Differentiation Of Children Research Articles

Young Children's Differentiation of Hypothetical Beliefs from Evidence

The claim that preadolescent children fail to differentiate between hypothetical beliefs and evidence is investigated in 2 studies. First-and second-grade children were presented with 2 conflicting hypotheses and asked to choose an empirical test to decide between them. In Study 1, the majority of first graders and almost all second graders correctly chose a conclusive test. They elaborated the logic of such a test and distinguished it from an inconclusive test. There was no evidence that children of this age misinterpret the task of hypothesis testing as one of generating a desirable effect. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings; in a task that posed a genuine scientific problem, first and second graders spontaneously generated empirical procedures for gathering indirect evidence to decide between alternative hypotheses. Our results indicate that young elementary school children distinguish between the notions of “hypothetical belief” and “evidence.” These findings are discussed in light of their failure on other scientific thinking tasks.

Age Differences in the Dimensions of Perceived Control during Middle Childhood: Implications for Developmental Conceptualizations and Research

2 studies investigated developmental differentiation of children's causal beliefs across middle childhood. Grounded in meta-theories suggesting that development is characterized by progressive differentiation, hypotheses were derived from theory and research on the multiple dimensions of children's perceived control and on developmental changes in children's concepts of causal constructs. Age differences in the organization of children's causal perceptions were explored and replicated (N's = 294 and 240, ages 7–12). Analyses of factor structure of children's beliefs about the effectiveness of 5 causes for school success and failure (effort, ability, powerful others, luck, and unknown factors) revealed that beliefs became more differentiated with age. At ages 7–8, 2 dimensions were found, 1 marked by unknown and 1 by the remaining causes. At ages 9–10, 3 factors were present, marked by “internal,”“external,” and unknown means. By ages 11–12, 4 factors were indicated, marked by effort, ability, “external,” and unknown causes. Findings suggested that different theories of perceived control may provide more useful accounts of the dimensions of causal beliefs at different ages. Implications were derived for measurement of perceived control and investigation of developmental change in its effects on children's motivation and behavior.

The social implications of national assessment

This paper considers the implications of national assessment in the United Kingdom. The increased emphasis on competition and on differentiation of children, the consequences for pedagogy, the likelihood of raising standards of performance, and the difficulties of addressing bias in open-ended models of assessment are all discussed. Emphasizing the position of national assessment within the ERA, the paper concludes that the effect will be to control what is taught, to raise standards of performance on the assessment, and to emphasize inequalities in educational attainment, reflecting social inequalities.

What Causes Success and Failure in School and Friendship? Developmental Differentiation of Children's Beliefs across Middle Childhood

A study was conducted to examine the development of domain-specific perceived control during middle childhood. Four hundred and twenty children, ages 7-12 years, reported the perceived effectiveness of five causes (effort, attributes, powerful others, luck, and unknown factors) in producing outcomes in two life domains, namely, school performance and friendship. Analyses of mean level differences between domains revealed that effort was perceived as a more effective cause in the academic domain and that attributes, powerful others, and luck were viewed as more important to friendship outcomes. Furthermore, for effort and powerful others, these domain differences increased with age. In contrast, the perceived effectiveness of attribute causes became more similar across domains as children became older. The potential of these findings is discussed with respect to explaining developmental change in the relations between domain-specific perceived control and corresponding aspects of behaviour.

Do neurocognitive measures differentiate Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) with and without hyperactivity?

Recent behavioral and neuropharmacological evidence suggests that the differentiation of children with Attention Deficit Disorder with (ADD/H) and without hyperactivity (ADD/WO) may reflect an appropriate nosological distinction. There is also evidence that attention-regulatory mechanisms possibly associated with anterior-posterior processes may be independently implicated in these children. To test this hypothesis, 100 clinic-referred children were reliably diagnosed as ADD/H ( n = 48). ADD/WO ( n = 26) and as having an internalizing disorder ( n = 26) for inclusion as a clinic-control (CC) group. An analysis of covariance using Full-Scale IQ, chronological age, and the number of conduct-disorder symptoms provided little support for such a behavioral distinction using selected WISC-R, Luria-Nebraska-Children's Revision, and reaction-time variables. Alternative conceptualizations, possibly reflecting deficient right-hemispheric processes in ADD/H, may provide more productive avenues for research in distinguishing deficient neurocognitive processes in subtypes of ADD.

Do neurocognitive measures differentiate Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) with and without hyperactivity?

Recent behavioral and neuropharmacological evidence suggests that the differentiation of children with Attention Deficit Disorder with (ADD/H) and without hyperactivity (ADD/WO) may reflect an appropriate nosological distinction. There is also evidence that attention-regulatory mechanisms possibly associated with anterior-posterior processes may be independently implicated in these children. To test this hypothesis, 100 clinic-referred children were reliably diagnosed as ADD/H ( n = 48). ADD/WO ( n = 26) and as having an internalizing disorder ( n = 26) for inclusion as a clinic-control (CC) group. An analysis of covariance using Full-Scale IQ, chronological age, and the number of conduct-disorder symptoms provided little support for such a behavioral distinction using selected WISC-R, Luria-Nebraska-Children's Revision, and reaction-time variables. Alternative conceptualizations, possibly reflecting deficient right-hemispheric processes in ADD/H, may provide more productive avenues for research in distinguishing deficient neurocognitive processes in subtypes of ADD.

Modes of differentiation in children’s writing construction

In this paper we aim at analyzing the modes of differentiation in children’s writing development during the presyllabic phase that, in the theoretical framework developed by Ferreiro and Teberosky, comes before the discovery of sound correspondance. Seventeen Italian children were interviewed seven times during the implementation of research on «Educational Continuity» between «scuola materna» and primary school. We first examine how minimum quantity and internal variation rules appear in Italian children as organizing principles for controlling quantity and quality of writing, and as necessary conditions for the differentiation process. Starting from this, it is possible to find two differentiation modes in writing; aformal one, and a mode in which some type ofexternal referent is used (meaning or object features). For most children the two modes are alternatives, and passing from one to another is a possible but not necessary step. The external group (which is older) has significantly less quantity repertoire than the formal one: this can explain why looking for an external point of reference can be an outcome of the child’s formal research for differentiating writings.

Development and differentiation in children's figure drawings

Children, aged between 3 1/2 and 6 1/2 years old, were each asked to make a drawing of a man and a dog. The drawings were scored in terms of their relative sizes, orientation and the numbers of common features, human features and dog features portrayed. The total number of features increased with increasing age, as did the proportions of distinguishing features. The lack of differentiation by younger children was due both to the absence of distinguishing features in both drawings, and to the inclusion of human features in their dog drawing. Even in the youngest age group, however, the dog drawing included more dog features than did the man drawing. These results support the hypothesis that first drawings of an animal are often adaptations of the child's scheme for a human figure. Older children increasingly adopted canonical orientations for their drawings (full‐face vertical man, profile horizontal animal). There was no significant effect of the order in which the drawings were made, and drawing both figures together on one page resulted in smaller drawings with fewer features. Girls included more features in total, and proportionally more human features, in their drawings than did boys.

School-age children's understanding of explanation adequacy.

ABSTRACT A study examined developmental differences in students' recognition of the types of explanations that help most in mathematics peer-group interactions. Scripted interactions of eight male and eight female dyads working on math problems were videotaped. In each interaction one actor in the dyad would request non-specific assistance and the other would provide one of four types of responses: (1) answer, (21 procedure, (3) procedure and justification, or (4) procedure and demonstration. Subjects, 62 third and fifth graders, worked on each of the math problems, were shown the videotape of the dyad working on the same problem, then rated the degree to which they thought the reply helped the other actor to understand the math work. Sixty adults who read the scripts of the interactions also indicated how much they thought the response helped the other actor. Results indicated age-related differences in children's differentiation among different types of replies to requests for information. Older subjects made greater distinctions between replies that only provided them with an answer and those tnat provided them with information about the process of problem solving. In addition, older subjects were better able to verbalize this distinction. They referred more often to the need for a response that contained information that would teach them the process and allow generalization to future math problems. Appendices provide girl and boy scripts for 3rd and 5th grade stimuli and a description of the coding system for juotification of subject's ratings. (HTH)

THREE TYPES OF FAMILY STRUCTURE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION: A STUDY AMONG THE JAUNSAR‐BAWAR SOCIETY*

The study examines the influence of family structure and family experiences on psychological differentiation in children. Three types of families, viz., monogamous, polyandrous and polygynandrous were selected from the polyandrous society of Jaunsar‐Bawar in the Cis‐Himalayan region of India. 175 boys and girls of age groups 7‐9 and 13‐15 years, belonging to the three types of families, were administered the Story‐Pictorial EFT, Indo‐African EFT and BD tests. Family experiences of the child were assessed through ratings and interview. A 2×3×2 ANOVA performed on differentiation scores revealed significant age and sex effects. Family effect was not statistically significant. But the data suggested a strong trend in the expected direction. The findings have been discussed in terms of the characteristic family patterns of Jaunsar‐Bawar and acculturation factors.

Children's Concepts of Cross-Gender Activities

STODDART, TRISH, and TURIEL, ELLIOT. Children's Concepts of Cross-Gender Activities. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1985, 56, 1241-1252. Concepts of gender differentiation in children and adolescents (from 5 to 13 years of age) as well as their domain-specific social judgments were examined. Subjects were presented with depictions of cross-gender activities in physical appearance, as well as with other types of social transgressions. Subjects were first administered a sorting task to assess their evaluations of the different types of transgression. Assessments were also made of subjects' judgments about the flexibility and relativity of the cross-gender activities and their personal commitment to gender boundaries. The results revealed a pattern of U-shaped behavioral growth in the! assessment of cross-gender transgressions, but not for the other social transgressions. Young children and adolescents regarded the crossing of stereotyped gender boundaries as more wrong, and expressed a greater personal commitment to sex-role regularity, than did children in middle childhood. The results showed, however, that although both young children and adolescents view gender differentiations as an aspect of psychological-personal identity, their conceptions of identity differ. In middle childhood, gender regularities are viewed as external and modifiable social expectations.

Impaired monocyte differentiation in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: its evaluation by peroxidase activity and ultrastructure.

The ability of monocyte differentiation in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) was evaluated on the basis of the ultrastructure and peroxidase (PO) activity which could show the differentiation of cultured monocytes. In the control, PO activity limited to the granules decreased time-dependently during culture for 4 d, and was closely associated with the morphological development to macrophages. In childhood ALL, monocytes showed poor changes in both PO activity and morphological features during culture for 4 d compared to the control. Therefore, we conclude that monocyte to macrophage differentiation is impaired in childhood ALL.

Differential Maternal Socialization of Opposite-sexed Twins, Triplets, and Quadruplets

GOSHEN-GorrTTSTEIN, ESTHER R. Differential Maternal Socialization of Opposite-sexed Twins, Triplets, and Quadruplets. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 1255-1264. This paper investigates whether mothers socialize boys and girls growing up as opposite-sexed twins, triplets, and quadruplets differently as a function of their different genders. It is based on direct observations in the homes of 2 sets of twins, 2 sets of triplets, and 3 sets of quadruplets, each set containing both sexes and visited regularly between 5 and 42 months of age. Children and mothers were rated on behaviors about which contradictory evidence had been reported in the literature. Mothers permitted more proximity seeking in boys, encouraged more helping behavior in girls, but reinforced boys' and girls' aggression almost equally. They attached sex labels only to the child who was in the minority genderwise. Mothers' sole conscious behavior in this area, the differentiation of children's appearances through dress, hairstyling, and sexappropriate activities, appeared only in the children's third year of life.

Family of origin: the view from the parents' side.

Families in which there is increased marital conflict after a relatively stable long-term marriage are a puzzle to the clinician. The author's thesis, based on experience with a group of middle-aged couples whose children's differentiation occurred after having been in individual therapy themselves, is that the differentiated child carried special psychic functions for one parent. The differentiation was experienced as tantamount to ego loss, and that parent's attempt to deal with the inner conflict resulted in a marital crisis.

Maternal Differentiation, Onset and Type of Father's Absence and Psychological Differentiation in Children

The relationship between mothers' and children's levels of psychological differentiation as measured by the rod-and-frame test and the effects of onset and nature of father's absence on this relationship were explored for 209 children between the ages of 8 and 16 yr. and their mothers. There were significantly higher correlations between the scores of children whose fathers were present at home and their mothers than for children whose fathers were absent from home and their mothers. Over-all no significant differences in the mother-child correlations were observed between families where the father's absence resulted from divorce, separation, or desertion and families in which the father had died, although when age of the child at the onset of the father's absence was considered there were significant differences between the group where the father's absence resulted from divorce, separation, or desertion and the group where the father had died.

Sex Role Differentiation in Children

Sex Role Differentiation in Children

Psychological Differentiation in Clinic Children

In a clinic population the relationship between children's perceptual differentiation as measured by the Rod-and-frame Test (RFT) and their self-concept differentiation as evidenced in their human figure drawings using a Body Sophistication Scale was studied. In addition, the WISC Vocabulary Subtest was employed. The Ss were children 8 to 15 yr. of age making an initial visit to a child guidance clinic. The relationship between perceptual differentiation and self-concept differentiation was significantly positive only for white females with a father present. Vocabulary and RFT were positively correlated for the black and white Ss while vocabulary and the body-sophistication scores were significantly related for black males and white females with a father present. Differentiation may then appear in a variety of patterns in different populations.

Maternal differentiation, father absence and cognitive differentiation in children.

The effects of father absence and mother's cognitive style on the cognitive differentiation of their children was explored. The aspect of cognitive differentiation examined was extent of field dependence which was assessed by the rod-and-frame test. Subjects were 181 children from 8 to 15 years of age and their mothers who were making their initial visit to a municipal child guidance clinic. There was a significant ( P

Breathholding Spells in Children Differentiation From Epileptic Attacks

Severe breathholding spells in children follow a more or less constant clinical pattern, and the electroencephalogram is almost always normal. The spells generally appear during the first two years of life, but rarely before 6 months of age. They usually disappear spontaneously after 4 years of age and rarely recur after age 6 years. Breathholding episodes are observed almost exclusively in children with normal intelligence and do not cause demonstrable evidence of brain damage. However, they are frequently associated with or followed by behavioral disturbances. The familial incidence is high. Breathholding attacks are essentially innocuous and the general outlook is excellent. The associated unconsciousness and convulsions are very short and benign, and require no immediate care. The administration of antiepileptic or tranquilizing drugs or both is of no value. Treatment consists primarily of parent-child guidance and reassurance.

DIFFERENTIATION IN CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS.

DIFFERENTIATION IN CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS.