In a sample of 57 two-parent families, the current study investigated: (a) mother-father differences in observed autonomy supportive and control behaviours (i.e., directives and negative, parent-centered control); and (b) mothers and fathers unique and relative contributions to childrens later social-emotional competence. Parents behaviours were assessed during an observed clean-up task with mother-child and father-child dyads when children were 2 to 3-and-a half years of age. Parent ratings of childrens social-emotional competence were obtained one year later, when children were 3 to 5-and-a-half years old. Results revealed that mothers engaged in significantly more autonomy support than fathers when observed interacting with their young children. Furthermore, mothers negative, parent-centered control, and fathers autonomy support uniquely predicted childrens later social-emotional competence. These results suggest that mothers and fathers have differential influences on their young childrens growing competences, and exemplify the importance of including fathers in parenting research and intervention. / Psychological Studies in Education

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents, with ten to fifteen percent of young children experiencing internalising problems (Briggs-Gowan, Carter, Irwin, Wachtel, & Cicchetti, 2004; Egger & Angold, 2006). Researchers have indicated that clinically significant anxiety can exist in preschool aged children and can be sub-typed into patterns similar to that of older children. This early identification of anxiety has lead researchers to recommend that prevention efforts occur early in the life course (Beinvenu & Ginsburg, 2007), before the onset of disorder(s). Research remains scarce as to when the ultimate time to intervene would be, as anxiety research with young children is minimal. The studies presented in this thesis attempt to expand the current literature within in the area of early childhood anxiety. The first objective of this thesis was to extend the literature in the field of early childhood anxiety by examining the aetiology of anxiety and behavioural inhibition (BI) through the investigation of potential risk factors. This study (Study One) represents one of the first investigations within the research to examine risk factors for early childhood anxiety. Two hundred and thirty-six children aged four to six years participated in this study. Parents of the children completed self-report questionnaires at one time point. Results revealed that BI did not significantly predict anxiety, nor did any of the risk factors significantly predict BI. Significant predictors of anxiety included mother’s negative affect and mother’s parenting stress. Father’s parenting stress was found to play a mediating role between mother’s parenting stress and child anxiety. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of both parents (directly or through mediation) in the aetiology of early childhood anxiety. The findings of Study One provide important information regarding the aetiology of early childhood anxiety and provide important implications for the development of preventative intervention programs. Study Two sought to examine the efficacy of a preventative intervention program (Fun FRIENDS; Barrett, 2007a) for preschool aged children, delivered as a school- based, universal intervention. This was the first study conducted evaluating the Fun FRIENDS program and was one of only a few prevention trials cited within the literature examining early childhood anxiety. The study involved a cohort of 263 children enrolled in one of 16 preschool classes. Children were aged between four and six years. Schools were randomly allocated to either an intervention group (IG) or a waitlist control group (WLG). Parents of the children and teachers completed self-report questionnaires at preintervention, postintervention, and at 12-month follow-up (parents in the IG only). Parent report data revealed no significant differences between intervention conditions on anxiety at postintervention, although participants in the IG experienced larger reductions in anxiety than participants in the WLG. Children in both conditions decreased in BI symptoms at postintervention, except for boys in the IG. Significant increases in social-emotional strength were found for girls in both conditions, but not for boys. When examining the IG only over the long-term (pre, post, 12 month follow-up), nearly significant decreases in anxiety were found at postintervention and significant decreases were found again at 12-month follow-up. Improvements in BI were found at all time points for girls but not for boys and improvements on social-emotional strength were found from preintervention to 12-month follow-up, with girls scoring significantly higher than boys. For teacher report, children in the IG improved significantly more on BI compared to the WLG at postintervention indicating that the intervention program may have had a positive impact on these children in learning strategies to manage BI symptoms. However, at pr-intervention, scores on BI were significantly different between the IG and the WLG. Similar to parent report, girls in the IG experienced the largest decrease in BI symptoms at postintervention. On social-emotional strength, children in the IG improved significantly more than children in the WLG at postintervention with girls in the IG experiencing the largest improvement from pre to postintervention. Overall, these findings suggest that the intervention program had a positive impact on some children as evidenced by improvements in anxiety, BI, and social-emotional strength at postintervention and at 12-month follow-up. Parent report indicated that children in the WLG also improved on these measures, making it difficult to contribute positive changes solely to the program. However, teacher report did indicate that children in the IG improved significantly more than children in the WLG. The improvements gained at 12-month follow-up highlight the potential long-term impact of the program although, without a comparison group, it is unknown whether significant differences would exist between both conditions. Implications of these results are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents, with ten to fifteen percent of young children experiencing internalising problems (Briggs-Gowan, Carter, Irwin, Wachtel, & Cicchetti, 2004; Egger & Angold, 2006). Researchers have indicated that clinically significant anxiety can exist in preschool aged children and can be sub-typed into patterns similar to that of older children. This early identification of anxiety has lead researchers to recommend that prevention efforts occur early in the life course (Beinvenu & Ginsburg, 2007), before the onset of disorder(s). Research remains scarce as to when the ultimate time to intervene would be, as anxiety research with young children is minimal. The studies presented in this thesis attempt to expand the current literature within in the area of early childhood anxiety. The first objective of this thesis was to extend the literature in the field of early childhood anxiety by examining the aetiology of anxiety and behavioural inhibition (BI) through the investigation of potential risk factors. This study (Study One) represents one of the first investigations within the research to examine risk factors for early childhood anxiety. Two hundred and thirty-six children aged four to six years participated in this study. Parents of the children completed self-report questionnaires at one time point. Results revealed that BI did not significantly predict anxiety, nor did any of the risk factors significantly predict BI. Significant predictors of anxiety included mother’s negative affect and mother’s parenting stress. Father’s parenting stress was found to play a mediating role between mother’s parenting stress and child anxiety. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of both parents (directly or through mediation) in the aetiology of early childhood anxiety. The findings of Study One provide important information regarding the aetiology of early childhood anxiety and provide important implications for the development of preventative intervention programs. Study Two sought to examine the efficacy of a preventative intervention program (Fun FRIENDS; Barrett, 2007a) for preschool aged children, delivered as a school- based, universal intervention. This was the first study conducted evaluating the Fun FRIENDS program and was one of only a few prevention trials cited within the literature examining early childhood anxiety. The study involved a cohort of 263 children enrolled in one of 16 preschool classes. Children were aged between four and six years. Schools were randomly allocated to either an intervention group (IG) or a waitlist control group (WLG). Parents of the children and teachers completed self-report questionnaires at preintervention, postintervention, and at 12-month follow-up (parents in the IG only). Parent report data revealed no significant differences between intervention conditions on anxiety at postintervention, although participants in the IG experienced larger reductions in anxiety than participants in the WLG. Children in both conditions decreased in BI symptoms at postintervention, except for boys in the IG. Significant increases in social-emotional strength were found for girls in both conditions, but not for boys. When examining the IG only over the long-term (pre, post, 12 month follow-up), nearly significant decreases in anxiety were found at postintervention and significant decreases were found again at 12-month follow-up. Improvements in BI were found at all time points for girls but not for boys and improvements on social-emotional strength were found from preintervention to 12-month follow-up, with girls scoring significantly higher than boys. For teacher report, children in the IG improved significantly more on BI compared to the WLG at postintervention indicating that the intervention program may have had a positive impact on these children in learning strategies to manage BI symptoms. However, at pr-intervention, scores on BI were significantly different between the IG and the WLG. Similar to parent report, girls in the IG experienced the largest decrease in BI symptoms at postintervention. On social-emotional strength, children in the IG improved significantly more than children in the WLG at postintervention with girls in the IG experiencing the largest improvement from pre to postintervention. Overall, these findings suggest that the intervention program had a positive impact on some children as evidenced by improvements in anxiety, BI, and social-emotional strength at postintervention and at 12-month follow-up. Parent report indicated that children in the WLG also improved on these measures, making it difficult to contribute positive changes solely to the program. However, teacher report did indicate that children in the IG improved significantly more than children in the WLG. The improvements gained at 12-month follow-up highlight the potential long-term impact of the program although, without a comparison group, it is unknown whether significant differences would exist between both conditions. Implications of these results are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.

Children experience a multitude of benefits in response to interactions with nature. Despite documented effects, children have increasingly spent less time outdoors over the last century and experienced higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. Although child-centered play therapy (CCPT) is a culturally and developmentally responsive mental health treatment for children, researchers have limited study of environmental structure and materials employed in the therapeutic process of CCPT. In this study, I sought to further research on the integration of nature with CCPT by providing CCPT in an outdoor, contained playroom equipped with traditional CCPT toys and additional nature materials. Participants were 13 children in the southwestern U.S. with parent-reported attentional or self-regulation concerns (9 males, 6 females; ages 5-10, mean age M = 8.0). Parents reported participants' racial identities were 13% Black (n = 2), 13% Latinx (n = 2), 7% Turkish (n = 1), and 67% White (n = 10). Participants received 8 weeks of twice-weekly CCPT in an outdoor playroom. Results of two repeated measures ANOVAs revealed statistically significant improvement in attention on the Brown EF/A Scales and statistically significant improvement in social-emotional competencies on the SEARS-P. Results of this study illustrate the possible benefits of theoretically integrating CCPT and nature and the clinical impacts the novel approach could have on children's attention and social-emotional competencies. The study also provided insight into the viability of providing an outdoor CCPT intervention at a larger scale and some problems that may arise in creating and maintaining an outdoor playroom.

abstract: This dissertation examines Japanese preschool teachers' cultural practices and beliefs about the pedagogy of social-emotional development. The study is an interview-based, ethnographic study, which is based on the video-cued mutivocal ethnographic method. This study focuses on the emic terms that Japanese preschool teachers use to explain their practices, such as amae (dependency), omoiyari (empathy), sabishii (loneliness), mimamoru (watching and waiting) and garari (peripheral participation). My analysis suggests that sabishii, amae, and omoiyari form a triad of emotional exchange that has a particular cultural patterning and salience in Japan and in the Japanese approach to the socialization of emotions in early childhood. Japanese teachers think about the development of the class as a community, which is different from individual-centric Western pedagogical perspective that gives more attention to each child's development. Mimamoru is a pedagogical philosophy and practice in Japanese early childhood education. A key component of Japanese teachers' cultural practices and beliefs about the pedagogy of social-emotional development is that the process requires the development not only of children as individuals, but also of children in a preschool class as a community. In addition, the study suggests that at a deeper level these emic concepts reflect more general Japanese cultural notions of time, space, sight, and body. This dissertation concludes with the argument that teachers' implicit cultural practices and beliefs is "A cultural art of teaching." Teachers' implicit cultural practices and beliefs are harmonized in the teachers' mind and body, making connections between them, and used depending on the nuances of a situation, as informed by teachers' conscious and unconscious thoughts. The study has also shown evidence of similar practices and logic vertically distributed within Japanese early childhood education, from the way teachers act with children, to the way directors act with teachers, to the way government ministries act with directors, to the way deaf and hearing educators act with their deaf and hearing students. Because these practices are forms of bodily habitus and implicit Japanese culture, it makes sense that they are found across fields of action. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

Accumulative family risk factors can have a detrimental impact on young children's social emotional development and future school readiness. Identifying family risk and resilience factors can be a first step in linking families to needed services. Programs that serve families and children need a brief and valid screening tool that can quickly assess family strengths and needs. This study examined the validity and utility of the Environmental Screening Questionnaire (ESQ), a brief caregiver report of the family's situation. Participants included 324 parent/child (ages 3-60 months) dyads from a sample of programs that serve at-risk families (n = 72) and an online sample of caregivers (n = 252). Results from data analyses evaluating the validity and utility were promising. Validity was investigated by examining convergent validity using the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form. Caregivers from the online sample who had more family risk factors, as identified in the ESQ, were more likely to have elevated levels of stress (r = .23). Moreover, children from families with increased risk factors tended to have higher scores on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional (ASQ:SE) for two age intervals, 6 and 48 months, for the online sample. Utility data were gathered from caregivers and program staff. Results suggest the ESQ is an effective and useful screening measure that can help professionals identify areas of resource need, organize referral information, and monitor family outcomes. Caregivers found the ESQ to be helpful in understanding personal areas of risk and how risk and resilience factors can affect children's social emotional development. This study assisted in developing preliminary "red flag" risk factors that may be useful to programs serving families and children. Testing of the "red flags" is discussed for future research. / 10000-01-01

Social emotional competence is an essential developmental skill recognized as the most critical for school and later success. Rising rates in behavioral referrals and preschool expulsion have brought increased attention to the importance of helping children develop social-emotional skills in the early years. In early childhood education a central factor of social-emotional/behavioral intervention is the competence of teachers to address children's needs. In order for the social-emotional needs of children to be addressed in early childhood classrooms, adequate preservice teacher training and support are needed. The current studies focused on preservice teacher training and support regarding social emotional assessment and behavior intervention. Two studies were included in this research: (1) an early childhood preservice teacher survey and (2) Social Emotional Assessment Measure (SEAM) Preschool Teaching Guide development and behavior support plan pilot study. The first study focused on early childhood preservice teachers' current knowledge and practices regarding social-emotional development and behavior support. Participants included 228 preservice teachers from early childhood education (ECE) and early childhood special education (ECSE) teacher training programs in 15 different states. ANOVA results and answer percentages and means revealed trends in training, implementation, and preparedness by program type and degree level. The second study addressed how to support early childhood teachers in the creation of behavior support plans linked to assessment results. It took place in two phases: (1) development of a preschool teaching guide for the SEAM, and (2) a behavior support plan pilot study using the SEAM Preschool Teaching Guide. Participants included 25 preservice early childhood teachers from ECE and ECSE programs. Results from a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA indicated that the teaching guide intervention significantly improved the behavior support plan quality scores of preservice teachers. Results were further analyzed by program type and degree level.

The Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) (Squires & Bricker, 2009) is used by pediatricians, educators, and parents to screen for developmental delays and identify children at risk for delay. The purpose of the ASQ: Social Emotional- Second Edition (ASQ:SE-2) is to screen for a child’s self-regulation, compliance, communication, adaptive behaviors, autonomy, affect, and interaction with people. A recent revision of the ASQ:SE-2 included items that were intended to identify children at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study provides an examination of the validity of the ASQ:SE-2 in identifying children at risk for ASD. In the present study, total scores on a subset of items from the ASQ:SE-2 that specifically addressed ASD were compared with results from a team clinical diagnosis of ASD for 60 children, between 18-48 months of age. When the ASD-related items were considered alone, the scores of children with ASD and those without ASD were significantly different, and there were no differences in ASQ:SE-2 total scores for children with and without ASD. These findings indicate that parents of children with ASD reported significantly more concerns on ASD-related items on the ASQ:SE-2 than parents of children without ASD. Moreover, the results suggest that an increasing ASD total item score on the broadband instrument resulted in an increased likelihood of a child receiving an ASD diagnosis.

abstract: This small case study reviewed research literature and Arizona standards and assessments utilized in the early learning continuum, with a focus on holistic development, specifically in the areas of social-emotional development and approaches to learning skill development. This conversation has become especially prevalent in the state of Arizona in light of initiatives around school readiness, and policy changes reflected within the state. Much has yet to be determined concerning how the systems approach works in Arizona local education agencies, specifically the depth, consistency, and approach in which nonacademic areas of social-emotional development and approaches to learning skills are addressed in the Arizona standards, local practices and classrooms, and preschool and kindergarten assessments. The study included a content analysis, conducted as a word count, of standards and assessments, as well as a small case study of including high academic achieving district (including semi-structured interviews and classroom observations). Through the data analysis, it was affirmed a culture of learning, reflecting social-emotional development and approaches to learning skill development was created within this Local Education Agency. Three categories (environment, individual, and decision making) emerged as a way to describe this culture through a theoretical perspective of sociocultural theory. The study offers an opportunity for discussion of social-emotional development and approaches to learning skill development, connecting to a high academically achieving district, and makes recommendations for policy, practice and further research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2015

Family businesses and financial decision making is a growing topic of research. It is of value given the impact family businesses have on many economies. Family businesses are regarded to have it more difficult to attain feasible financing and also being led by another logic compared to non-family businesses. Characteristics attributed to family businesses are that they take non-financial values in to consideration, and aims to preserve the so called Social Emotional Wealth. Therefore this thesis aims to explore financial decision making in the context of family businesses and extend current research by looking at a new financing alternative, crowd equity. The purpose aims to be met by a qualitative study, with the FIBER model as base. Interviewing family business owners and management, and explore their reasoning linking it to crowd equity as a financing form. The findings in this study is in line with much of existing literature, concluding that the reasoning behind financial decisions are to a large extent motivated by non-financial factors, such as ownership and control of the businesses. The risk of losing control over the business by raising capital via equity financing is one argument against that form of financing. If equity financing is an alternative, then crowd equity seems to have characteristics that could be of interest for family businesses.