Child Psychology Commons^™

Using Online Training Modules To Enhance Parents' Early Literacy Training Skills And Understanding, Ayodele Sanni

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Parental involvement is considered a crucial factor in developing children’s early literacy and reading skills, especially for children not yet in school. The present study aims to determine whether an online literacy module can increase early literacy knowledge in parents who may not have the training to promote their child’s learning. Additionally, the study examines parent perspectives of online video training and the practicality of the video’s content. To test the hypothesis that parent knowledge will increase after exposure to the online video, 29 Canadian parents (27 mothers, two fathers) with children aged 3 to 5 were provided with supervised …

Early Predictors: The Impact Of Childhood Exposure To Interparental Conflict On Developmental Outcomes For Emotion Self-Regulation And Related Problem Behaviour., Katrina Abela

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The capacity to independently regulate emotions occupies a central role in children’s physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing as they progress through their development. The influence of adverse childhood experiences on the absence of attuned emotion self-regulation (ESR) abilities has been recurringly linked to, and coupled with, a range of adverse developmental outcomes for children and adolescents, such as internalizing problem behaviours (i.e., anxiety) and externalizing problem behaviours (i.e., peer bullying and victimization). Although exposure to interparental conflict has been widely associated with such short- and long-term adverse effects for children’s physical, emotional, social, and behavioural development, further investigation is needed …

Who Is The Stranger Really? A Reluctant Autoethnography Of The Strange Situation Procedure, Tara Yazdani

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper aims to review the cross-cultural application of attachment theory as a western model of thought and practice. That is, this research aimed to recognize and question how embedded attachment theory has become in programming and education within North American academic and practical arenas. In applying the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) to a limited sample of Eritrean dyads, important considerations and questions arose regarding the cross-cultural application of this protocol. The aims of this research shifted toward further exploring these considerations and questions, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the new research aim emphasized how to inform future …

The Inclusive Nature Of Mindfulness-Based Practice: Does Executive Functioning Play A Role In Children's Mindful Experience?, Kaitlyn Butterfield

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

We examined the effects of a six-week mindfulness program in order to assess how executive function level played a role in students’ mindful experience. The effects of the mindfulness program were evaluated according to prospective outcomes across students’ level of executive function, in comparison to an active control group. Classrooms were randomly assigned to a mindfulness-based program or a health-based active control group. Pre- and early adolescent students in the 5th to 8th grade (N = 52) from two MindfulMe! program classrooms and two HealthyMe! program classrooms (active control group) completed self-reported pretest and post-test measures to assess mindful attention …

An Evaluation Of The Timeline As A Memory Retrieval Aid For Children’S Recall Of Specific Details From A Repeated Event, Huan Huan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Investigators and prosecutors are heavily dependent on children’s testimony in abuse cases where physical evidence is often lacking, making children the sole source of information. Decades of research have shown that young children are indeed capable of accurately recalling events from the past. Findings from research on interview techniques suggest that interview aids such as dolls and human diagrams are often not helpful and pose risks of eliciting inaccurate reports unless they are used cautiously and non-suggestively at the end of the interview.

The timeline, which is a visual depiction of time, is another type of interview aid that is …

Examining Parental Scaffolding In Computer Based Contexts As A Function Of Task Difficulty And Mobility Of Computer Device, Domenica De Pasquale

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Technology is part of everyday life for most adults and children. Digital technologies allow children to engage with technology and the digital world earlier in their development than previously experienced (Orlando, 2011; Plowman, Stevenson, Stephen, & McPake, 2012). Two studies were conducted to explore joint media-based interactions of parents and their children. Parental views, age, gender, experience and familiarity with technology were considered in conjunction with parent-child interactions when engaged with stationary and mobile computers and when engaged with easy and difficult to navigate software. Study 1 employed self-report measures consistent with the wider body of literature available regarding early …

Children’S Ability To Identify An Unusual Occurrence Of A Repeated Event, Mckenzie K. Vanderloon

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

Research on script memory shows that individuals have a difficult time isolating single instances of a repeated event because a generic script (e.g., one has a generic script for typical grocery shopping; grab a cart, gather items, then pay) has formed over time. Scripts capture the “gist” of what usually happens and allow individuals to predict what probably occurred based on the robustness of the script. Thus, individuals are able to identify details of what occurs; however, piecing which details came from a particular incident poses its challenges, especially for children. Source monitoring is the ability to accurately differentiate …

Parental Spatial Input During Parent-Child Interactions: A Two-Dimensional Versus A Three-Dimensional Learning Experience, Ariel Ho

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Children’s spatial ability is predictive of their future achievement in many academic and occupational domains, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM; e.g., Wai at el., 2009). During the early years, experiences such as hearing spatial language (e.g., Ferrara et al., 2011) and engaging in spatial activities with three-dimensional (3D) blocks or puzzles (e.g., Casey et al., 2008) are found to facilitate children’s spatial learning. Other than 3D toys, the use of two-dimensional (2D) touchscreen media (e.g., iPads^®) by young children has been on the rise (e.g., Rideout, 2013). Technology has become part of children’s daily activities and …

The Internalization Of Mathematics Stereotypes In Elementary School Children, Amanda Schell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study investigated mathematics-related gender stereotypes, internalization of these stereotypes in 2nd and 5th grade children, and whether there is a relationship between internalization and the underperformance of girls in mathematics. There is evidence that gender stereotype internalization occurs throughout elementary school with an increasing impact on girls’ mathematical competence and performance (e.g., Muzzatti & Agnoli, 2007). However, there has been no definite determination with respect to the point at which this process begins. Parents and teachers have displayed gender stereotypical beliefs concerning children as young as three years of age (Lee & Schell, under review). This factor can influence …

Moral Emotion Expectancies In Adolescence: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Fanli Jia

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Cross-cultural research on moral development has documented reliable cultural differences in people’s evaluations of moral and immoral actions. Prosocial actions are typically viewed as more obligatory and less discretionary in collectivistic cultures relative to individualistic cultures. While past research mostly focused on moral judgments, it largely neglected moral emotions. The present study was aimed at investigating self- and other-evaluative emotions following (im) moral actions in different situational and cultural contexts. It investigated moral emotion expectancies of Canadian and Chinese adolescents and young adults across different situational contexts. For each culture, 179 Canadian and 193 Chinese adolescents from grade levels 7-8, …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Short-Duration Reading Intervention On Grade One Phonological Awareness And Word Reading, Carrie Seward

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the influence of a summer intervention for children showing early signs of reading delay. The project evaluated two intervention components: a two week camp for children and two training workshops for parents. Data were collected for five groups of participants. Three groups participated in one or more intervention components: parent workshops only group, child camp only group, and both parent workshops and child camp group. All children who participated in the interventions were identified by teachers as having difficulty in phonological awareness and word reading skills at the end of senior kindergarten. …

Moral Emotion Expectancies And Moral Behavior In Adolescence, Megan E. Johnston

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the present research we extended previous studies examining moral emotion expectancies in childhood to investigate the relationship between moral emotion expectancies and moral behavior in adolescence. A secondary goal was to explore the relationships among moral emotion expectancies, the moral self, and moral action. Two hundred and thirty-five adolescents in grades 7, 9, 11, and first year university completed a structured interview assessing moral emotion expectancies in various situations in which a moral norm is either regarded or disregarded. Participants distributed up to 10 plastic chips on nine emotional expressions to indicate how they expected to feel in each …

Reading Comprehension In Adolescent First And Second Language Learners: A Comparison Of Simple And Multi-Component Models, Adrian Dominic Kenneth Pasquarella

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The underlying components of reading comprehension were examined and compared in adolescents who spoke English as their first (L1) or second (L2) language. One-hundred and nine adolescents (55 L1 and 54 L2) completed measures of reading comprehension, decoding, vocabulary knowledge, working memory, comprehension strategy use, motivation and print exposure in English. Overall English L1 students outperformed English L2 students on measure of reading and language, with English L2 students performing below grade level on measures of comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. Examining models of reading comprehension between groups revealed that vocabulary knowledge is the best predictor of reading comprehension for both …

Why Do Young Children Forget Where They Learned Information? The Relation Between Source Monitoring, Theory-Of-Mind Understanding And Suggestibility, Angela D. Evans

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In Study one, Fifty young children (3- to 5- year-olds) watched a video and were then interviewed about the video by a Knowledgeable interviewer, who had watched the video with the children, and a Naive interviewer, who had not seen the video. Children were asked yes/no recognition questions, half of which contained misleading suggestions. After five to seven days, children were asked the same yes/no recognition questions by a third Naïve interviewer. Children then completed a source-monitoring task Followed by three theory-of-mind tests. Study two followed the same methodologies as Study one but with an increased sample size (72 children), …

Two Views Of Identity Development In Adolescence: An Empirical Comparison Of The Narrative And Status Approaches, Kathleen Mackey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationships among personal life stories, identity status development and family climate during late adolescence. The current study examines the parallels between two conceptions of identity: Marcia's interview assessment of identity status development, and McAdams’ narrative conception of identity development as revealed through the life story. A sample of 131 high school students, 51 males and 80 females, were asked to recall and discuss a critical incident that had a crucial impact on their beliefs and values. Marcia's interview assessment of identity status was also administered for vocational and religious domains. …

The Use Of Dance In The Promotion Of Mental Health In Girls: An Exploratory Study, Irene E. Rossberg-Gempton

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study had two purposes: (1) to understand how girls experience dance and (2) to examine the idea of using dance as a venue to promote psychological well—being and artistic growth in young children. Fifteen girls between the ages of 3 1/2 and 10 years old participated in a dance program offering dance warm ups, dance techniques, sequential dance steps, pantomime explorations, and creative dance. Methods of data collection included journal notes, video—taped observations, parental interviews, and children's self—reports, drawings, and interviews. The formative evaluation of this dance program indicated that the participants of this small rural community had happy …