We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Gender and age effects interact in preschoolers' help-seeking: evidence for differential responses to changes in task difficulty.
- Authors
THOMPSON, R. BRUCE; COTHRAN, THOMAS; MCCALL, DANIEL
- Abstract
This study explored preschool age and gender differences in help-seeking within the theoretical framework of scaffolded problem- solving and self-regulation (Bruner, 1986; Rogoff, 1990; Vygotsky, 1978; 1986). Within-subject analyses tracked changes in help-seeking among 62 preschoolers (34 boys, 28 girls, mean age 4.22 years) solving a challenging puzzle with an adult. The goal was to document whether age and gender interact with fluctuating difficulty to affect children's spontaneous help-seeking. ANOVAs indicated that girls used more help-seeking during difficult segments of the task, despite performance equal to the boys. This pattern was strongest among older girls, who outperformed all other children and used the most help-seeking. Partial correlations, controlling for solving time, indicated that age predicted children's help-seeking during the most difficult segments of the task, but only among girls. Gender differences in social-linguistic maturation and cognitive development are discussed within the framework of Vygotskian theory and related educational practice.
- Subjects
ANALYSIS of variance; STATISTICAL correlation; HELP-seeking behavior; INTERPROFESSIONAL relations; RESEARCH methodology; PROBLEM solving; SPEECH; STATISTICS; DATA analysis; TASK performance; REPEATED measures design; CROSS-sectional method; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics
- Publication
Journal of Child Language, 2012, Vol 39, Issue 5, p1107
- ISSN
0305-0009
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S030500091100047X