Poster group
Details of individual items:
poster
The concept of property has both moral and political meaning and is central to human sociallife. The study charted the development of an understanding of property, as revealed in 1- and2-year-old children's speech to familiar peers. Of particular interest was the extent to whichspeech about property was related to prosocial and aggressive behaviour to the peer and to thetoddlers' experiences with siblings and other children. 66 pairs of British toddlers wereobserved at home in the presence of both mothers. A cohort longitudinal design was used,with groups of 18-, 24-, and 30-month-olds observed on two occasions, six months apart. Themother of the focal child was asked to invite another mother and child to her home; the peerchosen was to be one of the focal child's 'best friends.' The mean difference in age betweenthe peers was 0.8 months, with a maximum of 6 months. Most children (85.9%) had knowntheir peers for at least six months when the study began and over half had been acquaintedsince birth. Mothers were asked to act as they normally would when visiting each other. Thechildren's interaction was recorded on a hand-held VCR and then transcribed, using the PeerInteraction Coding System. Within episodes of interaction, speech directed to the peer wascoded for use of possessive pronouns and for statements making reference to the use,exchange, ownership or control of toys, food and other items. The number of episodes inwhich focal children used possessive pronouns and made other references to propertyincreased with age, as shown by significant cross-sectional age differences and significantchange over time. During the first visit, use of possessive pronouns was significantlyassociated with the rate of grabbing objects from the peer and suspicious reactions to thepeer's possible intentions. Other talk about property were significantly associated withgrabbing toys but also with sharing them, and significantly predicted the rate of sharing, butnot grabbing, six months later. Thus toddlers' understanding of the concept of property isfostered in conflict but may also facilitate prosocial relations. Firstborns with younger siblingswere significantly less likely to talk about property with their peers than were 'only' orlaterborn toddlers. By the second visit, experiences in group care had an impact. Childrenwho spent their days with peers were significantly more likely than other toddlers to talk aboutproperty. Thus, an understanding of the concept of property develops predictably over thesecond and third years of life but is also influenced by early experiences with other children.
poster
A growing body of prospective evidence indicates that behavioural problemsidentified in the preschool years often persist (e.g. Campbell & Ewing,1990) and that children identified as showing relatively serious disruptivebehavioural problems in early adolescence often have a history of problemsthat began in the preschool years (Lisher & Dishion, 1983; Moffitt, 1990). This poster focuses on the cognitive abilities of preschoolers, theirmother-child relationships and cognitive abilities of young 'hard tomanage' children when they were aged 3-4, 5-6 and 6-7 years old,respectively. Specifically it will examine links between these domainswith the aim to elucidate possible predictors of positive and negativeoutcomes in young children exhibiting disruptive behaviour. This research is focused on data from three time points from an ongoinglongitudinal study of forty community-recruited 'hard to manage' childrenand their controls matched for age, gender, ethnicity and mother'seducational background. The target group were all initially rated byparents, at 3-4 years old, above the 90th percentile for hyperactivity,and 80% of the target group were also at or above the 90th percentile forconduct disorder on the 'Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire' (SDQ,Goodman, 1994, 1997). The controls were selected to score below 50thpercentile on the SDQ for both hyperactivity and conduct disorder.Teachers corroborated the parental ratings of the children. Initially, the preschoolers' executive functions and cognitive abilitieswere tested with a battery of manual tasks; the children were then filmedat home aged between 5-6 years old, in dyadic interactions with theirmothers. The quality of mother-child interactions was rated in terms ofaffect, control and conflict using a modified version of the PARCHISY scale(Deater-Deckard et al, 1997). Mothers of the 'hard to manage' group usedmore negative control strategies and their children showed higher levels ofnegative affect and independence compared to controls. These data will beconsidered in relation to the children's cognitive abilities at both theearlier and later time points on a battery of both manual and computerisedtests.
poster
no abstract
poster
In a now classic experiment done over thirty years ago, Felipe andSommer (1966) attempted to see what would happen if they invaded otherpeople's 'personal space'. They did this by sitting 'too close' to varioustypes of people (mental patients and library patrons) and measuring theamount of time it took them to get uncomfortable with their proximity andleave the area. They indeed found that people feel ill at ease whenstrangers come within what Hall (1966) terms the 'intimate zone' (nearphase 0-6', far phase 6-18'), which is reserved for only very closefriends and lovers. While these findings may seem obvious, the underlyingtheoretical foundation of the experiment was to determine at what point aperson becomes aware of the fact that there is a sort of 'unwritten socialagreement' between people that there are certain areas that are reservedfor certain types of people and certain types of interactions. The onlyway to know if an unwritten agreement exists is to violate it or, inSommer's (1969) words: '[T]he best way to learn the location of invisibleboundaries is to keep walking until somebody complains.' The present experiment is a replication of Felipe and Sommer's(1966) experiment. The rationale behind replicating Felipe and Sommer'sexperiment with children is a simple one. If indeed some sort of'unwritten social agreement' exists between people, then at some pointthis agreement must be learned - but when? Furthermore, the awareness thatone is surrounded by a 'bubble' of 'personal space' is very much tied tothe idea of 'individuation', i.e., the process in which a child learns todistinguish herself as an individual with specific feelings and desires,and differentiate herself from her surrounding environment. While we tried to stay absolutely faithful to the originalexperiment, there were a few differences. Rather than use adults assubjects, the subjects here are children two, three, and four years ofage, and the setting was neither a mental hospital nor a universitylibrary, but a large sandbox in a day-care center - hence the title:'Sommer's Sandbox'. In the control condition, these three groups ofchildren were observed at play in this large sandbox for five minuteseach, and the amount of time they remained in one place playing wasrecorded. In the experimental condition, as in Felipe and Sommer, anexperimenter entered the sandbox and sat almost, but not quite, touchingthe child, thus impinging on his or her 'personal space'. The time elapseduntil the child left the sandbox completely was then recorded. If thechild attempted to move to a more proper distance, the experimenter wouldagain move within the 'intimate zone' and would repeat this until thechild left the sandbox altogether. This protocol is consistent with thatfound in Felipe and Sommer. The data from these three groups are still being analyzed, butthere is a definite trend visible, namely, that as children grew older,they were quicker to leave the sandbox in the experimental condition, andthat the awareness that 'something is wrong' with a stranger sitting soclose begins at around three years of age, something that until now hasnot been reported.
poster
Twenty four teachers were randomly selected from a sample of publiclyfunded preschool settings (12 female and 12 male teachers). Theseteachers were video-recorded during a story- telling session. Thestory used was selected for its anti-sexist quality and appropiatenessfor children under five. Videotapes of the sessions were analysedusing a category system based on the number, type and quality ofinteractions between teachers and children. Female and male teacherinteractions were analysed in terms of the amount of information givento the children, classroom control and organisation, use of picturesand gestures, reinforcement and praise, opportunities given forchildren to participate, etc. Boys' and girls' responses were analysedfor quality and quantity, the number of disruptions, attention span ofthe children and so on. Results show that male and female teachersdiffer in their use of the story and the degree to which they involvedthemselves in it; further, that they interact differently with boysand girls, giving boys more chances to participate. Boys were moredisruptive, less involved, and their responses were less elaborate than those of the girls. These results are discussed within thecontext of gender development and what teachers and school in generalcan contribute to a more equal society.