Child Psychology Commons^™

White Privilege And Teacher Perceptions Of Teacher-Child Relationship Quality, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill, Colin M. Mcginnis, Sheng-Lun Cheng, Dwayne Ray Cormier, Natalie A. Koziol

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

In this study, we investigated differences in teachers’ perceptions of the teacher-child relationship from kindergarten through second grade as a function of child race and gender from the perspective of critical race theory and the cultural synchrony hypothesis. Given the extensive evidence of White privilege and anti-Black racism in the US education system, we expected that teachers, particularly White teachers, would perceive their relationships with White children more positively than with Black children. Controlling for family SES and child gender, results supported this hypothesis. Black boys had the highest risk of being perceived by teachers as having poor relationships with …

Opportunities For Learning And Social Interaction In Infant Sitting: Effects Of Sitting Support, Sitting Skill, And Gross Motor Delay, Kari S. Kretch, Emily C. Marcinowski, Hsu Lin-Ya, Natalie A. Koziol, Regina T. Harbourne, Michele A. Lobo, Stacey C. Dusing

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

The development of independent sitting changes everyday opportunities for learning and has cascading effects on cognitive and language development. Prior to independent sitting, infants experience the sitting position with physical support from caregivers. Why does supported sitting not provide the same input for learning that is experienced in independent sitting? This question is especially relevant for infants with gross motor delay, who require support in sitting for many months after typically developing infants sit independently. We observed infants with typical development (n = 34, ages 4–7 months) and infants with gross motor delay (n = 128, ages 7–16 …

A Comparative Analysis Of The European And American Child Advocacy Model To Address Violence Against Children, Abigail Champion

Undergraduate Research Symposium

This presentation attempts to explain how each of the child advocacy models in the United States and Europe are different and similar. In addition, the presentation demonstrates how each model addresses violence against children. The slideshow provides examples of tools and resources therapists, social workers, and other social scientists use in the field. Lastly, the slideshow offers solutions and references on how the audience can become advocates and learn more information about child advocacy, child advocacy centers, and the different careers people can work in the child advocacy area.

The Effects Of Family Size And Birth Order On Students' Social Emotional And Cognitive Development, Mary Watson

Honors Projects

This project sought to analyze and understand the differences in student’s cognitive and social emotional development based on their number of siblings (also referred to as family size) and birth order. To accomplish this, a 130-question survey was created and emailed to approximately 125 teachers. 27 survey responses were received, which is a response rate of approximately 21.6%. The response data was categorized by only child, oldest child, youngest child, child with one or two siblings, child with three or four siblings, and child with five or more siblings. Though the responses were varied, the data showed that oldest children …

Teaching, Tough Love, Or Mean?, Jake Darbhanga

be Still

Nobody is born with the knowledge they have today; everything is learned as one lives their life. Teaching can take many forms and come from all types of people. Parents are generally the first teachers a child encounters from the first day of their lives. There is no one correct way of parenting, but there is a common desire to provide the best possible upbringing for one's child.

As I live my life, I find myself expressing the lessons I have learned and utilizing the knowledge I acquired from the people who have taught me. My personality often reflects the …

How Did Covid-19 School Closures Affect Adolescents With Adhd?, Nandini Jhawar, Ashley Schiros, Andrew S. London, Kevin Antshel

Population Health Research Brief Series

COVID-19 school closures drastically affected school-aged youth and their parents, with greater challenges among youth with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This brief summarizes results from a recent study examining the risks, protective factors, and family processes that shaped well-being among adolescents during COVID-19-related school closures. Findings show that adolescents with ADHD were more likely to experience negative consequences from school closures, including difficulty adjusting to online learning, reduced socialization, and increased mental distress. However, youth and families also experienced some benefits, including increased family reconnection and reduced school-related anxiety.

Concern, Conflict, And Chaos: Nebraska Educator Experiences During The Pandemic, Amanda Witte, Amanda Prokasky, Courtney Boise, Renata T.M. Gomes, Gwen Nugent, Susan Sheridan

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

During the spring of 2020, Nebraska’s 983 public schools sat vacant, and Nebraska’s 329,290 Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 students were learning in environments other than school. Educators were expected to pivot quickly from traditional classroom instruction to remote experiences. Understanding the effects of the pandemic on educators is necessary to effectively meet their needs and the needs of students. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the experiences of Nebraska’s urban and rural PreK–Grade 12 educators during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. In surveys collected in July 2020, participants (i.e., superintendents, principals, and teachers) completed …

College Students’ Perceptions Of Alcohol’S Role In Disclosures Of Sexual Assault And Intimate Partner Violence, Emily A. Waterman, Lindsey M. Rodriguez, Sarah E. Ullman, Emily R. Dworkin, Katie Edwards

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Objective: Much is known about how alcohol increases the risk of sexual assault or intimate partner violence victimization during college. This research qualitatively explores perceptions about how alcohol influences disclosures about these events to informal supports.

Participants: Participants included college students who received a disclosure wherein they or the survivor were drinking during the disclosure (n = 81).

Methods: Responses were coded with regard to who was drinking and whether the effect of drinking during the disclosure was perceived as positive, negative, mixed, or neutral/none.

Results: Participants perceived alcohol to have both positive (e.g., increasing the likelihood of discussing …

Appreciating And Promoting Resilience In Families, John W. Eagle, Susan M. Sheridan

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Families comprise the primary context for a child’s development. As the composition of the family system continues to change, the adult caregivers’ role has become increasingly important in fostering healthy developmental trajectories for their children. Family relationships and interaction styles are central to developing competence and promoting adaptive educational, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning. Families give children an informal education (Turnbull et al., 2015), which is a prerequisite to successful experiences in the classroom (Adams & Christenson, 2000). Whereas the school environment sets up developmental tasks for students, the family serves as an important resource for the acquisition of these …

Family Structure And Child Behavior Problems In Australia, The United Kingdom, And The United States, Nina A. Stoddard-Bennett, Jordan Coburn, Mikaela J. Dufur, Jonathan A. Jarvis, Shana L. Pribesh

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

A large body of literature suggests that children living with two married, biological parents on average have fewer behavior problems than those who do not. What is less clear is why this occurs. Competing theories suggest that resource deficiencies and parental selectivity play a part. We suggest that examining different contexts can help adjudicate among different theoretical explanations as to how family structure relates to child behavior problems. In this paper, we use data from the Growing Up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), and the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) …

Assessing 4-H And Its Circle Of Courage In A Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility: A Case Study, Elizabeth Steering

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

This 4-H case study takes place in a psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF) in Kentucky. The PRTF provides clinical services to youth that are not able to be safely maintained in their homes due to having demonstrated unsafe or harmful behaviors. Youth admitted to the PRTF stay for an average of three to six months while they receive intensive therapeutic and psychiatric care as well as medical treatment and public schooling. The current case study incorporates programming from 4-H, which is the youth development program of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), …

How Class Matters: Examining Working-Class Children’S Home Technology Environments From A Developmental Perspective, Vikki Katz, Brianna Hightower

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Social class is seldom engaged by scholars as a lens for investigating variations in children’s digital technology engagement. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 33 working-class children in a postindustrial community, we examine how social class shapes these children’s digital technology experiences. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of child development guides our examination of children’s views on digital technology integration into their interactions with proximal influences (i.e., parents, siblings, and friends) and distal influences that indirectly shape their technology environments by affecting their parents’ circumstances. We find that working-class children’s experiences share key commonalities with both their lower- and higher-income peers, consistent with …

Foster Youth In The Mountain West, Zachary Billot

Undergraduate Research Symposium Lightning Talks

Number of children adopted from foster care vs. waiting to be adopted from foster care in the Mountain West, FY2020

Sexual Activity Between Victims And Perpetrators Following A Sexual Assault: A Systematic Literature Review And Critical Feminist Analysis, Katie M. Edwards, Christina M. Dardis

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Rarely are perpetrators found guilty of sexual assault when the victim engaged in sex with the perpetrator following the sexual assault. Although the recent trial of Harvey Weinstein is an exception, the fact that his accusers engaged in consensual sex with him following the alleged assaults ignited debate that garnered international attention. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a systematic review to (1) document the extent to which victims engage in sex with the perpetrator following a sexual assault and (2) examine theoretical explanations for this phenomenon. Five peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1988 and 2016 were identified. …

Adolescent Dating Violence: Attachment Style And Parents' Unhealthy Marital Relationship As Possible Predictors, Karli Spann

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study tests whether insecure attachment style and parents’ modeling of unhealthy relationships predict adolescent dating violence (ADV) victimization. Also tested was the possible moderating role of secure attachment on the relation between parental modeling of unhealthy relationships and ADV victimization. It was hypothesized that insecure attachment and parental modeling of unhealthy relationships would individually be associated with increased ADV victimization, and secure attachment would attenuate the predicted positive association between parental modeling of unhealthy relationships and ADV victimization. Participants were adolescents (N = 152, M age = 15.61 years, SD = 1.086, 74.3% girls), who completed a survey …

Longitudinal Dynamics Between Parenting And Adolescent Deviance: Direct Links And Underlying Mechanisms, Dan Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

The current dissertation, based on three separate and yet closely related studies, tested the longitudinal dynamic relationships of maternal and paternal parenting factors with adolescent deviance, the direct links as well as underlying mechanisms. Study 1, based on longitudinal data collected from 570 early adolescents, part of the Brno Longitudinal Study of Youth (BLSY), used latent growth modeling and tested the development of three parenting measures, including parental solicitation, knowledge, and peer approval, and deviance during early adolescence, as well as the developmental (i.e., growth to growth) links of these three parenting measures with adolescent deviance over time. Results indicated …

Searching For Mental Health Services: Search Strings And Information Acquisition, Antover Tuliao, Natira D. Mullet, Lindsey G. Hawkins, Derek Holyoak, Marisa Weerts, Anthony Inyang

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Based on decision sciences and information processing theories, how information is acquired is the foundation of decisions and choices subsequently made. Adapting the Active Information Search methodology, the aim for this study is to examine what information potential mental health clients look for in a service provider through their use of search strings. College students (N = 519) from a large public university from the southwest USA (data collection from August to December 2018) were asked in an online survey to imagine themselves needing mental health services and list down the search string they would use in a search engine …

Risk And Protective Factors For Sexual Aggression Across The Ecosystem: An Overview, Emily A. Waterman, Katie M. Edwards

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Prevention of sexual aggression (which ranges from perpetration of unwanted sexual contact to attempted/completed rape) is a complex public health and safety issue that requires attention to multiple levels of social ecology (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004). The social ecological model provides a framework for understanding how risk and protective factors for sexual aggression exist at multiple levels, with some factors being more proximal such as the individual attitudes, and other factors being more distal such as the broader culture (e.g., laws and policies) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Indeed, research indicates a variety of risk …

Informal And Formal Mentoring Of Sexual And Gender Minority Youth: A Systematic Review, Katie Edwards, Jillian R. Scheer, Victoria Mauer

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Research demonstrates that mentoring relationships can promote positive outcomes for youth across numerous domains, a topic of importance to school social workers. Whereas most mentoring research to date has been conducted with heterosexual cisgender youth, there is a growing body of literature that examines mentoring experiences among sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY). The purpose of this article is to conduct a systematic literature review of informal and formal mentoring experiences among SGMY. Results from twelve studies that met inclusion criteria suggested that (1) the majority of SGMY report having a mentor/role model; (2) demographics are generally unrelated to having …

Neo-Emancipatory Sex Education In Germany: Sexual Abuse And Gender Confusion, Bernd Ahrbeck, Karla Etschenberg, Marion Felder

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article focuses on two related areas of concern with regard to sex education and implications for children and youth in Germany. The first one is the history of the currently dominant neo-emancipatory sexual education and its implications for today. This direction of sex education is highly influenced by theories of Helmut Kentler who with the help of the German city of Berlin youth protection services department sent homeless and troubled boys to known pedophiles for care. This experiment went on for 30 years, ending in 2001. Only now has the extend of this horrific practice been fully discovered. The …

An Exploration Of Black Church Leaders' Intentions To Develop Critical Consciousness Among African-American Students, Taheesha Quarells

Dissertations

African-American students experience human capital opportunity and achievement gaps. Researchers have called for culturally relevant strategies to help close the gaps. The historic Black Church, a part of many African-American students’ culture and community, is a historic and current source of social capital for positive human capital development outcomes. Critical consciousness develops positive human capital outcomes, such as academic achievement, in African-American and other minority students. Much of the literature on critical consciousness is quantitative in nature and therefore does not include the intentions or the willingness of organizations to develop critical consciousness. Therefore, there is a need to understand …

Culture And Social Change In Mothers’ And Fathers’ Individualism, Collectivism And Parenting Attitudes, Jennifer E. Lansford, Susannah Zietz, Suha M. Al-Hassan, Dario Bacchini, Marc H. Bornstein, Lei Chang, Kirby Deater-Deckard, Laura Di Giunta, Kenneth A. Dodge, Sevtap Gurdal, Qin Liu, Qian Long, Paul Oburu, Concetta Pastorelli, Ann T. Skinner, Emma Sorbing, Sombat Tapanya, Laurence Steinberg, Liliana Maria Uribe Tirado, Saengduean Yotanyamaneewong, Liane Peña Alampay

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

Cultures and families are not static over time but evolve in response to social transformations, such as changing gender roles, urbanization, globalization, and technology uptake. Historically, individualism and collectivism have been widely used heuristics guiding cross-cultural comparisons, yet these orientations may evolve over time, and individuals within cultures and cultures themselves can have both individualist and collectivist orientations. Historical shifts in parents’ attitudes also have occurred within families in several cultures. As a way of understanding mothers’ and fathers’ individualism, collectivism, and parenting attitudes at this point in history, we examined parents in nine countries that varied widely in country-level …

The Predictive Influence Of Challenging Behavior On Parent Stress In Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Paige Weir

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication, restricted interest, and repetitive patterns of behavior. Individuals with ASD also exhibit challenging behaviors that affect parent and caregiver stress directly. However, researchers have not yet examined the predictive influence of specific challenging behaviors on parent stress, particularly in young children (i.e., infants and toddlers) with ASD. Therefore, the current study expands existing literature by a) investigating the influence that challenging behaviors of young children with ASD have on parent stress and b) examining the unique contribution that each behavior (i.e., aggressive/disruptive behavior, stereotypy, and self-injurious …

The Relationship Between Infant-Family Routines, Number Of Caregivers And Infant Basal Cortisol, Vanessa Newell, Hannah B. White

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Background: Family routines have been found to be related to child adjustment, marital satisfaction, and parenting competence (Fiese, 2002). Persistent stress, and the resulting frequent activation of the body’s stress responses, can result in excessive wear-and-tear on the body and brain known as allostatic load (McEwen, 2000). In infants, basal cortisol levels act as an instrument to measure allostatic load (White, 2020). To our knowledge, no existing work on the impact of routines on infant development has examined the role of family structure. In traditional and minority cultures it is common for caregiving responsibilities to be divided among multiple individuals. …

Divining Structural Factors Related To Intervention Success Or Failure: Cultural Sexism Versus Other Macro-Level Factors, Blair T. Johnson, Christine M. Curley

CHIP Documents

This article provides commentary on a spatial meta-analysis published by Price and colleagues (2021); it provides valuable preliminary evidence that a dimension of cultural sexism can countervail efforts for psychotherapy to succeed in samples that focus on girls aged four to 18. Our own study reveals cultural sexism to be markedly associated with at least three macro-level factors: cultural tightness, historical slaveholding (and by implication racism), and sex education inclusiveness. The fact that cultural sexism can be so well predicted by these factors is additional evidence that cultural sexism is real, yet it also suggests caution in interpreting these effects …

It’S Not All Aces: The Role Of Negative Parental Influences And Criminal Thinking In Juvenile Offending Behaviors, Branna Humphrey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and criminal thinking in causing criminal behavior has been explored extensively in criminal justice research. Based on the concepts of ACEs and the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Scale, the negative parental influences and criminal thinking styles of 1,354 juvenile offenders were examined to establish that negative parental influences and criminal thinking are separately associated with juvenile problem and offending behavior, and that criminal thinking mediates the relationship between negative parental influences and juvenile problem and offending behavior. Analyses showed support for criminal thinking as a pathway from negative parental influences to juvenile …

Validation Of The Short Version Of The Dimensional Inventory For Child Development Assessment, Euclides José De Mendonc¸A Filho, Mônia Aparecida Da Silva, Natalie A. Koziol, Denise Ruschel Bandeira

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Objectives: There is a critical need to monitor the development of children around the world, and in Brazil, this need is substantial since there is a paucity of assessment tools. This study aimed to describe the design and provide evidence of reliability and validity for the short version of the Dimensional Inventory for Child Development Assessment (IDADI-short). Methods: A sample of 1,865 biological mothers of children aged 4---72 months (M = 34.8, SD = 20.20) completed the IDADI to assess Cognitive, socio-emotional, Expressive, and Receptive Language and Communication, Fine and Gross Motor, and Adaptive Behavior development. The psychometric …

Targeted Physical Therapy Combined With Spasticity Management Changes Motor Development Trajectory For A 2- Year-Old With Cerebral Palsy, Corri L. Stuyvenberg, Shaaron E. Brown, Ketaki Inamdar, Megan Evans, Lin-Ya Hsu, Olivier Rolin, Regina T. Harbourne, Sarah Westcott Mccoy, Michele A. Lobo, Natalie A. Koziol, Stacey C. Dusing

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Therapies for children with cerebral palsy (CP) often fail to address essential components of early rehabilitation: intensity, child initiation, and an embodied approach. Sitting Together And Reaching To Play (START-Play) addresses these issues while incorporating intensive family involvement to maximize therapeutic dosage. While START-Play was developed and tested on children aged 7–16 months with motor delays, the theoretical construct can be applied to intervention in children of broader ages and skills levels. This study quantifies the impact of a broader STARTPlay intervention combined with Botulinum toxin-A (BoNT-A) and phenol on the developmental trajectory of a 24 month-old child with bilateral …

Validation Of The Short Version Of The Dimensional Inventory For Child Development Assessment, Euclides José De Mendonça Filho, Mônia Aparecida Da Silva, Natalie A. Koziol, Denise Ruschel Bandeira

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Objectives: There is a critical need to monitor the development of children around the world, and in Brazil, this need is substantial since there is a paucity of assessment tools. This study aimed to describe the design and provide evidence of reliability and validity for the short version of the Dimensional Inventory for Child Development Assessment (IDADI-short).

Methods: A sample of 1,865 biological mothers of children aged 4---72 months (M = 34.8, SD = 20.20) completed the IDADI to assess Cognitive, socio-emotional, Expressive, and Receptive Language and Communication, Fine and Gross Motor, and Adaptive Behavior development. The psychometric properties of …

Developing A Fidelity Measure Of Early Intervention Programs For Children With Neuromotor Disorders, Mihee An, Jayden Nord, Natalie A. Koziol, Stacey C. Dusing, Audrey E. Kane, Michele A. Lobo, Sarah W. Mccoy, Regina T. Harbourne

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Aim: To describe the development of an intervention-specific fidelity measure and its utilization and to determine whether the newly developed Sitting Together and Reaching to Play (START-Play) intervention was implemented as intended. Also, to quantify differences between START-Play and usual early intervention (uEI) services. Method: A fidelity measure for the START-Play intervention was developed for children with neuromotor disorders by: (1) identifying key intervention components, (2) establishing a measurement coding system, and (3) testing the reliability of instrument scores. After establishing acceptable interrater reliability, 103 intervention videos from the START-Play randomized controlled trial were coded and compared between the START-Play …