"The purpose of the present study was to make a survey of published research findings in psychological journals in the field of Child Development. The articles used were from journals published by the American Psychological Association and the Journal of Genetic Psychology published by the Journal Press. The latter is included as a marginal periodical. The intent of the survey was to note trends, methods of research, and subject matter as they are presented in these journals from 1945-1956. The second problem of the study was to consider whether the articles of the American Psychological Association journals are meeting the publication needs of research in child development"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1959." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Ralph L. Witherspoon, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 20-21).

An observational study was conducted examining the social and cognitive play of young children with hearing-impairment playing in small groups composed of both hearing and hearing-impaired peers. The questions addressed the effects of the hearing status of the play partner upon the social/cognitive play patterns of children with hearing-impairment, and the relationship between their play patterns and their communicative competence, social competence and speech intelligibility. Forty-eight hearing-impaired subjects ranging in age from 3-6 to 6-1 were observed playing with partners of same and different hearing status during integrated play sessions at 13 school sites. The social play categories included solitary, parallel and group play, while the cognitive play categories included functional, constructive and dramatic play. Results of the study showed that the play patterns of the hearing-impaired children differed significantly for each group of partners. When playing with hearing-impaired partners, subjects engaged in group functional and constructive play more frequently than parallel functional and constructive play, and with equal frequency in parallel dramatic and group dramatic play. When playing with hearing partners, subjects engaged with equal frequency in group and parallel play. When playing with mixed groups of hearing and hearing-impaired partners, subjects engaged in group dramatic play more frequently than parallel dramatic play, and with equal frequency in group functional and constructive play, and parallel functional and constructive play. Communicative competence was negatively correlated to functional play. A positive correlation was found between social competence and constructive play, and between speech intelligibility and dramatic play. These correlations remained significant when age was partialed out. The hearing-impaired subjects spent similar percentages of time in social/cognitive play as those reported for hearing children. The study supports the premise that the play of young hearing-impaired children varies according to the hearing status of the play partner and is neither delayed nor deficient.

The goal of this project was to explore associations between maternal and paternal employment around nine months after the birth of a child and child socioemotional, cognitive, and health outcomes at two and four years of age. Three research aims were addressed. Aim One: To Examine Associations Between Maternal Employment And Child Outcomes Findings indicated that few links exist between maternal full and part time employment (compared to no employment) and child outcomes at two and four years. A series of home and family process variables were also analyzed to determine whether they served as significant mediators or offsetting variables in the association between employment and child outcomes. Although there was some variation by outcome, generally full and part time maternal employment was linked with more maternal knowledge of child development, less maternal depression, more maternal income, better attachment classification, and a higher quality home environment. Each of these process variables were, in turn, linked with positive child outcomes. On the other hand, full and part time maternal employment was also associated with less time spent with the child, which was associated with poorer child outcomes. Full and part time maternal employment was linked with greater participation in nonparental child care, which was associated with both better and worse child outcomes, varying by type of care and the specific outcome. Compared to non-working mothers, full time employment was linked with a shorter duration in breastfeeding, while part time employment was linked with a longer duration in breastfeeding. Duration of breastfeeding was associated with better child outcomes at age two. Lastly, the number of well child visits was not found to be a significant pathway between maternal employment and child outcomes. It appeared that positive and negative pathways existed, and in most cases balanced out to a non significant direct effect of employment on outcomes. Aim Two: To Examine Associations Between Parental Employment And Child Outcomes Findings from the second study indicated that, compared to children with a non working mother and full time working father, children with two full time working parents displayed more illness by age two. At age four, compared to children with a non working mother and full time working father, children with a part time working mother and a father with part time or no work showed less engagement of a parent. Children with a part time working mother and full time working father, children with a part time working mother and part time or non working father, and children with two full time working parents displayed more externalizing behavior. A series of home and family process variables were analyzed to determine their role as mediators or offsetting variables in the association between parental employment and child outcomes. Although there was some variation by outcome, generally the employment groups that included a full time working father and a part or full time working mother fared best on process variables. These groups were associated with more mother and father knowledge of child development, less maternal depression, more use of child care, more income, more maternal sensitivity, and a better home environment. These process variables were, in turn, associated with better child outcomes. On the other hand, those families with a non working mother and a part time or non working father generally fared worst on process variables. This group was associated with less mother and father knowledge of child development, more maternal and paternal depression, a lower quality home environment, less income, less months breastfed, and lower maternal sensitivity. These process variables were generally associated with poorer child outcomes at ages two and/or four. Aim Three: To Examine the Mediating Role Of Child Care Quality In The Association Between First-Year Parental Employment And Child Outcomes At Age Four Results indicated that overall there were associations between employment and child care, but few and inconsistent links between child care type and quality and child outcomes. The child outcomes for which some types of child care served as a significant pathway for parent employment were math ability, reading ability, engagement of the parent, and expressive language. High quality center-based care, high quality relative care, and high quality non-relative care were all positively linked with at least one child outcome measured at age four. However, low quality center based care was also positively linked with both math ability and engagement of the parent. The positive link with math was surprising, particularly in the absence of a positive link between high quality center-based care and math ability, which was expected based on previous findings. Engagement of the parent was the only socioemotional outcome with a positive link with parental employment though child care. The pathway emerged through both high and low quality, center-based settings. Because of the large groups and decreased one-on-one time with an adult, center-based care, at the onset of the study, was expected to have a negative link with socioemotional outcomes. No links with child health were found.

The present study explored the interaction of reconstructive and reproductive memory processes in children’s recall for stories. Specifically, kindergartners, second-graders, and fourth-graders were compared on accuracy measures of both recall structure and content as a function of the form of the presented story and the recall instructions provided. Forty-six kindergartners, 45 second-graders, and 48 fourth-graders listened to four two-episode stories. In two of the stories, the episodes were presented separately (standard story form); in the remaining two stories, propositions from the first and second episodes alternated (interleaved story form). Following a distractor task, children were asked to retell the story either, 1) exactly as they heard it, 2) making a “good” story out of it, or 3) without specific instructions. Multiple measures of structural and content recall accuracy were obtained. The general findings contradict those of Mandler and DeForest (1979) in suggesting that older children adopt a non-schematic (reproductive) recall strategy with regard to story structure. Further, the results for the content accuracy measures show that second- and fourth-graders remember fewer presented words verbatim and produce more theme-relevant elaborations, substitutions, and inferences than younger children. Clearly both story structure and content must be considered in evaluating developmental trends in reconstructive and reproductive recall. / M.S.

M.A. / Children are so often seen as unproductive, dependents that are vulnerable and not responsible for their own actions. Children are in fact individuals in the process of development that can learn to act in a responsible way and to manage their lives. Because children are in the process of development and change, it is a challenge for the therapist to meet the unique needs of the child. This study was developed as a response to a need under social workers for structure in the handling of children with adaptation problems. Social workers need more than just techniques that can be utilized with children in therapy. They also need guidelines on the best techniques to utilize in different phases of the process. This programme aimed at developing an integrated model for child therapy that can be utilized for children who have experienced trauma, who have difficulties adapting to new circumstances, who have behavioural problems or who are in need of personal skills. The Intervention Design and Development Model of Rothman and Thomas (1994) was utilized in the development of the new technological item. The different phases used in the development of the model for child therapy were the following: The problem analysis and planning phase, which included the planning of the study and the setting of goals for the study. The information gathering and synthesis phase, which included an investigation into the available sources for the development of new technology for child therapy. The first focus of the actions in this phase was to identify applicable sources that could be utilized to formulate a theoretical basis for the new technology. The theoretical basis served as a frame of reference to identify the most important aspects of a child that a therapy model should take into account. The next focus was to select existing interventions and technologies that could be used to formulate a practice model that would address the needed aspects of a child. The design phase, consisted of setting a preliminary product. The evaluation phase, which included the implementation of the pilot test and both the process and outcome evaluation. The aim of this phase was to test the programme and to see what can be done to improve on the results and to refine the final product. The implementation and dissemination phase which concluded the study by setting the final product ready for distribution. This product, a model for Functional child therapy, does not provide a recipe for child therapy, nor does it only help children to work through present traumas. The main focus of the model is to help children to become unique individuals within a world that is dominated and structured by adults. Children learn with this model not just to react on adult behaviour, but to become active, responsible role players in their own world.

This dissertation utilizes insights from economics and child development science to examine how trauma transmits across generations from mother to child. The first chapter consists of a literature review in which I survey the existing literature across multiple disciplines on maternal trauma and the early childhood home environment. Specifically, I investigate psychosocial pathways through which maternal trauma may affect maternal capacities and investment decisions, particularly through a mother’s behavioral responses to trauma, and its consequential effects on the early childhood home environment for children. I identify methodological challenges to estimating the effects of maternal trauma on the early childhood home environment, and discuss policy implications and possible avenues for future research. In my second chapter, I take an intergenerational perspective and review research across disciplines to demonstrate that childhood trauma should be conceptualized as an intergenerational phenomenon that plays a role in the dynamics of inequality. In doing so, I develop a conceptual framework for studying how a mother’s childhood trauma affects her future capacities as a mother and the early developmental outcomes of the next generation. To understand how traumatic environments affect early childhood development, scholars previously have concentrated on two processes: (1) how early adversity and potentially traumatic experiences affect the immediate cognitive and socio-emotional development of children, and (2) the extent to which caregivers, and mothers in particular, can buffer against the potentially detrimental effects of these early experiences. These frameworks acknowledge the importance of environmental influences on both processes, parenting practices and early childhood development. However, they largely ignore the intergenerational dynamics of traumatic experiences, and the consequences of the mother’s own previous traumas on the early childhood home environment she shapes for her children. I focus on the mother as the primary caregiver in the early years of a child’s development, and examine behavioral mechanisms, and specifically parenting, as a potential pathway for the intergenerational transmission of a mother’s childhood trauma. I conclude by discussing future avenues for research and implications for public policy. Finally, in my third chapter, I present empirical evidence on the intergenerational effects of childhood trauma using the specific case of a mother’s childhood exposure to armed conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. A mother’s nurturing care is a critical input to early development, particularly for children at elevated risk of early adversity. Little is known, however, about how a mother’s own childhood adversity affects her ability to provide such nurturing care. In this chapter, I use geo-located data on armed conflicts in three countries in Sub-Saharan Africa combined with geo- located household level data on parenting practices and early childhood development to estimate the intergenerational effects of a mother’s childhood exposure to armed conflict on her parent- ing practices and the early developmental outcomes of her children. Difference-in-differences estimates use identifying variation in geographic differences in exposure to conflict across sub- national regions and temporal variation across maternal birth cohorts. I find that mothers exposed to conflict in their early childhood are more likely to use abusive disciplinary practices. They are also less likely to stimulate their children through educational activities, material investments, or sending their children to early childhood education centers. These mothers are also more likely to experience intimate partner violence, and engage in early marriage and early sex, which may be mechanisms by which a mother’s childhood exposure to conflict affects her future maternal capacities and investments, and the early developmental outcomes of her children. Together, these essays advance our conceptual understanding of the potential long run and intergenerational effects of childhood trauma, and provide causal evidence on aspects of its inter- generational consequences in a specific context in Sub-Saharan Africa.

M.A. / The aim of the study was to investigate whether evoked potential distinguishes between motor coordinated and-uncoordinated African children. Because the brain functions as a unified entity and different brain systems are integrated simultaneously, it was postulated that there is a relationship between the auditory evoked potential of the brain stem on the one hand and motor coordination on the other hand, that is, the sensory and the motor systems are related. Sensory- motor activity is thus perceived to form a unified function within the total framework of human functioning. The relevant literature points to a possible relationship between the auditory evoked potential of the brain stem and motor coordination. Patients with degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis exhibit abnormal evoked potential responses as well as unusual motor behaviour and coordination. Similarly, children with hearing problems also show unusual evoked potential responses of the brain stem as well as motor lethargy(delayed motor responses) and clumsiness. As a result of these tendencies it was postulated that evoked potential would be able to distinguish between motor-coordinated and -uncoordinated subjects. The brain's evoked potential response is a robust phenomenon that provides a record of electrical brain activity, even in trials where overt responses are not usually expected. The present study focuses on the auditory evoked potential of the brain stem (AEP). The evoked potential serves as a measure of the sensory transmission of information in the brain and consequently highlights the neural activity underlying normal sensory experiences. The subjects selected for the study were 46 eight- to twelve-year-old African children attending a farm school. They can be regarded as representative of the population of eight- to twelve-year old African farm children. All the subjects were administered the Quick Neurological Screening Test in order to catagorise them into two groups, namely the motor-coordinated group and the motor-uncoordinated group. Thereafter the auditory evoked potential of the brain stem was recorded from all the subjects in both groups ...