Examined relationship of security of attachment to development of fear, anger, and joy over child's first 3 years. Found that attachment groups differed in trajectories of emotional development, with differences apparent at 14 months. Resistant children were most fearful and least joyful. Over the second and third years, secure children became…

Investigated relations between interest in violent fantasy at age 4 years and children's social understanding, behavior, and interactions with friends 2 years later. Found that "hard-to-manage" children showed higher rates of violent fantasy. Across both groups, violent fantasy was related to later poor executive control and language ability,…

Assessed predictions from social identity theory (SIT) concerning acquisition of young children's intra- and intergroup attitudes and cognitions. Found that children as young as 5 years of age were sensitive to the status of their social group, and that ingroup status had important implications for their desire to remain group members and their…

This study examined demographic and individual difference variables that predicted level of Brazilian adolescents' prosocial moral judgment and self-reported prosocial behavior; it also tested mediating or moderating relations among predictors. Findings generally were consistent with contention that tendency to take others' perspectives and to…

Asked Dutch university and Russian high school students to sort statements in terms of moral sophistication to investigate hierarchical stage structure of moral stages. Found that sorting statements representative of stages below one's own was straightforward; sorting statements above one's stage was difficult, suggesting that reflective…

Used prospective longitudinal design to examine peer rejection, aggressive behavior, and social withdrawal among 107 maltreated and 107 nonmaltreated children. Found that chronic maltreatment was associated with heightened risk of peer rejection from childhood to early adolescence. Aggression accounted largely for the association between chronic…

Examined relations between quality of mothers' and fathers' friendships and that of their children's friendships. Found that children's self-reports and observational measures of friendship quality were not highly correlated for girls, but were moderately associated for boys. Quality of mothers' and fathers' friendships related to quality of…

Examined early childhood antecedents and behavior-problem correlates of monitoring and psychological control during early adolescence. Found that monitoring was anteceded by proactive parenting style and advantageous family-ecological characteristics. Psychological control was anteceded by harsh parenting and mothers' report of earlier child…

Compared parent-child relationships and early adolescent well-being in families with children conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF), adoptive families, and families with a naturally conceived child. Found that IVF children were functioning well and did not differ from other children in social or emotional adjustment. (Author/KB)

Three studies replicated and extended Dweck's findings regarding young children's responses to challenging achievement situations. Findings indicated that a composite of cognitive, behavioral, and affective helplessness indices at kindergarten age predicted helplessness 1 and 5 years later, above and beyond gender and kindergarten task ability.…

Examined extent to which kindergarten teachers' perceptions of their relationships with students predicted school outcomes in first through eighth grade. Found that relational negativity in kindergarten related to academic and behavioral outcomes through eighth grade, particularly for children with behavior problems in kindergarten and for boys.…

Structural equation modeling was used to examine how maternal distress mediated the link between exposure to community violence (CV) and development of early child behavior problems. Findings indicated that direct CV-early child behavior problems path diminished when maternal distress was included in the model, after controlling for maternal SES…

Conducted meta-analysis to examine empirical inconsistencies and theoretical controversies concerning false-belief tasks and understanding about mental states. Found that a combined model including age, country of origin, and four task factors accounted for 55 percent of the variance in false-belief performance. Findings are consistent with…

Offers suggestions for future investigations of theory-of-mind development. Maintains that there needs to be: (1) greater focus on the development of understanding of desire and intention; (2) research on the role of language in theory-of-mind development integrating representational-development and social-interaction views; and (3) investigation…

Distinguishes two types of executive theories: (1) emergence accounts; and (2) expression accounts. Asserts that the meta-analytic findings reported by Wellman, Cross, and Watson (2001) are fully consistent with emergence accounts of theory of mind and do not entirely rule out expression accounts. (Author/KB)