Emotional and Moral Development in Middle Childhood and Adolescence

Middle Childhood and Adolescence
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Middle childhood and adolescence are stages that are critical in the emotional and moral development of a child. Middle childhood begins at the age of 6 through 12 and it is a stage of transition where the child becomes less and less anchored to the family and starts interacting and forming relationships with their peers. Adolescence is the stage that follows the middle childhood, in which the child develops into a young adult. It is accompanied by changes in the body which consequently have an impact on the child’s behavior, emotions, and morals. This essay details the two stages and their relevance in the future development of a child.
Family is the foundation in which an individual gathers a sense of belonging. A functional family fosters incredible development as the system is designed to include every member of the family and offer emotional and financial security. The communication in this type of family is open and anyone can talk about their feelings and offer their opinion on a certain matter. The hierarchy is made up in a way that the parents have shared power which trickles down to the children therefore, chores and responsibilities are clearly divided into the home. A dysfunctional family, however, is characterized by poor communication as the members cannot speak their mind out of fear or simply, don’t trust other members of the family. The members are not sensitive and empathic to each other leading to a lack of respect for the parents from the children or vice versa. The dysfunctionality is heightened by the lack of stable authority as rules are generalized and the members do not clearly understand their roles thus causing an imbalance in power. Some members are therefore overworked and others feel left out of the family. The system can cause children to develop a rebellious attitude towards authority and opportunistic tendencies to get what they want.
As a child grows and develops from middle childhood to adolescent stage, their peer relations change. During the middle childhood stage, the family is more influential than the peers but it gradually changes as the child goes into adolescence where the peers play a huge role in shaping the behavior of a child. CITATION Dal05 \l 1033 (Hay, 2005) Consequently, there are positive impacts peers have on the development of child behavior. Peers are influential in how an individual adopts their manners, habits, and interests. The habits will, therefore, make part of the personality and aid in the development of social skills. The association provides the child with a sense of belonging and identity resulting in increased self-confidence because of the support they offer each other. The negative impacts of peer relations happen if the child is exposed to the wrong type of behaviors and habits. The same way the child is influenced by the peers to take up a hobby and certain interests is the same way that they can be introduced to risky behaviors and drug use. The influence of the family and parents at this age has started decreasing and at this point, the child is being encouraged to take up drug use more than he is being old to not do drugs by the family. Bad peer relations translat...