Peer Networks

• Children become increasingly dependent on peers for social and emotional support
• 10% of social interactions as toddlers and 30% of social interactions in middle childhood are with peers

Development in Parent–Child Attachments

• Parent-child attachment becomes a goal-corrected partnership
  
  • Parent and child accommodate each other’s needs
  • The child becomes a more sensitive partner and grows more independent of the parent
• Young children want separations to be predictable and controllable (Controlled proximity maintanence)
• Continue to seek attention from parents and turn to parents when frightened or hurt (Safe haven)

Synchronised routines

• Over time, caregivers and infants develop synchronised routines in which they take turns to respond to each other’s leads.
• E.g. Mother and infant play “peekaboo”, mother sits back and watches when
  infant is no longer interested, re-engages when infant looks at her again
• Achieving synchrony between parent and infant makes secure attachment more likely
  

2. Discriminating social responsiveness

• (2 or 3 months to 6 or 7 months)
• Infants begin to show preferences for familiar companions.
• Still friendly, but exceptionally enthusiastic with familiar companions.

3. Active proximity seeking or true attachment

• (6 or 7 months to about 3 years)
• infants form their first clear attachments to the primary care-giver.
• Proximity-seeking behaviour (i.e. seen crawling/following their primary care-giver)
  

1. Undiscriminating social responsiveness

• (birth to 2-3 months)
• Responsive to and interested in any human, no clear preference for one person

4. Goal-corrected partnership

• (3 years and older)
• Takes into account parent’s goals and plans, adjusts behaviour to achieve the goal of optimal proximity
• i.e. 1-year-old cries and tries to follow when Dad leaves for work, whereas a 4-year-old can understand where Dad is going and wait for his return

Separation Anxiety

• Appears when infants are forming their first true attachments, peaks between 14-18 months of age before gradually declining
• Once attached to a parent, baby often becomes fretful when separated from that parent

Stranger Anxiety

• Emerges shortly after attachment is formed
• Wary or fretful reaction to the approach of an unfamiliar person
• Common between 8 and 10 months of age and declines during the second year of life

• Secure base for exploration—a point of safety from which an infant can feel free to venture

• Safe haven to which the infant can return for comfort if frightened

Strange Situation

• A procedure for measuring the quality of an attachment developed by Ainsworth.
• It consists of eight episodes that gradually escalate the amount of stress infants experience as they react to the approach of an adult stranger and two departures and returns of their caregiver

1. Secure attachment

• The securely attached infant:
  
  • proximity maintenance - stays close and continuously monitors the caregiver’s whereabouts
  • safe haven - retreats to her for comfort if needed
  • separation distress - resists and is distressed by separations from her
  • secure base - explores happily as long as caregiver is present and attentive
• Infants may have parents who are sensitive and responsive to their needs and emotional signals

2b. Avoidant attachment

• Infants with avoidant attachments are not very adventuresome, shows little apparent distress/separation anxiety when separated from their mothers, and avoid contact or seem indifferent when their mothers return.
• not particularly wary of strangers but sometimes avoid or ignore them, much as these babies avoid or ignore their mothers.
• Poor emotional competency - avoidant infants seem to have shut down their emotions and distanced themselves from their parent.
• Infants may have parents who tend to provide too much or too little stimulation; either unresponsive or overzealous
  

2c. Disorganized-disoriented attachment

• Emotional/behavioural responses appear to be confused.
• Does not display consistent traits of the other attachment styles.
• associated with later emotional problems
• common in infants who have been physically abused, or whose mothers are severely depressed or on drugs/alcohol

2a. Anxious/Ambivalent attachment or Resistant attachment

• The resistant infant does not dare venture off to play even when her mother is present; her mother does not seem to serve as a secure base for exploration.
• The infant becomes distressed when her mother departs, often showing strong separation anxiety.
• The infant is ambivalent, Not easily comforted by her mother.
• Resistant infants are also wary of strangers, even when their mothers are present
• Infants may have parents who are inconsistent in their caregiving; e.g. mood-dependent, unresponsive parents

Caregiver’s Contributions to Attachment

• Contact Comfort: According to Harlow, contact comfort are pleasurable tactile sensations provided by a more powerful contributor to attachment.
• It also promotes human attachments; (As per Harlow’s experiment, feeding has little effect on the quality of infants’ attachments)

• Emotion regulation. Secure attachment in infancy is also linked to good emotion regulation and coping skills

• Social competence. Children who had been securely attached as infants are more able to initiate play activities, are more sensitive to the needs and feelings of other children, and are more popular and socially competent

• Intellectual competence. Children who were securely attached as infants are described by teachers as more curious, self-directed, and eager to learn than insecurely attached children

Recovering from seperation

• Infants who go through long-term or permanent separation from a caregiver usually recover
  
  • once reunited with the caregiver or
  • if the infant is able to maintain or form an attachment with someone else

Prolonged deprivation

• However, children who had spent 6 months or more deprived from caregiver settings rarely achieved normal levels of cognitive development.
• Such children tended to be:
  
  • emotionally withdrawn
  • indiscriminately friendly (disinhibited attachment)
  • or both

• Object play (stacking blocks, making crafts)
  

• Social play (mutual imitation or playing board games)
  

• Locomotor play (games of tag or ball)

• Pretend play (enacting roles)

• Parallel play. Children play next to one another, doing much the same thing, but they interact little
• for example, two girls might sit near each other, both drawing pictures, without talking to each other much.

• Associative play. Children interact by swapping materials, conversing, or following each other’s lead, but they are not united by the same goal
• for example, the two girls may swap crayons and comment on each other’s drawings as they draw.

• Solitary play. Children play alone, typically with objects, and appear to be highly involved in what they are doing

• Cooperative play. Children join forces to achieve a common goal; they act as a pair or group, dividing their labor and coordinating their activities in a meaningful way
• for example, the two girls collaborate to draw a big mural.

• Pretend play - play in which one actor, object, or action symbolizes or stands for another
• Emerges when a child becomes able to use symbols to represent objects; around the age of 1 year

• Social Pretend Play - play in which children cooperate with others to enact sometimes very sophisticated dramas (i.e. play masa-masak)

• Rule-governed play School-age children engage less in pretend play and more in rule-governed play
• E.g. Board games, hide-and-seek, organised sports
• According to Piaget, this only occurs after children are in the concrete operations stage and are able to cooperate and follow rules

• Engaging in lots of pretend play has been linked to better performance on tests of cognitive development, language skills and creativity

• Social pretend play helps children understand others’ perspectives and hone their social skills

• Physical play contributes to neural maturation and the development of motor skills

• Neglected – neither liked nor disliked, isolated, invisible to peers

• Controversial – liked by many but also disliked by many

• Rejected – rarely liked, often disliked

• Average – in the middle on both liked and disliked scales

• Popularity is affected by:
  
  • Physical attractiveness
  • Intelligence
  • Ability to regulate emotions
  • Social competence

Importance of peer acceptance

• Peer acceptance and popularity are important to development:
  
  • Children who are rejected (particularly because of aggressive behaviour) are likely to continue to be rejected over the schooling years
  • May end up with poor adjustment as a result; low self-esteem, poor social skills, development of negative attitudes towards others

• Greater social competence

• Better emotional adjustment

• Fewer behavioural problems
  

• Stronger sense of identity

• Sociometric popularity - being liked by many peers,

• Perceived popularity - being viewed as someone who has status, power, and visibility in the peer group

3. In early adolescence, the most popular boys and girls lead the way and form a heterosexual clique.

4. As less popular teens also form mixed-sex cliques of their own, a new peer-group structure, the crowd, completes its evolution during the high school years. The crowd (i.e. a loose collection of heterosexual cliques with similar characteristics) provides a vehicle for socializing with the other sex through organized social gatherings such as parties.

2. Boy cliques and girl cliques then begin to interact. Just as parents provide a secure base for peer relationships, same-sex cliques provide a secure base for romantic relationships.

5. As more and more couples form and the crowd disintegrate in late high school, having served its purpose of bringing boys and girls together.

1. In late childhood, boys and girls become members of same-sex cliques, or small friendship groups, and have little to do with the other sex.

2. Status phase. In mid-adolescence, peer approval is what counts; having a romantic relationship, and having it with the “right kind” of partner, is important for the status it brings in the larger peer group

3. Affection phase. In late adolescence, the focus is finally on the relationship rather than on self-concept or peer status. Romantic relationships become more personal and caring.

1. Initiation phase. In early adolescence, the focus is on self-concept. That is, coming to see oneself as a person capable of a romantic relationship. This is a time of crushes, posturing, and awkward beginnings.

4. Bonding phase. In the transition to emerging adulthood, the emotional intimacy achieved in the affection phase may be coupled with a long-term commitment to create a lasting attachment.