Child Psychology Commons^™

Restorative Playscape Design: A Phenomenological Approach To Designing Playscapes, Jennifer Bradley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation outlines the development of a phenomenological and restorative approach to playscape design. Restorative Playscape (RPD) is a phenomenologically based approach to designing children’s play environments that involves a process of attending to, noticing, and uncovering natural affordances for play and development, and making enhancements to the environment so that the affordances can experienced in their full potential and capacity to support children’s growth and development. The restorative approach involves the application of three phenomenological methods to identify the affordances of the outdoor play environment: 1) Child Guided Walks- to explore the affective and relational dimension of children’s experience …

Child Success And Parental Marital Status: The Impact Of Mental Health, Poverty, And Trauma, Cambria Ort

University Honors Theses

Children are brought into this world under many different circumstances and to many different families. Some are planned, some are not; all come from families with a range of income, relationship status, and experiences. Throughout a child's life, there can be many changes in the family unit that impact the ways parents are available to care for their children. This includes divorce/separation, incarceration, co-parenting, married life, etc., relationship statuses may change over time. Different life stressors impact the financial wellbeing of a family and parents’ ability to spend time with their children. This study used secondary data analysis of the …

The Relation Of Therapist Behaviors To Treatment Engagement And Outcomes In Pcit, Kristine Gese Ba

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) has proven to be a very effective treatment for child behavioral problems, however, PCIT does not benefit all families equally, presumably at least partly because therapists may not be equally effective in coaching their clients. Although researchers have proposed several dimensions of therapist coaching behaviors that are considered desirable, few of these have been empirically examined in relation to family engagement or child outcomes. Data from two clinical trials examining the effectiveness of culturally modified versions of PCIT (GANA and PersIn), were used to investigate which of several therapist coaching behaviors (brevity, positivity, consistency, accuracy, …

Through The Elementary School Years: Self-Regulation Predicting Social Competence With Student-Teacher Relationships As Mediators, Kelsie Anderson

Honors Theses

Using a longitudinal, nationally representative dataset, ECLS-K:2011, research was conducted to determine the predictive relationship between Self-Regulation in kindergarten and first-grade years and Social Competency in the third- and fourth-grade years of elementary school. Along with this, Student-Teacher Relationships were studied to determine if they could mediate the relationship between Self-Regulation and Social Competency. These aspects have been extensively studied individually in previous research, but this study looks at how these aspects work together and the implications that these relationships have. The current study documented that a) Working Memory predicts indices of Behavioral Engagement and Internalizing Behavior Problems in the …

The Correlation Between Maternal Postpartum Depression And Child Psychopathology, T'Keyah I. Vaughan

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a phenomenon that affects nearly 10-15% of pregnancies in the US. It is characterized by depressed mood or anhedonia and lasting for more than 2 weeks. PPD changes how moms interact with family members and child-rearing behavior. Depression is a phenomenon that is also known to affect the psychopathology of children. However, the specifics of how postpartum depression impacts children remains controversial. Many studies do not control for major depressive disorder which makes it difficult to disentangle the impact depression has within the first year of life. Furthermore, other PPD risk factors may be confounding …

Addressing Racial Disparities In Parent Training Enrollment: An Examination Of Help-Seeking For Child Behavior Problems Among African American Mothers, Kasia Plessy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The consideration of African American mothers’ mental health help-seeking attitudes and intentionsis important when developing culturally sensitive parent training programs and potentially help bridge a critical knowledge and service gap for this population. The purpose of this study is to examine the parental help-seeking for child externalizing behavior problems in order to delineate variables that might influence BPT enrollment among African American families. To address the lack of research considering cultural factors, this study examines the influence of racial group identification, cultural childrearing values, and mental health stigmatization on African American mothers’ problem recognition and willingness to engage in behavioral …

Searching For A Common Thread: A Retrospective Chart Review Of Child And Adolescent Restraints And Seclusions, Mary Koziura

DNP Scholarly Projects

Child and Adolescent psychiatry is an increasingly frequented area of research. The project leader believes violence in an inpatient psychiatry setting is an underrepresented topic of research and discussion. Close quarters among patients of varying diagnoses and backgrounds, coupled with varying culture and attitudes of staff make for a teetering point—a fine line—between therapeutic interaction and safety concerns. Particularly, in the case of patients under 18, one hopes to establish an environment of nurturing, as opposed to a police state. With the fact established that children and their parents should always come first, many of the staff are often exposed …

The Reality Of Child Sexual Abuse: A Critique Of The Arguments Used By Adult-Child Sex Advoates, Kacey Klein

CMC Senior Theses

In the United States, there are advocacy groups that support sexual relationships between adults and children. These groups use justifications that make pedophile behaviors seem normal and appropriate. This thesis describes the physical, emotional, and psychological harms that result from child sexual abuse. The reader will understand how prominent child sexual abuse is and how it takes a lot of effort for abusers to take advantage of children. There are many psychological resources available to children and their families, but it does not make sexual abuse okay for society to ignore. The justifications used by pedophile advocates are irrational and …

The Perceived Psychosocial Benefits Of Pet Ownership On Child Development: A Parental Perspective, Erin K. Leahy

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this review is to explore the beneficial role pets play in facilitating the psychosocial development of preadolescent children. It is proposed that the pet is perceived by both the child and parent as a developmental resource during preadolescent development, as it assists the child in accomplishing key developmental tasks such as responsibility and autonomy, socialisation and the development of humanistic qualities. This review also highlights the importance of pets in assisting preadolescents develop self esteem and identity, and examines how pets give children new perspective on important life matters such as birth, illness and death. Attainment of …

The Processing Of Affective Information Among Shy Children And Aggressive Children, Dina M. Casey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigaed the role of emotion in social information processing and examined whether children with behavior patterns other than aggression process social information in a unique manner. Testing hypotheses derived from Crick and Dodge's (1994) model of social information processing, the first study assessed shy, aggressive, and nonshy/nonaggressive children's beliefs about their emotions and a protagonist's emotions at the model's representation step and at the response search/access step by varying a protagonist's intent in fictional scenarios. The second study assessed whether correct labeling of a protagonist's emotional state would eliminate shy children's tendency to underattribute hostility and aggressive children's …

The Impact Of Siblings And Parenting Style On Social Skill Development In Young Adult Females, Genevieve Cordero Arca

Theses Digitization Project

"The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of parenting style and having vs. not having siblings on social skill development."

The Effectiveness Of Play Therapy In A School-Based Counseling Program, Aimee Marie O'Keefe

Theses Digitization Project

This research project attempted to determine whether play therapy used to treat elementary and junior high school children in a School-Based Counseling program is effective. There is conflicting evidence in the literature as to the effectiveness of therapy with children, especially play therapy. This project used a qualitative design to evaluate play therapy used in a School-Base Counseling program (SBC). Randomly selected case files from the 1998-99 academic year were analyzed using questions considering demographic information for each child, the reason the child was referred to the program, the intervention used by the therapist, and the outcomes of therapy. The …

The Quality Of The Family Day Care Setting And Its Effects On Children's Social And Cognitive Play Behaviors, Hollie Rae Prill

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Contributing Factors Of Aggression In Elementary School Age Boys, Annmarie Mikles

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Parenting Styles And Sociodramatic Play, Lorrie Renea Moudy

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Children's Developing Social Cognitions On Love And Marriage, Julia Kim-Im

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

The Relation Of Parenting Styles To Children's Lying Behaviors, Deborah Lee Moffett

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Differences In The Sequencing Of Children's Power Strategies As A Function Of Gender And Birth Order, Alison Leslie Jaffe-Karp

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Instructions On Prosocial Behavior Of Preschool Children, Jane Marie Blackwell

Dissertations and Theses

This experiment examined the effects of instructions on the prosocial behavior (i.e., helping, sharing, teaching, and sympathy) of preschool children. Forty-eight individual children (X = 56.7 months) interacted with two adult women on two separate occasions, an initial session measuring baseline levels of prosocial behavior, and a second session several days later. In the second session, children received instructions in helping, sharing, and teaching, and an opportunity to rehearse, or practice, these prosocial behaviors. Children were given either power assertive instructions (i.e., instructions which directly told the child what to do), or inductive instructions (i.e., instructions which focused the child's …

The Relationship Of Maternal Childrearing Practices To Prosocial Behavior And Resistance To Temptation In Preschool Children, Jennifer Anne Deck Jennings

Dissertations and Theses

Preschool children's prosocial behavior and resistance to temptation were examined in relation to maternal childbearing practices. Forty-seven children and their mothers participated in the study. At a play session at the child's day care center, each child was given opportunities to behave prosocially, i.e., to help, share, teach, or exhibit sympathy, and to resist temptation, i.e., refrain from playing with an attractive but forbidden toy. Mothers of these children were individually interviewed and given a questionnaire developed for this study.

The Effects Of Gender Label On Young Children's Interpretation Of An Infant's Behavior, Susan Sterkel Haugh

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Television On Children's Behavior, Attitude, And Moral Judgment, Lauri Reinhardt

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Examiner Influence With Children In The Draw A Person Test, Stephanie Syler

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

This study investigated the influence of the examiner on children administered Machover's Draw A Person Test. Forty third and fourth grade children from two elementary schools served as subjects. The administrators were college students.

The subjects were randomly divided into four groups of 5 at each school, so that each examiner administered the test twice, once at each school. Examiners were also randomly assigned to their groups.

It was hypothesized that children tend to use the administrator of the DAP as a model for their drawings. The statistical analysis of data, however, did not support the hypothesis.

During the course …

Use Of The Pals Test To Differentiate Between High Achieving And Low Achieving Fifth Gradestudents: A Validity Study, Mickey H. Parson

All Master's Theses

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if the PALS Tests (Williams, 1958, 1961, 1964) would significantly differentiate between low achieving and hie;h achieving 5th-grade students. The basic design was the same basic design as used by Williams (1961), except that high achieving and low achieving students were used instead of acting-out and normal children. It was intended that this research supplement existing data concerning validity of the PALS Tests. The test author (Williams 1958, 1961, 1964) seems to be the only person who has conducted research regarding the PALS.

A Normative Study Of Some Developmental Aspects Of The Human Figure Drawings Of Children, Bessie M. Whitehead

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

For many years there has been much interest in the use of human figure drawings as a projective technique for diagnostic use with the mentally ill. Psychiatric implications are attributed to practically every possible characteristic exhibited in the human figure, but until recently, little has been done toward establishing standards or norms describing objectively how various groups in the population actually perform when asked to draw a person. A clinician had no ruler by which to measure the performance of his client. He had no standard by which he could decide that the behavior exhibited was usual or abnormal for …

A Study In The Development And Use Of The Place-A-Person Test, Ola Frances Hill

Master's Theses

The purposes of this paper are two-fold, first, to present data in the development of the Place-A-Person test as a technique for clinical use in eliciting children's parental and sibling preferences, and secondly, to present experimental findings of the test in regard to parental preferences in a large sample.

Children's Reactions To One Hundred Thirty-Seven Visual Items, Robert James Tufts

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to present the responses of children to one hundred thirty-seven visual items developed under the direction of the present writer specifically for this purpose. The items are pen and ink sketches of situations, actions and objects which any child might find in his daily living or about which he might fantasy.

The subject matter of the items can be best be determined by direct reference to them as they are presented in Chapter III of this thesis. They represent many types of situations and objects with no intention of including or evaluating any specific …

Individual Differences In Vocabularies Of Kindergarten Children, Ruth Marguerite Grotheer

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Origin of the Problem Many scientific investigations on various subjects taught in the elementary school have been made and consequently instruction in the schools has been greatly improved in the light of these studies. Individualization of some of the different elements of instruction has aided in solving some of the problems. There are still however a great number of problems which need to be investigated.