This study focused on parents’ perceptions of the quality of sibling relationship and its association with some behavioral and emotional characteristics of the typically developing sibling. The participants were parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing siblings. The sample size was 43. The group comprised 14 fathers (32.6%) and 29 mothers (67.4%) aged 33–53 years (M=43.56; SD = 5.23). The parents completed measures of siblings’ emotional and behavioral difficulties, siblings’ personality, and sibling relationships and their impact on families and siblings. The results showed that behavioral difficulties such as emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, and peer relationship problems were significantly associated with negative sibling relationships—characterized by rivalry, aggression, avoidance, and teaching behavior toward the brother or sister with an autism spectrum disorder. The implications are that sibling-focused interventions should focus on improving negative sibling relationships to reduce the impact on the difficulties of the typical development of the sibling of both genders and shape the content and delivery framework accordingly. This can be done by providing skills and approaches for enhancing sibling relationships so both parties benefit.
Background . Though Ethiopia has made impressive progress in reducing child mortality in the past two decades, the reduction of under-five mortalities is a major concern for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) introduced in 2016 targeted to reduce under-5 mortality rate below 25 deaths of under-5 per 1,000 live births by 2030. This study aims to assess the risk factors attributed to under-five mortalities in Ethiopia region based on Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey 2016 dataset. Methods . The study was a secondary analysis of 2016, Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey and the information collected from 10,274 children born five years preceding the survey was considered in the study, and variables like maternal social and demographic characteristics, child demographic characteristics, and cultural and environmental factors were considered as determinants of under-five deaths. The study used descriptive statistics and logistic regression model to explore significant risk factors accredited to under-five deaths in Ethiopia. Results . Maternal education attainment, women age at first birth, women current age, child birth order, preceding birth interval, birth type, and occupation of mother were found significant predictors of under-five mortalities. Being born to mother with no education (OR=2.610, 95% CI: 1.598, 4.265), short birth spacing 1 to 18 months birth intervals (OR=2.164, 95% CI: 1.821, 2.570), birth order of five and above, and 11 to 17 years ages at birth (OR=1.556, 95% CI: 1.243, 1.949) were factors significantly associated with increased risk of under-five mortalities. Conclusion . The magnitude of under-five deaths in the study area was decreasing. However, under-five mortality rates have stayed higher in some regions. Therefore, interventions that focus on birth spacing, mothers living in Affar and Gambela, and uneducated mothers are required for improving child survival in Ethiopia.
Purpose. Children with ADHD have known behaviors of hyperactivity and impulsivity which may result in adverse outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine the association of serious adverse outcomes (emergency department visits within the previous year) in preadolescents and adolescents with ADHD as compared with preadolescents and adolescents without ADHD. Method. The researchers conducted a cross-sectional, secondary data analysis of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 2017 data concerning 2,965 children (>11 to 17 years). The NHIS data resulted from face-to-face interviews of a household member selected from a multistage area probability design representing households in the US. Data analyses for this study included Chi-square bivariate analyses and logistic regression analyses. Results. There were 13.2% of children in the sample who had ADHD. Children with ADHD were more likely to be male and non-Hispanic white. They were also more likely to have one or more additional disease or condition excluding ADHD. In adjusted logistic regression analysis on emergency department utilization by ADHD status, the adjusted odds ratio was 1.93 (95%CI: 1.35, 2.74; p = 0.0003) for preadolescents and adolescents with ADHD as compared with preadolescents and adolescents without ADHD. Conclusion. Children with ADHD were more likely to have emergency department utilization than children without ADHD. Preventive medical visits were similar between preadolescent and adolescent children with and without ADHD. Characteristics associated with ADHD may explain the increased need for emergent care. Developing interventions for children with ADHD may decrease emergency department utilization.
Objective . Early childhood development (ECD) programs have demonstrated drastic improvements in survival, growth, health, and social productivity. An ECD pilot intervention was delivered to vulnerable populations of a Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinic in Des Moines, Iowa, to assess ECD outcomes and parental receivability in this setting. Study Design . In a randomized, single blinded control initiative, WIC group sessions of mothers (children aged 2 years and younger) were selected for pilot ECD intervention (37 participants) or control (36). Care for Child Development ECD course material was supplemented to intervention groups. Survey results were assessed with paired samples T-testing and by an ANOVA. Results . Pilot session receivability demonstrated significance in all areas relative to control: enjoyment, p=0.008; learning capacity, p=0.011; and participant sharing, p=0.023. Furthermore, the previously validated ECD intervention demonstrated significantly improved cumulative 1 month behavior outcomes following the intervention: p=0.006. Conclusions . The WIC setting provides an ideal environment for delivering ECD education beyond traditional counseling in nutrition. High receivability indices among parents demonstrate remarkable capacity for improvement and growth. The significance in receivability, as well as 1 month behavior outcomes, represents parents’ overall readiness to enhance the home environment for their child if merely educated how.
Until recently and despite its familiarity, begging in Ghanaian cities had been considered worthy of little attention. Despite the best efforts of a few academics to highlight the motives of beggars, critical analysis of the begging phenomenon within the spectrum of urban livelihood remains embryonic. This article unpacks the complexities, degree of organization, and embedded risks in street begging involving children in Kumasi, Ghana. The article draws on empirical evidence from 55 conveniently selected child beggars from five heavily congested locations and presents extensive review of existing scholarships on the phenomenon. The results reveal that child beggars adopt varied operational strategies to woo public sympathy. Begging strategies are mapped by adult escort who also counts the money as it is made. For many, begging has increasingly become a socially and economically constituted process that mediates how they deal with poverty and livelihood challenges. The beggars are also daily exposed to risky encounters but without any protection. We argue that stopping the phenomenon will require innovative approaches that go beyond conventional legislations.
The present study investigated the extent to which children of various economic backgrounds were prepared for kindergarten literacy activities, as measured by the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment-Literacy (KRA-L). The study also assessed the extent to which children’s economic disadvantagement status moderates the relationship between KRA-L scores and the level of participation in SPARK Ohio, an early education intervention focused on increasing parental engagement and advocacy. KRA-L scores for children entering kindergarten in fall 2012 were analyzed for 548 SPARK Ohio participants and 1594 comparison children. Both SPARK Ohio and comparison children identified as economically disadvantaged scored significantly lower on the KRA-L, compared to children not classified as economically disadvantaged. Economic disadvantage status may moderate the influence of participating in SPARK Ohio; children identified as economically disadvantaged scored significantly higher on the KRA-L when they participated in SPARK Ohio, compared to those that did not participate in SPARK Ohio.
This study measures letter naming, phonological awareness, and spelling knowledge in 2,100 kindergarten students attending 63 schools within a large, urban school district. Students were assessed across December, February, and May of the kindergarten year. Results found that, by May, 71.8% of students had attained full letter naming knowledge. Phonological awareness emerged more slowly with 48% of students able to reliably segment and blend phonemes in words. Spelling development, a measure of phonics knowledge, found that, by May, 71.8% of students were in the partial-alphabetic phase. A series of regression analyses revealed that by the end of kindergarten both letter naming and phonological awareness were significant predictors of spelling knowledge ( b = .332 and .518 for LK and PA, resp.), explaining 52.7% of the variance.
The present study attempted to determine differences between children and adults in the resolution of third-party property disputes involving different claims for ownership. Children (n = 110; mean age ± SD = 6.3 ± 1.2) and adults (n = 74; 37.5 ± 12.6) watched videos depicting ownership conflicts between two characters who held opposing claims over an object and were asked to decide who should own it. In the stories, each character based her claim on one of four distinct arguments: Discovery, Creation, Occupation, and Transaction. A key difference between these claims lies in the presence or absence of a “first possession” element: Discovery and Creation imply prior possession of the discovered or created object, whereas Occupation and Transaction necessarily involve a preexisting owner. We found that children assigned ownership to prior possessors in the stories twice as much as adults (Medians = 4 and 2, out of four cases, respectively; p < 0.001) and favored discoverers and creators substantially more than adults. Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of first possession in the adjudication of ownership for both children and adults. The present study deals with first possession as instantiated in Discovery and Creation episodes and provides novel quantitative evidence that children value first possession significantly more than adults. In contrast with previous studies, we found that discovery trumps creation in certain contexts, suggesting that narrative and contextual details influence children’s reasoning.
Despite the consensus in the literature regarding the importance of organizational abilities in performing daily tasks, currently there is no assessment that focuses exclusively on such abilities among young children. The study aims to develop a Questionnaire for Assessing Preschoolers’ Organizational Abilities (QAPOA), Parents’ and Teachers’ versions, and to examine their reliability and validity. QAPOA was distributed to preschool teachers and parents of 215 typically developing 4–5.6-year-old children. The teachers’ and parents’ versions demonstrated good internal consistency. Factor analysis performed to examine the tool’s content validity yielded two factors: motor-based and language-based OA. Furthermore, both versions of the questionnaire demonstrated significant differences between OA among boys and girls. Concurrent validity was demonstrated between the QAPOA total scores and the equivalent subscale of the BRIEF-P. Given these findings, different cut-off scores were established for identifying boys and girls with either motor-based and/or language-based OA. The results indicate that both the teachers’ and parents’ versions of the QAPOA are reliable and valid measures of children’s organizational abilities. The questionnaires can assess and identify risk for organizational disabilities as early as preschool age. Thus, it can contribute to the planning of appropriate intervention programs and the prevention of difficulties in the future.
Adults adopt the traits of characters in narratives, but little is known about whether children do so. In Study 1, 7- and 10-year-olds (N=96) heard a 2.5-minute recording about a professor or cheerleader. Reporting higher engagement in the professor narrative related to more time playing with an analytical toy (a Rubik’s cube), whereas reporting higher engagement in the cheerleader narrative related to less time playing with Rubik’s cube. However, although children were randomly assigned to a narrative, within condition children may have had preexisting personality differences causing them both to become more engaged in that narrative and also to behave more like that character afterwards. To control for this possibility, in Study 2 children (N=104) were given perspective-taking or objective instructions. Interestingly, both instructions created higher engagement than in Study 1, resulting in main effects of narrative. Children in the professor condition, compared to those in the cheerleader condition, spent more time playing with Rubik’s cube and self-reported higher levels of professor-relevant characteristics (e.g., smart, good at teaching). These studies show that, by the elementary school years and particularly when highly engaged in a narrative, children adopt the traits of a narrative’s central character.
This study analysed children’s Theory of Mind (ToM) as assessed by mental state talk in oral narratives. We hypothesized that the children’s mental state talk in narratives has an underlying structure, with specific terms organized in clusters. Ninety-eight children attending the last year of kindergarten were asked to tell a story twice, at the beginning and at the end of the school year. Mental state talk was analysed by identifying terms and expressions referring to perceptual, physiological, emotional, willingness, cognitive, moral, and sociorelational states. The cluster analysis showed that children’s mental state talk is organized in two main clusters: perceptual states and affective states. Results from the study confirm the feasibility of narratives as an outlet to inquire mental state talk and offer a more fine-grained analysis of mental state talk structure.
In the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), overweight as compared to normal-weight adults make more risky decisions resulting in immediate rewards and long-term losses. Findings regarding a potentially moderating role of gender have been inconsistent and investigations on the development of weight-group differences in decision-making during childhood are lacking. Using a 3-wave longitudinal study, we examined decision-making in a matched sample of 94 overweight and 94 normal-weight children (49% girls, aged 6–9 years at wave 1) over a 3-year period. Decision-making was measured with the Hungry Donkey Task (HDT), an age-appropriate version of the IGT, and learning within the task was examined via analysis across trial blocks. Mixed-design ANOVA revealed that more risky decisions were made by overweight as compared to normal-weight children and by girls as compared to boys. Within-task learning was evident at all three waves, moderated by weight group and gender. However, although risky decisions generally decreased across the 3-year period, weight-group and gender differences did not significantly change over the 3-year period. Our findings demonstrate that weight-group and gender differences in decision-making are already present and do not significantly change over a 3-year period in middle childhood.
We investigated how mothers’ parenting behaviors and personal characteristics were related to risk-taking by young children. We tested contrasting predictions from evolutionary and social role theories with the former predicting higher risk-taking by boys compared to girls and the latter predicting that mothers would influence children’s gender role development with risk-taking occurring more in children parented with higher levels of harshness (i.e., authoritarian parenting style). In our study, mothers reported their own gender roles and parenting styles as well as their children’s risk-taking and activities related to gender roles. The results were only partially consistent with the two theories, as the amount of risk-taking by sons and daughters did not differ significantly and risk-taking by daughters, but not sons, was positively related to mothers’ use of the authoritarian parenting style and the girls’ engagement in masculine activities. Risk-taking by sons was not predicted by any combination of mother-related variables. Overall, mothers who were higher in femininity used more authoritative and less authoritarian parenting styles. Theoretical implications as well as implications for predicting and reducing children’s risk-taking are discussed.
In developmental research, mothers are frequently asked to “play as you usually would.” In this study, maternal behavior towards their three-month-olds in three cultural communities (Nso, Cameroon; Gujarati, India; Athens, Greece) was compared between videorecorded “play” situations and naturalistic observations. If there is consistency, videorecorded “play” episodes can be used as a proxy for daily behavior. Body contact, body stimulation, face-to-face situations, and object stimulation were coded. While individual mothers showed consistent levels of body contact and face-to-face and object stimulation in both situations, there were also high correlations across the different types of behaviors. Only body contact and object stimulation correlate significantly across behavioral frames but not with each other across or within either observational frame. They can therefore be understood as behaviors with some discriminatory power. Mothers generally show a higher frequency of behaviors in the videorecorded play situations than during the everyday observations across all three communities. However, the samples differ in the extent to which three of the four behaviors are seen more in the videorecorded play sessions. A broader and general understanding of mothers’ ethnotheories and daily activities in each community is required in order to interpret videographed “play as you usually would” situations.
The purpose of this study is to determine what previous studies have found to be factors that contribute to a child’s initial communication development and previously identified effects of reading mathematics storybooks to toddlers or preschoolers. Therefore, it follows that the earlier a preschooler is exposed to mathematics vocabulary, the easier mathematics vocabulary acquisition and understanding can be for that child, which can result in an increase in future academic achievement. This metasynthesis was conducted to gather information on the effects that interactive relationships with caregivers have on a child’s ability to communicate and then how symbiotic reading and mathematics interventions can affect a child’s ability to think and communicate mathematically. According to the data analyzed for this metasynthesis, caregivers’ language relationships help facilitate a child’s early communication development and reading and mathematics symbiotic instruction can lead to developing a child’s ability to think and communicate mathematically.
This study examined whether there were parental state differences in interpretations of infants’ behaviours as associated with some mental states. Parents, nonparent women, and nonparent men were shown video clips that displayed several infant behaviours (e.g., playing with his/her mother). Then they were given two tasks. In a rating task, participants were asked to rate the likelihood of the filmed infant to have a mental state. On the other hand, in a description task, participants were instructed to explicitly describe the filmed infants’ mental state in an open-ended manner. Importantly, all participants were asked to report the meaning of infants’ behaviour in specific acts from the same set of infants’ behaviours (e.g., the infants saw mother’s face and smiled). The results revealed that parents and nonparent women significantly higher rated that infants were likely to express a mental state in the rating task than nonparent men did. On the other hand, parents were more likely to describe the filmed infants’ mental states in the description task than nonparent women and nonparent men did. Results suggest that parents interpret more meanings from infants’ behaviours compared to nonparents, even when both parents and nonparents equally focused on infants’ behaviours.
Rather than reenacting every action they observe, preverbal infants adapt their imitative behavior. Although previous studies have revealed the capability of preverbal infants to imitate selectively, the question about the adaptability of this behavior on an individual level did not attract considerable scientific attention until now. In the current study, we investigated whether 14-month-old infants flexibly alternate their imitative response in accordance with a model’s changing physical constraints in a body-part imitation paradigm. Participants were presented with two novel actions whereby a model illuminated a light-box and turned on a sound-box, either by using her forehead (head touch) or by sitting on the apparatus (sit-touch). Each participant observed these tasks in two conditions: once where the model’s hands were occupied and once where her hands were free while executing the head or sit-touch. Participants were more likely to reenact the observed novel behavior when the model had freely chosen to perform it than when she had to do so due to physical constraints. Not only did we replicate a number of previous findings, we show here that preverbal infants adapt their imitative behavior across conditions based on the physical constraints of the model. These results point towards the adaptable nature of imitative behavior also on an individual level. This ability might be one of the building blocks for children for learning their social group’s specific action repertoire.
Parents of children with specific language impairment (SLI) are advised to promote language development at home. However, it is not known if children with SLI differ from healthy controls in their daily activities. This study collected prospectively information about the home activities of the children with SLI and their matched controls by using parents’ daily reports. Participants were 20 matched pairs. The ages of children in matched pairs were from 6 to 8 years. During one week, parents filled in daily questionnaires of listed home activities. The observed time was between 5 pm and 9.30 pm each day and it was divided into 30-minute scoring periods. Parents of children with SLI reported more varying home activities and fewer activities of playing outdoors than parents of control children. Home activities with literacy or screen time did not show difference between the two groups, and neither did playing table top games. Parents of children with SLI did more overlapping choices when scoring home activities than parents of control children. Children with SLI seemed to spend somewhat less time with home activities that, in particular, may ask for language and social skills and collaboration with peers.
The Perceived Parent Success Standards Scale (PPSSS), adapted from the Perception of Success Questionnaire constructed by Roberts et al. (1998) to measure athletes’ achievement goal orientation, provides a measure of athletes’ perceptions of mastery- and ego-oriented parental success criteria, a central component of parental motivational climate. This study focused on 543 young athletes (ages 9–16) on 82 teams in recreational basketball leagues. The PPSSS exhibited strong factorial validity, construct validity, and orthogonality between ego and mastery factors that allow for different combinations of these factors to be tested. We also compared the impact of the motivational climates created by coaches and success standards conveyed by parents on postseason athlete outcome measures of anxiety, self-esteem, and achievement goal orientation. Correlational and multilevel regression analyses revealed that both coach and parent variables were significantly related to the athlete variables. However, mediational analyses indicated that parental success standards mediated relations between coach-initiated climate and all of the outcome variables, reflecting the power of parental socialization processes. We discuss potential reasons for the greater parental influence shown in this and a previous study, and we suggest directions for further research as well as possible interventions that can help both coaches and parents create a more positive athletic environment for young athletes.
This study investigated the relationship between pragmatic ability and two aspects of structural language in conversational language samples from 24 school-age children with and without high-functioning autism (HFA): causal statements and speech disruptions. In contrast to a majority of previous studies, grammatical complexity and mean length of utterance were factored into the analyses, since these are potential confounding variables. The results showed that children with HFA used fewer spontaneous causal statements and fewer filled pauses in conversation compared to children with typical development (TD). There was also a significant and positive relationship between filled pauses and pragmatic ability after controlling for structural language ability. The results may help us understand the conversational patterns of children with HFA better.
