Child Development Worldwide

Description

An expansive, topical approach helps students understand how development is studied today

• Throughout the text, the authors teach students to think culturally about development. Transcending the old “nature versus nurture” division, the text shows how humans have evolved to be an incomparably cultural species, and explains the ways that genes and the environment influence one another.
• The authors present a broad scope of child development, with in-depth coverage from prenatal development through middle childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. Their contemporary perspective on when children may be considered “grown up” helps students to understand how the meanings of childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood are dependent upon cultural and historical circumstances.
• Child Development Worldwide covers a rich array of contexts — what they look like in today’s world and how they intersect. This contextual focus helps students to understand the many environmental and cultural factors that influence development.

Engaging features illuminate key concepts and draw students into the course

• Breaking Developments articles writen by the authors provide succinct summaries of landmark new research and significant cultural trends that have direct relevance to child development theory and research.
• Cultural Focus features highlight how culture impacts various aspects of development, such as breast-feeding practices, or what it means to be a teenager in Kathmandu. Students read an overview of the topic and then answer a review question.
• Education Focus features highlight the application of child development research to educational settings, both in and outside of school. Students read an overview of the topic and then respond to a review question.
• Research Focus features offer a detailed description of a research study, including its premises, methods, results, and limitations. Multiple choice questions at the end of the feature ensure that students have a solid understanding of the research study and methodology.
• Critical thinking questions encourage students to think more deeply about a developmental topic, often focusing on the role of culture in child development.
• First-person quotes from children, adolescents, and emerging adults from around the world yield insights into other individuals’ perspectives, which adds authenticity to the presentation of theories and research findings.

Child Development Worldwide is also available via Revel™, an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience. Learn more.

Table of Contents

1. Child Development Worldwide: Who, How, and Why
   • 1.1 A Worldwide Profile of Humanity Today
   • 1.2 Humans: The Cultural and Global Species
   • 1.3 The Field of Child Development: Emergence and Expansion
   • 1.4 How We Study Child Development
   • 1.5 Why We Study Child Development Worldwide
   • CULTURAL FOCUS: Niger and the Netherlands: An Up-Close Look at the Demographic Divide
   • EDUCATION FOCUS: Falling Behind? College Graduation in the United States
   • RESEARCH FOCUS: Darwin’s Diary: A Case Study
2. Genetics and Prenatal Development
   • 2.1 Genetic Basics
   • 2.2 Genes and the Environment
   • 2.3 Genes and Individual Development
   • 2.4 Prenatal Development
   • 2.5 Prenatal Brain Development
   • 2.6 Prenatal Care
   • 2.7 Pregnancy Problems
   • CULTURAL FOCUS: Pregnancy and Prenatal Care Across Cultures
   • EDUCATION FOCUS: Biology, Sexism, and Educational Exclusion
   • RESEARCH FOCUS: Adopted Twin Studies: The Story of Oskar and Jack
3. Birth and the Newborn Child
   • 3.1 The Stages of Birth
   • 3.2 Birth Across Times and Places
   • 3.3 The Neonate’s Health
   • 3.4 The Neonate’s Physical and Perceptual Functioning
   • 3.5 Caring for the Neonate: Is Breast Best?
   • 3.6 Social and Emotional Aspects of Care for the Neonate and Mother
   • CULTURAL FOCUS: Breast-Feeding Practices Across Cultures
   • EDUCATION FOCUS: Getting a Better Start in Life: Improving the First Learning Environment
   • RESEARCH FOCUS: Breast-Feeding Benefits: Separating Correlation and Causation
4. Physical Development and Health
   • 4.1 Bodily Growth and Change
   • 4.2 Motor Development and Physical Functioning
   • 4.3 Health and Sleep
   • 4.4 Health and Nutrition
   • 4.5 Preventing Mortality: Diseases and Injuries
   • CULTURAL FOCUS: Is Contemporary American Culture Setting off a Genetic Tripwire for Obesity?
   • EDUCATION FOCUS: Physical Education: A Brain Tonic for Children
   • RESEARCH FOCUS: Graduated Driver Licensing
5. Cognition: Stages, Processes, and Social Learning
   • 5.1 Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
   • 5.2 Post-Piagetian Approaches to Cognitive Development
   • 5.3 Information-Processing Approaches
   • 5.4 Social Cognition
   • 5.5 Sociocultural Theories of Cognitive Development
   • CULTURAL FOCUS: Object Permanence Across Cultures
   • EDUCATION FOCUS: Bringing Theories of Cognitive Development into the Classroom
   • RESEARCH FOCUS: Spontaneous Response Tasks and Theory of Mind
6. Learning Languages
   • 6.1 Languages in Today’s World
   • 6.2 Evolutionary and Biological Bases of Language
   • 6.3 Theories of Language Development
   • 6.4 First Sounds and Words
   • 6.5 From First Words to Cultural Competence
   • 6.6 Multilingualism
   • CULTURAL FOCUS: Cultural Views on Speaking to Infants and Toddlers
   • EDUCATION FOCUS: Early Multilingual Education Across Contexts
   • RESEARCH FOCUS: Observing Everyday Storytelling
7. Emotions, Self, and Identity
   • 7.1 Temperament: Individual Differences in Emotion and Self-Regulation
   • 7.2 Emotions
   • 7.3 Self-Conceptualization
   • 7.4 Self-Esteem
   • 7.5 Identity
   • CULTURAL FOCUS: The Features of Emerging Adulthood
   • EDUCATION FOCUS: Praise, Motivation, and Academic Achievement
   • RESEARCH FOCUS: Measuring Temperament
8. Gender: Biology, Socialization, and Cultural Change
   • 8.1 Development of a Gendered Self
   • 8.2 Gender in Traditional Cultures
   • 8.3 Gender Comparisons in Developed Countries
   • 8.4 Reasons for Gender Differences: Theories and Research
   • 8.5 Beyond the Binary
   • 8.6 Globalization and the Future of Gender
   • CULTURAL FOCUS: Gender Among Latinas
   • EDUCATION FOCUS: Gender in the Preschool and Primary School Classroom
   • RESEARCH FOCUS: Meta-Analyses of Gender Differences
9. Family Relationships: Foundations and Variations
   • 9.1 The First Social Relationship: Two Theories
   • 9.2 Attachment to Parents
   • 9.3 The Parent-Child Relationship
   • 9.4 Problems in the Parent-Child Relationship
   • 9.5 Siblings and Grandparents
   • 9.6 Changing Families
   • CULTURAL FOCUS: Stranger Anxiety Across Cultures
   • EDUCATION FOCUS: Enhancing Attachment in Child Welfare Institutions
   • RESEARCH FOCUS: Early Child Care and Its Consequences
10. Peers, Friends, and Romantic Partners
    • 10.1 Social Contexts Beyond the Family: Two Theories
    • 10.2 Play with Peers and Friends
    • 10.3 Peers
    • 10.4 Friends
    • 10.5 Problem Behaviors Among Friends
    • 10.6 Romantic Partners
    • CULTURAL FOCUS: Friendship and Play in Middle Childhood Across Cultures
    • EDUCATION FOCUS: School Intervention Programs for Rejected Children
    • RESEARCH FOCUS: Shyness in China and Canada: Cultural Interpretations
11. School and Work: Developing Cultural Skills
    • 11.1 Preschool
    • 11.2 From Primary Education to Tertiary Education
    • 11.3 School and Other Contexts
    • 11.4 Intelligence Tests and School Readiness
    • 11.5 Work
    • CULTURAL FOCUS: Primary School Across Cultures
    • EDUCATION FOCUS: School Climate
    • RESEARCH FOCUS: The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children: Creating a Measurement
12. Media: Uses, Risks, and Benefits
    • 12.1 Media Prevalence
    • 12.2 Media and Other Contexts of Socialization
    • 12.3 Theories of Media Influence
    • 12.4 Uses of Media
    • 12.5 Risks of Media
    • 12.6 Benefits of Media
    • 12.7 Globalization and Media
    • CULTURAL FOCUS: “Teenagers” in Kathmandu, Nepal
    • EDUCATION FOCUS: Panwapa: An International Multimedia Educational Program
    • RESEARCH FOCUS: Ethiopian Children Receive Laptops
13. Meaning Systems: Moral, Religious, and Civic Development
    • 13.1 Moral Development: Emotions and Socialization
    • 13.2 Moral Development: Reasoning and Identity
    • 13.3 Religious and Spiritual Development
    • 13.4 Civic Development
    • 13.5 Political Conflict and Extremism
    • 13.6 Values in Today’s and Tomorrow’s World
    • CULTURAL FOCUS: Religion in the Lives of African American Adolescents
    • EDUCATION FOCUS: Schools as Civic Institutions
    • RESEARCH FOCUS: Beyond Deficiency: Civic Development in Immigrant Youth

You can purchase this loose-leaf print reference to complement RevelTM Child Development Worldwide. This is an optional purchase.

This companion text presents a topical examination of all stages of development – from prenatal development through middle childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood – through the engaging lens of culture. Cross-cultural examples integrated throughout the narrative reveal the impact of cultural factors both in the US and around the world. Authors Lene Arnett Jensen and Jeffrey Jensen Arnett emphasize culture to foster a thorough, balanced view of development that prepares you to face challenges in our diverse and globalized world – whether you travel the globe or remain in your hometown.

Lene Arnett Jense n is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology in 1994 from the University of Chicago, and did a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California — Berkeley. Prior to coming to Clark University, she taught at the University of Missouri and Catholic University of America.
She aims through scholarship and professional collaboration to move the discipline of psychology toward understanding development both in terms of what is universal and what is cultural. She terms this a “cultural-developmental approach.” Her research addresses moral development and cultural identity formation. Together with her students, she has conducted research in countries such as Denmark, India, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States. Her publications include New Horizons in Developmental Theory and Research (2005, with Reed Larson, Jossey-Bass/Wiley), I mmigrant Civic Engagement: New Translations (2008, with Constance Flanagan, Taylor-Francis), Bridging Cultural and Developmental Psychology: New Syntheses for Theory, Research and Policy (2011, Oxford University Press), the Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture (2015, Oxford University Press), Moral Development in a Global World: Research from a Cultural-Developmental Perspective (2015, Cambridge University Press), and the Oxford Handbook of Moral Development (forthcoming, Oxford University Press).
From 2004 to 2015, she was editor-in-chief for the journal New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development (with Reed Larson). She served as program chair for the 2012 biennial conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence (with Xinyin Chen), and recently served on awards committees for the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD) and the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA). For additional information, please see lenearnettjensen.com.
Jeffrey Jensen Arnet t is a Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology in 1986 from the University of Virginia, and did three years of postdoctoral work at the University of Chicago. From 1992–1998 he was Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Missouri, where he taught a 300-student lifespan human development course every semester. In the fall of 2005, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
His primary scholarly interest for the past 20 years has been in emerging adulthood. He coined the term, and he has conducted research on emerging adults concerning a wide variety of topics, involving several different ethnic groups in American society. He is the Founding President and Executive Director of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA; www.ssea.org). From 2005 to 2014 he was the editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research, and currently he is on the Editorial Board of JAR and five other journals. He has published many theoretical and research papers on emerging adulthood in peer-reviewed journals, as well as the books Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach (2018, 6th edition, Pearson), and Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties (2015, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press). For more information on Dr. Arnett and his research, see jeffreyarnett.com.
Lene and Jeff live in Worcester, Massachusetts with their twins, Miles and Paris.

For courses in Child Development which take a topical approach
 
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An expansive, topical approach to how culture impacts development
Revel Child Development Worldwide presents a topical examination of all stages of development — from prenatal development through middle childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood — through the engaging lens of culture. Cross-cultural examples integrated throughout the narrative reveal the impact of cultural factors both in the US and around the world. Authors Lene Arnett Jensen and Jeffrey Jensen Arnett emphasize culture to foster a thorough, balanced view of development that prepares students to face challenges in our diverse and globalized world — whether they travel the globe or remain in their hometowns.

Learn more about Revel.

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