Evolutionary developmental psychology and socio-emotional development

Abstract

Evolutionary developmental psychology is relevant to understanding many aspects of socio-emotional development in infancy, childhood and adolescence. This article focuses on parental investment and paternity certainty, child abuse, grandparenting, and parent-offspring conflict; sibling relationships and theory of mind; children's peer groups, especially dominance, aggression, sex differences and pretend and rough-and-tumble play; and on a model linking early family experiences to peer behaviour, age of puberty and reproductive behaviour. The review illustrates some of the potential of evolutionary developmental psychology in providing a comprehensive framework for understanding many aspects of social behaviour, and of providing testable hypotheses. Evolutionary explanations should be seen as compatible with cultural and environmental explanations, that may provide the proximal mechanisms by which the more distal functions of these behaviours are typically realised in actual developmental process and experience     

The Development of Justice Conceptions and the Unavoidability of the Normative

This article spells out the way in which normative concerns unavoidably enter into the design and interpretation of empirical research on children's development of justice conceptions, with special emphasis on Damon's well-known stage theory of such development. Normative considerations provide assumptions not only about what counts as a conception of justice in the first place but also what counts as a better or a worse conception. Damon, for one, relies on the questionable normative premise that all distributive choices are choices about justice. An alternative research programme is suggested, based on piecemeal mutual adjustments between the normative and the empirical, a programme which would focus on children's desert-based emotions.     

The Influence of Adult and Peer Role Models on Children’ and Adolescents’ Sharing Decisions

This study explores how the age (adult vs. peer) and the suggestion (to be fair vs. unfair) of models affect the sharing decisions of 9‐ and 12‐year‐olds (N = 365) from Italy and Singapore. Results demonstrate a developmental shift in the influence of models on children's and adolescents’ sharing decisions in both cultures: Children's decisions were more affected by an adult model's suggestion than by that of a peer model, whereas the opposite was true for adolescents. Regardless of the models’ influence, participants considered equal sharing to be the fair choice and reported being happier when their sharing decisions were generous. Our results highlight the crucial importance of social and developmental factors for the promotion of fairness judgments and emotions.     

Behaviour and adjustment problems of young developmentally delayed children

ABSTRACT

As part of an ongoing longitudinal study of developmental delay (DD), 35 six‐year‐old children with delays of unknown aetiology were assessed with measures of cognitive, language and educational competence. Their parents provided detailed information about their self‐help and personal‐social competencies, behaviour problems and temperament. As a group, the DD children evidenced high rates of behaviour problems, but there was considerable within‐group variability in intensity and pattern of problems. Low relationships were found between the intensity of behaviour problems and children's chronological age (CA), IQ, language level and self‐help competencies. The child variable most strongly associated with behaviour problems was temperament, or behavioural style.     

Peer Assessment of Children's Prosocial Behaviour

The study was designed to examine 8-12-year-olds' peer assessments of prosocial behaviour and their relationship to self-assessments, teacher-assessments and peer acceptance. Although prosocial behaviour has been studied for many years, it has been narrowly operationalised and research has tended to lack ecological validity. To rectify these weaknesses, child-generated normative prosocial behaviours were used to generate peer nomination items for the purpose of rating children's performance of prosocial behaviour in peer interactions. Children also filled out self-ratings of social behaviour and peer sociometric nominations. Teachers assessed children's social behaviour, rating the same child-generated prosocial behaviours. Popular children were rated as significantly more prosocial than all other sociometric groups and rejected children were rated as significantly less prosocial than all other groups. The highest correlation was found between teacher and peer reports of prosocial behaviour. Self-ratings and peer-ratings of prosocial behaviour were significantly related, as were self-ratings and teacherratings of prosocial behaviour. Implications of research findings are discussed.     

Evolution and development of folk knowledge: Implications for children's learning

Abstract

A central theoretical issue in evolutionary developmental psychology concerns the relation between evolved systems of folk knowledge and academic learning in modern schools. A model for conceptualizing motivational biases, cognitive competencies (e.g., language), and children's inherent developmental activities that compose these systems of folk knowledge is presented. Implications for children's learning of culture-specific academic competencies, such as reading, and associated motivational and instructional issues are then discussed. The thesis is that the motivational, cognitive, and developmental systems that compose folk knowledge are not sufficient for academic learning, but are the foundation from which academic competencies are built. Implications for educational theory and research are profound     

Enhancing reading self‐concepts that ‘feed forward’ to improve task choices for children with reading difficulties

Abstract

This report considers children's self‐concepts that feed forward to support their choice to participate in reading activities, following coleman and Bornholt (2003). Participants were 10 of 11 year old girls and boys (N=55), including children with reading difficulties and low self‐concepts about reading (N=18). Part 1 was a co relational study Results suggest that various choices combine to indicate children's reading choice behaviours, and reading self‐concepts were assoicated with reading choice behaviours. Part 2 was a brief experiment for children with reading difficulties individually reading choice behaviour. it was concluded that concepts, and feed forward to enhance children's reading choice behaviour. It was concluded that the personal and social based to self‐concepts also support and constrain children's participation in reading activities. The main applications of these findings are for the design of sustained reading motivation programmes in clinical and education settings.     

Using Simulations to Teach Leadership Roles

This paper investigates the nature of informal learning through a study of children's (age 9-13) use of chatrooms and in a computer games class in an out-of-school-centre. The paper discusses contemporary policy interest in the concept but argues that it loses value for educationalists except as "critical lens" to explore formal learning. Key elements of informal learning are dissected and close analysis of children's talk in informal learning situations is analysed in terms of its pedagogic structure.     

‘Settling in’

Abstract

This study examined the ‘settling in’ behaviour of newly enrolled children who entered an established preschool classroom. Settling in can cause emotional distress and behavioural problems in children. Thus, it is important to document the ways in which young children successfully adjust. The behaviours of the ‘new’ children were tracked across the school year and compared with ‘old children’, or those previously enrolled. Results indicated that new children did not differ from old children in terms of unengaged behaviour. While all children's socially interactive behaviour and social fantasy increased across the school year, the new children engaged in lower levels of these behaviours. Further, the signals they used to initiate social interaction were less sophisticated than those used by established children. Results are discussed in terms of the role of familiarity in supporting children's exhibition of competence. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.     

Maternal adverse childhood experiences,attachment style,and mental health: Pathways of transmission to child behavior problems

BackgroundInvestigations have found mothers’ adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) confer an intergenerational risk to their children's outcomes. However, mechanisms underlying this transmission have only been partially explained by maternal mental health. Adult attachment insecurity has been shown to mediate the association of ACEs and mental health outcomes, yet an extension of this research to children's behavioral problems has not been examined.ObjectiveTo examine the cascade from maternal ACEs to risk for child behavioral problems at five years of age, via mothers’ attachment insecurity and mental health.Participants and settingParticipants in the current study were 1994 mother-child dyads from a prospective longitudinal cohort collected from January 2011 to October 2014.MethodsMothers retrospectively reported their ACEs when children were 36 months of age. When children were 60 months of age, mothers completed measures of their attachment style, depression and anxiety symptoms, and their children's behavior problems.ResultsPath analysis demonstrated maternal ACEs were associated with children's internalizing problems indirectly via maternal attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and depression symptoms, but not directly (β = .05, 95% CI [−.001, .10]). Maternal ACEs indirectly predicted children's externalizing problems via maternal attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, and depression. A direct effect was also observed from maternal ACEs to child externalizing problems (β = .06, 95% CI [.01, .11]).ConclusionsMaternal ACEs influenced children's risk for poor behavioral outcomes via direct and indirect intermediary pathways. Addressing maternal insecure attachment style and depression symptoms as intervention targets for mothers with histories of ACEs may help to mitigate the intergenerational transmission of risk.     

Teacher feedback in the reception class

This article reports a small scale study into teacher feedback in the reception class and its associations with young children's positive adjustment to school. Striking differences were found between the feedback given to the children according to their perceived adjustment. The article also highlights the rather narrow repertoire of feedback used by teachers and their emphasis on negative rather than positive feedback to the children who had not settled. The issues raised are pertinent throughout the primary age phase and may alert teachers to the possibility of over-reliance on some feedback styles and their negative influence on children's learning.     

African-American and Euro-American Preschoolers with Intellectual Disabilities: Patterns of Play with Toys

The patterns of cognitive play of 28 African-American and Euro-American preschool children with intellectual disabilities are reported. Fourteen children representing each group, matched on developmental age and family variables, were observed playing independently at home. Categorical and sequential play behaviors were coded from videotapes using a 15-second partial interval coding procedure. The pattern of African-American children's play was more reflective of their developmental age than the pattern of Euro-American children's play for their developmental age. Between group effects emerged for only 1 of 15 dependent variables included in the analyses: length of single scheme sequence. The results highlight children's strengths and challenge commonly held stereotypes. Recommendations for future research are provided.     

Developmental trajectories of children's spatial skills: Influencing variables and associations with later mathematical thinking

Few studies have examined the long-term relations between children's early spatial skills and their later mathematical abilities. In the current study, we investigated children's developmental trajectories of spatial skills across four waves from age 3–7 years and their association with children's later mathematical understanding. We assessed children's development in a large, heterogeneous sample of children (N = 586) from diverse cultural backgrounds and mostly low-income homes. Spatial and mathematical skills were measured using standardized assessments. Children's starting points and rate of growth in spatial skills were investigated using latent growth curve models. We explored the influence of various covariates on spatial skill development and found that socioeconomic status, language skills, and sex, but not migration background predicted children's spatial development. Furthermore, our findings showed that children's initial spatial skills––but not their rate of growth––predicted later mathematical understanding, indicating that early spatial reasoning may play a crucial role for learning mathematics.     

Promoting children's public participation in policy-making through achievement-oriented education

Abstract

This theoretical paper looked at the possibility of incorporating the social learning concept of achievement-oriented behaviour in promoting children's public participation in policy-making in the educational system. The paper highlighted how the concepts of public participation and achievement-oriented education could be used in the governance of the educational system in South Africa. The paper explored concepts such as goal-directed behaviour, achievement standards, achievement beliefs, and how the educational system could use the concepts in the promotion of children's public participation. Future studies could focus on the empirical relationship between achievement-oriented behaviour and child involvement in participatory democracy in the governance of the educational system in South Africa.     

The Development of Nonsymbolic Probability Judgments in Children

Two experiments were designed to investigate the developmental trajectory of children's probability approximation abilities. In Experiment 1, results revealed 6- and 7-year-old children's (N = 48) probability judgments improve with age and become more accurate as the distance between two ratios increases. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with 7- to 12-year-old children (N = 130) while also accounting for the effect of the size and the perceived numerosity of target objects. Older children's performance suggested the correct use of proportions for estimating probability; but in some cases, children relied on heuristic shortcuts. These results suggest that children's nonsymbolic probability judgments show a clear distance effect and that the acuity of probability estimations increases with age.     

Three approaches to measuring children's perceptions about technology

Abstract

This paper reports the development and use of three instruments which comprise a comprehensive technique for describing children's perceptions about technology. The instruments are a questionnaire for upper primary school children, a quiz using pictures instead of written items for lower primary school children and, for both age‐groups, a combined writing/drawing activity which complements the questionnaire or quiz. The instruments are designed to cater for children from a range of age levels, provide information helpful to teachers about children's perceptions of technology, and be suitable for use in research. The instruments were trialled in a total of 28 classes in Western Australian schools and construct validity established by examining the pattern of responses between pairs of instruments completed by the same children. The teachers stated that participating in the processes of developing and administering the instruments was useful and gave them valuable information about children's views of technology.     

Role‐Taking Ability and Altruistic Behaviour in Elementary School Children

Abstract

Twenty‐four second‐ and third‐grade children were given two cognitively‐based role‐taking tests developed by Flavell et al. (1968). The children's social behaviour was observed over a two‐month period. It was coded according to a scheme introduced by the anthropologists Whiting and Whiting (1975) which produces composite scores of egoism and altruism. Teachers rated the children's social behaviour and role‐taking ability. IQ scores were obtained from school records. Tests of the reliability and validity of the measures of role‐taking and altruism were positive. Role‐taking ability was positively correlated with naturally‐occurring altruistic behaviour and teacher's ratings of altruism. IQ was positively correlated with role‐taking ability, and tended to be positively correlated with altruism. The correlation between role‐taking and altruism was marginally significant with IQ partialled out. The results were consistent with the conclusion that role‐taking ability increases the disposition to behave altruistically in third‐grade children.     

What develops in children's development of altruism?

Abstract

Cognitive-developmental theorists have maintained that children's development of altruism does really mean a movement from centration to decentration. In this paper we make a different claim. Borrowing from the two micromodels Piaget used, in succession, to account for the child's transition from preoperational to operational throught (i.e., a cost-gain model guided by game theory, and an affirmation-negation model based on equilibration theory), we suggest that children's development of altruism represents a movement from centration or cost-perception to compensation or gain-construction. Ninety children from three age levels (30 5-year-olds, 30 7-year-olds, and 30 10-year-olds) were presented with four prosocial dilemmas appealing to sharing, donating, helping, and conforming. Children's cost-perception/gain-construction competence was first assessed and then related to their level of altruism in an opportunity-to-donate situation. Consistent with our cost-perception/gain-construction approach, children became more likely with age to think of prosocial acts in terms of gain than in terms of cost. Positive associations between gain-construction competence and observed altruism were also found. These results strengthen our Piagetian approach to children's development of altruism     

Reading self‐concepts and task choices for children with reading difficulties

Abstract

This project examined the personal and the social basis of children's self‐concepts about reading. Study 1 [N= 55] was a correlational study. Results suggest a stronger personal than social basis for children's self‐concepts about reading. In particular, children made stronger comparisons among content areas than gender groups. Study 2 [N= 18] was an intervention study. The focus was on the personal basis of self‐concepts, for children with reading difficulties. Results showed that self‐concepts were responsive to the intervention, with associated change in task choices. Findings support a self‐categorization approach to understanding children's self‐concepts, and imply that this approach would be useful in motivating children about reading.

Reading is regarded as integral to general living skills and is central to children's learning across many areas of schooling. This means that we need to understand more about the self‐concepts that motivate children to take up and persist with reading activities. H is a particularly pressing issue for children who experience difficulties with reading. This project therefore examined the personal and social basis of children's self‐concepts about reading. The focus was the salience of children's personal and social categorisations about reading that underpin reading self‐concepts and associated choices of reading tasks.     

Interaction between Children with Developmental Delays and their Mothers during a Book‐sharing Activity

Mothers and their preschool children with developmental delays participated in a storybook activity. Data analysis focused on the relations between maternal and child behaviours in the activity. Several aspects of mothers’ behaviour were related to children's engagement and responsiveness during the task. The more responsive and engaged the child, the more the mother attempted to involve the child in the book activity. Interviews indicated that children's positive attitude towards reading was associated with frequency of reading activity. We conclude that mothers were sensitive to their children's developmental levels and organized the activity in ways appropriate to the child's ability and willingness to participate.