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The numerous pain rating scales using faces depicting varying degrees of distress to elicit reports of pain from children fall into two categories; those with a neutral face as the 'no pain' anchor, and those with a smiling face as the 'no pain' anchor. This study examined the potentially biasing impact of these anchor types on children's self-reports of pain in response to a series of vignettes. Participants were 100 children stratified by age (5-6 years, 7-8 years, 9-12 years) and randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) neutral scale/sensory instructions; 2) smiling scale/sensory instructions; 3) smiling scale/affective instructions. Children completed a faces scale, a visual analogue scale (VAS), and emotions ratings in response to four scenarios depicting: 1) no pain/negative emotions; 2) pain/negative emotions; 3) no pain/positive emotions; 4) pain/positive emotions. Results showed that children who used the smiling scale had significantly higher pain scores for no pain and pain/negative emotions vignettes, and significantly lower faces scale scores for pain/positive vignettes, than children who used the neutral faces scale. Instructions varying in focus on sensory or affective qualities of pain had no effect on children's pain ratings. Group differences in children's ratings with the VAS and emotions measure suggested that rating pain with a smiling faces scale may alter a child's concept of pain. Age differences indicated the younger children rated the negative emotion vignettes as more painful than the older children. These findings suggest that children's pain ratings vary depending on the types of faces scale used, and that faces scales with smiling anchors may confound affective states with pain ratings.

The emotions of aggressive and withdrawn children were examined in object-conflict and group-entry situations. Izard's (1977) differential theory of emotion suggests that aggressive children should have more hostile emotions, and withdrawn children more depressive emotions. Wright and Mischel's (1987) conditional approach to dispositional constructs suggests that aggressive children's hostility would be most evident during object-conflict, and withdrawn children's depressive responses most evident during group entry. Four- and 5-year-old boys and girls (N = 128) were assigned to aggressive, withdrawn, or control groups according to teachers' behaviour ratings. Interviews about children's emotional experiences in hypothetical object-conflict and group-entry situations failed to yield predicted group and situation differences. However, during semi-structured object-conflict and group-entry situations, aggressive children displayed more intense anger and more frequent anger blends, while withdrawn children were observed to show more intense sadness and more frequent fear-sadness blends. Displays of negative affect were related in theoretically meaningful ways to patterns of children's social behaviour. Failure to find situational specificity suggests that affective features of children's social competence may operate at a general level.

The thesis undertakes a historical evolution of thought and ideology about the child in Western society with the final aim of contextualizing current images of the child in advertising. Throughout this evolution, ideologies of "innocence" and "experience" are articulated over the child in varying ways, defining the child as Nature, original sin, salvation, etc. The parent-child relation is analyzed according to the determining components of narcissism, the Oedipal wish and the incest taboo. The taboo's role in social organization is studied to determine how it has evolved in a consumerist society. Evolution of child imagery begins with manifestations of the incest theme in mythology and literature. The Romantic child is then contrasted to the Victorian child, revealing a "subversive echo" to child innocence. Power structures directed at controlling the child are reinforced in the modern and post-industrial families, the media and consumerism. Finally, the child in advertising is profiled within a mainly poststructuralist and psychoanalytic framework.

The existing literature on childhood bereavement reactions and sequelae is integrated within the Stress and Coping Paradigm to demonstrate its functional utility. The coping resources (i.e., psychological and social resources) and coping efforts of seventeen (8 male, 9 female) children who experienced the death of a loved one were assessed and compared with standardized norms. Results suggest that children who experienced bereavement did not significantly differ from typical children on measures of psychological resources (Self-Perception Profile for Children and Assessment of Coping Style) and on measures of coping effort (Coping Inventory). However, differences were found on a measure of social resource (Family Environment Scale). When compared with the norm group, children who experienced bereavement scored significantly higher on the Cohesion, Expressiveness, Conflict and Control subscales, and significantly lower on the Achievement Orientation subscale. The data are analyzed and discussed with reference to mediating factors including time elapsed since the death, relationship to the deceased and mode of death. Implications for health care professionals are discussed.

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