Presents meta-analysis evidence of the association between paternal sensitivity and infant-father attachment from eight studies with 546 families (combined effect size r = 0.13). A meta-analysis of 950 families from 14 studies found an overall correlation of 0.17 between infant-mother and infant-father attachment. Presents a data-based model of…

Examined the effect of heart rate and behavioral measures of attention on infants' distractibility. Found longer distraction latencies during attentional engagement as defined by heart rate changes or behavior than for inattentive periods. Infants had longest distraction latencies when heart rate and behavior measures both indicated engagement.…

Examined whether early differences in stress reactivity were related to self-recognition at 18 months. Found that self-recognition was related to greater cortisol response and less rapid quieting at 6 to 18 months, whereas cortisol and quieting responses of 2- to 4-month-olds did not differentiate self-recognizers and non-self-recognizers,…

Studied the extent to which memory and processing speed accounted for relations between infant information processing and childhood IQ. Found that the relationship of 7-month visual recognition memory and 1-year cross-modal transfer to 11-year IQ were reduced when statistically controlled for factors derived from these measures, suggesting that…

Examined relationship of emotion regulation and emotionality to social functioning in 77 children followed from age 4 to age 10. Found that high-quality social functioning was predicted by high emotion regulation and low nonconstructive coping, negative emotionality, and emotional intensity. Measures of regulation and emotionality frequently…

Studied early family experiences of boys who later emerged as both aggressive and bullied during middle childhood. Found that aggressive victims had experienced more punitive, hostile, and abusive family treatment than others. Nonvictimized aggressors had greater exposure to adult aggression, but not victimization, than the normative group,…

Tested the individual characteristics and deviant peer association theoretical models of friends' influence on the development of delinquency in disruptive boys. Found that moderately disruptive boys with aggressive-disturbing friends were more delinquent at age 13 than other subgroups of moderately disruptive boys. Highly disruptive and…

Examined impact of parental intervention on the quality of conflict behavior in 2- and 4-year olds. Found that parents intervened in fights in which children displayed few de-escalating strategies. Intervention was associated with children using fewer power strategies coupled with an increase in more sophisticated negotiation moves. Results…

Used structural equational modeling to examine the combined influence and predictive ability of family characteristics on maternal and paternal involvement in early intervention programs. Found that coping was a significant predictor of maternal and paternal involvement as well as a mediator variable between family functioning and parental…

Used path analysis to examine relations between trauma, perceived parenting, resources, political activity, and adjustment in Palestinian 11- and 12-year olds. Found that the more trauma experienced, the more negative parenting the children experienced, the more political activity they showed, and the more they suffered from adjustment problems.…

Reviews research on children's and adults' beliefs about fantasy and their tendency to engage in "magical thinking." Suggests that children are not fundamentally different from adults in their ability to distinguish fantasy from reality. Both entertain fantastical beliefs and engage in magical thinking. Offers suggestions regarding age differences…

Contains the following commentaries: "Further Distinctions between Magic, Reality, Religion, and Fiction"; "The Role of Creative Control and Culture in Children's Fantasy/Reality Judgments"; "The Last of the Magicians? Children, Scientists, and the Invocation of Hidden Causal Powers"; "Rescuing Magical Thinking from the Jaws of Social…

Responds to some of the specific criticisms of commentators, focusing on highlighting and exploring the themes of the role of culture, how adults characterize children, the meaning of the word "real," the importance of looking at adult literature, the role of process and content, placing a value on magical thinking, and similarities and…

Examined the ability of 32-week human fetuses to learn and recall information. Found a significant heart rate habituation pattern for a series of vibroacoustic stimuli. After a single novel stimulus, the heart rate to stimulus 1 reemerged. Uterine contractions were not related to presentation of the novel stimulus or change in heart rate after the…

Examined visual fixation in 3- to 6-month olds for fit to attentional inertia theory. Found that look duration toward extended audiovisual stimuli had a lognormal distribution. The conditional probability of looking away decreased when look duration increased. Heart rate deceleration accompanied look onset and stimulus changes occurring within…