Contents

The Child Development Research Unit
Dr. Barbara Morrongiello
Current Projects
A few of our most recent projects
Meet our staff
Links
Contact us!

The Child Development Research Unit

Who are we?

The University of Guelph’s Child Development Research Unit (CDRU) focuses on developmental issues during those critical early childhood years.  The Unit conducts research on infant learning and child safety issues.  Dr. Morrongiello and her staff study children between 4 months and 12 years of age.  Studies involve phone surveys, mail questionnaires, in-person visits to our laboratory on campus or home visits.  Some studies focus on children, others on parents, and some involve the entire family!

We are always in need of study participants!

The CDRU is in need of parents who would like to get involved in research by becoming part of our volunteer contact list.

All studies are completely voluntary and are arranged at times for the convenience of the participants.  All volunteers who participate will receive a newsletter highlighting the findings of our research.  Our contact list is confidential, and never released to anyone!  If you are interested in learning more about our research, we urge you to contact us (see below).

Why get involved?

Research is critical to making advances in children’s lives. Your assistance as a volunteer can help make the differences in our children’s future health and well-being.  The information received from these studies can help people in our society to become better teachers, improved child practitioners and more informed parents.

How do I get involved?

Contact us to join our volunteer contact list.  We will ask for your contact information, as well as the name(s) and age(s) of your child(ren).  Once your information is added to our contact list you will be contacted if and when your child(ren) fall into the age ranges of the projects we’re running.  The project will be described to you, and which point YOU decide if it is something you would like to participate in.  You can have your name removed from the list at any time if you should decide that you are no longer interested in being involved.

Our Newsletter

Click here to see our most recent newsletter!

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Dr. Barbara Morrongiello

As a scientist and practitioner (i.e., Registered Psychologist), I have interests in both basic and applied research. My basic research interests include advancing our knowledge of how young infants learn new information, remember this information over time, and apply this knowledge to new learning situations. My applied research interests are broad and include issues relevant to adolescent well being (e.g., eating disorders, peer and parental influences on risk taking behaviours), determining the best approaches to teaching young children about injury risk and safety practices, and identifying factors that lead parents to adopt or ignore safety precautions that could prevent in-home injuries to young children. I also have interests in children's coping and, in collaboration with Ben Gottlieb, am studying how parents socialize children to cope with day-to-day events that lead to emotional upset (e.g., teasing), and how child temperament and parent-child relationship variables moderate the impact of parents' efforts to teach their child how to cope. My coping research also includes work concerning how children and families cope with critical health issues (e.g., a diagnosis of a terminal illness).

My research is disseminated to various health practitioners through the publication of articles in scholarly journals.  Here is a small sample of the publications which have resulted from my work with the Child Development Research Unit:

Morrongiello, B. A., Howard, A., Rothman, L., & Sandomierski, M. (2009). Once bitten, twice shy? Medically-attended injuries can sensitize parents to children's risk of injuries on playgrounds. Injury Prevention, 15, 50 – 55.

Morrongiello, B. A., & Marks, L. (2008). "Practice what you preach": Induced hypocrisy as an intervention strategy to reduce children's risky playground behaviors. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 33, 1117 – 1128.

Morrongiello, B. A., Cusimano, M., Orr, E., Barton, B., Chipman, M., Tyberg, J., Kulkarini, A., Khanlou, N., Masi, R., & Bekele, T. (2008). School-age children's safety attitudes, cognitions, knowledge, and injury experiences: Do these relate to their safety practices? Injury Prevention, 14, 176 – 179.

Morrongiello, B. A., MacIsaac, T., & Klemencic, N. (2007). Older siblings as supervisors: Does this influence young children's risk of unintentional injury? Social Science & Medicine, 64, 807 – 817.

For a list of recent publications click: Publications

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Current Ongoing Projects

TEACHING HOME STUDY

Goal: Learn more about how parents teach their children about household safety, and how these strategies change as children get older.

Target: Mothers with a child between 2 ½ to 3 ½ years old, who is the oldest child in the family.

Details: Study takes place over six months, including six visits to your home. During each visit, a few rooms in your home are examined to identify items your child "might get into," questionnaires are filled out and there is a short video related to teaching your child about safety, recorded after the research assistant has left your home. In between visits, mothers keep track of child injuries in the home.

Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF CHILDREN'S HEALTH

Goal: Learn more about parenting practices and how these affect child health, and how these relationships change as children get older.

Target: Mothers with children 2 to 5 years old.

Details: Study has several parts that take place over five months, including three visits to the University of Guelph campus and two visits to your home. In between visits, mothers keep track of child injuries and report on supervision in the home.

Funded by: Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Injury Control and Prevention in the U.S.

COMPARISON OF HOW OLDER SIBLINGS AND MOTHERS SUPERVISE A YOUNGER CHILD

Goal: Learn more about how supervision by an older sibling differs from that provided by mothers.

Target: Mothers with a child 2 to 4 years old, and another child 4 to 12 years old.

Details: Study involves one visit to the University of Guelph campus. Mother and older sibling independently watch video clips of a toddler engaging in different types of play at home, and then they answer questions about the clips.

Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

PARENTAL PREDICTIONS OF CHILD RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOUR

Goal: Learn more about how parents' knowledge of their children's behaviour preferences and likelihood to risk-take influences elementary-school children's risk of injury.

Target: Parents with children aged 7 to 9 years old.

Details: Study takes place over two months, including one visit to your home and one visit to the University of Guelph campus. In between visits, both parent and child fill out weekly forms related to injury and supervision.

Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

IMPROVING CHILDREN’S STREET CROSSING BEHAVIOURS

Goal: Learn more about how children cross streets and how we might teach them to cross more safely.

Target: Children aged 6 to 10 years old.

Details: Study involves one visit to the University of Guelph campus. A high-tech Virtual Reality system is used: each child will wear a headset that shows him/her a typical residential neighborhood street. Participants have to decide when to cross the street safely based on the traffic flow presented. This VR system allows us to present very realistic traffic conditions while ensuring no harm can come to your child. By providing children feedback about how to judge traffic flow, we hope to teach children to cross more safely.

Funded by: Canadian Institutes of Health Research

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Recently Completed Projects

Beliefs About Supervision Study: Mothers and fathers have very similar beliefs about how best to supervise their young child at home There is virtually nothing known about how fathers supervise children, and if children are at more risk of injury with one parent than the other. In this study parents of children (aged 2-5) were contacted for a telephone interview designed to help us to understand at which age parents believe a child can do simple daily activities without constant supervision.  The telephone interview took about 10 minutes for both parents to complete, and a few short questionnaires were mailed to parents to complete at home and returned to the CDRU in a pre-addressed and stamped envelope. Results confirmed that mothers and fathers have similar beliefs about the supervision needs of their child. Therefore, children should be as safe with one parent as the other.

Parent Influences on Children’s Attitudes Toward Safety Behaviours: Children learn as much from what parents DO as from what they say

We know that children learn about safety from what parents teach them but there is little nothing known about what children learn from seeing their parents model risky behaviours (e.g., not wearing a seatbelt). This study focused on understanding family-based influences on children’s attitudes toward safety behaviours, such as wearing a seatbelt.  Sibling pairs (aged 7-9 and 10-12) met for approximately one hour individually with research assistants, and were asked a number of questions to assess their perceptions of parent safety behaviours and emphasis placed by parents on certain safety behaviours.  These perceptions were related to children’s reports about their own current safety behaviours and how they plan to behave when they reach adulthood.  Children based their current practices on what the parents taught them about safety but when they get older they planned to adopt the risky behaviours they saw their parents do. Thus, both what parents say and what they do both influence children’s attitudes toward safety practices.

Sibling Supervision Study: Older siblings supervise younger siblings much like parents do but younger siblings who are non compliant may be at increased risk of injury when being supervised by an older sibling

Virtually all parents sometimes allow an older sibling to supervise a younger one, but we know nothing about how well older siblings supervise and how well younger sibling comply with older siblings as supervisors. This study focused on how older siblings look after younger siblings (18-24 & 30-36 months) in their homes.  We were interested in learning how much of the time older siblings look after younger ones when at home together, and to determine when this is most likely to happen.   Participation was easy; there was a short 20 minute interview which was conducted with mothers over the telephone.  There were also a few short questionnaires that were mailed to the participant for them to complete at their leisure. Results revealed that older siblings often looked after younger siblings while the parent completed a chore at home. Older siblings used similar supervision strategies as their parents, but younger siblings who were more noncompliant with the older sibling experienced more injuries.

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Meet our staff

Every year, numerous undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Guelph become involved in the activities of the Child Development Research Unit.  The opportunities provided for hands-on learning in the form of volunteer, internship, and thesis placements are an invaluable contribution to their degree programs.

Because of the scope and magnitude of the various studies often being conducted simultaneously, as well as work with the resulting data and results, Dr. Morrongiello has several full-time staff members who assist her in overseeing these projects. All staff are carefully selected based on their credentials (including a police check) and skills in working with children and families,

Mike Corbett
After completing his undergraduate training at the University of British Columbia, Mike completed his Masters Degree in Psychology at the University of Guelph in 2008. Mike has also completed some graduate level training in statistics for the social sciences at the University of Guelph, and is currently in the third year of his PhD with Dr. Morrongiello. During the fall of 2002 he joined the team at the Child Development Research Unit, focusing on data management and analysis.  Mike completed an internship at the unit involving parental strategies for teaching young children about household safety issues that was presented at SRCD 2005 in Atlanta.

Heather McCollam
Heather became involved with the Child Development Research Unit in January of 2008 while working with Dr. Morrongiello to complete her undergraduate degree in Psychology, which she completed in April of 2009. In May 2009, she began work as a full time research assistant in the CDRU. Heather's responsibilities include conducting interviews and organizing various aspects of the longitudinal study of children's health, currently ongoing.

Alexa Read
Alexa completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology in April of 2009, after beginning to work with Dr. Morrongiello in January of 2008 in order to complete her undergraduate degree. In May of 2009, she began work as a full time research assistant in the CDRU, with responsibilities including conducting interviews, coordinating ongoing studies, and recruiting “newborn” participants for the volunteer contact list through the Guelph General Hospital.

Stephanie Husson

Stephanie completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology in April of 2007. Her involvement with the Child Development Research Unit began in January of 2009, at which time she joined the team as a full time research assistant. Her primary responsibilities include conducting interviews and handling data related to the longitudinal study of children's health.

Melissa Bell

Melissa will have completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology as of August 2010. She began work with Dr. Morrongiello as a research intern in the winter of 2009, and became a full time research assistant in the Child Development Research Unit in May of 2010. Her responsibilities include coordinating ongoing studies, recruiting "newborn" participants for the volunteer contact list through Guelph General Hospital, and conducting interviews.

Rachel Scapinello

Rachel completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology in April of 2010, after beginning work with Dr. Morrongiello as a volunteer in the summer of 2007. She currently works as a part time research assistant, focusing on conducting interviews and handling data related to the longitudinal study of children's health.

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Links University of Guelph Psychology Department, University of Guelph College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, University of Guelph

www.uoguelph.ca www.psychology.uoguelph.ca www.csahs.uoguelph.ca

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Contact Us!

Email Dr. Barbara Morrongiello Child Development Research Unit  Mike Corbett Heather McCollam Alexa Read Stephanie Husson Melissa Bell Rachel Scapinello

bmorrong@uoguelph.ca cdru@uoguelph.ca corbettm@uoguelph.ca hmccolla@uoguelph.ca reada@uoguelph.ca shusson@uoguelph.ca mbell01@uoguelph.ca rscapine@uoguelph.ca

Mailing address Child Development Research Unit Department of Psychology University of Guelph Guelph, ON N1G 2W1

Telephone (519)767-5033

Fax (519)837-8629

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