Impact of Peers and School in Middle Childhood Essay

Middle childhood is a stage in growth where the members age between six and twelve years. Sigmund Freud defines this as the latency stage where aggressive and sexual urges are introverted. Others theorists have highlighted this stage as very crucial in the development of personality, cognitive skills, inter-personal relationships and motivation. Furthermore, it is at this growth stage that peers and school have great impacts, either positive or negative, to the individual. Schools do promote the children’s competence and self-esteem since they are enthusiastic to learn and work. This enthusiasm plays a great role since it acts as a motivating factor. Due to their development in competence in social and interpersonal relationships as aforesaid, they also undergo an experience in peer orientation. If they interact with the best peers, they create a strong foundation for future adult rapports that will be healthy. The diverse relationships may lead to increased violence in schools, drug use, depression and eating disorders that negatively affect the students in the upper elementary education (Blume & Zembar, 2007). In schools, the children also learn and develop interests in other co-curricular activities such as sports, arts and music. However, as they grow, the necessary skills for achieving success in academics tend to become more sophisticated. Those who overcome these challenges end up being academic conquerors but those who are overwhelmed perform poorly in the subsequent years. One’s family at this growth stage also plays an important role especially in socialization. The parents, for instance, have the responsibility to make negotiation with the socialization agents on behalf of the child. This kind of socialization that is family-based is directly linked with the child’s deviance, either in the current life or in the future. It may lead to the child indulging in alcoholism, aggression or delinquency. However, through various reinforcement and disciplinary methodologies, the parents teach their middle-aged children on the behaviors to adopt and those to refrain from (Collins, 1984). Academically, parents motivate their children to be performers. This influences them to embrace reading and more often than not, require them to come out directly from school.