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CHAPTER 1 History, Theory, and Applied Directions 37
The field of child development now recognizes that sound public policy is among the
most powerful tools for preventing developmental problems and enhancing children’s qual-
ity of life.
Looking Toward the Future
Public policies aimed at fostering children’s development can be justified on two grounds. The
first is that children are the future—the parents, workers, and citizens of tomorrow. Invest-
ing in children yields valuable returns to a nation’s economy and quality of life (Heckman &
Masterov, 2004).
Second, child-oriented policies can be defended on humanitarian grounds—children’s
basic rights as human beings. In 1989, the U.N. General Assembly, with the assistance of
experts from many child-related fields, drew up the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a
legal agreement among nations that commits each cooperating country to work toward
guaranteeing environments that foster children’s development, protect them from harm, and
enhance their community participation and self-determination. Examples of rights include
the highest attainable standard of health; an adequate standard of living; free and compul-
sory education; a happy, understanding, and loving family life; protection from all forms of
abuse and neglect; and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, subject to appropriate
parental guidance and national law.
Although the United States played a key role in drawing up the Convention, it is one of
only two nations in the world whose legislature has not yet ratified it. (The other is war-torn
Somalia, which does not have a centralized government in full control of the country.) Amer-
ican individualism has stood in the way. Opponents maintain that the Convention’s provisions
would shift the burden of child rearing from the family to the state (Melton, 2005).
Although the worrisome condition of many children and families persists, efforts are
being made to improve their condition. Throughout this book, we will discuss many suc-
cessful programs that could be expanded. Also, growing awareness of the gap between what
we know and what we do to better children’s lives has led experts in
child development to join with concerned citizens as advocates for
A P I M A GES /GER A L D H ER BER T
more effective policies. As a result, several influential interest groups
devoted to the well-being of children have emerged.
In the United States, one of the most vigorous is the Children’s
Defense Fund—a nonprofit organization founded by Marian Wright
Edelman in 1973—which engages in public education, legal action,
drafting of legislation, congressional testimony, and community orga-
nizing. It also publishes many reports on U.S. children’s condition,
government-sponsored programs that serve children and families,
and research-based proposals for improving those programs. To
learn more about the Children’s Defense Fund, visit its website at
www.childrensdefense.org. Another energetic advocacy organization
is the National Center for Children in Poverty, dedicated to advanc-
ing the economic security, health, and welfare of U.S. children in
low-income families by informing policy makers of relevant
research. To explore its activities, visit www.nccp.org.
Finally, more researchers are partnering with community and
government agencies to enhance the social relevance of their inves-
tigations. They are also doing a better job of disseminating their
findings in easily understandable, compelling ways, through reports
to government officials, websites aimed at increasing public under-
standing, and collaborations with the media to ensure accurate and
effective reporting in newspaper stories, magazine articles, and radio
First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign gives a high
and television documentaries (Gruendel & Aber, 2007; Shonkoff &
public profile to the issue of childhood obesity. Such advocacy
Bales, 2011). In these ways, researchers are helping to create the efforts help create a sense of immediacy about improving condi-
sense of immediacy about the condition of children and families that tions for children and families.
is necessary to spur a society into action.
38 PART I Theory and Research in Child Development
A S K Y O U R S E L F
Review ■ Explain why both strong advocacy and policy- Apply ■ Check your local newspaper or one or two national
relevant research are vital for designing and implementing news magazines to see how often articles on the condition of
public policies that meet children’s needs. children and families appear. Why is it important for researchers
Connect ■ Give an example of how cultural values and to communicate with the general public about children’s needs?
economic decisions affect child-oriented public policies. What Reflect ■ Do you agree with the widespread American
level of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory contains sentiment that government should not become involved in
these influences? family life? Explain.
S U M M A R Y
The Field of Child the contexts in which children grow up? Mid-Twentieth-Century
(3) Are genetic or environmental factors more
Development (p. 4) important in influencing development (the
Theories (p. 14)
What is the field of child development, and nature–nurture controversy), and are indi- What theories influenced child development
what factors stimulated its expansion? vidual differences stable or characterized by research in the mid-twentieth century?
substantial plasticity?
■ Child development is an area of study ■ In the 1930s and 1940s, psychiatrists and
■ Recent theories take a balanced stand on these
devoted to understanding constancy and social workers turned to the psychoanalytic
issues. And contemporary researchers realize
change from conception through adolescence. perspective for help in treating children’s
that answers may vary across domains of
It is part of the larger, interdisciplinary field emotional and behavior problems. In Freud’s
development and even, as research on
developmental science, which includes psychosexual theory, children move through
resilience illustrates, across individuals.
changes throughout the lifespan. Research on five stages, during which three parts of the
child development has been stimulated both personality—id, ego, and superego—become
by scientific curiosity and social pressures to Historical Foundations (p. 10) integrated.
better children’s lives. ■ Erikson’s psychosocial theory builds on
Describe major historical influences on
Freud’s theory, emphasizing the development
How is child development typically divided theories of child development.
of culturally relevant attitudes and skills,
into domains and periods? ■ As early as medieval times, the sixth through and—with the addition of three adult stages—
■ Development is often divided into physical, the fifteenth centuries, childhood was the lifespan nature of development.
cognitive, and emotional and social domains. regarded as a separate period of life.
© DA N I TA D EL M O N T/A L A M Y
These domains are not really distinct; they ■ In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the
combine in an integrated, holistic fashion. Puritan conception of original sin led to a harsh
■ Researchers generally divide child develop- philosophy of child rearing. The seventeenth-
ment into the following age periods: (1) the century Enlightenment brought a new empha-
prenatal period (conception to birth), sis on human dignity and respect that led to
(2) infancy and toddlerhood (birth to 2 years), more humane views of childhood. Locke’s
(3) early childhood (2 to 6 years), (4) middle notion of the child as a tabula rasa (“blank
childhood (6 to 11 years), and (5) adolescence slate”) provided the basis for twentieth-century
(11 to 18 years). To describe the prolonged behaviorism, while Rousseau’s view of chil-
transition to adulthood typical of contempo- dren as noble savages foreshadowed the con-
rary young people in industrialized nations, cepts of stage and maturation. ■ As the psychoanalytic perspective gained in
researchers have posited a new period of ■ Inspired by Darwin’s theory of evolution, prominence, behaviorism emerged, focusing
development, emerging adulthood, spanning efforts to observe children directly began in on directly observable events (stimuli and
ages 18 to 25 years. the late nineteenth and early twentieth centu- responses) in an effort to create an objective
ries. Soon after, Hall and Gesell introduced science of psychology. Skinner’s operant con-
ditioning theory emphasizes the role of rein-
Basic Issues (p. 6) the normative approach, which produced a
forcement and punishment in increasing or
large body of descriptive facts about children.
Identify three basic issues on which child Binet and Simon constructed the first success- decreasing the frequency of a behavior. A
development theories take a stand. ful intelligence test, which sparked interest in related approach, Alfred Bandura’s social
individual differences in development and led learning theory, focuses on modeling as the
■ Each theory of child development takes a major means through which children acquire
to a heated controversy over nature versus
stand on three fundamental issues: (1) Is new responses. Its most recent revision, a
nurture.
development a continuous process, or is it social-cognitive approach, stresses the role of
■ Baldwin’s theory was ahead of its time in
discontinuous, following a series of distinct thinking in children’s imitation and learning.
stages? (2) Does one general course of devel- granting nature and nurture equal importance
and regarding children and their social sur- ■ Behaviorism and social learning theory gave
opment characterize all children, or are
roundings as mutually influential. rise to behavior modification procedures to
there many possible courses, influenced by
eliminate undesirable behaviors and increase
desirable responses.
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