Developmental Flashcards
Master
Great Smoky Mountains (Casino)
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives.
Poverty is a state or condition in which one lacks the financial resources and essentials for a certain standard of living.
Poverty and Mental Health
Costello et al (2003) Great Smoky Mountains
A- The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of the changing poverty status of different families on the psychiatric symptoms and social development of their children.
M- Natural Longitudinal Study
P- Costello et al conducted a natural longitudinal experiment wherein they gave a sample of 1500 rural children aged 9-13 years old annual psychiatric assessments. This research continued from 1993-2000. 25% of the sample were native american, and the rest were predominantly white. The naturally occurring variable of the study was a casino that opened on the Indian reservation which happened halfway through the study. The opening of this casino gave every native american an income supplement that increases annually, whilst the incomes of non-indian families were unaffected. The increased income changed the poverty status of some native american families: 14% moved out of poverty (ex-poor group), 53% of them remained poor (persistently poor group), whilst the remaining 32% were never poor to begin with (never poor group). Using the DSM-IV, psychiatric symptoms were compared across the persistently poor, ex-poor and never poor groups during the 4 years before and after the casino opened.
R- Results showed that during the 4 years before the casino had opened, the persistently poor, and ex-poor children had more psychiatric symptoms than the never poor children. Then in the four years after the casino opened, the psychiatric symptoms among the ex-poor children dropped to the level of the never poor children. At the same time, levels of psychiatric symptoms among the persistently poor children remained high. However, this decrease of symptoms amongst the ex-poor children wasn’t universal: externalizing behaviors such as aggression and conduct disorder were affected, but internalizing behaviors like anxiety and depression were not.
C- The researchers concluded that since family characteristics did not change during the course of the study, the observed reduction of external symptoms may be attributed to changing financial status. Family income has an effect on social development of children over and above the other association variables.
Poverty At An Early Age
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives.
Poverty is a state or condition in which one lacks the financial resources and essentials for a certain standard of living.
Poverty and Mental Health
Dickerson et Popli (2016) Poverty at an early age till 7 years old
A- To distinguish the difference in effects of episodic poverty and periodic poverty on cognitive development until 7 years old.
M- Dickerson and Popli used a qualitative based research method using interviews.
P- The researchers started their interviews and cognitive assessments when the selected participants were 9 months old, then, starting from age 1, they repeated the interviews and cognitive assessments on the same participants every 2 years until they were 7.
R- The children who experienced poverty at an early age had lower cognitive development scores than the other children. Poverty had less of an impact on children who experienced it more recently than the children who had poverty early.
C- The children born into poverty were impacted the most, even if they got out of poverty at a later age.
War-Related Trauma In Children
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives.
Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.
Trauma and Resilience
Feldman and Vengrober (2011)
The aim of Feldman and Vengrober’s Qualitative research was to examine PTSD symptoms in children exposed to war-related trauma. War related experiences are traumatic to children, but parents’ resilience and sensitivity influence the resilience of their children. The sample consisted of children aged 1-5 years living near the Gaza strip. The children and their mothers were interviewed, then the children’s experiences and PTSD symptoms were rated by their mothers. The results of the study showed that PTSD was diagnosed in 38% of the children in the study, which was much higher than the portion of PTSD victims in the general population and age range (less than1%). However, some children, while being exposed to the same experiences, did not develop PTSD. When these resilient children were more closely investigated, it was found that their mothers were there for them to provide them social support, their mothers were more sensitive to their needs, and these children actively sought maternal support during the interview itself. Feldman and Vengrober concluded that war-related experiences are obviously traumatic; however some children are more resilient than others. These children usually had more resilient parents, and their parents were more sensitive to their needs and provided their children emotional support.
Wenchuan Earthquake
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives.
Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.
Trauma and Resilience
Luo et Al (2008)
The aim of the study was to evaluate the accumulated change in hair cortisol levels in patients with PTSD attributed to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. The sample consisted of 64 female adolescents from two townships who experienced the earthquake and were recruited 7 months after the disaster. The sample was split into two groups, the PTSD group and non-PTSD group. Twenty matched adolescents were recruited from an area that was not affected significantly by the earthquake as the control group. Hair cortisol concentrations were measured by the electrochemiluminescence immunoassay in each 3-cm segment of hair sample from the scalp. There was no significant difference at the baseline hair cortisol level in the three groups before the traumatic event (p > .6). Hair cortisol levels changed over time and differed among groups (p = .0042). The hair cortisol levels among the PTSD and non-PTSD subjects were elevated, suggesting increasing levels in response to stress. However, these two groups differed in their response. The non-PTSD subjects showed a significantly higher cortisol level than the PTSD group between month 2 and month 4 (p = .0137) and also between month 5 and month 7 (p = .0438) after the traumatic event. This study revealed a blunted response curve to the disaster among PTSD subjects compared with subjects without PTSD. These findings suggest that hair cortisol level could be used to assess the integrated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity over a period of months after traumatic events and be used to serve as a biomarker in patients with PTSD.
Australian Bushfires
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives.
Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.
Resilience of Children Depends on Resilience of Parents
McFarlane (1987)
Aim - To investigate the dependence of children on the behavior of their caregivers when traumatic events are experienced.
Procedure - On February 16, 1983 a series of bushfires in Australia resulted in a loss of 75 lives and destruction of more than 3,000 buildings. In the 26 months after the fire, McFarlane (1987) studied 808 children. No children were directly interviewed, the study relied on reports from parents and teachers. The children and parents were scored for symptoms of PTSD.
Results - There was a correlation between the parents’ and children’s PTSD symptoms. It was found that the most powerful predictors of post traumatic phenomena experienced 26 months after the fire were separation from parents in the days immediately after the fire, continuing maternal preoccupation with the disaster and changing family functioning. These factors predicted post-traumatic phenomena even more strongly than degree of exposure to fire and losses suffered by the family.
Conclusion - The most immediate reaction of the parents after the traumatic event seems to make a huge difference, and so does modeling positive behavior in the following period
Sierra Leone With War-Affected Children
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives.
Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.
All Children are resilient, but to varying degrees or extents
Betancourt et al (2013)
Aim - To investigate resilience in children
Procedure - Six year longitudinal study in Sierra Leone with war-affected youth (age 10-17 years at baseline). This included three interviews at three different points in time. Sample consisted of former child soldiers, so the participants had been all exposed to severely traumatizing experiences.
Results - Researchers identified four common trajectories in the development of internalizing problems. Maintaining a low level of internalizing problems (depression and anxiety) over time: 41%. Significantly improving over time despite very limited access to care: 48%. Stable reporting of severe difficulties: 5%. Experiencing worsening symptoms: 6%. Major causes: loss of a caregiver, family abuse and neglect, and community stigma related to the person’s previous association with fighting forces.
Conclusion - A lack of support from the surrounding people after the trauma impacted resilience of the children.
Maasai Children
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives.
Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.
Resilience is culturally-specific
deVries et al
A-To investigate whether Maasai children, who were overcoming a natural disaster (droughts), would exhibit the same trajectories of development and treatment by parents regarding the temperament of the child compared to Western children. Method-A field study was conducted, involving questionnaire responses from the mothers of approximately 50 infants. From these responses, the researcher selected 10 infants identified as difficult to manage and 10 identified as docile. P-The researcher analyzed questionnaire responses from mothers to identify infants categorized as either difficult to manage or docile. Subsequently, 10 infants from each category were selected for further analysis. R-The findings revealed that during periods of severe ecological stress, more demanding infants were more likely to receive adequate nutrition and survive. Additionally, infants exhibiting more aggressive behavior were more likely to be fed and have their needs satisfied. C-The study concluded that infants who display more demanding and aggressive behavior are more likely to receive adequate care, including nutrition, during times of ecological stress. This suggests that the treatment of infants may differ in response to environmental challenges, such as natural disasters, among the Maasai culture.
