Early and Late Childhood, and Adolescence - Essay Example

Annotated Bibliography (Insert here) South Online Annotated Bibliography Topic Early Childhood Burger, K. . How doesearly childhood care and education affect cognitive development? An international review of the effects of early interventions for children from different social backgrounds. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25(2), 140-165. The paper aims to analyse the possibility of early interventions in overcoming social inequality by identifying potentially effective measures such as equal opportunities in education. Using systematic reviews of studies concerned with the implications of changes in policies and decision-making, the author focused on collecting and analysing studies on interventions targeting children in preschool ages. It was found out that poverty greatly affects early childhood development by removing children’s natural capacity to learn from various kinds of stimuli (Burger, 2010). Also, the lack of social and educational experiences can result to long-term effects such as behaviour control and cognitive developmentissues. The author concluded that Preschool programs focusing on child development and education had positive effects by mentally-stimulating a child and preparing him or her for social interactions, implying the need to maintain or establish such programs to remove physical and mental disparities between poverty-stricken children and children from working and upper-class families and neighbourhoods. The study’s results show the importance of environmental factors in maintaining or improving the mental and physical health conditions of children in early childhood stage. This is because due to the rapid mental and physical development observed during this stage, children must be given proper nutrition for their growth as well as proper socialisation and guidance in dealing with other people so that there will be no observed delays. While nutrition is just as important as improving social skills, the article implies stronger support for improved early childhood programs and interventions since this has greater feasibility in the long run due to observed long-term positive effects among children when their competencies become established at early ages. The article is relevant due to the insights that it can provide for policy-makers when dealing with issues on handling school-based early-childhood interventions. 2)Kiernan, K. E., & Mensah, F. K. (2009). Poverty, maternal depression, family status and childrens cognitive and behavioural development in early childhood: A longitudinal study. Journal of Social Policy, 38(04), 569-588. The research was undertaken in order to address issues within the UK child policies, as well as to furnish enough data for improvements. Using the data from a large-scale survey conducted in 2001-2002 called the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) (n=18, 533), it was found out that persistent family poverty in early childhood is highly-correlated with a considerable delay in cognitive development, which is further enhanced when the mother in the family suffers from prolonged depression (Kiernan & Mensah, 2009). It is possible that the effects of these two major factors (poverty and maternal depression) can be carried over once the child starts schooling, and the profound differences between children from destitute families and those who came from better ones become much more prominent. The study concluded that in order to prevent these disparities as well as to provide equal opportunities for all children, aside from poverty eradication maternal depression must also be treated to prevent delays in cognitive and behavioural development among childrenunder poverty. The article shows how problems with social nurturing as well as the lack of proper nutrition can affect cognitive function among children, resulting to observable developmental delays. The effects of malnutrition in early childhood can be easily explained through quantitative and qualitative research, however with regards to social nurturing it is much more complex and thus needs a great deal of explanation and refinement in methods to become fully-acceptable to most critics. This is exemplified by an emotionally absent parent or parentswhich also have financial instability, resulting to an environment that lacks emotional stability and causing insecure childrenthat have problems on controlling their behaviour as well as having malnutrition from lack of food. The article exerts its relevance by confirming the results from prior studies which create correlations between poverty and developmental delays or issues as well as behavioural problems in family members. Topic 2: Late Childhood 1) Rothrauff, T. C., Cooney, T. M., &An, J. S. (2009). Remembered parenting styles and adjustment in middle and late adulthood.The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 64(1), 137-146. The study was conducted to find out if parenting attitudes and styles can affect childhood development and adulthood functioning (Rothrauff, Cooney, &An, 2009). Using a national survey on Midlife Development (n=2,232), the results of the study showed that children who experienced authoritative parenting styles/attitudes developed better psychological well-being and experienced fewer signs of depression, whereas indulgent, authoritarian and uninvolved parenting caused children to not only grow into adults with problems on their psychological well-being and increased chances of developing depression, but also have greater propensities of developing substance abuse. The effects of sex and race differences provided ambiguous results however, and aside from the issues with retrospective accounts among participants the researchers attributed the lack of finding out any within-group differences to the limitations in their study. It was concluded that despite the limitations observed, it was clear that parenting styles, especially during late childhood can have long-lasting effects on children with regards to their propensity to develop healthy psychological well-being or psychological disorders. Children in the late childhood stage have strong needs for proper guidance in order to successfully enter adolescence and adulthood, thus it is important to understand that children learn fast during this stage, and that what they learn can affect their decision-making skills and values, which they will carry later on in life. If children are not given proper guidance and are either left alone too much to decide on their own/indulged too much on what they want or overly-protected to the extent that they cannot function by themselves, not only do these children gain troubles with being independent, but also there is a chance for them to develop low self-esteem and other problems that could affect their life as adults. As such, whereas the effects of parenting do not take immediate effect, the article was able to explain the profound and lasting effects of parental attitude among children. 2)Veenstra, R., Lindenberg, S., Verhulst, F. C., &Ormel, J. (2009). Childhood-limited versus persistent antisocial behavior why do some recover and others do not? The TRAILS Study.The Journal of Early Adolescence, 29(5), 718-742. The study’s purpose was to examine the possible differences between children with high-antisocial behaviour and those with limited antisocial behaviour (Veenstra, et al, 2009). The subjects for the study were selected children (n=2,230) from a cohort study of Dutch preadolescents, whose parents were interviewedtwice: first when the children were around 11 and the second was when the children were 13. Based on three characteristics (temperament, intelligence, family background) results of the study showed that not all childhood-onset antisocial behaviour remain until adolescence, so long as factors such as overprotectiveness, familial vulnerability to externalise behaviour, and living away from parents were controlled through interventions such as counselling and providing special education as needed. However, these results may not be able to represent a greater population since most of the participants came from backgrounds with low-risk levels. Also, methodological limitations such as using cut-off points the lack of uniformity in the age where desistance first appears and not knowing when it will disappear created hindrances in assessments. The study concludes that providing interventions as early as possible can curb an increase in antisocial behaviour among children in late childhood, and allow them to recover from other negative behaviours such as academic behaviour, peer rejection and internalising problems. The article is relevant in the sense that it is able to support the theory on the strength of external control in guiding children and deterring them from committing negative behaviours. It also gives suggestions for policy-makers with regards to supporting initiatives and efforts in intervening increase in antisocial behaviour among children in the late childhood stage through efforts in schools. Lastly, the results also suggests not to give up on trying to change antisocial behaviours since there are still chances to do it in the most effective way possible, and also it is possible to rely on entities outside the family circle so long as the programs are able to address the needs of the children. Topic 3: Adolescence 1) Luna, B., Padmanabhan, A., &O’Hearn, K. (2010). What has fMRI told us about the development of cognitive control through adolescence? Brain and Cognition, 72(1), 101-113. Various researches have been conducted regarding the development of cognitive functions such as response inhibition and working memory in the adolescent brain, and as such the authors conducted a meta-analysis of relevant and related researches dealing with identifying which regions of the brain grow and adapt to play roles in executive processes, to provide explanations on changes that happen in the brain, to understand how these changes can affect neural networks and circuitry among adolescents, and correlate any underlying behaviour and developmental problems with any abnormalities observed in the brain using functional MRI (fMRI) (Luna, Padmanabhan, &O’Hearn, 2010). It was found out that prefrontal cortex (PFC) development during childhood becomes stable due to increased circuitry within other brain regions during adolescence, allowing for improved response inhibition and working memory observedin the adult brain. It was concluded that due to the improved circuitry and an increase in the number of brain regions that work together, the optimal mature executive function in the adolescent brain has stronger ties to adult behaviour and function when compared with brains from younger age groups. However, researchers also mentioned that despite advancements in neuroimaging processes, there are still challenges in establishing method uniformity and data interpretation due to the various approaches used in studying human growth and development. The article suggests that changes occurring within the adolescent brain improve neural connections in such a way that individuals start acting less like children and more like adults, such that skills such as problem-solving and decision-making become more sophisticated and additional complexities become easier to handle (Luna, Padmanabhan, &O’Hearn, 2010). It must also be remembered that the additional complexities come as the result of needs, of continuous training, as well as the build-up of experiences by adolescents that they will eventually use in their adult life. As such, it can be said that adolescence is indeed a transitional stage from childhood to adulthood, in which it allows adolescents to test and build their skills in attaining independence and handling responsibilities positively towards success. 2)Prencipe, A., Kesek, A., Cohen, J., Lamm, C., Lewis, M. D., &Zelazo, P. D. (2011). Development of hot and cool executive function during the transition to adolescence.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108(3), 621-637. The research was conducted to assess how the development of executive functions in relation to flexibility and adaptability, as well as finding out how emotional triggers lead to impulsive acts and erroneous decisions or judgment (Prencipe, et al., 2011). Using a total of 102 subjects between 8-15 years of age and performing neutral tasks (Colour word stroop and digit span) and motivational tasks involving monetary gain (Iowa gambling task and Delay Discounting), it was found out that while the execution of tasks which have little or no monetary gain develops at an early age, skills needed for the execution of tasks under emotionally-triggering situations which need flexible appraisal or have motivationally-significant stimuli develop much later in life. Authors correlate this with the reckless behaviour observed in adolescents despite knowing the consequences, suggesting a delay in the development of such skills in comparison to skills used for neutral situations. The study concluded that although there is limitations to the number of tasks given to all participants as well as their time in executing these tasks, it was evident that due to the slow development of skills used for rational and reflective responses to overcome risky and peer-pressure situations, adolescents have a harder time to control themselves and their decisions when faced with emotionally-triggering situations compared to neutral, non-monetary related and non-motivational ones. The transition towards independence not only seems difficult due to internal and external conflicts that happen to adolescents, but also this can be hampered by neurological changes which cause them to act or behave differently from what is expected from them. This means that guidance and support from positive and responsible role models with regards to handling emotional or conflicting situations are still relevant in the process of achieving independence, despite an uncanny ability to learn skills under neutral conditions or situations such as studying or pursuing hobbies independently. The article gives an insight in explaining why irrational and reckless behaviour can be observed among adolescents despite them having sufficient knowledge of the consequences, giving emphasis on the importance of proper guidance and support in making reflective advantageous decisions under emotional or motivational situations. References Burger, K. (2010). How does early childhood care and education affect cognitive development? An international review of the effects of early interventions for children from different social backgrounds.Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25(2), 140-165. Kiernan, K. E., & Mensah, F. K. (2009). Poverty, maternal depression, family status and childrens cognitive and behavioural development in early childhood: A longitudinal study. Journal of Social Policy, 38(04), 569-588. Luna, B., Padmanabhan, A., &O’Hearn, K. (2010). What has fMRI told us about the development of cognitive control through adolescence? Brain and Cognition, 72(1), 101-113. Prencipe, A., Kesek, A., Cohen, J., Lamm, C., Lewis, M. D., &Zelazo, P. D. (2011).Development of hot and cool executive function during the transition to adolescence.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108(3), 621-637. Rothrauff, T. C., Cooney, T. M., &An, J. S. (2009). Remembered parenting styles and adjustment in middle and late adulthood.The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 64(1), 137-146. Veenstra, R., Lindenberg, S., Verhulst, F. C., &Ormel, J. (2009).Childhood-limited versus persistent antisocial behavior why do some recover and others do not?The TRAILS Study.The Journal of Early Adolescence, 29(5), 718-742. Read More