Effects of social economic status and parenting values on adolescents’ expected field of study

Field of study decisions are important for children’s future life chances, as significant differences exist in terms of financial and status benefits across fields of study. We examine whether the economic or the cultural status of the parents is more influential in shaping their children’s expectations about their future field of study. We also test whether children’s expectations about field of study choices are mediated by the child-rearing values that parents hold. Results show that parental economic status increased the likelihood of adolescents expecting to opt for extrinsic rewarding fields of study. Adolescent girls, not boys, with high cultural status parents were more likely to expect to opt for intrinsically rewarding fields of study. An upbringing that is characterized by conformity increased the expectations of boys to choose an extrinsically rewarding study, while self-direction increased the expectations of girls to opt for an extrinsic field of study

STUDYING IDEAS OF SENIOR PRESCHOOLERS ABOUT THEIR PARENTS

Statement of the problem. The authors of this paper study the ideas of children of senior preschool age about their parents. Currently, the phenomenon of modern parenthood is actively discussed in the scientific literature, including the specifics of parents’ attitude to their underaged children and the image of parenthood in the representations of modern mothers and fathers. At the same time, there are practically no studies characterizing the image of a parent in the representations of children. The purpose of the article is to characterize the ideas of children of senior preschool age about their parents. The methodology of the research consists of the scientific ideas of A. Adler, M. O. Ermikhina about the importance of studying a child’s ideas about parents as a factor in the formation of its attitude to oneself and relationships with others; a systematic approach in the study of the family (A. Ya. Varga); the research of A. Adler, J. Bowlby and Russian scientists L. I. Bozhovich, N. V. Varayeva, L. S. Vygotsky, I. V. Dubrovina, T. V. Leus, and V. S. Mukhina regarding the influence of the image of father and mother formed in child’s ideas on the nature of its relationships with people around it and its social functioning throughout life. The study involved children of senior preschool age who are brought up in two-parent families. The main research method was content analysis of textual information obtained through an associative experiment. To identify an unconscious, automated level of representation of the image of father and mother by children of senior preschool age, as well as features of their relationships with parents, the “Incomplete sentences” method was used. Research results. The results of the study of the ideas of senior preschoolers about their parents are described. It is established that the ideas of senior preschool children about their parents are generally characterized by an emotionally positive attitude towards their father and mother. Children’s expectations from their parents are associated with participation of parents in joint activities with them (games, walks), as well as with manifestation of positive emotions and feelings by parents. At the same time, in the associations of children, there is practically no experience of interaction with parents against the background of the leading type of activity of a preschool child – games. The fears of children associated with their parents are characterized by the fear of emotional rejection by parents. Conclusion. Based on the presented description of the ideas of senior preschool children about their parents, the authors of this article propose and justify a system of psychological and pedagogical work with parents, which involves: informing them about the influence of child-parent relations on the mental and personal development of a preschool child; forming their position of emotional acceptance in relation to a child; teaching them effective ways of interacting with a child based on the leading type of children’s activity – games. The main content of this work is psychological education, as well as individual and group counseling of parents.

ELICITING CHILDREN'S EXPECTATIONS FOR HAND PROSTHESES THROUGH GENERATIVE DESIGN TOOLS

When designing assistive devices for children with disabilities, designers mostly consider technical and functional aspects and overlook factors that affect their usage from children’s perspective. Therefore, in most cases, assistive devices do not fully meet the needs of the children and may create a negative effect on children’s well-being. To explore the opinion’s of children using 3D printed hand prosthetics in Country-Xx, individual generative sessions were conducted with four children with limb deficiency. Generative tools are used to engage children and encourage them to express themselves in relation to prosthesis use. The main aim was to investigate how children provide design relevant information that may help designers to achieve improved assistive devices that support children’s physical, emotional and social wellbeing. Children’s feedback related to prosthetic usage categorized under two topics; expectations of children for prosthesis use and children’s priority expectation for the prosthesis. The findings are argued to be useful and usable by NGOs, product designers and design researchers who work with children with disabilities.

Creating a Child-Friendly Environment: An Interpretation of Children’s Drawings from Planned Neighborhood Parks of Lucknow City

The urban environment is a product of many tangible and intangible factors for communities, involving activities, spaces, and users of different age groups. Stakeholder consultation has become an essential part of envisaging any urban space. In general practice, mostly adults’ opinions and suggestions are taken into account, and children are sidelined, even if the issues are related to children. Children are an integral part of the present urbanizing world and are some of its most sensitive and affected users. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes three P’s: provision, protection, and participation. The third, participation, is a crucial dimension of creating a healthier environment, but it has largely been neglected. The drawing technique is among the methods to gather information directly through the children’s participatory approach. It has been observed that children prefer to express themselves by drawing rather than answering questions and find it easy and enjoyable. This research incorporates drawing as a methodological tool for identifying children’s expectations and understanding their preferences about their ideal neighborhood park. A total of 80 children aged between 6 and 15 years from planned zones of Lucknow city were selected for the research. The results derived from the content and co-relation data analysis techniques highlight that children emphasized physical, perceptional, cognitive, emotional, and social parameters for developing a child-friendly environment in parks and open spaces.

Toddlers and preschoolers understand that some preferences are more subjective than others

Four experiments examined Canadian 2-3-year-old children’s (N=224; 104 girls, 120 boys) thoughts about shared preferences. Children saw sets of items, and identified theirs and another person’s preferences. Children expected that food preferences would be more likely to be shared than color preferences, regardless of whether the items were similar or different in appeal (Experiments 1-3). A final study replicated these findings while also exploring children’s expectations about activity and animal preferences. Across all studies, children expected shared preferences at surprisingly low rates (never higher than chance). Overall, these findings suggest that young children understand that some preferences are more subjective than others, and that these expectations are driven by beliefs about domains of preferences.

Exploring the Role of Trust and Expectations in CRI Using In-the-Wild Studies

Studying interactions of children with humanoid robots in familiar spaces in natural contexts has become a key issue for social robotics. To fill this need, we conducted several Child–Robot Interaction (CRI) events with the Pepper robot in Polish and Japanese kindergartens. In this paper, we explore the role of trust and expectations towards the robot in determining the success of CRI. We present several observations from the video recordings of our CRI events and the transcripts of free-format question-answering sessions with the robot using the Wizard-of-Oz (WOZ) methodology. From these observations, we identify children’s behaviors that indicate trust (or lack thereof) towards the robot, e.g., challenging behavior of a robot or physical interactions with it. We also gather insights into children’s expectations, e.g., verifying expectations as a causal process and an agency or expectations concerning the robot’s relationships, preferences and physical and behavioral capabilities. Based on our experiences, we suggest some guidelines for designing more effective CRI scenarios. Finally, we argue for the effectiveness of in-the-wild methodologies for planning and executing qualitative CRI studies.

Using Virtual Reality to Stimulate Healthy and Environmentally Friendly Food Consumption among Children: An Interview Study

Since habits formed during childhood are predictive of adult behaviour, children form an important target group when it comes to improving healthy and environmentally friendly food consumption. To explore the potential of immersive virtual reality (VR) in this respect, we conducted a semi-structured interview study (N = 22) among children aged 6–13 years. This study consisted of two parts: (1) a VR experience and (2) a semi-structured interview to investigate (1) to what extent children are able to recall and understand information about the impact of food products on their health and the environment when provided to them as pop-ups in a VR supermarket; (2) what rational and emotional processes are triggered by this information; and (3) what children’s expectations about the real-life application and impact of the pop-ups are, and why. Interview data were analysed using the framework method. Results showed that although all participants were able to recall the information, only children from an average age of ten years old also understood the information. When participants understood the information, they were often aware of and felt sorry for their negative behavioural impact. Most participants expected their behaviour to positively change when imagining real-life application of the pop-ups.

Adventurous Play as a Mechanism for Reducing Risk for Childhood Anxiety: A Conceptual Model

In this conceptual article, we draw upon the literature regarding cognitive and behavioural factors that underpin childhood anxiety to outline how a range of these risk markers might be targeted through adventurous play. When children play in an adventurous way, climbing trees, riding their bikes fast downhill and jumping from rocks, they experience feelings of fear and excitement, thrill and adrenaline. We propose that the positive, thrilling and playful emotions associated with this type of child-led play facilitate exposure to fear-provoking situations and, in doing so, provide opportunities for children to learn about physiological arousal, uncertainty and coping. We hypothesise that these learning opportunities will, over time, reduce children’s risk for elevated anxiety by increasing children’s expectations and ability to cope with anxiety, decreasing intolerance of uncertainty and preventing catastrophic misinterpretations of physiological arousal. If our conceptual model is correct, then ensuring that children have the physical and psychological space required to play in an adventurous way may help to decrease their risk for elevated or clinical anxiety.

Is translating poems for children a child’s play? A linguistic analysis of the English translations of “Lokomotywa” by Julian Tuwim

The aim of the present article is to demonstrate the challenges connected with the translation of children’s poetry, and to offer a qualitative analysis of different translation strategies employed in two English translations of the Polish poem for children “Lokomotywa” by Julian Tuwim. The translation analysis is based on the translation strategies proposed by Lawrence Venuti and Peter Newmark. It focuses on the linguistic and cultural differences between Polish and English, and examines the choices of the translation strategies made by the translators, and the impact they may have had on the reception of the poem in the target language. The comparison shows that although there may be some limitations in terms of the target language and culture, the translators are able to find suitable and effective solutions and simultaneously convey the source text’s form and content. The conclusions placed at the end of the paper summarise the features of both translations and emphasise those strategies employed by the translators which are effective and thanks to which the translations are likely to live up to children’s expectations.

Protecting Refugee Students’ Wellbeing After Research

This study examines how Syrian refugee children’s participation in an ethnographic study affected their well-being, using the premises of attachment theory and listening as care. Three Syrian children, aged 10–12 in Turkish public schools, participated in this study. The data of this study were generated by combining these children’s interviews and observations in 2016 and new interviews in 2018. This study argues that the researcher may be the closest option for these children to develop a long and secure relationship because their teachers and the school community provided misguided messages about the researcher’s role in the school and these children’s expectations from the researcher. Given this situation, the findings of this study suggest that researchers should allocate time after research to understand how their presence affects refugee children and prepare culturally relevant and individualized exit strategies to avoid harming them.