Rona Abramovitch

Children and money: getting an allowance, credit versus cash, and knowledge of pricing∗

Abstract This study deals with childrens behaviour concerning money. Children in three age groups (6, 8, and 10) were given four dollars either in cash or in the form of a credit card to spend in an experimental store. They were told that any money or credit they did not spend they would receive in cash to take home with them. The major finding was that those children who did not receive allowances at home spent more in the credit than in the cash condition, whereas those who got allowances spent the same amount whether they were given cash or a credit card. Neither the age of the children nor any other background variables affected the amount spent in the two conditions. However, girls spent more money than boys. We are inclined to attribute this effect to the differential attractiveness of the items to the two groups, but it may be a true sex difference. On a test of pricing knowledge, older children scored higher, as did those who got an allowance and those who were better at math, but these last two effects occurred mainly among the younger children. None of the other background variables was related to knowledge of prices. The pattern of results suggests that children who get allowances are more sophisticated about money than those who do not.

The Role of the Mother in Sibling Interaction.

CORTER, CARL; ABRAMOVITCH, RONA; and PEPLER, DEBRA J. The Role of the Mother in Sibling Interaction. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1983, 54, 1599-1605. In a longitudinal study of sibling interaction, 28 pairs of same-sex siblings and 28 pairs of mixed-sex siblings were observed for 2 1-hour periods in their homes. The younger siblings averaged 38 months of age, and the age interval between siblings was either large (2.5-4 years) or small (1-2 years). The focus of the observations was on the role of the mother in sibling interaction, and mother-child interactions were observed in addition to interactions between siblings. Mothers were free to come and go, and their entrances and exits were noted and timed. There were no consistent effects of the age or sex of the children or of the interval between siblings on mother-child interaction. In addition, mothers were quite consistent in their treatment of their 2 children regardless of their age or sex. However, there was more consistency in the positive treatment of same-sex pairs than in mixed-sex pairs. Mothers presence reduced the overall level of sibling interaction, and sibling interaction tended to be relatively more agonistic when mother was present than when she was absent.

Young people's experience of the Canadian youth justice system: interacting with police and legal counsel

Young peoples knowledge and experience of the youth justice system was examined to explore self-reported factors that influenced their decisions regarding assertion versus waiver of rights to silence and legal counsel. Participants were 50 adolescents from Toronto, Canada ranging in age from 12 to 18 (mean age=15.6 years). Results of semi-structured interviews indicated that while over 60% of participants recalled being told of their rights to silence and counsel, three-quarters did not contact a lawyer at the police station and half of those asked by police answered their questions. Findings suggest that the awareness of due process rights is not sufficient to mitigate the atmosphere of coercion that characterizes the police station. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.

Children's Recognition of Situational Aspects of Facial Expression.

ABRAMOVITCH, RONA. Childrens Recognition of Situational Aspects of Facial Expression. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 459-463. 2 experiments were done in which a total of 36 preschool children were presented with videotapes of their own and unknown mothers interacting with strange and familiar people. They saw only the mothers face and upper torso, with no sound. The children were able to guess correctly whether their own mother was interacting with a friend or a stranger (of the same or opposite sex). However, they were not successful with respect to videotapes of unknown mothers. Adults (20 in the first experiment and 14 in the second) were presented with the same videotapes and were successful in discriminating interactions with friends versus strangers. The results are discussed in terms of ability to recognize situational as well as affective or emotional aspects of facial expressions.

Social Relations Among Children: Comparison of Sibling and Peer Interaction

Of all the relationships in which young children are involved, perhaps the least understood is that between siblings. Until recently, the mother and child were the focus of most studies of social development. Over the past decade there has been an increasing interest in the role of peers (e.g., Ross & Goldman, 1976) and a growing awareness that the child’s early social development should be viewed in terms of broader social contexts (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Although family relations in general are seen as primary in the socialization process, research has been restricted to competencies that develop in the parent-child relationship and their extension to and supplementation by peer relations; very little attention has been paid to the role played by siblings in the development of social skills.

Less is Not More: Further Observations on Nonlinguistic Strategies.

Abstract In an attempt to clarify the role of nonlinguistic preferences in childrens responses to the words more and less, children 3–4 years of age were administered three tasks. Two of these required the child to indicate which of two arrays had more or less items, as instructed; the third task required the child to point to any one of two arrays. Children consistently selected the arrays with more items on all three tasks. The present finding of a response bias necessitates a reinterpretation of earlier studies of more and less. The results are discussed in terms of the full and partial semantics hypotheses as articulated by E. Clark.

Preliminary report on informed consent for mental capacity assessments.

The goal of the study was to investigate the issue of informed consent for mental capacity. Seventeen clients referred to the Competency Clinic at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care were interviewed after the assessment had been completed. Their responses to questions regarding the reasons for and possible consequences of the assessment indicated a range of understanding and of capacity to give informed consent. The results are discussed in terms of the appropriateness of having a fairly low threshold for informed consent in situations where other capacities are already in question.