Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Students Learn About Documentation Throughout Their Teacher Education Program, Carolyn P. Edwards, Susan Churchill, Mary Gabriel, Ruth Heaton, Julie Jones-Branch, Christine Marvin, Michelle Rupiper

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Study groups and learning circles can offer a systematic way for early childhood teachers to interact about their work and create a culture of professional development. This paper describes how faculty systematically followed a collaborative co-inquiry process in order to improve a new early childhood interdisciplinary teacher preparation program. The team met on a regular basis throughout one academic year, with the stated objective of infusing observation/documentation knowledge and skills in a coherent and systematic way throughout the students’ program of studies. The group created a template of the cycle of inquiry, which could apply to all courses, and analyzed …

Chinese Family Strengths And Resiliency, Anqi Xu, Xiaolin Xie, Wenli Liu, Yan Ruth Xia, Dalin Liu

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Chinese family and marriage strengths and challenges are delineated in this article, including equity in marriage, affection, the ability to adapt to changes, mutual trust, compatibility, harmony, and family support. Despite the fact that Chinese households are getting smaller as a result of governmental policy and the broadening of housing markets, families remain crucial support networks, especially in the areas of socialization and intergenerational relationships. Current research on Chinese marriages and families is cited, outlining attitudinal changes regarding mate selection, divorce, and childbirth between genders, between older and younger generations, and between urban and rural residents.

Impacts Of Parents’ Divorce On Chinese Children: A Model With Academic Performance As A Mediator, Anqi Xu, Jiehai Zhang, Yan Ruth Xia

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The study examined the impact of parents’ divorce on Chinese children’s well-being. A Chinese theoretical model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling. The sample consisted of 940 Chinese children aged 6-16. The well-being of children from divorced families was compared with that of two-parent and widowed families. The results showed that children’s academic performance mediated the negative impact of divorce on children’s well-being. The societal discriminating attitude towards divorce and single-parent families had a strong negative effect on the children’s well-being. Parenting skills of the custodial parent had more influence on the children’s well-being than the marital conflicts prior to …

Nurturing Care For China’S Orphaned Children: Half The Sky Foundation Baby Sisters And Little Sisters Programs, Carolyn P. Edwards, Janice N. Cotton, Wen Zhao, Jerònia Muntaner Gelabert, Jenny Bowen

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

As the number of the world’s orphaned and abandoned children continues to increase, worry escalates among those concerned about their rights and welfare. Yet, people are finding some helpful solutions. This paper describes an international foundation called Half the Sky’s success in providing infant nurture and preschool enrichment programs, in partnership with Chinese national and provincial governments, through a coherent blend of cultural practices in curriculum and program operation. Both programs foster emotional intelligence and self-esteem, in a way that promotes peace education. Half the Sky opened two pilot programs in 2000 and today operates in 30 institutions in 12 …

Family Income And Attitudes Toward Older People In China: Comparison Of Two Age Cohorts, Xiaolin Xie, Yan Ruth Xia, Xiaofan Liu

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Three hundred and five traditional college students and 159 baby boomers (40–55 years old) in China participated in the study with Kogan’s Attitude toward Old People [Kogan (1961) Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62(1), 44–54] being used. Results from ANOVA showed overall, baby boomers held more positive attitudes toward older people than college students. There was a significant interaction effect between cohorts and family income; that is, the lower family income group in both samples did not differ significantly from each other, it was in the higher family income group that difference was revealed. Baby Boomers in the …

Attrition Bias, Richard B. Miller, Cody S. Hollist

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Attrition bias is one of the major threats to multiwave studies, and it can bias the sample in two ways. First, attrition bias can affect the external validity of the study. If some groups of people drop out of the study more frequently than others, the subsequent longitudinal sample no longer resembles the original sample in the study. As a result, the remaining sample is not generalizable to the original population that was sampled. For example, a longitudinal sample examining the grieving process of women following the death of a spouse may fail to retain those participants who have become …

Culture-Related Strengths Among Latin American Families: A Case Study Of Brazil, Gustavo Carlo, Silvia Koller, Marcela Raffaelli, Maria Rosario De Guzman

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

We provide an analysis of culturally-specific strength characteristics associated with families in Brazil. The focus is on familism and familial interdependence, the role of the extended family, cooperative and prosocial tendencies, a collective orientation, and the closing gender gap. The article is divided into four sections. First, we provide some background information on the demographics and history of Brazil. Second, the family strength characteristics are discussed. Third, case studies are briefly presented to illustrate the protective role of the characteristics. And fourth, we discuss the implications of the strengths-based approach to studying families for theories, research, and program development.

Providers’ Perspectives On Troublesome Overusers Of Medical Services, Richard Bischoff, Cody S. Hollist, Joellen Patterson, Lee Williams, Layne Prest, Matthew D. Barkdull

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to better understand providers’ perspectives of and experiences with frequent users of medical services. Focus group interviews were con¬ducted with physicians in San Diego, California, and Omaha, Nebraska. Indicators of problematic patient overuse of medical services were identified as well as the common physician experience of overuse that is troublesome and problematic. Qualitative data analysis revealed that physicians did not consider patient overuse, by itself, to be problematic. Overuse became problematic and troublesome when patient behavior violated the physician-patient relationship of trust. All participants described a distinct negative physiological reaction to these patients.

It Takes Time: Impacts Of Early Head Start That Lead To Reductions In Maternal Depression Two Years Later, Rachel Chazan-Cohen, Catherine Ayoub, Barbara Alexander Pan, Lori Roggman, Helen Raikes, Lorraine Mckelvey, Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, Andrea Hart

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a random-assignment evaluation, found a broad pattern of positive impacts for children and families. However, there were no program impacts on depression or use of mental health services by the time children reached age 3, at the end of the Early Head Start (EHS) program. This paper presents recent findings from the follow-up study in the spring prior to the children entering kindergarten, when a positive program impact emerged for reducing maternal depression. Results show that earlier program impacts on children and parents (when children were 2 and 3 years of age) …

Individual And Familial Stressors Among Rural Nebraskan, Bilingual, Paraprofessional Educators, Rochelle L. Dalla, William E. Lopez, Vicky O. Jones, Yan Ruth Xia

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Individual (e.g., depression, learning styles) and familial (e.g., social support) factors affecting the psychosocial well-being of bilingual, rural Nebraska, paraprofessional educators were examined. Of 26 participants, 15 were first and 5 were second generation Hispanic immigrants. All were currently (n = 20) or formerly (n = 6) involved in an online, distance education, bachelor’s degree program in elementary education, with English as a second language certification. Results from data analyses are presented, as are suggestions for working with unique populations.

Mother–Child Bookreading In Low-Income Families: Correlates And Outcomes During The First Three Years Of Life, Helen Raikes, Barbara Alexander Pan, Gayle Luze, Catherine S. Tamis-Lemonda, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Jill Constantine, Louisa Banks Tarullo, H. Abigail Raikes, Eileen T. Rodriguez

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

About half of 2,581 low-income mothers reported reading daily to their children. At 14 months, the odds of reading daily increased by the child being fi rstborn or female. At 24 and 36 months, these odds increased by maternal verbal ability or education and by the child being fi rstborn or of Early Head Start status. White mothers read more than did Hispanic or African American mothers. For English-speaking children, concurrent reading was associated with vocabulary and comprehension at 14 months, and with vocabulary and cognitive development at 24 months. A pattern of daily reading over the 3 data points …

“It’S A Balancing Act!”: Exploring School/Work/Family Interface Issues Among Bilingual, Rural Nebraska, Paraprofessional Educators, Rochelle L. Dalla, Pallabi Moulikgupta, Wiliam E. Lopez, Vicky Jones

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Nebraska’s rural school districts have a rapidly growing Spanish-speaking student body and few qualified instructors to meet their educational needs. This investigation examined factors that promote and challenge the ability of rural Nebraska paraprofessional educators to complete an online B.S. program in elementary education, with a K-12 English as a second language endorsement. Interviews focused on the interface between school, work, and family, with special attention on family system change and adaptation. Twenty-six bilingual paraprofessional educators enrolled (or formerly enrolled) in the education program were interviewed. Twenty were first- (n = 15) or second-generation (n = 5) immigrant Latino/as. Influences …

Montessori Education And Its Scientific Basis, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Review of: Angeline Stoll Lillard, Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, Oxford University Press, 2005.

Montessori education is the subject of Angeline Lillard’s book. Montessori, a brilliant figure who was Italy’s first woman physician, created an approach that reflected a late 19th century vision of mental development and theoretical kinship with the great European progressive educational philosophers, Jean-Jacque Rousseau, Johann Pestalozzi and Fredrich Froebel (Edwards, 2002 and Edwards, 2003). The many parallels between her ideas and those of the American progressive, John Dewey, her contemporary, are due to the fact that their ideas grew out of shared theoretical roots …

Children's Social Behaviors And Peer Interactions In Diverse Cultures, Carolyn P. Edwards, Maria Rosario De Guzman, Jill Brown, Asiye Kumru

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Cultural socialization has long interested behavioral and social scientists, but recent advances in theory and methodology have allowed researchers to construct new and more powerful theoretical frameworks for conceptualizing the complex ways in which children interact with their environments during the course of development. Studies of childhood socialization in the classic tradition of cross-cultural research were static in their approach to analyzing underlying processes because of limitations in the theories and methods available at the time they were conducted. Many studies, for example, involved straightforward associations or comparisons of levels of parental socialization pressure (the antecedent condition) with children's social …

Child Care For Children With And Without Disabilities: The Provider, Observer, And Parent Perspectives, Lisa Knoche, Carla A. Peterson, Carolyn P. Edwards, Hyun-Joo Jeon

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This three-phase study, part of a larger study conducted by the Midwest Child Care Research Consortium (MCCRC), investigated the characteristics of child care providers in inclusive and non-inclusive center-based classrooms and family child care homes, the observed quality of care in a subset of these programs, and families’ perceptions of quality and satisfaction with child care services. A telephone survey of 2022 randomly selected Midwestern providers, 36% of whom provided inclusive services, revealed that inclusive providers rated themselves higher on most quality-related indicators. Inclusion status was related to observed quality in family childcare homes (n = 132), with non-inclusive homes …

Involvement In Early Head Start Home Visiting Services: Demographic Predictors And Relations To Child And Parent Outcomes, Helen Raikes, Beth L. Green, Jane Atwater, Ellen Kisker, Jill Constantine, Rachel Chazan-Cohen

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

One strand of home visiting research investigates effi cacy while another investigates under what conditions programs achieve outcomes. The current study follows the latter approach. Using a within-program design in a sample of 11 home-based sites in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation study, this study found that three components of home visits (quantity of involvement including number of home visits, duration in the program, length of visits and intensity of service; quality of engagement including global ratings of engagement by staff and ratings of engagement during each home visit; and the extent to which home visits were child …

“You Can’T Hustle All Your Life”: An Exploratory Investigation Of The Exit Process Among Street-Level Prostituted Women, Rochelle L. Dalla

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Between 1998 and 1999, 43 street-level prostituted women were interviewed regarding their developmental experiences, including prostitution entry, maintenance, and exit attempts. Three years later, 18 of the original 43 participants were located and interviewed. This exploratory follow-up investigation focused on the women’s life experiences between the two points of contact, with emphasis on sex-industry exit attempts. Five women had maintained their exit efforts and had not returned to prostitution, nine had returned to both prostitution and drug use, and one had returned to prostitution only. Three additional women had violated parole and been reincarcerated. Themes evident among those who were …

Facs 170 Introduction To Early Care And Education: A Three Year Analysis And Peer Review Of College Teaching/Learning, Toni Hill-Menson, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

I. Peer Review of Teaching Project This project provides a way for college faculty to work with others in a supportive context to document and reflect on both the quantity and quality of student learning. Faculty members work in groups of 3-5 for a semester or year to support each other's exploration of not only what students learn but also how they learn, for a particular selected course. Personal goals: To improve teaching delivery and teaching methods for the enhancement of student learning and student professional development.

II. UNL's Peer Review Process The purpose is to improve college teaching and …

Showing That Early Childhood Education Works: Lessons From Italy, China, And The Usa, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Lessons from around the world; What does it matter about early childhood education? Why the controversy about public support for early childhood education? What process or system should be used to determine what works in early education? Can the same process be used to improve services? What is the role of government? Alternatives: 1. Consumers should determine… (What happens when private choices drive the market for early childhood services?) Observed quality of care in four Midwestern states; Parent data: “All things considered, how would you grade the quality of the care your child is receiving from his/her current caregiver?” Role …

Parental Ethnotheories Of Child Development: Looking Beyond Independence And Individualism In American Belief Systems, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lisa Knoche, Vibeke Aukrust, Asiye Kumru, Misuk Kim

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Over the past several decades, the topic of child development in a cultural context has received a great deal of theoretical and empirical investigation. Investigators from the fields of indigenous and cultural psychology have argued that childhood is socially and historically constructed, rather than a universal process with a standard sequence of developmental stages or descriptions. As a result, many psychologists have become doubtful that any stage theory of cognitive or socialemotional development can be found to be valid for all times and places. In placing more theoretical emphasis on contextual processes, they define culture as a complex system of …

Children’S Play In Cross-Cultural Perspective: A New Look At The Six Cultures Study , Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

A qualitative and quantitative reanalysis of the Six Cultures data on children’s play, collected in the 1950s, was performed to revisit worlds of childhood during a time when sample communities were more isolated from mass markets and media than they are today. A count was performed of children aged 3 to 10 in each community sample scored as engaging in creative-constructive play, fantasy play, role play, and games with rules. Children from Nyansongo and Khalapur scored lowest overall, those from Tarong and Juxtlahuaca scored intermediate, and those from Taira and Orchard Town scored highest. Cultural norms and opportunities determined how …

Prosocial Behaviors In Context: A Study Of The Gikuyu Children Of Ngecha, Kenya, Maria Rosario De Guzman, Carolyn P. Edwards, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This study examines children’s prosocial behaviors in everyday contexts that represent varying degrees of strength of situational demands. Behavioral observations of children (N = 89) ages 2 to 10 years (M = 5.25, SD = 2.23)., collected in Ngecha, Kenya were coded for 3 types of prosocial behaviors (nurturant, responsible and prosocial dominant) and the contexts in which these behaviors emerged (childcare, self care, labor/chores, play, idle/ social). Mixed factorial ANOVAs showed age differences in prosocial behaviors favoring older children as well as context effects. Prosocial behaviors occurred more frequently than in labor/chores than in play, idle/social or self-care contexts; …

Ensinando As Crianças Através De Centenas De Linguagens [Teaching Children Through “Hundreds Of Languages.”], Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Os sistemas simbólicos, ou "linguagens infantis", sao importantes para as crianças porque elas possuem muitas formas diferentes de aprender e pensar.

Experiêcias mais ricas, variadas e multidimensionais sào mais memoráveis do que experiêcias simplificadas, uniformes e unidimensionais.

O mundo contemprâneo exige que os adultos utilizem uma abordagem integrada dos símbolos.

Moral Development Study In The 21st Century: Introduction To Moral Motivation Through The Life Span: Nebraska Symposium On Motivation, Volume 51, Carolyn P. Edwards, Gustavo Carlo

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Questions of right and wrong, good and bad, lawful and unlawful, have been debated by philosophers, theologians, scholars, and ordinary people since ancient times. The moral domain represents humanity’s answers to three questions: What is the right thing to do? How is the best state of affairs achieved? What qualities make for a good person? However, the scientific investigation of the moral life has a much shorter intellectual history than does philosophical and religious reflection; nevertheless, it is not new. Moral development theory and research emerged as a critical topic over 100 years ago, at the beginning of the 20th …

Collaboration As A Foundation For The Project Approach In Family Child Care, Joan Youngquist, Carolyn P. Edwards, Ruth Heaton

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Supporting children's curiosity was considered important at my family child care home. How could we best achieve this? As my assistant caregiver Deb and 1 attended professional development workshops, we began to wonder if the project approach (Helm & Katz 2001) would be an effective means of supporting inquiry and collaborative learning. Before we would commit ourselves, we wanted to learn more. We had many questions. Just what is the project approach? What does it look like? How will it support children's learning? What do we need to be successful with it? The literature suggested many examples of successful projects …

Conceptions Of Relationships , Katie Taylor, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This study seeks to examine the relationships between young adults’ understandings of past and current interpersonal relationships and their conceptualizations of a personal relationship with a higher spiritual power.

Findings: •As hypothesized, students with permissive parents reported lower levels of Awareness and Realistic Acceptance in relation to God. •Contrary to prediction, students with permissive parents did not have higher scores on the Disappointment subscale of the SAI. •As hypothesized, students with authoritarian parents had higher scores of Instability or Disappointment in God on the SAI. •Contrary to prediction, students with authoritative parents did not have higher scores for Awareness, Realistic …

Perceptions Of Attachment Style And Marital Quality In Midlife Marriage, Cody S. Hollist, Richard B. Miller

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Based on attachment theory, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) theorizes that attachment styles influence marital quality. Although research supports this relationship among young couples, no research has examined attachment styles and marital quality in midlife marriages. We examined this issue using data from 429 married people between the ages of 40 and 50. Results indicated that insecure attachment styles were associated with marital quality, whereas secure attachment was not. These results suggest that EFT therapists can help midlife couples in distressed relationships move from insecure to secure attachment styles. However, the use of EFT to help these couples who have secure …

The Contribution Of Social Partnership And Activity Settings To The Emergence Of Sex Differences, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Certain sex differences are observable in children’s behavior in social interaction in many cultures worldwide. Age 3-6: Insulting, rough and tumble play, and dominating egoistically are the most clearly masculine behaviors, and seeking or offering physical contact, dominating prosocially, and seeking help the most feminine. These differences are strengthened or weakened, magnified or reduced according to cultural context. (They are smallest in Orchard Town and Nyansongo).

Together with colleagues, we reexamined these conclusions in The Children of Different Worlds project, which drew upon the running record observations from 12 communities to get a much larger data set also based on …

Strengths And Challenges In Chinese Immigrant Families, Xiaolin Xie, Yan Xia, Zhi Zhou

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

This qualitative study involved interviewing 40 Chinese Americans residing in Lincoln and Omaha, NE. and Naperville, IL, on their perceptions of family strengths and acculturative stress. Themes related to family strengths include family support leading to achieving a renewed sense of family, contextual support from friends and community, communication among family members. spiritual well-being, and balancing host and heritage cultures. Themes pertaining to acculturative stress are language barriers, loneliness, and loss of social status and identity at the early stage of immigration. New dimensions are being added to the current family strengths model Implications for health professionals are provided.

Chinese Adolescents’ Decision-Making, Parent-Adolescent Communication And Relationships, Yan Ruth Xia, Xiaolin Xie, Zhi Zhou, John Defrain, William H. Meredith, Raedene Combs

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The present study described Mainland Chinese adolescents’ decision-making, and examined the relationship among their decision-making involvement, parent-adolescent communication and relationship variables by using Structural Equation Modeling. Results demonstrated that Chinese parents appeared to be less authoritarian than the prevailing literature had described. Chinese adolescents experienced a passage of autonomy development similar to that of their American counterparts. Good parent-adolescent communication was positively associated with cohesion and negatively associated with conflict. It also mediated the relationship between adolescent age and parent-adolescent conflict. The relationships between parent-adolescent communication and cohesion as well as the relationship between adolescents’ age and decision involvement were …