CHAPTER 1
An Introduction to Child
Development
Water Baby and the Moon
,Reasons to Learn About Child Development
Historical Foundations of the Study of Child Development
Enduring Themes in Child Development
Methods for Studying Child Development
THEMES
NATURE AND NURTURE
THE ACTIVE CHILD
CONTINUITY/DISCONTINUITY
MECHANISMS OF CHANGE
THE SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
RESEARCH AND CHILDREN’S WELFARE
In 1955, a group of child-development researchers began a unique
study. Their goal, like that of many developmental researchers, was
to find out how biological and environmental factors influence
children’s intellectual, social, and emotional growth. What made
their study unique was that they examined these diverse aspects of
development for all 698 children born that year on the Hawaiian
island of Kauai and continued studying the children’s development
for 40 years.
With the parents’ consent, the research team, headed by Emmy
Werner, collected many types of data about the children. To learn
about possible complications during the prenatal period and birth,
they examined physicians’ records. To learn about family interactions
,and the children’s behaviour at home, they arranged for nurses and
social workers to observe the families and to interview the children’s
mothers when the children were 1 year old and again when they were
10 years old. The researchers also interviewed teachers about the
children’s academic performance and classroom behaviour during
the elementary school years and examined police, family court, and
social service records that involved the children, either as victims or
perpetrators. Finally, the researchers administered standardized
intelligence and personality tests to the participants when they were
10 and 18 years old and interviewed them at ages 18, 32, and 40 to find
out how they saw their own development (Werner, 2005).
Results from this study illustrated some of the many ways in which
biological and environmental factors combine to produce child
development. For example, children who experienced prenatal or
birth complications were more likely than others to develop physical
handicaps, mental illness, and learning difficulties. But whether they
developed such problems—and if so, to what degree—depended a
great deal on their home environment. Parents’ income, education,
and mental health, together with the quality of the relationship
between the parents, especially influenced children’s development.
By age 2, toddlers who had experienced severe prenatal or birth
problems but who lived in harmonious middle-income families were
nearly as advanced in language and motor skills as were children who
had not experienced early problems. By the time the children were
10-year-olds, prenatal and birth problems were consistently related to
, psychological difficulties only if the children also grew up in poor
rearing conditions.
What of children who faced both biological and environmental
challenges—prenatal or birth complications and adverse family
circumstances? The majority of these children developed serious
learning or behaviour problems by age 10. By age 18, most had
acquired a police record, had experienced mental health problems,
or had become an unmarried parent. However, one-third of such at-
risk children showed impressive resilience, growing up into young
adults who, in the words of Werner, “loved well, worked well, and
played well” (1989, p. 108D).
Michael was one such resilient child. Born prematurely, with low
birth weight, to teenage parents, he spent the first 3 weeks of his life
in a hospital, separated from his mother. By his 8th birthday,
Michael’s parents were divorced, his mother had deserted the family,
and he and his three brothers and sisters were being raised by their
father, with the help of their elderly grandparents. Yet by age 18,
Michael was successful in school, had high self-esteem, was popular
with his peers, and was a caring young man with a positive attitude
toward life. The fact that there are many children like Michael—
children who show great resilience in the face of adversity—is among
the most heartening findings of research on child development.
An Introduction to Child
Development
Water Baby and the Moon
,Reasons to Learn About Child Development
Historical Foundations of the Study of Child Development
Enduring Themes in Child Development
Methods for Studying Child Development
THEMES
NATURE AND NURTURE
THE ACTIVE CHILD
CONTINUITY/DISCONTINUITY
MECHANISMS OF CHANGE
THE SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
RESEARCH AND CHILDREN’S WELFARE
In 1955, a group of child-development researchers began a unique
study. Their goal, like that of many developmental researchers, was
to find out how biological and environmental factors influence
children’s intellectual, social, and emotional growth. What made
their study unique was that they examined these diverse aspects of
development for all 698 children born that year on the Hawaiian
island of Kauai and continued studying the children’s development
for 40 years.
With the parents’ consent, the research team, headed by Emmy
Werner, collected many types of data about the children. To learn
about possible complications during the prenatal period and birth,
they examined physicians’ records. To learn about family interactions
,and the children’s behaviour at home, they arranged for nurses and
social workers to observe the families and to interview the children’s
mothers when the children were 1 year old and again when they were
10 years old. The researchers also interviewed teachers about the
children’s academic performance and classroom behaviour during
the elementary school years and examined police, family court, and
social service records that involved the children, either as victims or
perpetrators. Finally, the researchers administered standardized
intelligence and personality tests to the participants when they were
10 and 18 years old and interviewed them at ages 18, 32, and 40 to find
out how they saw their own development (Werner, 2005).
Results from this study illustrated some of the many ways in which
biological and environmental factors combine to produce child
development. For example, children who experienced prenatal or
birth complications were more likely than others to develop physical
handicaps, mental illness, and learning difficulties. But whether they
developed such problems—and if so, to what degree—depended a
great deal on their home environment. Parents’ income, education,
and mental health, together with the quality of the relationship
between the parents, especially influenced children’s development.
By age 2, toddlers who had experienced severe prenatal or birth
problems but who lived in harmonious middle-income families were
nearly as advanced in language and motor skills as were children who
had not experienced early problems. By the time the children were
10-year-olds, prenatal and birth problems were consistently related to
, psychological difficulties only if the children also grew up in poor
rearing conditions.
What of children who faced both biological and environmental
challenges—prenatal or birth complications and adverse family
circumstances? The majority of these children developed serious
learning or behaviour problems by age 10. By age 18, most had
acquired a police record, had experienced mental health problems,
or had become an unmarried parent. However, one-third of such at-
risk children showed impressive resilience, growing up into young
adults who, in the words of Werner, “loved well, worked well, and
played well” (1989, p. 108D).
Michael was one such resilient child. Born prematurely, with low
birth weight, to teenage parents, he spent the first 3 weeks of his life
in a hospital, separated from his mother. By his 8th birthday,
Michael’s parents were divorced, his mother had deserted the family,
and he and his three brothers and sisters were being raised by their
father, with the help of their elderly grandparents. Yet by age 18,
Michael was successful in school, had high self-esteem, was popular
with his peers, and was a caring young man with a positive attitude
toward life. The fact that there are many children like Michael—
children who show great resilience in the face of adversity—is among
the most heartening findings of research on child development.
