Faculty
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Michal Perlman
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Keywords
Environmental factors that influence the social development of preschool-aged children; cognitive and emotional school readiness; the impact of neighbourhoods on children; family law
Research Projects/Activities
For more information on Dr Perlman's research activities please contact her at michal.perlman@utoronto.ca
Research Interests
My overarching interest is in environmental influences on the social development of preschool aged children. I have two main lines of ongoing research that address this interest. The first has to do with the quality of child care children receive and its impact on their development. In the last few years I have been focusing on identifying critical aspects of child care quality, and developing empirically based ways of measuring those aspects. This involves extensive assessments of child care providers (both centre based, and family home care providers) and the children and families they serve. My current studies in this area involve data collection both in Canada and the U.S using both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. My second line of research has to do with children’s development of conflict resolution skills. Here I have been looking at a series of questions related to the role of parents in managing conflicts between their young children, bidirectional influences in conflict management, the development of conflict scripts, etc. I will be expanding studies in this question to look at the impact of children’s conflict management as they enter school.
Representative Publications
Perlman, M. Garfinkel, D. & Turrell, S.L. (2007). Sibling and parent influences on the quality of children’s conflict behaviours across the preschool period. Social Development.
Le, V., Perlman, M., Zellman, G. & Hamilton, L. (2006). Measuring Child-Staff Ratios in Child Care Centers: Balancing Effort and Representatives. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 21(3), 267-279.
Zellman, G & Perlman, M. (2006). Reconceptualizng the role of parents’ involvement in their children’s child care providers. Early Child Development and Care, 176(5), 521-538.
Perlman, M. & Ross, H. S. (2005). If-Then scripts in conflict behaviors of two- and four-year-old siblings. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 51(1), 42-66.
Perlman, M., Zellman, G. & Le, V. (2004). Examining the psychometric properties of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale – Revised (ECERS-R). Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Vol 19(3), 398-412.
Ellikson, P.L. & Perlman, M., Klein, D.J. (2003). Explaining Racial/Ethnic Differences in Smoking During the Transition to Adulthood. Addictive Behaviors, 28, 915-931.