White Middle-class Children Research Articles

Finish What you Started: 2-Year-Olds Motivated by a Preference for Completing Others' Unfinished Actions in Instrumental Helping Contexts.

A considerable body of research has documented the emergence of what appears to be instrumental helping behavior in early childhood. The current study tested the hypothesis that one basic psychological mechanism motivating this behavior is a preference for completing unfinished actions. To test this, a paradigm was implemented in which 2-year-olds (n = 34, 16 females/18 males, mostly White middle-class children) could continue an adult's action when the adult no longer wanted to complete the action. The results showed that children continued the adult's actions more often when the goal had been abandoned than when it had been reached (OR = 2.37). This supports the hypothesis that apparent helping behavior in 2-year-olds is motivated by a preference for completing unfinished actions.

Reading Children: Literacy, Property, and the Dilemmas of Childhood in Nineteenth-Century America by Patricia Crain

Reviewed by: Reading Children: Literacy, Property, and the Dilemmas of Childhood in Nineteenth-Century America by Patricia Crain MicKenzie Fasteland (bio) Patricia Crain. Reading Children: Literacy, Property, and the Dilemmas of Childhood in Nineteenth-Century America. U of Pennsylvania P, 2016. Patricia Crain's Reading Children: Literacy, Property, and the Dilemmas of Childhood in Nineteenth-Century America constructs an impressive history exploring the ideological underpinnings of literacy development in the United States, a practice she argues promised children both the opportunity for property acquisition (of themselves, of books) and escape (from themselves [End Page 152] into a book). If children were the property of their parents—or in the case of enslaved children, their owners—literacy provided one method for gaining the cultural and financial capital required for independence. Simultaneously, early children's literature promoted the affective bonds between adults and children, thereby ensuring what Courtney Weikle-Mills calls the "transfer of children's affectionate feelings, through education, from their parents to the law" (43) Although literacy nominally promised self-possession, its promise was highly conditional upon the child's race. Laws banned enslaved children from learning to read and write, whereas Christian missionaries used the promise of ownership to perpetuate the cultural genocide of Native populations by "acculturating them to white property customs" (7). After the Civil War, images of the "reading child" illustrated an alternative privilege offered to middle-class white children: the option to escape oneself. If reading became a site of pleasure for middle-class children, the sight of children reading and writing provided adults nostalgic access to their own childhood selves, leading to what Crain calls the "medial child" in the late nineteenth century, a figure that she argues "often functions as a residual and conserving and at the same time emergent and creative means of accessing the 'interiorised self' (in Carolyn Steedman's term) of modernity" (8–9). Crain creates a vast network of archival and literary sites stretching from the seventeenth to twenty-first centuries, and her inclusive approach situates her scholarship at the intersection of book history, literary analysis, and histories of childhood. She begins with two chapters examining the divergent trajectories of two canonical children's texts, Goody Two Shoes and "The Children in the Woods." The former provides one of the earliest links between literacy and cultural capital, as Goody's nigh-magical ability to read and write, and in turn, instruct others using her wooden alphabet, provides her (and by extension, disenfranchised populations) a radical new route to prosperity, one outside lines of inheritance that cannot be lost; however, later adaptations would lose this revolutionary spirit, transforming Goody's "economic bildung" into a fairy tale suited more for promoting reading absorption instead of agency (29). In contrast, Crain traces the near 400-year history of "The Children in the Woods" from adult ballad to cherished children's tale to excavate the imagined child reader so central to the development of children's literature. Despite its dark subject—a dispute resulting in the death of two children—the ballad became popular because the genre's orality allowed eighteenth-century collectors and children's publishers to imagine a child audience listening to and learning from their literary peers' experience. While as much a product of nostalgia as a burgeoning literary market, this hypothetical child reader demonstrates that "what makes children's literature possible is adult consciousness of childhood as a privileged time and space [End Page 153] that's been lost . . . and yet remains indefinitely accessible to adult memory and imagination through the medium of literature and the practices of literacy" (53). And yet, if Goody promised equality (at least in its early iteration), later adaptations of "The Children in the Woods" began to carve out childhood as a haven only for white children. Here, Crain begins to develop one of her most crucial interventions, which she continues throughout her third and fourth chapters: how literacy instruction, practice, and ideology upheld colonialism and white supremacy in the United States. Her third chapter explains how missionaries indoctrinated Cherokee children in white property practices by teaching literacy through the Lancaster pedagogical system. In contrast to the slow reveries of white, middle-class reading...

基于社会发展视角的情绪表达性别差异研究

在成年人中，情绪表达表现出较小的但是显著的性别差异，表现为女性显示出更高水平的情绪表达，特别是积极情绪和内化的负性情绪(例如悲伤)。本文章阐述了儿童在情绪表达的性别差异的生物–心理–社会的发展模型。以发展的角度，解释了性别差异何时发生以及发展的和背景的因素如何影响这种差异的出现。以往的实证研究支持了这一模型，至少对于欧美白人中产阶层的儿童如此。文章还讨论了现有研究的局限以及未来对儿童情绪与性别的研究的展望。 Emotional expression shows a smaller but significant gender difference for adults, with women showing a higher level of emotional expressivity, especially for positive emotions and internalized negative emotions such as sadness. The current article describes the development of children’s gender-related emotional differences in the bio-psycho-social model. This article explains when these gender differences occur in terms of developmental perspective and how the developmental and contextual factors affect the emergence of this difference. Previous empirical studies have supported this model, at least for the European and American white middle class children. The article also discusses the limitations of existing empirical research and the future directions of emotion expression and gender in childhood.

Feeling Good Inside: Benevolent Happiness in The Trail of the Go-Hawks

“Feeling Good Inside” examines the trope of playing Indian in Emily Blackmore Stapp’s 1908 children’s book The Trail of the Go-Hawks . Over the course of the novel, the Go-Hawks, a playgroup whose members are predominately upper middle-class white children, learn that to be happy they must help others. My essay links their education in happiness to the education of American Indian children in “civilization” at off-reservation boarding schools established in the late nineteenth century to facilitate assimilation. Although Stapp’s novel does not include one character that could be identified as American Indian, I argue that it nevertheless models its benevolent enterprise on the off-reservation school program to restrict happiness and civilization to its privileged white children.

Decontextualized Language: A Problem, Not a Solution

Why do children from some minority groups and children living in poverty do poorly in school when compared to white middle-class children? Researchers have offered a large number of different answers to this question. One of the most popular answers has been based on the notion of “decontextualized language.” This article argues that this widely influential answer is wrong and misleading, because it is based on a poor theory of how human language works. In turn, I will suggest a better theory of language with which to pursue the question.

Play Things: Children’s Racialized Mechanical Banks and Toys, 1880–1930

The reproduction of racism and class-based oppression are taught to children through various cultural media, including toys and games. Between 1880 and 1930, the popularity of racialized toys and banks were fear-based responses to the perceived encroachment by “foreign and exotic” migrations of African American, Chinese, Irish and Native Americans into the cultural landscape of white middle-class America. This article analyzes how artifacts associated with children, such as mechanical banks, clockwork figures, and other toys are part of a larger cultural structure that viewed race and class as inseparable, and that these objects were essential in the development of a learned habitus that exposed white middle class children in the Victorian era to a racially and class oriented world. We argue that these objects reflect both the times in which they were made, and illuminate the relationship between adults and a newfound emphasis on children and childhood, in which toys serves as symbolic mediators of culture.

Schools of Excellence AND Equity? Using Equity Audits as a Tool to Expose a Flawed System of Recognition

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how equity audits can be used as a tool to expose disparate achievement in schools that, on the surface and to the public, appear quite similar. To that end, the researcher probed beyond surface-level performance composite scores into deeper, more hidden data associated with state-recognized "Honor Schools of Excellence." How is "excellence" defined and operationalized in these schools? Are these schools "excellent" for all students? Can a school really be classified by the state as "excellent" and yet still have significant "gaps" and disparities? If so, is the state's formula used to identify exemplary schools too simple, dogmatic, and institutionally flawed? Through the use of equity audits, quantitative data was collected to scan for systemic patterns of equity and inequity across multiple domains of student learning and activities within 24 elementary schools. The intent was to document and distinguish between schools that are promoting and supporting both academic excellence (small gap schools; SGS) and systemic equity and schools that are not (large gap schools; LGS). Results reveal that although demographic, teacher quality, and programmatic audits all indicated a fair amount of equity between SGS and LGS, the achievement audit between both types of schools indicated great disparities. By controlling for or eliminating some of the external variables and internal factors often cited for the achievement gaps between white middle-class children and children of color or children from low-income families, the findings from this study raise more questions than answers. Results do indicate that equity audits are a practical, easy-to-apply tool that educators can use to identify inequalities objectively.

Do Practice Effects on Wechsler's Performance Subtests Relate to Children's General Ability, Memory, Learning Ability, or Attention?

The nature of practice effects on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale–Third Edition (WISC–III) Performance Scale was examined for 51 middle-class White children ages 11 to 13 years. The participants were tested twice on the six WISC–III Performance subtests (mean interval = 13 days) to determine whether the gain scores were significantly related to the children's ability level, memory, learning ability, and attention and motivation. Measures of these constructs were administered during the initial evaluation. Results indicated that retest gains on the separate subtests were uncorrelated with each other. Multiple regression analyses yielded some significant and meaningful results (e.g., a measure of long-term memory was a significant predictor of gains on Object Assembly), but, in general, few meaningful relations were yielded in these analyses.

The Influence of Minority Group Cultural Models on Persistence in College

In this article rates of attrition and aspects of college performance are compared between two groups of Black college students in Northeast urban, commuter college setting. These data were used as test of Ogbu's cultural-ecological model regarding the effect on educational achievement of being or involuntary immigrant. Black students whose fathers were immigrants, that is, those who had not been born in the United States, stayed in college longer than did Black students whose fathers were native to the United States-involuntary immigrants in Obgu's model. Other selected measures of academic performance for example, placement tests, were also found to be more predictive for the voluntary immigrant group. Implications of these results are discussed. In the latter half of the 20th century, America-historically land of immigrants-has become an even more pluralistic society due to the influx of people of color of varying ethnic backgrounds. For example, in California the recent census indicates that non-Hispanic Whites are now minority, and it is predicted that during the first half of the 21st century the numbers of those of non-European backgrounds will exceed those of the hitherto dominant European American cultural groups (America's Demographic Quilt, 2001; Purdum, 2001). Some people come to the United States to escape political oppression, but in most cases they come to better the social and economic prospects for themselves and their families. The general belief is that immigrant or second generation children will better the family status through educational attainment, and much emphasis is placed on having their children do well in school in ethnic minority 1 communities. However, although mostly all parents express the wish that their children do well in school, it is well known that school achievement varies across ethnic groups (Gibson & Ogbu, 1991). A number of reasons have been offered to account for this situation. Many scholars and critics cite lack of the kinds of cognitive skills in these children necessary to support educational success. For example, Golden, Birns, Bridger, and Moss (1971) and Golden, Bridger, and Montare (1974) have suggested that everyday language styles in normal lower-class families contribute to different cognitive abilities than those of the more successful groups-White and/or middle class. Others, arguing more broadly, posit that history of adapting to color-conscious society has led African Americans to develop a unique culture, part of which includes specific and unique cognitive strategies that, while useful in some ways, make the child less ready to deal with the standard school curriculum (Shade, 1991, p. 231). The work of Boykin (1991), Miller-Jones, (1989), and Willis (1989) is consistent with this perspective. In addition, defective inner-city schools, which many of these children attend, have been held up as factor responsible for the lower educational performance of minority group students (Comer, 1980; Edmonds, 1986). Educational anthropologist John Ogbu (1991) takes somewhat different approach. He argues that while the above critiques may offer partial understanding of the problem they do not take into account all the data about group performance. For example, regarding class differences, while Black children from middle-class backgrounds do better than children from lower-class backgrounds, as group, they still are not as successful in school as middle-class White children (Ogbu, 1991, 2003). Further, immigrant children from quite different cultural and language backgrounds than the American middle-class standard have been shown to thrive, even in those city schools that are considered second-rate in their educational advantages (Ogbu, 1991). Regarding language differences, Ogbu and Matute-Bianchi (1986) cite evidence to the effect that students of Asian (Chinese and Japanese) and Mexican heritage in California did poorly in school in the pre- World War II era because of their lack of English language proficiency, but after decade the Asian students were doing very well while the academic difficulties of Mexican Americans persisted. …

Perceptions of constructive and destructive conflict within and across family subsystems

AbstractFamily members' (mothers, fathers, siblings) perceptions of the frequency and types of constructive and destructive conflict strategies used within and across the three family subsystems (marital, parent–child, sibling) were investigated. Participants included 60 fifth‐ and sixth‐grade, middle‐class white children, their closest‐in‐age sibling, and both parents. Each family member rated their perceptions of conflict resolution strategies employed in marital, parent–child, and sibling relationships. Overall, family members demonstrated agreement on the frequency and types of conflict within the three family subsystems and generally reported employing similar conflict tactics across different subsystems. Additionally, parent–child conflict strategies were partially linked to both constructive and destructive sibling and marital conflict. These results are best understood in light of both the shared family perspective view and the spillover hypothesis of family dynamics (Margolin et al., 1996; Minuchin, 1988). Implications for examining conflict strategies within and across subsystems are discussed within the context of recent theory on family functioning. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cultural and School-Grade Differences in Korean and White American Children's Narrative Skills

A great deal of ethnographic research describes different communicative styles in Asian and Western countries. Asian cultures emphasise the listener's role in assuring successful communication, whereas Western cultures place the responsibility primarily on the speaker. This pattern suggests that Asian children may develop higher-level receptive skills and Western children may develop higher-level expressive skills. However, the language of children in formal education may develop in certain ways regardless of cultural influences. The present study quantifies the cultural and school-grade differences in language abilities reflected in middle-class Korean and white American children's story-telling and story-listening activities. Thirty-two Korean first- and fourth-grade children and their American counterparts were individually asked to perform two tasks: one producing a story from a series of pictures, and one involving listening to and then retelling a story. The individual interview was transcribed in their native languages and analysed in terms of ambiguity of reference, the number of causal connectors, the amount of information, and the number of central and peripheral idea units that were included in the story retelling. The data provided some empirical evidence for the effects of culture and school education in children's language acquisition.

Preschool Girls' and Boys' Verbal Conflict Strategies in the United States and China

Although a wide body of research on sex-gender differences with White middle-class children in the United States has supported the separate worlds hypothesis (SWH), research with children from other cultures, including Taiwan, and Latino and African American children in the United States have challenged the view of girls' language as cooperative. In this study, we examine the linguistic strategies by which middle-class girls and boys from the United States and Mainland China manage conflict. Preschoolers were videotaped playing with peers. In same-sex groupings, Chinese girls and U.S. boys used the most direct strategies, including third-party complaints and censures and aggravated commands. Chinese boys used a combination of direct and indirect conflict strategies. U.S. girls used the most mitigated strategies. The pattern found in the United States of boys being more assertive than girls supported the SWH, whereas the pattern found in China was the reverse. Possible explanations of this cultural difference are provided. In cross-sex conflict in both cultures, girls dominated in some contexts but not others, suggesting contextual complexity in the consequences of conflict strategies. Results challenge the portrait of girls' language that the SWH and other gender-language models have posited.

Thinking Carefully about Equity and Accountability

Yes, state accountability systems have many problems. Yes, there is evidence that they both increase and decrease equity. Yes, we need to listen to those who support these systems and those who criticize them. But, as these authors see it, the primary question with regard to accountability systems must always be: In this historical moment, can we use them to truly choose educational equity? RECENT discourse on state accountability systems appears unfortunately to have devolved into a strict dichotomy in which accountability is either good or bad. Of particular concern in these polarized debates are questions of equity, notably in what ways accountability systems affect the education of low-income children of all races, but especially children of color. For example, the Texas accountability system, which has recently been the most widely discussed system, is purported to be either a miracle or an illusion with regard to its effects on low-income children.1 What is more, each side has actual data to support its conclusions. On one hand, there is a range of data from which it is possible to conclude that some state accountability systems have improved student achievement in general and the achievement of low-income children in particular. For example, over the past five years, we and some of our colleagues have studied schools and districts that are successfully serving primarily low-income children of color all over the state of Texas.2 Virtually all of these schools and districts have used the accountability system in positive ways. In addition, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores for Texas and North Carolina appear to verify significant improvements in the achievement of low-income children and children of color.3 On the hand, there is a range of data from which it is possible to conclude that some of these state systems have actually hurt the education of children of color. For example, Linda McNeil, drawing on her own case studies, has concluded that the Texas accountability system is de-skilling teachers and narrowing the curriculum, particularly in schools serving low-income children.4 In addition, Walter Haney has argued that the Texas accountability system is increasing dropout rates among children of color. Thus it is clear that each side in this debate on the equity effects of accountability systems can legitimately quote real and accurate data to support its conclusions. We believe it is also clear that focusing on the equity effects of these systems is crucial. The apparent inability of our public education system to be as successful academically with children of color, particularly with those from low-income families, as it is with middle-class white children is a direct threat to our claims to be a truly democratic country. Certainly it is possible to argue that a goal of equal success for all has always existed in the public education system. But the data are clear. We have posted a miserable academic record with the great majority of low-income children and children of color specifically. In fact, many educators, not wanting to conclude that it is we who may have failed, have simply settled for not being successful with these children. Many of us have become hopeless, have given up, and have learned to accept inequitable achievement as a fact of life in thousands of classrooms from prekindergarten to the university. We come to our classrooms, we teach, and we get paid. But somewhere along the line we have lost a strong belief that we could successfully teach those whom Lisa Delpit refers to as other people's children.5 And this solidified belief that low-income children and children of color are not likely to do well academically - what Richard Valencia has called deficit thinking or what Angela Valenzuela has called subtractive schooling - became the dominant norm for us educators.6 For example, a white female central office administrator said to us: I was in a school that probably, the last year I was there, had a 24% passing rate on TAAS [Texas Assessment of Academic Skills]. …

Attachment over time.

Continuity in attachment classification from infancy to late adolescence was examined and related to autobiographical memories of childhood, divorce, and maladjustment. Eighty-four White middle-class children (48 girls) were seen in a modified Strange Situation at 12 months and given the Adult Attachment Interview at 18 years. In addition, data were collected on 13-year-olds' childhood recollections as well as adolescent, mother, and teacher ratings of maladjustment at 13 and 18 years of age. Divorce status of parents also was obtained. Results indicated no continuity in attachment classification from 1 to 18 years of age and no relation between infant attachment status and adolescent maladjustment. Divorce was related to 13-year-olds' childhood recollections as well as to insecure attachment status at 18 years. Eighteen-year-olds with insecure attachment classification were more likely to rate themselves as maladjusted. The results support the idea of attachment as an evolving representation dependent upon the nature of the family environment as indexed by divorce.

Aspects of young children's perceptions of gender-typed occupations.

Perceived competencies of men and women in gender-typed occupations, perceptions about how much money men and women earn in gender-typed occupations, and affective reactions regarding growing up to have gender-typed occupations were examined in 55 primarily White middle-class preschoolers and primary school children. Children (particularly boys) viewed men as more competent than women in masculine occupations, and rated women as more competent than men in feminine occupations. Children believed men earned more than women across occupations, but that men earned more money than women in masculine occupations, and women earned more money than men in feminine occupations. Children's affective reactions to growing up to have gender-role-consistent occupations were more positive than their reactions to having gender-role-inconsistent occupations. Results suggest children perceive differential competencies of men and women regarding gender-typed occupations, and differences in pay for men and women within gender-typed occupations, at ages younger than previously determined.

Children's Personal Prerogative in Home and School Contexts

The present study examined young children's conceptions of personal prerogative in the contrasting contexts of home and school. The central question was whether young children have a stable conception of the personal which underlies their responses to regulations in varying contexts. Interviews concerning conceptions of the personal domain were conducted with 37 middle class first grade children. The children were aware of continuities and discontinuities in personal prerogative at home and school as highlighted by their understandings of conventions at school. They identified areas of prerogative at school, but were aware of the conventionalization of some personal issues. They considered school to be the more restrictive place. Despite some willingness to cede authority to teachers for many personal issues, the children reserved rightful decision locus for themselves. They were noncommittal as to whether prerogative should be narrowed at school. They attempted negotiations in both settings, despite less success at school. The children had a conception of personal prerogative which extended over both home and school contexts. Results have implications for classrooms responsive to children's development of autonomy. The study was limited largely to white middle class children, however it raises questions which could have implications for a much broader range of children. Further studies on prerogative in contrasting contexts considering class and ethnic differences may also yield implications for classroom practice which is child and culture sensitive.

Black and White Middle Class Children Who Have Private Health Insurance in the United States

To compare the health, behavior and school problems, and use of medical, mental health, and special education services of privately insured, middle class black and white children in the United States. Analyses of the Child Health Supplement to the 1988 National Health Interview Survey, with a nationally representative sample of 17 110 children age 0-17 years. Privately insured middle class black children had fewer chronic health conditions, but were less likely to be reported to be in excellent health (46.2% vs 57.3%) and more likely to have had asthma (8.5% vs 5.8%) or to have been of low birth weight (10.7% vs 5.6%). There were no differences in rates of having a usual source of routine care (92.2% vs 93.8%) or of being up to date with well-child care (79.3% vs 78.2%), but black children made fewer physician visits, were less likely to use physicians' offices, were more likely to lack continuity of care, and were twice as likely to use emergency departments. These differences in use of medical services persisted in multivariate analyses and analyses restricted to more affluent children. Despite similar rates of behavior problems, black children were more likely to repeat a grade (20.0% vs 12.3%) and to have been suspended from school (11.3% vs 5.0%). Although significantly fewer black middle class children received mental health or special education services in bivariate analyses, no differences in receipt of these services were noted in multivariate analyses. All differences reported were significant. Among middle class children in the United States, black and white children have similar rates of health and behavior problems, but black children experience substantially increased rates of asthma, low birth weight, and school difficulties. Although not differing in the receipt of mental health or special education services, middle class black children, even in the presence of private health insurance, have markedly different sources and patterns of use of medical services.

Gender and self in children's autobiographical narratives

In this study, we examined relations among gender, self-concept and children's autobiographical narratives. Twenty-two white middle-class children 8 years of age (50% female) were administered the Children's Self-View Questionnaire (CSVQ). In addition, children were asked to recall a specific experience associated with each of the nine self-concept dimensions assessed by the CSVQ, including Achievement, Alienation, and Social Closeness. Consistent with previous research with adults, girl's autobiographical narratives were longer, more coherent and more detailed than were boys' narratives. Girls were also more likely to place their autobiographical narratives in a social context, to refer to more affiliative themes, and to mention more people and more emotions than were boys. In all these ways, girls' narratives were more socially contexted and relational than were those of boys. However, no relations were found between specific dimensions of self-understanding and children's autobiographical narratives. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

OP-ED Constructing a liberatory pedagogy in science: Dilemmas and contradictions

Two summers ago the group of second grade girls I taught in science camp seemed to come from a large number of different backgrounds- Korean daughters of graduate students; white middle class children with parents who were musicians and who went river rafting in Colorado on vacations; white working-class girls of fundamentalist religious background; some from blended marriages; two low socio-economic status African Americans on scholarship. Jennifer, a child of intense religious views, chose not to participate in the questioning I was leading the girls through as they compared their experiences with kite flying. She did not participate in the 'science' side of anything we did. She led the class in turning our 'science' into arts and crafts; turning the empirical testing of kite tail design into a workshop on braiding. She polarized the group; her friends were torn between friendship for her and their interest in the group's inquiry. I responded by changing the curriculum to accommodate: I provided many different materials for braiding and then crafts; I asked questions about the qualities of materials in light of what the children wanted to do with them. I asked the children repeatedly to think and articulate ways they thought what we were doing was science. The science became hidden beneath the 'crafts' but it was still there as we examined the properties of materials, testing and assessing them. We designed things and tried to realize them. Such an evolution in the science we were doing happened by responding to the children's wishes rather than forcing them to choose science or their own desires. from the journal of Margery Osborne

Gender differences in parent-child conversations about past emotions

In this study, we examined the emotional content of parents’ conversations about past events with their 40-month-old children. Subjects were 24 white middle-class children and their mothers and fathers. At separate home visits, each parent independently engaged the child in conversation about three events that parent and child had experienced together only once before. Mothers and fathers talked about emotional aspects of events in similar ways, but they both used a greater number and variety of emotion words with daughters than with sons. Parents also mentioned sad aspects of events more with daughters than with sons. Implications of the differential socialization of emotion for boys and girls are discussed.