Developmental Science: Should Children Get “Left Back?” 313
Chapter 12
Lives in Context Biological Influences: Self-Concept and the Brain 322
Applying Developmental Science: Antibullying Legislation 334
Lives in Context Cultural Context: China’s One-Child Policy 338
Preface
Child and Adolescent Development in Context has its origins in 24 years of interactions with students, in and out of class. The most central tenet of development is that it occurs in context. At all points in life, human development is the result of dynamic interactions among individuals and the many interacting contexts in which they are embedded. The most rapid developmental changes occur from infancy through adolescence. One of the greatest challenges child and adolescent development instructors face is helping students understand the complex influences on development, that outcomes do not vary randomly or simply “depend on the person.” With enough information, we can predict and understand development. My goal in writing this text is to explain the sophisticated interactions that constitute development in a way that is comprehensive yet concise.
Child and Adolescent Development in Context focuses on two key themes that promote understanding of how infants, children, and adolescents develop: the centrality of context and the applied value of developmental science. These two themes are highlighted throughout the text as well as in boxed features. This text also conveys findings from current and classic research in a student-friendly writing style.
Contextual Perspective
Development does not occur in a vacuum but is a function of dynamic transactions among individuals, their physical, cognitive, and socioemotional capacities, and a multitude of contextual influences. We are all embedded in many interacting layers of context, including tangible and intangible circumstances that influence and are influenced by our development, such as family, ethnicity, culture, neighborhood, community, norms, values, and historical events. Child and Adolescent Development in Context explains this process, emphasizing how individual factors combine with the places, sociocultural environments, and ways in which we are raised to influence children’s development.
The contextual theme is infused throughout the text and highlighted specifically in Lives in Context boxed features that appear in each chapter. The Lives in Context features are labeled to illustrate the various contexts in which children and adolescents are immersed: Family and Peer Context, Community Context, Cultural Context, and Media and Technology. Examples of these features include the effects of parental military deployment (Family and Peer Context), the effects of exposure to community violence (Community Context), and culture and theory of mind (Cultural Context). Advances in technology and the advent of social media have led to a new but highly relevant online context that is depicted in Lives in Context features labeled Media and Technology, such as the effects of screen time on children’s health or screen use and infant motor development. Finally, when considering context, it is tempting to overlook biology, but our biology influences and is influenced by our contexts. The Lives in Context feature labeled Biological Influences calls attention to the role of biology in development. Sample topics include pregnancy and the maternal brain, genetic engineering, and the effects of poverty on brain development.
Applied Emphasis
The field of developmental science is unique because so much of its content has immediate relevance to our daily lives. Students may wonder: Do the first 3 years shape the brain for a lifetime of experiences? Can we teach babies to communicate through sign language? Is learning more than one language beneficial to children? What does it mean to be a transgender child? Developmental science is increasingly applied to influence social policy. For example, why vaccinate infants? Can we outlaw bullying? Research in child and adolescent development can inform our understanding of each of these topics. Moreover, these topics fascinate students because they illustrate clear-cut examples of why developmental science matters. The Applying Developmental Science feature highlights the above topics and more.
Current Research
Developmental science instructors face the challenge of covering the growing mass of research findings within the confines of a single semester. Child and Adolescent Development in Context integrates recently published and classic findings. Rather than present an exhaustive review of current work simply for the sake of including recent references, I carefully select the most relevant findings. I integrate cutting-edge and classic research to present a unified story of what is currently known in developmental psychology.
Accessible Writing Style
Having taught at a regional public university for 24 years, I write in a style intended to engage undergraduate readers like my own students. This text is intended to help them understand challenging concepts in language that will not overwhelm: I have avoided jargon but maintained the use of professional and research terms that students need to know in order to digest classic and current literature in the lifespan development field. I attempt to write in the same voice as I teach, carefully structuring sections to build explanations and integrating content with examples that are relevant to students. I regularly use my own texts in class, students work with me in preparing elements of each text, and my students’ responses and learning guide my writing.
Organization
Child and Adolescent Development in Context is organized into 15 chronological chapters, within five units, that depict the wide range of developments that occur over the lifespan. Unit 1 (Foundations of Child and Adolescent Development) includes Chapters 1, 2, and 3. Chapter 1 combines developmental theory and research design within a single chapter. I chose this approach because, given limited class time, many instructors do not cover stand-alone research chapters. The streamlined approach combines comprehensive coverage of methods of data collection, research design, developmental designs (such as sequential designs), and ethical issues in research with full coverage of the major theories in developmental psychology. Chapter 2 presents the biological foundations of development, including patterns of genetic inheritance, gene–environment interactions, and epigenetics. Chapter 3 describes prenatal development and birth, from conception to the newborn, including the emerging family system. I chose to present prenatal development, birth, and the newborn as a single chapter (rather than birth and the newborn as a stand-alone chapter) to reflect continuity in the perinatal period.
The remaining units contain three chapters each on physical development, cognitive development, and socioemotional development to reflect the major areas of development during infancy (Unit 2, Chapters 4 to 6), early childhood (Unit 3, Chapters 7 to 9), middle childhood (Unit 4, Chapters 10 to
