Cho, K., & Lee, J. (2017). Influence of smartphone addiction proneness of young children on problematic behaviors and emotional intelligence: Mediating self-assessment effects of parents using smartphones. Computers in Human Behavior, 66, 303-311. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.09.063
This study discussed relationships between parent attitudes toward smartphone use, children’s proneness to smartphone addiction, child problem behaviors, and child emotional intelligence (EI), all as addiction aspects of smartphone usage tendencies in parents and their children. The researchers analyzed risk factors and individual differences in addiction traits in 303 children ages 1-6, as well as in their parents; self-report measures and subsequent data analysis led the study to verify the effects of young childrens’ vulnerability to smartphone addiction. The results suggest that children’s smartphone addiction tendencies have a considerable positive relationship with problematic behaviors in peer environments, while the same addiction tendencies also inhibit emotional intelligence. The research describes how children’s fascination with handheld technology likely compromises opportunities for them to healthily interact with peers and social environments. Most importantly, the study showed how the parents’ self-reflective attitudes toward smartphones can mitigate the negative outcomes of smartphone overuse in children ages 1-6. This study is considerably complex and verbose, and requires a lot of careful reading to truly understand all the variables at play in the research. Because of this, understanding the takeaways of this article was an unnecessary challenge that I am honestly not even sure I truly overcame; the research could benefit from consolidating much of the information presented into more clear distinctions of what effects what. Nonetheless, the article is credible per its peer-reviewed nature, and the information is relevant due to the location (United States) and the recent year of publication (2017). This article fits so beautifully into the rest of my research, as it discusses both cyberspace (smartphone) addiction, the peer experience (in social aspects of addiction, as well as problem behaviors), and even the internal experience (emotional intelligence). The most fascinating finding was learning that parents’ self-reflective intelligence on the situation could bear an important role in development of addiction in these children. The findings in this article inspire me to advocate for heavy education and regulation (if not prohibition) of children’s smartphone usage in their early years. Thanks to this research, I now know these protective factors can only exist on the level of individual parental effort in order to save these children from inhibited emotional intelligence and increased problem behaviors for their futures.
Hsieh, Y., Wei, H., Hwa, H., Shen, A. C., Feng, J., & Huang, C. (2018). The Effects of Peer Victimization on Children’s Internet Addiction and Psychological Distress: The Moderating Roles of Emotional and Social Intelligence. Journal of Child and Family Studies. doi:10.1007/s10826-018-1120-6
This article builds upon robust literature that outlines the increasing threat of internet addiction in children and adolescents, and opens the conversation to analyze the role of peer victimization (experiencing verbal attacks, social seclusion, physical harassment, and otherwise aggressive actions by children’s peers) in not only vulnerability to internet addiction, but also in psychological distress. The study collected a stratified random sample of 6,233 Taiwanese fourth-graders and measured the independent variables of emotional intelligence (EI) and social intelligence (SI), as well as peer victimization; the researchers then collected data on internet addiction and mental health/psychological distress as the outcomes of interest. Their results confirmed that a child’s experience of peer victimization is positively associated with their risk of internet addiction and psychological distress; however, the positive association between victimization and psychological distress was buffered by high levels of EI in the children, but exacerbated by high levels of SI. SI also amplified the positive relationship between peer victimization and internet addiction. Although the generalizability is questionable due to the limited population (only Taiwanese children), the credibility of this article is assured by its extremely large sample size, which was also retrieved as a random sample (albeit stratified). The publication in a peer-reviewed journal and the relative newness of this study are more strengths toward its relevance; the very recent publication date also could explain the evident lack of citations and replications for this particular study. Nonetheless, the journal, researchers, and associated institutions are considerably reliable, and the literature review was exhaustive—so this source can be considered very high quality. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this study was the surprising finding that SI actually worsens and aggravates children’s maladjustment from peer victimization. One would think that social intelligence is a generally beneficial skill to have, as it has been discussed considerably in prior research as a protective element in children’s mental health and behavioral issues; however, this article shockingly revealed that more thought is necessary for understanding the role that SI plays in the relationship between children’s peer experience and the world of cyberspace.
Malti, T., Ongley, S. F., Peplak, J., Chaparro, M. P., Zuffiano, A., Buchmann, M., & Cui, L. (2016). Children’s Sympathy, Guilt, and Moral Reasoning in Helping, Cooperation, and Sharing: A 6-Year Longitudinal Study. Child Development, 87(6), 1783-1795. doi:10.1111/cdev.12632
In a 3-wave longitudinal study with 175 children between mean ages of 6.10 and 12.18, researchers assessed sympathy, moral reasoning, and guilt as influences on cooperation, helping, and sharing in a peer environment. The results show that sympathy predicts helping, cooperation, and sharing; moral reasoning and guilt-sadness also interact with sympathy to predict helping and cooperation. Both sympathy and guilt-sadness were linked to the development of sharing. The study expands previous research on moral emotions and moral reasoning in development of various prosocial behaviors (i.e. cooperation, helping, sharing) across middle childhood, and provides understanding on how these emotions can interact to jointly guide a child’s behavior in a peer experience. Yet again, this study is considerably recent and just as well published in a widely-respected peer-reviewed journal for child psychology: Child Development. Caveats to the credibility of this study are the employment of a questionable scale for measuring sympathy factors (the IPPA), as well as the comparatively small sample size (only 175 children). Nonetheless, the study’s findings on the importance of other factors (such as the self-conscious emotion of guilt) in the relationship between sympathy and prosocial behaviors will prove very relevant to my White Paper’s discussion of peer interactions and the child’s internal experience. This article connects very well with my other research on self-conscious emotions; in conjunction, these sources provide a stronger understanding of the internal experience a child goes through in certain social environments and situations.
Muris, P., Meesters, C., Cima, M., Verhagen, M., Brochard, N., Sanders, A., . . . Meesters, V. (2013). Bound to Feel Bad About Oneself: Relations Between Attachment and the Self-conscious Emotions of Guilt and Shame in Children and Adolescents. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23(7), 1278-1288. doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9817-z
This article describes two cross-sectional studies, in which researchers were interested in a link between attachment styles to peers and parents, and self-conscious emotions (specifically, guilt and shame) in children aged 9-18 years. The results of the first study with 688 children ages 9-13 displayed that insecurely attached children experienced increased maladaptive feelings of guilt, as well as shame, in comparison to children who were securely attached. The second study with 135 adolescents aged 13-18 was split into a clinical and non-clinical group due to issues with externalization; within the clinical group, correspondence with peers and parents, as well as alienation, were both associated with higher levels of self-conscious emotion (in the alienation group, these emotions were particularly maladaptive types of guilt and shame). The study ultimately bolsters the theory that attachment (in)security plays a role in children’s vulnerability to experiencing self-conscious emotions. However, to come to such a straightforward conclusion, this article was highly complex and unclear without a comprehensive and careful reading of every single section. Though its information and science were commendable, the presentation and propagation of these findings and their implications were rather unpowerful and ineffective. Nonetheless, the study was conducted within the last 6 years, and the largeness of both the sample size and number of contributors furthers its likely credibility; the Journal of Child and Family Studies is a widely known journal for child psychology and development, and so the peer-reviewed nature of this article also aids in its obdurate trustworthiness. The discussion of attachment styles and peer/parent relationships, as well as the role of self-conscious emotions, are very relevant to my topic of the child’s peer experience. This article opened up my understanding of my research direction to go beyond just the nature of peer interactions, to include the internal social experience (such as in having self-conscious emotions, emotional intelligence, and more). This article was particularly interesting because my history with guilt and shame is rather extensive, and so I was absolutely fascinated learning that my childhood attachment style and peer interactions could factor into the internalized self-conscious emotions I feel today.
2019-2-1-1548996340
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