Attachment and bookreading patterns: A study of mothers,fathers, and their toddlers

This study, involving 138 families rearing firstborn sons, extends work on bookreading by relating quality of parent-child interactive exchange during bookreading to contemporaneous and antecedent assessments of infant-parent attachment security. One parent and the child were observed when children were 12, 13, 18, and 20 months. At the first and third visit, infant-mother attachment security was assessed, with infant-father attachment security being assessed at the second and fourth visit. Following the assessment of attachment security at 18 and 20 months, parent and child were videotaped in a bookreading session. At 18 and 20 months, children responded to the pictures in a book by pointing and labelling, and their parents tried to initiate these reactions by following predictable routines. In contrast to other mothers, insecure-avoidant mothers were more inclined to read the verbal text and less inclined to initiate interactions around the pictures. Insecure-avoidant children were less inclined to respond to the book and were more distracted. In insecure-resistant dyads, overcontrolling and overstimulating behavior by the mother appeared to covary with ambivalence on the part of the children. The results do not support a similar pattern for the fatherchild dyads. Implications for family literacy programs are discussed.     

Test stimuli: Representational level with middle class and head start children

Low income and middle income 4- and 5-year old children were shown stimuli in three forms: objects, colored pictures, and black and white line drawings taken from commonly used assessment instruments, and were asked to label the stimuli. Results indicated that both groups of children labeled the objects more successfully than the pictures, although this discrepancy was greater for the low income children. In addition, order of presentation influenced labeling performance. These results suggest that attention be paid to the representational level of materials used with young children in testing and educational settings.     

Peer teasing experiences of fathers and their children: Intergenerational associations and transmission mechanisms

Being the victim or perpetrator of peer teasing threatens children’s immediate and long-term well-being. Given that many individual and contextual risk factors for peer victimization are transmitted within families, we tested whether fathers’ childhood victimization experiences were directly or indirectly (via poor parenting and poor child adjustment) associated with their children’s increased risk for similar experiences. Generation two (G2) fathers (n = 130) who had been assessed since age 9 years participated in an intergenerational study with their 268 G3 children and the 163 G2 mothers of these children. Peer teasing ratings were collected annually from G1 mothers, fathers, and teachers across G2 ages 9–16 years, and from the same three informant types across the same ages for G3 children. Also assessed was G2 fathers’ poor parenting of G3 at ages 3–7 years and G3 poor adjustment (externalizing and internalizing behaviors, deviant peer association, low social competence) and body mass index (BMI) at ages 7–16 years. Models supported intergenerational stability in being teased that was partially mediated through G2 fathers’ poor parenting and G3 poor adjustment. A direct intergenerational path in being teased remained significant, and G3 BMI uniquely predicted being teased. Childhood peer victimization is perpetuated across generations. Prevention aimed at poor parenting, child poor adjustment, and peer victimization itself may disrupt intergenerational stability in these adverse experiences.     

Fathers detained,contact restrained: Experiences of Palestinian children visiting their fathers in Israeli detention

BackgroundVery little is known about the experiences of children of political prisoners internationally, because of the challenges of researching within politically oppressive contexts.ObjectiveThe aim of this secondary analysis was to explore and understand Palestinian children’s experiences visiting their fathers in Israeli detention.Participants, setting and methodsQualitative data from sixteen in-depth interviews with thirty-one children were analyzed. Structural and longitudinal coding cycles were employed and focused upon the timeline of the visitation process.ResultsThree overarching themes emerged, which included: Children’s experiences ‘before the visit’, ‘during the visit’, and ‘after the visit’. Subthemes related to the distressing and at times traumatic experiences the children suffered throughout the process of preparation for, going through, and the aftermath of the visit. This included reports of experiencing punitive measures at checkpoints and waiting areas and humiliation and maltreatment by the Israeli authorities during the visitation process. These findings are discussed with reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It was clear that the children’s best interests were denied and contact and interaction with their fathers was restrained under the Israeli visitation scheme. Despite the arduous visitation process that children often hated, they loved to see their fathers.ConclusionsEven though the children’s rights were infringed upon, they still endured hardships to maintain whatever contact was possible. International advocacy for the realization of the ‘rights of the child’ for Palestinian children, as well as other children of political detainees is warranted.     

The head start teaching center: An evaluation of an experiential,collaborative training model for head start teachers and parent volunteers

Forty-eight Head Start teachers and 48 parent volunteers from 24 classrooms were randomly assigned to either the Collaborative Training (CT) or Workshop Training (WT) approach. CT teachers and parents were involved conjointly in experiential training which included receiving guided practice and feedback from exemplary peers. WT consisted of a series of workshops conducted by outside trainers for separate groups of parents and teachers. Training methods were compared with respect to (a) teacher and parent reports of their level of involvement in training and satisfaction with the training experience, (b) teacher and parent reports of parent classroom activity, and (c) observation of adult-child classroom interactions. CT teachers and parents reported significantly greater levels of active involvement in and satisfaction with the training, as well as significantly greater levels of parent classroom activity than WT participants. With respect to adult-child classroom interactions, CT teachers demonstrated significantly more positive initiations and praise than WT teachers. Parent reports of their perceived role in the classroom as well as parent levels of initiation with children did not differ between training groups. Implications of these findings for further research were discussed.     

Effectiveness of a comprehensive,five-year family support program for low-income children and their families: findings from the comprehensive child development program

A randomized experiment was conducted to test the effects of the Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP), a two-generation program that employed case management and home visiting to ensure multi-risk, low-income children and their parents a range of education, health, and social services to meet the complex needs of disadvantaged families. The evaluation of 21 CCDP projects, which followed 4,410 families for five years, found no statistically significant impact on CCDP families when they were compared with control families in either child outcomes (cognitive and socio-emotional development, and health) on parent outcomes (parenting, family economic self-sufficiency, or maternal life course). Since the intervention failed to change parenting behavior or family economic status, the two hypothesized pathways to affecting the well-being of the children, not unexpectedly there were no significant impacts of CCDP on children. The study suggests that the combination of case management and parenting education, delivered through home visits, is not an effective means of improving developmental outcomes for low-income children.     

Comparison between mothers and fathers in coping with autistic children: a multivariate model

The main purpose of this research is to compare the differences between how mothers and fathers cope with autistic children based on a multivariate model that describes the relationships between parental psychological resources, parental stress appraisal and parental adjustment. 176 parents who lived in Israel (88 mothers and 88 fathers) of children aged between 6 to 16 most of them (81%) were diagnosed as suffering from PDD and the rest (19%) as suffering from PDDNOS. The parents answered several questionnaires measuring parental psychological resources (social support, sense of coherence, locus of control), parental appraisal of stress (challenge vs. threat), and parental adjustment (mental health and marriage quality). The results show that all the variables entered the path analysis model with the same pattern. However, some links between the variables are quite similar for mothers and fathers while others are different. The results lead to several interesting suggestions for future research using dynamic systems framework and process-oriented methodological approaches.     

Mothers,fathers, and infants: the role of person familiarity and parental involvement in infants' perception of emotion expressions

The roles of person familiarity and parental involvement in 3.5-month-old infants' sensitivity to the dynamic emotion expressions of others were explored. In the home, parental facial/vocal expressions (happy, sad, angry) were videotaped, and measures of parent-infant involvement were obtained. In the laboratory, 32 infants alternately viewed their mother and father and an unfamiliar woman and man portraying expressions in an intermodal preference task. Infants looked differentially at mothers' expressions but not at those of fathers or unfamiliar adults. Examination of parent-child involvement patterns revealed significant relations with infants' sensitivity to expressions. Results suggest that person familiarity may facilitate infants' developing understanding of others' emotion expressions, and that individual differences in family dynamics may be relevant to infants' patterns of responding.     

Academic integrity: a quantitative study of confidence and understanding in students at the start of their higher education

Establishing a positive, proactive approach to issues such as plagiarism requires that students are equipped with the skills and experience to act with integrity, and that educators are fully aware of the attitudes and ability of students, particularly when they start university. This project used a questionnaire-based methodology to probe the attitudes, ability and confidence of undergraduates newly enrolled at a university in the UK, with a focus on concepts relating to written assignments. New undergraduates were confident in their understanding of plagiarism, yet performed poorly on simple tests of referencing. Students were generally of the opinion that academic misconduct should be modestly penalised compared to the standard penalties imposed by the UK higher education sector. Positive correlations were found between confidence, performance and recommended penalties, suggesting that confident students did better on tests of simple tests of referencing, and recommended more severe penalties for transgressions of academic integrity. These correlations were supported by findings that new postgraduates were more confident than new undergraduates, recommended more severe penalties and performed better in the simple tests of referencing. Findings are discussed in the context of educational needs identified for students, educators and institutions.     

Newspapers as a reading resource: their impact on boys and on parental involvement

This study, carried out in connection with the Newspapers in Education programme, reveals the effectiveness of newspapers as a reading resource in the classroom. Their beneficial effect is especially apparent in the motivation given to boys as readers and to the natural way in which parents, and fathers in particular, can become involved.     

Effects of a specific numeracy educational program in kindergarten children: A pilot study

The present study compared the relative effects of 2 educational programs on kindergarten children. The experimental group took part in a numeracy-specific program, which focused on conceptual knowledge. Children were taught basic numerical skills such as understanding and handling numbers and their relations as well as counting principles. The control group participated in a more general program which involved training in procedural skills.

Results revealed significant learning effects in the children who participated in the numeracy program particularly for counting sequences and mental calculation. Since neither group was explicitly trained in mental calculation, our findings suggest that a learning transfer took place in the experimental group.     

Eco-School in kindergartens: the effects,interpretation, and implementation of a pilot program

This study presents an analysis of a Czech pilot project in implementing the Eco-School program in kindergartens. The evaluation applied a mixed design that included pre/post testing of children using picture-based questionnaires, and interviews with the teachers responsible for conducting the program. The findings revealed a significant increase in the pro-environmental attitudes of the children (N = 419) between the pre-test and the post-test. The results of the qualitative part showed a broad spectrum of the ways in which the program was interpreted by the teachers (N = 16): while some teachers interpreted the program in a highly instrumental way, others interpreted it as emancipatory. Their different ways of interpreting the program led the teachers to different models of distribution of power between the adults and the children. Some of the teachers made the effort to establish a democratic participation of the children in setting the program agenda, but others manipulated the children to obtain their agreement with pre-selected activities. Although the study did not find any evidence that the instrumental implementation of the program would be less effective in promoting children’s attitude change, it showed differences in the interpretation of the merit of the program among the teachers.     

The effects of consequences on patterns of social interaction: a quasi-experimental approach to reinforcement in natural interaction

Research on social interaction has consistently documented the existence of mutual interdependencies between the behavior of 1 person and reactions to that behavior by others in the social environment. The concept of social reinforcement, although often used to explain acquisition and change in interaction patterns defined by such interdependencies, is difficult to apply to interaction observed in natural settings. On the basis of extended observation of the interaction of 2 mother-child dyads, the procedures needed to assess the effects of naturally occurring consequences on interactional patterns are detailed in this study. Reliable mother action-child reaction patterns were first identified, and the effect of maternal consequences for those patterns on the probability of their subsequent occurrence was assessed. Positive consequences were associated with increases, and negative consequences with decreases, in the probability of a child reacting to the next occurrence of the maternal action when compared to the base-rate probability of that action-reaction pattern. Thus consequences affect momentary shifts around the baseline probability of interactional patterns. Positive consequences were also associated with short-term increases, and negative consequences with short-term decreases, in the base-rate probability of interactional patterns.