CHILD STUDY: ANASTASIA: LIFE AT 1 AND

AT 9

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PREPARED FOR EDUC1702 - 2017 University of Queensland – T04

1. Child
Strengths + A. Anastasia is not a fearful A. Parents have strong
Life at 1 Evidence + child
 Commentator/observation:
(Marciniak, Weight/ Fear Test (loud, unpleasant
2006) Importance toy robot presented to
child) – Anastasia did not
appear to be fearful of the
robot, at first she seemed
rather inquisitive, but after
a short while it seemed to
bore her and it was out of
her control to stop it, at
which point she became
very distressed
B. Very cocooned, protected
 Commentator/ parental
report: has little to no
contact with people
outside of her direct
family, or with unfamiliar
situations
C. Is a very happy, easy going
child when she is around
familiar people and in
familiar situations
 Parental report/
observation
Anastasia in Life at 1 and Life at 9
2. Family 3. Context
A. Anastasia is quite
desire to be in literally growing up in
complete control of her parents footsteps.
Anastasia’s  Observation,
environment. Commentator,
 Parental report/ parental report: On the
commentator occasion that both of
B. Are very committed Anastasia’s parents are
too busy with work to
to providing the
care for her, her
best for Anastasia,
Grandmother (on
and the best (as the
Mother’s side) steps in.
see it) environment When being cared for
 Parental report/ by her Grandmother,
observation: clear she is the only one
through their Anastasia is exposed
careful control of to, and spends her
Anastasia’s time in the same house
environment that Anastasia’s
mother grew up in
Justification
1. Child
A. Brooker (et al., 2013) finds that
“the early development of stranger
fear may be particularly relevant
for identifying early risk for the
development of anxiety problems.”
Brooker (et al., 2013) addditionally
states that “Children who remain
inhibited between the ages of 21
months and 7.5 years of age had a
higher rates of anxiety disorders
than children who were
uninhibited or unstably inhibited
across this period.”.
B. May have promoted a strong
attachment to primary careers,
Slee, Campbell, & Spears (2012, p.
195) define attachment as “the
primary social bond between one
individual and another”.
Additionally, Slee, Campbell, &
Spears ( 2012, p. 198) find that
“Securely attached infants will
enage in more active exploration
than will those who are less
securely attached… more securely
attached infants appear to be more
affective help seekers, more
 cooperative and more able to
relate to others emotionally than
their less securely attached
counterparts.”
C. According to the developmental
theory of ‘temperments’
Anastasia’s behaviour would be
categorised as ‘slow to warm up’.
Slee, Campbell, & Spears (2012, p.
201), describes this type of
temperment as “…charcterised by
negative withdrawl responses to
new stimuli, coupled with low
adaptability to new situations.
They showed mild reactions,
whether positive or negative, and
tended to have more regular
biological functions than ‘difficult’
children.”
2. Family
A. See 1b above
B. Jones Harden & Vick Whittaker
(2011) state that “The quality of
the early home environment is
predictive of young children’s
subsequent cognitive, academic,
and behavioural functions.”
3. Context
A. “...Greek, Cretan grandmothers, as
well as grandfathers, offer infants a
sense of partner stability with
similar and predictable actions and
interactions while, at the same
time, they also offers a variety of

Risk A. Anastasia does not like to
have to put up with
Factors +
unpleasant things for too
Evidence + long
Weight/  Commentator/
Importance observations: fear test –
refer above
B. Anastasia does not enjoy
unpleasant situations that
she has no control over
 Observations/
commentary: at
Anastasia’s christening,
she becomes distressed as
soon as she is handed over
to a stranger, cries and
protests all through the
remainder of the
christening until she is
returned to her mother.
This is further reflected in
her reaction to the fear
test (refer above)
C. Is easily distressed when
faced with unfamiliar
situations and people
 Observations/
commentary: refer above
challenging communication.”
(Kokkinaki & Pratikaki , 2014)
A. Parents are both A. Anastasia has very 1. Child
self-confessed limited contact with A. See 1C above
‘control-freaks’ – people outside of her B. See 1C above
not just in regards immediate family. C. See 1C above
to Anastasia’s  Commentary/ 2. Parent
environment but in observation/ parental A. “Recent research has highlighted
most areas of their reports the importance of the construct of
lives parental perceived control. Parents
 Parental reports/ who believe they have less control
commentary over their children’s behavior and,
B. Anastasia’s parents at the same time, believe that the
are arguably over children themselves have more
protective of her control often demonstrate highly
 Commentary/ controlling behavior toward their
observations/ children, especially under
parental reports: conditions of stress.” (Guzzell &
evident from the Vernon-Feagans, 2004, p. 134)
parents need to
B. Possible lack of opportunity for
feel in control, and
Anastasia to engage in play with
from observations
other children her age. Slee,
that Anastasia is
Campbell, & Spears (2012, p. 229),
only cared for by
finds that social play has several
her immediate
family and has vital functions to childrens
little to no contact development, stating “Play helps
with strangers or children to rehearse social skills
new and and gain a better idea of the nature
unfamiliar of the give and take in
situations, coupled
relationships.”
with her intense
reactions when C. “ … not only important for children
to have time away from parents,

Changes  Since life at 1, Anastasia has gained a new sibling: little brother James who is now 5
 Anastasia’s mother also returned to university full time to become a teacher and now teaches full time
over time
 In life at 1, Anastasia and family lived in an inter-city apartment, but have since moved to a house with a yard and a built in pool, in the
outer city suburbs
Strengths + A. Anastasia is a very active
Life at 9 Evidence +
child
 Commentary/
(Peedom, Weight/ observations/ website:
2014) Importance Anastasia participates in
several different sports
including swimming and
bike riding. It is said during
life at 9 that out of all the
other subjects in the
series, Anastasia was the
one who spent the most
time walking. Additionally,
it is stated in the website
(Harrop, 2017), that
Anastasia’s favorite activity
and what makes her happy
is riding her bike
B. Anastasia is motivated and
has a clear sense of what
she wants
 Parental reports
C. Is pushing for more
independence from her
parents, desires a chance to
prove she is capable
held by her but that is contributes to their
Godmother and emotional, social and intellectual
when being development.” (Slee, Campbell, &
christened Spears , 2012, pp. 55-56)
3. Context
A. See 2B
A. Still very protective A. Short walk (100m) from 1. Child
of Anastasia, school – still walks with A. “In Australia, there is some concern
despite her thirst her parent/s among the community at large that
for independence  Observations, children are increasingly adopting a
 Commentary, commentary: This sedentary lifestyle. Twenty per
observations: short walk would cent of children in a Victorian
although the walk provide a good survey reported that exercise was a
to school for opportunity to allow
‘non-event’ and said they had been
Anastasia is only Anastasia to
‘turned-off’ by unpleasant school
100m, her parents demonstrate she is
ready for more experiences with physical activity.”
still don’t although
her to walk it independence; (Slee, Campbell, & Spears , 2012, p.
alone. In Life at 9 however, as stated 385)
an independence above, her Father still B. “Intrinsic Motivation: they are
test was insists on taking this motivated by factors within
conducted where walk with her themselves or inherent in a task
the children were B. Lives in a suburb where they are performing…Both intrinsic
tasked with competitive events that and extrinsic motivation can spur
walking to the suit Anastasia’s children to acquire new knowledge
corner shop alone, interests are accessible and skills and engage in productive
but Anastasia
 Observations behaviors. But intrinsic motivation
couldn’t
C. Lives in a reasonably
participate in this has numerous advantages over
safe neighborhood, is
experiment as her extrinsic motivation… eager to
particularly active
neighborhood learn educational material,
(walking)
lacked a corner willingly tackle assigned tasks… use
shop
  Parental reports,
commentary, observations:
Anastasia’s parents say she
is ‘a screaming teenager
just waiting to come out’,
they are aware that she
wants more independence
but want to be sure she is
ready first, Anastasia
herself has stated that she
wants to be independent
because she doesn’t want
to ‘be told where to go or
what to do’.
D. Is resilient and confident:
recognizes both her
strengths and her
weaknesses:
 Parental reports,
commentary, observations:
“I am bad at going really
fast at swimming, but I’m
good at riding [my bike]
and running.” (Peedom,
2014). During the
resilience experiment in
Life at 9, Anastasia’s
response to failing the
difficult test was “who
cares?”
B. In regards to praise,  Parental reports, effective learning strategies.”
Anastasia’s parents commentary, (McDevitt , 2013, p. 546)
believe in praise observations C. “Resilience has been studied in
where praise is due various circumstances including
 Commentary, positive outcomes in high-risk
observations, and children; sustained competence in
parental reports:
children under stress; and good
“Kids are getting a recovery from trauma… Common
false idea of
positive outcomes of this research
what’s involved in
have been successful academic
life.”, “To win
something, you’ve performance, positive relationships
got to be good at with peers, and positive
it.” relationships with adults.” (Mallin,
C. Value resilience and Walker, & Levin , 2012)
try to teach this to 2. Parents
Anastasia A.
 Parental reports, B. “…there is wide consensus about
observations, the importance of positive
commentary reinforcement of appropriate
behavior using contingent praise
for the prevention of oppositional
behavior and the promotion of on-
task and compliant student
behavior.” (Split , Leftot, Onghena,
& Colpin, 2016)
a.
Risk A. Anastasia lacks caution E. Have a limited
when it comes to strangers understanding of
Factors +
 Parental reports what constitutes
Evidence + B. Headstrong and stubborn creativity, what it
Weight/ at times, does not like involves and how it
Importance being told where to go and manifests in
what to do children’s behavior
 Parental reports, and ability
observations, commentary,  Observations:
website during Life at 9
C. Is not competitive (part 2: creativity)
 Commentary, parental the parents of all
reports, observations: this the children were
is to their parents dismay, asked if they were
but they are coming to creative, and
recognize that this is just a Anastasia’s
part of Anastasia’s parents responded
personality mainly by saying
D. Conforms to rules and they can’t draw,
regulations that they’re not
 Observations: during Life artistic etc.
at 9 (part 2 – creativity), demonstrating a
during the experiment rather limited
which involved providing understanding of
the children with many creative behaviors
different colors of paint
and instructing them to
paint a picture using only
black and brown paint,
Anastasia was one of the
majority in that she
conformed to the set rules
and regulations and only
painted in the instructed
colors
It is clear from studying Anastasia many aspects of her personality have developed strongly between the ages of one and 9 years of

age. When studying Anastasia in the documentary Life at 1 (Marciniak, 2006), she shows signs of ‘stranger anxiety’, which Brooker,

et al. (2013) finds, if continuing into middle childhood, can lead to anxiety and other mental health problems later in life. However

when studying Anastasia in Life at 9 (Peedom, 2014), her parents state that she ‘has no concept of strangers’ and ‘treats everyone

like her friend’. It Is clear here that something has changed beyond my observations, perhaps explored during the later

documentaries Life at 3, Life at 5 and Life at 7. Additionally, when studying Anastasia in Life at 1 (Marciniak, 2006), due to the

protective and cocooned environment that her parents were raising her in, that Anastasia was given good opportunity to develop

strong attachment to not just her mother, but also her father; this is an important aspect of Anastasia’s early development as Slee,

Campbell, & Spears (2012, p. 198) finds that “Securely attached infants will enage in more active exploration than will those who are

less securely attached… more securely attached infants appear to be more affective help seekers, more cooperative and more able

to relate to others emotionally than their less securely attached counterparts.”. Indeed it is clear, when observing Anastasia in Life at

9 (Peedom, 2014), that she has developed into a well both socially and intellectually well adjusted child. All in all, what I have
learned most about individual child development from this study is that in order to fully understand the process of change that an

individual is going through, it is necessary to investiage every stage of their journey rather than looking at two stages far between.
References
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