TOPIC 11:

EARLY CHILDHOOD GROWTH AND

DEVELOPMENT ISSUES
Dr Nurfarhana Diana
farhanadiana@fpm.upsi.edu.my
KAL3043
 INTRODUCTION
• Young children can be affected by many social, economic and
environmental factors both in positive and negative ways.

• Because children are so fragile and vulnerable, they can be easily affected
by things that many parents and adults nowadays take for granted.

• Growth and development are dependent on many factors with some

affecting some children more than others
PARENTING STYLES
 PARENTING STYLES
• Towards developing a healthy child, parents or caregivers plays an important role in
helping children to adjust their needs accordingly to their growth and development.
• The most important factor is the presence of caregivers who are dedicated to
caring for their physical, cognitive, emotional, and social needs by providing a
loving and nurturing home.
• Young children are dependent on the care they receive and their growth depends
on the capacity of the parents or caregivers.
• Lack of personalized care during the early years of life has a massive effect on the
child’s health, growth, personality adjustment and cognitive capacity.
• Sensitivity and responsiveness have been identified as key features of care giving
behavioural related to later positive health and development outcomes in young
children.
 PARENTING STYLES
1. Authoritarian (Disciplinarian)
• Caregivers create expectations and rules, and children
are expected to understand and to follow those rules
absolutely with little negotiation.
• Often, this parenting style uses punishments such as
spankings, to remind children of the rules they must
follow and to prevent them from breaking the rules in
the future.
• Such parents provide children very strict limits and not
much freedom. Rules usually are not explained
• Parents are less nurturing
• Communication is mostly one way : from parent to
child
 PARENTING STYLES
2. Permissive (Indulgent)
• Caregivers have loose expectations and rules for their
children, sometimes in the hopes of creating free-
thinkers or children who feel comfortable approaching
their caregivers as friends and confidants.
• Caregivers tend to be warm and nurturing
• Often, discipline is lax, and children are given lots of
freedom with limited boundaries, guidance or
direction
• Communication is open but these caregivers let
children decide for themselves rather than giving
direction
 PARENTING STYLES
3. Authoritative
• Authoritative caregivers provide children some
freedom within appropriate boundaries.
• Caregivers are reasonable and nurturing, set clear
expectations and goals. Children may have input into
goals.
• Disciplinary rules are clear and the reasons behind
them are explained.
• In this parenting style, children understand that
parents make the rules and guide the house, but
children also begin to understand how to anticipate
and judge the consequences of their actions. This skill
is important as children leave home and become
adults.
• Communication is frequent and appropriate to the
child’s level of understanding
 PARENTING STYLES
4. Uninvolved (Neglectful)
• Caregivers give a lot of freedom to children and
expect children to raise themselves
• They don’t give commitment into meeting children’s
basic needs
• Caregivers tend to have little knowledge about their
children. They may not give guidance and attention to
children
• Caregivers are normally less nurturing. They may have
a few or no rules and expectations on their children.
• Communication is limited
 PARENTING STYLES
• Overall, parental interactions with children can have a largely positive or
negative effect on child development,
• Parents who spend time playing and teaching their kids through reading and
by performing various types of hands-on games and activities can have a
positive impact on their child’s development.
• On the other hand, parents who ignore or neglect to interact with their
children in a positive way may be hindering their healthy development.
DIVORCE
 DIVORCE
• It is a transition that leads to a variety of new living arrangements,
accompanied by changes in housing, income and family roles and
responsibilities.
• Many studies have reported that marital breakup is quite stressful for children
but research also reveals great individual differences (Amato & Booth, 2000;
Hetherington, 2003)
• How well children fare depends on many factors such as
• The custodial parent’s psychological health
• The child’s characteristics
• Social supports within family and surrounding community
 DIVORCE – THE CONSEQUENCES
• The transition from marriage to divorce often
leads to high maternal stress, depression and
anxiety and to a disorganised family situation
(Hope, Power & Rodgers, 1999; Marks & Lambert,
1998).

• As children react with distress and anger to their

less secure home lives, discipline may become
harsh and inconsistent.

• About 20-25% of children in divorced families

display severe problems, compared with about
10% in non-divorced families (Greene et al., 2003)
 DIVORCE – THE CONSEQUENCES
Children’s age
• The cognitive immaturity of young children makes it difficult for them to understand
why their parents separate.
• Younger children often blame themselves and take the marital breakup as a sign that
both parents may abandon them (Pryor & Rogers, 2001)
• They may whine and cling, displaying intense separation anxiety
• Older children can better understand that strong differences of opinion, personalities
and lack of caring for each other caused their parents’ divorce – insights that may
reduce some of their pain
• Still, many school-aged children react strongly especially when family conflict is high
and supervision of children is low – running away, truancy, delinquency and poor
school achievement (Hetherington & Stanley-Hagan, 1999)
• But some older children may act maturely after the divorce eg: taking care of their
younger siblings, do household tasks, etc
CHILD MALTREATMENT
 CHILD MALTREATMENT
• Child maltreatment takes the following terms:
1. Physical abuse: assaults on children, eg: kicking, biting, shaking, punching or
stabbing that inflict physical injury
2. Sexual abuse: fondling, intercourse, exhibitionism, commercial exploitation
through prostitution or production of pornography and other forms of sexual
exploitation
3. Neglect: failure to provide for a child’s basic needs, in terms of food,
clothing, medical attention, education or supervision
4. Emotional abuse: acts that could cause serious mental or behavioural
disorders including social isolation, repeated unreasonable demands,
ridicule, humiliation, intimidation or terrorizing.
 CHILD MALTREATMENT CASES

• 40-50% neglect cases

• 30% physical abuse
• 10-20% emotional abuse
• 10% sexual abuse

Who commits these incidents?

• Parents - 80%
• Other relatives-7%
• Others – unmarried partners, school officials, etc
 FACTORS RELATED TO CHILD MALTREATMENT
Factor Description
Parent characteristics • Psychological disturbances
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• History of abuse as a child
• Belief in harsh and physical discipline
• Unreasonable expectations for child behaviour
• Young age (most under 30)
• Low educational level
Family characteristics • Low income
• Poverty
• Homelessness
• Marital instability
• Social isolation
• Physical abuse of mother by husband or boyfriend
• Large families with closely spaced children
• Overcrowded living conditions
• Disorganised household
• Lack of steady employment
 FACTORS RELATED TO CHILD MALTREATMENT
Factor Description
Community • Violence and social isolation
• Few child-care centers, preschool programs, recreation centers
or worship places (eg: mosques, churches) to serve as family
supports
Culture • Approval of physical force and violence as ways to solve
problems
 CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD
MALTREATMENT
• The family circumstances of maltreated children impair the
development of emotional self-regulation, empathy and sympathy,
self-concept, social skills and academic motivation.
• Over time, they will show serious learning and adjustment problems
including school failure, severe depression, aggressive behaviour, peer
difficulties, substance abuse and delinquency (Bolger & Patterson,
2001).
• Abused children learn to use aggression as a way of solving problems
 CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD
MALTREATMENT
• Children who are ridiculed, humiliated, rejected and terrorised by parents
would have low self-esteem, high anxiety, self-blame, depression and
probably would try to commit suicide to escape from extreme psychological
pain (Wolfe, 1999).

• The trauma of repeated abuse is associated with central nervous system

damage including brain-wave activity – fMRI-detected reduced size and
impaired functioning of the cerebral cortex and corpus callosum, and
heightened production of stress hormones (Cicchetti, 2003).
• These effects increase the chances of cognitive and emotional problems
TELEVISION AND SOCIAL LEARNING
 TELEVISION AND SOCIAL
LEARNING
• Researchers and public citizens have been concerned about attitudes and
behaviours that TV cultivates in young viewers
• Most studies address the impact of TV violence – but growing evidence
confirms TV’s potential for enhancing children’s cognitive and social
competence
 AGGRESSION
• Some TV programs contain violent scenes, often in the form of repeated
aggressive acts against a victim that go unpunished
• Reviewers of thousands of studies have concluded that TV violence
increases likelihood of hostile thoughts and emotions and of verbally and
physically aggressive behaviour (Anderson et al., 2003)
• Children especially pre-schoolers and young children are susceptible to
imitate TV violence because of their tendency to accept televised messages
• Research shows that 15 minutes of mildly violent TV program increases
aggression in at least one-fourth of viewers (Anderson & Bushman, 2002)
 ETHNIC AND GENDER
STEREOTYPES
• Commercial entertainment TV conveys ethnic and gender stereotypes.
• For example, African Americans and other ethnic minorities are
underrepresented – when minorities do appear, they usually are depicted in
secondary or lower-status roles such as domestic workers or unskilled labourers
(Berry, 2003).
• Women appear less often than men especially main characters – men are
depicted as dominant and powerful (Signorielli, 2001).
• TV viewing is linked to children’s gender-stereotyped beliefs (Signorielli, 1993) –
positive portrayals of women and ethnic minorities lead to more favourable
views and greater willingness to form ethnically diverse friendships (Calvert et al.,
2003)
 REGULATING TV USE
Strategy Explanation
Limit TV viewing • Provide clear rules that limit what children can view on TV
• Avoid using the TV as a baby-sitter for children
• Do not place a TV in a child’s bedroom
Refrain from using TV • When TV access is used to reward or punish, children become
to reward or punish increasingly attracted to it
children
View TV with children, • When adults express disapproval of on-screen behaviour, raise
helping them questions and encourage children to discuss, they teach children to
understand what they evaluate TV content rather than accepting it uncritically
see
Link TV content to • Building on TV programs in constructive ways enhances learning by
everyday learning encouraging children into active engagement with their
experiences surroundings
• Eg: a program on animals might spark a trip to the zoo, a visit to the
library for books about animals, etc
 REGULATING TV USE
Strategy Explanation
Model good TV • Avoid excess TV viewing and exposure to violent
practices media content yourself
• Parental viewing patterns influence children’s viewing
patterns
BULLIES
• Surveys reveal that about 10-20% of children are
bullies
• 15-30% are repeatedly victimized
• A substantial number of bullies are high-status,
powerful youngsters
• Some are liked for their leadership or athletic
abilities but most are disliked because of their
cruelty (Vaillancourt, Hymel & McDougall, 2003).
• The majority of peer observers do nothing to help
victims
• 20-30% of onlookers encourage bullies, even to the
point of joining in (Salmivalli & Voeten, 2004).
• Chronic victims are passive – bullies see them as easy prey for flaunting their
social dominance

• Victims normally have resistant attachment, overly controlling child rearing

and maternal overprotection
• These parents behaviour cause anxiety, low self-esteem and dependency 
resulting in a fearful behaviour

• Victimization leads to adjustment difficulties including depression, loneliness,

low self-esteem, poor school performance, disruptive behaviour and school
avoidance (Kochederfer-Ladd & Wardrop, 2001; Paul & Cilleseen, 2003)
THANK YOU
 REFERENCES
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