Fictitious Child Research Articles

Symbolic distancing in sharing situations restrains children's economic behavior and potentially also their inequity aversion

We examined whether representing a resource non-symbolically (i.e., as stickers) or symbolically (i.e., as tokens that could be exchanged for stickers) affected kindergartner's decisions in an Ultimatum/Inequity Game (N = 93). The game involved distribution offers, made by a fictitious child, that were either fair (i.e., same quantity for each child, i.e., 3:3) or disadvantageously unfair (i.e., less for the target child than for the fictitious child, i.e., 2:4 or 1:5). Children had to decide whether to accept or reject the offers. In the latter case, none of the children would get anything of the resource. Children rejected unfair offers more frequently than fair offers, and they rejected the offers involving the symbolic resource more frequently than offers involving the non-symbolic resource, which applied to a similar degree to fair and unfair offers. However, exploratory follow-up analyses of children's reactions to unfair offers revealed that children rejected the more unfair offer (i.e., 1:5) more frequently than the less unfair offer (i.e., 2:4) when the resource was represented non-symbolically instead of symbolically. The results suggest that the symbolic representation of a resource evokes economically less rational behavior in children and diminished their potential gain. Moreover, symbolic representations might level out children's differentiation of differently unfair offers. These findings are discussed in light of the subjective value approach and the Construal Level Theory.

A Testament to the Power of Resilience and Friendship Portrayed in Stephen King’s The Institute

We all face Hardships and difficult situations in our life. It’s all about the ups and downs in our day to day life. During these times we may be feeling exhausted and worried. But all that matters is that what we have learned from that tough situation. Resilience is defined as how we bounce back quickly from a difficult situation. The power of resilience arises when we face situational problems, major life problem and day to day problems. Friends are a major element in comforting us during our difficult times. Friends bring more happiness to our lives than virtually anything else. Friendships have a huge impact on our mental health and happiness. Good friends relieve stress, provide comfort and joy, and prevent loneliness and isolation.
 The Institute (2019) is a science fiction horror novel written by Stephen king. It is one of his terrifying novels yet. Many of his works are transformed into movies and television series. The main focus of this novel is on the power of resilience and friendship among the children who are being kidnapped from their homes and being held captive under a sinister establishment called The Institute. The story is written by taking the ideas of a fictitious child abusing institution where gifted children from all over the country are taken in and they are being forced to undergo atrocious medical experiments. Most of the children have super powers of Telepathy or Telekinesis. That’s the reason they are all here in the Institute. The authorities in the Institute want the children to master their powers so that they can be used in wars. There is no hope of escape for the children, yet they are all finally escaped by the power of resilience and friendship shown by Luke Ellis, the main character in the novel and his friends.

How Affective Displays and Self-Construal Impact Consumers’ Generosity

ABSTRACT Nonprofit brands vary widely in their positioning to consumers, ranging from crisis and desperation to joy and optimism. The literature, however, provides limited direction for the many nonprofit organizations that seek to align their brand with positive emotions. Herein, we examine the relationship between affective displays (sad vs. happy) portrayed in charitable advertisements and consumer self-construal in shaping consumer generosity. We employ one field study (study 1) and one lab experiment (study 2), using different charitable causes (i.e., Kiva.org [study 1] and a fictitious children’s cancer charity [study 2]) and currencies (i.e., lending money [study 1] and volunteering time [study 2]). Taken together, we find that happy (sad) affective displays are most effective for consumers who hold an independent (interdependent) self-construal, and that this alignment heightens empathy and in turn increases perceptions of efficacy, which increases generosity. Implications for future research and nonprofit practice are discussed.

‘Treatable and Changeable’: The Effect of Treatment and Malleability Information on Stigma Towards Children with Behavioural Problems and Their Parents

AbstractImproving knowledge about childhood mental health issues, reducing stigma, and encouraging appropriate treatment-seeking are important goals for public health. This study examined the effect of treatment and malleability information on stigmatisation towards children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and their parents, and on endorsements of causal beliefs. In an experimental study, university students (N = 234) were randomly allocated to receive/not receive treatment information (information on the existence and effectiveness of treatment for ODD) and to receive/not receive malleability information (information emphasising brain malleability and the potential to change). Participants then rated four measures of stigma towards a fictitious child with ODD and mother (blame, incompetence, dangerousness, and social distance), and rated their endorsements of causal explanations for ODD. Neither treatment nor malleability information had significant effects on stigmatisation towards either the child or mother. However, this information did impact upon causal beliefs about ODD as stemming from biological or mixed biological/environmental causes. Implications for the future development of public health initiatives and stigma research on childhood mental health are discussed.

Do High-Risk Parents Use More Aggression During Competitive Play With Children?

The present study examined the extent to which the aggressive tendencies of parents at risk for perpetrating child physical abuse (CPA) generalize to situations other than discipline-related encounters (e.g., a competitive gaming interaction). Participants included parents who were either low (n = 90) or high (n = 75) risk for CPA. Parents were led to believe that they were playing a game against a child opponent with whom they exchanged sound blasts of varying intensities. Parental sound blast selections served as a proxy for aggressive behavior. Parents were randomly assigned to high or low loss conditions. The fictitious child opponent's responses were pre-programed so that sound blasts received by parents became louder (i.e., more provocative) over time. As predicted, high CPA risk parents exhibited higher levels of aggression than low CPA risk parents. Moreover, high-risk parents reported having higher levels of aggressive motives during the game than low-risk parents; and aggressive motives explained the link between parental CPA risk and parents' aggressive behavior. With one exception, higher levels of child provocation during the game prompted parents to send higher levels of sound blasts. The exception to this pattern occurred among low-risk parents who experienced high rates of loss during the game. Specifically, low-risk parents in the high loss condition continued to send low levels of sound blasts even as their child opponent became more provocative. Aggressive motives (and the ability to change motives as situations change) may help explain differences in aggressive tendencies evinced by parents with varying levels of CPA risk.

Крос-культурне дослідження ставлення до синдрому дефіциту уваги

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a disorder of neurodevelopmental type that is frequently diagnosed in childhood. Today between 3% and 6% of Swedish schoolchildren are diagnosed with ADHD. Corresponding statistics about the number of Ukrainian children diagnosed with ADHD are not openly available. The purpose of this cross-cultural study is to investigate if there is a difference in attitudes between Ukraine (Kiev) and Sweden (Stockholm) towards ADHD diagnosed. During this study both primary and secondary research were conducted. The result of secondary research showed that there is a large stigma around ADHD diagnosis, therefore children suffering from ADHD are at high risk to be confronted with prejudice and discrimination. The primary research consisted of an opinion poll, that was answered by 40 parents with children in elementary school (aged 6-16), in each country. The poll consisted of different statements about a fictitious child X, diagnosed with ADHD, that a respondent had to take a stand to. When analyzing and compering the results of both respondent groups (Ukrainian group and Swedish group) it was possible to identify a correlation between missing knowledge and negative attitudes, a correlation proved by several earlier studies that are included in the secondary research. The result from the primary study showed that the attitude towards children with ADHD is more negative in Ukraine. The potential reason behind this result is primary the increased knowledge of the diagnosis in Sweden as well as the positive representation of ADHD in the Swedish media that contributes to a more tolerant and positive stance towards children with ADHD.The study also showed that views on discipline and corporal punishment of children differ between countries.In Ukraine, there are more people who believe that ADHD can be prevented with hard discipline, compared to Sweden.Thus, more negative attitude towards ADHD can be based on the view that the diagnosis is a result of poor upbringing.

The Bathsheba Affair as a Royal Apology of King Solomon

Analysis of the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11:1–12:25 reveals that it possesses several layers. The report of the second Ammonite War, which represents the initial content of 2 Samuel 11:1–12:31 and serves as the basis of the original Bathsheba Affair story, glorified David as a great warrior and gracious king, who married the widow of his fallen-in-action officer, Uriah the Hittite, and adopted Uriah’s newborn son, Solomon. The later Bathsheba Affair story, written by a pro-Solomonic author during Solomon’s reign, introduced the arbitrary taking of Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite’s wife, by David before her husband met a natural warrior’s death. According to this version, Bathsheba remained with David in his palace and conceived there. The story demonstrates that Solomon, Bathsheba’s firstborn child, was not Uriah’s son but rather, by claiming direct royal lineage to King David, was David’s legitimate successor to the Throne of Israel. The next three revisions of the story 1) introduced Nathan the Prophet’s accusations against David, presumed to have been written between the late ninth and late eighth centuries B.C.E. by a prophetic author; 2) replaced Solomon with a fictitious firstborn child, written by a Deuteronomistic writer in the exilic period; and 3) introduced David’s second transgression – the murder of Uriah – written by an anti-Davidic author in the post-exilic period.

To Teach and How to Teach the Holocaust: That Is the Question

Although facts about the Holocaust are generally known, many adults find it difficult to convey this information to children, as it is often considered too disturbing for them. Teachers, in particular, need alternate ways to introduce students to the Holocaust and other disasters. Based on a document study of children's drawings from the Terezin concentration camp and research about the Holocaust and pedagogy for presenting difficult issues to children, this article presents a strategy for teachers to introduce the Holocaust to students in grades 6–10. We begin with a discussion about how to introduce sensitive historical material, such as the Holocaust, to young children. Current teaching models about the Holocaust are based on factual texts or fictional writings. This is followed by a poem, developed from Haring's research, introducing the Holocaust while conferring facts about the life of a fictitious child in the Terezin concentration camp. Teacher notes elaborate on how to implement this poem in class. We found that art, such as poetry, can be utilized to teach children about sensitive issues like the disaster of the Holocaust. Furthermore, this poem is written from the perspective of a child interned in Terezin, who may or may not have survived.

Preschoolers' understanding of the role of communication and cooperation in establishing property rights.

Property as a social "agreement" comprises both a communicative component, in which someone makes a claim that she is entitled to some piece of property, and a cooperative component, in which others in the community respect that claim as legitimate. In the current study, preschool children were (a) given the opportunity to mark some objects as "theirs" (to claim them in the face of other fictitious children who would supposedly enter the room later); and (b) confronted with stickers in various spatial arrangements (e.g., piled up neatly vs. scattered), told that a fictitious child had previously chosen some for herself but had to suddenly leave the room, and then invited first to choose some stickers for themselves and second to identify which stickers had already been claimed by the fictitious child. Five-year-olds but not 3-year-olds were skillful in both of these tasks, demonstrating an understanding of the crucial role of communication in asserting property claims and the crucial role of cooperation in respecting them.

Reducing conspiracy theory beliefs

This study aimed to look at possible ways to reduce beliefs in conspiracy theories and increase the intention to have a fictitious child vaccinated. One hundred and sixty participants answered an online questionnaire. Three groups were used. The control group did not read any text prior to answering whereas the two experimental groups read either only debunking information or information about the motives of the conspiracists and the fallacy in their reasoning in addition to the debunking paragraph. The second experimental manipulation was effective in reducing medical conspiracy theories beliefs, but not belief in conspiracy theories in general. Neither intervention was effective in increasing the likelihood to have a fictitious child vaccinated. Those not intending to vaccinate a fictitious child endorsed conspiracy theories to a greater degree. A positive correlation between beliefs in conspiracy theories and the experiential/intuitive information processing system was found.

The Effects of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions

The current studies investigated the potential impact of anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs, and exposure to anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, on vaccination intentions. In Study 1, British parents completed a questionnaire measuring beliefs in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and the likelihood that they would have a fictitious child vaccinated. Results revealed a significant negative relationship between anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and vaccination intentions. This effect was mediated by the perceived dangers of vaccines, and feelings of powerlessness, disillusionment and mistrust in authorities. In Study 2, participants were exposed to information that either supported or refuted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, or a control condition. Results revealed that participants who had been exposed to material supporting anti-vaccine conspiracy theories showed less intention to vaccinate than those in the anti-conspiracy condition or controls. This effect was mediated by the same variables as in Study 1. These findings point to the potentially detrimental consequences of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, and highlight their potential role in shaping health-related behaviors.

Orthopedic Surgeons are Less Likely to See Children Now for Fracture Care Compared with 10 Years Ago

To assess availability of timely orthopedic fracture care to children. Fifty randomly selected orthopedic practices were contacted twice with an identical scenario to request an appointment for a fictitious child with an arm fracture, once with the staff told that the child had private insurance and once with Medicaid. Access to appointments on the basis of insurance was compared with rates 10 years earlier.(1) Forty-five practices were contacted successfully. An appointment was offered within 7 days to a child with private insurance by 42% of the practices (19/45) and to a child with Medicaid by 2% of the practices (1/45; P < .0001). There was no difference in timely access (appointment within 7 days) for children with Medicaid in this study (2%) compared with 10 years ago (1%; P = 1.0). There was a significant decrease in timely access for children with private insurance in the past decade, with a rate of 42% (19/45) in this study, compared with 100% (50/50) 10 years ago (P < .0001). There has been a substantial decrease in the last decade in the willingness, availability, or both of orthopedic surgeons in Los Angeles to care for children with fractures whose families have private insurance. Children with Medicaid continue to have limited access.

Teachers' experiences with and expectations of children with incarcerated parents

Children with incarcerated parents, and mothers in particular, are at increased risk for academic failure and school dropout. In two studies, we examined teachers' experiences with children with incarcerated parents and their expectations for competence of children with incarcerated mothers. In Study 1, a descriptive, qualitative study, teachers ( N = 30) discussed their experiences with children with incarcerated parents. The results of Study 1 suggest that children with incarcerated parents experience stigmatization in the school setting and children with incarcerated mothers are considered especially at risk. Based on the results of Study 1, we designed an experiment for Study 2 to examine teachers' ( N = 73) expectations for competency of fictitious children new to class because of maternal incarceration. Teachers randomly assigned to a scenario describing a female student whose mother is away at prison rated the child as less competent than teachers randomly assigned to scenarios in which the child's mother was described as being away for other reasons.

Metamemory Development: Understanding the Role of Similarity in False Memories

Research on the development of metamemory has focused primarily on children's understanding of the variables that influence how likely a person is to remember something. But metamemory also involves an understanding of why people occasionally misremember things. In this study, 5- and 6-year-olds (N = 38) were asked to decide whether another child's mistakes in a memory game were due to false memories or guesses. Some of the fictitious child's mistakes were similar to material he had seen earlier and some were not. Six-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, consistently attributed more similar than dissimilar mistakes to false memories. Understanding the link between similarity and false memories improves significantly between 5 and 6 years of age.

Primary school teachers' criteria for the identification of gifted pupils

Which are the characteristics leading teachers to judge a child as ‘gifted’? To answer this question 384 German primary school teachers were asked to describe a gifted child in their own words as well as on a 90 item rating scale. A total of 192 teachers, who declared they had never instructed a gifted child, described a fictitious child; the other teachers described a child they had instructed. Only in a small group of persons in the two subsamples of German primary school teachers do the results show evidence of negative stereotypes concerning gifted children. Furthermore, the results point to the fact that gifted underachievers, children with low achievement motivation and gifted girls are at risk to be overlooked.

Being Chinese: Voices from the Diaspora

Wei DjaoTucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003, xxi, 240pp, US$22.95 (ISBN 0-8165-2302-9)The Chinese diaspora is a global phenomenon. However, previous studies have rarely approached this subject from a global perspective. Wei Djao's book is based on her interviews with descendants of Chinese emigrants who moved from China to other countries in five different continents between 1842 and 1949. Through the personal voices of these interviewees, this work provides inside views on the Chinese overseas in a worldwide context, especially on their lives and identities.The book begins with a historical survey of Chinese emigration from its earliest phase to its modern period. Especially between 1842 and 1949, millions of Chinese emigrants spread to all inhabited continents as purchased coolies, contract labourers, self-financed migrants and even illegal immigrants. Many of them suffered from poverty and racism in foreign lands but stayed and survived there as tenacious members of the Chinese diaspora. In this historical survey, Djao skilfully assimilates previous scholarship and presents a concise introduction to the history of the Chinese overseas.The major body of the book is composed of the personal stories and family histories that the 22 interviewees poured out as their answers to Djao's two research questions: how do they live, and how are they Chinese? It is worth noting that the interviewees have lived in about 16 different countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Oceania, and their families had settled there for at least two generations (sometimes as many as five or six generations). Their ethnic backgrounds range from the pure Chinese to those with three-eighths Chinese, half German, and a bit of English and Irish blood and those who are Chinese, part Europe, and part Latino (pp 59, 134). Most of the interviewees and their ancestors lived in non-Chinese societies as ordinary people. But the everyday life of these common people epitomizes the history of the Chinese dispersion in the past 150 years.The early migrants mentioned in this book include the Chinese farmer who was brought by the British to India for tea transplantation and the young woman who went from northern China to work on a coffee plantation in Peru in the early 20th century. Among them there are not only the paper son who immigrated to Cuba as a fictitious child of another immigrant-turned-citizen but also the paper daughter adopted from China by a Chinese family in Hawaii, a practice that has rarely been recorded. In one tragic case, one illegal immigrant travelled on an American steel ship by bribing its captain but was thrown into the furnace and incinerated by the same officer when the American Coast Guard came aboard to search the ship (p 98). More common tragedies for these Chinese are varied forms of racist discrimination, such as the pre-war prohibition on Chinese immigration to some western countries, the anti-Chinese laws and violence in contemporary Southeast Asia and the seldom heard practices directed against the Chinese in India around the Sino-Indian border war of 1962. While many Chinese in Southeast Asia have chosen to protect themselves by acquiring residence in western countries, others have fought for their rights through participation in domestic politics. …

Residential Care from a Child's Perspective

In 1991, the author, drawing from his fourteen years of work in residential treatment, created a fictitious child named Gus E. Studelmeyer and asked him to write about his experiences in residential care. Gus, 13, lived in a residential treatment center for boys. The essay, What Do I Think About Residential Treatment: A Child's Perspective won a national award and was subsequently published in this journal (Volume 9, Number 3 1992). As a result, Gus was asked to keep on writing. In chapter 11 (RTCY, Summer, 1993), Gus tantrums and processes the incident with a counselor. In the following chapter, Gus confronts the issue of foster care. Gus was created to help child care professionals better empathize with, and care for, children and families in residential treatment.

If at First You Don′t Succeed: Children′s Metacognition about Reading Problems

The development of children′s metacognition about the influence of ability and effort on reading problems was investigated. Twenty-one subjects from each of grades 1, 3, 5, and 7 were presented with short descriptions of four fictitious children (same age and sex as the subject) with reading problems. The intellectual ability (high versus low) and the level of effort (high versus low) of the fictitious children were varied systematically across the four descriptions. Subjects were asked to determine the cause of each fictitious child′s reading problem and to recommend remediation strategies. The major findings were that (a) subjects appointed effort, but not ability, a major role in the cause and remediation of reading problems; (b) although subjects had relatively sophisticated metacognition about the cause of reading problems, integrating intellectual, cognitive, motivational, and effort variables in their causal explanations, their metacognition about remediation was less elaborate; and (c) few developmental differences in metacognition about reading problems were evident. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance and limitations of children′s beliefs about reading problems.

Understanding of growth monitoring charts by literate and illiterate mothers in northeast Brazil.

Growth failure secondary to malnutrition occurs with a high prevalence in the developing world. Growth monitoring (GM) is one of the key primary health care strategies for controlling this problem. To assess the impact of literacy on the ability to interpret growth monitoring information the understanding of sample growth charts was evaluated among mothers in two communities of Fortaleza where growth monitoring programs had been promoted for several years. Homes were sequentially visited to identify families with children under 5 years of age who had a growth chart showing at least one weight recorded in the previous 12 months. These mothers were then interviewed by a public health nurse and asked to interpret six sets of growth charts portraying data on fictitious children from 6 to 17 months of age. The growth chart was that of the Ministry of Health which included lines for the 10th and 90th percentiles. Scores from 0 to 6 were given based on the number of correct responses given. 64 (45%) of the 142 mothers included in the study were classified as illiterate. Illiterate mothers tended to be older to have more children and a greater proportion lived in one of the two communities. No significant differences were seen in percentage of surviving children proportion of mothers working outside the home and family income. Illiterate mothers showed a higher frequency of participation in GM sessions. The results of the individual questions of the evaluation indicated mean scores for literate and illiterate mothers of 4.5 (SD 1.4) and 3.2 (SD 1.8) respectively (p < 0.001). If four correct answers were used as an arbitrary cut-off for a satisfactory level of understanding 85% and 53% of literate and illiterate mothers respectively achieved this mark. Among illiterate mothers community of residence and attendance at all GM sessions were significantly associated with the mean scores. Among literate mothers age (25-34 years) was significantly associated with higher mean scores.

Gus II

In 1991, the author, drawing from his fourteen years of work in residential treatment, created a fictitious child named Gus E. Studelmeyer and asked him to write about his experiences in residential care. Gus, 13, lived in a residential treatment center for boys. The essay, "What Do I Think About Residential Treatment: A Child's Perspective" was subsequently published in this journal (Volume 9, Number 3 1992). As a result, Gus was asked to keep on writing. The following chapter deals with the serious issue of physical restraint. This chapter-as well as the original-was created to help child care professionals better empathize with, and care for, children and families in residential treatment.