Children's Beliefs Research Articles

Institutional actors: Children's emerging beliefs about the causal structure of social roles.

Institutions make new forms of acting possible: Signing executive orders, scoring goals, and officiating weddings are only possible because of the U.S. government, the rules of soccer, and the institution of marriage. Thus, when an individual occupies a particular social role (president, soccer player, and officiator), they acquire new ways of acting on the world. The present studies investigated children's beliefs about institutional actions, and in particular whether children understand that individuals can only perform institutional actions when their community recognizes them as occupying the appropriate social role. Two studies (Study 1, N = 120 children, ages 4-11; Study 2, N = 90 children, ages 4-9) compared institutional actions to standard actions that do not depend on institutional recognition. In both studies, 4- to 5-year-old children believed all actions were possible regardless of whether an individual was recognized as occupying the social role. In contrast, 8- to 9-year-old children robustly distinguished between institutional and standard actions; they understood that institutional actions depend on collective recognition by a community. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Religious testimony in a secular society: Belief in unobservable entities among Chinese parents and their children.

When learning about the existence of unobservable scientific phenomena such as germs or religious phenomena such as God, children are receptive to the testimony of other people. Research in Western cultures has shown that by 5 to 6 years of age, children-like adults-are confident about the existence of both scientific and religious phenomena. We examined the beliefs of secular and Christian children growing up in China as well as the beliefs of their parents. All participants-secular and Christian children, as well as their parents-were confident about the existence of the scientific phenomena. No such consensus emerged for religious phenomena. Whereas secular children and their parents were skeptical, Christian children and their parents were confident about the existence of the religious phenomena. Moreover, a similar pattern was found for Christian children in preschools and for Christian children with more extensive exposure to the secular state curriculum. Indeed, for religious phenomena, a positive association was found between the beliefs of Christian children and their parents, highlighting the potential influence of parental input in a predominantly secular society. Overall, the results indicate that children's religious beliefs are related to the beliefs of their parents, even when those beliefs go against the majority view. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Groups as institutions: The use of constitutive rules to attribute group membership

Across four experiments we tested children's (N = 229, aged 4–9) beliefs about what makes an individual a member of a group. One model (groups as institutions) predicts children believe groups are based on constitutive rules, i.e. collectively agreed-upon rules that ground membership. Another model (groups as social network) predicts children believe groups are based on patterns of social relationships. We tested whether and to what extent children rely on constitutive rules to attribute group membership. We found that young children can reason about constitutive rules as a means of becoming a group member, and their reasoning about constitutive rules is relatively sophisticated (Studies 1–3). But, when constitutive rules are pitted against friendship, young children (4–5) prioritize friendship and older children (6–9) prioritize constitutive rules. Therefore, both models contribute to the understanding of children's concepts of social groups across development.

"GiochiAMO," a Gaming Intervention to Prevent Smoking and Alcohol Habits Among Children: A Single-Arm Field Trial.

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of the "GiochiAMO" prevention program on modifying children's knowledge and belief regarding the use and abuse of alcohol and tobacco smoking. Materials and Methods: "GiochiAMO" is a multicomponent single-arm field trial based on card and board games to teach and enhance knowledge about risk factors related to smoking and alcohol consumption. A structured questionnaire was administered before and after the intervention to assess any change in knowledge. Results: A total of 167 students between 9 and 11 years of age took part in the intervention. Data concerning knowledge about cigarette smoking showed a statistically significant improvement (P = 0.008) with an increase of the mean scores from 5.93 (standard deviation [SD] = 2.05) to 7.90 (SD = 2.03). The scores related to the life skills of the intervention performed in the fourth grade classes demonstrated statistically significant improvements (P = 0.027). The scores related to the knowledge about alcohol consumption highlighted a statistically significant improvement (P < 0.001), with mean scores that rose from 7.44 (SD = 1.99) to 9.41 (SD = 1.94). The scores related to the life skills of the intervention performed in the fifth grade classes demonstrated improvements, although they were not statistically significant (P = 0.770). Conclusions: "GiochiAMO" demonstrated significantly improved knowledge about the risk and consequences of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption on health. Longer follow-up studies, including a larger sample size, will be needed.

Children's peer beliefs, friendlessness, and friendship quality: Reciprocal influences and contributions to internalizing symptoms.

Children's peer beliefs have been shown to mediate the link between stress experienced within the peer group and later internalizing symptoms. This study extends this research by examining bidirectional associations between children's peer beliefs, friendlessness, and perceived friendship quality (i.e., receiving provision, negative treatment) and identifying indirect pathways to internalizing symptoms. Participants (N = 366; Mage = 9.34 years, SD = .07; 196 girls) reported on their peer beliefs, classroom friendships, friendship quality, and internalizing symptoms at 3 time points across 1 calendar year. Receiving provision from friends predicted less negative peer beliefs. Negative peer beliefs predicted less received provisions from friends and higher levels of negative treatment, and, in turn, negative treatment from friends predicted higher levels of internalizing symptoms. These findings provide novel insights into how perceptions of the peer group relate to dyad-level relationship processes, including the potential contribution of peer beliefs to children's peer adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Young children's mothers' beliefs about the role and literacy methods at kindergarten and first year of primary school

This study presents the findings of a survey regarding the beliefs of parents of children in early childhood education about the role that, in their opinion, kindergarten plays in the literacy of their children and the possible differences in teaching practices between kindergarten and primary school. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews of 15 mothers. The research was carried out at Patras, in the spring of 2017. The data was analyzed with the content analysis method and the results show a variety of beliefs about the parents’ expectations regarding the literacy methods at kindergarten, prevalent of which is the belief that children should be taught the mechanics of reading written work at kindergarten through games and without placing emphasis on the learning outcome. On the other hand, the participants seem to have accepted the emphasis of systematic teaching at year one of primary school.

Using participatory drama workshops to explore children's beliefs, understandings and experiences of coming to hospital for clinical procedures.

Children attending hospital for a clinical procedure such as a scan or blood test can experience anxiety and uncertainty. Children who are informed and supported before and during procedures tend to have a more positive experience. Despite this, there is a lack of empirical evidence directly from children around how they would like to be supported before, during and after a procedure. This qualitative study used improvised drama workshops to investigate children's (n = 15, aged 7-14 years) perceptions and opinions of attending hospital for a procedure and what would help them have a positive encounter. Children portrayed themselves as having a small presence during a hospital procedure, depicted by the two themes of 'having to be brave but feeling scared inside' and 'wanting to get involved but being too afraid to ask'. Within both themes, children described how the directive and reassuring language and actions used by health professionals and parents marginalized their contributions. This study shows that children attending hospital for procedures value the opportunity to have a presence and active role, to express their emotions, join in interactions and be involved in making choices about their care.

Predictors of therapeutic treatment outcome in adolescent chronic tic disorders.

Chronic tic disorders may have a major impact on a child's function. A significant effect has been shown for combined habit reversal training (HRT) and exposure response prevention (ERP) treatment delivered in an individual and group setting. The present study examines predictors and moderators of treatment outcome after an acute therapeutic intervention. Fifty-nine children and adolescents were randomised to manualised treatment combining HRT and ERP as individual or group training. Age, gender, baseline tic severity, Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale (PUTS) scores, Beliefs about Tic Scale (BATS) scores, hypersensitivity and comorbid psychiatric symptoms were analysed as predictors of outcome. The same characteristics were examined as moderators for individual versus group treatment. Outcome measures included the change in total tic severity (TTS) score and functional impairment score (as measured by the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS)). Internalising symptoms predicted a lesser decrease in functional impairment. The occurrence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms predicted a larger decrease in TTS. Baseline hypersensitivity and high scores on depressive symptoms favoured individual treatment. High baseline PUTS scores favoured group therapy. This is the first study examining factors predicting and moderating perceived functional impairment following a therapeutic intervention. The study adds to the knowledge on predictors and moderators of TTS. Furthermore, this is the first study examining the effect of the BATS score. The study points towards factors that may influence treatment outcome and that require consideration when choosing supplemental treatment. This applies to comorbid anxiety and depressive symptoms, and to the child's belief about their tics and premonitory urge. None.

Children's Perception and Belief about Medicines: Effectiveness and Its Autonomy.

BACKGROUND:The use of medicines in children is usually always under the supervision of parents. Children are considered not to understand the concept of medicine properly. Children’s perceptions of medicine are mostly formed from everyday experience. This can have an impact on children’s beliefs about medicines which they are also required to be active and rational medicine users.AIM:This study aims to look at children’s perceptions and beliefs about medicines, especially in the perspective of medicine efficacy and children’s autonomy in using them.METHOD:The study was conducted with an analytical method with a cross-sectional approach using a questionnaire instrument in grade V elementary school children in Padang City, Indonesia. The total sample size obtained was 503 students.RESULTS:Children still think that medicine efficacy is influenced by taste, colour, size, medicine price, a place to buy medicine and how to get medication. 10.1% of children have stored the medicine at home, and 48.5% of children always depends on waited for their parents when they wanted to take medicine. Regarding children’s access to medicines, 11.5% of children have bought their own over-the-counter medicine to a pharmacy or medicine store without the parents’ knowledge. 31.4% of children have taken medicine at home without the parents’ knowledge.CONCLUSION:The results of this study indicate that children’s perceptions of medicine efficacy are still very limited. Even though the child has used the medicine alone in a limited way, the child’s autonomy in using the medicine still needs to be monitored by the parent. Therefore, this is the reason for the need for medical education given to children, especially in schools as an integral part of health education.

Effects of an extracurricular science intervention on elementary school children's epistemic beliefs: A randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundFurther developing students’ thinking about knowledge and knowing in science (epistemic beliefs) is considered a normative goal of science education in many countries around the world, even for elementary‐school‐aged children.AimsThe goal of the present study was to introduce and evaluate a new intervention in science education aimed at developing children's epistemic beliefs, epistemic curiosity, and investigative interests. The intervention included an inquiry‐based learning approach as well as reflections on epistemic issues because these methods are currently seen as most promising for fostering students’ epistemic beliefs.SampleData were collected from 65 elementary school children in Grades 3 and 4 (58.46% boys, age: M = 8.73, SD = 0.60) who participated in a voluntary extracurricular STEM enrichment programme in south‐west Germany.MethodsWe investigated the effectiveness of the intervention by applying a randomized block design with a treated control group and repeated measures. The effectiveness of the intervention was analysed via multiple linear regression analyses.ResultsThe results indicated that the children assigned to the intervention developed more sophisticated epistemic beliefs and a higher level of epistemic curiosity than the children assigned to the control condition. No intervention effects were found on investigative interests.ConclusionsThe results provide initial evidence for the effectiveness of the intervention and demonstrate that it is possible to improve epistemic beliefs among elementary school children in Grades 3 and 4. The study provides a starting point for understanding how young children develop epistemic beliefs.

Young children's perceptions and beliefs about hypothetical shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant peers at school

AbstractThe aim of this study was to explore young children's perceptions, beliefs, and anticipated outcomes about different types of social withdrawal (shyness, unsociability, social avoidance). Participants were N = 212 children (n = 110 boys) aged 2.55–6.37 years (M = 4.86, SD = 0.89) recruited from three preschools and kindergartens in Italy. Children were interviewed individually and asked about hypothetical peers displaying different types of social withdrawal (i.e., shy, unsociable, socially avoidant) and for comparison purposes, aggressive and socially competent behaviors were also assessed. Among the three vignettes depicting types of withdrawn children, children rated the hypothetical shy peer as having the highest social motivations, the unsociable peer as receiving the least sympathy from others, and the avoidant peer as being the least intelligent and least liked by the teacher. In addition, girls reported wanting to play more with the shy peer than boys, and kindergarteners reported a higher affiliative preference for all subtypes of socially withdrawn peers than preschoolers. These findings suggest that Italian young children have a quite sophisticated ability to differentiate among the different social motivations and emotions that may underlie social withdrawal.

Exploring stigma and its effect on access to mental health services in unaccompanied refugee children.

Aims and methodDespite substantial evidence to show that unaccompanied refugee children suffer a high prevalence of mental illness, their access to services remains poor. One may hypothesise that this is associated with their negative perceptions of mental illness. However, there has been little research exploring this important subject. We aimed to explore unaccompanied refugee children's experiences, perceptions and beliefs of mental illness, focusing on stigma. Fifteen unaccompanied refugee children and 15 carers were interviewed by a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. RESULTS: Three main themes were identified, focusing mainly on issues of stigma related to mental health, mental illness and their treatment, and they were interpreted in detail.Clinical implicationsOur findings will contribute to current understanding of stigma and discrimination, and their effect on service engagement, and will hopefully stimulate interest to further explore this area and develop potential solutions.Declaration of interestNone.

Children lose confidence in their potential to "be scientists," but not in their capacity to "do science".

Over the course of middle childhood, children's interest and beliefs about their own capacities for success in science often decline. This pernicious decline is especially evident among underrepresented groups, including girls, members of some racial and ethnic minorities, and children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The present research (N=306, ages 6-11) found that while children lose interest and feelings of efficacy about their potential to "be scientists" across middle childhood, they maintain more robust interest and efficacy about "doing science." These patterns were confirmed in both longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses; effects were stable or increased across time and age. Mediation analyses revealed that the positive effect of action framing is partially accounted for by children's views that the group of people who do science is more inclusive than the category of scientists. These findings suggest that using action-focused language to encourage children in science is more inclusive and may lead to more science engagement across middle childhood than language that emphasizes scientists as an identity category. Implications for educational practices will be discussed.

Οι πεποιθήσεις των παιδιών για τη μετά θάνατον ζωή: Επισκόπηση της σύγχρονης έρευνας

This paper reviews recent studies investigating children's afterlife beliefs. In doing so, the paper concentrates on the following questions: (a) At what age do children begin to believe in the afterlife and what is the developmental course of their beliefs? (b) Is children's belief in the afterlife grounded on a common-sense dualism; is this belief related to constraints of the human cognitive system; or is it the consequence of religious indoctrination and other socio-cultural influences? Finally, the paper attempts a critical discussion of the research findings, and discusses the prospects for future research.

The development of children's epistemic beliefs across the early years of elementary school.

A growing body of research shows that the beliefs we hold about the nature of knowing and knowledge (epistemic beliefs) may mediate moral reasoning. However, a limitation of much of the research in the area of epistemic beliefs is the lack of a longitudinal approach. The study investigated longitudinal changes in Australian elementary school children's beliefs about knowing and knowledge (epistemic beliefs) across three judgement domains (personal taste, ambiguous facts, and moral values). The participants in this longitudinal study were tracked from Year 1 through to Year 3 of primary school. In Year 1, there were 169 participants (83 boys, 86 girls) aged 6-7years (M=6.7, SD=0.32). In Year 2, there were 156 participants (79 boys, 77 girls), and in Year 3, there were 129 participants (65 boys, 64 girls). Using vignettes that reflected each of the three judgement domains, childrenwere interviewed about the beliefs held by two puppet characters. The interviews took place each year across the early years of elementary education in Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3. Findings revealed that children's epistemic beliefs in each of the judgement domains became more subjectivist over time but that the age at which this occurred differed according to the judgement domain in question. We argue that it is important for teachers to pay attention to children's beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing in the process of scaffolding their reasoning about moral values for active citizenship.

Further evidence for social projection in the classroom: Predicting perceived ethnic norms

This longitudinal study examines whether children in late childhood (age 7–12) project their ethnic attitudes on their classroom peer group, by using these attitudes to predict children's perceptions of the descriptive ethnic norms in their classroom. Children's norm perceptions were relatively unstable over a half year period, and their ethnic minority group attitudes in the fall uniquely predicted their perceptions of the corresponding classroom norm in the spring. This effect seemed to be unrelated to age-related cognitive limitations, because it was equally strong for younger versus older participants and absent for children's majority group attitudes. Results indicate that children can use social projection to make inferences about ethnic classroom norms, which has important implications for peer influence studies that rely on subjective norm perceptions: What seems to be a normative influence in those studies might (partly) be a perpetuation and strengthening of children's prior attitudes and beliefs via social projection.

Chilean kindergarten children's beliefs about mathematics: Family matters.

This study examines the relations among parental beliefs and practices about mathematics, children's beliefs about mathematics, participants' gender, and family socioeconomic status (SES). The study was conducted in Chile, a country with significant gender gaps in standardized test results in mathematics, with boys receiving significantly higher scores than girls. One hundred eighty Chilean kindergarteners (Mage = 5.6 years) of low and high SES completed both implicit and explicit measures of their beliefs about mathematics. Children's mothers and fathers also completed adult versions of these tests, as well as measures of home numeracy practices. This combination of child and parental assessments (both mother and father), including both implicit and explicit measures, provided a wider range of measures than in previous studies. On implicit measures of math-gender stereotypes, boys showed the math = boy stereotype significantly more strongly than girls did. Both fathers and mothers showed this stereotype on both implicit and explicit measures. Fathers also linked me = math (math self-concept) more strongly than mothers on both implicit and explicit measures. Kindergarten girls' implicit math self-concept was explained by a combination of parents' math self-concepts and SES. Taken together, these results show that by 5 years of age children are already developing beliefs about "who does math" in their culture, and that parental beliefs and practices are significantly linked to children's stereotypes and self-concepts about mathematics before they enter formal schooling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The reproduction of benefit receipt: Disentangling the intergenerational transmission

Adult children of benefit recipients are more likely to also receive benefits themselves. This may be a spurious effect, resulting from similarities between parents and children, but it is also possible that parental benefit receipt generates more benefit recipiency among their offspring. Such a non-spurious effect may be due to children's educational attainment, information, beliefs, and norms about welfare or work. We analyse longitudinal administrative data on benefit receipt among parents and children in the Netherlands. We approach causality through the timing of parental benefit receipt, and find indications for a non-spurious effect on adult children's benefit receipt. Parental benefit receipt lowers the child's educational attainment, and this subsequently results in more benefit receipt. The remaining effect is more likely related to beliefs and norms than to information provision.

Child, Mother, Father, and Teacher Beliefs About Child Academic Competence: Predicting Math and Reading Performance in European American Adolescents.

Beliefs about child competence in math and reading have important implications for academic performance in adolescence. However, it is unclear whether children's own beliefs are the most important predictor of their academic performance or whether parents' and teachers' beliefs about child competence influence child academic performance. We assessed mothers', fathers', teachers', and children's beliefs about European American children's (N=189) competence in math and reading at age 10 and children's math and language performance at ages 10, 13, and 18years. Confirmatory factor models demonstrated that children's and teachers' beliefs had lower loadings on a latent variable of child competence in math and reading than mothers' beliefs. Children's self-competence beliefs in math and reading were not significantly correlated, suggesting children may use dimensional comparisons when assessing their own competence. Mothers', fathers', and teachers' assessments of child competence in math were strongly correlated with their assessments of child competence in reading. Controlling for stability in academic performance, family socioeconomic status, and other reporters, mothers and fathers who rated their children's math competence higher had adolescents who performed better in math, and fathers who rated their children's reading competence higher had adolescents who performed better in language tasks. However, children who rated their own competence higher in math and reading had lower math and language (for girls only) performance in adolescence. European American children may use dimensional comparisons that render them poorer judges of their math and reading competence than parents.

The Moderating Role of Parents' Dysfunctional Sleep-Related Beliefs Among Associations Between Adolescents' Pre-Bedtime Conflict, Sleep Quality, and Their Mental Health.

The current study's aim was to examine the indirect effect of parent-child pre-bedtime arguing about the bedtime process on adolescents' symptoms of anxiety and depression via the mediating role of adolescents' sleep quality. In addition, this study sought to test this mediation model across different levels of both parents' and children's dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs (ie, moderated mediation). A total of 193 adolescent (mean age = 15.7 years, standard deviation [SD] = .94; 54.4% female) and parent dyads completed both baseline, online surveys, and online 7-day, twice-daily sleep diaries. Parents (mean age = 47.6 years, SD = 5.4; 80% female) reported daily for 7 days on the intensity of any conflict regarding the adolescents' bedtime process, and adolescents completed daily reports of their sleep duration and quality (morning diary) and their anxiety and depressive symptoms (evening diary). Results suggested that adolescent sleep quality mediated the indirect association between parent-child pre-bedtime arguing and adolescents' anxiety and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, this mediation model was moderated by parents' dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs. Only in families with parents reporting either average or above-average (+1 SD) levels of dysfunctional beliefs did this mediation model emerge as significant. Results provide further evidence for the essential role of the family environment in adolescent sleep and well-being, and they suggest that parents' dysfunctional sleep-related cognitions put adolescents at risk for a negative cascade stemming from arguing over bedtime to poor-quality sleep and its negative consequences on their mental health.