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This thesis is concerned with childrearing approach as one of the prime sites of the reproduction of social inequality. It adopts Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as a way of explaining how social structures are reproduced through childrearing approach, and it draws on Annette Lareau’s definition of the ‘concerted cultivation’ and ‘accomplishment of natural growth’ childrearing approaches (Lareau 2003). During the latter half of the 2000s, UK and Scottish government policy placed increasing emphasis on the importance of parenting and the early years of a child’s life as factors likely to have an impact on health, education and employment outcomes. Between 2005 and 2008 - the timeframe considered by this thesis - a number of policy initiatives emerged which were intended to support ‘better parenting’. Critics of these policy initiatives argue that what was presented as a model of good parenting was in essence a model of middle class parenting which misunderstood and devalued other parenting approaches. Lareau’s typology of childrearing approach is used as a means of situating the UK parenting policy discourse within a broader theoretical context and assessing critically the extent to which this policy discourse reflects childrearing approaches in Scotland. During this period, the policy areas of parenting and neighbourhood began increasingly to overlap in the UK, both through area-based family interventions such as Sure Start and through the central role given to parents in the drive towards community empowerment, greater collective efficacy and reduced anti-social behaviour. The analysis uses data from the ‘Growing up in Scotland’ (GUS) survey to ask whether ‘concerted cultivation’ and the ‘accomplishment of natural growth’ can be observed in the childrearing approaches of Scottish mothers; it assesses whether beliefs about collective efficacy and measures of neighbourhood deprivation are associated with childrearing approach; it explores whether mothers change their childrearing approach over time and considers what factors might influence changes in childrearing approach. Finally, the thesis examines links between a mother’s childrearing approach and her child’s behavioural development at entry to primary school. This thesis builds on previous research on childrearing approach by testing Lareau’s concepts on a quantitative sample of mothers in a different geographical locale and by exploring changes in childrearing approach longitudinally. The analysis presented considers childrearing approach both at the individual and aggregate level. A narrative analysis technique is used to construct biographies for four mothers using the quantitative data in GUS. The constructed biographies inform a discussion of the ways in which childrearing may be experienced and made sense of by the individual. Latent Class Analysis is then used to explore whether patterns of childrearing practice can be discerned in the GUS sample. A typology of four childrearing approaches is presented: two approaches correspond to Lareau’s typology and two further groups are observed: working mothers and socially isolated mothers. The analysis finds that social class differences do not fully explain childrearing approach in the GUS sample. Neighbourhood measures are not found to be associated with childrearing approach when socio-economic factors are controlled for. Changes in socio-economic status are associated with changes in childrearing approach; mothers who experience fewer changes in socio-economic position tend to be those who adopt a childrearing approach similar to ‘concerted cultivation’. The children of these mothers are more likely to display pro-social behaviours at entry to primary school than the children of other childrearing approaches; the children of mothers who adopt a childrearing approach akin to ‘the accomplishment of natural growth’ are more likely to display conduct problems at entry to primary school. The discussion concludes that family policy between 2005 and 2008 did not fully reflect the variety of childrearing approaches in Scotland, and that mothers whose circumstances and childrearing approach diverged from the policy model may not have been adequately supported.

Social, emotional and behavioural aspects of development are key to children’s overall development. A failure to develop normally in any one of these areas can have far reaching consequences, affecting the child’s ability to learn and to develop relationships with peers, potentially leading to fewer educational qualifications, a lack of future employment, poverty and a range of other outcomes including difficulty forming relationships, mental health issues and increased criminal behaviour (Tremblay et al., 2004; Woodward & Fergusson, 2000; Ttofi, Farrington, & Lasel, 2012; Hodgins, Larm, Ellenbogen, Vitaro, C Tremblay, 2013; Pingault et al., 2013). In Glasgow City, a large proportion of children live in disadvantaged circumstances, including living in households and areas suffering from multiple deprivation, living with parental substance misuse and witnessing domestic and community violence (Glasgow Centre for Population Health, 2013; Taulbut & Walsh, 2013). These risk factors can all impact on children’s social, emotional and behavioural development (Margolin & Gordis, 2000a; Gennetian, Castells, & Morris, 2010; Chronis et al., 2003). Children also tend to be clustered in schools with other children who may share similar demographic characteristics and who have similar levels of difficulties, which may compound or ameliorate the individual’s strengths or weaknesses. This thesis aimed to explore the levels of children’s social, emotional and behavioural difficulties at the start of Primary School (age 4-5) and at Primary 3 (age 7-8) in Glasgow city and to investigate the stability of these over time. Analysis was carried out using a brief behavioural screening questionnaire, Goodman’s Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)(Goodman, 2013b), which had been completed by nursery staff and class teachers. The thesis also aimed to examine whether Glasgow City is different in its levels of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties compared with other areas of Scotland and the UK. Clustering of difficulties within schools is analysed in order to explore the relationships between peer difficulties and demographics, individual difficulties over time and ultimately, whether schools have an effect on the development of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties during the first three years of school. The results of this study indicate that, between preschool and P3, levels of Conduct Problems, Emotional Symptoms and Hyperactivity/inattention increased, whilst levels of abnormal Pro-social Behaviours decreased and Peer Relationship Problems remained relatively static. Both means and prevalence rates for children in Glasgow City demonstrated similar patterns to UK norms, though levels of Hyperactivity/inattention problems at P3 were higher than in UK 5-10 year olds. Data from the Growing Up in Scotland study were used to investigate whether a ‘Glasgow Effect’ (i.e. an amount of variation that could not be explained solely by demographic differences in the population) existed in children’s social, emotional and behavioural difficulties at preschool age. Children in the Glasgow sample did have higher rates of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties compared with children in the rest of Scotland. However, this difference in difficulties appeared be entirely accounted for by the difference in demographics within the populations in the different areas. There are various factors which might explain this: sampling issues, such as having to use a Greater Glasgow and Clyde sample rather than Glasgow City, may mask any Glasgow Effect, whilst it may be that differential attrition in the GUS cohort may mean that children with problems are missing from the sample. It could also be that sleeper effects are at work, which may emerge in the form of difficulties later in childhood, or that what we are seeing is a ‘Scottish Effect’ rather than a Glasgow Effect, given that most of the previous research in this area compared Glasgow with demographically similar English cities. At this stage however, it appears that results from Glasgow may be generalisable to other areas, once demographics are controlled for. Multilevel modelling of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) data from Glasgow City schools was then used to explore what factors were associated with longitudinal increases in SDQ scores between preschool and P3. Results showed significant differences between schools in the unadjusted models, accounting for 11% of variance in change scores. The adjusted model found that having worsening social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in the first three years of school was associated with being male, being from a White-UK background, and having had Looked After status (been under the supervision of the state) by preschool. Being in a school with a small school roll was also associated with an increase in difficulties over this time. School effects were only reduced slightly in this final adjusted model, accounting for 9% of variance between schools, suggesting that variation in the development of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties may differ somewhat between schools during the first three years. It should be noted that numbers of pupils within schools were small in some cases, leading to wide confidence intervals and possibly reducing significance of the results. Having social, emotional or behavioural problems at P3 (above the cut-off on the SDQ for likely difficulties) was also related to a range of factors. Again in the unadjusted model, there was a statistically significant difference in levels of difficulties between schools. The strongest predictor of such problems was having had an abnormal score at preschool. Also important was being male, having been Looked After by preschool and being in a school with a higher proportion of children eligible for free school meals, which is likely to be a proxy for income deprivation. However, once these characteristics were controlled for, there was no statistically significant difference between schools. The ability to identify a group of children prior to the start of school who are at risk of continued social, emotional and behaviour difficulties raises questions about whether a preschool mental health screening test should be put in place. It would be hoped that this would allow children to access the support they need in order to optimise their development, with a suggestion that a universal screen for these types of problems could double or treble the traditionally low numbers of children receiving help (Goodman et al., 2000). However, there are also difficulties with a screening tool of this nature, including the potential for false identification of difficulties, the potentially negative impact of labelling children, the additional burden that this may place of services and finally the current lack of evidence around a potential effective intervention for children of this age (Goodman et al., 2000; Sayal et al., 2010; Wichstrom et al., 2012). In conclusion, children in Glasgow City have similar prevalence rates of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties at preschool, compared with children in the rest of the UK, but these difficulties are markedly worse in Glasgow City by the third year of school. However, the difference in these scores may just be due to Glasgow City having a more disadvantaged population, which in turn impacts on levels of difficulties. Whilst schools were found to make a difference in relation to children moving up or down the spectrum of difficulties in the first three years of school, there was no evidence that schools contributed to the likelihood of children having an ‘abnormal’ score at P3, though again, this lack of significance could be related to the small numbers of pupils within some schools, as well as the over-riding impact of having difficulties earlier in life. More research is required with larger numbers of students within schools in order to see if the lack of variance seen between schools at P3 is real or whether it is a sampling issue related to small numbers and therefore wide confidence intervals within schools. Qualitative work around the outliers and some of the unusual findings, e.g. that children in smaller schools appear to fare worse, would be beneficial in interpreting the findings. It would also be of great benefit to follow these children up to the next stage of data collection at P6, in order to explore what happens to children’s social, emotional and behavioural difficulties by the end of Primary school.

Orientador : Iverson Ladewig / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Física. Defesa: Curitiba, 2007 / Inclui bibliografia / Área de concentração: Exercício e esporte / Resumo: o objetivo principal de todos os profissionais que estão envolvidos no processo da educação infantil é fazer com que seus alunos aprendam e para isso o papel da atenção é fundamental. O ambiente de ensino proporciona inúmeros estímulos irrelevantes à tarefa que está· sendo ensinada, e para que a criança possa aprender é preciso descartar essas informações tornando essencial o papel da atenção seletiva. Dependendo da faixa etária as crianças podem ter dificuldades de descartar as informações irrelevantes por não ter a atenção seletiva totalmente desenvolvida, o que pode causar problemas de aprendizagem. Essa situação pode se agravar quando se trata de crianças com desatenção, cuja dificuldade é a manutenção da atenção por um longo período de tempo, ocasionando dificuldade de aprendizagem. As dicas de aprendizagem são estratégias de ensino que visam dirigir o foco de atenção do aluno para os pontos mais importantes da tarefa que est· sendo ensinada. Assim sendo, o objetivo deste estudo foi o de verificar a eficiência das dicas de aprendizagem no trabalho com crianças com características comportamentais de desatenção utilizando-se de algumas habilidades do tênis de campo, denominadas nesta pesquisa de fatores técnicos. Participaram deste estudo 45 crianças de ambos os sexos, com idade entre 7 e 11 anos, com e sem características comportamentais de desatenção. A seleção das crianças com características de desatenção foi realizada através do teste DSM-IV. As crianças foram divididas 4 grupos: CdD (com característica de desatenção e com dicas), CdS (com característica de desatenção e sem dicas), SdD (sem características de desatenção e com dicas) e SdS (sem características de desatenção e sem dicas). O trabalho foi realizado durante 6 aulas, e cada criança rebateu 50 bolinhas por aula. Os grupos CdD e SdD receberam explicações técnicas do movimento mais as dicas de aprendizagem e os grupos CdS e SdS recebiam apenas as explicações técnicas. Ao todo foram ensinados 6 fatores técnicos (empunhadura, visualização, posicionamento do corpo na batida de direita, posicionamento da raquete na batida, posição de espera em relação ao corpo e posição de espera em relação ‡ quadra) e cada fator técnico teve uma dica de aprendizagem. Para a avaliação da aprendizagem foram realizados o pré-teste antes do início das aulas, o pós-teste logo após o final das aulas e a retenção dez dias após o pós-teste. O tratamento estatístico foi realizado através dos testes não paramétricos Kruskal-Wallis para comparar a aprendizagem entre os grupos, Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Test para verificar a aprendizagem dentro dos grupos e a análise descritiva através da mediana e o desvio padrão. Na comparação entre os grupos na retenção só não houve significância na empunhadura, portanto foram encontrados indícios da eficiência das dicas de aprendizagem na maioria dos fatores técnicos, apesar de não terem sido encontradas diferenças na comparação direta entre os grupos com características de desatenção. / Abstract: The main objective of every professional involved in the process of children education is to make their students learn; therefore the role of attention is fundamental. The learning environment provides several irrelevant stimuli to the task being taught, and it is necessary to discard this information so that the child can learn, making essential the role of selective attention. Depending on the children's age they may have difficulties discarding this irrelevant information because they don't have their selective attention totally developed, what may cause learning problems. This situation may become worse when dealing with children's with inattention, whose difficulty is the maintenance of attention for a long period of time, causing difficulty in learning. Learning cues are strategies of learning that aim to direct the studentís focus of attention to the most important points of the task that is being taught. Therefore, the objective of this study was verify the efficiency of learning cues while the working with children with behavioral characteristics of inattention using some skills of the tennis game, referred in this research as technical factors. Forty-five children of both genders, with ages between 7 and 11 years old, with and without behavioral characteristics of inattention, participated in this study. The selection of children with behavioral characteristics of inattention was performed using the DSM-IV test. The children were divided into four groups: CdD (with behavioral characteristics of inattention and with cues), CdS (with behavioral characteristics of inattention and without cues), SdD (without behavioral characteristics of inattention and with cues), SdS (without behavioral characteristics of inattention and without cues). The work was performed in six classes, and each child struck 50 balls per class. The groups CdD and SdD received technical explanations of the movements and learning cues, and the groups CdS and SdS received just the technical explanations. Altogether, 6 technical factors were taught (handling, visualization, positioning of the body for the right stroke, positioning of the racket, ready position in relation to the body and ready position in relation to the court) and each technical factor had one learning cue. For the evaluation of learning a pre-test before the beginning of the classes, and a post-test after the final of the classes, and a retention test ten days after the post-test were performed. The statistical treatment was performed using the nonparametric tests of Kruskal-Wallis to compare the learning among the groups, Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Test to verify learning within the groups, and the descriptive analysis through the median and standard error. The results have indicate no significance on the retention test for handling, therefore indications of the efficiency of learning cues were found for the majority of the technical factors, even though no differences were found in the direct comparison between the groups with the behavioral characteristic of inattention.

This thesis investigates the pattern of parental educational homogamy and its implications for parenting practices and children’s early development in contemporary Britain. At the heart of the thesis lies an interest in the mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of educational success and, more specifically, the consequences for children of new patterns of parental resemblance in education. The thesis is composed of three empirical chapters, each of which is concerned with a different outcome: 1) trends in educational attainment and educational assortative mating amongst parental couples; 2) parents’ childrearing values and stimulation-oriented interactions with children; and 3) children’s early cognitive and behavioural skills. The first chapter combines data from four birth cohort studies from 1958, 1970, 1990 and 2000-01 while the second and third chapters rely exclusively on the latter study. The empirical analyses use Log-linear and Diagonal Reference models. With regard to trends in educational assortative mating, the thesis finds that the strength of homogamy increased between 1958 and 1970 to decrease thereafter and remain stable, at its lowest level, throughout the 1990s. Moreover, amongst recent cohorts of parental couples the percentage of unions where mothers are more educated than their male partners equalled that of unions exhibiting the opposite pattern. The findings concerning the dynamics of parenting in heterogamous couples suggest a pattern of female dominance in the attitudinal domain as fathers align with the views that can be expected on the basis of the mother’s level of education rather than their own; however, no significant adjustments between partners are observed in parenting behaviours. Lastly, the thesis finds a positive gradient in the association between parental education and children’s early cognitive and socio-emotional development but little or no support for the hypotheses of differential effects for sons and daughters or gender biases in parental preferences for children. That is, no significant interactions are observed between the gender of children and the impact of parents’ absolute and relative levels of education. Taken together, the findings of the thesis qualify concerns about the increase of educational assortative mating in industrialised societies and its potential consequences for the intergenerational reproduction of inequalities in education.

The main aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between parenting styles, as used by the pre-school parent and the social behaviour of the five-year old. Specific attention was given to three main parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian and permissive. The eight developmental perspectives applicable for the five-year old were also discussed. The research was conducted according to the quantitative approach. The Parental Styles Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) was completed and returned by a sample of 30 parents (N=30) from Evergreen Pre-primary in Gauteng. The representative sample of five-year olds being observed by the teacher were 24 pupils (N=24). The teacher rated the five-year olds' behaviour using the Behavioural Questionnaire (BQ). These results indicated primarily that the Authoritative Parenting Style was most used by the parents of the five-year old group and that this Parenting Style tends to lead to more acceptable social behaviour among the five-year olds. / Social Work / M. Diac.(Play Therapy)

The main aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between parenting styles, as used by the pre-school parent and the social behaviour of the five-year old. Specific attention was given to three main parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian and permissive. The eight developmental perspectives applicable for the five-year old were also discussed. The research was conducted according to the quantitative approach. The Parental Styles Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) was completed and returned by a sample of 30 parents (N=30) from Evergreen Pre-primary in Gauteng. The representative sample of five-year olds being observed by the teacher were 24 pupils (N=24). The teacher rated the five-year olds' behaviour using the Behavioural Questionnaire (BQ). These results indicated primarily that the Authoritative Parenting Style was most used by the parents of the five-year old group and that this Parenting Style tends to lead to more acceptable social behaviour among the five-year olds. / Social Work / M. Diac.(Play Therapy)