Tested the assumption that familial self-reports are biased by social desirability and other factors, through the use of a latent variables modeling approach that evaluated rater reliability and bias in mother, father, and child ratings of parent-child negativity. Results based on 78 families demonstrated that family member ratings contained a…

Examined associations between the quality of the interparental relationship and the success of 68 family triads (mother, father, preadolescent son) in solving family problems. Parental agreement on child rearing issues facilitated problem solving, whereas strong parental coalitions inhibited problem solving. The latter result may be attributed to…

For a sample of 69 mothers and their preschool-age children, mothers completed measures that assessed their social networks and perceived parenting difficulty, and children's peer acceptance and cognitive performance were assessed. Maternal network characteristics directly predicted children's cognitive performance and indirectly predicted…

Teachers' ratings of children's constructive coping and attentional control were positively related to boys' social skills and peer status. Children's emotional intensity and their coping behavior that involved acting out were negatively related to girls' and boys' social skills and boys' peer status. Mothers' reports of boys' low emotional…

A biobehavioral perspective may help settle disagreements about the validity and interpretation of infants' different behavioral patterns of attachment. A study of 41 infants demonstrated that insecure-avoidant infants, despite showing less overt distress after short separations from their mother than secure infants, exhibited arousal patterns as…

Examined the effects of maternal employment and separation anxiety on maternal interactive behavior and infant attachment in 73 mother-infant pairs. Employed mothers who reported high levels of separation anxiety were more likely than low-anxiety mothers to exhibit intrusive behaviors. Although employment was not directly related to attachment,…

Examined familial factors in relation to 93 fifth-graders' motivational orientation and academic performance. High parental surveillance of homework; parental reactions to grades that included negative control, uninvolvement, or extrinsic reward; and over- and undercontrolling family styles were found to be related to children's extrinsic…

Two studies examined Amish-Mennonite, Dutch Reform Calvinist, and Conservative and Orthodox Jewish children's concepts of moral and nonmoral religious rules. It was found that the subjects differentiated between moral and nonmoral religious rules: judgments regarding moral issues were justified in terms of justice and human welfare considerations,…

A total of 114 boys and girls were given an expectancy that a stimulus child was either shy or outgoing and then rated the child on several personality dimensions. Results revealed that, when children were presented with both expectancy-congruent and expectancy-incongruent information, impression formation was largely attribute based, and the…

To examine the role of cognitive skill and racial stereotyping in Euro-American children's processing of race-related information, 75 Euro-American children, aged 4 to 9 years, were asked to recall test stories that were either consistent or inconsistent with cultural racial stereotypes. As predicted, lower degrees of racial stereotyping were…

Children at ages three, five, and seven provided reports of their physical examinations immediately following the checkup and after delay of either one, three, or six weeks, or only after three weeks. Retention of event was extensive and accurate and not significantly affected by the time delays. Recall of seven-year olds was greater than that of…

Four experiments investigated children's understanding of the mind-body distinction by asking young children and adults various questions about the causes of bodily functions. The results suggest that children as young as six years of age have acquired an understanding of biology as an autonomous domain which is separate from that of psychology.…

In two experiments, preschoolers interpreted a novel count noun applied to an unfamiliar stuffed animal as referring to a basic-level (such as a person or a dog) kind of object rather than to a context (such as a passenger) or a life-phase (such as a puppy) kind of object. (MDM)

Three groups of sixth, eighth, and tenth graders took pre- and posttests on a Piagetian problem and a problem that evoked a misconception. Two intervention groups engaged in group transactions intended to create inter- and intrapersonal conflicts or took a multiple-choice test. Results indicated that treatment groups progressed on the Piagetian…

Examined the link between different forms of family aggression and children's symptoms of psychopathology through interviews with 365 mothers and 1 of each mother's children between the ages of 6 and 12. Found that although domestic violence predicted children's general psychopathology, little evidence was uncovered for the presence of specific…