Compared family characteristics and developmental outcomes of African-American children from three rural contexts in South Africa: the homeland, the resettlement, and white-owned farms. Child outcomes were highly intercorrelated in all three contexts, but correlations among family variables, and between family and child variables, showed different…

Used observations and family reports to examine the relationships between family economic stress factors and adjustment of adolescent boys. Economic pressures were associated with parental demoralization, which was related to marital conflict and disruptions in parenting. Disruptions in child-rearing behavior had adverse consequences for…

Examined the relationship between students' stress and social support in junior high school and the same students' psychological distress and school performance two years later. Stress and support variables predicted subsequent psychological distress. Stresses, but not supports, predicted subsequent school performance. (BC)

Reports on the development and testing of the Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale. Three subscales were derived from factor analysis. The validity of the conflict subscale was supported by parent reports of conflict. The threat and self-blame subscales correlated with children's responses to conflict vignettes. (BC)

African-American mothers were interviewed about their parenting attitudes and disciplinary practices. Mothers who used power-assertive techniques were as likely as other mothers to take the child's perspective in disciplinary encounters. Factors associated with maternal disciplinary styles included maternal education, age, and religious beliefs,…

Mothers and their kindergarten and third grade children watched a sympathy-inducing film. During the film, there were correspondences between mothers' and children's heart rate and facial expressions. Maternal distress was associated with children's distress, but maternal sympathy was associated only with girls' sympathy. (BC)

Assessed parent and child emotional expressiveness in a laboratory game, parent expressiveness at home, and children's understanding of emotions. Parent expressiveness at home and fathers' expressiveness in the laboratory were associated with children's peer relations. Children's understanding of emotions predicted their peer relations. (BC)

Children between three and nine years of age were randomly assigned to so-called fast or slow teams and were asked to make self- and intergroup evaluations. Five year olds had high self-evaluations, strong in-group bias, and high group cohesion regardless of which group they were in. (BC)

Easy and difficult tasks were presented to three year olds and their responses of shame and pride were observed. Subjects showed more shame when they failed easy tasks than difficult tasks, and more pride when they succeeded on difficult tasks than easy tasks. Girls showed more shame than boys. (BC)

In five investigations, three- and four-year-old children watched enactments of stories in which a character made statements that were either discrepant or consistent with a real situation. Children correctly judged the character's intentions in both the discrepant and the consistent stories. (BC)

One study found that the instruction of children in cognitive processing activities by elementary school teachers varied by grade and content of instruction. In a second study, children whose teachers were rated high in offering strategy suggestions made better use of a memory strategy than children whose teachers rarely made strategy suggestions.…

In one experiment, second and fourth graders used more categorical information when they made inferences than did preschoolers. In two other experiments, second graders, but not preschoolers, distinguished between categorical information and appearance when they made inferences about known concepts and familiar properties. (BC)

Children were asked to draw sticks and discs that were foreshortened and not foreshortened. Seven- and 12-year-old children used a partial change of shape in drawing foreshortened sticks and a full change of shape in drawing foreshortened discs. (BC)

Six-month-old African-American infants' expectation of a visual stimulus was related to developmental measures. Reaction time was related to eye fixation in tests that measured visual recognition memory (VRM) and presented objects of different shapes to the infant. Reaction time and infants' stimulus expectation predicted VRM novelty preference.…

In comparison to infants of mothers who had no symptoms of depression, infants of mothers with symptoms exhibited reduced left frontal lobe activity during play and failed to exhibit increased right frontal lobe activity during distress. Infants of symptomatic mothers showed less distress during maternal separation than infants of nonsymptomatic…