Youth Development

- While children are influenced by many things, there are no stronger influences that that of their parents as they are usually their child’s first playmates and while the world expands with each passing year, parental influence is still one of the greatest factors in determining the ways in which a child will grow and develop.

While children are influenced by many things, there are no stronger influences than that of their parents. Parents are usually their children’s first playmates, and while there world expands with each passing year, parental influence is still one of the greatest factors in determining the ways in which the child will grow and develop.

Lawrence Kohlberg, a developmental psychologist, identified six developmental stages of human moral reasoning. The first stage that he recognized was the Punishment-Obedience Orientation, where the person’s concern is for avoiding punishment through obedience. The second stage was the Instrumental Relativist Orientation, where the person’s concern is to work in their self interest, and better their position. The third stage of moral development was the Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation, where the person’s concern lies with their reputation. Next was the Law And Order Orientation, where the person was less concerned with their own immediate well being to the maintenance of a larger society. The fifth stage was the Social Contract

Children evaluated moral transgressions (e.g. a child throwing water to another child) as more serious offenses as well as more likely to deserve punishment than conventional transgression (e.g. a child not sitting in the designated place during story time) (Smetana, 1981). As people mature, instead of simply making moral judgments based on the consequences of the action (e.g. the boy who accidently broke 15 cups is naughtier than a boy who broke one cup while stealing), people were able to make moral judgments not only by direct consequence but also by motivation and intention behind behavior (e.g. the boy who broke one cup while stealing is naughtier than the boy who accidently broke 15 cups) (Piaget,

I believe that when people are developing morals you have to have enough emotional development to feel guilty when you do something wrong, enough social development to accept our responsibility for behaving good or bad towards our group, and enough cognitive development to be able to place ourselves in someone else’s shoes. My parent taught me early in life the differences between right and wrong and to treat people the way I would want to be treated. I understood these lessons at a young age because that was the way my parent taught my brother and sister.

Boundaries must become flexible to allow the adolescent to experience things independently, and still be able to come back and depend on their parents if needed. Parents must recognize that they cannot control all aspects of their child’s life anymore. Some changes that occur may include the early beginnings of caring for grandparents (Carter & McGoldrick, 1988, p.18).

As stages in psychological development have been defined by Freud, stages in moral development have been outlined by early educators Jean Piaget and Kohlberg, who put forth differing views on the moral development of children. Piaget theorized that children process morals in stages, first one then the next, with a transition in between. The first stage (from ages 4 to about 7) is referred to as “heteronymous morality”, where children think of rules as constants, that is to say, rules are part of the world’s makeup with no input or possibility of change by people. As children progress from seven to ten years of age, they move from one stage to the next, maintaining some of the traits of the

By the age of 4 they can correctly name most colours, which is good for their knowledge and understanding, they try to solve problems which is very good for their mathematical understanding, they gain a clearer sense of time and they understand similarities and differences around them.

2.1 Describe with examples the kinds of influences that affect children and young people’s development including:

Children ask countless questions as they mature. Children often turn to their parents for guidance. If a parent is unable or unwilling to answer these questions, a child, left to their own devices, will look for answers from their friends, the internet, and other authority figures. In his article “I Listen to My Parents and I Wonder What They Believe,” Robert Cole explains that children have an inborn desire to build their own morals by questioning authority figures around them, especially their parents. Therefore, A parent’s guidance influences a child’s morals as he/she develops.

| Moral development is limited in the first 2 years and does not really have much bearing. Even if a child had significant moral views/tendencies, they would find it hard to convey these, except maybe for tantrums

The 3 children that I observed also have different social development. Alexander, who is 7 years old is in the level 2 conventional morality. When I read to him the story and the dilemma that Kenny had his answer to my questions were based on how it was right to return the wallet and it was wrong to keep it. For him it was right to return the wallet because it was the right thing to do. Which, reflects the conventional morality of acting as a good member of society. Enrique’s social development is also in the level 2 conventional morality because he focused on how he is a good person if he returned the wallet. He mentioned that it’s not good to keep things that aren’t yours. Which, reflects on the interest in pleasing others by acting as good members of society. Finally, Alexis is in the level 3 postconventional morality because for him it’s okay to keep the wallet if the owner were rich

As soon as birth, children are exposed to new things; new life experiences that will develop the path of which direction their life will take. Adolescence is the most important time in a child’s life because it is where they learn appropriate behavior from their family and the outside world. Some children are able to use these experiences to differentiate at an early age what is right and what is wrong and hopefully carry this into adulthood. What happens when children are exposed to the wrong experiences at an early age? What happens if children assume that what they are seeing is okay because one of their parents are

Throughout adolescent cognitive development is enlightened, imaginative, powers of reasoning and rational are developing (Seidman, Aber, & French, 2004). Parents that are authoritative but use adolescent-parent decision making is important. Parents should also show adolescents that they care and love them. This makes the adolescent feel valued and encourages a reflective thinking and self regulation (Berk, 2014). Active parenting in therapy allows the child to feel

Summarily if bad morals and values are taught then the child could learn this as well. For example, if a child sees a violent parent then this child is most likely to become violent as well. As children grow, they are most likely to interact with other people and make friends. Friends also contribute greatly to who we become. This is especially evident amongst teenagers who greatly concern themselves with fitting in and as a result, they would easily lose their identity and adopt a new one to fit in amongst peers. With time, the teenager becomes a completely new person.