Developmental Psychology

Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne; Phelps, Erin; Elder, Glen H.

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.899pmid: N/A

To study lives in context through time, many approaches are available to the developmental psychologist. Two such ways are the analyses of longitudinal national data and secondary data analysis of long-term developmental studies conducted to answer questions not originally posed. This article, the first in a series of four, considers the current opportunities for, and possible limitations of, these two types of analyses, the policy relevance of these analyses, and their application to interdisciplinary research.

McCall, Robert B.; Appelbaum, Mark I.

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.911pmid: N/A

This article points out that conducting secondary analyses of large, multivariate, longitudinal, and interdisciplinary databases involves a set of procedures and considerations that in many ways differ from those used to design and analyze a traditional study. The steps in this process are presented, and some of the problems associated with conducting such studies are discussed.

Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay; Mott, Frank L.; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne; Phillips, Deborah A.

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.918pmid: N/A

The data set known as Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) offers unusual opportunities for research on questions not easily pursued by developmental psychologists. This article provides a history of Children of the NLSY, describes the data set with special focus on the child outcome measures and a subset of maternal life history measures, highlights several of the research and policy relevant issues that may be addressed, and shows how the intersection of children's and mothers' lives may be studied in less static, more life-course oriented ways. Exemplars are given in the topics of maternal employment and child care, adolescent pregnancy and child rearing, divorce, poverty, and multigenerational parenting. Implications of research using children of the NLSY for the field of developmental psychology and interdisciplinary collaboration are discussed.

Baydar, Nazli; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.932pmid: N/A

The intersection of maternal employment and child care in the first 3 years of life was considered. The cognitive and behavioral effects of continuity, intensity, and timing of maternal employment in the 1st year and of the different types of child-care arrangements were investigated. Employment in the 1st year had detrimental effects on the cognitive and behavioral development of all children regardless of gender or poverty status. Infancy-care arrangements affected cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Grandmother care was the most beneficial arrangement for cognitive development of children in poverty. Regarding behavioral development, mother care was most beneficial for boys, and baby-sitter care was most beneficial for girls.

Cherlin, Andrew

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.946pmid: N/A

Sociologists and economists have long analyzed data sets collected by other researchers for different purposes. Since the mid-1960s, longitudinal surveys specifically designed to be publicly available to the research community have been carried out. Some of the recent ones contain much fuller measurements of children's development than do older surveys. These recent surveys present excellent opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration involving developmental psychologists. The benefits of collaborative research are discussed in this article.

Duncan, Greg J.

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.949pmid: N/A

Secondary data analysis and interdisciplinary collaboration have a great deal to offer developmentalists. The research traditions of economists and quantitative sociologists have produced large-scale longitudinal studies using national samples, useful statistical techniques for approximating experimental conditions and interesting theoretical insights.

Hergenrather, Julie R.; Rabinowitz, Mitchell

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.952pmid: N/A

This article compares the structures of illness schemata of healthy children demonstrating varying degrees of knowledge about illness. Three age groups participated (6–7-year-olds, 9–10-year-olds, and 13–14-year-olds). The younger children were more likely to use non-illness-related concepts when sorting illness-related stimuli. Performance on recognition of illness and cause of illness tasks further suggested that younger children used concepts related to human behavior, rather than to illness, in completing these tasks. They believed changes in behavior, rather than symptoms, signaled illness and that most illnesses were contagious. With increased knowledge, however, illness-related concepts gained primacy. Older children believed symptoms signaled disease and had a broader understanding about the many factors that might cause illness.

Shapiro, Lauren R.; Hudson, Judith A.

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.960pmid: N/A

The effects of 2 factors, previewing and inclusion of a problem-resolution structure, on children's ability to construct stories from picture sequences of familiar events were examined. Preschoolers only produced coherent and cohesive stories when provided with pictures that corresponded to a well-formed story structure. Children provided causally sequenced plots, referred to characters' internal responses, and used a thematic subject pronoun strategy when constructing stories with pictures containing embedded problem sequences. In contrast, children focused on actions, used simple connectives, and a less sophisticated pronoun strategy in stories when pictures portrayed typical but uneventful sequences of the same events. Thus, children were constrained by the stimulus materials provided and could only produce narratives that were representative of good stories when the information contained in picture sequences was explicit. The finding that first graders produced structurally more complex stories containing goals and plots and used more complex language, past tense, and temporal connectives than preschoolers suggests that they may have a more elaborate story concept. Previewing event-based pictures encouraged children to make narratives more storylike. This study indicates that providing episodic support reduces task demands in children's storytelling.

Poole, Debra A.; White, Lawrence T.

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.975pmid: N/A

This study examined witnesses' answers to repeated questions about a novel event, both within and across interviews. Ss in 4 age groups (4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds and adults; N = 133) individually witnessed an ambiguous incident. Some Ss were interviewed immediately and 1 week later; others were interviewed only once, 1 week later. Children were as accurate as adults when responding to open-ended questions, but 4-year-olds were more likely to change responses to yes–no questions. Adults speculated more frequently than children on a specific question about which they had no information, and answers to this question became more certain with repetition. An “inoculation” procedure was successful in reducing the frequency of inappropriate speculation. When openended questions were used, a moderate amount of repetition primarily influenced presentation style rather than accuracy.

Hay, Dale F.; Caplan, Marlene; Castle, Jennifer; Stimson, Carol A.

doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.6.987pmid: N/A

Forty-eight 1- and 48 2-year-olds were observed in groups of 3, with either a female or a male majority, on 2 consecutive days, 1 day with scarce resources and the other day with ample resources in counterbalanced order. Particular toys were available in duplicate for half the groups on both days. All the experimental variables together influenced spontaneous sharing, but sharing under pressure from peers was affected by age (1-year-olds sharing more often than 2-year-olds) and the relative loss or gain of resources across days.