Reviews research and presents the results of a case study on the effects of subject knowledge and its place within the British National Curriculum for early childhood students. The importance of foundation subjects as a vehicle for the acquisition and development of basic skills in literacy and numeracy is a major finding of the research. (MDM)

Examined the differences between linguistic-cognitive ability and language performance in a sample of 172 preschool and kindergarten children from 3 sociocultural locations (urban, working class, and rural) in Greece. Linguistic-cognitive abilities were found to have no influence on verbal interaction and production. Sociocultural influences did…

Examines aspects of European day care that differentiate it from day care services on other continents, focusing on differences between child development and schooling, the distinction between infants and preschoolers, the place of family settings, professional versus parent perspectives, parents involvement, cultural diversity, decentralization,…

Discusses the interaction between children's minds and the learning environment, offering a conceptual framework that aims at creating authentic contexts where the quality and variety of mediated learning experiences will enable children to build a deep understanding within the domain studied. (MDM)

Mothers' and fathers' subjective distress and self-restraint when their sons were preadolescents were related to 14 measures of sons' outcomes 4 years later. Subjects were 82 adolescent boys. Sons of fathers prone to low self-restraint were uniformly found to have subsequent difficulties across domains, including poor academic achievement, poor…

Examined homophilic mechanisms by which adolescents affect, and are affected by, levels of internalized distress within their immediate peer groups. Found that adolescents tend to associate with peers who report similar levels of internalized distress and that internalizers are no less successful than others at establishing friendships. Selection,…

Examined relationships between unsupportive environments and adolescents' valuing financial success relatively more than affiliation, community, and self-acceptance. Eighteen-year olds who rated the importance of financial success aspirations higher than other values were found to have mothers who were less nurturant. Further, these subjects grew…

Examined interactive effects of peer behavior and adolescents' perceptions of authoritative parenting on grade point average and drug use among adolescents. Found that changes in GPA and drug use were predicted by friends' grades and drug use, although this effect was moderated by perceptions of authoritative parenting. (HTH)

Examined the relationships between psychosocial protective factors (such as religious beliefs or parental sanctions) and adolescents' problem behaviors. Found a significant inverse relation between protection and problem-behavior involvement. Found significant interaction between protection and risk in the prediction of problem behavior;…

Two experiments examined the relationship between developmental improvement in performance on tasks requiring acquisition of spatial knowledge and age-sensitive cognitive abilities. Found that age differences in landmark knowledge were mediated primarily by recognition-in-context memory and that age differences in route knowledge were mediated…

Two experiments using event-related potentials (ERPs) investigated recognition memory in infants. ERPs were recorded to 100 identical aural stimuli. Fifty familiar and 50 novel stimuli were presented 24 hours later. Results suggest that establishment of memory trace involved a process by which responses to repeated events were more consistent when…

Examined gender differences in cognitive outcome in children born prematurely who had incurred early cerebral lesions and in a high-risk comparison group. A significant gender difference in cognitive recovery was observed in the lesion group. Girls outperformed boys on standardized intelligence tests. No gender differences were observed in the…

Examined association of individual differences in physical maturation with information-processing speed among 9- and 10-year olds. Found that early maturers were faster than late matureres, although this maturity effect was primarily the result of a significant effect for boys. The early maturers' faster processing times may be specific to boys or…

Three experiments examined disambiguation effect, the attachment of novel nouns to unfamiliar objects, and the effect of preexposure to similar sounding words in 2-year olds. Preexposure was found to alter subjects' disambiguation of novel nouns, attesting to the importance of phonological working memory in toddlers' decisions about the likely…

Investigated the interactions of married couples at play with infant sons and daughters. Found that maritally distressed parents of boys more commonly displayed hostile-competitive coparenting behavior, whereas distressed parents of girls were more likely to show discrepant levels of parenting involvement. Findings also indicate the importance of…