The development of eating behavior in childhood

Eating behavior must be viewed as a complex phenomenon involving the coordination of motor, cognitive, social and emotional development, all under the regulation of both central and peripheral factors. Eating provides not only the necessary biologic substrate for human growth and normal physiologic function but is strongly involved in the full range of social interaction from the formation of the mother-infant relationship to later social interaction. Eating is associated with a variety of pleasurable and painful affective experiences. The pediatrician, working closely with the parents, can facilitate the development of healthy attitudes toward eating and healthy eating behaviors.

Interactions of parents and nurses with high-risk preterm infants

The interactions of preterm infants with parents were compared with their interactions with nurses. Twenty-nine high-risk preterm infants who were a part of a larger longitudinal study of behavioral development were observed once weekly from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. A single observation for each infant that contained a minimum of 2 min of parental care and 2 min of nursing care was selected for analysis. Results showed that nurses and parents provided different types of stimulation with nurses more likely to engage in procedural care and parents more likely to hold, talk to, move, and touch the infants affectionately. Infants showed more sleep-wake transition, large body movements, and jitters when with nurses and more active sleep and more smiles when with parents. Similar differences were found when parents and nurses were just holding or touching the infants, but no differences in infant responses were seen during feeding or changing. Thus, the different infant behavioral responses appeared to result primarily from the different stimulation provided by parents and nurses. Implications of these findings for research and clinical practice are discussed.

Development of conduct problems and peer rejection in preschool children: a social systems analysis

The development of impulsive-aggressive problem behavior and peer rejection was examined in sixty 4- to 5-year-old boys from low-income family backgrounds. Children's sociometric status and behavioral adjustment were assessed longitudinally at the beginning and end of the preschool year, and related to measures of peer interaction at three different points in time. Boys identified as socially rejected and aggressive in the beginning of the year were highly likely to be identified as such at the end of the year. Early in the preschool year, these children contributed to their own rejection by initiating socially aversive exchanges with peers. Although peers clearly perceived these problems, they did not reciprocate with counteraggression at first. However, as time passed, peers began to actively victimize these children, and most of the aggression on the part of victims became reactive in nature. Thus, the current findings strongly support a transactional model of the development of early peer rejection and conduct problems.

[Factors related to the maintenance of social interaction among withdrawn preschool children]

It is difficult for withdrawn children to enter a play and to maintain social interaction with other children. This investigation attempted to identify whether the difficulty was due to their incorrect perception of others' responses or due to the lack of their self-confidence. Forty-five 5- and 6-years old nursery school children enrolled in six day-care classrooms served as subjects. They were divided into high middle or low groups by the degree of withdrawal, and each child was asked to play with two other same-age peers. Analyses by the observation of video recordings and the interviewing of the children revealed that the low withdrawals could perceive other children's responses more correctly than any other group, whereas there was no difference among the three groups in self-confidence. Thus, it was interpreted that those highly withdrawal children cannot skillfully enter plays with other children because they were unable to perceive other children's responses correctly. After entering a play, they also remained solitary almost all the time. The highly withdrawn children tended to keep themselves alone, while the children in low and middle degrees of withdrawal seemed to attempt to join other children even after being rejected or neglected by other children.

Self-esteem during the school years. Its normal development and hazardous decline

Self-esteem has a major impact on all aspects of a child and adolescent's life. This article examines the emergence of self-esteem within a dynamic ongoing child-environment interaction; a framework for understanding the components of self-esteem; behavioral manifestations of self-esteem, especially as expressed in different coping maneuvers; and strategies and interventions to reinforce the self-esteem of children and adolescents.

The Mother-Baby Assessment (MBA): an "Apgar score" for breastfeeding

Communication about breastfeeding among health workers is hampered by the lack of a standardized method of documentation for breastfeeding. Scoring methods previously described by Matthews, Jenks, and Bocar and Shrago focus on the baby's behavior. I am proposing a "Mother-Baby Assessment (MBA) Score," a ten-point assessment of maternal and infant breastfeeding behavior. The assessment system may be used to track the progress of a mother-baby pair as they learn how to breastfeed, and also may be useful in hospital charting, when making referrals, when practicing triage, or when conducting research.

Effects of real gender and labeled gender on adults' perceptions of infants

Three experiments were conducted to discover factors mediating adults' perceptions of male and female infants. In the first experiment, college students were shown 30-s videotapes of four male and four female babies, each of whom was randomly labeled with a male or a female name. Infants labeled as male were perceived as significantly more masculine and stronger than those labeled as female. Discriminant analyses revealed that both rated masculinity and the combination of ratings on male stereotyped traits differentiated infants labeled as male or female. Analyses of real gender revealed that boys were rated as less sensitive and stronger than girls. Discriminant analyses suggested that the combination of less sensitive, more of a problem, more mature, and more playful best differentiated real males from real females. In Experiment 2, the findings of Experiment 1 were confirmed with a sample of mothers of young infants. In Experiment 3 college students' judgments of the sex of the eight babies were correctly predicted from the sensitivity ratings of these babies in Experiment 1. It appears that there is a complex of cues from which adults make judgments of infants' gender and inferences about their characteristics: Boys may appear stronger, more playful, and more of a problem, and girls seem to look more sensitive. Implications for further studies of gender labeling and for sex typing are discussed.

Growth and academic achievement in inner-city kindergarten children. The relationship of height, weight, cognitive ability, and neurodevelopmental level

Measures of height, weight, nonverbal cognitive ability (Ravens progressive matrix), visual-motor-perceptual ability (Beery-Buktenica test of Visual Motor Integration [VMI]), the imitation-of-gestures technique, and academic achievement (Stanford Early Achievement) were obtained for a sample of 82 children from a poor inner-city community. In contrast to prior reports from the United States and about other developed countries, anthropometric measures were related both to academic achievement and to these measures of neurodevelopment. They were not consistently related to measures of nonverbal cognitive ability. Regression analyses revealed that general cognitive ability contributed more variance (39%) to predictions of achievement than all other variables, including weight for age (13%) and VMI (6%). Children with reduced somatic growth were likely to do poorly in school, but the data do not show that undernutrition causes learning failure. Rather, they suggest that environmental problems affecting the development of thought processes and nutrient intake precede both growth and learning failure.

[Colored matrices test (special scale): how to evaluate and interpret it in our milieu]

Raven's "Colored Matrixes" (Special scale) were specially adapted for 5- to 11-years-old children by their author. The present paper analyzes: 1) The importance of taking into account wrong responses to the matrixes since they are likely to occur at a higher (5/6) probability level than correct responses (Burnbaum, 1968; Bock, 1972); 2) The proposal of considering the Colored Matrixes as a test with cultural reduced influences. The findings of a research carried out with 790 preschool- and schoolchildren (ranging 4- to 11.5-years-old) in Argentina are presented: Total scoring, and series scoring are shown. By means of a multiple variance analysis it has been found out that both age and series, as well as the interaction between both have a statistically significant influences on score variations. Besides, new evaluation guidelines are presented.

Temperament issues in the school-aged child

Children's temperament continues to make a significant contribution to their physical health, development, and behavior as they progress into later childhood and adolescence. The definition of temperament as behavioral style remains the same, although the relative importance of the several dimensions shifts, factors affecting it broaden, its stability increases, and its measurement becomes more complex. An important role has been established for temperament in behavior problems through childhood but less so for new ones in adolescence, in several aspects of physical health and some other areas such as coping or adaptive style. This article stresses the strong influence that temperament has on school performance and emphasizes the probability that many children who are now said to have the disorder of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are likely to have normal neurologic function and a temperament that does not fit well with the demands of the modern school environment.

Art therapy with bereaved children

The death of a loved one in childhood can create serious immediate difficulties and long-term psychological and somatic symptoms in adult life. This case portrayal illustrates how the group art therapy offered by a rural Michigan hospice helps children express and resolve their grief issues.

[The psychological health of offspring of patients suffering from endogenous affective disorder (II a follow-up study)]

In the off-spring of patients with affective disorder various psychological disorders were found in 25% subjects. In the off-spring of healthy persons only 10% were found to have psychological disorders.

Psychosocial adjustment in siblings of children with chronic life-threatening illness: a research note

The psychosocial functioning of 10 siblings of children with chronic life-threatening illness and their parents was compared with 10 healthy matched controls. The main differences found were in family relationships, with the index siblings expressing more negative emotion in relation to their fathers than controls, index mothers being less involved in social activities and index fathers being less involved with the extended family. No significant differences were found in any of the measures of depression, anxiety and self concept. Index siblings expressed a number of other concerns such as a fear of the break up of their family after the sick child died. The need for increased awareness of the welfare of healthy siblings as well as closer involvement of the fathers is discussed.

The beliefs adults and children hold about television and video games

In Phase 1 of this study, we asked 23 parents between the ages of 30 and 52 years and 26 children between the ages of 10 and 19 years to list effects of television and video games on children. A questionnaire was developed using the most frequently given responses (e.g., television influences children's aggressive behavior, verbal abilities, or time with friends). In Phase 2, this questionnaire was administered to different groups of parents and children and a control group of adults without offspring (N = 204) who were asked to rate the influence of each item on the questionnaire. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that there were similarities and differences among the groups. For example, parents and other adults held similar beliefs about the influence of television, but parents held more positive beliefs about the influence of video games than the other adults. Children held more positive beliefs about the influence of television than parents, but parents and children held similar beliefs about the influence of video games.

Vulnerability and temperament in very low birth weight school-aged children

The purpose of this study was to investigate parental perception of vulnerability, parental subjective stress concerning children's premature birth, and child temperament in families of very low birth weight (VLBW) and normal birth weight (NBW) children. The subjects were 39 VLBW children and 30 NBW 7-year-old children and their caregivers. Data on child temperament and parental perception of vulnerability was provided by the 69 families. Families of the VLBW group rated their degree of current stress concerning their children's premature birth. There were no differences between the NBW and VLBW caregivers in their perceptions of their child's vulnerability status. Caregivers of VLBW children had significantly lower scores on degree of subjective stress specific to the premature birth than the value reported on the standardization population. Child temperament made a significant contribution to parental perception of child vulnerability status in both VLBW and NBW parents.

[Type A personality and level of aspiration in preschool children: some basic characteristics of aspiration levels and their modifications by introducing risk-taking and competitive situations]

The purpose of this study was to investigate some characteristics of aspiration levels of Type A preschoolers. Twenty-two Type A and twenty-one Type B subjects selected from 245 preschoolers were given three tasks: ball-throwing task 1, ball-throwing task 2, and ringtoss task. After investigating some basic characteristics of aspiration levels in a standard situation (ball-throwing task 1), risk-taking (ball-throwing task 2) and competitive (ringtoss task) situations were introduced in order to study the modifications of aspiration levels. The results indicated that Type A children showed higher aspiration levels than Type B children, but that no differences of changes in aspiration levels by introducing risk-taking and competitive situations were found between the two types. These results were discussed from the view point of formation of Type A characteristics.

Children's concepts of the mentally ill

One hundred sixty-eight children in grades three through six were asked to read vignettes describing the problematic behaviors of mentally ill children and adults. The schoolchildren then labeled the characters, attributed causes and motivations to their behaviors, and suggested possible treatments. Although only 27% of the children labeled vignette characters as mentally ill and 11% recommended psychiatric interventions, all the children recommended some kind of intervention. While slightly fewer than one-third (29%) of the children suggested that an adult intervene in some nonpsychiatric manner, 60% recommended some kind of child-initiated activity as an intervention. A developmental trend was evident in children's attribution of mental illness labels and recommendations for both psychiatric and adult nonpsychiatric interventions.