Life Span Development II School age and Adolescence

Life Span Development II: School age and Adolescence 3 (2+1)

Lesson 8 : Socio-Emotional Development during Late childhood

Socializing agents and their influences on the personality of the child

Agents of socialization refer to the people who play an important role in socializing the child. They are

1. Family: It is the earliest and most sustained source of social contact for the child. The interaction and emotional relationships between the child and the parents will shape child’s expectations and responses in subsequent social relations. The beliefs, values and culture are filtered through the parents and presented to the child in a highly personalized selective fashion. Mother who feeds and comforts the child is seen as powerful model in socializing the child. Parents become the first models for imitation and identification.

Although the child is making a major transition to school, family continues to act as vital agent for development. The socializing functions of family is shared with school. Factors like family size, sex, birth order and sibling relations, cultural norms and expectations of the parents also play an important role in child’s social development.

2. School: It is a culture transform mechanism, when the children enter the formal school at the age of 6 years they become involved with this primary institution for the transfer of cultural information and skills from one generation to another. In school, children are formally introduced to cultural skills like reading, writing, thinking, problem solving and inter personal relations.

One important factor that influences the success of school is the relationship between school and family, with some measure of agreement.

Physical structure of the school also plays an important role. School size determines the extent of involvement in extra-curricular activities. The impact of size, shape and seating arrangement is also important for interaction. Participation is higher in smaller classrooms, children from front and center of the class participate more than children located from other parts of the room.

Teachers became powerful models next to parents who often use praise and punishment. Teacher’s behaviour establishes ‘social climate’ of the class, teachers who generally understanding, sympathetic and encouraging – children tend to do better.

3. Peer Group: Peers play a different role in child’s relationship with parents is more intense and enduring than with peers. Among the age mates the relationship is more free. This quality of relationship with peers permits a new kind of interpersonal experimentation and which will help to develop social competence and social justice.

Peers influence each other by serving as social models. Children acquire a wide range of knowledge and a variety of responses by observing other peers. Children tend to imitate peer model who are warm, rewarding and powerful. The child’s self image and self acceptance are closely associated with approval of peers. The use of social comparison with peer group serves as a self-evaluation in children.

With peer experiences a child develops – subordination of personal goals to group goals, principle of division of labour and principles of competition and cooperation.

4. Community and Neighborhood: provides support to the family in its child rearing activities – provision of resources like play grounds, community center and existence of informal communication support networks between neighbours and friends

It is a place where the child learns to negotiates the challenges which are out of the school environment. Because of the changes in the children’s thinking, they are able to map their neighbourhoods. Communities respond to the need of school age children by conducting progress, peer group oriented. As children progress these years, become eligible for more formal groups like guides and scouts.



5. Mass media and Television: Teaches many forms of prosocial behaviour. Ex. Children learn about positive social behaviour, self-regulation and imagination. They learn to imitate the roles played on TV in different programmes either good/aggressive roles which have lasting effect on the child’s personality.