Katerina Maridaki-Kassotaki

Understanding fatherhood in Greece: father's involvement in child care

The present study aims to depict a picture of Greek fathers concerning their involvement in family and child-centered tasks over the first year of the child. Eighty fathers from rural areas with low educational and occupational status and eighty fathers from urban districts with high educational and occupational status were asked to talk about their own perceptions of fatherhood and also their participation into two parenting commitments: (a) preparations before and after the birth of the child and (b) involvement in play with the child and a variety of daily child-care tasks. The results show that fathers in urban regions were more involved in these activities than their counterparts in rural areas. All fathers valued fatherhood as a pleasant experience. Many fathers, however, stated that child-rearing responsibilities cause them a lot of psychological strain. The results are discussed in relation to the division of roles between spouses in Greek families.

The relation between phonological memory skills and reading ability in Greek-speaking children: Can training of phonological memory contribute to reading development?

This study was designed to examine whether there is a relationship between phonological memory and reading ability in Greek-speaking children aged between 6 and 9 years. An additional aim of the study was to investigate whether training of phonological memory during preschool years enhances reading achievement during early school years. In Experiment I, the phonological memory ability of 136 first graders, 134 second graders and 132 from each of the third and fourth grades was assessed with a nonword repetition test. A reading test was also used to evaluate the reading skills of the above subjects. The results revealed strong links between reading performance and nonword repetition scores. 120 kindergarten children randomly assigned to a control and an experimental group participated in Experiment 2. Training that involved practice in the repetition of nonwords was used as a means of promoting the phonological memory of the children in the experimental group over the course of one year in school. Subjects’ reading ability was tested during the last month of their first year in the primary school. The findings showed that the performance of the trained subjects in the reading test was superior to that of the control subjects. Such evidence underlines the importance of teaching children of preschool years phonological strategies in order to boost their reading skills during early school years.RésuméLa présente recherche a été réalisée auprès des enfants grecs, âgés de 6 à 9 ans. Elle examine s’il y a des relations entre la mémoire phonologique et la capacité de lecture. De plus, elle cherche à examiner si l’exercice de la mémoire phonologique pendant l’âge préscolaire améliore la performance des enfants dans le domaine de la lecture au cours des premières années de scolarité. Pour répondre à ces questions nous avons procédé de la façon suivante:Au cours de la première expérimentation nous avons évalué à l’aide d’un test de répétition des mots sans sens réel (nonword repetition test) la capacité de la mémoire phonologique de 534 enfants dont 136 fréquentaient la première classe de l’école primaire, 134 la seconde, 132 la troisième et 132 la quatrième. En parallèle, nous avons utilisé un test de lecture pour évaluer leur capacité en ce domaine. Les résultats obtenus montrent l’existence d’une liaison très forte entre la performance au test de lecture et les scores au test de répétitions de mots sans sens réel. Dans le cadre de la deuxième expérimentation 120 enfants suivant l’école maternelle étaient classés aux hasard en deux groupes: (a) groupe expérimental (60 enfants) et (b) groupe de contrôle (60 enfants). Les enfants du premier groupe ont été soumis à des exercices de répétition de mots sans sens réel pendant une année scolaire. La capacité en lecture de l’ensemble des enfants a été évaluée pendant le dernier mois de leur première année à l’école primaire. Les données obtenues montrent que la performance du groupe expérimental est significativement supérieure par rapport à celle du groupe de contrôle. Cette constatation souligne l’importance de faire apprendre aux enfants d’âge prescolaire des stratégies qui favorisent le développement de la mémoire phonologique en vue d’améliorer leur capacité en lecture.

Are rating-based procedures reliable for derivation of typicality judgments from children?

The aim of the present study was to examine whether a rating-based procedure that has already been used by other investigators can be used for derivation of typicality ratings from children. The evidence reported in the study establishes that such a procedure cannot be reliably used for this purpose. The results show that children rated category items in terms of personal preferences rather than as a function of how representative they considered the items to be of their superordinate category. On the basis of these findings, an alternative method based on the family resemblance scores of the category members was proposed in order to derive typicality ratings from young children. This family resemblance method of obtaining typicality judgments may be useful to investigators interested in assessing how children process categorical information.

Perceptions of Father Parenting Style, Empathy, and Self-Esteem Among Greek Preadolescents

This study examines the relationship between early adolescents’ perceptions of their fathers parenting style and two outcomes, global self-esteem and empathy. One hundred ninety primary school pupils (mean age = 11.26 years, standard deviation = 0.73) completed the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents, and the Self-Perception Profile for Children. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearsons correlations, and regression analyses. Findings suggested a significant link between paternal parenting style as perceived by preadolescents and preadolescents’ empathy and global self-esteem. The participating pupils tended to perceive their fathers as predominantly supportive, whereas perceptions of self and empathy were quite high. Finally, preadolescents’ perception of their fathers parenting style was a significant factor in predicting preadolescents’ global self-esteem and empathic behavior. The present findings support previous evidence attesting to a link between parenting, father–child communication, and aspects of child psychosocial development.

Coronary Heart Disease and Emotional Intelligence

Background: Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is associated with emotions, especially negative ones, namely anxiety and depression. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a psychological model that consists of a variety of emotional skills. Aims: The aim of the present study was to examine the relation between different dimensions of Emotional Intelligence and coronary heart disease. Methods: A total of 300 participants were studied during a 3-year period in an attempt to partially replicate and further expand a previous study conducted in Greece among CHD patients, which indicated a strong association between certain dimensions of Emotional Intelligence and the incidence of CHD. All participants completed a self-report questionnaire, assessing several aspects of Emotional Intelligence. Findings: The results showed that there is a link between the regulation of emotions and the occurrence of CHD. Conclusions: The evidence reported in the present study makes stronger the claim that EI plays a significant role in the occurrence of CHD.

Examining fatherhood in Greece and Italy

ABSTRACT The present study examines Greek and Italian fathers’ perceptions of different aspects of fatherhood, namely, responsibility in undertaking childcare activities, emotional expressiveness within the family as well as their accounts of what it means to them to be a father. Three hundred and eleven fathers from Greece and 291 from Italy responded to the Parental Responsibility Scale, the Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire and the Fathers’ Perceptions of Fatherhood Scale. The results indicated that fathers from both countries agreed that childcare responsibilities should be undertaken by both parents. Further, Greek fathers were found to be less expressive of negative emotions than Italian fathers. They also valued negatively the feelings evoked by fatherhood and the impact of fatherhood on their life and work and considered that the strain evoked by fatherhood is less intense than that valued by their Italian counterparts. In both groups, positive self-expressiveness within the family was found to affect positively their perceptions of the meaning of fatherhood and parental responsibility, but this prediction was stronger for the Greek group. The reported findings provide a comprehensive picture of Greek and Italian fathers’ perceptions of what being a father means to them and broaden our understanding of the role of father within the family.

Book Reviews : The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition. Edited by Dan Isaac Slobin (New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1997). Pp. 454. ISBN 0-8058-0106-5:

The editor of The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquistion is Dan Isaac Slobin, a well-known scholar, who has also edited the other four of a series of five volumes which examine 28 languages from about 16 major language families in relation to their acquisition and a number of relevant theoretical points. The book contains work of eminent linguists who are united in their interest in research on linguistic topics in different languages. For example, it presents one chapter on the