Communities as Context in Middle Childhood

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In middle childhood, school-age children increase their interactions with peers, usually with same-age and same-sex friends. Peer interactions in neighborhoods or nearby playgrounds are often school-age children’s first community experiences. Although school-age children spend increasing amounts of time in out-of-school leisure activities, gender and social class distinctions shape their content (e.g., Morris & Kalil, 2006; Posner & Vandell, 1999). For example, middle-class 7- to 10-year-old boys typically spend more time in activities that enhance skill development while working-class boys spend more time in informal play, visiting relatives, or just “hanging out” (Lareau, 2000).

Parents also tend to supervise school-age children more closely if they judge their neighborhood quality to be poor, thus limiting children’s opportunities to develop social skills with peers (O’Neil, Parke, & McDowell, 2001). However, as children move through middle childhood and become increasingly involved in contexts outside the family, it becomes harder for parents to know all the details of their activities in the community (Crouter, Helms-Erikson, Updegraff, & McHale, 1999).

In the middle childhood period, many children also increase their familiarity with community organizations, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Scouts, 4H, the YWCA or YMCA, Little League, and recreational programs (e.g., Lerner, Lerner, Almerigi, Theokas, & Phelps, 2005). For example, Boys and Girls Clubs of America operates over 2,850 neighborhood clubs serving 2,800,000 children, 71% of whom live in low-income areas (Anderson-Butcher, Newsome, & Ferrari, 2003; Roffman, Pagano, & Hirsch, 2001). Youth organizations, hobbies, and arts programs effectively encourage middle- and working-class school-agers to resist delinquent behaviors (Larson, 1994). In addition, as their social context expands, school-age children acquire a sense of belonging to a wider community than their immediate neighborhoods—called social integration—and develop positive relationships with peers and adults outside the family (Larson, 1994).