Allen W. Gottfried

Home environment and cognitive development in the first 3 years of life: A collaborative study involving six sites and three ethnic groups in North America.

Attempted to examine the generalizability of environment/development relationships among 3 ethnic groups across the first 3 years of life. Social status did not show a consistent relationship to either quality of home environment or childrens developmental status across the various groups. Results indicated a fairly consistent relationship between HOME scores and childrens developmental status, although there were some ethnic and social status differences in the relationship. Measures of specific aspects of the childs home environment, such as parental responsivity and availability of stimulating play materials, were more strongly related to child developmental status than global measures of environmental quality such as SES. When the childs early developmental status and early home environment were both very low, the likelihood of poor developmental outcomes was markedly increased compared with cases when only one was low.

Difficult Temperament and Behaviour Problems: A Longitudinal Study from 1.5 to 12 Years:

Results of a 10-year longitudinal study on the developmental-behavioural significance of infant temperamental difficultness are presented. A cross-time, cross-context methodology was employed using data from over 100 children participating in the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Difficult temperament was assessed at 1.5 years by mothers; behaviour problems were assessed by parents during the third year and annually from 4-12 and by teachers from 6-11 years. Temperamental difficultness correlated significantly, pervasively, and to moderate magnitudes with parent reports of behaviour problems from 3.25-12 years. Additionally, analyses using clinical cutpoints showed that 1.5-year-olds deemed temperamentally difficult evidenced a greater frequency of elevated scores, specifically, attention problems, aggressive behaviour, and thought problems (parents) and attention and thought problems (teachers). These data provide evidence for the ecological validity of parent reports of temperament and for a temperamental component in the development of childhood behaviour problems.

Multivariate latent change modeling of developmental decline in academic intrinsic math motivation and achievement: Childhood through adolescence

Research has established that academic intrinsic motivation, enjoyment of school learning without receipt of external rewards, significantly declines across childhood through adolescence. Math intrinsic motivation evidences the most severe decline compared with other subject areas. This study addresses this developmental decline in math intrinsic motivation, and also serves as a resource for applied researchers by providing exemplary illustrations of approaches to longitudinal modeling. Using a multivariate latent change model, the longitudinal relationship between academic intrinsic math motivation and math achievement among participants (n = 114) aged 9—17 years was examined to explain this motivational decline. On average, both math motivation and achievement decreased over time. This study reveals that math achievement is a significant contributor to the developmental decline in intrinsic math motivation from childhood through adolescence. In addition, academic intrinsic math motivation was found to be related to initial and later levels of mathematics achievement. These findings enhance understanding of developmental processes whereby early motivation and achievement are related to subsequent declines in mathematics.

A Longitudinal Study of Academic Intrinsic Motivation in Intellectually Gifted Children: Childhood Through Early Adolescence

Academic intrinsic motivation of intellectually gifted children and a comparison group was examined in the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Children at ages 9 through 13 years were administered the Childrens Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory which assesses intrinsic motivation for school learning in reading, math, social studies, science, and for school in general. Analyses showed that across the ages, relative to a peer comparison, gifted children had significantly higher academic intrinsic motivation across all subject areas and school in general. It is suggested that: Children who become intellectually gifted enjoy the process of learning to a greater extent; intrinsic motivation is important for potentiation of giftedness; Assessment of academic intrinsic motivation be included in selection of children for gifted programs.

Cross-modal Transfer in Human Infants.

GOTTFRIED, ALLEN W.; ROSE, SUSAN A.; and BRIDGER, WAGNER H. Cross-modal Transfer in Human Infants. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 118-123. This study investigated cross-modal transfer in infants by their proclivity to respond differentially to novel and familiar stimuli after familiarization in a different sensory modality. Across a variety of stimulus shapes, 1-year-old infants significantly and reliably looked more at and reached more for the novel than the familiar stimulus subsequent to information input from tactual stimulation. Furthermore, for the first time, it is demonstrated that not only do infants gain information about the shape of objects from their oral experience with them but this information can be made available to the visual modality.

Maternal employment and children's development : longitudinal research

I. Introduction.- 1 Maternal Employment and Childrens Development: An Introduction to the Issues.- II. Longitudinal Studies.- 2 Maternal Employment, Family Environment, and Childrens Development: Infancy through the School Years.- 3 The Influences of Maternal Employment across Life: The New York Longitudinal Study.- 4 Maternal Employment and the Transition to Parenthood.- 5 Maternal Employment When Children Are Toddlers and Kindergartners.- 6 Maternal Employment and Sex Typing in Early Adolescence: Contemporaneous and Longitudinal Relations.- 7 Maternal Separation Anxiety: Its Role in the Balance of Employment and Motherhood in Mothers of Infants.- III. Maternal Employment: Integration of Findings, Corporate Applications, and Social Policies.- 8 Balancing Work and Family Lives: Research and Corporate Applications.- 9 Maternal Employment and Childrens Development: An Integration of Longitudinal Findings with Implications for Social Policy.

Educational Characteristics of Adolescents with Gifted Academic Intrinsic Motivation: A Longitudinal Investigation from School Entry through Early Adulthood.

The construct of gifted motivation was examined in a contemporary, long-term, longitudinal investigation. Adolescents with extremely high academic intrinsic motivation (i.e., gifted motivation) were compared to their cohort peer comparison on a variety of educationally relevant measures from elementary school through the early adulthood years. Assessment of academic intrinsic motivation was based on the Children’s Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. Cross-time, pervasive differences resulted favoring the gifted motivation compared to the cohort comparison group on motivation, achievement, classroom functioning, intellectual performance, self-concept, and postsecondary educational progress. Meaningful effect sizes were obtained and corroborated by teachers’ observations. Gifted motivation proved to be distinct from gifted intelligence. This research serves to expand the definition of giftedness to include the construct of gifted motivation in its own right. These findings have implications for identifying students with gifted motivation for entry into programs for the gifted.

Redefining Families: Implications for Children's Development

Introduction: Demography and Changing Families (A.E. Gottfried, A.W. Gottfried). Alternative Families and Childrens Development: Primary Caregiving Fathers in Intact Familes (N. Radin). Role of Maternal and Dual-Earner Employment in Childrens Development (A.E. Gottfried et al.). Revolution and Reassessment (C.E. Depner). The Gap between Psychosocial Assumptions and Empirical Research in Lesbian Mother Child Custody Cases (P.J. Falk). Gay Dads (R.L. Barret, B.E. Robinson). Custodial Grandparenting (R.J. Shore, B. Hayslip, Jr.). Overview: Impact of Redefined Families on Childrens Development (A.E. Gottfried, A.W. Gottfried). Index.

Temperament and School Functioning during Early Adolescence

Individual differences in temperament have been shown to be important correlates of school success in young children; however, their significance during early adolescence has not been studied extensively. In this study, the relation between temperament assessed by parent report and a wide range of measures relating to school functioning was examined. Data were collected on over 100 Fullerton Longitudinal Study participants at their 10-, 11-, 12-, and 13-year assessments. Results showed that parent ratings of temperament accountedfor approximately 25% to 30% of the variance in teacher ratings of classroom behavior, 5% to 10% of the variance in academic achievement when entered after IQ, and 10% of the variance in self-concept and pupil-teacher relationships. Temperament was unrelated to academic intrinsic motivation, however It was concluded that the temperament dimension of persistence was most salient in the school environment during the transition to adolescence.

Toward the Development of a Conceptualization of Gifted Motivation

Whereas perspectives on giftedness have included motivation as a construct related to giftedness, the proposed conceptualization advances a new view that motivation is an area of giftedness in and of itself. Academic intrinsic motivation (i.e., enjoyment of school learning) is the domain focused upon in this conceptualization inasmuch as it has inherent ties to cognition, gifted intellect, and achievement. Research supports the following criteria, advanced as a beginning effort toward the development of a conceptualization of a gifted motivation construct: (a) significantly higher academic intrinsic motivation is evidenced by intellectually gifted compared to their comparison cohort; (b) academic intrinsic motivation is significantly, positively, and uniquely related to academic achievement above and beyond IQ; (c) academic intrinsic motivation evidences substantial continuity from childhood through adolescence; and (d) environment is significantly related to academic intrinsic motivation. The construct of gifted motivation serves heuristic purposes to advance further inquiry and also has implications regarding the development and implementation of giftedness programs. Suggestions are made regarding research needed for further development of a gifted motivation construct.