Saving in childhood and adolescence: Insights from developmental psychology

This paper addresses variables related to child and adolescent saving and explains the development of skills and behaviors that facilitate saving from an economic socialization perspective. References are made to the differences between the economic world of children, adolescents, and adults as well as to existing theories of saving. Children's and adolescents’ ability and willingness to save are looked at, taking into account the social context of the family and general child and adolescent development. The paper concludes with directions for future research in this area.     

Exploring the Causal Effect of Interpretation Bias on Attachment Expectations

Attachment theory implies that children's inclination to interpret attachment figures behavior as supportive and available causally influences children's trust in their attachment figure's availability. An experiment was conducted to test whether training children (8–12 years old) to interpret ambiguous interactions with their mothers in a more secure way increases their trust in their mother's availability. Participants (N = 49) were randomly assigned to either a secure condition to train children to interpret their mother's behavior as supportive or a neutral placebo condition, where interpretations were unrelated to maternal support. Results supported the hypothesis: After the secure training, children interpreted maternal behavior more securely and trusted more in her availability. This suggests that attachment‐related processing biases causally affect attachment expectations.     

Taking working memory training from the laboratory into schools

Working memory skills have been shown to be enhanced by adaptive training in several randomised controlled trials. Here, two field trials were conducted in which teachers administered working memory training to their own pupils in school. Twenty-two children aged 8–9?years participated in Trial 1. In Trial 2, 50 children aged 9–11?years with the lowest academic performance completed training. They were matched with a group of 50 children who were not trained. Following training, children in Trial 1 improved significantly in both trained and untrained working memory tasks, with effect sizes comparable to those reported in research studies. Improvements on the trained tasks in Trial 2 were comparable, and training was associated with significantly greater progress at school across the academic year in maths and English. These findings indicate that teacher-administered training leads to generalised and robust gains in working memory and educationally significant gains in academic performance.     

Parental manipulation of the behavior of normal and deviant children.

The present study examined the ability of parents to bias home-observation data by influencing their child's behavior in socially desirable and undesirable directions. Parents of 12 deviant and 12 non-deviant boys, aged 4-8, were given the response set to present their child as "good", "bad", and usual (normal) during 6 45-minute observations of family interaction. Deviant and non-deviant children showed significantly more deviant behavior under the bad condition as compared with normal, whereas their good and normal conditions did not differ. Parent positive and negative behaviors were related to changes in child deviant behavior for the deviant sample; parent positive and commanding behaviors were related to changes in child deviant behavior for the nondeviant sample. Parent self-report of behavior change was generally consistent with the observation data. The results suggested implications for naturalistic observations of families and for child behavior change interventions.     

Mothers' sensitivity to the competencies of their preschoolers on a concept-learning task

This study investigated the instructional strategies mothers used when interacting with their child on a concept-learning task and the effect of this interaction on subsequent independent child performance. Also investigated was whether mothers' behaviors and perceptions differed depending on the child's age, task difficulty, or the child's needs for assistance. Sixty 3- and 5-year-old children participated in a three-phase sequence of tasks that required the matching of opposite concepts. The pretest and posttest phases were identical for all children, but during the second phase half the children completed the tasks with their mothers and half continued to work independently. During each phase, children received both an easy and a difficult version of the task. Children who interacted with their mothers matched more concepts correctly on the posttest and gave more correct explanations for their matches than children who worked independently. Mothers of 3-year-olds provided more assistance than mothers of 5-year-olds, and mothers provided higher levels of assistance on the difficult task than on the easy task. Most mothers were sensitive to their child's needs in that the instructional strategies they adopted throughout the interaction were appropriately modified in response to their child's successes and failures. There was some evidence that individual differences in maternal sensitivity were related to variations in children's independent performance. Mothers' perceptions of the task, of their child's needs for assistance, and of their own role in the interaction were related to their overt behaviors. Intervention programs aimed at fostering parents' skills in interacting with their children should emphasize the importance of scaffolded instruction tuned to the child's capabilities.     

Knowing When to Be “Rational”: Flexible Economic Decision Making and Executive Function in Preschool Children

Failure to delay gratification may not indicate poor control or irrationality, but might be an adaptive response. Two studies investigated 3.5‐ and 4.5‐year‐old children's ability to adapt their delay and saving behavior when their preference (e.g., to delay or not delay) became nonadaptive. In Study 1 (N = 140), children's delay preference was associated with a risk of losing rewards. In Study 2 (N = 142), children's saving preference was associated with an inability to play an attractive game. Whereas baseline delaying and saving preferences were unrelated to a standardized executive function measure, children who switched to their nonpreferred choice scored higher, suggesting flexibility of decision‐making may be a more meaningful dependent variable than baseline performance in developmental research on self‐control.     

Repeat missing child reports in Wales

BackgroundThere were approximately 306,000 reports of missing persons in the UK from 2012 to 2013, 64% involved children. Repeat missing incidents account for approximately 38% of reported missing incidences. Within their research Biehal et al. (2003) identified that 70% of missing children had voluntarily left their home and the majority of these were considered to have 'run away'. Research suggests that there is heavy demand on public services in responding to children that are regularly reported missing.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to explore data recorded in respect of children reported missing as a result of running away. The main objective of this study was to develop a set of risk factors to predict repeat missing incidences using a logistic regression method.Participants and settingThis study explored the characteristics of 523 children who were reported missing to Gwent (Wales) Police as a result of running away.MethodsUsing data collected by the Gwent Missing Children's Team in Wales, over a one-year period, this study compared two groups of children: 275 (53%) who were reported missing once ('low risk') and 248 (47%) who were reported more than once ('high risk').ResultsResults indicated that five significant risk factors identified by logistic regression could distinguish outcome in 73% of cases. The five risk factors were; looked after children, substance use, suspected sexual exploitation, known to Youth Offending Services and a history of abuse/neglect.ConclusionsThese risk factors could potentially be used in Gwent to guide intervention strategies, with those children identified as 'high risk' of repeat missing incidents requiring more comprehensive intervention and support.     

Parents' reasons and motivations for supporting their child's music training

Musical talent development in a child is a prolonged process requiring adult assistance of both large investments of time and financial resources. To understand the motivations of parents who support their children's music training, often initiating and sustaining it for a substantial period of time, a survey was sent to four music organizations on the east and west coasts. Parents whose children were attending precollege music programs (N=203) responded to 14 statements regarding reasons for supporting their child's music lessons. A major finding is that these parents reported more intrinsic than extrinsic reasons and expectations relating to the benefits of music training. Moreover, these parents believe that music training nurtures many desirable characteristics in their children including discipline, diligence, academic performance, and intelligence. The results are discussed in the context of cultural values and beliefs underlying the development of a specific talent.     

Early Childhood Teachers' Ideas about Including Children with Disabilities in Programmes Designed for Typically Developing Children

This study examined the influence of information about children's disabilities on preschool teachers' responses toward integrating children with disabilities in their classroom. Of particular interest was whether the severity of the child's educational needs and information about diagnosis were related to teachers' responses. Data were collected from 155 preschool teachers in two Midwest states in the United States to examine their responses in terms of levels of comfort, classroom adaptation, and need for support. Results showed that teachers responded differently to the types of disability regardless of the diagnostic labels; that is, teachers responded more positively to children with mild disabilities (e.g., children with Down syndrome) and those with physical disabilities (e.g., cerebral palsy). In addition, compared with children with diagnostic labels, teachers responded more positively to those with no diagnostic labels. Teachers' education and experience working with children with disabilities were associated with their levels of comfort. Implications and recommendations for service delivery and teacher training are discussed.     

Energy literacy and agency of New Zealand children

The development of energy literacy (knowledge, attitudes, and intended behaviour) and agency of New Zealand children (age 9–10) were investigated through thematic and exploratory statistical analyses of interviews (October 2011–April 2012) with 26 children, their parents and teachers, focus groups and photo elicitation. The children knew that electricity costs money and saw it as a finite resource. Half could name an energy source but few knew of any associated environmental issues. Most of the children had a positive attitude towards saving electricity, but did not intend to save energy to a further extent (low intended behaviour) and were not influencing their families to conserve energy (low agency). The children were learning about energy informally from a variety of sources, and acquired their attitudes mostly from talking to their parents. The results highlight the need for energy education for citizenship at school and conversations about energy both there and at home.     

Contributions of qualitative research to understanding savings for children and youth

This paper explores contributions of qualitative research to saving theory for children, youth, and parents in children's development account (CDAs) programs. It brings together findings from three studies: (1) elementary school age children saving for college, (2) youth transitioning from foster care saving for education and other purposes, and (3) mothers saving for their toddlers’ future college. Findings suggest that children, youth, and parents find CDAs helpful in accumulating savings. CDAs motivate and facilitate saving in ways that reflect developmental stages. Accumulating savings has positive economic and psychological meaning for CDA participants. CDAs overcome some obstacles in saving for the three groups, but other barriers remain, especially income flows, debt, and emergencies.     

Sharing Books and Learning Language: What do Latina Mothers and Their Young Children Do?

This study examined low-income, Spanish-speaking, immigrant Latina mothers' book sharing behaviors in relation to their children's vocabulary. Participants were 47 3-year-old children and their mothers. We addressed two research questions: (a) What interactive behaviors are evident when low-income immigrant Latina mothers and their 3-year-old children look at books together? (b) For these children and their mothers, which book-sharing behaviors are related to children's expressive language? Overall, our results indicated that mothers were involved in several kinds of interactions with the books. They enhanced their children's attention to the printed text, promoted interaction or conversation with their children about what was in the books, and somewhat less often, used more complex literacy strategies. Mothers who did these things most had children with the largest vocabularies even when mothers' vocabulary was taken into account. Implications for designing interventions for similar families are discussed.     

Selectivity,Redundancy, and Contiguity as Factors Which Influence the Difficulty of an Achievement Test

The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant differences in the quality of the written expression of third-grade children would occur under differing time conditions. Three groups of third-grade children wrote compositions on topics of their own choosing once every 2 weeks for a total of five experimental sessions. One group wrote for 20 minutes; and one for any amount of time from zero to 225. The 225-minute group rated significantly higher than the other two groups in all five trials; the 90-minute group significantly higher than the 20-minute group in all but Trial 2.     

Emergent literacy profiles among prekindergarten children from low-SES backgrounds: Longitudinal considerations

This study represents a longitudinal follow-up to a prior investigation that identified five profiles of emergent literacy skills among children in the fall of their prekindergarten year. Here, we examined: (a) how profile patterns changed from fall to spring, (b) the extent to which children remained stable in their profile membership, and (c) possible factors that may explain children's movement in profile membership from fall to spring. Participants were 484 children enrolled in needs-based programs. Eight measures of emergent literacy, across oral language and code-related domains, were administered in both the fall and the spring of the prekindergarten year. Latent profile analysis was used to classify children into fall and spring profiles (N = 484, 369, respectively). Although there were fewer profiles identified in the spring, children's membership within the profiles was characterized by a degree of stability, especially in the extremes of performance. Among children who shifted membership from fall to spring (35%), movement to a more desirable profile was primarily associated with children's emergent literacy skills, particularly oral language, at the beginning of the prekindergarten year.     

Preschoolers' Associations Between Space and Numbers Can Be Biased by Surface Area

People associate numbers and horizontal space. This association has been demonstrated by the so‐called SNARC (Spatial‐Numerical Association of Response Codes)‐effect, with Western participants responding faster to larger numbers with their right hand and vice versa for smaller numbers. SNARC‐like effects have also been reported for preschoolers. However, it remains unclear whether children's SNARC‐effects are exclusively based on number or whether nonnumerical factors such as surface area can also play a role. To address this question, we asked children to compare quantities in a nonsymbolic number comparison task. On half of the trials, the larger set took up more total surface area (congruent trials), and on the other half, the smaller number had more surface area (incongruent trials). We obtained a significant interaction of SNARC‐like effects and congruency. SNARC‐effects were only observed for congruent trials, demonstrating that preschoolers' spatial‐numerical associations can be affected by nonnumerical magnitude.     

Conceptual Gain and Successful Problem-solving in Primary School Mathematics

This study investigated the effects of children solving addition and subtraction problems collaboratively in comparison with solving problems in the traditional manner of the classroom. Seventy-seven children were divided into experimental and control groups, the experimental children being assigned to groups of four with note taken of the ability and gender mix. Following a pre-test-intervention-post-test design, the experimental children worked together in their groups using problem-solving guidelines to solve a number of problems, thereafter 'teaching' their problem to a fellow pupil. Each child worked on six problems over a 3-week period, three of the problems in their groups subsequently teaching them to another, the other three problems being taught to them by another child. Over the same time period, the control group solved the same problems working individually at their desks. The pre- and post-tests were analysed for number of problems correct or 'score', problemsolving strategy and execution of procedures, with pre-test scores being subtracted from post-test scores to give measures of change. The results indicated a main effect of ability on strategy change and a two-way interaction between gender and condition. They also indicated a main effect of condition for execution of procedures. Dialogue analyses indicated that more below average children improved their strategy understanding by listening to peers. The results themselves revealed variations in the way that children of different ability levels and gender can benefit from collaborative group work and thus have some interesting implications for the organisation of collaborative groups in the classroom.     

Parentalplegia

While mental and physical handicaps directly affect many children, a more subtle secondary condition often occurs within the families of handicapped children. As parents develop coping mechanisms for the various types, degrees, and stages of their youngster's handicapping condition, the dynamics of the family often are affected. The authors of this article use the term parentalplegia to focus on the secondary parental problems caused by children's primary handicapping condition, and use specific case studies of a mental retardate and two cerebral palsied children to help illustrate how parents' behavior is often clearly modified as a result of their child's handicapping condition. With misinformation and distortion of thought serving as precursors of parentalplegia, the authors suggest ways to remediate the effects of this problem through the use of educational and affective strategies. The article hopefully will remind child study persons of the need for a holistic approach to working with the handicapped.     

The Role of Children's Phonological and Semantic Knowledge in Learning to Read Words

The effect of phonology and semantics on word learning in 5- and 6-year-old children was explored. In Experiment 1, children learned to read words varying in spelling-sound consistency and imageability. Consistency affected performance on early trials, whereas imageability affected performance on later trials. Individual differences among children in phonemic awareness on the trained words were related to learning, and knowledge of a word's meaning predicted how well it was learned. In Experiment 2, phonological and semantic knowledge of nonwords was manipulated prior to word learning. Familiarization with a word's pronunciation facilitated word learning, but there was no additional benefit from being taught to associate a meaning with a nonword.