Field methods for investigating onset and progression of middle childhood physical, hormonal, cognitive and social development

Child development is biocultural, meaning both genetics and experience with the ecocultural context shape ontogeny. Developmental systems—physical, hormonal, cognitive, social, among others—are dynamic and have points of interrelation with each other and local environments, as well as tradeoffs in their patterning. These articulations challenge our ability to discern the factors influencing our phenotypic outcomes; further, similar outcomes may not reference similar pathways. As a result, our ability to understand the evolution of childhood and its role in human life history remains limited. Middle childhood represents an especially unique phase of human life history, with significant shifts across developmental domains. Physically, children's skeletal growth slows after an initial growth spurt. Hormonally, there is a rise in the production of dehydroepiandrosterone and its sulfate (DHEAS) due to the process of adrenarche, which may have important impacts across developmental systems. Cognitively, children become progressively more rational. Socially, children are increasingly aware of the complexity of human perspectives and morality. Methodological approaches to assess the onset and progression of middle childhood must take into consideration the expansive cross-cultural variation in childhoods. This toolkit offers a set of recommendations for evaluating development across middle childhood, with attention to the eco-cultural context of maturation.