Mothers' roles in structuring interactions with their infants during free play was examined when infants were 6- and 9-months-old. Maternal scaffolding of turn-taking exchanges was then contrasted to the forms of turn-taking apparent in sibling-infant and peer-infant observations. Subjects were 26 second-born infants who had a 3- to 6-year-old…

A group of 20 abusive mothers and a group of 20 matched, nonabusive mothers were shown slides depicting infants in seven different emotional states. Abusive mothers were more likely to incorrectly identify specific signals of emotion and to label negative affect as positive. (Author/RH)

Tested hypothesis that 4- and 5-year-old children in same-sex problem-solving groups would perform equally well when a group task required various cooperative and self-serving behaviors to enable group to obtain a resource. The hypothesis that girls and boys would employ different behaviors to obtain resource was also tested. Participants were 20…

Investigated play-fighting and chasing among 7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds in their school playground, where rough and tumble behaviors occupied approximately 10 percent of the time of 94 students. Findings indicated that rough and tumble tended to occur in a friendly, nonaggressive context. The importance of partner's strength increased with age.…

The social cognitive performance of aggressive and nonaggressive children was assessed under conditions of relaxation and threat. Aspects assessed included skillfulness, bias, and process. Subjects were 65 aggressive and nonaggressive boys 8- to 10-years-old. Findings were interpreted as consistent with theories of preemptive processing and…

The hypothesis that, when trying to decide whether the person, stimulus, or circumstance is the cause of an event, individuals increasingly select schema-consistent information with increasing age was tested in 106 Turkish 9-, 12-, and 17-year-old subjects. (Author/RH)

Accuracy-disabled and rate-disabled young Canadian readers were compared to children who were "fluent normal" readers. Children in the latter group decoded at the same level of accuracy as the rate-disabled subjects but at a significantly faster rate. Specific deficiencies of each of the disabled groups were identified. (Author/RH)

Studied whether pubertal age affects reports of psychosomatic symptoms among 14- to 16-year-old girls. Considered whether differences in dating and alcohol use might be mediating factors in the relation between pubertal age and psychosomatic symptoms. Subjects were 935 Finnish eighth-grade pupils who completed questionnaires three times during a…

Compared with respect to their susceptibility to peer pressure to engage in deviant activity were fifth-, sixth-, eighth-, and ninth-graders from intact, single parent, and stepparent families. Youngsters living with both natural parents were less susceptible to pressure than those living in other family environments. (Author/RH)

To examine selective memorization in a scene context in which the expectancy of items was manipulated, preschool children, young adults, and older adults viewed a series of familiar scenes and were asked to remember one item from each. Results for children contrasted with the typical result of selective memorization research. (Author/RH)

Interpersonal conflicts of children in natural settings are the focus of this review of the empirical literature in social and cognitive development and sociolinguistics. The central role of conflict in various developmental theories is outlined. Studies indicate substantial relations between children's socio-cognitive functioning and their…

Primary aim: to test Edelstein, Keller, and Wahlen's model of sequential operations in perspective taking on 93 children in the third grade and 69 children in kindergarten, who were tested again when in the first grade. Secondary aim: to examine the relationship between social experience and perspective taking. (Author/BN)

This study investigated 24 adolescents' and 10 preadolescents' awareness of the beliefs that parents hold regarding them. Patterns of agreement between parents and between parents and children concerning the children's likely behavior in a variety of situations (as measured by the Family Belief Interview Schedule) were examined. (Author/BN)

Study examines relation between: (1) maternal behavior observed in mother-child play and child's social behavior and sociometric status; (2) maternal behavior when interacting with another mother, child dyadic behavior and child's sociometric status; and (3) maternal social knowledge and child's social knowledge, social behavior and sociometric…

Firstborn children's reaction to sibling birth assessed in 41 families via family interviews at 1 month prepartum and 1, 4, 8, and 12 months postpartum. Familial interaction patterns were observed in semistructured play sessions. Time since the birth of the sibling and sibling gender had significant effects on firstborn children's adjustment.…