The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of family size, birth order, socioeconomic status, and parent-child relationships to young children's intellectual development. Seventy-four children, 39 boys and 35 girls, with a mean age of 4 years-8 months, and their parents (mothers and fathers), selected from 9 preschool programs and daycare centers in Corvallis, Oregon, acted as subjects for this study. Ninety-five percent of the families came from upper or upper-middle socioeconomic classes. All the families were intact, consisting of children and their biological parents, representing one-, two, and three-child families. The children in this study were either first-, second- or third-born children. Family socioeconomic status was determined via Hollingshead's Four Factor Index of Social Status. Information on family size and birth order was obtained through a Demographic Questionnaire. Parent-child relationship was assessed via the Parent Attitude Research Instrument-Short Form. Children's intellectual level was measured with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised. Zajonc and Markus' Confluence Theory, Page and Grandon's Admixture Theory, and Falbo and Polies Parent-Child Relationships Theory were utilized as the basis for investigating the relative contributions of family size, birth order, socioeconomic status, mother-child relationship, and father-child relationship to children's intellectual development. The regression procedure was used in data analyses. The .05 probability level was used as the criterion for statistical significance. Findings revealed that the variables of socioeconomic status and quality of father-child relationships contributed significantly to children's intellectual development. The higher the socioeconomic status of the family, and the more supportive the father-child relationships, the higher the children's intellectual development scores. Birth order and family size made no contributions to children's intellectual development. These findings, therefore, provided support for Page and Grandon's Admixture Theory and Falbo and Polies Parent-Child Relationships Theory, but not for Zajonc and Markus' Confluence Theory. / Graduation date: 1995

During the course of this study, an attempt was made to establish evidence concerning the reliability and validity of the four adjustment subsections included within the Student Form of the Adjustment Inventory. The four subsections are: Home Adjustment; Health Adjustment; Social Adjustment; and Emotional Adjustment. The total sample used in this study consisted of 103 grade twelve boys and 104 grade twelve girls from the Kitsilano Junior-Senior High School, Vancouver, British Columbia. Within the limitations of the study, the salient findings may be stated as follows: 1. Certain of the subsections yielded distributions for the samples used that diverged significantly from normality resulting from an accumulation of scores at the well-adjusted end of the scale. 2. Significant sex differences within the scores of the boys and girls were obtained in the case of the Emotional section and the Social section. 3. Statistical significance between mean scores was obtained for the sample of grade twelve boys used in this study and the original standardization sample of high school boys (selected from all grades) in the case of the Health section and the Social section. Comparing the original standardisation sample of girls with the present grade twelve sample, significant differences were found between their group scores for the Home, Health, and Social sections. These results suggest that a revision of norms is possibly required in certain cases. 4. From an item analysis, it was noted that for each section certain items fell below statistical requirements for acceptance. In the case of the Health section, for the boys, 17 of the 35 items fell below requirements, indicating weak interval consistency. The Social section proved to have the fewest number of poor items, four in the case of the boys and throe for the girls. 5. The obtained reliability coefficients for the Home and Social sections were found to be above the .80 level in all cases, ranging from .86 to .91. For the Health and Emotional sections the reliability coefficients in certain cases fell below .80, the Health section producing a low of .701 as calculated for the boys on the basis of the Richardson-Kuder formula. 6. Although in most cases the coefficients of intercorrelations were low, certain of the subsections correlated sufficiently high enough to suggest the possibility that such subsections were measuring related factors. 7. On the basis of ratings arrived at by means of a prolonged interview, the validating of the Home Adjustment section was substantiated. The results indicated that the Home section of the Inventory is capable of yielding results significantly similar to those obtained by means of a lengthy interview. 8. The findings of the study suggest that the scores made on the Social Adjustment section are significantly related to active social participation. No statistically significant relationship was found between scores made on the Social section and social "popularity” arrived at by means of a popularity vote. Suggestion is made that the Social section might well be used in counselling for detecting those who are seriously withdrawing from social participation. 9. The validity of the Health section failed to be substantiated on the basis of health ratings given to 98 grade twelve boys by the School Nurse. 10. The validity of the Emotional Adjustment section failed to be substantiated on the basis of composite emotional adjustment ratings arrived at by means of the ratings of the School Nurse and the writer, together with information given by each student during an interview. 11. To more satisfactorily evaluate the Adjustment Inventory as a tool for use in a guidance and counselling programme in high schools, a specially devised Student Problem Poll was constructed with the view of determining where the four problem areas included within the Inventory fell in relationship to other fields considered important by grade twelve students. According to the estimations of the students, other areas of problems are considered to be more important than, or as equally as important as the four areas included in the Inventory. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Contributions of home environment and family socioeconomic status (SES) on the intelligence test performance of 24 exceptional children aged five through seven years were investigated. It was hypothesized that higher SES would enrich the children's environment providing a more stimulating learning experience, and would reflect a positive correlation with measures of the home environment. Additional hypotheses were that both HOME scores and SES scales would show a positive correlation with intelligence test performance. The positive association found between SES and HOME Inventory scores suggests that families with a higher SES have the ability to direct more resources toward their children. However, according to the present study, this does not affect the intelligence test performance of exceptional children.

This study investigated Black, White, and Indian South African university students' lay theories of intelligence. 260 students participated in this study, with an age range of 18 - 39 years. The study, which is based on the theory of multiple intelligences, explored everyday perceptions of intelligence across race groups in a South African setting. The independent variables of interest were race/culture and gender, while overall and multiple intelligences served as dependent variables. Participants were asked to rate their own overall (general) as well as multiple intelligences. They were then asked to rate the overall as well as multiple intelligences of in-group (same race) and out-group (different race) members of both genders. There was a statistically significant race effect, with White and Indian students giving Black students lower ratings and Black students in turn giving White and Indian students lower ratings. This may be a result of historically racialized discourses that still influence everyday perceptions of the 'Other'. There was a statistically significant gender effect with females giving higher estimates to not only themselves, but also to mates as well for all the multiple intelligences. It can be postulated that this may be a consequence of a population that has been sensitized to gender stereotyping, in addition to educational institutions promoting female friendly policies. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.