Preschool Social-Emotional Development

• Social and Emotional Development in Preschool Children encompasses self-understanding, relationships with parents, siblings, and peers, and moral development.

Development of Self-Concept

• In the early toddler stage (15-18 months) children begin developing initial concepts of self and start self defining.
• Self-definition characteristics include physical features (e.g., "I have blue eyes"), personal preferences (e.g., "I like spaghetti"), and achievement abilities (e.g., "I can count to 50").
• Influences on self and identity development are Biological factors, socialization, personal choices, and life experiences.
• Development of gender identity also contributes to the self-concept.

Gender Roles

• Social roles are cultural guidelines for how a person should behave.
• Among the first social roles children learn is gender roles.
• Gender roles are culturally prescribed roles considered appropriate for a particular gender.
• All cultures have gender stereotypes, which are beliefs about how genders differ in terms of personality traits, interests, and behaviours.
• Instrumental traits, such as active involvement, are stereotypically associated with men.
• Expressive traits, such as emotional functioning, are stereotypically associated with women.
• College students judge males as independent, aggressive, and outspoken.
• College students judge females as emotional, home-oriented, kind, and considerate.
• Gender stereotyping of activities occurs in girls as early as 24 months and in boys by 31 months.
• Preschoolers view stereotypes as binding, influencing how they perceive children playing with masculine or feminine toys.
• Preschoolers who do not conform to traditional gender roles tend to be seen as less likeable, particularly impacting adult attitudes toward boys.

Gender Identity

• Children start forming and transmitting information regarding what behaviors are acceptable and culturally sanctioned.
• Around age 3, children begin to forge a gender identity, which is a person's inner sense of their own gender, influenced by social, cognitive, and biological factors.

Social Influences on Gender Identity

• Albert Bandura's social learning theory explains the social influences on gender identity.
• Reinforcement and observational learning: parents play a primary role in shaping gender behavior, children also learn by watching other adults, peers, and cultural norms.
• Through observation, children see how adults interact, watch peers' behavior and responses, notice different treatment based on gender, and pick up subtle social cues about gender expectations.
• Direct teaching involves adults explicitly telling children how to behave, parents correcting "inappropriate" gender behavior, and society reinforcing specific gender roles through direct feedback about gender norms.
• Own gender imitation bias: children tend to imitate behavior from others of their own gender more readily.
• Neuroscience studies support gender imitation, it activates reward centers in the brain
• Neural mechanisms in the brain reinforce own-gender imitation and learning.
• Social learning also comes from consistent parental warmth, similar achievement encouragement for both genders, and equal promotion of independence.
• BUT, girls being directed toward dolls and dress-up activities, and boys toward rough-and-tumble play and construction toys continue gender stereotyping.

Parental Influences on Gender Identity

• Fathers are more likely than mothers to treat sons and daughters differently and encourage gender-based play.
• Fathers tend to push sons toward independence but accept dependence in their daughters.
• Fathers' stereotypical beliefs about gendered behaviors tend to be conveyed to their sons when playing together.
• Mothers respond to the individual child's needs, while fathers may respond based on gender.

Peer Influences on Gender Identity

• Preschoolers actively criticize peers who engage in cross-gender play and monitor gender boundaries during playtime.
• Peers use teasing and social exclusion to enforce gender norms.
• Boys face harsher criticism than girls for cross-gender play and playing with dolls brings more ridicule for boys than trucks do for girls.
• Non-conforming children often experience peer rejection, which can lead to social isolation or being ignored by playmates.
• Fear of peer rejection can limit children's play choices and social pressure shapes future play preferences.
• Children learn to self-regulate their behavior to avoid criticism.

Social Influences on Gender Identity : Media

• Children's books feature more male protagonists, male characters dominate as title characters, and gender imbalance exists in main character roles.
• Media's effect on children's own attitudes, performance, or goal-directed behavior is not clear and there is insufficient evidence on whether media reflects or molds gender roles in society.
• A study in a small Canadian town found that the introduction of television led to a change toward more stereotyped views.

Cognitive Theories of Gender Identity

• Gender identity develops gradually through gender labeling (2-3 years), stability (preschool years), consistency (4-7 years), and constancy.
• Gender labeling: children understand that they are either boys or girls and label themselves accordingly.
• Stability: children understand gender stability, but believe that a girl with short hair could become a boy.
• Consistency: children believe that maleness and females is consistent across situations eg. unaffected by clothing.
• Finally, constancy is the knowledge that gender can be identified, is stable, and remains consistent over time.
• Contemporary theorists and researchers are challenging the idea of gender stability, consistency, and constancy with the concept of gender fluidity.

Gender Fluidity

• Gender Fluidity: the World Professional Association for Transgender Health recommends a broadly inclusive view of gender identification (e.g., trans feminine, trans masculine, gender fluid, nonbinary, genderqueer, agender).
• Gender does not exist in isolation and intersects with other aspects of human diversity (e.g., First Nation status, ethnicity/race, sexuality, dis/ability, faith/religion/spirituality).
• Research and clinical experience have indicated gender diversity in prepubescent children which may be fluid.
• There are no reliable means of predicting an individual child's gender evolution, and the gender-related needs may vary.
• Gender relativism: the understanding and labeling of something as masculine or feminine can change depending on context.
• Gender can be a dependent variable, not just an independent variable, in psychological studies.
• Gender schema theory: children use gender-based information to decide whether an activity or object is worth learning more about.
• After children understand gender, their choices in media selection shift along gender-specific lines, and they use gender labels to evaluate toys and activities.
• If children are told that a specific gender likes a toy, children will likely like the toy too.

Biological Influences on Gender Identity

• The influence of hormones, genes, and brain development on children's gender identity and behavior.
• Boys and girls often play differently, with girls being more relational and nurturing and boys being more rough-and-tumble.
• A fertilized human egg has 23 pairs of chromosomes - if the 23rd pair includes an X and a Y chromosome, testes develop at six weeks after conception, producing testosterone between seven and eight weeks of gestation.
• If the 23rd pair includes two X chromosomes, ovaries appear about 10 weeks after conception.
• While hormones bring about male and female sex characteristics, if they contribute to behavioral and social role differences is not known.
• We can't experiment with the hormones secreted during human prenatal development.
• The level of sex hormones relates to the development of gender identity in early development, but is not related to adolescence.
• Questionnaires measure instrumental traits (associated with males) and expressive traits (associated with females); identical twins' answers are more similar.
• During prenatal development, malfunctioning adrenal glands can expose females to large amounts of androgen.
• As children, the ones exposed to androgen prefer masculine activities.
• Biology, the socializing influence of people and media, and the child's own efforts to understand gender-typical behavior impact gender role learning and gender identity development.

Self-Esteem

• During preschool years, children begin taking more responsibility for themselves (e.g., dressing) and identify with adults (e.g., mother, father).
• Play begins to have a purpose as children explore adult roles.
• Children start exploring the environment on their own and asking innumerable questions.
• Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development: with initiative in conflict, young children balance individual initiative and willingness to co-operate, resulting in self-esteem.
• Self-esteem is feelings about personal worth - high self-esteem involves judging themselves favorably, but low self-esteem involves judging themselves negatively.
• Self-esteem peaks at this age but drops when children enter school.
• Self esteem is measured based on cognitive competence, physical competence, acceptance by peers, and acceptance by mother.

The Family as a System

• Early psychological theories viewed parents as all-powerful, but current views have a broader perspective.
• Parents influence children directly through verbal guidance/instructions, setting rules, and indirectly via exemplifying behaviors.
• Parents influence each other where a demanding husband creates a wife who has little time for her daughter.
• Arguing siblings causes the parents to deal with conflict.
• The social system the family is in (e.g., neighborhood, religious institutions, work) influences the family.
• Children influence how parents interact with them, which influences measures of parents.
• Family culture impacts how children are raised and how the family interacts with the larger social system.

Parenting Styles

• Primary objectives include looking out for children's safety and health, preparing them for productive adulthood, and sharing cultural values.
• General dimensions include warmth and responsiveness, control exerted over children, mental and physical health of parents, particular needs of a child, and the degree parents live a healthy lifestyle in a prosocial network.
• Warm parents are affectionate with their children, while uninvolved parents are hostile.
• Children typically feel secure and are better behaved, or are anxious and challenging.
• Demanding parents run their children's lives.
• Extreme control should be avoided because over-control deprives children of the chance to learn on their own, and under-control doesn't teach cultural standards.
• Control and warmth are universal aspects of parenting, but the "proper" amount changes across cultures, such as European cultures versus Asian and Latin American cultures.
• Cultural differences effect raising co-operative vs collaborative children or individualistic and self-reliant children.

Parental behaviour

• Direct instruction involves what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and why by asking what the child thinks should be done and then discussing possible choices and their implications.
• Coaching explains links between emotions and behavior, and teaching social situations.
• Learning by Observing: parents' modeling, children watching
• Counterimitation; learning what should not be done, example if an older sibling kicks a friend, and the parents punish the child..
• Disinhibition: a tendency to exhibit bold or aggressive behaviours in unfamiliar situations, from parents shouting in anger.
• Inhibition: when a child see's parents punishes a sibling, the child is less likely to act that way.

Parental Feedback

• Reinforcement is any action that increases the likelihood of the response that it follows (e.g. praise, reward...).
• Reinforcement includes the negative reinforcement trap

1. Parent says "do it"
2. Child argues back too bad.
3. Parent gives in

• This leads the “child learns that arguing works!”
• Punishment decreases the likelihood of the response (controversial.)
• Time out/ time away involves isolating with quiet activity
• Or being diverted from a conflict

Childrens Contributions

• Parenting is influenced by the bi-directional behavior of children
• It is affected by parental confidence
• Defiance encourages authoritarian parenting
• Parents respons vary depending on the easy or difficult child and their temperament.

Family Configuration

• Grandparents have formal, fun-seeking, distant, dispensing-family-wisdom, and surrogate-parent roles.
• 9% of children live with same-sex parents who are as effective as heterosexual couples, with quality of relationships the most important factor.

Sibling Relationships

• Firstborns are often "guinea pigs", and the parents are more achievement-oriented, affectionate, and punitive
• Firstborn children score higher on intelligence tests and are more likely to go to college or university.

Later Born

• Are less concerned about pleasing parents and adults
• They tend to be more innovative and popular with their peers
• Only Children are not always selfish and egotistical
• They tend to succeed; intelligence, leadership, autonomy, and maturity is high.
• Adjusting to an adopted sibling can be difficult if the birth children are younger, adoptive and birth children are closer in age, or adoptive sibling is not the youngest child.
• More tension occurs where attention should be paid to siblings' needs and dynamics

Peer Relationships and Preschoolers' Play

• Co-operative play has children organize play around a theme, but bullying and aggression may arise
• Prosocial behaviours involve appearance concerned, hugging, or patting but they are limited
• Make-believe play includes pretend drinking and movement towards culture
• Make-believe plays leads to language, and memory
• More social and imaginary leads to real friends
• Solitary play for children with puzzles is not maladjustment
• However Aimless Wandering is something to look for
• Watching play is okay unless it is high anxiety
• Parent are playmakers mediators and couches

Moral Development

• Moral development is through learning control
• Self control helps them avoid immediate impulse
• Starts in infancy when they self sooth
• It involves demand and control around 2
• At 3 it involves deviating behaviours
• Self control impacts and is stable for ability, self esteem, and general behaviours

Parental Influences on self Control

• They are role mode setting rules
• Children need opportunities to make the own decisions
• Gradually allow opportunities for children
• Children temperament influences self-control
• Highly emotional toddlers
• Anxiety is a factor
• Fearful can be bad
• Positive behaviour

Improving Self-Control

• Include delay and gratification
• Try to reduce temptations
• Parents can make plans
• Try to be reliable

Conclusions

• Adults have stereotypes of behaviour
• Try to treat children fairly
• Self-esteem peaks
• Warm responses
• Try to be a good role models
• Adapt behaviours Children are affected by environment factors