Preliminary Data
Sandcastle Research is a project of Renovation Psychology® by Dr Debi Warner

 How do children express themselves in their sand play? Does it have anything to do with their later abilities? What fun times at the beach can do for self esteem, coordination, and perserverence? Dr Debi Warner of Renovation Psychology will be attending the East Hampton Annual Sandcastle Competition. She will be collecting information for her research on Sandcastles and their relationship to children's development and adult building skills. Visit her tent on the beach August 4th!

 

 

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Is building sandcastles related to home renovation?

If a child plays in the sand, how does it relate to their home improvement projects when they grow up?

Finding: Children who do not build in the sand are half as likely as the average person to enjoy home projects when they are older

 

 These results are from our preliminary study - a survey of adults asked to remember their childhood adventures at the beach.  As such, this is self-report data, with vulnerability to memory and idealization, yet is a large enough sample (100 responses) to test our ideas and see if meaningful findings emerge from this context.

The following results from the preliminary data have been analyzed and meet statistical standards (Chi Square analysis) that allow us to say that these findings are beyond chance, and may be considered interpretable in our quest for understanding meaningful relationships in behavior. 

Caution to the public: The following statements are tentative findings that must be tested further before they can be asserted as proven true.  And beware, statistical probabilities give us generalizations; their application to an individual situation needs caution, because they will not be absolute.
And ~ What do they build? 
The adult is likely to enjoy home improvement projects if, as a child they did any of these:
  • Made Castle walls*
  • Smoothed the walls*
  • Made inner dividing walls
  • Made tidal walls*
  • Made tunnels*

*and Kids who did not make these features as a child are not as likely to enjoy home improvement when grown up.

  • And ~ a surprise - Squaring up the castle walls is not related to later liking Do-It-Yourself projects.
Children can decorate their castles in many ways How about decorating castles and then later home projects?
  • Castle decorating was related to enjoying home projects when grown
  • About 20% of all people in our sample decorated their castles as kids.
  • The group of non-decorators was 50/50 ratio of  boys/girls
  • The ones who decorated were mostly girls
  • Among all girls, if they decorated their castle, they were highly likely to enjoy DIY later
How about plumbing as a grown up?
  • Building tidal walls - three times more likely to engage in plumbing projects when grown
  • Surprising finding ~ moat not related to later plumbing

How about jointing/mudding drywall?

  • Surprise again ~ smoothing walls not related to drywall mudding

 

 Incorporating water in the castle design
Children might smooth and decorate their castles too Who is likely to decorate their homes with paint and wallpaper?
  • Children who smoothed their castle walls
  • A child who decorated their castle, smoothed the walls, and made sand art is very very likely to decorate their home with all that's available
  • Of these 'artisans' if they did not build or smooth the castle walls, they later avoid tiling and wallpaper when grown, but stuck more to design and painting

 

Want to do the survey?  Hopefully you will just remember your own experiences and not be influenced by what you have read in these results.  Go ahead...

 

Do QUICK SURVEY

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We hope you make great progress on your home construction and that the process strengthens your family and close relationships.
The opinions offered in this website, our research, workshops, columns, and books are not meant to replace medically necessary psychological care and do not constitute a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Warner and you or any one reading this material.  We provide our services solely for enlightenment and to provide additional perspectives that can help people find their way through renovations in a positive and growth enhancing way. 
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