Effect of Miscellaneous Factors on the Elaboration of a Kid - Term Paper Example

Impact of different factors on the development of a child affiliation Impact of different factors on the development of a child Attachment theory Attachment theory is a psychological theory, which tries to define the dynamic forces of long-term social relationship among humans. Nevertheless, this theory is not articulated as an overall model of relationships. It talks about only a particular facet: how human beings react within affiliations when they are hurt, perceiving a threat, or detached from loved ones (BOLEN, 2000). Fundamentally, attachment is determined by the individual’s ability to establish basic trust in themselves and their caregivers. In children, attachment as a motivational and developmental system directs the infant to look for closeness with an acquainted caregiver when they are worried, with the anticipation that they with receive emotional support and protection. Mikulincer, Shaver, & Pereg, (2003), affirm that the most significant principle of the attachment model is that a child needs to create an affiliation with at least a single primary caregiver for an infant’s successful emotional and social development, and in specific for learning on how to regulate their emotions effectively. Fathers or any additional persons, are in the same way likely to become principal affection figures if they offer majority of the child care and associated social care (Kennedy & Kennedy, 2004). In this case, we have a child named Alice, who is twelve years and lives with her mother in London. Alice and her mother do not really have a good relationship and this is clear because most of the time Alice spends on the internet and co-curricular activities as she is trying to avoid her. However, she has a strong connection with her grandmother and this is seen by the time they spend together watching movies. Alice lacks a primary caregiver, which in this case should be her mother or father but none of them is around for her. This has affected the child cognitive and social and emotional development as she is seen to spend more hours alone even at school, her grades are down as she has lost keenness at school. Additionally, her eating habits have changed and she eats less food that before. Her grandmother is the responsive and sensitive caregiver that she has and so often does she use her as a safe base from which to discover. However, it should be noted that this caregivers only get it right fifty-percent of the time. Their communications are either mismatched or disharmonious. There are periods when parents feel distracted or tired, there is dinner to prepare or the phone rings. In other words, accustomed connections breach quite often. But the assurance of a sensitive caregiver is that the breaches are repaired and managed (Slater, 2007). Cognitive and social development Social development is closely linked to the emotional development of children. It is through relations with caregivers and other individuals that infants learn how to apply and use their expressions, emotions, and emotional understanding. During childhood, a robust social development is generally about establishing relationships with caregivers. These children will develop love and trust for their caregivers if they are given sufficient nurturing and love from their environment. However, if they are not given these resources they develop mistrust and meaninglessness for individuals and the world around them. Cognitive development is the creation of thought processes including decision-making, problem solving, and remembering, from infancy to adulthood. From the day the child is born he or she begins to keenly learn. They acquire, sort, and process information from the environment around them, using the information to develop thinking and perception skills. The environment strappingly has an effect on the cognitive development of a child. Children who have been brought up in engaging and enriched environments develop more rapidly than those in other environment and may have advanced IQ’s as adults. Concisely, attachment among caregivers and infants develop even if the caregiver is not responsive and sensitive in social relations with them. This has significant implications; children cannot exit insensitive or unpredictable caregiving affiliations. Rather they should manage themselves as good as they can in such affiliations. According to Meredith, (2009), infants have varied patterns of affection depending predominantly on how they experienced their prompt caregiving environment. Reffering to Diamond, (2004), four dissimilar attachment categorizations have been recognized in children: disorganized attachment, anxious-avoidant attachment, anxious-ambivalent attachment, and secure attachment. This theory has developed to become the most considered model used currently in the study of toddler and infant behaviour and in the fields of children treatment, infant mental health, among others. In Alice’s case, it is suffering from an anxious-avoidant where he avoids both her parents and concentrates on the other stuffs (Rothbaum, Rosen, Ujiie, & Uchida, 2002). In growth, this is dangerous because they affect the behaviour and developments of a child. A child like Alice with an anxious-avoidant attachment style will ignore or avoid the caregiver showing less feelings when the caregivers returns or departs. The infant fails to discover irrespective of who is there. Conferring to Snyder, Shapiro, & Treleaven, (2012), children possessing this model do not show pain on separation, and also disregarded the caregiver on their reappearance or presented some affinity to approach with some trend to turn away or ignore the caregiver. Malekpour, (2007), affirms that to succeed, children’s require the experience of ongoing and consistent care by a nurturing, affectionate caregiver, whether that individual is a substitute caregiver or parent. The support and security that such an individual offers gives resiliency and self-confidence to the child to cope successfully with stress (Sanson, Hemphill, & Smart, 2004). To mature socially and emotionally, children should interact with individuals outside their home. These relations normally happen with neighbours, friends, close relatives, and individuals at childcare churches, schools, sports teams, sites, among others. Further, Kelly, (2007), states that by dealing with the minor conflicts and stresses essential in these relations, children progressively obtain the expertise to handle stressors that are more important. Nevertheless, definite major events, like divorce, poverty, violence, among others might challenge the abilities of the child to cope (Clarke-Stewart, Vandell, McCartney, Owen, & Booth, 2000). Additionally, they may also tamper with the social and emotional development of the child. For instance, the detachment Alice has with both her mother and father has led to numerous issue like eating less food than what she used to take, she is not keen at school, and she is ever alone spending time by herself even when in school (Malekpour, 2007). Potential of bullying Bullying has an effect on the development of a child and the effects are relatively unknown. If a child experiences bullying at a small age, the effects could still affect the person later on in her middle ages. This is because the metaphoric blade of the person bullying you cuts deep and such pain can be endure for so many years, even if the bully is not present in your life. Bullying can also occur online and this is referred to as cyber bullying. Research indicates that cyber bulling has higher risks of depression, than any other form of bullying. Bullying makes one feel that he or she is undesirable, powerless, and unsafe in the world. This may make victims of bullying to develop mental problems, become hopeless, depressed, low esteem, and poor performance in school. Media influence According to Calvert & Wilson, (2009), the media has an influence on friendship, as seen Alice spends most of her time online and this is affection his relationship with other individuals. Over-consumption of television, the internet, and interactive games has substituted the kind of actions children used to sort out when they hung out together like goofing around, playing ball, and doing projects. It lures children away from more imaginative and physical activities, and fostering conversations. Children experience violence in their day-to-day activities through cartoons, games, sports, and television news. Majority of infants encounter violence in their neighbourhoods or families. According to DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman, & Robinson, (2001), when children are open to violence their values and perspectives of the world do change. This will affect the lives of the children and their ability to establish affiliations, learning processes, and stress coping mechanisms. The media influences dialog and treatment modalities. This impact media has on the time spent by relatives and family can be reduced by assisting children develop a range of activities that are not related to watching television, computer use, or electronic games (Wallace, 2007). However, media consumption should not be stopped, parents should discuss with their children on what their children are seeing and then set limits for what is permissible (Subrahmanyam, Greenfield, Kraut, & Gross, 2001). Separation and divorce Additionally, children get scared when their parents are ever fighting or do not agree and parents might send a bad picture. Separation and divorce of parents can have an impact on the socio-emotional growth well-being of a child, although it normally does not affect cognitive or physical development, children do not have an understanding of what really divorce and separation are. They are only aware that either their mother or father is not lively in his or her life. For Alice case, the child does not stay with her father anymore after their mother separated with him two years ago, she may be confused on why or what is happening that her dad is never around. Therefore, she may feel sad, scared, and so many other emotions may accompany her that she does not know how to handle so far. The process of learning how to maintain and build healthy affiliations is tampered with by the relationships their parents have. However, divorced or separated parents should be able to demonstrate to their children that even when affiliations fizzle out, individuals can still respect each other. By doing this their children will become resilient and be able to handle a lot chaos, this will reduce the socio-emotional issues the child faces (Amato, 2000). Social isolation This is the near complete or complete lack of interaction with individuals and with the society for participants of a social species. It is not alike to loneliness rooted in impermanent lack of interaction with other individuals. Social isolation can be a problem for anybody in spite of their age, each and every group from adults to children is demonstrated differently (Witvliet, Brendgen, Van Lier, Koot, & Vitaro, 2010). Social isolation takes impartially typical forms across the continuum irrespective of whether that isolation is self-enforced or is an outcome of an ancient enduring isolation series that has just never fragmented, also which is not existent. All forms of isolation could result to having no communication with anybody including the most peripheral of friends or family, remaining at home for a long duration of time, and deliberately avoiding any interaction with other individuals when that chance arises. Even when children are socially isolated they do not go out to the public and try social interaction, those interactions that happen are short-lived and somewhat superficial (Cacioppo & Hawkley, 2009). The feeling of fear of others, loneliness, or negative self-esteem have the possibility of producing very severe psychological damages. Social isolation might coincide with growing disabilities; individuals with knowledge impairments may have difficulties with social interaction. These problems experienced educationally can have a great impact on the children’s sense of self-worth and esteem. For the period of the early childhood developing years, the requisite to be accepted and fit in is paramount. Having a knowledge deficit or even other deficits that are somehow dissimilar from other individuals or children, may lead to a mental state of isolation (Cacioppo, Hawkley, Norman, & Berntson, 2011). Eating disorders Several conditions normally are related with eating disorders. These existing factors may comprise of mental disorders, depression, or anxiety disorders (Treasure, Claudino, & Zucker, 2010). Other factors that contribute to this disorder comprise of family or cultural input, abuse, or other life events that cause stress. There may some influencing or biological factors which might provoke the condition, plus other influences that inspire the condition to endure (Kass, Kolko, & Wilfley, 2013). There are risk factors that can make children or even adults to develop eating disorders. Difficult relationships with friends or family members can have an impact on the eating behaviour of a child. According to Wilson, Grilo, & Vitousek, (2007), the child may start eating less food as compared to how he or she used to eat in the past before this difficulties came to be. Enmeshed is a psychological term that describes an overly-intimate and symbiotic relationship in which the psychological and emotional boundaries amongst two individuals are so unclear or obscure in a way that it is hard for them to function as detached persons with their personal identities (Rosen, 2010). Enmeshment usually develops gradually and normally it does not go off into conflict up to the period when the child turns out to be adolescent, wanting to declare their freedom and cultivate a personality outside the family. Children in an entangled affiliation might feel so incapable to cultivate a separate personality from an over-involved parent that they try to exert autonomy and independence through monitoring what takes place to their bodies, by regulating their food intake. This type of behaviour can gradually turn out to be an eating disorder. Lastly, stressful situations at school or even at work can cause eating disorders too (Mitchell, Farrow, Haycraft, & Meyer, 2013). References Amato, P. R. (2000). The Consequences of Divorce for Adults and Children. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62(4), 1269–1287. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.01269.x BOLEN, R. M. (2000). Validity of Attachment Theory. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. http://doi.org/10.1177/1524838000001002002 Cacioppo, J. T., & Hawkley, L. C. (2009). Perceived social isolation and cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2009.06.005 Cacioppo, J. T., Hawkley, L. C., Norman, G. J., & Berntson, G. G. (2011). Social isolation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1231(1), 17–22. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06028.x Calvert, S. L., & Wilson, B. J. (2009). The Handbook of Children, Media, and Development. The Handbook of Children, Media, and Development. http://doi.org/10.1002/9781444302752 Clarke-Stewart, K. A., Vandell, D. L., McCartney, K., Owen, M. T., & Booth, C. (2000). Effects of parental separation and divorce on very young children. Journal of Family Psychology : JFP : Journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 14(2), 304–326. http://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.14.2.304 Diamond, D. (2004). Attachment Disorganization: The Reunion of Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Psychology. http://doi.org/10.1037/0736-9735.21.2.276 DiMaggio, P., Hargittai, E., Neuman, W. R., & Robinson, J. P. (2001). Social Implications of the Internet. Annual Review of Sociology. http://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.307 Kass, A. E., Kolko, R. P., & Wilfley, D. E. (2013). Psychological treatments for eating disorders. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 26(6), 549–55. http://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0b013e328365a30e Kelly, J. B. (2007). Children’s living arrangements following separation and divorce: Insights from empirical and clinical research. In Family Process (Vol. 46, pp. 35–52). http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.2006.00190.x Kennedy, J. H., & Kennedy, C. E. (2004). Attachment theory: Implications for school psychology. Psychology in the Schools. http://doi.org/10.1002/pits.10153 Malekpour, M. (2007). Effects of Attachment on Early and Later Development. The British Journal of Development Disabilities. http://doi.org/10.1179/096979507799103360 Meredith, P. (2009). Introducing attachment theory to occupational therapy. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 56(4), 285–292. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1630.2009.00789.x Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P. R., & Pereg, D. (2003). Attachment Theory and Affect Regulation : The Dynamics , Development , and Cognitive Consequences of Attachment-Related Strategies 1. Motivation and Emotion, 27(2), 77–102. http://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024515519160 Mitchell, G. L., Farrow, C., Haycraft, E., & Meyer, C. (2013). Parental influences on children’s eating behaviour and characteristics of successful parent-focussed interventions. Appetite. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2012.09.014 Rosen, D. S. (2010). Identification and management of eating disorders in children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 126(6), 1240–1253. http://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2010-2821 Rothbaum, F., Rosen, K., Ujiie, T., & Uchida, N. (2002). Family systems theory, attachment theory, and culture. Family Process, 41(3), 328–350. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.2002.41305.x Sanson, A., Hemphill, S. A., & Smart, D. (2004). Connections between Temperament and Social Development: A Review. Social Development. http://doi.org/10.1046/j.1467-9507.2004.00261.x Slater, R. (2007). Attachment: Theoretical development and critique. Educational Psychology in Practice. http://doi.org/10.1080/02667360701507285 Snyder, R., Shapiro, S., & Treleaven, D. (2012). Attachment Theory and Mindfulness. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21(5), 709–717. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-011-9522-8 Subrahmanyam, K., Greenfield, P., Kraut, R., & Gross, E. (2001). The impact of computer use on children’s and adolescents development. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 22(1), 7–30. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(00)00063-0 Treasure, J., Claudino, A. M., & Zucker, N. (2010). Eating disorders. Lancet, 375(9714), 583–593. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61748-7 Wallace, P. (2007). The Psychology of The Internet. Learning, 2(1), 59–60. http://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511581670 Wilson, G. T., Grilo, C. M., & Vitousek, K. M. (2007). Psychological treatment of eating disorders. The American Psychologist, 62(3), 199–216. http://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.62.3.199 Witvliet, M., Brendgen, M., Van Lier, P. A. C., Koot, H. M., & Vitaro, F. (2010). Early adolescent depressive symptoms: Prediction from clique isolation, loneliness, and perceived social acceptance. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38(8), 1045–1056. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-010-9426-x Read More