Developmental Psychology Journal Articles Essay -- Papers

Developmental Psychology Journal ArticlesThe five journal articles I examined were all from ajournal titled Developmental Psychology, May 2000. The first journal article that I observed was peace Patterns andSleep Disruptions in School-Aged Children. This studyassessed the peacefulness patterns, sleep disruptions, andsleepiness of school-age children. Sleep patterns of 140children (72 boys and 68 girls 2nd-, 4th-, and 6th-gradestudents) were evaluated with activity monitors(actigraphs). In addition, the children and their parentscompleted complementary sleep questionnaires and dailyreports. The findings reflected significant age differences,indicating that older children have more delayed sleep onsettimes and increased reported daytime sleepiness. Girls werefound to spend more time in sleep and to have an increasedpercentage of noneffervescent sleep. Fragmented sleep was foundin 18% of the children. No age differences were found in anyof the sleep quality measures. Scores on hea ding sleepmeasures were associated with subjective reports ofsleepiness. Family stress, parental age, and parentaleducation were related to the childs sleep-wake measures.The next article I observed was Shared CaregivingComparisons Between Home and Child-Care Settings. Theexperiences of 84 German toddlers (12-24 months old) whowere either enrolled or not enrolled in child care weredescribed with observational checklists from the time theywoke up until they went to bed. The total amount of careexperienced everywhere the course of a weekday by 35 pairs oftoddlers (1 member of each pair in child care, 1 member not)did not differ according to whether the toddlers spent timein child care. Although the child... ...h theirmothers and their fathers on separate occasions in theirfamilies homes. Parent-child pairs played for 8 minuteseach with a feminine-stereotyped toy set (foods and plates)and a masculine-stereotyped toy set (track and cars). Levelsof affiliation (engaging vs. distancing ) and assertion(direct vs. non-direct) were rated on 7-point scales every 5seconds from the videotapes for both parent and child.Overall, the play activity accounted for a large proportionof the form in parents and childrens mean affiliationand assertion ratings. Some hypothesized gender-relateddifferences in behavior were also observed. In addition,exploratory analyses revealed some differences between thedifferent ethnic groups. The results suck up theimportance of role modeling and activity settings in thesocialization and social construction of gender.