Child Psychology Commons^™

An Examination Of Friendship In Middle Childhood: A Test Of The Similarity-Attraction Hypothesis, Bridget Trame

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the similarities between children and their friends. Previous research had focused on demographic similarities, with a little attention given to behavioral similarities. This study sought to expand the knowledge of similarities between friends to sociometric and social information processing characteristics and show that friends were more similar than random pairs of children. Children completed a rating and nomination sociometric interview. Children also completed a social information processing interview in which they viewed ambiguous provocation situations and then rated a series of social goals and gave social problem solving responses. Two-hundred and twenty-four …

School Psychologists' Assessment Practices Of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Donna Ridenour

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Two million school-age children are believed to manifest symptoms of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In recent years, educators have increasingly been called upon to provide services to children with ADHD either through special education or through Section 504. Much has been written describing "best practices" for the assessment of children with ADHD. Little is known, however, about what roles school psychology practitioners are taking with regard to ADHD. The purpose of this research was to determine common ADHD assessment practices of school psychologists and how they relate to practices recommended in the literature. A survey was developed and sent to …

Relationships Between Student Motivation Training & Motivation, Achievement, Attendance & Classroom Behavior, Kelly Davis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of the present study was to replicate a student motivation training program (Hughes, 1990) and extend the investigation by including the relationships between student motivation training and achievement, attendance, and classroom behavior. Participants were all 4th- and 5th -grade students from two elementary schools. A separate -sample, pretest-posttest control group design was used. The study addressed eight questions regarding the effects of student motivation training. Results indicated that student motivation, teacher perceptions of student motivation, and the number of motivational idea units on two of three writing samples were enhanced as a result of the training program. No …

Technical Adequacy Of The Lap-D & Dial-R Motor Scales, Mary Mcquaide

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The researcher examined the relationship between the motor scales of the Learning Accomplishment Profile-Diagnostic Revised Edition (LAP-D) and the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning-Revised (DIAL-R) motor scales. Specifically, the strength of the relationship and the consistency of identification between the motor scales of these two measures were examined. The sample consisted of 29 children ages 38-67 months selected from the LAP-D normative sample which was stratified for gender and race. Children were administered tests in random order. The study results revealed the following: 1) the LAPD and DIAL-R motor scales were significantly and positively correlated; 2) LAP-D and …

The Application Of Program Evaluation Techniques To Improve Services For Emotionally Disturbed Children And Youth In Kentucky: Discussion Of A Statewide Needs Analysis Model And A Framework For Program Development, Vicki Phillips

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Creativity In Prose & Standardized Academic Achievement, Coy Callicott

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree of the relationship between creativity, as measured by the Prose Quantification System (PQS), and standardized academic achievement as measured by the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS). The Prose Quantification System is a measurement of the creative quality of written prose.

PQS story-starters were administered to 89 fifth-grade students enrolled in six classes in two schools in south central Kentucky. Each student received two story-starters about the same content (box or paper), but in a different context (usual vs. unusual setting) and was instructed to complete the stories. A total …

The Development And Construct Validation Of The Children’S Academic Motivation Inventory, Kevin Hughes

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to develop and provide construct validation evidence for the Children’s Academic Motivation Inventory (CAMI). The CAMI, the junior Index of Motivation Scale (JIM Scale), and the Children’s Social Desirability Scale (CSDS) were administered to 534 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students. Additionally, teacher assigned math grades; total math and total reading scores from the Kentucky Essential skills test (KEST); and the Cognitive Skills Index (CSI) from the Test of Cognitive Skills were obtained for each participant. Principal-components factor analysis with varimax rotation performed on the CAMI items produced essentially one factor, entitled academic achievement motivation. …

Development Of The Parent - Child Situation Scale: A Measure Of Parental Attributions Toward Handicapped Children's Behavior, Lonnie Sears

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Parent - Child Situation Scale (PCSS) was developed to measure parental attributions toward handicapped children's behavior. The PCSS was administered to mothers of handicapped children. The final version of the scale possessed good reliability. Coefficient alphas for the PCSS were .74 for the internal - external attribution subscale, .70 for the stable - unstable subscale, and .72 for the global - specific subscale. Factor analysis of the PCSS revealed three factors corresponding to the three attribution types. The internal - external subscale's validity was supported. The other two subscales, however, appeared to have only moderate validity. Responses of college …

A Study Of Cognitive Variables Associated With Achievement Among A Gifted Population, Sharon R. Coty-Kieta

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between specific cognitive variables and classroom achievement among a gifted population. The participants included 389 students in grades five eight enrolled in the Gifted and Talented Education program in a Southcentral Kentucky School district. An experimenter-developed teacher rating scale was used to document classroom achievement, the criterion variable. The predictor variables were (a) locus of control, as measured by the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility Scale; (b) the ability to clearly express thoughts and the elaboration, fluency, flexibility, originally, and organization of those thoughts, as measured by the Prose Quantification System; (c) …

Children's Anxiety Management Program (C.A.M.P.): A Year Long Study Of A Preventive Stress & Anxiety Program For Children, Karen Witty

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Children's Anxiety Management Program (C.A.M.P.) was designed as a preventive program to be carried out over an academic year with fifth and sixth grade children. The program was designed to help teach the children different methods of coping with stress and anxiety. It was written in a curriculum format allowing for integration into a daily classroom routine. Eighty-seven children were pretested and posttested with the Children's School Questionnaire (CSQ) which measured these factors: School Anxiety, Defensiveness, and Self-Disparagement. The CSQ along with student and teacher kept logbooks aided in the final evaluation of C.A.M.P.. The statistical evaluation of the …

School Psychologists' Reports: Special Educators' Preferences, Claudia Downey

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Special educators were surveyed in order to determine which of two distinct styles of school psychologists' reports, (psychological vs. psychoeducational) was perceived to be most useful. The sample population consisted of 39 special educators employed by the Bowling Green (Ky.) Independent School District and the Warren County (Ky.) Board of Education. Teachers' rankings of the ten report sections (five per style of report) were compared by an analysis of variance. Results of the 2 (report style: psychological vs. psychoeducational) by 5 (report sections: referral vs. background and observations vs. tests/procedures vs. diagnosis or conclusions vs. recommendations) ANOVA revealed no significant …

A Comparison Between Children's Anxiety Management Program & Developing Understanding Of Self & Others: Effects On Children's School Anxiety, Self-Disparagement & Defensiveness, Bengt Ronnerman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Children experience unavoidable stress and anxiety. Excessive stress, or distress, and anxiety may negatively effect children's emotional, mental, and physical functioning. Examples of distress reactions in children include fears, aggression, frustration, low self-esteem, apathy, low academic achievement, poor peer relationships, fatigue, and developmental delays. Prolonged reactions to distress in children could cause severe emotional, mental, and physical problems when children reach adulthood. It is important that children learn effective strategies to cope with distress and anxiety. There is a dearth of research data regarding children and coping skills training for dealing with stress and anxiety. Therefore, the Children's Anxiety Management …

Guilford’S Structure Of Intellect Theory: An Evaluation Of The Three Dimensional Model And The Implications For Its Use In The Education Of The Gifted Child, Judith Parr

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

There is much current interest in the field of education concerning the academically gifted student’s needs. Guilford’s Structure of Intellect model (Guilford, 1956) holds particular promise for positively influencing the development of cognitive skills among academically gifted students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of using a program of instruction based upon Guilford’s Structure of Intellect (SI) model (Meeker, 1969) with children identified as academically gifted. Subjects consisted of 68 fourth-grade students who resided in two counties of northwestern Kentucky and who were identified as being academically gifted. The treatment group consisted of 34 academically gifted …

The Relationship Between Psychologists’ Judgments Of Artistic Quality And Judgments Of Emotional Adjustment From Children’S Human Figure Drawings, Karen Collier

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Children’s human figure drawings (HFDs) have frequently been used as a projective technique to indicate emotional problems. Despite the popularity of this technique, research has shown contradictory findings on its validity as a measure of emotional adjustment. As a reason for the inconsistent findings, researchers have suggested that the artistic quality of HFDs may interfere with successful interpretation of adjustment from the drawings. However, the issue of the possible influence of artistic quality has not been adequately researched.

The major purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between psychologists’ judgments of artistic quality and judgments of …

An Eclectic Approach To The Identification And Treatment Of The Cluster Of Disorders Known As Infantile Autism, Margaret Considine

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The present research is a comprehensive look at the causes and treatment of autism. To date the research has not found the etiology of autism, even though many areas have been examined. The areas looked at are psychogenic, biochemical and neurobiological. Some of these areas seem promising and may in the future shed more light on why these persons present this particular cluster of problem behaviors.

Approaches to the treatment of autism have not yielded an all encompassing cure for autism. Therefore, the symptoms of autism were presented along with the current treatments that are most successful in dealing with …

Exploring Adaptive Behavior In Preschool Children, Elaine Michewicz

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Thr. purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate factors related to adaptive behavior or nonacademic behavior and the ability to function in everyday life situations. Preschool children and their mothers served as subjects for the investigation. The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1967), the Nowicki Strickland Internal-External Locus of Control Scale for Children (Nowicki and Strickland, 1973), and the Circles and Unusual Uses Tests (Torrance, 1966a) were administered to twenty-five kindergarten children. In conjunction, the Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children from The System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment by Mercer and Lewis (1977), which is a structured …

The Development Of An Expressive Language Scoring System, Pamela Tamme

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study was designed to develop an expressive language scoring system so that the creative quality of a person's written language could be quantified and measured. Sixty fifth -grade students, 31 males and 29 females, were given the opening line, i.e., story-starter, to a story and were asked to finish the stories. Each student received two story-starters concerning the same object ("content")-- either box, string or money--but were different in "context" (usual or unusual setting). Thus, a total of 120 stories were written, with 40 stories being from each content group. These stories were then rated according to their level …

The Effects Of Extraversion On Performance On The Wechsler Intelligence Scale For Children-Revised, Charles V. Kerekes

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A sample population of 139 fifth grade students, ranging in age from nine years to twelve years eleven months, was drawn from a data pool created from test results collected from four elementary schools in a south central Kentucky municipality. Tests used in the study were the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Revised (WISC-R) and Cattell’s Children’s Personality Questionnaire (CPQ).

These data were examined to determine the relationship of extraversion to performance on a standardized intelligence test.

Correlations for the experimental variables and extraversion ranged from .12 to .51.

The results indicated that extraverts had higher Performance, Verbal and …

The Brigance K&1 Screen And Corresponding Teacher Ratings Of Students, Shanna Waddington

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The relationship between teacher ratings of kindergarten students and scores on the Brigance K&1 Screen was examined in order to obtain a measure of construct validity for the Brigance. A Kentucky sample and California sample were included in the study. Data was analyzed separately for each sample for purposes of regional comparison. Teacher’s ratings of students’ overall ability and ability across five skill dimensions (expressive language, receptive language, personal information, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills) were compared via a linear regression analysis. The results indicated that overall ratings of students by teachers are significant and reliable combinations of …

Construct Validity Of The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, Brian W. Johnson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to add supportive evidence to the construct validity of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI). The study was conducted using the Sabers-Whitney (1976) model which investigated (a) convergent validity, (b) discriminant validity, (c) sensitivity to change, (b) internal consistency, and (e) any other factors which may contribute evidence to be a measure’s construct validity.

The SEI Children’s Self Concept Scale (CSCS), and Children’s Social Desirability Scale (CSDS) were administered to all fifth grade students enrolled in an elementary school within a public school district in the northeastern United States. The self-concept assessments were conducted within …

Children's Anxiety Management Program: Its Effects On School Anxiety, Defensiveness & Self-Disparagement, Wayne Herner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Anxiety and stress are factors which affect children's day to day functioning. It affects their psychological, physiological, and social functioning. This in turn causes children to do poorly in academics, have poor interpersonal relationships, acquire many fears and phobias, and develop many somatic complaints (e.g., muscle tension, speech disturbances, hypertension, etc.). Children who experience stress and who do not learn to cope with it effectively are likely to have problems as adults. Therefore, the Children's Anxiety Management Program (C.A.M.P.) was initiated to a group of 5th and 6th grade school children in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The purpose of the program …

Community-Based Programming For Emotional Disturbance In Children, Anna Borders

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Based upon local needs assessment data, review of the literature, and a survey of professionals in the field of children's services, a design for the development of a community- based diagnostic and treatment network for services to emotionally disturbed children was formulated. Addressing the needs of a seven-county area in Southern Kentucky, the program plan defines the processes and procedures for the implementation of regional diagnostic, educational support, and technical assistance services as the initial step toward the establishment of a regional day treatment and residential center providing the full spectrum of special services to the emotionally disturbed youth of …

Relationships Among Intelligence, Piagetian Developmental, & Achievement Assessments In A Sample Of Disadvantaged Preschool Children, Mary Hill

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Much research has been conducted on the relationships among psychometric intelligence as measured by standard IQ tests, level of cognitive maturity as defined by Piaget, and school achievement. These types of assessment have been described as measuring separate but highly correlated aspects of cognitive functioning. Little research, however, has been reported concerning the interrelationships of these three types of measures for disadvantaged children, The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), a Piagetian Battery (PB), and three subtests of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) were administered to 20 four year old children enrolled at a Parent-Child Center in …

The Investigation Of An Imagery Technique As A Screening Device For Reading Difficulties, Joseph Saxe

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A form for assessing imagery ability based on behavioral criteria in response to an imaginary ball toss was developed and its utility as a screening device for reading difficulties was evaluated. The Imagery Assessment Form was administered to 167 kindergarten, second, fourth and sixth grade children. Grade and sex differences were compared and the imagery scores were correlated with standardized reading achievement scores. Significant mean score differences were found between kindergarteners and second graders only. Significant sex differences in imagery were observed across all grade groups. There was no sex by grade interaction. Positive significant correlations between imagery and reading …

An Exploration Of Change In Teacher Concerns Over Time, Sharla E. Hutchinson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to reconsider the five factor structure of the Teach Concern Checklist (TCC) currently being utilized by the teacher Preparation Evaluation Program (TPEP) at Western Kentucky University. The problem was to replicate the three factor solution of the TCC proposed by George (1978) and to further explore the progression of teacher concerns with experience to lend support to the self-task-impact concern theory proposed by Fuller (1969)

Two hundred and sixty-five pre-service and in-service teacher participating in TPRP completed the TCC. These teachers represented the different experience levels of student. First, third and fifth year of …

Characteristics Of Parents Involved In A Parent Child Center-Head Start Program, Rebecca Selove

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

An exploratory study was conducted to provide information for the coordinators of the Parent Child Center and Head Start (PCC-HS) Program in Leitchfield, Kentucky. Staff concern for parent involvement led to a search for parent characteristics which correlate with amount of participation in program activities. Sixty-five families, which included 65 mothers, 47 fathers, and 121 children, constituted the study sample. Data were obtained from records maintained by the PCC-HS staff. Variables included number of hours volunteered, age and level of education of each parent, estimated family income, family size, mother's enrollment in PCC when pregnant, number of children in the …

Head Start Four And Five Year Old Children’S Attitudes Toward School As They Are Related To Achievement, Eugene Smith

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine if there existed significant relationships between 4 and 5 year old children’s attitude toward school, their classroom teacher’s perception of their attitude toward school, length of time in school, sex, or a composite of these with their achievement on the Pre-School Attainment Record. A random sample of 55 Head Start children completed three instruments. The instruments used in this study were a revised Children’s Attitude Toward School Scale (CATSS-R), (Beere, 1970) The Pre-School Attainment Record (PAR), (Doll, 1966) and the Teachers Rating of Attitude of Children Toward School (TRACTS). The results of …

Comparison Of The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test And The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale In School Age Children, Stephen Skiles

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The correlate relationships and directionality and magnitude of mean differences between MAs and IQs of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and Revised Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (both 1960 and 1972 norms) were investigated in a sample of 225 school age children. It was found that MAs of two instruments were more highly correlated than the IQs. For the total sample, no significant differences were found between mean MAs of the two instruments. The correlation between PPVT and the 1960 Revised Stanford-Binet IQs and the correlation between PPVT and 1972 Revised Stanford-Binet IQs were found to be identical. The PPVT was found …

Demographic Characterization Of Wisc-R Factor Score Profiles, Don Twyman

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Factor score profiles based on scores in the standardization sample for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Revised were visually surveyed for patterns of the demographic characteristics sex, race, parent’s occupation and religion and area of residence, these characteristics having been listed with the intelligence quotients obtained in the standardization sample. Patterns of the demographic characteristics and frequencies were described over the range of profiles, then the various profiles were described individually in terms of percentage of frequency and predominant demographic characteristics. The profile descriptions demonstrate a differential distribution of characteristics in relation to profiles, and suggest investigation of …

Validity Of Bender Gestalt Test Emotional Indicators For Functional Fifth-Grade Children, Donald Britt

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Both the Bender Gestalt Test and the Children's Personality Questionnaire were administered to 75 fifth grade students. Analyses were made to determine the possible relationships between the Koppitz Emotional Indicators on the Bender Gestalt Test and the various personality factors assessed by the Children's Personality Questionnaire. The results of these analyses found few significant relationships. Those that were significant were frequently conflicting and the opposite of the results which would have been predicted by Koppitz. These results provide a basis for questioning the validity of the Koppitz Emotional Indicators and their adequacy for use as a technique for personality assessment …