Personality Characteristics Of Children Research Articles

영유아기 자녀를 둔 아버지의 온라인(on-line) 양육참여 경험의 의미와 개선요구

Objectives This study aimed to explore the meaning and the demand of online involvement in parenting for fathers raising young children. Methods To this end, a qualitative study centered on depth-interview with 8 fathers raising young children was conducted to specifically analyze the actual experiences of fathers in online involvement in parenting. Results First, it was analyzed that fathers' on-line involvement in parenting is meaningful as an effective channel for getting closer to their children through online and offline mixed play, personalized education through online-based customized information acquisition, further activating child-rearing-related communication, and achieving child-rearing goals and solving problems. Second, it was found that fathers required reliable standards for online parenting and educational information, family-friendly online content and platform development and dissemination, parental education support for content selection, and hardware support at the national and regional level to improve on-line involvement in parenting. Conclusions The main context of online involvement in parenting for fathers raising young children was the expansion of play between fathers and children through online and offline connection, and in this process, it was found that social and emotional meaning was formed to form a closer relationship with each other. In addition, it was found that fathers' online-based involvement in parenting enabled information tailored to their children's personal characteristics, enabling individualized education for children, and further activating communication with spouses and families and children.

"Actually, I don't do different": Black parents' perceptions of gender socialization of sons versus daughters.

This study expanded on research examining families' roles in youth gender development that has investigated boys' versus girls' family experiences by using a within-family design to study the gender socialization of brothers versus sisters from the same families. We drew from archival data collected in 2001-2002 from an ethnic homogeneous sample of Black American mother-father families (N = 128) who were raising at least one son and one daughter; the majority of youth were adolescents (range 2-31 years). In separate home interviews, mothers and fathers described whether and how they socialized their sons versus daughters about education, their futures, and racism and discrimination. Across these three domains, most parents reported that they did not socialize their sons and daughters differently. Nonetheless, several themes emerged that illuminated race and race-gender intersectionality in parents' socialization, both resistance and accommodation to traditional gender norms, and the role of children's personal characteristics in parents' socialization, with similar themes evident among parents who did and who did not report socializing sons and daughters differently. This study advances understanding of parents' gender socialization and has implications for family-focused interventions aimed at promoting the well-being and achievement of Black American boys and girls. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Comparative study on emotional behavior and parental job stress of only-child and non-only-child preschool children.

Studies have revealed that Children's psychological, behavioral, and emotional problems are easily influenced by the family environment. In recent years, the family structure in China has undergone significant changes, with more families having two or three children. To explore the relationship between emotional behavior and parental job stress in only preschool and non-only preschool children. Children aged 3-6 in kindergartens in four main urban areas of Shijiazhuang were selected by stratified sampling for a questionnaire and divided into only and non-only child groups. Their emotional behaviors and parental pressure were compared. Only and non-only children were paired in a 1:1 ratio by class and age (difference less than or equal to 6 months), and the matched data were compared. The relationship between children's emotional behavior and parents' job stress before and after matching was analyzed. Before matching, the mother's occupation, children's personality characteristics, and children's rearing patterns differed between the groups (P < 0.05). After matching 550 pairs, differences in the children's parenting styles remained. There were significant differences in children's gender and parents' attitudes toward children between the two groups. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scores of children in the only child group and the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) scores of parents were significantly lower than those in the non-only child group (P < 0.05). Pearson's correlation analysis showed that after matching, there was a positive correlation between children's parenting style and parents' attitudes toward their children (r = 0.096, P < 0.01), and the PSI-SF score was positively correlated with children's gender, parents' attitudes toward their children, and SDQ scores (r = 0.077, 0.193, 0.172, 0.222). Preschool children's emotional behavior and parental pressure were significantly higher in multi-child families. Parental pressure in differently structured families was associated with many factors, and preschool children's emotional behavior was positively correlated with parental pressure.

The Benefits of Acute Exercise for Children's Cognition Are Associated with Trait Anxiety.

Children's anxiety is associated with decreased cognitive performance. One well-established behavioral intervention to transiently improve cognitive performance in children is acute aerobic exercise (AAE). Thus far, however, it is unclear whether the benefits of AAE on cognition vary based on individual differences in children's anxiety level. Therefore, we investigated whether trait anxiety levels mediate the effects of AAE on cognitive outcomes in preadolescent children. Ninety-five preadolescent children (9 to 11 yr, 41 females) underwent two experimental interventions in a random, crossover, and counterbalanced design: an exercise protocol (20 min of walking at 65% to 75% of HRpeak) and a nonexercise control (seated rest). Behavioral indices of cognitive performance (accuracy, reaction times, response time (RT) variability) were assessed before and after each intervention using a modified flanker task. The effects of each intervention on cognitive performance were calculated as pre- to postintervention differences (effect scores). These scores were first correlated with children's personal characteristics: anxiety (STAIC), sex, age, body mass index, intelligence quotient, and aerobic fitness. Significant correlations guided subsequent hierarchical regression models, which specifically tested for associations between the effects scores and anxiety levels while controlling for remaining relevant covariates. Regression analysis revealed that anxiety was a significant predictor of the effects that AAE and rest had on cognitive performance. Specifically, higher anxiety scores were associated with greater exercise-induced cognitive benefits (increased accuracy, decreased RT variability; all P < 0.05) and greater rest-induced cognitive impairments (decreased accuracy, increased RT variability; all P < 0.01). These findings suggest that children reporting higher trait anxiety might experience greater cognitive benefits from a single bout of AAE.

Do Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Factors Predict Responses to Reading Fluency Interventions?

We investigated whether emotional and motivational factors had predictive effects beyond those of cognitive factors on responses to two reading fluency interventions. Eighty-two dysfluent readers (Grades 3–5) participated in a 12-week school-based fluency intervention, either combined with or without self-efficacy support. Response to the intervention was determined by the fluency gain score and the Reliable Change Index. In the skill-focused intervention, cognitive predictors contributed to the response, and reading-related anxiety and self-efficacy had effects beyond the cognitive predictors. Weaker initial reading skills and older age predicted response in the combined intervention. Thus, children's personal characteristics may have a greater influence on their responses in a skills-focused intervention than in an intervention that also considers emotional and motivational aspects.

PARTICULARITĂȚI ALE TULBURĂRILOR DE PERSONALITATE LA PREADOLESCENȚII CARE PROVIN DIN FAMILIILE DIVORȚATE

The association between family tensions caused by transitions in parental separation and the effects of the child's adjustment to changes in separation has also been established in numerous studies. The aim of this study was to identify personality disorders in preadolescents living in divorced families compared to those in harmonious, non-divorced families, to facilitate the structuring of psychological interventions oriented/focused on ameliorating these disorders. The sample included 125 children with divorced parents and 103 children from organized families (N = 228 respondents). Self-reported data were collected using the Millon Pre-Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MPACI), authors Theodore Millon, Ph.D., DSc, Carrie Millon, Ph.D., Robert Tringone, Ph.D., Seth Grossman, PsyD. and Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC), authors I. Mervielde, Ph.D. Filip de Fruyt, Ph.D to capture trends in preadolescent personality traits in the context of divorce. The results obtained on personality characteristics of children from divorced families showed significantly differentiated scores on emerging personality patterns compared to the results reported by children from non-divorced families. Specifically, both on the MPACI, the preadolescents showed impaired psychological development in general, an imbalance in the emerging personality pattern (consistent presence of Conformist,Inhibited, Unstable patterns) and on the HiPIC with respect to Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Imagination and Conscientiousness. Our results help to complete the theoretical and practical bases of psychological science with information on the specific disorders that can be caused in children exposed, directly or indirectly, to conflict situations between their divorced parents.

HealthPrism: A Visual Analytics System for Exploring Children's Physical and Mental Health Profiles with Multimodal Data.

The correlation between children's personal and family characteristics (e.g., demographics and socioeconomic status) and their physical and mental health status has been extensively studied across various research domains, such as public health, medicine, and data science. Such studies can provide insights into the underlying factors affecting children's health and aid in the development of targeted interventions to improve their health outcomes. However, with the availability of multiple data sources, including context data (i.e., the background information of children) and motion data (i.e., sensor data measuring activities of children), new challenges have arisen due to the large-scale, heterogeneous, and multimodal nature of the data. Existing statistical hypothesis-based and learning model-based approaches have been inadequate for comprehensively analyzing the complex correlation between multimodal features and multi-dimensional health outcomes due to the limited information revealed. In this work, we first distill a set of design requirements from multiple levels through conducting a literature review and iteratively interviewing 11 experts from multiple domains (e.g., public health and medicine). Then, we propose HealthPrism, an interactive visual and analytics system for assisting researchers in exploring the importance and influence of various context and motion features on children's health status from multi-levelperspectives. Within HealthPrism, a multimodal learning model with a gate mechanism is proposed for health profiling and cross-modality feature importance comparison. A set of visualization components is designed for experts to explore and understand multimodal data freely. We demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of HealthPrism through quantitative evaluation of the model performance, case studies, and expert interviews in associated domains.

Взаимосвязь психических состояний и индивидуально-личностных особенностей у детей и подростков с соматическими заболеваниями

Взаимосвязь психических состояний и индивидуально-личностных особенностей у детей и подростков с соматическими заболеваниями

INFLUENCE OF PERSONALITY OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS OF THE UZBEK POPULATION ON MANIFESTATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEUROCIRCULATORY DYSTONIA

The relevance of studying the personality characteristics of children with vegetative vascular dystonia (VVD) is dictated by the fact that many psychosomatic disorders (ischemic and hypertension diseases, bronchial asthma, gastric ulcer and 12 bc, neurodermatitis, etc.) originate in childhood and their primary manifestations are vegetative disorders. According to the literature, among the children with non-communicable diseases who go to the doctor, 50-75% are patients with VVD. Purpose of the study. Study of the influence of the mental state and personality characteristics of patients on the manifestations and development of NCD in children and adolescents of the Uzbek population. Material and methods. We studied 43 patients with NCD (18 boys and 25 girls) aged 7 to 16 years with hypotonic, hypertensive and cardiac types. In the examined group of patients with NCD, children with hypertensive (46.5%) type prevailed. Patients (39.5%) were diagnosed with hypotonic NCD, and in 14 patients with cardiac type. For the study of individual - typological and personal characteristics of children, in addition to clinical and pedagogical observations, traditional experimental - psychological methods were used, allowing the most differentiated approach to the analysis of the personality of a sick child. The results of the study were subjected to variational-statistical processing: mean values (X), standard deviation (T) and its errors (+m), testing hypotheses from the normal distribution were tested by Student's t-test. Conducted correlation and dispersion analysis according to the program. Results: patients with NCD are characterized by a pronounced increase in emotional stress, difficulty in making interpersonal contacts and contributing to the violation of the psycho-vegetative regulation of the individual. The predominance of the desire for well-mannered forms of behavior, combined with conscious self-control, prevents the reaction of negative emotions, which contributed to the long-term preservation of emotional stress and further difficulties in adaptation. Patients with NCD usually had combinations of disharmonious personality traits, which led to the appearance of intrapsychic conflicts between dominant and mutually exclusive types of needs. The actual mental state of children with NDC determined by the Kettell method as a whole manifests itself as a personality of a highly neurotic response, which confirms the connection between NDC and personality traits. Conclusions: These intrapsychic conflicts underlay violations of social adaptation in the school and family spheres, and also prevented psycho-vegetative adaptation, which manifested itself in psychopathological and vegetative-somatic disorders in this disease.

Personality Characteristics of Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorder from a Maternal Perspective: A Brief Report.

The present study assessed the personality characteristics of children and adolescents with anxiety disorder from a maternal perspective. A total of 48 children and adolescents aged between 8 and 17 years participated in this study, which was organized as follows: a clinical group (24 children and adolescents with anxiety disorders and their respective mothers) and a control group (24 children and adolescents without psychiatric diagnosis and their mothers). The participants were submitted to the WASI, CBCL, MASC-2, and EPQ-J tests and their mothers to the SRQ-20 and PIC-2 tests. The results showed higher rates of internalizing symptoms in the clinical group. In addition, patients showed less interest in hobbies, less adherence to social organizations, impairment in social activities, and commitment to school performance compared to the control group. There was a positive correlation between the mothers' symptoms and each of the following PIC-2 domains: somatic concern (p < 0.01) and psychological discomfort (p < 0.01). In conclusion, youths with AD showed a withdrawn and reserved personality profile, involving distrust of impulses and avoidance of interactions with peers. Furthermore, psychoemotional problems of mothers adversely influenced the perception followed by anxiety and adjustment characteristics. More studies are needed to assess the maternal personality in youths with anxiety.

Update on the pediatric adverse vocal behavior voice disorders: a clinical practice review.

The main causes of voice disorders in children with adverse vocal behavior include benign lesions of the vocal folds caused by voice abuse or misuses, such as vocal fold nodules, vocal fold polyps, and laryngitis. Long-term voice disorders can affect the physical and mental health of children. Reviewing the literature of the last two decades on "Vocal Fold Nodules," "Vocal Fold Polyp," "Voice disorder," "Voice Abuse," "Voice Misuse," "Pediatrics," and "Children" with the appropriate Boolean operators. Conclusion: A total of 315 results were returned on an initial PubMed search. All articles from 2000 to 2022 written in English or Chinese were screened. Duplicate articles, those relating to adults only or concerned with the malignant lesion of the vocal cord, were excluded, resulting in 196 articles of interest. Relevant references and books have also been consulted, and we provide a review of the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of these maladaptive vocal behavioral voice disorders. What is Known: • Hoarseness is the most common voice symptom in children, and there are various causes of hoarseness in children. However, there is a lack of reviews on voice disorders caused by adverse vocal habits in children. • Voice training is a conservative treatment method for children with voice disorders , and it is important to clarify the factors that influence the effectiveness of voice training for children. What is New: • This review of the personality and family characteristics of children with adverse vocal behavioural voice disorders provides a valuable guide to the clinical planning of subsequent treatment. • This article discusses and summarises some of the factors that may influence the effectiveness of voice training in children and collates some of the scales and questionnaires currently used in children that are important in predicting the effectiveness of voice training.

Educational Health Program for Mothers regarding Care of Their Preschool Children with Trachoma in Benha City

Background: Trachoma is an infectious disease that first manifests in young children after Chlamydia trachomatis repeatedly infects the conjunctiva. Aim: In the current study, mothers in Benha City were asked to evaluate the impact of a health education program on how they cared for their preschoolers who had trachoma. Design: It was conducted using a quasi-experimental study design. Setting: At the Ophthalmic Hospital in Benha City, the study was carried out in the outpatient clinics. Sample a simple random sample of 271 mothers was used. Tools: For data collection, two instruments were employed; A structured interviewing questionnaire is tool number one, it contained two parts; Four items were present in Part I: Socio-demographic characteristics of the mothers, personal characteristics of preschoolers, history of trachoma and environmental assessment. Part II covered mothers' knowledge of trachoma and its prevention, as well as their knowledge of the investigated children's personal characteristics, health history related to trachoma. Mothers provided information about trachoma practices in the tool (II). Results: The study clarified that 34% of the studied mothers having preschool children aged 35 - < 40 years old with mean ± SD was 39.31±9.03, 72.7% of them were married, 56.1% of them didn’t work . Conclusion: Utilizing a health education program helped mothers' practices and knowledge to significantly improve. Recommendations: Implementing health promotion, health education, and screening approaches for the early diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of trachoma in all community settings by distributing booklets.

PERSONAL COMPONENT OF GRAPHOMOTOR SKILLS OF CHILDREN AGED 5-8 YEARS

Aim: to assess the personal component of graphomotor skills in children aged 5-8 years. The period of a child's individual development coincides with the beginning of schooling and is marked by increased sensitivity of the body to factors in the external environment, which can lead to disharmonious development and deterioration of health. This justifies the search for new approaches in the development of criteria for prognostic assessment of the development level of senior preschoolers and junior schoolers. The object of the research is the personality characteristics of children and the level of neuroticism. Material and methods. Students of grades 1–2 (6–8 years) and children of preschool age (5 years) from secondary schools and preschools in Sumy (Ukraine) (five secondary schools and four preschools in the city, 487 children were examined) participated in the study. Assessment of the level of neuroticism in children was performed using six scales reflecting the main aspects of the manifestation of neurotic changes in children: level of depression, asthenia, behavioral reactions, autonomic disorders, sleep disorders, and anxiety. Part of the simplest mathematical processing was performed on a personal computer using the standard statistical packages Statgrhics, STATISTICA (descriptive statistics, Student's test, correlation, variance and factor analyses; risk calculation). The Excel package was used for the initial preparation of tables and intermediate calculations. Results. For children aged 5–8 years with low levels of graphomotor skills, the scores of the scales "level of depression", "asthenia", "behavioral reactions", and "anxiety" were higher compared to the scores of the children with average levels of graphomotor skills. This conclusion was confirmed by the established direct correlation between the graphomotor skills indicator and emotional stability (r = 0.32, p &lt; 0.01), which indicated an increase of children's emotional stability with an increase in the level of graphomotor skills formation. Conclusions. It has been established that the indicators of borderline neurotic disorders of children aged 5–8 years are at low levels of formation, that is, there are no signs of their manifestations, which indicates the absence of a decrease in vitality, low self-esteem, slow thinking, motor limitations, feelings of depression. The inverse correlation between the indicator of graphomotor skills and the average values of the "behavior disorder" scale indicates an increase in manifestations of hyperactivity of children when graphomotor skills are not formed (r = -0.22, p &lt; 0.05).

The Effects of Birth Weight Index on Motor, Cognitive Function and Relationship with Some Personality Characteristics of Children

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of birth weight index on motor, cognitive function and relationship with some personality characteristics of children. Methods: Population for this study included of 32 low birth weight and 35 normal birth students randomly selected. The mean age was 8, 04 ± 1. The Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 test was used to assess motor function and Draw-APerson Color test was used to assess cognitive function and personality characteristics. Results: The result of Manova analyses and t test indicated that normal birth children had significantly better performance in fine Motor Function and cognitive function compared to children with low birth weight. In addition, the result of Spearman correlation analyses found no significant relationship between the personality traits of the two groups. Conclusions: The findings revealed that children with normal birth had higher performance in some motor and cognitive performance compared to children with low birth weight. Therefore, it is necessary for children to benefit from intensive care and exercise interventions in terms of motor and cognition from the very first years of life.

Etiopathogenesis in the Development of Borderline Personality Characteristics in Children and Adolescents.

The validity and clinical significance of the characteristics of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adolescents are increasingly being recognized. The persistence of BPD characteristics in adolescence is high and is associated with negative interpersonal, academic, professional, and financial outcomes. In the literature, BPD characteristics observed in children and adolescents are explained with psychodynamic theories, developmental models, and evolutionary approaches. Emotional dysregulation, interpersonal dysfunction, impulsivity, and self-harming behavior, negative life events, temperament characteristics, neuropsychological dysfunctions, neuroanatomical, genetic, hormonal, and immunological factors may play a role in BPD etiopathogenesis. This review aims to address different approaches and relevant factors for the development of BPD. The articles published between 1968-2021 in the PubMed database were reviewed, and prominent studies were selected for evaluation. The importance of invalidating environment, epistemic freezing and hypermentalization, complex or attachment trauma is emphasized in psychodynamic and developmental literature. In the evolutionary approach, on the other hand, romantic relationships and the onset of reproduction are emphasized as the reason for the emergence of symptoms during adolescence, and it is argued that BPD is related to the rapid life history strategy. It is stated that a decrease in volume in the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, which are involved in top-down emotional processing, and an increase in the activity of thalamus and hippocampus regions, which are involved in bottom-up emotional processing are observed in adolescents with BPD characteristics when compared to healthy controls. It is thought that the increase in activation in the superior temporal gyrus and precuneus observed in adolescents with BPD features is a neural indicator of hypermentalization, and the increase in activation in the insula is a neural indicator of social pain. It has been reported that the decrease in resting heart rate and the increase in heart rate variability observed in adolescents with BPD symptoms are associated with the activation of the parasympathetic system. BPD in adolescents is a disorder that challenges clinicians in terms of diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment. It is crucial to evaluate the factors related to etiopathogenesis in BPD in a multifaceted and detailed manner. Keywords: Borderline Personality Disorder, Difficulty in Emotion Regulation, Mentalization, Trauma, Self-harming Behavior, Temperamental Characteristics.

Missed initial appointments at Israeli child development centres: Rate, reasons, and associated characteristics.

IntroductionMissed appointments (MAs) at child development centres (ChDCs) cause multiple problems: they preclude timely diagnosis and treatment of both the invited child and children whose appointment was delayed due to overbooking, as well as disrupting efficient organisational management. The aim of this study was to assess the rate and describe the reasons for missed appointments at Israeli ChDCs, and to evaluate the association of socio‐demographic, clinical, and administrative variables with MA rates.MethodsThis nested case‐control study included all children scheduled for initial appointments (N = 1143) at three centres during 1 year. Parents of children who missed their appointment and a sample of those who attended were interviewed by telephone.ResultsThe rate of missed appointments was 26.6%, and the most frequent reasons were unexpected events (26.0%) and lack of insurance coverage (23.4%). Variables associated with lower MA rates were: having had ≥3 types of rehabilitative interventions (odds ratios (OR) = 0.26; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.16–0.44), detailed referral letter (OR = 0.48; 95%CI 0.30–0.75), telephone reminder (OR = 0.37; 95%CI 0.24–0.57) and health maintenance organisations or private insurance coverage (OR = 0.12; 95%CI 0.06–0.17 and OR = 0.56; 95% CI 0.38–0.89, respectively).ConclusionEncouraging physician's referral letters and personal‐contact reminders can reduce missed appointments. Understanding the family's and the child's personal characteristics, and the organisational/administrative aspects of missed appointments may guide efforts to ensure timely care for every child.

Parental Problem Drinking and Maladaptive Personality Features in Children: The Role of Marital Conflict.

The personality characteristics of children of exposed to parental problem drinking have been of interest to clinicians and researchers for several decades, but personality research on this population often focuses on identifying a unique cluster of adult personality traits. The current study adopts a cutting-edge dimensional approach to understanding personality pathology as extreme variants of the five factor model, and examines pathways of risk to personality pathology through marital conflict and emotional insecurity. Participants were 199 two-parent families with a child between the ages of 6 and 12years. Parents completed questionnaire measures of their problem drinking, marital conflict, child emotional insecurity (i.e., emotional reactivity to conflict), and child maladaptive personality traits. Structural equation models found an indirect pathway from mother and father problem drinking to pathological child disagreeableness, introversion, emotional instability, and compulsivity via greater mother destructive marital conflict behavior and child emotional reactivity to conflict. There was also some evidence that this pathway of effects was stronger for girls than for boys. Findings support the use of a dimensional approach to understanding maladaptive personality among individuals exposed to parental problem drinking.

Mediating Effect of Fathers’ Parenting Behavior on the Relationship Between Young Children’s Temperament and Peer Play Behavior

Objectives: Understanding peer play behaviors in young children is crucial because children's personal characteristics influence their peer play behaviors. In this study, we investigated the relationship between children’s temperament (4 years old), fathers’ parenting behavior (5 years old), and peer play behavior (6 years old) using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Korean Children (PSKC). In addition, the mediating effect of fathers’ parenting behavior on the relationship between children’s temperament and peer play behavior was investigated.Methods: A total of 1,070 children and their fathers were extracted for analysis from the Korean Children's Panel Study (PSKC) 2012 (Year 5) to 2014 (Year 7). The correlations between the relevant variables and the mediating effects of fathers’ parenting behavior were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 25.0.Results: Correlation analysis showed that children’s emotionality and sociability were associated with fathers’ parenting behavior, whereas their sociality and activity were associated with their play disturbance. Next, there was no mediating effect of fathers’ warmth on the relationship between children’s temperament and children’s peer play interactions. The full mediating effects of the fathers’ control on the relationship between the child’s temperament (emotionality and sociability) and peer play behaviors such as disruption and disconnection were confirmed. Children’s activity had a direct effect on their peer play interaction and disruption.Conclusion: Peer play behavior revealed the importance of fathers’ controlling parenting behaviors and children’s temperament, especially in peer play disruption and disconnection. In particular, we confirmed the influence of father’s controlling parenting behavior on children’s sociability and emotionality temperament.

A Review of Imaginary Companions and Their Implications for Development

A curious childhood phenomenon that has received relatively little attention in developmental literature is the imaginary companion (IC). Increased recognition of the importance of imaginative play and a desire to stimulate children’s early cognitive development makes ICs a particularly relevant topic. The significant prevalence of ICs in the population has permitted a modest yet diverse range of research investigating the functions, correlates, and implications of ICs for the children that create them. This literature review summarizes some of this research in order to describe the functions and forms that ICs may take, as well as social and personality characteristics of children with ICs. It also examines the role that ICs may serve in cognitive and social development, particularly with respect to children’s acquisition of Theory of Mind. Finally, this article addresses ways to integrate ICs into other aspects of children’s lives, gaps in the existing literature, and potential directions for future research in the field.

Climbing Mountains and Avoiding Slippery Slopes: Challenges in Constructing Measures of Children's Environments.

Constructing valid, useful measures of children's environments is critical for advancing knowledge about relations between environmental conditions and child well-being. The approach to constructing useful measures of children's environments varies somewhat from the approach needed to construct valid, useful measures of children's personal characteristics. The commentary includes a review of literature on the distinction between reflective indicators and causal/formative indicators because it applies to the construction of measures of human environments. It also offers suggestions on how to select indicators for inclusion in measures of the environment and how to select assessments of child outcomes for validating measures of children's environments.