Children's Capacity to Consent to Participation in Psychological Research: Empirical Findings

This is a series of studies that attempted to obtain some systematic data on the capacity of children between the ages of 5 and 12 to consent to psychological research. Most of the children understood all or most of what they were asked to do in a psychology study, but few children below the age of 12 fully understood or believed that their performance would be confidential. Similarly, most children appeared to know that they could end their participation in the study, but younger children were not clear on the details of how to accomplish this, and many of all ages believed that there would be some negative consequences if they asked to stop. Moreover, obtaining prior permission from parents, while providing protection for the children, appeared to introduce additional pressure on them to agree to participate in the research and to continue once they had agreed. It is concluded that in general children of these ages do have the capacity to meaningfully assent to participation in research, but that there are substantial problems in guaranteeing that they are able to make this decision freely.     

Promoting children’s informed assent in research participation

Informed agreement to participate in research is a critical element of ethical practice. When researching with children, opportunities to provide informed agreement are often afforded to adult gatekeepers, yet not necessarily extended to the children involved. This paper reports an approach to engaging with children in research, emphasising strategies to facilitate their informed, and ongoing, assent. As part of a research project seeking children’s perspectives of their local community, researchers developed assent and information forms for children and young people. The aim of these forms was to promote discussion of children’s research rights, including the right to choose whether or not they engaged in the research. Within the broader research project, 130 children aged 4–12 years provided feedback about the forms and discussed how the forms influenced their participation in the research project.     

The Impact of Children's Static versus Dynamic Conceptions of People on Stereotype Formation

Recent cognitive-developmental research has contributed much to our understanding of children's stereotyping. The present research identified another factor influencing stereotyping — children's theories about the malleability of human attributes. In two studies, 122 sixth graders learned about several different students' behaviors in unknown schools. In Study 1, they judged a school characterized by mostly negative behaviors, and in Study 2 they judged two schools (characterized by either mostly negative or positive behaviors). Across studies, children with a fixed view of personality (relative to those with a more malleable view of personality) made more extreme trait ratings of both the "positive" and "negative" schools, generalized their trait judgments to an unknown student, perceived greater within-school similarity and between-school differences, and showed less desire to interact with students in the "negative" school. Ways in which examining these theories may broaden our understanding of the origins of stereotyping and how to lessen it are discussed.     

Fathers' participation in family work and children's sex-role attitudes

The relation between fathers' participation in family work (child care and home chores) and children's sex-role attitudes was examined in an interview study of 160 Caucasian middle-class families. Children were stratified by age level (5-year-olds and 10-year-olds), sex, and maternal employment status. 5 types of paternal participation were assessed--for example, total interaction time, performance of traditionally feminine home chores--using joint estimates by fathers and mothers. Children's attitudes were measured by questionnaire; their occupational aspirations were also assessed. Data are provided on the extent of fathers' participation for each of the 5 types assessed. The direct effects of paternal participation per se on children's attitudes were weak. Among fourth graders, mother's attitude toward the male role was the strongest predictor of stereotyping; children with nontraditional mothers were significantly less stereotyped.     

The impact of kindergarten learning-related skills on academic trajectories at the end of elementary school

Recent research indicates that children's learning-related skills (including self-regulation and social competence) contribute to early school success. The present study investigated the relation of kindergarten learning-related skills to reading and math trajectories in 538 children between kindergarten and sixth grade, and examined how children with poor learning-related skills fared throughout elementary school on reading and math. Latent growth curves indicated that learning-related skills had a unique effect on children's reading and math scores between kindergarten and sixth grade and predicted growth in reading and math between kindergarten and second grade. In addition, children with poor learning-related skills performed lower than their higher-rated peers on measures of reading and mathematics between kindergarten and sixth grade, with the gap widening between kindergarten and second grade. Between third and sixth grade, this gap persisted but did not widen. Discussion focuses on the importance of early learning-related skills as a component in children's academic trajectories throughout elementary school and the need for early intervention focusing on children's self-regulation and social competence.     

农村留守儿童的问题行为调查及家庭影响因素

本研究采用早期问题行为发现量表对470名小学四、五、六年级和初一、初二、初三的留守儿童进行测量。结果发现：留守儿童存在情绪方面的问题行为较为严重，其次为学业适应不良及人际关系不适应；男生容易出现学习不适应问题，女生较易出现情绪不稳定问题；年级差异上，四年级、六年级和初三留守儿童学习和情绪问题较其他年级更严重；是否与兄弟姐妹生活在一起、父母外出时间、外出距离、回家频率、代养人类别及教养方式、留守儿童性剐及年级是影响留守儿童问题行为的重要因素。     

Knowledge, Concepts, and Inferences in Childhood

The role of knowledge in children's inferences was investigated in 3 experiments. Experiment 1 examined developmental changes in the role of categorical membership, perceptual appearance, and item complexity in inferences for natural kind and artifact concepts. Preschoolers (5-year-olds), second graders (8-year-olds), and fourth graders (10-year-olds) were taught novel properties about target concepts and asked whether each of 4 probes had those properties. Probes varied in category membership and perceptual appearance relative to the target item. Item complexity also varied. Experiments 2 and 3 examined inferences with known and unknown concepts for familiar and unfamiliar properties. Older children's knowledge led to differential weighting of categorical information over appearance but only for known concepts and/or familiar properties. Preschoolers made no distinction between category and appearance for either known or unknown concepts. Additionally, as target item complexity increased, older children made more inferences than preschoolers. No differences between inferences about natural kind and artifact concepts were found. The role of theories and knowledge in children's drawing of inferences is discussed.     

How Children Understand Sarcasm: The Role of Context and Intonation

To recognize ironic sarcasm, adults may rely on either of 2 cues: the context in which the utterance is made, or the speaker's intonation. In 2 experiments comparing third graders (8–9 years old), sixth graders (11–12 years old), and adults, we investigated the development of children's ability to use these cues. In the first, children were able to recognize sarcasm when the speakers used sarcastic intonation but failed to do so without the intonation cue, even if the context strongly indicated a nonliteral interpretation. In the second experiment, subjects delivered dialogue with intonation they deemed appropriate—and justified their choices—based on contexts that either suggested sarcasm or not. Young children again appeared largely oblivious to contextually implied sarcasm. These results suggest that children initially depend more heavily on intonation than on context in recognizing sarcasm.     

Children's interpretations of covariation data: Explanations reveal understanding of relevant comparisons

This research investigates children's understanding of the significance of comparisons between data categories for judgments of covariation. Past studies showed that children sometimes neglect some of the relevant data categories. This may occur because children fail to understand the relevance of the comparisons between data categories. To investigate this interpretation, 51 second graders and 43 fourth graders were tested in a between-subject design. In the standard condition, children were asked to explain their own covariation judgments. In the explain-correct condition, children were told the correct judgments and asked to explain them. Children in the explain-correct condition often provided explanations that were consistent with the correct judgments; children in the standard condition did so less often. Thus, when asked to explain correct judgments, elementary school children's explanations reveal that they possess a basic conceptual understanding of inference from covariation data.     

Experimental Effects of Word Generation on Vocabulary,Academic Language,Perspective Taking,and Reading Comprehension in High-Poverty Schools

Abstract

With a sample of 7,752 fourth- to seventh-grade students in 25 schools which were randomized at the school level to condition, this article reports experimental impacts of an enhanced version of Word Generation on student outcomes at the end of Year 1 and of Year 2. Word Generation employs analysis, synthesis, critique, and problem-solving activities to build students’ academic language, perspective taking, and ultimately their reading comprehension. Results indicate that the program improves the proximate outcome of academic vocabulary included in the curriculum after the first and second year of implementation for all students (Y1 effect size (ES)?=?.22, Y2?=?.28 for fourth and fifth graders; Y1 ES?=?.13, Y2?=?.16 for sixth and seventh graders). For those in the fourth and fifth grades, their perspective positioning skills also improved at the end of the first year (ES?=?.14), and their academic language skills (ES?=?.06), perspective articulation and positioning skills (ES?=?.12, .19), and reading comprehension (ES?=?.15) improved at the end of the second year. Among sixth and seventh graders, there were improvements in perspective positioning skills (ES?=?.19) and reading comprehension (ES?=?.10) at the end of Year 2. Effects after both Years 1 and 2 were stronger in high-exposure classrooms.     

Children's agency beliefs, cognitive performance, and conceptions of effort and ability: individual and developmental differences

In order to understand how children's beliefs and cognitive performance vary according to development in their conceptions of effort and ability, 120 fourth and sixth graders were given the following assessments: (a) a measure of agency beliefs, defined as the extent to which persons believe they have access to certain classes of potential means, including effort, ability, powerful others, and luck; (b) a battery of intelligence test scales, including figural patterns, letter series, arithmetic, and spelling; (c) an interview designed to assess developmental levels in conceptions of effort and ability. Correlations between intelligence scores and agency beliefs for effort decreased with increasing levels of reasoning about effort and ability, but correlations between intelligence scores and agency beliefs for ability increased with increasing levels of reasoning. No such trends were found in correlations between performance and agency beliefs for luck or for unknown causes. The results are discussed in terms of the interaction between individual differences and developmental change.     

Misconceptions about Motion: Development and Training Effects

2 experiments were performed to examine whether children and adults possess a single-object/single-motion intuition. This intuition involves the view that because all parts of a rigid object move together, they all must move at the same speed. We found that third graders, sixth graders, ninth graders, and adults all responded in accord with this intuition. On problems where the intuition led to errors, a large majority of subjects of all ages answered incorrectly. On problems where it led to successful performance, subjects answered more accurately than on problems where the intuition was not applicable. In addition, the specific errors were those that the intuition yielded, and the intuition fit individual patterns of performance. The intuition not only influenced speed judgments but also judgments of distance traveled. Experiment 2 demonstrated that making sixth graders aware of the intuition and providing them kinesthetic experience that contradicted it produced significant improvements in the children's understanding. Implications for how scientific misconceptions in general can be overcome were discussed.     

Gender and age differences in awareness and endorsement of gender stereotypes about academic abilities

We measured age and gender differences in children’s awareness and endorsement of gender stereotypes about math, science, and verbal abilities in 463 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Children reported their perceptions of adults’ beliefs and their own stereotypes about gender differences in academic abilities. Consistent with study hypotheses, fourth and sixth graders had a stronger tendency than eighth graders to favor their own gender group rather than report traditional stereotypes. On average, girls favored girls over boys in all three domains. Fourth grade boys favored boys in all three domains; middle school boys reported traditional verbal stereotypes and were on average egalitarian in beliefs about math and science. Children’s reports of their perceptions of adults’ stereotypes mirrored age and gender differences in their own stereotypes and were correlated with their own stereotype endorsement. In addition to showing beliefs favoring girls in verbal domains and a tendency for most age and gender groups to not endorse traditional math and science stereotypes, the results support a synthesis of developmental and social identity theories regarding individual differences in children’s stereotype endorsement. Children’s tendency to favor girls in verbal domains may contribute to gender differences in educational and career choices by pulling girls toward the humanities and social sciences and discouraging boys from pursuing those domains.     

Friendship Networks of Unpopular, Average, and Popular Children

Existence of friendship and friendship network characteristics were examined among children who differed in popularity status using a relatively unrestricted friendship nomination procedure. Fifth and sixth graders ( N = 227 ) completed a rating-scale sociometric to index popularity and provided information on up to 15 good friends. Results indicated that all children reported having at least one unilateral friend. Unpopular children were less likely than popular children to have at least one reciprocal friend, although the large majority (77%) did have a reciprocal friend. Results also indicated that unpopular children's unilateral friendship networks, in comparison to the networks of their more popular peers, contained a greater number of younger school-age friends and fewer same-age friends, more friends located outside of the school but within the same school district, and more unpopular and fewer popular school friends. Unpopular children's reciprocal friendship networks were significantly smaller, were more evenly distributed within and outside of the classroom, and contained fewer average and popular friends as well as friends of the opposite sex. Findings suggest advantages to using an unrestricted friendship nomination instrument and emphasize the need to consider both popularity and friendship when investigating children's peer relationships.     

Evolution of children's rights and implications for present policy

The decent treatment of children is a radical invention of our times. We believe that children have rights — rights to adequate food, shelter, and consistent care - based on their needs as developing organisms. Because of our concern for children as human beings, we are sensitive to their brutalization by adult caretakers. These ideas would have been incomprehensible to a person born several hundred years ago, when the concept of individual rights was almost unknown. The aim of this presentation is to discuss the evolution of children's rights and to place what we know about child abuse in the context of this evolution. We can then see how far we have progressed and perhaps get some perspective on desirable directions for the future.     

Cognitive and Family-Support Mediators of Preschool Effectiveness: A Confirmatory Analysis

Investigated in this study were the mediators of the effects of preschool intervention on children's school achievement in sixth grade. A confirmatory structural model developed in a previous study of third graders was tested with 360 low-income, mostly black children who were available at the 3-year follow-up. The model incorporated cognitive readiness at kindergarten entry and parent involvement in school (rated by teachers and parents) as primary mediators of preschool effectiveness. In sixth grade (age 12), preschool participation at ages 3 or 4 was significantly associated with higher reading achievement, higher math achievement, and with lower incidence of grade retention. Cognitive readiness and parent involvement in school significantly mediated the estimated effects of preschool participation on school achievement and grade retention 7 years postprogram. Teacher ratings of school adjustment, school mobility, and grade retention also contributed to the transmission of effects. This integrated model fit the data better than several alternative models, including those based on the cognitive-advantage and family-support hypotheses.     

From Global Sustainability to Inclusive Education: Understanding urban children’s ideas about the food system

The purpose of this paper is to report our findings from a qualitative study intended to develop our understandings of: what high‐poverty urban children understand and believe about food and food systems; and how such children transform and use that knowledge in their everyday lives (i.e. how do they express their scientific literacies including content understandings, process understandings, habits of mind in these content areas). This qualitative study is part of a larger study focused on understanding and developing science and nutritional literacies among high‐poverty urban fourth‐grade through sixth‐grade students and their teachers and caregivers.     

Parents' Use of Inductive Discipline: Relations to Children's Empathy and Prosocial Behavior

Relations between parents' discipline, children's empathic responses, and children's prosocial behavior were examined in order to evaluate Martin Hoffman's claim that children's empathy and empathy-based guilt mediate the socialization of children's prosocial behavior. 78 sixth and seventh graders (138–172 months in age), their mothers, and teachers completed multiple measures of Hoffman's constructs. Results were largely consistent with theory. Parents' use of inductive as opposed to power-assertive discipline was related to children's prosocial behavior. Children of inductive parents were more empathic; and more empathic children were more prosocial. Moreover, children's empathy was found to mediate the relation between parents' discipline and children's prosocial behavior. Few relations were obtained for children's guilt indices, but post hoc analyses yielded theoretically consistent results. Contrary to expectations, parents' use of statements of disappointment was the component of the inductive discipline score which was most strongly related to children's prosocial behavior.