Whereas previous research has examined the role that parenting and home environments play in explaining the relation between family socioeconomic status and children's language development in the ...United States, relatively little is known about the associations between these constructs in other cultures. This study tested an integrated model of language development within a longitudinal data set of 1,894 socioeconomically diverse Korean children (48.35% girls; > 99% native-born Korean citizens) from the first year of life (age 3-8 months) to ages 3 and 6 years. A model integrating parent and environmental characteristics from the family stress model and the family investment model that also included maternal self-efficacy and knowledge of child development was shown to adequately explain the associations between family socioeconomic status and children's language development. Implications for applying similar integrated models in international contexts are discussed.
Age-related developments in sleep during the preschool years are normative and consequential. Yet, very few studies have examined the antecedents of individual differences in such developments, and ...most have used parental reports of child sleep. This study aimed to investigate the roles of mutual responsiveness in mother-child interactions and child temperamental anger proneness in the prediction of changes in sleep during the preschool period. The sample was comprised of 94 children (44 girls, 50 boys) of mostly White (93%) and college-educated (85%) mothers. Mother-child mutual responsiveness and child anger proneness were assessed at 2 years, and sleep was assessed using actigraphy at the ages of 2, 3, and 4 years. Multilevel growth models revealed that higher temperamental anger proneness was concurrently associated with lower sleep efficiency and shorter nighttime sleep duration at 2 years. In regard to changes in sleep, nighttime sleep duration decreased between 2 and 4 years among children exposed to lower mutual responsiveness in interactions with their mothers. High anger proneness was related to an increase in sleep efficiency from 2 to 4 years, whereas low anger proneness was associated with a decrease in nighttime duration during the same period. No interactive effect was found between anger proneness and mother-child mutual responsiveness. These results suggest that mother-child relationships and child temperament may play different roles, not only in children's concurrent sleep patterns but also in changes in sleep across the preschool period.
The relevance of dyadic coping (DC), a concept how couples cope with stressors together, has been established in different contexts (e.g., daily hassles, mental and physical health) and is related to ...different outcomes such as relationship satisfaction, relationship quality and stability, psychological well-being, and child behavior. The current systematic review aims at providing an integration of the field of research on couple's DC with child-related stressors which are understood as demands that arise for couples due to becoming or being parents. DC and related search terms were used for the literature search in PsycINFO, Psyndex, and Medline. We included 55 publications (reporting empirical data on 6,779 couples in total) including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies published between 1990 and 2020. We applied a narrative synthesis approach organizing the results around six identified areas of child-related stressors: pregnancy and transition to parenthood, parenting, child mental health, child disability, child chronic physical illness, and child death. Overall, results show the importance of DC for both individual and relationship functioning in the context of child-related stress. Surprisingly, effects of parental DC on child outcomes remained understudied, although the existing studies yield promising results for child adjustment. In conclusion, adapting a "we"-perspective, mutual understanding and support is of importance not only to overcome the stressor but also to grow together as a couple. As DC plays a significant role for couples to cope in a resilient way when facing child-related stressors it should be more promoted in couple- and family counseling and therapy.
Public Significance Statement
Dyadic coping, the way couples cope together with stress, was shown to be important for individual and couple functioning when facing child-related stressors. Through adapting a "we"-perspective and mutual understanding and support, parents can not only overcome the stressor but grow together as a couple. Promoting dyadic coping through educational programs and in couple- and family counseling and therapy is, thus, of great importance.
To identify features parents perceived as being relevant for their child's active play, their own active recreation, and their coactivity. Parents (n = 145, M age = 36.2 years) with preschoolers (M ...age = 3.9 years) living in Edmonton, Canada were recruited from each of Edmonton's council wards. Parents reported demographic information and the importance of several neighborhood features (destinations, design, social, safety, esthetics) for their child's active play, their own active recreation, and their coactivity via six-item Likert scales. After dichotomizing response options, a series of proportional tests accounting for the clustered data (council ward) were performed to identify features considered relevant (important/most important) or not relevant (not at all important/unimportant/neutral/not applicable) by the majority of parents (>50%). The majority of parents reported that 23 of the 32 neighborhood features were perceived as being relevant for all activity domains. These included destinations (parks, playgrounds, arenas, schools, sport fields, arenas/ice rinks, river valley/ravine), design features (quiet streets, trails, sidewalks), social features (friends/family, child's friends, other children playing outside, knowing neighbors, trusting neighbors), safety features (street lighting, crime, traffic, daylight, sidewalk maintenance, crosswalks), and esthetic features (cleanliness, natural features). Parents reported several neighborhood features as being relevant for promoting their child's active play, their own active recreation, and coactivity. These findings may be helpful in guiding future research examining neighborhood correlates of physical activity among preschoolers and their parents. Further, relevant government officials may find this information useful for creating neighborhoods for active living in young families.
Recensement des caractéristiques que les parents jugent pertinentes pour les jeux actifs de leurs enfants, leurs propres loisirs actifs et les activités à pratiquer ensemble. Des parents (N = 145, Mâge = 36,2 ans) ayant des enfants d'âge préscolaire (Mâge = 3,9 ans) habitant à Edmonton, au Canada, ont été recrutés au sein de chacune des circonscriptions de la ville. Les parents ont fourni des renseignements démographiques et ont indiqué, au moyen d'une échelle de type Likert à six items, l'importance accordée à diverses caractéristiques de leur quartier (destinations, conception, éléments sociaux, sécurité, esthétique) pour les jeux actifs de leurs enfants, leurs propres loisirs actifs et les activités qu'ils pratiquent ensemble. Après avoir dichotomisé les options de réponses, des tests ont été effectués pour les grappes de données (circonscriptions) en vue de déterminer la proportion des caractéristiques jugées pertinentes (importante et très importante) et non pertinentes (pas du tout importante, peu importante, neutre, sans objet) par la majorité des patients (> 50 %). La majorité des parents ont répondu que 23 des 32 caractéristiques du quartier présentées étaient pertinentes pour tous les domaines d'activité. Ces caractéristiques concernaient les destinations (parcs, terrains de jeux, arénas, écoles, terrains de sport, patinoires extérieures, vallées et ravins de rivière), la conception (rues tranquilles, sentiers, trottoirs), les éléments sociaux (amis et famille, amis de l'enfant, enfants jouant dehors, connaissance de ses voisins, confiance en ses voisins), la sécurité (éclairage des rues, crime, circulation, éclairage de jour, entretien des trottoirs, passages pour piétons), et l'esthétique (propreté, caractéristiques naturelles). Les parents ont jugé plusieurs caractéristiques pertinentes qui favorisent les jeux actifs de leurs enfants, leurs propres loisirs actifs et les activités à pratiquer ensemble. Ces résultats peuvent servir aux éventuelles recherches examinant les caractéristiques des quartiers favorisant les activités physiques parmi les enfants d'âge préscolaire et leurs parents. De plus, cette information pourrait être utile aux représentants gouvernementaux pour la conception de quartiers favorisant un mode de vie actif parmi les jeunes familles.
Public Significance Statement
Several neighborhood features were identified by parents as being relevant for their child's active play, their own active recreation, and coactivity. Nearly all social and safety aspects appeared to be particularly relevant for all three domains. These findings should be considered by relevant government officials who are trying to create active communities.
The physical home environment is thought to play a crucial role in facilitating healthy sleep in young children. However, relatively little is known about how various features of the physical home ...environment are associated with sleep in early childhood, and some of the recommendations clinicians make for improving child sleep environments are based on limited research evidence. The present study examined how observer and parent descriptions of the child's physical home environment were associated with child sleep, measured using actigraphy and parent's reports, across a year in early childhood. The study used a machine learning approach (elastic net regression) to specify which aspects of the physical home environment were most important for predicting five aspects of child sleep, sleep duration, sleep variability, sleep timing, sleep activity, and latency to fall asleep. The study included 546 toddlers (265 females) recruited at 30 months of age and reassessed at 36 and 42 months of age. Poorer quality physical home environments were associated with later sleep schedules, more variable sleep schedules, shorter sleep durations, and more parent-reported sleep problems in young children. The most important environmental predictors of sleep were room sharing with an adult, bed sharing, and quality of both the child's sleep space and the wider home environment.
Language Outcome in Autism Kasari, Connie; Paparella, Tanya; Freeman, Stephanny ...
Journal of consulting and clinical psychology,
02/2008, Letnik:
76, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This study reports results of a randomized controlled trial aimed at joint attention (JA) and symbolic play (SP) in preschool children with autism, with prediction to language outcome 12 months ...later. Participants were 58 children (46 boys) with autism between 3 and 4 years of age. Children were randomized to a JA intervention, an SP intervention, or control group. Interventions were conducted 30 min daily for 5-6 weeks. Assessments of JA skills, SP skills, mother-child interactions, and language development were collected at 4 time points: pre- and postintervention and 6 and 12 months postintervention by independent testers. Results indicate that expressive language gains were greater for both treatment groups compared with the control group, and results could not be explained by differences in other interventions in which children participated. For children beginning treatment with the lowest language levels, the JA intervention improved language outcome significantly more than did the SP or control interventions. These findings suggest clinically significant benefits of actively treating JA and SP skills in young children with autism.
The association between children's social-status within their peer-group and their prosociality was examined among fourth and sixth graders (N = 276), using sociometric nominations, and actual ...sharing with a fellow in-group member, or a member of an out-group. Results show an overall increase in sharing with age, and an overall correlation between children's social status among peers and their sharing behavior-however, across both age groups, this association was significant only in the in-group condition, not when the recipient child was an out-group member. Specifically, less accepted children behaved in a less prosocial manner only toward in-group members, not toward out-group ones. This suggests that situational factors and characteristics of the prospective recipient play an important part in the degree to which less socially accepted children are willing to act prosocially.
Parenting is known to impact children's executive function (EF) skills. However, nearly all the evidence comes from analyses of mother-child interaction. Using the National Longitudinal Study of ...Child Development and Care Database in Taiwan, the relations between both mother-child and father-child interaction and 3-year-olds' EF were investigated in 2,164 families. The results showed that mothers interacted with their children differently from fathers in terms of time distribution. Mothers were more equally involved in all aspects of parental involvement, whereas fathers spent more time in play. In addition, both mother-child and father-child play contributed to children's EF; however, the mediating effect of child motor skills was more prominent for father-child play. This study not only suggests a potential distinct and complementary role of fathers in young children's EF development but also indicates a unique mediating effect of motor skills in the path from parent-child play to child EF. Implications for parent education are discussed.
Serious Fun Schulz, Laura E; Bonawitz, Elizabeth Baraff
Developmental psychology,
07/2007, Letnik:
43, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Researchers, educators, and parents have long believed that children learn cause and effect relationships through exploratory play. However, previous research suggests that children are poor at ...designing informative experiments; children fail to control relevant variables and tend to alter multiple variables simultaneously. Thus, little is known about how children's spontaneous exploration might support accurate causal inferences. Here the authors suggest that children's exploratory play is affected by the quality of the evidence they observe. Using a novel free-play paradigm, the authors show that preschoolers (mean age: 57 months) distinguish confounded and unconfounded evidence, preferentially explore causally confounded (but not matched unconfounded) toys rather than novel toys, and spontaneously disambiguate confounded variables in the course of free play.
This study investigated the role of children's gender stereotypes and peer playmate experiences in shaping their desire to play with peers who hold counterstereotypical preferences (e.g., a boy who ...likes dolls or a girl who likes trucks). Children (N = 95; 46 girls, 49 boys; 67% White, 18% Black, 8% Latinx, 4% Asian, 3% other; median household income = $US97,810) who were 4 to 8 years old (M = 6.11 years old, SD = 1.34) were interviewed about their gender stereotypes about toy preferences, how often they engage in counterstereotypical playmate experiences, and their desire to play with peers who hold counterstereotypical toy preferences. Children with less gender stereotype-consistent expectations reported more playmate experiences with children who played with toys that were gender counterstereotypical compared to children with more gender stereotype-consistent expectations. Additionally, children with less gender stereotype-consistent expectations reported a greater desire to play with peers who held counterstereotypical toy preferences compared to children with more gender stereotype-consistent expectations. Younger children's reported playmate experiences with peers who liked toys that were gender counterstereotypical and their desire to play with these peers were strongly related to their gender stereotypical expectations (and more so than for older children). Together, these findings indicate that children's gender stereotypes and peer playmate experiences are related to their desire to play with peers who hold counterstereotypical toy preferences, highlighting the importance of facilitating diverse friendships for promoting inclusive orientations in childhood.
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