College of Education

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Preschoolers’ temperament and social functioning in novel and routine contexts
    (Frontiers, 2022-12-22) Vaughan, Helena Shoplik; Teglasi, Hedwig
    Introduction: The centrality of social competence to children’s short and long-term well-being has sparked interest in the factors that contribute to its development, including temperament, a set of biologically based dispositions. A large body of work documents two types of temperamental dispositions associated with young children’s social functioning: reactivity and regulation. There is consensus about the detrimental effects of negative reactive tendencies, called negative affective reactivity (NA), and about the beneficial effects of regulatory tendencies, called effortful control (EC), on social functioning. Another reactive component of temperament, Extraversion/Surgency (E/S) is less consistent in its relation with social functioning. Although NA is exacerbated by lack of familiarity, its contribution to social functioning in novel and routine contexts has not been systematically addressed. Methods: To test this study’s hypotheses, we devised a structured interview of adaptive responsiveness in context (ARC) which was completed by parents of preschoolers along with a comprehensive temperament questionnaire. Additionally, children completed an individually administered task measuring emotion-situation knowledge (N = 92) and their teachers completed a standard social competence questionnaire. Results and Discussion: A path analysis that controlled for variance shared across contexts and temperamental traits showed that NA was the only unique predictor of social functioning in the Novel context, that EC was the only unique predictor of social functioning in the Routine context and that E/S was not a unique predictor of social functioning in either context. Bivariate analyses, conducted without controlling for context overlap, showed all reactive emotional traits (subsumed within NA and E/S) to correlate exclusively with ARC in the Novel contexts. However, regulatory traits showed a mixed pattern. Inhibitory Control correlated with ARC in both contexts but more highly in the Routine context, and Perceptual Sensitivity correlated with ARC in the Novel context.
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    Space and Math Wave One and Wave Two v.1
    (2018-07-19) Mix, Kelly S.; Levine, Susan C.
    This dataset contains test scores for two waves of data collected from kindergarten, third grade, and sixth grade students in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Measures included age-appropriate spatial and mathematics tasks.
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    Group Norms and Intimacy Among Best Friends: A Normative Cross-Sectional Developmental Study
    (2012) Menzer, Melissa Mary; Rubin, Kenneth H.; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The focus of the current dissertation was on 1) the prevalence and nature of observed gossip behavior in the friendships of children in grades five and six, and 2) the associations of observed gossip behavior and perceptions of friendship quality. Scholars have argued that gossip is a normal part of communicative development and it also has been linked to perceptions of close and positive friendship (Gottman & Mettetal, 1986). The findings of the current dissertation indicated that gossip was prominent in children's conversations with their best friends, and that different forms of gossip behavior were evident. Results also confirmed the association of gossip and perceptions of friendship quality (Parker & Gottman, 1989; Sullivan, 1953), and that these relations were stronger for girls than for boys (Foster, 2004; Gottman & Mettetal, 1986; Leaper & Holliday, 1995). In addition, these relations varied depending on other contextual factors, such as whom the gossip was about. Generally, gossip functioned in two apparently contradictory ways for the friendships of girls. On the one hand, gossip was associated with positive aspects of friendship quality. On the other hand, gossip was also associated with negative aspects of friendship quality, such as conflict. Perhaps gossip was more important for the friendships of girls due to the motivations and importance of friendships for girls. In other words, girls are argued to focus their relationship efforts on building close dyadic relationships that involve high levels of disclosure and conversation whereas boys are argued to engaged in more activities that do not require as much disclosure or conversation (e.g., sports, video games; Findlay & Coplan, 2008; Leaper & Smith, 2004; Schneider & Tessier, 2007). Moreover, it may be that conflict resulted from greater engagement and higher frequencies of interaction within the friendship and thus may not necessarily indicate relationship difficulties. The results of the current dissertation highlighted the complexity of the ways in which gossip and perceptions of friendship quality were inter-related in the friendships of children, as well as provided direction for further investigations of the general functions of gossip.
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    Spiritual Community Experiences of Families of Children with Disabilities
    (2009) O'Hanlon, Elizabeth Ellen; Beckman, Paula J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This mixed methods investigation examined experiences of families of children with disabilities in their spiritual communities. Using the Spiritual Community Experiences Inventory, fifty-eight parents rated importance of and satisfaction with clergy, various religious activities, and support received from clergy and spiritual community members. Families reported that participation in religious activities and support from clergy and members were important. Moreover, families were highly satisfied with these activities and support. As predicted, a significant relationship was found between frequency of attendance, amount of support, and satisfaction with activities and support. Only in the case of formal ceremonies was frequency/satisfaction relationship not significant. Parents described a variety of factors that influenced their level of satisfaction with spiritual community experiences. Families reported that participation was influenced by: (1) amount and quality of social interactions with other children and adults, (2) level of knowledge, training and understanding of staff and volunteers, (3) level and appropriateness of accommodations provided, and (4) degree to which their child's disability interfered with participation. Additionally, parents reported that their experiences were affected by availability of emotional and practical support targeted to their unique needs, existence of social support networks, level of acceptance and knowledge of community members and clergy about disability, and the value the religious community places on parental knowledge of disability. Parents did elaborate on negative experiences and lack of support, which led to their non-participation and in some instances to switching communities. Further testing and refining of the instrument is required to strengthen its reliability and validity, clarify ambiguities, and identify factors families believe are important to participation. Additionally, leaders of spiritual communities must identify needs of families of children with disabilities. By tapping families as "experts" and networking with other religious communities, disability groups, and agencies, they can better meet these families' needs.
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    The response-monitoring mechanism: Influence of feedback and temperament
    (2008-05-06) Martin McDermott, Jennifer; Fox, Nathan A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of the current study was to examine behavioral and physiological processes underlying response-monitoring and to document the manner in which these processes are expressed during early childhood. As well, this study examined two factors important in understanding individual differences in monitoring: performance feedback and temperament. A total of seventy-four children (mean age 7.5 years) were tested using a modified flanker paradigm administered in both no-feedback and feedback conditions. Accuracy and reaction time measures of behavioral performance were assessed as well as event-related potentials linked to response execution and feedback presentation. Data were also examined in relation to the temperamental dimensions of shyness and inhibitory control. The results indicate a strong impact of trial-by-trial feedback on both behavioral and physiological measures. Overall, feedback served to increase children's task engagement as evidenced by fewer errors of omission and faster reaction times. Similarly, the physiological measures also varied as a function of feedback such that the error-related Positivity (Pe) and the feedback-related negativity (FRN) were more pronounced on incorrect as compared to correct trials in the feedback condition. Larger FRN responses were also associated with fewer errors of commission. These findings were further moderated by individual differences in temperament. Specifically, feedback was particularly influential in increasing task involvement for children low in inhibitory control and enhancing performance accuracy for children low in shyness Overall these results confirm a strong impact of feedback on task engagement as assessed by children's behavioral performance and physiological reactivity. Findings are presented in the framework of individual differences in cognitive control and variations in children's physiological measures of response-monitoring are discussed. Several avenues for future research are provided which emphasize the need for investigations of response-monitoring in young children and also highlight the importance of exploring the applicability of these assessments across various cognitive and social contexts.
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    Social and Emotional Functioning of Children with Cochlear Implants
    (2005-04-18) Schorr, Efrat; Fox, Nathan A; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Studies of infants and children have demonstrated the importance of sensory processing in facilitating social and emotional development. Children who are deaf are deprived of the information typically provided by the auditory modality that is necessary to the development of basic social and emotional skills, which serve as the foundation upon which complex social and emotional constructs are built. Children with cochlear implants experience extended periods of total auditory deprivation during early childhood, followed by the introduction of auditory stimulation. Thirty-nine children with cochlear implants, aged five through fourteen, as well as an age and sex matched group of normal hearing peers, participated in assessment of the integrated perception of multimodal stimuli, processing of facial and vocal expressions of emotion, and emotion understanding skills. These dimensions of basic social and emotional functioning are vulnerable to the effects of atypical early experience. The age at which children received their cochlear implant and the length of time that they have used the cochlear implant were hypothesized to predict performance on the assessments. Results showed that the age at implant predicted performance on the McGurk fusion task, which requires the integration of multimodal sensory stimuli. Specifically, children who received their cochlear implant prior to age 30 months accurately identified the incongruent auditory-visual stimuli, whereas children who received their cochlear implant after 30 months of age did not. Age at implant and duration of implant use did not predict performance on the other experimental tasks. Comparison of groups revealed that performance of children with cochlear implants did not differ from children with normal hearing in a facial emotion identification task and in 2 components of emotion understanding: receptive identification of facial expressions and affective-perspective taking. Children with cochlear implants demonstrated poorer performance than children with normal hearing in tasks requiring free labeling of facial expressions of emotion, and vocal emotion identification. This research suggests sensitive periods in multimodal sensory integration. The present study provides understanding of the social and emotional influences of early experience with the auditory system on children with cochlear implants.