Middle Childhood: Contexts of Development

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511499760.002

1 - Middle Childhood: Contexts of Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2009

Aletha C. Huston and

Marika N. Ripke

Edited by

Aletha C. Huston and

Marika N. Ripke

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Aletha C. Huston: Affiliation:
Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor of Child Development for the Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin
Marika N. Ripke: Affiliation:
Director of Hawaii Kids Count and Affiliate Faculty for the Center on the Family, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Aletha C. Huston: Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Marika N. Ripke: Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa

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Summary

In 1981, the National Research Council organized the expert Panel to Review the Status of Basic Research on School-Age Children, which produced a seminal volume, Development During Middle Childhood: The Years From Six to Twelve (Collins, 1984). The panel concluded that middle childhood is a time of marked change in capacities and typical behaviors that have long-term implications for adolescent and adult patterns. Although several chapters dealt with family, school, peer, and cultural influences on development, most of the research reviewed was designed to understand normative developmental patterns rather than individual differences. The panel noted gaps in available knowledge about what characteristics of middle childhood environments influence developmental change and about the range of environments experienced by children in the different “ecocultural niches” that are defined by such characteristics as ethnic group, socioeconomic characteristics, family structure, and geographic location (Weisner, 1984). Because “Middle childhood behavior and performance have repeatedly been found to predict adolescent and adult status … more reliably than do early childhood indicators,” the panel recommended additional research on the processes by which middle childhood contributes to later development (Collins, 1984, p. 409).

WHAT DOES MIDDLE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE CONTRIBUTE?

In 1994, the MacArthur Foundation formed a Research Network on Successful Pathways Through Middle Childhood, comprising an interdisciplinary group of scholars, with the goal of advancing knowledge about this age group. One of the network's activities involved gathering a group of investigators to analyze longitudinal studies around a common set of questions about middle childhood.

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Type: Chapter
Information: Developmental Contexts in Middle Childhood
Bridges to Adolescence and Adulthood
, pp. 1 - 22
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499760.002 [Opens in a new window]
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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