PSY 200: Childhood Responsibilities and Tasks in Middle Childhood

This assignment delves into the responsibilities and tasks assigned to children during middle childhood (ages 6-12), aligning with Erikson's stage of Industry vs. Inferiority. The author reflects on their own childhood experiences with chores and responsibilities, then imagines their approach as a parent, detailing the types of family-related tasks they would assign. The author emphasizes the importance of involving children in household chores like cooking and cleaning, promoting skill development and interpersonal relationships. They also discuss the significance of fostering a helping nature, encouraging self-reliance, and limiting screen time to cultivate a well-rounded child. The author also addresses the potential impact of family size and gender on task assignments, advocating for gender-neutral responsibilities to avoid discrimination. Finally, the assignment highlights the reduced responsibilities in nuclear families compared to joint families, where children often assist extended family members.

RUNNING HEAD: CHILDHOOD
PSYCHOLOGY
CHILD PSYCHOLOGY

CHILDHOOD 1
1. Middle childhood (6 to 12) is a beautiful phase of an individual as one has to fulfill
fewer responsibilities and chores in daily living. The children develop new skills for
building healthy and social relationships (Lerner, Liben, & Mueller, 2015). One of the
key responsibilities of children is to regularly attend the school to learn new skills and
gain academic knowledge. They also have to complete the work assigned by their
teachers in primary schools. They have to sleep timely and strictly obey to their
parents and elders. Additionally, they have to take active participation in physical
sports activities to raise their immunity and metabolism (Koffka, 2013).
2. A parent has a high responsibility towards the children as they are the guardian. As a
parent, I wish to make my child highly responsible to assist in building a bright future.
I expect my children to take active participation in household chores with his/her
guardian. It will allow him to gain brief knowledge about cooking, and cleaning. It
will provide dual benefit as it will help in developing new skill and secondly it will
enable in developing friendly interpersonal relation between the child and the
guardian. I expect the child to show minor care for their younger sibling and
guardians as it will develop helping nature of the child. Additionally, I will assign a
task to take an initiative to fulfill most of their personal chores by themselves and
avoid being dependent on parents for minor work like bathing and dressing. It will
assist in making the child self-dependent. Additionally, I will expect that the child
will participate in daily activities like eating food collectively with their parents and
avoid the usage of electronic media (Smartphones and television). These minor
responsibilities will contribute in raising a skilled child with strong personality
(Piaget, 2015).
3. There will be differences in task in response to family size but not sex of the child.
The roots of discrimination among the children generates from the childhood itself.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the children will be assigned the
responsibility to assist in cooking, cleaning, and eradicating dependence for bathing
and dressing. These activities are not gender biased as both the gender should know
the art of cooking, cleaning to sustain them. Therefore, the parents must not divide all
tasks by the sex of the child as it will develop insecure and discriminatory feeling on
the child’s mind and it will lay a negative impact on his/her behavior. The child’s
responsibilities minimizes in nuclear family and vice versa. This is because the
availability of fewer members in nuclear family directly reduces their family related
chores and responsibilities. In joint family, they have to assist their grandparents,

CHILDHOOD 2
aunts and uncles and take care of their paternal siblings as well. They have to help the
grandparents and spent time with them to gain information about their experience in
previous decades (Mash & Barkley, 2014). Therefore, it can be stated that the
responsibilities remain almost same but increase in relation to members.

CHILDHOOD 3
Bibliography
Koffka, K. (2013). The growth of the mind: An introduction to child-psychology. Routledge.
Lerner, R., Liben, L., & Mueller, U. (2015). Handbook of child psychology and
developmental science, cognitive processes. John Wiley & Sons.
Mash, E., & Barkley, R. (2014). Child psychopathology. Guilford Publications.
Piaget, J. (2015). The Grasp of Consciousness (Psychology Revivals): Action and Concept in
the Young Child. Psychology Press.