Child Psychology Commons^™

Project Attain: Advancing Trauma-Informed Care For Youth With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities And/Or Gender Diverse Youth, Kady F. Sternberg, Charlotte E. Bausha, Charlotte Jones, Erin Knight, Crystal N. Steltenpohl, Rebecca R. Parton, Jennifer L. Mclaren, Erin R. Barnett

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and/or gender diversity are at higher risk of experiencing trauma. Provider knowledge is lacking; trauma, disability, and LGBTQ+ resources are often siloed; and few providers screen for trauma in this population. This paper describes the design, delivery, and initial evaluation of Project ATTAIN (Access to Trauma-informed Treatment and Assessment for Neurodivergent and/or Gender-expansive Youth).

ATTAIN is an ongoing 5-year state-wide initiative aiming to assess readiness to engage in new roles and practices over time; provide state-wide training and consultation in trauma, disability, and LGBTQ+-informed practices; install screening and assessment of trauma exposure and …

Paths To Equity: Parents In Partnership With Ucedds Fostering Black Family Advocacy For Children On The Autism Spectrum, Elizabeth H. Morgan, Benita D. Shaw, Ida Winters, Chiffon King, Jazmin Burns, Aubyn Stahmer, Gail Chodron

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Racism and ableism have doubly affected Black families of children with developmental disabilities in their interactions with disability systems of supports and services (e.g., early intervention, mental health, education, medical systems). On average, Black autistic children are diagnosed three years later and are up to three times more likely to be misdiagnosed than their non-Hispanic White peers. Qualitative research provides evidence that systemic oppression, often attributed to intersectionality, can cause circumstances where Black disabled youth are doubly marginalized by policy and practice that perpetuates inequality. School discipline policies that criminalize Black students and inadequate medical assessments that improperly support Black …

Psychosocial Effects Of Shared Book Reading, Amy Halling

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many studies have examined the academic benefits of parents reading with their children, but few studies have looked at the psychological and social benefits, and even fewer have related the quality of shared book reading to psycho-social benefits. This study looked at whether positive and negative reading interactions during shared book reading predicted parent-child relationships, child social skills and child academic skills. Twenty-five parents of 4-year-olds read a story with their child and completed parent relationship and child social skills questionnaires. The reading interactions were then coded into two separate composite scores: positive and negative. Positive interactions did not significantly …

Odds Of Autism At 5 To 10 Years Of Age For Children Who Did Not Pass Their Aabr Newborn Hearing Screen, But Were Diagnosed With Normal Hearing, Shihfen Tu, Craig A. Mason, Deborah L. Rooks-Ellis, Patricia Lech

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Background: Research has found atypical Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) activity in some children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The current study examined whether an association may also be found between ASD and pass/refer results obtained via Automated Auditory Brainstem Response (AABR) screening. As stewards of large-scale AABR data, an AABR – ASD association may be of interest to EHDI programs.

Methods: State EHDI data for 29,350 children born in Maine between 2003 and 2005 were linked with education records, including special education status, for the 2010/2011 and 2013/2014 school years.

Results: Children who did not pass their …

Training Parents In Descriptive Assessment And Function Identification, Makenzie Sip

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

It is often difficult for parents to address their child’s problem behavior. Children with special needs can display more frequent and intense problem behavior. Therefore, professionals need to help parents of children with special needs identify how to decrease their child’s problem behavior. Professionals help to decrease problem behavior by performing assessments called descriptive assessments to identify why the problem behavior is happening, and then using these assessments to create an appropriate plan of how to prevent and respond to the problem behavior. We examined if parents could be taught the skills necessary to perform descriptive assessments and then use …

An Exploratory Study Of Fifth-Grade Students’ Reasoning About The Relationship Between Fractions And Decimals When Using Number Line-Based Virtual Manipulatives, Scott Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Understanding the relationship between fractions and decimals is an important step in developing an overall understanding of rational numbers. Research has demonstrated the feasibility of technology in the form of virtual manipulatives for facilitating students’ meaningful understanding of rational number concepts. This exploratory dissertation study was conducted for the two closely related purposes: first, to investigate a sample of fifth-grade students’ reasoning regarding the relationship between fractions and decimals for fractions with terminating decimal representations while using virtual manipulative incorporating parallel number lines; second, to investigate the affordances of the virtual manipulatives for supporting the students’ reasoning about the decimal-fraction …

Language Brokering Consequences As A Function Of Development, Brent M. Gage

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Language brokering can be defined as a child mediating linguistically for a parent or other adult figure, either in spoken or written communication. This situation is a common occurrence among migrant and refugee families as children tend to acquire a new language at an accelerated rate in comparison with adults. As the immigrant and refugee populations continue to grow in comparison with native groups within the United States, it is increasingly important to understand the phenomenon of child language brokering. Moreover, it is particularly relevant to understand how the expectations for and consequences of language brokering may help to shape …

Teaching: Natural Or Cultural?, David F. Lancy

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In this chapter I argue that teaching, as we now understand the term, is historically and cross-culturally very rare. It appears to be unnecessary to transmit culture or to socialize children. Children are, on the other hand, primed by evolution to be avid observers, imitators, players and helpers—roles that reveal the profoundly autonomous and self-directed nature of culture acquisition (Lancy in press a). And yet, teaching is ubiquitous throughout the modern world—at least among the middle to upper class segment of the population. This ubiquity has led numerous scholars to argue for the universality and uniqueness of teaching as a …

Raising Daughters To Become Leaders, Susan R. Madsen

Susan R. Madsen

The purpose of this six-minute message is to share, in an engaging way, some key highlights from a variety of studies on how high profile women were raised to become leaders. It will focus on what influencers (e.g., parents, siblings, and relatives) did to rear their daughters, granddaughters, nieces, etc. to become the influential women they are today.

Why Anthropology Of Childhood? A Short History Of An Emerging Discipline, David F. Lancy

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The paper has four goals: to refute the claim that anthropologists have not studied childhood; to provide a cursory history of the field; to provide an organizational schema for reviewing the literature in the field and; to suggest a strategy for future scholarship in the anthropology of childhood.

Unmasking Children's Agency, David F. Lancy

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The goal of this paper is to identify (unmask) and critique the movement to promote children’s agency as a cornerstone of research, care, education and intervention with children. The article makes a case that this movement is harmful to a scientific approach to the study of childhood, distorts or ignores key understandings of the evolution of childhood and culture. The article demonstrates that the agency movement is ethnocentric, classist and hegemonic representing the dominance of contemporary bourgeoisie child-rearing. It imposes a single, privileged ethnotheory of childhood upon the diverse societies of the world with alternative ethnotheories and practices. Lastly, the …

“Getting Noticed”: Middle Childhood Incross-Cultural Perspective, David F. Lancy, M. Annette Grove

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Although rarely named, the majority of societies in the ethnographic record demarcate a period between early childhood and adolescence. Prominent signs of demarcation are: for the first time, pronounced gender separation in fact and in role definition; increased freedom of movement for boys while girls may be bound more tightly to their mothers; and heightened expectations for socially responsible behavior. But, above all, middle childhood is about coming out of the shadows of community life and assuming a distinct, lifetime character. Naming and other rites of passage sometimes acknowledge this transition, but it is, reliably, marked by the assumption or …

The Death Experience: Helping Parents Understand Childhood Grief, Naomi Weeks, Kimber Peart

All Current Publications

Children sometimes experience the loss of someone they love or are close to, or may be suffering from a life-threatening illness themselves. This fact sheet provides a brief insight into how to help children cope with death.

Coping With The Loss Of A Child, Naomi Weeks, Kimber Peart

All Current Publications

Losing a child is a traumatic experience. This fact sheet covers some of the common responses and ways to cope with this loss.

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 …

A Follow-Up Study Of A Primary Prevention Program Targeting Childhood Depression, Norman Chris Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Children have not historically been the subject of research focusing on internalizing disorders (i.e., childhood depression), even though childhood depression continues to be viewed as one of the most prevalent affective problem within this population. Over the past two decades, a small portion of that literature describes prevention efforts in public schools. There has been a growing body of literature centered on childhood depression. However, there are only three studies that report on longitudinal findings that have taken a primary prevention approach.

The present study was a follow-up investigation to delineate the effects of a school-based primary prevention program. The …

An Investigation Of Criterion-Related Validity And Clinical Sensitivity Of The Internalizing Symptoms Scale For Children, Lisa Ann Mcclun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The need for a self-report instrument that assesses internalizing problems in children ages 8 through 12 is evidenced in the lack of such an instrument, and in the prevalence of internalizing problems in children. A new self-report instrument, the Internalizing Symptoms Scale for Children (ISSC), has been proposed and developed to fit this need. The present study evaluated the criterion-related validity, clinical cutoff points, and discriminating power of the ISSC. Two groups of child subjects, clinic-referred and general-school-population, were recruited and administered the ISSC, and a parent of each subject completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Each case within the …

Comment On: Sexualselection, Physical Attractiveness, And Facial Neoteny: Cross-Cultural Evidence And Implications, Bydoug Jones, L. E. Musselman, J. H. Langlois, Lori A. Roggman

Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Publications

Jones's paper is an interesting treatise on the importance of physical attractiveness for sexual selection, but several points raised in it are in need of further consideration.

Implications Of Mediating Parent-Child Interactions In The Treatment Of Child Abuse, Connie Faye Nelke

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Child abuse has been shown to have a detrimental effect on the emotion development of the abused child. Due to a history with the parent that includes a high proportion of negative interactions and an impaired parent-child relationship, the child who has been subjected to physical abuse often manifests psychological symptoms. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect that treatment aimed at increasing the frequency of positive interaction in the parent-child relationship had on the emotional status of the abused child. Results showed that parent-child interaction play sessions were effective in increasing positive interaction and decreasing subsequent …

Facts And Feelings Series For Teens, Unknown Unknown

All Archived Publications

Series developed for teens on how to deal with common issues that they face.

Facts And Feelings Series For Parents, Unknown Unknown

All Archived Publications

Packet that gives instructions to parents about talking to teens about common issues they face.

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. …

Summer Camp 1973: Recreation, An Approach To Behavior Modification, Christine Elizabeth Erni

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

At the culmination of the highly successful first annual Bridgerland Special Olympics, the author decided that more recreational activities needed to be provided for the exceptional (handicapped) children of this area. Academic and vocational programs were rapidly increasing but little was being done to help these exceptional children develop their social and recreational skills. Besides, college students found interaction with the children from the Exceptional Child Center and the Benson Instructional Workshop to be so educational and rewarding that they wanted to plan other recreational activities. Consequently, interested students met in May 1973 to plan a summer camp for these …

Task Persistence In Early Childhood Education, Thomas Richard Stephenson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to discover developmental trends in task persistence (TP). It was hoped that the results would suggest when and for what groups a task persistence (TP) curriculum is crucial.

To study this development a sample of two, four, and six year old children were given a "work" task. The task required 120 subjects (Ss) to sort and fold 33 items of clothing and linen. After the task instructions and demonstration, the experimenter did not intervene with reinforcers or further directions.

The dependent variables investigated were time spent on the task, time spent away from the task, and …

Behavioral Contrast In Children, Wenden Wayne Waite

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study was conducted as a systematic replication of earlier work investigating the phenomenon of behavioral contrast. Behavioral contrast has been consistently reported in alternating two component multiple schedules using infra-human subjects. The present study was interested in answering the question, "Does behavioral contrast exist in humans?"

Two experiments were performed which investigated the behavioral contrast and sequential contrast phenomena in children. In both experiments, lever press responses were analyzed using an ABA single-subject design. The children were instructed to press a lever to obtain as many tokens as possible. In Experiment I, six Ss were equally divided into …

The Effects Of Response Sets On The Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, Brent L. Andersen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Modified versions of the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (CMAS) and Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS) were administered to 40 normal and 29 retarded elementary school children to determine the effects of response sets upon CMAS scores. The results of the research indicated that CMAS scores obtained from retarded subjects reflect the use of acquiescence and denial response sets. Acquiescence response set did not affect the CMAS scores of normal children although there was a negative relationship between their CMAS scores and social desirability. The higher anxiety scores obtained by normal girls was felt to reflect their lower use of social …

A Validation Of Koppitz's Scoring Method For Children's Human Figure Drawings, William Gary Evans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to see if the Koppitz objective scoring method for interpreting children's human figure drawings could be used as a valid assessment instrument with elementary school children. Human figure drawings were obtained from two matched groups of elementary school students, a normal and an emotionally disturbed group. The results of the comparison of human figure drawings of the two groups did not support Koppitz's findings. The Koppitz objective scoring method was found to be invalid as an assessment instrument with elementary school children and of doubtful use in diagnosing emotionally disturbed children. Possible explanations for …

The Teaching Of Concrete Thinking Strategies To Five-Year-Old Children And Its Effect On Performance On The Bender-Gestalt Test, Ronald C. Bennett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was designed to examine the effect teaching five and one-half to six-year-old children analytical and conceptual thinking strategies would have on their subsequent performance on the Bender-Gestalt Test. The sample was composed of 34 kindergarten children in this age range from the Providence Elementary School. They were randomly divided into two groups of equal size; one group was then given three 10-minute training sessions over three days which were designed to teach them analytical and conceptual thinking strategies. The other group was also given three 10-minute sessions with the investigator; however, they were only involved in looking at …

A Longitudinal Evaluation Of The Ogden City Head Start Program, Robert D. Eyestone

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study attempted to investigate the differences in the Head Start population of the Ogden City Schools and to determine if the differences had a significant influence on ability comparisons. An attempt was also made to evaluate the longitudinal benefits of Head Start training. The original data was collected in the 1966-67 evaluation of the Head Start program. Additional data was collected as this original group of Head Start children progressed through kindergarten, first, and second grades.

Variables considered in this study were, residence, age, sex, socio-economic deprivation, family constellation, and ethnic group. In addition, a comparison was made of …

Measurement Of The Perceptual Rotation Of Visual Stimuli, Floyd W. Stettler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Apparatus for study of the phenomenon of rotation consisted of two rotating turntables constructed to receive disks for presenting varied visual stimuli. Turntables were graduated into 360 degrees for measurement of angular discrepancy in the task of visually matching rotational positions. Subjects from ages four through eleven attempted to match six compass positions for each of three designs--a boxlike house, a straight line, and Bender-Gestalt Figure No. 3.

Errors of rotation were classed as either transpositional or nontranspositional, Transpositional error, involving reversal or mirroring of the directional aspect of the designs, largely disappeared by age six. Non-transpositional error declined rapidly …