Question

What role does the family play in a child’s relationship with peers during middle childhood? How do parents foster or inhibit friendship formation for their children? What are some important distinctions between parent-child and peer relationships at this period of life? Are friends at this point of your life more similar or different than your parents?

Answer 1

Family plays a major role in improvement in the relationship with peers in the middle childhood period. Parents can help in moulding the outlook of children towards behaving with others in a manner that does not violate the right side others and treats them with dignity. It can also help in shaping the attitudes and Development of self esteem.

Parents can foster healthy friendships by educating them on how to take an initiative and remain faithful in social relationships and how one should treat others the way one would want to be treated. The concerns on the child must be acknowledged and doubts must be clarified. They can inhibit the same by being negligent, unsupportive or by stereotyping a particular group.

Parents child relationships in middle childhood tend to be in a phase where children require reassurance as well adequate autonomy and space to themselves. They require guidance and also need acknowledgement and respect for their beliefs. They develop a relationship with their peers in a different way, where they are more likely to disclose to the same sex, and spend their time in activities during their social interactions.

Friends at this point of time, are similar to ones parents in a way that can provide social support and encouragement in various ways but can also Ben different from them in ways that makes them more appealing for self disclosure in many of the cases.