Research
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Social adjustment of first-generation immigrant children
Canada has welcomed a record high number of new immigrants over the past decade, so new immigrants will continue to make up a large portion of Canada’s population. First-generation immigrant children are at elevated risk for adjustment difficulties because of the unique barriers that they face, including language and cultural differences between the dominant and native culture, and increased responsibilities such as acting as mediators and translators for their parents. These barriers may be some of the reasons why immigrant children are at greater risk for peer victimization and other social difficulties at school. Despite the significant barriers first-generation immigrant children face, we know little about their social development and the factors contributing positively or negatively to their adjustment. In this study, we will examine the social, emotional, and cognitive development of 6- to 8-year-old first-generation immigrant children from Arabic-speaking families relative to non-immigrant children in the laboratory using a dyadic approach. The study also aims to examine whether temperamental, emotional, or cognitive-level factors are related to positive and negative social adjustment measured via teacher report and direct behavioural observation, and if the strength of these associations differs between first-generation immigrant and non-immigrant children. This study will use dyadic approach to model social interactions in the laboratory. This research was funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant and a Western University Samuel Clark Research Fund Grant. |
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Increasing familiarity to improve children’s social relationships with peers
Shyness is a temperamental trait characterized by fear in response to social novelty. Shy children view social novelty as threatening and may have a difficult time regulating their fear and anxiety in new social contexts. Shy children’s sensitivity to novelty is problematic because young children are often exposed to new social situations in which they are expected to participate. For example, school entry can be an exciting time for many children, but meeting new people and authority figures in a new building can be particularly difficult for shy children. Importantly, some previous work has found differences in shy children’s behaviour based on familiarity. Despite the difficulties shy children face in new social situations, we do not know what kind or degree of familiarity is necessary to improve engagement in new social situations, or how familiarity manipulations influence other children’s responses to shy children. In this study, we will examine how manipulating the familiarity of the environment, peers, and authority figures influences shy children’s own and their social partner’s behaviour, perceptions, and adjustment in a laboratory context. This research was funded by a Western Strategic Support for SSHRC Success Seed Grant. |
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Learning to do things we do not want to do
From toddlerhood to the preschool period, children rapidly develop the ability to self-regulate. Much of the self-regulation literature examines when and how children develop the ability to stop themselves from doing things they want to do (i.e., inhibitory control), but we know very little about when and how children develop the ability to do things they do not want to do (i.e., activation control). Activation control has important implications for children’s academic, social, and psychological functioning—children must learn to do homework even though they may find it boring, approach rather than avoid uncomfortable situations, or speak to people they do not want to engage with because of implicit social rules. Despite the developmental importance of activation control, we lack reliable, valid, and developmentally appropriate tools to measure activation control across time. We will use a mixed methods design to index activation control across time and examine the developmental course, physiological profile, and neural basis of activation control from 2-12 years. This work will contribute to our fundamental understanding of how children learn to do things they do not want to do. This research is funded by an NSERC Discovery Grant. |
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How do we think about individual differences
How we think about individual differences in temperament shapes the way that we respond to them. This is especially true in childhood, where children’s perceptions are shaped dynamically through the process of emotion socialization by caregivers, teachers, and peers. Temperament refers to early emerging, relatively stable differences in how quickly and intensely children experience negatively valanced emotions (negative emotionality), their ability to regulate their emotions, attention, and behavior to achieve goals (effortful control), and their extraversion and tendency to experience positive emotions (surgency). Adults’ perceptions of these traits play a key role in shaping children’s emotional experiences, influencing which emotions and behaviors are encouraged, discouraged, or ignored. Despite the importance of social perceptions in shaping children’s social and emotional lives, little is known about how adults and children perceive individual differences in temperament in daily life. In this mixed-methods study, we will use semi-structured interviews to examine how parents, teachers, child clinical psychologists, and children themselves perceive various temperamental styles, and examine whether one’s own temperament and personality influences these perceptions. The overall goal of this study is to systematically examine how adults with different levels of exposure and training to children think about individual differences, and whether children’s perceptions converge or diverge with adult perceptions. This foundational work will provide a starting point to begin reframing, if needed, negative perceptions of normative individual differences in child temperament. |
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