Why do we study the development of children? - Chapter 1

How do we raise children?

The development of a child can raise various questions in multiple levels of society. A question that most parents have is how they can teach their children how to deal with anger and other negative emotions. Sometimes parents spank their children, but this has turned out to be counterproductive. However, several effective ways are known to control the anger of a child. One way is to respond sympathetically to children who show negative emotions, so children are able to cope in a better way with the situation causing the negative emotions. Another way is to help the children look for positive alternatives when they show negative emotions.

What did the Romanian adoption study find?

A Romanian study investigated children who grew up in orphanages under neglecting circumstances in Romania. Due to the policy in orphanages at the time, there was a lack of (physical) contact for the orphans. At the time these children were adopted by British families, they were often found to be malnourished, lagging behind in physical and intellectual development, and socially immature. The study compared these orphans with adopted children from Great Britain. At the age of six, Romanian orphans were still lagging behind in their physical, intellectual, social, and emotional development. In particular, social and emotional limitations persisted into adulthood. These developmental delays were found to be related to significantly low activation of the amygdala. The main conclusion of this study is that the timing of experiences influences their consequences.

How do we choose social policies?

Furthermore, the development of a child can raise questions about a responsible social policy, which is one more reason to learn about child development. Research can be done using meta-analysis, a method combining results from independent studies to arrive at conclusions based on all the studies. The question can arise whether it is better to invest in the prevention of developmental problems in children, or to invest in solving developmental problems that already exist in children.

For example, think about the reliability of a young child's courtroom testimony. It may happen that the judge believes the statement of a child, whereby an innocent person is punished, or vice versa, a guilty person can go free. Research has shown that young children tend to forget details, but what they say is largely based on the truth. It is important to know that young children are sensitive to certain questioning techniques, especially when suggestive questions are repeated. Questions to young children in a court must be neutral. Likewise, questions can not be repeated if they have already been answered. This information must be considered to ensure a reliable statement.

How can we understand human nature?

Studying child development can lead to a better understanding of the nature of human. Child developmental researchers have found methods to observe, describe and explain the development of children at a young age.

An illustration of how science can help to understand human nature comes from studies on how children overcome the effects of abuse, depending on when the child got abused. It appears that children who are in an unstable environment for less than 6 months after birth do not suffer from any negative effects later in life. However, if this period lasts longer than 6 months, they may experience problems, even if they are in a stable environment afterwards. Children who live in unstable environments for more than 6 months could suffer from, amongst other things, an atypical social development. Atypical social development originates from abnormal brain activity. For example, reduced activity in the amygdala, a brain area that is involved in emotional reactions. The Romanian adoption study is an example of this matter.

What are historical ideas about child development?

What is the view of early philosophers?

Plato stated that self-control and discipline are the goal of good upbringing and education. Plato also believed that children have innate knowledge. Aristotle stated that it is important to take the individual character of a child into account when it comes to child upbringing. Thus, the quality of parenting is very important. Aristotle therefore believed that knowledge is not innate, but that knowledge is gained through experiences.

Two thousand years later, Locke believed that the most important goal of child upbringing is the growth of character. Locke stated that the parents should initially raise the child through discipline. He believed that one is born as a blank slate, called tabula rasa, and knowledge is gained through experience. Rousseau thinks that children, first and foremost, need maximum freedom. From their twelfth year of life (the so-called 'age of reason'), children must receive formal education from their parents and school. Darwin has developed the so-called 'baby biography', in which he observes the developments of a baby day to day. This includes motor, sensory, and emotional development. Darwin inspired other researchers to conduct further research on the development of a child and the associated aspects.

What are the social reform movements?

The current field of child psychology also has its roots in early social reform movements, which have helped to improve the lives of children by changing the conditions in which they lived. For example, it is not allowed anymore for children under the age of 10 to work.

What is the influence of Darwin's theory of evolution?

Darwin's work led to the view that intensive study of the development of children could lead to important insights into human nature. Darwin's theory of evolution, based on variation, natural selection and heredity as fundamental concepts, still influences the thinking of modern developmentalists.

What are the important aspects of a child’s development?

How do 'nature and nurture' shape the development of a child?

Nature includes the genes that we receive from our parents. In other words: the innate aspects of a person. Nurture means the environment in which both physical and social aspects influence the development. In other words: the learned aspects of a person. Nature and nurture interact with each other. It appears that the genome(the total set with hereditary information) influences behavior and experiences, but the behavior and experiences also influence the genome. This discovery has led to the rise of epigenetics, the study of stable changes in gene expression mediated by the environment. Evidence for the lasting epigenetic impact on experiences and behaviors comes from research of methylation, a biochemical process that reduces the expression of a variety of genes and is involved in the regulation of stress reaction. It can be concluded that both the genes and the environment are important in the development.

How does "the active child" shape its own development?

It is known that the active role of a child is underestimated. The older the child becomes, the more active the child becomes. At a young age, parents determine what the child does in daily life. When the child grows up, he or she chooses his or her own activities, friends, environment and so on. The term we use for this idea is "the active child".

In what way is the development of a child continuous and in what way is the development discontinuous?

Continuous development means age related changes gradually occur in small steps. Quantity is important. A discontinuous development means that changes related to the age occur suddenly and with great steps. Quality comes first.

According to the stage theories, the development happens in a progression of distinct, sudden age related stages. One of the most famous stage theories is Piaget's cognitive development theory, the development of thinking and reasoning. This theory states that children go through four phases of cognitive growth, which are characterized by different intellectual skills and ways of understanding the world. However, there are also many researchers who argue for a gradual development.

Whether development can be called fundamentally continuous or discontinuous depends on how often and for how long observations take place ,or so it seems. In other words: it depends on the perspective and how you observe changes. If you look at a child for a long time, changes are often experienced as continuous. But if you look at a child various times at different moments, changes are often experienced as discontinuous.

How does a child change?

Brain activity, genes and learning experiences play a role in the development of effortful attention. Effortful attention is the voluntary control of the emotions and thoughts. Difficulty with effortful attention can cause all kinds of behavioral problems.

An important example of effortful attention are the connections between the limbic system, a part of the brain that plays an important role in emotional reactions, and the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex. These connections develop during childhood. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that are involved in communication between brain cells. Specific genes influence the production of important neurotransmitters. Variations in these genes between children are associated with variations in effortful attention. These genes are influenced by environmental factors.

Learning experiences can change the connections of the brain system involved with effortful attention. Exercise improves the skills. Hereby, the development of the hippocampus, a brain structure important for learning and remembering, is influential. During sleep, older children and adults replay memories in the hippocampus. Damage to the hippocampus causes difficulty with learning. In younger children, the cortex is responsible for memories.

How does the socio-cultural context influence the development of a child?

Socio-cultural context contains the physical, social, cultural, economic and historical aspects that determine the environment of a child. This context therefore depends on the culture in which you live, who you deal with, the environment in which you live and what your socio-economic status (SES) is. SES is a measurement based on the social class in which someone lives, with a certain income and level of education. A low SES can have negative consequences: living in dangerous neighborhoods, poor education, malnutrition and underdevelopment. These negative effects together are often referred to as the cumulative risk.

Why do children differ from each other?

There are four factors generating differences between humans, even though you come from the same family: genetic differences, difference in how parents and others interact, difference in response to the same experiences (subjectivity), and difference in the choice of own environment / friends.

How can research promote the well-being of a child?

Research always has practical advantages. For example, when a child is born with bad eyes, it is possible to immediately operate leading to less suffering later in life. Research can also provide better education by understanding how children reason, remember, form concepts and solve problems.

Can children learn to become more intelligent?

People that think intelligence can increase through learning, respond to failure different than people who think intelligence is stable. It turns out that they give up less quickly. In a study, children were given information about the fact that learning changes the brain and that learning improves and makes you smarter. These children performed better than children who did not receive the same information. Another way is to provide information about the failure of well-known people, such as Einstein.

What methods can be used to study the development of children?

What is the scientific method?

The scientific method is an approach aimed at testing beliefs by means of the following steps: formulating a question, formulating a hypothesis (testable predictions about the presence or absence of phenomena or relationships), testing the hypothesis and finally making a conclusion. Various measuring instruments are available to test a hypothesis. These measuring instruments must be reliable, valid and relevant. Reliability refers to the extent to which independent measurements are consistent. There are two types of reliability, namely interrater reliability, how much agreement there is in the observation of different raters and test-retest reliability, the extent to which there are similarities in the behavior of a child in different situations. Validity refers to the extent to which a test measures what it aims to measure. There are two types of validity, namely internal validity, the extent to which effects measured by researchers are caused by the variables manipulated by the researcher, and external validity, the extent to which results can be generalized.

What are methods to collect data about children?

The first way to collect data about children is through interviews. Interviews can be divided into structural interviews, research in which all participants are asked the same questions, often with the help of questionnaires, and clinical interviews (in which the questions are adapted to the answers of the participant). The second way to collect data is through observations. These can be divided into natural observations, observation based on a child's behavior in his / her natural environment, not manipulated by the researcher. Structured observations areobservation based on a child's behavior in a manipulated environment, for each child the same environment has been created.

What is the difference between correlation and causation?

There are also two types of designs in research: correlational research and experimental research. Correlational research is intended to see to what extent certain variables are related to each other. A correlation is the association between two variables. Variables are characteristics that vary between people and situations. A correlation coefficient shows the degree and direction (positive or negative) of the correlation.

Correlation research has its advantages. It is the only way to measure different groups at the same time and to determine the relationships between different variables. There are, however, some drawbacks to this method: the directional causality problem and the third-variable problem. The direction-of-causality problem: a correlation between two variables does not indicate which variable causes the other. The third-variable problem: a correlation between two variables can come from the influence of a third variable.

Experimental research is intended to measure certain effects and causes. There are two techniques that are important for an experimental study: random assignment of participants, whereby each child has an equal chance of being classified in each group and experimental control, the ability of the researcher to determine which stimuli the child experiences during the research. For experimental control an experimental group and a control group are needed. The experimental group is exposed to the independent variable, while the control group is not. The dependent variable is the behavior displayed by both groups. The comparison between the behavior of the two groups is used to see if the behavior is caused by the independent variable. The independent variable is the experience that participants in the experimental group receive and the control group not. This design also has its advantages, it makes it possible to investigate causal relations, because it does not suffer from directional causality problem and no third variable problem. This design has other drawbacks, for example, experimental control can lead to artificial experimental situations. In addition, not many different variables can be used to study.

What research designs can be used to measure the development of children?

There are three types of research designs to measure the development of a child over time: cross-sectional designs, longitudinal designs and microgenetic designs. Cross-sectional research is a method that focuses on the behavior of children of different ages over a short period, these behaviors are then compared. An advantage of this method is that the data is useful to discover differences between different age groups. However, there are also drawbacks to the method. The information about the differences between age groups obtained may not be stable over time. Also, the information obtained does not say much about the patterns of change over a longer period.

Longitudinal research is a method that focuses on the behavior of children of the same age over a longer period with repeated measurements. An advantage of this method is that the degree of stability can be determined over a longer period. The information obtained also says something about the patterns of change over a longer period of time. However, this method also has disadvantages: A lot of participants stop participating in the research ('drop-outs'), for different reasons. Also, repeated measurements can affect the external validity of the research.

Microgenetic research is a method that focuses on the behavior of children that is intensively observed over a short period, while changes occur. Advantages of this method is that by intensive observation certain processes of change can be revealed. These individual patterns of changes in short periods can also be observed and examined in detail. However, this method also has drawbacks: it does not provide information about patterns of change over a longer period and therefore does not show individual patterns of change. A microgenetic study was used to investigate the counting-on strategy in children. The strategy is to sum up from the largest number on. The research showed that the generalization of a new strategy is slow.

What are the ethical issues?

There are certain ethical issues that researchers must consider for every research with people. In this way, potential risks are minimized and it is ensured that the benefits of the research outweigh the disadvantages for the test subjects.

• It must be ensured that the investigation does not cause physical or psychological damage.

• So-called informed consent must be completed by the participant of the research. In the event that the participant is underage, one of the parents must sign.

• The anonymity of the participant is guaranteed.

• Discuss certain information that may be important for the participant's well-being with parents or caregivers (provided a participant is underage).

• Avoid negative consequences that may arise throughout the study. If these do occur, the procedure must be changed in such a way that these negative consequences will disappear.

• Inform the participant about the results of the research in such a way that the participant understands them.

The researcher, who knows most about the research and is able to prevent or improve potential problems, is responsible for achieving the highest possible ethical standards.