Children\u27s representations of parenting behaviors, basic negative emotions, and negative self-conscious emotions in the Narrative Story Stem Technique

The current study examined middle childhood aged Romanian children’s representations of parenting behaviors, basic negative emotions, and negative self-conscious emotions in the Narrative Story Stem Technique (NSST; Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990). More specifically, the research objectives of the study were a) to identify the frequency of the representations that were reflected in children’s narratives, b) to identify the specific stories that elicited the greatest number of representations, c) to identify possible relationships among children’s representations, their age, and amount of time that parents spend with their children, d) to identify gender differences in representations, and e) to evaluate the usefulness of the NSST to assess children\u27s representations. Data were collected from 52 Romanian children aged between 6 and 11-years old. Assessments were made using the NSST, a parent consent form,and a general questionnaire. The findings showed that the frequency of representations was identified. The stories varied widely in their power to elicit children’s representations. Correlations among the variables of interest showed some statistically significant relationships in the expected directions. Gender differences in representations of parenting behaviors and narrative coherence were identified. At last, the findings showed that the NSST could be a useful instrument to identify and assess children’s representations

Early cumulative caregiver sensitivity and its relationship with children\u27s later perceptions of peer and maternal acceptance

The study examined the possibility of relationships between caregiver sensitivity across multiple caregivers during the child’s first three years of life and both children’s later perceived peer acceptance and children’s later perceived maternal acceptance. Data were collected from 26 children, aged between 5 and 8-years old, and the 32 unique caregivers that the children had experienced during their first 36 months in child care. Assessments were made using the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (PSPC, Harter & Pike, 1984) and the Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS, Arnett, 1989). Correlations were calculated among the 7 primary variables for the children: number of unique caregivers, number of snapshots (i.e., points of time at which caregiver data was collected), age in months at testing, peer acceptance, maternal acceptance, average level of caregiver sensitivity, and rate of change of caregiver sensitivity. Significant positive correlations were found between perceived peer acceptance and perceived maternal acceptance. No statistically significant relationships were found among the remaining variables; that is, the measures of cumulative caregiver sensitivity did not predict the children’s later perceptions of peer acceptance or of maternal acceptance. Possible explanations for the absence of statistically significant relationships are discussed

Romanian Children’s Representations of Negative and Self-Conscious Emotions in a Narrative Story Stem Technique

This research uses children’s story-stem play narratives to investigate dimensions of negative emotional expression. Fifty-one Romanian children between 6 and 11-years old participated in the study. Children’s narratives were coded for three basic negative emotions and five self-conscious emotions. Parents completed a general questionnaire for demographic data and the amount of time they spent with their children. Differences were found for frequencies of negative emotional representations in relation to the specific story-stems in which they occurred. Girls were more likely than boys to enact in their narratives guilt feelings coupled with apology following some wrongdoing. Children who spent more time with parents enacted significantly less anger and fear. Simultaneous expressions of multiple negative emotions were observed in the narrative responses of these middle childhood-aged Romanian children. While findings should be viewed with caution, owing to the small and homogeneous sample, new directions for future research with this assessment method are indicated