1. Socialization in Late Childhood
Submitted to:
Princy T. Sebastian,
School of Social Work,
Marian College,
Kuttikkanam.
Submitted by:
Bimal Antony,
1st
MSW,
School of Social Work,
Marian College,
Kuttikkanam.
Date of Submission:
26th
October 2010.

2. 2Socialization in Late Childhood
Introduction
Late childhood extends from the age of six years to the time the individual becomes
sexually mature. At both its beginning and end, late childhood is marked by conditions that
profoundly affect a child's personal and social adjustments. Although it is possible to mark off
the beginning of late childhood fairly accurately, one cannot be so precise about the time this
period because sexual maturity - the criterion used to divide childhood from adolescence - comes
at varying ages. This is also the period when they start attending educational institutions in a big
way.
Socialization is the term sociologists use to describe the ways in which people learn to
conform to their society’s norms, values, and roles. Socialization occurs throughout the lifetime
as individuals learn new norms, new groups and situations. Socialization can be divided into
three major phases - primary Socialization, Secondary Socialization and Adult Socialization.
Secondary socialization occurs in late childhood and adolescence, when the child enters school
and comes under the influence of adults and peers outside the household and family
environment. Becoming socialized is one of the major developmental tasks of this period.
Process in socialization
There are three components in the process of socialization. They are as follows:
Learning to behave in socially approved ways
Every social group has its standards of what is approved behaviour for its
members. To become socialized children must not only know what this approved behaviour is,
but they must also model their own behaviour along the approved lines.
Playing approved social roles
Every social group has its own patterns of customary behaviour that are carefully
defined and are expected by members of the group.
Development of social attitudes
To become socialized, children must like people and social activities. If they do,
they will make good social adjustments and be accepted as members of the social group with
which they are defined.
Components influencing socialization in late childhood
Persons in the family’s social network, the school, and the children’s peer group join the
parents as major socialization influences. There is a gang spirit in this stage in which the major

3. 3Socialization in Late Childhood
concern is the acceptance by the age-mates in a group; there is a team spirit in play activities and
creative works.
School’s role in socialization
After children enter school and come into contact with more children than during the
preschool year, interest in family activities begins to wane. At the same time individual play
gives way to group games. Since group games require a large number of playmates, the older
child's circle of friends widens. With change in play interests comes and increasing desire to be
with, and to be accepted by, children outside the home.
A well-liked school teacher, especially one who resembles a child in some way (sex,
race, religion, ethnicity) may be taken on as a role model by a child. Sometimes a teacher will be
aware of the child’s modelling; often he or she will not. Effective schooling needs to be
measured not only by scholastic attainment but also by attitudes toward learning, classroom
behaviour, social functioning, absenteeism, continuation in education, and ultimate employment.
School features that may contribute to beneficial effects include resources, size of class,
composition of student body, degree of academic emphasis, classroom management, pupil
participation, discipline and staff.
The effect of a teacher on in-classroom social behaviour is better known than the
carryover effect of socialisation practises from class to home life. Much carryover modelling
depends on the child’s perception of the importance of the teacher’s nurturance and power. Much
also depends on how well caregivers understand, agree with, and are willing to adopt different
school socialization practices in their homes. A parent’s negative attitude toward a school may
contribute to a child’s school phobia.
Childhood gangs
The childhood gangs are a spontaneous local group having no authorization from outside
and no socially approved aim. Although adults may know that it is being organized, it is formed
by the children themselves, without support from parents, teachers, or youth leaders. It is an
attempt by children to create a society adequate to meet their needs. As such, it is a substitute for
adult society and for what that society fails to give. It offers relief from adult supervision, though
it may not be hostile to the adults in authority.
Gangs help children socialize by helping the children to learn to get along with age-mates
and to behave in a way that is socially acceptable to them. it also helps children to develop a
rational conscience and a scale of values in supplement or replace the values of parents which
children tend to accept as an "authoritarian conscience." through gang experiences, children learn
appropriate social attitudes such as how to like people and how to enjoy social life and group
activities. The gang can also help children's personal independence by giving them emotional
satisfaction from friendships with peers.

4. 4Socialization in Late Childhood
Peer interactions
Children use their friends as sounding boards and testing grounds for the values and
attitudes they have learned at home. Children become members of a peer group which will
gradually replace the family in its influence over their attitudes and behaviour. In many cases
the peer group can be more democratic than the home. Instead of rules being laid down by
authority figures, they are debated, with some or all of the group having a say in what they
should be. Home values and attitudes may be upgraded or watered down, depending on the
participants in the group.
Children increasingly turn to their peers for assistance. During late childhood, friendships
become more stable. Friends are usually of the same sex and often of the same race, religion,
culture, or socioeconomic standing in the community. Organised activities like sports tend to
strengthen friendships. When children work together, they learn new respect for each other.
Children in groups do things they would never do on their own. Peers have the potential to
influence each other for good or bad. Some children are more powerful in influencing others, and
some children are more influenced by powerful peers.
Neighbourhood interactions
Neighbours are also an essential factor in the socialization process in late childhood. This
happens as more and more parents work outside and more at-home neighbours are being asked to
watch the children after school hours until the parents return and on school holidays when
parents are out, working. Research on these section of children has suggested that while they
tend to be more independent, they may also suffer more fears, loneliness, boredom, and
depression. Helping children develop a social network in their neighbourhoods has many
beneficial effects for safety, socialization and mental health.
Technology
The influences of parents, schools, peers, and neighbours are modified, somewhat, by
machines of technology available to children. Researchers have focused more on the negative
concepts they acquire like aggression, junk food preferences, and highly sex role-typed
stereotypes than on positive behaviours like rule obedience, empathy, altruism they might learn.
It has been found that the more violent programs children watch, the more aggressive they
become in all aspects of life: conflicts with parents, fighting, and delinquent behaviours. These
section of children view the world with more suspicion and distrust and perceive violence as an
effective solution to conflict. Children also believe in the enormous presence, in all homes except
their own, of certain toys and foods.

5. 5Socialization in Late Childhood
Conclusion
Late childhood is a time when the community begins to play a much greater part in
children’s lives. Peers, neighbours and school teachers often spend as much or more time with
children as children spend with their families. With experience children develop abilities to apply
rules, reverse mental operations, see reciprocal relations, conserve, order, classify, conceive of
distances in time and space, and understand physical and psychological causation.
This period can also be accounted in the development of the preliminary stages in the
development of a social character and personality the child tries to associate with or wish to
develop.
For all these factors and with the help of all these factors the socialization process in late
childhood develops which enables the child to develop with time.
References:
Karen L. Freidberg (1987). Human Development: A Life-Span Approach, Third Edition. Boston: Jones and
Bartlett Publishers, Inc.
Elizabeth B. Hurlock (1956). Child Development, Sixth Edition. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill.
Elizabeth B. Hurlock (1959). Developmental Psychology: A Life-Span Approach, Fifth Edition. New Delhi:
Tata McGraw-Hill.