Retention, sometimes called flunking, is the practice of having a child repeat a grade in school to help the child acquire the academic and social skills needed for success in later grades. Most research, however, has found that simply repeating the same grade is not very effective. Although children who are retained often perform better during their second year in the same grade, their gains usua…
Rhesus disease (or Rh disease) is caused when Rh-positive red blood cells from a fetus enter the maternal circulation of an Rh-negative woman. This usually happens at the time of delivery, but it can occur at other times during pregnancy, such as spontaneous miscarriage or abortion. These cells are recognized as foreign to the mother's immune system, and antibodies are formed to destroy the…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan by birth, was a major contributor to modern political and educational theory and practice; he also set in motion what is known as the romantic movement in art, music, and literature. Shortly after Rousseau's birth on June 28, 1712, his mother died, leaving the child-rearing duties to the father, who shared his enthusiasm for books with his son but who otherw…
Rubella is the clinical manifestation of infection caused by the rubella virus, which was first isolated in 1962. The timing of infection before or after birth determines the two principal clinical syndromes. Infection in the postnatal period produces a relatively mild disease that is primarily notable for an erythematous rash (a rash caused by capillary congestion) and swollen lymph nodes. Infect…
The delivery of rural mental health services focuses on understanding and responding to emotional and behavioral needs of children in the 2,303 "rural" communities that, according to the United States Census Bureau, have fewer than 2,500 residents. The proportion of the rural population involved with farming has decreased markedly over the past fifty years, leading the young and bet…
SCHIZOPHRENIA see: MENTAL DISORDERS The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is a standardized college admission test, consisting of a verbal portion and a mathematics portion, that was developed by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey. Verbal reasoning is examined by the test taker's ability to correctly analyze and complete analogies, sentence completion problems, and readin…
Under most education systems, government funding is allocated to state-run schools that enjoy the exclusive right to offer public education services. School vouchers are an alternative funding mechanism in which parents receive a voucher that can be redeemed at any state-run or independent school of their choice. According to economists ranging from the eighteenth century's Adam Smith to co…
The self-concept is the accumulation of knowledge about the self, such as beliefs regarding personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles. Beginning in infancy, children acquire and organize information about themselves as a way to enable them to understand the relation between the self and their social world. This developmental process is a direct consequence o…
The term self-fulfilling prophecy most often refers to a phenomenon where students perform to a level consistent with their teachers' preconceived expectations for them. In a classic study conducted in 1968, researchers told elementary school teachers that some of their students had been identified as having marked potential for intellectual growth. In fact, however, the designated students…
Unlike the more commonly studied topic of egocentrism, which focuses on cognitive-developmental barriers to effective social functioning caused by young children's inability to appreciate others' perspectives, the concept of selfishness emphasizes motivational barriers to effective social behavior caused by an individual's unwillingness to balance self-enhancing and other-enha…
Everything humans do involves using one or more senses. It is through the senses that infants discover the world. Without one's senses, the brain would be an eternal prisoner within the confinement of one's skull. Humans experience these sensations through interactions with the environment; interpreting the meaning of these sensations for actions is called sensory processing. When a …
Separation anxiety is characterized by an intense emotional reaction on the part of a young child to the departure of a person with whom the child has established an emotional attachment. Signs of separation anxiety, such as crying when the caregiver prepares to leave, typically emerge around six to eight months when infants have formed a representation of their caretakers as reliable providers of…
Sex education usually refers to programs offered in schools, typically from grades five through twelve, that cover sexuality and reproduction. Sexuality refers to the quality or state of being sexual and includes all thoughts and behaviors that have to do with an individual as a sexual being. For example, bodily changes at puberty, decisions to engage in kissing, petting, or having sexual intercou…
Sexuality is an aspect of human development across the lifespan. The rapid biological and psychosocial changes that occur during adolescence enhance the importance of sexuality during this critical period. During puberty, hormones increase adolescents' attraction to potential sexual partners and enables their bodies to reproduce. Psychosocial development enhances teens' abilities to …
When an infant or toddler is confronted with strangers, either adults or children, an initial reaction of reticence and withdrawal is generally accepted and understood. Being cautious with strangers, animal or human, served for millions of years as a built-in safety device and was advantageous for survival. But from age three or four onward, most parents in modern societies like to see their child…
Although psychologists first began to study siblings and their relationships during the nineteenth century, it was not until the late twentieth century when they began to focus on the family related features of sibling relationships. Early research was devoted to examining the effects of siblings' age spacing and birth order. Scientists found, however, that these had little to do with child…
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disease caused by a single recessive mutation in hemoglobin. Individuals who inherit this recessive gene from both parents exhibit symptoms, while those who inherit only one copy of the gene typically do not exhibit symptoms and are resistant to malaria. About 1 in 12 African Americans worldwide carry the trait, and about 1 in 400 have the disease. Sickling of red b…
Sign languages are the principal means of communication among members of deaf communities, with most countries having their own distinct sign language. In the United States, American Sign Language (ASL) is the language typically used by persons who have grown up deaf. Sign languages have gained considerable attention outside of deaf communities through the use of signs to foster communication in m…
Although the term "single-parent family" is a familiar one, upon careful examination, the precise definition of a single-parent family becomes less clear. Families are frequently (although not exclusively) identified on the basis of shared residential space and the presence of emotional bonds and support relationships among members. "Single parent" implies that a solo m…
Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. His main contribution to the study of human and nonhuman behavior was to establish a psychology in which behavior is understood in scientific, naturalistic terms. For example, he explained behavior in terms of an ongoing stream of public and private events, not in terms of popular, cultural concepts such as ego, mind, or free …
Sleep is known to play an important role in the health and well-being of children. But sleeping, although restful, involves more than resting. Despite the peaceful appearance of the sleeping child, sleep is an active process with cycles of physiological arousal alternating between intense activity and profound tranquility. Researchers use a variety of techniques to study sleep. These include paren…
While people often think of smiling as only an indication that a child might find something funny, it is actually one of the most important forms of social communication. Smiling appears within the first few weeks of life as a response to a human voice and becomes a full-fledged social smile at about three months of age. As a social behavior it encourages parents to interact with developing infant…
Social class is a concept that has been discussed and argued about throughout the ages. Many different theories exist concerning a workable definition. The basis often used for describing social class comes from nineteenth-century German theorist Karl Marx. He believed in a three-class system consisting of capitalists, workers, and petty bourgeoisie. Since then, sociologists have provided new conc…
The study of social cognition focuses on how people think about and make sense of themselves, others, and the world of social affairs. This cognitive approach highlights the active role that people play in organizing, interpreting, and "constructing" the social world within which they live and interact. Conceptual structures or schemas—internalized knowledge or information…
By nature, people are social creatures—it is evolutionarily adaptive that, during all periods of life, interaction with others occurs. From infancy to adulthood, however, the way in which the interaction takes place, as well as with whom, changes. During infancy, interactions occur primarily with parents and family members. During childhood the frequency of interactions with same-age peers …
Spatial ability refers to skill in perceiving the visual world, transforming and modifying initial perceptions, and mentally recreating spatial aspects of one's visual experience without the relevant stimuli. Several categories of spatial abilities may be distinguished. Spatial orientation is the ability to keep track of objects or locations in space even after a rotation or movement to a n…
Born in New Haven, Connecticut, and trained as a medical doctor, Benjamin "Ben" Spock was best known for his books on child care and parenting. More copies of the many editions of his book, Baby and Child Care, were sold than any other book in the world, with the exception of the Bible. Benjamin McLane Spock was the first of six children born to Mildred and Benjamin Ives Spock. Many …
Imagine a playground full of children on a warm summer day. A toddler tentatively makes her way across the sand to retrieve a shovel then, with a smile of triumph, retreats to her mother's side. Nearby a pair of two-year-olds dig in the sand side by side, practically touching yet seemingly unaware of one another. A band of boisterous five-year-olds rush past them, chasing an imagined pirate…
Standardized testing is a commonly misunderstood term. In actuality, a standardized test requires adherence to identical administration and scoring of items/tasks across people, time, and places. This uniformity is reflected in clearly defined procedures in examiner's manuals, test books, and scoring guides. Many types of standardized tests exist, including achievement, psychological, and l…
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-33) established the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) as Title XXI of the Social Security Act. This legislation, which involved the largest expansion of children's health insurance coverage in over thirty years, enables states to provide health insurance coverage to low-income children under age nineteen who are uninsure…
Each year approximately one million American children and adolescents will experience their parents' divorce. Most of their parents (70-75%) will remarry or begin living with a new partner within three to five years. These new families are labeled stepfamilies or blended families. The 1996 United States census indicated that 32 percent of African-American, 16 percent of Hispanic, and 15 per…
Stranger anxiety is discomfort at the approach of an unfamiliar person. Babies differ greatly in how they show it: some cry vigorously, cling and hide their faces, or merely become subdued and wary. Because of differences among researchers with regard to behaviors used as evidence of stranger anxiety, there is disagreement about when it first occurs. Clearly, however, by the time they are one year…
Street children are defined as often unsupervised children who work, play, and/or live in street environments. As of 1998, there were about 1.5 million children in the United States categorized as out-of-school, homeless, runaway, throwaway, and system youths (i.e., youths in foster care, institutions, shelters, and group homes). More than 100 million street children are found in poor countries of…
Children are confronted with many challenges throughout their childhood. What types of challenges do children encounter at various ages? How do stressful experiences influence their psychological and physical health? How do children's personal qualities and their environments affect how they react to these challenges? These are all questions that psychologists have been trying to answer to …
Adolescent substance abuse and its resulting harms are major concerns of parents, policymakers, teachers, and public health officials. Nevertheless, experimentation with substances, particularly alcohol and tobacco, is progressively more common behavior from pre- to late adolescence. When adolescents try substances a few times, with peers, this experimentation is generally not associated with any …
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) refers to the sudden unexpected death of an infant under the age of one year who prior to the event was considered to be completely healthy. The diagnosis also requires that a review of the clinical and environmental history, death scene investigation, and autopsy fail to reveal an alternative explanation of the death. In other words, the diagnosis of SIDS remai…
Suicide is defined as the deliberate killing of oneself. Tragically, suicide is a problem that affects people of all ages, but most dramatically, adolescents and young adults. In fact, suicide is the most rapidly growing cause of death among youth between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. In the mid-1990s, the National Center for Health Statistics ranked suicide as the third-leading cause of ad…
