Young children's explanations of pictoral humor: a preliminary study

One aspect of child humor development -- children's explanations of pictoral humor -- was examined in relation to the Visual Humor Categories, a 4-category system to describe humor responses. Thirty children aged 4, and 30 children aged 6, explained what they found to be funny in 2 humorous pictures. Results indicated that all explanations were accommodated by the Visual Humor Categories, and that the explanations differed by category type for the two age groups. Surprisingly, the explanations also differed by gender. It is concluded that the Visual Humor Categories is a useful developmental approach for examining children's understanding of pictoral humor, and further study is recommended.     

The Use of Humor in Promoting Positive Provider-Patient Interactions in a Hospital Rehabilitation Unit

Humor within the health care setting apparently can serve to facilitate positive patient-provider interactions and to create a patient-centered environment. This article provides an ethnographic account of patient-provider interactions held during therapeutic activity sessions within a hospital unit (MIRTH) designed to promote therapeutic humor. This study's findings suggest that humor in these activity sessions was mainly a by-product of more predominant effects, such as patients' positive attitude and happiness. Whereas MIRTH used contrived humor to portray its identity as a humor unit, staff and patients also took advantage of spontaneous humor that emerged out of interactions. Humor appeared secondary to the primary outcome of promoting patients' happiness and well being.     

Relationship between playfulness and motor creativity in preschool children

Previous research has noted a corresponding relationship between young children's play and divergent thinking ability. This study examined how far fluency and flexibility in movement patterns' production, as indicatory elements of divergent thinking and critical thinking, are related to a variety of psychological elements (physical spontaneity, social spontaneity, cognitive spontaneity, manifest joy, sense of humor) that compositely contribute to playfulness, an internal personality characteristic. A total of two hundred and fifty preschool‐aged children participated in this study. Their teachers completed the Greek version of Children's Playfulness Scale. The Divergent movement ability test was used to rate children's motor creativity. The data indicated a significant correlation between total playfulness and (a) motor fluency and (b) motor flexibility. This means that playfulness and motor creativity are interconnected because movement during preschool age is the primary way of action, expression, learning and development.     

A community-based study of sleep and behaviour problems in 12- to 36-month-old children

Background While evidence suggests sleep problems are common in young children and linked to behavioural problems, studies of toddlers are rare. This community‐based cross‐sectional study examined associations between sleep problems and daytime behaviour among 58 children aged 1 to 3 years who attended daycare centres. Methods Mothers and daycare providers completed four and three questionnaires, respectively, about children's sleep patterns and behaviour. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) children with higher sleep problem scores would have more behavioural problems by parental and daycare provider report; (2) problematic napping behaviours would be associated with night sleep problems. Results Mothers' reports of sleep problems were positively associated with children's behavioural problems at home and daycare providers' reports of nap problems were positively correlated with children's behavioural problems at daycare. Daycare providers' reports of children's behavioural problems at daycare were associated with maternal reports of behavioural problems. Older children in the sleep problem group had maternal reports of more behavioural problems. Daycare providers reported that children with sleep problems were less happy at daycare. Children who were happier following naps had less reported night settling difficulties. Children with difficulty settling for naps at daycare had maternal reports of more behavioural problems. Conclusions Napping in daycare settings is an important component of toddlers' sleep. Crossover effects between children's sleep and behaviour at daycare and home indicate similarities in mothers' and daycare providers' perceptions. Findings suggest parent and daycare provider interactions include discussions about sleep problems and settling at home and in daycares. Parents and daycare providers would benefit from education about relationships between sleep and behavioural problems.     

Self-regulation,metacognition and child- and adult-initiated activity: does it matter who initiates the task?

Debate about the balance between child- and adult-initiated activities in early childhood settings is long standing. This article reports a study of 29 children aged 4–5 years in a London state school, on the influences of child- and adult-initiated activities on children's self-regulation and metacognition. Whilst both contexts were supportive, children were significantly more likely to demonstrate self-regulation and metacognition in child-initiated activity. Children's apparent perceptions of adult roles were crucial: in adult-initiated activities children appeared to cede control to adults. At the same time, adults played an important role for children, who were keen to display their knowledge to these significant people. Adults were particularly supportive of children's procedural knowledge. Practical implications include the importance of adult provision of and engagement in child-initiated activity, to afford them opportunities to observe and support children's self-regulation and metacognition and to maximise opportunities for children's autonomy and control.     

Social competence of elementary-school children: relationships to maternal authoritativeness, supportive maternal responses and children's coping strategies

Background Although the influences of parenting on children's development of social competence have been well established, research on the underlying mechanisms of this link is relatively limited. The present study examined children's coping strategies as a mediator of the effects of maternal authoritativeness and maternal inductive responses on their social competence. Method The mothers of 183 Hong Kong Chinese children aged 6 to 8 years (89 girls and 94 boys) reported on their adoption of authoritative parenting and their responses to their children's expressions of emotion, and rated their children's adoption of constructive coping strategies. The children's teachers reported on the children's prosocial behaviour, and rated their level of peer acceptance at school. Results A model of maternal authoritativeness and supportive maternal responses affecting children's social competence is presented. The study results show that the effects of authoritative parenting on children's adoption of constructive coping strategies were mediated by supportive maternal responses to children's expression of emotion, and that the effects of maternal authoritativeness and maternal responses on children's social competence were mediated by children's coping strategies. These results suggest that school personnel should organize training programmes on emotion‐coping strategies for both parents and children. Conclusion The findings imply that positive parenting facilitates children's acquisition of constructive emotion‐coping strategies. Programmes on emotion‐coping strategies should be introduced for both parents and school children.     

Young children's explorations: young children's research?

‘Exploration' is recognised as research behaviour; anecdotally, as an early years' teacher, I witnessed many young children exploring. However, young children's self-initiated explorations are rarely regarded as research by adult researchers and policy-makers. The exclusion of young children's autonomous explorations from recognition as research conflicts with ‘new sociology’ perspectives positioning children as social actors. These tensions have driven a small-scale interpretive study, developed with children aged four to eight years in three ‘good’ schools in England to investigate (1) Do children aged four to eight years in three Early Childhood Education and Care settings explore?; (2) If so, what are their explorations and what effects and affects them?; and (3) Do young children's explorations count as epistemology? Findings indicate that in settings where ‘free-flow’ play characterised practice, four- to five-year-old children engaged in exploration, but its quality was affected by several factors, including variable levels of children's autonomy. Seven- to eight-year-old children in a teacher-directed setting explored less than the four- to five-year-old children, but were frequently observed ‘off-task’, pursuing self-initiated explorations.     

Adults’ explanations and children's understanding of contagious illnesses,non-contagious illnesses,and injuries

The present study examined (1) whether children notice different causes for contagious illnesses, non-contagious illnesses, and injuries and (2) what information adults provide to children and to what extent this information is related to children's causal awareness. Studies 1 and 2 explored preschool teachers’ and mothers’ explanations of illnesses and injuries, and Studies 3 and 4 examined children's understanding of causality. The teachers and mothers frequently offered various kinds of information about illnesses and injuries to children. Explanations based on behaviour and life habits were most common. When explaining contagious illnesses, they tended to refer to contagion, while when explaining non-contagious illnesses, they sometimes mentioned inherited constitution. But mention of heredity was never observed for contagious illnesses and injuries. In Studies 3 and 4, 5–11-year-old children consistently denied a belief in immanent justice. For contagious illnesses, they appeared to notice that physical contact with contaminants make us sick. Older children's awareness appeared to become more differentiated and sophisticated. From middle childhood, they come to notice that inherited constitution plays some role in susceptibility to non-contagious illnesses.     

Processes Underlying Children's Adjustment in Families Characterized by Physical Aggression*

The hypothesis that physical aggression in the family affects children's adjustment through both observational learning/modeling and through its impact on parenting was tested (via LISREL) using data from a representative sample of Canadian children (N = 11,221 ). Results showed that observational learning and disrupted parenting provide reasonable, if only partial explanations, of mothers' assessments of children's adjustment in families characterized by physical aggression. Models for preschool (4–5 years), young (6–9 years), and older school‐age (10–11 years) children fit acceptably and showed similar but weak effects. Children reported to witness more aggression also were reported to behave more aggressively. Mothers who reported being less warm and responsive in parenting reported that their children were more aggressive, had more internalizing behaviors, and had fewer prosocial behaviors.     

When life is “difficult”: A comparison of street children's and non-street children's priorities

Research on street children has typically described the phenomenon and examined the risks of street life to healthy development. Thus far, research has not contextualized street children's psychosocial lives by comparing them with non-street children or street children undergoing rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to assess how the life priorities of Tanzanian street children, former street children and school-going children (n?=?183) differ according to their living environment. The “Importance scale” was designed and validated for this study. It includes 29 four-level Likert items about relationships, activities and family, encompassing two subscales: current well-being (Cronbach's α?=?0.65) and preparing for the future (Cronbach's α?=?0.72). Data were analyzed using analysis of variance and contingency tables to determine group-level differences. Post-hoc Bonferroni tests determined pairwise differences. The analyses demonstrate significant differences in 14 of 29 priorities according to living context. With only three differences, former street children were more similar to school-going children than they were to street children. Street children and school-going children differed on 12 items, while street children and former street children differed on nine items. Street children considered that obtaining good advice from adults, having a dependable place to sleep and having time for enjoyable activities are most important, while former street children and school-going children pointed to education-related ambitions as most important. Findings show that after just 1 year of rehabilitative care, former street children's priorities are more similar to school-going children's, and thus rehabilitative care may be instrumental in enabling children to prioritize preparing for the future. Street children's emphasis on a safe place to sleep and adult support may reflect unmet basic needs. Former street children's high priorities on education and protecting themselves may represent healthy adaptation and a hopeful orientation to the future. High-quality rehabilitation for homeless youth can fulfill essential needs that may promote positive shifts in street children's priorities.     

A storybook method for exploring young children's views of illness causality in relation to the familial context

In this paper we describe a method for exploring young children's views of illness causality in social context. Studies of children's conceptualisation of illness have predominantly focused on the nature of children's knowledge rather than locating that knowledge within socio-cultural contexts. Adopting a socio-constructivist perspective we sought to identify the ways in which young children's illness causality concepts are embedded in the socio-cultural context of the family. Interviews were undertaken with four-year-old children, their parents/guardians, sibling/s aged five to nine years and two other family members. To aid the elicitation of young children's narrative accounts of illness causality, children were invited to construct a storybook about ‘getting sick’ utilising art materials and photographs of children experiencing illness. In this paper we describe this method, discuss its utility in eliciting illness narratives from pre-school children and provide suggestions for the use of this method in future research.     

Conceptualizations of Health and Illness by Children with Spina Bifida

Forty children with spina bifida participated in interview sessions designed to assess their general cognitive development, their conceptualizations of health and illness, and their understanding of their specific disability The results of the study indicated that the children's ratings in the area of health and illness were quite similar to ratings in cognitive development, with the ratings successively progressing with chronological age In general, the children received higher scores in health and illness conceptualizations than general cognitive development, with their ratings being the highest in spina bifida-related explanations The data suggest the importance of awareness by health care professionals of children's conceptualizations of health and illness in order to provide pediatric patient education information that is sensitive to children's levels of cognitive development and their understanding of health and illness.     

The substance and sources of young children's healthy eating and physical activity knowledge: implications for obesity prevention efforts

Background The prevalence of overweight among young children is increasing at an alarming rate. Global efforts to address the issue can benefit from understanding how young children's experiences across multiple contexts shape their perspectives of healthy weight. Methods This qualitative study examines the substance and sources of young American children's knowledge related to healthy eating, physical activity and media practices. Role play and semi‐structured interviews were conducted in child‐care settings with 81 children aged 3–5 who represented diverse socio‐economic statuses and ethnic backgrounds. Results Children demonstrated better understanding of the benefits of healthy eating compared with physical activity. Snacks and beverages consumed outside mealtime were less likely to be healthy even among the 40% of children who demonstrated an understanding of healthy nutrition. The majority of children's leisure activity selections involved media and minimally active pursuits. Three quarters of the children were unable to articulate reasons for healthy choices or identify the sources of their health understandings. The media was listed as source of health information more frequently than adults. Conclusion Obesity prevention efforts targeting young children need to use consistent messaging across all contexts in which children develop in order to increase their understanding that physical activity and eating choices support health. Efforts need to counter inaccurate information and address the rationale for health practices. Key gaps in young children's understanding include: the importance of drinking water, that snacks are part of nutritional intake and the benefits of engaging in physical activities.     

Understanding children's self-regulation within different classroom contexts

In this study, children's self-regulation was observed, along with other social and academic activities in kindergarten classrooms during whole group, small group, transition and play contexts. We examined how children's self-regulation and engagement differed among classroom grouping, play and transition contexts. Results showed that students respond to opportunities for self-regulation significantly more often in small group and play contexts. Similarly, children demonstrate the highest engagement in play and small group contexts. Given that adults and other children comprise an important part of the environment for children's self-regulation, we also examined whether there were differences in the number of interactions children have with other children and educators across academic, social and play activities, and how these interactions broke down by classroom context. Findings have practical implications for educators working in early years settings; classroom grouping, play and transition contexts set the scene for children's engagement and opportunities to self-regulate.     

Increased Tobacco Exposure in Older Children and Its Effect on Asthma and Ear Infections

PurposeTo examine selected social determinants of children's exposure to household tobacco use and smoking inside the home and to assess the effect of second-hand smoke exposure on asthma and ear infections across children's age groups.MethodsA total of 90,961 parents of children aged 0–17 years from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health were included in the study.ResultsIn all, 26.2% of parents reported that anyone in the household used tobacco products. Parents of children aged 6–11 and 12–17 years were 1.97 (adjusted OR; 95% CI, 1.65–2.36) and 2.93 (2.46–3.49) times more likely, respectively, to report that someone smoked inside the house than parents of younger children. Second-hand smoke exposure varied by children's race/ethnicity, and children from more disadvantaged circumstances were more likely to be exposed. For all children, they were more likely to ever have asthma if someone in their household used tobacco. Although young children's likelihood of recurrent ear infections did not increase with household tobacco use, children aged 12–17 were 1.67 (1.02–2.72) times more likely to have recurrent ear infections if someone smoked inside their home.ConclusionFamily members are increasingly likely to smoke indoors as children age, which may increase adolescents' vulnerability to ear infections. Parents and health professionals should monitor second-hand smoke exposure at home and encourage a smoke-free environment.     

Financial Stress,Parental Depressive Symptoms,Parenting Practices,and Children's Externalizing Problem Behaviors: Underlying Processes

This study examined the relationships among financial stress encountered by families, parents' social support, parental depressive symptoms, parenting practices, and children's externalizing problem behaviors to advance our understanding of the processes by which family financial stress is associated with children's problem behaviors. We also tested moderated mediation to investigate if these relationships differed depending on children's characteristics. The data were drawn from 290 predominantly rural families with young children who were identified as at risk for the development of serious conduct problems. Using structural equation modeling, we found that the relationship between family income and children's externalizing problem behaviors was mediated by parents' social support, parental depressive symptoms, and parenting practices. The results also showed that the children's levels of aggression severity, academic functioning, and developmental strengths moderated the mediating relationships between family income and parental depressive symptoms and between family income and positive parenting.     

Dietary sources of fats and cholesterol in US children aged 2 through 5 years.

OBJECTIVES. This study of lipid intakes among preschool children (1) analyzed the contributions of 38 food groups to fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol intakes; (2) estimated the effects of food substitutions on intakes; and (3) examined demographic differences in food group intake and food group sources of these lipids. METHODS. The sample consisted of 547 children, aged 2 to 5 years, from the US Department of Agriculture''s 1985 and 1986 Continuing Surveys of Food Intakes by Individuals. Dietary information for 4 nonconsecutive days throughout a year was used. All foods were classified into groups and the lipids contributed from each group were computed. RESULTS. Over 80% of the children consumed more total fat, saturated fats, and cholesterol than is recommended. The major source of total fat and saturated fats was whole milk; the major sources of dietary cholesterol were eggs and whole milk. Children''s food consumption patterns differed by region of the country and race/ethnicity, providing opportunities to refine nutrition education interventions and evaluations. CONCLUSIONS. By substituting lower-fat foods for the major sources of saturated fats, significant reductions in preschool children''s intakes of saturated fats, fat, and dietary cholesterol could be achieved.     

The Afro‐Caribbean presence in Britain

The purpose of this study was to examine young children's understanding of the reading process. The subjects were 60 children whose ages ranged from three to five. The students were administered an open‐ended interview to obtain their conceptions of reading. Using content analysis, their responses were categorized and frequency distributions were tallied. Since there was an unequal number of responses for each category, percentages for each category were computed using the total number of responses rather than the number of respondents. The results indicated that young children's immediate experiences had an impact on their conceptions of reading. Most of the young children's reading experiences consisted of reading pictures and listening to stories. Since most young children are not able to read, others read for them. The reading areas are also part of the child's experiences. Most of their reading experiences are in school, home and community.     

Young children in day and night care: negotiating and constructing belonging during daily arrivals

The paper aims at understanding the processes related to young children's belonging during daily arrivals at day and night care. Two aspects of a child's belonging are considered: membership and sense of belonging. Data were gathered by ethnographic observation of 8 children aged from 20 to 36 months in two Finnish day care centres offering day and night care. Arrival episodes taking place at different times of day were analysed qualitatively based on the children's actions and expressions. During these episodes, the children negotiated and constructed their belonging by interacting with adults, peers and material objects. These interactions took place within varying social and material surroundings and according to different daily routines that sometimes challenged the child's belonging. The results underline the importance of sensitive responsiveness by educators to young children's initiatives in supporting children's belonging during daily arrivals at day and night care.