Kayci Jones
4.1 Module Summary
In this module I learned about some of the key concepts that influence adolescent identity development. Identity exploration allows for adolescents to consider different identity related possibilities such as gender, religion, career, etc. Identity commitment involves making a firm decision regarding the above possibilities. Adolescent's sociometric nominations or their peer status, the measurement of one's status among others, can also influence adolescent identity development. I also learned about some of the negative consequences of dysfunctional emotional development. Children who grow up in poverty may be exposed to more conflict, go hungry, and move often are at a greater risk for experiencing less sensitive or emotionally available parents and attend poorer school where emotional understanding is not taught, which puts the child on the risk side of the risk-resilience pattern of development. Emotional development is often interrelated with cognitive development so children who are behind in cognitive development may experience emotional delays as well. Emotion dysfunction correlates with problem behaviors like internalizing behaviors such as anxiety and externalizing behaviors such as bullying. Some strategies I learned about that build positive developmental outcomes include being resilient or be able to adapt despite adversity, having positive self-concept which refers to traits we use to describe ourselves, and having grit or an inclination to pursue long-term goals with passion and perseverance. Social influences such as the type of parenting, the environment they grow up in, and other people in the community can be key factors in the development of a child's self-concept, resiliency, and grit.
Reference:
Anthis, K. (2021). Child and Adolescent Development: A Social Justice Approach. San Diego, CA: Cognella
Academic Publishing.
4.4 Adolescent Information Management Podcast
This podcast offers information useful to parents when communicating with their teen. This episode highlights the strategies parents use to monitor their teens and how their teens also use strategies to share information with their parents. It offers an insight into real-life situations where these strategies are used and how parent-teen communication can play a role in which strategies parents and teens choose to utilize.
Reference:
Anthis, K. (2021). Child and Adolescent Development: A
Social Justice Approach. San Diego, CA: Cognella
Academic Publishing.
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4.6 Intimate Partner Violence Wakelet Collection
4.8 Building Positive Outcomes Narrative Response
One important topic to help parents promote more positive outcomes for their children is the types of strategies parents use to praise their children, and more specifically the concepts of process praise and person praise. The efforts parents use to praise their children should be prioritized over the outcome of the child’s praise. Process praise refers to praise that is directed towards the child's behavior. Comments such as "You worked really hard on this" or "That was the right way to do it" would be examples of process praise. Person praise is when praise is directed at the child's intelligence. Some example of person praise would be "You are good at this" or "You are very smart." Process praise is praise for what the child did or accomplished while person praise is praise for the child's intellectual abilities and how the child used their intelligence to complete a task. Research has shown that when children receive relatively more process praise and relatively less person praise, they were more likely to appreciate and comprehend that their ability to gain knowledge and intelligence is flexible rather than fixed. Those children who received more process praise showed a higher academic achievement than those who received more person praise. The types of praise children receive throughout their lives can often be a determining fact in their ability to build resilience. Resilience can be defined as the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances especially when they become difficult to deal with. Resilience is more than the resources that a child or adult can muster alone by just “trying harder.” Resiliency is a product of interrelated systems of praise, along with other sources of support from families, communities, and national policies. One strategy parents can use to build positive outcomes for their children would be teaching resilience in the home. Children who struggled to read but possessed resilience showed more accomplishments academically over a three-year period than those struggling readers who did not possess resilience. Children who are taught to be resilient are more likely to be accomplished in the future. Another strategy for parents to use to build more positive outcomes for their children would be determining whether they as parents along with the educational atmosphere their children are involved in encourage performance goals or mastery goals in their children. Children may be encouraged to have performance goals by being given messages about the values they have of other people’s perceptions of their capability on a certain task. Children can be encouraged to have mastery goals by being given messages about how they should value curiosity and learning new information and knowledge. Research showed that children who went to schools and perceived their curriculum to be geared toward encouraging mastery goals possessed more grit, or the tendency to pursue prolonged goals and accomplishments with passion and persistence. They also received better grades on their report cards over time. The types of praise children received was a determinant in whether they pursued performance or mastery goals. Ensuring that their child pursues mastery goals can lead to a more positive outcome for them.
Reference:
Anthis, K. (2021). Child and Adolescent Development: A Social Justice Approach. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic
Publishing.