Examines the ethnic, age, and gender playmate perferences of deaf and hearing preschoolers who were observed during outdoor free play at their respective schools over a 7-month period. Hispanic, black, and white children were included. (HOD)

Investigates 57 three- to five-year-old children's sharing of preferred and nonpreferred food with same-sex peers as a function of (1) whether or not the children had previous experience as recipients and (2) whether or not the child was shared with during the experience as a recipient. (HOD)

Tests the distinction between inferring new categories on the basis of property information (predicted to be difficult) and inferring new properties on the basis of category information (predicted to be easier) among 57 preschool children. (HOD)

Examines elementary school children's concept of authority with regard to the age and social position of command-giver and the type of command given. Shows that children's evaluation of adult and peer authority were based on a combination of age and position in the social context. (HOD)

Reports on two studies during which 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children were interviewed about three different types of regularities or rules: social conventions, physical laws, and logical necessities. Shows that older children made more distinctions between social and nonsocial items than did younger children. (HOD)

Examines kindergartners' and second graders' knowledge of concept attribute importance and the children's use of this knowledge to categorize. (HOD)

Examines the hypothesis that biases in peer interpretations of social behavior may contribute to the stability of social acceptance and rejection in children. (HOD)

Assesses the degree of difficulty parents attribute to specific socialization tasks; explores the relation between parents' perceived difficulty and children's perceived and actual competence in these two domains; and determines whether the ease or difficulty of these child rearing tasks, as perceived by parents, varies as a function of the…

Measures humor appreciation (including mirth, subjective ratings, and response sets), comprehension, and production in children between the ages of 10 and 14. Relates humor to several areas of competence manifested at school. (HOD)

Examines the relations among the quality of stepparent-stepchild relationships, the frequency of visits from nonresident parents, and child outcomes in four types of stepfamilies. (HOD)

Investigates whether 7- and 10-year-old children and adults are sensitive to their own and another listener's failure to understand literal and nonliteral (sarcastic) uses of utterances. (HOD)

Investigates the metalinguistic ability of monolingual or bilingual children between five and nine years of age on two language tasks (grammaticality judgment and correction). (HOD)

Takes issue with Lawrence Walker's literature review on developmental and individual differences in moral reasoning which found no consistent evidence for sex differences in moral development. Argues instead that the source and specific nature of these differences have yet to be established. (HOD)

Addresses the criticisms of Diana Baumrind's review of his research on sex differences in moral reasoning development. Discusses issues such as the nature of moral development, the focus on adulthood, the choice of statistics, the effect of differing sample sizes and scoring systems, and the role of sexual experiences in explaining variability in…

Discusses potential beneficial effects of children's illnesses on their behavioral development. It is argued, on the basis of clinical experience and related research, that minor illnesses give children many opportunities to increase knowledge of self, other, prosocial behavior, and empathy and to realistically understand the sick role. (Author/RH)