Browsing by Subject "lapsuus"

Objectives. The objective of this master’s thesis is to examine child’s role in Chinese family structure by reflecting through children’s stories. The motivation for the thesis originates from increasing multiculturalism in societies, which is conveyed to encounters with children from different backgrounds. International story crafting provides information about the lives of people living in different environments (Karlsson, 2014, 123, 118, 123), that is used as medium to increase understanding of role of a child in China which in general is poorly known and understood (Haw & Kankaansivu, 2015, 11). According to Alanen (2009, 12, 22–23), public debates worldwide have raised concerns about shortening of childhood or, at worst, its early end. However, in these discussions, the primary focus has been around child’s inner circle such as parents and teachers instead of the child itself. The involvement of children and their own voices have largely been underheard (Alanen, 2009, 12, 22–23) and therefore the purpose of this thesis is to get an understanding of child's position in a family through children's voices and stories. Methods. This thesis is qualitative research where which is conducted by using content analysis as the research method. The objective the content analysis was to outline main themes which are analyzed in detail in the thesis. The literature consists of 38 stories made by Chinese children which have been collected in a kindergarten in Hunan Province, China in 2010. The children ranged from 3 to 5 years of age. Eighteen stories were collected from 5-year-olds, seven stories from 4-year-olds, and eight stories from 3-year-olds. The story crafting was conducted in Chinese, and the stories were translated to Finnish in 2011–2012. In story crafting method, an adult records a story told by a child just as the child has told it (Karlsson, Lähteenmäki & Lastikka, 2019, 37). Results and conclusions. The role of mothers was highlighted in the children’s stories. Mothers acted as a cook, caretaker, and authority. Fathers were mentioned only in four stories. Studies in China have found that the role of the father in raising children is minor (Wu, An & An, 2013, 304, 310) and in the light of the literature study, it appears that fathers have been overshadowed by mothers. Siblings and grandparents played also lesser roles. Playing with parents came up as a common activity. Compared to Western childhood, childhood in China is short and it is evident that the childhood in terms of fairy tales and play often ends at the start of school (Manninen, 2016, 103–107.). Fear of abandonment came across as a general emotion in children’s stories in relation to the family. There are an estimated 200,000 “left behind children” in Hunan Province, meaning that parents have moved to cities in pursuit of a better life (Suomen lähetysseura, 2021). The importance of childhood should thefore be acknowledged as valuable period of life.

The different fields of study are strongly differentiated according to gender in Finland (Tilastokeskus 2015). Women are still a minority in the technology working life and education (Niiranen 2016). International studies show that also children’s play is differentiated according to gender (Riley & Jones 2007). The aim of this thesis is to study childhood play, skills learned during play and what impact play has for the career choice. All in all twenty people participated in the study. Sixteen of these were studying to become Masters of Science in Technology and four were already graduated. Ten women and ten men participated in the study. The data were acquired by single person semi-structured interviews. It was voluntary to bring childhood photos or toys to the interviews. The data were analyzed by inductive content analysis. According to the results of the study there were both similarities and differences in the type of play for men and women. The biggest similarities were rule play, construction play and computer games. The biggest differences were the women’s nursing play and the men’s war play. The interviewees felt that they had learned social skills, mathematical skills, creative skills and motor skills through play. There were different opinions whether childhood play had affected their career choices. Some interviewees thought that childhood plays possibly had some impact on the career choice, but not all of the interviewees shared this opinion. Especially some women thought it was important that they could play different plays regardless of gender which made it possible to imagine different career choices regardless of gender.

Aims: The etiology of mental disorders in childhood is still partially unknown. In the last decades researchers have started to study the role of prenatal factors, for example maternal prenatal anxiety symptoms, on child psychological symptoms. In most previous studies prenatal anxiety has been studied as a part of stress and together with depression, so studies concerning particularly its association on child psychological symptoms are still rare. In this study we examine if maternal prenatal anxiety in different trimesters is related to child internalizing, externalizing and total problems at the age of 1 to 5 and does the timing of the prenatal anxiety symptoms matter to child symptoms. We also study if maternal postnatal anxiety mediates the association between prenatal anxiety and child psychological symptoms, and if there are differences between genders within these associations. Methods: This study is a part of the multi-disciplinary Prediction and Prevention of Pre-eclampsia (PREDO) -study's psychological branch. The sample size of the current study was 1962. Maternal pre- and postnatal anxiety symptoms were assessed with the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) self-report questionnaire four times during pregnancy and when the child was 1 to 5 years old. Paternal anxiety symptoms were also collected with BAI six months after birth. Child's internalizing, externalizing and total problems at the age of 1 to 5 were assessed with The Child Behavior Checklist 1 1/2–5 - questionnaire rated by the mother. The associations were investigated using linear regression analysis, controlling for postnatal maternal and paternal anxiety symptoms, many sociodemographic factors and other factors associated with fetal development. Results and conclusions: Results indicated that higher maternal prenatal anxiety symptoms were associated with elevated internalizing, externalizing and total problems in the children. High anxiety symptoms especially during the last pregnancy trimester were essential considering child psychological symptoms. Moreover, although maternal postnatal anxiety symptoms partially mediated the association between maternal prenatal anxiety and child psychological symptoms, prenatal anxiety also had independent effects on psychological symptoms in the children. There were also differences between genders, since maternal prenatal anxiety during the first trimester appeared to be particularly important for boys' psychological symptoms. Results provide strong evidence that prenatal anxiety has a direct, independent effect on child's psychological symptoms and support the notion indicating that the fetal environmental factors have impact on child's development.