The Child as Social Person

Questions about how children grow up in their social worlds are of enormous significance for parents, teachers, and society at large, as well as for children themselves. Clearly children are shaped by the social world that surrounds them but they also shape the social worlds that they, and those significant to them, encounter. But exactly how does this happen, and what can we do to ensure that it produces happy outcomes?

This book provides a critical review of the psychological literature on the development of personality, social cognition, social skills, social relations and social outcomes from birth to early adulthood. It uses Bronfenbrenner's model of the development of the person and up-to-date evidence to analyse normal and abnormal social development, prosocial and antisocial behaviour, within and across cultures. As well as outlining the theory, the book addresses applied issues such as delinquency, school failure, and social exclusion.

Using a coherent theoretical structure, The Child as Social Person examines material from across the biological and social sciences to present an integrated account of what we do and do not know about the development of the child as a social actor.

The Child as Social Person provides an integrated overview of the exciting field of developmental social psychology, and as such will be essential reading for advanced undergraduate students in psychology, education and social work, as well as postgraduates and researchers in these disciplines.

Sara Meadows works in the Graduate School of Education of the University of Bristol. As a psychologist she uses the concepts and the methods of developmental psychology as a way of understanding what children are experiencing at home and in their other social settings and the ways in which they grow up as effective social actors. Much of her current research is with the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), also known as the ‘Children of the Nineties’ study.