In study 1, fourth and fifth graders who joined a club under performance conditions exhibited more helplessness after apparent rejection than children who joined under learning conditions. In study 2, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders who believed personality was nonmalleable were more likely to endorse performance goals in hypothetical socially…

Ninth and 12th graders completed intellectual ability measures and engaged in reasoning about hypothetical arguments that were either consistent or inconsistent with their own theories. Results indicated that intellectual and verbal ability predicted each of several reasoning indexes. Neither ability measures nor age were related to reasoning…

Four-year-olds and their mothers co-constructed a narrative. At ages 4 and 5, children constructed personal narratives and mothers rated children's behavior. At both ages, children who were more emotionally coherent, compared to children who were less so during the co-construction, constructed personal narratives that were more coherent, more…

At 3 and 5 years of age, children discussed a shared past event with their father or mother, and separately related a personal narrative. Mothers and fathers did not differ, from each other or with sons and daughters, in how they structured narratives. Children narrated differently with fathers than with mothers, and girls' narratives were more…

Seven- to 12-year-old boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a control group of non-ADHD boys performed a videogame task that required response inhibition at a signal. Results showed that ADHD boys performed well and showed appropriate psychophysiological changes. Inhibition latencies were longer for ADHD boys than non-ADHD…

For pairs of full siblings, half-siblings, and cousins, analyzed maternal ratings of children's behavior problems at three times between ages 4 and 10. Found that nonshared environmental influences were substantial at each age but did not contribute to continuities in children's problem behaviors. Results favor a liability model that relates…

The first of two studies found direct effects of sixth and seventh graders' perceptions of their parents' marital conflict on the children's internalizing behaviors; and indirect effects, through parent-child relationships, on externalizing behaviors. The second study found indirect effects of marital conflict and parent-to-child hostility,…

Assessed aspects of the parent-child relationship for 11- and 17-year-old male twins. Found that similarity of twins' perceptions of parent-son conflict, regard, involvement, and support were greater for mono- than dizygotic twins. This difference between mono- and dizygotic twins' perceptions was greater for 17- than for 11-year-olds. Results…

Eight-, 10-, and 19-year-olds performed a verbal or spatial domain primary memory task. The task was performed alone or in conjunction with a verbal or spatial secondary memory task. In their performance of the primary task, only 8-year-olds showed interference by a secondary task that was based on a different domain from the primary task. (BC)

Second-, third-, and fourth-graders received five sort-recall trials for word lists. Results indicated that multiple strategy use increased with age; fourth graders who used more strategies had higher recall than those who used fewer; children at all ages showed substantial inter-trial variability in using multiple strategies; and the use of few…

Four experiments examined children's understanding of the inverse relationship between the number of parts into which a quantity is divided and the size of each part. Found that children tended to judge that bigger shares resulted from sharing with more recipients. Seven-year olds performed correctly on a simplified equal-sharing task. Five-year…

Studied reading comprehension, vocabulary, general knowledge, and print exposure of 11th graders who completed reading battery 10 years earlier. Found that first-grade reading ability predicted all 11th-grade outcomes--even when cognitive ability was partialed out--and was linked to print exposure, even after 11th-grade reading comprehension…

Interviews with fifth graders living in rural and urban parts of the Brazilian Amazon region revealed that children were aware of environmental problems, believed that throwing garbage into the Rio Negro harmed the environment and violated a moral obligation, cared about environmental harm, and supported conservation of the Amazon rain forest. (BC)

For adolescent conduct-disordered (CD) and comparison (NC) youth, affective and cognitive aspects of empathy were measured by a self-report questionnaire and by responses to videotaped vignettes. Compared to NC youth, CD youth exhibited lower empathy, reported fewer emotions concordant with vignette persons' emotions, and reported fewer correct…

Interviewed Australian and Canadian mothers about the assignment of either routine or specially requested household work to their 9- to 14-year-old sons and daughters. Found that routine work was positively correlated with older children's concern for family members. There was no correlation between household work and prosocial behavior toward…