Goodness of Fit Relates to Children's Personalities - Research Paper Example

Goodness of fit as it relates to childrens personalities Grade (April 12, Goodness of fit relates to childrens personalities Seifer, R., Dickstein, S., Parade, S., Hayden, L. C., Magee, K. D., & Schiller, M. (2014). Mothers’ appraisal of goodness of fit and children’s social development. International Journal Of Behavioral Development, 38(1), 86-97. The understanding of the relationship between children and their caretakers is highly influenced by the goodness of fit. Nevertheless, the child’s temperament and the family context also play an important role in defining the nature of the relationship that develops between children and their caretakers. Thus, the quality of parenting offered by a caretaker defines the nature of relationship developed between a child and the caretaker as early as at the age of between 4 to 8 months. At the age of 15 months, and based on the nature of the temperament of a child, children have already formed secure attachments with their caretakers, which then goes on to define the future relationship that continues to exist throughout the course of the childhood development. Among the factors that influences the formation of the relationship between parents and their children negatively are family dysfunction and maternal depression. Such negative factors results in a negative formation of the goodness of fit between the child’s temperament and their social environment. However, positively oriented goodness of fit and the quality of parenting are the two major factors that influence the formation of a secure relationship between children and their parents or caretakers. Schraeder, B. D., Heverly, M. A., & OBrien, C. M. (1996). Home and Classroom Behavioral Adjustment in Very Low Birthweight Children: The Influence of Caregiver Stress and Goodness of Fit. Childrens Health Care, 25(2), 117. In a study evaluating the effect of low birth weight on the adjustment of children to the home and school environments, the birth weight was found to be less influential. On the contrary, the factors that played an important role in defining the adaptability of the low birth weight children to the school and home environments were the family structure and the goodness of fit. Single-parent family structure caused the low birth weight children to adapt well at home but poorly at school. On the other hand, the goodness of fit factor played an important role in helping children adapt positively to both the home and the school environment. Compared to children born with normal weight, children born with low birth weights adjust to both the school and the home environment similarly. The biological risks and the environmental stress play the same role in influencing the adaptability of both the low birth weight children and the normal birth weight children. However, the family structure and the goodness of fit are the factors that create the disparity in the mode of adaptation of the school-age children. Lerner, J. V., Lerner, R. M., & Zabski, S. (1985). Temperament and elementary school childrens actual and rated academic performance: a test of goodness-of-fit model. Journal Of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 26(1), 125-136. Goodness of fit is an important factor in defining both the functioning and performance of children in school. In a study establishing the influence of goodness of fit on the functioning of school-going children, 194 children were recruited for the study. The results of the study indicated that those children whose goodness of fit was well developed such that their temperament fitted or exceeded the expectations of their teachers functioned relatively well in school. On the other hand, children whose temperament fitted poorly or fell below the expectation of their teachers functioned dismally at school. The the influence of the goodness of fit, when all the environmental context factors are kept constant, is positively related to the overall adjustment of the school-going children to the school environment. Thus, from the findings of the study, it can be concluded that goodness of fit is an important factor both in determining the adjustment of school-going children at school, as well as in influencing their academic performance. Wallander, J. L., Hubert, N. C., & Varni, J. W. (1988). Child and Maternal Temperament Characteristics, Goodness of Fit, and Adjustment in Physically Handicapped Children. Journal Of Clinical Child Psychology, 17(4), 336. Children with physical disabilities are known to have a problem of coordination between their mental activity and their physical bodily activities. Nevertheless, the temperament of such children and their goodness of fit can be important moderators in the coordination of the responsiveness of the physically disabled children to their mental drives. The adjustment of the physically disabled children to both internalizing and externalizing behaviors, as well as to social competence for the disabled children was found to be difficult compared to that of the normal children. Further, maternal rhythmicity is found to be a factor that influenced the adjustment of the physically disabled children to adapt the temperament of their parents more dominantly than their own salient temperaments. Thus, while children without physical disability tend to adjust more to their salient temperaments, children with physical disabilities tend to adjust both to their salient temperaments and also to the maternal temperaments. In this respect, goodness of fit adjustment for children with physical disabilities is a factor of both the maternal and the salient child’s temperament. Fisher, C. B. (2003). A Goodness-of-Fit Ethic for Child Assent to Nonbeneficial Research. American Journal Of Bioethics, 3(4), 27-28. The cognitive maturity and experiences of children are not at the same level as those of adults. Therefore, children may not be well placed to give assent regarding the participation in certain life events that entail certain risks. However, goodness of fit plays important roles in helping children, even as young as the age of 9 years, become capable of discerning what is enjoyable, stressful, hurtful or boring. Goodness of fit also plays an important role in making children sympathetic, empathetic and altruistic, even when such moral behaviors are not a function of their informed decision-making. Therefore, basing the right to assent participation in certain life events on the basis of age is by itself wrong, since it create the biases that sees children denied their rights of choices informed by their emotions. The fact that adults are able to reason better than children does not always translate to the fact that adults will always make better decisions than children. The goodness of fit, as opposed to reasoning, also has an important role in influencing the choices made by individuals, whether children or adults. Summary Goodness of fit is a relevant factor in influencing the adjustability of children to their environment, and also in defining their social competence. Nevertheless, while the goodness of fit is an important factor that defines the adjustment of children’s temperament, there are other factors such as the quality of parenting, maternal stress and the structure of the family that also influence the adjustment of children to the environment and the social contexts. Most importantly however, children suffering from physical disabilities are more prone to be influenced by the maternal temperaments of their parents when compared to the children without physical disabilities. The physical disability attributes make the goodness of fit for such children both a function of their salient temperament and the temperament of their maternal parents. Goodness of fit in children starts to take shape as early as when the children are the age of 4 to 8 months, and by the time they attain the age of 15 months, a secure attachments between the children and their caretakers have already been established. Thus, while children are not able to make rational decisions, the goodness of fit is instrumental in helping them form morally positive tendencies such as empathy, sympathy and altruism. Read More