The use of questionnaires in an attempt to elicit the opinions of children, parents, teachers and others on various subjects is a common practice. Obviously it is open to criticism in that the subjects are liable to misrepresent their opinions, and are usually biased in their own favour. However, some useful information can be obtained by- this means. Cummings recently made a study of the incidence of emotional symptoms in school children between the ages of two and seven + years.’ A number of teachers were asked to observe 239 children in three large infant schools.
A random sample was obtained by going through the resisters and picking out every second child. The teachers then completed a record from. It was found that the following emotional symptoms had the highest incidence for the whole group. Aggressiveness, cruelty, day-dreaming and obstinacy were found more frequently in boys than in girls. Incontinence and frequency of maturation decreased with age. Specific fears tended to decline with age, also such comfort habits as thumb-sucking, sucking bricks, etc. Day-dreaming and lack of concentration appeared to increase with age, probably because more formal work is included and less free play in the time-table. “Over-protected” children showed more’ “nervous” symptoms than “neglected” children. “Neglected” children tended to be more anti-social, more aggressive or cruel or dishonest.
The results are interesting and suggest the need for more adjustment classes, using play methods in the infant departments. Jenkins on (20) made a valuable study of children’s reading preferences and habits in this way. He obtained replies from 2,900 children (936 secondary school boys and 719 secondary school girls, and 634 senior school boys and 611 senior school girls, between twelve and fifteen years of age). Girls give more time to reading school stories, love stories, and stories of home life, while boys enjoys adventure and detective stories more.
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An analysis of Youth Centre interests was made by Hammond on 140 boys and girls of sixteen years. Sports and physical activities are the most popular. The data gave evidence of an athletic type and a more sedentary type preferring artistic and intellectual interests. The girls tended to belong to the latter type and the boys to the former.
Many other investigators have used the questionnaire method and there are many useful reports of studies undertaken on similar lines reported in the literature. I have referred only to three recent studies giving interesting results at three different age levels.
This general survey of the research work undertaken in the field of child psychology is perhaps sufficient to indicate to the general reader that a great amount of useful work has been done, and a great variety of method employed. The list of references at the end of this section will, I hope, tempt the serious students to read more as it is impossible to give detailed accounts within the scope of this volume.