Margaret S. Steward

The Role of Cognitive Development in Children's Understandings of Their Own Feelings.

CARROLL, JACQUELINE J., and STEWARD, MARGARET S. The Role of Cognitive Development in Childrens Understandings of Their Own Feelings. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 1486-1492. The relationship between childrens cognitive and affective processes was investigated with 30 4-5-year-olds and 30 8-9-year-olds who were interviewed individually, administered a series of Piagetian tasks, and given the PPVT. Verbal responses to questions about feelings were interpreted within a cognitive-developmental framework that postulated hierarchical levels of understanding. The childs level of performance on affective and cognitive tasks correlated significantly. Older children were more likely than younger children to describe feelings as an internal rather than a situational experience, to view their feelings from the perspective of another, to understand multiple feelings, and to regard themselves as able to change or hide their feelings. While age differences were pervasive, sex differences were not. There was some evidence that bright children were more self-aware about feelings.

Implications of developmental research for interviewing children

This article first provides a brief review of recent research to update the investigative interviewer on childrens development of cognition, memory and language. Next, we review results of studies which have focused on the development of childrens specific knowledge about the legal system, and identify developmental and motivational factors which may influence childrens willingness to report in legal settings. Next, clinical and research literature of young childrens experience in pediatric settings offers ecologically compelling data for understanding childrens reports of abusive touch, and strategies used for preparing children for medical procedures may be drawn on for preparation of children in sexual abuse cases. Finally, several issues are identified for future research.

THE ROLE OF COGNITIVE LEVEL AND SIBLING ILLNESS IN CHILDREN'S CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF ILLNESS

Levels of illness conceptualization were studied among children with diabetic siblings. Results revealed a significant association between pretested Piagetian level of cognitive development and illness conceptualization. Children with ill siblings, especially those at the formal operational level, demonstrated lower conceptualization levels than did children with healthy siblings.

Children's Anticipation of and Response to Colposcopic Examination.

Just prior to and following general physical and colposcopic anogenital exams, 43 mothers and daughters (3-15 years), referred because of allegations of sexual abuse, were interviewed separately to determine their knowledge of and feelings about the exam. Children were not retraumatized by the examination of their anogenital anatomy. Although poorly prepared for it, children reported medical staff touch to their genitals, anus, and buttocks at a higher rate than touch to all other body locations, 84.5% versus 16%, but did not rate that touch as more painful. Children were significantly less distressed after the exam; mothers were not.

The Effects of Congenital Heart Disease on Cognitive Development, Illness Causality Concepts, and Vulnerability.

This study suggests that childhood cardiac illness has a depressive impact on the attainment of conservation tasks, but does not affect illness causality conceptualization. The group of twelve ill children studied appeared to feel somewhat more vulnerable to illness in general, especially when projecting to adult health status, than did a matched group of healthy children.

Group therapy: a treatment of choice for young victims of child abuse

ABSTRACTThis article presents a model for the group treatment of young children who are victims of physical or sexual abuse using the basic socialization unit, the family, as the analogue model. Co...

DO DOCTORS KNOW WHAT CHILDREN KNOW

Adults often assume that if they explain something to a child calmly and rationally, the child will understand. Informed by piagets theory about cognitive development, children of preschool and elementary age were asked to use two common pediatric tools, and to explain how they functioned. Predicted differences were found.

Japanese and American Children's Drawings of the Outside and Inside of their Bodies

Preschool children completed drawings of the outside and inside of the human body. The drawings were scored for cultural, development, and health status features utilizing a scoring system which coded number of components, colors, and style. Japanese children were less likely than American children to add facial features, clothing detail, or to color arms and legs on the outside figure. All children typically drew three components inside the body; Japanese children were more likely to draw hearts and American children to draw brains; girls were more likely to include stomachs than boys. When compared to data from hospitalized preschool children, differences were found in content but not quantity of internal components. Maternal perception of childrens vulnerability to change in health status as adults was significantly related to ratio of inside/ outside scores in both Japanese and American subjects.

Locus of control, persistence, and use of contingency information in physically abused children

Abused children are believed to develop in a harsh environment with minimal contingency of parental responses to their behavior. Seligman proposed that noncontingent caregiving produces helplessness. In this study, helplessness was assessed by measures of persistence and locus of control and by an experimental manipulation which varied contingency feedback. Compared to matched nonabused peers, abused children showed no less persistence in working for rewards, made equivalent use of contingency information to maintain persistence, and assumed equivalent responsibility for success. However, they took less responsibility for failure. Family learning history may render abused children helpless primarily in avoidance of aversive outcomes.

What does "touch" mean to young children? An empirical study.

This study examined 40 preschool childrens understanding of the word touch. 24 drawings were presented one at a time to each child, and the children were instructed to describe each of the drawings and to classify them into drawings portraying touch or drawings showing no touch. 20 undergraduates were also interviewed. The same procedure was used, but in addition the undergraduates were asked to predict how preschool-age children would do on the same task. The results showed several ways in which the childrens understanding of the word touch differed from that of an adult.