Human Development & Quantitative Methodology

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2248

The departments within the College of Education were reorganized and renamed as of July 1, 2011. This department incorporates the former departments of Measurement, Statistics & Evaluation; Human Development; and the Institute for Child Study.

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Science resource inequalities viewed as less wrong when girls are disadvantaged
    (Wiley, 2022-08-08) Sims, Riley N.; Burkholder, Amanda R.; Killen, Melanie
    In response to some resource inequalities, children give priority to moral concerns. Yet, in others, children show ingroup preferences in their evaluations and resource allocations. The present study built upon this knowledge by investigating children's and young adults’ (N = 144; 5–6-year-olds, Mage = 5.83, SDage = .97; 9–11-year-olds, Mage = 10.74, SDage = .68; and young adults, Mage = 19.92, SDage = 1.10) evaluations and allocation decisions in a science inequality context. Participants viewed vignettes in which male and female groups received unequal amounts of science supplies, then evaluated the acceptability of the resource inequalities, allocated new boxes of science supplies between the groups, and provided justifications for their choices. Results revealed both children and young adults evaluated inequalities of science resources less negatively when girls were disadvantaged than when boys were disadvantaged. Further, 5- to 6-year-old participants and male participants rectified science resource inequalities to a greater extent when the inequality disadvantaged boys compared to when it disadvantaged girls. Generally, participants who used moral reasoning to justify their responses negatively evaluated and rectified the resource inequalities, whereas participants who used group-focused reasoning positively evaluated and perpetuated the inequalities, though some age and participant gender findings emerged. Together, these findings reveal subtle gender biases that may contribute to perpetuating gender-based science inequalities both in childhood and adulthood.
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    RESISTING STEREOTYPES: EVALUATIONS OF PEER GROUP EXCLUSION
    (2013) Mulvey, Kelly Lynn Sara; Killen, Melanie; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Gender stereotypes permeate peer groups, often functioning as the norms, or conventions, which contribute to group identity. Little is known about the conditions under which children will resist the norms of their peer groups, including norms that reflect stereotypic expectations. This study investigated this issue by measuring how children responded to members of their gender groups who disagreed with the group about gender stereotyped aggressive behaviors (female stereotype: relational aggression, male stereotype: physical aggression) as well as about social activities (football and ballet). Social domain theory as well as social identity theory provided the basis for formulating the design and the hypotheses. It was expected that children and adolescents would expect their peers to challenge the group, but that they would be concerned about the consequences of challenging the group in terms of social exclusion. Participants (N = 292, 9-10 and 13-14 years of age) assessed members of same-gender peer groups who disagreed with their group. The findings revealed that children and adolescents generally expected that their peers will resist the group's gender stereotypic norms surrounding aggression, but that this may be more difficult for boys when voicing their counter- stereotypic opinions. Further, participants themselves believed that they would be less influenced by gender stereotypes than would their peers. They asserted that they would, individually, be more likely to resist the group than they expect a peer would be. This research also revealed important barriers to resisting the group. Specifically, children and adolescents expected that group members who dissent from or resist the group are likely to be excluded from the group for voicing their dissent. This stands in sharp contrast to much research which indicates that children are not accepting of exclusion. Rejecting the behavior of one's peer group, especially when that behavior has negative intrinsic consequences for others, is a key step towards changing the culture of peer groups more broadly. However, the findings indicate that, while children and adolescents are optimistic about their peers challenging the peer group, they also see exclusion as a very real possibility and consequence for such resistance.
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    Recognizing High Achievement in Context: A Multilevel Analysis of Friends' Values and Individuals' Motivation and Background as Associated with the Identification of Tenth-Graders by Teachers and Test Performance
    (2007-04-25) Barber, Carolyn; Torney-Purta, Judith; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The relationships of school context, motivation, and individual background to receiving teacher nominations for advanced work and/or scoring in the top decile on a standardized test of achievement were examined in both English and mathematics using survey data collected from a nationally-representative sample of tenth grade students as part of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. This study builds upon previous research examining the relationships between students identified as high-achieving by test score criteria and by teacher nomination criteria by exploring whether certain characteristics of students and their schools systematically make them more or less likely to meet them. Students' individual perceptions of their school context were only associated with achievement criteria met in math. Students who perceived their friends to be the least socially-oriented were most likely to meet both criteria. Further, male students who perceived their friends to be the least academically-oriented were the most likely to have high test performance but no teacher nomination. Students who were self-efficacious and intrinsically motivated were the most likely to meet both criteria in English and in math The relationship of intrinsic motivation in math to having high achievement recognized by teachers in this area was especially prominent for male students. Further, students of Black or Hispanic ethnicity were more likely than were white students to be nominated as high achieving by teachers despite lower test performance, as were students from lower socioeconomic statuses. Male students, on the other hand, were more likely than females overall to have high test performance without being nominated as high-achieving by teachers. Specific aspects of these relationships vary between subject areas. In addition to several associations with individual characteristics, the proportions of students identified as high-achieving only by teachers differ systematically among schools. This variation can be explained by several school-level variables, including school socioeconomic status and minority composition. These findings affirm that there are systematic differences between students identified as high-achieving by teacher nominations and by test scores. Learning more about these differences will help teachers and administrators to consider explicitly these factors when identifying adolescent students for special programs and other recognitions.