Childhood

Childhood

Family

Family is considered the most influential sphere affecting childhood development and beyond since relationships with family members often continue throughout the lifespan. Families also influence developing children by serving as model relationships, providing the stepping stones for culture, language, skill, social, and moral development. Poor familial relationships involving neglect, harsh discipline, or alienation are associated with developmental problems for children. For example, parents who have a hostile marital relationship have been found to be less responsive to a child’s needs. Effective co-parenting is beneficial for successful development and relationship modeling.

Socioeconomic Status

Socioeconomic status is a strong determinant of health and mental wellbeing amongst individuals. Socioeconomic status (SES) can be defined by parameters such as the level of education one achieves, the social status of one’s occupation, and their economic status. Higher SES families have been found to emphasize psychological traits in their children’s development such as happiness and social maturity, whereas lower SES families encourage external characteristics such as obedience. Parents of higher SES also tend to talk to, read to, and stimulate young children more often which leads to greater cognitive and social development, as well greater economic security allows these parents to devote more time and funds to their developing child’s skillset.

Children growing up in poverty often face many developmental obstacles, especially if they are also a member of vulnerable populations such as the LGBTQ community or a racial minority. These children are more likely to suffer lifelong health problems, deficits in educational and cognitive development, antisocial behaviour, and mental illness.

Environment

The external environment in which a child grows is often related to the concept of socioeconomic status. Poverty-stricken communities often lack playgrounds  and organized activities and are often struck with violence, criminal behaviour and mental illness. Strong family ties to community, through frequent friendly gatherings, religious attendance, and/or community centre activities are associated with enhanced adjustment, including increased self-confidence and educational achievement.

Brain Development + Mental Development

Throughout childhood synaptic pruning continues leading to further development of language, spatial, motor, and other cognitive functions. Motor coordination dramatically improves throughout childhood with the development and growth of neurons in the cerebellum, a region of the brain which aids in making movements smooth and balanced. Another region of the brain that continues to develop and myelinate  is the hippocampus, which plays a vital role in short term memory and the conversion to long term memory. Finally, the corpus callosum, a structure connecting the left and right hemispheres proliferates between three and six years old and this is related to the integration of higher cognitive functions, attention, memory and language. As described above the cognitive stages of development of childhood include the preoperational and concrete operational stages.

Children are more likely to have apt mental development if they have stable home environments. Factors related to this stability include warm, affectionate caregivers who encourage intellectual development activities which can be less likely if a family is of low socioeconomic status and facing additional life stressors. Punishment has a substantial effect on the developing minds of children as well. Receiving repeatedly harsh corporal punishment produces effects such as aggression modelling, chronic feelings of being threatened, a lack of empathy, and avoidance behaviours.

Child Rearing and Development

Effective parenting styles or forms of child rearing have been found to include acceptance and involvement, control, and autonomy granting. The most successful form of child rearing, known as authoritative, involves being warm, sensitive, portraying high acceptance and involvement in their child’s life, appropriate autonomy granting and adaptive control measures. On the other side of the spectrum authoritarian parents are cold, rejecting, critical, and demand obedience, often resulting in harsh punishment. Children raised in such environments are more likely to possess anxiety, low self esteem, and unhappiness. Another form of child rearing includes the uninvolved parenting method, which at its extreme form is known as neglect. Neglect is a form of maltreatment in which all components of development are disrupted and children are more likely to have learning disabilities, depression, and antisocial tendencies in the future. Parents commit greater than 80% of abusive acts against children and the consequences of such maltreatment may include poor emotional control, blunted stress responses, lack of empathy, adjustment disorders, severe depression, antisocial tendencies, and substance abuse.