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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the development of cognitive functions and role-taking behavior in children. The study focused on the relation between achievement of concrete operations according to Piaget's theory (as an index of cognitive function) and achievement of the ability to be aware of the point of view of another. Cognitive development was measured by a series of concrete operations. The tasks used involve the formation of classes, serialization of asymetrical relations and conservation of quantity. The development of the ability to see the point of view of another was hypothesized to be dependent upon the acquisition of concrete operations. It was suggested that achievement in one area would be paralleled by achievement in the other. That is , with the development of the mental structures called concrete operations the child is able to perform with certain modes of thought in the social world as well as in the physical world. The role-taking task developed by Feffer was used in this study as a measure of ability to shift perspective--that is, to see another's point of view. This task consists of telling a story including three actors and then retelling the story from the point of view of each of the other actors. Relationships between the three concrete operations tasks, and variations in subtasks within each were explored. Piaget has stated that proficiency in the several concrete operations tasks used in this study develops simultaneously. The following predictions were made: 1. There will be a positive correlation between the total concrete operations score and the role-taking task. 2. The relationship in A1 will hold with the effects of age, grade, and conventional I. Q. partialled out. 3. There will be a positive correlation between the three concrete operations tasks individually with the roletaking task. 4. The relationship in A3 will hold with the effects of age, grade and conventional I.Q. partialled out. Ninety children from kindergarten, first and second grade were used in the study of concrete operations. Sixty of these were also used for the examination of the relationship between concrete operations and the role-taking task. The relationships between concrete operations and age, I.Q. and grade were explored, as well as the relationship of performance on the role-taking task with age, I.Q. and grade. Data for the performance of subjects on all the tasks was correlated to see if inferences could be drawn for the sequence of emergence of particular concrete operations. The hypothesis of correlation between concrete operations task and the role-taking task was confirmed with and without the effects of age, conventional I.Q. and grade partialled out. Predictions positing the relationship between the three concrete operations tasks were partially confirmed, suggesting a sequence in development of concrete operations rather than parallel development. / 2999-01-01

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Despite considerable declines in physical and sexual abuse over recent decades, child maltreatment remains a public health priority. In 2014, 702,000 children were determined to be victims of maltreatment, 75% of whom experienced neglect (DHHS, 2016). An area in need of further scrutiny is the complex relationship of multiple risk factors and the association of those risk factors with subsequent child welfare involvement. The purpose of this three-manuscript dissertation was to examine evidence-based child maltreatment prevention through an empiric examination of risk and novel prevention efforts. The first paper, Getting the Most Juice for the Squeeze: Where SafeCare® and Other Evidence-based Programs Need to Evolve to Better Protect Children, discusses the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs using SafeCare as an applied example. The paper concludes with recommendations for evidence-based practices to improve the outcomes of children and families. Among several recommendations, this paper suggests considering innovative implementation settings, collaboration between systems, and response to the underlying risk factors for maltreatment. The second paper, Drug Court as a Potential Point of Intervention to Impact the Well-being of Children and Families of Substance-Using Parents, responds to the recommendation of collaboration and innovation from the first paper. This descriptive study sought to describe the needs of families of adult drug court populations related to parenting and mental health services. Baseline data indicated a low potential for abuse and the need for mental health services among drug court participants and their children under 18-years old. The findings from this paper indicate a potential intervention and collaboration opportunity between the child welfare and criminal justice systems. The third paper, An Examination of Risk Profiles among Mothers Involved with Child Protective Services, responds to the need to better understand underlying risk factors among child welfare involved families as discussed in the first paper. A latent class analysis was conducted to explore the heterogeneity among women reported to child protective services. In what is typically a homogenously treated and characterized sample, this analysis indicated three classes of risk and examined the classes’ association with subsequent referral to child protective services. The findings of this research support the recommendation of the importance of better understanding underlying risk factors to better align services with needs of children and families.

This thesis advances the hypothesis that the child's theory of mind and metalinguistic awareness are both based on a general understanding of representation. A priori considerations lead to a definition of metalinguistic awareness as representation of language as a representational medium. Since no existing tasks tap this competence reliably and validly, three novel tasks based on the understanding of synonymy in naming situations were developed. Experiments 1 and 2 examined preschoolers' ability to produce synonyms. This associated highly with their false belief understanding (r = .73, p<.OOI and r = .64, p<.OOl, respectively) and persisted beyond a common association with verbal mental age and general production difficulties. The danger remained, however, of success through some associative strategy or failure through word finding difficulties. To avoid these possibilities, in Experiments 3 and 4 children judged the synonym production of a puppet. With these sources of error removed, association was even higher (r =.76, p<.OOI, r = .84, p<.OOl, respectively) beyond a common association with age or verbal mental age. Experiment 9 examined the ability of autistic children on a version of the judgement task to see whether their understanding of mental arid. non-mental representation was also related. Results were suggestive of a relationship, but inconclusive. The possibility remains that normal children may represent form in a nonrepresentational way. Experiment 5 and 6 showed that although even very young children could recall synonyms verbatim, most preschool children deny that one of the synonyms applies. I argued that children assume that categories, not words, are mutually exclusive. Experiment 7 showed a similar rejection effect for hierarchical terms. In Experiment 8, more metalinguistic terminology aided only younger children to accept both words, consistent with the assumption that the use of two "is a" phrases prompts children to employ their category mutual exclusivity assumption. Finally, the synonym judgement task was modified for use with autistic children to test the theory that autistic children have general difficulties understanding representation. Results were inconclusive, although they suggest that autistic children have similar difficulties with the false belief and synonym tasks. The overall conclusions are-that metalinguistic awareness and theory of mind have a common basis in representational understanding, but that prior to this children can employ the form of language to make judgements about category membership.

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INTRODUCTION: Child maltreatment is a significant public health problem that affects all countries and cultures alike. Child maltreatment, which includes neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse, can result in negative consequences that are lifelong and irreversible. Previous studies have shown the prevalence of all forms of child abuse in India, which is also home to one fifth of the world’s children. However, adequate resources and efforts are not being made to understand the true scope of this problem. AIM: The present study utilized an existing measure, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), to understand how parents from the South Indian culture defined acceptable child rearing practices and physical and emotional child abuse. The items from the physical and emotional abuse subscales on the CTQ were also tested for validity and reliability. It was hypothesized that fathers would report higher scores on the physical abuse subscale and mothers would report higher scores on the emotional abuse subscale. It was also hypothesized that parents would find spanking to be an acceptable form of discipline and note that both child physical and emotional abuse are not prevalent in the South Indian community residing in the United States. METHODS: This study recruited 41 participants (21 mothers and 20 fathers) to complete the CTQ. Of the total number of participants, ten were randomly assigned to participate in an in-depth interview, which focused on how parents in the South Indian community in Georgia interpreted the items on the CTQ and how parents defined child physical and emotional abuse. Reliability and validity testing was conducted using data analysis software SPSS 23.0. Qualitative analysis of the interviews involved Consensual Qualitative Research, identifying common themes among all ten interviews. RESULTS: Quantitative analysis revealed low to moderate internal consistency for the emotional abuse scale (α = 0.65) and moderate to high internal consistency for the physical abuse scale (α = 0.88). Independent t-test results showed that fathers reported higher scores on both the physical and emotional abuse subscale; however, these results were not significant. Using the Consensual Qualitative Research method, six domains were determined from the interviews. These included: (a) parent perspectives on child rearing practices, (b) spanking as a discipline practice, (c) country differences between India and the United States regarding discipline, (d) prevalence of abuse among the South Indian community in the United States, (e) reporting child abuse, and (f) parents’ awareness of resources to develop parenting skills. A majority of participants reported spanking as an acceptable form of discipline and believed that neither child physical nor emotional abuse was prevalent in the South Indian community in the United States. CONCLUSION: This study serves as formative research and encourages further investigation of different forms of child abuse in Indian populations, specifically child physical and emotional abuse. Understanding how a culture views children and child rearing practices is important in determining how abuse is defined within said culture. Societies that are more lenient and accepting of violence in general are at a greater risk for perpetrating the maltreatment of children. Establishing a concise definition of child abuse will aid in the development of valid measures that will determine the actual scope of the problem and create solutions, such as laws and policies that will shift a society’s view on appropriate interactions with children.

The dissertation evaluates changes in child labor practices in the Southern Provinces of Nigeria during the colonial period from the 1880s to the 1950s. The argument concludes that child labor was part of a socializing, educational, and survival strategy prior to colonial conquest. British policies influenced by civilizing mission ideology and indirect rule fundamentally altered the relationship between children and their families. Child labor in Nigeria's cultural context was neither completely exploitative nor beneficial, but had the capacity to affect children in both ways depending on specific circumstances. Child labor initially existed in the context of the kinship group, but during the first half of the twentieth century child labor increasingly became an independent strategy outside the confines of the kinship environment, which was a direct result of social and economic change. The research underscores the central position of child labor in the Nigerian economy and the British colonial agenda. Towards the end of colonial rule, child labor issues composed part of the anti-colonial movement as it assisted discontent elites to gain support beyond coastal cities. / text