Understanding Psychosocial Development in Children: A Detailed Essay

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of psychosocial development in children, focusing on the pre-school growth stage (2-5 years) and the establishment of autonomy. It highlights Erikson's theory to explain the stages of psychosocial development, emphasizing the importance of trust, self-recognition, and favorable self-concept. The essay further explores factors influencing psychosocial development, including the child's health, physical environment, and emotional bonds. It underscores the significance of understanding psychosocial development for nursing students, enabling them to provide effective care and guidance to parents. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing unresolved conflicts during this stage to foster positive decision-making and leadership skills.

Running head: PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 1
Psychosocial Development in child
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Introduction
The psychosocial development stage for children aged between 2-5 years is referred to as
the pre-school growth stage where the child starts to discover the environment around them.
During this stage, the baby establishes a sense of autonomy through association with different
members of the family including relatives and friends. The child identifies himself/herself as a
person and develops a favorable self-concept. At this stage, children begin to realize that they are
authors of their own actions. Initially, the child does not deliberately act upon the world but react
to it, for the instant the child does not suck when it intends but rather when stimulation is
provided. At this stage self-trust and self-belief start to show up. At this stage, the parent is
advised to be less protective of the child. The level at which parents protect the child will affect
the ability of the child to realize autonomy.
Psychosocial development
Psychosocial development is a process of continuous interaction between the child and
the surrounding. During this stage, the child acquires social attitude, relevant skills and also
several changes occurs in their body. The psychosocial development is mostly predisposed by
environment and physical growth. Body and brain changes assist in determining the identity of
the children and their association with each other. Intellectual development is an essential feature
because it helps a child to gain the ability to handle challenges (Newman, & Newman, 2017). As
it can be observed in the case study, Julie can be able to effectively communicate her needs by
way of interacting with caregivers. Erikson theory is of great importance in understanding the
stages of psychosocial development. According to the theory, the characteristics of
understanding psychosocial development may include; life history, current development stage,
historical and cultural factors, and physical weakness and strength. Erikson enumerated stages

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that depict how children increase psychomotor control, increase brain functioning and develop
physically as their complexity increases cognitively (Berk, 2017).
Physical and cognitive changes assist the children to grow psychosocially, form
independent identities and associate with others effectively. According to Erikson theory
psychosocial development begins during the stage of trust versus mistrust. At this stage, a child
needs love and security from the guardians and parent so as to create a sense of trust and develop
a favorable self-security for own self and others. The predicament of autonomy versus shame
and doubt psychosocial development occurs at the age of 1-3 years. During this stage, there is the
development of a sense of self-concept through interactions with family members and friends
(Blatt, & Bless, 2013). When an individual demonstrates disreputable behavior in future which
he or she could correct in development stages is a clear inference of the psychosocial
development. For instance, when a child receives adequate toilet training between the age of 12
months and 3 years, he or she will develop a sense of self-recognition and favorable self-concept.
Self-recognition helps the child to fully identify himself or herself with peers, which improves
peer relations and reduce humiliation (LeBlanc, et al 2012). As a result, the child will eventually
develop a sagacity of voluntary control and satisfaction. Without appropriate toilet training
during the early stage, a child might have complications later in life such as being stingy,
mistrust, growing to be a rigid person or being unable to develop a sense of self-awareness.
Parents and peers play key parts in the psychosocial development of any child. Children are able
to acquire traits of life like social-emotional skills, problem-solving skills, and language through
the communication with peers and parents. Parents are able to notice unusual behavior in the
child through with the child. For instance, in the case scenario, Victoria was able to notice that
Julie did not acquire the toilet training skills like other children. (McLeod, 2013)

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Factors that influence psychosocial development
A number of autonomous features of environmental and psychosocial factors exist which
affects child psychosocial development. Theories have been developed to clarify how aspects
within the child and the environmental impacts on the child development and growth. The theory
outlines different levels of environment that a child interacts with which include mesosystem,
macrosystem, ecosystem, and microsystem. The factors which affect child psychosocial
development are; health of the child, physical environment and emotional bonds (Cherry, 2017).
The health of the child
The health of a child which can be determined through nutrition status is very important
for the development and well-being of the individual child. The child who has unhealthy
conditions generally experiences a delay in psychosocial developmental characteristics and in
most cases, they portray different development cycle as compared to others. The psychosocial
disorders which are shown by unhealthy child include; lack of sleep and delayed motor in a
child. These conditions may result from poor cleanliness levels and parents experiencing
difficulties when trying to access hospitals. Improving nutrition, promote a clean environment,
and preventing illness are important steps to take in ensuring an enhanced psychosocial
development (Sharma, & Cockerill, 2014).
Physical environment
An essential factor that improves a child's psychosocial development of provision of the
favorable environment. Parents need to establish a conducive environment so that the children
can develop better and desirable skills which will be helpful in future endeavors. Parents and
caregivers need to offer chances which will allow children to discover the environment that is

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outside their home and within their homes. Positive and comfortable home environment will help
the child to effectively concentrate on his or her studies for a better outcome. Noisy and crowded
environment adversely affects the personality of the child and should be avoided at all cost by
the parent and guardians. Vygotsky's developed a theory which revealed that community plays
an important part in social relations, hence, the setup of the community ought to be favorable in
order to ensure that children acquire the necessary cultural values (Turns, & Kimmes, 2014).
Emotional bonds
At birth, the child encounters with the home setting environment for the first time in their
life. Emotional stimulations which the child experiences through feeling and seeing are likely to
form the child's personality. The bond that is established between the children and parents
determines how children will express their love and fear. Emotional bonds between child and
parents ought to be stable so that the child can feel important and valued at home. Parents and
children relationship can be improved through spending more time together and parents showing
love to the children at all times. Children may fail to interact effectively with others due to lack
of emotional bond with their parents (Keenan, Evans, & Crowley, 2016).
The significance of psychosocial development knowledge
Understanding Psychosocial development is important for nursing students because it
gives a perception to search for approaches that can be used to enhance child growth and
development. The nurse can provide an innovative care plan to improve the situation, in case he
encounters a child with developmental challenges. It is necessary for a nurse student to
familiarize themselves with the psychosocial development because it will them to provide

PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT STAGES 6
sufficient child development guide to the parents and guardians to help them face psychosocial
development challenges (Lerwick, 2013).
Conclusion
Psychosocial development is an essential part of life which entails several changes in the
child. Psychosocial development is essential because it assists a child to deal with issues of every
stage in life. Success in psychosocial development will lead to the virtue of persistence, which is
seen in styles of making a decision, the courage to initiate activities, projects and ideas initiation,
and leading others that the child exhibit later in life. The unresolved conflicts at this age lead an
individual to be ruthless and he or she becomes less passionate, uncaring and exploitive.
Therefore parents should be willing to take necessary corrective measures against their children
so that they propagate desired behaviors and discourage the unwanted behaviors.

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References
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LeBlanc, A. G., Spence, J. C., Carson, V., Connor Gorber, S., Dillman, C., Janssen, I., &
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Turns, B. A., & Kimmes, J. (2014). "I'm NOT the Problem!" Externalizing Children's
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