“Mother Nature Branches Out” is a children’s story that incorporates developmental concepts important for early literacy development as well as developing skills related to social change and environmental activism. Incorporating and teaching about climate change within the context of a children’s story helps to expand the lens through which children’s...
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BridgetHatfield, Committee Member, representing Human Development and Family Sciences
Self-regulation is a cognitive mechanism that allows children to maintain control over their behaviors and emotions. The importance of this function is well-documented, but there is less understanding of the factors that affect children’s development of self-regulation. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine if parent stress in...
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BridgetHatfield, Committee Member, representing Human Development and Family Science
The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) is the newest method to paint a more accurate picture of the scope of poverty in the United States than the Official Poverty Measure (OPM). In doing so, the SPM includes many sources of income, including income from work and in-kind government supplemental policies. The...
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BridgetHatfield, Committee Member, representing Human Development and Family
Science
Self-regulation skills lay the foundation for short- and long-term school success, and strengthening these skills in early childhood can have significant implications for immediate and future life outcomes (e.g., Blair & Diamond, 2008; McClelland, Acock, Piccinin, Rhea, & Stallings, 2013). A large body of literature has investigated how characteristics of...
Young children with developmental disabilities (< 12 years old) participate less in physical activity (PA) and experience motor skill deficits compared to young children without disabilities (Jung, Leung, Schram, & Yun, 2018; Liu, Hamilton, Davis, & ElGarhy, 2014; Whyatt & Craig, 2012). When taking account of a bi-directional relationship between...
Self-regulation in early childhood encompasses higher-order executive function processes and lower-order emotional responses that enable children to navigate the classroom environment. Although self-regulation and executive functions are overlapping constructs, self-regulation represents a broad assessment of children’s ability to call upon executive function processes in order to meet contextual demands. Prior...
Museums, aquariums, and technology centers are informal learning environments that facilitate the understanding of scientific phenomena while supporting self-motivated learning. Families are a social group that frequently visits these sites. There are multiple opportunities for adults and children to engage in independent sense-making and collective discussion about their experiences with...
The use of electronic cigarettes (often referred to as vapes or e-cigs) has grown rapidly in the past decade. While these devices may not deliver the same level of carcinogens and toxicants as combustible cigarettes, they can deliver nicotine (a known developmental toxicant) as efficiently. Previous work suggests that, during...
Compassion fatigue is a common struggle that helping professionals face; however, it is not yet well understood in early childhood teachers. Compassion fatigue results from caring for individuals who have had traumatic experiences, which can cause physical and emotional exhaustion, leading to a diminished ability to empathize with individuals in...
Purpose: Children with Down syndrome (DS) may have limited opportunities to engage in independent mobility at the same age as their typically developing peers due to motor delays. The primary purpose of this study was to examine two activity-oriented outcomes - (1) onset of independent driving, and (2) onset of...