Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Family Perspectives On Developmental Monitoring: A Qualitative Study, Sarah Behrens, Evan Dean, Marisol Torres

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Developmental monitoring, an ongoing process to identify children at risk for developmental delays, is an essential component to the identification of a developmental disability in young children. In collaboration with families, medical professionals are expected to monitor the development of a child; however, current research focuses on screening with less attention on developmental monitoring and the role of the family. Here, we show the experiences of families with medical professionals specific to developmental monitoring and how families obtain and develop knowledge on child development. We analyze qualitative data from a sample of family caregivers using semi-structured interviews. With a thematic …

Teaching Social-Emotional Skills Through Storytelling: Development Of A Mobile App For Children, Sally Devitry

Student Research Symposium

Children today are born into a world where technology is deeply integrated into daily life. A study completed in 2016 found that 85% of children ages 5-10 participate in some form of screen time (e.g., television, tablet, or smart phone) daily. More than 75% of these children do so for more than two hours a day on average. The increasing use of technology, specifically tablet and smartphone use, will fundamentally redefine childhood experiences. In a child’s formative years, learning social-emotional skills such as empathy, communication, resilience, etc. is vital. Obviously, human interaction cannot be replaced in teaching these social-emotional skills, …

New Studies Of Children’S Work, Acquisition Of Critical Skills, And Contribution To The Domestic Economy, David F. Lancy

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In spite of the fact that the very earliest ethnographers who paid any attention to children took note of the “precocity” displayed by children in both learning the household (e.g., caring for a younger sibling) and subsistence (harvesting and processing grain), tasks characteristic of the societies under investigation, the first synthesis and cross-cultural compilation of this large body of descriptive material is quite recent. This first, introductory, article in this collection reviews those efforts to systematize the study of children’s work and leads the reader through a catalog of the major conclusions or generalizations that have emerged from this analysis. …

The Relation Between Parenting Beliefs, Behaviors, And Acculturation On The Social Skills Of Prekindergarten Hispanic Children, Peter C. Winstead

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research related to the importance of social skills in children shows that they are important to children's development and performance in school. Research on problem behaviors in children, such as bullying, have been shown to be related to negative outcomes later in life for children such as lower performance in school, and juvenile and adult criminal behavior. What parents believe and how they act on those beliefs have been found to be related to fewer problem behaviors, and to higher social skills in children. However, the research we have has focused on the parenting behaviors and social outcomes in children …

Child Sexual Abuse: Development Of Psychiatric Disorders And Interventions, Toshikazu Kuroda

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Child sexual abuse has become a serious social concern due to the recent report of its higher incidence rate than commonly believed. This form of child abuse has been proposed to bring about adverse effects on children's development since more than one century ago. However, research over past decades reveals that effects of sexual abuse are extremely complex and diverse. Particularly, there appear to be many unclear factors increasing the probability for the development of psychiatric disorders in sexually abused children. The present paper investigated how child sexual abuse creates diversity over the course of the victims' development from multiple …

Preliminary Development And Content Validation Of A Rating Scale For Assessing Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder In Children, Melissa Lea Holland

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is currently one of the most frequent problems for which children are referred to mental health clinics in this country, affecting approximately 3-5% of the childhood population. Although adequate assessment and identification of this disorder is imperative, most of the currently existing measures to assess for ADHD in children are inadequate . The present research study involved the development and content validation of a new behavior rating scale prototype for assessing ADHD in the school-age (K-12) population.

This research was conducted in five distinct steps: (a) item development; (b) development of the prototype; (c) content validation …

A Psychometric Evaluation Of Five Commonly Used Measures Of Family Functioning And How They Correlate With Development Of Children With Disabilities, Matthew J. Taylor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In response to the increased emphasis in early intervention on assessing family functioning, there has been substantial effort over the past 15 years to develop instruments that can measure important aspects of family functioning with families of children with disabilities. While the multitude of recently developed family measures has given researchers and clinicians a variety of instruments from which to choose, research on the quality of the data derived from these instruments has lagged behind. Considering the importance of family functioning in current early intervention programs and the potential impact on the type of intervention delivered, further investigation of the …

A Home Arranged For Learning, Don Carter Ed. D.

All Archived Publications

People used to believe that how a child turned out was predetermined. All children do seem to follow the same stages of development and in the same sequence. But, those whose life circumstances have been more favorable, and who have had a more enriched learning environment, progress more rapidly than those whose opportunities for learning have been limited. As evidence accumulates regarding the importance of the early years, there is increasing need to focus attention on the child’s experiences and environment.

Development Of Cooperation Between Children In The Minimal Social Situation, Janice V. Siegel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine whether children can learn to cooperate in what has been described as the "minimal social situation." The research also compared the effectiveness of verbal instructions and a training task for teaching subjects the "win-stay, lose-change" rule. This rule has been used to explain the development of cooperation in the minimal social situation.

Subjects were 19 teams of first-, second-, and third-graders. Five teams were composed of two girls; six were girl-boy teams; and eight were boy-boy teams. Ten of the 19 teams learned to cooperate in the minimal social situation without treatment. …

Leave-Taking Behavior Between Preschool Children And Their Parents, Elizabeth Y. Aoki

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Behavior of 84 parent-child dyads engaged in separation in preschool settings are presented. A factor analysis and correlation matrix revealed patterns of child-parent-teacher interaction, child-parent tactile-affiliative behavior, and child dependency-attachment behavior. The main pattern showed high parent-teacher gazing, smiling, and approaching interaction and high teacher smiling and gazing activity toward the child. A teacher-mediator theory in which the teacher's presence is important as an anxiety-lessening factor in child-parent leave-taking behavior is suggested and discussed to both interpret the findings and for further leave-taking research.

Comparisons Of Draw-A-Child Test Among Preschool Children, Margaret Prather Ezell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

McCarthy's Draw-A-Child test was administered to 20 lower class and 20 middle class four-year-old children matched for age and sex. The purpose of the test was to find if socioeconomic class and sex differences effected the child's ability to draw a same sex figure. Analysis of results supported the theory that girls do better than boys. Analysis of socioeconomic differences suggests that lower-class children do not have the ability to draw as well as middle class children but the difference is not significant at the .05 level. It was concluded that the McCarthy Draw-A-Child test measures the general drawing abilities …

Head Start And School Readiness, Robert Bruce Turner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The effect of compensatory education was studied as it influences school readiness in preschool children. The research was conducted in the Logan and Providence areas of Cache County, Utah, with 44 children who had completed the kindergarten year of school. Twenty-two of the children had participated in the compensatory educational experience of Head Start prior to their kindergarten experience. It was found that there was not a significant difference between the Head Start children and their neighbors in terms of their performance on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts. Therefore, in terms of school preparedness, the Head Start children seem …

Effects Of An Instructional Program On Concept Attainment Of Middle-Class Pre-Kindergarten Children, Joan Spencer Ross

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of this study was to determine if a highly structured instructional program, as a supplement to a more traditional pre-school program would have an effect on the concept attainment of pre-school children. Two groups of eighteen pre-school children, enrolled in the Child Development Laboratory at Utah State University comprised the study sample.

The eighteen children in the experimental group received the instructional program, in addition to the Child Development Laboratory school experience. Standardized pre and post tests were administered to both the experimental and control groups. A standardized test, The Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, was utilized.

An …

Children's Perceptions Of The Nurse, Nancy Adams Coulter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study is to assess children's perceptions of the nurse as they are related to children's age, the amount of contact children have had with nurses and children's sex.

An oral picture test, consisting of 10 photographs, was administered to 45 children in the Edith Bowen Elementary School at Utah State University. The children were interviewed about their perceptions of the nurses in each photograph and their responses were rated as being positive, negative or neutral.

The findings of this study indicate that although significant differences exist in children's perceptions of the nurse in terms of positive, …

Marriage Role Expectations And Religiosity, Gilbert Craig Orme

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this paper was to determine the effect, if any, of religiosity on marriage role expectations. During the past years, the young person's marriage role expectations have been undergoing a gradual change from traditional type roles to more equalitarian-partnership type roles, Religiosity has been found to have a differing effect on the values of people. It was hypothesized that the more religious a person was, the more traditional he would be in his marriage role expectations. Religiosity was determined using a questionnaire developed by Faulkner and De Jong, Marriage role expectations were determined by using an instrument developed …

Attitudes Of High School And College Females Toward Family Life And Children, Pauline Nelson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree of similarity or differences between the attitudes of high school and college females toward family life and children.

Data for this study were collected by administering a standardized questionnaire with 35 items to both groups of students. The students' responses were evaluated and each question analyzed separately.

The findings of this study indicate that the responses of the college sample were more realistic than for the high school sample. Also the high school sample appeared to have more glamorous expectations of marriage than did the college sample.

Gains In Reading Performances By Urban Job Corpsmen, Jess F. Veasey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The problem to be investigated in this study was to examine the association between the educational training program of an Urban Job Corps Center and the reading performances of trainees from disadvantaged backgrounds.

A sample of 100 trainees was randomly selected to represent the total population of Job Corpsmen in an urban center. The Job Corps Center in Clearfield, Utah, was the initial site in this study. The sample selected from the Job Corps was from four racial-ethnic groups: Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Whites, and Mexican-Americans. Each trainee was given a reading test upon arrival and another test six months after …

Mothers' Attitudes Toward The Behavior Of The Young Child, Rosemary Maughan Lundquist

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine if the mothers' feelings of self-esteem influence her attitudes toward child behavior.

Two groups were studied: One group of mothers who were receiving psychotherapy, and one group who were not.

Data for this study were collected by individually interviewing twenty-five mothers who were receiving psychotherapy and twenty-five mothers who were not. The mothers were presented a standardized questionnaire with thirty-five items. The mothers' responses were evaluated and the two groups were compared.

The findings of this study indicate that the mothers' feelings of self-esteem do influence her attitudes toward child behavior and …

The Use Of Story Reading As A Method Of Improving Verbal Expression Of Head Start Children, Romayne Norris Sternad

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this experimental study was to conduct and evaluate a teaching method for improving verbal expression performance of Head Start children. The teaching method of language stimulation given the experimental subjects was based on story reading and retelling with active participation by the children in daily small group tutoring sessions, for seven weeks. An academic program given the control subjects included specific vocabulary and sequencing training. Verbal expression was measured by an analysis of stories told by each subject before and after tutoring, in response to sequence pictures and standup figures. Measures of vocabulary, sentence structure and evidence …

Children's Awareness Of Environmental Pollution, Carol A. Darling

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine children's awareness of environmental pollution and the effect of environmental education on the awareness of preschool children.

Data for this study were collected by individually interviewing 20 preschool, 20 first grade and 20 third grade children. These 60 children were presented 15 colored slides and 9 words denoting various types of pollution and environmental symbols and slogans. The slides varied from litter on a beach, chimneys emitting black smoke, and polluted water to such environmental symbols as Smokey Bear, Johnny Horizon, and Woodsy Owl. In addition, the environmental symbols were also presented …

Semantic Influence And Concept Attainment Of Slang And Its Effects On Parents' And Teenagers' Linguistic Interaction, Kim Earl

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to determine parents and teenagers slang awareness and when this awareness begins to appear in the vocabulary of the younger generation.

Two studies were construed to measure the intended purpose of t his research. Study A was conducted to determine if semantic influence and concept attainment of slang definitions would be greater for teenagers than that for adults. The instrument was an open ended word list consisting of 25 slang terms. Criterion for the selection of words was assessed by determining if each word used could be found in three of the five sources. …

Attitudes Toward And The Consequences Of Infant Oral Pacification, Faye M. Preece

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was focused in two specific objectives: (1) to determine attitudes of professionals, namely pediatricians, general practitioners, and orthodontists toward the use of the oral pacifier; and (2) to determine the attitudes of primiparous mothers toward the use of the pacifier.

The mothers were chosen from the r1cKay-Dee Hospital in Oqden, Utah. They were divided into three groups: (1) 17 mothers with three-month- old babies, (2) 15 mothers with six-month-old babies, and (3 ) 15 mothers with nine-month-old babies, for a total of 47 mothers.

The professionals were divided into three groups: pediatricians, 10 general practitioners, …

The Young Child's Concept Of Human Conception And Birth, Julie Ann Broberg Puzey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The views held by children about the ere at ion and birth of babies are of importance in child development and developmental psychology. However, most of the research done in this area has been of a theoretical nature rather than empirical. The research shows controversy in the child's concept of human conception and birth, and because of this controversy a study was deemed necessary to find out more of what the young child's concept is of human conception and birth.

The purpose of this study, therefore, was to attempt to determine the extent of children's awareness of the nature of …

Influence Of Social Class On Children's Perception Of Teachers, Kathleen Thomas Mcdonald

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this thesis was to examine children's perceptions toward teachers, as related to the child's social class background, and to investigate the influence of social class upon their perceptions.

A projective pictorial test, which consisted of nine pictures concerning teachers and children, was administered individually to forth fourth grade school children in two Ogden, Utah, public schools.

The findings of this study were that there are differences between middle and lower-class children in their perceptions toward teachers. Children of middle-class backgrounds showed more positive perceptions toward teachers, and lower-class children were found to have a more negative perception …

The Influence Of Social Environment On Children's Perception Of Policemen, Sarah C. Klingel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this thesis was to examine children's perceptions of policemen as these are related to the social environment in which he lives; and to investigate the social class, sex, and racial influences upon their perceptions.

An oral picture test, consisting of 12 pictures, was administered to 39 fourth-grade children in two Ogden, Utah, public schools.

The findings of this study is that there is mixed support for the hypothesis that significant differences exist between middle- and lower-class children in their perceptions of policemen. Support was approached for the second hypothesis: there exist significant differences between males and females …

Male Roles As Perceived By Children Of Employed And Non-Employed Mothers, Mary Jane Williams Swapp

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was done to determine whether maternal employment affected the child's perception of male roles. The study was designed to see if the child viewed the male in a more negative or positive way or if he perceived the male as taking more instrumental or expressive roles when the child's mother was employed. The hypotheses predicted that there would be no difference in the children's perceptions of male roles between mother-employed and mother-not-employed groups, and that there would also be no difference between the sexes on children's perceptions of male roles .

The questionnaire was designed with some parts …

The Attitudes Of Blue Collar Adolescents Towards Employment Of Women And Child Rearing Practices, Blain Richard Morgan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Purpose was to collect and sample the attitudes of "blue collar" adolescents toward the employment of women and child rearing practices. Data were from 304 adolescents whose father s fit the requirements of being "blue collar." A questionnaire was administered that asked for attitudes and reactions to questions related to the employment of a woman through the normal stages of a family cycle and for attitudes related to child rearing practices.

The attitudes of the "blue collar" adolescents were then compared to findings recorded in a similar study that dealt with the attitudes of rural adolescents toward the employment of …

Effects Of Sensori-Motor Reinforcement On Alphabet Letter Discrimination Tasks, Leona Magnus Peters

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Recent research studies indicate the importance of sensory input in the development of perceptual skills. Learning the alphabet, an abstract symbol system, is considered a perceptual task. The major purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of a visual experience reinforced by a sensori-motor experience in improving the ability of kindergarten pupils to perceive the configuration of alphabet letters and the order of these letters in a word.

Two separate kindergarten classes were selected as the experimental and control groups. The learning task was individualized through the use of each subject's own name.

Each subject in both groups …

Attitudes Toward Creativity Of Day Care Teachers And College Nursery School Teachers, Bonnie Kay Magleby Bishop

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Previous studies have indicated the importance of teacher attitudes on the development of creativity in children. There were several purposes for this investigation. The major purpose was to develop an instrument to measure teacher attitudes toward creativity in children. The second step was the utilization of the instrument to determine if teachers trained in child development are more positive in their attitudes toward creativity than teachers with little or no background in child development. The third purpose of this investigation was to determine the relations hip between the teachers' attitudes toward creativity and religion, age, and social class.

The creative …

The Effect Of Nursery School Experience Upon Readiness Of Children In Kindergarten, Glenna C. Boyce

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Metropolitan Readiness Test, 1964 edition, Form A, was administered to forty children who were enrolled in kindergarten classes in Logan, Utah, during the school year 1967-1968. Twenty of these children (nursery attenders) had attended the Utah State University Child Development Laboratory for at least two, but not more than three quarters with at least half of this nursery experience being during the year preceding kindergarten. The other 20 children (non-attenders) had not experienced any type of pre-school or day care program prior to kindergarten. The two groups were matched by pairs on age, sex, kindergarten teacher and socio-economic level …