Browsing by Subject "Self-regulation"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Codified compassion: politics and principles in humanitarian governance
    (2012-08) Kennedy, Denis V.F.
    This dissertation analyzes recent attempts to devise rules and regulations to govern humanitarian action. Specifically, it asks: What drives humanitarian organizations to collectively regulate their principles, practices, and policies? Self-regulation, or self-organized attempts at collective action within direct state intervention, is a recent global phenomenon, affecting both the for- and non-profit worlds. In humanitarianism alone, there are now dozens of codes of conduct and other mechanisms that implicate all manner of humanitarian practice, from principles to aid provision. This research focuses on four key self-regulatory projects: the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief; the Sphere Project; HAP International; and the Code of Conduct on Images and Messages.Contrary to the widespread view that firms regulate for branding and competitive reasons, this study finds that principled reasons better account for the origins of these initiatives. Specifically, it shows that self-regulation has emerged out of a crisis of legitimacy in the humanitarian sector, whereby aid veterans concluded that good intentions were no longer enough as a basis for action. As Rwanda demonstrated, good intentions can lead to terrible outcomes. Through self-regulation, aid workers have sought to shift humanitarianism's ideational foundations from charity and good deeds to professionalism, technical standards, and human rights. Contestations over self-regulation, in turn, derive from different understandings of humanitarianism - of its meanings and know-how.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Effects of Animal-Assisted Activities on the Social and Emotional Development of Young Children with Characteristics of Emotional Behavioral Disorders
    (2011) Schmid, Elaine K
    As emotional behavioral disorders become more prevalent throughout the school-age population, intervention during the early childhood ages is becoming key. Considering that social emotional delays are risk factors for emotional behavioral disorders and the evidence of social-emotional health in the early years leading to emotional well-being in adolescent and adult years, there is a significant need for social and emotional health in early childhood. Animal-assisted activities are ways to teach concepts such as selfawareness, self-regulation, social engagement, emotional understanding, and empathy to children in primary school. In this case study, four 6 and 7 year old children participated in animal-assisted activities with domestic farm animals. Child self-reports (Bryant Index of Empathy), parent-reports (Griffeth Empathy Measure), and behavioral observations (Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales) were all used to measure the change in empathy, social interaction, and social cooperation over the five sessions. Over the course of five one-hour sessions with farm animals, children showed an increase in empathy, social interaction, and social cooperation. This case study demonstrates the impact that animal-assisted activities can have on young children. Future research should investigate the impact of animal-assisted activities on larger, more diverse groups of young children.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Executive function measures in early childhood screening: Concurrent and predictive validity
    (2017-06) Kalstabakken, Amanda
    Recently, evidence has emerged suggesting that executive function (EF) in early childhood is related to multiple aspects of school success, including learning, academic achievement, and social functioning. Despite this evidence, little or no research has focused on the value of EF assessment in routine early childhood assessments. The present study, with the collaboration of a large and diverse urban school district, examined the concurrent and predictive validity of EF assessment in the context of screening. Analyses focused on a sample of 461 children ages 3 to 5 years old who were assessed on three EF tasks in addition to routine screening. EF measures included two computerized NIH Toolbox measures, the Flanker and Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) tasks, with developmental extensions (Dext) that lower the floor of these measures, and Peg Tapping. Routine screening included well-validated developmental readiness and behavioral measures. Results of multivariate analyses indicated that Flanker-Dext and DCCS-Dext worked well to lower the floor of the Toolbox EF measures and that the three EF tasks showed the expected convergent validity. Structural equation models indicated that a latent variable based on the three EF scores was highly related to performance on the developmental screener and moderately and negatively related to other screening measures, including parent-report of child social-emotional problems and screener-observed behavior problems. EF was a significant predictor of academic skills at the beginning of kindergarten and predicted growth across the school year. EF did not provide unique predictive value for predicting academic outcomes over and above other screening measures in use by this district. In contrast, EF both contributed unique predictive value for kindergarten behavior and also was the only measure administered during screening that continued to have unique predictive value for first-grade behavior (over kindergarten behavior). These findings indicate that EF is important for school success, can be assessed by brief and easy-to-learn measures during screening, and may be an important target for intervention in early childhood.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Parent-child relationships in young homeless families: co-regulation as a predictor of child self-regulation and school adjustment
    (2011-08) Herbers, Janette E.
    Developing adaptive behaviors are particularly important for children growing up in contexts of risk and adversity. This study examined the role of effective parenting for school success in a high-risk sample of children, focusing on co-regulation experiences with parents in relation to child self-regulation skills. In early childhood, it is largely through experiences of co-regulation within the caregiver-child relationship that children develop self-regulation. These skills are carried forward into other contexts of learning and development, including the school environment. The current thesis examined parent-child relationships among 138 families residing in emergency homeless shelter prior to the children entering kindergarten and first grade. Using observational data and state space grid methodology, I examined the parent-child relationship as a dynamic system with implications for children‟s school success and executive function (a central component of self-regulation). Results indicated that the positive co-regulation experiences were related to executive function capabilities and IQ in the child, which in turn were related to school outcomes. Parent responsiveness in particular was related to positive school outcomes. Person-oriented cluster analyses of individual state space grids revealed distinct types of dyads among the homeless families, highlighting individual differences in dyadic functioning. Findings support theory and earlier findings in developmental and resilience science implicating effective parenting in the acquisition of adaptive skills among children who overcome adversity, in part through processes of co-regulation that shape or scaffold the development of self-regulation and related cognitive skills in young children.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Parenting Gets Under the Skin: Mother-Child Physiological Synchrony and Child Self-Regulation in Post-Deployed Military Families
    (2021-05) Zhang, Jingchen
    Parent-child physiological synchrony, which is characterized by the matching or concordance of physiological states among parents and children, has been theorized to be linked to children’s self-regulation and adaptive outcomes. However, the link between physiological synchrony and child regulatory outcomes was rarely examined in empirical studies, especially in the at-risk populations (i.e., post-deployed military families). Also, no research has investigated the impact of parenting interventions on physiological synchrony. Study 1 employed a multilevel growth modeling approach to model dynamic changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) during a dyadic problem-solving task, and results showed a positive association between physiological synchrony and child self-regulation. Also, younger children tended to show positive lagged synchrony with mothers while older children tended to show negative lagged synchrony. Mothers’ emotion dysregulation was found to be associated with higher levels of lagged synchrony. Additionally, synchrony was found to be linked to both positive (i.e., fewer displays of anger/disgust, more positive physical behaviors, and less negative directive behaviors) and negative parenting behaviors (i.e., fewer displays of positive affect). Study 2 explored the effect of the After Deployment, Adaptive Parenting Tools/ADAPT parenting intervention on dyadic synchrony, as well as the moderation effect of synchrony at baseline on the indirect intervention effect on child self-regulation through changes in parental emotion socialization. Although the hypothesized intervention effect was not observed, dyads with negative synchrony at baseline were found to benefit more from the ADAPT intervention. The changes in emotion socialization behaviors were further associated with better child self-regulation. These two studies highlighted the importance of parent-child physiological synchrony in self-regulation development in children in military families who are at risk for developing maladaptive behaviors. The implications and future directions are discussed.