Maternal reports of adaptive behaviours in young children: urban-rural and gender comparisons in Italy and United States

Abstract

We compared how 182 Italian and US American urban and rural firstborn 20-month-old girls and boys cope with the demands of their environment through their adaptive behaviours in everyday activities. Using the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales, we collected maternal reports of children's communication, daily living, socialization, and motor skills. Three sets of main effects (and no interactions) emerged. With respect to country, Italian children scored higher than US American children in adaptive communication and motor skills. With respect to region, urban children showed higher adaptive motor skills than rural children, and rural children showed higher adaptive daily living skills than urban children. Finally, with respect to gender, girls scored higher on an adaptive behaviour composite as well as adaptive communication skills, but boys higher in adaptive motor skills. We set these country, region, and gender main effects in the context of a discussion of developing adaptive behaviours in young children.

Secondary emotions in non-primate species? Behavioural reports and subjective claims by animal owners

“…This does not of course remove the potential for ungrounded anthropomorphic attribution; however, it is an attempt to make sure that the data are based on the direct experience of participants with their animals, rather than their more global ideas about animal emotions. This is in line with approaches taken in the developmental literature where reports by mothers of their children are used as evidence for a variety of psychological abilities (Bornstein, Giusti, Leach, & Venuti, 2005).…”

Sex differences in parent‐reported executive functioning and adaptive behavior in children and young adults with autism spectrum disorder

“…If supported in future studies, this raises the possibility of a concentration of female specific phenotypic differences outside of social communication domains. Such a pattern could reflect biological/genetic differences or previously described sex differences in child rearing [Johnson et al, ], which emphasize social and communication skills for females and thus may provide more intensive support for girls to develop these skills [Bornstein, Giusti, Leach, & Venuti, ]. Since ASD is diagnosed later in females, they may be missing out on specific interventions that would target their ASD related weaknesses more broadly.…”

Adaptive Behaviors in Young Children: A Unique Cultural Comparison in Italy

“…Moreover, adaptive behavior is conceptualized as developmentally incremental in that older children exhibit more adaptive behaviors than younger children (Sparrow et al, 1984, Tombokan-Runtukahu & Nitko, 1992). The construct of adaptive behavior generally, and the VABS specifically, have shown good validity both in Western cultures, such as Italy (Bornstein, Giusti, Leach, & Venuti, 2005), and in nonWestern countries, such as Indonesia (Tombokan-Runtukahu & Nitko, 1992). The VABS have been used in Italy previously to assess normal child behavior (e.g., Balboni, Dantoni, & Pedrabissi, 2000; Bornstein et al, 2005; Calvo, Mazzeschi, Zennaro, & Lis, 2002) and individuals with cognitive disabilities (e.g., De Stasio, Gentile, Labonia, & Masi, 2002) or mental retardation (e.g., Balboni, Pedrabissi, Molteni, & Villa, 2001).…”