The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 12th Edition examines physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth from prenatal development through the teenage years. Kathleen Stassen Berger organizes research and developmental theories chronologically, connecting genetic, family, cultural, and social influences for students in psychology, education, and related helping professions.
Inside this title
Chronological coverage from prenatal development through adolescence
Current listed price $33.99Regular price $95.00Digital ebook
Berger follows developmental periods in sequence, examining how biological growth, thinking, and social relationships interact. Classic perspectives associated with Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erikson are discussed alongside research on genetics, brain development, and environmental influences. Culture and socioeconomic circumstances provide context for differences in children's experiences.
Topics include attachment, parenting, learning, bullying, screen use, and adolescent risk-taking. Research and application features connect developmental concepts with everyday settings, while review questions and self-check material support course study. Undergraduates in child development and developmental psychology are the primary audience; education, nursing, counseling, and social work readers can also use its chronological account to examine development during childhood and adolescence.
Study guide included
Inside The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 12th Edition.
Berger traces physical, cognitive, and social growth from conception to the teenage years, then extends the account into emerging adulthood. Each stage pairs biology with family, school, and cultural context, and the text keeps reminding readers that group findings rarely settle questions about one particular child.
The book opens with research methods, theoretical traditions, genetics, and prenatal life before moving through infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Within each period, biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial chapters appear side by side so that bodily change, reasoning, and relationships can be considered together. Berger includes competing interpretations and concrete cases, and she asks readers to check how evidence was produced. An epilogue on emerging adulthood shows how the transition into adult roles varies with resources, institutions, and family obligations, and why a single timetable fits few people.
Reading research methods and theory
Early chapters explain how observation, surveys, and experiments produce different kinds of claims, and why age comparisons may mix cohort effects with real change. Longitudinal designs follow the same children but cost time and risk attrition. Several theoretical families — psychoanalytic, learning, cognitive, sociocultural, evolutionary — are presented as toolkits for generating questions rather than as competing verdicts.
Match design to claim
Weigh several rival explanations
Note who was studied
Ask what a theory predicts
Part I, Chapters 1–2
Genes, pregnancy, and the first years
The text separates inherited information from observable traits, then follows prenatal life through germinal, embryonic, and fetal phases. Timing and exposure shape how risk is read. After birth, growth, sleep, perception, and movement open new ways to act, while sensorimotor accounts, information processing, and language research describe infant learning. Attachment names a continuing relationship; temperament names a style of response, and the two are often confused.
Distinguish genotype from phenotype
Read risk in context
Watch domains reinforce each other
Separate attachment from temperament
Chapters 3–7, New Genetics through The First Two Years
Symbolic play in early childhood
Preschoolers use words, drawings, and pretend scenarios to stand for things not present. Piaget's preoperational account stresses both gains and limits; Vygotsky's approach foregrounds language, cultural tools, and guided participation. Bilingual experience and executive function show how results shift with task demands and available support. Motor ability decides where play happens, and play itself becomes a setting for practicing movement, talk, roles, and negotiation. Caregiving routines, health, and safety shape the chances children get.
Look at what children represent
Compare the task demands
Notice the adult scaffolding
Relate play to caregiving
Part III, Chapters 8–10
School years, peers, and self
Concrete operations let children classify, order, and conserve when material is visible to them. Memory strategies, instruction, language, and cultural practice also affect scores, so a test result reflects more than reasoning alone. Self-concept grows out of family, classroom, peers, and feedback, and siblings can read the same household differently. Peer groups teach cooperation and shared rules but can also sustain exclusion, so watch how a setting answers a request for help.
Read tasks before scores
Consider the need for accommodation
Ask how siblings differ
Watch peer inclusion and exclusion
Part IV, Chapters 11–13
Adolescence, timing, and identity
Puberty mixes growth, hormones, and sexual maturation, and its timing carries meaning only through body ideals, peers, and family expectations. Hypothetical reasoning expands planning while immediate social judgment still steers choices. The chapter set examines identity, adult and peer bonds, romance, distress, delinquency, and substance use. Digital media and secondary schooling supply new arenas for comparison. The authors ask readers to notice the options a teenager actually has before labeling an action typical.
Separate timing from meaning
Check the social audience
Map the identity questions
Ask what choices exist
Part V, Chapters 14–16
Emerging adulthood as uneven transition
The epilogue extends the developmental frame past secondary school. For some young people, exploration through study, work, and close relationships stretches over years; for others, income needs and caregiving duties compress that period. Thinking may become more practical and more tolerant of ambiguity at once. The section treats the phase as a product of institutions and resources, not a universal stage, and it warns that samples describe settings as much as ages.
Trace what carries forward
Ask who can explore
Compare the institutional timetables
Read samples as settings
Epilogue, Emerging Adulthood
Chapter and section map
Science, Theories, Genetics, and BirthChs. 1–4
The First Two YearsChs. 5–7
Early ChildhoodChs. 8–10
Middle ChildhoodChs. 11–13
AdolescenceChs. 14–16
Emerging AdulthoodEpilogue
Key takeaways
Hold several theories in view, then ask which evidence could actually separate their predictions.
Compare what a child manages alone with what changes once a cue or partner is available.
Read timing and milestones beside culture, money, and the real options a young person has.
Undergraduates in psychology, education, nursing, and social work, along with instructors who want a chronological, evidence-minded survey that pairs theory with practical classroom and family examples.
Topics covered
child development
developmental psychology
adolescent development
prenatal development
attachment theory
cognitive development
lifespan perspective
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What is The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 12th Edition about?
The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 12th Edition examines physical, cognitive, and psychosocial growth from prenatal development through the teenage years. Kathleen Stassen Berger organizes research and developmental theories chronologically, connecting genetic, family, cultural, and social influences for students in psychology, education, and related helping professions.
Which edition of The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 12th Edition is this?
This listing is for the 12th edition. Check the title, ISBN, and book details above before ordering, especially if your course or reading list names a specific edition.
Who is The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence, 12th Edition for?
Undergraduates in psychology, education, nursing, and social work, along with instructors who want a chronological, evidence-minded survey that pairs theory with practical classroom and family examples.
Does this page include a study guide?
Yes. This page includes an original study guide with six thematic sections, key takeaways, and a chapter and section map for structured reading.
