The Role of Early Positive Life Experiences for Teens Potential Development - Assignment Example

Name Student Id Lecturer’s Name Date Question 1 There are a lot of implications when children are exposed either to positive or negative experiences in their early life. Positive experiences help children to have a high self-esteem because they feel loved by the society they are living in. these children feel that they are well protected and supported by their parents and those around them (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). These children brains develop in the best way possible and these children are always sharp in school and they perform well (Lerner, 2002). The brains of children with positive experience develop well and direct their brains to achieving the best. The positive experiences help children to develop very well when they are at the age of four and below because this is the age where a child is very sensitive and learns a lot of things from the environment they are living in (Li, McMurray & Stanley, 2008). In this case my child Christina has grown as a protected child because I have been very supportive and I have taken good care of since her birth (Lerner, 2002). This has helped has brain to develop in the best way possible because as compared to many children of her age she is more informed than them and very sharp in the way she responds to issues. She learns very fast and she does not forget the things she learns. Christina is always very happy and very playful and always teaches her age mates the things she learns (Lerner, 2002). There are also negative experiences that affect the children in their early stages of life and they have far reaching effects to the children. Children who have been negatively been affected by their experiences tend have different development of the brain in the best way possible (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994). Children who have negative experiences are always on the defensive mechanism because during they always feel that they are threatened (Lerner, 2002). Exposing children to environments that are frightening do not develop their brain well because they have been exposed to shocks in life. For example a child is ignored when they cry they tend to think that the environment is hostile to them. This makes their brains to be defective and their level of sharpness and learning is very slow. This cannot be compared to the children who been positively exposed like Christina because their brain has not developed in the best way possible. This can be explained by the care taken to a child from the time of their birth. Christina has received a lot of care from the people around and this has helped her brain to develop normally. There is also the level of attention that a child receive at their early stages of life tend to have a well-developed brain because they have been exposed to an open world. This means that these children can have a higher level of thinking because they have a society that is passionate about them. This means that children which have been positively exposed to the warm world which is very friendly (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). The reason behind this is that the hormones activate the appropriate part of the brain that helps the brain to develop and react to the outside world in the most appropriate. This is not the case with those children who have chronic stress when they are growing up because these children always have to scan the environment so as to identify if there are any threats in the area (Santrock, 2007). These children have the survivors’ attitude and they are not comfortable when they are around people. They take any situation as a life or death event. The reason behind this is that they did not receive care, love and support when they were in their early stages of life. Question 2 The microsystems have been very important in shaping the life of Christina as she continued to grow in her age of 6 years to 10 years. The systems which have been notable include the church, the peers, and the society that live around our family (Vander, Crandell, Crandell, 2007). Christine has been positively affected by the church because at the age of 5 years she could attend church which she did not like so much (Kail, & Cavanaugh, 2010). The reason behind this is that she was very shy. This has since changed since the age of six because the other children have been her role models and now she is very bold and no longer shy. This means that the peers have greatly influenced and affected growth and development of Christina’s brain in the best way possible because they has guided her in school and in church in all activities (Santrock, 2007). Therefore, the most important microsystem in development of Christina’s life are the religious institution and the peer because they are very much related. The reason behind this is that the same children who Christina go to school with tend to attend the same church. Some of these children are older than Christina and they have been very helpful in her growth (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). They have guided her and taught her some of the things in church and in school and in the neighbourhood. The mesosystem is also very important to the growth and development of a child. The attributes of mesosystem which have been very influential in the life of Christina include school and the church experiences (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). This relationship have contributed to the positive development of Christina’s brain in that the same friends she have in the church are the same friends they go to school with. This has made the environment so friendly to Christina and has helped her to know what is right and wrong. This relationship has helped Christina to have a good relationship with her teachers and other schoolmates. This relationship is very important for a child to have a well-developed brain (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The reason behind this is that children at the age of six to ten are very sensitive and take a lot from the environment they are living in. there is also the experiences of peer and the family relationship which has highly contributed to development of Christina’s brain. The Family have been very supportive of any relationships of Christina and her friends as long they do not have a negative influence in her behaviour. The best thing is that Christina is very sensitive and do not associate with children who are well displined (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). The exosystem is also very important because it has a lot of influence on the growth and development of a child. The reason behind this is that there are things that tend to affect the child indirectly but tend to determine how the child develops. The main exosystem factor has been raising of Clara because there is no much attention given to Christina because she is not seen as a child anymore and at times she is expected to take care of herself. This has somehow affected the growth of Christina. The major exosystem is that I have been promoted to a managerial post that would require me to move to another city. This means that the whole family will have to relocate to another town. This has highly affected Christina because she is feeling frightened because she will leave all her friend here. This has really changed her character and she is no longer happy as she was used to be (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Question 3 The resilience cycle comprises of various components which are very important for development of any child especially in their teens (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The first component is the individual strengths; this refers to how an individual is able to handle the situations which occur in their lives (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). Christina is very strong and is able to absorb most of the shocks that occur in her life. She has been very supportive to her sibling Clara. She is able to respond positively to any situation that occurs in her life. At the age of 16 years she is able to take responsibility whenever I have to travel for work related trips she takes care of her sibling. This has shown that she a very strong individuality which characterizes her resilience (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). Another component is the health behaviours and health outcomes, Christina has grown up with good health behaviours and the nurses and doctors do not have problems with her health. The health outcomes of any test she has taken have been very positive and have shown that she do not have health problems. This is different because in her early teens she had health problem that made her to have a resilient nature towards any problems that come her way during her life. Christina is very strong and do not let her health problems to hold her down and will always try to be strong even if she is seriously affected by a health problem (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). The family strengths also determine the resilient levels of an individual. This means that the families with high family strengths will have high levels of resilience. This has highly helped Christina because our family has high family strengths, the family is always held together in times of problems and we tend to give each other strength (Darbyshire, & Jackson, 2005). Christina has developed this attitude and has high levels of resilience which have helped her to cope with different situations that occur in her life. A high level of resilience in a family contributes highly to how members of such a family react and handle the situations that occur in their lives (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). Community strength is another component of the resilient cycle that contributes to the development of a child’s future and how they behave and react to situations that occur in their lives (Berk, 2006). The community have a lot of effect of the growth of a child and how they will develop in their future lives. There has been a lot of crimes in the neighbourhood which have really affected the children in the area. Christina being the eldest child in the family had to protect her sister whenever they were out there. This means that Christina could not show her fear to her little sister. This has contributed to her levels of resilient (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). Development is another component of resilient cycle and contributes highly to the growth of a child (Barnes & Rowe, 2008). Christina has highly developed into a resilient girl and do not have problems in her life. This has allowed Christina to have a well-developed brain which has grown in the best way possible. Therefore, children should be protected in the best way possible to allow them to have their brains develop in the right manner. References Barnes, M & Rowe, J 2008. Child, Youth and Family Health: Strengthening communities. Sydney: Elsevier. Berk, L. 2006. Child Develeopment. New york: Pearson Publishers. Bronfenbrenner, U & Ceci, S 1994. Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspective: a bioecological model, Psychological Review, Vol. 101, Iss. 4, pp. 568-586.   Bronfenbrenner, U. 1979. The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Darbyshire, P & Jackson, D. 2005. Using Strengths approach to understand resilience and build health capacity in families. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Kail, R. V., & Cavanaugh, J. C. 2010. The Study of Human Development. Human Development: A Life-span View (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Lerner, R. 2002, 'Life-span, action theory, life-course and bioeccological perspectives', Concepts and theories of human development, 3rd ed., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey, pp. 238-242. Li, J, McMurray, A & Stanley, F. 2008, Modernity's paradox and the structural determinants of child health and well-being, Health Sociology Review, Vol. 17, Iss. 1, pp. 64-77. Santrock, John W. 2007. A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. New York. McGraw- Hill. Vander Zanden, J. W., Crandell, T. L., Crandell, C. H. 2007..Human Development. New York: McGraw Hill. Read More