.
Conventional level (emphasis on social rules)
Stage 3 Good is whatever pleases or helps others and brings
Interpersonal normative morality; ethics of approval from friends or peer group.
peer opinion
Stage 4 Good is whatever conforms to existing laws,
Social system orientation: conformity to social customs and authorities; contributions for the good
system; ethics of law and order of society as a whole.
Postconventional level (emphasis on moral principles)
Stage 5 Good depends upon consensus principles in the face
Social contract orientation; ethics of social contract of various individual values; common principles
and individual rights should be upheld for the ultimate welfare of society.
Stage 6 Good is whatever is consistent with personal, general
Ethics of self-chosen universal principles 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 eth-
ically 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.
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
60
Stage 2
Percentage of individuals
50 Stage 3
Stage 4
40
Stage 5
30
20
10
0
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36
Age (years)
Source: Adapted from Colby et al. (1983).
Criticisms of cognitive–developmental theories of morality

Kohlberg’s model is probably the foremost contemporary model of lifespan moral development, challeng-
ing 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 asso-
ciated 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
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, self-
generated 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 criti-
cism. 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. Transgres-
sions 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 mat-
ters, 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 protag-
onists 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 indi-
vidual 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).
TABLE 10.2 Gilligan’s stages of moral development
Stage Features
Stage 1 Egocentric concern for self, lack of awareness of others’ needs;
Survival orientation ‘right’ action is what promotes emotional or physical survival.
Stage 2 Lack of distinction between what others want and what is right;
Conventional care ‘right’ action is whatever pleases others best.
Stage 3 Coordination or integration of needs of self and of others; ‘right’
Integrated care 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
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.
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.
MULTICULTURAL VIEW
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 devel-
opmental 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 pro-
gressed 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 culture-
bound 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 sup-
port 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 low-
est 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
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 there-
fore 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 devel-
opment 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?
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?
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 scro-
tum and production of fertile sperm; in girls, puberty is marked by menarche (the beginning of the men-
strual 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 psycho-
logical 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.
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 invulnerabil-
ity. 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 dur-
ing 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 opera-
tional 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 oper-
ations that allow individuals to think in terms of scientific method and sequences of logical relations.
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 applica-
ble 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 char-
acteristics — 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 under-
lying 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 stim-
uli 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 fos-
ter 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 cru-
cial 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 compro-
mised 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.
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 ego-
centric, 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 three-
stage 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 the-
ory that is espoused, a fairly tentative link remains between the level of moral reasoning and ethical
behaviour.
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 décalage 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.
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
expressed in girls and boys.
3 What are the factors that might account for the large differences seen in the age of puberty onset?
4 Describe how Piaget viewed cognitive changes during adolescence.
5 Explain how Twenge expanded Elkind’s concept of egocentrism.
6 Outline Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.
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?
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 Primary interventions

Anorexia nervosa Primary sex characteristics
Binge drinking Propositional reasoning
Bulimia nervosa Psychoactive substances
Conventional care Risk-seeking behaviour
Conventional moral reasoning Secondary interventions

Critical thinking Secondary sex characteristics
Growth spurt Sexually transmitted infections
Integrated care Social conventions
Menarche Spermarche
Non-normative puberty Substance abuse
Postconventional moral reasoning Tertiary interventions
Preconventional moral reasoning
(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 esca-
lating 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 ado-
lescents 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 embar-
rassed 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?
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 spe-
cific 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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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Extract: © Helen Partridge
CHAPTER 11
in adolescence
LEARNING OUTCOMES

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.
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 daugh-
ter, 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 adoles-
cence 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 dif-
ficult 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 develop-
mental 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 per-
sonality 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.
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 pri-
vacy 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 psy-
chosocial 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

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 ado-
lescents undergo, changes which set the stage for the process of developing an identity. For example, criti-
cal 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 them-
selves 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 inter-
est 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 expecta-
tions. 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
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 Dan-
ish 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 profes-
sional 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 pur-
pose 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 some-
body’ (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 out-
comes, 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 devel-
opment 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 uncer-
tainty 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 develop-
mental 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 devel-
opment 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 achieve-
ment 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
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.
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 exam-
ine 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 defi-
ance 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
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.
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 wholeheart-
edly 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
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.
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

Commitment
Absent Identity moratorium Identity diffusion
Source: Marcia (1980).
The foremost status in terms of identity development is called identity achievement, and is charac-
terised 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 sta-
tus 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 oppor-
tunity 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, morato-
rium 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.
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 indi-
vidual 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 alter-
native 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).
Marcia’s status categories offer a useful avenue for applying and evaluating Erikson’s theoreti-
cal 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 meta-
analysis 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 sug-
gests 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 edu-
cation, 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 adoles-
cents, 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 vulnera-
ble 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
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 diffi-
cult 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 sta-
tus. Numerous studies have shown that individual differences in identity development reflect reliable
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 reason-
ing 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 psy-
chologically 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 devel-
opment. 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 disease-
related 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 adult-
hood. With limited exposure to more positive possibilities, these adolescents are at risk of developing a
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?
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 impres-
sions 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
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 stu-
dent 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 self-
understanding; 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 self-
worth, 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 expe-
rienced 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
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 parent-
ing 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.
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 relation-
ships have a differential effect on young men’s and young women’s global self-esteem, with the presence
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 expec-
tations 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 self-
esteem 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

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 full-
scale 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
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 prob-
lems 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’ rela-
tionships with their parents are explored in detail.
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 adoles-
cence 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’ experi-
enced 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 infor-
mation, 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 par-
ents 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 envi-
ronmental 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
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.
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 asymmetri-
cal 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 ado-
lescents, 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 opportuni-
ties 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 devel-
opment 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 bal-
anced 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 adoles-
cent 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
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 relation-
ships 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 con-
cerns — 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
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 activi-
ties 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 gain-
ing 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
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 Por-
tuguese 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).
Parent–child conflict during adolescence

As demonstrated in the previous section, adolescents often want more autonomy than parents are will-
ing 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 tak-
ing 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 per-
ceives 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 intergener-
ational 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,
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). Esca-
lating 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 adoles-
cents’ 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 pos-
itive 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 psy-
chodynamic 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 sug-
gests 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. Tra-
ditional, 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
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.
Reasons for intergenerational conflict and strategies for reducing it in families with
TABLE 11.1 adolescent children
Reason for
intergenerational conflict Parental strategies Adolescent strategies
A lack of understanding of Recognise that young people face Recognise that parents were
the viewpoint and different challenges related to today’s once young too and faced
challenges of a different society. Talk to adolescents about how different challenges. Talk to
age group they see the world. parents about how it was then
and how it is now.
A lack of respect for a Recognise the achievements of the Recognise the achievements of
different age group younger generation. Let adolescents the older generation. Let parents
know they are valued for their know that they are appreciated
contribution to family and community. for the contributions they have
made to family and community.
Intolerance by parents of Evaluate troubling behaviour and its Evaluate troubling behaviour and
adolescents’ behaviour effects on other people. Make an its effects on other people. Make
objective judgement — is it harmful and an objective judgement — is it
to whom? Talk constructively to harmful and to whom? Listen and
adolescents about troubling behaviour share points of view with parents.
and its effects on family. Listen to their Problem-solve and make
points as well as making your own. behavioural contracts. Act on
Problem-solve and make behavioural and review these regularly.
contracts. Act on and review these
regularly.
Resentment of parents’ Recognise how parental power affects Recognise that restrictions have
power and restrictions by adolescents’ behaviour and drive for a protective function and show a
adolescents autonomy. Examine reasons for caring parental attitude. Examine
restrictions and discuss them reasons for restrictions and
objectively with adolescents. Examine discuss them with parents.
risks involved together with Examine risks involved together
adolescents. 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.
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.
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 class-
room, and how the girls in the school reacted to
the changes that boys brought, when the school
moved from being a single-sex kindergarten-to-
Year 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?
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.
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

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 middle-
class 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 ado-
lescents 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
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
Father only
Waking hours (per cent)
10
0
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Year in school
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’ self-
exploration 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
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 member-
ship. 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 child-
hood, 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 exist-
ing 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’, rep-
resenting 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 activi-
ties, 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
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 same-
sex, 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 develop-
ment, 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 sepa-
rate 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 Māori 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 ado-
lescence, 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
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 desegre-
gation, 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 rejec-
tion of adult values. Movies of the 1950s such as James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause popularised this
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.
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 signif-
icant 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
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 long-
term 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).
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 gen-
erally 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 Cabra-
matta’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
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, includ-
ing 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 char-
acterised 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 legit-
imate 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).
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 sub-
set 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 stu-
dents 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).
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, & Verloove-
Vanhorick, 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,
Limber, and Agatston (2012) speculate that its impact might be more severe than face-to-face ‘school-
yard’ 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 perpetra-
tor(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 reduc-
tions 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).
During the teenage years, the basis of close friendships changes. When asked to define close friend-
ships 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 victim-
isation, 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 happi-
ness. 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
use this knowledge in their arguments for greater freedom; for example, like Rebecca did when she pre-
sented 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, atti-
tudes, 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, friend-
ships 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 increas-
ing 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.
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 relation-
ships, 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 arrange-
ment 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 café. 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,
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).
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 com-
monly experienced in adolescent dating experiences — and the break-up of romantic relationships is
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 dif-
ferences 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 mixed-
sex 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 mar-
riages 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 back-
grounds 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 devel-
opmental 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?
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).
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 mas-
turbation 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 individu-
als 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).
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 experi-
enced 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 preg-
nancy. 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). Internation-
ally 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).
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
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%
Bi-curious 10.2% 8.5% 13.9%
Did not answer 0.8% 0.9% 0.5%
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 dis-
closure 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
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 sup-
port 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. Over-
seas 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 expe-
rienced 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 sex-
ual 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
mothers with the sexual orientations of 21 adults raised by heterosexual single mothers. Although chil-
dren 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 mecha-
nisms 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.
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
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 back-
grounds 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 par-
ticular. 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 parent-
ing, 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 post-
natal 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 disadvan-
tage 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 mem-
bers 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 impor-
tant 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
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
The great majority of teenage pregnancies are unintended and are the result of inadequate or non-
existent 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. Feel-
ings 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’ preg-
nancy 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 pro-
moting 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 preg-
nancy? 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?
MULTICULTURAL VIEW
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 main-
stream 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 Aus-
tralian 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
to establish a specific and distinctive ethnic historic apology of then prime minister Kevin Rudd on
identity that encompasses the culture of the 13 February 2008.
country in which they or their parents or more
distant forebears were born (Phinney & Alipuria, 1990; Phinney & Ong, 2007). In meeting this chal-
lenge, 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 adoles-
cents 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, rang-
ing 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 eth-
nic 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 cul-
tural 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 pro-
cess 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 adap-
tive 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
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 sus-
pended 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 minori-
ties, 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 (Donnet-
Jones, 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; Umana-
Taylor, 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).
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.
Extract from Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples,
13 February 2008, Parliament of Australia
We have reached the end of our discussion of adolescence. How do the developmental issues of ado-
lescence 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.

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 capa-
bilities 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 adoles-
cents 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.
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.
Parents worldwide share a common goal of caring for their children in a manner that fosters their phys-
ical, cognitive and psychosocial development and wellbeing. However, the ways in which parents raise
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 out-
comes 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 iden-
tity 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) fore-
closure. 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 dif-
ferences, 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.
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 dif-
ferences 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 back-
drop 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, ineffec-
tive parenting and longstanding peer difficulties propel them towards peer group experiences in gangs.
Gang membership introduces many of these adolescents to a criminal career, and may exacerbate the pre-
existing 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 for-
mation 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 sup-
ports 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.
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.
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?
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
this statement.
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.
Adolescent egocentrism Homophobia
Autonomy Identity diffusion
Bullying Identity foreclosure
Clique Identity moratorium
Crowd Negative identity
Dating script Parental monitoring
Deviancy training Personal fable
Double standard Propinquity
Gang Role confusion
Gender identity Self-esteem
Generation gap 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
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 advo-
cacy, clinical care, health promotion, health service delivery, professional development and research:
www.adolescenthealth.org/Home.aspx
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Photo: © ONOKY - Photononstop / Alamy Stock Photo
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Photo: © JULIAN SMITH / AAP Image
Table 11.2: © RedHotPie
Extract: © University of Melbourne
Extract: © Australian Government
PART 6
EARLY ADULTHOOD
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.
CHAPTER 12

adulthood
LEARNING OUTCOMES

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.
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 redu-
cing 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 devel-
opment. 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.
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 649
physical functioning during early adulthood: (1) growth in height and weight, (2) strength and (3) age-
related changes in body systems. We then look at how genetic makeup, diet, exercise and stress affect
these changes.
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 con-
temporary 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 twen-
ties. 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 com-
plete 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 coun-
tries, 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
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
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 immuno-
deficiency 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 socioeco-
nomic 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
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 devel-
opment 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.
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 vegeta-
bles. 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 serv-
ings 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 lev-
els. 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,
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 physi-
cal 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 health-
compromising 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.
FOCUSING ON
Health at every size®

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 sup-
ported 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 out-
comes more successfully than weightloss treatments without the unintended consequences of food and
body preoccupation (Green & Buckroyd, 2008); repeated cycles of weightloss and regain (Pietiläinen,
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?
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.
Normal
Level of resistance
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
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
18
Female
Proportion of population (per cent)
16
14
12
10
0
18–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65–74 75 and over
Age group (years)
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
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.
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.
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 Māori knowledge and cultural practices at
Massey University, and is a qualified secondary school teacher.
Hauora is the Māori 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 Whānau) and
spiritual (Taha Wairua). Emeritus Professor Sir Mason Durie is one of the most significant contributors to
the revitalisation and development of Māori 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 Māori health and identity development. Durie first presented his concept of the Whare Tapa Wha (the
four-sided house) of Hauora — a Māori perspective and holistic approach to health and total wellbeing —
in 1984, and it has since become a widely accepted Māori definition of health (Durie, 1994; Glover, 2005).
Durie (1998) states in his introduction of his book Whaiora, ‘Māori health development is essentially about
Māori defining their own priorities for health and then weaving a course to realise [Maori] collective aspira-
tions’ (p. 1). In that sense, the Whare Tapa Wha model of Hauora provides a macro-level conceptual base
that actively engages with Māori 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)
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
Māori 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 obser-
vations 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 Māori 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
own particular tapu as identified in the disrespectful behaviour of resting or sitting on tables. Māori 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 Whānau (social)
The word whānau 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 whānau 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 whānau begins by allowing children (of any culture) to maintain their personal
identity with whānau and their geographic locality or origin, as epitomised in Māori pepeha (oral introduc-
tions 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 Māori health and identity in Aotearoa New Zealand
(Pitama, Robertson, Cram, Gillies, Huria, & Dallas-Katoa, 2007; Rochford, 2004).
12.4 Health-compromising behaviours

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
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.
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
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 adult-
hood 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.
Australia (2013) New Zealand (2014–2015)
30 30
27 27

24 24
21 21
18 18
15 15
12 12
9 9
6 6
3 3
18–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65–74 75+ 18–24 25–29 30–39 40–49 50–59 60–69 70+
Age group (years) Age group (years)
Male Female
Source: AIHW (2014); Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) (2016).
Smoking is responsible for more preventable illnesses and deaths than any other single health-
compromising 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.
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 socio-
economic 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 Māori. Smoking prevalence among Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander males and females is at 38.9 per cent (ABS, 2015). Similar patterns are found for
Māori, with prevalence rates generally double the non-Māori rates with Māori males at 37.3 per cent and
Māori 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 (Prohi-
bition 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?
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, & Lenné, 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 non-
pregnant 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,
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.
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 Māori 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 com-
mon 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.
Although drinking peaks at age 18–24, patterns of adult consumption among Indigenous Australians dif-
fer 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, Yücel, & 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.
Unsafe sex
In addition to posing direct health risks, the use of alcohol and other drugs facilitates the health-
compromising 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, & MacBride-
Stewart, 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
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;
Penâs-Lledó, 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 Māori 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 interven-
tion 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?
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?
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 ques-
tions 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
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 con-
cerns 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 trajec-
tory 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?
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 statis-
tics 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 psycho-
logical, physical and sexual health in Australian females (de Visser et al., 2007). For both males and
females, the psychological, social and economic effects can be devastating; for example, studies have con-
sistently 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 phys-
iology 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.
The sexual response cycle

For their landmark study, Masters and Johnson (1966) watched and measured men and women’s physio-
logical 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 sex-
ual 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 phys-
iological 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.
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 typi-
cally 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 refrac-
tory 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
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 dif-
ference 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 agree-
ment 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 homosex-
ual 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 regard-
ing 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
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 exam-
ple, different sampling methods that either over-represented gay males in Kinsey’s sample or under-
represented 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.
Lesbian/gay sexual preference

Several factors make it difficult to know how many gay and lesbian people there are. First, sexual pref-
erence 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 diffi-
cult 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 result-
ing 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 bisex-
ual. 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 homosex-
uals 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 polit-
ical 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
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.
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 con-
tribute 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.
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 informa-
tion 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
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).
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.
50
<20
20–24
25–29
Proportion of all births (per cent)
40
30–34
35–39
30 40+
20
10
0
1991 2001 2011
Source: Adapted from Lancaster, Huang, and Pedisich (1994); Laws and Sullivan (2004); Li, Zeki, Hilder, and Sullivan (2013).
Although women are likely to seek treatment for infertility before men do, the problem can be due to the
woman, the man, the combined infertility of the couple, or undetermined causes. Often, multiple causes
contribute to infertility. Although statistics vary, about 40 per cent of infertility cases have been shown
to have female causes and about 40 per cent have been shown to have male causes (Access, 2008). The
remaining 20 per cent are due to immunity or incompatibility between the man’s sperm and the woman’s
egg, or to unknown causes.
r Female infertility. The two major causes of female infertility are failure to ovulate and blockage of the
fallopian tubes. Ovulatory problems may be treated with drugs that induce ovulation. Blocked fallop-
ian tubes may be due to scarring after a pelvic infection associated with an STI such as gonorrhoea
or chlamydia or by endometriosis (a condition in which the tissue lining the uterine cavity grows out-
side the uterus, into other pelvic or abdominal organs). Treatment for blocked fallopian tubes usually
involves corrective surgery. The pregnancy rate after surgery varies greatly, depending on the location
of the blockage (Davajan & Israel, 1991).
r Male infertility. Male infertility may be due to a low sperm count, low sperm motility, poor semen
quality (a high percentage of abnormal or immature sperm), damaged sperm DNA or blockage of the
ducts of the reproductive tract. Less attention has been paid to developing treatments for male infertility
than for female infertility, and the treatments have been studied less thoroughly; thus, their usefulness
is less well documented. Hormonal treatments can improve testicular functioning, while reproductive
tract infections often respond to antibiotics. Surgery can repair varicose veins in the scrotum and correct
blockage of ducts of the reproductive tract. Most male infertility cases are managed with artificial
insemination.
r Psychological reactions to infertility. Infertility becomes apparent only over a period of time. When
a couple has been trying to conceive month after month and nothing happens, what are the psycho-
logical reactions? Dunkel-Schetter and Lobel (1991) describe five common emotional responses to
infertility. Most frequently, people respond with grief and depression. Feelings of sadness, mourn-
ing, and disappointment at being unable to have a child predominate. Anger, another very common
response to infertility, may be directed inward, but may also be directed at the spouse or others
who have children. Guilt, the next most common emotional response, may be linked to prior sexual
behaviour, delaying childbearing, or any other previous ‘transgression’. Isolation is a common experi-
ence for infertile couples, made worse by gender differences in coping with the emotional consequences
(Access, 2008).
When people receive an infertility diagnosis, they respond initially with shock or denial. Anxiety often
accompanies treatment for infertility, in part because the treatment is stressful and in part because the
outcome is uncertain. These emotional effects have an impact on the person’s general functioning. A
feeling of loss of control may result because the person’s life goal of having a child cannot be met, and also
because treatment for infertility directs a couple’s sexual relationship and invades their privacy (Access,
2008). Self-esteem may be threatened. Some people develop negative body images, others believe their
potency is threatened, and still others question their gender identity. All of these psychological effects
have an impact on the marriage and other relationships, as well as being implicated as possible causes of
infertility (Clayton, 2004).
Reproductive technologies
Given that infertility is so common and its effects on couples who experience it are so emotionally trying,
it is not surprising that many treatments for infertility have been developed. As we saw in the chapter
on genetics, prenatal development and birth, couples may try artificial insemination, in which doctors
inject the male partner’s (or a donor’s) sperm at the mouth of the cervix; in-vitro fertilisation and embryo
transfer (IVF–ET), in which doctors combine egg and sperm outside the body and reintroduce fertilised
eggs into the uterus; intrafallopian tube transfers, in which gametes or zygotes are placed in the fallop-
ian tube rather than the uterus; or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in which a single sperm is
extracted from the male testes as an extra stage in an IVF treatment (Queensland Fertility Group, 2008b;
Women’s Health Queensland Wide, 2007). These treatments are not without drawbacks — they are not
always successful and carry some health risks. For example, links have been found between breast and
ovarian cancers and the drugs used to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs (Brinton et al., 2004).
Nevertheless, it is important to note that an association between cancer and fertility drugs has not been
fully established and the causal pathways are still unclear (Klip, Burger, Kenemans, & van Leeuwen,
2000). Until 2004, infertility treatments were also very expensive. A single round of IVF in Australia
now costs between $1000 and $2500 after Medicare rebates, which is much more affordable for couples
than it has been previously (IVF Australia, 2006). In New Zealand, cost depends on eligibility for public
health services that cover treatment costs; for those who are ineligible, costs can range from NZ$1000 to
NZ$10 000, depending on the type of treatment and additional services required (Fertility New Zealand,
2008).
Women who do conceive with these treatments have a higher likelihood of multiple births —
14 per cent of assisted conception births compared to 1.7 per cent of naturally conceived births (AIHW,
2004). Largely because of the increase of fertility enhancing treatments, the frequency of multiple births
has quadrupled since the early 1970s (MacDorman, Anderson, & Strobino, 1997). Twins and ‘super-
twins’ — groupings of three or more babies — are at greater risk for long-term disability and early death.
In addition, average birth weights for assisted conception babies tend to be lower and perinatal (occurring
just before or after birth) death rates higher, compared to naturally conceived babies (Women’s Health
Queensland Wide, 2007). So, successful infertility treatment often brings new stresses, as well as the joys
of a larger family.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Consider the implications of only certain socioeconomic groups being able to afford reproductive tech-
nologies. Do you think it is likely to lead to social implications?
Early adulthood is a time of major life decisions. Although we vary greatly in how rapidly and in what
order we assume the tasks that will make us independent from our parents and connect us in intimate
relations with peers, we typically face these challenges in our twenties and thirties. When Mark was still
living at home in his mid twenties, his parents might have worried that their child would never move
out. A few years later, Mark had moved in with Sloan, and now they are getting married. The early adult
years, which extend through our thirties, provide time for trying different paths and finding ones that suit
us. They also set some limits for the years to come. We establish attitudes and habits that will affect our
physical wellbeing for the rest of our lives. We also make decisions about sexuality and childbearing.
These choices have major implications for our physical, cognitive and psychosocial development, for
what we will think about and what roles we will play, for which struggles we will face and what regrets
may later haunt us.
We now turn our attention to cognitive development in early adulthood. In addition to being of theoret-
ical interest, adult cognition has implications for many aspects of people’s lives. We begin by considering
the development of postformal thought after adolescence, contextual thinking, and adult moral reason-
ing. Then, we look at the effects of university education on intellectual functioning. Finally, we consider
issues of work, occupation and career during early adulthood.
Cognition concerns how and why people know rather than what and how much they know. Though
there is little doubt that adults continue to accumulate new information throughout their lives, disagree-
ment abounds about when cognitive functions are fully developed and if and when cognitive loss begins.
Piaget’s strong influence on cognitive developmental theory has led to the belief that cognitive develop-
ment reaches its final stage during adolescence with the emergence of formal operations. Some cognitive
theorists accept his idea that the structures of mature thinking are in place by the time we reach adulthood;
others believe this view is too limited. This is the first issue we will explore as we focus on cognitive
development in young adults.
12.7 Postformal thought

LEARNING OUTCOME 12.7 Describe how adult thought differs from adolescent thought.
Formal operational thought is the final Piagetian stage of cognitive development. A person progresses
through the sensorimotor stage, based on direct experience, as an infant; through the preoperational stage,
based on language and symbols; through concrete operations, based on concrete problem solving; to
formal operations. According to Piaget, as we saw in the discussion of cognitive development in adoles-
cence in a previous chapter, formal operational thought emerges between 11 and 16 years of age. It enables
the adolescent to think abstractly in addition to thinking about the properties of concrete objects. Formal
thought involves the ability to generate possibilities, use scientific reasoning, combine ideas logically
and think critically. A Year 12 student, for example, uses formal operational thought when they system-
atically compare the advantages and disadvantages of the universities they are interested in. For Piaget,
formal thought does not involve specific behaviour; rather, it represents a generalised orientation towards
problem solving (Blackburn & Papalia, 1992). Formal operations emphasise logical–mathematical
thought structures, the solving of problems by using rational principles, logic and careful reasoning.
Because formal operational thought is Piaget’s final stage, it has been taken to represent his con-
ceptualisation of mature cognition and has occupied a central place in the study of adult cognition.
Researchers using Piagetian methods and assumptions have focused on the development and use of
formal operational thought in late adolescence and adulthood. The chapter on physical and cognitive
development in adolescence points out limits of the applicability of Piagetian theory to the study of
adolescent cognitive development. Not all adolescents achieve formal thought, and those who do achieve
it do not use it in all situations. In addition, emotions influence thought. Our Year 12 high school
student may generate a logical conclusion that they should attend the local university because it is the
cheapest, has a good reputation and offers the program that interests them, yet feel it is the wrong choice
for them.
Critiques of formal operations

Rybash, Hoyer, and Roodin (1986) have criticised the theory of formal operations. They acknowledge
that emergence of formal thought is a significant achievement, but see it as an unsatisfactory description
of adult thought. This is because formal operational thinking emphasises finding the one right answer
to a problem, regardless of the specific nature of the problem; overemphasises abstraction; and under-
emphasises the ambiguities of real life. When you consider the complex, open-ended problems that
mature adults encounter every day, the inapplicability of formal operations to adult thought becomes
clearer. While choosing the best car to buy in your price range may be possible using formal operational
comparisons and contrasts, deciding when to have a child, as Mark and Sloan did, is not. Their decision
depended on the circumstances of their lives, rather than on abstract possibilities. Did they have
emotional support? Could they afford a child? Would there be someone to care for the baby when they
worked? As Sternberg (1992, p. 393) points out, ‘Solving a problem is less important than solving
an important problem’, and important problems often do not fit the laboratory model. Adulthood is
therefore a stage of life where people ‘wrestle with the mystery of existence’ (Sinnott, 2003, p. 221).
These limitations to Piaget’s conception of formal operational thought have led cognitive psychologists
to construct other formulations for mature thought. Postformal thought has consequently been proposed
as a new model and is designated as such because it is said to follow Piaget’s stage of formal operations.
Kramer (1989) found three basic characteristics that models of postformal thought have in common.
First, postformal thinkers understand that knowledge is relative and non-absolute. They realise that
knowledge always has a subjective component that necessarily makes it incomplete (Sinnott, 2003).
Second, postformal thinkers accept contradiction as a basic aspect of reality. For example, physicists
must recognise that light can be both a wave and a particle. Similarly, an intense personal relationship
can simultaneously call forth the contradictory emotions of love and hate. Third, postformal thinkers can
synthesise contradictions into coherent wholes. Instead of choosing among alternatives, they construct
a framework that integrates the contradictions. For example, when planning a dinner for guests who
include both vegetarians and meat-and-potato lovers, a choice of Thai or Indian food can include a
coherent array of meat and non-meat dishes. As we examine some of the formulations of postformal
thought, these characteristics will be apparent.
Is there a fifth stage?
Arnett (2006a) quotes an African–American woman, 25, who says, ‘And you have to be willing to take
that step forward and say, okay, I’m going to get to know myself no matter if it’s painful or if it’s going
to make me happy. I have to dig deep within myself and figure out who I am’ (p. 9). This young woman’s
words capture the essence of what has been described as problem finding in the postformal mode of
thinking (Arlin, 1989; Kallio, 1995). In contrast to the problem-solving nature of formal operational
thought, problem finding entails generating new questions about oneself, one’s work, or one’s surround-
ings. Postformal reasoning is viewed as a form of cognitive maturity which involves integration of the
logical/objective/rational with the intuitive/subjective/emotional during the adult years (Labouvie-Vief,
2006; see also Morton et al., 2000).
The key difference is that adults are more likely to achieve greater balance between the
rational–emotional elements of a problem, compared to adolescents who attempt to apply universal truths
without a mature awareness of life’s complexities. For example, your adolescent daughter may develop a
sudden interest in world poverty and decide to join an annual fundraising event, such as the World Vision
40 Hour Famine. At the same time, she may regularly squander the wage she earns as a retail assistant.
It may escape her entirely that there is a contradiction between her socially responsible contribution to
world poverty and irresponsible management of her financial affairs. The intensity and impulsivity of
youth largely reflects an imbalance between the rationality of formal operational thought and a still-
growing capacity for mature self-regulation. Adolescents have difficulty with relativism and ambiguity,
whereas adults have a more advanced understanding of life’s changeability and impermanence.
In addition, adult life is inextricably linked to occupational and relational issues, and the consequences
of adult behaviour are substantially different and more far-reaching than those of adolescents. The early
adult years demand greater self-reflection and self-understanding to meet the demands of a still-forming
adult identity (Arnett, 2006b). As a result, some authors propose that a qualitatively different style of
thinking emerges in adulthood which is characterised as more complex and integrated, as required for
the challenges of adult life (Schaie & Willis, 2000). Whether this is suggestive of a fifth stage has been a
matter of debate (Commons et al., 1995). Current trends suggest that cognitive development after adoles-
cence probably represents levels of change relative to the person’s age, rather than additional stages, and
that full formal operations may not be a prerequisite for postformal reasoning (Arnett, 2006b; Kallio &
Helkama, 1991). Even so, evidence indicates that someone under twenty is unlikely to demonstrate the
advanced level of thinking expected to occur in the hypothesised fifth stage, and that only one-third will
have reached the complex level by age thirty (Labouvie-Vief, 2006).
Because many adults move beyond the absolute nature of formal operational thought as they face the
ambiguities of real life, several theorists have proposed a fifth stage of adult postformal thought. These
fifth-stage formulations emphasise the pragmatic, relative, and changing nature of adult knowledge. Each
of these theorists proposes postformal thought as a fifth stage; while Labouvie-Vief proposes a fifth and
sixth stage.
Table 12.1 shows four different proposals for a fifth stage of cognitive development that follows
formal operations, the last of Piaget’s four stages. These proposed fifth stages acknowledge that adult
thinkers accept conflict and change rather than always trying to resolve contradictions and they realise
the ambiguities inherent in both problems and solutions. Whereas Piaget’s theory emphasises stability
and equilibrium, fifth-stage theorists recognise change and disequilibrium.

Basseches (1988), following the work of Riegel (1979), proposes dialectical thinking as the postformal
cognitive stage. Dialectical thinking is the art or practice of deriving truth through conversation involv-
ing questions and answers to understand contradictions. Individuals master formal thought, in which
they analyse relationships within a problem or system, and then move to dialectical postformal thought,
in which they analyse competing systems. That is, dialectical thinking seeks to resolve contradictory
positions by synthesis of the opposing viewpoints, and to arrive at a unified position that encompasses
both the original positions. Despite the apparent equity in such a process, Basseches’ model of dialectical
thinking acknowledged that new solutions may themselves generate further contradictions: ambiguity
and reservation are therefore considered inevitable.
TABLE 12.1 Theories of adult cognition

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 and beyond
Piaget sensorimotor — preoperational — concrete formal operations —
direct language and operations — generate possibilities,
experience symbols problem combine ideas
solving logically, think critically
Arlin problem finding —
generating new questions
about oneself, one’s work,
or one’s surroundings
Basseches dialectical postformal
thought — search for truth
through analysing relations
among systems
Labouvie- intrasystemic thought intersystemic thought (fifth
Vief (formal operational stage) — truth from multiple
thought) — abstract, intellectual perspectives and
distanced, and autonomous thought (sixth
objective thought stage) truth from
perspectives of personal
values
Schaie acquisitive stage (all achieving stage (fifth stage)
stages leading up to — direct intelligence
fifth stage) — building towards specific goals
basic skills and rather than following every
abilities, from walking inclination; responsible
and talking to abstract stage (sixth stage) —
reasoning about future consider responsibilities to
possibilities others when making
decisions; reintegrative
stage (seventh stage) — use
intellectual skills to make
sense of their own lives
While the proposals for a fifth stage considered so far focus on the more abstract quality of postformal
thought, Labouvie-Vief (1985, 2006) sees the clash between logic and reality as the impetus for
development of a more pragmatic type of adult cognition. Labouvie-Vief and Hakim-Larson (1989)
suggest two modes of thought, one abstract and one emotional. The formal mode is distanced and
objective; the internalised mode is intuitive, subjective and imaginative. Formal operations represent the
development of the first mode, but mature thought requires the balanced use of both ways of knowing.
Labouvie-Vief (1992, 2006) stresses that the mature thinker must reconnect reason with emotional and
social reality, making decisions within the context of commitments to careers, relationships and children.
For example, a less mature thinker would take an individualistic approach to a work problem — doing
it singlehandedly at the cost of work overload and some blunders — with hope for career advancement.
A more mature thinker would admit their limitations and rely on a team of experts and advisers. In
Labouvie-Vief’s theory, intrasystemic thought, which is the last phase of formal operations, is the precur-
sor to mature cognition, which she calls intersystemic thought. Intersystemic thought enables thinkers to
understand multiple intellectual perspectives and to see the truth as part of a changing reality. Her final
stage is autonomous thought. Autonomous thinkers see the role of their perspectives and values in the
construction of their personal truths. Refer to the following section on Schaie’s stages of adult thinking
that discusses the achieving, responsible and reintegrative reintegrative stages outlined in table 12.1.
Taken in combination, these different ideas reflect the emergence of a new view of adult thought and
are shown together in table 12.1. The multiplicity of postformal models indicates recognition that Piaget
‘failed to represent adequately the thought and emotions of mature people’ (Blackburn & Papalia, 1992,
p. 141). Although the theoretical formulations we have discussed vary, most emphasise the increasingly
pragmatic, relative, and changing nature of adult knowledge. Current thinking emphasises that adult intel-
lectual performance cannot be separated from its social and cultural context.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Have you noticed ways in which your thinking has changed since you have been in university? Do they fit
the chapter’s description of postformal thought?
12.8 Development of contextual thinking

LEARNING OUTCOME 12.8 Explain why gender and context are important to adult moral development.
While the researchers discussed so far have used experiments to try to discover the stages of adult
thinking, other researchers have used alternative approaches. Schaie (1994, 2005) measured intellectual
development in the same individuals over many years (see the chapter on physical and cognitive
development in middle adulthood). Based on 40 years of longitudinal research, Schaie (1994, 2005)
proposes three or four stages of adult thought that represent different goals of knowledge corresponding
to changing adult patterns of commitment.
Schaie’s stages of adult thinking

Schaie’s stage theory of lifespan intellectual development builds on Piaget’s stages. Schaie believes
cognitive abilities develop as Piaget described, but become more goal directed during adulthood. Based
on longitudinal research outcomes, Schaie’s stage model highlights a relationship between psychosocial
and cognitive development. According to the model, external context, such as the demands of work
and family, defines each stage, rather than internal organising structures. Thus, whereas Piaget’s stages
describe how an individual acquires new information, Schaie’s stages go a step further: considering how
adults use knowledge differently throughout adulthood.
Childhood and adolescence, according to Schaie, constitute the acquisitive stage and encompass all
four of Piaget’s stages. During the acquisitive stage, the person builds basic skills and abilities, from
walking and talking to abstract reasoning about future possibilities.
Young adults are in the achieving stage. They direct their intelligence towards specific goals rather than
following every inclination, as might an adolescent who has not yet formulated clear personal choices.
Young adults must consider both the contexts and the consequences of their decisions when solving real
problems associated with planning careers and establishing families. For example, the decision about
whether to take a job must balance consideration of short-term factors, such as salary and commuting
distance, with long-term factors, such as employer superannuation contributions and promotion oppor-
tunities. The decision about when to have a baby must balance the desire for parenthood, the ability to
support a child, and the willingness to rearrange other commitments to care for an infant.
In middle adulthood, people enter the responsible stage. Whereas in the achieving stage people strive
to meet personal goals, in the responsible stage they also consider their responsibilities to others — mates,
children, ageing parents and community — when making decisions. For example, a middle-aged lawyer
will not want to leave a high-paying job that he dislikes to begin a private practice that will take time to
develop if his or her family depends on the steady income. Similarly, a promotion may have to be rejected
if it requires the family to relocate.
Some middle-aged people have powerful positions that bring broader and more complex respon-
sibilities. For them, middle adulthood also brings the executive stage. This calls for a new type of
cognition — applying postformal thinking about systems to practical problems — as they work to
understand and meet the needs of competing groups in a large organisation; for example, a business
or community enterprise that affects many people beyond themselves and their families. To illustrate,
the chief executive officer of a mining company must make decisions about community relations that
concern members of staff, local residents worried about mining waste and their children’s health,
Indigenous title-holders of mining land, and, perhaps, the town’s entire economy and social structure.
Not all middle-aged individuals have an opportunity to use their cognitive skills to meet this kind of
challenge, which is why Schaie talks of three or four adult stages.
Late adulthood is the reintegrative stage, when people have fewer long-range plans to make and fewer
responsibilities to job and family. This enables them to focus again on their personal interests and values.
Older adults are more likely to focus selectively on the issues that have meaning for their own personal
lives, rather than on abstract questions or the needs of others. It is a time during which they use their
intellectual skills to make sense of their own lives, as we will discuss in the chapter on psychosocial
development in late adulhood. Schaie’s stages of adult thinking are shown in figure 12.5.
FIGURE 12.5 Schaie’s stages of adult thinking

Schaie focused on how adults use their knowledge at different periods of adulthood, in contrast to
Piaget, who focused on how children and adolescents acquire knowledge. Young adults are
typically in Schaie’s achieving stage; they direct their intelligence towards specific personal goals.
Executive
Tasks:
Acquisitive - meet needs of larger
Achieving societal groups Reintegrative
Tasks:
- build basic skills Tasks: Tasks:
- meet personal goals Responsible - refocus on personal
Includes: interests and values
- sensorimotor Tasks:
- preoperational - integrate responsibility
- concrete operations to others with personal
- formal operations goals
Childhood and Early Middle Late

adolescence adulthood adulthood adulthood
Source: Adapted from Schaie (1977/1978).
Contextual relativism
Perry (1970) was the first to examine how adult critical thinking develops over time. He interviewed stu-
dents at Harvard University about their educational and personal experiences, starting when the students
were in their first year and reinterviewing them as they progressed through university. First-year students
had a perspective towards intellectual and ethical problems that Perry called basic dualism. They saw
things in terms of right or wrong, good or bad, and we or they, and expected the lecturer to teach them
how to distinguish the one right answer.
Perry’s participants gradually became aware of the diversity of opinions, and dualism gave way to mul-
tiplicity. In this case, the students understood that authorities can differ and that many questions have no
single right answer. During this stage, the students came to view opinions as subjective and considered
their opinions as good as others. But, not all answers were equally good. Perry found that as academic
staff challenged students’ personal opinions by demanding evidence to support them, students moved
into contextual relativism. In this stage, the students began to see truth as being relative — considering
the meaning of an event depended on its context and on the framework of the knower who was try-
ing to understand the event — for example, abortion would have different meaning from a ‘pro-choice’
perspective than a ‘pro-life’ perspective. Understanding the importance of perspective pushed the stu-
dents to make a commitment to a particular intellectual and/or ethical point of view. As the students
made a personal commitment to a world view, they transcended subjectivity and the limits of formal
operations.
Limitations of Perry’s work
Perry’s (1970) sample of Harvard University students did not represent all adults or even all univer-
sity students. Harvard University represents only the most prestigious of US colleges, and the students
Perry used to establish his scheme of intellectual and ethical development were all males of traditional
university age.
Broadening Perry’s approach
Perry’s work has had a great deal of influence on subsequent researchers, who have broadened the picture
to include women, less prestigious institutions, and a range of adult ages.
In one such study, Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (1986) interviewed 135 females from six
US academic institutions, ranging from an inner-city high school to a prestigious women’s college, as
well as several family agencies, or ‘invisible colleges’, that assist clients with questions about parenting.
They believed that relationships to authority matter in how we know. Given the diversity of participants,
they found some women who experienced silent knowing. These participants felt ‘passive, reactive, and
dependent, they see authorities as being all-powerful, if not overpowering’ (p. 27). Among first-year
students, they found women who were concrete and dualistic in their thinking, as Perry’s dualistic thinkers
were. Belenky and her associates call this quality received knowing, because the women were receiving
the truth from others.
The next development among the women was subjective knowing. Subjective knowing is like Perry’s
multiplicity in many ways, but subjectivist females seem to be less concerned than males with persuading
others. Their predominant learning mode is one of inward listening and watching. Some women move
from subjective knowing to procedural knowing, which is based on abstract reasoning (formal operations)
and represents a shift from subjective opinions to reasoned arguments. Making this transition requires
interacting with authorities who teach how to reason; the women who reached this stage were attending
university or had already graduated. When women integrate subjective and objective knowing, they move
to constructed knowing. This stage corresponds to Perry’s contextual relativism. Women at this stage see
that all knowledge is constructed, that truth is a matter of context and that frame of reference matters. At
the most advanced ways of knowing, problem finding and other ways of critical thinking that are beyond
formal thought become prominent.
You may have noticed that while the males in Perry’s study all seemed to develop contextual relativism,
only some of the women in Belenky et al.’s (1986) study reached procedural or constructed knowing.
Why? Belenky and her colleagues interviewed women from a spectrum of institutions, whereas Perry
interviewed only Harvard men. The differences in findings may be due to sex, or to one group being
homogeneous and privileged and the other being diverse, or to a combination of both factors. In this
regard, it is significant that the females who progressed to higher levels of thinking were those with
university experience. A more recent three-year study of Harvard undergraduates found that despite levels
of educational achievement, success or satisfaction, females bring more self-doubt to education than do
their male counterparts (Light, 1990). Because men historically have been the ‘fact makers’, women,
especially minority women, feel more alienated in academic settings, a situation which has persisted into
the twenty-first century (Maher, 2001; Maher & Tetreault, 1994).
Whether called contextual relativism or constructed knowing, the development of a postformal mode
of thinking enables the person to embrace abstract ideals and develop an ethical point of view. As we
will see, these developments allow young adults to transcend conventional levels of moral reasoning.
University interactions with academic staff and other students foster the development of contextual relativism, a post-
formal mode of thinking that enables the person to embrace abstract ideals and to develop an ethical point of view.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Has your thinking become more contextualised in university? What might shift an individual from basic
dualism to contextual relativism?
Adult moral reasoning

As mentioned in the chapter on cognitive development in adolescence, moral development depends on

cognitive structures. Kohlberg, building on Piaget’s cognitive stages, developed stages of moral judge-
ment. At the preconventional level, punishment and reward guide individual morality; at the conventional
level, social rules serve as the guide; followed by moral principles at the postconventional level. Just
as Piaget’s stages focus exclusively on logical skills and ignore social or emotional context, Kohlberg’s
stages focus on the abstract ethical principles (or rules) of justice and ignore the social or emotional
context of moral decision making. Gilligan and her colleagues have criticised Kohlberg’s one-sided and
gendered view of morality. Empathy, they argue, is a primary motivator for moral judgement and ethical
behaviour. They provide their own three-stage model of moral development. At the survival orienta-
tion stage, the person focuses on caring for the self to ensure survival. At the conventional care stage,
they focus on responsibility to others. At the integrated care stage, they coordinate the needs of self and
of others.
How do the justice and care perspectives compare when directed towards the same issue? The public
abortion debate serves as an example (Gilligan & Attanucci, 1988), as does the more recent debate about
the use of foetal stem cells for research. When approached from the perspective of justice, the claims
of the foetus are placed in opposition to those of the pregnant woman and of scientific advancement. Is
the foetus a person? Should its claims take precedence over the pregnant woman’s? What of the many
lives that could be saved through stem cell research? On the other hand, from the perspective of care,
the connection between the foetus and the pregnant woman is central and the moral question becomes
whether it is responsible or irresponsible to extend or end this connection. Which is caring and which
is careless? What matters most, the life of one or the lives of many? We saw in a previous chapter that
adolescents develop more ethical beliefs about both care and justice, though few develop postconventional
moral judgement or integrated care.
Context and moral orientation
Research investigating adult moral development has assessed orientation (justice or care) and level of
moral reasoning as a function of sex, age, experience and the content or situation of the moral problem.
Much of the work has been done with university students. Rothbart, Hanley, and Albert (1986) found
that the content of the dilemma, or situational factors, had a strong influence on moral orientation. They
interviewed undergraduate men and women about three different moral dilemmas:
1. Kohlberg’s classic Heinz dilemma (Should Heinz steal outrageously priced medicine from a druggist
in order to save his wife’s life?)
2. a dilemma concerning physical intimacy
3. a dilemma from their own lives.
Responses were coded according to their justice or care orientation. The investigators found that all
respondents used both care and justice orientations in the course of the interview, and only 4 per cent
used one orientation on any one dilemma exclusively. Whereas the Heinz dilemma more often called
forth a justice orientation and the physical intimacy dilemma a care orientation, the ‘own life’ dilemma
was equally divided for both sexes. Yacker and Weinberg (1990) studied male and female law and social
work students and found social work students were more likely to use care and law students justice,
regardless of sex. Clopton and Sorell (1993) studied the moral reasoning orientations of men and women
presented with parenting dilemmas and found no sex differences. These studies support the conclusion
that differences in moral reasoning result from different types of dilemmas males and females encounter
rather than from sex characteristics alone. The differences may also represent divergent pathways of moral
development for each sex, or arise from methodological problems in the research, such as the sociocultural
context of the moral dilemmas used.
Ethnicity and moral voice
A basic criticism of Kohlberg’s stage theory of moral development is that it is based on data gathered
from a culturally homogeneous and all-male sample. The problem of gender has received a lot of atten-
tion thanks to the work of Gilligan and her colleagues. Similarly, Bardige, Ward, Gilligan, Taylor, and
Cohen (1988) and Ward (1988) have shown that socioeconomic status does not hinder moral development.
However, to understand the wider implications of theories of moral development, we need to expand the
analytical framework.
What about moral orientations in different cultures and subcultures? Does Kohlberg’s theory apply only
to Western cultures, especially at the postconventional level of reasoning? While Kohlberg’s guidelines for
scoring include examples of reasoning from a broad range of viewpoints at lower levels of reasoning, the
guidelines and examples for scoring the fifth and sixth stages of moral reasoning are particularly culture
bound. An answer to the Heinz dilemma that places the right to life over the right to property, for example,
earns a stage 5 designation. However, a response such as ‘Everyone has the obligation to relieve human
misery and suffering, if possible. I do think you have certain obligations to your wife and your friends
or relatives that are just deeper’ earns only a stage 4 designation because of the contextual consideration.
This makes it difficult for people of other cultures to be considered to have reached the postconventional
level of moral development or for someone in this culture who has developed a contextual relativism in
Perry’s sense (Murphy & Gilligan, 1980). Mennuti and Creamer (1991) call for sensitivity to the variations
in moral perspectives in other cultures and within a culture.
Some cultures, for example, are said to be limited to only the second of Kohlberg’s stages (Burman,
2008). The Chinese culture, for example, has been oriented towards collectivism, conciliation, and filial
piety, rather than justice and autonomy. Because of this, Stander and Jensen (1993) expected that Chinese
people might exhibit more of an orientation towards care than towards justice. They studied male and
female undergraduates in the United States and China using two groups of North American students —
Mormons and non-Mormons (attending Brigham Young University) — and one group of Chinese students
(from Beijing Normal University). The Chinese students all reported no religion. The North American
non-Mormons were predominantly Christians of various faiths.
To assess moral orientation, the investigators asked each participant to fill out the World View Ques-
tionnaire. The World View Questionnaire (Jensen et al., 1991, in Stander & Jensen, 1993) differentiates
between caring and justice orientations; one adjective in each pair represents each orientation. Each
of the 40 items consisted of a pair of adjectives, one representing each orientation, from which the
participant chooses. Sample items appear in figure 12.6.
In the Stander and Jensen study (1993), Chinese respondents chose the fewest caring adjectives and the
North American Mormons the most, indicating cultural differences in moral orientation based on both
nationality and religion. Differences were found in questionnaire scores based on culture, nationality
and religion. Contrary to prediction, Chinese students chose the smallest number of caring adjectives,
the North American Mormons chose the most caring adjectives, and the North American non-Mormons
fell in between. The two North American groups were more like each other than either was to the
Chinese group.
FIGURE 12.6 Selected items from World View Questionnaire
Choose the contrasting adjective you think is more important to you personally.
1. Logic Intuition
2. Compromise Power
3. Consistency Forgiveness
4. Organised Creative
5. Those we love Self
6. Justice Mercy
7. Principles People
8. Getting along with others Achievement
9. Sense of right Sensitivity to others
10. Educating the mind Educating the heart
11. Competitive ability Cooperative ability
12. Loyalty Leadership
Source: Adapted from Stander and Jensen (1993).
Why did the cultural differences not confirm the prediction that the Chinese students would be more
caring? It may be that the Chinese viewpoint of collectivism represents a different form of caring than
that measured by the World View Questionnaire. Appropriate cross-cultural measurement may require
more than just a language translation of a questionnaire. It may also be that Chinese culture is changing
or is misunderstood.
Other studies have questioned the generalisability of US findings to other cultures. For example,
Wimalasiri’s (2001) findings for Australian management students and practitioners were similar to
those reported for a large US sample in terms of age, religiosity and education. In contrast, the level
of moral reasoning achieved by Australian participants was reported as markedly lower than for the
North American participants. These results raise more questions than they answer. However, the original
US study has been accused of ‘unintentional cultural ethnocentrism’ (Wimalasiri, 2001, p. 628). That
is, Western psychologists may underestimate the complexities of reasoning processes in other cultures.
Thus, the differences between Australian and US study results may be genuine, or they may reflect
important methodological problems. Gibbs, Basinger, Grime, and Snarey (2007) reviewed 75 studies
from across the world to assess Kohlberg’s claims of universality, and found that persons across the
world value truth, affiliation, life, and property or law. They found support for Kohlberg’s stages of
moral development across childhood, adolescence and adulthood. They also emphasised the importance
of culturally sensitive measurements of moral development to ensure valid conceptualisation and
comparisons.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
How well would either study’s findings generalise to Indigenous Australians or New Zealand Māori?
Gender and moral voice

In early research on moral reasoning, Galotti (1989) asked male and female undergraduates to write
responses to the question, ‘When faced with a moral dilemma, what issues or concerns influence your
decision?’ The responses were coded according to one or more of thirteen themes. Feminine themes
included what others would think and/or feel, effects on others, situation specifics, effect on self, gut feel-
ing/intuition and personal guilt. Masculine themes included greater societal good, legal issues, general
principles, reasoning systematically, religious teachings, personal code of ethics and rights of others. The
people who coded the responses did not know whether males or females had written them. Galotti found
that the essays of males and those of females were not distinguishable. There was no difference in the
proportion of either sex who gave postconventional responses. Likewise, no differences were found in
theme usage for 12 of the 13 themes (males were more likely to use the theme reasoning systematically).
Overall, usage of themes identified as feminine was double or triple the usage of themes identified as
masculine.
Studies of adult moral development therefore show that the ‘different voice’ Gilligan (1982) identified
is not just a ‘female voice’. Most adults use more than one moral orientation. Many studies show no
gender differences in moral orientation, whereas some show that females exhibit more diversity in their
moral reasoning than males do (Brabeck & Shore, 2003; Stiller & Forrest, 1990). For example, women
sometimes respond to dilemmas with further questions, such as, ‘What does Heinz wish?’, ‘What is the
condition of Mrs Heinz’s life?’, ‘Why is the druggist behaving so?’, ‘Does Heinz have children dependent
on him for care?’ and ‘Who would care for the children if Heinz went to jail?’ (Belenky et al., 1986).
These questions reflect the importance of context.
Critics of Gilligan believe her assertion that females tend to resolve dilemmas using the care approach
whereas males tend to use the justice approach exaggerates gender difference. Hare-Mustin and Marecek
(1990) point out that the care orientation may reflect a lack of power in the current situation more than it
reflects enduring gender differences. Those in dominant positions tend to promote rules, as in the justice
orientation, whereas those in subordinate positions tend to appeal to understanding, as in the care orien-
tation. Males more often use the justice approach because they more often hold powerful positions, not
because of their sex. Females may use the care approach more often because it is consistent with their
identities as women (Brabeck & Shore, 2003). Even so, longitudinal research suggests that integrative
complexity of reasoning and perspective taking are predictive of advanced care reasoning in both sexes
(Brabeck & Shore, 2003). Consequently, questions of moral voice may be more complex than can be
explained by sex alone; they will very likely include other variables such as class, context and opportunity.
Spirituality
Faith or spirituality is another aspect of moral development that depends on cognitive growth. Humans
need to construct a reason for living and, assisted by postformal thought, young adults will forge
new worldviews along with careers and relationships (Arnett, 2004). As young adults become able to
understand different ethical perspectives and develop their own ethical points of view, they also become
capable of finding their own spiritual meaning, or faith. Kiesling, Sorell, Montgomery, and Colwell
(2008) suggest that spirituality is best understood by exploring spiritual identity, defined as an ‘indi-
vidual construction of a relationship to the sacred and ultimate meaning’ (p. 51). Another way to study
spirituality is to explore the conceptualisation of faith. The growth of faith, according to Fowler (1991),
is a universal developmental process that can occur within or outside a specifically religious context.
Table 12.2 presents the stages of Fowler’s faith-knowing system. As you can see, Fowler’s stages
develop from self-centred and one-sided to more complex, other-centred, and multi-sided levels of under-
standing, similar to Kohlberg’s or Gilligan’s stages of moral development and to Perry’s or Belenky’s
stages of critical thinking. However, Fowler’s work is most often associated with the Judeo–Christian
faith, despite recognition of faith as a system of knowing and meaning that can transcend cultural
boundaries.
The growth of faith, according to Fowler, is a universal progression through stages of spiritual develop-
ment that is not necessarily religious in orientation. Its growth depends on the development of cognitive
structures.
TABLE 12.2 Fowler’s faith-knowing system
Stage Age Centre of power Process Value

0: undifferentiated birth–2 years symbiotic egocentric own needs
faith relationship with perceptions
parent
1: intuitive–projective 2–6 years caregiving adult magical thought appeasement
faith
2: mythical–literal 6–12 years cultural and rituals and rules order, rituals,
faith religious rules and fairness
traditions
3: synthetic– 12 and beyond peers, cultural or symbols provide approval
conventional religious leader meaning
faith
4: individuative– early adulthood self construct own own meaning
reflective and beyond symbols
faith
5: conjunctive faith midlife and truth verities expressed open

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HOFFNUNG | HOFFNUNG | SEIFERT | HINE | PAUSÉ

WARD | SIGNAL | SWABEY | YATES | BURTON SMITH

First edition published 2010

Typeset in 10/12pt Times LT Std

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.

Reproduction and Communication for educational purposes

Reproduction and Communication for other purposes

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PART 2: The ﬁrst two years of life 160

4. Physical and cognitive development in the ﬁrst two years 161

PART 3: Early childhood 275

6. Physical and cognitive development in early childhood 276

PART 4: Middle childhood 402

8. Physical and cognitive development in middle childhood 403

PART 5: Adolescence 524

10. Physical and cognitive development in adolescence 525

PART 6: Early adulthood 647

12. Physical and cognitive development in early adulthood 648

PART 7: Middle adulthood 779

14. Physical and cognitive development in middle adulthood 780

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

PART 1 Theories of development 43

3.8 Birth 135 Cognitive development 188

Assessing attachment: the ‘strange situation’ 245 Moral reasoning 309

Key terms 385 The impact of assessment and evaluation of

Physical and cognitive

Application questions 509 of morality 565

Application questions 634 in the workplace 697

13.1 Theories of adult development 716 Physical and cognitive

Review questions 906 Multi-infarct dementia 965

Key terms 1047 Name index 1114

ABOUT THE AUTHORS xiii

xiv ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS xv

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

How many childhood memories can you recall?

1.1 The nature of development

CHAPTER 1 Studying development 3

Multiple domains of development

Changes happen in all domains at once — physical, cognitive and psychosocial.

Cross-cultural parental acceptance and rejection

CHAPTER 1 Studying development 5

TABLE 1.1 Selected landmarks of development

Physical Cognitive Psychosocial

Infancy (ages 0–2) r Walking r Language acquisition r Becomes attached to

Early childhood r Climbing stairs r Vocabulary grows r Preferred playmates

Middle childhood r Skilful running r Problem solving r Friendships

Adolescence r Puberty r Some abstract thinking r Interest in sexual relations

Early adulthood r Peak of fertility, r Development of r Finding a mate

Middle adulthood r Decline in fertility r Expertise and practical r Family changes

Late adulthood r Decline in physical r Achievement of r Retirement

CHAPTER 1 Studying development 7

TABLE 1.2 Bronfenbrenner’s model of ecological system levels

Ecological Issues affecting the

Source: Adapted from Garbarino (1992).

CHAPTER 1 Studying development 9

FIGURE 1.1 Bronfenbrenner’s four ecological settings for developmental change

Mass Social welfare