"Why do dogs pant?": Characteristics of parental explanations about science predict children's knowledge.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Mills CM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9292766 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Parental social support and monitoring are associated with children's externalizing behavior but clarity is needed on how these mechanisms interact to influence youth. This study examined if parental social support magnifies the protective effects of sources of parental knowledge (Parental Control, Parental Solicitation, Child Disclosure) on the development of substance initiation and delinquency across adolescence. Participants were 6-8th graders (N?=?1023; 52% female; 83% White; 87.8% non-Hispanic) from six (one urban, two rural, three suburban) Rhode Island schools assessed annually for four years. Parental control protected against substance initiation, but only in supportive relationships. All sources of parental knowledge were associated with less delinquency, but only in supportive relationships. Interventions focused on increasing children's perceptions of parental social support may enhance the effectiveness of sources of parental knowledge in buffering against children's externalizing behavior.
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Project description:BackgroundIncreases in portion size are thought by many to promote obesity in children. However, this relationship remains unclear. Here, we explore the extent to which a child's BMI is predicted both by parental beliefs about their child's ideal and maximum portion size and/or by the child's own beliefs.MethodsParent-child (5-11 years) dyads (N = 217) were recruited from a randomized controlled trial (n = 69) and an interactive science centre (n = 148). For a range of main meals, parents estimated their child's 'ideal' and 'maximum tolerated' portions. Children completed the same tasks.ResultsAn association was found between parents' beliefs about their child's ideal (? = .34, p < .001) and maximum tolerated (? = .30, p < .001) portions, and their child's BMI. By contrast, children's self-reported ideal (? = .02, p = .718) and maximum tolerated (? = -.09, p = .214) portions did not predict their BMI. With increasing child BMI, parents' estimations aligned more closely with their child's own selected portions.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that when a parent selects a smaller portion for their child than their child self-selects, then the child is less likely to be obese. Therefore, public health measures to prevent obesity might include instructions to parents on appropriate portions for young children.
| S-EPMC5873371 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Laboratory studies have demonstrated beneficial effects of making comparisons on children's analogical reasoning skills. We extend this finding to an observational dataset comprising 42 children. The prevalence of specific comparisons, which identify a feature of similarity or difference, in children's spontaneous speech from 14-58 months is associated with higher scores in tests of verbal and non-verbal analogy in 6th grade. We test two pre-registered hypotheses about how parents influence children's production of specific comparisons: 1) via modelling, where parents produce specific comparisons during the sessions prior to child onset of this behaviour; 2) via responsiveness, where parents respond to their children's earliest specific comparisons in variably engaged ways. We do not find that parent modelling or responsiveness predicts children's production of specific comparisons. However, one of our pre-registered control analyses suggests that parents' global comparisons-comparisons that do not identify a specific feature of similarity or difference-may bootstrap children's later production of specific comparisons, controlling for parent IQ. We present exploratory analyses following up on this finding and suggest avenues for future confirmatory research. The results illuminate a potential route by which parents' behaviour may influence children's early spontaneous comparisons and potentially their later analogical reasoning skills.
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Project description:BackgroundBiodiversity is being lost rapidly and its conservation is thus one of the most urgent tasks today. For biodiversity conservation to be successful, the public needs to gain an awareness and understanding of biodiversity and its importance. Moreover, species experts are needed who have the skills necessary for identifying and recording biodiversity. Previous research showed that citizen science projects can contribute to educating the public about biodiversity. However, it is still unclear how project characteristics connect to participants' knowledge and skills and how citizen science projects should be designed if they are to foster participants' learning.AimWe aimed to investigate specific characteristics of biodiversity citizen science projects that could potentially influence participants' learning. We explored the following project characteristics from both the project coordinators' and the participants' perspectives: information and training provided to participants, social interaction among participants, contact between participants and staff, and feedback and recognition provided to participants.Methods and resultsIn order to examine the extent to which these project characteristics are connected to participants' gains in knowledge and skills, we conducted a comprehensive study across 48 biodiversity citizen science projects in Europe and Australia. We found that participants' perceived gains in knowledge and skills were significantly related to the five project characteristics as reported by the participants: information received by the participants, training received by the participants, social interaction among participants, contact between participants and staff, and feedback and recognition received by the participants.ConclusionWe conclude that by deliberately designing citizen science projects to include features such as interaction and feedback, these projects could achieve higher learning outcomes for the participants. Thereby, suitable modes of communication between projects and their participants are crucial. We provide specific suggestions for the design of biodiversity citizen science projects and for future research on project characteristics and participant outcomes.
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Project description:Background: Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure in children ranks one of the major public health problems in our time. Poor parental knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) on ETS often contribute to worse exposure of the kids. Thus, we aimed to document parental KAP regarding tobacco use, smoking cessation and children's ETS exposure, and to analyse how knowledge and attitude relate to practice. Methods: Self-administered KAP questionnaires were distributed to smoking parents recruited from the pediatric unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital, which provides pediatric service to a population of 1.2 million in Hong Kong. The 60-item questionnaire had a range of 0-38 for knowledge, 0-44 for attitude, and 0-40 for practice. Descriptive analyses were performed for KAP response, regression analyses were performed for the exploration of associations and identification of predictive indicators. Results: 145 smoking parents (mean age: 38.0 ± 6.7 yrs.; male: 85.5%) were included. Less than half (39.3%) of them reported a smoke-free policy at home. Among those parents who had private cars, less than half (45.2%) of them had smoke-free policy in their car that they never smoked in the car. Only 25.5% of the participants correctly answered ≥70% of the knowledge questions, and 11.8 % of the participants gave favorable responses to ≥70% of the attitude questions. The total knowledge and the total attitudes score were positively associated (r = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.35-0.79, p < 0.001), yet they were only modestly correlated with parental practice on children's ETS exposure. By multivariate regressions, potential predictive factors for more favorable parental KAP included higher household income, lower parental nicotine dependence level and breastfeeding practice. Conclusions: Parental KAP related to tobacco use and children's ETS exposure needs improvement to address the significant gap between recommended and actual practice. The weak association between knowledge and practice suggested that parental education alone is not adequate to combat ETS exposure in children.
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Project description:In Danish outdoor kindergartens, children are spending most of the day outdoors often in forests or similar nature environments. These children are assumed to be healthier than children attending conventional kindergartens, however, factors related to choosing a specific type of kindergarten may explain the differences. To better understand this, we aimed to investigate parents reasons for choosing either outdoor or conventional kindergartens based on a mixed-method participatory Concept Mapping approach, and further if parental socio-demographics and early child characteristics differed prior to enrolling children to either type of kindergarten using a cohort register-based approach. Parents of children attending outdoor kindergartens (n = 23) weighed reasons such as "physical setting, outdoor life, and freedom of movement" high, whereas "a good first impression of the kindergarten" was an important reason for parents choosing a conventional kindergarten (n = 22). In the register-based approach, 2434 and 2643 children attended outdoor or conventional kindergartens, respectively. The parents choosing outdoor kindergartens as well as their children differed according to most investigated characteristics, including origin (maternal non-Western: 4.2% vs. 21.9%, p < .0001), educational level (maternal long education: 45.6% vs. 33.0%, p < .0001), prematurity (5.1% vs. 7.1%, p = 0.004) and sex (females: 43.5% vs. 48.6%, p = <0.0013). In conclusion, parental reasons for choosing kindergarten as well as parental socio-demographics differed substantially among kindergarten type. These differences might cause selection bias if not considering when comparing health outcomes among children attending different kinds of kindergartens.
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Project description:It is known that formal explanations with categorical labels are more satisfying than explicit tautologies. However, would they still be more satisfying if they are implicitly tautological themselves? In two experiments, we compared the degree of satisfaction between tautological formal explanations, explicit tautologies, and proper explanations. Additionally, we examined whether participants knew the correct definitions for the labels used in the formal explanations. Finally, we asked whether cultural and linguistic differences can play a role in the treatment of formal explanations with categorical labels. To this end, the first experiment involved Chilean students (N = 50), and the second experiment involved Russian students (N = 51). It was found that formal explanations, despite their intentional tautology, were still rated as more convincing compared to explicit tautologies (but less convincing than proper explanations). Furthermore, this effect did not depend on participants' previous knowledge (the label's definitions) or linguistic and cultural background. Taking all this into account, we consider this effect as a relatively universal psychological phenomenon and relate our findings to existing theories of formal explanations.
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Project description:The home food environment is critically important for the development of children’s health-related practices. By managing dietary restrictions, providing nutritional knowledge and demonstrating eating behaviours, parents contribute to children’s food preferences and eating patterns. The present study examined nutritional knowledge, eating habits and appetite traits among 387 Polish five-year-old healthy and overfat boys and girls in the context of parental feeding styles and body-fat status. We observed that girls presented healthier eating habits than boys; however, overfat boys had better nutritional knowledge. Children’s body-fat percentage (%BF) was found to be linked with eating behaviours such as low satiety responsiveness and increased food responsiveness in girls as well as low emotional undereating and increased emotional overeating in boys. Our results revealed that overfat mothers, who were more prone to use the encouragement feeding style, rarely had daughters with increased %BF. Parents of overfat girls, however, were less likely to apply encouragement and instrumental feeding styles. Contrary to popular belief and previous studies, overfat women do not necessarily transmit unhealthy eating patterns to their children. Parents’ greater emphasis on managing the weight and eating habits of daughters (rather than sons) probably results from their awareness of standards of female physical attractiveness.
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Project description:Around 40% of children are exposed to tobacco smoke, increasing their risk of poor health. Previous research has demonstrated misunderstanding among smoking parents regarding children's exposure. The parental perceptions of exposure (PPE) measure uses visual and textual vignettes to assess awareness of exposure to smoke. The study aimed to determine whether PPE is related to biochemical and reported measures of exposure in children with smoking parents. Families with at least one smoking parent and a child ≤ age 8 were recruited. In total, 82 parents completed the PPE questionnaire, which was assessed on a scale of 1-7 with higher scores denoting a broader perception of exposure. Parents provided a sample of their child's hair and a self-report of parental smoking habits. Parents who reported smoking away from home had higher PPE ratings than parents who smoke in and around the home (p = 0.026), constituting a medium effect size. PPE corresponded with home smoking frequency, with rare or no home exposure associated with higher PPE scores compared to daily or weekly exposure (p < 0.001). PPE was not significantly related to hair nicotine but was a significant explanatory factor for home smoking location. PPE was significantly associated with parental smoking behaviour, including location and frequency. High PPE was associated with lower exposure according to parental report. This implies that parental understanding of exposure affects protective behaviour and constitutes a potential target for intervention to help protect children.
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