Marion O’Brien

Reasons for choosing child care: associations with family factors, quality, and satisfaction

Abstract Demographic and family process factors related to the reasons mothers selected a particular care arrangement for their 3-year-old children were examined along with the type and quality of care the children received and the mothers’ satisfaction with that care. Reasons for selecting care were categorized as focused on quality, practicality, or preference for a specific type of care arrangement. Mothers in high-income families and those who worked fewer hours were more likely to select a child-care arrangement based on its quality than on practical concerns such as cost, hours of operation, or location. Mothers who reported higher stress related to parenting were more likely to choose care because of practical issues. Mothers who chose care based on quality were least likely to use care provided by a relative. In addition, mothers choosing care because of its quality were more likely to place their children in higher quality care, as judged by outside observers, than those who chose based on practical concerns. However, mothers who chose care because of a preference for a particular type of care (center-based, home-based, or relative) received higher quality care than either of the other two groups. Mothers who chose care because of practical concerns were least satisfied with their child’s care.

Developmental Dynamics of Emotion and Cognition Processes in Preschoolers

Dynamic relations during the preschool years across processes of control and understanding in the domains of emotion and cognition were examined. Participants were 263 children (42% non-White) and their mothers who were seen first when the children were 3 years old and again when they were 4. Results indicated dynamic dependence among the processes studied. Specifically, change in cognitive processes of control and understanding were dependent upon initial levels of the other processes. Changes in emotion control and understanding were not predicted by earlier performance in the other processes. Findings are discussed with regard to the constructs of control and understanding and the developmental interrelations among emotion and cognitive processes.

Preschool-aged children's understanding of gratitude: Relations with emotion and mental state knowledge

Developmental precursors to childrens early understanding of gratitude were examined. A diverse group of 263 children was tested for emotion and mental state knowledge at ages 3 and 4, and their understanding of gratitude was measured at age 5. Children varied widely in their understanding of gratitude, but most understood some aspects of gratitude-eliciting situations. A model-building path analysis approach was used to examine longitudinal relations among early emotion and mental state knowledge and later understanding of gratitude. Children with a better early understanding of emotions and mental states understand more about gratitude. Mental state knowledge at age 4 mediated the relation between emotion knowledge at age 3 and gratitude understanding at age 5. The current study contributes to the scant literature on the early emergence of childrens understanding of gratitude.

Predicting weight outcomes in preadolescence: the role of toddlers’ self-regulation skills and the temperament dimension of pleasure

Objectives:To investigate the role of toddlers’ self-regulation skills and temperament in predicting weight outcomes in preadolescence.Methods:Participants for this study included 195 children (114 girls) obtained from three different cohorts participating in a larger ongoing longitudinal study. At 2 years of age, participants participated in several laboratory tasks designed to assess their self-regulation abilities, including emotion regulation, sustained attention and delay of gratification, whereas parents filled out a temperament questionnaire to assess toddlers’ pleasure expression. Height and weight measures were collected when children were 4, 5, 7 and 10 years of age. Children also filled out a body image and eating questionnaire at the 10-year visit.Results:Self-regulation skills in toddlers were associated with body mass index (BMI) development and pediatric obesity as well as body image/eating concerns. The temperament dimension of pleasure was also associated with BMI development and pediatric obesity but not body image/eating concerns.Conclusions:Self-regulation difficulties across domains as well as temperament-based pleasure in toddlers represented significant individual risk factors for the development of pediatric obesity 8 years later. Early self-regulation difficulties also contributed to body image and eating concerns that typically accompanied overweight children. The mechanisms by which early self-regulation skills and temperament-based pleasure may contribute to the development of pediatric obesity and associated weight concerns are discussed.

Mothers’ and Fathers’ Reports of Their Supportive Responses to Their Children’s Negative Emotions Over Time

SYNOPSIS Objective. Parents’ emotion socialization practices are thought to be moderately stable over time; however, a partner’s socialization practices could initiate change. Design. We examined mothers’ and fathers’ reports of their supportive responses to their children’s negative emotions when the target child was 7 years old and again at age 10. We tested a dyadic, longitudinal path model with 111 mother–father pairs. Results. Significant actor and partner effects emerged: Parents’ age 7 responses predicted their own age 10 responses and their partners’ later responses. Conclusions. Parents’ reported responses to children’s negative emotions during middle childhood are predicted by their own earlier responses and by their partners’ responses.

Cognitions of Black Mothers Who Adopted Black Children From the Public Foster Care System

Black adoptive mothers’ cognitions were examined within a social cognitive framework to understand relations of perceptions of parent-child relationship quality with perceived parent control, beliefs about adopted children, and attributions for child behavior. Seventy-one adoptive mothers participated. Mothers who believed that their children were more similar to than different from non-adopted children and mothers with less conflict-promoting attributions about their childrens misbehaviors were likely to report more positive relationships with their children. Also, mothers’ demographics were analyzed. Policy and practice implications are discussed.

The Association Between Relational Aggression and Perceived Popularity in Early Adolescence A Test of Competing Hypotheses

This study examined two competing hypotheses regarding the moderators of the association between relational aggression and peer status in early adolescence. The mitigation relational aggression hypothesis examined whether positive social behaviors reduced the negative effects of relational aggression, thus amplifying the association between relational aggression and perceived popularity. The effective use of relational aggression hypothesis examined whether leadership skills facilitated the proficient use of relational aggression, thus amplifying the association between relational aggression and perceived popularity. Participants were 158 fifth graders (52% female). Post hoc analyses indicated that for girls, leadership significantly moderated the association between relational aggression and perceived popularity after controlling for positive social behaviors. Positive social behaviors did not similarly moderate the association between relational aggression and perceived popularity for boys or girls. Our results demonstrated that in the context of greater leadership, female early adolescents who used more relational aggression were perceived as more popular.