Children's perceptions of parental work.

249 3rd and 4th graders and both of their parents were asked about the nature of the parents' work, their attitudes toward it, and a variety of other work-related questions. The children knew in general what their parents did, where, and when. They were also somewhat aware of their parents' satisfaction with their work. Mothers who were homemakers were perceived by their children to be less satisfied with their work than were mothers in the paid labor force. However, the children were equally satisfied with the work of both groups. Children were dissatisfied with their parents' work only when their mothers worked evening or night shifts. Results are discussed in terms of the role played by parental work in the process of socialization of children regarding work. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's sleep and school psychology practice.

Much contemporary research has demonstrated the multiple ways that sleep is important for child and adolescent development. This article reviews that research with an emphasis on how sleep parameters are related to school adjustment and achievement. Five areas of sleep research are reviewed to discern implications for practice with children using an evaluation rubric of strong, moderate, and weak evidence. The research has implications for assessment of sleep and sleepiness in the schools, for primary and secondary prevention activities, and for interventions by school psychologists targeting children and adolescents with sleep problems that affect their school functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of friendships as supportive relationships.

Assessed 122 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th graders' perceptions of the social support provided by friends. During individual interviews, Ss were asked about the frequency of emotional support or intimate self-disclosure, tangible support or prosocial behavior, and other types of support provided by a particular friend. Ss were also asked about the frequency of conflicts with the friend and the frequency of supportive interactions and conflicts with a classmate who was only an acquaintance. Factor analyses revealed an increase with grade in the differentiation between the support and conflict dimensions of friendship and acquaintanceship. At all grades, Ss perceived friends as more supportive than acquaintances, but explanations for the lack of support from acquaintances changed with grade. Sixth graders often gave personal attributions (e.g., saying that the acquaintances were selfish or hostile). Eighth graders favored more situational attributions (e.g., saying that they had few supportive interactions with acquaintances because they rarely came in contact with them). The potential value of perceived-support measures in research on the consequences of friendship is discussed. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physicians' perceptions of the role of psychology in medicine.

Surveyed 80 physicians at the University of Kansas Medical Center on their perceptions of psychology's role in medicine. The sample included residents and staff physicians from 4 medical specialities: family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry. It was found that the problems perceived as having the largest psychological component were depression, alcoholism, obesity, and headaches. Medical problems seen as having minimal psychological components were cancer, heart disease, and arthritis. Ss expressed an interest in treating the psychological components of medical illness themselves. They also reported that they would consult psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers on an equal basis for treating these problems. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions concerning school injuries

This prospective study examined characteristics of school-related injuries in grades K-6 and children's perceptions regarding prevention and environmental influences. Injuries were most likely to occur on the playground, were most frequent for first and second graders, and for boys. Only 30% of the sample perceived that they could have prevented their injury. This perception was more frequent for children in higher grades. Fifty percent perceived an environmental influence. The Health Promotion Model was used as the theoretical framework to guide this investigation and provide implications for practice. School nurses are in an ideal position to counsel children on taking responsibility for their safety through preventive thinking.     

Children's perceptions of their own and their classmates' ability.

64 children in kindergarten through 3rd grade rated their own and their classmates' "smartness" and nominated classmates who were the best and worst at specific tasks and the best and worst thinkers in the classroom. These ratings were then compared to 12 teachers' classification of the Ss as low or high achievers. Only the 2nd and 3rd graders' ratings of their own ability reflected their teachers' ratings and were correlated to classmates' ratings of their ability. At all grade levels, Ss' ratings of their classmates reflected teachers' ratings of the academic status of the child being rated. Responses to open-ended questions concerning the criteria Ss used in evaluating their own smartness revealed that older Ss most often provided examples of their performance on specific tasks to justify their self-ratings, whereas younger Ss most frequently explained their self-ratings on the basis of their work habits (e.g., following directions). Work habits were also given as the most common explanation for peer smartness ratings. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characteristics and perceptions of beginning doctoral students in school psychology.

A national sample of 251 1st- and 2nd-yr doctoral students in school psychology responded to a questionnaire measuring demographic characteristics, preferences among applied specialties in professional psychology, graduate program applications, anticipated internship setting, preferred client population, personal interests, professional goals, and satisfaction with current training. Survey responses showed a clear preference for working directly with children and adolescents following graduation, a high degree of correspondence between training program emphases and student interests and goals, and a moderate degree of student satisfaction with training experiences. Results are interpreted with respect to training trends and standards in school psychology, the relationship between school and clinical psychology, satisfaction of students in clinical and counseling psychology programs, and methodology limitations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of smokers and nonsmokers: A longitudinal study.

In a longitudinal study we investigated 5th- and 7th-grade children's perceptions of smokers and nonsmokers, changes in perceptions from 5th to 7th grades, and the degree to which these perceptions predict smoking in 9th grade. The participants were 1,663 students from 14 school districts in Washington state. The results showed large developmental shifts from 5th to 7th grade in children's perceptions of both smokers and nonsmokers: Students at 7th grade saw smokers in a much more positive light and nonsmokers in a much more negative light than they did at 5th grade. Children's positive perceptions at 5th grade of smokers predicted smoking 4 years later at 9th grade and were stronger predictors than positive perceptions at 7th grade. The results suggest that smoking prevention interventions must begin before 5th grade to counter perceptions predictive of subsequent smoking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of the personal relationships in their social networks.

Tested the hypothesis that children would report that different social-network members provide different social provisions, using 199 5th–6th grade White children. Ss completed network of relationships inventories, which assessed 10 qualities of their relationships with mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, friends, and teachers. Consistent with R. S. Weiss's (1974) theory (i.e., that individuals seek specific social provisions or types of social support in their relationships with others), Ss reported seeking different provisions from different individuals. Mothers and fathers were turned to most often for affection, enhancement of worth, a sense of reliable aid, and instrumental aid. Next to parents, grandparents were turned to most often for affection and enhancement of worth, and teachers were turned to most often for instrumental aid. Friends were the greatest source of companionship, and friends and mothers received the highest ratings of intimacy. Ss also reported having more power in their relationships with other children than in those with adults. Conflict was perceived as occurring most often in sibling relationships. Ss were most satisfied with their relationships with mothers, and they thought their relationships with mothers and fathers were the most important. Bases for children's differentiations of their relationships and implications for understanding social networks are discussed. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of popular and unpopular peers: A multimethod assessment.

Children's perceptions of popular and unpopular peers were examined in 2 studies. Study 1 examined the degree to which 4th-8th-grade boys and girls (N=408) nominated the same peers for multiple criteria. Children viewed liked others as prosocial and disliked others as antisocial but associated perceived popularity with both prosocial and antisocial behavior. In Study 2, a subset of the children from Study 1 (N=92) described what makes boys and girls popular or unpopular. Children described popular peers as attractive with frequent peer interactions, and unpopular peers as unattractive, deviant, incompetent, and socially isolated. In both studies, children's perceptions varied as a function of the gender, age, and ethnicity of the participants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of the fairness of parental preferential treatment and their socioemotional well-being.

Being the recipient of favored parental treatment has been identified as a correlate of enhanced socioemotional well-being. However, knowledge of children's perceptions of the legitimacy of preferential treatment may provide a more complete understanding of associations between preferential treatment and children's socioemotional well-being. The current study investigated whether children's well-being varies in accordance with their views about the fairness of preferential parental treatment. One hundred thirty-five children (M=11.74 years) and their older siblings (M=14.64 years) were interviewed independently about parents' distribution of affection and control. Although the amount of preferential control children reported experiencing was related to more externalizing behavior problems, lower levels of internalizing behavior problems and greater global self-esteem were indicated when children perceived that such preferential behaviors were fair. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's interpersonal perceptions: A social relations analysis of perceiver and target effects.

Children's interpersonal perceptions in an academic context were studied from the sociocultural perspective (L. S. Vygotsky, 1978). The authors predicted that with development, judgments of classmates would show increasing impact of the stimulus target (consensus) and decreasing impact of the perceiver's effect. A social relations analysis estimated perceiver and target effects. A 3-year cross-sequential design permitted study of age differences and longitudinal consistency of the effects. Children's interpersonal perceptions were consensual in middle childhood, and target effects increased with development, whereas perceiver effects declined. Target effects were more consistent than perceiver effects across a 3-year period. Target effects for behaviorally based and environmentally cued judgments, however, were more consistent than target effects on judgments of psychological characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's mathematics achievement: The role of parents' perceptions and their involvement in homework.

Two studies examined the accuracy of parents' assessment of their children's mathematics performance and how this relates to the time parents spend on children's homework. Fourth, 5th, and 6th graders completed a mathematics test. Their parents then predicted their child's test performance. Parents overestimated their children's mathematics scores (Study 1: 17.13%; Study 2: 14.40%). The time parents spent helping their children with mathematics homework was unrelated to children's mathematics performance, parents' predictions of their children's mathematics performance, and the accuracy of parents' predictions of their children's mathematics performance. Although increasing parents' knowledge of their children's mathematics competency should remediate poor mathematics performance of U.S. children, neither homework nor traditional report cards effectively inform parents regarding their children's mathematics performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undergraduates' perceptions of the prestige and personality characteristics of members of selected occupations in psychology.

120 students in an introductory psychology course rated 6 psychology specialties in terms of members' prestige and personality. All the specialties were perceived as having high status. However, clinicians and counselors were viewed more favorably than physiological, experimental, social, and developmental psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' perceptions of school psychology: A comparison of regular and special education teacher ratings.

A total of 1533 regular education and special education teachers from eight school districts in four states rated their knowledge of and satisfaction with school psychological services. Perceived helpfulness of psychological services to teachers and children was also assessed. Finally, both groups rated their perceptions of school psychologists' roles versus school counselor roles. Regular education teachers, compared to special education teachers, reported less knowledge of school psychology, perceived school psychologists as less helpful to teachers, and reported lower satisfaction with school psychology services. These reports may have been influenced by the amount of contact each teacher had with school psychologists. Both teacher groups had a limited understanding of the broad roles and functions of school psychologists, and both groups viewed school counselors as delivering more services than school psychologists. Implications of these findings with regard to school psychology reform efforts are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical psychology graduate students' perceptions of their scientific and practical training: A Canadian perspective.

The scientist-practitioner model is the most commonly used training modality in Canadian clinical psychology graduate programmes. Despite pervasive endorsement throughout Canadian psychology programmes, there is a paucity of data available on Canadian student opinions of the model's implementation. The current study assessed 134 students from 9 provinces with a 38-item questionnaire developed by the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology for assessing students' perceptions about the quantity, quality, and breadth of science training in their clinical psychology doctoral programmes. Most students described their programs as providing a mix of research and clinical focus, with slightly more weight given to research. Science training was reported as very important to students, with indications they receive a good amount of high-quality training in science. Moreover, there was a high level of agreement between desired levels of science training and the science training received. Implications for future research and training are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

U.S. psychology and world psychology.

Contends that although US psychology at present occupies a major position in world psychology, the field is growing more rapidly in many other countries. An example of international cooperation in an endeavor that could not be achieved by the psychological community of any single nation (i.e., securing the admission of the International Union of Psychological Science to the International Council of Scientific Unions) is given. A list of suggestions is presented outlining ways in which individual psychologists can take part in international psychological activities. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Humanistic psychology and positive psychology.

Comments on M. E. P. Seligman and M. Csikszentmihalyi's (see record 2000-13324-001) introduction to the special issue on positive psychology (American Psychologist, 2000[Jan], Vol 55[1]). The commenting authors wish that Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi had done a more scholarly job of investigating humanistic psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Military psychology and general psychology.

Suggests the relevance of many findings, methods, and viewpoints of military psychology to approaches taken by behavioral and social scientists in solving contemporary problems. 4 factors which have promoted utilization of the results of military psychology are discussed: organizational continuity, membership in the research and development community, comprehensiveness of individual projects, and concern about implementation. (35 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)