Children's Transition Research Articles

Maternal Affection Moderates the Impact of Psychological Control on a Child's Mathematical Performance.

This study investigated the extent to which mothers' psychological control predicts their children's mathematical performance during the children's transition from preschool to primary school over and above the impact of maternal affection and behavioral control. Also investigated was the extent to which maternal affection and behavioral control moderate the impact of mothers' psychological control. Children 5-6 years old at baseline (N=196) were followed up 6 times to measure their performance in mathematics over a 3-year period from preschool to 2nd grade. Mothers were asked to fill in a questionnaire measuring their parenting styles once every year over the 3-year period. A high level of psychological control exercised by mothers predicted their children's slow progress in mathematics. However, this impact was particularly evident among those children whose mothers reported a high level of affection. No evidence was found that children's mathematical performance had any effect on their mothers' parenting styles.

Keeping and Making Friends: Italian Children's Transition from Preschool to Elementary School

In this paper we investigate friendship processes in a group of Italian children in their last year of preschool and during their transition to one of four first grade classrooms. We found that in the preschool the children and their teachers collectively had produced a highly integrated community that was evident in the lack of status differentiation in the peer culture. Despite some gender separation in the children's play contacts, this division was not nearly as highly developed as found in previous studies in the United States. In the first grade classrooms and peer cultures we saw similarities, extensions, and divergences in peer relations and friendship processes in relation to the preschool. We discuss the implications of these findings for friendship processes among youths and adults; we make a general argument for an interpretive approach to friendship that stresses how agency and temporal and structural factors are interrelated in the development and maintenance of friendships.

Children's Collective Activities and Peer Culture in Early Literacy in American and Italian Preschools

Recent work on early literacy has stressed the child's active nature in the learning process and has studied the effects of including children's peer interests in literacy curricula. In this article, the authors extend this work by examining American and Italian children's early literacy awareness and early literacy activities in preschools and the Italian children's transition from early to advanced literacy activities as they move from the preschool to elementary school. The findings reveal that children consistently appropriate literacy activities and knowledge in formal lessons and then use, refine, and extend these activities in the peer culture. The authors consider the implications of these findings for theoretical work on children's peer cultures and for preschool and elementary school literacy curricula.

Sociocultural Perspectives on Transition to School from Pacific Islands Early Childhood Centres

Sociocultural theories of learning and development underpin a number of studies of young children's experiences as they move from early childhood education centres to school settings. This paper summarises research designed to investigate children's transition to primary school from Pacific early childhood centres in New Zealand. The study records experiences of transition to school of families from each of five Pacific groups (Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, and Tonga). The emphasis is on language and children's other experiences as they move from Pacific Islands early childhood centres into English-language primary schools. Findings from in-depth interviews with children, parents, early childhood teachers, and school teachers are summarised, and brief reference is also made to analyses of the content of the 19 participating schools' charters. The paper draws on sociocultural perspectives to comment on aspects of facilitating transition. Les the´ories socioculturelles d'apprentissage et de de´veloppement soutiennent un certain nombre d'e´tudes sur les expe´riences des petits enfants pendant qu'ils se de´placent des centres d'e´ducation de la petite enfance a ¤ un cadre d'e´cole. Cet article re´sume la recherche conc¸ue pour e´tudier la transition des enfants a ¤ l'e´cole primaire des centres d'e´ducation de la petite enfance d'iles Pacifiques en Nouvelle-Ze´lande. Cette e´tude enregistre des expe´riences de transition a ¤ l'e´cole des familles de chacun de cinq groupes Pacifiques (iles Cook, Nioue´, Samoa, Toke´lao, et Tonga). L'emphase est sur la langue et les autres expe´riences des enfants pendant qu'ils se de´placent des centres d'e´ducation de la petite enfance d'iles Pacifiques dans les e´coles primaires de langue anglaise. Des re´sultats des entrevues de´taille´es avec des enfants, avec des parents, avec des enseignants spe´cialise´s dans l'e´tude la petite enfance, et des enseignants d'e´cole sont re´sume´s, et on fait une re´fe´rence bre ¤ ve aux analyses du contenu des chartes des 19 e´coles qui participent. L'article tire sur des perspectives socioculturelles pour faire des observations sur des aspects de la facilitation de la transition. Las teori´as socio-culturales del aprendizaje y el desarrollo apuntalan un nu´mero de estudios sobre las experiencias de nin ¨ os pequen ¨ os cuando pasan de los centros de educacio´n para la primera infancia al medio de la escuela. Este ensayo resume la investigacio ´n disen ¨ ada para investigar la transicio´n de los nin ¨ os a la escuela primaria de centros preescolares del Paci´fico en Nueva Zelanda. El estudio registra experiencias de la transicio´n a la escuela de familias de cada uno de cinco grupos del Paci´fico (islas Cook, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, y Tonga). El e´nfasis esta´ en el lenguaje y las otras experiencias por las que pasan los nin ¨ os al desplazarse de los centros pre-escolares de las Islas del Paci´fico a las escuelas primarias de lengua inglesa. Se resumen aqui´ los resultados de entrevistas detalladas con los nin ¨ os, los padres, los maestros de la primera infancia, los ensen ¨ antes de escuela y se hace breve referencia a los ana´lisis del contenido de los estatutos de las 19 escuelas que participan. El ensayo utiliza las perspectivas socioculturales para comentar sobre los aspectos de la facilitacio´n de esta transicio´n.

"I Didn't Expect That I Would Get Tons of Friends More Each Day": Children's experiences of friendship during the transition to school

This article presents some of the findings from a study that explores the complex nature of the transition to school, and looks specifically at 23 children's experiences of friendship and the way in which this impacted on their early experiences of school. Observations of the children, and interviews with the children, their families and their teachers, revealed that not only did friends play a vital role in facilitating the children's transition to formal schooling, they also assisted directly in facilitating the children's learning. Conversely, a lack of friends was related to a more difficult transition, the repercussions of which often extended for some time. The article suggests that parents/caregivers and teachers may wish to take a proactive role in providing opportunities for children to make friends during their transition to school.

Children's appraisals of antisocial acts: A Piagetian perspective

This study examines developmental aspects of children's appraisals of antisocial acts by integrating the two micromodels Piaget used at different points in his research programme to describe and explain the child's transition from pre‐operational to operational thought. One model guided by game theory involves a cost‐gain evaluation, and is mainly a functional model (Piaget, 1957); the other, based on equilibration theory, appeals to the initial priority of affirmations over negations, and is mainly a structural model (Piaget, 1975). The integration of these two models leads to the prediction that while younger children tend to perceive antisocial acts in terms of gain‐perception and affirmation, older children tend to think of them in terms of cost‐construction and negation. The participants were 96 children from three age levels (32 5–6‐year‐olds, 32 7–8‐year‐olds, and 32 10–11‐year‐olds). They were first confronted with four hypothetical antisocial scenarios and were then asked to engage in a task measuring gain‐perception/cost‐construction for each one. Children's responses showed that they are more likely with age to consider prototypical antisocial acts (e.g. stealing, pushing) in terms of cost‐construction and negation than gain‐perception and affirmation. In addition to supporting the hypothesized prediction, this finding may turn out to be of value in the design of further research and provide a better understanding of some developmental aspects reported in the literature on children's antisocial behaviour.

Children Bring More to School than Their Backpacks: Starting School Down Under

SUMMARYChildren commence schooling with a range of skills that are influenced by their individual dispositions, experiences and backgrounds. They also experience transition in different ways. Poor adjustment outcomes may arise when there are differences between children's individual developmental stages and maturity, and the challenges of the new situation. In the ecological model posited by Bronfenbrenner (1979, 1986) children's development has been viewed as being influenced by their direct and indirect experiences of particular contexts within the broader socio-cultural setting. Thus children's transition and adjustment to schooling is influenced by a variety of personal and family characteristics, societal and family trends, contextual and life experiences. This paper reports an Australian study that explores the influences of different types of parental and non-parental child care, children's personal characteristics, family demographics, and school factors that may support children as they start school, or predispose them to risk of poor adjustment. The implications for practice are briefly identified.

Problems and Barriers in Children's Learning When They Transit From Kindergarten to Kindergarten Class in School

SUMMARYStarting school can take the character of a culture shock, thus a series of so-called transition activities has been carried out in order to bridge kindergarten and school. However, a case study on four children's transition from kindergarten to school expressed a paradox. Though these children had been involved in transition activities and also appropriated a foundation of basic competencies they were not able to make use of these in the school environment. This may be understood in a theoretical framework of situated learning and calls for a new educational practice, both in kindergarten and in school.

Continuity in early childhood education: transition from pre-school to school

Entrance to Primary School seems to be one of the most difficult and important changes in early childhood education. In this study it is examined the extent to which the differences between home or nursery school and primary school may cause difficulties to children in their psychological adjustment to the first grade of schooling. It is also investigated to see if some pedagogical strategies can make smoother the child's transition to school. The research was conducted in Greece during the period 1992–1993. Subjects were 75 nursery teachers, 566 first grade primary school teachers and 566 parents with first grade children. All subjects completed a questionnaire in which they evaluated the differences between home and primary school and between nursery school and primary school, as well as some pedagogical strategies. The results are presented in the tables I-IV. It seems that the differences between the environment in which the child lives before school and the primary school environment are so different that entrance to school is problematic for the child's adjustment. Some pedagogical strategies, however, may make smoother the children's passing from pre-school to school.

Effectiveness of the coping power program and of classroom intervention with aggressive children: Outcomes at a 1-year follow-up

This study examines key substance use, delinquency, and school-based aggressive behavior outcomes at a 1-year follow-up for a cognitive-behavioral intervention delivered to aggressive children and their parents at the time of these children's transition to middle school. This effectiveness study explored whether a classroom intervention directed at teachers and at all of the parents in the intervention classrooms enhanced the effects of the Coping Power program with at-risk children. The at-risk sample of boys and girls was identified through 4th-grade teacher ratings, and intervention took place during the 5th- and 6th-grade years. The Coping Power child component included school-based groups focusing on anger management and social problem solving skills, and the Coping Power parent component addressed parenting and stress-management skills. The current results indicate that prior findings of postintervention improvement for this sample (Lochman & Wells, 2002b) has led to preventive effects on delinquency and on substance use for older and moderate-risk children. The Coping Power program, in conjunction with a classroom-level intervention, also reduced school aggression 1 year after the intervention was completed. In addition, it appears that the classroom intervention facilitates radiating effects on reduced substance use for other at-risk children in the same classrooms who did not receive Coping Power.

A Market in Waste: Psychic and structural dimensions of school-choice policy in the UK and children's narratives on 'demonized' schools

Transformations in local secondary schools markets in the UK have not simply been accomplished at a structural and policy level: social changes are crosscut by fiction and fantasy that resonate with and implicate subjects at the level of the personal. Drawing on a study of children's transitions to secondary school, we analyse the emotional processes through which particular schools come to be 'demonized' in the minds of Year 6 children, consider the impact such damaging discourses have on children who were to go to those schools, and explore connections between social and psychic realities in the increasing polarization of secondary schools. We examine the impact of discourses of race and racism on the psychic construction of 'good' and 'bad' schools and explore how this connected with family practices of secondary school choice and current constructions of UK local educational markets.

Contemporary Trends in Infant Feeding Research

▪ Abstract This review examines current research in the subfields of anthropology and related disciplines on the biocultural process of breastfeeding and broader questions of infant and young-child feeding. The themes of sexuality, reproduction, embodiment, and subjective experience are then linked to the problems women who breastfeed face in bottle-feeding cultures. Anthropologists have contributed to policy-relevant debates concerning women's work and scheduling in relation to infant care and exclusive breastfeeding. The extensive ethnographic work on children's transition to consuming household foods demonstrates the need to integrate research on breastfeeding with research on complementary feeding. Current debates around HIV and chemical residues in breastmilk call for a critical examination of the effects of globalization and corporate control on infant feeding practices. The literature shows how the narrow specialty of infant feeding has broad implications for the discipline.

Preparing for Primary School in Singapore - Aspects of Adjustment to the more Formal Demands of the Primary One Mathematics Syllabus

This paper reports some findings from the project: A study of children in transition from pre to primary school: cognitive, language, and socio-emotional adjustments. The longitudinal study focuses on children's transition to primary one. It is noted that although attempts are made by selected pre-schools to ease the entry to primary school by preparing children and their parents to bridge the gap, many find the differences they encounter daunting. Expectations of primary schools are high, and parents are anxious about preparation. Furthermore, many studies have highlighted the strong support networks which Asian parents provide for their children and the implications for later learning in school, especially in mathematics. This paper will identify the nature of this support for numeracy development as far as a group of parents in Singapore is concerned. It will be evident that Singaporean parents invest much time and effort in preparing children for primary school. They see this as essential for accessing entry to a meritocratic education system geared towards raising global economic competitiveness through an ability-driven curriculum. They are resourceful and competitive in securing a sure start in pre-school, where parental involvement is not always encouraged (Sharpe, 1991). Hence, it is concluded that Singaporean parents' numeracy support strategies result in a special kind of agenda for their children.

Japanese frames of mind: cultural perspectives on human development

Preface Robert LeVine Introduction Part I. Moral Scripts and Reasoning: 1. Moral scripts: a US-Japan comparison Hiroshi Azuma 2. Moral reasoning among adults: Japan-US comparison Nobumichi Isawa Part II. Mother and Child at Home: 3. The maternal role in Japan: cultural values and socioeconomic conditions Yoshie Nishioka Rice 4. Japanese mother-child relationships: skill acquisition before the preschool years Shusuke Kobayashi Part III. Group Life: The Young Child in Preschool and School: 5. Learning to become part of the group: the Japanese child's transition to preschool life Lois Peak 6. Peer culture and interaction: how Japanese children express their internalization Victoria E. Kelly Part IV. Adolescent Experience: 7. Beyond individualism and sociocentrism: an ontological analysis of personal experiences of Japanese adolescents Hidetada Shimizu 8. Returnees to Japan: the impact of having lived in the United States Miya Omori Part V. Reflections: 9. Children and families: reflections on the 'crisis' in Japanese child-rearing today Merry I. White.

Carrying the beacon of excellence: social class differentiation and anxiety at a time of transition

In the current performance and ‘excellence’ culture that has so bewitched politicians and beset educators, there are no discourses available to voice and to make sense of the anxieties that consistently arise for children who are pushed towards ever-higher performance. Drawing on the findings from a study of children's transitions from primary to secondary school, this paper examines some of the structural and emotional consequences of current school-choice policy in the UK. Deep-seated fears of downward mobility held by some sections of the middle classes are potently mobilized when faced with the constraints of local secondary schools markets. Children from professional middle-class families are pushed towards high performance as a response to these fears with parents using a range of strategies to place their child in a high performing school, including entering them for selective schools' entrance examinations. In the pursuit of the kind of attainment seen to be necessary in order to ensure the successful reproduction of professional middle-class status, we argue that difficult emotions have to be suppressed or split off. For middle-class girls in particular, the constant striving for and achievement of high attainment, rather than unproblematically engendering a sense of confidence in their abilities, can produce a sense of never being good enough. Nor is it only the middle classes who are implicated in these processes. There are serious consequences for working-class children and we discuss how they are positioned in relation to UK policy initiatives that prioritize ‘excellence’.

The European study of assisted reproduction families: the transition to adolescence

Findings are presented of the second phase of a European longitudinal study of families created by assisted reproduction. The present investigation reports on data obtained during the child's transition to adolescence. A total of 102 IVF families, 94 donor insemination (DI) families, 102 adoptive families, and 102 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of parenting and children's psychological well-being. The assisted reproduction families were similar to the adoptive and natural conception families for many of the measures of the quality of parent-child relationships. To the extent that differences were found between the assisted reproduction families and the other family types, these reflected mainly more positive functioning among the assisted reproduction families, with the possible exception of the overinvolvement with their children of a small proportion of assisted reproduction mothers and fathers. The assisted reproduction children were functioning well and did not differ from the adoptive or naturally conceived children on any of the measures of psychological adjustment. However, only 8.6% had been told about their genetic origins. IVF and DI families with an early adolescent child appear to be functioning well.

Early Head Start: Investigations, insights, and promise

AbstractThe authors review the significance of the research summarized in this special issue, including activities that contribute to successful university–community partnerships. The promise of Early Head Start (EHS) will be realized if investigators focus on moderators and mediators of program effects, program quality, and linkages between Early Head Start and community resources. Key factors that must be taken into account in the analysis of EHS program outcomes include assessing children's transitions to preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school; changes in family personal and social resources; the role of fathers in early child development; and the impact of family bilingualism. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Transition to Child Care for Children from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

Children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are particularly vulnerable to stress when beginning child care. High stress levels not only impact on children's transition into child care, but can have undesirable long-term consequences if not handled appropriately. In Australia, there is provision for specialist personnel (called bicultural support workers in this study) to facilitate the transition into care of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. This paper reports data from interviews with parents from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds whose children attended child care, caregivers in centres who worked with children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and bicultural support workers. Recommendations are made for quality practice during the transition phase into child care services for children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Lessons for Preschool Language Socialization from the Vantage Point of the First Day of Kindergarten

All 12 kindergarten classrooms from a small town/rural Midwestern county were observed for the full session on the first day of school to determine teachers' language and classroom practices. Data collection included completion of a classroom checklist by the investigator and running accounts of classroom events with verbatim notes of teacher language. The findings from this study provide evidence of demands for entering kindergartners to process complex language, organize themselves and their materials, and comply with many new rules and procedures. Based on these data, the author and participating teachers present recommendations for preschool teachers, kindergarten teachers, and researchers. The findings provide convergent validity for previous surveys of teacher expectations for children at kindergarten entry. They can be used by preschool personnel to plan preschool language experiences to assist young children's transition to kindergarten. The method of classroom observation employed here can also help local personnel in varied communities to shape a more seamless system of experiences for the early years.

Maternal responses to word approximations in Japanese children's transition to language.

Verbal/vocal interactions of three Japanese mother-child dyads were examined when the children were 1;0, 1;2 to 1;3, 1;6 to 1;7, and 1;8 to 1;9 to determine whether mothers provide information which may facilitate the elaboration of child lexical forms during the transition from the prelinguistic to the linguistic period. Mothers were likely to reproduce only the child's word-like utterances, both well- and ill-formed. This provided an opportunity for the child's ill-formed word-like utterance to be contrasted with an immediate maternal response. This finding, along with results showing within-child variability of lexical forms, suggested that maternal contrastive replies 1) signal errors to the child (cf. Saxton, 1997), and 2) may promote the child's selection and stabilization of production alternatives which are more accurate. Maternal reproductive responding presumably originated in their tendency to seek content-oriented communication, as was reflected in mother's growing inclination to continue verbal interactions following the child's non-word-like vocalizations.