Positive Benefits For Children Research Articles

Promoting Prosocial Skill in Early Childhood by Games with Rules

Prosocial behavior provides many positive benefits for children, especially in various aspects of development including academic success, decreased feelings of loneliness, and aggression. This study aims to investigate (1) whether there is an effect of game with rule on prosocial behavior, (2) knowing whether there is a difference between the prosocial behavior of boys and girls after participating in games with rules. This study used pre-experimental design. Data analysis for examining the effect of games with rules on prosocial behavior was done using nonparametric statistics with the Wilcoxon test. In contrast, the data analysis for examining the difference of prosocial behavior between boys and girls used the Mann Whitney test. The final result of the data analysis shows a difference in prosocial behavior after children participate in a games with rules. Furthermore, this study found no differences in prosocial behavior between boys and girls. The implications of the research results are discussed further in this article. Keywords: Early childhood skills, Play activities, Prosocial behavior, Game with rules.

Proximity to SNAP-authorized retailers and child maltreatment reports

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been shown to have positive benefits for children. Families may face fewer barriers to accessing food they can purchase with their benefits if more stores in their neighborhoods accept SNAP benefits. We examine whether proximity to stores accepting SNAP benefits is related to child maltreatment (abuse and neglect) reports, particularly those potentially related to food insecurity. We combine geographically identified child maltreatment report data from the state of Connecticut from 2011 through 2015 with state SNAP-authorized retailer data. Using within-Census block group changes in the presence of a SNAP-authorized store, we find that in large, rural areas, one additional SNAP store is associated with a 4.4 percent decrease in the child maltreatment report rate (p < 0.05), and an 11.3 percent decrease in substantiated cases of maltreatment (p < 0.10), even net of changing zip code level factors and time-invariant neighborhood characteristics. The relationship between a neighborhood SNAP store and child maltreatment reports in these rural areas is largely driven by neglect, concentrated among young and school-aged children (ages 0–9), and primarily due to fewer reports by medical personnel. We find no effects of a neighborhood SNAP store on child maltreatment reports in smaller, more densely populated neighborhoods. Sensitivity checks affirm these results. Results indicate the benefits of access to SNAP retailers on the child welfare system and child well-being more broadly, especially in rural areas.

Life Skills Transfer through Outdoor Education for Positive Youth Development

Outdoor Education firstly emerged in the 19th century until the 20th century in the form of camping activities in schools, and it also has been developed in several universities. In Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, Outdoor Education has been included in the school curriculum. Outdoor Education (OE) has also been developed in Indonesia during the development of various learning sources. Having around 17,504 islands, Indonesia becomes an archipelagic country with an area of 1.9 million km2. Lying along the equator line, Indonesia has two seasons, namely rainy season and dry season. Indonesia also has many beautiful landscapes scattered in various regions that can be used as the media to implement OE activities such as forests, mountains, and rivers. With Indonesia's geographical conditions, OE is very suitable to be applied in the school curriculum. With the context of Positive Youth Development (PYD), there are many positive benefits for children involved in OE activities, namely life skills improvement, social interaction, and higher environmental concerns to protect the natural environment. This paper is ended with an OE program that integrates structured and deliberated life skills for the development of positive youth. Besides, the transfer process of life skills that occurs is discussed in depth.

Parents’ Views of Father–Child Rough-and-Tumble Play

Parent-child play directly influences child development. One aspect of parent-child play that is gaining interest is a form of physical play, ‘rough-and-tumble play’ (RTP), or roughhousing. RTP is most often played by fathers and has been shown to have positive benefits for children. However, little is known about parents’ perceptions of this type of play, although beliefs and values about learning through play shape parents’ interactions with their children. In this study, we investigated parents’ beliefs and knowledge about father–child RTP. A qualitative design was used to create a conceptual description of parents’ views, and 52 (31% male) Australian parents participated in semi-structured interviews supported by a video stimulus of father–child RTP. Three conceptual themes characterized parents’ perspectives on RTP: Strength Challenge describes the physicality and inter-personal challenge of the game; Dynamic Bonding describes how parents view RTP as fostering close father-child relationships, confidence and a playful state of mind; the final theme, Context and Caveats, integrates the contended and contingent aspects of RTP perceived to influence the short and long-term effects of this play. The study provides insight into how parents perceive the broad function of parent-child RTP and fathers’ role within this play.

Learning Together: The Instinct to Do Good and Peer-Assisted Strategies That Work

Children have a natural proclivity to teach, help, cooperate, and empathize with others, and these interactions can have positive benefits for children’s emotional, social, and cognitive development. This article is about ways music teachers can design peer-assisted music learning activities that will benefit everyone in the class and ultimately contribute to creating a classroom culture of inclusion.

‘I’m more confident now, I was really quiet’: exploring the potential benefits of child-led research

This article explores whether child-led research (CLR) benefits the well-being of the children and young people involved. The article draws upon evaluation data from a pilot CLR programme facilitated by a non-government organisation that supports disadvantaged children, young people and families. Nine participants (aged 10–14 years old) volunteered for the CLR programme, conducted over 18 weeks, which involved learning about and undertaking their own research on a topic of their choosing. The programme was externally evaluated both in terms of process and outcomes so as to gain insights into what is involved in CLR and any potential benefits it might offer for participants. The discussion explores a range of positive benefits for children whilst also signalling the challenges involved in planning, implementing and evaluating such initiatives, not least of which is the difficulty in scaling up this kind of research, given its resource-intensive nature.

Fathers' and Mothers' Home Literacy Involvement and Children's Cognitive and Social Emotional Development: Implications for Family Literacy Programs

The relations between fathers' and mothers' home literacy involvement at 24 months and children's cognitive and social emotional development in preschool were examined using a large sample of African American and Caucasian families (N = 5190) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that both fathers' and mothers' home literacy involvement positively contributed to children's cognitive and social emotional development. Specifically, fathers and mothers who participated in more frequent home literacy involvement (e.g., shared book reading) had children with better reading, math, and social emotional outcomes (i.e., sustained attention and fewer negative behaviors) in preschool. Findings suggest that increasing family literacy involvement can have positive benefits for children's cognitive and social emotional skills during the developmentally important early childhood years.

The children’s community nurse

The policy context and important contributions that children’s community nurses can make to deliver this agenda are described. The evolution, range and scope of the roles and services of children’s community nursing are explored. A summary of key evidence concerning roles, policy and service development, and interventions is presented, along with future role development and research challenges. The roles of children’s community nurses have evolved rapidly over the last decade in response to demand, public pressure and key policy drivers. There is weak evidence concerning the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of various roles, models and services. Satisfaction surveys indicate positive benefits for children and their families, but there is insufficient capacity and coverage of roles and services to fulfil the UK government’s aspirations for all children to have access to an appropriate children’s community nursing service.

In the care of working mothers

Could a parent-partnership scheme that encourages mothers to work in nurseries have positive benefits for children and their families? Deepak Poddar, from Little Einstein’s, believes that it would.

Variation in the Consequences of Nonresident Father Involvement for Children's Well-Being

Given current rates of divorce and nonmarital childbearing, nonresident paternal parenting is becoming increasingly common. Recent research efforts show a parallel trend toward an increasing focus on nonresident father involvement. In particular, researchers have been interested in both the antecedents of nonresident father involvement (e.g., Furstenberg, Nord, Peterson, & Zill, 1983; Seltzer, 1991) and its consequences for children (e.g., Furstenberg, Morgan, & Allison, 1987; King, 1993, 1994).Early research and concern over the relationship between nonresident fathers and their children was often predicated on the assumption that father involvement would have positive benefits for children, but supporting evidence has been limited. The majority of studies based on large national surveys have found little association between father visitation and child well-being (Baydar & Brooks-Gunn, 1991; Furstenberg et al., 1987; King, 1993, 1994; Zill, 1988). Stronger effects of father involvement have been found for the payment of child support. Although not significant for all measures of well-being (Baydar & Brooks-Gunn, 1991; Furstenberg et al., 1987; King, 1993, 1994; McLanahan, Seltzer, Hanson, & Thomson, 1991), there is some evidence that the payment of child support has beneficial effects for children in the domains of educational achievement (Graham, Beller, & Hernandez, 1991; King, 1993, 1994; Knox & Bane, 1991) and behavioral adjustment (Furstenberg et al., 1987; McLanahan et al., 1991).Although several studies have examined the question of whether nonresident father involvement has positive benefits for children, the majority of these studies have failed to examine the possible interactive effects of father involvement. For example, most of the studies use all-white samples, and the few that do have data for minorities do not examine whether the effects of father involvement differ for whites and blacks (or other minorities).As Arditti (1994) pointed out, there has been a lack of attention to the diversity of circumstances encountered by families in which there is a non-resident father. Determining how important social stratifiers such as race and class influence nonresident parenting has been virtually ignored in the literature. This neglect has important consequences because it may be that father involvement is beneficial only under certain circumstances or for certain groups of children.Only two studies to date have considered this issue. Furstenberg et al. (1987) examined whether the effect of father contact or the payment of child support varied with the child's sex, current marital status of the mother, or the mother's income. They reported few interactive effects and found no conditions that amplified or reduced the importance of nonresident father involvement for child well-being. Other important variations, however, such as by race or by whether the child was born within marriage, were not explored.A recent study by Amato and Rezac (1994) explored several other potentially important moderating factors for the effect of nonresident parental contact on children's behavior problems. They also reported few interactive effects. However, when they examined variations by parental conflict, an interesting finding emerged. They found that, among boys from divorced families, contact with the nonresident parent decreased behavior problems when parental conflict was low but increased behavior problems when conflict was high. However, this relationship did not hold for girls or for boys born outside of marriage. Although this study considered a wide variety of moderating factors such as race and gender, it focused on only one type of child outcome and was limited to examining the effect of contact.In this article I explore whether the effect of father involvement varies by the child's race, mother's education, or whether the child was born outside of marriage. …

Nonresident Father Involvement and Child Well-Being:

Using data from the child supplement to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a series of multivariate regression models were tested to determine whether father visitation or the payment of child support are significantly associated with several measures of child welleing. The results indicate that there is limited evidence to support the hypothesis that nonresident father involvement has positive benefits for children. The strongest evidence is for the effect of child support in the domain of academics.