Children's Descriptions Research Articles

Route Descriptions by Visually Impaired and Sighted Children from Memory and from Maps

The study reported here investigated the quality and content of visually impaired and sighted children's descriptions of two routes around their schools from memory and by using a map (print or tactile). It found that the descriptions from maps were generally poorer than those from memory, the descriptions of the visually impaired children contained more information than and were qualitatively different from those of the sighted children, and the descriptions of the younger visually impaired children were less well specified than those of the older visually impaired children and the sighted children.

Children's Use of VCRs

This study relies on a national survey of parents and children and interviews with children to assess the extent and nature of use of videocassette recorders (VCRs) by children and adolescents. It reports on developmental changes in the use of VCRs for repeated viewing of videos, as well as children's descriptions of when and why they rewind and fast-forward videos.

Clinical description of children's anxiety during the Gulf War.

Interviews were carried out with 322 children, ages 5 to 16 years, to examine the association of war experience and their anxiety. Body language was used as indicator of anxiety. Girls showed significantly more discrete body movements than boys.

Appraisals of Negative Events by Preadolescent Children of Divorce

This study investigated the appraisals of the significance of negative events made by 256 preadolescent children of divorce. Appraisals were assessed by a 24-item self-report scale. Confirmatory factor analysis of this scale found support for a 3-dimensional model: negative self-appraisal, negative other-appraisal, and material loss. Differentiation between the dimensions of appraisal increased with age in both cross-sectional and over-time data. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity of the self-report measure of appraisals was found with scores derived from children's open-ended descriptions of their appraisals. Cross-sectional structural equation models found significant paths between negative appraisal and psychological symptoms, over and above the direct effects of the traditional life event measure of stress. Structural equation modeling of longitudinal (5.5 months) data found a significant path from Time 1 appraisal to Time 2 anxiety for the older children.

Assessing the links between interparental conflict and child adjustment: The conflicts and problem-solving scales.

Two hundred seventy-three couples completed the Conflicts and Problem-Solving Scales (CPS), which assess dimensions of interparental conflict that affect children, including frequency, severity, resolution, and efficacy. Factor analyses revealed reliable scales for conflict strategies involving cooperation, avoidance, stalemate, physical aggression, verbal aggression, and child involvement. The CPS correlated with other measures of marital conflict, and gender differences in partners' conflict strategies were found. One hundred sixteen of the wives and 79 of the husbands participated in a larger study involving their school-age child. Parents' and children's descriptions of interparental conflict agreed with one another. There were gender differences in the ways in which the CPS scales were related to parents' and children's reports of child symptoms.

Is Understanding the Experimenter's Intentions the Clue to Conservation Ability?

The role of children's conceptions of conservation tasks was examined in this study. Specifically, this experiment assessed whether children's failure to conserve could be explained in terms of their inability to understand the experimenter's intentions, i.e. to test their knowledge. The children were tested using either the standard conservation of number task or an alternative version of the task. The tasks were presented in a context that provided the child with a reason to give a description of the task and to explain the experimenter's actions. Following the child's own description, specific questions were asked about their understanding of the task. For the analysis of the results, children were diagnosed as either conservers or nonconservers. Only a third of the conservers showed that they understood the experimenter's intentions. Moreover, the alternative version of the task significantly altered the children's conceptions of the task. The results indicate that understanding the experimenter's intentions is not a necessary prerequisite for successful performance on conservation tasks.

Examination Findings in Legally Confirmed Child Sexual Abuse: It's Normal to be Normal

Studies of alleged victims of child sexual abuse vary greatly in the reported frequency of physical findings based on differences in definition of abuse and of "findings." This study was designed to determine the frequency of abnormal findings in a population of children with legal confirmation of sexual abuse, using a standardized classification system for colposcopic photographic findings. Case files and colposcopic photographs of 236 children with perpetrator conviction for sexual abuse, were reviewed. The photos were reviewed blindly by a team member other than the examiner, and specific anatomical findings were noted and classified as normal to abnormal on a scale of 1 to 5. Historical and behavioral information, as well as legal outcome was recorded, and all data entered into a dBase III program. Correlations were sought between abnormal findings and other variables. The mean age of the patients was 9.0 years (range 8 months to 17 years, 11 months), with 63% reporting penile-genital contact. Genital examination findings in girls were normal in 28%, nonspecific in 49%, suspicious in 9%, and abnormal in 14% of cases. Abnormal anal findings were found in only 1% of patients. Using discriminant analysis, the two factors which significantly correlated with the presence of abnormal genital findings in girls were the time since the last incident, and a history of blood being reported at the time of the molest. Abnormal genital findings are not common in sexually abused girls, based on a standardized classification system. More emphasis should be placed on documenting the child's description of the molestation, and educating prosecutors that, for children alleging abuse: "It's normal to be normal."

Children's Descriptions of Their Firesetting Incidents: Characteristics and Relationship to Recidivism

The primary purpose of the study was to identify characteristics of children's firesetting incidents and examine the relationship of reported characteristics to psychopathology and firesetting history. A sample of 95 firesetters were interviewed using the Fire Incident Analysis for Children (FIAC). Other child or parent measures were obtained reflecting behavioral correlates and risk factors for firesetting at initial assessment, and firesetting history measures at 2-year follow-up. Access to incendiaries, lack of child remorse and parental consequences, and motives of curiosity and fun were commonly reported characteristics. Certain firesetting characteristics were associated with follow-up recidivism. Repeat versus single-incident firesetters at initial assessment were similar in firesetting characteristics but differed in measures of psychopathology and follow-up recidivism. Children can report on personal and environmental details of their firesetting incidents, which may help to identify those children most at-risk for setting an additional fire. The findings bear implications for understanding firesetting risk-assessment measures, the role of specialized child interviews, and potential predictors of firesetting recidivism among children.

Establishing Order. Small Girls Write about Family Life

ABSTRACT The data used here are narratives on the topic ‘My future family’. In all, 32 children, 18 girls and 14 boys, took part in the study. The aim was to analyse children's own descriptions and interpretations of what family life is like or could be like. The article focuses on four girls and discusses their narratives using concepts from literary theory. Two types of main characters are found. These are ideal types in Weber's meaning and many of the girls' main characters are combinations of these types. The woman in control of family life can be described as the overriding theme in the narratives. The narratives can be seen as a step in socialisation to motherhood, but they must also be read as texts and seen in context. 1 The research reported here was financed by the Swedish Council for Social Research. I wish to express my thanks to Carina Fast who, as the classroom teacher in the study, was an important partner in collecting data from the children and in discussing and analysing the material. I ...

Structure, Motion, and Preschoolers' Perceptions of Social Causality

Children 3,4, and 5 years old provided free-response descriptions of one of four short video displays. These consisted of either the original Heider and Simmel (1944) animated film or one of three versions of the film that had been altered with a digital special-effects generator. In the altered versions, (a) dynamic aspects of the original film were disrupted but structural properties were left intact, (b) structural aspects of the film were disrupted but dynamic properties were preserved, or (c) both structural and dynamic properties of the film were disrupted. Analyses of children's descriptions indicated that their propensity to describe the original display in anthropomorphic terms, like adults', is based on the patterns of motion that characterize the film.

Adults' Free-Form Identification of Emotions from Children's Descriptions of Their Antecedents: A Quantitative Analysis

50 adult subjects identified resultant emotions for 28 children's statements of antecedents to emotion in an open-ended task. Responses were scored along the dimensions of evaluation and activation by the Dictionary of Affect in Language, and a priori expectations with respect to evaluation (happy, proud, comfortable > sad, afraid, guilty, angry) and activation (sad, comfortable < angry, happy, proud, afraid, guilty) were confirmed. The importance of a dimensional approach to the study of emotion is highlighted in the discussion.

Children's Competence and the Agreement and Stability of Self and Child-Descriptions

In a longitudinal study CCQ-descriptions of children aged 7 to 12 were given by teachers, mothers, peers, and the child him/herself. The consistency of self-and child-descriptions, over time and over environments, was indicated by consensus (agreement in child-descriptions between pairs of referent persons), mutuality (agreement between a child's self-description and descriptions by referent persons), and stability (consistency of descriptions over a period of time). A longitudinal model was tested in which the consistency of self-and child-descriptions was expected to have a causal relation with two aspects of competence, i.e. school achievement and peer competence. The resulting model showed stability over time of the latent variable "consistency of self-and child-descriptions", formed by the three groups of consistency-indices. A small, reciprocal relation between the consistency of self-and child-descriptions and school achievement was found. A strong effect of this consistency on the peer competence of a child was found. In addition, intelligence of the child was found to have a considerable effect on the consistency of self-and child-descriptions. These results suggest the importance of consistency in the ideas of various referent persons in the development of competence on different domains.

Strategies used to communicate route directions by telephone: a comparison of the performance of 7-year-olds, 10-year-olds and adults

Standard outcome measures used in a referential communication (route finding) task showed that 7-year-olds were inferior to 10-year-olds and adults in terms of adequacy of messages provided (as speakers) and selection of referent (as listeners). Because the task involved negotiation of route directions by telephone, a richer dialogue resulted than is usual in referential communication studies. This made possible an analysis of the strategies used and revealed differences untapped by the standard measures. The types of strategies used (components, numbering, directional, minimal) varied as a function of age, with the adults using much directional information and the children very little. Much of the younger children's description was either minimal or used inadequately specified mature strategies. Adults frequently used dual strategies (e.g. directional + numbering). Older children showed little evidence of these individually but achieved them, in practice, through dialogue with their partners. Age differences in quantity of communication (number of turns) were found to be linked to strategy use. The advantages of the telephone as an experimental medium of communication are discussed.

What Are Little Girls Made Of? A Study of Technology in the Early Years

Summary The models girls like to make are often assumed to be different from boys’. A comparison of children's own descriptions of their models shows that there is little difference between boys’ and girls’ choices. The suggestion is made that effort should be directed toward developing enabling strategies rather than different contexts for girls’ model making.

Norwegian children's descriptions of the consequences of poverty and wealth

This study is part of an international research programme where 57 Norwegian children aged 8 and 11 are interviewed. This article tries to reveal and interpret their conceptions of the consequences of poverty and wealth. Most children relate this to material conditions, mostly related to house and home. The oldest are more concerned with psychological and social traits, putting emphasis on equality. Further, they seem to be sceptical about the influence wealth has on personality. The descriptions show some differences between boys and girls, and reflect a gender-specific view on this subject.

Ways of speaking about space: The development of children's skill in communicating spatial knowledge

There are various ways in which children might be asked to demonstrate knowledge about space. We take the stance that the description of large-scale space is a communication task, incorporating skills in remembering and communicating spatial information. We present data on the development of children's use of a communicative convention (the “mental tour”) in describing spatial knowledge in a memory test. Thirty-two 6–7- and 8–9-year-old children explored a laboratory-constructed funhouse, guided by instructions to study the layout or the route, and then were asked to describe the funhouse, with encouragement to sketch the space as they talked. Older children's descriptions of the space contained information about the temporal and spatial contiguity of areas in the space, with performance resembling that reported for adults ( Linde & Labov, 1975). Younger children who were oriented to the layout tended to list places without reference to spatial relations, but descriptions provided by younger children who were oriented to the route through the space did not differ from older children. It appears that with development children become increasingly skilled at pragmatic conventions such as the mental tour for organizing spatial descriptions, and that the utilization of this skill in the early years may be more likely when children are oriented to route information relevant to constructing a description in the form of a mental tour.

Representation of familiar places in children and adults: Verbal reports as a method of studying environmental knowledge

This research investigated children's representations of familiar places by means of verbal reporting. Eight-year-old children's representation of the entrance hall and the courtyard of their school was examined under three conditions: free recall; description from memory, intended for a person not acquainted with the place; and direct description, given while looking at the place. Children's descriptions from memory were then compared with those given by a group of teachers in the school. Both contents and organization of verbal reportings were analyzed. Quantitative results showed a difference in recall between places only in children; furthermore, both children and adults mainly remembered the aspects of places which are constant constraints to actions. The importance of considering some qualitative-linguistic indexes was assessed by results showing, for instance, differences in children's discourse organization across conditions, the relevance of cognitive more than physical boundaries of places, and age differences in localizing items.

The child's conception of the conservation task

Sixteen conservers and 16 non‐conservers were asked to describe a conservation of liquid task that had been administered to each of them. The children were requested to provide a general description of the task and were then asked specific questions relating to the various aspects of the task (e.g. the initial equality, the transformation, the post‐transformation judgement). Analysis of children's general descriptions revealed that both groups made reference to the salient aspects of the task and that the main difference between the groups was in the content of the answers concerning the relative quantities of liquid following the transformation. In response to the specific questions, there was a greater tendency amongst the conservers to indicate awareness of the purpose of the task (i.e. to refer to the assessment of their knowledge) and to accept that others may make a different judgement following the transformation. The results suggest that there may be an important link between performance on these tasks and the development of meta‐representational ability in children.

Conditional hedges and the intuitive psychology of traits.

The view that the intuitive psychologist exaggerates the consistency of personality implies that dispositional constructs are condition-free summary statements about generalized behavioral tendencies. This article considers the alternative view that dispositional constructs summarize specific condition-behavior contingencies. Despite their condition-free appearance, the dispositional constructs used by child and adult observers in their personality descriptions were hedged by modifiers that reflected knowledge of the variability of behavior. Children's descriptions of their aggressive and withdrawn peers included probabilistic hedges that indicated uncertainty about the occurrence of behaviors (person sometimes does x). Adults made dispositional attributions with greater certainty, but more often modified them with conditional statements which identified when dispositionally relevant behaviors might be observed (person does x when y). Content analyses of these conditional statements revealed that adults systematically linked specific categories of conditions (e.g., aversive interpersonal events) to specific categories of social behavior (e.g., aggressive acts). The results help to clarify how people may hedge dispositional terms in ways that reflect their sensitivity to covariation between situations and behaviors.

The Diagnosis of Child Sexual Abuse

Why is it important to diagnose child sexual abuse? Kempe, in an address to the International Association for Child Abuse and Neglect in 1979, drew the professional communities' attention to 'the serious plight of sexually abused children'. He described this as the final stage in the communities' recognition of patterns of child abuse. This cyclehad commencedwith his recognition of'The Battered Child Syndrome' in the early 60s. The sexuality of children has long been a recognised'fact of life'. But children's descriptions of sexual activities with adults—particularly parents—hasbeen considered a form of wish fulfilment,and therefore a fantasy, rather than hav ing a basis in reality. Children's tendency to withdraw their statements and to be inconsistent in reporting confirmed such a view.It is, however, now recognisedthat such behav iour may be more in the nature of an 'accommodation' to a family demand to maintain 'secrecy', than because of there being no abuse.1 A gradually accumulating body of evidenceindicates that sexual abuse of children is not only far more prevalent than was previously thought, but also far more traumatic in its short and long-term effects,including: