High elaborative parent-child reminiscing plays a significant role in preschoolers??? development of autobiographical memory, and, given the emotional salience of many past events, may also contribute to the development of emotion knowledge and other socio-cognitive skills. Additionally, whilst research has traditionally focused on reminiscing style, emotional content may also be important for child outcomes. In Study 1, a naturalistic paradigm was employed to examine associations of parents??? reminiscing style and emotion references with children???s emotion knowledge. Twenty-five parent-child dyads each discussed four emotionally salient past events. It was found that high elaborative parents more often discussed emotions causes than did other parents; in turn, a high elaborative style and discussion of emotion causes were each uniquely associated with children???s emotion knowledge. In Study 2 an experimental paradigm was used to examine the impact of emotion-oriented reminiscing on 88 children???s memory for a staged, emotion-rich event. Two days after participating in the event, children reminisced with an experimenter in one of four ways. Emotion-cause, emotion-expression, and no-emotion reminiscing were all high elaborative but differed in emotion content. Minimal reminiscing was low elaborative. Children who participated in emotion-cause reminiscing and, to a lesser extent, emotion-expression reminiscing, recalled significantly more emotional and non-emotional information about the event than did children who participated in no-emotion or minimal reminiscing. Study 3 aimed to extend the findings of Studies 1 and 2 by training mothers to reminisce using a high elaborative style and emotion content. 80 dyads initially participated; 44 completed all stages. After training, mothers and children in the reminiscing condition each used a more elaborative style and discussed emotions more than did their counterparts in a powerful ???child directed play??? control condition. These differences were sustained across six months, at which time children in the reminiscing condition also showed better emotion cause knowledge than did children in the control condition. Taken together, these findings suggest that children???s autobiographical memory and emotion knowledge may each develop via shared reminiscing interactions in the preschool years. In each case, the role of high-elaborative, emotion-rich reminiscing is highlighted.

High elaborative parent-child reminiscing plays a significant role in preschoolers??? development of autobiographical memory, and, given the emotional salience of many past events, may also contribute to the development of emotion knowledge and other socio-cognitive skills. Additionally, whilst research has traditionally focused on reminiscing style, emotional content may also be important for child outcomes. In Study 1, a naturalistic paradigm was employed to examine associations of parents??? reminiscing style and emotion references with children???s emotion knowledge. Twenty-five parent-child dyads each discussed four emotionally salient past events. It was found that high elaborative parents more often discussed emotions causes than did other parents; in turn, a high elaborative style and discussion of emotion causes were each uniquely associated with children???s emotion knowledge. In Study 2 an experimental paradigm was used to examine the impact of emotion-oriented reminiscing on 88 children???s memory for a staged, emotion-rich event. Two days after participating in the event, children reminisced with an experimenter in one of four ways. Emotion-cause, emotion-expression, and no-emotion reminiscing were all high elaborative but differed in emotion content. Minimal reminiscing was low elaborative. Children who participated in emotion-cause reminiscing and, to a lesser extent, emotion-expression reminiscing, recalled significantly more emotional and non-emotional information about the event than did children who participated in no-emotion or minimal reminiscing. Study 3 aimed to extend the findings of Studies 1 and 2 by training mothers to reminisce using a high elaborative style and emotion content. 80 dyads initially participated; 44 completed all stages. After training, mothers and children in the reminiscing condition each used a more elaborative style and discussed emotions more than did their counterparts in a powerful ???child directed play??? control condition. These differences were sustained across six months, at which time children in the reminiscing condition also showed better emotion cause knowledge than did children in the control condition. Taken together, these findings suggest that children???s autobiographical memory and emotion knowledge may each develop via shared reminiscing interactions in the preschool years. In each case, the role of high-elaborative, emotion-rich reminiscing is highlighted.

Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- The Institute for Clinical Social Work, 1998. / A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Institute of Clinical Social Work in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-182).

Emotion socialization is defined as how socializers teach children about emotions, and one way socializers do this is through reminiscing about past emotional events. In the current study, I build on prior research on maternal emotion socialization by examining grandmothers' role in socializing children's emotions, given the prominence of grandparents' involvement in caregiving tasks for minority and underrepresented families. I also incorporate indirectness, a concept that is well-established in linguistic research. Rather than focusing on what family members say during emotion-related reminiscing, indirectness assesses how family members communicate reminiscing content. Participants for Study 1 – the Family Interaction Study – were 18 grandmother-mother-child triads (5 Latinx and 13 Appalachian) with children in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. Families discussed two past, shared emotional events together, one positive event and one negative, in both triadic and dyadic interactions. Grandmothers', mothers', and children's speech was coded for use of emotion labels and explanations, using an established coding scheme in the emotion socialization literature, as well as for indirectness, using a coding scheme created in my previous work. Grandmothers and mothers completed questionnaires about children's social outcomes (emotion regulation and social competence), and children self-reported on their own social behavior. Grandmothers and mothers also completed questionnaires about their beliefs about children's emotions, as well as their experiences related to being underrepresented. Finally, grandmothers and mothers responded to an open-ended prompt about their race, ethnicity, and culture in relation to emotion and family values. Descriptive analyses for the Family Interaction Study were conducted to examine similarities and differences between grandmothers' and mothers' speech during familial conversations. Descriptive results indicate that grandmothers and mothers were involved during reminiscing conversations to a similar extent. Given the small sample size for this study, I was not able to conduct the planned within- and across-group tests for associations between grandmothers' and mothers' experiences and beliefs, their emotion-related discourse, and children's social outcomes. Grandmothers' and mothers' responses to the open-ended prompt were analyzed with a thematic analysis. Qualitative results identified themes present in existing literature, such as those regarding emotion expression, emotion regulation, and teaching of emotion, as well as themes not yet identified in the literature, such as the role of religion in the socialization of children's emotions. Participants for Study 2 – the Online Grandmothers Study – were 150 grandmothers (52 African American, 51 Latinx, and 50 Appalachian) with grandchildren in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. Grandmothers completed the same questionnaires as the participants in the Family Interaction Study about grandchildren's social outcomes, as well as their beliefs about children's emotions, and their experiences related to being underrepresented. Quantitative analyses for this study were conducted to investigate associations between grandmothers' social position, beliefs about emotion, and grandchildren's social outcomes. Results for the Online Grandmothers Study indicate links between grandmothers' value of positive emotion and children's lower lability/negativity, lower internalizing behaviors, and lower externalizing behaviors, particularly for African American families. Further, for Appalachian families, results indicate a link between grandmothers' belief in parental guidance of children's emotions and children's lower externalizing behaviors. Thus, results suggest that grandmothers play a unique role in children's socio-emotional development, one that is both similar and different to the mother's. This role may pertinent for development in middle childhood for a few reasons, including grandmothers' influence on children's developing sense of self, promoting children's positive coping as they transition into adolescence, as well as providing salient experiences regarding race/ethnicity that may serve as a basis for racial-ethnic identity (REI) development. Overall, findings highlight the importance of considering intergenerational shared caregiving in minority families and the roles of grandmothers as socializing agents. / Doctor of Philosophy / Grandmothers are important for family functioning and influence how children develop social skills. In the current studies, I examined grandmothers' emotion talk, beliefs about emotions, and experiences as underrepresented, as well as links to children's social skills. Participants for Study 1 – the Family Interaction Study – were 18 grandmother-mother-child triads (5 Latinx and 13 Appalachian) with children in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. Families discussed past events together and speech was coded for emotion talk. Grandmothers and mothers completed questionnaires about their beliefs about children's emotions, children's social outcomes, as well as their experiences as being underrepresented. Finally, grandmothers and mothers responded to an open-ended prompt about their race, ethnicity, and culture in relation to emotion and family values. Descriptive results indicate that grandmothers were involved during reminiscing conversations to a similar extent as mothers. Themes were identified in grandmothers' and mothers' conversations about the open-ended prompt. Notably, grandmothers and mothers identified religion as an important influence on emotion in their families. Participants for Study 2 – the Online Grandmothers Study – were 150 grandmothers (52 African American, 51 Latinx, and 50 Appalachian) with grandchildren in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade. Grandmothers completed the same questionnaires as in Study 1. Results for the Online Grandmothers Study indicate links between grandmothers' value of positive emotion and better social skills, particularly for African American families. Further, for Appalachian families, results indicate a link between grandmothers' belief in parental guidance of children's emotions and children's better social skills. Findings illustrate the importance of grandmothers in underrepresented families and as influences on children's social skills.

This minithesis provides an ethnographic account of the life world of older people in the community of Belhar in the Cape Peninsula, which was historically categorised as a &lsquo / coloured&rsquo / community during the implementation of the Group Areas Act. By content analysing newspaper articles published in the early 1980s and specifically during the implementation of the Group Areas Act I found that many of the residents reported that they lived in fear of their lives, in what was once known as a &lsquo / prestige suburb&rsquo / . At the present time the community of Belhar is an intensely gang-infested area. From preliminary research done by myself at a senior citizen centre in Belhar, the high incidence of violence was a recurring theme throughout discussions with older people. In fact when I posed the question Why do you come to the centre five days a week? to a group of older people they answered without hesitation It is unsafe for an older person to be alone during the day. Answers like these to many of the questions that I posed would almost always be followed with Things were better then. It also was apparent that the older people in this community remember (or perhaps reconstruct) the past in the context of their present living situation. This became the leading theme in my study and is also the background against which I had formulated my research questions. However this study not only focused on the impact of the high incidence of violence on the community of older people but also essentially looked at elderly residents&rsquo / everyday lived experiences in Belhar. The research sample consisted of twenty elderly residents and four key informants. The latter provided mainly infrastructural data on the community. Primary data was collected by using ethnographic techniques of inquiry which included participant observation and unstructured interviews. Results revealed that older people occupy a liminal space both in the community and in their households. I also found that the elderly stroke victim is twice silenced and marginalized due to the constraints brought on by their chronic illness and their status as an older person in the community.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

This minithesis provides an ethnographic account of the life world of older people in the community of Belhar in the Cape Peninsula, which was historically categorised as a &lsquo / coloured&rsquo / community during the implementation of the Group Areas Act. By content analysing newspaper articles published in the early 1980s and specifically during the implementation of the Group Areas Act I found that many of the residents reported that they lived in fear of their lives, in what was once known as a &lsquo / prestige suburb&rsquo / . At the present time the community of Belhar is an intensely gang-infested area. From preliminary research done by myself at a senior citizen centre in Belhar, the high incidence of violence was a recurring theme throughout discussions with older people. In fact when I posed the question Why do you come to the centre five days a week? to a group of older people they answered without hesitation It is unsafe for an older person to be alone during the day. Answers like these to many of the questions that I posed would almost always be followed with Things were better then. It also was apparent that the older people in this community remember (or perhaps reconstruct) the past in the context of their present living situation. This became the leading theme in my study and is also the background against which I had formulated my research questions. However this study not only focused on the impact of the high incidence of violence on the community of older people but also essentially looked at elderly residents&rsquo / everyday lived experiences in Belhar. The research sample consisted of twenty elderly residents and four key informants. The latter provided mainly infrastructural data on the community. Primary data was collected by using ethnographic techniques of inquiry which included participant observation and unstructured interviews. Results revealed that older people occupy a liminal space both in the community and in their households. I also found that the elderly stroke victim is twice silenced and marginalized due to the constraints brought on by their chronic illness and their status as an older person in the community.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2006. / Vita. Text accompanied by two outlines: "The purpose of life review," and "Companions on the journey: traveling with those who are grieving." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-49).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2006. / Vita. Text accompanied by two outlines: "The purpose of life review," and "Companions on the journey: traveling with those who are grieving." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-49).