Doctoral Dissertation Research: The behavioral ecology of children's signals of need

儿童需要从父母和其他照顾者那里得到基本的好处，如食物、照顾和保护，他们经常试图用哭泣和其他需要的信号来引出这些东西。尽管在一些人群中对婴儿哭声进行了研究，但从未对所有年龄段的儿童进行过调查，也不知道父母对这些信号的反应是积极的还是消极的。本项目通过收集关于儿童需求信号和父母对这些信号的反应的观察、自我报告和实验数据，帮助填补了这一空白。它还调查了儿童的自我危害行为，如逃跑，是否是需要的信号。除了训练研究生使用混合方法收集和分析数据外，该研究还提供了可以提高儿童福祉的信息。研究人员打算将研究结果发表在同行评议的期刊上，并与儿童福利组织分享数据和发现。该项目将在一个岛屿社区进行，两个人口的文化和社会经济地位不同，由于旅游和移民的增加，这两个人口都在经历迅速的变化。每天的调查是用来检查孩子多久发出一次需要的信号，他们是如何做到的，父母如何回应这种信号，以及孩子如何回应父母的反应。研究人员还复制了一项关于青少年和年轻人自我危害行为的实验研究，以验证这些是需要的可靠信号的假设。通过提供来自两个群体的信息，1)在整个发展过程中需要信号的频率和成本，2)这些信号从照顾者那里得到积极或消极反应的程度，该项目提供了洞察为什么儿童在信号行为上有所不同，以及为什么父母可能对儿童需要的指示做出积极或消极的反应。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Children require essential benefits from parents and other caregivers, such as food, care, and protection, which they often attempt to elicit with cries and other signals of need. Although infant cries have been studied in several populations, the full range of potential child signals of need, which likely extend beyond cries, has never been investigated in children of all ages, nor is it known how often parents respond favorably or unfavorably to these signals. This project helps fill this gap by collecting observational, self-report, and experimental data on child signals of need and parental responses to them. It also investigates if children’s self-endangering behaviors, such as running away, are signals of need. In addition to training a graduate student in mixed methods data collection and analyses, the research provides information that can enhance child well-being. The researcher intends to publish the results in peer-reviewed journals and share the data and findings with child welfare organizations. This project will be conducted in an island community among two populations that differ in culture and socioeconomic status, both of which are experiencing rapid change due to increased tourism and immigration. Daily surveys are used to examine how often children signal need, how they do this, how parents respond to such signaling, and how children respond to parental responses. Researchers are also replicating an experimental vignette study on adolescent and young adult self-endangering behaviors that tests the hypothesis that these are credible signals of need. By providing information from two populations on 1) the frequency and costliness of signals of need across development and 2) the extent to which those signals receive positive or negative responses from caregivers, this project provides insight into why children differ in their signaling behavior and why parents might respond positively or negatively to indications of child need.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.