Harriet R. Tenenbaum

Parents Explain More Often to Boys Than to Girls During Shared Scientific Thinking

Young childrens everyday scientific thinking often occurs in the context of parent-child interactions. In a study of naturally occurring family conversation, parents were three times more likely to explain science to boys than to girls while using interactive science exhibits in a museum. This difference in explanation occurred despite the fact that parents were equally likely to talk to their male and female children about how to use the exhibits and about the evidence generated by the exhibits. The findings suggest that parents engaged in informal science activities with their children may be unintentionally contributing to a gender gap in childrens scientific literacy well before children encounter formal science instruction in grade school.

Depression in Parkinson's disease: health risks, etiology, and treatment options

Depression is found in about 30%–40% of all patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), but only a small percentage (about 20%) receive treatment. As a consequence, many PD patients suffer with reduced health-related quality of life. To address quality of life in depressed PD patients, we reviewed the literature on the health correlates of depression in PD (eg, cognitive function), etiology of depression in PD, and treatment options (ie, antidepressants, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychotherapy). The current review is unique in its focus on psychosocial aspects, as well as neuropathological factors, of depression in PD. Overall, we conclude that neurochemical (eg, serotonin) and psychosocial factors (eg, coping style, self-esteem, and social support) contribute to the affective disturbances found in this neuropsychiatric population. Therefore, we recommend that a multidisciplinary (eg, pharmacotherapeutic, psychoeducational, and/or psychotherapeutic) approach to treatment be taken with depressed PD patients.

Emotional understanding in Quechua children from an agro-pastoralist village

Research on children’s understanding of emotion has rarely focused on children from nonindustrialised countries, who may develop an understanding at different ages as compared to children reared in industrialised countries. Quechua children from an agro-pastoralist village were given an adapted version of the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) to assess their understanding of nine aspects of emotions. Older children performed better on the entire TEC than younger children. Eight- to 11-year-olds were more accurate in identifying emotions connected to individual desires and to a moral misdemeanour than were 4- to 7-year-olds. In addition, there was a trend for 8- to 11-year-olds to understand external causes of emotions better than 4- to 7-year-olds. Compared to British children, the Quechua children were less accurate overall. However, similar to the British children, certain aspects of emotion (e.g., recognition) were understood at younger ages than others (e.g., regulation), suggesting similar patterns in the sequence of emotional understanding despite the radical difference in cultural context. In contrast to children from industrialised settings, children from this Quechua village have little access to formal education. Moreover, Quechua children have fewer opportunities to engage in discussions about emotions with adults, which may also contribute to how well they performed on the TEC. Suggestions for improving the TEC and including a more naturalistic testing situation are made.

The Effects of Antidepressants in Parkinson’s Disease: A Meta-Analysis

This study explored the therapeutic effect of antidepressants in Parkinsons disease (PD) using a meta-analysis. Altogether, 24 placebo-controlled trials qualified for inclusion and revealed that tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) had a greater antidepressant effect relative to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), Qb(1) = 8.87, p < .01, and the mono-amine-oxidase inhibitor, selegiline, Qb(1) = 7.90, p < .01. Whereas TCAs produced a significant side effect profile (odds ratio = 3.07), adverse events were negligible with SSRIs (odds ratio = 1.83) and selegeline (odds ratio = 1.63). Antidepressants can be beneficial for patients with PD. However, the choice of antidepressants needs to take depressive symptomatologies into account while monitoring side effects.

Danish majority children's reasoning about exclusion based on gender and ethnicity.

This study investigated 282 eight- to twelve-year-old Danish majority childrens judgments and justifications of exclusion based on gender and ethnicity (i.e., Danish majority children and ethnic-minority children of a Muslim background). Childrens judgments and reasoning varied with the perpetrator of the exclusion and the social identity of the target. Children assessed exclusion based on ethnicity as less acceptable than exclusion based on gender and used more moral reasoning for the former than the latter. Children judged it less acceptable for a teacher than a child to exclude a child protagonist. Children were sensitive to status, judging it less acceptable to exclude a less powerful group member. The findings are discussed in relation to intergroup relations in Denmark.

Gender effects on Mexican-descent parents' questions and scaffolding during toy play: a sequential analysis

Parental responses following childrens answers to parental questions (Parent Question → Child Answer → Parent Response) were examined during play between Mexican-descent children and their parents. Nineteen boys and 18 girls were videotaped playing separately with each of their parents with a toy zoo set. Patterns of parental responses following childrens answers to parental questions indicated that mothers provided more scaffolding responses than did fathers. Furthermore, mothers were more scaffolding in their responses even when sequences were analysed separately for child gender. The results support past research with European-American families which has found that mothers may be more aware of childrens cognitive capabilities than are fathers. Suggestions for future research that investigate scaffolding versus cognitive demand strategies are included.

The role of educational background, activity, and past experiences in Mexican-descent families' science conversations

Debate exists regarding the extent to which Mexican-descent parent-child conversations are explanatory. Moreover, suggestions have been made that differences in the amount of explanatory conversation may be based on parents’educational background. This article reports on two studies investigating conversations between parents and children in two different contexts. Results of an observational study conducted at a children’s museum reveal that although parents with high levels of formal education used more explanations about science than did parents with lower levels of formal education, both groups engaged in causal conversations with their children. In a second study examining parents’ reports of science talk after attending family science workshops, results indicated no difference in the explanation frequency between two groups of families with different levels of formal education. Overall, the findings suggest that Mexican-descent parents across differing educational backgrounds encourage their children’s developing understanding of the scientific world.

Perspective taking in children's narratives about jealousy

This study explored relationships between perspective-taking, emotion understanding, and childrens narrative abilities. Younger (23 5-/6-year-olds) and older (24 7-/8-year-olds) children generated fictional narratives, using a wordless picture book, about a frog experiencing jealousy. Childrens emotion understanding was assessed through a standardized test of emotion comprehension and their ability to convey the jealousy theme of the story. Perspective-taking ability was assessed with respect to childrens use of narrative evaluation (i.e., narrative coherence, mental state language, supplementary evaluative speech, use of subjective language, and placement of emotion expression). Older children scored higher than younger children on emotion comprehension and on understanding the storys complex emotional theme, including the ability to identify a rival. They were more advanced in perspective-taking abilities, and selectively used emotion expressions to highlight story episodes. Subjective perspective taking and narrative coherence were predictive of childrens elaboration of the jealousy theme. Use of supplementary evaluative speech, in turn, was predictive of both subjective perspective taking and narrative coherence.

Practising gender: Children's relationships and the development of gendered behaviour and beliefs

Gender, as a topic of study in psychology, can sometimes be treated as a messy inconvenience for researchers who would rather focus on illuminating universal laws of human behaviour.Developmentalists have been no less guilty of this approach than many others. Yet, gender is a topic thatwill not go away, and it will not disappear because it is a ubiquitous and fundamental part of any child’s development. As such, it is hard to imagine how a child can ever develop without gender influencing her behaviour, thinking, or social relationships. Therefore, developmental psychologists should be interested in gender because research demonstrates that from a young age children react to their own and others’ gender and think about gender in complex, subtle, and nuanced ways. By understanding how gender links with relationships across development, we can also come to understand and possibly begin to address an enduring source of inequality in adult social relationships and roles. This Special Issue explores how gender influences children’s and adolescents’ behaviour, communication, and thinking across contexts.

Supporting parent-child conversations in a history museum.

BACKGROUND Museums can serve as rich resources for families to learn about the social world through engagement with exhibits and parent-child conversation about exhibits. AIMS This study examined ways of engaging parents and child about two related exhibits at a cultural and history museum. Sample participants consisted of families visiting the Animal Antics and the Gone Potty exhibits at the British Museum. METHODS Whilst visiting two exhibits at the British Museum, 30 families were assigned to use a backpack of activities, 13 were assigned to a booklet of activities, and 15 were assigned to visit the exhibits without props (control condition). RESULTS Compared to the families in the control condition, the interventions increased the amount of time parents and children engaged together with the exhibit. Additionally, recordings of the conversations revealed that adults asked more questions related to the exhibits when assigned to the two intervention conditions compared to the control group. Children engaged in more historical talk when using the booklets than in the other two conditions. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that providing support with either booklets or activities for children at exhibits may prove beneficial to parent-child conversations and engagement with museum exhibits.