Children, Socialization and Leadership Development in

All societies, organizations, and institutions depend for their success and progress largely on their leaders. The study of children and their socialization provides valuable insight into how societies prepare [Page 171]and nurture individuals to become leaders. Studies of the development of children as leaders throughout their childhood years would be most valuable in identifying characteristics and environments most conducive to producing leaders. However, this would require longitudinal or systematic retrospective studies. Any cursory look at the literature in developmental psychology reveals no such study of children and the socialization of leadership in children. Over the last century however, there have been many studies of child leaders, their characteristics, styles of leadership, and to a much smaller degree environmental antecedents of their leadership. Therefore it is possible to talk about what we know about leadership in children and its development.

At the outset, it is important to mention that the body of literature on leadership in children is disparate and noncohesive, spread as it is over almost a century. Although the study of leadership has been a popular topic, the majority of research has focused on adults.