Doctoral Dissertation

Children’s Weekend Activities in Four Countries: Context for Personal and Social Development

Asil Ali Özdoğru

Out-of-school time constitutes a major context of social and emotional development for children across cultures. Because it is not constrained by school attendance, weekend time allows cultural and gender differences in time usage to emerge. In this study, children‘s weekend activities, choice, and some of the related emotional outcomes were examined for fourth-grade students in four countries. A total of 1,265 children of families from middle socioeconomic status in Bulgaria, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States completed an activity survey asking them to state their typical activity for each of 12 hours on Saturday, their enjoyment of the activity, and whether it was selfor adult-chosen. They also completed the Revised Children‘s Manifest Anxiety Scale. Findings indicated that children across the four countries spent most of their weekend time in self-chosen unstructured activities. There was a great deal of variation across countries in the amount and choice of time spent in different activity types. Children‘s enjoyment was negatively related to the amount of adult-chosen activities, and this relationship varied little across countries. The general anxiety level of children was slightly related to amount of adult-chosen activities without any country or gender differences. Results suggest that cultures differ in the available and socially acceptable types of weekend activities as demonstrated by the time spent by children in different activities and extent of parental involvement in children‘s activity decisions. Culturally different socialization processes associated with activity choice and participation help shape children‘s emotional experiences. Weekend time provides important developmental niches within which children in different countries experience activities that contribute to their personal and social developmental outcomes.

Keywords: Anxiety, autonomy, cross-cultural differences, enjoyment

Citation: Özdoğru, A. A. (2010). Children’s weekend activities in four countries: Context for personal and social development (Doctoral dissertation, University at Albany, SUNY). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 3432482) http://gradworks.umi.com/34/32/3432482.html

International Journal of Law and Psychiatry

The Use of Mental Health Court Appearances in Supervision

Allison D. Redlich, Henry J. Steadman, Lisa Callahan, Pamela Clark Robbins, Roumen Vessilinov, and Asil Ali Özdoğru

A defining feature of mental health courts (MHCs) is the requirement that enrollees appear periodically for status review hearings before the MHC judge. Although the research base on these specialty courts is growing, MHC appearances have yet to be examined. In the present study, the authors followed more than 400 MHC clients from four courts. We examined the number of court appearances that were mandated versus attended, the number of bench warrants issued, and the proportion of court appearances that were made in-custody versus out-of-custody. Finally, we describe and report on the proportion of clients at each court who had graduated, had been terminated, or who were still in the court one year following enrollment.

Keywords: Mental health courts; Judicial supervision

Citation: Redlich, A. D., Steadman, H. J., Callahan, L., Robbins, P. C., Vessilinov, R., & Özdoğru, A. A. (2010). The use of mental health court appearances in supervision. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 33, 272–277. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2010.06.010

WCCES 2010

Children’s Weekend Activities and Emotional Outcomes across Cultures

Asil Ali Özdoğru

Out-of-school time is one of the primary developmental contexts in children’s personal and social development. Cultural differences shape not only children’s activity patterns but also emotional outcomes associated with these activities. The purpose of this study is to look at children’s weekend activities in four countries in terms of adult structure and its relation to children's enjoyment and general anxiety. Fourth graders from Bulgaria, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States reported on their usual Saturday activities, person who chose their activities, and their enjoyment of each activity. The Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale provided a measure of children’s general anxiety levels. Children in four countries showed similarities in the amount of time they spent in watching TV and play but differences in other activities such as academic and sports activities. In overall, more than half of the time children decided their activities, level of enjoyment was higher for self-chosen activities, and anxiety was slightly positively related to activities chosen by adults. American and Bulgarian children reported higher levels of anxiety for adult-chosen activities than Taiwanese and Turkish children. Differences and similarities between four countries draw attention to social, economic, and cultural differences in parenting practices and socialization processes in children’s activity schedules and structures.

Keywords: Out-of-school time, weekend activities, cross-cultural parenting, enjoyment, anxiety

Citation: Özdoğru, A. A. (2010, June). Children’s weekend activities and emotional outcomes across cultures. Paper presented at the 14th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, Istanbul, Turkey.

FYI 2010

Sensation is unorganized stimulus, perception is organized sensation, conception is organized perception, science is organized knowledge, wisdom is organized life: each is a greater degree of order, and sequence, and unity.

William J. Durant (1926) The Story of Philosophy


Education is … reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience, and which increases ability to direct the course of subsequent experience.

John Dewey (1916) Democracy and Education

Conception of human life during fertilization © 2010 Dr. David Phillips