This study examines the rote of parenting style and the family characteristics of organization and control in the home as they relate to self-regulation skills in children ages 5–7. A theoretical model of the relationship between the independent variables of parenting style, levels of organization and control in home and the demographics of race, gender and SES with the dependent variable of self-regulation was constructed. A clinical group of 32 children, who scored poorly on measures of self-regulation, and a comparison group of 33 children, selected at random, were formed from the initial sample of 318 children within a local urban school district. The primary caretaker for each child was interviewed via telephone using the Parental Authority Questionnaire to measure parenting style and the Family Environment Scale to measure levels of organization and control in the home. Demographic information was also obtained. Data was analyzed through t-tests, correlational and multiple regression analysis. Results indicated positive correlations between authoritative parenting style and level of organization in the home and level of organization and level of control in the home. Negative correlations were reflected between authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles and permissive parenting style and level of organization. Negative correlations were also found between permissive parenting style and level of control and race and level of control. Results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that authoritative parenting style was a predictor of self-regulation skills in young children, accounting for 27.6% of the variance of the independent model while the overall model revealed two predictors, authoritative and permissive parenting style, of self-regulation skills in young children, accounting for 35.1% of the variance of this dependent variable. Implications of this study for parents, schools and researchers are discussed.

The present study investigated the effects of background television, or television designed for adults, on very young children's play with toys. One-, 2-, and 3-year-old children were individually observed playing with an array of toys in the lab for one hour. For each child, during half of the one-hour session, a TV set played the television program Jeopardy! ; during the other half of the session, the TV set was off. For the first half hour, the average duration of play episodes was reduced at all ages in the presence of background television. Given that overall levels of looking at the television were low (about 3.2% of their time in the first half hour), this effect is probably due to a generalized interference from television (perhaps tied to its auditory features) rather than looking at the set. One-year-olds specifically had less focused attention in the presence of background television. These results were not obtained for the second half hour. Only three-year-old boys had shorter play episodes in the presence of background television. The data suggests that background television may have a disruptive effect on very young children's play with toys, especially when the toys and the room are novel to the children.

Many aspects of development appear to follow a trajectory that is, in part, dependent upon biological maturity. Reaching, attention, and haptic development proceed along trajectories that progress from slower, less controlled forms of behavior to quicker and more optimal forms. In the absence of major medical complications, preterm development has been hypothesized to follow biologically based trajectories. Based on this assumption, preterm and full-term development are often equated, following correction for prematurity. This study examined the reaching, attentional, and haptic development, and novelty/familiarity preference, of full-term (6-, 8-, and 10-months) and preterm (8-, 10-, and 12-months) infants, using a longitudinal paired-comparison paradigm. The majority of the preterm infants were considered to be healthy and of low-risk status, with an average gestational age of 34 weeks and an average birth weight of 4.91 pounds. Behavioral and kinematic measures were assessed and compared within and between groups, in an effort to determine how, if at all, development was affected by preterm birth. The results reveal a complex developmental trajectory for preterm infants, with patterns of behaviors following paths that were similar but advanced, similar but delayed, and atypical, when compared to full-term infants. In addition, the patterns of development were not consistent within any one area, with similar/advanced, similar/delayed, and atypical behaviors prevalent within the reaching, visual attention, and haptic domains. Despite the behavioral differences of the preterm infants, their functional abilities were similar to those of the full-term infants. Preterm infants were just as likely to reach for and obtain the object of interest, even though certain aspects of the developmental trajectory of the reaches differed from those of full-term infants. In addition, although the preterm infants' visual and haptic explorations differed, both quantitatively and qualitatively, from those of the full-term infants, they distinguished and preferred the novel toy as readily. Thus, correcting for prematurity does not sufficiently equate preterm and full-term infant development. Preterm birth appears to fundamentally alter aspects of development, which results in behaviors that cannot be measured by comparison with full-term development. Instead, preterm infants should be evaluated based on the characteristics inherent in the preterm population.

Premature newborns were observed longitudinally while undergoing heelsticks. Behavioral and cardiac measures were taken over 5 tests days. On Tests 1, 3, and 5, the phlebotomist picked up the baby's leg and held it for 10 s and then proceeded to collect blood. This manipulation was geared towards observing whether, over days, babies learned that the pick-up of the leg was predictive of a painful event. Infants' reactions were also observed during the invasive parts of the blood collection. It was hypothesized that if infants increased their reactivity to the leg pickup over days, it would suggest that this neutral event had acquired signal value for the subsequent painful stimulus. If infants' response to the heelstick itself increased over days, this could be due to either maturation, sensitization and/or anticipation. However, if infants decreased their reactivity, it could be due to a specific learning mechanism, Stress-Induced-Analgesia. Results or the leg pick-up yielded a marginally significant cardiac increase on the final test day, suggesting anticipation. Infants demonstrated reliable behavioral and cardiac reactions to the heelstick but no change was observed in reactivity over days. Behavioral pain reactions were positively related with gestational age at Test 1, 2, 4 and 5. A greater number of heelsticks was related to fewer facial reactions at Test 5. Further research needs to be done to specify the nature of anticipation and to separate the effects of gestational age and number of invasive procedures on facial reactivity.

When individuals are presented with a task situation for which they must use complex, sequentially available information, they must construct organizations for this information in order to perform the task effectively. For example, organizing incoming information allows the individual to remember more information, and to predict and prepare for information yet to come. The hypothesis tested in the present study is that such organizations have an impact on an individual's ability to maintain attention to a task and resist distractions in the environment. Specifically, it was hypothesized that (1) people can attain complex, hierarchically organized structures for incoming information; (2) that the boundaries between the units highest in the hierarchy constitute major breaks in the processing and integration of information; and (3) that these major "breakpoints" are times when people are especially vulnerable to distraction. In the experiment, subjects were trained to perceive particular, defined structures in sequences of stimuli. After training, they performed a task in the context of a video game requiring speeded predictions or classifications of stimulus events. Within the sequences which had been learned, information irrelevant to the task was sometimes displayed. Overall, subjects' response times in the classification/prediction task indicated the psychological reality of the structures for them as they produced responses more slowly when near a high level unit boundary. They were also affected by distraction, slowing performance significantly when distractions were present. However, the major hypothesis was not confirmed: Distraction did not affect performance differentially for higher level units. This null finding is made compelling by the tremendous statistical power of the analysis. The results were interpreted in the light of possible alternative hypotheses; notably, that distraction affects performance in a strictly momentary way, unrelated to sequences of information that the individual processes. In addition, a major limitation to the present test of the hypothesis is discussed, and a revised test of the hypothesis is proposed. The potential relevance of the hypothesis to theories of the development of attention is described.

In families with young children, bedtime is widely experienced as a difficult and draining task. This study examines the relationships and interactions that emerge at bedtime between children two-to-five years old and their parents. In particular it focuses on the physical closeness they exchange in mediating difficulties or potential difficulties at bedtime. A review of cross-cultural and of historical studies of childhood shows that the problematic nature of children's bedtime is itself a modern western phenomenon. Where there are no separate sleeping quarters, there is no clearly defined period in the daily cycle set aside as children's bedtime. Seen thus as a modern problem, and in terms of child development, bedtime is a form of separation. This comparative study utilizes a quantitative approach in two separate cultural communities, one in the United States and one in Italy. The method involved the formulation, distribution, and analysis of a questionnaire filled out by the parents of 468 children: 208 in Amherst-Northampton, Massachusetts and 260 in Pistoia, Tuscany. The behavior described in responses to the questionnaire was grouped into four categories: direct physical closeness, indirect physical closeness, surrogate to physical closeness, and child difficulties at separation. The results show that the two-year-old children tended to get more physical closeness, the most difficult age that emerged was three, while the five-year olds tended to be less demanding. They were receiving more indirect and more surrogate physical closeness than direct physical closeness. The cultural differences proved more striking than those related to age. Parents in the American sample tended to put their children to bed earlier, to make more use of certain forms of indirect physical closeness (reading) and to make more use of surrogate to physical closeness (leaving the light on, giving the child a soft toy). The examination of family interaction during the preparations of young children for sleep, an aspect of social development as yet little explored, is in fact a study in "attachment and separation".

Previous studies of gender differences in emotional and behavioral expressivity have generally found few differences between male and female infants despite persistent reports by parents to the contrary. This study presents striking sex differences in infants' behavior and affect during face-to-face interactions with their mother. 81 infants (43 females and 38 males) and their mothers were videotaped in Tronick's Still-Face Paradigm at 6 and 6 1/2 months. The Still-Face Paradigm consists of three two-minute episodes: normal age-appropriate interaction, mother acting unresponsive by holding a still-face (a stressful event), and a reunion of normal interaction. The infants' behavior (e.g., gaze, self-regulatory coping behaviors, gestural and vocal signals, and withdrawal/ escape behaviors) was coded using the Infant Regulatory Scoring System and their affective expressions with the AFFEX system. The mothers' behavior (e.g., facilitative or disruptive behaviors, gaze, gestural and vocal signals) was coded with the Maternal Regulatory Scoring System and their affect with Emde's Maternal Hedonic Tone Scale. The videotapes were coded second by second and reliability was maintained at over 75% for each behavior and facial expression. Boys showed significantly more joy and anger, more positive vocalizations, fussiness, and crying, more gestural signals directed towards the mother, and more escape behaviors than girls. Girls were significantly more likely to show interest, to gaze at objects, and to use self-regulatory behaviors such as diverting their attention to objects and to thumbsuck than boys. Several of these sex differences were stable over time and none could be accounted for in terms of maternal behavior and affect. Finally, significant between-session stability in both sexes' behavioral and affective displays was found particularly in the first play suggesting that stress does not highlight individual differences at this age. These data indicate that boys are more affectively reactive and socially directed than girls, and that girls are more object oriented and use more self-regulatory behaviors than boys. Thus 6-month-old infants show gender based affective, behavioral, and self-regulatory differences that appear independent of maternal behavior and affect.

abstract: Background. Hundreds of studies have linked maternal depression to negative child outcomes. However, these studies have been correlational, so they cannot rule out alternative explanations such as that child characteristics evoke maternal depression or that confounding variables are causes of both phenomena. Design. I applied a propensity score approach to data from the Early Steps Multisite Trial, a sample of 731 low-income families tracked approximately annually from ages 2 through 16. Families were equated on propensity scores based on a large set of baseline characteristics, producing two groups that were similar across all measured characteristics except for the presence of clinically significant symptoms of maternal depression during toddlerhood. Children’s longitudinal behavioral outcomes from parent-, teacher-, and self-report measures were compared across the equated groups in order to estimate the causal effects of maternal depression. Results. Both matching and weighting were successful in equating families with depressed and non-depressed mothers on a set of 89 potential confounding variables measured at child age 2. Prior to any adjustment for confounding, the effect of maternal depression was statistically significant for 41 of 48 mother-, secondary-caregiver-, and teacher-reported outcomes. Effect sizes were consistent with the larger literature and in the small to medium range. After matching or weighting to equate families with depressed versus non-depressed mothers, the effects of maternal depression at age 2 was statistically significant for 6 of 48 mother-, secondary-caregiver-, and teacher-reported outcomes. Adjusted effect sizes were in the very small to small range. Conclusions. Findings are consistent with the claim that there is a very small causal effect of exposure to maternal depression at child age 2 on child externalizing and internalizing behavior in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. While awaiting replication, results suggest (a) that treatment of maternal depression should not be expected to substantially reduce child externalizing and internalizing behavior problems; (b) that very large sample sizes are needed to adequately investigate causal developmental processes that link maternal depression to child behavior; and (c) that causal inference methods can be an important addition to the toolbox of developmental psychopathologists. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2020

When learning about concepts that are difficult to experience first-hand, children must rely on information from others. One challenge for young children is that adults may provide differing information, yet few studies have examined how children reconcile conflicting beliefs from different sources. Across three studies, I explored children’s understanding of reality and possibility in natural and supernatural domains from secular and Christian communities in a largely secular society, Mainland China. Two age groups were included, one group before formal schooling (5- to 6-year-olds), where children are mainly exposed to testimony from parents and their immediate circle, and one group after several years of schooling (9- to 11-year-olds), where the testimony from parents may support or conflict with school testimony. Specifically, in Study 1, children and their parents were asked to judge the existence of unobservable scientific and religious entities. Results showed that the ontological judgments of children from both age groups were in strong correspondence with their parents’ beliefs, even when parental testimony may conflict with the testimony children receive in school. Study 2 expanded beyond Study 1 to explore children’s understanding of fact and fiction in counter-intuitive processes. Study 2 also asked whether religious exposure from the immediate circle in a largely secular society may extend Christian children’s understanding of possibility in formal religious contexts to folk religious contexts, fantastical contexts or improbable contexts in general. It was found that with age, Christian Chinese children became less likely to extend their belief in the impossible via God’s intervention to other magical or divine powers. Lastly, Study 3 examined and revealed the specific elements of parental testimony that might alert children to the existence or non-existence of unobservable concepts by analyzing parent-child conversations about unobservable scientific and religious concepts in both high consensus and low consensus domains. Taken together, Study 1 and Study 2 demonstrated the weight of testimony from parents and the immediate community on children’s understanding of possibility and facts when there is conflicting testimony in the larger society. Study 3 provided evidence on parental testimony as one possible cultural transmission mechanism. The final chapter addresses the significance and implications of these findings in the field of developmental science and education.

abstract: Students at High Achieving Schools (HASs) have recently been identified as an at-risk population, and excessive pressure to excel is considered the cause of this maladjustment. However, the specific aspects of pressure that lead to these outcomes have yet to be comprehensively explored. In two schools, one public and one independent, this study examined multiple constructs potentially implicated: feelings of pressure to succeed from different sources (parents, teachers, coaches, the self, and friends) and total felt pressure. Also considered are dimensions of being overextended across commitments, including hours of sleep, homework, and levels of associated strain and enjoyment. These indices were all examined in relation to adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing symptoms, as well as feelings of disengagement with school, after controlling for attachment to both parents. Results showed that total felt pressure, and pressure felt from the self, were most notably related to internalizing symptoms and disengagement with school. Additionally, strain from commitments showed unique links with depression, anxiety, and negative feelings about school. Finally, enjoyment from different commitments showed robust links with feelings about school. Overall, the different pressure predictors showed sporadic links with externalizing behaviors and substance use. Findings are discussed in terms of directions for interventions as well as future research with HAS populations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2019