Children's Social Experiences Research Articles

Social reward predicts false belief understanding in Namibian Hai||om children

AbstractSocial motivation is theorized to promote Theory of Mind development in childhood, but research testing this link is scarce and largely limited to urban middle‐class milieus of the Global North. Here, we investigated the link between social motivation (i.e., social reward responsivity) and Theory of Mind (i.e., false belief understanding) among N = 59 Hai||om children (AgeRange = 2.3–8.0 years) from rural Namibia, an indigenous community where children's social experience with peers and adults differs much from urban middle‐class milieus typically sampled in developmental science research. Children's preference for adult, but not peer faces predicted their false belief performance. Moreover, their false belief performance increased with age, showing mastery of the current false belief task by the preschool years. These results accommodate universalist claims on the link between social motivation and Theory of Mind while suggesting a particular contribution of the social reward responsivity to adult social partners.

Педагогический аспект изучения агиографической литературы

The article actualizes the problem of registration in a separate scientific field of teaching the bases of the Orthodox Faith, and as part of it - the methodology of working with hagiographic literature. The purpose of the proposed article is the justification of the pedagogical aspect of working with hagiographic literature, with its emphasis on the semantic, ideological framework of hagiography to solve problems of spiritual and moral development and education of students in the lessons of the basics of the Orthodox Faith. Materials and methods. The leading research methods were the analysis and synthesis of information from contemporary scientific articles, historical and pedagogical literature, normative documents in the field of education, school textbooks; comparison of scientific ideas and concepts, pedagogical experience of the past and the present. Results. The article substantiates the importance of hagiographic literature for solving the problem of spiritual and moral development and education of schoolchildren. The authors of the article proceed from the fact that the task requires at the first stage of its solution the formation of value representations of students, which have a high degree of abstraction, uncertainty in the wording of the relevant concepts. These problems can be solved by hagiographic literature, illustrating in visual and verbal form spiritual and moral qualities of personality, values which are difficult to define precisely, but whose manifestations can be observed through thoughtful reading and analysis of hagiographic literature. The authors of the article offer readers an analysis of pre-revolutionary editions of hagiographic literature for children and focus on the diversity of modern books on the lives of saints, as well as features of the modern presentation of hagiographic text that complicates the work of the teacher and requires him to carefully select books in accordance with the tasks, age and individual characteristics of children. Also the authors offer a sequence and the maintenance of stages of work with hagiographic literature at a lesson with the purpose of realization of a knowledge component, the emphasis on relevance and simultaneously complexity of work on a conclusion of a moral conclusion from the read hagiography is made. Conclusions. The proposed ideas about the importance of hagiographic literature for the formation of ideas about the spiritual and moral qualities of personality and the value foundations of Christianity can be put into the development of a separate topic of scientific research related to the study of hagiographic literature in the pedagogical aspect. To do this you must, firstly, to explore the moral meanings, worldview framework of the lives of saints, and secondly, to develop a method to work with these meanings and worldview attitudes consistent with age, social experience of children and their experience of church life, establishing interdisciplinary links and rationally linking the study of hagiography with other subjects of the school curriculum

The Study of Adolescents' Perception of the Psychological Safety of the Educational Environment

Subject, purpose of the work. The empirical study was aimed at studying the parameters of the psychological safety of the educational environment as a component of the children's social experience of adolescents. A new approach to the study of adolescents' perceptions of safety in terms of their changes over a long period of time – from 2016 to 2022. The research method was a survey of teenagers, students of schools in Orenburg and the Orenburg region according to the questionnaire proposed by us, which includes modifications of the methods of I.A. Baeva (Psychological diagnostics of the safety of the educational environment of the school) and D.A. Leontiev (SO – test of life orientations), The survey was conducted twice, in 2016 and in 2022. Results. An increase in the number of responses indicating the absence of fears and social risks associated with the social environment was found, and a decrease in the number of responses about the manifestations of danger in the educational environment was also noted. The resources of assistance in dangerous situations in two dimensions are indicated by parents and friends, a small number of respondents turn to teachers. A positive trend can be noted in the fact that most teenagers are able to turn to adults for help in difficult situations. There was also no significant dynamics in the answers to questions about significant and easily accessible values, the most easily accessible values are active life, cognition and the presence of friends. Conclusions. Significant dynamics in the assessment of the educational environment by teenagers of schools in Orenburg and the Orenburg region were not found. However, the polarization of assessments confirms that some adolescents experience difficulties in real interaction in the educational environment, which clearly leads to negative social experience, the formation of stable qualities - helplessness and passivity.

Family's experiences of their children's nutritional health and wellbeing among food-insecure households in Europe: a qualitative systematic review and meta-ethnography

BackgroundThere has been a rise in food insecurity in Europe since the 2008 global financial crisis and households with children are particularly vulnerable. We aimed to explore families' experiences of food insecurity and how these experiences affect children's nutritional health and wellbeing. MethodsIn this systematic review and meta-ethnography, we searched Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, CINAHL, and ASSIA from Jan 1, 2008, to July 10, 2021, supplemented by grey literature, reference lists, and citation searches. Screening was done in duplicate to ensure consistent application of inclusion criteria and minimise random errors. Following title and abstract screening, full texts were screened against the inclusion criteria (qualitative research focussing on children's nutritional health and wellbeing, with data from 2008 onwards, from high-income European countries). Data extracted included study design, country of origin, caregiver type, gender, age, ethnic group, migration status, accommodation type, measure of food insecurity and other socioeconomic factors. Data were synthesised according to Noblit & Hare's seven phases of meta-ethnography. Our protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020214159). FindingsWe identified 11 589 unique records; 19 were included, involving 813 participants. We identified four key themes: food and eating practices, awareness, fragility, and networks of care. Within the key themes, we identified five subthemes: diet, compromised infant feeding practices, psychological fragility, social fragility, and physical fragility. We found that children with food insecurity were aware of their family's scarce resources, with most active in trying to help their family while also forming their own networks of care. We found that food insecurity adversely affects children's physical, psychological, and social experiences setting them on a trajectory towards sub-optimal health. InterpretationChildren's nutritional health and wellbeing is adversely affected by food insecurity. This meta-ethnography highlights gaps in our knowledge about children's nutritional health relating to a range of sociodemographic factors. There is a need to actively involve children in more research and policy. A strength and limitation of this review is the diverse range of included studies from different European contexts, in which contextual factors could have affected our findings. FundingThe Economic and Social Research Council.

Associations between social behaviors and experiences with neural correlates of implicit emotion regulation in middle childhood.

Emotion regulation is essential for successful social interactions and function, which are important aspects of middle childhood. The current study is one of the first to examine associations between neural correlates of implicit emotion regulation and indices of social behavior and experience during late middle childhood. We examined neural activation during the implicit emotion regulation condition of the Emotional N-back task using data from 8987 9- to 11-year-olds from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development℠ study. The brain regions assessed included areas linked to social cognition, social behavior, and emotion recognition, including the amygdala, insula, middle temporal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobe. Greater number of close friends was associated with significantly higher activation of the fusiform gyrus, insula, temporoparietal junction, inferior parietal lobe, and superior temporal gyrus during implicit emotion regulation. Greater reciprocal social impairments were linked to decreased fusiform gyrus activation during implicit emotion regulation. More experiences of discrimination were associated with a significantly lower activation in the middle temporal gyrus during implicit emotion regulation. This study provides evidence that both positive and negative indices of children's social experiences and behaviors are associated with neural correlates of implicit emotion regulation during late middle childhood. These findings suggest that both positive and negative indices of social behavior and experience, including those within and not within the youth's control, are associated with generally unique neural correlates during implicit emotion regulation.

Profiles of family-based social experiences in the first 3 years predict early cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional competencies.

This study utilized latent profile analyses to identify unique configurations of children's family-based social experiences during the first 3 years of life and examine differences across profiles with respect to developmental outcomes at 36 and 48 months of age. Seven family process variables were used: maternal emotional functioning, maternal sensitivity, negative controlling parenting, cognitive stimulation, corporal punishment, adult-adult aggression, and household disorganization. Data were collected by the Family Life Project (N = 1,087), a longitudinal study of families living in low-wealth, nonurban areas, for whom the biological mother was the child's primary caregiver from 6 to 36 months of age. On average, mothers were 26 years of age at 2 months of child age. Approximately 36% of the families lived below the federal poverty limit, and 41% identified as Black; 49% of children were female. Latent profile analyses identified four groups: (a) positive exposure (b) average exposure, (c) problematic adult functioning, and (d) problematic parenting . Comparisons indicate that children in the positive exposure profile had the highest levels of socioemotional and cognitive outcomes compared to overall profiles. Children in the problematic adult functioning and problematic parenting profiles had the most problematic child outcomes, with children in the problematic parenting profile scoring lowest overall. Results indicate that there is configural heterogeneity in family-based social experiences at the highest levels of risk and that exposures to problematic parenting may be more consequential for later child outcomes than exposures to problematic adult functioning in the absence of compromised caregiving. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Social Experiences of Children with Autism at Pathways Autism Trust during the COVID - 19 Lockdown

Social Experiences of Children with Autism at Pathways Autism Trust during the COVID - 19 Lockdown

Young Children's Social Experiences Within Child Care Centers During COVID-19

Young Children's Social Experiences Within Child Care Centers During COVID-19

Social Experiences of Turkish Parents Raising a Child With Apert Syndrome: A Qualitative Study.

Apert syndrome is a rare and understudied craniofacial condition with regard to its psychosocial impact on children and their parents. Due to the lack of studies focusing solely on the social experiences of children and families with Apert syndrome, it is difficult to develop interventions and strategies to support well-being and positive adjustment for this particular population. This study addressed this gap by assessing the unique social experiences of parents who are raising their children with Apert syndrome including difficulties they face and strategies they use to cope with challenges. Descriptive qualitative study using thematic analysis. Participants included 21 parents of 12 children (aged 1-12 years) with Apert syndrome (9 couples, 2 fathers, and 1 mother) who were recruited from a pediatric neurosurgery unit in Turkey. The qualitative analysis yielded four main themes describing the experiences of parents including (1) social challenges; (2) coping with negative reactions; (3) promoting socialization and independence; and (4) sources of strength. Parents reported several challenges, including social stigmatization, and utilized a range of strategies to support both their own and their child's positive adaptation and resiliency, including the use of religion and reliance on their spouses for support. Results offer clinically relevant insights about the strengths and challenges of families coping with Apert syndrome.

The Discursive Constructions in School: A Qualitative Assessment of Value Conflicts Between School Ethos and Everyday Life

The debate of quality education in Pakistan revolves around three basic systems of education – Elite English Medium Education System, State Urdu Medium Education System and Madrassa Education System. However, the history and discourse of educational planning and development in Pakistan demonstrate that role of school socialization has largely been ignored when addressing the development issues of children. While focussing on the psychological and cultural incongruences in the socialization experiences of children, this paper asks that what are the major realms where school going children experience conflicts between the school ethos and real-life practices? The ethnographic study was conducted in Chakwal city, located in Punjab Province, involving participant observation in private and public schools. In-depth interviews were also conducted to acquire a holistic understanding of emerging trends of school ethos among students. The sample was selected through purposive sampling which includes students, parents and teachers belonging to different educational levels and diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The findings suggest that discordance between school socialization and what children experience in wider society engenders conflicting worldviews eventually creating everyday value-conflicts and identity crisis among children.Keywords: school ethos, socialization, value-conflict, identity, Pakistan

Executive function in the school context: The role of peer relationships

AbstractTheoretical accounts and experimental data on young children have shown that executive functions (EFs) are predicted by experiential factors. However, studies on school‐aged children are rare. The present study has addressed this gap using a short‐term cross‐lagged longitudinal design focusing on the relationship between working memory (WM), conflict inhibition (CI), and peer acceptance (PA) and rejection (PR) in middle childhood. 245 children, aged 8 to 12 years at Time 1 (M = 10.03 years, SD = 1.21 years), were tested three times over 1 year. SEM showed that (a) PA at Times 1 and 2 positively predicted WM at Times 2 and 3 and (b) PR at Time 1 negatively predicted CI at Time 2. Our findings are in line with the view that EFs are significantly affected by children's social life at school and are interpreted in light of the regulatory depletion model and of the socio‐constructivist models.Highlights We examine cross‐lagged associations between children's peer relationships and executive functions in the school context. Peer acceptance predicts working memory development and peer rejection predicts inhibition development in middle childhood. Executive functioning development is sensitive to children's social experiences with peers at school.

A brincadeira das crianças como experiência social de elaboração de conhecimentos acerca do mundo físico na Educação Infantil

Com o objetivo de compreender articulações entre as brincadeiras nas experiênciassociais das crianças com a elaboração de conhecimentos acerca do mundo físico, relatamosuma experiência, a partir de uma pesquisa-ação, em um contexto de Educação Infantil, com 23crianças, nível IV de um Centro Municipal de Educação Infantil e sua professora na cidade doNatal (RN). Partindo de compreensões teóricas acerca do brincar, dos objetivos previstos nasDiretrizes Curriculares Nacionais para a Educação Infantil e de práticas educativas porinvestigação, desenvolvemos duas sequências didáticas sobre o ciclo da chuva e da gravidade.As interpretações nos permitiram concluir que: as crianças desenvolveram o pensamento aotomarem decisões, testarem hipóteses e sistematizarem suas compreensões para osfenômenos naturais que apareciam em suas brincadeiras; a Educação Infantil é um espaço deprodução de saberes que valoriza as características da infância, possibilitando ao docenteconstituir-se pesquisador de suas práticas educativas.

Acceptance or rejection? The social experiences of children with special educational needs and disabilities within a mainstream primary school

ABSTRACTThis article details a study which investigated the social acceptance and friendships of children with SEND, and their typically developing peers, at a mainstream primary school in the North West of England. Participants were 29 children aged five and six years old, separated into three groups; typically developing children, children who were being monitored for SEND, and children with formally identified SENDs. With the use of a peer nomination sociometric technique, findings revealed that children with SEND had less promising peer relations and friendships compared to children tracked for SEND and their typically developing peers, consequently questioning the mainstream ‘ideal’.

Parents' Perspectives on Their Child's Social Experience in the Context of Childhood Chronic Illness: A Qualitative Study

PurposeMany children suffer from a serious chronic illness. These children have greater risks of developing psychosocial difficulties, associated with school absenteeism and missed social opportunities. Through parents' perspectives, this study aimed to gain a holistic understanding of children's social experience in the context of chronic illness. Design and MethodsWe conducted semi-structured interviews with parents of a child with a serious chronic illness exploring their child's school experience. Two researchers coded social experiences using an iterative process, involving regular team discussions. Theoretical thematic analysis and content analysis were both performed, using the social ecological model as a theoretical framework. ResultsForty-nine parents participated (43 mothers, 6 fathers; child mean age 11.51 years; 21 female children, 28 male children; 6 different chronic illness groups). According to parents, the main facilitators to the social experience of their children involved parents themselves, the school, social networks and peers, as they were all able to provide social support and opportunities for social development. However, peers were also a source of bullying and peer pressure, and sometimes lacked understanding and empathy. ConclusionsAs shown by the social ecological model, social functioning between chronically-ill children and their peers can be influenced by many factors. More specifically, parents have expressed their ability for promoting positive experiences between their children and their peers.Practice ImplicationsConsidering the complexity of social functioning, future research and interventions should provide holistic support for children with chronic illnesses.

Social anxiety in pre-adolescent children: What do we know about maintenance?

The cognitive theory of social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most widely accepted accounts of the maintenance of the disorder in adults, yet it remains unknown if, or to what extent, the same cognitive and behavioral maintenance mechanisms that occur in adult SAD also apply to SAD among pre-adolescent children. In contrast to the adult literature, current models of SAD in children mostly account for etiology and maintenance processes are given limited attention. Consequently, their clinical utility for the treatment of SAD in children may be limited. This narrative review, first, critically examines the different theoretical conceptualizations of the maintenance of social anxiety in the child and adult literature and illustrates how these have resulted in different treatment approaches and clinical understanding. Second, it reviews the available evidence relating to hypotheses about the maintenance of SAD in children as derived from adult cognitive and etiological models. Third, it highlights the need to attend directly to child specific maintenance mechanisms in SAD, to draw on cognitive theory, and to account for the influence of childhood-specific contextual (e.g. family and school-based interactions) and developmental factors on children's social experiences.

Flat Layouts and Children Outdoor Activities

In Malaysia's urban peripheries, where residential development still has room to expand, walk-up flats have become a popular form of low-cost housing because of their relatively low construction and maintenance costs to match the required demand of the increasing urban poor. In this housing type, standardization and spatial efficiency result in minimum dwelling space, causing life to spill to the outdoors which then becomes a vital social space for children. Appropriations of the space are an integral part of children's growing up and social experiences. The paper explores the differences in children's outdoor activities near the homes in relation to the different low-cost flat layouts through a comparative observational study. Different flat configurations were found to offer different spatial affordances for children's social experiences which could inform design decisions.

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells correlates with early childhood social interaction in autism spectrum disorder

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, poor communication skills, and repetitive/restrictive behaviors. Elevated blood levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines have been reported in subjects with autism spectrum disorder. On the other hand, early childhood adverse experience also increases blood levels of these cytokines. Since social experience of children with autism spectrum disorder is generally unlike to typically developing children, we hypothesized that social interaction during childhood contribute to pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in subjects with autism spectrum disorder. We compared revised Autism Diagnostic Interview scores and expression levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of subjects with autism spectrum disorder (n = 30). The score of domain A on the revised Autism Diagnostic Interview, indicating social interaction impairment in early childhood, was negatively correlated with tumor necrosis factor-α mRNA expression level in peripheral blood mononuclear cells but not interleukin-1β or -6. Consistently, tumor necrosis factor-α mRNA expression was markedly low in subjects with autism spectrum disorder compared to typically developing children who presumably experienced the regular levels of social interaction. These findings suggest that the low blood levels of tumor necrosis factor-α mRNA in subjects with autism spectrum disorder might be due to impaired social interaction in early childhood.

Social Experiences of Children With Disabilities in Inclusive Portuguese Preschool Settings

Based on peer sociometric reports, we examined how number of friendships, social acceptance, and characteristics of social networks vary as a function of disability profile. We also investigated teachers’ awareness of the sociometric status of young children with disabilities. Participants were 86 children with disabilities (63 boys) enrolled in inclusive preschool classrooms of the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, Portugal ( Mage = 67.33 months, SD = 10.54). Findings suggest that children with severe or sociobehavioral disabilities may be at increased risk of social rejection and isolation, having fewer friends and lower social network centrality than children with mild disabilities. Low agreement between teachers’ classifications of the social status of children with disabilities and classifications based on peer nominations raises concerns about their awareness of processes of social rejection and neglect. Findings highlight the need for interventions to support positive social experiences at the dyadic and group levels in Portuguese inclusive preschool classrooms.

Barriers and facilitators to initial and continued attendance at community-based lifestyle programmes among families of overweight and obese children: a systematic review.

SummaryThe success of childhood weight management programmes relies on family engagement. While attendance offers many benefits including the support to make positive lifestyle changes, the majority of families referred to treatment decline. Moreover, for those who do attend, benefits are often compromised by high programme attrition. This systematic review investigated factors influencing attendance at community‐based lifestyle programmes among families of overweight or obese children. A narrative synthesis approach was used to allow for the inclusion of quantitative, qualitative and mixed‐method study designs. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Results suggest that parents provided the impetus for programme initiation, and this was driven largely by a concern for their child's psychological health and wellbeing. More often than not, children went along without any real reason or interest in attending. Over the course of the programme, however, children's positive social experiences such as having fun and making friends fostered the desire to continue. The stigma surrounding excess weight and the denial of the issue amongst some parents presented barriers to enrolment and warrant further study. This study provides practical recommendations to guide future policy makers, programme delivery teams and researchers in developing strategies to boost recruitment and minimise attrition.

A person-centered exploration of children of immigrants’ social experiences and their school-based well-being

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to explore commonalities among discrimination, stereotyping, and peer-related social experiences of children of immigrants, and to see if these experiences might relate to children’s school-based well-being. Two age-based cohorts of 294 children and their immigrant parents from Portugal, the Dominican Republic, and Cambodia were interviewed. Person-centered analyses resulted in four unique clusters of children’s social experiences. Notably, children in clusters with positive views of cultural in-group and out-group members also reported positive school-based well-being. Person-centered analyses on parent variables found three clusters based on parents’ ethnic/racial socialization practices. There was no overlap between parent and child clusters, indicating unique profiles between parent socialization and child social experiences within immigrant families. Implications of connections among social experiences and school-based emotional well-being for children of immigrants are discussed.