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CHAPTER 1
~ ~ ~ it'
Children between the ages of 6 and 12 are in the age period commonly
referred to as middle childhood. As an age group, 6- to 12-year~olds
are less obviously set apart than infants, adolescents, and even preschool
children are in most Western societies. Nevertheless, the implicit grouping
of ages 6-12 appears to be neither an idiosyncratic invention of Western
cultures nor merely a category by default among arbitrarily defined periods
of human development. Rather, these years universally mark a distinctive
period between major developmental transition points.
In diverse cultures the S-7 age period is regarded as the beginning of the
"age of reason" (Rogoff et al., 1975~. Children are assumed to develop new
capabilities at this age and are assigned roles and responsibilities in their
families and communities. Middle childhood has also been differentiated
from adolescence cross-culturally, largely by the onset of puberty. Recent
emphasis on cognitive differences between 10' to 12-year~olds and relatively
mature adolescents has also contributed to popular and scholarly distinctions
between middle childhood and adolescence.
Historically, in many cultures the age of 6 or 7 was the time at which
children were absorbed into the world of adults, helping shoulder family
responsibilities and fill work roles alongside their elders. Only in recent
centuries have changing concepts of the family and the advent of formal
schooling removed children of this age from wide participation in adult
society (Aries, 1962~. Today and for most of this century, the ages of 6-12
have continued to be set apart from younger ages because they correspond
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2
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
to the first 6 of the 12 compulsory school years. The segregation of children
ages 6-12 in elementary schools provides a distinctive basis for the social
definition of children and a social structure that constrains and channels
development during this period.
Increasingly, however, the social norms and structures that determine the
age grading of 6- to 12-year-olds are being blurred by secular trends toward
earlier schooling and earlier puberty. Growing numbers of children younger
than age 6 are beginning some kind of formal schooling, sometimes com-
puIsory. The trend toward earlier puberty means that many 10-, 11-, and
12-year-olds are experiencing the physical changes traditionally associated
with adolescence but out of synchrony with the transition into the teen
years. The impact of this secular trend can be seen in experiments with
school organizations in the past decade in an attempt to find workable age
groupings for children whose physical, cognitive, and social characteristics
are in transition. The term preteen has emerged to acknowledge this earlier
advent of teenage characteristics.
As social structures for delineating ages 6-12 become less definite, it
becomes more crucial to understand the nature of development in this period,
including the ways in which it is and is not linked to particular social
and cultural structures and demands on children. Toward this end, the
chapters of this volume represent distillations of research findings from stud-
ies of children ages 6-12 and assessments of the status of knowledge in a
number of areas.
The panel's primary goal was to assess what is known about the distinctive
characteristics physical, behavioral, social, and emotional and devel-
opment of children across the age span from 6 to 12. Although we have
devoted considerable attention to the societal contexts of development in
this period, including the social structures that shape and constrain the
course of individual growth, of primary concern in our deliberations have
been the implications for individual children- in particular, long-term in-
dividual outcomes of development.
In our view, developmental change is continuous and any segmentation
into age periods is somewhat arbitrary. The widespread cultural demarcation
of a period roughly corresponding to ages 6-12 raises important questions
about the characteristics of children in this age group and, equally significant,
the implications of segregation along these age boundaries for the devel-
opmental tasks, limitations, and possibilities encountered by individual chil-
dren. The period is clearly not a static one developmentally, despite what
has sometimes seemed to be a lack of concern among scholars about the
significance of changes in middle childhood. We have viewed the middle
childhood years as part of a continuous process as well as a period charac
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INTRODUCTION
3
terized by distinct abilities and age-related changes. Two questions recur in
the chapters that follow:
1. What is known about characteristics that distinguish children in middle
childhood from those in the preschool years?
2. What significant developmental changes ordinarily occur within these
years?
During middle childhood, children gain access to new settings and en-
counter pressures that present them with distinctive developmental chal-
lenges. The widening world of middle childhood is marked especially by the
entry into school of children from all strata of U.S. society. School entry
signifies a new set of social contacts with both adults and other children as
well as a wider variety of settings than those that characterize early child-
hood. Consequently, school experiences and influences were central con-
siderations in the panel's deliberations, as was the role of peers both in and
out of school. The implications of a widening, social world for family rela-
tionships and their continuing functions for children in middle child-
hood also occupied a primary role in our discussions. Fundamental to the
topics we have chosen is the problem of characterizing the environmental
constraints and options for children in diverse settings across the society.
The developmental difficulties and subsequent dysfunctions associated
with children ages 6-12 also were major issues in the panel's deliberations.
Although a detailed assessment of evidence on problem behaviors such as
delinquency, drug use, runaways, and the like could not be undertaken
within the scope of the panel's work, we did address both psychological and
physical health in middle childhood in particular, what is known and what
needs to be known about the long-term implications of development for
physical and mental health.
In this introductory chapter we first outline some of the important the-
oretical views that have shaped research in middle childhood. We present
a group portrait of children in middle childhood in this country in order to
give a demographic and social context to the research that is covered in the
remainder of the volume. Finally, we give a brief overview of each of the
topics covered in the individual chapters.
THEORETICAL VIEWS OF MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
The body of research concemed with children ages 6-12 encompasses
disciplines ranging from psychology and sociology to medicine and public
health. Surprisingly, few theoretical formulations have included extensive
treatments of this age group, in contrast to the amount of theoretical at
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4
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
tension given to infancy, early childhood, and adolescence. The two major
views of the child between 6 and 12 those advanced by Sigmund Freud
and Jean Piaget focus on some possible reasons for the common belief in
middle childhood as a distinct developmental period.
Sigmund Freud assigned to the years between ages 5 or 6 and adolescence
the vital tasks of skill development and the consolidation of psychosexual
achievements from earlier periods. Freud's characterization of this period as
one of latency has been widely misconstrued as indicating it is relatively
insignificant, perhaps because the psychosexual events of earlier and later
periods appear more dramatic in psychoanalytic thought. This aspect of
Freud's formulation is also captured by Erik Erikson's emphasis on the de-
velopment of a sense of industry and Harry Stack Sullivan's interpretation
of the importance of interpersonal relationships during the same period.
Although none of these three theorists has had a substantial impact on
research on middle childhood, Sullivan's ideas have frequently been invoked
in connection with research on social relations with peers in the elementary
school years. All three, however, underscore the occurrence of significant
psychological developments in middle childhood and the importance of
recognizing the culturally defined tasks associated with the period.
The second major view, represented by Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive
development, emphasizes the extent to which children in this age period
become capable of logical thinking, reasoning, and problem solving in a
variety of tasks. Whereas preschool children are inordinately tied to the
concrete, readily perceptible characteristics of tasks, the thoughts of children
ages 6-12 are more fully logical and more systematic. Thus, in Piaget's view
the significant psychological accomplishments of middle childhood are in
the realm of intellectual competence. The goal of most of the research
emanating from Piaget's theory has been understanding the logical mode}
of intellectual functioning; indeed, the major contribution of Piaget-inspired
scholars has been an image of the child at every stage of development as an
active, integrating organism in interaction with the environment. Cognitive-
developmental formulations such as Piaget's undergird a core of studies of
children ages 6-12 that have contributed substantially to knowledge of
specific aspects of this age period; these include not only studies of cognitive
development per se but also studies of concepts and understanding of the
social and subjective worlds. In recent years research on self-concept, social
interactions, family and peer relationships, school functioning, and health
has been influenced by cognitive-developmental perspectives. In each of
these domains the focus has been on differences between the intellectual
capabilities of children in middle childhood and those of younger and older
children.
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INTRODUCTION
5
Rich though these theoretical traditions are, they offer only part of the
relevant background to a consideration of the status of research on middle
childhood. Throughout this volume our focus on middle childhood encom-
passes a variety of factors in development and individual functioning that
make up a broad consideration of the years 6-12.
DEMOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW OF CHILDREN IN MIDDLE
CHILDHOOD
We begin with a sketch of children in middle childhooc! in the United
States today. Our purpose is not an exhaustive demographic analysis of
middle childhood but rather an impressionistic overview of the lives of such
children. Through the presentation of data from large-scale ciata sources,
the following sections serve as background to the analyses of children's
clevelopment in the remainder of this report.
Several limitations on the type and scope of information presented should
be made clear at the outset. First, despite repeated calls for an integrated
system of childhood social indicators that tracks the welfare of children in
this country, such a system has yet to be developed. Data based on sources
with long histories, such as the Current Population Survey, are a major
source of information about population trends, the types of families in which
children are growing up, and the schools they attend. Less is known, at
least from a national perspective, about the quality of children's lives and
their perceptions of their worlds. Several recent studies, such as the National
Survey of Children (Zill, in press), have begun to fill this gap. Nevertheless,
we have only a rudimentary understancling of chilciren's own views of their
lives.
Besides the relative scarcity of certain types of information, other limi-
tations mark these data. For our purposes the preferable unit of analysis is
the child. The following sections reflect this preference, but in many cases
information in which the family is the unit of analysis was the only kind
available. In addition, data are most frequently reported in broad age cat-
egories that are not consistent across data sources or over time. Whenever
possible, we report information on children between the ages of 6 and 12.
Often, however, data were available only on expanded age groupings, such
as 5-13 or 6-13.
A hallmark of these data is the diversity of the population of children in
middle childhood. National averages often mask important differences be-
tween subgroups racial differences and regional differences, for example-
and national surveys often inadequately report information about minority
groups (Zill et al., 19831. In this overview we focus on racial differences
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6
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
because of the frequently striking contrast between white and black children
in our society. We recognize, however, that the presentation of data would
be facilitated by further disaggregation into more finely differentiated subgroups.
We also recognize the need for information on children ages 6-12 in other
cultural and minority groups in the United States, particularly Asian-Amer-
ican, Hispanic, and Native American groups.
The Population of School-Age Children
In 1982 the population of U.S. children ages 6-12 was 23.6 million,
representing slightly more than 10 percent of the total U.S. population of
232 million. This age group is approximately equally divided by sex (51
percent were boys, 49 percent were girls). Of the total number of children,
15 percent were black. Relative to children of all ages, a higher proportion
of black children (12.6 percent) than white children (9.7 percent) were
between the ages of 6 and 12.
Current data are not available for racial and ethnic group breakdowns of
children ages 6-12. These data are published, however, for children ages
5-13 or 5-14 (see Table 1-1~. Table 1-l presents the number of children
TABLE 1 1 Racial and Ethnic Origins of
School-Age Children (numbers in thousands)
Number Percentage
Racial and Ethnic Origins `,f Children Ages
5-14 (1980)
White 27,491 78.7
Black 5,163 15.8
American Indian, Eskimo,
and Aleut 302
Asian and Pacific Islander 582
Other 1,400
Children elf Hispanic
origins
Total
3,012
34,938
Children Ages 5-13 by Type `,f Hispanic
Origin (1979)
Mexican 1,575
Puerto Rican 404
Cuban
Central fir Sleuth America
Other Hispanic
Total
0.9
1.7
4.0
8.6
100.0
113
157
254
2,500
May be elf any race.
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INTRODUCTION
7
in six racial and ethnic groups and their proportion in the population and
provides additional data on children of Hispanic origin.
The proportion of al! children in middle childhood has been steadily
declining during the past two decades. In 1960 children ages 6-12, part of
the postwar baby boom, represented slightly less than 16 percent of the
population; by 1970 they represented 14. 1 percent. With the simultaneous
rise in the average life expectancy, the population on average has been
gradually getting older.
Census Bureau projections estimate that the population of children ages
6-12 as well as the percentage of the population ages 6-12 will continue
to decline through 1985. Their number will then gradually increase through
the remainder of this century before once again declining in the beginning
of the twenty-first century.
Children's Environments
The racial and cultural diversity of children ages 6-12 in the United
States raises questions about how their lives are different and what com-
ponents of the differences may be significant to their development. Although
at present we can only speculate on the implications, we can see a number
of dimensions on which children in this age group vary.
Children ages 6-12 were fairly well distributed across the country in 1981,
but the geographical distribution varied by race (Table 1-2~. More than half
of black children, compared with less than a third of white children, live
in the South. In contrast, white children are more likely than blacks to live
in the Northeast and in the West.
Nearly half of all children live in a Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area
(SMSA) with a population of at least 100,000 people (Table 1-31. Black
children are more likely than white children to live in or near a city of
500,000 or more people. In contrast, white children are more likely to live
outside the city limits and in areas defined as non-SMSAs (population less
than 50,000~. For example, while 44.1 percent of white children live in
nonurban areas, only 27.5 percent of black children live outside central
cities.
To further underscore the disparate environments of black and white
children (Tables 1-4 and 1-~), 84 percent of white children live in single-
family dwellings, and their families typically own the place in which they
live. Black children are much lest likely (61 percent) than white children
to live in single-family dwellings and much more likely to live in an apart-
ment, project, or two-family dwelling. Two-thirds of white children live in
dwellings with six or more rooms, while two-thirds of black children live in
dwellings with no more than five rooms.
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8
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
TABLE 1 2 Region of Residence of Children Ages 6-12, 1981
White
Black
Tribal
Northeast
Weighted N7,0605847,644
Unweighted N20443247
Percentage22.0%12.2%20.7%
North Central
Weighted N9,8241,36611,190
Unweighted N307141448
Percentage30.6%28.5%30.4%
Sleuth
Weighted N9,6772,49612,173
Unweighted N346506852
Percentage30.2%51.1%30.0%
West
Weighted N5,4333325,765
Unweighted N17752229
Percentage16.9%6.9%15.6%
Foreign Country
Weighted N721688
Unweighted N358
Percentage0. 2%0.3%0.2%
SOURCE: Unpublished data from Panel Study elf Income Dynamics Institute
fair Social Research Ann Arbor 1982.
Nearly one-third of all families with children ages 6-11 report that they
live in a neighborhood in which street lighting is poor and where there is
considerable street noise, and 25 percent live near heavy traffic, according
to data from the 1977 Annual Housing Survey. Approximately 3.7 million
children, 17.1 percent of the age group, live in neighborhoods in which
street crime is common.
Family Environments
The majority of children ages 6-12 live in nuclear-type families that
is, with either one or two parents and children (see Table 1-61. But there
are some differences between the family composition of white and black
families. Black children are more likely than white children to live in ex-
tended families families that contain other people related to the head of
the household. The proportion for both groups is small, however. Further-
more, as Table 1-7 shows, there is a greater likelihood for black parents to
have more children, spanning a wider range of ages. Black children ages 6-
12 are likely to have more siblings in general and more siblings close to
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INTRODUCTION
TABLE 1-3 Size of Residence of Children Ages 6-12
9
SMSAa Size WhiteBlackTotal
SMSA: largest city is 500,000 Weighted N7,1891,8008,989
or more Unweighted N215334549
Percentage22.5%37.7%24.4%
SMSA: largest city is 100,000 Weighted N7,4811,1218,602
to 499,999 Unweighted N251156407
Percentage23.4°/o23.5%23.4%
SMSA: largest city is 50,000 to Weighted N4,6713595,030
99,999 Unweighted N15174225
Percentage14.6%7.5%13.7%
Non-SMSA: largest city is Weighted N3,6792783,957
25,000 to 49,999 Unweighted N11530145
Percentage1 1.5%5.8%10.8%
Non-SMSA: largest city is Weighted N3,5474724,019
10,000 to 24,999 Unweighted N12048168
Percentage11.1 %9. 9%10.9%
Non-SMSA: largest city is Weighted N5,4277456,175
under 10,000 Unweighted N182100282
Percentage1 7.0%15.7%16.8%
aStandard metropolitan statistical area.
SOURCE: Unpublished data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Institute for Social
Research, Ann Arbor, 1982.
TABLE 1 4 Type of Dwelling of Children Ages 6-12, 1981
White
Black
Total
Single-family dwelling Weighted N26,8572,91529,772
Unweighted N8774631,340
Percentage83.9%60.9%80.9%
Two-family unit; duplex Weighted N1,4794621,941
Unweighted N4757104
Percentage4.6%9.6%5.3%
Apartment; project Weighted N1,7881,0552,843
Unweighted N56181237
Percentage5.6%22.0%7.7%
Mobile home; trailer Weighted N1,3642041,568
Unweighted N433376
Percentage4.3%4.3%4.3%
Other Weighted N504152656
Unweighted N121224
Percentage1.6%3.2%1.8%
SOURCE: Unpublished data from Panel Study
Research, Ann Arbor, 1982.
of Income Dynamics, Institute for Social
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10
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
TABLE 1 5 Status of Dwelling of Children Ages 6 - 12, 1981
WhiteBlackTotal
Dwelling owned by parent Weighted N23,7242,03425,758
Unweighted N7592971,056
Percentage74.0%42.4%69.9%
Dwelling rented by parent Weighted N7,6522,59110,171
Unweighted N256416672
Percentage23.9%52.5%27.6%
Dwelling neither owned nor Weighted N690241931
rented Unweighted N223456
Percentage2.2%5.0%2.5%
SOURCE: Unpublished data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Institute for Social
Research, Ann Arbor, 1982.
their own age. Black and white families also differ according to parents'
marital status, parents' employment status, and financial resources. Hispanic
families differ from both black and white families in that they appear likely
to have more and younger children. Comparable information is lacking on
other ethnic groups.
Most school-age children (about 80 percent overall) live with two parents,
according to Census Bureau estimates and estimates from the Pane} Study
of Income Dynamics. There are sizable racial variations, however. Table
1-8 shows that, while 83 percent of white school-age children lived with
two parents in 1981, only 51 percent of comparably aged black children
TABLE 1-6 Family Composition of Children Ages 6 - 12, 1981
Number of Children Who Live
in Families: Weighted White Black Total
With head and immediate N 30,313 4,081 34,394
family only Percentage 94.5% 85.1% 93.3%
In which family unit includes N 928 413 1,311
other people related to head Percentage 2.9% 8.6% 3.6%
In which family unit includes
people unrelated to head who N 233 27 260
pool resources Percentage 0.7% 0.6% 0.7%
Other N 522 273 865
Percentage 1.8% 5.7% 2.3%
Total N 32,066 4,794 36,860
SOURCE: Unpublished data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics, Institute for Social
Research, Ann Arbor, 1982.
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INTRODUCTION
TABLE 1~7 Characteristics of Families With Children
(percentage)
Hispanic
White Black Origins Total
Families with children:
Ages 6-17 only 56.7 55.4 45.5 56.3
Some ages 6-17, 19.2 23.8 27.2 19.2
some under 6
Under 6 only 24.9 20.7 27.3 24.5
Families with:
1 child 6-11 52.7 50.4 22.5 52.29
2 children 6-11 19.8 19.1 9.6 19.7
3 children 6-11 2.7 3.9 2.5 2.9
4 or more children 0.3 1.2 0.5 0.5
6-11
Average number of
children per family
with children 1.85 2.01 2.15 1.88
UMay be of any race
SOURCE: Bureau of the Census (1982).
TABLE 1-8 Marital Status of Parents of Children Ages 6 - 12, 1981
11
White
Black
Total
Married or permanently Weighted N26,6622,45729,119
cohabiting Unweighted N8904011,291
Percentage83.1%51.3%79.0%
Father absent; mother present, Weighted N256720976
single, never legally married Unweighted N7113120
Percentage0.8%15.0%2.7%
Widowed Weighted N164215379
Unweighted N51116
Percentage0.5%4.5%1.0%
Divorced Weighted N3,5386074,145
Unweighted N8798185
Percentage11.0%12.7%11.2%
Separated Weighted N8057701,575
Unweighted N26112138
Percentage2.5%16.1%4.3%
Mother absent; father present Weighted N64125666
Unweighted N221234
Percentage2.0%0.5%1.8%
SOURCE: Unpublished data form Panel Study of Income Dynamics,
Research, Ann Arbor, 1982.
Institute for Social
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INTRODUCTION
13
When the probability of marital disruption is examined separately by race,
striking differences can be observed. By the age of 6, approximately 35
percent more black children born between 1968 and 1969 had experienced
some family disruption. The difference in proportion does not change sub'
stantially over the middle childhood years for this cohort, although the
percentage of black children experiencing family disruption climbs to 70
percent by the time they reach age 13. These figures are high in part because
of the large number of black children born to single mothers. Still, a com-
parison of the figures in the rows of Table 1-9 that have a superscript a
reveals that in the early 1980s half of black children and almost a thirc] of
white children, born after their parents were married, by the age of 13 were
not living with both biological parents.
Labor Force Participation and Family Income
Not surprisingly, children ages 6-13 are more likely to have mothers in
the labor force than children who are under 6. In 1982, approximately
14,835,000 children ages 6-13 had mothers in the labor force; this number
represents 58 percent of children in this age group. In contrast, in 1970,
43 percent of children ages 6-13 had mothers in the labor force. (It should
be noted that not all mothers in the labor force work full time; see Chapter
5.)
As Table 1-10 shows, mothers of black children ages 6-13 are much more
likely to be in the labor force than mothers of white or Hispanic children.
They are also more likely to be unemployed. Although children in single-
parent families are also more likely to have mothers in the labor force than
those in two-parent families, the mothers of black children in single-parent
families and, to a lesser extent, mothers of Hispanic children, are less likely
to be in the labor force than those in two-parent families.
The importance of the employment of black mothers to family income is
seen in Table 1-11. In a two-parent family in which the father is employed,
the mother's employment in a black family increases family income by two-
thirds. In the same situation, a white mother's employment increases family
income by an eighth, possibly because many of these women work only part
time. The employment of Hispanic mothers falls between the two, increasing
family income by 41 percent on average. Also clear in Tables 1-11 and
1-12 is the financial disadvantage of being a single mother, particularly a
single black mother. The average income of single white, black, or Hispanic
mothers is near or below the poverty level. Approximately half of white
children and almost two-thirds of black and Hispanic children who live with
single mothers have family incomes below $10,000 a year.
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14
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
TABLE 1~10 Employment Status of Parents of Children Ages 6 - 13, March
1982 (numbers in thousands)
White
Black
Hispanic
Origin
T`~tal children, ages 6-13
Children in married~c`,uple families
% of total children
Father unemp)l<,yed
% of total in married-c`,uple families
Mother unemployed
% of tc>tal in married-c<,uple families
Mother not in labor forcer
% of total in married-c`,uple families
Father and mother unemployed
% calf total in married~c`,uple families
Father and mother employed
% `,f total in married-c`,uple families
Children in female~headed families
% calf total children
Mother unemployed
% calf total in female~headed families
M<,ther employed
% calf total in female-headed families
Mother not in latter f`,rce
% of total in female-headed families
21,513
17,811
82.8%
1,051
5.90/0
788
4.4%
7,754
43.5%
145
.08%
8,265
46.4%
3,331
15.5%
220
6.6%
2,121
63.7%
989
29.7%
3,450
1,692
49.0%
158
9.3%
146
8.65
554
32.7%
45
2.7%
812
48.0%
1,694
49.1%
190
11.2%
736
43.4%
768
45.3%
2,195
1,582
72.1%
145
9.2%
96
6.1%
828
52.3%
16
1.0%
593
37.5%
578
26.3%
42
7.3o/o
237
41.0%
300
51.9%
aExcludes fathers in the armed forces.
SOURCE: Unpublished data, Bureau calf Labor Statistics, March 1982.
In 1981, 15. 1 percent of white children ages 6-13 and 43.8 percent of
the same-age black children lived below the official poverty level ($9,287
in 198 ~ for a family of four). Comparable data were not available for children
of single mothers. Among children ages 6-14 living with their single moth-
ers, 40.8 percent of white children and 64.8 percent of black children had
family incomes below the poverty level. The greater financial need of black
families is also reflected in the amount of transfer monies they receive.
According to data from the 1982 Pane} Study of Income Dynamics, ap-
proximately 6 percent of white children ages 6-! 2 lived in families receiving
AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) in 1981, compared with
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INTRODUCTION
TABLE 1~11 Mean Family Income for Families With Children Ages 6-13,
March 1982
15
Hispanic
White Black Origin Total
Lives with mother and father $29,207 $22,978 $21,133 $28,731
Father employed and
Mother employed 32,364 28,528 26,694 32.089
Mother unemployed 24,389 19,644 19,743 23,786
Mother not in labor force 28,704 17,456 18,978 28,246
Father unemployed and
Mother employed 23,047 20,993 18,482 22,602
Mother unemployed 18,208 23,606 15,533 19,534
Mother not in labor force 16,249 10,869 10,524 15,757
Lives with mother only 9,829 8,067 8,969 10,604
Mother employed 14,387 11,252 11,990 13,642
Mother unemployed 8,254 7,920 7,945 8,249
Mother neat in lahor fierce 7,027 5,053 6,726 6,191
SOURCE: Unpublished data, Bureau Off Lab`,r Statistics, March 1982.
nearly 23 percent of black children. Black children represent 15 percent of
the total population of children ages 6-12, but they represent 36 percent
of all children in families that receive AFDC monies.
The population of children ages 6-12 thus is marked by physical, eco-
nomic, and social variations that almost certainly constrain the nature of
the experience and the course of the development of individual children.
In the chapters that follow, a central theme is the incorporation of envi-
ronmental diversity into research on development in middle childhood.
Education
Despite the diversity of children in middle childhood, there is one common
factor in their lives: Nearly all (99 percent) children of elementary school
age are enrolled in school. Public school enrollment statistics, which include
about 89 percent of the population of children ages 6-12, have mirrored
population statistics. By 1976, following the enrollment bulge produced by
the baby boom, the number of children in school had fallen to the 1960
level of approximately 30.5 million (Bureau of the Census, 1981~. Enroll-
ment as of 1980 was approximately 26.7 million. On the basis of projections
of the elementary school population (according to fertility expectations),
enrollment is expected to continue its decline until 1985, at which point
the number of school children should gradually increase. By 1988 they will
reach the 1978 enrollment levels.
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16
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
TABLE 1-12 Income Groups of Families of Children Ages 6 - 13, March
1982
Hispanic
WhiteBlackOriginTotal
Total children ages 6- 1321,5133,4502,19525,781
Total children in married
c<,uple families17,8111,6921,58220,180
°/~ `'f total82.8%49.0%72.1%78.3%
Under $7,00065813997838
Percentages3.7%8.2%6.1 %4.2%
$7,000-$9,999658120171819
Percentages3.7%7.1%10.8%4.1%
$10,000-$14,9991,8062273122,130
PercentageU10.1 %13.4~/o19.7%10.6%
$15,000-$19,9992,1172752752,461
Percentages11.9%16.3%17.4%12.2%
$20,000-$34,9997,4996594958,361
Percentagea42.1%39.0%31.3%41.4%
$35,000-$49,9993,3842231843,751
Percentage"19.0%13.2%11.6%18.6%
$50,000 and `,ver1,68950471,819
Percentages9.5%3.0%3.0%9.0%
Total children in female~headed3,3311,6945785,154
families
Percentage `,f total15.5%49.1%26.3%20.0%
Under $7,0001,1659152702,111
Percentageh35.0%54.0%46.7%41.0%
$7,000-$9,999539285129856
Percentageh16.2%16.8%22.3%16.6%
$10,000-$14,999726278921,040
Percentageh21.8%16.4%15.9%20.2%
$15,000-$19,99939913449541
Percentages12.0%7.9%8.5%10.5%
$20,000-$34,9994147534503
Percentages12.4%4.4%5.9%9.8%
$35,000-$49,999798387
Percentages2.4%0.5%0.5%1.7%
$50,000 and `,ver110116
Percentages0.3%0.0%0.2%0.2%
Percentage `,f children in married-c`~uple families.
hPercentage Off children in female~headed families.
Private school enrollment, two-thirds of which is in Catholic schools, is
less strongly tied to population growth than is public school enrollment.
Private school enrollment reached a peak of 15 percent of school children
in 1964 and 1965 and declined to about 11 percent in 1980. Black enroll'
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INTRODUCTION
17
meet, however, has increased as white enrollment has decreased. In 1980,
12 percent of white children and 5 percent of black children were enrolled
in private schools.
Educational achievement among elementary school students still varies
substantially by race and age. Table 1~13 shows the percentage of students
below modal grade of enrollment for students ages 6-9 and 10-13. The
difference in the proportion of black and white students ages 6-9 below
grade level is very slight, but among those ages 10-13 the percentages
diverge. Black boys ages 10-13 are 60 percent more likely than white boys
to be enrolled below their modal grade level, and black girls are 50 percent
more likely than white girls to be enrolled below their modal grade level.
The issue of disparities in educational achievement is clearly a factor in the
experiences of children in the middle childhood years.
Children's Lives Out of School
According to 1981 data from the Pane! Study of Time Use in American
Households, approximately 60 percent of children's time during the week
is spent in activities that, for the most part, they must do: sleeping, attending
school, washing and dressing, and doing housework (Table 1-141. When
these are accounted for, however, the average child has approximately 67
hours of discretionary time each week.
Two types of activities dominate this out-of-school discretionary time for
most American children: television viewing and time "on their own," in-
cluding time spent with peers in play and other activities without adult
supervision or involvement. A recent major study of time use (Medrich et
al., 1982) estimates that these two activities consume 70 percent or more
of children's roughly 7 hours of out-of-school time daily. Time with parents
and organized activities (including sports) constituted a relatively small per
TABLE 1-13 Percentage of Children Ages
6-13 Below Modal Grade of Enrollment
Race
Boys Girls
White
Ages 6-9 17.9 13.2
Ages 10-13 23.7 16.3
Black
Ages 6-9 18.2 16.0
Ages 10-13 37.7 24.4
SOURCE: Bureau of the Census ( 1982).
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18
Activity
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
TABLE 1-14 Hours per Week Spent Doing Selected
Primary Activities by Children Ages 6-12 (standard
deviations in parentheses)
6-8 9-10 1 1-12
(N = 69) (N = 59) (N = 61)
Market work1.4 1. 3 .8
(7 5) (6 7) (2 3)
Household work2.5 3.1 4.4
(2 7) (3.0) (5~2)
Personal care5.7 4.9 5.6
(2 7) (2 3) (3.0)
Sleep71.1 67.4 62.3
(7.8 (1 1.5) (1 1.4)
Sch`~c'124.4 28.1 25.7
( 10.4) (8.8) ( 1 1.3)
Homework.8 2.7 3.7
(1.8) (38) (5~1)
Sports
Other outdoor activities
Cultural arts
Playing
Watching television
3.1
(5 0)
1.7
(4 8)
.6
( 1.1 )
14.1
(10.0)
12.9
( 10.4)
Listening to music .5
(1.0)
3.4
(5 3)
1.9
(3 5)
4.2
(6.6)
2.6
(4 3)
.5 .6
(1. 1 ) (1 3)
9.1
(7~3)
16.8
(12.2)
.6
(1 4)
(8.0)
(11.4)
1.5
(4 3)
Reading .8 1 .3 1 .5
(2.0) (2.8) (2.8)
SOURCE: Panel Study of Time Use in American H`,usehc~lds,
Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, 1981.
centage of children's daily time in the urban area in which the research was
conducted.
For most children ages 6-12 in the United States, television viewing
constitutes the largest single portion of free time on a typical weekday.
Current estimates for school-age children put the amount of viewing at 3-
4 hours daily (Comstock et al., 1980; Medrich et al., 1982), a larger figure
than is reported for preschoolers and adolescents. Eleven- and tweIve-year-
olds, particularly boys, watch television more than any other age group.
Viewing preferences show distinct shifts from children's fare toward general
.
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INTRODUCTION
19
programming, such as action-adventure dramas and other programs that
contain a wide range of realistic behavioral anti role models. Economically
disadvantaged children are three times more likely to be heavy television
viewers than are more advantaged youngsters. Perhaps because of the con-
founding effect of socioeconomic status, black youngsters are more likely to
view television heavily than are whites overall, although disadvantaged
whites are also heavy viewers.
As children get older, more time is spent doing homework. Still, American
children spend only an average of one-half hour per weekday studying,
compared with the 2 to 3.S hours a day that Japanese children, for example,
spend studying (Nakanishi, 1982~.
Table 1-14 also suggests that children spend little time reading, although
older children spend more time reading than younger children. Data from
the Pane! Study of Time Use refute the assumption that children would
spend more time reading if they did not watch so much television. Medrich
er al. ( 1982) note little relationship between patterns of television use and
reacting, but they did find that children who read every day are more likely
to be light viewers.
Organizer! activities also consume many hours of time for large numbers
of American children. More than 8 million youngsters between 6 and 16
are involved in sports activities each year, and many participate in clubs,
religious programs, and organized groups; take private lessons; attend camp;
anc! so forth. Both the degree of participation in out-of-school activities and
the contents of the programs in which children participate are strongly
associated with social group and ethnic status. For example, black boys are
more likely than boys in other ethnic groups to participate in team sports,
while white boys are more likely to be involved in individualized sports,
such as swimming or tennis (Medrich et al., 1982~. Socioeconomic factors
also affect whether activities that are available to children are primarily
privately funded and organized or publicly supported. Nevertheless, children
from all socioeconomic strata show some level of participation in organized
activities. The impact of participation in out-of-school activities has been
studied very little. Because of the increased number of children involved
and the opportunities available, however, these activities should be consid-
ered a significant dimension in the expanding social worlds of children ages
6-12.
-
THEMES OF THE REPORT
In the chapters that follow, the status of knowledge on children in middle
childhood is assessed within the framework of the three major foci that
guided the panel's work:
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20
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
1. the distinctive characteristics of children ages 6-12 compared with
children in other developmental periods and the typical changes that occur
during these years;
2. the impact of access to new settings and changing qualities of rela-
tionships, including the tasks, options, and limitations that are characteristic
of the environments that school-age children encounter; and
3. the nature ant! long-term implications of clevelopmental difficulties
and the different developmental trajectories followed by incliviclual children
during micIdIe chilc~hood.
The distinctiveness of micicIle childhood development depends, in the
first analysis, on the characteristics of children as they enter and traverse
the period. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 focus on the child's physical and cognitive
growth and the fundamental psychological processes of developing a sense
of self ant! capabilities for self-regulation during micidIe childhood.
In Chapter 2, Jack P. Shonkoff addresses the nature of physical changes
leading to puberty a physical event that now occurs by age 12 for large
numbers of American children. He devotes attention to research on neu-
rotransmission processes and hormonal factors in behavior and their con-
tribution to knowledge of the biological substrate of middle childhood
development. Studies in these areas offer promising approaches to the un-
derstanding of gender differences as well as to a range of specific behavior
patterns. Research on brain-behavior relations can facilitate better under-
standing of both basic intellectual and behavioral functioning and the various
dysfunctions that are commonly grouped together as learning disabilities.
Difficulties with school performance are a major social and psychological
problem in the elementary school years, and the long-term problems asso'
ciated with them are now well established.
The intellectual capabilities of children ages 6-12 have been extensively
studied, and these studies are a major source of knowledge about the dis-
tinctiveness of middle childhood ant! its links to other developmental pe-
riods. In Chapter 3, Kurt W. Fischer and Daniel Bullock distill the major
information that has emerged from this research. The impetus for much of
this work has come from the Piagetian tradition, in which the more elaborate
conceptual and reasoning skills of school-age children were attributed to a
capacity for concrete operational thought. Fischer and Bullock also identify
a major shift in cognitive functioning for Western children between ages 5
and 7 and another between ages 10 and 12. A primary theme in their review
is the way in which children's environments and typical experiences "col-
laborate" in the process of cognitive change. They urge an approach to
cognitive change and cognitive performance that focuses on the environ
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INTRODUCTION
21
mental supports for certain skills and approaches to tasks and problems that
children develop. They also explore the linkages between these changes and
other developmental changes, such as emotional knowledge and expression.
Haze! J. Markus and Paula S. Nurius (Chapter 4) extend the analysis of
cognitive components to the school-age child's task of forming a self-concept
from the diverse new sources of information about his or her characteristics
and capabilities. Much new information clerived from a wide range of settings
must be incorporated into knowledge about the self in these years. This
knowledge, together with knowledge about social norms and expectations
ant] about strategies for managing one's own behavior, is crucial to the
increasingly greater responsibilities that 6- to 12-year-olds can assume and
fulfill. These authors, like Maccoby in Chapter 5, view middle childhood
as a time when social controls become coregulatory in nature. In contrast
to the extensive adult regulation of children's behavior in early childhood,
children ages 6-12 must assume a larger share of responsibility for their own
behavior in coordination with parents, peers, and others.
The impact of a dramatically shifting social context transformations in
relationships with parents, more extensive involvement with peers in terms
of both time and the number of contacts, ant] entry into the traditional
structures of schooling is the topic of Chapters 5, 6, and 7. In Chapter
5, Eleanor E. Maccoby attempts to tie major developmental changes in
school-age children to changes in parental roles and expectations and to
issues that typically are dealt with in parent-child relationships. She addresses
questions of the linkages between cognitive changes and the process of
increasing coregulation between parent and child. She also reviews social-
strata, subcultural, and ethnic-group differences in parent-child relationships
and examines the currently limited information on variations in family
structures such as single-parent and Jual-career families. Her perspective
acknowledges the systemic nature of family relationships, and she addresses
the nature and distinctive influence of father-child and sibling relationships
in middle childhood.
The increasing amount and variety of contact between school-age children
and their peers are the focus of Willard W. Hartup's review in Chapter 6.
Organizing the literature in terms of different types of peer contexts (e.g.,
interactions, relationships, groups), Hartup reviews the status of knowledge
on the settings, tasks, and persons involved in children's experiences with
other children. The functional significance of peer relationships for such
issues as gender-role learning in the elementary school years and the regu-
lation of behaviors such as aggression and cooperation is central to the
review. Other topics of particular importance are the long-term implications
of the quality of a child's peer relationships in middle childhood and the
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22
DEVELOPMENT DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD
nature of dysfunctions in middle childhood that may result in poor adjust-
ment in adolescence and adulthood. Hartup reviews the small body of lit-
erature on interventions to improve children's skills for successful peer
relationships as well as the descriptive literature on the normal growth of
these skills between ages 6 and 12.
In Chapter 7, Edgar G. Epps and Sylvia F. Smith consolidate an extensive
body of literature on schools and schooling to assess the implications of
school experiences in middle childhood. They address both manifest (e.g.,
skill acquisition, achievement aspirations) and latent (e.g., social role learn-
ing, status expectations) functions of schooling. In this context they discuss
the implications of social changes in schools, such as desegregation, and the
implications of specific instructional approaches for eliminating educational
inequality. The linkages between school and other significant social con-
texts, particularly the family, are also reviewed in terms of their implications
for development.
These broader and constantly changing social contexts in middle child-
hood help determine the course of developmental changes and thus must
be considered in analyses of the middle childhood period. In Chapter 8,
Thomas S. Weisner outlines a perspective on the role of environmental
influences. Construing environment broadly, Weisner argues for incorporating
conceptually the cultural, social, and economic conditions that determine
the influences on communities, families, and individual children in middle
childhood. He identifies several dimensions of variations in.environments
found in cross-cultural studies (e.g., responsibilities required of children in
middle childhood, caretaking systems, pressures for individualism versus
cooperation, definitions of"problem" behaviors) and suggests hypotheses
for study in Westem societies. Since many Western nations include diverse
subcultural and socioeconomically varied groups, Weisner's approach should
be a useful framework for careful formulation of further research on children
ages 6-12 in their social contexts.
The health of school-age children and Tong-term implications for healthy
functioning are addressed by Thomas M. Achenbach in Chapter 9 and by
Jack P. Shonkoff in Chapter 2. Shonkoffexamines the implications of middle
childhood for the development of healthful life-styles in adulthood. The
years 6-12 are a time of primary learning relevant to concepts of health,
illness, and disease. It is also a period of increasing responsibility for inter-
acting with the health care system and for many specific practices that have
long-term health implications (e.g., physical exercise, eating patterns).
Shonkoff discusses the importance of approaches to health education that
take into account cognitive and psychosocial characteristics of children in
this developmental period. He also provides an illuminating discussion of
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INTRODUCTION
23
the problems of chronically ill and disabled children and their families and
the special difficulties encountered by them in middle childhood.
Thomas M. Achenbach's concern in Chapter 9 is the nature of psycho-
logical health in middle childhood. He focuses on the difficulties of specifying
the nature of dysfunctions in this period, because of the overuse of nosological
disease categories to describe behavioral difficulties. He describes research
approaches that will enable researchers to differentiate various conditions
more precisely and to examine the long-term consequences of different
patterns of problem behaviors in middle childhood.
Chapter 10 summarizes the conclusions of the panel. W. Andrew Collins
describes what is known about children ages 6-12 and their development
and attempts to characterize some general issues that face future research
on middle childhood. The principal concern throughout is on identifying
prospects for enhancing our knowledge of this period of life.
REFERENCES
Aries, P.
1962 Centuries of Childhood. Translated by R. Baldick. New York: Knopf.
Bureau of the Census
1981 Household and Family Characteristics: March 1981. Series P-20, No. 371. Washington,
D. C.: U. S. Govemment Printing Office.
1982 Characteristics of American Children and Youth: 1980. Current Population Reports, P-23,
No. 114. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce.
Comstock, G., Chaffee, S., Katzman, N., McComb, M., and Roberts, D.
1978 Television and Human Behavior. New York: Columbia University Press.
Furstenburg, F.F., Nord, C.W., Peterson, J.L., and Zill, N.
1983 The life course of children of divorce: Marital disruption and parental contact. American
Sociological Review 48: 656-668.
Medrich, E.A., Roizen, J.A., Rubin, V., and Buckley, S.
1982 The Serious Business of Grouting Up. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Nakanishi, N.
1982 A report on "How Do People Spend Their Time?" survey in 1980. Studies of Broadcasting
18:93-113.
Rogoff, B., Sellers, M., Pirrotta, S., Fox, N., and White, S.
1975 Age of assignment of roles and responsibilities in children: a cross-cultural survey. Human
Development 18:353~369.
Zill, N.
In Happy, Healthy, and Insecure: A Portrait of Middle Childhood in the United States. New
press York: Cambridge University Press.
Zill, N., Sigal, H., and Brim, O.
1983 Development of Childhood Social Indicators. Pp. 188-222 in Edward F. Zigler, Sharon
Kagan, and Edgar Klugman, eds., Children, Families, and Government Perspectives in
American Social Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
children ages
