Annotated Bibliography: Childhood and Adolescence

Topic 1: Early Childhood

1) Campbell, F. A., Pungello, E. P., Miller-Johnson, S., Burchinal, M., & Ramey, C. T. (2001). The development of cognitive and academic abilities: Growth curves from an early childhood educational experiment. Developmental Psychology, 37(2), 231-242. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.37.2.231

The purpose of this article is to study the effect of early “educational intervention” on the educational, cognitive, and academic development of “poor [and] minority children”. The study consisted of 104 poor minority children, 98% of whom were African American. The study collected test scores from cognitive exams from all the participants between 3 and 21 years of age. The study found that, on average, children who received early educational intervention and treatment received higher marks on related tests. As a result, the researchers concluded that early educational intervention can have a substantial impact on the cognitive growth and intellectual capacities of early childhood minds. 

This article is important in that we can see the importance of early educational intervention in children as it pertains to the cognitive development of children in early childhood. Here, we see that early intervention positively and drastically improved the cognitive capacities of the children that received it, implying either a structural inequality of the education system that prevents poor minority children from receiving a proper level of educational instruction or a systematic realization that all children, regardless of their economic or minority status, benefit substantially from intensive early educational assistance. Bandura and Galinksy may, for example, find some worth in mentioning the impact on “cognitive flexibility” that early educational assistance offers, and that children can experience a positive impact on their intellectual capacities as a result. 

2) Lagattuta, K. H., & Wellman, H. M. (2002). Differences in early parent-child conversations about negative versus positive emotions: Implications for the development of psychological understanding. Developmental Psychology, 38(4), 564-580. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.38.4.564

The purpose of this article is to study the effect of the “quality and content of everyday parent-child conversations” regarding negative emotions are related to the same talk about positive emotional experiences. The study analyzed six children and their parents, with children that were between the ages of 2 and 5. The results showed that the children and parents that actively discussed the context and nature of past emotional experiences exhibited higher discussion rates of negative emotions than during positive emotion discussions. The researchers concluded that parents play a primary role in driving the emotional discussion regarding a child’s experiences and that the parent-child relationship most often features the pair discussing the child’s emotions much more often than the parent. 

This article allows the reader to conclude the importance of parents with regards to the cognitive capacity of young children to behind to experience the world around them. Moreover, this article is a fascinating insight into the ways in which parents and children alike are more likely to focus on the negative emotions that they may experience in comparison to the more positive emotions preferred in most relationships. This focus on the negative and deliberate avoidance of discussion of the positive seems to imply an emphasis on the power of negative emotions to draw more attention than their positive counterparts, and that the parent-child relationship usually favors the child’s negative emotions than the parent’s positives. As seen in Keating, the onset of adolescence is a time where critical thinking begins to center on self-serving biases, which may indicate that the parent-child relationship deliberately avoids positive emotional experiences as a type of discussion in favor of centering the discussion on the child’s negative experiences. 

Topic 2: Late Childhood

1) Bohn, A., & Berntsen, D. (2008). Life story development in childhood: The development of life story abilities and the acquisition of cultural life scripts from late middle childhood to adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 44(4), 1135-1147. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.4.1135

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relationship between the “acquisition of cultural life scripts and the degree of coherence in children’s and adolescents’ life stories”. The study used three groups of Danish students between the ages of 9 to 15 years that witnessed the students writing down an individual example of a life event, their life story until that point, and the life script of their respective culture. The research methodology focuses on recording the single event and life stories at varying levels of coherence, whereas life scripts were compared to their adult norm counterparts. The results of the study found that “single event story coherence” and life script coherence exhibited little correlation, and that the coherence of the life script greatly increased as the age of the participant increased. The researchers concluded that the ability to compose an accurate and understandable reflection of one’s own life emerges only in adolescence and that the narrative ability of an individual increase from late childhood into adolescence. 

This article stresses the importance of the narrative ability of children in determining their cognitive development and the importance of the correlation between the capacity to address an individual ability to gauge the events of their own life and the respective importance of being able to construct a coherent narrative of either events or entire lifespans. Piaget’s Theory, for example, relates to the ability of a child to think about itself as an individual character. We can conclude that this article lends evidence to Piaget’s theory of developmental psychology and the fourth operational stage of cognitive development and that the individual experiences the most significant cognitive capacity to externally objectify itself in the late childhood period. 

2) McHale, S. M., Updegraff, K. A., Helms-Erikson, H., & Crouter, A. C. (2001). Sibling influences on gender development in middle childhood and early adolescence: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 37(1), 115-125. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.37.1.115 

The purpose of this article is to study the influence of siblings on the gender development of individuals during middle and late childhood. The study focuses on whether the “gender role qualities” of the sibling's help or influences that of their siblings. By utilizing a study that encompasses 198 first and second-born participants, the researchers conducted a series of yearly interviews. The methodology used followed the impact of the firstborn child’s qualities on the predictive quality of the second-born sibling. In terms of results, the study found that parental influence, not sibling influence, was a more potent force in predicting the firstborn’s traits and qualities. Instead of the expected significant impact of sibling influences on gender development, sibling influence was instead to be less than expected and represents what the researchers termed a “de-identification process”. Thus, the researchers concluded that their data helps to argue the point that the role of a sibling’s gender orientation and that of their siblings do not support the idea of a complete theory that fully explains the reasons behind why siblings have different gender developments. 

The Santrock article and this article both deal with the impact of society and family on the development of individuals as it pertains to external influences. We can conclude that parents, not siblings, represent the most powerful impact on the cognitive development of individuals as they emerge from late childhood into adolescence. Moreover, the fact that siblings represent the little impact on the development of their brothers or sisters may imply a form of social rebellion or deliberate distancing from their older counterparts and a sort of “social alliance” with the ruling parent ideals. As Santrock says, the social rebellion of adolescents and children can be seen as a way of reconciling the individual with the needs of society and is an act of conciliation, not true rebellion. 

Topic 3: Adolescence 

1) Gestsdóttir, S., & Lerner, R. M. (2007). Intentional self-regulation and positive youth development in early adolescence: Findings from the 4-h study of positive youth development. Developmental Psychology, 43(2), 508-521. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.43.2.508

The purpose of this article is to analyze the development of “intentional self-regulation” in the early stages of adolescence. The research was conducted by using a model that assigns an individual a score measurement that “describes the individual’s contributions to mutually influential relations” between the individual and “his or her context”. This SOC score (selection, optimization, and compensation) resulted in the realization that the SOC measurement is, indeed, an accurate reflection of the value of self-regulation in various stages of adolescent, and the researchers conclude that a self-regulation is a universal approach by the mind throughout adolescence that directly correlates to “Positive Youth Development (PYD)”. The researchers conclude, in addition, that individuals are the result of the interaction between environmental forces as well as their own self-drive to regulate their internal mental processes. 

This article provides an interesting way to understand the impact of self-regulation on behalf of individuals. Throughout the development of the individual mind during adolescence and adulthood, we see that the increasing desire for identity takes place (Chapter 14).  At the same time, this article begs the question of the extent to which self-regulation can impact the development connection between adolescence and adulthood, specifically with regards to the desire for romantic partners as seen in Chapter 6 and 12. According to the theory of human development, self-regulation is a mechanism by which the individual can impact his or her own development, yet the significance of external validation from other sources (romantic partners, etc) may be substantial with regards to the developmental cycle. 

2) Syed, M., & Seiffge-Krenke, I. (2013). Personality development from adolescence to emerging adulthood: Linking trajectories of ego development to the family context and identity formation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(2), 371-384. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0030070

The purpose of this article is to analyze the development of personalities in adolescents, specifically changes in ego development, from the age of adolescence to adulthood. The researchers tracked the relative heterogeneity in “ego development growth trajectories” and compared them to the trajectories observed in a “family context in adolescence and identity development”. The study did this by using 98 families that all had a child in the age range of 14 to 24 years. The results observed indicate that the growth of the ego was more pronounced in the early adolescence phase of development and begins to “taper off” as the individual reaches adulthood. The researchers concluded that the transitory between adolescence and adulthood is a time in which individual ego development continues to progress and that the development continues into adulthood, implying that growth is not halted when an individual reaches biological adulthood. 

This article ties in well with Michael Maddaus’ work that deals with emerging adults that experience competency issues as they enter adulthood. Here, we see that adults that experienced trouble in their early lives became “late-bloomers” and thus better parents and intelligent individuals in later years. We can conclude, therefore, that the transition period between adolescence and adulthood is a critical period in which the individual sets him or herself up for success later in life, though the impact of the developmental cycle from adolescent until adulthood remains somewhat unclear. Syed et. al. argue that the individual ego development continues to progress as the individual enters adulthood, yet the Maddaus work seems to support the idea that the approach to developmental cycles in the transitional period is one that finalizes the cycle at the completion of biological maturity.