Prosocial Tendencies among Chinese American Children in Immigrant Families: Links to Cultural and Socio‐demographic Factors and Psychological Adjustment

The present study examined relations between prosocial tendencies (dispositional sympathy and prosocial behavior) and psychological adjustment using a multi‐method and multi‐informant approach in a socioeconomically diverse sample of first‐ and second‐generation Chinese American children from immigrant families (N = 238, M age = 9.2 years). We tested the concurrent associations between: (a) children's dispositional sympathy (rated by parents, teachers, and children, and observed prosocial behavior), (b) psychological adjustment (parent‐ and teacher‐reported externalizing problems and social competence); and (c) cultural and socio‐demographic factors (children's Chinese and American orientations, family Socioeconomic Status (SES), only child status, and children's age, sex, and social desirability). Results from correlations and structural equation modeling suggested that different measures of prosocial tendencies related differently to children's psychological adjustment. Parent‐ and teacher‐rated sympathy were associated with higher child social competence and lower externalizing problems within, but not across, reporter. By contrast, child‐rated sympathy was associated with higher teacher‐rated social competence, and observed prize donation was associated with lower teacher‐rated externalizing problems. Different measures of prosocial tendencies also showed different relations to cultural and socio‐demographic factors. These findings suggest that prosocial tendencies are not a unitary construct in Chinese American immigrant children: the manifestations of prosocial tendencies and their adjustment implications might depend on the context and/or targets of these tendencies.     

Attachment‐facilitating interactions in non‐kin foster families

This study aims to analyse the interaction between children in foster care and their main caregivers during a microcoded co‐construction task, focusing on the verbal and non‐verbal behaviours that the adults use to promote a secure attachment in the child. It also examines how children and caregivers' socio‐demographic variables relate to the interaction. The sample is made up of 28 Spanish children between 4 and 9 years old in long‐term non‐kin foster care and their foster families. The building task was administered to 28 dyads, composed of the child and the main caregiver in each family. Our results showed that the caregivers' use of attachment‐facilitating behaviours was frequent during the interaction. Moreover, children tended to display a positive attitude when adults used these attachment‐facilitating behaviours. We also found some differences in the interaction according to the caregivers and children's age, the child's gender and the caregivers' satisfaction with the child's development. These results offer us a better understanding of the functioning of the adult–child relationships in foster families, which helps us make more efficient interventions to improve the caregivers' sensitivity towards the children's needs and difficulties.     

Child protection systems between professional cooperation and trustful relationships: A comparison of professional practical and ethical dilemmas in England/Wales,Germany, Portugal,and Slovenia

This paper explores practical and ethical dilemmas for professionals when securing the protection of children in the complex non‐clinical setting of individual families. It is based on a cross‐country study on cultural encounters in interventions against child physical abuse and neglect in four countries (England/Wales, Germany, Portugal, and Slovenia). Drawing on national reports of legal‐organizational frameworks and socio‐cultural backgrounds of European child protection systems, it also presents the results of a series of focus groups with professionals. Data were analysed to identify implicit and explicit discursive constructions as well as normative representations and from this deriving the key ethical issues and dilemmas. Despite a shared normative framework across Europe, intervention cultures vary across the four countries and between the different stakeholder groups. Although each child protection system faced widespread mistrust, policy approaches differ, some relying on strong and detailed guidance whereas others stress professional skill and judgement. We conclude that despite a shared commitment to the protection of children, deliberations and perceived ethical dilemmas suggest interdependency between differences in system cultures and policy approaches that inform the character of professional interventions in the four countries.     

The Effect of Different Cultural Lenses on Reliability and Validity in Observational Data: The Example of Chinese Immigrant Parent–Toddler Dinner Interactions

This study used a mixed methodology to investigate reliability, validity, and analysis level with Chinese immigrant observational data. European‐American and Chinese coders quantitatively rated 755 minutes of Chinese immigrant parent–toddler dinner interactions on parental sensitivity, intrusiveness, detachment, negative affect, positive affect, and parents' confidence. They also gave qualitative coding rationales for their quantitative ratings. Analysis of quantitative ratings indicated systematic differences associated with coder ethnicity. Such differences could threaten the reliability between coders with different ethnicities. Analysis of qualitative rationales revealed different cultural links between concepts and behavior cues, which could challenge the cross‐cultural validity of a macro‐level coding system. When a coding system is incongruous with coders' cultural schemata, even after intensive training, the effect of culture cannot be eliminated. Implications of these findings for observational cultural research are discussed.     

Contingencies in Mother–Child Teaching Interactions and Behavioral Regulation and Dysregulation in Early Childhood

Predictable patterns in early parent–child interactions may help lay the foundation for how children learn to self‐regulate. The present study examined contingencies between maternal teaching and directives and child compliance in mother–child problem‐solving interactions at age 3.5 and whether they predicted children's behavioral regulation and dysregulation (inhibitory control and externalizing behaviors) as rated by mothers, fathers, and teachers at a four‐month follow‐up (N = 100). The predictive utility of mother‐ and child‐initiated contingencies was also compared with that of frequencies of individual mother and child behaviors. Structural equation models revealed that a higher probability that maternal directives were followed by child compliance predicted better child behavioral regulation, whereas the reverse pattern and the overall frequency of maternal directives did not. For teaching, stronger mother‐ and child‐initiated contingencies and the overall frequency of maternal teaching all showed evidence for predicting better behavioral regulation. Findings depended on which caregiver was rating child outcomes. We conclude that dyadic measures are useful for understanding how parent–child interactions impact children's burgeoning regulatory abilities in early childhood.     

Exploring dyadic teacher–child interactions,emotional security,and task engagement in preschool children displaying externalizing behaviors

Based on attachment theory, we tested whether the link between dyadic teacher–child interactions and task engagement operates through a child's security with the teacher. In a sample of preschoolers (N = 470) rated by their teachers as exhibiting elevated disruptive behaviors, the quality of dyadic teacher–child interactions and children's security were observed using a standardized task. Children's engagement with tasks was both observed in the preschool classroom and rated by the teacher. Results indicated that the quality of teacher–child dyadic interactions was associated directly with teacher‐reported task engagement, and indirectly associated, through a child's security, with observed task engagement. We discussed the contribution of these findings to our understanding of how the quality of dyadic teacher–child interactions may serve to regulate children's behavior in the classroom for children whose teachers perceive them as displaying early externalizing behaviors.     

Effects of Nurturing and Non‐nurturing Caregiving on Child Social Initiatives: An Experimental Investigation of Emotion as a Mediator of Social Behavior1

This study examined the effects of one unfamiliar adult's warm, responsive interactions or cold, aloof, unresponsive interactions on child emotion and subsequent social initiatives to a second adult. Participants were 32 4¹/₂‐ to 5¹/₂‐year‐old preschool children. Nurturing, responsive caregiving and non‐nurturing, unresponsive caregiving were experimentally manipulated by experimenter facial and vocal affective expressions, positive versus negative statements to the child, and contingency of responding to the child's behavior. The effect of nurturance was examined on child emotions and social initiatives to another adult. Non‐nurturing caregiving produced less expressed happiness and fewer subsequent social initiatives. Furthermore, child emotion was found to mediate partially the relation between nurturing caregiving and social initiatives, with children who experienced interactions with a non‐nurturing caregiver expressing less happiness, which led to decreased social initiatives to a second adult.     

Children's awareness concerning emotion regulation strategies: Effects of attachment status

The current study evaluated the effects of preschoolers' attachment status on their awareness concerning emotion regulation strategies. A total of 212 children between 3 and 5 years participated in this study and completed two self‐report tasks. The first was the Attachment Story Completion Task (ASCT), which assessed children's internal working models concerning parent–child attachment; the second evaluated children's ability to generate emotion regulation strategies in relation to three negative emotions (anger, sadness, and fear). Statistical analyses involved a mixed models multilinear regression approach controlling for age and gender. The results consistently revealed that the insecure avoidant group was significantly less likely than securely attached children to generate both comforting and self‐regulatory strategies. Surprisingly, the insecure ambivalent group showed no deficits across measured outcomes. When the analyses were conducted separately for each negative emotion, findings for co‐regulatory strategies for fear, and self‐regulatory strategies for anger also suggested that avoidantly attached children exhibited the lowest levels of awareness compared with children from the secure attachment group. These findings stress the importance of children's attachment status, and implicitly, the quality of the parent–child interactions for children's awareness of emotion regulation strategies related to negative emotions.     

Black‐White Biracial Children's Social Development from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade: Links with Racial Identification,Gender, and Socioeconomic Status

In this study, we investigated trajectories of Black‐White biracial children's social development during middle childhood, their associations with parents’ racial identification of children, and the moderating effects of child gender and family socioeconomic status (SES). The study utilized data from parent and teacher reports on 293 US Black‐White biracial children enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS‐K). Growth curve models suggested increasing trajectories of teacher‐reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors between kindergarten and fifth grade. Parents’ racial identification of children predicted child externalizing behavior trajectories such that teachers rated biracially identified children's externalizing behaviors lower relative to those of Black‐ and White‐identified children. Additionally, for White‐identified biracial children, the effect of family SES on internalizing behavior trajectories was especially pronounced. These findings suggest that in the USA, how parents racially identify their Black‐White biracial children early on has important implications for children's problem behaviors throughout the elementary school years.     

Maternal responses to negative emotions and child externalizing behavior: Different relations for 5‐, 6‐, and 7‐year‐olds

Emotional and behavioral maturity expectations increase as children transition to primary school; thus, maternal responses that support and encourage children's expression of negative emotion may not benefit school‐age children as much as preschoolers. The current study explored a change in the utility of these maternal responses among 187 families (62 5‐year‐olds, 75 6‐year‐olds, and 50 7‐year‐olds). Mothers reported on their responses to children's negative emotions and children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors at two time points over 1 year. Multiple group analysis within cross‐lagged path models revealed a positive association between non‐supportive maternal responses and later child externalizing behaviors among 5‐year‐olds. However, non‐supportive responses were related to decreases in externalizing behaviors among the 7‐year‐olds. Discrepant findings between the 5‐ and 7‐year‐olds may represent a developmental shift in the function of mothers' emotion socialization practices.     

Towards a second‐order view of child protection placement‐related decision‐making

Child protection workers are tasked with prioritizing and facilitating safe, secure and preferably, long‐term care arrangements for children and adolescents living within the child protection system. Recognizing the complexities associated with this task, this paper will propose that the application of theory – namely attachment theory and family systems theory – may aid in the conceptualization of placement decision‐making within the context of child protection practice. In particular, this paper will describe a framework entitled: Towards a second‐order view of child protection placement‐related decision‐making. This framework assumes the position that the ideals of relationship security and permanency of placement are more accessible in instances in which practitioners are able to locate themselves within temporary, stabilized but ultimately evolving systems. Specifically, the practitioner is encouraged to conceptualize where their individual selves, the broader child protection system and family system are located at any one point in time, whilst also identifying the direction in which these systems should be moving.     

Child Care Caregiver Sensitivity and Attachment

Changes in child care caregivers' sensitivity and in children's attachment security were examined in three studies. Study one involved 55 children enrolled in community based child care. There was no intervention in these sites. Caregiver responsive involvement and children's attachment security did not change over time or when children changed caregivers. Study two involved 71 toddler age children enrolled in family child care homes. The caregivers of these children were enrolled in a family child care training project. Six months after the training security scores increased and caregivers of children who became secure or remained secure were more sensitive following training. Study three involved 36 children enrolled in center-based child care. Children were observed before and after selective staff replacement and in-service training to increase caregiver sensitivity. Six months following intervention security scores increased and caregivers of children who became secure or remained secure were more sensitive following training.     

Attachment Representations and Discipline in Mothers of Young School Children: An Observation Study

Previous research was extended by connecting maternal attachment representations not only to maternal emotional support and task structuring, but also to maternal discipline. A total number of 62 mothers of preschoolers (M_age = 54 months) completed the adult attachment interview and a self‐report measure of dysfunctional discipline. Two years later, a subsample of 38 mother–child dyads was observed during two laboratory interaction tasks in which the mother and child were induced to have divergent goals. In general, the hypothesized connections between maternal attachment representations and discipline were found, at least when discipline was independently observed. Specifically, as compared to autonomous mothers, non‐autonomous mothers showed more overreactivity, more psychological control and less flexibility in their discipline attempts. Also, their children were less compliant. These differences were more pronounced during a story‐eliciting task than during a block task. These findings suggest that parental behaviors in the discipline domain contribute to the explanation of the intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns.     

Emotional Climate in Families Experiencing Homelessness: Associations with Child Affect and Socioemotional Adjustment in School

This study examined associations among family‐level risks, emotional climate, and child adjustment in families experiencing homelessness. Emotional climate, an indirect aspect of emotion socialization, was indexed by parents’ expressed emotion while describing their children. Sociodemographic risk and parent internalizing distress were hypothesized to predict more negativity and less warmth in the emotional climate. Emotional climate was expected to predict observer‐rated child affect and teacher‐reported socioemotional adjustment, mediating effects of risk. Participants were 138 homeless parents (64 percent African‐American) and their four‐ to six‐year‐old children (43.5 percent male). During semi‐structured interviews, parents reported demographic risks and internalizing distress and completed a Five Minute Speech Sample about their child, later rated for warmth and negativity. Children's positive and negative affect were coded from videotapes of structured parent‐child interaction tasks. Socioemotional adjustment (externalizing behavior, peer acceptance, and prosocial behavior) was reported by teachers a few months later. Hypotheses were partially supported. Parent internalizing distress was associated with higher parent negativity, which was linked to more negative affect in children, and parent warmth was associated with children's positive affect. Neither emotional climate nor child affect predicted teacher‐reported externalizing behavior or peer acceptance, but parental negativity and male sex predicted lower prosocial behavior in the classroom. Future research directions and clinical implications are discussed.     

Preschoolers' Attachment to Mother and Risk for Adjustment Problems in Kindergarten: Can Teachers Make a Difference?

Based on attachment theory, two aims were addressed. Firstly, we tested whether close teacher–child relationships may buffer children who are less securely attached to their mothers against negative outcomes, such as aggressive behavior. Secondly, our study evaluated whether teacher sensitivity may protect less securely attached children against forming less close relationships with their teachers. In a sample of 127 children, mother–child attachment was observed in preschool. In kindergarten, teacher sensitivity was observed, and teacher–child closeness and child aggressive behavior were rated by the teacher. Results of multilevel hierarchical regression analyses first showed that with high teacher–child closeness, less securely attached children are no longer at risk for more aggressive behavior. Secondly, it was found that with high teacher sensitivity, less securely attached children are no longer at risk for developing less close relationships with their teachers.     

Friendships of Indonesian Children: Adjustment of Children Who Differ in Friendship Presence and Similarity Between Mutual Friends

Two aspects of the friendships of 960 Indonesian 10‐year‐old children were assessed. First, the characteristics of children with and without mutual friends were compared. Children without friends were more aggressive, withdrawn, and lower in academic achievement and social preference than those with friends. Second, similarities between children and their friends were assessed by comparing 132 target children with their friend and non‐friend classmates. Children were more similar to their friends than to non‐friends in social preference, achievement, peer and teacher rated antisocial behavior, and peer and teacher rated social withdrawal. The similarities of the friendships of Indonesian children to those of Western children with respect to these two features provide evidence of construct equivalence of friendships across cultures.     

Do Young Children's Representations of Discipline and Empathy Moderate the Effects of Punishment on Emotion Regulation?

This study examined whether children's representations of parenting (perceptions of authoritative discipline and empathy) moderated the association between harsh punishment—including corporal punishment (CP) and verbal punishment (VP)—and children's emotion regulation at the age of five years. Participants were 559 low‐income mother‐child dyads. Maternal self‐reports and home observations were used to measure punishment. Children's representations were assessed using the MacArthur Story Stem Battery. Children's emotion regulation was assessed by observer rating via the Leiter International Performance Scale–Revised. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that children's authoritative disciplinary representations moderated the effects of both VP and CP on children's emotion regulation. Empathic representations moderated the effects of VP only on children's emotion regulation. The current findings highlight the role of children's internal representations as potential protective factors in the context of harsher forms of punishment.     

A Home-based Description of Attachment in Physically Disabled Infants

This study investigated attachment security and behavior in 34 physically disabled infants and 26 non‐disabled infants by using convergent, categorical (secure, avoidant and ambivalent) and continuous (Attachment Behavior Q‐Set) measures of the relationship, based on the same set of home observations. Proportions of attachment classifications were not different for disabled and non‐disabled infants, but insecure infants in the disabled group scored consistently lower on the AQS security score than non‐disabled insecure infants. This result suggests that while proportions of attachment classifications may not vary as a function of infant status, insecure disabled infants are more insecure than insecure non‐disabled infants. An analysis of 5 behavioral dimensions of the AQS showed that secure infants emitted the same kinds of attachment behaviors without regard for infant status. Insecure disabled infants, however, showed lower levels of secure base behavior and physical contact with mother than their non‐disabled counterparts, and showed a marginal tendency to fuss more as well. Discussion focuses on the potential benefits of using convergent, categorical and continuous measures of attachment in the study of both typical and atypical groups of infants.     

Parental Depressive Symptoms, Children's Representations of Family Relationships, and Child Adjustment

This study extends the investigation of family process models of parental dysphoria and child adjustment, by examining depressive symptoms in both fathers and mothers, and by examining children's representations of family relationships as possible explanatory mechanisms. Participants were 232 children (Time 1 mean age: 5.99; 105 boys, 127 girls) and their cohabiting parents, who participated for three consecutive years. Children's internal representations of multiple family relationships were assessed by means of a story stem completion task. Structural equation modeling indicated that children's inter‐parental and attachment representations are part of the process whereby parental depressive symptoms influence child externalizing symptoms. Maternal depressive symptoms also predicted changes in children's representations of marital and attachment relationships over time. The implications for family process models of relations between parental depressive symptoms in community samples and child development are discussed.     

Children's Attachment Relationships with Day Care Caregivers: Associations with Positive Caregiving and the Child's Temperament

In this study, children's attachment relationships with their professional caregivers in center day care were observed for 48 children. We explored whether more positive caregiving was associated with a more secure attachment relationship and whether this association was stronger for more temperamentally irritable children compared to less irritable children. Trained observers coded the attachment relationship in the day care setting using the attachment Q-sort. The observational record of the caregiving environment was used to assess children's individual experience of positive caregiver–child interaction in the classroom. When caregivers showed more frequent positive caregiving behavior, children showed more secure attachment behavior toward their primary professional caregiver. Temperament was not related to attachment security, nor did it serve as a moderator. Consequently, no support for Belsky's susceptibility hypothesis was found.