College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Maternal Experiences of Parenting Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Analysis(2015) Duchene, Melissa S.; Jones Harden, Brenda; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite the increased prevalence rates of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) over the last two decades (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015), little is known about the parenting of children with ASD, including parenting behaviors, parent-child interactions, and how the specific characteristics of children with ASD affect parenting practices. The goals of this qualitative study were: (1) To explore parenting practices and behaviors among mothers of children with ASD; and (2) To illuminate the unique experiences of mothers raising children with ASD. Three research questions guided the inquiry: 1) What are the parenting practices and behaviors that mothers use with their preschool age children with ASD?; 2) What are the beliefs and experiences of mothers relative to raising preschool aged children with ASD?; and 3) What facilitates or hinders mothers' parenting of their preschool aged children with ASD? In this qualitative inquiry, six mothers and their preschool-age children with ASD were recruited from the Autism Center in a metropolitan children's hospital. Each mother participated in three 1-1 ½ hour long semi-structured audio-recorded interviews that entailed a series of open-ended questions about the unique experiences associated with raising a child with ASD. Two home observations and one public observation of mother-child interactions lasting 1-2 hours in length were conducted per family. Eleven themes emerged during the coding process: 1) positivity within the mother-child relationship, 2) schedules and routines, 3) strategies encouraging child cooperation, 4) crisis management, 5) perspectives on child's maladaptive behavior, 6) perspectives on child's abilities, 7) perceptions and experiences around public interfacing, 8) stress associated with caring for a child with ASD, 9) maternal resources, 10) interpersonal supports, and 11) ecological factors. These results shed light on factors that contribute to the everyday realities and experiences of parents who have children with ASD, thereby allowing for a more accurate understanding of their parenting approaches and behaviors. Findings from this study can be considered in the context of developing interventions focused on parenting children with ASD.Item UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE EXPERIENCES OF CHILDREN INVOLVED IN TECHNOLOGY DESIGN PROCESSES(2010) Guha, Mona Leigh; Druin, Allison; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Technology has become ubiquitous not only in the lives of adults, but also in the lives of children. For every technology, there is a process by which it is designed. In many cases, children are involved in these design processes. This study examined the social and cognitive experiences of children who were integrally involved in a technology design process in partnership with adults. This research study employed a Vygotskian lens with a case study research method, to understand the cognitive and social experiences of child technology design partners over a one-year period of design and partnership. Artifact analysis, participant observation, and interviews were used to collect and analyze data. Results from this study demonstrated that children involved in technology design process in partnership with adults experienced social and cognitive experiences which fall into the areas of relationships, enjoyment, confidence, communication, collaboration, skills, and content.Item The Intentionality and Social Information Processing Patterns Associated with Ethnic Minority Children's Aggression(2009) Simcox, April Guzy; Teglasi-Golubcow, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)According to Dodge and colleagues' social information processing model (e.g. Crick and Dodge, 1994) when faced with social situations, children engage in five components of decision making. In previous research using the model and corresponding social information processing (SIP) instruments, deficiencies in different components corresponded with childhood aggression. In particular, a tendency to interpret others' intentions as hostile is associated with aggression. Dodge and his colleagues cite schemas, or mental structures, as responsible for SIP deficiencies. However, the relationship between schemas and childhood aggression has not been systematically examined. This study investigated the social information processing patterns and schemas of ethnic minority children in relation to reactive and proactive aggression, as rated by teacher, peer, and self informants. The SIP instrument measured participants' social information processing patterns and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) assessed schemas underlying aggression using portions of Teglasi's coding system (2001) and coding procedures developed to capture SIP components. The TAT and SIP instruments were not correlated with one another and each correlated with different aspects of aggression. The SIP correlated primarily with teacher rated reactive aggression whereas the TAT correlated primarily with both peer and teacher rated proactive aggression. Prior research using the SIP instrument which found relationships between intentionality and aggression were not replicated. The TAT showed that among second and third grade children, most do not spontaneously consider the intentionality behind a provocation (intent attribution) but do consider the intention behind their response to a provocation (goal formation). Older age--within the two year span, significantly correlated with improved performance on some aspects of the SIP and TAT. On the SIP, girls were more likely than boys to select aggressive responses to a hypothetical situation, but expressed these in proactive ways while boys expressed more reactive aggression. Gender differences on the TAT were not present. Overall the TAT was a better predictor of both aggression types than the SIP and this was true for all informants. The use of multiple measures and multiple informants to capture various aspects of aggression is discussed along with implications for theory and practice, and directions for future research.Item Congruence of Self-Other Perceptions about Competence, Peer Victimization, and Bullying as Predictors of Self-Reported Emotions(2006-12-13) Nuijens, Karen L.; Teglasi-Golubcow, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined self-, teacher-, and peer-perceptions of competence, peer victimization, and bullying behavior as they relate to self-reported depression, anxiety, anger, and global self-worth. Participants included 99 second- and third-grade students and their teachers from one school located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The sample of students was ethnically diverse (66.7% African American, 17.2% Hispanic, 11.1% Asian American, 5.1% White). Preliminary analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among self-perceptions. As expected, self-perceptions of competence (social acceptance, behavioral conduct, academic competence) positively correlated with one another, where self-perceived victimization and bullying negatively correlated with self-perceived social acceptance and behavioral conduct. As expected, the aforementioned self-perceptions were significantly related to self-reported emotions. Here, self-perceived victimization uniquely predicted self-reported depression and anxiety scores, self-perceived academic competence uniquely predicted self-reported anger scores, and self-perceived academic competence and behavioral conduct uniquely predicted global self-worth scores. Two sets of hypotheses were tested regarding the congruence of self-, teacher-, and peer-perceptions. First, as predicted, teacher- and peer-perceptions more strongly related with one another than with self-perceptions. Linked to this finding, self-perceived victimization and bullying were more highly predictive of self-reported competence, where teacher- and peer-perceived victimization and bullying were more highly predictive of teacher- and peer-reported competence. Second, the relative impact of self-perceptions and discrepancies between self- and other-perceptions on self-reported emotions was examined. This is a departure from past research, which has typically examined self-other discrepancies independent of self-perceptions. Results showed that self-perceptions were more strongly related to self-reported emotions than were self-other discrepancies. However, interactions between these variables in a subset of the analyses argue for the inclusion of self- and other-perceptions in this line of research. The pattern of interactions suggests that discrepancies between self- and other-perceptions had little impact on self-reported emotions for children who reported low competence or high victimization. These children tended to report more negative emotions compared to peers whether their self-appraisals agreed or disagreed with others' appraisals. Conversely, children who reported high competence or low victimization often reported more negative emotions compared to peers when their appraisals were unfavorable relative to others' appraisals.