Research forms the foundation for the field of developmental psychology, and given the complexity of the human experience throughout the life span, the methods chosen for conducting research are key to producing valid and reliable data. In your initial post, locate an American journal article that reports original research in the field of childhood and adolescent developmental psychology (topics to research can be located throughout the text, and you should consider what may be an area of interest for your final project). Utilizing your selected journal article, describe the experimental design utilized by the authors in detail, and link to the journal article and provide citation information in your initial post. Different types of research include:
Cross-cultural studies
Cross-sectional design
Longitudinal design
Sequential design
Micro genetic design
In your response to your peers, review their posts and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the experimental design as it relates to the presented research.
To complete this assignment, review the Discussion Rubric document.
AFTER COMPLETING THE INITIAL POST, PLEASE ALSO RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING TWO STUDENTS REGARDING THE SAME TOPIC!
STUDENT ONE:
Neonatal development of children of drug dependent mothers was compared to children that were not born to drug dependent mothers. The study is a longitudinal study of 35 infants born of drug dependent mothers to the 37 infants that were not. Infants that are born with neonatal abstinence syndrome are at higher chances for developmental difficulties then those that are not born to mothers that use substances. Some of these developmental difficulties present within 24 hours after birth up to almost two weeks after birth. The symptoms can include; central nervous system irritability, gastrointestinal issues, autonomic nervous system problems, and respiratory issues. This study indicates that infants that are born with neonatal abstinence syndrome differ in comparison with those infants that did not, and this increases developmental difficulties later in life (Van Baar et. al., 1989).
According to Van Baar et. al (1989) behavior of infants can differ in that neonatal period of life; low arousal in visual stimulation, less cuddly and sleep disturbances. They can also be hyperactive, and fluctuations in muscle tone, less mature motor responses and more behavioral states. In this study the child was observed and examined from birth to 6 years old, testing on physical, neurological, behavioral and socioeconomic scales. This study was done to find if there are long lasting effects to neonatal abstinence syndrome. The two groups were mothers that used substances and their infants compared to those mothers that did not and their infants.
Mothers were asked to participate in the study used drugs such as heroin or cocaine and had already began a maintenance of methadone when they found out they were pregnant. The information around the substance use was obtained from interviews and urine analysis when available (Van Baar et. al, 1989). The types of drugs used were classified as a single methadone use, methadone and heroin, methadone and heroin and cocaine, or the last was methadone with other drug use. The length of gestation with the substance using mothers was as follows; 9 infants were preterm, 29 infants were born spontaneously with cephalic presentation, one was born via forceps and 2 were breech and 2 were C-section. The mothers that were not substance users all infants were born spontaneous with cephalic presentation at full term, with no health issues during neonatal time frame.
Of those infants that were born to substance using mothers 80% of them were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome and required treatment with phenobarbitone. These infants hospital stay ranged from seven to 58 days with the mean being 26 days. Two infants were discharged to their home and one to foster parents. These infants were born with no physical problems accept that they had neonatal abstinence syndrome. Social economic factors were also looked at during this time, such as relationship status, educational and employment factors of each mother.
A neurological examination was done by Dubowitz and Dubowitz tested each child on habituation, movement, tone and reflexes and was recorded from 1 which classified as deep sleep to 6 at crying (Van Baar et. al., 1989). Categorization was based on the study group, the infants born to drug dependent mothers, and the infants born to drug dependent mothers’ full term. Scoring was done as follows; 1 was normal, 2 represented borderline or somewhat irregular, 3 is suspect or irregular pattern with some asymmetry and 4 was abnormal. This also included orientation and capability with motor responses, behavioral control and psychological reactions to stress.
Results were to find a medium to large difference in the two groups. Using two tailed probabilities of at least 0.15, 0.05 of significance is accepted together with a power of at least 0.80 (Van Baar et. al., 1989). In neurological examination showed that the infants of substance using mothers were more aroused as well as reporting more poor responses in the neuro testing. The drug dependent infants showed worse scores for motor responses overall in scoring, and the infants in overall activity levels they were more active than the counterpart of reference group infants.
Van Baar, A.,L., Fleury, P., Soepatami, S., Ultee, C. A., and Wesselman, P.J.M. (1989). Neonatal bahviour after drug dependent pregnancy. Archives of Disease in Childhood. vol. 64 pg. 235-240. Retrieved from: https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/64/2/235….
STUDENT TWO:
The study by Willams, Bennett, and Best (1975) is an example of an interview technique in a cross-sectional research design. This is a cross-sectional design because each child differed in age, but were studied at the same point in time. This study looked at children in preschool, second and fourth grades who answered questions designed to look at their knowledge of stereotypes of males and females. The measure used was developed by the authors by defining male and female stereotypes empirically. By giving 50 female and 50 male college students 300 adjectives that most frequently were associated with males or females. Narrowing down the adjectives to 25 male stereotypes and 24 female stereotypes were made into 24 children's stories. A translation of the adjectives into words that the young children would understand was then made. Each story was then paired with a picture of both male and females. This measure was then tested on college students whether it determined the typical female or male.
“The process of giving of administration, the examiner (either two males or two females) first administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, returning to the first word-picture and worked backwards for six responses” (Willams & Bennett & Best, 1975, p. 637). The children were then introduced to the stories, pointing to the person that each story was about, while the examiner wrote the response down. There were four significant findings in this study; knowledge of sex stereotypes in male and female develop in a similar manner, the children in kindergarten showed an noticeable degree of knowledge of these stereotypes, the knowledge increases to second grade, but does not increase after that, and lastly at second and fourth grade the sex stereotypes appear to be aided by the presence of a male examiner (Willams & Bennett & Best, 1975, p. 640.
*This original study was found from Shaffer & Kipp (2014) on page 12.
Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2014). Developmental psychology: childhood and adolescence (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Williams, J. E., & Bennett, S.M., & Best, D.L. (1975). Awareness and Expression of Sex Stereotypes in Young Children. Developmental Psychology, 11(5), 635. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ129937&site=eds-live&scope=site