Sex role stereotyping in children's television programs.

Conducted an observational analysis of the male and female role models presented on 10 popular commercially produced children's TV programs. Striking sex differences (p     

The effects of antipoverty programs on children's cumulative level of poverty-related risk.

The authors examined the effects of antipoverty programs on children's cumulative poverty-related risk and the relationship between cumulative poverty-related risk and child outcomes among low-income families. Samples included 419 children ages 3-10 years in the New Hope program and 759 children ages 2-9 years in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), which tested 2 program approaches. Nine poverty-related risks made up the measure of cumulative risk. Both MFIP program approaches reduced cumulative poverty-related risk. New Hope reduced cumulative poverty-related risk among long-term welfare recipients. In both New Hope and MFIP, significant linear relationships between cumulative poverty-related risk and parent-reported behavior problems and school achievement were found. Cumulative poverty-related risk partially mediated the impacts of the MFIP programs on children's behavior problems. Among long-term welfare recipients, cumulative poverty-related risk partially mediated New Hope's impact on parent-reported school achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress, maternal distress, and children's adjustment following immigration: The buffering role of social support.

This study examined, in the context of a stress-buffering model, the relationship of certain family level variables to children's adjustment after immigration. Immigrant Chinese mothers from Hong Kong completed questionnaires regarding postmigration stress, personal distress, perceived social support, and their child's adjustment. Another adult also provided child behavior ratings. Analyses revealed that, for boys, family stress and maternal distress were significant predictors of child problems and that maternal support buffered the association between family stress and child problems. Contrary to expectation, the relationship between maternal distress and boys' problems was stronger at higher levels of maternal support. For families of girls, although there were significant relationships between the predictors and child behavior, no stress buffering was evident. Cultural explanations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of poverty on children

Although hundreds of studies have documented the association between family poverty and children's health, achievement, and behavior, few measure the effects of the timing, depth, and duration of poverty on children, and many fail to adjust for other family characteristics (for example, female headship, mother's age, and schooling) that may account for much of the observed correlation between poverty and child outcomes. This article focuses on a recent set of studies that explore the relationship between poverty and child outcomes in depth. By and large, this research supports the conclusion that family income has selective but, in some instances, quite substantial effects on child and adolescent well-being. Family income appears to be more strongly related to children's ability and achievement than to their emotional outcomes. Children who live in extreme poverty or who live below the poverty line for multiple years appear, all other things being equal, to suffer the worst outcomes. The timing of poverty also seems to be important for certain child outcomes. Children who experience poverty during their preschool and early school years have lower rates of school completion than children and adolescents who experience poverty only in later years. Although more research is needed on the significance of the timing of poverty on child outcomes, findings to date suggest that interventions during early childhood may be most important in reducing poverty's impact on children.     

Effect of 2 urban emergency department immunization programs on childhood immunization rates

BACKGROUND: Emergency departments (EDs) are recommended as sites for immunizing children. However, there is little information about the effect of ED immunization programs on immunization rates. OBJECTIVES: To assess the ability of 2 ED immunization programs to vaccinate children and to measure the effect of the programs on immunization rates after the ED visit and 6 months later. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. Emergency department patients were screened for immunization status, and vaccinations were offered to patients who either were documented to be eligible or were eligible by age and had no documented records. A systematic, sequential sample of those accepting vaccinations (study patients) was compared with a systematic, sequential sample of those not vaccinated (control subjects). Telephone interviews and medical record reviews were performed 6 months after the ED visit to verify dates of immunizations. Results were weighted to reflect the sampling frames of patients screened by the 2 programs. SETTING: Two EDs in New York City (in Manhattan and the Bronx) and the surrounding primary care offices. PATIENTS: Children (aged 0-6 years) screened for immunization status by the ED immunization program during a 10-week period; these included 210 children from the Manhattan ED (106 vaccinated in the ED) and 274 children from the Bronx ED (129 vaccinated in the ED). INTERVENTION: Emergency department immunizations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Proportion of patients (vaccinated, not vaccinated, and ED population) up-to-date for immunizations (1) at the time of the ED visit, (2) 1 day later, and (3) 6 months later. RESULTS: Two thirds of the patients in each ED had Medicaid, and one tenth were uninsured. At the time of the ED visit, 20% of the vaccinated children in each ED were actually up-to-date and were unnecessarily vaccinated; 74% (Manhattan ED) and 72% (Bronx ED) of the not vaccinated children were up-to-date (the remainder were later determined to have been eligible for vaccinations). One day after the ED visit, and 6 months later, the immunization rates of the vaccinated and not vaccinated children were similar. The results of the weighted analysis were as follows: for the entire ED population screened for immunization status, compared with up-to-date rates at the time of the ED visit, rates 1 day later were 11% (Manhattan ED) and 8% (Bronx ED) higher in each ED (P < .05); and rates 6 months later were the same in the Manhattan ED and 10% lower in the Bronx ED (P < .01). Eighteen percent of all children screened for immunization status were vaccinated; 10 to 15 children were screened and 2 to 4 children were vaccinated per 8-hour ED shift. CONCLUSIONS: This ED immunization program temporarily improved the immunization rates of the ED population, but substantial personnel time was required to achieve these small gains. Urban ED immunization programs are unlikely to be cost-effective.     

The role of experience in judging children's photographs.

3 groups of Ss—undergraduates, parents, professional psychologists—ranked photographs of 10 children on intelligence, sociability, activity, sensitivity, and mental health. In comparison with a child psychologist who had observed the children over a 2-year period, Ss, as groups, made consistent judgments of intelligence, sociability, and health; but, as individuals, their judgments were of low validity. Judgments of children's photographs are not related to practical experience or to professional training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of repeated experience on children's suggestibility.

The effect of suggestive questions on 3- to 5-year old and 6- to 8-year old children's recall of the final occurrence of a repeated event was examined. The event included fixed (identical items) as well as variable items where a new instantiation represented the item in each occurrence of the series. Relative to reports of children who participated in a single occurrence, children's reports about fixed items of the repeated event were more accurate and less contaminated by false suggestions. For variable items, repeated experience led to a decline in memory of the specific occurrence; however, there was no increase in susceptibility to suggestions about details from nontarget occurrences. Although younger children and children who were interviewed a while after the event were more suggestible, respectively, than older children and those interviewed soon after the event, repeated experience attenuated these effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of physical abuse on children's social relationships

Social behavior and peer status of 87 physically abused 8-12-year-old urban children were compared with those of 87 case-matched nonmaltreated classmates. Peer nominations and peer ratings were collected in classrooms, social networks were assessed by child interview, family variables were assessed by interviewing mothers, and behavior problems were rated by parents and teachers. Significant findings were that abused children had lower peer status and less positive reciprocity with peers chosen as friends; they were rated by peers as more aggressive and less cooperative and by parents and teachers as more disturbed; and their social networks showed more insularity, atypicality, and negativity. Social behavior as perceived by peers accounted for a significant portion of the variance in social status; global disturbance measures did not add to this association. Results are discussed in terms of a context of family violence in the development of social maladjustment.     

The role of talk in children's peer collaborations.

The role of talk in children's peer collaborations using a computer-based scientific reasoning task was investigated in this study. Seventy 4th-grade students were assigned to work alone or with a same-sex partner for 1 20-min session. Half of the children in each condition (alone and dyads) were asked to talk as they worked, and half were not. Significant performance differences between groups were present, although there were no significant differences in experimental activity. Talk dyads generated better hypotheses than no-talk alones and no-talk dyads, and talk alones did not generate better hypotheses than no-talk alones. Analyses of children's talk showed that talk dyads produced more talk overall and more interpretive types of talk than talk alones. The importance of peer collaborations as a social context that supports interpretive cognitive processes was discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of labeling and pointing on children's selective attention.

20 boys and 20 girls at each of 3 grade levels (3rd, 5th, and 7th) were tested in an incidental learning task designed to clarify the role of labeling on children's selective learning. Half the Ss labeled the central stimuli, and half pointed to them as they were exposed. Central learning increased and incidental learning decreased from 3rd to 5th to 7th grade. Labeling facilitated central learning, but pointing did not. Both labeling and pointing reduced incidental learning. Results indicate that labeling has both attention focusing and encoding effects but that the latter are more important for central learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of conceptual understanding in children's addition problem solving

The study examined the relationship between children's conceptual understanding and addition problem-solving procedures. Forty-eight 6- to 8-year-olds solved addition problems and, in a 2nd task, were prompted to judge whether a puppet could use the arithmetic properties of one problem to solve the next problem. Relational properties between consecutive problems were manipulated to reflect aspects of additive composition, commutativity, and associativity principles. Conceptual understanding was assessed by the ability to spontaneously use such relational properties in problem solving (Task 1) and to recognize and explain them when prompted (Task 2). Results revealed that conceptual understanding was related to using order-indifferent, decomposition, and retrieval strategies and speed and accuracy in solving unrelated problems. The importance of conceptual understanding for addition development is discussed.     

The role of strategic visual attention in children's drawing development

The many variables that affect the production of visually realistic drawings in children (such as instructions and contrasting models), have been widely documented in the research literature. The experiments reported here assess one variable that has been largely ignored, namely the attention that the child pays towards the drawing model. First, it was shown that the progression from intellectual to visual realism occurred between six and eight years of age, and was accompanied by a spontaneous increase in attention towards the drawing models. A second experiment showed that the drawing performance of the 6-year-olds was enhanced by contrasting tasks and explicit instructions. At all ages, explicit instructions increased attention towards the model, and the use of an efficient attentional strategy was associated with visually realistic drawings. These studies provide further evidence that intellectual and visual realism are not distinct developmental stages, but may instead reflect the use of different attentional strategies by children.     

The role of Medicaid in ensuring children's access to care

CONTEXT: Congress enacted a series of laws beginning in the mid 1980s to expand Medicaid eligibility for children, especially those in poor families. As a result, Medicaid enrollment of children has nearly doubled over the past decade. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of Medicaid in improving access to and use of health services by poor children. DESIGN: Analysis of cross-sectional survey data from the 1995 National Health Interview Survey. Poor children with Medicaid were compared to poor children without insurance and nonpoor children with private insurance. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A total of 29711 children younger than 18 years (3716 poor children with Medicaid, 1329 poor children without insurance, 14609 nonpoor children with private insurance, and 10057 children with other combinations of poverty and insurance status) included in a nationally representative stratified probability sample of the US noninstitutionalized population. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Usual source of care, access to a regular clinician, unmet health needs, and use of physician services. RESULTS: Poor children with Medicaid compared to poor children without health insurance experienced superior access across all measured dimensions of health care, including presence of a usual source of care (95.6% vs 73.8%), frequency of unmet health needs (2.1 % vs 5.9%), and use of medical services (eg, > or =1 physician contact in past year) (83.9% vs 60.7%). Poor children with Medicaid compared to nonpoor children with private insurance used similar levels of physician services (83.9% vs 84%), but were more likely to have unmet health needs (2.1 % vs 0.6%) and were less likely to have a usual source of care (95.6% vs 97.4%). CONCLUSION: Medicaid is associated with improvements in access to care and use of services. However, there remains room for improvement when Medicaid is judged against private health insurance. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 contains several Medicaid provisions that could stimulate further improvements in access for poor children.     

The long-term effects of children's early-onset disability on marital relationships

To investigate the long-term effects of a child's chronic illness or severe physical or intellectual disability on parents and their marital relationship, the parents of 89 children, aged 14-17, years were interviewed. The parents returned a questionnaire and a social worker interviewed them. One-fifth of the respondents had experienced the child's disability as contributing positively to the marital relationship, 25% reported impairment in some areas of the marital relationship, while only 7% felt that they had drawn apart from each other. A higher level of occupational education, insecurity at onset, heavy daily demands for care of the child, unequal distribution of tasks between the spouses and a lack of time for leisure activities were found to be risk factors for impaired marital satisfaction. Adequate information, a realistic notion of the illness or disability and practical advice for everyday life seemed to be the protective factors for the marital relationship.     

The role of contextual and personal factors in children's risk taking.

The primary aims of the present studies were to (a) add to the sparse developmental database on risk taking and (b) conduct initial tests of a self-regulation model (SRM) of risk taking. According to the SRM, inappropriate risk taking is associated with overconfidence, falling prey to dysregulating influences (e.g., impulsivity, peer presence, etc.), and an insensitivity to outcomes. Experiment I tested these proposals by assessing the effects of peer presence and 4 personal factors on the risk taking of 3rd, 5th, and 7th graders. Results generally supported the predictions of the SRM. In Experiment 2, the SRM gained further support from the finding that 5 variables correlated with risk taking in 4th, 6th, and 8th graders: ability beliefs, a preference for thrill seeking, peer nomination, competitiveness, and interest. The discussion focuses on the meaning of age and gender differences in risk-taking as well as the interventional implications of the SRM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of stress and articulatory difficulty in children's early productions.

Interactions between stress level and articulatory difficulty as influences on children's early words were investigated in an elicited imitation task. Thirty-two 26-month-old children were asked to imitate nonsense-word stimuli containing target syllables that varied in articulatory difficulty and level of stress. Both factors had significant effects on aspects of the children's imitations, although the relative contributions of each differed for whole word avoidance, syllable omissions, and accuracy of production. Implications of these differential effects for accounts of children's early productions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of psychological research in the formation of policies affecting children.

Discusses factors that determine whether, and how, psychological research will have an impact on public policies regarding children. Factors discussed include (a) consistencies and inconsistencies in research findings, especially cases in which early results are greatly modified, or even reversed, by later ones; (b) cases in which documentation of a problem is not accompanied by information on the costs and benefits of possible remedial measures; (c) in evaluation research, failure to monitor the implementation as well as the expected outcomes of interventions; and (d) disjunctions in timing between the appearance of a research finding and congressional schedules, executive decision processes, and the agendas of interest groups. The importance of the political climate is stressed, as well as the need for researchers to know the right times and places for introducing their information to the policymaking process. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)