Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Moving Beyond Executive Functions: Challenge Preference As A Predictor Of Academic Achievement In Elementary School, Michael J. Sulik, Jenna E. Finch, Jelena Obradović

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Intrinsic motivation and executive functions (EFs) have been independently studied as predictors of academic achievement in elementary school. The goal of this investigation was to understand how students’ challenge preference (CP), an aspect of intrinsic motivation, is related to academic achievement while accounting for EFs as a confounding variable. Using data from a longitudinal study of 569 third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders (50% female), we tested students’ self-reported CP as a predictor of mathematics and English language arts (ELA) achievement in multilevel models that controlled for school fixed effects and student demographic characteristics. CP was positively associated with mathematics and ELA …

Renaming Me: Assessing The Influence Of Gender Identity On Name Selection, Sharon Obasi, Richard Mocarski, Natalie Holt, Debra Hope, Nathan Woodruff

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Our identity is our name connected with a specific face and body. Yet, our name, a critical aspect of the “names-body-identity” nexus is rarely selfselected. The naming of a newborn is often the purview of family and the name selected is often linked to the sex assigned to the child. Assigned sex, however, may differ from gender identity. Renaming, the process of selecting and using a new name, can be instrumental in expressing an authentic gender identity. Thus, gender identity and renaming were examined among transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) adults using an online survey. Participants indicated that the recognition …

Impact Of Child Sexual Abuse On Non-Abused Siblings: A Review With Implications For Research And Practice, Alayna Schreier, Jessica K. Pogue, David J. Hansen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Research has widely supported the numerous negative outcomes for victims of child sexual abuse (CSA), but little attention has been paid to the experiences of non-abused, non-offending siblings following the victim's disclosure. This review presents evidence indicating that this overlooked sibling population merits both clinical and research attention. Siblings may experience significant emotional and behavioral responses to the victim's disclosure due to changes within the family system. A sibling's internalizing and externalizing behaviors can increase family distress post-abuse, while a supportive sibling can contribute to the victim's recovery. The current state of clinical services for siblings is described. Services including …

Psychological Distress And Revictimization Risk In Youth Victims Of Sexual Abuse, Samantha L. Pittenger, Alayna Schreier, Katie Meidlinger, Jessica K. Pogue, Kate Theimer, Mary Fran Flood, David J. Hansen

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Psychological distress, including depression and anxiety, has been associated with increased risk for sexual revictimization in youth who have experienced child sexual abuse. The present study utilized assessment information from treatment seeking youth with histories of sexual abuse to explore specific risk indicators for revictimization—risk taking, social problems, maladaptive cognitions, and posttraumatic stress—that may be indicated by self-reported distress. The relationship between initial levels of distress and change in symptoms over a 12-week course of treatment was also explored. Participants were 101 youth referred to a child-focused therapeutic group for victims of sexual abuse, 65 youth referred to an adolescent-focused …

Impact Of Urban Nature On Executive Functioning In Early And Middle Childhood, Anne R. Schutte, Julia C. Torquati, Heidi L. Beattie

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

According to attention restoration theory, directed attention can become fatigued and then be restored by spending time in a restorative environment. This study examined the restorative effects of nature on children’s executive functioning. Sevento 8-year-olds (school aged, n = 34) and 4- to 5-year-olds (preschool, n = 33) participated in two sessions in which they completed an activity to fatigue attention, then walked along urban streets (urban walk) in one session and in a park-like area (nature walk) in another session, and finally completed assessments of working memory, inhibitory control, and attention. Children responded faster on the attention task after …

Child Maltreatment And Adult Criminal Behavior: Does Criminal Thinking Explain The Association?, Lorraine E. Cuadra, Anna E. Jaffe, Renu Thomas, David Dilillo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Criminal thinking styles were examined as mediational links between different forms of child maltreatment (i.e., sexual abuse, physical abuse, and physical neglect) and adult criminal behaviors in 338 recently adjudicated men. Analyses revealed positive associations between child sexual abuse and sexual offenses as an adult, and between child physical abuse/neglect and endorsing proactive and reactive criminal thinking styles. Mediation analyses showed that associations between overall maltreatment history and adult criminal behaviors were accounted for by general criminal thinking styles and both proactive and reactive criminal thinking. These findings suggest a potential psychological pathway to criminal behavior associated with child maltreatment. …

Peer Victimization And Child Physical Health: The Moderating Role Of Pessimism, Tori R. Van Dyk, Timothy D. Nelson

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objective—Involvement in peer victimization has been associated with numerous negative consequences, including poor physical health. The purpose of this study is to improve on previous research evaluating the victimization– health relationship by examining the health (i.e., health-related quality of life [HRQoL], medical service utilization) of both victims and aggressors and examining individual variation in this relationship through the moderating effect of pessimism.

Method—Sample included 125 ethnically diverse youth aged 8–11 years recruited from a low-income medical practice. Child-report of involvement in peer victimization and pessimism was assessed along with parent-report of HRQoL. 2-year medical service utilization was extracted from medical …

Contribution Of Reactive And Proactive Control To Children’S Working Memory Performance: Insight From Item Recall Durations In Response Sequence Planning, Nicolas Chevalier, Tiffany D. James, Sandra A. Wiebe, Jennifer Mize Nelson, Kimberly Espy

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study addressed whether developmental improvement in working memory span task performance relies upon a growing ability to proactively plan response sequences during childhood. Two hundred thirteen children completed a working memory span task in which they used a touchscreen to reproduce orally presented sequences of animal names. Children were assessed longitudinally at 7 time points between 3 and 10 years of age. Twenty-one young adults also completed the same task. Proactive response sequence planning was assessed by comparing recall durations for the 1st item (preparatory interval) and subsequent items. At preschool age, the preparatory interval was generally shorter …

The Role Of Pubertal Timing And Temperamental Vulnerability In Adolescents’ Internalizing Symptoms, Lisa J. Crockett, Gustavo Carlo, Jennifer M. Wolff, Meredith O. Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This longitudinal study examined the joint role of pubertal timing and temperament variables (emotional reactivity and self-regulation) in predicting adolescents’ internalizing symptoms. The multiethnic sample included 1,025 adolescent girls and boys followed fromage 11 to age 15 (Mage¼11.03 years at Time 1). In structural equation models, age 11 measures of pubertal timing, emotional reactivity, and self-regulation and their interactions were used to predict adolescents’ internalizing behavior concurrently and at age 15. Results indicated that, among girls, early pubertal timing, higher emotional reactivity, and lower self-regulation predicted increased internalizing behavior. In addition, self-regulation moderated the effect of pubertal timing such that …

Olanzapine Sensitization And Clozapine Tolerance: From Adolescence To Adulthood In The Conditioned Avoidance Response Model, Jing Qiao, Hong Li, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Disruption of conditioned avoidance response (CAR) in rodents is one trademark feature of many antipsychotic drugs. In adult rats, repeated olanzapine (OLZ) treatment causes an enhanced disruption of avoidance response (sensitization), whereas repeated clozapine (CLZ) treatment causes a decreased disruption (tolerance). The present study addressed (1) whether OLZ sensitization and CLZ tolerance can be induced in adolescent rats, and (2) the extent to which OLZ sensitization and CLZ tolerance induced in adolescence persists into adulthood. Male adolescent Sprague–Dawley rats (approximate postnatal days (BP) 43–47) were first treated with OLZ (1.0 or 2.0 mg/kg, subcutaneously (sc)) or CLZ (10 or 20 …

Children’S Social Behaviors And Peer Interactions In Diverse Cultures, Carolyn P. Edwards, Maria Deguzman, Jill Brown, Asiye Kumru

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This chapter lays out five principles to guide research on peer relationships in cultural context that reflect both current and earlier bodies of research literature: (1) Cultural scripts for socialization in peer relationships are evident in early childhood. (2) Both across and within cultural communities, children’s own active role in the socialization process becomes increasingly evident as they grow older. (3) Because children are active agents in their own socialization, they can not only make choices, they can also negotiate, deflect, and resist socializing attempts by others. (4) Children’s choices and preferences (self-socialization) during middle childhood have measurable and lasting …

Identity As A Source Of Moral Motivation, Sam A. Hardy, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Theory and research regarding moral motivation has focused for decades on the roles of moral reasoning and, to some extent, moral emotion. Recently, however, several models of morality have positioned identity as an additional important source of moral motivation. An individual has a moral identity to the extent that he or she has constructed his or her sense of self around moral concerns (e.g., moral values). This paper reviews theory and research linking moral identity to moral behavior and commitment. Additionally, it suggests several key unanswered questions about moral identity and provides recommendations for future research.

Caregiving Through A Relationship Lens In Reggio Emilia And A Lab School In Canada, Carolyn P. Edwards, Alex Dougherty

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In recent years developmental scientists have described the tasks of relationship-building that contribute to early development: security and attachment, self-recognition and validation, mutuality and companionship, passionate experience, identification and group belonging, and giving care to others. Relationship-building begins within the family, then, in extending it outside the family, early education can play a key role. This selection contains two parts. The first piece describes the kinds of benefits these widening relationships can provide for very young children and outlines some specific steps that educators in Reggio Emilia, Italy, have taken to ensure the best, most "amiable" environments. The second piece, …

Socialization Of Boys And Girls In Natural Contexts, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lisa Knoche, Asiye Kumru

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Socialization is the general process by which the members of a cultural community or society pass on their language, rules, roles, and customary ways of thinking and behaving to the next generation. Sex role socialization is one important aspect of this general process. The goals of earlier work were to understand how, why, and at what age girls and boys begin to vary behaviorally along such dimensions as "nurturance," "aggression," and "dependency," including determination of how sex-typical dispositions are influenced by cultural factors. This chapter presents a new approach seeking to answer such questions as the following. How are different …

Evolving Questions And Comparative Perspectives In Cultural/Historical Perspective: Lessons From Research In Ngecha, Kenya, Carolyn Pope Edwards

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In studying human development in cultural-historical context, we must integrate multiple levels of analysis and strive to identify culture’s imprint inside the contexts of socialization. Issues of methodology are complex. This paper argues that both comparative and historical-interpretive studies are valuable and indeed generative for each other, using as an example an international, collaborative research project focused on East African women and changing childrearing values. The site was Ngecha, a Gikuyu-speaking community in the Central Province of Kenya, during a period of rapid social change from an agrarian to a wage earning economy shortly after national independence (1968-1973). The experiences …

Play Patterns And Gender, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lisa Knoche, Asiye Kumru

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This cross-cultural analysis examines the gendered patterns of play seen in children worldwide. Play is a culturally universal activity through which children explore themselves and their environment, test out and practice different social roles, and learn to interact with other children and adults. Early in life, children identify themselves as a “girl” or a “boy,” and this basic self-categorization lays a foundation for their developing beliefs about with whom, what, how, and where they will play. Children play an active role in their own and their peers’ “gender socialization” (the process by which they come to acquire the knowledge, values, …

Behavioral Sex Differences In Children Of Diverse Cultures: The Case Of Nurturance To Infants, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This chapter draws on the data from the Children of Different Worlds study (Whiting & Edwards, 1988) to consider the origin of sex differences in children’s behavior worldwide, in particular: (1) how different kinds of social behavior are elicited by different contexts of socialization (defined by the sex, age, status, and kinship of social interactants, ongoing activities, and other potent dimensions of setting); (2) how these contexts of socialization are distributed across cultures and associated with various adult subsistence strategies, family structures, household patterns, and forms of social networks; and (3) how boys and girls of each age in diverse …

The Transition From Infancy To Early Childhood: A Difficult Transition, And A Difficult Theory, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The transition from infancy to early childhood was observed in households in rural Zinacanteco households in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, in 1968-1969, and found to be a fairly lengthy period of upset, disturbance, listlessness, and apathy for the children, leading eventually to their accepting a new position in the family. The transition involved three abrupt and harsh changes: (1) abrupt weaning from the mother’s breast; (2) simultaneous change in sleeping arrangements from lying next to the mother to sleeping with siblings; and (3) more gradual transfer of the child’s primary care from the mother to older siblings or courtyard …

Another Style Of Competence: The Caregiving Child, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This chapter discusses child and sibling caregiving as an opportunity for the learning of nurturance and responsibility. The argument is based on case examples from ethnographic material, that children in multiage dyads or groupings negotiate constantly with one another and thereby reveal their reasoning about rational and conventional moral rules. The observational material is drawn from the work of Carol R. Ember (1970, 1973) who studied children in a Luo community of about 250 people in the South Nyanza district of Kenya. This community, referred to as Oyugis (actually the name of the market town 2.5 miles away, is one …

Cross‑Cultural Research On Kohlberg's Stages: The Basis For Consensus, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Kohlberg’s stage theory has been met by many theoretical statements attempting to refute aspects of his conclusions or claims about cultural universality. Equally of importance, the theoretical controversy has stimulated much empirical research intended to test the cross-cultural claims. This chapter reviews the status and current progress of comparative studies of moral judgment and addresses the following three questions: Is the dilemma interview method a valid way of eliciting the moral judgments of people in other cultures? Is the standard scoring system appropriate and valid for cross-cultural use? Is cognitive-developmental theory useful for understanding psychological development in comparative cultural perspective? …

Young Children's Age Group Conceptions Of Social Relations: Social Functions And Social Objects, Carolyn P. Edwards, Michael Lewis

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Previous research has shown that by age 3-4, children classify the human world into age groups: babies, “little kids,” “big kids,” young adults (“mommies and daddies”), and old adults (“grandmothers and grandfathers”) (Edwards, 1984).. This study investigates young children’s concepts of age roles, that is, their expectations about what behavior makes most sense or is most appropriate for each age group. Study 1 was conducted at two daycare centers in the greater Princeton area, with 24 African-American and 24 European-American children aged 3.6 to 5.9 years. Each child was told a series of stories involving a set of doll-house …

Societal Complexity And Moral Development: A Kenyan Study., Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study examines the moral judgment levels (as measured by Kohlberg’s 6-stage moral judgment interview) for two Kenyan samples. The first sample includes a culturally and racially group of 35 young men and 17 women studying at the University of Nairobi, while the second sample consists of 44 males and 14 females living in seven communities in the Central and Western Provinces of Kenya who were interviewed by a cadre of trained University students on their school vacation. The moral judgment interview included four hypothetical moral dilemmas and a standard set of probing questions. Three of the dilemmas were standard …