bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Perceptions of maternal and paternal solicitude by birth children and adoptees: Relevance for maternal bonding theory
Authors: Silverman Irwin , Dickens Susan E. , Eals Marion , Fine Judith 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis study emanated from the long‐standing question of whether a maternal bonding process similar to other mammalian species occurs in humans. The perceptions of adult adoptees and a matched sample of non‐adoptees about their parents' behaviours towards them were compared on an original Parental Solicitude Scale. As hypothesized, birth children perceived their mothers as the more solicitous parent, but ratings of adoptive mothers showed a unilateral decline. Further, the differential ratings for birth and adoptive mothers occurred mostly for the factors labelled benignity vs abuse and tolerance vs control, rather than caretaking vs neglect, which was congruent to reported effects in prior studies of lack of mother‐infant contact during the sensitive period for bonding. An alternative explanation of the data was also tested but not substantiated.
Father and mother contributions to family functioning when the child has a mental delay
Authors: Becker Patricia T. , Houser Betty J. , Engelhardt Kay F. , Steinmann Mary J. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractLess is known about the father's than the mother's role in family adaptation to children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships of both father and mother use of coping strategies and perceptions of the child with measures of family functioning style. Subjects were 26 families of 30‐month‐old children with a mental delay and a comparison group of 26 families of same‐aged children with no delay. Functioning style for study families showed a balance of cohesion and adaptability; comparison families were more chaotically flexible on the adaptability scale. Mothers and fathers agreed on family functioning style. Study parents made the greatest use of external coping strategies, while in both groups mothers used more external and fathers more internal coping strategies. Relationships between coping and family functioning varied by parent and by group. Results suggest the need for further exploration of the separate needs of fathers and mothers in maintaining balanced family functioning.
Mother–child disputes as arenas for fostering negotiation skills
Authors: Leonard Rosemary 
Published: June 2007

AbstractValsiner's concepts of the zone of free movement (ZFM) and the zone of promoted actions (ZPA) were applied to mother‐child disputes to study how mothers discharge their role as experts in negotiation. Twenty mothers of 3‐5‐year‐olds each reported 20 disputes, 10 in which the mother was making a request and 10 in which she was refusing her child's request. The disputes were analysed sequentially using four models, preservation, copycat, reward/punishment, and provision of a rationale. The results showed that perseveration and copycat models were more likely to apply when there was negative affect. Mother's re‐requests fitted the reward/punishment model whereas mother's refusals better fitted the provision of a rationale model. Information from follow‐up interviews supported the notion that requests and refusals are being socialized differently. The results imply that, whereas children's requests and refusals are within the ZFM, only their requests are within the ZPA.
Relations between maternal network size and maternal behaviour with five‐year‐olds across levels of maternal background and child ability
Authors: Ball Ruth M. , Pianta Robert C. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe article examines the relations between mothers' reports of the size of their social support networks and observations of their behaviour with their 5‐year‐old children in a sample of 281 children entering kindergarten. Results indicate that maternal network size was correlated with mothers' competence in interaction with their children, even after controlling for variance in maternal education and child cognitive ability. Further analyses, when the sample was divided according to demographic or child risk, indicated that the relation between network size and maternal competence interaction was higher in the high‐risk groups than in the low‐risk groups. The results extend the literature on social support to large, normal samples of school‐age children and are discussed in terms of ecological models of development.
Early interactions and the socioemotional development of deaf infants
Authors: Koester Lynne Sanford 
Published: June 2007

AbstractStudies of the early face‐to‐face interactions and later attachment behaviours between infants and their caregivers are reviewed, with a particular focus on implications for deaf infants. Since the majority of deaf infants are born to hearing parents, it is to be expected that many parental responses will rely on vocalizations which are inaccessible to the deaf infant. Are other sensory modalities enhanced or used in a compensatory manner by hearing parents so as to make their communication with a deaf infant more effective? Is the deaf infant's heightened need for visual and tactile input adequately met during normal interactions with their caregivers? Does the deaf infant develop the same strategies for signalling distress and coping with separation as does the hearing infant? Although the research literature on this population is sparse, there are beginning to be more reports addressing these questions as early identification becomes increasingly possible. Therefore, this paper will cover issues of the role of eye contact and mutual coordination in early interactions, compensatory parenting behaviours from the perspective of the ‘intuitive parenting’ model, and precursors to later attachment behaviours in deaf infants.
Infantile colic and parental experiences
Authors: Bohlin Gunilla , Hagekull Berit , Lindberg Lene 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe study comprised two groups of 33 parents each, one whose infants were identified by parents as colicky during their first 3 months and one with non‐colicky infants. Parents filled out a questionnaire with one set of questions about parental experiences when infants were 3 months old and a set of parallel questions concerning current experiences (infant age 8‐11 months). The results showed that the 3‐month situation was more negatively described with regard to both infant behaviour and parental experiences by the parents of colicky infants. For the current situation (8‐11 months), there were no significant group differences, meaning that no long‐lasting effects could be demonstrated. However, in the colic group amount of crying and difficulty in comforting during the colic period were significantly related to current parental satisfaction, which suggests that these aspects of infant behaviour and experienced parental competence are of importance also in a longer perspective.
Patterns of 4‐month‐old infant responses to hidden silent and sounding people and objects
Authors: Legerstee Maria 
Published: June 2007

AbstractResponses of 4‐month‐old infants to hidden people and objects were investigated with equated task demands. Twenty‐one 4‐month‐old infants were administered a combined task, in which they were shown a sounding stimulus that continued to sound after hiding, an auditory task, in which sound was the only source of information about the position of the object in space, and a vision task, in which a silent stimulus was shown to the infants prior to hiding. Five infant behaviours were coded: reaching, gazing, body movements, vocalizations and smiles. The infants reached significantly more for hidden objects than for people, to whom they vocalized instead. They further smiled, and moved their bodies more towards their invisible mother than to the other stimuli. Thus infants responded differentially to people and objects whether the stimuli were soundless (so that there was no cue to their presence) or not. This suggested that infants appreciated (a) that an object had been hidden; (b) this object was either animate or inanimate; and (c) different procedures were appropriate for the retrieval of, or for interacting with animate and inanimate objects. Discussion centres on the underlying representational system that allows for such appreciation.
Neonatal finger and arm movements as determined by a social and an object context
Authors: Rönnqvist Louise , von Hofsten Claes 
Published: June 2007

AbstractWhat kind of hand and finger movements are newborn infants preoccupied with, and how are these movements organized and controlled? These questions were studied in two experiments under three conditions: a social condition, in which the mother (in expt 1) or the experimenter (in expt 2) sat face to face with the infant; an object condition, in which a ball moving slowly and irregularly was presented to the infant; and a baseline condition (in expt 1) without ball or mother present. The size of the ball and the distance to it was chosen so that it approximately corresponded to the visual angle of the head of the model. Twenty‐six neonates participated in the study ranging from 2 to 6 days of age at the time of observation. All infants were in an alert, optimal awake state during the experiments. The infants' finger movements were scored from video recordings. The result revealed a large variety of relatively independent finger movements. It was found that finger movements differed both in quantity and quality between the three conditions. There were many more finger movements in the social condition than in the object and baseline conditions. In addition, there were relatively more transitional finger movements and flexions of the hand in the social condition, and relatively more thumb‐index finger activity and extensions of the hand in the object condition. Finally, the arms were more often forward extended in the object condition than in the social condition. The results support the notion that neonates show different modes of functioning towards people and objects.
The effects of maternal employment and non‐maternal infant care on development at two and four years
Authors: Scarr Sandra , Thompson William W. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractDifferences in maternal employment during children's first year of life and children's entry into non‐maternal care before the age of 1 year failed to predict differences in cognitive and socioemotional development at 2 and 4 years of age, after family background variables were controlled. Two samples were studied: a population sample of 1100 Bermudian children and a smaller subsample of children most of whom were determined to be at risk for developmental problems. To assess the effects of maternal employment, we compared infants with mothers who worked 20 or more hours a week to infants with mothers who worked less than 20 hours a week. To assess the effects of entry into non‐maternal care before the age of one, we compared infants who were placed in regular non‐maternal care before the age of one versus infants who did not experience regular non‐maternal care before the age of one. The results revealed that family background variables frequently predicted many child outcome measures in both the total sample and the smaller research sample. After controlling for family characteristics, no differences were found between children whose mothers worked 20 or more hours a week when they were infants and children with mothers who worked less than 20 hours a week in either sample. In addition, age of entry into non. maternal care before the age of one did not significantly predict any child outcome measures.
What influences the quality of care in English playgroups?
Authors: Melhuish Edward C. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractIn a study of the quality of care, interviews and observations of 45 playgroups in three areas of England were conducted. The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale was used as a measure of quality. The influence of area, resources, management, size, space, staffing, training, support, parental involvement and staff dissatisfaction upon quality were considered. The major influence was playgroup leader training, and parental involvement was also associated with quality of care. Parental involvement and staff training were strongly linked, indicating the confounding of family and child care characteristics and the importance of understanding family and child care interrelationships. The applicability of the measures to English playgroups was discussed.
The development of referential offering in the first year
Authors: Reinecke Mark A. , Fogel Alan 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe ontogeny of referential offers was examined in a longitudinal, within dyad case study of two mother–infant pairs. A combination of microanalytic and qualitative methodologies was employed in describing the functions and morphology of this gesture, as well as its temporal and sequential organization with a number of infant and maternal behaviours. Offers were found to emerge from repetitive, exploratory play routines that provide infants with alternative visual perspectives on objects, and were facilitated by mothers' support of infants' immature attentional, motoric and arousal regulation capacities. Offers were observed to co. occur with maternal behaviours that direct and maintain infants' attention to objects. Our observations suggest that offers are transformed through guided interactions into conventional communicative gestures. Offering arises as mothers become part of the infants' exploratory play routines, gradually changing the function of the behaviour of the infants. These observations are consistent with dynamic systems models of development.
Are twins different from singletons during early childhood?
Authors: Robin Monique , Casati Irène 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis paper examines the specificity of intrafamilial experiences to which twins are exposed during early childhood, and the impact of this family context on the psychological development of twins. An overview of the literature on the psychological development of twins indicates two broad categories of findings. The first category covers studies dealing with the developmental features that appear early in twins. Although there are numerous studies comparing the psychomotor and verbal development of twins to singletons, only a few have dealt with the emergence of personality and identity, and most have been conducted in clinical settings. The second set of studies deals with mother‐twin relations, explored in recent years in terms of the psychosocial stress created by twin births. Few studies have examined the mother‐twin relationship in the light of major theories on mother‐child bonding (psychoanalysis, attachment, interactionist model). These developmental models have mainly focused on mother‐infant dyads, while the construction of this specific mother‐twin relationship needs to be set within the framework of a triadic situation. Rather than describing a specific ‘twin mentality’, it is argued here that the twin situation should be seen as a special case of adaptative development, both for the mother and the child, which has effects on the formation of the individual.
Non‐directive play therapy as a means of recreating optimal infant socialization patterns
Authors: Ryan Virginia , Wilson Kate 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe paper proposes that non‐directive play therapy recreates conditions similar to those created between a carer and infant during normal development. By the heightening in therapy of essentially normal developmental processes the child with harmful or inadequate relationship experiences is enabled to rework and reintegrate these into normal interactiv patterns. Ways are reviewed in which non‐directive play therapy exemplifies important attachment properties in an individual's primary relationships, and recreates healthy carer‐infant patterns of interaction such as topicsharing, face‐to‐face interactions, mutuality and symbolic play, in order to bring about therapeutic change. This primary corrective function is similar to other responsive therapeutic approaches, but it is argued that a particular strength of non‐directive play therapy lies in its inherent flexibility and responsiveness to the individual child, which resembles normal infant socialization with a sensitive carer.
Mother‐child and father‐child communication in the second year: A functional approach
Authors: Marcos Haydée 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to compare young children's communication with their mother and with their father at the end of the second year. Communication was analysed in terms of the function or social goal of messages addressed to the adult. Twenty children attending day care centres were observed in a specifically planned setting. The findings showed that children (boys and girls) addressed more directives to their fathers and tended to address more expressions of reactions to objects and events (expressives) to their mothers. These differences stem in part from the spontaneous choice by the child of his or her communicative acts. As for the parents, fathers produced more action directives than mothers and mothers produced more assertives than fathers. The results are discussed in terms of (a) the capacity of young children to adapt their communicative acts to the partners' characteristics, and (b) a difference in focus of father‐child and mother‐child relationships: the former appear to be more ‘task‐oriented’ and the latter more oriented to sharing ‘descriptions’ of the inner or the outer world.
The expectation of guilt and resistance to temptation
Authors: Lake Nicholas , Lane Sophie , Harris Paul L. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractChildren's expectations about the emotions that surround a moral transgression were examined. In experiment 1, children aged 4‐6 years and 8‐9 years listened to a story about a child who resisted but then yielded to the temptation to take a sweet without permission. In line with earlier findings (Nunner‐Winkler and Sodian, 1988), older children were more likely than younger children to expect the wrongdoer to feel pleased at resisting, but to feel bad after yielding to, temptation. In experiment 2, the relation between expectations of emotion and actual resistance to temptation was studied. Children aged 5‐6 years again made judgements about a story character who eventually yielded to temptation. Their own resistance to temptation was assessed by means of a cheating task: children were given an opportunity to cheat by peeking during the experimenter's absence. Children who did not peek were more likely to attribute morally oriented feelings to the story protagonist. The results suggest that children who readily anticipate the emotional consequences of wrongdoing are more likely to resist the temptation to transgress.
Infant information‐processing performance and maternal education
Authors: Mayes Linda C. , Bornstein Marc H. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractRelations between maternal education and indices of infant information‐processing performance were examined. A sample of 93 3‐month olds whose mothers' completed education level was adequately distributed were seen in an infant control habituation procedure. Eighteen infants failed to complete the procedure, and 76 reached a conventional habituation criterion. No significant differences in habituation performance by maternal education level emerged. This finding suggests that information‐processing indices obtained in the first 6 months are useful as predictive measures of mental development that are uncorrelated with important markers of infants' environmental rearing conditions.
Not so far from home: How family characteristics predict child care quality
Authors: Bolger Kerry E. , Scarr Sandra 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis study examined the relationship between family background and child care quality for 636 children enrolled in 120 day care centres in three states in the US with widely varying regulations for child care centre quality. Family characteristics accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in day care quality. Mother' attitudes towards child‐rearing and parent' education were the most potent family‐level predictors of quality. State child care policy variables were also strong predictors of quality. Findings also suggest that the influence of environment on children's development cannot be partitioned simply into family and out‐of‐home child care effects; rather, the child care environment is an extension of the family environment, with parents determining characteristics of both.
Mothers' beliefs and children's long‐term cognitive change: A developmental task interpretation
Authors: Olthof Tjeert , Goudena Paul P. , Groenendaal Han J. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractA longitudinal study was used to explore the following hypotheses concerning the relation between mothers' beliefs, their use of high distancing utterances and children's cognitive development: (1) beliefs moderate the impact of high‐distancing utterances on children's development, and (2) beliefs reflect mothers' normative expectations that motivate themselves and their children to try to satisfy them. The participants consisted of 34 children and their mothers and teachers. Results for the motherchild dialogues indicated that the distancing–cognitive performance relationship was strongest for children whose mothers had the most positive beliefs. In addition, mothers' beliefs about a 4‐year‐old child were more strongly related to children's cognitive performance at ages 6 and 10 than to cognitive performance at age 4. Characteristics of both verbal parent–child and verbal teacher–child interactions at age 4 supported a developmental task interpretation of these findings.
Persistent crying and parenting: Search for a butterfly in a dynamic system
Authors: Papoušek Mechthild , von Hofacker Nikolaus 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe risks and causes of persistent crying in early infancy are discussed on the basis of a study of 61 infants referred to the Munich Interdisciplinary Research and Intervention Program for Fussy Babies for persistent crying between 1 and 6 months of age, and of a community sample of 51 infants of the same age. Particular attention was paid to pre‐verbal parent‐infant communication, the development of which was interpreted in terms of a dynamic interactional system including both regulatory and communicative predispositions in infants and intuitive competence for supporting infant predispositions in parents. Neither a gut problem nor any other single causal factor was identified for persistent crying in the majority of cases. In contrast, persistent crying was significantly associated with multiple biological and psychosocial risk factors for both parents and infants. Neurological immaturity, difficult temperament and sleep problems in infants, and impaired psychological conditions, limited resources and failures of intuitive competences in mothers were found to threaten the developmental process in infants and give rise to ‘vicious circles’ which were destabilizing the interactional systems. Increased attention to intuitive parental competences is recommended as one effective model for therapeutic interventions.