Over the last decades, many studies had focused on the psychological outcomes of children who have received early socialization outside of the family context, highlighting that the daycare experience ...can both positively and negatively influence the child's social-emotional development. Despite the number of studies conducted, there is a lack of observational research on this topic. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the early daycare experience can influence the prosocial behaviors that children exhibit during free-play social interactions with peers, focusing on their quantity and quality. In addition, the associations between the enactment of prosocial behaviors and social-emotional and behavioral competence were investigated. 160 preschoolers, 77 of whom had previously attended daycare, participated in the study and were focally observed during two free play sessions with peers. Each prosocial behavior was identified and subsequently classified using a coding scheme designed to consider the self-initiated or required origin of prosocial actions and their underlying motive. Emotion comprehension was measured using a standardized test, while social-emotional and behavioral competence was assessed using a questionnaire filled out by teachers. The main findings showed that children who had attended daycare had higher anger and aggression scores than those who had not, who, in turn, were rated by their teachers as having more internalizing behaviors. These characteristics seemed to account for the differences found in the tendency to act prosocial acts in response to a peer's request, which was lower in children who had a previous daycare experience. Moreover, early socialization outside of the family context appeared to foster the comprehension of others' intent to achieve emotional or instrumental personal goals and, at the same time, to reduce conventional/affiliative prosocial acts. Overall, this study suggested that the incidental effects of daycare on prosocial behavior might be canceled due to the peculiar social-emotional and behavioral characteristics of the two groups of children.
Although a significant body of research has investigated the relationships among children's emotion understanding (EU), theory of mind (ToM), and language abilities. As far as we know, no study to ...date has been conducted with a sizeable sample of both preschool and school-age children exploring the direct effect of EU on ToM when the role of language was evaluated as a potential exogenous factor in a single comprehensive model. Participants in the current study were 389 children (age range: 37-97 months,
= 60.79 months;
= 12.66), to whom a False-Belief understanding battery, the Test of Emotion Comprehension, and the Peabody Test were administered. Children's EU, ToM, and language ability (receptive vocabulary) were positively correlated. Furthermore, EU scores explained variability in ToM scores independently of participants' age and gender. Finally, language was found to play a crucial role in both explaining variance in ToM scores and in mediating the relationship between EU and ToM. We discuss the theoretical and educational implications of these outcomes, particularly in relation to offering social and emotional learning programs through schools.
Attachment networks in young adults Carli, Lucia L; Alì, Paolo Alessandro; Anzelmo, Elena ...
Frontiers in psychology,
02/2024, Volume:
14
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This study investigated attachment networks in a sample of Italian young adults. Attachment networks were defined in terms of attachment functions, attachment strength, the presence of a primary ...figure, and full-blown attachments.
Participants were 405 young adults, and we studied the effects of the demographic variables of gender, romantic status (whether single, involved in a romantic relationship for less or more than 24 months) and employment (whether university students or workers) on the structure of attachment networks. Participants were asked to answer the WHO-TO questionnaire, and derived indexes were analyzed using mixed ANOVAs, linear and logistic regression techniques.
Results indicated that while friends still had great importance in the network, partners were acquiring increasing relevance; at the same time, parents, and particularly mothers, remained central figures, particularly for the secure base function. Regarding the demographic variables, we observed that women reported stronger bonds with their mothers than men did, while the importance of friends was higher for men than for women. Additionally, our study supports previous findings underlining the importance of romantic partners in this phase of life, with participants involved in romantic relationships for longer than 24 months showing a fully developed attachment bond with their partners. Finally, for workers, the transfer of functions from the family-of-origin to external figures seemed to be fostered.
In conclusion, young Italian young adults go through a phase of intensive restructuring of attachment bond networks, particularly in relation to the consolidation of romantic relationships and work commitments.
The study examined the social skills of 92 Russian children (males=64) adopted by Italian families. The children, aged between 8 and 14years, were compared with a control group of children who grew ...up with the biological family. Evaluation by both parents and children of the children's social competence were investigated. The results showed that, according to the parents' reports, the adopted children had more problems in social functioning than peers in the control group, along with a greater propensity to use maladaptive behaviors such as Oppositive Behavior, Rule-Breaking Behavior, Aggressive Behavior and Externalization. By contrast, according to the children's assessments, the adopted children were less aggressive and used prosocial behaviors to a greater extent than children raised in the biological family. The views of the parents and the children about the children's aggressive behavior were mutually conflicting.
Finally, the influence of adoption related variables on the social competence of children was examined. Contrary to our expectations, there were no significant relationships between social competence and age of adoption, the duration of institutionalization and the time spent in the adoptive family.
•According to adoptive parents, their children showed inadequate social adjustment.•Adopted children saw themselves as less aggressive and more prosocial than peers.•There were no relationships between social competence and adoption related variables.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
The ability to understand and manage emotional experience is critical to children's health. This study confirmed the validity of the How I Feel (HIF) Questionnaire, a measure of ...children's emotional arousal and regulation, exploring its associations with measures of emotional and social functioning.
METHODS
The sample was comprised of 1379 Italian students (aged 8 to 12 years) who attended schools interested in the study aims. Participants completed the 30‐item HIF scale, and measures of emotional self‐efficacy and social desirability (SD). Factor structures were assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Invariance by age and gender, internal consistency, temporal stability, and concurrent validity were also tested.
RESULTS
A 3‐factor model was identified: frequency and intensity of (1) positive emotion – PE (8 items, α = .82), (2) negative emotion – NE (12 items, α = .86), and (3) positive and negative emotion control – EC (10 items, α = .77). This factor structure was invariant across age and gender groups. The HIF displayed moderate longitudinal stability over a 15‐month period and a low social desirability effect. Positive emotion was positively associated with social acceptance and visibility, and negatively with social withdrawal.
CONCLUSIONS
The HIF is a reliable and valid measure for research and school intervention promoting students' emotional and mental health.
This study was designed to investigate developmental changes in true and false memories and to detect links among them in middle childhood. Participants were 372 Italian children (from 6 to 11 years, ...174 males) divided into two age groups. After hearing a story, children provided a free-recall and their true and false retrieved information was measured. Then children were repeatedly asked some true and misleading questions about the story and their cued-recall and interrogative suggestibility were measured. Finally, children again recalled the story to assess the post-event misinformation effect of the suggested information. Individual differences in fluid intelligence, working memory and executive functions were also assessed to investigate their relationships with true and false memories. Typical age effects were found in memory recall and interrogative suggestibility. Interesting links among true, spontaneous and suggested false memories were found. Finally, analyses did not reveal the existence of a relationship between suggestibility and cognitive functioning.
Social exclusion has a profound emotional impact on children. However, there is still limited and partly conflicting experimental evidence for the possible effect of social exclusion on children’s ...cognitive performance. In the present study, we tested the possibility that some children are more vulnerable than others to the negative effects of social exclusion on cognitive performance. We selected 4 potential candidates that could moderate the effects of social exclusion: relational self-esteem, peer ratings of popularity, rejection sensitivity and nonverbal intelligence. Individual differences in these 4 potential moderating factors were first assessed in a sample of 318 children (45.6 % females; mean age = 9.92 years). Then, in a subsequent experimental session, the participants were either socially included or excluded using a typical manipulation (i.e., the Cyberball paradigm). Following the manipulation, the children’s cognitive performance was assessed using a logical reasoning test. The results showed that the children with lower scores for relational self-esteem (the bottom 37.46 % of the sample), lower popularity (43.49 %) or weaker nonverbal intelligence (37.80 %) performed worse on the logical reasoning test following social exclusion. Moreover, children with combined low self-esteem, popularity and nonverbal intelligence were the most affected by social exclusion. This study identified factors that make some children more vulnerable to the negative effects of social exclusion. Overall, the present work underscores the value of considering basic cognitive and relational individual differences when developing interventions aimed at preventing the negative effects of social exclusion among children.
▶ Secure infants used positive social engagement more than avoidant infants. ▶ Resistant infants used more negative social engagement and less object orientation. ▶ Avoidant infants adopted ...hetero-regulatory strategies less than the other groups. ▶ Avoidant infants adopted object regulatory strategies more than resistant infants.
With the aim of studying the relationship between methods of emotion regulation and quality of attachment we examined 39 infants with different patterns of attachment, of whom 20 were classified as secure (B), 12 as avoidant (A) and 7 as resistant (C), assessing the regulatory strategies adopted by them during the Strange Situation at 13 months. Secure infants used strategies of positive social engagement more than insecure avoidant infants, while resistant infants displayed greater negative social engagement and less object orientation than the other two groups. Avoidant infants adopted positive and negative hetero-regulatory strategies less than the other groups, also differing from resistant infants in their greater use of object regulatory strategies. There were no significant differences as regards self-comforting regulation. Thus, the findings showed how the most significant differences to emerge between the groups concerned hetero-regulatory strategies, developed by the infant in interaction with attachment figures, and regulatory strategies oriented towards objects. Further analysis showed how the use by part of each attachment group of the emotion regulation strategies varies, differentiating the episodes of the SSP according to their level of stress.
We examined the association between the quality of maternal representations of attachment evaluated by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and mother styles of regulating attention and emotion ...during free play with objects in 41 mother dyads when infants were nine months old. The secure mother dyads showed a greater duration of engagement matches, with more positive matches, and a greater capacity to move from non-matched to matched states. Secure mother dyads demonstrated greater involvement in play with objects than insecure mother dyads. Insecure mother dyads showed a greater duration of mismatches and spent more time in negative matches. Correlations between maternal AAI scores and the variables studied also showed that the maternal Passivity and Unresolved scales were associated with less adequate dyadic attention and emotion regulation, while the maternal Coherence scale was associated with more adequate dyadic attention and emotion regulation.
Article Omission Across Child Languages Guasti, Maria Teresa; Gavarró, Anna; de Lange, Joke ...
Language acquisition,
04/2008, Volume:
15, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Article omission is known to be a feature of early grammar, although it does not affect all child languages to the same extent. In this article we analyze the production of articles by 12 children, 4 ...speakers of Catalan, 4 speakers of Italian, and 4 speakers of Dutch. We consider the results in the light of (i) the adult input the children are exposed to, (ii) the prosodic properties of articles in the three languages, and (iii) the properties of the syntax-semantics mapping of nouns in the languages under consideration. We show that the proportion of bare nouns (grammatical or ungrammatical) in the adult input does not bear any systematic relation to child production/omission of articles and that the full developmental pattern observed can be explained by appealing to the role of the nominal mapping parameter (NMP) in guiding acquisition, in conjunction with prosodic properties of articles and with discourse conditions.
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