Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-166). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisors: Theodore H. Dix and Deborah Tharinger. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 205-215).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on November 16, 2009). Thesis advisor: Dr. David R. Vaught. Includes bibliographical references.

The problem of this study is to compare the constancy of inter-personal relationships in the first grade of the elementary school and the last grade of the elementary school, the sixth grade.

To date, cross-gender friendships in childhood and adolescence have been virtually ignored in the peer relationships literature. The purpose of the present investigation was to chart the territory of cross-gender friendship by examining the domains of friendship conceptions and the selection of friends. Accordingly, 176 students (91 girls, 85 boys) in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 participated in individual sessions and were asked to describe their beliefs about, and expectations for, both same- and cross-gender friendship. In addition, students participated in a hypothetical decision-making task using a series of information boards on which they were asked to search for, and select, a same- and cross-gender friend. Findings revealed that beliefs and expectations for both same- and cross-gender friendships were observed to follow a common developmental sequence with little evidence that cross-gender friendships lag behind. Although the pattern of gender differences in conceptions of cross-gender friendship was consistent with previous research, the results of this study suggest that for several features of friendship, participants made distinctions on the basis of what is expected in friendships involving girls versus boys. The differential emphasis placed on various expectations in friendship provides support for the notion that same- and cross-gender friendships may represent different types of personal relationships. As compared to conceptions of friendship, observations in the friendship selection task revealed that students engaged in similar predecisional searching regardless of the gender of the target friend. Findings suggest that the process of same- and crossgender friendship selection was somewhat different at different grade levels but did not vary markedly for boys and girls. Indeed, boys and girls at all ages were observed to select same- and cross-gender friends who were highly similar to themselves. The present discussion concludes with a description of the cross-gender friendship experiences of children and adolescents in this sample including consideration of the potential challenges and benefits associated with having a friend of the other gender. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to develop a parent report form instrument congruent with the philosophy of child-centered play therapy. The study sought to develop an instrument with acceptable levels of construct validity, reliability, sensitivity to clinical attitudes and relationships, and responsiveness to intervention. The Child Interpersonal Relationships and Attitudes Assessment (CIRAA) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBC) and the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) were administered to 136 parents of children aged 3 to 10. The children of the parents sample consisted of 90 males and 46 females. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted for construct validity. Parallel analysis was conducted to determine the number of factors to retain. The factor solution explained 53.86% of the variance, which is an acceptable amount of the variance. Cronbach's alpha was conducted for total scale and all subscales. Reliability scores for the total score and subscales were acceptable, with an overall reliability coefficient of .93. A Pearson's r was conducted for concurrent validity between the instrument, the CBC, and the PSI, with Pearsons' r of .75 and .74 respectively. Paired-sample t-tests using the pretest and posttest scores of the instrument in development examined the responsiveness of the instrument to play therapy intervention at the same level as the CBC and PSI. ROC curve analysis, indicated acceptable discrimination of clinical scores and adaptive scores, with a clinical score being generated from the analysis. It is the first parent-report form developed for child-centered play therapy, and provides an efficient and philosophically consistent instrument for child centered play therapists to use in clinical and research settings.

This study examined peer group processes in the classroom that can potentially explain how motivationally "rich" children get "richer" whereas motivationally "poor" children get "poorer." In contrast to research on group processes which focuses on socialization from group to individual, this study focuses on contributions from the individual to his/her group. The viewpoint taken for this study is that children actively choose group members based on their own self-system state, thereby creating their own peer environments in which they develop.Viewed as open complex systems, children's natural peer groups were examined using data collected from students and their teachers at five measurement points across a school year in four grade 4/5 classrooms. Out of 112 students, data were obtained for 94 (51 male, 43 female) children regarding their classroom engagement, peer network affiliations, and associative preferences ("ideal groups" of classmates with whom they would like to hang out). In an effort to overcome some of the challenges that group researchers face, methodologies argued to reliably capture children's networks and to measure the network's psychological characteristics were used. In addition, a hierarchical systems framework was applied whereby the underlying group processes could be examined across time. Two of seven hierarchical perspectives were used to examine influences from the individual to his/her network. Focusing first on the changing nature of a child's network, findings revealed a pattern of robust equilibrium. Networks showed an initial period of rapid change in member turnover (approximately 45%) during the first few months and then evolved quickly toward a stable (attractor) state of approximately 25% turnover the remainder of the year. Focusing next on the proximal processes by which the peer network emerges--selection and elimination--children were found to be more similar to those whom they would like to select than those whom they would like to eliminate. Taken together, the findings suggest that the child creates a peer context in the classroom that is stimulating and compatible to his/her own changes in engagement across the school year, thereby providing a possible explanation for how the motivationally "rich" get "richer" and the "poor" get "poorer".

No description available.