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 Contents vii

13 Social and Personality Development Stress and Coping

Origins of Stress: Reacting to
360

in Middle Childhood 323 Life’s Challenges 361

Meeting the Challenge of Stress 362
Prologue: Who Is This Kid? 324
Becoming an Informed Consumer of Child
Looking Ahead 324 Development: Coping With Stress 362
The Developing Self 324 Threats to Adolescents’ Well-Being 363
Psychosocial Development and Self-Understanding Illegal Drugs 363
in Middle Childhood 324 Alcohol: Use and Abuse 364
Self-Esteem: Developing a Positive—or Negative— Becoming an Informed Consumer of Child
View of Oneself 327 Development: Hooked on Drugs or Alcohol? 366
From Research to Practice: The Danger
Tobacco: The Dangers of Smoking 367
of Inflated Praise 329
From Research to Practice: Vaping and Dripping 367
Developmental Diversity and Your Life: Are the
Children of Immigrant Families Well Adjusted? 330 Developmental Diversity and Your Life: Selling
Death: Pushing Smoking to the Less
Relationships: Building Friendships in Middle
Advantaged 368
Childhood 331
Stages of Friendship: Changing Views Sexually Transmitted Infections 368
of Friends 331 The Case of . . . Moving Too Fast 370
Individual Differences in Friendship: What Epilogue • Looking Back • Key Terms and Concepts
Makes a Child Popular? 332
Gender and Friendships: The Sex Segregation
of Middle Childhood 334
15 Cognitive Development in
Becoming an Informed Consumer of Child Adolescence 374
Development: Increasing Children’s Social
Competence 334 Prologue: Not a Child Anymore 375
Cross-Race Friendships: Integration In and Out Looking Ahead 375
of the Classroom 336 Intellectual Development 375
Schoolyard—and Cyber-Yard—Bullies 336 Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage and Adolescent
The Family 337 Cognitive Development 376
The Changing Home Environment 337 From Research to Practice: Do Video Games
When Both Parents Work Outside the Home: Improve Cognitive Ability? 378
How Do Children Fare? 338 Information-Processing Perspectives: Gradual
Diverse Family Arrangements 339 Transformations in Abilities 379
Race, Poverty, and Family Life 342 Egocentrism in Thinking: Adolescents’
Self-Absorption 379
Group Care: Orphanages in the 21st Century 343
Moral Development 380
The Case of . . . Too Rich for Me 344
Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Development 381
Epilogue • Looking Back • Key Terms and Concepts
Gilligan’s Approach to Moral Development:
Putting It All Together 347 Gender and Morality 382
Schooling and Cognitive Development 383
14 Physical Development The Transition From Elementary School to
in Adolescence 349 Middle School 384
Socioeconomic Status, Race, Ethnicity, and School
Prologue: A Jury of Their Peers 350 Performance 385
Looking Ahead 350 Part-Time Work: Students on the Job 387
Physical Maturation 350 College: Pursuing Higher Education 387
Growth During Adolescence: The Rapid Pace Developmental Diversity and Your Life: Overcoming
of Physical and Sexual Maturation 351 Gender and Racial Barriers to Achievement 391
Body Image: Reactions to Physical Changes in Choosing an Occupation 392
Adolescence 353 Choosing a Career 392
Nutrition and Food: Fueling the Growth of Gender and Career Choices: Women’s Work 393
Adolescence 355 Becoming an Informed Consumer of Child
Eating Disorders: Anorexia Nervosa Development: Choosing a Career 395
and Bulimia 357
The Case of . . . The Clueless Dreamer 395
Brain Development and Thought: Paving the
Way for Cognitive Growth 358 Epilogue • Looking Back • Key Terms and Concepts
viii Contents

16 Social and Personality Juvenile Delinquency: The Crimes of Adolescence 417

Dating, Sexual Behavior, and Teenage
Development in Adolescence 398
Pregnancy 417
Prologue: Keeping Up Appearances 399 Dating: Close Relationships in the
21st Century 418
Looking Ahead 399 From Research to Practice: When Texting Turns
Identity: Asking “Who Am I?” 399 Explicit: Sexting 418
Self-Concept and Self-Esteem 400 Sexual Relationships 419
Identity Formation: Change or Crisis? 401 Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual, Homosexual,
Marcia’s Approach to Identity Development: Bisexual, and Transsexual 421
Updating Erikson 403 Teenage Pregnancies 422
Religion and Spirituality 404 The Case of. . . Too Much of a Good Thing 424
Identity, Race, and Ethnicity 405
Epilogue • Looking Back • Key Terms and Concepts
Psychological Difficulties in Adolescence 406
Putting It All Together 428
Becoming an Informed Consumer of Child
Development: Adolescent Suicide: How to Help 408
Relationships: Family and Friends 409
Family Ties: Changing Relationships 409 Glossary 430
Relationships With Peers: The Importance of References 437
Belonging 412 Credits 504
Developmental Diversity and Your Life: Race
Segregation: The Great Divide of Adolescence 414 Name Index 509
Popularity and Peer Pressure in Adolescence 415 Subject Index 531
Preface
C
hild development is a unique field of study.
Unlike other academic disciplines, each of us has
experience with its subject matter in very per-
sonal ways. It is not simply a discipline that deals with
ideas and concepts and theories, but one that above all
has at its heart the forces that have made each of us who
we are.
This text, Child Development, Eighth Edition, seeks to
capture the discipline in a way that sparks, nurtures, and
shapes readers’ interest. It is meant to excite students about
the field, to draw them into its way of looking at the world,
and to mold their understanding of developmental issues.
By exposing readers to both the current content and the
promise inherent in child and adolescent development, the
text is designed to keep interest in the discipline alive long
after students’ formal study of the field has ended.
Overview
Child Development, Eighth Edition, provides a broad over-
view of the field of development. It covers the full range
of childhood and adolescence, from the moment of con-
ception through the end of adolescence. The text fur-
nishes a broad, comprehensive introduction to the field,
covering basic theories and research findings, as well
as highlighting current applications outside the labora-
tory. It covers childhood and adolescence chronologically,
encompassing the prenatal period, infancy and toddler-
hood, the preschool years, middle childhood, and adoles-
cence. Within these periods, it focuses on physical, cogni-
tive, and social and personality development.
The book seeks to accomplish the following four ma-
jor goals:
• First and foremost, the book is designed to provide
a broad, balanced overview of the field of child de-
velopment. It introduces readers to the theories, re-
search, and applications that constitute the discipline,
examining both the traditional areas of the field as
well as more recent innovations. The book pays par-
ticular attention to the applications developed by
child and adolescent development specialists. With-
out slighting theoretical material, the text emphasizes
what we know about development across childhood
and adolescence, rather than focusing on unanswered
questions. It demonstrates how this knowledge may
be applied to real-world problems. In sum, the book
highlights the interrelationships among theory, re-
search, and application, accentuating the scope and
diversity of the field. It also illustrates how child
developmentalists use theory, research, and applica-
tions to help solve significant social problems.
• The second major goal of the text is to explicitly tie
development to students’ lives. Findings from the
study of child and adolescent development have a
significant degree of relevance to students, and this
text illustrates how these findings can be applied in
a meaningful, practical sense. Applications are pre-
sented in a contemporaneous framework, including
current news items, timely world events, and contem-
porary uses of child development that draw readers
into the field. Numerous descriptive scenarios and
vignettes reflect everyday situations in people’s lives,
explaining how they relate to the field.
For example, each chapter begins with an opening
prologue that provides a real-life situation relating
to the chapter subject area. All chapters also have a
“Becoming an Informed Consumer of Child Develop-
ment” section, which explicitly suggests ways to ap-
ply developmental findings to students’ experience.
These sections portray how these findings can be ap-
plied in a practical, hands-on way. Each chapter also
includes a feature called “From Research to Practice”
that discusses ways developmental research is used
to answer the problems that society faces. Finally, nu-
merous questions in figure and photo captions ask
readers to take the perspective of people in a variety
of professions that make use of child development,
including health care professionals, educators, and
social workers.
• The third goal of this book is to highlight both the com-
monalties and diversity of today’s multicultural society.
Consequently, every chapter has at least one “Develop-
mental Diversity and Your Life” section. These features
explicitly consider how cultural factors relevant to de-
velopment both unite and diversify our contemporary
global society. In addition, the book incorporates mate-
rial relevant to diversity throughout every chapter.
• Finally, the fourth goal of the text is one that underlies
the other three: making the field of child development
engaging, accessible, and interesting to students.
Child development is a joy both to study and to teach
because so much of it has direct, immediate meaning
to our lives. Because all of us are involved in our own
developmental paths, we are tied in very personal
ways to the content areas covered by the book. Child
Development, Eighth Edition, then, is meant to engage
ix
x Preface
and nurture this interest, planting a seed that will de-
velop and flourish throughout readers’ lifetimes.
• To accomplish this fourth goal, the book is “user-friend-
ly.” Written in a direct, conversational voice, it replicates
as much as possible a dialogue between author and stu-
dent. The text is meant to be understood and mastered
on its own, without the intervention of an instructor. To
that end, it includes a variety of pedagogical features.
Each chapter contains a “Looking Ahead” overview
that sets the stage for the chapter, a running glossary,
a numbered summary, a list of key terms and concepts,
and an epilogue containing critical thinking questions.
The Philosophy Behind Child Development, Eighth
Edition. Child Development, Eighth Edition, blends and inte-
grates theory, research, and applications. It is not an applied
development book, focused solely on techniques for trans-
lating the knowledge base of development into answers to
societal problems. Nor is it a theory-oriented volume, con-
centrating primarily on the field’s abstract theories. Instead,
the focus of the text is on the scope and breadth of human
development during childhood and adolescence. The strat-
egy of concentrating on the scope of the field permits the
text to examine both the traditional core areas of the field
and the evolving nontraditional areas of development.
Furthermore, the book focuses on the here and now,
rather than attempting to provide a detailed historical record
of the field. Although it draws on the past where appropri-
ate, it does so with a view toward delineating the field as it
now stands and the directions toward which it is evolving.
Similarly, while the text provides descriptions of classic stud-
ies, the emphasis is on current research findings and trends.
The book provides a broad overview of child and
adolescent development, integrating the theory, research,
and applications of the discipline. It is meant to be a book
that readers will want to keep in their own personal li-
braries, one they will take off the shelf when considering
problems related to that most intriguing of questions:
How do people get to be the way they are?
Specific Features
• Chapter-opening prologues. Each chapter begins with a
short vignette describing an individual or situation
relevant to the basic developmental issues addressed
in the chapter. For instance, the chapter on cognitive
development in infancy describes a 9-month-old in-
fant actively discovering her surroundings, and the
chapter on the physical development in adolescence
provides an account of teenagers dealing with body
image and appearance.
• Looking Ahead. These opening sections orient readers
to the topics to be covered, bridging the opening pro-
logue with the remainder of the chapter and provid-
ing orienting questions.
• Learning Objectives. Every chapter includes se-
quentially numbered learning objectives, based on
Bloom’s taxonomy. They allow students to clearly
understand what they are expected to learn. The
learning objectives are tied to the Looking Back sum-
mary at the end of each chapter and are also keyed
to test bank items.
• From Research to Practice. Each chapter includes a fea-
ture that focuses on the ways in which research in child
development can be used both in terms of everyday
childrearing issues and for setting public policy. These
features include discussions on research examining
whether food preferences are learned in the womb,
the potential long-term benefits of ADHD drugs, and
whether video games can improve cognitive ability.
• Developmental Diversity and Your Life. Every chapter
has at least one “Developmental Diversity and Your
Life” section incorporated into the text. These sections
highlight issues relevant to the multicultural society
in which we live. Examples of these sections include
discussions of the cultural dimensions of motor devel-
opment, the adjustment of children from immigrant
families, multicultural education, and overcoming
gender and racial barriers to achievement.
• Becoming an Informed Consumer of Child Development.
Every chapter includes information on specific uses
that can be derived from research conducted by devel-
opmental investigators. For instance, the text provides
concrete information on exercising an infant’s body
and senses, keeping preschoolers healthy, increasing
children’s competence, and choosing a career.
• From the Perspective of. . . These questions, interspersed
throughout each chapter, ask students to take the per-
spective of someone working in an occupation that
relies on findings of child development, including the
fields of health care, education, and social work.
• The Case of. . . Every chapter includes a case study.
Case studies describe an intriguing situation related
to the topics discussed in the chapter, and they end by
asking questions designed to evoke critical thinking
about the case and the chapter content.
• End-of-chapter material. Each chapter ends with a sum-
mary (keyed to chapter learning objectives) and a list
of key terms and concepts. This material is designed to
help students study and retain the information in the
chapter. Finally, a short epilogue includes critical think-
ing questions relating to the prologue at the opening
of the chapter. Because the opening prologues serve
as case studies that foreshadow the topics the chapter
will address, these end-of-chapter thought-provoking
questions provide a way of tying the chapter together.
They also illustrate how the concepts addressed in the
chapter can be applied to the real-world situation de-
scribed in the opening prologue.

• End-of-part material. Every part of the book concludes
with material that integrates different developmental
domains during a particular age range. A vignette that
captures a developmental issue or theme is considered
jointly from a physical, cognitive, and social and per-
sonality point of view, helping students to understand
how the various perspectives work together to explain
development.
What’s New in This Edition?
Child Development, Eighth Edition, includes a set of ex-
traordinary online interactivities designed to engage stu-
dents and promote their learning. All newly created, these
interactivities provide an exciting means for students to
explore and more deeply understand the core concepts of
child development.
Furthermore, chapter openers and epilogues have
been replaced or updated, introducing students to the
real-world implications of the chapter topic. Moreover, all
From Research to Practice features—which describe a con-
temporary developmental research topic and its applied
implications—are new to this edition.
Finally, the Eighth Edition incorporates a significant
amount of new and updated information. For instance,
the revision addresses important issues such as the con-
cept of race as a social construct, malnutrition, the effects
of poverty on development, and the impact of media and
technology on child development. The new edition also
incorporates changes relating to psychological disorders
reflecting the publication of Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Health Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).
New topics appear in every chapter. A sampling of
specific topics that have been either newly included or
expanded illustrates the scope of the revision:
Chapter 1
Clarified race and ethnicity
Introduced concept of race as a social construct
Clarified age-graded influences
Clarified non-normative life events
Added material on Maria Montessori
New screen-time rules for children under age 2 from
American Academy of Pediatrics
Relationship between childhood trauma and violence
Bullying as a form of violence
Cyberbullying
First American baby born using in vitro fertilization
Chapter 2
Cyberbullying
Evidence on lack of a link between immunizations and
autism
Preface xi
Clarified random assignment
New public policy material
Chapter 3
Updated figure on rising multiple births
Update on procedure of amniocentesis
New information on prenatal screenings
Updated statistics on world hunger
New term: fetal alcohol syndrome disorder
Update on incidence of Down Syndrome
Replacement of term mental retardation with intellectual
disability
Removed example of Dutch Hunger Winter
Added examples of polygenic inheritance
New statistics on abortion
Aftermath of miscarriage
Updated information on genetic basis of disorders and
traits
Chapter 4
New information on “kangaroo care” for premature
infants
New figures on race and infant mortality
New figure on Caesarean deliveries
New figure on international infant mortality
Added material on postpartum depression
More on skin-to-skin contact between mother
and child
New From Research to Practice on development of food
preferences
Chapter 5
Updated photo of shaken baby brain
Incidence of shaken baby syndrome
New information on benefits of breastfeeding
Updated figure on declining rates of SIDS
New key term: sudden unexpected infant death (SUID)
Use of baby boxes rather than cribs
Updated informçation on malnutrition
New figure on undernutrition worldwide
New poverty figures
New prologue on sleeping through the night
SIDS and hippocampus abnormality
Brain plasticity in infancy
Chapter 6
New material on brain growth and infantile amnesia
Changed key term from scheme to schema
New material on memory and hippocampus
Supplemented description of learning theory approach to
language development
xii Preface
Chapter 7
Infant understanding of morality
New data on child care delivery modalities
Still-face technique
Infant emotions
Mirror-and-rouge technique
Clarified and expanded explanation of mirror neurons
Chapter 8
Just-right phenomenon in nutrition
Additional information on childhood depression
New figures on child abuse and neglect
Replacement figure on child abuse and neglect in the
United States
Additional signs of child abuse
Distinction between overweight and obese
BMI
Reducing media exposure prior to bedtime to help sleep
Lead poisoning
Change blindness
Clarified figure on physicians, visits
Chapter 9
How writing by hand stimulates cognitive development
Clarified difference between syntax and grammar
Updated information on the effectiveness of Sesame Street
New information on children and television viewing
New material on screen use
American Academy of Pediatrics 2016 policy statement
on screen use
New figure on children viewing media
Chapter 10
New learning objectives
New material on lying and preschoolers
Autism spectrum disorder and false belief
Role of rough-and-tumble play in brain development
and other benefits
Warmth of authoritative and permissive parents
Parental values in Hispanic families
Racial factors in friendships
Foreshadowing Kohlberg and Gilligan
Chapter 11
Revised learning objectives
New prologue
Long-term treatment effects for ADHD
New figure showing prevalence of obesity
Updated definition of obesity
Clarified definition of specific learning disorders
Relationship between obesity and recess
Increase over time of prevalence in psychological disorders
Updated statistics on incidence of psychological disorders
in children
Chapter 12
Updated figure on languages spoken in the United
States
Updated material on illiteracy around the world
Updated figure on the changing demographics of the
United States
Revised learning objectives
Cultural factors in intelligence and Lev Vygotsky
Value of learning cursive for cognitive development
New statistics on worldwide illiteracy
New figure on rates of illiteracy by geographic area
Homeschooling material updated
Charter school efficacy data
Clarified definition of bilingualism
Chapter 13
Dangers of inflated praise
Update on Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage
Deleted figure on time use
New figure on foster care incidence
Categories of bullying
Bullying reduction practices that are ineffective
Upward social comparison
Self-care drawbacks
Chapter 14
Updated section on marijuana use
New figure on marijuana use by high school students
Updated statistics on sexually transmitted infections
among adolescents
New prologue on body image
Updated statistics on incidence of AIDS
HPG axis
Role of hormones in activation of behavior and brain
organization
Binge-eating disorder
E-cigarette use
Brain development and alcohol use
Benefits of adolescent brain immaturity
Chapter 15
Updated statistics and figure on U.S. students’ math
performance
Updated figure on dropout rates and ethnicity
Updated figure on gender wage gap
New key term: pseudostupidity
Invincibility fable
High school graduation rates
Statistics on reading proficiency of eighth graders
Update of statistics on women’s participation in the
workforce
Cognitive benefits from playing video games
Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs)

Chapter 16
Updated figure on age at which adolescents have sex for
the first time
New section on transsexuals
Updated info on Supreme Court legalizing gay marriage
Updated figure on teenage pregnancy rates
Clarified description of James Marcia’s theory
Suicide attempts in adolescents
Differential rates of suicide in gays, lesbians, and
transsexuals
Native American suicide rates
Ethnic/racial disparities in teenage pregnancy rates
Sexting
In addition, a wealth of contemporary research is cit-
ed in this new edition. Hundreds of new research citations
have been added, most from the past few years.
Revel for Child Development
Revel™
When students are engaged deeply, they learn more ef-
fectively and perform better in their courses. This simple
fact inspired the creation of Revel: an interactive learning
environment designed for the way today’s students read,
think, and learn. Built in collaboration with educators and
students nationwide, Revel is the newest, fully digital
way to deliver respected Pearson content. Revel enlivens
course content with media interactives and assessments—
integrated directly within the authors’ narrative—that
provide opportunities for students to read about and
practice course material in tandem. This immersive edu-
cational technology boosts student engagement, which
leads to better understanding of concepts and improved
performance throughout the course.
Learn More about Revel
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/revel/
Rather than simply offering opportunities to read about
and study Child Development, Revel facilitates deep,
engaging interactions with the concepts that matter
most. By providing opportunities to improve skills in
analyzing and interpreting sources of evidence, Revel
engages students directly and immediately, which leads
to a better understanding of course material. A wealth of
student and instructor resources and interactive materi-
als can be found within Revel. Some of our favorites are
mentioned in the information that follows.
For more information about all the tools and re-
sources in Revel and access to your own Revel account
for Child Development, go to https://www.pearsonhigh-
ered.com/revel.
Preface xiii
Ancillaries
Child Development, Eighth Edition, is accompanied by a
superb set of ancillary teaching materials. These include
the following:
• Instructor’s Resource Manual (ISBN: 0134711319). De-
signed to make your lectures more effective and save
you preparation time, this extensive resource gathers
together the most effective activities and strategies for
teaching your course. The Instructor’s Resource Manual
includes learning objectives, key terms and concepts,
self-contained lecture suggestions and class activities
for each chapter with handouts, and supplemental
reading suggestions. The Instructor’s Resource Manu-
al can be downloaded via the Instructor’s Resource
Center at www.pearsonhighered.com.
• PowerPoint Lecture Slides (ISBN: 0134700821). These
PowerPoints provide an active format for presenting
concepts from each chapter and feature relevant fig-
ures and tables from the text. They are available for
download, along with Video-Embedded PowerPoints
(ISBN: 0134677838) and Art PowerPoints (ISBN:
0134677862), on the Instructor’s Resource Center at
www.pearsonhighered.com.
• Test Item File (ISBN: 0134711327). The test bank
contains multiple choice, true/false, and essay ques-
tions. Each question has been accuracy-checked to
ensure that the correct answer was marked and the
page reference was accurate. Tests are available for
download on the Instructor’s Resource Center at
www.pearsonhighered.com.
• MyTest Test Bank (ISBN: 0134700848) A powerful
assessment-generation program that helps instructors
easily create and print quizzes and exams. Questions
and tests can be authored online, allowing instructors
ultimate flexibility and the ability to efficiently man-
age assessments anytime, anywhere! Instructors can
easily access existing questions, edit, create, and store
using simple drag-and-drop techniques and Word-like
controls. Data on each question provide information
on difficulty level and page number of corresponding
text discussion. In addition, each question maps to the
text’s major section and learning objective. For more
information, go to www.PearsonMyTest.com.
• MyVirtualChild. MyVirtualChild is an interactive
simulation that allows students to raise a child from
birth to age 18 and monitor the effects of their parent-
ing decisions over time. By incorporating physical,
social, emotional, and cognitive development at sev-
eral age levels, MyVirtualChild helps students think
critically as they apply their course work to the prac-
tical experiences of raising a virtual child. You can
access MyVirtualChild within Revel, or separately at
www.myvirtualchild.com.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the following reviewers who provided a Parke, Joel Levin, Herb Klausmeier, and many others.
wealth of comments, criticism, and encouragement: My education continued when I became a professor. I
am especially grateful to my colleagues at the University
Beth Bigler, Pellissippi State Community College
of Massachusetts, who make the university such a won-
Heidemarie Blumenthal, University of North Texas
derful place in which to teach and do research.
Jamie Borchardt, Tarleton State University
Several people played central roles in the develop-
Johnny Castro, Brookhaven College
ment of this book. Stephen Hupp and Jeremy Jewell pro-
Nate Cottle, University of Central Oklahoma
vided extraordinary work on the digital interactivities,
Christie Cunningham, Pellissippi State Community
and I am thankful for their help. I’m also grateful to John
College
Bickford, who provided significant editorial support. John
Lisa Fozio-Thielk, Waubonsee Community College
Graiff was essential in juggling and coordinating the mul-
Sara Goldstein, Montclair State University
tiple aspects of writing this book, and I am very thankful
Christina Gotowka, Tunxis Community College
for the important role he played.
Joel Hagaman, University of the Ozarks
I am also grateful to the superb Pearson team, which
Nicole Hansen-Rayes, City Colleges of Chicago/
was instrumental in the development of this book. Amber
Daley College
Chow, acquisitions editor, always provided good ideas,
Myra Harville, Holmes Community College
support, and direction. I am grateful for her enthusiasm
Mary Hughes Stone, San Francisco State University
and creativity. Developmental editor Stephanie Ventura,
Suzanne Hughes, Southwestern Community College
master of all details, went way beyond the call of duty to
Earleen Huff, Amarillo College
provide direction and support in every respect. I am also
Jo Jackson, Lenoir Community College
grateful to Program Manager Cecilia Turner, who stayed
Jennifer Kampmann, South Dakota State University
on top of every aspect of the project. Finally, I’d like to
Dr. William Kimberlin, Lorain County Community
thank Marketing Manager Christopher Brown, whose
College
skills I’m counting on. It’s a privilege to be part of this
Francesca Longo, Boston College
world-class team.
Mark Lyerly, Burlington County College
I also wish to acknowledge the members of my fam-
Rebecca Marcon, University of North Florida
ily, who play such a central role in my life. My brother, Mi-
Kathleen Miller Green, North Idaho College
chael, my sisters-in-law and brother-in-law, and my nieces
Suzanne Mira-Knippel, Southwestern Community
and nephews all make up an important part of my life. In
College
addition, I am always indebted to the older generation of
Ron Mulson, Hudson Valley Community College
my family, who led the way in a manner I can only hope
Tara Newman, Stephen F. Austin State University
to emulate. I will always be obligated to Harry Brochstein,
Laura Pirazzi, San Jose State University
Mary Vorwerk, and Ethel Radler for their wisdom and
Katherine K. Rose, Texas Woman’s University
support. Most of all, the list is headed by my father, the
Jeffrey Vallon, SUNY Rockland Community College
late Saul Feldman, and my mother, Leah Brochstein.
Amy Van Hecke, Marquette University
In the end, my immediate family deserves the great-
Traci Van Prooyen, University of Illinois at Springfield
est thanks. My son Jon, his wife, Leigh, and my grandsons
Angela Williamson, Tarrant County College
Alex and Miles; my son Josh and his wife, Julie, and my
Melanie Yeschenko, Community College of Allegheny
granddaughter Naomi; and my daughter Sarah and her
County
husband, Jeff, and my granddaughter Lilia, not only are
Many others deserve a great deal of thanks. I am nice, smart, and good-looking, but my pride and joy. And
indebted to the many people who provided me with a ultimately my wife, Katherine Vorwerk, provides the love
superb education, first at Wesleyan University and later and grounding that make everything worthwhile. I thank
at the University of Wisconsin. Specifically, Karl Scheibe them all, with love.
played a pivotal role in my undergraduate education, and
the late Vernon Allen acted as mentor and guide through
my graduate years. It was in graduate school that I learned Robert S. Feldman,
about development, being exposed to such experts as Ross University of Massachusetts Amherst

xiv
About the Author

R
obert S. Feldman is a Professor of Psychological guese, Dutch, Chinese,
and Brain Sciences and the Senior Advisor to the Korean, German, Ara-
Chancellor at the University of Massachusetts bic, Tagalog, Italian,
Amherst. A recipient of the College Distinguished Teacher and Japanese, and
Award, he has taught classes ranging in size from 10 to more than 2.5 million
nearly 500 students. During the course of his career as a students have used his
college instructor, he has taught both undergraduate and textbooks.
graduate courses at Mount Holyoke College, Wesleyan Professor Feld -
University, and Virginia Commonwealth University, in man’s research inter-
addition to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. ests include honesty
A Fellow of the American Psychological Associa- and deception in eve-
tion, the Association for Psychological Science, and the ryday life, work that he
American Association for the Advancement of Science, described in The Liar in
Professor Feldman received a BA with High Honors from Your Life. His research
Wesleyan University (from which he received the Distin- has been supported by
guished Alumni Award). He has an MS and a PhD from grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and
the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a winner of the National Institute on Disabilities and Rehabilitation Re-
a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer award, search. He is also Past President of the Federation of Asso-
and he has written more than 200 books, book chapters, ciations in the Behavioral and Brain Sciences Foundation,
and scientific articles. He has edited Development of Non- an organization that promotes the social sciences, and he is
verbal Behavior in Children, Applications of Nonverbal Behav- a member of the board of New England Public Radio.
ioral Theory and Research, and The First Year of College. He Professor Feldman loves music, is an enthusiastic
is also author of Development Across the Life Span, Under- pianist, and enjoys cooking and traveling. He has three
standing Psychology, and P.O.W.E.R. Learning: Strategies for children and four grandchildren. He and his wife, a psy-
Success in College and Life. His books have been translated chologist, live in western Massachusetts in a home over-
into many languages, including Spanish, French, Portu- looking the Holyoke Mountain Range.

xv
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Chapter 1
An Introduction to Child
Development

Learning Objectives
LO 1.1 Define the field of child development. LO 1.5 Describe the ways that childhood has
been viewed since the 20th century.
LO 1.2 Describe the scope of the field of child
development. LO 1.6 Explain the key issues and questions in
the field of child development.
LO 1.3 Explain the major societal influences
that determine development. LO 1.7 Predict future developments in the field
of child development.
LO 1.4 Explain the earliest views of childhood
and children.

1
2 Chapter 1

Prologue: New Conceptions

In many ways, the first meeting of Louise Brown and Today, however, Louise and Elizabeth are hardly unique.
Elizabeth Carr was unremarkable: just two women, one They are among the more than 5 million babies that have
in her 30s, the other in her 40s, chatting about their lives been born using the procedure, one that has almost become
and their own children. routine. And both became mothers themselves, giving birth
But in another sense, the meeting was extraordinary, to babies who were conceived, incidentally, the old-fash-
for Louise Brown was the world’s first “test-tube baby,” ioned way (Falco, 2012; Gagneux, 2016; Simpson, 2017).
born by in vitro fertilization (IVF), a procedure in which
fertilization of a mother’s egg by a father’s sperm takes
place outside of the mother’s body. And Elizabeth Carr
was the first baby born by IVF in the United States.
Louise was a preschooler when her parents told her
how she was conceived, and throughout her childhood
she was bombarded with questions. It became routine to
explain to her classmates that she, in fact, was not born
in a laboratory. At times, she felt completely alone. For
Elizabeth, too, growing up was not easy, as she experi-
enced bouts of insecurity. Louise Brown (left) and Elizabeth Carr (right)

Looking Ahead
Louise Brown’s and Elizabeth Carr’s conceptions may have
been novel, but their development, from infancy onward,
has followed predictable patterns. While the specifics of our
own development vary—some of us encounter economic
deprivation or live in war-torn territories; others contend
with family issues like divorce and stepparents—the broad
strokes of the development that is set in motion the mo-
ment we are conceived are remarkably similar for all of us.
Like LeBron James, Bill Gates, and, yes, Louise Brown and
Elizabeth Carr, each and every one of us has traversed the
territory known as child development.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is just one of the brave new
worlds of the 21st century. Issues ranging from cloning
and the consequences of poverty on development to the
effects of culture and race raise significant developmental
concerns. Underlying these concerns are even more funda-
mental issues: How do children develop physically? How
does their understanding of the world grow and change
over time? And how do our personalities and our social
world develop as we move from birth through adolescence?
These questions, and many others we’ll encounter
throughout this book, are central to the field of child
development. Consider, for example, the range of approaches
that different specialists in child development might take when
considering the story of Louise Brown and Elizabeth Carr:
• Child development researchers who investigate
behavior at the level of biological processes might
determine whether Louise’s and Elizabeth’s physical
functioning before birth was affected by their concep-
tion outside the womb.
• Specialists in child development who study genetics might
examine how the biological endowment from Louise’s
and Elizabeth’s parents affects their later behavior.
• Child development specialists who investigate the
ways thinking changes over the course of childhood
might examine how Louise’s and Elizabeth’s under-
standing of the nature of their conception changed as
they grew older.
• Researchers in child development who focus on
physical growth might consider whether Louise’s and
Elizabeth’s growth rate differed from children conceived
more traditionally.
• Child development experts who specialize in the social
world of children might look at the ways that Louise
and Elizabeth interacted with other children and the
kinds of friendships they developed.
Although their interests and approaches take many
forms, all of these specialists share one concern: under-
standing the growth and change that occur during the
course of childhood and adolescence. Developmentalists
study how both our biological inheritance from our parents
and the environment in which we live jointly affect our
behavior.
More specifically, some researchers in child develop-
ment focus on explaining how our genetic background can
determine not only how we look but also how we behave
and how we relate to others—that is, matters of personality.
These professionals explore ways to identify how much of
our potential as human beings is provided—or limited—by

heredity. Other child development specialists look to the
environment in which we are raised, exploring ways in which
our lives are shaped by the world that we encounter. They
investigate the extent to which we are shaped by our early
environments and how our current circumstances influence
our behavior in both subtle and obvious ways.
Whether they focus on heredity or environment, all
child development specialists hope that their work will
ultimately inform and support the efforts of professionals
whose careers are devoted to improving the lives of chil-
dren. Practitioners in fields ranging from education to health
An Orientation to Child
Development
Have you ever wondered how it is possible that an infant
tightly grips your finger with tiny, perfectly formed
hands? Or marveled at how a preschooler methodically
draws a picture? Or considered the way an adolescent
can make involved decisions about whom to invite to
a party or the ethics of downloading music files? If
you’ve ever pondered such things, you are asking the
kinds of questions that scientists in the field of child
development pose.
Defining the Field of Child
Development
LO 1.1 Define the field of child development.
Child development is the scientific study of the patterns
of growth, change, and stability that occur from concep-
tion through adolescence. Although the definition of the
field seems straightforward, this simplicity is somewhat
misleading. In order to understand what child develop-
ment is actually about, we need to look underneath the
various parts of the definition.
In its study of growth, change, and stability, child
development takes a scientific approach. Like members of
other scientific disciplines, researchers in child develop-
ment test their assumptions about the nature and course
of human development by applying scientific methods.
As we’ll see in the next chapter, researchers formulate
theories about development, and they use methodical,
scientific techniques to systematically validate the accu-
racy of their assumptions.
Child development focuses on human development.
Although there are some developmentalists who study
the course of development in nonhuman species, the vast
majority examine growth and change in people. Some
seek to understand universal principles of development,
whereas others focus on how cultural, racial, and ethnic
An Introduction to Child Development 3
care and social work draw on the findings of child develop-
ment researchers, using their research findings to advance
children’s welfare.
In this chapter, we orient ourselves to the field of child
development. We begin with a discussion of the scope of the
discipline, illustrating the wide array of topics it covers and the
range of ages it examines, from the moment of conception
through the end of adolescence. We also survey the founda-
tions of the field and examine the key issues and questions
that underlie child development. Finally, we consider where
the child development field is likely to go in the future.
differences affect the course of development. Still others
aim to understand the unique aspects of individuals, look-
ing at the traits and characteristics that differentiate one
person from another. Regardless of approach, however, all
child developmentalists view development as a continu-
ing process throughout childhood and adolescence.
As developmental specialists focus on the ways
people change and grow during their lives, they also
consider stability in children’s and adolescents’ lives.
They ask in which areas and in what periods people show
change and growth and when and how their behavior
reveals consistency and continuity with prior behavior.
Watch INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Interactive
Finally, although child development focuses on
childhood and adolescence, the process of development
persists throughout every part of people’s lives, begin-
ning with the moment of conception and continuing until
death. Developmental specialists assume that in some
ways people continue to grow and change right up to
the end of their lives, while in other respects their behav-
ior remains stable. At the same time, developmentalists
believe that no particular, single period of life governs
child development The field that involves the scientific study
of the patterns of growth, change, and stability that occur
from conception through adolescence
4 Chapter 1
all development. Instead, they believe that every period
of life contains the potential for both growth and decline
in abilities and that individuals maintain the capacity for
substantial growth and change throughout their lives.
Characterizing Child Development:
The Scope of the Field
LO 1.2 Describe the scope of the field of child
development.
Clearly, the definition of child development is broad, and
the scope of the field is extensive. Consequently, profes-
sionals in child development cover several quite diverse
areas, and a typical developmentalist will specialize in
both a topical area and an age range.
TOPICAL AREAS IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT. The
field of child development includes three major topics or
approaches:
• Physical development
• Cognitive development
• Social and personality development
A child developmentalist might specialize in one of
these topical areas. As an example, some developmental-
ists focus on physical development, examining the ways
in which the body’s makeup—the brain, nervous system,
muscles, and senses, as well as the need for food, drink,
and sleep—helps determine behavior. For instance, one
specialist in physical development might study the effects
of malnutrition on the pace of growth in children, while
another might look at how an athlete’s physical perfor-
mance changes during adolescence.
Other developmental specialists examine cognitive
development, seeking to understand how growth and
change in intellectual capabilities influence a person’s
behavior. Cognitive developmentalists study learning,
memory, problem solving, and intelligence. For example,
specialists in cognitive development might want to see
how problem solving changes over the course of child-
hood or whether cultural differences exist in the way peo-
ple explain the reasons for their academic successes and
failures. They would also be interested in how a person
who experiences significant or traumatic events early in
life would remember them later in life (Alibali, Phillips, &
Fischer, 2009; Dumka et al., 2009; Penido et al., 2012;
Coates, 2016).
Finally, some developmental specialists focus on per-
sonality and social development. Personality development
is the study of stability and change in the enduring charac-
teristics that differentiate one person from another. Social
development is the way in which individuals’ interactions
with others and their social relationships grow, change, and
remain stable over the course of life. A developmentalist
interested in personality development might ask whether
there are stable, enduring personality traits throughout
the life span, while a specialist in social development
might examine the effects of racism, poverty, or divorce on
development (Lansford, 2009; Vélez et al., 2011; Manning
et al., 2017). These four major topic areas—physical, cogni-
tive, social, and personality development—are summarized
in Table 1.1.
AGE RANGES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES.
Child developmentalists not only specialize in chosen
topical areas, but at the same time they specialize in
particular age ranges. They usually divide childhood
and adolescence into broad stages: the prenatal period
(the period from conception to birth), infancy and tod-
dlerhood (birth to age 3), the preschool period (ages 3
to 6), middle childhood (ages 6 to 12), and adolescence
(ages 12 to 20).
It’s important to keep in mind that these broad
periods—which are largely accepted by child develop-
mentalists—are social constructions. A social construction
is a shared notion of reality, one that is widely accepted
but is a function of society and culture at a given time.
Although most child developmentalists accept these
broad periods, the age ranges themselves are in many
ways arbitrary. Some periods have one clear-cut bound-
ary (infancy begins with birth, the preschool period ends
with entry into public school, and adolescence starts with
sexual maturity), while others don’t.
For instance, consider the separation between middle
childhood and adolescence, which usually occurs around
the age of 12. Because the boundary is based on a biologi-
cal change, the onset of sexual maturation, which varies
greatly from one individual to another, the specific age of
entry into adolescence varies from one person to the next.
Furthermore, some developmentalists have proposed
entirely new developmental periods. For example, psy-
chologist Jeffrey Arnett argues that adolescence extends
into emerging adulthood, a period beginning in the late
teenage years and continuing into the mid-20s. During
physical development Development involving the body’s
physical makeup, including the brain, nervous system,
muscles, and senses, as well as the need for food, drink,
and sleep
cognitive development Development involving the ways that
growth and change in intellectual capabilities influence a
person’s behavior
personality development Development involving the ways
that the enduring characteristics that differentiate one
person from another change over the life span
social development The way in which individuals’ interac-
tions with others and their social relationships grow, change,
and remain stable over the course of life

Table 1.1 Approaches to Child Development
Orientation Defining Characteristics
Physical Examines how brain, nervous system, muscles,
development sensory capabilities, and needs for food, drink,
and sleep affect behavior
Cognitive Emphasizes intellectual abilities, including learning,
development memory, language development, problem solving,
and intelligence
Personality and Examines enduring characteristics that differenti-
social development ate one person from another and how interactions
with others and social relationships grow and
change over the life span
a
Numbers in parentheses indicate in which chapter the question is addressed.
emerging adulthood, people are no longer adolescents,
but they haven’t fully taken on the responsibilities of
adulthood. Instead, they are still trying out different iden-
tities and engaging in self-focused exploration (de Dios,
2012; Nelson, 2013; Arnett, 2011, 2016).
Watch EMERGING ADULTHOOD ACROSS CULTURES
Interactive
In short, there are substantial individual differences in
the timing of events in people’s lives—a biological fact
of life. People mature at different rates and reach devel-
opmental milestones at different points. Environmental
factors also play a significant role in determining the age
at which a particular event is likely to occur. For example,
the typical age at which people develop romantic attach-
ments varies substantially from one culture to another,
depending in part on the way that relationships are
viewed in a given culture.
It is important to keep in mind, then, that when
developmental specialists discuss age ranges, they are
talking about averages—the times when people, on aver-
age, reach particular milestones. Some children will reach
the milestone earlier, some later, and many—in fact,
most—will reach it around the time of the average. Such
variation becomes noteworthy only when children show
An Introduction to Child Development 5
Examples of Questions Askeda
What determines the sex of a child? (3) What are the long-term consequences
of premature birth? (4) What are the benefits of breast-feeding? (5) What are
the consequences of early or late sexual maturation? (14)
What are the earliest memories that can be recalled? (6) What are the
consequences of watching television? (9) Are there benefits to bilingualism?
(12) Are there ethnic and racial differences in intelligence? (12) How does an
adolescent’s egocentrism affect his or her view of the world? (15)
Do newborns respond differently to their mothers than to others? (4) What
is the best procedure for disciplining children? (10) When does a sense of
gender develop? (10) How can we promote cross-race friendships? (13) What
are the causes of adolescent suicide? (16)
This wedding of two children in India is an example of how cultural
factors play a significant role in determining the age when a
particular event is likely to occur.
substantial deviation from the average. For instance,
parents whose child begins to speak at a much later age
than average might decide to have their son or daughter
evaluated by a speech therapist.
Furthermore, as children grow older, they become
more likely to deviate from the average and exhibit indi-
vidual differences. In very young children, a good part
of developmental change is genetically determined and
unfolds automatically, making development fairly similar
in different children. But as children age, environmental
factors become more potent, leading to greater variability
and individual differences as time passes.
6 Chapter 1
THE LINKS BETWEEN TOPICS AND AGES. Each of
the broad topical areas of child development—physi-
cal, cognitive, and social and personality development—
plays a role throughout childhood and adolescence.
Consequently, some developmental experts focus on
physical development during the prenatal period and
others on what occurs during adolescence. Some might
specialize in social development during the preschool
years, while others may look at social relationships in
middle childhood. And still others might take a broader
approach, looking at cognitive development through ev-
ery period of childhood and adolescence (and beyond).
The variety of topical areas and age ranges studied
within the field of child development means that spe-
cialists from many diverse backgrounds and areas of
expertise consider themselves child developmentalists.
Psychologists who study behavior and mental processes,
DEVELOPMENTAL DIVERSITY AND YOUR LIFE
Taking Culture, Ethnicity, and Race into Account
In the United States, parents praise young children
who ask a lot of questions for being “intelligent” and
“inquisitive.” The Dutch consider such children “too
dependent on others.” Italian parents judge inquisitive-
ness as a sign of social and emotional competence,
not intelligence. Spanish parents praise character far
more than intelligence, and Swedes value security and
happiness above all.
What are we to make of the diverse parental expectations
cited above? Is one way of looking at children’s inquisitive-
ness right and the others wrong? Probably not, if we take into
consideration the cultural contexts in which parents operate. In
fact, different cultures and subcultures have their own views of
appropriate and inappropriate methods and interpretations of
childrearing, just as they have different developmental goals
for children (Feldman & Masalha, 2007; Huijbregts et al., 2009;
Chen, Chen, & Zheng, 2012).
Specialists in child development must take into consid-
eration broad cultural factors. For example, as we’ll discuss
further in Chapter 10, children growing up in Asian societies
tend to have a collectivistic orientation, focusing on the inter-
dependence among members of society. In contrast, children
in Western societies are more likely to have an individualistic
orientation, in which they concentrate on the uniqueness of the
individual.
Similarly, child developmentalists must also consider
ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and gender differences if they
educational researchers, geneticists, and physicians are
only some of the people who specialize and conduct
research in child development. Furthermore, develop-
mentalists work in a variety of settings, including uni-
versity departments of psychology, education, human
development, and medicine, as well as nonacademic
settings as varied as human service agencies and child
care centers.
The diversity of specialists working under the broad
umbrella of child development brings a variety of per-
spectives and intellectual richness to the field. In addi-
tion, it permits the research findings of the field to be
used by practitioners in a wide array of applied profes-
sions. Teachers, nurses, social workers, child care provid-
ers, and social policy experts all rely on the findings of
child developmentalists to make decisions about how to
improve children’s welfare.
are to achieve an understanding of how people change and
grow throughout the life span. If these specialists succeed
in doing so, not only can they attain a better understanding
of human development, but they may also be able to derive
more precise applications for improving the human social
condition.
Efforts to understand how diversity affects development
have been hindered by difficulties in finding an appropriate
vocabulary. For example, members of the research community—
as well as society at large—have sometimes used terms such as
race and ethnic group in inappropriate ways. Race originated as
a biological concept, and initially referred to classifications based
on physical and structural characteristics of species. But such
a definition has little validity in terms of humans, and research
shows that it is not a meaningful way to differentiate people.
For example, depending on how race is defined, there are
between 3 and 300 races, and no race is genetically distinct.
The fact that 99.9 percent of humans’ genetic makeup is
identical in all humans makes the question of race seem insig-
nificant. Thus, race today is generally thought of as a social
construction, something defined by people and their beliefs
(Helms, Jernigan, & Mascher, 2005; Smedley & Smedley,
2005; Alfred & Chlup, 2010).
In contrast, ethnic group and ethnicity are broader terms
for which there is greater agreement. They relate to cultural
background, nationality, religion, and language. Members
of ethnic groups share a common cultural background and
group history.
 An Introduction to Child Development 7

In addition, there is little agreement about which names

best reflect different races and ethnic groups. Should the
term African American—which has geographical and cul-
tural implications—be preferred over black, which focuses
primarily on race and skin color? Is Native American prefer-
able to Indian? Is Hispanic more appropriate than Latino?
And how can researchers accurately categorize people with
multiracial backgrounds (Perlmann & Waters, 2002; Saulny,
2011; Jobling, Rasteiro, & Wetton, 2016)?
In order to fully understand development, then, we
need to take the complex issues associated with human
diversity into account. In fact, only by looking for simi-
larities and differences among various ethnic, cultural, and
racial groups can developmental researchers distinguish
principles of development that are universal from ones
that are culturally determined. In the years ahead, then,
it is likely that life span development will move from a
discipline that primarily focuses on North American and
European development to one that encompasses devel-
opment around the globe (Wardle, 2007; Kloep et al.,
2009; Bornstein & Lansford, 2013). The face of the United States is changing as the proportion
of children from different backgrounds is increasing.

Cohort Influences on Development: influences associated with a particular historical moment.

Developing With Others in a Social
World
LO 1.3 Explain the major societal influences that
determine development.
Bob, born in 1947, is a baby boomer; he was born soon after
the end of World War II, when an enormous spike in the
birth rate occurred as soldiers returned to the United States
from overseas. He was an adolescent at the height of the civil
rights movement and the beginning of protests against the
Vietnam War. His mother, Leah, was born in 1922; she is
part of the generation that passed its childhood and teenage
years in the shadow of the Great Depression. Bob’s son, Jon,
was born in 1975. Now building a career after graduating
from college and starting his own family, he is a member
For instance, children who lived in New York City during
the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (2001)
experienced shared biological and environmental chal-
lenges due to the attack. Their development is going to
be affected by this normative history-graded event (Park,
Riley, & Snyder, 2012; Kim, Bushway, & Tsao, 2016).
In contrast, age-graded influences are biological and
environmental influences that are similar for individu-
als in a particular age group, regardless of when or
where they are raised. For example, biological events
such as puberty and menopause are universal events that
occur at relatively the same time throughout all societies.
Watch COHORT EFFECTS
Interactive

of what has been called Generation X. Jon’s younger sister,

Sarah, who was born in 1982, is part of the next generation,
which sociologists have called the Millennial Generation.

These people are in part products of the social times in

which they live. Each belongs to a particular cohort, a
group of people born at around the same time in the
same place. Such major social events as wars, economic
upturns and depressions, famines, and epidemics (like
the one caused by the AIDS virus) have similar influ-
ences on members of a particular cohort (Mitchell, 2002;
Dittmann, 2005; Twenge, Gentile, & Campbell, 2015).
Cohort effects provide an example of history-graded cohort A group of people born at around the same time in
influences, which are biological and environmental the same place
8 Chapter 1
Society’s view of childhood and what is appropriate to ask of
children has changed through the ages. These children worked full
time in mines in the early 1900s.
Similarly, a sociocultural event such as entry into formal
education can be considered an age-graded influence
because it occurs in most cultures around age 6.
From an educator’s perspective: How would a student’s
cohort membership affect his or her readiness for school?
For example, what would be the benefits and drawbacks
of coming from a cohort in which use of the Web was rou-
tine, compared with earlier cohorts prior to the appearance
of the Web?
Development is also affected by sociocultural-graded
influences, which include ethnicity, social class, sub-
cultural membership, and other factors. Sociocultural-
graded influences will be considerably different for immi-
grant children who speak English as a second language
than for children born in the United States who speak
English as their first language (Rose et al., 2003).
Finally, non-normative life events are specific, atypical
events that occur in a person’s life at a time when such
events do not happen to most people. For example, a
child whose parents die in an automobile accident when
she is 6 years old has experienced a significant non-nor-
mative life event.
Children: Past, Present,
and Future
Children have been the object of study from the time that
humans have walked the planet. Parents are endlessly
fascinated by their children, and the growth displayed
throughout childhood and adolescence is a source of both
curiosity and wonderment.
But it is relatively recently in the course of his-
tory that children have been studied from a scientific
vantage point. Even a brief look at how the field of
child development has progressed shows that there
has been considerable growth in the way that children
are viewed.
Early Views of Children
LO 1.4 Explain the earliest views of childhood and
children.
It is hard to imagine, but some scholars believe that
there was a time when childhood didn’t even exist,
at least in the minds of adults. According to Philippe
Ariès, who studied paintings and other forms of art,
children in medieval Europe were not given any special
status before 1600. Instead, they were viewed as min-
iature, somewhat imperfect adults. They were dressed
in adult clothing and not treated specially in any sig-
nificant way. Childhood was not seen as a stage quali-
tatively different from adulthood (Ariès, 1962; Acocella,
2003; Hutton, 2004).
Although the view that children during the Middle
Ages were seen simply as miniature adults may be
somewhat exaggerated—Ariès’s arguments were
based primarily on art depicting the European aris-
tocracy, a very limited sample of Western culture—it
is clear that childhood had a considerably different
meaning than it does now. Moreover, the idea that
childhood could be studied systematically did not take
hold until later.
PHILOSOPHERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON CHILDREN.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, philosophers took the
lead in thinking about the nature of childhood. For exam-
ple, English philosopher John Locke considered a child
to be a tabula rasa—Latin for “blank slate.” In this view,
children entered the world with no specific characteristics
During medieval times in Europe, children were thought of as
miniature—although imperfect—adults. This view of childhood
was reflected in how children were dressed identically to adults.
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 LA MER

LA MINE

Du berthon, l’un des canots légers que possédait le chalutier, le

petit midship, seul, monta sur le pont, presque d’un saut, par
l’échelle de tribord. Et il laissa l’embarcation à la mer, avec deux
matelots, au lieu de la faire hisser sur le pont : il pensait bien qu’il
aurait à s’en servir encore, dans les cinq minutes.
— Quelque chose dans le filet, sur bâbord, nord-ouest, après la
troisième bouée, dit-il. La quatrième a foncé. Ça tire dessus.
Le petit midship n’avait pas encore un poil de barbe, et sa figure,
si pleine et si lisse qu’on eût dit d’une grosse fille campagnarde,
n’était plus qu’un coup de soleil. Elle avait l’éclat de la tomate sur les
joues, de la viande crue sur la nuque. Quand il parlait, il bafouillait
effroyablement à cause de son horrible timidité, avec un accent
méridional qui sonnait comme un timbre de cuivre, et ça le rendait
presque incompréhensible. Il fallait avoir l’habitude. Mais le
commandant avait eu tout le temps pour la prendre, depuis vingt-
deux mois qu’ils bourlinguaient ensemble dans la Méditerranée,
toujours entre les mêmes îles et les mêmes golfes de la côte
grecque !
 Le petit midship était un Français, né à Barcelone. C’est
quelquefois une bonne chose, pour les enfants, d’avoir vécu à
l’étranger ; ça les trempe, ça les rend surtout volontaires. Ce gamin
avait déjà passé les examens du long cours, puis s’était inscrit pour
ceux de l’École navale. Et comme la guerre avait éclaté, une
décision du ministère de la marine avait fait de lui un aspirant, ou un
« midship », comme on dit plus généralement, même dans la marine
française. Quant à son chef, c’était un ancien premier maître, versé
dans la réserve. On lui avait donné le commandement de ce
chalutier.
Dans le lointain, la noble masse de l’Acrocorinthe apparaissait
toute en rose et en velours chocolat. Il était quatre heures du matin.
Les sèches montagnes du Péloponèse se transfiguraient,
somptueuses comme un tapis de Turquie. Mais les deux hommes
n’avaient aucun regard pour ces choses. Depuis vingt-deux mois ils
ne voyaient que la mer. Leur équipage aussi. Depuis vingt-deux
mois ils n’avaient pas dormi une moyenne de quatre heures par nuit.
Ils n’étaient jamais revenus en France, et ne descendaient que bien
rarement à terre. Ils escortaient les navires de commerce avec leur
chalutier à vapeur. Ils posaient des ceintures de filets autour des
ports, des golfes et des détroits, pour fermer la route aux sous-
marins, et peut-être les prendre. Ils traînaient des dragues, armées
de puissants sécateurs, pour faire remonter les mines à la surface et
les détruire. Le petit midship était bien plus souvent dans le berthon
ou à cheval sur une des bouées, soulevant les filets, de l’eau jusqu’à
mi-corps, que dans le chalutier. Il ne rouspétait jamais. Son rêve
seulement était d’être inscrit au tableau des enseignes. Il se voyait
enseigne comme d’autres rêvent de passer président de la
République.
L’ancien premier maître était beau comme un chevalier des
anciens jours. Ses yeux s’étaient enfoncés sous l’arc resté très pur
de ses cils, à force de regarder la mer ; et il ne parlait jamais que
d’une voix très douce ; un gentilhomme, qui s’appelait Bonnard, tout
uniment. La France en fait beaucoup comme ça. Il demanda :
— Quelque chose dans le filet ? Quoi ?
 — Ça ne doit pas être un sous-marin, répondit l’enfant avec
regret. Mais je crois que c’est une mine. A trois mètres sous l’eau.
— En dérive, alors, dit le commandant, Ça se peut. Je vais aller
voir avec vous.
Il fit armer le deuxième berthon.
La mer était très calme. Elle gonflait seulement le dos, par
places, sans raisons appréciables, comme fait l’eau qui commence à
bouillir, dans une marmite. Un grand goëland, qui picorait on ne
savait quoi sur l’arête du filet, s’envola paresseusement.
— C’est là ! dit le midship. Par trois mètres. Voyez-vous ?
L’œil du commandant plongea.
La chose était là, en effet. Elle avait bien un mètre de diamètre,
et semblait monter et descendre imperceptiblement avec l’enflure du
flot.
— Oui, dit le commandant du chalutier. C’est rond, et ça a la taille
d’une mine. Une mine qui aurait chassé sous le courant, en
entraînant son contre-poids. Si elle avait lâché son crapaud, elle
serait venue en surface. Et c’est bien la profondeur où ils les
immergent… Rentrons. Je mangerais bien quelque chose. Et puis
on avisera.
A bord du chalutier, ils n’avaient que des conserves, bien
entendu. Mais le cuisinier avait fait la cuisine.
— C’est bon, le singe accommodé, quand il est chaud ! observa
l’enfant, béatement.
Ce n’est pas tous les jours fête. En hiver, le gros temps est
presque la règle. Les vagues balaient de bout en bout ces petits
bâtiments, éteignant le feu du cuisinier. Durant des mois, souvent il
faut manger les conserves « nature », et froides.
— Si c’est une mine, dit l’enfant, ça me fait un point pour passer
enseigne. Au moins !…
Il s’absorba dans son rêve. Mais il reprit bientôt :
 — Comment va-t-on faire pour l’avoir ? Nous n’avons plus de
drague.
— Tirer dessus avec notre 75, dit le commandant. Je sais bien
que c’est chanceux, elle est immergée par trois mètres ; enfin, on
tiendra compte de la réfraction et de la résistance de l’eau… Mais il
faudra commencer par haler le filet à distance, sans ça l’obus
abîmerait les maillons.
Et, quand ils eurent pris le café — car on pouvait aussi faire le
café ce jour-là, jour de noce — ils redescendirent dans les berthons,
frappèrent un câble entre le filet et le chalutier, qui s’éloigna ensuite
bien doucement, machine cent tours à la minute. Le filet suivit
l’impulsion et se déplaça.
— … Elle remonte ! La mine remonte ! cria le midship, enchanté.
Juste au moment où la chose effleura l’eau ; un des matelots de
nage qui avait emporté sa carabine par ordre — on ne sait jamais —
tira…
— Quoi ! fit le midship, stupéfait.
— Cette mine-là n’aurait jamais fait beaucoup de mal au monde,
dit le matelot, qui rigolait en dedans.
La « mine » flottait, en vraie dérive, cette fois. On y distinguait des
appendices singuliers, des pattes courtes, terminées en nageoires
griffues, une tête semblable à celle d’un serpent, une queue…
— Une tortue ! gémit l’enfant désolé. Ce n’était qu’une tortue !
La bête marine s’était arrêtée contre le filet, tout bonnement, pour
dormir dans un courant d’eau chaude en se calant contre les
maillons. Le filet se déplaçant, elle avait remonté, et se préparait
sans doute à replonger quand le matelot l’avait tuée.
— Ça vaut mieux qu’une mine, déclara le matelot, d’une voix
consolante. Ça nous fera de la viande fraîche : depuis le temps !
Le midship ne répondit rien. Pour des raisons personnelles, il eût
préféré une mine, une vraie mine, à des tonnes de viande fraîche.
Quand il eut regagné le chalutier, le commandant, arrivé le
premier, lui montra un petit papier, la traduction du « morse »
parvenu en leur absence à leur poste de T. S. F. : « Placer un filet en
travers de la baie d’Astra Spitia. Commencer sans tarder. »
— Nom de Dieu ! jura l’enfant ; quarante-huit heures de turbin,
sans se coucher. Chien de métier !

C’était la première fois qu’il renâclait devant l’ouvrage. A cause

de cette sale tortue. La déception lui alourdissait le cœur. Quand on
désire passer enseigne…
 UN GABIER EXCEPTIONNEL

Je n’ai jamais connu, sur mer, un équipage plus gai, plus vaillant,
plus allant, depuis le dernier des novices jusqu’au commandant, qui
disait aux passagères inquiètes : « Mais non, mesdames, ils ne nous
couleront pas ! Nous sommes trop petits !… Quoique ça, ne quittez
pas vos ceintures de sauvetage, et dormez sur le pont ! »
C’était pendant la guerre, en 1917, et ils ont tous été noyés, les
pauvres diables, noyés comme des rats, par un sous-marin
allemand, un mois plus tard, entre Corfou et Brindisi, dans
l’Adriatique. Je n’avais passé que trois jours avec eux, et ça me fait
peine encore, quand j’y pense, une vraie peine, comme si on m’avait
tué de très vieux, de très sûrs amis.
C’était un tout petit vapeur, qui s’appelait l’Édouard-Corbière, du
nom de son ancien propriétaire, père du poète Tristan Corbière. Ce
vieux capitaine au long cours, qui fut corsaire, négrier, journaliste,
romancier et même poète, était un homme d’entreprise : il avait créé,
entre je ne sais plus quel port d’Armorique et l’Angleterre, une petite
ligne de navigation dont le fret le plus habituel se composait de
cochons engraissés en France et destinés à la nourriture des
insulaires de Grande-Bretagne. Les vieux matelots du bord
rappelaient en riant cette époque de paix et de tranquillité. Ces gens
qui chaque jour attendaient la mort — et qui l’ont reçue — étaient
d’une sublime et magnifique insouciance. Chaque jour ils prenaient
leurs repas de l’après-midi en plein air, devant le poste d’équipage,
sur un prélart qui couvrait l’entrée de la cale, tout près du hublot de
ma cabine. Ils ne me voyaient point, ignoraient ma présence et
causaient librement. J’ai entendu là, de leur bouche, sans qu’ils s’en
pussent douter, les plus belles histoires, presque toutes fausses.
 Les marins sont comme les enfants : ils ne demandent jamais
« si c’est arrivé » ; ils lisent peu, ou pas du tout ; leur âme ingénue et
malicieuse à la fois a besoin pourtant de romans : ils inventent des
romans parlés. Toutes les races de nos côtes étaient représentées
parmi ces condamnés à mort, et qui le savaient sans doute, si
simplement et joyeusement braves : les mokos de la rive
méditerranéenne, les pêcheurs du golfe de Gascogne, les Bordelais,
les Vendéens, les Bretons, les Normands de Granville et de Saint-
Malo, les gens de Boulogne, de Calais, de Dunkerque. Il y en avait
— c’était le plus grand nombre — qui ne faisaient qu’écouter et rire,
ou s’émouvoir, mais rire le plus souvent. Par réaction contre le
danger, ils semblaient, en effet, préférer le rire aux larmes. Ils
goûtaient mieux, par un sentiment populaire, instinctif, l’aventure qui
finit bien ; ils aimaient aussi celle qui réserve une surprise à la fin, et
déconcerte. A leur manière, ils avaient le goût aiguisé, ils étaient des
amateurs difficiles. Et celui qui contait le mieux ce que nos voisins
d’Angleterre nomment le yarn, ce que nos compatriotes du Midi
appellent la galéjade, n’était point, chose surprenante, de Toulon ou
de Marseille : un Flamand de Bray-Dunes, pêcheur à l’Islande, puis
marin à l’État. Je me souviens de son nom, un nom de mon pays :
Bogaërt. Ça se prononce « Bogart », en faisant sonner le t. Il était
lourd, rond, puissant, musculeux et gras, avec un air d’assurance
pour affirmer les choses les plus invraisemblables ; il filait le conte
comme un curé son prêche, si sérieusement qu’on y était toujours
pris. Voilà une de ses histoires. Je vais m’efforcer de la dire autant
que possible telle que je l’ai entendue :

« Moi, j’ai connu un gabier, un gabier étonnant ! Il n’y en a pas

deux comme ça dans la marine française, ni dans aucune autre
marine du monde. Les Anglais, les Américains, les Boches, ils n’en
ont pas : il pouvait vivre sans respirer !
« — Sans respirer ?
« — Sans respirer l’air. Autre chose, n’importe quoi, ça lui était
égal. Excepté l’eau, naturellement, et le vide. A part ça, tout. On n’en
savait rien, il n’en disait rien, il s’en vantait pas. Quand il y avait de
l’air, il en profitait, comme tout le monde, mais il pouvait s’en passer.
« C’est sur un sous-marin que je l’ai connu. Un des premiers
sous-marins qu’on ait faits, bien avant la guerre. Quelque chose
dans le genre « gymnote », un mauvais gros petit cigare de tôle où
nous n’étions que six hommes, avec un maître d’équipage et un
officier. A cette époque, on se demandait encore si ça pourrait
jamais servir à quelque chose, ces machines-là. Ça n’était pas au
point, on faisait seulement des expériences, quoi, dans la rade de
Brest. Et on n’avait pas encore inventé l’oxylithe, qui absorbe l’acide
carbonique de la respiration. Alors, comme c’était très resserré dans
cette boîte, pour ne pas être empoisonné, il fallait remonter souvent.
On avait bien des obus d’oxygène, mais pas perfectionnés comme
au jour d’aujourd’hui.
« C’est du reste là dedans que j’ai appris que l’air était composé
d’oxygène et d’azote, et aussi d’un troisième gaz, dont j’ai oublié le
nom, et que du reste on ne connaissait pas au moment : avant d’être
sur le sous-marin, je m’en étais toujours f…tu ; l’air, c’est l’air, ça
suffit !
« Le gabier que je parle, il s’appelait Métivet, et il était Parisien :
un type qui s’était engagé à la flotte, comme tous ces idiots des
villes, qui n’ont jamais pêché que le goujon, jamais vu la mer, mais
qui ont lu des boniments dans les journaux illustrés quand ils étaient
petits. Pas mauvais marin, malgré ça, bon mécanicien, serviable et
tout : dégourdi… Bon ! voilà qu’un jour on repart pour ces sacrées
expériences, on remplit d’eau les ballasts, et on va s’asseoir dans la
rade sur un fond de quinze mètres, tout ce que les tôles pouvaient
supporter. Après ça on veut remonter : le premier ballast, celui
d’avant, ça va bien : il se vide comme une baignoire d’amiral. Mais
celui d’arrière… celui d’arrière ne veut rien savoir : Quelque chose
de bloqué dans la mécanique. Quoi ? Si on l’avait su, ça se serait
arrangé, mais on n’a pas su, on n’a jamais su. Les ingénieurs ont dit
plus tard que ça aurait dû marcher. Cochon de gouvernement, qui
invente des outils pareils pour assassiner les matelots. On travaille
deux heures, trois heures, quatre heures : la peau ! Ce qui était
bloqué reste bloqué. Je suppose que ça devait commencer à puer,
dans la boîte, mais on s’en apercevait pas. Seulement on respirait
difficilement. Le commandant, qui était un enseigne, fait ouvrir les
obus d’oxygène, et ça nous soulage, pour un temps. Mais on n’en
avait que pour douze heures, et après ? Le commandant dit pour
nous rassurer : « On sait où nous sommes, à peu près, on viendra
nous chercher. On sondera… Nous ne sommes pas mouillés très
profond, on pourra frapper des grappins, à l’avant et à l’arrière, et au
milieu, et nous relever… » Mais en attendant, nous étions dans une
sale position, l’avant en l’air et le cul sur la roche : impossible de se
tenir debout. Et puis, on a eu envie de dormir tout le temps, avec mal
à la tête, et des vomissements : l’air, n’est-ce pas, l’air qui manquait.
On s’empoisonnait soi-même… Excepté ce Métivet ! C’est là qu’on
s’est aperçu qu’il y avait quelque chose de pas ordinaire avec lui : il
avait presque pas l’air incommodé ; il a dit, d’un air naturel : « Mon
commandant, ils tournent de l’œil, vous tournez de l’œil : y a pas un
médicament ? » Le commandant a répondu : « Y en a pas… du café,
peut-être, pour nous réveiller ! » Alors, Métivet a fait une
gymnastique extraordinaire pour arriver à la cambuse, et il a fait du
café !
« Vingt-deux heures, ça a duré ! Il paraît que nous râlions tous,
nous étions sans connaissance, excepté Métivet. C’est lui qui a
entendu les sondes qui nous cherchaient, c’est lui qui a causé avec
les sauveteurs, en tapant l’alphabet morse sur la tôle. Il donnait des
conseils pour passer des chaînes sous la coque, il essayait de nous
ranimer, en nous entonnant du café, qu’on pouvait plus prendre, et
en disant : « Ça va ! Ça va ! Ils sont là ! Vous laissez pas clamser,
nom de Dieu ! »
« Et à la fin, on a été tiré à la surface, et on a ouvert l’écoutille.
Ah ! Bon Dieu ! la première lampée d’air ! Y a pas de coup de tafia
qui vaille ça. Mais on en a eu tous pour quinze jours d’hôpital,
toujours excepté Métivet.
« Quand j’ai été retapé, je lui ai dit : « Ça te faisait donc rien, à
toi ? Comment qu’tu peux vivre, sans oxygène ? »
 « Il m’a répondu : « L’oxygène ? C’est bon pour les c… comme
toi. Moi, mon père était concierge rue Mouffetard. J’ai été élevé dans
sa loge jusqu’à dix-huit ans. Et l’air des loges de concierge, dans les
vieilles maisons de Paris, c’est pas fait avec de l’oxygène : c’est un
mélange de gaz d’éclairage, d’acide carbonique qui vient du
fourneau, et de vapeur de café au lait. Je m’ai habitué !… »
— Tu vas un peu fort, Bogaërt ! dit l’équipage.

Et tous éclatèrent de rire, bonnement. Braves gens !

 UN CIMETIÈRE

… C’est un lieutenant de vaisseau qui a donné sa démission,

comme presque tous les lieutenants de vaisseau, depuis la guerre.
Que voulez-vous ? Il n’y a presque plus de navires, et plus du tout
d’avancement ; il y a aussi le dégoût du métier qu’on leur imposa,
pendant que les autres, les officiers de l’armée de terre, risquaient
leur vie, eux aussi, mais utilement. Il me dit :
— Si j’ai commandé un sous-marin ? Oui. Si j’ai eu ce que vous
appelez des aventures ? Naturellement. Ce n’est pas une navigation
drôle en temps de paix, que la navigation sous-marine. Mais en
temps de guerre ! Tenez il y avait des jours où je plaignais les
Allemands, qui ne connaissaient plus d’autre navigation que celle-là.
« On est comme des poissons volants, avec cette aggravation
qu’on ne peut pas voler. Vous savez, les poissons volants qui
sautent hors de l’eau pour échapper à un ennemi, à un autre
poisson ennemi, et trouvent en l’air une mouette qui leur tombe
dessus ! Pour nous, c’est la même chose. Sous l’eau, il y a les mines
et les filets. En surface, les torpilleurs qui vous cherchent, et, dans le
ciel, les hydravions. Il faut avoir les yeux partout, ou du moins il
faudrait les avoir partout : et c’est impossible. Mais ce n’est pas de
ça que je veux parler aujourd’hui, ni même du « pépin », du gros
pépin qui a précédé l’incident que je veux vous conter, un incident
qui n’a même pas été noté en deux lignes sur le livre de bord : il
n’avait aucune importance au point de vue de la navigation et de la
sécurité du bateau. Et pourtant, c’est le plus atroce et le plus
dramatique de mes souvenirs.
« C’est avant, que la sécurité du bateau avait été compromise.
Nous croisions dans l’Atlantique, à ce moment-là, pas loin du cap
Gibraltar et du cap Spartel. Nous venions de pousser, le long de la
côte, jusqu’aux environs de San-Lucar, au delà de Cadix. Nous
cherchions les sous-marins allemands, et ce fut un torpilleur
allemand qui nous aperçut ; ce sont des choses qui arrivent ! On
s’immergea, un peu vivement, pour ne pas recevoir le premier coup
de canon, et, après, placer sa torpille. Je ne sais comment ça se fit,
mais nous descendîmes, nous descendîmes beaucoup plus profond
que nous n’avions pensé, et vînmes nous asseoir par vingt-cinq
mètres sur je ne sais quoi : on n’y fit guère attention à cet instant.
Une fois là, plus moyen de se remettre en surface ! Je commandai :
« Chassez partout ! » Mais bonsoir : il y avait quelque chose de
détraqué dans un des ballasts. Celui d’avant chassait bien, mais
celui d’arrière ne voulait rien savoir. Ce sont encore des choses qui
arrivent, et l’agrément de ces mécaniques.
« Nous sommes restés six heures comme ça : il y a des
situations plus joyeuses ! Mourir empoisonné de son haleine, au
fond d’un sous-marin : n’importe quel supplice chinois est plus doux !
Pourtant, ce n’est pas encore l’histoire. S’il n’y avait eu que cette
avarie, je ne vous en parlerais même pas : on s’en est tiré, puisque
me voilà… Mais quand je parvins à faire remplir à nouveau,
normalement cette fois, le réservoir d’avant, et que le sous-marin se
remit d’aplomb sur sa quille, nous entendîmes tous un bruit, un
bruit ! oh ! si singulier ! comme si nous écrasions de grosses
broussailles, un bruit de bois cassé. Nous n’étions pas en aéroplane,
pourtant, et nous n’avions pu tomber sur une forêt !
« Ce qu’il y a d’embêtant, dans un sous-marin, une fois les
capots fermés, c’est qu’on ne peut rien voir du dehors, bien entendu,
excepté par le périscope ; et le périscope, au-dessous de la surface,
ça ne vaut pas mieux qu’une paupière fermée. Mais, par chance,
mon sous-marin avait aussi été paré pour être « mouilleur de
mines » ; et, par l’orifice du mouille-mines, ayant revêtu un appareil
de scaphandrier, je pus descendre sur ce que je prenais pour le fond
de mer. Je voulais savoir en quoi consistait l’avarie. Et puis je ne
sais quelle curiosité, j’imagine : je vous avoue que d’avance, sans
savoir pourquoi, je m’attendais à quelque chose. Mais pas à ça !
L’eau était assez claire pour qu’en écarquillant les yeux sous le
casque de cuivre, je pusse distinguer — je distinguai à moitié,
comme on voit sous l’eau… une espèce de rêve, vous comprenez,
un rêve, un cauchemar, dans cette brume sous-marine, — ce que je
vais vous dire :
« Nous étions tombés par le travers d’un vieux, d’un très vieux
navire coulé. Une frégate, je suppose, d’après ses dimensions, qui
étaient si vastes que, malgré tous mes efforts, mon regard ne
pouvait atteindre ni l’avant ni l’arrière. Et ces débris étaient pâles,
tout pâles, blanchâtres dans la demi-nuit glauque de l’eau ; en mer,
au fond de la mer, c’est comme sur terre : la poussière tombe depuis
le commencement du monde ; seulement, cette poussière, c’est une
boue blanche ou rouge, suivant les endroits. Et, sous cette espèce
de linceul, c’était des canons, des fantômes de canons, et des
squelettes, aussi, des fantômes de squelettes. J’ai vécu six heures,
je vous dis, dans ce cimetière abominable, avec l’idée que nous
ferions nous aussi, à notre tour, dans un siècle ou deux, un
épouvantail pour d’autres idiots aussi malchanceux. Mais qu’est-ce
que c’était, qu’est-ce que ce pouvait bien être ? Tout à coup je
pensai aux deux navires de la grande flotte franco-espagnole de
Villeneuve et de Gravina, le Fougueux ou le Monarca, qui avaient
coulé près de San-Lucar, après la bataille de Trafalgar, et qu’on n’a
jamais repêchés. Il y en a tant qu’on ne repêchera jamais !
« Enfin, on en est sorti tout de même. Ah ! la joie de sentir la
coque se redresser, flotter naturellement, sans rester crochée dans
ce vieux cadavre pourri ! Mais voilà que, tout près, il y en avait un
autre. Un autre, plus petit. Plus ancien, plus jeune ? Je ne pourrais
vous le dire : il y a des morts qui n’ont pas d’âge. Un navire de
commerce, peut-être, coulé par les Allemands des temps passés. Il
y a toujours eu des Allemands. A la fin, quand déjà nous flottions en
surface, je croyais voir encore des galères, des trois-mâts, des
bateaux de toutes les formes, de toutes les époques, échoués là, et
qui nous disaient : « Vous y resterez ! »
« Vous concevez ? Près des détroits, c’est là qu’on se bat, c’est
là qu’on s’est toujours battu : pour ouvrir ou forcer à demeurer
fermées les portes de la mer. C’est là qu’il y a le plus de
macchabées de bateaux.
« Quand je me suis trouvé sur l’eau, enfin sur la surface de l’eau,
et non dessous, et qu’on a ouvert le capot, je suis monté comme les
autres, j’ai respiré, et je pensais de toutes mes forces : « Voilà une
éternité que les hommes sont des bêtes féroces, féroces ! Est-ce
que ça ne va pas finir ? Ce n’est pas possible que ça ne finisse pas.
Cette guerre sera la dernière. Il le faut ! »
« Mais il y a trois ans de ça, et maintenant j’en suis moins sûr.
Avec le temps, l’horreur des souvenirs s’affaiblit, et l’on songe aussi
que, puisque les hommes ont toujours été des loups pour les
hommes, pourquoi cela changerait-il jamais ? »
 LES CACHALOTS

Le grand vapeur de la compagnie Sud-Atlantique, après avoir

touché Dakar pour faire du charbon et débarquer quelques
fonctionnaires de l’Afrique occidentale française, piquait droit sur
Rio-de-Janeiro. Plusieurs mois s’étaient écoulés depuis la signature
des préliminaires qui avaient terminé la grande guerre ; les Alliés,
pour se couvrir des pertes que leur avait fait subir les sous-marins
allemands, s’étaient fait livrer la presque totalité de la flotte
marchande appartenant à l’adversaire. Ce grand paquebot, jadis,
quand son port d’attache était à Hambourg, s’appelait le Vaterland
ou le Kronprinz, on ne savait plus. A cette heure, il était naturalisé
français, il portait un autre nom inscrit sur son tableau d’arrière et
collationné sur les registres du bureau Veritas. Les passagers
considéraient avec une vanité de victoire les mots germaniques par
lesquels se dénonçaient encore les cabines de bains, la salle à
manger, l’escalier conduisant à la coupée. Ces mots-là, à cette
heure, avaient l’air de prisonniers.
Les visages étaient radieux. On pouvait enfin respirer après ce
grand cataclysme, et l’on respirait dans la gloire et dans l’honneur.
Les Français se disaient qu’ils avaient appris, dans cette guerre, le
devoir de l’activité, et qu’on allait bien le voir, là où ils allaient ! Les
Brésiliens et les Argentins se trouvaient comme anoblis du coup
d’épaule qu’ils avaient donné, en même temps que les États-Unis, à
la bonne cause. Il y avait aussi des Anglais, ingénus, l’air juvénile
jusque dans la maturité, vigoureux. Une sorte d’allégresse
particulière pénétrait ce grand navire, où l’on se sentait entre amis,
entre alliés seulement : il n’y avait pas un Allemand sur ce vaisseau
qui avait été allemand.
 La plupart de ces passagers n’en étaient plus, d’ailleurs, à leur
première traversée. Ils se montraient blasés sur les ordinaires
spectacles de la mer : les somptueux couchers de soleil, qui
changent l’infini des flots en un parterre sans bornes de violettes et
de mauves, construisent dans le ciel des continents mouvants et
lumineux ; les bâtiments empanachés de fumée qu’on croise sans
s’arrêter, tandis que quelques jumelles à peine sortent de leur étui
pour tâcher de lire leur nom et leur nationalité ; même les beaux vols
des poissons volants de l’Atlantique, plus grands que ceux de la mer
Rouge, aux écailles diaprées comme celles des maquereaux,
n’excitaient qu’une indolente curiosité.
Cependant, un matin, une petite fille qui regardait les poissons
volants cria tout étonnée :
— Un jet d’eau, là-bas ! Il y a un jet d’eau sur la mer.
Un vieux passager, ayant levé les yeux à son tour, après qu’il se
fut lentement dressé de sa chaise longue, certifia :
— C’est un souffleur !
On vit d’autres de ces jets de vapeur mêlée d’eau : toute une
bande de cachalots, une vingtaine au moins de ces monstres, qui
semblaient se poursuivre et jouer sur la face immense de l’océan.
Sans doute, c’était pour eux la saison des amours, un instinct
puissant triomphait de leur méfiance ; ou bien trois ans de guerre,
trois années pendant lesquelles les pêcheurs les avaient laissés
tranquilles, leur avaient donné à croire qu’il n’y avait plus maintenant
d’ennemis de leur race géante. Parfois, ils avaient l’air de danser :
une femelle plongeait devant un mâle pour le séduire, ou par pure
joie de vivre ; on voyait jaillir de l’onde dix ou quinze mètres de son
corps énorme, noir, tout luisant d’huile : le bruit de sa queue qui
battait l’eau en retombant sonnait à travers l’espace vide.
Le commandant avait pris sa lunette et regardait lui aussi. Il dit à
une passagère distinguée, à laquelle il avait fait les honneurs de sa
passerelle.
— On ne les rencontre, en général, que plus au sud de notre
route, bien plus au sud, entre Sainte-Hélène et l’Ascension. Les
mauvaises mers les auront poussés au nord, sans doute ; ou bien ils
sont devenus plus hardis, depuis qu’on ne les chasse plus.
— Oh ! mon commandant, mon commandant ! supplia la
passagère, allons les voir de plus près ! Ça vaut bien de perdre une
heure…
— Oui ! oui, confirmèrent d’autres spectateurs, groupés sous
l’échelle et qui avaient entendu. Faites route sur eux, mon
commandant !
Le commandant hésita. Résolu déjà à céder, il se penchait vers
le téléphone…
A ce moment même, on entendit une détonation sourde ; un
grand souffle de vent passa sur le navire, un souffle bizarre, qui
courait à l’inverse des vents « commerciaux », de l’alisé ordinaire.
Une vaste gerbe d’écume et de fumée monta vers le ciel comme un
geyser. Les cachalots plongèrent, silencieusement. Mais le matelot
de vigie annonça :
— Il en est resté un ! Débris d’un souffleur par bâbord, 30 degrés
nord-ouest !
Et le commandant déclara :
— Oui, il est en morceaux. La pauvre bête a passé sur une mine
en dérive…
Il ajouta, tout pâle :
— Dix minutes de plus, et si j’avais fait cette route, c’était le
bateau qui cognait dessus !… Combien de temps y en aura-t-il
encore dans l’eau de ces sales trucs ?

… Oui, combien de temps encore, en pleine paix, pour rappeler

aux hommes la folie et la cruauté insensée de la guerre, les mines
en dérive continueraient-elles d’errer partout, au hasard, sur
l’étendue des flots, — leur méchanceté sournoise, inintelligente et
désastreuse flottant sans fin, jusqu’à la seconde farouche qu’elle
rencontrerait l’étrave d’un navire ? Durant des années, en pleine
paix, la mer demeurerait presque aussi dangereuse qu’aux jours de
la grande guerre. Abandonnées par un courant, reprises par un
autre, les mines perfides feraient lentement le tour du globe, puis
recommenceraient. Jusqu’au jour…

… Il se pouvait que celle-là ne fût pas seule, qu’elle fît partie d’un
chapelet. Le grand paquebot ralentit sa marche. Il n’avança plus
qu’avec prudence, comme à tâtons. Les vagues poussèrent à sa
rencontre de larges lambeaux de chair, de l’huile, de la graisse qui
surnageaient.
— Pauvre bête ! dit un passager en frissonnant.
— J’aime mieux que ce soit elle que nous, répondit un autre : elle
nous a rendu un fier service !
A vingt milles de là, les cachalots étaient remontés à la surface.
Une femelle se rapprocha d’un vieux mâle, un pacha fier de son
harem ; sa carapace de lard était toute couturée de cicatrices,
nobles traces des batailles d’amour qu’il avait livrées.
— Qu’est-ce que c’était que ça, dit-elle, Qu’est-ce que ça veut
dire ?…
— Une mine ! grogna le vieux mâle. C’est honteux ! Ça ne nous
regarde pas, ces choses-là, ce n’est pas pour nous !

Une fois encore, dans la création, les hommes et les bêtes

n’étaient pas du même avis.
 CEUX D’EN FACE

ANNA MAC FERGUS, ÉCOSSAISE

Il n’y a jamais rien eu dans ma vie de plus frais, de plus ingénu,

de plus voluptueux aussi, de plus près d’Ève, la première des
femmes, quand nous essayons de l’imaginer, si nous sommes
poètes, si nous aimons à imaginer qu’il y eut une première des
femmes, qui ne savait rien et qui savait tout — il n’y a jamais rien eu
dans ma vie de plus frais, de plus voluptueux qu’Anna Mac Fergus.
Je le sais, maintenant, parce que j’ai vieilli : quand on est jeune,
on jouit des femmes, on ne les connaît pas, on ne les goûte pas
dans toute leur saveur, dans ce que chacune a en elle qui
n’appartient, n’appartiendra jamais à aucune autre. Je le sais si
particulièrement, presque douloureusement, parce que cette nuit où
j’écris est la nuit du premier croissant de la nouvelle lune.
Dans le ciel, dans le ciel d’un noir épais, profond, moelleux
comme un tapis il est là, le premier croissant ; pas plus large qu’un
coup d’ongle qui viendrait de rayer ce velours de soie, et qui serait
lumineux, si doucement ! d’une lumière extraordinairement pâle qui
semble dire : « Tais-toi !… Si tu parles, si le moindre bruit me trouble,
dans cette splendide et sombre obscurité sans bruit où je règne, je
vais m’évanouir. » … dans le ciel cette lumière descend sur le sable
de l’allée, qu’elle fait blanc comme une neige un peu bleue, sur
l’herbe d’une pelouse qu’elle rend tout à fait bleue, sur un bosquet
de bambous, devant moi ; et quand le vent rebrousse une feuille de
ces bambous, cette feuille, un instant presque insaisissable aux
sens, jette un éclair léger, comme les poissons qui virent tout à coup
dans un torrent, et, dont, une seconde insaisissable, on aperçoit le
ventre d’argent, au lieu du dos obscur…
… Mais je ne saurais point tout cela, je ne le saurais point
comme on le doit savoir, avec ma sensibilité, non plus ma sèche et
froide raison, avec toute mon enfance enfin revenue par miracle, si
je n’avais connu la sensibilité fervente, l’éternelle enfance d’Anna
Mac Fergus. Elle avait plus de trente ans quand elle m’aima, elle
n’en était pas à son premier amour, mais plus qu’à nulle femme son
dernier amour était toujours le premier. Voilà pourquoi je ne fus
jamais jaloux de ceux qui existèrent pour elle avant moi, pourquoi je
suis jaloux, amèrement, de ceux qui vinrent ensuite, et que
j’ignorerai toujours ! C’est elle qui m’a fait comprendre la beauté
miraculeuse, inégalable, de ce pâle croissant que mes yeux
contemplent cette nuit : mes yeux, la seule chose, avec mon cœur et
mes sens, qui soit restée ce qu’elle était dans ce temps-là. Anna me
disait :
— Vois comme il est jeune ! Tous les mois, la lune est vierge !
Tous les mois elle est comme le premier jour qu’elle a brillé sur la
terre, il y a des milliers et des milliers d’années ! Ah ! comme elle est
heureuse ! Elle est bénie : c’est un miracle réservé pour elle !
Alors je songeais que la nature avait fait ce même miracle pour
Anna Mac Fergus ; mais je ne le lui disais pas : ce sont
communément les plus beaux et les plus fiers éloges qu’on ne
saurait adresser à ceux qui les méritent, surtout aux femmes ; ils
paraissent une amère critique, même la plus sombre insulte ; et
pourtant je la désirais davantage, songeant qu’elle était aussi vierge
que l’astre ressuscité. Mais, un de ces soirs immaculés que je la
voulus saisir, elle répondit :
— Non !… Elle nous a vus : cela nous porterait malheur !