TY - JOUR
T1 - Touching in Infant, Toddler, and Preschool Nurseries
AU - Field, Tiffany
AU - Harding, Jeff
AU - Soliday, Barbara
AU - Lasko, David
AU - Gonzalez, Nini
AU - Valdeon, Chad
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the children and parents who participated in this study; as well as the teachers and staff. This research was supported by an NIMH Research Scientist Award (#MH00331) and an NIMH Research Grant (#MH40779) to Tiffany Field. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to Tiffany Field, Ph.D., Touch Research Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, RO. Box 016820, Miami, Fl 33101.
PY - 1994/1/1
Y1 - 1994/1/1
N2 - Observations were made in infant, toddler and preschool nurseries to establish baseline touching between children and their peers and teachers. Teachers were then asked to try to touch the children more frequently, and follow-up observations were then conducted. Positive touch (including holding, hugging, kissing, hand-holding, and caregiving) increased following this request to the teachers. Boys were touched in a positive way more frequently than girls, and progressively less positive touch was noted across ages from the infant to toddler to preschool nurseries. Carrying and caregiving in the nurseries were correlated with time spent holding by parents during end-of-day reunions. Teacher ratings of touch behavior were related to actual behavior, i.e. how often the teacher thought she touched the child was correlated with how often the child was actually touched, and how much the child liked being touched correlated with how much the child was touched during reunion with the parents.
AB - Observations were made in infant, toddler and preschool nurseries to establish baseline touching between children and their peers and teachers. Teachers were then asked to try to touch the children more frequently, and follow-up observations were then conducted. Positive touch (including holding, hugging, kissing, hand-holding, and caregiving) increased following this request to the teachers. Boys were touched in a positive way more frequently than girls, and progressively less positive touch was noted across ages from the infant to toddler to preschool nurseries. Carrying and caregiving in the nurseries were correlated with time spent holding by parents during end-of-day reunions. Teacher ratings of touch behavior were related to actual behavior, i.e. how often the teacher thought she touched the child was correlated with how often the child was actually touched, and how much the child liked being touched correlated with how much the child was touched during reunion with the parents.
KW - Touching
KW - nursery school
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U2 - 10.1080/0300443940980111
DO - 10.1080/0300443940980111
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0005372090
VL - 98
SP - 113
EP - 120
JO - Early Child Development and Care
JF - Early Child Development and Care
SN - 0300-4430
IS - 1
ER -