 12. Personality Development in Middle Childhood  287
sense” refers to the significant cognitive and 
social–  emotional changes that emerge dur -
ing the 5- to 7-year shift; across cultures, 
as a result of these changes, adults begin to 
focus on deliberately teaching children the 
norms, capacities, and roles of their cultures, 
including the development of compliant be -
havior and the skills necessary to carry out 
chores and the later work expected for their 
social group in adulthood. This is why it is 
during middle childhood that children start 
to “get noticed” by adults as people in their 
own right. In short, across cultures, middle 
childhood is a period of profound “ social 
learning  and social integration in a sys -
tem of roles, norms, activities, and shared 
knowledge” (Del Giudice, 2014, p. 196).
In modern, developed societies, middle 
childhood is likewise an intense period of 
learning and significant integration into the 
expectations of the broader society. Chil -
dren typically enter formal schooling at 
this time and are expected to participate in 
more structured academic activities with a 
heavy cognitive focus, are evaluated with 
more stringent standards, and are expected 
to be more independent from adults (Shiner, 
1998). Children begin to spend more time 
with peers, and their interactions with peers 
play an increasingly important role in shap -
ing the emotion regulation challenges that 
they face and the ways they view themselves 
(Rubin, Bukowski, & Bowker, 2015). In 
some cultures, children also participate in 
organized activities outside of school (e.g., 
sports, music, art, recreation, academic en -
richment; Vandell, Larson, Mahoney, & 
Watts, 2015). It is important to note that not 
all developed societies offer these academic 
and extracurricular opportunities during 
middle childhood. Indeed, in some societies 
in which children face extreme poverty, war, 
slavery, violence, or other threats, the period 
of middle childhood may no longer truly 
exist (Lancy & Grove, 2011). And in many 
developed societies, the focus on learning 
now often begins in early childhood rather 
than middle childhood (Lancy & Grove, 
2011).
In developed societies in which children 
have varied opportunities for learning dur -
ing middle childhood, children are working 
on the mastery of three particularly impor -
tant developmental tasks (Masten & Telle -gen, 2012). First, as in more traditional so -
cieties, children are working on developing 
rule-  abiding conduct,  or the ability to com -
ply with society’s norms for behavior rather 
than engage in disruptive behavior. Sec -
ond, children focus on academic achieve -
ment  in domains considered important in 
their culture. Third, children develop social 
competence with peers  by learning how to 
get along with other children and develop 
friendships. In the context of learning how 
to get along, children also learn how to en -
gage in social competition with peers as they 
jockey for status, allies, and friends (Del Gi -
udice, 2014). Children’s relative mastery of 
these three tasks shapes their competence in 
the later tasks of adolescence and adulthood, 
including the development of romantic rela -
tionships and effectiveness at work (Masten 
& Tellegen, 2012). Thus, the learning that 
takes place during the school-  age years has 
particular significance for the development 
of competence across the life course. Figure 
12.1, which depicts aspects of personality 
development in middle childhood, highlights 
this important role for school-  age children’s 
personalities in shaping their competence in 
these critical developmental tasks.
Taken together, these findings on the na -
ture of development during middle child -
hood offer several important implications 
for personality development. First, because 
of children’s increasing cognitive and social– 
emotional capacities during middle child -
hood, the personality traits that school-  age 
children display include individual differ -
ences in how they view themselves relative 
to others (e.g., their sense of being liked and 
accepted), as well as their thoughts, emo -
tions, and behaviors involving the future 
(e.g., worries about the future, capacities 
for planning and persevering over time, re -
sponsibility toward others). Second, some of 
the most important personality differences 
involve children’s behaviors and goals in the 
context of peer relationships (e.g., sociabil -
ity, motivation for social status) and in the 
context of academic work (e.g., carefulness 
in schoolwork, motivation for academic 
achievement). Third, as noted previously, 
children begin to display new personality 
differences that reflect their emerging capac -
ities for agency (McAdams, 2015). Because 
children become better able to imagine the 