Someone shot the rainbow: Emergent writing patterns of securely and insecurely attached, inner-city first graders

The mother or primary caretaker of an infant establishes a communicative bond which has long-term implications for the child as a symbolizer and learner. John Bowlby\u27s theory of attachment claims the mother is the secure base from which an infant, and later the child, can explore and master her environment, develop a sense of autonomy, and relate to peers. Attachment theory sheds light on the process and products of inner-city, first-grade children\u27s written symbolization, yielding many patterns cogent to the study of emergent literacy. Fifty-nine first graders participated in a study involving projective measures of attachment and language ability and the collection of their earliest first-grade writing samples and transcripts. Their drawings and early writings showed the influence of secure attachment on literate risk-taking. Gender and language ability showed significant effects on choice of symbols and symbolic configurations. As the first-grade child begins to acculturate to school literacy she must create increasingly less personal, and more abstract symbols of the culture. This move towards universality of symbolization varies by gender and attachment status. Each child struggles with the conflict of relinquishing personal symbols and appropriating collective symbols. Some children leap too quickly into transcription of environmental print in an effort to form an attachment with their teacher. Meanwhile others explore the self-expression of drawing, conceptual configurations and invented spelling moving gradually toward more interpersonal symbolization

Voices from Within: Teacher Sensitivity in an Early Childhood Elementary School

Using a qualitative case study approach, grounded in an ecological systems theory framework, this project sought to understand how a teacher describes her journey of becoming sensitive and uncover what helps or hinders a teacher’s ability to sensitive. This study collected and examined data from multiple data sources, which included direct and participant observations, collected documents and artifacts, semi-formal and informal interviews with school members, along with a focus-group. Data was evaluated for common codes and relevant emerging themes are discussed. Six early childhood teachers at an early childhood elementary school participated in the study. Results suggest that there are certain environmental and human factors that intersect, which impact teacher sensitivity. Teachers described strategies that can be implemented both in the classroom and within the school itself to make the environment more suited to engage in sensitive caregiving. Implications for administrators who work in early childhood settings and who manage early childhood teachers are presented

Psychosocial Effects of Shared Book Reading

Many studies have examined the academic benefits of parents reading with their children, but few studies have looked at the psychological and social benefits, and even fewer have related the quality of shared book reading to psycho-social benefits. This study looked at whether positive and negative reading interactions during shared book reading predicted parent-child relationships, child social skills and child academic skills. Twenty-five parents of 4-year-olds read a story with their child and completed parent relationship and child social skills questionnaires. The reading interactions were then coded into two separate composite scores: positive and negative. Positive interactions did not significantly predict any of the variables studied, but negative reading interactions predicted lower parent involvement, lower child engagement, and lower child communication skills. Reading behaviors approached significance for predicting child\u27s ability to understand the sounds that make up a word, but not child letter knowledge. Implications and future research are discussed

The Brief Attachment Scale (BAS-16): Using Item Response Theory to create a clinically useful measure of attachment

Background: Insecure attachment in infancy is associated with a range of socioemotional problems later in life. It is important therefore to identify at-risk children so that appropriate support can be provided. However, the two most well-established measures of attachment, the Attachment Q-sort (AQS) and Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), are both time-consuming and costly to administer. The aim of this study is to create a valid, short version of the AQS using modern psychometric techniques. Method: Data was used from the NICHD Study of Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD) (n=1,364). First, the factor structure of the AQS was explored using Q-factor analysis. Item response theory (IRT) was then used to create shortened scales containing the subset of items which provided the most information. The validity of the shortened scales was then examined. Results: Q-factor analysis indicated two clear factors relating to harmonious interaction with the caregiver and proximity-seeking behaviours. Two scales of eight items each were created based on these factors. The shortened measure showed comparable convergent, discriminant and predictive validity to the full AQS. Conclusion. This brief version of the AQS shows good potential as a screening measure for insecure attachment in infancy

Attachment Histories of Reception Class Children and Roles in Bullying Situations

Bullying research has provided a wealth of information and a depth of understanding that has led to the development of intervention strategies in schools. However, despite this extensive research, bullying continues to be a significant problem. It has been suggested that working with children or with schools may not be enough to solve the problem and that it may be necessary to include parents as part of the solution, especially if the antecedents originate and are consistently reinforced at home. Research that has considered factors relating to family functioning and the relationship between the caregivers and their children provide support for this argument, but research in this area is scarce. The main aim of the present research was to investigate family backgrounds, parenting styles and the personal characteristics of parents and children involved in bullying situations in order to identify effective routes for intervention. More specifically, it focused children's attachment styles and the roles they adopted in bullying situations at school. A longitudinal design with mixed methods was adopted involving 28 pre-school children and theft caregivers. The children were 'new starters' at one of three schools and at the start of the investigation they were aged 4 years - 4 years and 11 months and their primary caregiver's ages ranged between 29 and 53 years. Primary caregivers participated in interviews and exercises about themselves and theft families and observations of the children occurred in different settings at school during their first year. It was predicted that a link between the childrens' attachment type and the roles they adopted in bullying situations would be found. However, no evidence was found to suggest a link between childrens' attachment style and bullying. Despite this, interesting trends were found. These are considered and the difficulties and limitations of the investigation are discussed

construction of a ‘traumatized’ refugee child in need of safety in Norwegian kindergartens

This paper explores how kindergarten teachers relate to the concept of safety in the integration of refugee children. My research findings reveal that the concept of safety, or trygghet in Norwegian, is understood as emotional support and comfort accorded to children. The notion of trygghet emerges as an important value-laden concept that shapes and largely influences teachers’ everyday work, and how they relate to children and their parents. The idea of safety is traceable within an institutional discourse mediated by social technology, such as the International Child Development Programme and the Resource Centre for Violence and Trauma programmes, which have their roots in psy-discourses. My findings indicate that the construction of a potentially ‘traumatized’ refugee child is interconnected with the assumed need for safety. When using this discourse in their daily work, the kindergarten staff contribute to constructing and reproducing a specific category that I refer to as the ‘traumatized’ refugee child in need of safety. This standardized understanding risks categorizing refugee children, and highlights how professionals can get caught up in dominant discourses that universalize their routine practices.publishedVersio

Experiences Affecting Military Children\u27s Performance in School: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand how attachment and loss associated with deployment affect children’s academic performance at Joint Base Lewis McChord. More specifically, the research was centered around a child\u27s attachment to their parent and whether deployment affects that attachment or their academic success. The theory guiding this study was John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth\u27s attachment theory, as it provided a unique framework to examine how the child is affected by the deployment of their parents. The foundational question that drove this study was: What are the experiences of military families, specifically their children’s academic performance during deployment? A total of fourteen families participated in the project. From a series of interviews, panels, and journal prompts, the research discovered three key themes and nine sub-themes. The themes were continuity and stability, separation and adjustment, and educational challenges and support. The findings indicated that deployment did not impact children\u27s academic performance in that there was at least one securely attached relationship within the family. The results from these questions, theories, themes, and recommendations can help to expand internal and external stakeholders\u27 understanding of military life so that they can better support the military family

Attachment and Developmental Psychopathology

This chapter examines the conceptual and empirical contributions of attachment theory to the field of developmental psychopathology. It reviews the major elements and methods of attachment theory and research, and considers current evidence regarding a) the environmental and genetic determinants of attachment, b) short-and long-term continuity in attachment processes, c) the association between attachment and emerging psychopathology, d) candidate mediating mechanisms conveying risk, and d) the efficacy of attachment-focused interventions. We end with a consideration of the broader relevance of attachment theory for understanding the process and mechanisms of change in psychological therapies. We conclude that attachment represents a coherent and generally well-supported developmental construct, which is of great potential value as a framework for prevention and intervention. We also highlight several key outstanding issues and qualifications regarding the measurement of attachment, the scope and limits of its effects on children’s outcomes, and unresolved scientific issues regarding causal mechanisms

Perinatal maternal anxiety and the quality of mother-child interactions in IUGR dyads

openHuman development begins during pregnancy within the womb, where fetal programming occurs, shaping individual differences in health outcomes and diseases throughout life. Adverse experiences in pregnancy can have permanent effects on programming due to fetal adaptations aimed at survival, as in the case of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). IUGR is a complex obstetric problem defined by the inability of the fetus to reach its biologically determined growth potential in utero due to nutritional abnormalities, which makes the individual vulnerable to adverse outcomes in different areas of development. In the theoretical part, I defined the IUGR condition outlining its possible causes and consequences, focusing on social-emotional and behavioral development, illustrated the construct of perinatal maternal anxiety and the effects it can have on mother and child, and finally outlined the concept of the quality of dyadic interactions, dwelling on the construct of emotional availability. In the research part, instead, I devised four hypotheses: the first involves a comparison between IUGR mothers and those with physiological pregnancies regarding maternal perinatal anxiety, as measured through the STAI-Y-S during pregnancy and at 4 months post-partum. The second and third hypotheses aim to compare IUGR and non-IUGR mothers and children, respectively, on the quality of dyadic exchanges, measured through the EAS scales at 4 months. Finally, the fourth hypothesis aims to explore whether, respectively, IUGR condition and maternal anxiety are predictive of the scores obtained in the EAS scales.Human development begins during pregnancy within the womb, where fetal programming occurs, shaping individual differences in health outcomes and diseases throughout life. Adverse experiences in pregnancy can have permanent effects on programming due to fetal adaptations aimed at survival, as in the case of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). IUGR is a complex obstetric problem defined by the inability of the fetus to reach its biologically determined growth potential in utero due to nutritional abnormalities, which makes the individual vulnerable to adverse outcomes in different areas of development. In the theoretical part, I defined the IUGR condition outlining its possible causes and consequences, focusing on social-emotional and behavioral development, illustrated the construct of perinatal maternal anxiety and the effects it can have on mother and child, and finally outlined the concept of the quality of dyadic interactions, dwelling on the construct of emotional availability. In the research part, instead, I devised four hypotheses: the first involves a comparison between IUGR mothers and those with physiological pregnancies regarding maternal perinatal anxiety, as measured through the STAI-Y-S during pregnancy and at 4 months post-partum. The second and third hypotheses aim to compare IUGR and non-IUGR mothers and children, respectively, on the quality of dyadic exchanges, measured through the EAS scales at 4 months. Finally, the fourth hypothesis aims to explore whether, respectively, IUGR condition and maternal anxiety are predictive of the scores obtained in the EAS scales

The importance of caregiver-child interactions for the survival and healthy development of children : implications for intervention.

Thesis (M.A.)- University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.The quality of early infant-caregiver interactions determines the path of an infant's social, cognitive and emotional development. Theoretical and empirical evidence supporting this claim is reviewed, and the implications for early relationship-focussed interventions are considered. The study focuses on infants from birth to three years of age. Developmental psychology research findings are presented, and the role of risk and protective factors in planning preventative interventions are discussed. Recommendations are made for developing a centre-based relationship-enhancing early intervention program for infants and their depressed caregivers. The program is intended for implementation in a rural or periurban South African Primary Health Care setting