The social worlds of primary-age children widen considerably as they come into contact with larger and more diverse groups of peers and adults. Their emerging intellectual abilities allow them to reflect more fully on their peers' behavior and the meaning of friendship, and they form opinions about which characteristics of peers they value and which they dislike. During this stage, children can come to view themselves as competent and well liked by friends, family members, and students achieving a sense of pride in themselves and their culture. Or, they can suffer self-doubt or feelings of incompetence and powerlessness, and come to question the worth of their families or cultural heritage.

1. A Sense of Competence
1. Recall that according to Erikson, an emotional struggle during the pre-school years is to achieve a sense of initiative.
2. Preschoolers who have acquired initiative will make creative attempts, take risks, and reach out to peers for interaction and friendship
3. This all changes in the primary years
4. Children of ages 6 to 8 wish to master real skills-the skills possessed by older children and adults
5. Children who feel they are successful at mastering real skills are said to have a sense of industry, more commonly called competence
6. The main psychological work of primary-age children, from Erikson's view, is to come to view themselves as competent persons
7. Development of feelings of Competence
1. Most preschoolers see themselves as competent
2. Curry and Johnson describe preschoolers as exceedingly optimistic in self-ratings of their abilities and expectations for academic success
3. As children approach school age, they begin to question their abilities
4. What happens during this developmental period to cause this self-doubt?
5. For one thing, primary-age children gain a more accurate understanding of what it means to be smart and good at something
6. Also, children in the early elementary years increasingly compare themselves with peers
8. A Sense of competence in School
1. Primary-age children who attend school are more likely to consider teacher feedback-both positive and negative -in their assessments of self
2. Several common practices in American schools contribute to feelings of inferiority
3. Evaluative Symbols
1. Evaluative symbols predominate American public education
2. Increasingly, children incorporate symbolic feedback into their assessments of their own competence
3. Children who were asked "How do you know when someone's smart?" regularly named grades as the primary indicator
4. Poor grades or failure to earn stickers, or happy faces can have a lasting negative impact on children's feeling of competence
4. Public Comparison
1. Teachers compare their students with one another, both formally and informally
2. Charts indicating how many books each child has read or which children have not been behaving appropriately can threaten feeling of competence
5. Ability Grouping
1. In many schools, children are placed into groups according to ability
2. Being relegated to a low-ability group can threaten feelings of competence
6. Whole-Group Instruction
1. In such classrooms, teachers present the same lesson or ask the same questions to all children, regardless of ability level
2. Children are expected to provide correct responses in front of their classmates
7. Formal Relationships with the Teacher
1. In the elementary years, interactions with teachers become more public and formal, more often focusing on whether children behave in prescribed ways, accomplish learning tasks successfully, and complete assignments
2. The transition from the warm, encouraging relationships in child care or preschool to the more formal and evaluative teacher-child relationships can threaten children's feelings of self-worth
2. Types of Self-Esteem
1. The term self-esteem is used to describe a person's overall evaluation of self
2. Competence Versus Social Acceptance
1. Two basic types of self-esteem: competence-being good at things and social acceptance-being liked as a friend or cared for as a family member
3. Feelings of Control
1. Children who have acquired a feeling of control are more likely to report that hard work and persistence in solving problems will lead to success
2. Some psychologists have called this an internal locus of control, since such children believe they have the power within themselves to make a difference
3. Children who have an external locus of control believe that what happens to them is due to external forces beyond their regulation
4. Feelings of Moral Self-Worth
1. Another dimension of self-esteem is moral self-worth
2. This refers to children's assessments of their goodness or virtue, as defined by cultural norms
3. Three virtues of self-worth that are of great importance to children in the primary years are fairness, responsibility, and obedience
4. As with other types of self-esteem, children may have positive views of themselves in some areas of moral self-worth
5. Integrating the Types of Self-Esteem
1. Views of self are splintered into distinct self-appraisals in many different areas of life
2. It is not until adolescence, that an overall, integrated sense of self-worth emerges
3. Self-Esteem and Culture
1. The worldview, valued competencies, and traditions of a particular cultural group will affect the criteria children use to judge their self-worth
2. Inclusive Views of Self
1. Children of collective cultures will hold inclusive views of self: evaluations of self that are related to accomplishments or competencies of the entire family or community
2. Their personal self-worth is intricately tied to their views about the groups to which they belong
3. Children who have inclusive views of self may not acquire feeling of control through individual initiative or self-reliance
4. Instead, a sense of control may come from a believe that one's family or community is powerful and can overcome adversity
3. Cultural Competencies and Criteria for Self-Evaluation
1. Culture influences the specific criteria children use to evaluate themselves
2. In the primary years, children make judgments about which abilities are worthwhile or important to learn
3. Some children may view athletic skill as more important than learning to read, while others believe just the opposite
4. In order to acquire positive views of self, children must come to believe they are competent at the things they value
5. A common misconception among some Euro-American teachers is that children of all cultures base their self-evaluations on criteria defined by he dominant society
4. Culture and Feeling of Control
1. Feelings of control are a part of a child's self-appraisal
2. A goal of American education has been to instill an internal locus of control-a belief in one's ability to make a difference and to regulate one's own life
3. There are two reasons children lack feeling of control in their lives: socialization and prejudice
4. Socialization and Control
1. Some cultures may purposely socialize children to believe in fate and the powerlessness of the individual
2. When an external locus of control is a fundamental part of culture and is taught directly by parents, it causes no harm
3. Another kind of helplessness is more damaging to emotional health-that which stems from prejudice
5. Prejudice and Control
1. Children may have negative experiences which lead them to conclude that they will fail in school or be rejected by peers because of race or gender
2. We should be concerned about feelings of powerlessness that arise from prejudice
3. It is one thing to choose to trust fate, luck, or the guidance of others; it is quite another to be truly disempowered because of race or gender bias
5. Culture and Feelings of Moral Self-Worth
1. How children judge their moral self-worth can also be shaped by culture
2. Children come to believe themselves to be nice or well behaved if they are compliant
3. How obedient children are expected to be is defined by cultural norms, however, and obedience and respect for adults is required in some cultures more than in others
4. Responsibility is another criterion children use in self-evaluation
5. Children who believe themselves to be helpful to their family and community tend to develop a positive self-esteem
6. Children who live in families in which obedience and responsibility are valued and respected will base their self-evaluations on these attributes
6. Self-Esteem, Prejudice, and the Myth of Self-Hatred
1. How can children who experience prejudice maintain positive views of self?
2. A factor that appears to insulate them from bias and hatred is ethnic pride
3. Children from historically under-represented groups who identify proudly with their ethnic heritage and view their communities and families as competent and worthy are more likely to have positive self-esteem
4. Early Identity Formation
1. During childhood and adolescence, children are engaged in identity formation-construction a clear understanding of themselves
2. The roots of identity can be traced to a child's early years
3. Gender and ethnic identity are two significant self-discoveries that occur Durango the early years
4. Gender Identity
1. At an early age, children begin to acquire a gender identity- they view themselves as boys or girls
2. They describe what it means to be a girl or boy, using physical characteristics to define maleness or femaleness
3. Primary-age children come to understand that gender is not determined just by physical appearance
4. Children of all societies are socialized to behave and think as boys or girls
5. Parents-particularly fathers-encourage the adoption of gender-appropriate roles, and both mothers and fathers expect boys to follow more rigid rules of gender behavior than girls
5. Ethnic Identity
1. In the primary years, children also begin to construct an ethnic identity: a full understanding and appreciation of behaviors, thinking, values, feelings, and competencies of the ethnic group to which they belong
2. Research suggests that children who understand they are part of a particular group and hold positive opinions of that group are more likely to have high self-esteem
3. Ethnic Socialization
1. Socialization is the process of imparting the competencies, values, and expectations of society to children
2. Ethnic socialization involves teaching the beliefs, abilities, and roles that are unique to one's own cultural group
3. One way parents promote ethnic identity is through ethnic socialization messages: statements that guide children in understanding and valuing the uniqueness of their family's cultural heritage
4. It is worthwhile to teach students that all cultural groups have rich, proud histories and traditions and that members of all groups are competent and honorable
5. Peer Relationships
1. Peer relationships change significantly in the primary years, for a variety of reasons
2. First, children are developing intellectually
3. As they become less egocentric and more other-oriented, they are better able to put themselves in the shoes of others and understand their peers' needs and motivations
4. Children rely more and more on peers for companionship, advice, and emotional support
5. The Peer Group
1. Children generally belong to one or more peer groups during the primary years
2. Examples of peer groups are one's classmates in school or the children in one's neighborhood
3. Each primary peer group to which a child belongs has its own chemistry
4. A pair of friends in school may not be so close to one another when playing in a neighborhood peer group
5. A child who is not well liked in the classroom-due to aggression, for example-may be better liked in a neighborhood group composed of more active or aggressive peers
6. Peer relationships within a group transform over time
7. The leadership of a group may shift
6. Peer Rejection and Reputation
1. Peer rejection is worrisome in preschool; it is even more so in the primary grades
2. Children who are actively avoided in the elementary grades are likely to exhibit a range of academic and social problems which persist into middle and high school
3. Spoiled, bossy, angry, fat, clumsy, and a tattletale are terms commonly used to describe why a child is disliked by peers
4. Children in the primary years are said to have a reputation, a detailed collection of traits that determine their peer status
5. Negative peer reputations take a social and emotional toll
6. Young children sometimes become more and more like what their reputation indicates
7. Sadly, reputations stick with children over time
7. Neglected Children
1. Children may be withdrawn and ignored for different reasons
2. Children who are reticent show a great interest in the activities of peers but are hesitant to join in
3. They show interest in peer interactions but lack the confidence to act on their desire for friendship
4. These children may be at risk emotionally
5. Other children may be withdrawn because thy choose to be
6. This research suggests that being shy, playing alone, and even being ignored by peers do no necessarily lead to negative developmental outcomes
8. Friendships
1. Friendships become more important during the primary years, and children express growing concern about having and keeping friends as they advance through the primary grades
2. Those who have friends are more likely to enjoy school and succeed academically in adolescence
3. Children have been found to use friends as a secure base for adjusting to and coping with new school experiences
4. Friendships are more intimate in the primary years
5. They provide emotional support and a forum for expressing feelings and disclosing problems
6. Children are more demanding of their friends at this age
7. They change friends less often and suffer greater stress when friends move away or a friendship breaks up
8. Children are often picky about who their friends are; they select peers who have characteristics they admire
6. Moral Development

A. Piaget believed that as young children become less egocentric, they acquire an early sense of morality

1. In the primary years many children exhibit a sense of moral realism
2. At this stage, moral decisions and games are based on fixed rules
3. The final stage of morality-a sense of moral relativism-is achieved in adolescence or adulthood, according to Piaget
4. In this last stage, situations and intentions are taken into account when making moral judgments
5. Elaborating on Piaget's stages, Lawrence Kohlberg identified three levels of moral development-preconventional, conventional, and postconventional- each containing two stages
6. Kohlberg formulated these levels and stages by presenting special stories to elementary and adolescent children and asking for their response
7. Each story portrayed a moral dilemma such as the following: A man's wife is dying . Although a drug is available to save her life, it is too expensive for him to afford. In desperation, he steals the medicine.
8. After describing the dilemma, Kohlberg would ask his subjects, Was the man wrong to steal the medicine? Why or why not? The first question was not as important as the second in assessing a subject's moral development, since Kohlberg believed that the justification for the moral judgment was more revealing than the judgment itself
9. Critiques of Kohlberg
1. Moral Behavior Versus Moral Reasoning
1. Moral reasoning and moral action are not the same, and moral actions often do not advance in clearly defined stages, as moral reasoning appears to do
2. Context, personality, peer relationships, and even biology will affect how children react to real-life moral problems

1. Serious Emotional Disturbance
1. Typically developing children may exhibit social conflicts with peers or conduct problems in school
2. A small number of children are more deeply troubled
3. They exhibit extreme, negative emotional reactions that go beyond typical misbehavior or peer conflict
4. They may exhibit disruptive or antisocial behaviors over a long period of time and in many different settings
5. Sometimes they are very aggressive and, as a result, very challenging to live or work with
6. At other times they are withdrawn, anxious, and sad
7. They may regularly complain about physical ailments and avoid going to school
8. Both types of children-those who outwardly express negative emotions and those who are withdrawn-share a common challenge: they have difficulty entering into satisfying relationships with peers and adults
9. Given the variety of emotional and social problems we have described, it is no surprising that professionals cannot agree on a single name for this disorder
10. Some use the term social and emotional maladjustment to categorize children with these challenges
11. Others adopt the phrase serious emotional disturbance to distinguish children whose difficulties are severe enough to require special services in school
12. Classroom Strategies and SED
1. A number of strategies have been developed to assist children who have SED
2. A traditional behavior modification approach is often sued
3. In this technique, teachers articulate specific expectations for behavior and then reward children for meeting those expectations
4. In spite of advancements in special education, behavior modification continues to be the most widely used strategy with children with SED
5. Caution is urged in using this approach
6. External rewards may impair intrinsic motivation-an internal drive to learn or be accepted
7. In a modified curricular approach, the classroom environment, lessons and activities, and student grouping are altered to reduce stress on children who have SED
8. Whelen proposes a trust-building intervention in which teachers interact with children in ways that build positive relationships
9. The rationale is that if children who have SED form positive, trusting relationships with adults, they will eventually be able to establish positive peer relations as well
10. Strategies include differential acceptance, in which teachers receive large doses of hate, aggression, and hostility without reacting in kind to the children who transmit them
11. Whelen asserts that hostile acts are expressions of pain and anguish caused by years of abuse or family chaos
12. He recommends firm but non-hostile and non-punitive responses to extreme misbehavior
13. In the trust-building strategy, teachers go out of their way to be responsive, war, and empathic
14. They show great interest in children's comments or accomplishments, and attempt to understand and ameliorate children's idiosyncratic fears or dislikes
15. The result of the trust-building strategy is that children with SED will bond with the teacher over time
16. Once this has occurred, the teacher can begin to facilitate peer interactions and friendships