The development of creativity in Chilean kindergarten and school children / Desarrollo de la creatividad en párvulos y escolares chilenos

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the development of creativity in Chilean kindergarten and school children. For this, we evaluated non-verbal divergent and convergent thinking skills in a sample of 320 Chilean kindergarten, second-, fourth- and sixth-grade school children. We found that kindergarten and second-grade children showed a lower performance in creative fluency and originality than fourth-grade and sixth-grade children. In addition, we found that kindergarten and second-grade children had a low performance in creative elaboration, which worsened in the fourth and sixth grades. We did not find differences between the different educational levels in convergent thinking skills. Our results contradict previous international studies that report a stable development of creativity throughout the first few years of schooling, with a transitory slump in the fourth or sixth grade, revealing an early slump of creative skills in Chilean children, which rebound after the fourth grade. We discuss the potential relationship between the academization and rigidization of Chilean early childhood education and the early slump in creativity.     

The creative thinking and ego functioning of children

Abstract:

One hundred highly creative children and 100 uncreative children were selected from a sample of 1,450 fifth‐ and sixth‐grade children. They were identified with the the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Comparisons revealed significant differences in terms of quantity and quality of primary process content. The creative children gave not only more primary process ideation, but the quality was (a) significantly more libidinal than aggressive, (b) more regressive (greater DD), and (c) showed more effective use of regression in the service of the ego (calculated by using the popular response to score defense effectiveness). There were no sex differences in the TTCT scores or the primary process content, but girls gave more libidinal content and boys gave more aggressive content.     

Psychometric characteristics and norms for disadvantaged third and fourth grade children on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children

The STAIC was administered to 1,522 third and fourth grade Black disadvantaged children from a large metropolitan school district. Although A-State scores were equivalent to the original normative sample, A-Trait levels for boys and girls were found to be higher. Similar alpha coefficients were observed for the A-State scale; the A-Trait scale yielded slightly lower alpha coefficients than the original sample. Norms for the STAIC scales were extended to the third grade level. The small differences between the present study and the original normative study were attributed to differences in population. The STAIC provides a valid and reliable means to measure trait and state anxiety in children of elementary school age.Portions of these data were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, August 1974. The authors wish to express their appreciation to Charles D. Spielberger for substantial contributions to earlier versions of this paper.     

Studies in the Psycho-Physiology of Transfer: III. Bilateral Practice Effects in Normal and Mirror Writing

Thirty-six children who had participated in two separate preschool studies of play interests were given an interest questionnaire when in elementary school. Sex differences in interests were studied with both age groups, with both sexes showing more varied interests in elementary school than they had in preschool. There was a significant correlation between preschool and elementary school masculinity-feminity scores for boys but not for girls. The implications of the broadening of interest patterns for both sexes and the lack of significant sex role correlations for girls were discussed in terms of changing sex role standards.     

Creative potential and conceptual tempo in preschool children

The individual stylistic variations of creative potential and conceptual tempo were investigated in preschool children (n = 61; mean age = 56.9 months). The measure used for the conceptual tempo was the Kansas Reflection Impulsivity Scale for Preschoolers (KRISP), and the Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure (MSFM) was used to assess ideational fluency and creative potential Contrary to expectations, no differences between reflective and impulsive preschoolers were found on the ideational fluency measure. However, analysis of all four quadrants of the conceptual tempo dimensions derived from median splits revealed an interaction of KRISP latency and error scores, F(157) = 12.78, p < .001, with greater originality scores evidenced by the fast/accurate and slow/inaccurate groups than the slow/ accurates and fast/inaccurates. Implications of this unusual finding were discussed in terms of the manner in which children may approach convergent and divergent tasks.     

Preschool Pretend Play Behaviors and Early Adolescent Creativity

Individual differences in creativity across the lifespan have been identified, but little research has focused on the development of creativity during early adolescence. This project examined individual differences on two measures of creativity in early adolescence as well as the predictability of adolescent creativity from pretend play behaviors during the preschool years. Realistic role‐play behavior was assessed at age 5 for 127 children who later completed two creative thinking tasks (TCT‐DP and the Alternative Uses Measure) when the children were 10–15 years of age. Realistic role‐play when the children were age 5 significantly predicted their scores during early adolescence on the Alternative Uses Measure but not the TCT‐DP. Significant sex differences were found for amount of time engaged in realistic role‐play at age 5 and performance on the TCT‐DP, with girls engaging in more role‐play at age 5 and scoring higher on the TCT‐DP during early adolescence than boys. No sex differences were observed for the Alternative Uses Measure. These results suggest that preschool role‐play behaviors represent early creativity and are tapping aspects of creativity development that are manifested in early adolescence.     

Creativity and achievement in design coursework

Abstract:

Findings from this investigation with 81 college students indicate that ideational fluency is a valid predictor of student achievement in an interior design course. Both original and popular ideational fluency as measured by the Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure were related to the course grade, design criteria scores, and the final project grade. Very few studies have found such a clear relationship between performance on any measure of creativity and actual performance in a course. The results suggest that the MSFM is a valuable tool for use in conjunction with other criteria in admissions screening for an interior design program.     

Preschool Executive Control and Internalizing Symptoms in Elementary School

Depression and anxiety are prevalent and impairing forms of psychopathology in children and adolescents. Deficits in early executive control (EC) may contribute to the development of these problems, but longitudinal studies with rigorous measurement across key developmental periods are limited. The current study examines EC in preschool as a predictor of subsequent depression and anxiety symptoms in elementary school in a community sample (N?=?280). Child participants completed a battery of nine developmentally-appropriate tasks designed to measure major aspects of EC at age 5 years, 3 months. Children later participated in an elementary school follow-up phase, during which they completed validated norm-referenced self-report questionnaires of depression and anxiety symptoms in fourth grade. Results indicate that poorer preschool EC was significantly associated with both greater depression and anxiety symptoms in elementary school, controlling for baseline depression and anxiety symptoms in preschool and other relevant variables. These findings suggest that poor EC may be an important risk factor for the development of internalizing psychopathology in childhood. Given emerging evidence for the modifiability of EC, particularly in preschool, EC promotion interventions may hold promise as a potential target in psychopathology prevention.     

Correlates of body satisfaction and self-concept in third- and sixth-graders

The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between body satisfaction and self-concept in elementary school children. Participants were twentythree boys and twenty-eight girls from the third and sixth grades of a rural public school. Demographic information, body satisfaction scores, self-concept scores, and measures of parental attitudes were obtained from the participants through a questionnaire. It was hypothesized that body satisfaction and self-concept would be related in elementary school children. It was expected that this relationship would be impacted by grade, sex, and parental attitudes. A significant relationship existed between body satisfaction and self-concept in girls, but not boys. No grade differences were detected in the relationship. Body satisfaction was significantly correlated with body criticism from peers among sixth graders. A parent's body satisfaction appeared to be a significant predictor of the body satisfaction of his/her opposite sex child for both third — and sixth-graders.     

Correlates of body satisfaction and self-concept in third- and sixth-graders

The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between body satisfaction and self-concept in elementary school children. Participants were twentythree boys and twenty-eight girls from the third and sixth grades of a rural public school. Demographic information, body satisfaction scores, self-concept scores, and measures of parental attitudes were obtained from the participants through a questionnaire. It was hypothesized that body satisfaction and self-concept would be related in elementary school children. It was expected that this relationship would be impacted by grade, sex, and parental attitudes. A significant relationship existed between body satisfaction and self-concept in girls, but not boys. No grade differences were detected in the relationship. Body satisfaction was significantly correlated with body criticism from peers among sixth graders. A parent's body satisfaction appeared to be a significant predictor of the body satisfaction of his/her opposite sex child for both third — and sixth-graders.     

Original thinking in preschool children: A validation of ideational fluency measures

This investigation examined the original thinking of preschool children (N=48). The instruments were lenient and stringent solution‐standard measures of original problem solving and two subsets of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Scores for popular and original responses were computed for the lenient and stringent measures. Findings supported the construct validity of conceptualizations of original problem solving based on ideational fluency within the lenient measures, but not within stringent measures. Findings also indicated that the lenient measures are better predictors of real‐world original behavior than stringent measures, especially for young children. The need for development of more reliable and valid measures for assessing real‐world creative behavior is discussed.     

Sex Role Expectations in Children's Vocational Aspirations and Perceptions of Occupations

To study sex role expectations, 120 boys and girls from three age groups—preschool, second grade, and fifth grade—in two socioeconomic levels were asked to name their vocational aspirations and to choose whether a man, woman, or both could do the work in 30 occupations depicted in a slide-tape series. Results indicated that sex typing was present in the way their aspirations conformed to traditional sex roles, with a significant relationship (p <.001) between sex typing of aspirations and sex of the respondents. Significant differences in responses to the occupational slides were found on the variables of sex (p <.01), grade level (p <.001), and socioeconomic level (p <.05), with greater sex typing indicated by boys than girls, by preschool children than by older children, and by lower to lower-middle class children than by middle to upper-middle class children. The study revealed a disparity between many children's perceptions of occupations as ones in which both sexes could work and their own personalized, sex-typed aspirations.     

Normative Developmental Trajectories of Aggressive Behaviors in African American,American Indian,Asian American,Caucasian, and Hispanic Children and Early Adolescents

The current 5-year accelerated longitudinal investigation modeled the developmental trajectories of aggressive behaviors in 10,107 predominantly minority (>70%; African American, American Indian, Asian American, and Hispanic) children and early adolescents (Kindergarten through 8th grade, 49% female youth) from lower to lower-middle socioeconomic strata. Based on a two-part latent growth model, findings suggest that the probability and frequency of aggressive behavior use decreases slightly (linear) through the elementary school years and then increases as children move into middle school (quadratic). Though mean level differences were found across ethnic and racial groups, socioeconomic strata, and particularly by sex at initial status, rates of change over time across all groups were invariant. Findings suggest that potential socialization differences, if any, occur pre-Kindergarten in all groups.     

Comparing stuttering attitudes of preschool through 5th grade children and their parents in a predominately rural Appalachian sample

BackgroundTheories relating to young children’s social cognitive maturity and their prevailing social groups play important roles in the acquisition of attitudes. Previous research has shown that preschool and kindergarten children’s stuttering attitudes are characterized by stronger negative beliefs and self reactions than those of parents. By contrast, 12 year-old children’s stuttering attitudes have been shown to be similar to their parents’ attitudes. Other research indicates that parental stuttering attitudes are no different from attitudes of adults who are not parents.PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore children’s stuttering attitudes of preschool through 5th grade children and to compare them to their parents’ attitudes.MethodChildren and parents from a rural Appalachian elementary school and child/parent pairs from other areas in the region responded to child and adult versions of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes–Stuttering (POSHA–S/Child and POSHA–S). Seven grade levels were included: preschool, kindergarten, 1^st grade, 2^nd grade, 3^rd grade, 4^th grade, and 5^th grade.ResultsConfirming earlier research, younger children’s attitudes toward stuttering were considerably less positive than those of their parents. As children matured up to the fifth grade, however, their stuttering attitudes progressively were more positive. Parents’ stuttering attitudes were quite consistent across all seven grade levels.ConclusionsConsistent with theories of attitudinal development, between the ages of 4 and 11 years, children’s measured attitudes toward stuttering improved and gradually approximated the attitudes of their parents and the general public.     

Children at Risk: Effects of a Four-Year Head Start Transition Program on Special Education Identification

Children in Head Start are at risk for school learning or behavioral problems. While Head Start has decreased special education placement, there has been little systematic data until recently on identification of children in disability categories following preschool. In this study, two cohorts of 6,162 children across 30 sites were followed through third grade. Approximately half of these children were provided transition assistance from kindergarten through third grade. This included school transition and curricular modifications, parent involvement activities, health screening or referrals, and family social services, all similar to those received in Head Start. They were compared to a similar group of Head Start children who did not receive such services beyond the Head Start experience. Special education eligibility was determined from school records in the spring of third grade. Only 0.89% of children in the transition group were identified in the mental retardation category compared to 1.26% in the non-transition group. In the category of emotional disturbance, these same figures were 1.21% and 1.65% respectively. Both differences were statistically significant, but an opposite effect was found in the category of speech or language impairment. Findings are discussed in relation to differences in disability categories and implications for early identification.     

Predicting individual differences in low‐income children's executive control from early to middle childhood

The present longitudinal study tested the roles of early childhood executive control (EC) as well as exposure to poverty‐related adversity at family and school levels as key predictors of low‐income children's EC in elementary school (n = 391). Findings suggest that children's EC difficulties in preschool and lower family income from early to middle childhood are robust predictors of later EC difficulties as rated by teachers in 2nd and 3rd grades. Findings also suggest enrollment in unsafe elementary schools is significantly predictive of higher levels of teacher‐rated EC difficulty, but only for those children who showed initially elevated levels of EC difficulty in early childhood. Implications for scientific models of cognitive development and poverty‐related adversity are discussed.     

The Development of Defense Mechanisms

ABSTRACT It is proposed that defense mechanisms may be characterized as forming a hierarchy, from least to most complex, and that the lowest level defenses emerge early in life, while the more complex defenses emerge later in development Three defenses–Denial, Projection and Identification–were chosen to test this assumption A method for assessing the use of these defenses in Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories was developed and validated in a study of four age groups preschool, elementary school, early adolescent, and late adolescent The results of the study were consistent with the prediction Denial was used most frequently by preschool children, and decreased in use thereafter Identification was used minimally by preschool children but increased steadily through adolescence The use of Projection was most frequent in the two middle age groups Some evidence for sex differences, based on the internal/external orientation of the defense, also was found     

KNOWING ABOUT READING BEFORE READING: PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS OF READING

This paper reports findings from an investigation of preschool children's concepts about reading. Three tasks related to several basic ideas about reading were presented to 60 preschool children, ranging in age from three to five years. The first task assessed children's ability to identify oral and silent reading. The number of children who correctly identified both forms of reading increased with age, with almost all five‐year‐olds giving accurate responses. The second task was aimed at establishing children's perceptions of their own reading ability. Only four of the 60 children incorrectly evaluated their own reading ability. The third task investigated children's ability to recognize what it is on a page that is read. Three‐year‐olds were, on the whole, quite unaware of the salient information in books. Even among the five‐year‐olds, who performed significantly better than three‐ and four‐year‐olds on this task, some children's responses indicated an ambiguity about the role of print in reading. Suggestions for adults who guide young children through their early experiences with print are drawn from the findings of this investigation.     

Girls' and Boys' Changing Attitudes Toward School

This study considered children in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade in order to determine whether boys and girls differ from one another in their attitudes toward school when they first begin, and whether the relationship between boys' and girls' attitude changes with time. The information used in the study was collected during an evaluation of the California preschool program. A total of 6011 educationally disadvantaged children in 148 elementary schools were selected for the evaluation. The Attitude to School Questionnaire, developed at UCLA, was used to measure attitude. The study found that the sample of disadvantaged girls and boys has similar attitudes toward school in kindergarten. As they progress through the second grade, girls' attitude remains stable, while boys' attitude improves. The study also found that the differences between these attitude patterns were statistically significant. The study's results challenge the belief that girls have a better attitude toward school and suggest that differences in attitude between girls and boys develop between kindergarten and first grade.