Gender Role Socialization
The construction of roles based on one’s sex through socialization in the family setting has shaped up the understanding of gender in the society (Else-Quest et al. 947). Gender socialization concerns the process through which children of varying sexes acquire the norms and customs that portray their gender roles (Berns 49).
In this case, interviewing a parent on the activities that demonstrate the socialization of gender roles in their children would provide valid insights into understanding human growth and development. Evidently, from the interview, parents play various roles that influence the child in a manner that inculcates the roles expected of their sex.
Parents, in their caregiving roles, expose children to what it implies to be a boy or a girl early in their life. The different treatment experienced by boys and girls from their parents has a significant impact on gender socialization at a very young age. For instance, differentiated dressing according to gender particular colors introduces children to their gender roles.
Further, parents influence children’s internalization of messages pertaining role differences early in their life thereby they generate stereotypes at a young age. In this case, for instance, children understand that men have an edge in negotiating compared to women and thus, start stereotyping the two sexes. Further, participating in sex-type games like housekeeping and doll playing fosters gender socialization.
The aspects of femininity and masculinity instilled through gender socialization influence the educational outcomes of both boys and girls. Overall, boys achieve better results in the natural sciences as compared to girls while the latter excels in arts and social sciences. Therefore, the influence of the parent that instills a sense of stereotype in children affects their educational performance and career choices later in life as boys pursue the technical and natural sciences while girls prefer the humanities career path.
Peer Influence
The school setting provides a thriving environment for peer influence as children between the age of 6 and 11 years seek to establish a sense of identity (Stewart 182). Particularly, observing school-going boys in their peer groups demonstrate aspects of development in their cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and language use aspects of growth. In this concern, the behaviors depicted in their interactions uncover the level through which they influence each other’s undertakings thereby affecting their academic performance.
Notably, the children relied on each other more as compared to their parents, thus demonstrating their confidence. Additionally, the boys know what tallies as “appropriate” for them as they mostly interacted with fellows of the same sex and played games considered boyish.
Further, the boys’ self-esteem is influenced by the perceptions of their peers about them thereby determines their behavior and attitude in the school setting. Additionally, peer influence determines the child’s perceptions regarding ethical behavior and moral understanding. As such, the rebellious and conforming behaviors portrayed by the boys reveals their approach to ethics and authority.
Instructors should consider the impacts of peer influence among school-aged children to tailor the curricula in a way that facilitates their steady growth and development. In this case, the teacher could plan the lesson with the aim of inculcating the essence of upholding ethical behavior as children interact with their peers.
Further, engaging the peers in group assignments would also enhance their cognitive development collectively thereby boost their educational performance. Moreover, upholding the significance of inclusion in the learning activities of children would further foster their academic success.
Challenges in Adolescence
The adolescence phase of an individual’s process of growth and development presents various challenges that could affect them considerably. The onset of adolescence subjects teens to changes that pose adjustment difficulties, and thus they struggle with the unfamiliar issues occurring to them (Garcia 168).
The interview with the adolescent revealed that they experience stress from family life, the school setting, to the global social issues. As such, the stressors required the consideration of various coping strategies that would facilitate the restoration of emotional equilibrium amid the inevitability of the changes.
The adolescent interviewee identified the school, family members, and friends as the key stressors challenging them. Mainly, the increasing pressure pertaining academic excellence, conflict with siblings and parents, peer pressure, and problems associated with romantic relationships affected them significantly.
In response to counter the stressors, adolescents embrace adaptive mechanisms of coping that include emotion- and problem-focused approaches. The emotion-centered coping strategies entailed relaxation, seeking distractions, helplessness, withdrawal, and escape. Moreover, the adolescent embraced the problem-centered aspects of coping including seeking support and solving problems.
Comparing the interviewee’s experiences to my own during adolescence, I could identify some similarities with respect to the stressors and coping mechanisms. Specifically, I experienced more stress from the school setting as pressure for academic success piled up and the issues associated with romantic relationships.
The support offered by my older brother reduced the stress emanating from the family setting and thus, helped me to cope with the academic and romantic relationship stressors. In this regard, the environment plays a significant role in determining an adolescent’s stressors and coping mechanisms as seen in the comparison between the interviewee’s and my experiences during the transition.
Employment Caregiving Balance
Striking a balance between employment commitments and caregiving has been challenging thereby influencing the growth and development course of the child besides causing stress to the parent (Hilbrecht et al. 460).
Since upholding quality parenting holds relevance, career demands could jeopardize the successful development of the child’s emotional, cognitive, physical, and social life aspects of growth. Creating adequate time for realizing equilibrium in handling the employment and caregiving obligations posed a great challenge as per the interviewee’s situation.
In this concern, the working caregiver needs to develop strategies that would create time for the fulfillment of their caregiving obligations (McPherson et al. 194). The interviewee said that she would talk to the Human Resources manager in a bid to make them understand her situation and options.
Therefore, altering the working hours allowed her to attend to her parenting responsibilities in the mornings as she reported to work in the afternoon or evening schedules. Further, she could also take leave to achieve a balance between employment and caregiving duties.
Full-time employment endeavors of the caregiver before the first birthday of the child could affect their development to a significant degree. As such, poor caregiving patterns subject children to weak cognitive development thereby undermine their intellectual capabilities, thus undesirable performance at school. Additionally, poor parenting due to employment commitments could induce behavioral problems in the children resulting in unethical practices at school thereby affecting their academic achievement negatively.
Therefore, when the caregiver engages in full-time work commitments when the child is still an infant, a period considered crucial for emotional attachment and cognitive growth, the likelihood of the child performing poorly in academics heightens.
Works Cited
Berns, Roberta. Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support, Scarborough: Nelson Education, 2012. Print.
Else-Quest, Nicole, Ashley Higgins, Carlie Allison, and Lindsay Morton. “Gender Differences in Self-Conscious Emotional Experience: A Meta-Analysis.” Psychological bulletin 138.5 (2012): 947-54. Print.
Garcia, Carolyn. “Conceptualization and Measurement of Coping during Adolescence: A Review of the Literature.” Journal of Nursing Scholarship 42.2 (2010): 166-185. Print.
Hilbrecht, Margo, Susan Shaw, Laura Johnson, and Jean Andrey. “‘I’m Home for the Kids’: Contradictory Implications for Work–Life Balance of Teleworking Mothers.” Gender, Work & Organization 15.5 (2008): 454-476. Print.
McPherson, Christine, Keith Wilson, Livia Chyurlia, and Charles Lecrerc. “The Balance of Give And Take in Caregiver–Partner Relationships: An Examination of Self-Perceived Burden, Relationship Equity, and Quality Of Life from the Perspective of Care Recipients Following Stroke.” Rehabilitation Psychology 55.2 (2010): 194-198. Print.
Stewart, Endya. “School Structural Characteristics, Student Effort, Peer Associations, and Parental Involvement the Influence of School-and Individual-Level Factors on Academic Achievement.” Education and Urban Society 40.2 (2008): 179-204. Print.