Bedbugs

Gene G. Bradbury is a Pastor/Teacher, part time, in Concrete, WA, and spends the rest of his time writing for children and adults.     

Contemporaneous and Longitudinal Associations of Sibling Conflict with Family Relationship Assessments and Family Discussions about Sibling Problems

The first purpose of this study was to examine contemporaneous and longitudinal associations of maternal and paternal measures of family functioning with observational and self-report assessments of sibling conflict. The second purpose was to determine whether the ways in which families attempt to solve siblings' problems are associated with contemporaneous and longitudinal assessment of sibling conflict. The results indicate that paternal equality of treatment and family harmony during family discussions about sibling problems, as well as parents' perceptions of family cohesiveness, are associated with lower sibling conflict levels.     

Pathways to literacy: a study of invented spelling and its role in learning to read

This intervention study tested whether invented spelling plays a causal role in learning to read. Three groups of kindergarten children (mean age = 5 years 7 months) participated in a 4-week intervention. Children in the invented-spelling group spelled words as best they could and received developmentally appropriate feedback. Children in the 2 comparison groups were trained in phonological awareness or drew pictures. Invented-spelling training benefited phonological and orthographic awareness and reading of words used in the intervention. Importantly, the invented-spelling group learned to read more words in a learn-to-read task than the other groups. The finding are in accord with the view that invented spelling coupled with feedback encourages an analytical approach and facilitates the integration of phonological and orthographic knowledge, hence facilitating the acquisition of reading.     

Parent-Child Relationships, Family Problem-Solving Behavior, and Sibling Relationship Quality: The Moderating Role of Sibling Temperaments

In this study we sought to determine whether sibling temperaments moderated the associations of parent-child relationship quality and family problem-solving behavior with sibling relationship quality. Observational assessments of mother-child and father-child relationship quality, family problem-solving behavior, and sibling relationship quality were obtained from the families of 49 pairs of brothers and 46 pairs of sisters. Mean ages were 10-2 for older siblings and 7-6 for younger siblings. Parent-reported child temperament assessments were also obtained. The links among mother–older child relationship quality, father–older child relationship quality, and sibling relationship quality were moderated by the older sibling's temperament. The younger and older siblings' temperaments moderated the associations between the quality of the father–younger sibling and sibling relationships. The association between family problem-solving behavior and sibling relationship quality was not moderated by sibling temperaments.