Material For Children Research Articles

Why do parents socialize their children to behave pro-socially? An information-based theory

We present a model of intergenerational transmission of pro-social values in which parents have information about relevant characteristics of society that is not directly available to their children. Differently from existing models of cultural transmission of values (such as Bisin and Verdier, 2001; Tabellini, 2008) we assume that parents are exclusively concerned with their children's material welfare. If parents coordinate their educational choices, a child would look at her system of values to predict the values of her contemporaries, with whom she may interact. A parent may thus choose to instill pro-social values into his child in order to signal to her that others can generally be trusted. This implies that parents may optimally decide to endow their children with values that stand in contrast with maximization of material welfare, even if their children's material welfare is all they care about.

Saving Childhood in Everyday Objects

What experiences and meaning of childhood are saved within objects of daily life? How do these objects differ from the pre-supposed artefacts of childhood in the culture of the twentieth-century United States? Using an interdisciplinary approach, this paper focusses on unexpected objects saved from childhood. These non-traditional objects of childhood reveal different levels of meaning and interpretation of a child's material world. An analysis of several contemporary objects saved by adults explores the personal significance of everyday things and how these possessions act as temporal guideposts of personal development that in turn shape meaning and identity. In particular the paper illuminates alternative approaches to investigating the meaning and relationship of objects particularly through both interpretive phenomenology and education and human development perspectives. The paper concludes with an examination of how researchers can draw on the scholarship of human development to support continued study of children's material culture.

Rethink, Reimagine, Reinvent: The Reggio Emilia Approach to Incorporating Reclaimed Materials in Children’s Artworks

(2009). Rethink, Reimagine, Reinvent: The Reggio Emilia Approach to Incorporating Reclaimed Materials in Children’s Artworks. Art Education: Vol. 62, No. 2, pp. 10-16.

Mediated communication of ‘sustainable consumption’ in the alternative media: a case study exploring a message framing strategy

AbstractIn view of previous effects of mediated communication on public knowledge, perceptions and concern about sustainability problems, this case study explores a message framing strategy for improving the effectiveness of mediated communication of the somewhat neglected topic of sustainable consumption. It describes how an information campaign on sustainable consumption was strategically framed, employing theories on effective and persuasive communication, and implemented through a community news medium in Christchurch, New Zealand. The resultant impacts of the campaign (significant increases in understanding of sustainable consumption and in the number of parents expressing concern over advertising effects on their children's material desires) were indicative of the potentials of employing strategic message framing for improving mediated communication about sustainability. The study also illustrates the potentials for engaging alternative media in such communication. This paper argues that further steps to develop message framing strategies for mediated communication of sustainable consumption is necessary, as this appears to be a largely neglected area in communication and consumer studies, and concludes with an overview of aspects that may be considered in future communication and other initiatives promoting sustainable consumption as a means for achieving sustainability.

Why Do Parents Socialize Their Children to Behave Pro-Socially? An Information-Based Theory

We present a model of intergenerational transmission of pro-social values in which parents have information about relevant characteristics of society that is not directly available to their children. Differently from existing models of cultural transmission of values (such as Bisin and Verdier, 2001, and Tabellini, 2008) we assume that parents are exclusively concerned with their children's material welfare. If parents coordinate their educational choices, a child would look at her system of values to predict the values of her contemporaries, with whom she may interact. A parent may thus choose to instil pro-social values into his child in order to signal to her that others can generally be trusted. This implies that parents may optimally decide to endow their children with values that stand in contrast with maximization of material welfare, even if their children's material welfare is all they care about.

Book Review: KidzCat : A How-to-do-it Manual for Cataloging Children's Materials and Instruction Resources

Book Review: KidzCat : A How-to-do-it Manual for Cataloging Children's Materials and Instruction Resources

Somebody's Bairns

Imagined orphans came to the forefront of world news in October 2006 when a pop star decided to adopt a Malawian ‘orphan’ who had a father and grandmother still living. The announcement unleashed a storm of debate at all levels, with a BBC online discussion forum on the topic receiving over 700 comments in eight days.1 There were accusations of ‘cultural imperialism’ from pressure groups such as Eye of the Child, and published accounts by former adoptees of the long-term consequences of such acts. The baby's father issued a series of poignant statements expressing his wish both to secure his child's material future and to provide emotional support through familial contact: desires that ultimately proved incompatible. One strand of this public discussion focused on the father's aims in placing his child in an orphanage: was he motivated by selfless concern for his child's future, or by a selfish wish to shrug off his financial responsibilities? British commentators strained to comprehend a society where such choices were necessary, unaware of how much the case was replicated in the files of nineteenth-century British orphanages. This amnesia has been fostered by the tendency of long-established children's charities to present their historic mission as ‘rescuing’ abandoned and deserted children.2 This over-simplification denies the evidence available in their files of the acute dilemmas faced by poor parents in the past.

A Comparative Analysis on Classification Systems for Children's Materials of Internet Portals and Online Bookstores

A Comparative Analysis on Classification Systems for Children's Materials of Internet Portals and Online Bookstores

The science of a good childhood: a review of Volume 2 of the Journal of Children's Services

This article reviews the contents of the previous year's editions of the Journal of Children's Services (Volume 2, 2007), as requested by the Journal's editorial board. It draws out some of the main messages for how high‐quality scientific research can help build good childhoods in western developed countries, focusing on: the need for epidemiology to understand how to match services to needs; how research can build evidence of the impact of prevention and intervention services on child well‐being; what the evidence says about how to implement proven programmes successfully; the economic case for proven programmes; the urgency of improving children's material living standards; how to help the most vulnerable children in society; and, lastly, the task of measuring child well‐being.

Family Structure and the Reproduction of Inequalities

Over the past four decades, income inequality has increased and family structures have diversified. We argue that family structure has become an important mechanism for the reproduction of class, race, and gender inequalities. We review studies of income inequality and family structure changes and find a wide range of estimates of the correlation. We discuss how increases in income inequality may lead to increases in single motherhood, particularly among less educated women. Single motherhood in turn decreases intergenerational economic mobility by affecting children's material resources and the parenting they experience. Because of the unequal distribution of family structure by race and the negative effects of single motherhood, family structure changes exacerbate racial inequalities. Gender inequalities also increase as mothers incur more child-related costs and fewer fathers experience family life with children.

Increase of Plasmatic β-Endorphin Immunoreactive Material in Children in the Perioperative Period: The Influence of the Site of Surgery

The primary aim of the study was to confirm the increase of plasmatic IR beta-endorphin material during the perioperative period in children. The second was to search for the factors responsible for this increment. Seventy-two consecutive children undergoing a surgical procedure were recruited. Pre-anaesthesia and anaesthesia were standardised. Plasmatic IR beta-endorphin material was measured at three timepoints: at baseline (t (0)), before induction (t (1)), and at the end of anaesthesia (t (2)). Two general linear models were set up to analyse the influence of demographics and clinics on the IR beta-endorphin variation between t (0) and t (1). A third model was established to process the possible surgical factors contributing to the IR beta-endorphin variation between t (1) and t (2). ANOVA showed that IR beta-endorphin concentrations increased significantly across the three timepoints (p < 0.0001). Wilcoxon test proved that the difference was significant both for t (0) vs. t (1) and for t (1) vs. t (2). None of the factors taken into account in the pre-operative period influenced the increase in IR beta-endorphin between t (0) and t (1). Of the factors taken into account in the surgical period, only the type of procedure was significant (p = 0.005). The t-test showed that IR beta-endorphin significantly increased during spermatic and epigastric anastomosis (p = 0.000), orchidopexy (p = 0.02), Van der Meulen urethroplasty (p = 0.004), and Duckett urethroplasty (p = 0.003). Plasmatic beta-endorphin increases during the perioperative period in children. The site of surgery is responsible for this increment during intervention.

Incidence and Severity of Acute Allergic-Like Reactions to IV Nonionic Iodinated Contrast Material in Children

Incidence and Severity of Acute Allergic-Like Reactions to IV Nonionic Iodinated Contrast Material in Children

Individual Differences in Children's Materialism: The Role of Peer Relations

Associations between materialism and peer relations are likely to exist in elementary school children but have not been studied previously. The first two studies introduce a new Perceived Peer Group Pressures (PPGP) Scale suitable for this age group, demonstrating that perceived pressure regarding peer culture (norms for behavioral, attitudinal, and material characteristics) can be reliably measured and that it is connected to children's responses to hypothetical peer pressure vignettes. Studies 3 and 4 evaluate the main theoretical model of associations between peer relations and materialism. Study 3 supports the hypothesis that peer rejection is related to higher perceived peer culture pressure, which in turn is associated with greater materialism. Study 4 confirms that the endorsement of social motives for materialism mediates the relationship between perceived peer pressure and materialism.

Engaging Children Online: Is there Room for the Grittiness of Social Reality?

Museums are venturing into the worlds of social networking as they aspire to be more participatory and inclusive of children and young people. However, there are challenges in presenting the grittiness of social reality in online exhibition spaces. On the one hand, museums face political pressures about what are deemed to be accepted narratives for public education; on the other hand, they appear to be constrained by preconceptions about what is appropriate material for children. This paper discusses such tensions with reference to museum websites, particularly those focussing on one of the iconic topics of the Australian school curriculum, the gold rushes of the nineteenth century. The paper reports initial and ongoing research of museum websites for children. The findings and associated discussion are significant in the current climate of debate about the teaching of history in Australia and what these debates mean for the inclusive museum.

Supplemental Material for Children Induce an Enhanced Attentional Blink in Child Molesters

Supplemental Material for Children Induce an Enhanced Attentional Blink in Child Molesters

Growing up in a Material World: Age Differences in Materialism in Children and Adolescents

We examine age differences in materialism with children and adolescents 8–18 years old. In study 1, we find materialism increases from middle childhood to early adolescence and declines from early to late adolescence. Further, we find that age differences are mediated by changes in self-esteem occurring from middle childhood through adolescence. In study 2, we prime self-esteem to obtain further evidence of a causal link between self-esteem and materialism. As expected, we find that inducing high self-esteem decreases expressions of materialism. Inducing high self-esteem reduces materialism among adolescents so dramatically that age differences in materialism disappear.

Marie Curie (review)

Reviewed by: Marie Curie Elizabeth Bush Krull, Kathleen Marie Curie; illus. by Boris Kulikov. Viking, 2007 [128p] (Giants of Science) ISBN 978-0-670-05894-5$15.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, who with husband Pierre isolated the elements radium and polonium and, for better or worse, jump-started the atomic age, is the latest subject in the Giants of Science series. The intensely private and emotionally distant Curie seems to have subdued, if not entirely cowed, some of Krull's customary biographical élan, for although the tone of the presentation is chatty and the pacing brisk, the author's catty commentary and eye for absurdity are not as evident as in earlier volumes. And it's certainly not that Curie provides no scuttlebutt-worthy peculiarities—Carla McClafferty's recent Something Out of Nothing (BCCB 5/06) highlighted plenty of personal detail, and Krull herself has some pointed remarks on widow Curie's fling with fellow scientist Paul Langevin. Krull does gain ground, though, in her careful description of the actual work that the Curies were doing in their ill-heated shed, laboriously reducing thousands of pounds of donated pitchblende to extract and purify minute amounts of radioactive matter. She also gives a touching account of the Curies' unusual romance, conducted literally in the glow of their deadly obsession. While this may not have quite the sparkle of Isaac Newton (BCCB 5/06), Krull still has a knack for demonstrating that even the most brilliant minds put their lab coats on one sleeve at a time, and with her inclusion of print and internet resources (with children's material noted) and index, report writers and biography fans should be equally satisfied. Copyright © 2007 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Incidence and Severity of Acute Allergic-Like Reactions to IV Nonionic Iodinated Contrast Material in Children

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence and severity of acute allergic-like reactions related to i.v. administration of low-osmolality nonionic iodinated contrast material in children. Department of radiology contrast material reaction forms involving pediatric (younger than 19 years) imaging examinations performed from January 1, 1999, through June 30, 2006, were retrospectively evaluated for type of acute allergic-like reaction, severity of reaction, and patient outcome. The electronic medical record was reviewed for pertinent medical history related to each acute reaction, including previous contrast material reaction, premedication before administration of i.v. iodinated contrast material, previous allergic-like reaction to substances other than contrast material, and history of asthma. In our department during the time period specified, 11,306 pediatric i.v. administrations of low-osmolality nonionic iodinated contrast material were performed. Acute allergic-like reactions to the contrast material were documented in 20 (0.18%) of the patients. Sixteen (80%) of the acute allergic-like reactions were categorized as mild, one (5%) as moderate, and three (15%) as severe. No deaths were attributed to i.v. nonionic iodinated contrast material. Six (30%) of the patients had a history of allergic-like reaction, including two patients who had a history of reaction to iodinated contrast material. Five (25%) of the patients had a history of asthma. Acute allergic-like reactions to i.v. administration of low-osmolality nonionic iodinated contrast material in children are rare. As in the adult population, most pediatric reactions are mild; however, severe reactions do occur.

Report of Three Cases of Allergies to Dental Materials in Children

Report of Three Cases of Allergies to Dental Materials in Children

Contact with Family Members and its Impact on Adolescents and Their Foster Placements

Sue Moyers is a Research Associate in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. She assisted in the development of the Looking After Children material and is currently under taking research with Elaine Farmer on kinship care. Elaine Farmer is Professor of Child and Family Studies and Director of the Centre for Family Policy and Child Welfare in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. Jo Lipscombe was a Research Associate in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. She recently completed a doctorate on Remand Foster Care and now works for Crime Concern.