Victoria Talwar
McGill University, Educational and Counselling Psychology, Faculty Member
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The current study reports on parent-child conversations about death. One hundred and thirty parents of children 2- to 7-years of age completed an online questionnaire. The types of explanations of death provided by parents to their... more
The current study reports on parent-child conversations about death. One hundred and thirty parents of children 2- to 7-years of age completed an online questionnaire. The types of explanations of death provided by parents to their children were examined in relation to parental perceptions of their children's physical and emotional reactions, and the religiosity, afterlife beliefs, and death anxiety of parents. Likelihood of conversations about death increased with age of child. The most frequent types of explanations provided to children were religious/spiritual. Both parental level of religiosity and parental level of spirituality were correlated with providing a religious/spiritual explanation. Level of religiosity was also negatively correlated with providing a biological explanation of death. Scores on the Belief in Afterlife Scale (Osarchuk & Tatz, 1973) and Templer's Death Anxiety Scale (Templer, 1970) were positively correlated. Discriminant analysis revealed that pa...
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Previous researchers who have studied children’s spirituality have often used narrow measures that do not account for the rich spiritual experiences of children within a multi-faith context. In the current study, we describe the initial... more
Previous researchers who have studied children’s spirituality have often used narrow measures that do not account for the rich spiritual experiences of children within a multi-faith context. In the current study, we describe the initial stages of development of a children’s spirituality measure, in which items were derived from children’s spiritual narratives. An exploratory factor analysis of the items revealed three main factors, including Comfort (Factor 1), Omnipresence (Factor 2), and Duality (Factor 3). As rated by their parents, children from families that were more spiritual and religious had higher scores on the newly-developed measure. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
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Although parents are significant sources of socialization in children's lives including with respect to their moral behavior, very little research has focused on how parents socialize children's honesty and dishonesty, especially... more
Although parents are significant sources of socialization in children's lives including with respect to their moral behavior, very little research has focused on how parents socialize children's honesty and dishonesty, especially parents of atypically developing children for whom lying is of substantial concern. We surveyed 49 parents of typically-developing (TD) children (M = 7.49, SD = 1.54) and 47 parents of children who had been diagnosed with a disruptive behavior disorder (DBD; M = 7.64, SD = 1.39) regarding their beliefs and attitudes about honesty and dishonesty, including in response to hypothetical vignettes; their messages to their children about honesty and dishonesty (e.g., punishment); and their own lying behavior and perceptions of their child's lying behavior. Results revealed that, in comparison to parents of TD children, parents of children with DBD reported (a) more punitive reactions to children's lying behavior, including in response to the hypot...
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Children's lie-telling is surprisingly understudied among children with significant behavioral problems. In the present study, experimental paradigms were used to examine antisocial lie-telling among ethnically diverse 5- to... more
Children's lie-telling is surprisingly understudied among children with significant behavioral problems. In the present study, experimental paradigms were used to examine antisocial lie-telling among ethnically diverse 5- to 10-year-old children with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD; n = 71) and a typically developing (TD) comparison sample (n = 50) recruited from a southeastern state from 2013 to 2014. Children completed two games that measured the prevalence and skill of their lies: (a) for personal gain and (b) to conceal wrongdoing. Children with DBD were more likely to lie for personal gain than TD children. With age, children were more likely to lie to conceal wrongdoing, but the reverse was true regarding lies for personal gain. Results advance knowledge concerning individual differences in children's lie-telling.
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The present study examined differences in children's true and false narratives as a function of parental coaching by comparing the verbal markers associated with deception. Children (N = 65, 4-7 years old) played the same game with an... more
The present study examined differences in children's true and false narratives as a function of parental coaching by comparing the verbal markers associated with deception. Children (N = 65, 4-7 years old) played the same game with an adult stranger over three consecutive days. Parents coached their children to falsely allege that they had played a second game and to generate details for the fabricated event. One week after the last play session, children were interviewed about their experiences. For children with the least amount of parental coaching, true and false reports could be distinguished by multiple verbal markers of deception (e.g., cognitive processes, temporal information, self-references). The fabricated reports of children who spent more time being coaching by a parent resembled their truthful reports. These findings have implications for real-world forensic contexts when children have been coached to make false allegations and fabricate information at the behest ...
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This study found that children with a history of cancer had higher scores on certain measures of spirituality compared to their healthy peers. Health history was found to significantly moderate the relations among spirituality and outcome... more
This study found that children with a history of cancer had higher scores on certain measures of spirituality compared to their healthy peers. Health history was found to significantly moderate the relations among spirituality and outcome variables, such as depression and anxiety. Furthermore, parent-child dyadshad more highly correlated scores than parent-child dyadson both the Depression subscale and the Existential Well-Being subscale, whereas parent-child dyadshad more highly correlated scores than parent-child dyadson the Duality factor. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
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Resilience has generally been understood as positive coping and adaptation despite stress and adversity and as a buffer against stress. Researchers examining resilience have typically focused on children's psychological... more
Resilience has generally been understood as positive coping and adaptation despite stress and adversity and as a buffer against stress. Researchers examining resilience have typically focused on children's psychological resilience because of the well-established impact of stress on children's mental health. However, although it has also been well-established that high levels of stress can impact children's physical health, their physical health has received little attention in resilience research. Articles were selected for review if they (1) had a variable that was in some way a measure of physical health in response to a psychosocial stressor; (2) had participants who were children or adolescents within the age range of 4-18years; and (3) were a peer-reviewed, empirical study. Two random-effect meta-analyses were conducted with a sample of 12,772 participants across 14 studies to determine the influence of protective and vulnerability factors on children's physical health in adverse experiences. Protective factors had a moderate effect and vulnerability factors had a small-moderate effect on health measures across domains of physiological, sleep behavior, and overall health. The type of health measure moderated the effect size for vulnerability factors, but not for protective factors. These findings suggest that protective factors may be associated with an environment that encourages children to thrive, as apparent by their physical health. The results of this review and meta-analysis can be used to guide the methodological design of future studies on childhood resilience and to inform clinical practice with children and adolescents.
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Lie-telling is a false verbal statement made with the intention to deceive another. Lies may be told for selfish reasons or due to prosocial motivations. As a result, the veracity of a statement holds more than just communicative intent... more
Lie-telling is a false verbal statement made with the intention to deceive another. Lies may be told for selfish reasons or due to prosocial motivations. As a result, the veracity of a statement holds more than just communicative intent but rather represents social intentions. In the current experiment children (6- to 12-years old) viewed 12 vignettes which depicted a protagonist either telling a truth or a lie. The protagonist’s statements either hurt another or themselves (other versus self). Following viewing of each vignette participants provided a moral evaluation of the protagonist’s statement (five-point Likert) and a classification of the statements; as either a truth or lie. Additionally, a novel method of evaluating statements was introduced, whereby children evaluated communicative intent as an act, to be rewarded or punished. Results revealed that both lies and truths were accurately identified, with the exception of altruistic lies (benefits to another) and tattling tru...
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The present study examined the emergence of antisocial lie-telling in very young children. Lie-telling was studied in relation to executive functioning skills and children's abilities to identify both truths and lies. A total of 65... more
The present study examined the emergence of antisocial lie-telling in very young children. Lie-telling was studied in relation to executive functioning skills and children's abilities to identify both truths and lies. A total of 65 children (Mage in months = 31.75, SD = 1.87) participated in a modified temptation resistance paradigm (TRP; designed to elicit spontaneous lies). Executive functioning was measured through an inhibitory control task and a forward search planning task. The Truth/Lie Identification task was administered (Lyon, Carrick, & Quas, 2010) to measure children's abilities to accurately distinguish truths and lies. During the TRP, a total of 89.23% children peeked at the toy when a research assistant left the room, and of those children, 29.31% lied to the research assistant. Significant differences on executive functioning measures were found between lie-tellers and confessors, as well as for the Truth/Lie Identification task. Lie-tellers had higher scores on measures of inhibitory control and forward search planning. Lie-tellers also had higher accuracy on the Truth/Lie Identification task than confessors. This study provides a unique contribution to the literature by examining 2.5-year-old children's emerging lie-telling abilities, a relatively understudied age during which fledgling lie-telling emerges. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Moral stories are a means of communicating the consequences of our actions and emphasizing virtuous behaviour, such as honesty. However, the effect of these stories on children's lie-telling has yet to be thoroughly explored. The... more
Moral stories are a means of communicating the consequences of our actions and emphasizing virtuous behaviour, such as honesty. However, the effect of these stories on children's lie-telling has yet to be thoroughly explored. The current study investigated the influence of moral stories on children's willingness to lie for another individual. Children were read one of three stories prior to being questioned about an accidental wrongdoing: (1) a positive story, which emphasized the benefits of being honest; (2) a negative story, which outlined the potential costs of lying; and (3) a neutral story, which was unrelated to truth-telling or lie-telling. Initially, most children withheld information about the event. Older children were better able to maintain their lies throughout the interview. However, when asked direct questions, children in the positive story condition were more likely to tell the truth than those in the negative and neutral conditions. No significant differences were found between the negative and neutral story conditions. The present study also investigated the relationship between children's conceptual understanding and behaviour. The findings revealed that children's knowledge of truths and lies increased with age. Children who lied had significantly higher conceptual scores than those who did not lie. Furthermore, the type of story children were read had a significant impact on their evaluations of true and false statements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Though it is frequently condemned, lie-telling is a common and frequent activity in interpersonal interactions, with apparent social risks and benefits. The current review examines the development of deception among children. It is argued... more
Though it is frequently condemned, lie-telling is a common and frequent activity in interpersonal interactions, with apparent social risks and benefits. The current review examines the development of deception among children. It is argued that early lying is normative, reflecting children's emerging cognitive and social development. Children lie to preserve self-interests as well as for the benefit of others. With
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Research Interests: Cognitive Science, Developmental Psychology, Interpersonal Communication, Helping Behavior, Deception, and 15 moreChild Behavior, Humans, Child, Gift Giving, Comprehension, Concept Formation, Female, Male, Elementary School, Feeling, Emotional Expression, Lying, Age effect, Age Factors, and Child preschool
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ABSTRACT The veracity of child witness testimony is central to the justice system where there are serious consequences for the child, the accused, and society. Thus, it is important to examine how children’s lie-telling abilities develop... more
ABSTRACT The veracity of child witness testimony is central to the justice system where there are serious consequences for the child, the accused, and society. Thus, it is important to examine how children’s lie-telling abilities develop and the factors that can influence their truthfulness. The current review examines children’s lie-telling ability in relation to child witness testimony. Although research demonstrates that children develop the ability to lie at an early age, they also understand that lie-telling is morally unacceptable and do not condone most types of lies. Children’s ability to lie effectively develops with age and is related to their increasing cognitive sophistication. However, even children’s early lies can be difficult to detect. Greater lie elaboration requires greater skill and children’s ability to lie effectively improves with development and as a function of cognitive skill. Different methods of promoting children’s truthful reports as well as the social and motivational factors that affect children’s honesty will be discussed.
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Few studies have examined the influence of environmental factors on children's executive functioning (EF) performance. The present study examined the effects of a punitive vs. non-punitive school environment on West African children's EF... more
Few studies have examined the influence of environmental factors on children's executive functioning (EF) performance. The present study examined the effects of a punitive vs. non-punitive school environment on West African children's EF skills. Tasks included a 'cool' (relatively non-affective) and 'hot' (relatively affective/motivational) version of three EF tasks: delay of gratification; gift delay; and dimensional change card sort. Children had more difficulties with the hot versions of the tasks than the cool versions, and older children outperformed younger children. After controlling for verbal ability (Peabody picture vocabulary test-third edition), a consistent pattern of interaction between school and grade level emerged. Overall, kindergarten children in the punitive school performed no differently than their counterparts in the non-punitive school. However, in grade 1, children in the punitive school performed significantly worse than their counterparts in the non-punitive school. These results point to the need to consider interactions among discipline style, age, and internalization processes of self-regulation to better understand environmental influences on EF development.
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In pediatric settings, parents and children often seek spiritual and religious support from their healthcare provider, as they try to find meaning in their illness. Narrative practices, such as definitional ceremonies, can provide a... more
In pediatric settings, parents and children often seek spiritual and religious support from their healthcare provider, as they try to find meaning in their illness. Narrative practices, such as definitional ceremonies, can provide a unique framework for psychologists to explore children's spirituality and its role in the midst of illness. In addition, definitional ceremonies can be used as a means for psychologists to inform interdisciplinary teams' understanding of children's spirituality and its relevance in pediatric treatment settings. In this article, our objectives are to (a) provide a brief overview of the literature on children's spirituality, (b) review some of the literature on childhood cancer patients' spirituality, (c) highlight the importance of whole-person care for diverse pediatric patients, and (d) introduce definitional ceremonies as appropriate narrative practices that psychologists can use to both guide their therapy and inform interdisciplin...
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Though it is frequently condemned, lie-telling is a common and frequent activity in interpersonal interactions, with apparent social risks and benefits. The current review examines the development of deception among children. It is argued... more
Though it is frequently condemned, lie-telling is a common and frequent activity in interpersonal interactions, with apparent social risks and benefits. The current review examines the development of deception among children. It is argued that early lying is normative, reflecting children's emerging cognitive and social development. Children lie to preserve self-interests as well as for the benefit of others. With age, children learn about the social norms that promote honesty while encouraging occasional prosocial lie-telling. Yet, lying can become a problem behavior with frequent or inappropriate use over time. Chronic lie-telling of any sort risks social consequences, such as the loss of credibility and damage to relationships. By middle childhood, chronic reliance on lying may be related to poor development of conscience, weak self-regulatory control, and antisocial behavior, and it could be indicative of maladjustment and put the individual in conflict with the environment....
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The classic moral stories have been used extensively to teach children about the consequences of lying and the virtue of honesty. Despite their widespread use, there is no evidence whether these stories actually promote honesty in... more
The classic moral stories have been used extensively to teach children about the consequences of lying and the virtue of honesty. Despite their widespread use, there is no evidence whether these stories actually promote honesty in children. This study compared the effectiveness of four classic moral stories in promoting honesty in 3- to 7-year-olds. Surprisingly, the stories of "Pinocchio" and "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" failed to reduce lying in children. In contrast, the apocryphal story of "George Washington and the Cherry Tree" significantly increased truth telling. Further results suggest that the reason for the difference in honesty-promoting effectiveness between the "George Washington" story and the other stories was that the former emphasizes the positive consequences of honesty, whereas the latter focus on the negative consequences of dishonesty. When the "George Washington" story was altered to focus on the negative consequen...
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As children can be victims or witnesses to crimes and may be required to testify about their experiences in court, the ability to differentiate between... more
As children can be victims or witnesses to crimes and may be required to testify about their experiences in court, the ability to differentiate between children's true and fabricated accounts of victimization is an important issue. This study used automated linguistic analysis software to detect linguistic patterns in order to differentiate between children's true and false stressful bullying reports and reports of non-stressful events. Results revealed that children displayed different linguistic patterns when reporting true and false stressful and non-stressful stories, with non-stressful stories being more accurately discriminated based on linguistic patterns. Results suggest that it is difficult to discriminate accurately and consistently between children's true and false stories of victimization.