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Play Task (play + task)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	80%

Selected Abstracts

Focused attention in toddlers: measurement, stability, and relations to negative emotion and parenting

INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2008
Bridget M. Gaertner
Abstract This longitudinal study examined individual differences and correlates of focused attention when toddlers were approximately 18 months old (T1; n=256) and a year later (T2; n=230). Toddlers' attention and negative emotionality were reported by mothers and non-parental caregivers and rated globally by observers. Toddlers' focused attention also was observed during two mother,child interactions and an independent play task. Measures of maternal emotional support and control were obtained via self-report and observation. Some contemporaneous relations among indices of toddlers' attention were obtained, particularly for observed measures. Moreover, all measures of attention demonstrated stability across time. Negative emotionality was negatively related to toddlers' observed attention at both ages, whereas maternal praise had positive concurrent associations. Maternal control was negatively related to observed attention at T2 and also predicted longitudinally, but only for children who initially had low or moderate attention. The findings suggest that individual differences in focused attention evidence stability early in life but can be influenced by adult socialization. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Family context and young children's responses to earthquake

THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 9 2007
Laura J. Proctor
Background:, Family context can affect children's vulnerability to various stresses, but little is known regarding the role of family variables on children's reactions to natural disaster. This prospective study examined the influence of predisaster observed parenting behaviors and postdisaster parental stress on young children's distress following an earthquake. Methods:, Participants were 117 two-parent families with a child age 4,5 at the initial assessment. The families experienced different degrees of impact from the earthquake. Pre-earthquake family context comprised observations of parents' positive and negative behaviors during a parent,child play task. Eight months after the earthquake, mothers reported symptoms of parental stress and children's distress. Results:, Earthquake impact and children's distress symptoms were moderately correlated (r = .44), but certain pre-earthquake parental behaviors moderated the relationship. The dose,response association between earthquake impact and children's symptoms did not hold for families in which fathers showed high levels of negative behaviors with daughters, or mothers showed low levels of positive behaviors with sons. In addition, results consistent with full mediation for boys (and partial mediation for girls) indicated that 86% of the total effect of earthquake impact on boys' distress (and 29% on girls' distress) occurred through the mediator of reported parental stress. Conclusions:, These findings demonstrate that young children's responses to an abrupt, negative environmental event, such as an earthquake, are influenced in part by the nature of the parent,child relationship prior to the event as well as by the responses parents exhibit following the event. [source]

Self in Context: Autonomy and Relatedness in Japanese and U.S. Mother,Preschooler Dyads

CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2002
Tracy A. Dennis
Cultural differences and similarities in socialization during two contrasting laboratory tasks were examined in 30 Japanese mothers and their preschoolers, both temporarily residing in the United States, and 30 U.S. mothers and their preschoolers (age: M= 55.8 months, SD= 4.9). Mother and child actions, speech, emotion, and attention were coded from videotaped observations during a free play task and waiting task. Cross,cultural comparisons showed that U.S. mothers had more conversations that emphasized individual experiences, more often acted as playmates and used joint attention, maintained more physical distance, showed more positive emotions, and made more positive responses to child accomplishment. In contrast, Japanese mothers had more conversations that emphasized shared experiences, showed more divided attention, and maintained social role distinctions. Similar, but fewer cultural differences emerged for children. However, maternal and child characteristics also varied by task context. The results suggested an emphasis on autonomy in U.S. dyads and an emphasis on relatedness in Japanese dyads, but the interactions with task context revealed the coexistence of autonomy and relatedness. [source]

Task-to-Task Vagal Regulation: Relations With Language and Play in 20-Month-Old Children

INFANCY, Issue 3 2000
Patricia E. Suess
In this article we report patterns of task-to-task vagal tone change across multiple language and play tasks as well as associations between these patterns of task-to-task vagal tone change and language and play performance in 20-month-old girls and boys. Although initially different in vagal tone suppression during solitary play, girls and boys exhibited similar group patterns of vagal reengagement during successive language and play tasks with their mothers and with an experimenter. In terms of individual differences, vagal suppression during solitary play and vagal reengagement during social interactive tasks predicted language and play performance. Gender differences emerged in patterns of predictive relations: Task-to-task vagal changes predicted primarily play performance in girls and language performance in boys. These findings expose the effects of social context on directional changes in task-to-task vagal tone and speak to the functional role of appropriate vagal regulation in young children's language and play performance. [source]

,Needs expressed' and ,offers of care': an observational study of mothers with somatisation disorder and their children

THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 1 2007
Ivona Bialas
Background:, The abnormal illness behaviours characterising somatisation disorder may be learnt responses acquired through exposure to parental illness and health anxiety in childhood. In this observational study we explore this hypothesis by examining patterns of interaction in mothers and their school age children. Method:, A sample of 136 mother and child pairs in 3 groups (42 mothers with somatisation disorder, 44 organically ill mothers and 50 healthy mothers) completed a battery of self-report and interview measures. Their interaction in semi-structured play tasks and a meal was videotaped and later analysed for the presence of ,needs' and ,offers of care' by researchers who were blind to maternal group membership. Results:, During play, a greater proportion of the children of somatising mothers expressed ,health and safety' needs than did children of other mothers. In contrast, during a meal, these children expressed fewer needs of all types. Children of somatising mothers were more likely than other children to ignore their mothers' offers of care. The somatising mothers expressed more health and safety needs during the meal than did other mothers and were generally less responsive to all needs expressed by their children. Conclusions:, Our study suggests that mothers with somatisation disorder and their children interact differently than other mother,child pairs. This finding supports the theory for environmental influences in the development of this disorder. [source]