Anne Dopkins Stright

Infant Temperament Moderates Relations Between Maternal Parenting in Early Childhood and Children's Adjustment in First Grade

A differential susceptibility hypothesis proposes that children may differ in the degree to which parenting qualities affect aspects of child development. Infants with difficult temperaments may be more susceptible to the effects of parenting than infants with less difficult temperaments. Using latent change curve analyses to analyze data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care, the current study found that temperament moderated associations between maternal parenting styles during early childhood and childrens first-grade academic competence, social skills, and relationships with teachers and peers. Relations between parenting and first-grade outcomes were stronger for difficult than for less difficult infants. Infants with difficult temperaments had better adjustment than less difficult infants when parenting quality was high and poorer adjustment when parenting quality was lower.

Parenting behaviours during child problem solving: The roles of child temperament, mother education and personality, and the problem-solving context

Child temperament, parent openness to experience, conscientiousness, and education, and parent a priori assessments of the task were examined in relation to parenting behaviours during child problem solving. Mothers and their children (73 dyads) were visited the summer before kindergarten. Mothers’ cognitive, emotional, and autonomy support were coded as they provided assistance during four child problem-solving tasks. Mothers with more education provided more metacognitive information. Before education was considered, it appeared that mothers who perceived their children as difficult and who were less open to experiences were less likely to regulate task difficulty, encourage their children’s efforts, and encourage their children’s active role in problem solving. However, more educated mothers regulated task difficulty, encouraged their children’s efforts, and encouraged their children’s active role more when they perceived their children as difficult than when they perceived their children as easy. More educated mothers also were likely to regulate task difficulty and encourage their children’s active role regardless of their openness. Children perceived as difficult were most likely to be rejected and also were particularly likely to be rejected if the mother was highly conscientious. Conscientious mothers were likely to be overly controlling. When mothers perceived the task negatively they were less likely to provide metacognitive information, regulate task difficulty, and encourage the child’s active role; and were more likely to be overcontrolling and rejecting.

Children's Self-Regulatory Behaviors during Teacher-Directed, Seat-Work, and Small-Group Instructional Contexts.

Abstract The authors examined differences between childrens self-regulatory behaviors in 3 instructional contexts: teacher directed, seat work, and small group. Fifty-one 3rd-grade students were observed throughout the school year during mathematics and science lessons. During teacher-directed instruction, students were less likely to attend to instructions, monitor their work, and ask for help than during seat work or small-group instruction. However, students were more likely to be disorganized during seat work or small-group instruction than during teacher-directed instruction. Students were more likely to talk about their thinking during small-group instruction than during teacher-directed instruction or seat work. Four types of students participated: students who were consistently self-regulated across all contexts, students who were consistently unregulated, students who excelled in small groups, and students who excelled during seat work.

Adolescents’ Emotion Regulation Strategies, Self-Concept, and Internalizing Problems

This study examined the relationships among adolescents’ emotion regulation strategies (suppression and cognitive reappraisal), self-concept, and internalizing problems using structural equation modeling. The sample consisted of 438 early adolescents (13 to 15 years old) in Taiwan, including 215 boys and 223 girls. For both boys and girls, suppression was negatively associated, and cognitive reappraisal was positively associated with self-concept. Self-concept negatively predicted adolescents’ internalizing problems. The findings support the hypothesis that self-concept mediates the relationship between emotion regulation and internalizing problems. These findings support generalization of one part of Cicchetti’s and Toth’s model of the development of internalizing problems to an Asian culture.

Effectiveness of the Energize Elementary School Program to Improve Diet and Exercise.

BACKGROUND The rate of childhood obesity has more than tripled during the past 30 years. Research shows that prevention at an early age is more effective than treatment later in life. Energize is a multicomponent intervention incorporated into the school day that combines nutrition education and physical activity aimed at maintaining healthy weight among elementary school youth. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Energize program for changing dietary and physical activity habits compared to a control group of children not participating in the program. METHODS A total of 104, 3rd and 4th graders in 3 southern Indiana elementary schools took part in the study. A quasi-experimental design was used to assess dietary and exercise habits of students in Energize and control groups through 12-week diet/activity logs and post-test questionnaires after controlling for the pre-test results. RESULTS Energize reduced consumption of French fries and potato chips, but did not increase physical activity. CONCLUSIONS This study provides future researchers with a foundation for preparing longer studies of Energize or to compare multiple years of a standardized Energize curriculum.

Gender Role Differences in College Students from One- and Two-Parent Families

This study explores three aspects of gender roles: the persons perceptions of their own gender role, the persons perceptions of socially idealized gender roles, and the fit between an individuals gender role and their perception of the ideal persons gender role. Because parent–child relationships and gender models and attitudes in one- and two-parent families may differ, the gender roles of college students raised in one- versus two-parent families may differ. Participants in one- and two-parent families were paired based on gender, age, race, and family of origins current income. Forty-five pairs resulted (30 Caucasian, 12 African-American, and 3 Asian-American pairs). Twenty-one of the pairs were lower middle class, 11 were middle class, and 13 were upper middle class. Differences in gender roles were found. Males and females raised in mother-headed one-parent families were more likely than males and females raised in intact two-parent families to view their own gender role in terms of traditionally masculine characteristics (independence, assertiveness, self-reliance, self-sufficiency, etc.) and to report a low level of traditionally feminine characteristics. In contrast, females in intact two-parent families were more likely than females in mother-headed one-parent families to view themselves as androgenous. No differences in idealized gender roles were found between students raised in one- versus two-parent families; students from both types of families perceived the ideal person as androgenous.

Learning and forgetting of narratives following good and poor text organization

Abstract People remember stories better if the stories are presented in good form rather than in poor form. In three experiments, college students repeatedly read and recalled the same stories presented in good and poor form to determine whether (1) this widely reported, “good form” effect is transitory or long-lasting, and (2) the effect is equally present for learning and forgetting of information. During the learning phase, the effect was, indeed, long-lasting. Subjects still showed superior recall of narratives presented in standard order (good form) after as many as nine rereadings and three repeated recall attempts. However, the rate of forgetting story information after 1 day and after 1 week was not differentially influenced by good form.