Child Development (Research Paper Sample)

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The Role of Parents, Peers and Community in Childhood and Adolescent Development
Development of an individual from infancy, childhood, all through adolescence to adulthood is influenced by various factors. Some of these factors influence the individual’s behavior and shape his or her character. Parents and siblings nurture the child in the primary socialization category. School and the teachers are also involved at this stage. In the adolescence period, the individuals undergo secondary socialization. This is when new people start influencing his or her behaviors. Adolescents join peer groups and also pay more attention to the social media, hence acquiring new behaviors. Other factors such as emotional developments also influence the way individuals grow and develop. This paper seeks to analyze the role of parents and peers in childhood and adolescent development (Bukatko and Daehler 476-506). It also seeks to unveil their influences and compare their contribution.
Parents influence almost all the aspects of development in a child. Firstly, the parenting styles used to bring up a child influence its development. Decent parenting skills ensure wellbeing of a child and its social mobility. Parents have a crucial role especially in the educational activities they offer to the children at the early stages of development. Parents ought to have a good home learning atmosphere so as to aid in childhood developments. Another vital role is the need for parents to have good relationships among themselves. This should also be extended toward their children so as to nurture them in a good manner. Parents should also be fully involved in what the children do in the household. Parent involvement is very crucial as the child’s cognitive ability thrives. Parents also have a role in ensuring that the child is in good health. Here, obesity is mainly watched out and tackled at an early stage if it appears. The major factor that parents should observe is setting up a good example towards the children. Parents have a duty to strive and be good role models to their young ones. If a parent is a good role model, the child tries to emulate the goodness, hence healthy moral development. Peers also have a role in supporting children in childhood development (Campbell 230). Another demanding task for the parents in childhood development is interaction. Interaction ensures that a trusted relationship is established, therefore, perfect development. Parents should also have good emotional identification. This helps the child realize the world and the things in it, the ones that are good and those that are bad and harmful. Family stories should also be narrated to children by both peers and parents. Positive stories help raise a child’s esteem.
Peers also influence childhood development. A child is defined by the United Nations as any individual below the age of eight years. As every child develops, he or she tends to make friends and form social groups. Here, younger children tend to imitate the behaviors of the older ones, hence their childhood development process is altered (Ladd 49). Peers aid the children in teaching them new vocabularies and socializing them into the larger society.
Another stage in the development of an individual is during adolescent period. At this period, adolescents require a new way of handling them and the parents also aid in the development. Parents have a duty of establishing a supportive relationship with family member and other friends. This gives the adolescents a sense of having a supportive family, hence they will have a positive transition and development. Parents also have a duty to monitor the adolescents and ensure that they disclose what is in their minds. Monitoring ensures that the parents keep track of the adolescent as disclosure aids in realizing daily activities and notice any deviation. Parents are also tasked with respecting the sense of autonomy in their adolescent children as well as ensuring that their information is well kept. Parents have a duty to realize the beginning of adolescence and expect change of behaviors. Conflicts are a common scenario during this stage and parents should know how to tackle them in most cases.
Peers also play a significant role in shaping an individual’s personality. At adolescence, peer groups are easily formed and shape the adolescents to face different life happenings. Peers and peer groups help adolescents in getting along with other people. This enables children to develop the necessary social skills and also realizing the dos and the don’ts. Peers also allow individuals to embrace moral values especially with parental guidance. Peers now have a chance to learn the required socio-cultural roles. They set their ambitions and life goals at this stage and a good peer group supported by parents works well to shape the adolescents. Peers facilitate better achievement of personal independence in various forms such as emotional support, social support, physical support and intellectual support (Levesque 75-101). The peers also set a good ground for experimentation with different identities and varying experiences. Here, peers develop sense and also maintain and practice many cognitive and communicative roles.
In the past, an assertion emerged that friends played a bigger part in the development of an individual than the parents. I tend to support this stand mainly because children interact with their peers more than they do with their parents. This is a classic example of peers’ influence during adolescence where adolescents detach themselves from their parents. If an individual meets a peer group that is morally insane and joins it, the parents would do little to stop the individual. This does not wholly suggest that parents do not offer to their children, it means that friends and peers influence the development of individuals more than parents.
The community is also a major contributor to the development of a child. The adjacent community determines the development of an individual. A child who is born and grows up in a harsh environment can grow to be a deviant. For instance, a community that has many deviants such as villains, drug dealers and addicts poses a poor environment for rising up children. Families and the communities influence the development of children and affect their development to full potential. The type of available food and nutrition in the society influences the growth and development of individuals.
A technologically advanced society also determines the kind of education offered to the children. Technology b...