Critical Evaluation: Roles of Parents, Siblings, Peers in Development

This essay provides a critical evaluation of the roles that parents, siblings, and peers play in children's development, highlighting both positive and negative influences. It examines how parents, as the child's first teachers, shape behavior and emotional expression through attachment and parenting styles. The essay also discusses the crucial role of siblings in creating a social environment that fosters social skills, emotional support, and the development of competitiveness and understanding. Furthermore, it explores the impact of peers as social agents who mold behavior, beliefs, and social skills, while also acknowledging the potential for negative influences such as peer pressure and exposure to destructive behaviors. The analysis concludes that while all three factors are essential for child development, care and values are paramount in ensuring a child's happiness and well-being during this critical stage.

Social and Development psychology

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“Critically evaluate the role that parents, siblings, and peers play in children’s development”
Child development is a process of learning, and mastering skills like skipping,
walking, sitting, and tying shoes, Children learn the skills which is called the development
time. Children learn skills from the people who live near their surroundings such as parents,
siblings, and friends. These are the people who contribute to the development process of
children. Children skills are developed in the five main areas of development such as Speech,
language development, cognitive development, Fine motor skill development, Social and
emotional development, and gross motor skill development. Each factor contributes their role
in the development of children and these factors are performed by the parents (Thibaut,
2017). The relation of parents, friends, and siblings with the children is called peer relation.
Peer relationship has a positive and negative effect on children development. In this paper,
the discussion is made on the topic of “the role of parents, siblings, and peers plays in
children development”.
Role of parents in development of child
A parent is the child’s first teachers which always remain their best teacher
throughout life. Parents play a major role in childhood development because they are the only
one who always stays with them. It is observed that children have more attached to their
mothers who help in developing the nature and behaviour of children. The child uses the
mother’s facial expressions as a good way to express the feelings and information. Behaviour
and way of speaking are developing with the nature of the mother. There are many factors
that affect the development of the child in which the first element is the attachment.
Attachment of parents with their children affects the development of the child which states
the secure or unsecured bond with their parent (Sampson, 2017). Nature of attachment of
parent defines the behaviour or it can be said that the nature of the attachment of parents with

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the children affects the behaviour of children. The second element which contributes to the
development of a child that is the parenting style and that is divided into three components
such as authoritarian, permissive and authoritative. It has been seen that the Permissive
parents have self-reliance, and are extremely immature which describes the nature of the
child as immature, show little initiative, and anxious (Pinquart, 2017). Authoritative parents
are demanding and responsive and they are very strict for their child. Authoritative parents
establish rules on them but also explain the reasons for rules. Authoritative parents are always
encouraging their children to be independent but at certain limit because they have controls
on their actions.
It is observed that children with high self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence
have authoritative parents. It is essential to set the right example in front of children because
children learn everything they see and do into their everyday lives. A negative example can
be an obstacle to a child development and can lead to destructive behaviour. Conflicts
between the parents have a negative impact on the development of the child. For example-
Divorce is a stressful experience for the children during the development age. The pain feels
by the children at the beginning of Divorce is composed the sense of vulnerability as the
family disintegrates. They have a fear of loss of intact family while breaking the family and
strong feeling of powerlessness. It states the negative example affects the development of the
child in the life of people (Muller, 2018).
Role of Siblings in Child development
The relationship between the siblings is one of the long-lasting relationships for
children. The relationship between the children is always a friendly relationship during the
childhood and adolescent relationship. Siblings have a major role in the development of a
child. Siblings provide the most crucial environment for each other within the home setting.

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The nature of being comfortable with people and loud surroundings will give the confidence
of speaking to the child which is received by the child from siblings. The relation of siblings
is similar with the friends who teach the child to live free and also helps in facing the issues
of life.
Siblings share the strong bond which develops the feeling of understanding of
relationships. The feelings of jealousy and competitiveness are developed in the behaviour of
a child. This feeling of jealousy occurs during the childhood and adolescence because of the
strong amount of jealousy towards a younger sibling when they receive the full amount of
attention from the parents. The role of the elder sibling is not defining the friendly
relationship but it also develops the hobbies and raises the different interest in different
activities (Olszewski-Kubilius, 2018). The choices of siblings, parent, and friends made the
future of child are easier and bright. The relation of siblings is defined in the 5 components
that is pal relation, caregiving, criticising, competing and spontaneous. Each relation
contributes differently to the development of the child. The criticising factor of Sibling
teaches the child to deal with the difficult situations.
The role of siblings is important because these feelings of competitiveness and other
help the child to understand the efficiency of its own action, and aware them for their own
nature and beliefs. It also helps to aware the child for the things which make them happy and
what irritates them. Siblings create the social environment that teaches the child to cope with
own reactions and makes them capable of recognising the other’s reactions too. Siblings
provide the emotional support in difficult situations especially when the negative step was
taken by the parents such as divorce that time siblings support each other and make the
situation easier. It can be said that siblings are crucial in shaping social skills (Steinberg, &
Darling, 2017).

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Role of Peers in Child development
Peer relation refers to people who are equal in age, education, and social class with
the child. Children teach a lot of things from them every step in life. Peers also equally
contribute to the development of the child as siblings give their time. Peers teach the social
skills which include negotiation, cooperation, and compromise. These skills aware the child
to cope up with their own issues and it makes the child independent. It also develops the
emotions which teach the child to control emotions at the right time in the right place (Moore,
2017). With the social skills, the child is able to solve their own conflicts. Peers play the role
as social agents that help to mold children’s behaviour and beliefs. Peer plays the role as role
models who provide build the acceptable behaviour, show the truth of life, and teach them
what is admirable and what is cool. The conflicts between them and the feeling of
competitiveness develop new ideas and perspectives (Reitz, Zimmermann, Hutteman, Specht,
& Neyer, 2014).
Peers are one for the child who acts in a way which is appropriate for their age,
gender, and ethnic group. Peers create the environment for each other that is not appropriate
for them which include gossip, ostracism, and ridicule. It is observed that the peer
relationship also negatively contribute to the development of the child. It can be said that it is
mixed bad which has a positive and negative effect on the development of the child. A
common misconception is that peer pressure is a bad thing because the peer pressure
influences the child to change their attitude, values, and behaviour. It is necessary to develop
the child with positive vibes and good manners so that they have a good future (Hollifield, &
Conger, 2015). It is essential for the parents to tell the child who is wrong or who is right for
them because the wrong path is also shown by the peers. It encourages the child for
aggression, criminal activity, and other illegal work. The child lies from their parents due to
negative feedback of the child. Child development is the age where the child is getting

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attracted towards the activity in which they can enjoy their life but which is destroy their
future such as drugs, alcohol. Many of the peers encourage the child for drugs and alcohol.
Children get the strong set of values and behavioural standard from their families but they did
not get the same values and standard from the company of peers (Endedijk, Cillessen, Cox,
Bekkering, & Hunnius, 2015).
Parents have to provide the high values and standards to their children so that they can
select the appropriate company who are similar to themselves in motives. The style of
behaviour, academic achievement, and leisure time activities should be similar to the children
activities (Cowie, & Sharp, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it has been concluded that the parents, siblings, peers play a
major role in child development. Children learn a lot of things from their surroundings and
the existing people who live near them. Children learn everything in the stage of development
such as the way of speaking, language and facial expression. It is observed that the parents
are the best teacher for the child; the relation of parents affects the child. The strong bond
between the parents has a positive impact on the development of the child. In a divorce
situation, children suffer pain and it has negatively affected the development of the child.
Siblings develop the social environment which builds the social skills in children. It helps
them to recognise the right or wrong things for them which are essential for their bright
future. The conflicts between the siblings develop the feelings of jealousy which is a bad
thing for the student. Peers are the role models for children because it is mixed bag they teach
and encourage towards the good things but it also develops the interest of wrong things which
destroy the future. Although, the role of parents, siblings, and peers is necessary for the
development of a child it is also essential to keep in mind that the children look good in the

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eyes of themselves. Care and values are the sources which provide the happiness to child
during the development stage.

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