Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, Nov 27, 2013
ABSTRACT For decades, researchers have investigated how events in the prenatal period impact wome... more ABSTRACT For decades, researchers have investigated how events in the prenatal period impact women and their infants. These studies, particularly by researchers in the medical, neuroscience, and behavioral science fields, led to discoveries of important information regarding the prenatal events that were strongly associated with mortality (or death) and morbidity (or incidences of injury, pathology and abnormalities/anomalies, and neurobehavioral sequelae) in the neonatal and infancy periods. Among the many common findings from early research studies, two are particularly noteworthy. First, maternal and fetal risk conditions arising in the prenatal period do not do so in isolation. Sameroff and Chandler characterized this as a “continuum of reproductive casualty,” in which several risks become linked together and affect events during pregnancy, outcomes at birth, and in infant and child development in subsequent years (Sameroff, Arnold. J., and Michael J. Chandler. 1975. Reproductive risk and the continuum of caretaker casualty. In Review of Child Development Research. Vol. 4. Edited by Francis D. Horowitz, 187–244. Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Second, the impacts of these risk events on outcomes were found to vary, and not all pregnancies nor all neonates and infants were impacted to the same extent, if at all. Indeed, Sameroff and Chandler addressed the variability or uncertainty of impacts of prenatal events by adding a “continuum of caretaking casualty” to their model to include the important roles of family, society, and the environment. This resulting “transactional model of development” brought attention to the importance of genetic, biological, and environmental interactions before and after birth on the outcomes observed in neonates, infants, and children. Across time, research interests in prenatal and perinatal risks and their impacts on neonates, infants, and children have expanded to the extent that many variables heavily researched in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s are no longer hot topics. Instead, advances in research and meta-analysis designs, statistical and data modeling, new technologies, and multidisciplinary collaborations are enabling investigations that were either not attempted in the past or only to a limited extent
Children's temperament and the transition to kindergarten: A Question of "fit
Temperament, or biologically based differences in individuals’ reactionary and regulatory mechani... more Temperament, or biologically based differences in individuals’ reactionary and regulatory mechanisms to their environment (Rothbart MK, Bates JE. Handbook of child psychology: social, emotional, and personality development. Wiley, New York, 2006), comprises multiple dimensions which have been implicated in enhancing or inhibiting children’s school readiness. This chapter seeks to provide readers with a primer of five temperamental dimensions and their status as protective or risk factors for preschool students’ transition to kindergarten: shyness, activity, exuberance, adaptability, and effortful control (temperamental self-regulation). We begin by defining each temperamental dimension and summarizing how extant research has shown how each temperament dimension facilitates or impedes children’s successful transitions into kindergarten. Next, we present classroom-level strategies that facilitate good “fit” between different temperament dimensions and classrooms and the role of temper...
Mutation analysis forms a popular software analysis technique that has been demonstrated to be us... more Mutation analysis forms a popular software analysis technique that has been demonstrated to be useful in supporting multiple software engineering activities. Yet, the use of mutation analysis in tackling security issues has received little attention. In view of this, we design security aware mutation operators to support mutation analysis. Using a known set of common security vulnerability patterns, we introduce 15 security-aware mutation operators for Java. We then implement them in the PIT mutation engine and evaluate them. Our preliminary results demonstrate that standard PIT operators are unlikely to introduce vulnerabilities similar to ours. We also show that our security-aware mutation operators are indeed applicable and prevalent on open source projects, providing evidence that mutation analysis can support security testing activities.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020
This study uses canonical correlation analyses to explore the relationship between multiple predi... more This study uses canonical correlation analyses to explore the relationship between multiple predictors of school readiness (i.e., academic readiness, social readiness, and teacher-child relationship) and multiple temperamental traits using data from the second wave (age 54 months, n = 1226) of the longitudinal Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD; NICHD ECCRN 1993). This longitudinal study collected data on a large cohort of children and their families from birth through age 15. For academic readiness, only one temperamental constellation emerged, representing the construct of effortful control (i.e., high attentional focusing, high inhibitory control). For peer interactions, two significant constellations emerged: “dysregulated” (low inhibitory control, low shyness, and high activity), and “withdrawn” (high shyness, low inhibitory control, low attentional focusing). Finally, the analyses exploring child-teacher relationships revealed two significant constellation...
Research Findings: This study is an examination of (a) links between preschool children's tempera... more Research Findings: This study is an examination of (a) links between preschool children's temperament (effortful control, shyness, and anger) and teacher-child conflict and (b) classroom instructional and emotional support as moderators of associations between temperament and teacher-child conflict. Children (N = 104) were enrolled in 23 classrooms in 9 preschools in a Midwestern city. Teachers provided ratings of children's temperament and parents reported demographic information in the fall of the school year, classrooms were observed in the winter to assess instructional and emotional support, and teachers rated conflict with children in the spring. Multilevel models were estimated, and 3 main findings emerged. First, children's effortful control was negatively associated with their level of conflict with teachers. Second, children's effortful control was negatively related to teacher-child conflict in classrooms with low emotional support but unrelated to conflict in classrooms with high emotional support. Third, children's effortful control was negatively related to conflict in classrooms with high instructional support but unrelated to conflict in classrooms with low instructional support. Practice or Policy: Findings highlight the importance of considering the interplay of children's effortful control and preschool classroom instructional and emotional support in the development of early teacher-child conflict.
Shyness in childhood has been linked to multiple adjustment outcomes, including poor peer relatio... more Shyness in childhood has been linked to multiple adjustment outcomes, including poor peer relations, internalizing problems, and clinical anxiety. However, shyness does not consistently emerge as a negative predictor of children's success. This incongruity may stem, in part, from variations in the operationalization and measurement of shyness in different studies. Researchers often combine parent and teacher ratings of shyness, but correlations between parent and teacher reports are consistently small to medium. The purpose of this study is to examine parent and teacher ratings of shyness as they predict language and attention skills in preschool children, and explore discrepancies between parent and teacher ratings of shyness. Participants were 104 preschool children (48 males, 56 females), enrolled in 22 classrooms. Results from multi-level modeling revealed that teacher, but not parent, ratings of shyness using the shyness subscale of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) were significantly and negatively associated with children's early language and attention skills. Follow-up exploratory factor analyses with parent and teacher CBQ shyness subscale ratings revealed a similar two-factor structure reflecting shyness and low sociability. Results suggest that a) discrepancies between parents' and teachers' views of children's shy behaviors may stem from the different contexts and developmental time periods in which they observe children, and b) teachers' ratings of shyness are more closely associated with children's skills in an academic setting. Implications for research are discussed.
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Papers by Kate Sirota