Writing and writers: the perceptions of young children and their parents

Over the past three decades early writing research has focused on the processes involved as children learn to write. There is now a powerful evidence base to show that children’s earliest discoveries about written language are learned through active engagement with their social and cultural worlds. In addition, the idea of writing development as an emergent process is well established. The study reported in this paper adopted case study methodology combined with an age-appropriate data collection technique in order to explore children’s perceptions of themselves as writers. A focused task using a hand puppet called Baby Bear was used to elicit children’s perceptions. The children’s parents were interviewed to elicit their perceptions of their children as writers. This small-scale exploratory study found that the children had clear perceptions about themselves as writers. There were important links between parents’ perceptions of their children as writers and the ethos for writing they created in the home. It was found that, overall, more positive parental perceptions were linked with more attention to the meaning of children’s writing. It is concluded that early years settings could usefully identify and compare children’s and parents’ perceptions of writing in order to enhance children’s writing development.     

The intergenerational impact of trauma and family violence on parents and their children

BackgroundChildren who experience Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) are at an increased risk of becoming a victim of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) or a perpetrator of IPV or CAN. Moreover, maltreated children are at risk for developing long-lasting trauma symptoms, which can subsequently affect their own children’s lives. Understanding the mechanisms of the intergenerational transmission of violence and trauma is a prerequisite for the development of interventions.ObjectiveWe examine whether the relation between historical CAN and current trauma symptoms of mothers is mediated by current IPV. Furthermore, we investigate whether current CAN mediates the relation between current maternal trauma symptoms and child Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms. These mechanisms are compared for mothers and fathers.ParticipantsWe have recruited 101 fathers and 360 mothers (426 children, 50% boys, mean age 7 years) through child protection services.MethodsRespondents completed questionnaires about IPV, (historical) CAN and trauma symptoms.ResultsStructural equation models revealed that historical CAN of father and mothers was related to trauma symptoms. Only for mothers, this association was mediated by IPV. Trauma symptoms of both fathers and mothers were related to child PTSD symptoms. This effect was not mediated by current CAN.ConclusionIn violent families, maternal and paternal trauma can be transmitted over generations. However, intergenerational transmission of violence is found for mothers only. When family violence is reported, professionals should take the violence into account, as well as the history of parents and trauma symptoms of all family members.     

Recognising the needs of gender-variant children and their parents

Gender variance confronts widely held assumptions that children born as males will act like ‘boys’ and children born as females will act like ‘girls’. This imposed binary has the effect of perpetuating negativity towards people who express themselves with gendered variations in attire, behaviour or preferences. Despite the existence of gender-variant individuals in every culture and throughout time, many people are unaware that diversity in gender expression and sexual formation is a naturally occurring phenomenon. This qualitative study aimed to establish the needs of gender-variant children and their parents in order to inform education programmes, policies and clinical approaches to gender variance. Three Internet surveys were conducted to explore the experiences of parents raising gender-variant children, the childhood experiences of transgender adults and the views of professionals who work with the transgender community. The needs of gender-variant children emerged in terms of the need for information, peer contact, personal gender expression, safety, and to be heard and accepted by their parents. The most common needs for parents were for information (stories from other parents, research and guidelines; peer support) and educational resources for schools, professionals and local communities. The paper provides comparisons between the three participant groups and recommendations for future research.     

Empowerment and cultural conflict: Navajo parents and the schooling of their children

This article is about contemporary Navajo parents caught between the traditional Navajo world of their elders and the dominant world of their Anglo neighbors. Ethnohistorical and current sociocultural factors influencing the attitudes of Navajo parents toward their children's schools are viewed in light of current arguments suggesting that one means of changing the school failure rates of some minority groups is through parent and student “empowerment.” Differences between Navajos and Anglos are particularly evident in interactions over schoolrelated issues and parenting. Through an analysis of power and cultural differences, the current practices are seen to be ineffective, indeed, “disabling” rather than “empowering” these parents.     

Development of mutual responsiveness between parents and their young children

This comprehensive study of mutual responsiveness examined 102 mothers and 102 fathers interacting with their children at 7 and 15 months. Responsiveness was studied from developmental and individual differences perspectives, and assessed using macroscopic ratings and microscopic event coding. The latter captured parents' reactions to children's negative, positive, and physical bids, and children's reactions to parents' social-interactive bids, mood regulation attempts, and influence attempts. Responsiveness depended on bid type and child age, and reflected developmental changes in children, parents, and relationships. Mothers were more responsive than fathers; children were equally responsive to both parents and coherent in their responsiveness. Ratings revealed dyadic mutuality and longitudinal continuity of responsiveness. Parent-child responsiveness from 7 to 15 months was consistent with assumptions of a parent-driven process.     

Making it work for their children: white middle-class parents and working-class schools

The white middle-class parents who chose to send their children to urban comprehensives largely rejected engaging in the usual competitiveness for educational success. Nevertheless the parents in our study still found themselves wittingly or otherwise captured by that same discourse. Their children are high achievers and are regarded as a valuable resource for their comprehensive schools generating high volume capital. However, in spite of this, the parents do not leave such success to chance. Drawing on an ESRC-funded research project (Educational Choices and the White Urban Middle-Classes RES-148-25-0023) we analyse how middle-class parental involvement is part of the age old process of social reproduction and the transmission of parents’ middle-class privilege to their children, almost regardless of their intentions. Not only are the parents interventionist in their children’s schooling, they draw on and dispose their own privileged capitals to prepare and position their children for educational success.     

Remission of depression in parents: links to healthy functioning in their children

This study examined whether improvement in parents' depression was linked with changes in their children's depressive symptoms and functioning. Participants were 223 parents and children ranging in age from 7 to 17 years old (M = 12.13, SD =2.31); 126 parents were in treatment for depression and 97 parents were nondepressed. Children were evaluated 6 times over 2 years. Changes in parents' depressive symptoms predicted changes in children's depressive symptoms over and above the effect of time; children's symptoms significantly predicted parents' symptoms. Trajectories of children's depressive symptoms differed significantly for children of remitted versus nonremitted depressed parents, and these differences were significantly predicted by their parents' level of depression. The relation between parents' and children's depressive symptoms was partially mediated by parental acceptance.     

Fostering the academic success of their children: Voices of Mexican immigrant parents

Latinos, particularly Mexican immigrants, are the fastest-growing population in the United States but lag behind others in educational attainment. Parent involvement in their child's education has been linked to positive student academic outcomes, but few studies have focused specifically on Latino/a parents. To identify and promote culturally salient parent involvement approaches for Mexican immigrant parents, this qualitative strength-based study investigated motivations, actions, and culture of 11 Mexican immigrant parents of students who attended a selective college preparatory high school. The study found that a parent's effort to help their children succeed is not dependent on high levels of parent education or income. Rather, the home-based strategies, many of which are rooted in the Latino culture, and specific outreach by educators influenced parent involvement.     

Child development in rural China: children left behind by their migrant parents and children of nonmigrant families

Using recent cross-sectional data of rural children aged from 8 to 18 in Hunan Province of China, this article examines psychological, behavioral, and educational outcomes and the psychosocial contexts of these outcomes among children left behind by one or both of their rural-to-urban migrant parents compared to those living in nonmigrant families. The results showed that left-behind children were disadvantaged in health behavior and school engagement but not in perceived satisfaction. The child's psychosocial environment, captured by family socioeconomic status, socializing processes, peer and school support, and psychological traits, were associated with, to varying extent, child developmental outcomes in rural China. These influences largely remain constant for the sampled children regardless of their parents' migrant status.     

Treatment of parents who abuse their children: A literature review and implications for professionals

This article contains a review of the current treatment approaches to child abuse in terms of the following models: psychopathological, sociological, social-situational, family systems and social learning. The psychopathological model of child abuse emphasizes direct services. The services provided may consist of individual, group and lay treatment, volunteer companions, and self-help groups. The sociological model's approach to intervention emphasizes the need for wide-ranging changes in social values and structures. The socio-situational model's approach to treatment is based upon the assumption that the cause of child abuse lies not in the individual, but in the social situation, which may, in turn, be maintaining abusive patterns of behavior. The family systems approach to treatment resembles that of the socio-situational model in that it too emphasizes changing the family's pattern of interaction and behaviors. Finally, the social learning approach to treatment involves the identification of behavioral goals, specific techniques for achieving these goals, and the use of social reinforcers to facilitate this process. Data indicate that parents who abuse their children face multiple social and psychological difficulties. It has been suggested that the reason why treatment programs have not prodoced significant results in treating parents who abuse their children is that they focus on only one of the factors that operate to produce child abuse, i.e., lack of child management skills, marital dissatisfaction, or vocation or interpersonal skills dissatisfaction. It is logical that a treatment approach to abuse must view the problem as multi-determined and services should be structured in such a manner. Thus, the comprehensive treatment program should consist of the following; (1) Child Management Program; (2) Marital Enrichment Program; (3) Vocational Skills Enrichment Program; (4) Interpersonal Skills Enrichment Program. Programs to accomplish the acquisition of requisite skills in each of the four areas of emphasis are chosen from the technology of applied behavioral analysis. Each of the four program components is reviewed along with the rationale for a comprehensive program delivered through a behavioral group work approach. The article concludes with a discussion of the implementation and evaluation of the program.     

The role of parents in developing visual turn-taking in their young deaf children.

Young deaf children use their vision to gather both language input and information about the environment. This dual requirement greatly complicates conversational turn-taking for the children and their parents, particularly when interaction centers on a visual focus such as a book. Data are presented here on the onset and maintenance of visual attention to signing in three profoundly deaf children, ages 2;9-3;7 years, while interacting with their hearing mothers about a story told through pictures. The data indicate that the children's visual attention in this situation was quite variable, although all of them experienced problems with their need to focus simultaneously on two sources of information: the mother's signs and the picture book. Suggestions for developing visual turn-taking skills are made, based on the research on first-language acquisition and the interactions of deaf mothers with their children.     

The externalities of crime: The effect of criminal involvement of parents on the educational attainment of their children

The empirical literature on education and crime suggests that both criminal behavior and educational attainment are transferred from parents to children. However, the impact of criminal behavior of parents on educational outcomes of children is generally ignored, even though the entailed social costs may be substantial. This study examines the effect of parents’ criminal involvement on the educational attainment of their children. To identify this effect, we combine a multinomial logit model with a Mahalanobis matching approach. The findings suggest that having criminally involved parents (1) increases the probability of finishing primary education as the highest education level attained (7–9 percentage points), and (2) decreases the probability of attaining higher education (2–6 percentage points). These results are robust to various specifications and are unlikely to be fully driven by differences in unobservables.     

Training maltreating parents in elaborative and emotion-rich reminiscing with their preschool-aged children

Objective

In the current study, the effects of training maltreating parents and their preschool-aged children in elaborative and emotion-rich reminiscing were examined.

Method

44 Parent-child dyads were randomly assigned to a training (reminiscing) or wait-list (control) condition. All participating parents had substantiated maltreatment and were involved with the Department of Child Services at the time of enrollment. Children were 3–6 years old (M = 4.88, SD = .99) and living in the custody of the participating parent. Dyads in the reminiscing condition received four, weekly, in-home sessions in elaborative and emotion rich reminiscing.

Results

At a follow-up assessment, maltreating parents in the reminiscing condition provided more high-elaborative utterances, references to children's negative emotions, and explanations of children's emotion during reminiscing than did parents in the control condition. Children in the reminiscing condition had richer memory recall and made more emotion references than did children in the control condition during reminiscing with their mothers, but not with an experimenter.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that maltreating parents can be taught elaborative and emotion-rich reminiscing skills, with benefits for child cognitive and emotional development. The potential clinical utility of a reminiscing-based training for maltreating families with young children is discussed.