The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were any changes, attributable to participation in a Home Start program, in a mother's attitude towards children or in the children's measured intelligence.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the expressed attitudes of surrogate parents toward family life and child-rearing practices and the dominative and socially integrative behaviors of the surrogate parents as they interacted with preschool children.The population of this study consisted of fifteen (15) randomly selected undergraduate students enrolled in the class, "Methods and Materials in the Kindergarten," EDEL 440g, spring quarter, 1975. The population hereafter is identified as the "participants." The Elementary Education Department of Teachers College, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, for several years has maintained a classroom for three-, four-, and five-year old children as a laboratory for child study, The participants, in conjunction with the kindergarten education class, interacted with preschool aged children on a regular basis in the classroom maintained for that purpose, ''The Living Learning Laboratory for Young Children," and hereafter identified as the LLL. All students enrolled in the kindergarten education class (50) were administered the Parent Attitude Research Instrument (PARI), and 15 were randomly selected to be members of the data p.opulation.The PARI consisted of 23 attitudinal scales and was selected to measure the expressed attitudes of the participants in three major areas: Authoritarian-Control; Hostility-Rejection; and Democratic Practices. Participants recorded their responses to 115 items on a Likert type instrument with each item having four categories of agreement-disagreement. Separate answer sheets were computer scored by assigning scores fourthrough-one. This process yielded a numerical score for each participant in three attitudinal areas.The Behavior Observation Blank, developed and utilized by H. H. Anderson in a series of longitudinal studies, was selected to measure the participants' dominative and socially integrative behaviors. Trained observers functioning in excess of a 70% level of agreement and working in pairs analyzed and recorded the dominative and integrative behavior of each of the 15 participants. Participants were observed in 20-minute nonconsecutive periods. The first 100 recorded behaviors of each participant were placed in dominative and integrative behavior categories, each behavior totaled separately, and then the integrative subtotal was divided by the dominative subtotal. The subsequent answer was identified as the I/D ratio.The Pearson product moment coefficient of correlation was computed to test the relationship between each of the three attitudes and the I/D ratio. The relationship between each attitude and the I/D ratio was riot statistically significant at the .05 level off confidence and the null hypotheses were accepted.It would appear from the results of this study that the expressed attitudes of the data population toward family life and child-rearing practices did not correlate at a level of statistical significance with the observed dominative and socially integrative behaviors. Therefore, on the basis of the findings of this study, it would not be possible to predict the behavior of the data population on the basis of PARI scores.In this study all I/D ratios in all cases exceeded 1.0 with a mean I/D ratio of 2.47. The latter figure can be translated into behavioral terms: for each dominative behavior there were approximately two-and-a-half integrative behaviors. The figure, 2.47, stands in contrast to previous studies in which the dominative behaviors exceeded integrative behaviors. To summarize, the PARI was not effective in this study in predicting the dominative and integrative behavior, and the null hypotheses were accepted.Previous attempts to develop an attitude measure that will predict the classroom behavior of teachers have been unsuccessful. Perhaps the time has arrived for educators to rethink the problem and develop pre-service teacher preparation programs that combine participatory and theoretical experiences with children accompanied by supervisory comments at a level relevant to the recipient.

The purposes of the study were to determine who was taking care of three- and four-year-old children in Middletown USA, and to attempt to identify why parents of these children chose particular types of child care. A further purpose of the study was to supply data relative to the Muncie, Indiana, community which were not gathered in the Middletown studies. The sample consisted of 153 parents of three- and four-year-old children who lived on randomly selected city blocks in Muncie, Indiana.An informal questionnaire was constructed in order to gather information needed to test the null hypotheses and to obtain data relative to the community. Informal interviews were conducted at the home of each subject. Responses were recorded on the questionnaire forms. Null hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance.The observed proportion of parents who provided parental care for their three- or four-year-old children was significantly greater than .5. The observed proportion of parents who provided parental care for their three- or four year-old children because they wanted to take care of their own children was significantly greater than .5. The observed proportion of parents who arranged informal care for their three- or four-year-old children because of a need to work was significantly greater than .5. The observed proportion of parents who arranged group care for their three- or four-yearold children because of its educational value was considerably less than .5. For those parents who arranged informal care, cost, convenience, and the quality of care were equally probable stated reasons for specific choice of informal care. For those parents who arranged group care, stated reasons for specific choice of group care were not equally probable. Convenience, educational value, and social value deviated most from the expected mean.It was concluded that many more preschool children were being provided with non-parental care than results from previous Middletown research hid indicated. Parents most often saw their need to work as the primary reason for arranging non-parental care.

No description available.

Thesis (MEd)--University of South Australia, 1995

This study aimed to discover ways of designing children's programs using creativity and imagination that are unique and relevant to young children. It examined whether the degree to which the early childhood professional's own sense of enchantment, creativeness and imagination is or is not inextricably linked to the creative and imaginative output of young children in childcare contexts. It evaluated the link between an educator?s own sense of enchantment, imagination and creativeness and the quality of the program offered to young children in childcare centres. The study also identified ways of enriching the care of children in childcare centres through programs that would enhance the children?s imagination and creativeness, utilising the individuality of the teacher/carer?s own ideas on creativity and program design. A case-study methodology was chosen to determine the answers to the posed questions. Three case studies in Hobart and one in Brisbane, using a variety of research tools, including interviews, the application of a creativity assessment sheet, observations and photography, were used to answer the research questions. The results in this small-scale study showed that the early childhood educator's own sense of enchantment and use of imagination and creativity did correlate with the children's imagination and creativity and also with the quality of the program. A conclusion is that an educator's creative disposition is a vital factor in the enrichment of the care of children in childcare contexts. / thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2002.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 3, 2008). Directed by Linda L. Hestenes; submitted to the School of Human Environmental Sciences. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-123).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 114-123.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Rand Graduate School, 2002. / Title from title frame of PDF file ; viewed 17 Apr. 2005. Series numbering from publisher website. Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-147).