Personal space in nursery school children.

Examined personal space in 34 nursery school children by 2 methods. In one, unobtrusive observations of actual interpersonal distance choices in 4 different social situations were made. In the other, the same Ss chose interpersonal distances in 4 similar social situations represented symbolically by drawings. Results demonstrate that Ss already show regular variations in personal space based on acquaintance (acquaintances closer than strangers), sex (boys greater than girls), and social context (informal greater than formal). Three interactions were also significant. Projective and naturalistic observation measurement methods produced similar results, contrary to the conclusions of recent reviews. Conceptually, however, there may be 2 types of personal space—perceived and objective interpersonal distance. (French summary) (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Voice identification by nursery school children.

Assessed identification of familiar individuals in 36 nursery school children who completed tests involving the naming of faces and tape-recorded voices, voice-face matching, and backward voice naming. Face naming was vastly superior to all 3 tasks involving voice identification, demonstrating that speaker identification is much more difficult than face identification for young children. Identification by voice naming and voice-face matching did not differ significantly. Accuracy of naming backward voices averaged 73% of that attained with normal voices, indicating that inability to decode linguistic messages does not preclude accurate processing of paralinguistic information by children. Voice identification scores varied widely among all Ss but did not differ significantly between boys and girls. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender labeling and the adoption of sex-typed behaviors.

A gender-labeling task was used to test the ability of 21 girls and 22 boys ranging in age from 21 to 40 mo to discriminate between pictures of boys and girls and male and female adults. Ss who passed the gender task (mean age 30 mo) were compared with Ss who failed it (mean age 26 mo) on 3 behaviors most often categorized as sex typed (toy choice, aggression, and peer playmate selection). It was predicted that Ss who passed the task would choose more sex-typed toys and same-sex peers and that there would be a drop in aggression for girls who passed but no change for boys. Results confirm the predictions for aggression and peer choice but not for toy choice. The relation between the child's understanding of gender categories and environmental influences is discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acquisition of sex-typed preferences in preschool-aged children.

Assessed a total of 119 preschool children with the Sex Role Learning Index (SERLI), a picture-choice instrument designed to compare children's preferences to both sex role stereotypes and each child's conception of what is sex appropriate. Boys showed higher masculine preferences in the section depicting child figures than in the section depicting adult figures, while girls showed more feminine preferences in the adult figures than child figures section. Boys were more masculine in their preferences than girls were feminine in the child figures section, but not in the adult figures section. Girls were also found to adhere more to their own conceptions of what is sex appropriate than to sex role stereotypes in the child figures section. Boy's scores in the adult figures section correlated significantly with MA and IQ, while girls' scores in the child figures section correlated with CA. Boys' scores on the SERLI were significantly correlated with scores on the It Scale for Children, but girls' scores were not. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between maternal employment and development of nursery school children.

Examined the relations between maternal employment status and nursery school children's sex role concepts, cognitive development, and adjustment. 110 children formed 4 groups according to their sex and their mothers' employment status. It was predicted that maternal employment would be associated with a broadening of Ss' sex role concepts and differential cognitive development depending on the sex of the S. Results show that Ss' sex role concepts were broader if their mothers were employed. Ss' perceptions of their mothers were not related to their employment status, but fathers were perceived more negatively by their sons if the mother was employed. Sons of employed mothers had lower IQ scores than either daughters of employed mothers or Ss with nonemployed mothers. Ss with employed mothers received better adjustment ratings from their teachers. (French summary) (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The nursery school environment.

Observed 48 preschool-age children in 2 nursery school settings for social and dependency behavior. The schools were similar in most respects but differed in child-teacher ratio and grading. School 1 had a child-teacher ratio of 3.5:1; School 2 had a ratio of 7:1. Findings indicate that inthe setting with more adults present per child, Ss interacted significantly more with adults and less with peers. Different factors for interaction were found for the schools, but patterns were similar over both settings with Ss high in adult interaction tending not to interact with peers and, conversely, Ss low in adult interaction tending to interact more with peers. Observations showed the groups to be similar in overall frequency of dependency; however, Ss in the high-adult setting made proportionally more adult-directed dependency bids. Frequencies of social behaviors were compared with previous results. Principal findings for frequencies of social interaction, dependency, and patterns of interaction are attributed to the effect of the child-teacher ratio. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling of sex-typed behaviors: Effects on boys and girls.

80 preschoolers observed same-sex adults exhibiting 1 or 4 motor and verbal affectionate or aggressive response sequences during incidental modeling. Significantly more direct matches resulted with the single-sequence demonstrations, while multiple demonstrations led to significantly more response class matches. Differences in girls and boys regarding affectionate and aggressive behaviors are discussed. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brief intervention for drug-abusing adolescents in a school setting.

This study evaluated the use of 2 brief interventions (BIs) to reduce drug use among 14- to 17-year-olds identified in a school setting as drug abusers. Students (N = 79) were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 3 target conditions: 2 sessions with the adolescent only (BI-A), 2 sessions with the adolescent and 1 with the parent (BI-AP), or an assessment-only control condition (CON). Follow-up assessments of 78 participants done 6 months postintervention showed that the adolescents in the BI-A and BI-AP conditions generally had superior outcomes on their drug use behaviors compared with the CON group. Also, those receiving the BI-AP had better outcomes on most outcome variables compared with adolescents receiving BI-A. The 6-month abstinence rates did not differ across groups. The potential value of a school-based BI for students with a substance abuse disorder is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of individual psychosocial competence in a high school setting.

The development of the competent self in adolescence, the interrelationship of psychotherapeutic and psychoeducational change, and the role of the high school counselor as a mental health gatekeeper were explored in a pre–post experimental–control design study of group counseling. 147 exemplary ("getting their lives together well and handling school well") and marginal ("having trouble getting their lives together and managing school") high school students participated. Precounseling assessments and patterns of change over the counseling period supported the 1st author's hierarchical competence configuration model of psychosocial functioning, consisting of self-attitudes, world-attitudes, and relevant behavioral attributes. Overall effectiveness of counseling was indicated at multiple levels by significant goal attainment (Kiresuk-Sherman Goal Attainment Scale) and by increased self-efficacy (Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale). The impact of counseling was significantly different for exemplary than for marginal students and for students from different race and sex subgroups. These findings confirm the interrelation of change patterns at behavioral and personality levels, the importance of sociocultural factors in individual psychosocial change patterns, and the potential therapeutic impact of relatively brief psychoeducational-psychotherapeutic interventions. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of teaching orientation on social interaction in nursery school.

53 4- and 5-yr-olds in traditional and Montessori nursery schools were observed for social interaction during free play. The schools differed on teaching orientation and grading but had the same child/adult ratio. Ss in both settings engaged in the same amount of social interaction, but Ss in the Montessori setting had longer mean durations of interactions and more verbal and less nonverbal interaction. Males interacted more than females and adults intervened with males more than with females. Results are discussed as they relate to child/adult ratio and differences across and within settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in attitudes toward sex-typed behavior of nonretarded and retarded children

The present study was an initial attempt at understanding gender constancy in retarded children. Stories about retarded or nonretarded boys or girls were given to teachers and caretakers of retarded children and teachers of nonretarded children. The stories described children in four sex-stereotyped activities. Respondents rated each child in the stories on scales of typicality and acceptability. Results indicated that, while nonretarded children were rated as typical when engaging in sex-appropriate, desirable play activities, retarded children were rated as typical when engaging in undesirable activities, regardless of sex appropriateness. Different professional groups appeared to use different criteria when judging the children in the stories.     

Development of sex-typed play behavior in toddlers.

Conducted naturalistic observations of the play of 52 14–35 mo old toddlers (28 girls and 24 boys) with a set of socially stereotyped masculine, feminine, and neutral toys in a daycare setting over 14 mo. In addition, 2 potential influences on toy choice were investigated: parental expectations of play and Ss' gender knowledge. Results show that Ss played more often with toys stereotyped for their own gender than with the other toys. Girls' play with feminine toys increased with age, but boys' play with masculine toys did not vary with age, partly because even the youngest boys chose masculine toys frequently. Parents provided same-sex-typed toys for their children and made sex-typed predictions of their children's toy choices, but these measures were not clearly related to children's play. Cognitive change in understanding of gender was related to toddler boys' early sex-typed behavior. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

High school students as mental health aides in the elementary school setting.

Offered more relevant experiences to 15 underachieving high school students by training them to work with 23 maladapted primary graders. Teachers' ratings of children's behavior indicated program children improved more than 27 matched controls, a finding supported by aides' ratings of improvement in program children. Aides felt the program helped their understanding of children, and they perceived it as better than other school activities. These findings, together with the positive reaction of school personnel to the program, testify to its effectiveness and feasibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of motivational climate on students' behaviors and perceptions in a physical education setting.

Goal theory asserts that a task-involved climate is associated with adaptive behavior patterns such as persisting in practice. Conversely, individuals in an ego-oriented climate are deemed at risk for maladapdve behaviors when they experience failure or encounter difficulty performing a task. Results of previous research have relied primarily on self-report data rather than analysis of overt behavior. This study investigated differences in students' practice behaviors and perceptions of the motivational climate in physical education classes manipulated to be task or ego involved. Results based on 109 seventh- and eighth-grade students indicated that students perceived the conditions differently. Student behavior was assessed by coding practice trials from videotapes of the classes. Individuals in the task-involved condition completed a greater number of practice trials at a difficult level than those in the ego-involved condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of children's stories on dependency, a sex-typed behavior.

Examined the influence of models in stories on the dependent behavior (help seeking) and independent behavior (the withholding of help-seeking responses) of 80 5-yr-olds. Before hearing 1 of 4 stories, each S was told that he/she would be asked questions to see how much was remembered from it. In 2 stories, the behavior of a child model was dependent: the model sought help in and was verbally reinforced for solving a puzzle. Results suggest a somewhat more complex model for the process of sex role development than is frequently proposed. That females who were not exposed to any verbally presented models did not differ significantly from males in help seeking is in accord with previous findings (R. M. Oetzel, 1966) that sex differences in dependent behavior are not very strong in young children. Following exposure to either a dependent or an independent child model, females showed a significantly greater willingness to seek help than did males exposed to the same models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reactions of Soviet nursery day-care and boarding-care children to a strange situation.

Compared the behaviors of 16 day-care and 16 boarding-care Soviet children (average age 30.5 mo) in a strange situation. Time-sampled observations focused on the Ss' general affective state and on their approaches to a responsive stranger. Results support the hypothesis that boarded Ss would be more upset by a strange situation than day-care Ss but reveal no differences between the 2 conditions in Ss' willingness to make social contact with the stranger. Findings are discussed in terms of theory on the effects of parent–child separation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role model behaviors in the clinical setting

The purpose of this study was to identify the role modeling behaviors of clinical nursing faculty that junior and senior baccalaureate students consider important. Bandura's Social Learning Theory provided the theoretical framework for the three research questions. A questionnaire, composed of 28 role model behaviors, was constructed to correspond to the three research questions. The overall alpha coefficient for the questionnaire was .95. The findings of this study indicate that clinical faculty are considered role models by their students. Students perceived themselves as practicing the role model behaviors, but they also perceived that the clinical faculty were inconsistent in rewarding them for their attempts to emulate those behaviors considered important. Areas for future research are discussed.